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EGEB: Australia solar and wind applications up 50X, solar electricity up 39% in USA in 2017, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Tesla solar shingles sold out ‘well into 2018’ – Mr. Musk need only sell enough solar shingles to sell out his factories. As the gentlemen has delivered multiple world-class vehicles, rocket ships that land and a thing or two else – the general public trusts that he will deliver on his solar shingles. And not only does Musk deliver, but others follow and compete – Forward Labs says its solar roof costs 33% less than Tesla’s. As of right now, I’ve got no choice but to believe.

Nevada Assembly clear bill boosting renewables mandate to 80% by 2040 – Assembly Bill 206 would push Nevada to reach 80% renewable energy by 2040, with an interim goal of 50% by 2030. The current RPS mandates the Nevada power mix must have 25% renewable energy by 2025. Of course – like in all US politics, there are people who refuse to admit who they are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars against this bill.

Australian Energy Market Operator receiving 1,000 enquiries for wind and solar projects a month – “We used to see around 20 a month, now we seeing 1,000 requests a month,” CEO Audrey Zibelman said. Wind energy was being built at a cost of around AUD$50-$60/MWh, and solar at AUD$70-$80/MWh. Wholesale market prices of between AUD$80/MWh and over AUD$100/MWh, driven by the high cost of gas and the surging prices at time of peak demand. The Australian market isn’t stopping.

Speaking of Australia…Australia gets first P2P green loan marketplace – retail investors will have access to green bonds following a tie-up between Australian peer-to-peer lender RateSetter and the government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) – In makes such sense that distributed energy generation can be funded by distributed lenders. Just like technology allows us to move from centralized power plants, we can also move from centralized banks. I tried this idea in 2011 – but couldn’t get it going. Mosaic tried it, couldn’t get it going either and moved back toward traditional lending.

GTM expecting sub 2¢/kWh in Saudi solar bids – I took a shot at this same prediction in February“Similar to the conditions that brought record low bids in Sweihan, namely a long project timeline, an escalating or split tariff, near-zero land cost, permitting costs, taxes, and most significantly, highly-attractive financing terms, the first Saudi tender could create a perfect storm for another record-setting bid that could dip below two cents” – Sweihan is the current record low price of around 2.3-2.43¢/kWh.

Trump budget guts solar research at NREL and Berkeley (14 essential documents embedded) – This is a week old story, and I’ve chosen to wait because Trump pronouncements and Trump realities tend to diverge. This budget proclamation will have influence and will drive headlines – the House of Representatives actually writes the document though. As we saw earlier this year, Trump and the House have disagreed on things. Some say, Trump’s budget is designed to impress – not pass.

According to this tweet, based upon data in this report – changes in electricity by source in the USA year to date: Coal +5% Natural gas -16% Wind +11% Solar +39% Hydro +8% Nuclear -1% Total -2.4%Solar up 39%!! Wind up 11% – which is huge in absolute values since wind was already greater than 5%. Coal up due to gas prices increasing. That’s rough. You like apples? How about them apples!

Header image of a project I built in Massachusetts.

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