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Fearing tariffs, solar group takes out ads on Trump’s favorite shows – Go to the link to watch ads, seven figures worth of marketing being spent – I like this line the best: “Two bankrupt, foreign-owned companies want the federal government to double the price of solar panels, crushing demand for solar power and threatening 350,000 American jobs.” Even if these ads don’t influence Trump, they’re going to influence a voter base that has influence on Trump and the Senators that surround him.
Netherlands to close all coal plants by 2030 – No Coal Netherlands! (I came up with that myself 😉 )- The legislation also implemented a carbon tax on electricity (see tweet at bottom for details). Still searching around for further details on the vote. Three utilities recently built coal plants. Those whose cash financed these units will suffer losses which may be a lesson for others globally. One of the CEOs suggested this might chill future investment in coal across Europe. Good. Update – these are plans, not official.
CS Energy signs PPA for 60 MW Australian PV+strage+wind hybrid energy park – I like that solar+storage+wind equals a headline, but is no longer absolutely cutting edge. This is our new normal. The hybrid park will be comprised of a 15 MW Solar PV plant, a 43.5 MW wind plant and 2-4 MW of battery storage, which is being developed by Windlab and Eurus Energy Holdings respectively. I’ve always wondered the ratios between solar/wind+storage we’d start to see in deployments. Each volume is driven by financial and local technical factors, as well what local power regulations allow groups to profit from.
Will solar panels survive a nuclear EMP (and dear God, why do we have to think about this?) – First, since the author took so much time to give so much fun history above the actual answer, I’m going to make you go find the answer. More importantly though is nugget that I won’t make you go find – Sol-Ark solar inverters are EMP-hardened, meaning they’re specifically designed to withstand all the disruptions of an EMP, whether it comes from a nuclear weapon or the sun. They even make it easy to plug batteries in to get you through the day after the grid goes down. I had no idea there were EMP hardened solar inverters in the world at consumer level. There’s even a video of stuff getting zapped and still running.
Itek Energy opens new solar panel manufacturing facility in Washington – The new facility will have the ability to produce 150 megawatts a year. Itek’s new factory produces high-power, five-busbar solar modules in both 60 and 72 cells, with a power range of 300 to 370 W. – That’s another 150MW/y of capacity making ~18.2% efficiency solar panels – per the spec pages a monoPERC product with and without an integrated TIGO TS4 optimizer/monitor. I’d guess they’re buying solar cells and assembling the panels.
Details on Netherlands story – Carbon tax specifically for electricity – $21/ton in 2021 moving toward $50/ton in 2030 – 2¢/W…is 2¢/W on its own would be a real tight revenue stream to bet large scale energy storage + renewable investment. However, in combination with other structural benefits – 2¢/W could do the job. By 2030 – 4¢/W will still be a light number…however, it does represent an ~9.25% compounding annual inflation.
NL CO2 tax for electricity production: to start in 2020 at €18/tCO2, increasing to €43 by 2030. Means €0.014 to €0.034/kWh for coal power. https://t.co/KpeEOBbYNK
— Kees van der Leun (@Sustainable2050) October 11, 2017
We’re very wasteful still with our energy – though we are getting amazingly more efficient. What if all the houses are net zero? And commercial buildings?
Header image from LinkedIN of Fadi Maalouf, PMP – Site visit to the second phase (Shuaa energy 1 : 260 MWp) of MENA’s largest single-site Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park – Al Qudra with operational phases 1 and 2, whereas the phase 3 is under construction. This Project is a part of the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 at the lowest tariff of 5.84 US Cents/kWh over a 25-year period (Project cost: USD 326 million with 49% ownership by ACWA Power and 51% by Dubai Electricity & Water Authority – DEWA ).
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