EGEB: We’re in the midst of a solar efficiency competition, biggest renewables deal ever – $5B, more

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

JinkoSolar Breaks Multiple World Records of Silicon Solar Cell and Module Technology – JinkoSolar broke the existing world record by achieving conversion efficiency of 22.78% on P-type monocrystalline PERC solar cells. This marks the second time in 2017 that JinkoSolar has broken a world record in solar cell conversion efficiency after achieving the 22.04% conversion efficiency record on P-type polycrystalline PERC solar earlier in the year. This first record, the 22.78% bests LONGi’s announcement yesterday at 22.71% (lol) – both monoPERC P-type solar cells. First off, the Jinko’s record is a 0.31% increase in efficiency over LONGi’s. That means a homeowner with a ~10kW solar system making around 14,000kWh/year, and getting $0.15/kWh will make an extra $6/year. Nonetheless – I love that Jinko feels the need to stand right next to LONGi on the global charts. We’ve got global brand names pushing the edges of technology – in the end customers usually win.

Tesla in Puerto Rico shows creative, fast solar deployment – You probably saw this article on Electrek yesterday. I’m bringing it up because I want to show the flexibility and simplicity of solar power. This is one of the reasons it’s going to come to dominate so much of our electricity infrastructure. Burning things to make steam and then move things was invented in the Greek era. Using it to make electricity was done in the 1800s. Now, we’re moving into solid state electricity generation. And when we deploy it this way we’re able to be modular, we have solar panel level analysis tools built-in, and we can break it down and move it relatively easy compared to a power plant. Good to see a focus on hospitals. It shows the speed of solar when needed can be a life saver.

Hannon Armstrong issues US$163 million in green bonds to 57-project PV portfolio – The supported PV portfolio is comprised of 57 projects in eight separate states, with the installations representing a combined generation capacity of 1.2GW. Hannon Armstrong will own the leasing rights to the 57 projects under a number of extended power purchase agreements (PPAs). – This company was able to raise $163M to build 1.2GW of solar – that’s $0.14/W. That amount of money is exactly what would be needed to develop each of these projects right through shovel ready. That means all engineering done, all power company agreements signed, and local jurisdictions approval in hand. To get the $163M they probably had to have power purchase agreements in place already – and obviously they had control of the 57 land sites with extensive analysis already done. As Hannon Armstrong progresses towards shovel ready on these 57 projects, this will occur over the next 6-12 months, they’ll start finalizing the addition $1-1.3B more that they’ll need to build these projects. At this point, they might also sell the portfolio to large financial institutions who will retain Hannon to manage construction, but then those finance houses will own the cash producing assets as part of a broader portfolio. That’s a lotta solar – it’ll represent 0.5-1% of global solar in the 1-2 years that it hits the grid.

GIP to Buy Equis Energy in Record $5 Billion Renewable Deal – Equis Energy assets include: Solar: 2.4 GW of generation capacity; 4.3 GW under development, Wind: 2.3 GW of generation capacity; 2 GW under development, and Hydroelectric: 0.3 GW of generation capacity. Biggest renewable deal ever (excluding dams)? In terms of total and money and capacity of energy production? If any of you see higher numbers somewhere please let me know. These mega deals will drive development shops. Development shops will put locals on the ground who know the landowners. There will be many more deals like this. Solar and wind wild catting will go on for a while.

SoftBank Vision Fund to build 3 GW of solar and storage in Saudi Arabia – If it wasn’t for the deal just above, I probably would have included the ‘biggest solar deal ever’ in terms of total capacity. Except…its only the second biggest solar deal to my memory. Second today also. Could still be the biggest ‘new solar deal.’

Global solar market to grow 30% and reach close to 100 GW this year, says Bernreuter Research – We now have multiple groups projecting solar power will hit or come real close to 100GW of solar power in 2017. Whether we hit or are close – the solar industry will have consecutive years with 30% growth. I’m not going to make any predictions of 2018 as I will be wrong (as I was wrong about 2017 by a long shot).

Apparently, per some studies, jobs are one of the strongest ways to get people to support what you do. People making money drives emotions – not a surprise at all. Solar and wind still at the top – by far – through the next decade is the projection.

Clean energy, now the future of work in the U.S. (data viz per @business) pic.twitter.com/aAPJhF5228

— Nathan Serota (@nserota) October 24, 2017

Featured image is of Freds post here yesterday.

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