Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Project Bo aims to save babies’ lives with reliable solar/battery power – “Three of our oxygen-dependent babies died last night when the power went off. Not good enough in 2017. Low-cost tech e.g. affordable solar power must be a priority for saving newborn lives” Project Bo was established to see this never happens again. There is a philosophical aspect to solar power – its distributed nature bringing power – literally – to the people, its direct connection to a piece of our lives that we can almost always depend on – the sun. The reality of our world is that resources – technology, energy and finances – are not distributed evenly. However, we as humans are amazingly inventive with small amounts of these resources – electricity in particular. And just a small amount of electricity can save human beings. Solar can help with that. They accept donations. Thanks, Michael.
Singapore requests consultation with US over solar tariffs – WTO – Here is another country pushing back against the US’ solar cell/panel import tariff. I’d like to see a broader solar manufacturing base, as global eyeballs will give us much more benefit when it comes to technological advancement. I don’t like the idea of adding complexity to manufacturing by adding too many international laws, but I’m in the reality I’m in – thus, maybe it’s time to consider adding R&D/manufacturing/distribution agreements on solar panels/energy storage as a national security relevant items.
JA Solar’s mono PERC panels used in Negev Desert PV power plant – With the record low bid in Saudi Arabia getting dropped, possibly because it included a new technology (bifacial solar panels), I’ve been hungry to see PERC and bifacial products hit real life projects. The pressure on these products is in a smart position – what is the lifetime of these products? We don’t have 30-40-50 year time lines of experience with these products like we do with other solar cell construction techniques – 35MW of p-type monoPERC.
Could SolarCoin Help ACWA Boost Its Profits From Solar? – So it hit me, a globally trusted, shared database – a blockchain – of kWhs produced on every single solar system globally would allow for trading/tracking of clean energy production. This allows parties to meet legal requirements regarding paying for clean energy generation. It can help facilitate investment in projects. Other databases could do this, but blockchains are hot.
Tesla Australian Virtual Power Plant Cheaper Than U.S. PV – 250 megawatts of interconnected rooftop solar and battery storage systems distributed across 50,000 households. The A$800 million ($628 million) plan highlights the divergent paths of the Australian and U.S. solar industries. This is an economic example of why I think community solar power, with a healthy cash investment/ownership from private people, is the most economic model for solar power development. $628 million for solar plus storage – roughly $2.50/W, and if we back out that storage is about $1/W, solar at $1.50/W. For a fee, someone manages the power lines and central hardware. If you ever move, you sell your energy or share of the hardware to someone new. This system isn’t community solar – but it is something that a community could come together and buy.
Regarding the tweet below, this article on the BBC quotes a Greenpeace rep saying weather accounted for 40% of the greater than 50% drop, but that means Beijing has done some good work for the first 10%. More importantly though, if Beijing can make it happen in the international press – it takes away from the excuses of others, helps us all. However, if the smog just moves to other cities, then we still have the same problem…just maybe with some false, but useful, marketing hope.
Is Beijing's good air quality this winter all about the weather, how can we know? We continue to get a lot of questions about this; here's a presentation of some of the data analytics we use to track effectiveness of the winter action plan. https://t.co/jHz9ALeYor via @SlideShare pic.twitter.com/UF9ZXeT2Zs
— Lauri Myllyvirta (@laurimyllyvirta) February 12, 2018
Featured image is from the Department of Energy SunShot program. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility in Tonopah, Nevada produces more than 500,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year. Photo by Julianne Boden.
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