EGEB: ‘Bring on more renewables’ says adult, 1366 Technologies 1st commercial project, more

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

The Rising Tide of Evidence Against Blaming Wind and Solar for Grid Instability – Great summary write up by GreentechMedia on the upcoming fake study from the Department of Energy. I used the quote from yesterday’s brief as part of the article title, because it fits. The GTM article goes through multiple reports from respected groups that push back against the language being used by the Trump regime – not solar sales people like myself – but PhDs who couldn’t care either way. Don’t let the politicians lie to you.

First PV power plant to use 1366 Technologies high performance wafers – First off, read here if you want to see some of the history of their tech. I’m excited to see new solar cell technology hitting the real market in a decently sized project (500kW) – as of yet all projects have been test beds. It is no surprise that the product is going to a market like Japan – expensive to install and can absorb higher cost cells – as the company is young and their manufacturing is just scaling. If they can lower the energy needed to make cells by 75%, and increase the efficiency – we’re moving well.

PV Prices Will Remain Stable in July on Demand from China and the U.S. – China has extended the annual PV installation date deadline, allowing manufacturers to stabilize pricing. This is good for the manufacturing side of things – which then gives the finance companies the healthy stability they need to give out loans in the billions to build out factories.

Second wind+storage project comes online in The Netherlands – The modular system – 3MW – is planned to be expanded to 12 MW in future, which would make it the country’s largest energy storage project. This should strike fear in the heart of every fossil fuel proponent. You told us you didn’t want our electricity because it was unstable – unreliable – and what happens when then wind doesn’t blow? All valid points in high stress moments. Guess what though – we’ve learned. Watch out.

Screen-printed batteries for renewables on the way – Printed Energy’s solid state batteries are a thin, flexible format – printed in a roll-to-roll process like a newspaper – that can be adapted to almost any shape – Printed solar cells recently got great headlines from Australia – but have mostly been vapour ware for my decade of solar experience (anyone remember Nanosolar?). Will printed batteries be the same? I don’t know, but if we keep attacking, someone eventually – solar cells and batteries – will figure out how to build machines that will lower the cost, and time to produce. Then I expect you and I, in our home 3D Printing room (standard in all homes post-2040), to create our own energy generation and storage hardware.

Los Angeles completes 16.4MW rooftop project – 16MW projects don’t get the love they deserve on this website, simply because there are so many projects of this size – 50 acres, meh. But here is a detail – its on one roof. That’s a big roof – and its the largest rooftop system in the USA currently. Of course, there is this guy in Reno who is building a factory that will have a 70MW (!!!) rooftop solar system that will be the largest in the world…wow. But that isn’t today – that’s tomorrow’s headline.

Korea Development Bank raises US$300m in first Green Bond issuance – Proceeds will be used for financing or refinancing projects related to the development, construction, or expansion of renewable energy, including solar, wind and biomass projects. The issuance received demand from accounts across Asia, Europe and the US. It was also oversubscribed more than two-fold. – This is important because it shows the continuing spread of high level investment in solar power. Bonds are long term economic tools bought by conservative investors. Renewables being perceived as long term safe investments is powerful and opens the doors to trillions in investment.

To help compound the investment conversation – if the big players see economic success in renewables, renewables will be successful.

Investment in #energyefficiency through market-based instruments has risen six-fold over the last ten years https://t.co/5qJnsGsPwl pic.twitter.com/qm1fGPkOBU

— International Energy Agency (@IEA) June 29, 2017

Header Photo Credit to friend of the website David Windmueller. Taken yesterday morning as he drove past the Ivanpah Solar Power Plant. Absolutely stunning. As an aside – readers, if you have beautiful pictures of renewables – and can deliver a high quality image that is greater than 1,000 pixels wide and can be formatted at a 2:1 width to height, I’d love to show it off and give credit. Especially if you are building something yourself like some of our great commentors.

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Tweet me to pick apart quote.

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