EGEB: World’s largest solar park by drone; 60 ‘next generation’ storage proposals in Australia; more

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

S.A. tender attracts 60 proposals for “next-gen” renewables and storage – The Tesla-Neoen big battery at the Hornsdale wind farm will likely account for around $20 million of the RTF. State energy minister Tom Koutsantonis highlighted the three proposals from Adelaide-based 1414 Degrees, which is developing a “silicon battery” that stores heat and energy, and is looking for its first commercial-scale demonstration project. This is the first reference I’ve found regarding this bid’s completion – and only two project descriptions have snuck out yet. I bet we see more than a few interesting ideas get built – Australia has very high energy costs, and public support for solar is very high. Probably the highest residential solar installation rate on a large power grid.

Indian State Cuts Tariff By Up To 35% 18 Months After Solar Auction – Project developers who placed bids for projects with more than 25 megawatts of capacity placed bids in the range of Rs 5.08 to Rs 5.48/kWh while projects with less than 25 megawatts of capacity received bids in the range of Rs 5.29 to Rs 7.95/kWh. All larger projects shall now receive a tariff of Rs 4.95/kWh, a reduction of up to 9%, whereas smaller projects will be eligible for a tariff of Rs 5.16/kWh, a reduction of up to 35%. Imagine investing huge amounts of time and resources to develop a solar project. This involves on-site analysis, engineers, hardware procurement folk, finance talks with bankers, and a decent amount more – and then having the basis of your financial analysis change…just because. India will be a HUGE market for solar power, in spite of these early on tribulations.

Electricity Storage and Renewables: Cost and Markets to 2030 (PDF) – Broad, long report that has gotten a lot of headlines recently for predicting battery costs down 60% by 2030. I’m a big fan of the following image – it gets into the form of energy storage and how it’s being used. In reference to the main headline regarding pricing by 2030…I expect everyone to be wrong toward the high-end of future pricing estimates. Everyone was wrong about batteries so far, wrong about solar so far, wrong about wind – it seems our technological abilities have been here for a while just waiting for us to start scaling up.

Jeremy Grantham is Worried About the World – “If you believe, as I do, that climate change is so severe that it’s an actual question about survival as a well-functioning global society, then you know that I take it extremely seriously,” says Jeremy Grantham – chief investment strategist of GMO and founder of  the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. If we don’t solve climate change, he warns, “all the other things we are trying to protect and encourage are a waste of money and energy.” A view from his perspective, seeing broad trends in scientific discourse and investment flows, would make ones vision of what we’ve got to do probably both terrifying in its breadth and risks, but also rewarding in seeing how much of ourselves is now deploying to fix these issues. When that point (new solar+wind cheaper than already built coal) is reached you’re talking economics. People who would have stood their ground until the end of time will be eagerly signing up for solar farms, storage facilities, etc.

A quick breakdown on who is originating the first $100 billion in green bonds in 2017 – aligns closely, but not fully, with who uses the bonds –

Global #greenbonds overtake 2016 total: $83bn on 28th Sept: Now in sight of our $130bn by December 31st forecast. https://t.co/l48G34m4Pq pic.twitter.com/a2r3I3XXZf

— Climate Bonds (@ClimateBonds) October 7, 2017

2,000MW of solar power within a single ‘solar park.’ Many individual contracts with local land owners? I think these parks are part of a process that included many large developers bidding on 50-200MW chunks. Those panels look clean too – must have just rained. Guy who does tv interviews for website hosting this video has cool hair!

Header image from the ‘Hit me with your SunShot‘ photography contest. Since I’ve shown each of the winning photographs – I’ve now moved into showing off some of the images that didn’t ‘win’ – but are beautiful nonetheless. These images are located on the flickr account page of SunShot. Solar installers from Puget Sound Solar mounting 266 modules in a 75 kW community solar project at Mason County PUD 3’s facility in Shelton, WA. Using virtual net-metering, 110 participants throughout Mason County are energized by the benefits of clean, renewable solar power. Photo by Justin Holzgrove.

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

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