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

Hemlock Semiconductor to lay off 100 workers – This week Hemlock is reporting that it will lay off 100 workers in Michigan, with most losing their jobs in the first quarter of 2018, as part of a plan which involves “simplifying and streamlining its organization to meet the new market realities”. The US used to be the largest producer of polysilicon in the world. It was the one solar power related item that brought the net import/export above $0. A combination of events has hammered at this. For one – Chinese tariffs attached to polysilicon as a result of US tariffs on solar modules in 2013 helped. This led to an opening for China and South Korea to ramp up volume – and they’ve done so. As an aside, SolarWorld technically owes $800 million to Hemlock as part of contracts signed when polysilicon cost a lot more.

expand full story

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

The Potential Impact of Solar Tariffs in 12 Charts – Good charts. Potential is the keyword. These numbers are probably close to true. If so, residential costs aren’t really noticeable. Utility yes, however, those price increases aren’t enough to end investment – maybe slow it down a bit…but not a lot. Clarity would be best at this point so our pricing is hard.

expand full story

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

Study finds Del. residents would rather live near wind turbine than coal plant – Residents living near a Delaware wind turbine would pay nearly $31 a year to keep it around and would pay about $121 annually to make sure a coal plant would not replace it, recent research has found. The real world version of this data, outside of a survey, would be represented in where we build our power plants and the property value surrounding those plants. And there is plenty of research in the world on this topic showing property values much wider than ~$121/year.

expand full story

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

Rooftop solar pv decreased the average price of wholesale electricity from $132/MWh to $88/MWh over the one year study period inNew South Wales, Australia (pop. 7.5M). Down pricing pressure was most strongly felt between 1-4 PM. During the whole of the one year, $2.2-3.3B was collectively saved. February – mid summer down south – saw the greatest savings – $740M. These numbers, the $2.2-3.3B, don’t include the money also saved by those who installed the solar power. This is the price of electricity – for everyone. Solar power – bringing the price of electricity down for everyone else by lessening electricity grid peak demand.

expand full story

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

Vikram Solar launches new monocrystalline product line SOMERA – PERC monocrystalline solar cells reaching module area efficiency up to 19.05% (for 60 cells) and up to 18.45% (for 72 cells). 2,400 Pascal Wind load, 5400 Pascal Snow load and Dynamic Wind load. Extremely low LID and lower temperature coefficients. Cool to see manufacturers launching these 19% monoPERC products. Cool to see it is an Indian manufacturer whose got a big brand name and a cutting edge product. Germany, China, US, South Korea, Japan have all been making big volumes of panels for a while. Adding India – soon to be the largest country on the planet – will mean a huge market expansion.

expand full story

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

The U.S. solar industry’s new growth region: Trump country – GTM Research shows that eight of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. solar markets between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 were Western, Midwestern or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi topping the list. First it was the wind power – made easy by the fact that the USA’s strongest wind resources push across the central states of this country with a fury. And now solar power is placing itself firmly in all political regions of the country. This evolution could have a real effect on the Suniva trade case.

expand full story

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

The header image is of the 27MW San Fermin solar plant in Puerto Rico four days after Hurricane Maria swept the island. The image came from the NOAA by way of earther.com (and reader Will Driscoll). The system was designed back in 2012 to withstand up to 250-260kph (155-162mph) wind speeds. All hardware is two meters off of the ground and there is a local energy storage system hooked into the power plant. We’re nearing the end of a discussion – solar that is designed to withstand a hurricane will do so.

expand full story

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

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.

expand full story

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

EPA chief to sign rule on Clean Power Plan exit on Tuesday – The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday he would sign a proposed rule on Tuesday to begin withdrawing from the Clean Power Plan. This also aligns with the US’ stated plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Pruitt used a logic that the Clean Power Plan was part of a war against coal…coal’s been declining since the Clinton years. Concurrently with the CPP announcement we get – First Shoe to Drop? Vistra to Retire 3 Texas Coal Units and Washington state deals blow to plan for coal export terminal. Removing ourselves probably hurts us less than the ongoing processes across the county like this these coal closures/construction rejections.

expand full story

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.

expand full story