Welcome to the Electrek Green Energy Brief. Put together by our Electrek authors, the Energy Brief is a daily technical, financial, and political review of important green energy news.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Colorado’s NREL — a workhorse in national solar, wind research — faces “devastating” cuts in Trump budget proposal – It’s that season of the year, where partisan politics are flung for the purpose of shock and awe versus doing some proper, patient work. Last year the Executive Office suggested significant cuts to the Department of Energy’s renewable energy and efficiency budget. The Senate reversed most of those cuts. This year again though – the Executive Branch has requested a stronger budget cut, 72%. The US Government’s budget for 2017 was approximately $4,094 billion. The Department of Energy’s renewable energy and energy efficiency groups get about $2 billion a year. They’re scientists and researchers building the technologies that drive our attacks against climate change. 0.05% – five hundredths of a percent – of the US governments budget.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Taiwan follows South Korea into WTO complaint over new US solar duties – Now two countries, major trade partners with the United States, have joined a legal case against the Suniva+Solar World solar tariff. I wonder how quickly these groups could push a case like this through the World Trade Organization. When I inquired on this topic with a smart professional in this field a long while ago, they said court cases like this took two plus years before any results were yielded, if that (note that the US and India have been in a similar trade case since 2011-2013).
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Utility CEO: new renewables will be cheaper than existing coal plants by the early 2020s – Unsubsidized new wind: 2.0-2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour/Unsubsidized new solar: 3.0-4.0 cents per kilowatt-hour/Variable operating costs of existing coal or nuclear plants: 3.5-5.0 cents per kilowatt-hour. Let me point out a few key phrases in this proclamation: New renewables, existing coal/nuclear – That means building new hardware, from the ground up, is cheaper than using old hardware. And then the kicker, unsubsidized. Of course, this is before we start to consider the subsidies that fossil fuels get – free pollution.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
US confirms nations exempt from solar import tariffs – Imports from exempted countries are restricted to 3% of annual US crystalline silicon solar imports per country and 9% for all exempt countries combined. It is not yet clear how the tariffs will be reimposed once the limitations of 3% or 9% have been reached. There are over a hundred countries on the list, so I’m not going to include all of them here. However, here are four countries of note – India, Turkey, Brazil and Pakistan. The first three have solar manufacturing capacity in place or under construction, and Pakistan got headlines this weekend for offering Trina Solar tax incentives to build a factory. My gut says it’s India, if anyone at all, who exports panels to the USA. And interestingly – those Indian solar panels have a high probability of being Chinese manufacturers building factories elsewhere.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
First Solar Is Using Robots to Better Tap the Sun – There are just a few dozen workers scattered about; before the renovation, there were hundreds. The company acknowledges that it cut jobs, but it says the ones that remain are safer and pay better. The panels produce 244 percent more power at a manufacturing cost of as little as 20¢ per watt, about 30 percent less than the cheapest Chinese equivalent. Header image is from this factory – and it represents the fundamental aspect of the solar panel manufacturing boom of recent years – robotics, not massive amounts of labor. First Solar will not bear the consequences of tariffs and is making the cheapest solar panels in the world. Probably not a bad place to be…
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Trump opens the door for specific products, nations to be excluded from tariffs – Tariffs are expected to take effect February 7th. Multiple nations and technologies are going to request they be not have a tariff applied for various reasons. Some of these requests will be approved. Found a neat data point – one estimate suggests the solar tariff will net $1 billion.
URE to set up PV module plant in US – According to industry sources, apart from concerns about the safeguard tariffs, the three makers are building the plant to cater to a major US-based power generation developer who has decided to give URE massive PV module orders. The developer previously approached NSP for PV module supply, but NSP could not take all of its orders due to insufficient production capacity, the sources said. I can’t wait until I’m such a large developer that solar panel manufacturers will build factories to cater to ME! I wonder if this factory is being built for Cypress Creek Renewables.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
US modules prices will still be lower by end of 2018 than 2017, says ReneSola chief – This is the same thing I said in my analysis of the Trump Tariff. So folks, end of world – no. You know what will come of this though – as we see the exact date of the shift from one tax amount to the next (it drops from 30% to 15% over fours years before going away), we’re going to see imports start to stack up in the ports. And then the morning that the tariff shifts, we’ll see containers flow out. Unnatural. Messes with the flow of business.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Trump tariff on imported solar panels at 30% – residential projects could increase $750-1000, cost up to 23,000 jobs – I know this was posted here yesterday, so leading the brief with it is kinda goofy…but it’s among the most important stories for the US solar industry since April of 2017 when it popped up. Don’t expect the industry to crash – but do expect to see some of the nicer solar panels to cost more. And those of you in states where solar was just getting to be interesting – you’re going to want to put it off for a year to let system prices fall again and match the increased tariff price.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Bifacial technology was likely reason world’s lowest ever solar bid was rejected – !! – One Chinese PV manufacturer told PV Tech that it was aware that the exact make-up of the bid’s proposed system was P-type bifacial modules and single axis tracking. A requirement of the tender is that proven technology be used. The Masdar bid was around 25% lower on an LCOE basis. About the same improvement as can be achieved by using bifacial technology paired with trackers. My heart is broken. A big part of the logic I put forward with the Saudi bid was based on the possibilities put forth by new technology, and it was exactly the newness of the technology that has slain the lowest price solar power on the planet. Nonetheless – I am hopeful having learned about this data because it shows us a path forward that is repeatable outside of the Middle East as this technology matures. And that 10%+10%=25% rule of thumb is sweet knowledge.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Record wind output sends UK into negative pricing – Electricity data from utility shows that system buy and sell prices fell to -£3.71/MWh between 6-6:30pm and remained negative for four consecutive settlement periods. For settlement period 15 (7-7:30am 14 January), it fell as low as -£68.43/MWh. We covered the Tesla battery earning up to AU$1000/MWh a few days back. Pretty soon we’re going to stop talking simply about ‘negative electricity pricing’ and we’re going to start talking about how our plug-in and grid enabled cars got a bonus $/MWh bonus overnight, or our office battery, home battery, etc. Or maybe – we’ll get real smart with excess electricity and start making things real cheap based upon excess electricity generation modeling. Either way – this is our new reality. Adapt.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Top 10 module suppliers in 2017 – Shown also are the seven companies we identified in the past 12-18 months as the companies that we expected to be in the 4GW+ annual shipment level during 2017, forming the exclusive grouping we named as the Silicon Module Super League (SMSL). Their highest volume products aren’t necessarily for consumers (large format utility-scale solar panels) – but some of their ’boutique’ product lines might be just right.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
China builds ‘world’s biggest air purifier’ (and it seems to be working) – The system works through greenhouses covering about half the size of a soccer field around the base of the tower. Polluted air is sucked into the glasshouses and heated up by solar energy. The hot air then rises through the tower and passes through multiple layers of cleaning filters. If we figure out how to remove the smog, then at least we can mitigate the damage from the fossils being burnt. I’d prefer we not need to burn the fossils, but maybe, just maybe – it’s best to always have some being mined around the world – for sake of a broad resource base. Honestly, if I had kids – I’d take them to play around the air purifier outside – I’d buy my house nearby – pick a school nearby.
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Runaway 53GW Solar Boom in China Pushed Global Clean Energy Investment Ahead in 2017 – Solar investment globally amounted to $160.8 billion in 2017, up 18% on the previous year despite cost reductions of 25%. Just over half of that world total, or $86.5 billion, was spent in China. This was 58% higher than in 2016, with an estimated 53GW of PV capacity installed – up from 30GW in 2016. Globally, solar power did well. China is really pulling the world along for its ride – about 100% of the increase from 2016 to 2017 came from China.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Washington State leaves coal behind, but not its workers – After getting a permit to build a natural gas plant on the same site, the company has committed $55 million for community development (and the movement away from fossils). The coal plant employs about 300 workers, with an average wage over $80,000, a very respectable income for the small town of 16,000. The resulting legislation will result in half the plant being shut down by the end of 2020 and the other half by the end of 2025. The grant fund is divided into three parts, with $10 million for weatherization and energy efficiency projects; $20 million for education, job training and economic development projects; and $25 million for energy technology investments. At least $5 million of the job training fund will be dedicated to Centralia plant workers. We are humans. We are fighting green house gases because we want humanity to continue forward, in a life that has an opportunity of comfort. I sympathize with the coal workers. It’s hard to be a specialist in a hard-working labor field, build your life around the land – and then be pulled from it while the land still has so much more to give. Still gotta cut coal though, gotta grit through it.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
New York City delivered a powerful blow to the fossil fuel industry by launching a climate change lawsuit against the biggest oil companies and promising to dump billions of dollars of fossil fuel stocks – Demanding that ExxonMobil, Chevron(CVX), BP (BP), Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips (COP) pay for the cost of protecting the city from the “existential threat” of climate change.The city on Wednesday also announced a goal to divest its $189 billion pension system from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years. New York said that would become first major U.S. pension plan to complete such an exit. A quick Google gives $120 billion as a cost for the city to protect itself from ocean rise and storm surges. Should these companies be sued out of existence for screwing up our oil flow? Or should we draw down via a carbon tax and use those funds to drive the revenue? I’d argue the courts are being forced to act because the politicians didn’t. First five pages of filing if you’re interested.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Massachusetts becomes first state commission to approve mandatory demand charges for residential solar customers – A demand charge is based upon your peak electricity usage during the month. If, on Thursday at 2 PM, you were fast charging a car, washing dishes, taking a shower, running the AC, etc. and you set a usage record – the power utility would then be legally obligated to build infrastructure to able to handle that peak, even if only once. And oftentimes, that value holds for 18 months. This practice is much more common in commercial billing – I see it more often than not, having a demand charge is normal. The best way to manage your peak is to limit what you turn on and when, the second best way – a programmed battery that knows when to step up based upon internal demand. This applies to ‘net metering’ (solar) customers only.
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FERC: 116 GW of Solar and Wind Utility Scale Generation Additions by 2020 – By 2020, proposed additions equal nearly 72.53 GW for wind and about 43.53 GW for solar. FERC says it used data from Velocity Suite, ABB Inc. and The C Three Group LLC, which include plants with nameplate capacity of 1 MW or greater. Retirements are only expected to be 68 MW for wind and 2 MW for solar in the next three years. The utility scale solar industry installed about 10GW in 2016, 2017 looks to be lower – but predictions of a return to an average of almost 15GW a year is a nice looking number.
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How to Halve the Cost of Residential Solar in the US – Here in the land of technology leadership and free-market enterprise, American regulation has more than doubled the cost of solar. The regulation comes in three un-American guises: permitting, code and tariffs — and together they are killing the U.S. residential market. Modernizing these regulations, primarily at the local and state level, is the greatest opportunity for U.S. solar policy in 2018. When looking at the Australian installation process – see chart in link – I don’t feel scared, I just feel like I’d have to up my skillset, and carry more equipment on my truck. The nationwide application covers the contractor license verification, hardware check out and grid application. Would you be ok with that? As an aside, this conversation harkens back to a 2013 study when we saw US costs 2X Germany’s…and for the same reason.
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Solar company seeks big incentives to bring 800 jobs to Jacksonville – The City incentives are two-fold. First, the company is seeking a Qualified Targeted Industry Tax Refund of up to $800,000 over five years. The program pays per job, and would only be paid as the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity verifies the job creation and wage targets. The second part comes as a Recaptured Enhanced Value Grant of up to $23.8 million over ten years. The largest ask is a Capital Investment Tax Credit to offset the company’s state corporate income tax liability. The Project Summary says the annual cap on that credit is $20,500,000, but it could be used over a 20 year period. Roughly – the first ten years will mean $4,100 in missed tax revenue, and the second ten years will be $1,250 in missed tax revenue. North Florida getting an average income of $46k/job times 800 jobs is cool – $37M/year – lower cost of living in the region. No state or local taxes. Property and sales tax is it – lets hope schools and infrastructure and cops can be covered in that money while we build solar panels.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Solar doesn’t need a “breakthrough”. It’s a breakthrough on it’s own. – The basic topic is what is needed to get solar to the 30-40-50% of global electricity? A book was recently written (Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet), and a nice article on Bloomberg posted about it (Solar’s Bright Future Is Further Away Than It Seems)…and its causing an uproar (mostly good discussion on twitter actually – author’s twitter feed full of discussion on the topic)! This article – solar doesn’t need a breakthrough – is actually just a collection of tweets that I happened to be lucky to read as it was coming along. I lean toward this article’s perspective, though what I’ve seen said of the book so far has nuggets of solid advice for us to follow. Uproar!
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
China’s Carbon Market Shows How U.S. Is Falling Behind – China is really taking the bull by the horns to manage emissions in the power sector. It’s a significant structural shift, but they legitimized the concept of cap-and-trade in these seven pilot programs that started after 2008. China had 10 years to train people and let them learn the ropes of carbon trading. They were a de facto university for a generation of emissions-market traders. The rest of the world has pretty much lost a decade. A smart friend of mine once told me – There are four stages of knowledge, first – you don’t know what you don’t know, then you know what you don’t know, next you don’t know what you know – and finally – you know what you know. I say that because, I don’t think I know what I don’t know about the ‘ropes’ of the carbon trading market.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
New Tax Bill Offers Unexpected Benefits to Commercial Solar Installations – Our analysis shows that the reduction in tax rates will increase the rate of return by about a 2 percent per year. Over time this adds up: the total value of the project increases by 19 percent, which for this project is over $140,000. In terms of depreciation – The total value of the project increases by over 6 percent. I’ve not played with these things in my spreadsheets yet this morning, but I will. I’ll let you know how they work out.
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In West Texas Where Wind Power Means Jobs, Climate Talk Is Beside the Point – If Texas were a nation, it would be the sixth-largest wind energy producer in the world. The bulk of that power is coming from the Nolan County region. And so the reddest parts of Texas are responsible for supplying upwards of 12 percent of the state’s energy needs every month with clean, green kilowatts. By the end of last year, there were more than 100,000 jobs related to the wind industry nationwide, at least one-fifth of them in Texas. In Western Texas, born and raised, building wind turbines is how I spent most of my days. And I changed the way the world was powered.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
U.S. renewables replace coal and gas in 2017 – In the first nine months of 2017 gas use fell 11% year over-year. If borne out through the last three months this would be the first such fall since 2013. The bigger story here, in my opinion, is that both coal and natural gas usage fell in the same year. For a while, coal was down – and gas was up. And coal was down because gas took over. Well, this year gas was able to go down because we had a lot of solar/wind in place, and hydroelectricity out west was huge. From what I’ve read – it won’t happen again out west with hydro because of droughts. What matters more is that this happened once – because that means it can happen again.
