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.
Men Resist Green Behavior as Un-Manly – The idea that emasculated men try to reassert their masculinity through non-environmentally-friendly choices suggests that in addition to littering, wasting water, or using too much electricity, one could harm the environment merely by making men feel feminine. C’mon fellas – overcompensating for something? You seriously need special marketing so your sensitive little feelings don’t get hurt while saving the planet? You’d think you’d support the thing that would make your offspring healthier…
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Meet the Lawyer Trying to Make Big Oil Pay for Climate Change – This attorney is the same one that won $200B+ from the tobacco groups – A report released in mid-November by the Center for International Environmental Law has new evidence that big oil was warned about the risks of global temperature rise nearly 50 years ago. “There seems to be no doubt that the potential damage to our environment could be severe,” explains a 1969 study prepared for the American Petroleum Institute by two Stanford scientists. This is the issue. That hard data was known, yet some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet who were managing one of the most important global resources, decided they needed to slow the progression to change via public manipulation. That’s illegal.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
US Takes India Back To World Trade Organisation In Solar Power Dispute – India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia’s third-largest economy without creating pollution. But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the programme was discriminatory and US solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent from 2011. The United States won the case last year, when WTO appeals judges ruled India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules. Such “local content” requirements are banned because they discriminate in favour of domestic firms and against foreign competitors. Everyone inhale, exhale, and realize that we – the United States of America – are about to become some of the largest clean energy hypocrites on the planet. In order to get money from the bank bailout in 2009, there was a Made in America requirement. Now, we’re going to tax a solar panel from everywhere else on the planet because we can’t keep up. Sad.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Bay State Wind Submits Bid to Build Massachusetts’ First Offshore Wind Farm – This offshore wind story is going to get real big real, real fast in the USA. NREL has already told us our power grid is strong enough to handle these winds, and with Europe and China hammering offshore wind with research and investment, our large and long coast lines are ripe. Already built-in Rhode Island, now New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and North Carolina (at least) have started the proposal process. If the bid in Massachusetts turns out to be 2GW, that would make this wind plant one of the largest on the planet. Though I think we’ll see 1.6GW of wind bids totaled in a few projects. Tesla Energy storage is part of at least one of the bids.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
National Grid to trial solar, wind in frequency response markets next year – Within the document National Grid said it wanted to trial a market which could enable providers of frequency response that are incapable of forecasting or controlling their availability, paying specific mention to solar and wind generators. In the case of solar power, you know when you’ll be producing electricity. If you’ve got a large area, you can deliver a percentage of your potential production – as a safety margin – and offer a fairly consistent daytime service. After getting excited with Tesla’s battery offering super fast grid services, this offering makes me think there’s a growing movement for renewables to up their revenue generation ability.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
India proposes US$1.7 billion support for local solar manufacturers and 12GW CPSU scheme – Also contains a neat visual on showing how they are, roughly, looking at each stage of the manufacturing process for development. The incentive is a 30% ‘subsidy’ – and different amounts of it are available at different levels of solar panel manufacturing process. Seems like a smart way to get solar panels into a country – instead of, say, taxing every person who wants to install their own systems.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important dog news. Featured Image Source.
Omnidian Raises $5.1 Million for Residential PV Performance Offering – Omnidian offers residential solar owners a performance guarantee so any loss of production, below an agreed level, is reimbursed. It has a software platform that integrates with third-party PV monitoring systems and identifies underperforming assets requiring a field service dispatch. The firm partners with a nationwide network of precertified field technicians who carry out repairs. If you’re the type who is going to check your system constantly, then don’t get this type of product. If you’re the type that likes things to just run, then consider insurance. Maybe you’re the type who will check your system out everyday for the first year or two, then fade. I’m closer to the last one.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
US solar deployment hits lowest level in two years (w/ charts) – According to the latest figures from GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) across the nation 2.03 GW of solar PV was installed, slightly below Q2 2016, which saw 2.05 GW. There are no simple answers to why the industry saw this slump, and instead a variety of factors can be seen. A 51% year-over-year decline from Q3 2016 has more to do with the volume of projects initially planned for completion before the 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) was extended to 2020, than it does with the weakness this past quarter. There’s a lot of complexity going on in US solar. Smaller utility-scale stuff is on hold because of the Suniva issues – larger utility-scale stuff won’t show up in report just yet. Commercial is actually up in volume, but it’s a smaller component. Residential is down overall – lease and cash dealing with separate complexities. Some of these things are temporary, some are permanent evolutions (less leasing as a percent of the total). Still though, expectations of 12GW of solar power is a lot of solar power. And it’ll grow again soon.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
SPP Sets New Records for Wind Generation – Wind resources peaked at 13,587 MW at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 4 and then again at 14,150 MW at 9:55 p.m., bettering the old record of 13,342 MW, set on Feb. 9. And per the graph the peak was about 56.25% of total electricity. They suggest that this record means breaking 75% is within the technical possibilities. That’s a lot of wind power in the Midwest USA.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Wind Turbines as Artistic Canvas – Senvion, a German wind turbine manufacturer supports local artists by allowing them to use its turbines as an artistic canvas. Artists in Portugal and Australia have also collaborated with their local wind industry to create original works of art. Imagine painting wind turbines so they create a sort of optical illusion and blend themselves into the local environment. Could we gain optical benefit from these giant structures?
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Energy Storage Well Past the ‘Tipping Point,’ Panel Says – A mix of comments, So, 10 years from now, do I think we’ll have a commercially available storage technology that’s below $100/kWh? Sure.; “I think you could argue that the tipping point was several years ago when big PJM systems started to come online,”; and “We’re looking at much more ambitious efforts that would require the attributes of a flow battery, which is a minimum of six to 12 hours of energy.”. A lot to unpack in this article – including a reference to storage being too expensive relative to a large number of energy actions. Big, pretty words though – we’re past a tipping point, but not yet to wide market application yet – which means we believe the amount of projects that can get built-in smaller expensive, incentivized markets is enough to build the factories that will deliver the learning curve benefits. A machine is in motion that seems to now generate its own steam.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Longi claims 82.15% bifaciality record for its PERC solar cell – Bifaciality is commonly defined as the ratio of the output measured from the rearside of a cell over the output measured from its front side. According to Longi, the bifaciality of standard bifacial PERC solar in the market is currently around 75%. The manufacturer announced it has achieved an 82.15% bifaciality world record for its bifacial PERC monocrystalline cell, dubbed Hi-MO2. Bifacial is real folks, and even if you only get 10% more electricity because your roof doesn’t reflect as nicely as others, you’re still getting 10% more energy. In perfect settings, I’ve read of efficiency going up 30% – though I’ve not seen it personally.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
China market: GCL SIT automates PV module production – Becoming a smart dark factory via full automation, the PV module factory has managed to reduce the number of its workers from 52 to eight and also lowered its defect rate by 0.1pp, said the report. On one side of the building they have pallets coming in, on the other side they have pallets leaving – drivers manage the product. They shut the lights off inside the building. The only people employed are engineers, robot technicians, and those needed to secure the site. This is the future of manufacturing as a whole, but it’s hitting the solar power industry hard as there is a need to scale quickly and economically.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
First Solar produces first S6 module, seals 800 MW of deals – The 1.2 x 2 meter modules are expected to become commercially available at 420-445 watts with efficiencies of over 17%. First Solar expects to have around 3 GW of annual capacity in 2018, 5 GW in 2019 and 5.7 GW in 2020. I’m excited to see that First Solar is at 17% with a thin film product. Also nice to see First Solar with plans to double capacity.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Solar Power Plant O&M: Robots Offer Smarter Way to Protect and Enhance Your Investment – Two reasons I’m posting this, 1 – They’ve got a great chart that shows the value of having a robot cleaning from a financial sense perspective. In that chart they do use a great price of 1.78¢/kWh in a PPA as their base price. And 2 – They’re pulling the cleaning robots with pickup trucks. Robots cleaning large-scale solar panel installations will get smarter, and will see improved design – but being part automatic and part human is creative maximization of resources. Check out the short video at the end. The hardware requires two people to place it on a double row of solar panels. I wonder if there will be a residential solar panel cleaner that’s really smart at finding the edges of solar panels once you place it on the roof yourself…
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
The Trade Case Just Put $1 per Watt Solar Pricing Back Out of Reach – As I read something I hadn’t thought about, that Suniva will kill the $1/W utility market in the USA, I’m reminded of a short story I read as a kid. Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist, letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon be hers. And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang! Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well. They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun. They leaped like deer on the moon. Solar power is being shackled. Tied and restrained. I am being a bit emotional, but that’s the type of guy I am. Fly, solar, fly.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Elon Musk’s SA battery record will be short-lived as rivals go even bigger – South Korea’s Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems is building a 150-megawatt lithium-ion unit, 50 per cent larger than Musk’s, that the company says will go live in about three months in Ulsan near the southeast coast. And then this plant will be passed by a larger one. And then it will happen again. I remember sometime in 2016 when I used to only retweet solar projects that were 100MW or larger – and I was amazed at the project sizes. Now, 1GW gets my attention. Soon – that’ll be with batteries too. When will we see the first 1GW announcement? 2018 maybe, 2019 definitely.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy mews. Featured Image Source.
Gigawatt solar markets seen in 13 countries in 2018 – The 1 GW solar market club grew by 5 members: Mexico, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, and Egypt. The current countries installing more than 1 GW of capacity of solar power per year are: France, South Korea, Australia, China, India, Japan, USA, and Germany. The revolution is deep, it is meow widening. There’s a country on every populated continent. For some reason it feels proper that there is solar capacity and manufacturing in every country – like mitochondria in every cell.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
Moody’s Warns Cities to Address Climate Risks or Face Downgrades – In its report, Moody’s lists six indicators it uses “to assess the exposure and overall susceptibility of U.S. states to the physical effects of climate change.” They include the share of economic activity that comes from coastal areas, hurricane and extreme-weather damage as a share of the economy, and the share of homes in a flood plain. Based on those overall risks, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi are among the states most at risk from climate change. Moody’s didn’t identify which cities or municipalities were most exposed. If the politicians won’t act because they are owned by the groups that specifically cause this problem, then the insurance companies are acting. Already, the State of Florida has serious home owner insurance issues because of hurricanes. Now, this is going to expand. A smart friend of mine a month or two back suggested a structural breakdown in certain regions could happen sooner than later because of financial withdrawal. The US Government already suggested 10 million people worth of land ought be left to fend for their financial selves. The insurance companies now agree. This is huge. Commercial development will bear consequence first.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
European PV market expected to grow by 35% in 2018 – “The European market is entering a phase of sustainable growth, no longer driven by the Feed-in-Tariff boom and bust cycle,” said GTM analyst Tom Heggarty. This phase of growth without the boom bust of the tariffs is starting to play out in many places. This is a lot of growth in Europe – if India and China have a big 2018 again (which it looks like they already are per announcements made) – 100GW of new solar power installed every year is here to stay.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Pennsylvania State Grants: $5,000 for Every New Solar Job – The program will now allow for grants of up to $5,000 or loans of up to $40,000 for each solar-manufacturing job created over three years for companies that make solar panels and equipment. Will there become a competition between various states to build these future robotic solar panel factories? I’d bet Pennsylvania has been watching the Tesla Energy Gigafactory being built just north of them in Buffalo and might have a touch of envy. Should every state – and every country – have its own solar panel factories?
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Harvesting the Sun for Power and Produce – Agrophotovoltaics Increases the Land Use Efficiency by over 60 Percent – Winter wheat, potatoes, celeriac and clover grass were the first crops to be tested. The south-west orientation and the extra distance between the five meter high rows of bifacial glass-glass PV modules ensured that the crops were exposed to uniform solar radiation. “The crop yield of clover grass under the PV array was only 5.3 percent less than the reference plot,” reports Prof. Petera Högy, agricultural expert at the University of Hohenheim. The yield losses for potatoes, wheat and celeriac are between 18 to 19 percent and therefore somewhat higher.” This is another example of infrastructure integrated photovoltaics (IIPV). This is also a very interesting step in my mind – if we can open up huge swathes of global farmland to be used for solar power the land use argument goes away, and the amount of land that can be used for solar power is suddenly far in excess of what would be needed to power the planet.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Air pollution may cause infertility for a ‘significant number of couples’, warn scientists – The study showed that for every 5 ug/m3 increase in tiny particles called PM2.5s, there was a 26 per cent increased risk of being in the bottom 10 per cent of normal sperm size and shape. The effect was found when particle counts rose over 25 µg/m³. In London yesterday, particulates rose to 69 µg/m³ in some areas. This just adds to the list people. It kills us. It lowers our IQ. It deforms our children. It warms our planet. And it slows us down from having children.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Scotland ‘on target’ for 100% renewable energy by 2020 – Scotland had been clever in dealing with objectors to wind farms with grants to local communities which allowed them to take an equity share in developments. “There is clear evidence in Scotland that supporting local communities to get involved in – and benefit from – the local energy system enables a range of related social and economic co-benefits.” – Two things here, 1. Scotland is going to have a completely emission free electricity system in less than two and a half years. How cool is that? 2. One of the base emotions of the distributed energy philosophy is that it also distributes the revenue. Germany’s programs – even though they increase the prices of electricity a non-trivial amount – are widely supported because, my gut says, that 50% of the renewable energy is owned by regular people directly. Money fixing a lot of issues.
