Green Energy

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

Amish phone booths – McKenna trained a local high-school physics teacher to do installations. About 50 of them are off the grid. One lights up the gazebo in the local cemetery; others are phone booths meant especially for the Amish. Since religious principle dictates no electricity at home, they rely on the booths as a crucial link to the outside world.  The article is really about solar power in Trump voting areas, but the Amish piece caught my attention. Solving problems with solar.

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

Your solar panels could power the neighborhood during a blackout – The team has created a number of algorithms that allow homes to disconnect from the grid, and use and share power from their renewable energy resources during an outage, all the while improving system reliability by up to 35 percent. Right now, in the USA if the power grid goes down – we have legislated that a solar power system, without a battery backup, will shut down. Meaning you will lose power as well. This is done to protect those working on the grid later on. Maybe its time to move beyond that? Distributed energy production means distributed energy power plants are coming. These algorithms will be part of that guidance.

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

Acciona and Spanish university claim world record solar generation measurement in Chile – “The peak power curve was obtained with an irradiance of 853 W/m2 and a cell temperature of 40.1oC.” The deserts of Chile are some of the best sunlight on the planet, and now it looks like we have evidence of them being the highest anywhere on the planet for this moment. Of course, the people that work these plants have to wear special gear to protect themselves from sunlight even in short time periods – maybe not the best place to build a home.

Header image is of the winner of the RAF photographer of the Year award – Two RAF Chinooks head out over North Sea wind farms during a low level flight to retrieve a downed pilot during a rotary training exercise. Senior Aircraftman Nicholas Egan was on hand to record the moment.

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

The case for U.S. solar manufacturing – CEO of SolarWorld wrote a letter in support of trade sanctions against China government financed solar panel manufacturers flooding the global market. The fundamental argument: The Chinese government showered its industry with export-oriented subsidies, which the U.S. government two times determined to be illegal.  These producers also were found to be selling into the U.S. market at prices below production costs – an illegal practice called dumping. It is true – these specific sub industries within the broader industry have suffered. My question is – has the Chinese funding of below ‘market price’ solar panels hurt the US economy? Well – that answer is a clear ‘no.’ The broader US economy (and the globe) has far benefited from the Chinese ‘Solar Manhattan Project’ (otherwise known as small subset of a Chinese Five Year Plan) as the solar market as a whole is far larger than it would have been with a much slower pace of solar panel growth at ‘prudent’ profit margins… So, who wins in the broader game?

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

China makers to hike September contract prices for solar mono-Si wafers – China-based solar mono-Si wafer makers will raise supply contract prices in September by 2-3% from the current level, according to industry sources. It seems a large part of the world (India, Europe, and the USA) wants to sue China for such low solar panel prises. If all of these countries do put taxes on Chinese products, maybe China should increase their prices a bit, and keep a bit more of the profit at home for research/growth or in the supply chain to fatten up those profit margins. No point in letting all those taxes go to host countries.

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

Duke agrees to build 700 MW of solar, 50 MW of energy storage in Florida – If approved Duke’s Florida customers will no longer be on the hook for costs related to the Levy County Nuclear Power Plant, which Duke has finally formally abandoned after cancelling the construction contract four years ago. In its place the utility plans to “construct or acquire” 700 MW of utility-scale solar over the next four years, as well as to build, own and operate 50 MW of battery storage and install 530 electric vehicle charging stations. In essence, because Duke failed getting a nuclear plant built – and it was sued because of huge amounts of money that were going to be put on the shoulders of customers due to that failure – Duke is now offering a settlement of building solar/charging stations/energy storage. Maybe there is a lesson here?

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

First tanker crosses northern sea route without ice breaker – The specially-built ship completed the crossing in just six-and-a-half days setting a new record, according to the tanker’s Russian owners. “Previously there was only a window of navigation from our summer to autumn, but this ship will be able to sail westwards from Sabetta which is the Yamal energy port, all year round and eastwards from July to December,” said Sovcomflot spokesman Bill Spears. “Before the northern sea route was only open for four months and you had to have ice-breakers – so it’s a significant development.” For hundreds of years, Europeans sought a ‘Northwest Passage‘ to shorten the trip to Asia. Many died. Now, with the arctic warming and the ice melting, we’re able to make this trip year round. This ship does have some ice breaker capabilities – but they’re limited. Hard evidence of global climate change.

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

Trump’s lawyers sue Greenpeace over Dakota Pipeline, making jaw-dropping accusations – First: Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), has sued Greenpeace and other environmental groups in a $300 million racketeering case, accusing them of inciting terrorism, fraud and defamation and violating state and federal RICO laws. But even better than that: The Dallas-based firm made other outrageous claims against the groups, including funding terrorism and “using donations to fund a lucrative drug trafficking scheme inside the camps.” If I were a lawyer hoping to be seen as sane – I’d lay off the drug trafficking conspiracies.

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

French island tenders push down solar-plus-storage prices by 40% – The 67 projects that include PV panels and batteries attained a guaranteed purchase price for their generated power of €113.6 (US$133.97) per MWh. In June 2016 a 52MW tender for island territory solar-plus-storage projects awarded feed-in tariffs (FiTs) at a weighted electricity price of €204/MWh (US$229.77/MWh). Power prices on the islands is set at around or over €200 per MWh, the ministry said. Small projects coming in at these prices will put the fossil fuel industry out of business in remote locations like this – and there are billions worth of revenue of remote locations. Customer pricing fell from $0.20/kWh to $0.13/kWh – solar plus storage just dropped their local retail pricing 33%. Win.

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

First Solar to Profit If Trump Slaps Tariffs on Panel Imports – “If there is a determination of injury, a modest type of remedy will not be harmful at all to the industry and I think it’ll survive and more jobs will be created,” FirstSolar CEO Mark Widmar said on a conference call. “Hopefully what it will do is enable more manufacturing in the U.S.” Two things about FirstSolar – first off, they manufacture their solar panels mostly in Ohio. Secondly, their product – thin film – is different from, and competes directly with, the product being talked about in this case. As such – FirstSolar will benefit greatly on projects built in the USA if the tariff is put in place. They’ll have significantly less downward pricing pressure as there really isn’t any utility scale solar panel production in the USA.

USITC Hearing — Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells and Modules – Here is the official calendar event of the trade case that begins today at 9.30 AM. My prediction – case is ruled in favor of Suniva. Not sure how many days it runs.

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

Iowa utility offers high ‘green’ pricing without adding renewables – Three Beyond Solar options are available: 100 percent solar, a 50/50 split of solar and wind, and 25 percent solar with 75 percent wind. In each scenario, generation capacity is sold in increments of 1 kilowatt and is added to a customer’s existing bill. The cost per kilowatt is $13.61 for 100 percent solar, $6.70 for 50 percent solar and $3.24 for 25 percent solar. The green energy comes from two existing contracts – nothing new will get built…and that isn’t necessarily an issue – someone did build these two clean plants (one wind, the other solar) – but the pricing seems a bit out of whack. Stay conscious of the pricing and structure of green programs.
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Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

ITC report: 26 U.S. module makers closed in the past five years – 26 U.S. module manufacturers have closed their manufacturing facilities in the past five years, a period during which imports of modules and cells increased nearly five-fold. In addition, the majority of U.S. module companies reported operating losses over the same time period. U.S. demand for solar products increased for the four years between 2012 and 2016, Malaysian, Chinese and Korean modules captured a larger share of the U.S. market in contrast U.S. module manufacturers. In a few phone conversations I’ve had with people in the know, there isn’t really a question as to whether or not US module manufacturers have suffered at the hands of Chinese monetary policy supporting ‘below profit’ solar panel manufacturers. The question becomes, not ‘Are US panel manufacturers being hurt?’, but instead ‘What is in the best interests of the nation-state?’ And that question becomes absolutely the question to ask as we are looking at a blunt, national tool to defend industry. Would a few highly robotocized factories populated by engineers/machinists/specialists/etc benefit the energy security of the state? Absolutely…however, are there also other, more complex, paths that might benefit us more?

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

Energy storage saves Arizona utility from building 20 miles of transmission, distribution lines – One argument often overlooked for solar power when considering what the value of net metering ought be, is that solar power – adding consistent power generation far from the power source – lowers the need for hardware upgrades because it generally lower system stress. Energy storage is now doing the same thing. This was an economic choice – nothing to do with ‘green.’

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

Orlando City Council to vote on 100% clean energy goal – Orlando is a big city, if they start pushing toward clean energy it’ll offer great press in Mickey Mouse land – plus it could make a real change. Cities aiming for 100% clean energy is still early though, and not as perfect as it sounds (some go deeper). However, actions by cities and states – as the Federal government flops – are leading to changes.

US offshore pipeline ‘tops 24GW’ in more than 20 planned projects – Most projects are planned for the northeast Atlantic, but schemes are also in the pipeline in the southeast Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes. Offshore wind getting bigger in the USA – prices will fall. Lots of people on the coasts of the USA, close to the energy source.

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

From spectacular vistas to the pits: A decades-long public land battle continues in the California desert – They want to build a pumped-storage facility in the desert – ‘extra’ solar energy pumps water uphill in the daytime, when the electricity is needed later the water spins turbines on the way back down. The Joshua Tree National Park’s water supply is at risk – an environmentally challenging area. I’m going with the park over the business folks – even if they’re saving some CO2 with pumped storage. We’ve got so few healthy, relatively intact habitats left – build this somewhere else.

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

Berkshire Hathaway Energy Earnings Up on Solar Rebound – BHE Renewables saw net income increase $39 million due primarily to higher generation at the Solar Star projects, which were hobbled by transformer-related forced outages in 2016. It also benefited from earnings from tax equity investments reaching commercial operation and additional wind and solar capacity placed in service. If Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hatheway are improving their investment numbers due to solar power, expect plenty of others to follow close behind. Headlines like this bring regular people into the fold.

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

LONGi Solar pushes mainstream mono-PERC module to 325.6W – Entry level solar panels are 1/5th more efficient (moving from 16 to 20%) – meaning you get 20% was watts in the same roofspace.  “Mono-PERC” 60 cell solar panels in the real world at 19.91%. That’s freaking awesome. The mono-PERC bifacial product LONGi launched in 72 cell is 21% efficient front side and ~25(!!)% backside IF the conditions are solid (white roofs/high angle/proper spacing/proper open space racking structure). Trina set a 22.6% record recently with this product – so it already has upside to grow.

Header image is the second image released of the solar roof by Tesla, showed off the first yesterday. Aligns with customer solar articles later in the post.

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

Solar is now the most popular form of new electricity generation worldwide – Worldwide, some 73 gigawatts of net new solar PV capacity was installed in 2016. Wind energy came in second place (55GW), with coal relegated to third (52GW), followed by gas (37GW) and hydro (28GW). – “Popular” is used different than I’d use it for this first article – but this second article that focuses on the opinion of Americans and ‘solar farms’ uses the term properly without a doubt – Fully 89% of Americans favor more solar panel farms, just 9% oppose. Is popular the reason we should be building certain technology? No – of course not! What if the most popular is the cheapest form of electricity on the planet? And it can scale? And it is one of the cleanest? Yeah, those are good reasons.

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

Will County is first in Illinois to be named ‘solar smart’ – SolSmart, Will County has simplified the language in its zoning ordinances and made “alternative energy” an option on its building permit application. It also has enhanced training for permitting and inspection staff and increased public resources regarding solar energy systems and consumer protection. As a developer of solar power – someone who is in as deep as possible – I often get some very strange questions from people about solar power. Its at those moments where I have to remind myself that it is me who is the weird one with the amount of knowledge I have in this field. For local institutions to make solar power accessible in ways like this goes a LONG way.

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

Why Court Victories for New York, Illinois Nuclear Subsidies Are a Big Win for Renewables – In times when we have a Department of Energy head hiring an individual that declares renewables are more dangerous than terrorist attacks, two rulings in New York and Illinois supporting subsidies for nuclear power are a win for solar and wind support on a state level. The basic is – the courts have ruled that states have a right to prescribe their own incentives without certain federal interference. The article goes a lot deeper into the legaleeze – give it a read.

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

Utility Helps Wean Vermonters From the Electric Grid – Vermont and Tesla have been working with the Powerwall since late 2015. Green Mountain Power – the utility in question – is really blazing a trail on a state level. One goal of the power company is to build demand response, energy storage and solar power into the grid – starting on a house by house level – to limit transmission costs (moving electricity over long distances) – Recently, Green Mountain used this method to take the low-income development here off the grid’s electricity supply for two hours, saving an estimated $275 in transmission costs while the homes were powered by solar panels or battery storage. This is one reason why Net Metering should be at 100% of the value of the cost of electricity – transmission/distribution and other costs are saved – not just electricity generation costs. This utility gets it.

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