Poland joins the cute and fuzzy animal solar club with its newest planned 10MW facility – a solar park shaped like a deer. On January 5th, Polski Solar SA announced the plans for the antlered 10 MW solar PV plant.
The plant is to be located in the town of Jelenia Góra, Poland (translated: “Deer Mountain”).
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a 6″ prototype of a quantum tuned, double paned, solar powered window. The window is special, even for a solar window, in that the outside window pane has quantum dots changing ultraviolet and blue light into more easily absorbable frequencies for off the shelf solar cells to turn into electricity. The same technology applied to a standard solar panel suggests a decrease in cost of electricity from said panel of up to 34%.
“The approach complements existing photovoltaic technology by adding high-efficiency sunlight collectors to existing solar panels or integrating them as semitransparent windows into a building’s architecture,” said lead researcher, Dr. Victor Klimov.
Florida Representative Holly Raschein has sponsored a new bill in the Florida Legislature to fund a $10 million pilot program installing solar panels and energy storage at strategic public facilities to keep them up and running during critical events and natural disasters.
The program would start on July 1, and run for a single year. The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) will administer and report on the outcomes, with potential expansion.
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.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.
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.
Electric vehicles and home solar energy go hand in hand. It enables electric vehicle owners to drive on sunshine and mitigate any increase in electricity consumption due to their new vehicle.
In the past, Nissan has often partnered with solar installers to promote solar energy with new electric vehicle purchases and now they started doing it again in Japan with the new 2018 Leaf.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) – the group that manages 80% of the electricity used in California – has begun showing utility-scale batteries charging and discharging into the power grid via their website.
By resolution, due to a natural gas emergency, the State of California requested large-scale battery based energy storage projects be attached to the grid at the end of 2016, early 2017. Now we get to watch the systems – some that we covered – do their job.
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…
Part of solar power’s allure is the ease with which one can get electricity out of ‘simple’ hardware in very complex moments. In southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean we’re seeing solar power – right now – offering huge services to people in trying times.
JA Solar has had their monocrstyalline (mono) passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) panel certified as the highest efficiency model in the market today. The solar panel’s power output was rated at 326.67W, for a panel level efficiency of 19.97%.
JA Solar’s current monoPERC products for sale max out at approximately 300W.
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.
China is building roadways with solar panels underneath that may soon have the ability to charge cars wirelessly and digitally assist automated vehicles. This second solar roadway project – part of the Jinan City Expressway – is a 1.2 mile stretch. The building technique involves transparent concrete over a layer of solar panels.
Construction is complete and grid connection is pending, but is expected to be complete before the end of the year.
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.
Austin Energy is once again leading the USA with the lowest price per kWh from solar power. Intersect Power and Austin Energy announced a 150MWac solar power purchase agreement that seems to range between 2.35-2.725¢/kWh, and could be as low as 2.1¢/kWh.
When this project comes online in 2020, Austin Energy will be getting 51% of its electricity from renewable electricity sources.
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.
Solartech Universal is a South Florida solar panel manufacturer that started with a family discussion in the kitchen in 2012. Sometime in 2018 or 2019, if all goes well, they’re going to launch a ~24% efficient, 480-500W glass on glass bifacial heterojunction solar panel for the commercial and utility-scale solar market.
Solartech Universal started shipping in January of 2016 and currently has 80-85MW of annual manufacturing capacity, plus they’re hiring.
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.
