Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

Welink confirms ‘£2.5 billion’ solar homes joint venture

Renewable energy company Welink has announced a joint venture with Your Housing Group – claimed to be valued at £2.5 billion – which could see the development of 25,000 solar-powered homes each year by 2022.

The JV will be assisted by China National Building Material (CNBM) and will incorporate Barcelona Housing Systems design practices for rapid deployment. The modular, energy efficient homes will also incorporate BIPV solar solutions which Welink said would help lift tenants out of fuel poverty.

Aimal Rahman, chairman of Welink Group, said that “radical innovation” in building practices and modular housing would address a shortfall of housing in the UK.

“This joint venture will give a significant kick-start to delivering the new homes people need across the UK which includes helping to address fuel poverty issues through our incorporated solar and energy efficient design – meaning our developments can be at least 75% off-grid,” he added.

Martyn1981

Assorted PV news.

1. Trina Solar sets new 22.61% mono PERC efficiency record

This isn't a production panel, but it has been produced under 'industrial conditions' rather than laboratory conditions. For comparison a normal sized 285Wp panel is about 17.5% efficient.


2. Global solar market on course for 10th consecutive year of growth, says IHS Markit

Analyst’s quarterly data shows 2016 will deliver 34% year-on-year growth rate as Chinese demand fuels another strong 12 months for the industry, with annual installed capacity to reach 77 GW.

However, 2017 will see that pace of growth slow to just 3%, with IHS Markit forecasting global installed capacity to reach 79 GW next year. The analysts also expect growth to remain in single digits in 2018, before a stronger market recovery in 2019.

India and the USA appear to be growing their markets rapidly now.


3. UK’s final coal mine to host 5MW solar farm

The site of the UK’s last deep coal mine is set to become a clean energy generator after a deal was struck to build a 5MW solar farm.

Harworth Group will build the development on 28 acres close to the Kellingley colliery, which marked the end of underground coal mining in the UK when it was closed a year ago.

I can't help thinking there is some sort of deep and meaningful message in this, perhaps humanity's attempts to better itself, or a point in time when the young lion displaces the old lion ...... or perhaps it's just that there's some land going cheap!

Martyn1981

Interesting idea for monopitch roofed properties designed for PV installs.

The article seems to suggest that domestic PV will help the poor!

Not sure how they get the figure of £2k pa, seems too high, but a great idea all in.

Wales’ first solar village opens to social housing tenants

Speaking to Solar Power Portal yesterday following the official opening of the Pentre Solar development, Glen Peters, chief executive of Western Solar, explained: “Essentially our primary business model is targeted at the affordable social housing sector with some mixed housing which helps us cover some of our losses we would make on the social rental…together with the export.”

Originally, the feed-in tariff was intended to play a significant role in the financial case for the solar homes however following cuts enacted early last year Western Solar is now being forced to consider alternate strategies.

“Going forward we won’t be able to benefit in the same way and will have to find other ways. In the next generation we're looking at getting slightly bigger panels - perhaps 300W - so we export more and then perhaps join a community energy scheme so we can claw back some of the very low tariffs we get when we export," Peters explained.

ed110220

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Interesting idea for monopitch roofed properties designed for PV installs.

The article seems to suggest that domestic PV will help the poor!

Not sure how they get the figure of £2k pa, seems too high, but a great idea all in.

Wales’ first solar village opens to social housing tenants

Monopitch roofs seem like a great idea for solar, plus I'd think that with modern materials they are probably less expensive to construct than traditional roofs as they will have fewer materials, and they eliminate some of the weak spots prone to leaking on a traditional roof.

I think we need to get away from the idea that a house, (or an "ordinary" house, not a "grand design") has to be a traditional brick box with a traditional pitched tiled roof with at least two faces.

Martyn1981

ed110220 wrote: »

Monopitch roofs seem like a great idea for solar, plus I'd think that with modern materials they are probably less expensive to construct than traditional roofs as they will have fewer materials, and they eliminate some of the weak spots prone to leaking on a traditional roof.

I think we need to get away from the idea that a house, (or an "ordinary" house, not a "grand design") has to be a traditional brick box with a traditional pitched tiled roof with at least two faces.

Going way back to all the silly anti-PV arguments, some made a fuss about the suitability of UK properties. But it seems pretty simple to me that you build monopitch rooves, in the orientation range from SE to SW. And you site bungalows to the south of the estate, two storey properties in the middle, and town houses to the northern part.

The only downside I can think of, is that shallow pitched rooves optimise summer generation, whereas a steep pitch roof might be better in the UK, improving the seasonal spread of generation, at only a tiny loss to annual generation. Of course, you could just add in a wind turbine or two (to the northern side, of course!) to balance it all out.

I don't think optimising new builds for PV should add any cost, just a bit of forethought.

The vid I posted about battery storage in Aus, even talked about incorporating storage in the walls for new builds. :think:

Martyn1981

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Interesting idea for monopitch roofed properties designed for PV installs.

Wales’ first solar village opens to social housing tenants

Far more detail in this article:

Inside Glanrhyd, the first solar 'eco hamlet' in Wales

[Edit: Still not entirely clear on the £2k claim from the PV, perhaps it's the enrgy savings (as a whole) compared to an average house, plus the FiTs and export. That seems close to £2k, if it was a private house. M.]

Martyn1981

1. San Francisco has a rule that all new properties now need to be solar ready, with 15% having PV. But there is some positive debate suggesting the PV (or solar thermal) should be installed with the build.

San Francisco’s Scott Wiener: ‘Mandatory’ solar panel legislation ‘isn’t enough’


2. In the UK, domestic PV installs are still miserably low. They are not even close to the pitifully low ~200MWp annual limit. But the government claims to still be monitoring it, and 'it's fine(ish)'.

Residential solar deployment hits new Q4 low as deployment cap swells

I still believe the industry needs a subsidy of about 6p/kWh to keep up momentum. For comparison that would be an income of £85/MWh, compared to off-shore wind £120/MWh, Hinkley Point C £102/MWh, and the most recent on-shore wind or PV farms at £83/MWh.


3. For anyone interested in seeing how a PV farm is built in the UK (or at least, one type of PV farm build out), then this thread from Navitron may be of interest:

A nearby solar farm.

ed110220

Martyn1981 wrote: »

1. San Francisco has a rule that all new properties now need to be solar ready, with 15% having PV. But there is some positive debate suggesting the PV (or solar thermal) should be installed with the build.

San Francisco’s Scott Wiener: ‘Mandatory’ solar panel legislation ‘isn’t enough’


2. In the UK, domestic PV installs are still miserably low. They are not even close to the pitifully low ~200MWp annual limit. But the government claims to still be monitoring it, and 'it's fine(ish)'.

Residential solar deployment hits new Q4 low as deployment cap swells

I still believe the industry needs a subsidy of about 6p/kWh to keep up momentum. For comparison that would be an income of £85/MWh, compared to off-shore wind £120/MWh, Hinkley Point C £102/MWh, and the most recent on-shore wind or PV farms at £83/MWh.


3. For anyone interested in seeing how a PV farm is built in the UK (or at least, one type of PV farm build out), then this thread from Navitron may be of interest:

A nearby solar farm.

The problem as I see it is that the equipment side of a competitively priced installation is now only very roughly half of the price, the rest being scaffolding, labour, profit etc. Therefore reductions in module prices on the world market will have a diminishing effect and what really needs to be done is to reduce the other costs.

But for that to happen there has to be a large volume of installations in order to increase competition and make it a mainstream rather than niche job. As the volume of installations has declined, the effect has been to keep prices up rather than reduce them...

Martyn1981

ed110220 wrote: »

But for that to happen there has to be a large volume of installations in order to increase competition and make it a mainstream rather than niche job. As the volume of installations has declined, the effect has been to keep prices up rather than reduce them...

I totally agree. There's also a secondary problem and that's the collapse of the PV supply chain - import, wholesalers etc etc. That's probably pushing costs up too.

The issue as I see it, is that PV needs artificial support (as of course does wind, nuclear bioenergy etc). At the moment the level of 'artificial support' is artificially low, compared to other technologies and even sectors (supply v's demand for instance).

It's all very odd. The last calculations I saw on subsidies were that the PV element added £7-£9 to a household bill, but seeing the development of the UK industry through to viability, and approximately doubling the amount of PV we now have, would add £1 more. It's a bit like building a house, but not bothering to roof it (with or without PV ).

gefnew

Hi all
A bit of news from barrack Obama.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38560216
regards
gefnew