Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

zeupater wrote: »

Hi All

I understand that the figure of 3125 properties simply comes from the average household electricity consumption of 3300kWh/year, so the development must be anticipating 10.3GWh/year(3300x3125), so ~936kWh/kWp annually, which would likely be possible on an optimally configured array in the SW ... still doesn't make sense of the article relating the total annual generation to household annual consumption to resolve to the number 3125 in the first place ....

HTH
Z

Hi Zeup. This comes up quite often in discussions about windfarms, where similar claims are made. Usually the number of house relates to the farms nameplate generation * 30% (or so).

Without storage, it does sort of mislead, as it might suggest that those properties no longer need any other form of leccy supply.

I actually quite like the description, just to help put the total generation into context, but it does need to be a little clearer, like:- "will generate an annual amount, equal to the annual consumption of x houses". But even then, some will get confused. Damned if you do ......

There probably is a perfect definition, but I bet it's about 3 paragraphs long, with 5 pages of annexes.

Mart.

Martyn1981

"Abu Dhabi’s state owned renewable energy company, Masdar, is reportedly set to announce that it will invest ‘up to £1 billion’ in alternative energy schemes alongside the UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB)."

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/abu_dhabi_could_invest_1_billion_in_uk_alternative_energy_2356



"The UK Green Investment Bank is the first bank of its kind in the world, with £3 billion of funding from the UK Government to invest in sustainable projects."

http://www.greeninvestmentbank.com/

Mart.

The_Green_Hornet

A microscopically thin ‘graphene sandwich’ could form the basis of a new generation of solar cells, according to researchers at the universities of Manchester and Singapore.

Graphene Sandwich

Martyn1981

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/uk_national_solar_centre_opens_for_business

At the opening ceremony, Barker said: “The new National Solar Centre will play a fundamental role in driving forward the solar industry here in the UK. Not only will work carried out by the centre help to cut costs, improve efficiency and drive forward innovation in this sector, it will also help position the UK as a top destination for global investment in this exciting technology.

"The coalition government has finally put solar firmly on the map. Solar has a key part to play in our energy mix, and later this year we will be launching the UK’s first ever government solar strategy, to capitalise on growth so far and explore ways to take it even further. The centre couldn’t come at a better or more important time.”


http://www.bre.co.uk/page.jsp?id=2983

In order for solar PV to become an industry with 22GW of installed capacity by 2020 there is a need for a centre which allows the industry to mature and thrive. DECC supports the development of a centre to facilitate this process. It will meet the need for impartial and credible information and will demonstrate industry cohesion.

Mart.

The_Green_Hornet

The European Commission is on the verge of a trade war with China over the import of solar panels worth 21bn euros (£18bn) a year.

It is considering imposing an average "anti-dumping" import tariff of 47%, with a decision expected by 5 June.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22445640

Martyn1981

Europe's done the heavy lifting, and got the price down, now it's time for the rest of the world to take over.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/world-pv-market-growing-well-beyond-europe_100011232/#axzz2SvHaUlMc

The development of the global PV market last year and future growth forecasts clearly show that Europe’s leading role in driving the industry is coming to an end as the rest of the world embraces solar power and market dynamics shift, according to a new report by EPIA.

PV was nevertheless the number-one new source of electricity generation installed in Europe for the second year in a row. PV now covers 2.6% of the electricity demand and 5.2% of the peak electricity demand in Europe.

The linked report is really interesting:

http://www.epia.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/GMO_2013_-_Final_PDF.pdf

EPIA’s major findings for 2012 include:

• Around the world 31.1 GW of PV systems were installed in 2012, up from 30.4 GW in 2011; PV remains, after hydro and wind power, the third most important renewable energy source in terms of globally installed capacity

• 17.2 GW of PV capacity were connected to the grid in Europe in 2012, compared to 22.4 GW in 2011; Europe still accounts for the predominant share of the global PV market, with 55% of all new capacity in 2012

• Germany was the top market for the year, with 7.6 GW of newly connected systems; followed by China with an estimated 5 GW; Italy with 3.4 GW; the USA with 3.3 GW; and Japan with an estimated 2 GW

• For the second year in a row, PV was the number-one new source of electricity generation installed in Europe

• Under a pessimistic Business-as-Usual scenario, the global annual market could reach 48 GW in 2017; under a Policy-Driven scenario, it could be as high as 84 GW in 2017


Mart.

spgsc531

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22491491

Martyn1981

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/leading_us_rooftop_solar_companies_join_forces_to_defend_dg_policy

Interesting article. Some extracts:

The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) represents the majority of the US rooftop solar market and will focus initially on ensuring the continuation of net energy metering (NEM). NEM returns credit to solar customers for the energy they put back on the grid and is currently in place in 43 states.

Sunrun co-Founder Edward Fenster, said: “Americans are choosing solar in record numbers to save money on electric bills. While this benefits the American consumer and the economy, monopoly utilities want to stop this progress to protect their own interests.”

SolarCity CEO, Lyndon Rive, said: “Without consumer choice and empowerment, the utilities will continue to increase their rates and profits. If Americans are denied the right to choose how they produce and consume electricity, monopoly utilities will continue to choose their profits over the interests of consumers.”

TASC members point to studies conducted in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, and Vermont that have found solar provides a net benefit to ratepayers and to state economies.

Utility trade association Edison Electric Institute (EEI) recently reported that utilities view rooftop solar as a threat to their monopoly business model, which guarantees utilities high profits from large infrastructure projects funded by ratepayers.

Mart.

Cardew

What is the relevance to UK of selectively quoting from USA solar industry publications. - the Mandy Rice-Davies factor applies.

The debate in the USA is much like the debate about FIT in UK

media reports of the "rich soaking up solar subsidies" and soaring utility bills as those without solar shoulder the rate burden of those freeing themselves from the grid.

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

What is the relevance to UK of selectively quoting from USA solar industry publications. - the Mandy Rice-Davies factor applies.

The debate in the USA is much like the debate about FIT in UK

Hi

I think that it's quite apt to raise the article, it's relevance being in raising the profile of 'net metering' ..... and of course, the main link between the UK & USA would simply be related to the shared position of the utilities related to maintaining their positions of 'virtual supply monopolies' driven by the capital investment intensity in centralised plant, something which decentralised microgeneration can directly compete with and therefore threaten margins ....

Apart from this, I don't really see the link between the debate in the USA & UK being as relevant, especially in the states where directly funded subsidies don't exist. For example, I was recently speaking to someone from Florida concerning pv and they have a ~9.x kWp installation which is sized to almost offset their own total annual demand, with the only incentive being sales tax (VAT) exemption and effectively no bills due to net-metering and the resultant 12month 'carryover' billing.

The benefit of net metering is well matched to their demand due to the consumption being heavily weighted to daytime cooling. From memory, the cost of energy was stated as being around 9cents/kWh during the day & weekends with around 6 hours of weekday peak demand (mainly afternoon) being double that, so around 18cents/kWh for ~30hours/week .... quite considerable when you consider that their electricity usage is well over 1200kWh/month ....

I know that they paid around $4/Wp for their system and have been told that prices were now "around 1/3 cheaper" ( ie - somewhere around $2.60/Wp), so let's take their usage and an estimated current cost installation cost and see what a simple calculation gives us ....

Energy Cost = 1200*12*$0.14= ~$2k
System = $2.60/Wp*9000 = ~$24000

... not as good as it has been in the UK for considerably smaller systems, but still somewhere around 12years when leaving financing/maintenance aside .... and all without direct subsidy !!

Discussing this recently, the debate in the US seems to be driven by the utility companies and their representative bodies (seem familiar ?), but the argument isn't always related to subsidy, rather it's the reduction in the energy provider's turnover due to compulsory net billing driving margins down and causing 'corporate hardship' & the usual (high-value) lobbying in various state capitals and Washington to either justify the withdrawal of 'compulsory' net metering or price increases (Well they would say that, wouldn't they! :cool: ) ..... I just wonder how much they'd be complaining if pv penetration matched that of Germany !! ... ...

HTH
Z