Solar ... In the news

The_Green_Hornet

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Do trains still have signs in the toilets instructing passengers to not flush toilets whilst in the station ?

... yuk, and I thought that my panels were getting a little mucky! ...

Z

Modern trains are fitted with toilet tanks, which are pumped out at the depot when they become full.

zeupater

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Modern trains are fitted with toilet tanks, which are pumped out at the depot when they become full.

Hi

However, a considerable number of trains in operation still discharge to the tracks ... this is not required to be fully rectified until 2019!

... and we're supposed to be living in the 21st Century! ....

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Solar glass at 10% efficiency. I think it was 4% (or so) last time I checked).

Japan research team develops new semi-transparent solar cell

Scientists of Japan’s Institute of Industrial Science, at the University of Tokyo, have developed a new kind of semi-transparent solar cell, based on perovskite and nano-sized cubes of silver, with a conversion efficiency of around 10%.

The new cell, the research group claims, is able to increase the “plasmonic antenna effect”, which enhances the cell’s light absorption ability and, as a result, its conversion efficiency.

"is able to increase the “plasmonic antenna effect”, ". Phew, and finally, this had been really bugging me. :think:

zeupater

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Solar glass at 10% efficiency. I think it was 4% (or so) last time I checked).

Japan research team develops new semi-transparent solar cell



"is able to increase the “plasmonic antenna effect”, ". Phew, and finally, this had been really bugging me. :think:

Hi

... as Mr Scott was often allegedly overheard informing Captain Kirk .... "the tractor beam is weakening captain, that vessel is able to increase the “plasmonic antenna effect !" ... ... anyway, I've been following clear(ish) PV technology for a while and I'm pretty sure that I've read that someone already had a solution on the market at close to standard efficiencies (10-15%) based on a square meter price which was around 4x that of standard glass and that it was being used in building entrance canopies etc ...

The technology certainly opens up access to new markets (high rise buildings, house windows, conservatories etc) where there either isn't physical space for conventional solar pv or people have issues on aesthetics ... :cool:

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Thin on detail, but a large PV farm for Anglesey with what looks to be pretty large storage too:

Solar-plus-storage project set for Wales following successful legal appeal

Wales’ largest solar farm, complete with significant energy storage capacity, is to be built on Anglesey after Countryside Renewables successfully overturned a decision in November refusing planning permission.

The 50MW development was originally proposed in February to be built at Llanbadrig in Anglesey, to power around 15,500 homes annually while also using battery storage to act as a “peaker plant” for energy distribution.

Neither Countryside Renewables or the council could be reached this morning to confirm the details of the permission, or provide a capacity figure for the energy storage to be installed on site. However, planning shows that 32 containerised battery storage units will be installed, and the developer will have to submit details of the technology to be used in advance of construction beginning.

zeupater

Hi

And the price gap between poly & monocrystalline wafers falls to an incredibly low level ...

'The gap between quotes by China-based makers for solar mono-Si and poly-Si wafers shrank from over US$0.15 in October 2017 to US$0.14-0.15 in early November and further to US$0.10 at the end of November, according to industry sources.'

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20171206PD217.html

With the EU monocrystalline minimum import price on Chinese panels being based on a difference of 4.8c/watt in September this brings the need for a punitive tariff into further question ... a 60 cell 300W panel according to the latest wafer prices would have a panel price differential of $6 (2c/watt), yet the additional tariff at 4.8c/watt concludes that the technology differential should be $14.40/panel and base whole panel punitive tariffs on that ...

Crazy logic from Brussels! ...

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

Couple of subsidy free PV farms for 2018, thanks to PPA's.

Wirsol to develop two PPA-backed, subsidy-free solar parks in Q1 2018

However the company has been quick to point out that while the two projects will be built without government subsidy, they are to be enabled through a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) which Wirsol is in the final stages of securing.

The two projects are the 7MW Outwood Solar Farm in Essex and the 9MW Trowse-Newton Solar Farm in Norfolk.

They will be financed through debt to be held within group, and Wirsol has also confirmed that the plants will be designed in such a way that storage can be retrofitted at a later date.

I'm not sure if such schemes under PPA's are supply side or demand side, perhaps 'sumand side', but regardless, PV carries on moving forward, just slower than it should.

Martyn1981

Israel is re-launching a FiT scheme, it's twice what the UK pays at approx $0.11/kWh. It's for 25yrs but isn't index linked.

Looking at PVGIS, Israel looks to get about 1,600-1,800kWh/kWp.

Israel to reintroduce FITs for rooftop PV up to 50 kW

Nicolai_Grenovski

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Couple of subsidy free PV farms for 2018, thanks to PPA's.

Wirsol to develop two PPA-backed, subsidy-free solar parks in Q1 2018
I'm not sure if such schemes under PPA's are supply side or demand side, perhaps 'sumand side', but regardless, PV carries on moving forward, just slower than it should.

Due to this stall/flatlining and the pv trade tariffs in EU pricing, PPAs have to be used on electricity futures contracts by the sector to hedge against wholesale price rises and was the one avenue open to the UK company, Lark energy (solar) before their collapse a few months ago.

The only growth sector for solar is for plants with frequency control batteries to catch the frequency market, but even then such facilities [solar+batteries+arbitrage] are generally less profitable (per Euro invested) than batteries+arbitrage, such is the nature of hedging the energy futures market.


Solar pv is going to have to become a lot less expensive before it is truly subsidy free especially with the rises in land costs and future value of land to construction.
Still, as you lot decided to vote to leave Europe, [ slow :T ] perhaps enough of your agricultural farms will go bankrupt to make them more attractive as solar farms if the £ recovers some of its purchase power.

So all you have to do to make solar+batteries/arbitrage profitable is to destabilise your grid by removing baseload - but that would be a crazy thing to do.
Wouldn't it.

michaels

Nicolai_Grenovski wrote: »

Due to the stall/flatlining and trade tariffs in EU pricing, PPAs are occasionally used as electricity futures contracts by the sector to hedge against wholesale price rises and was the one avenue open to the UK company, Lark energy (solar) before their collapse a few months ago.

These sites are barely profitable with frequency control batteries to catch the frequency market, but even then such facilities [solar+batteries+arbitrage] are generally less profitable (per Euro invested) than batteries+arbitrage, such is the nature of hedging the energy futures market.


Solar pv is going to have to become a lot less expensive before it's truly subsidy free especially with the rises in land costs and future value to construction.
Still, as you lot decided to vote to leave Europe, [ slow :T ] perhaps enough of your agricultural farms will go bankrupt to make them more attractive as solar farms if the £ recovers some of its purchase power.

All you have to do to make solar+batteries/arbitrage profitable is to destabilise your grid - but that would be a crazy thing to do, wouldn't it......

Then again we might be able to pay world prices for our panels rather than the ludicrous import tariff to support German panel manufacturers to maintain a few thousand German jobs (is it thousands or only hundreds?) at the expense of hundreds of millions of energy consumers across Europe. In a supposedly democratic EU how can it be that the interests of such a small minority can override that of everyone else.....