Solar ... In the news

Coastalwatch

Not sure which topic this item should be placed under as it covers Solar and Storage.

Arizona Utility's 950MW Solar-plus-Storage-plan. 'Clean air and clean energy'

Arizona Public Service (APS) has announced a plan to make solar energy dispatchable into the evening using batteries, calling for the deployment of 850MW of energy storage by 2025.
Already reported by PV Tech & Energy-Storage.news, APS has awarded a contract to technology provider and system integrator AES for a 100MW, four hour duration battery energy storage system (400MWh) as part of that plan. The system will help provide “solar after sunset”, APS and AES said.

https://www.energy-storage.news/news/arizona-utilitys-950mw-solar-plus-storage-plan-clean-energy-and-clean-air

Martyn1981

Something for everyone:
large PV farms,
subsidy free,
LA owned,
battery storage,
bi-facial panels,
trackers, and
on-site supercharging for 24 EV's (each).

That'll do pig, that'll do.

Gridserve to deploy 60 MW of bifacial-plus-tracking projects in the UK

Gridserve unveils plans for two large-scale charging sites

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Something for everyone:
large PV farms,
subsidy free,
LA owned,
battery storage,
bi-facial panels,
trackers, and
on-site supercharging for 24 EV's (each).

That'll do pig, that'll do.

Gridserve to deploy 60 MW of bifacial-plus-tracking projects in the UK

Gridserve unveils plans for two large-scale charging sites

Progress indeed. While charging our EV at Cobham services last week made me realise just how much infrastructure has to be put in place for the increasing number of EV's about to explode on to our roads in the next two years. There are five bays at Cobham, with a max of three in use at any one time on the two occasions we visited, but these will surely be inadequate in twelve months time. Certainly a 24 bay Supercharging facility would seem the next minimum step to be taken in most service areas. I imagine that limited range and lack of suitable charging facilities must be the two largest factors putting off potential buyers.

Martyn1981

Coastalwatch wrote: »

Progress indeed. While charging our EV at Cobham services last week made me realise just how much infrastructure has to be put in place for the increasing number of EV's about to explode on to our roads in the next two years. There are five bays at Cobham, with a max of three in use at any one time on the two occasions we visited, but these will surely be inadequate in twelve months time. Certainly a 24 bay Supercharging facility would seem the next minimum step to be taken in most service areas. I imagine that limited range and lack of suitable charging facilities must be the two largest factors putting off potential buyers.

There's a long running thread on the motoring forum, that despite a lot of negativity from a few posters, is quite eye-opening thanks to the info posted by some EV'ers.

Basically, most charging is done at home, with fast charging a bit like petrol drivers using the pumps at a motorway service station - only when they have too.

The good news now is that there is an ever growing number of 200+ mile range BEV's, and just this week Tesla announced their V.3 superchargers will deliver 250kW charge rates, which the Model 3 is capable of 'taking', so 5 minutes of charging could add 70-80 miles of range.

We are still in the early days, and charging facilities will need to expand, but all the pieces are now available, range, cost (BEV's are expensive but total cost of ownership is lower), fast charging, mass production and profitability.

The only real problem today is supply constraint due to legacy manufacturers reluctance/fear to jump, and investment in battery production, but expect the transition to speed up rapidly each year now, going forwards.

NigeWick

Martyn1981 wrote: »

TThe only real problem today is supply constraint due to legacy manufacturers reluctance/fear to jump, and investment in battery production, but expect the transition to speed up rapidly each year now, going forwards.

Hyundai have stopped taking orders for the Kona BEV and apparently blame it on battery supply. Same coming for Kia eNero.

The top of the range Kona with paintwork extras started off at £32,700 after the government grant. Hyundai have since bumped the price up by some £3,000 just because they can. I suspect that if VW does start selling a lot of BEVs as they state they intend to do, prices will start coming down.

michaels

Undersupply is a global issue so I suspect cars will go to where they can make the most money - the big example at the moment is Norway where EV uptake is huge for tax reasons, but if incentives mean that profitability is higher in France or Germany or wherever then the supply to the UK will be minimal and prices remain high. Even VW will take a year or so to ramp or supply to meaningful numbers. The exception will be if a manufacturer is no longer supply constrained as perhaps will soon happen to the Tesla M3.

There is talk of SAIC bringing their MG brand eZS to the UK this autumn at price about 10k cheaper than the Kona for an equivalent, but again, why would they price it that low if they can sell the cars they have for more, regardless of production costs.

Re charging infrastructure
Currently it makes most sense to buy an EV if you can charge at home and don't often need to charge on route. This means that early adopters will be those who don't charge on route very often thus making the demand for such charging lower than might be anticipated simply based on proportion of cars on the road and thus charging stations will be less profitable than might be hoped and thus investment will be slower.

Martyn1981

I'm getting so old.

I can still remember way back when I was cheering prices approaching $0.50/Wp ........ gosh that must have been at least ...... a few years ago.

The report found the average spot market price for a representative mix of multi and monocrystalline modules stood at $0.354/W in January 2018, and had fallen to $0.244 two months ago.

ITRPV tenth edition: Module prices fell almost a third in 2018

Martyn1981

Race is on to build the world’s biggest solar-storage plant

The race to build the biggest solar-battery plant is officially on.

And the latest to join the competition is renewable energy giant NextEra Energy Inc., which said Thursday that it’ll build a project in Florida that will claim the title of the largest solar-powered battery in the world. The 409-megawatt battery will be added to an existing 74.5-megawatt solar plant on the west coast of the state near Tampa, a company statement shows.

The project would be four times larger than any other battery system in operation. It’s all a testament to how powerful of a combination solar and storage has become. Batteries and renewable energy paired together are now threatening the economics of fossil fuel-fired power plants around the world. A BloombergNEF analysis issued this week showed storage is now, for the first time, the cheapest option for meeting peak power demand in some cases.

WHAT BLOOMBERGNEF SAYS
“This is further evidence of a trend that is becoming increasingly commonplace across the United States of solar plus storage displacing gas powered plants. It is considered in many states a genuine alternative to gas assets.” Logan Goldie-Scot, energy storage analyst

NextEra’s project, slated to be in operation in 2021, will replace 1,638 megawatts of natural gas-fired generation at the site that will be retired once the battery system is in service.

Martyn1981

Great news, new PV owners won't be charged for export.

................... you what?

E.On to bridge the FiT gap with ‘first of its kind’ Solar Rewards export payment

E.On has unveiled a ‘first of its kind’ Solar Reward scheme promising to “bridge the gap” between the feed-in tariff and the Smart Export Guarantee.

The first 500 customers to install solar PV via E.On’s solar programme will receive 5.24p per kilowatt hour of electricity exported back to the grid.

That rate is exactly the same as the existing export tariff paid out under the FiT, meaning that E.On’s Solar Reward scheme will essentially step in to the policy void left by Sunday’s feed-in tariff closure.

E.On’s solar reward will only be paid to the first 500 customers and will only be paid for one calendar year, after which it is expected that the SEG will either be in place or close to being implemented.

That's the good news, and well done E.On. But here comes the fun bit:

When introduced, the SEG will mandate all large energy suppliers to offer new solar installations a price for any power they export to the grid, ensuring customers are financially rewarded as per European legislation.

Specific details of the under-development scheme are still up in the air while government assesses responses to a consultation, however it has already been confirmed that rates on offer must be above 0p and cannot dip into negative pricing.

Martyn1981

Flip & eck. $22/MWh for PV.

Idaho Power PPA Sets US Low Price Record