Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

A few years ago PV was a three legged nag, at the back of the renewables field. Now it's being touted as our most plausible solution.

G20 should use solar to solve ‘world’s greatest problem’

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/solar_can_solve_worlds_greatest_problem_2356

A former UK chief scientific adviser has called on all G20 countries to solve “world’s greatest problem” of climate change by developing low-cost solar energy.

Writing in the Financial Times, former UK chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, and the former founder-director of the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, Richard Layard, identify solar technology as mankind’s most plausible solution to climate change.

As for why they believe solar holds the key to solving climate change, the pair remark: “We need a concentrated effort on one source that offers the clearest prospect of success. The collection of solar energy by photovoltaic cells becomes cheaper every day and is already nearly economic in sun-rich environments. Every continent includes areas of such environments.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, King added: “Solar cell prices fall 20% for every doubling of industry capacity and the installation prices between 2007 and 2012 by 75%. What we see is that the economic opportunity is now there and the more we invest in solar energy the cheaper it becomes to use it.”

A recent report Navigant Research said that the global solar PV market would be worth US$134 billion by 2020, with PV-generated electricity becoming cost-competitive with retail electricity without subsidies.

The authors conclude: “This is a far more important issue than putting a man on the moon. It should attract as much attention – and, this time, the attention of every nation. Failure to solve this problem will affect every nation upon earth.”

Mart.

mac2008

And more interesting news from the BBC:

"German power giant RWE says it will mothball or shutdown some of its gas and coal-fired power stations because of an increase in renewable energy...The company said a boom in solar energy meant many of its power stations were no longer profitable."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23692530

There is a bit more info on the statement on RWE's website:
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/110504/rwe/investor-relations/news/news-ad-hoc-statements/?pmid=4009732

Mac

mac2008

Martyn1981 wrote: »

DECC have finally decided how they should allocate installs to quarters, having chopped 1 month out. They decided to calculate Feb/Mch and Apr/May/June. With Apr to June installs totalling 93.416MWp, this didn't hit the 100MWp degression point that would have triggered a degression on 1/10/13.

So no further degressions till next year on any of the bandings.

Details here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-mcs-and-roofit-statistics

Mart.

And interestingly, looking at the spreadsheet, the number of installations in the <10kW band seems to have jumped a bit to 29,239, or 93% towards the degression point. This is higher than the previous three deployment periods by some margin (61%, 50% and 66%).

The 66% figure allows for the chopping of April by reducing the aggregate capacity to trigger the degression by a third.

An upswing in interest with the good weather perhaps, or are prices finally at a level where they are not scary sounding to the average homeowner?

Mac

Cardew

mac2008 wrote: »

And more interesting news from the BBC:

"German power giant RWE says it will mothball or shutdown some of its gas and coal-fired power stations because of an increase in renewable energy...The company said a boom in solar energy meant many of its power stations were no longer profitable."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23692530

There is a bit more info on the statement on RWE's website:
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/110504/rwe/investor-relations/news/news-ad-hoc-statements/?pmid=4009732

Mac

What is the relevance of all these posts eulogising about solar PV.

The only reason solar PV exists in large quantities is because of the huge subsidies it attracts, which are paid for by electricity customers in increased prices.

It still doesn’t generate at night – when Europe has the greatest demand. PV output can vary almost instantly on the vagaries of the weather – a nightmare for grids to cope.


Pay a stupid enough subsidy for hamsters in their cage geared to a turbine and we would become a nation of rodent lovers! At least we would get output at night and in inclement weather.

The_Green_Hornet

Cardew wrote: »

What is the relevance of all these posts eulogising about solar PV.

The only reason solar PV exists in large quantities is because of the huge subsidies it attracts, which are paid for by electricity customers in increased prices.

It still doesn’t generate at night – when Europe has the greatest demand. PV output can vary almost instantly on the vagaries of the weather – a nightmare for grids to cope.


Pay a stupid enough subsidy for hamsters in their cage geared to a turbine and we would become a nation of rodent lovers! At least we would get output at night and in inclement weather.

Solar PV was hugely subsidised as the Climate Change Act 2008 committed the UK to generate 15% of all of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2020.

I thought everyone knew this.

Martyn1981

mac2008 wrote: »

And more interesting news from the BBC:

"German power giant RWE says it will mothball or shutdown some of its gas and coal-fired power stations because of an increase in renewable energy...The company said a boom in solar energy meant many of its power stations were no longer profitable."

Hiya Mac, got to say, it's not a good time to be a fossil burner. These companies have kept their heads in the sand for so long that they missed the perfect storm approaching.

You've got renewables with prices falling fast.

A "power to the people" move from a small number of central generators controlling prices.

A collapse in the share value of the giants because they couldn't see what everyone else could:

Energy companies are paying a heavy price for shunning renewables

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2013/jul/21/energy-companies-price-shunning-renewables

The argument for green solutions is not just about climate change – traditional sources of power will soon cost more


And lastly the ludicrous overvaluation of these companies based on the income they could earn, from the enormous reserves on their books, that we've known for years they can never actually take out of the ground:

The Most Influential Climate Study Few People Know About

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/the-most-influential-climate-study-few-people-know-about.html

Using official records from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, among other documents, Carbon Tracker discovered that the world's top 200 fossil fuel companies have 2,795 gigatons of CO2 trapped in their fossil fuel reserves. And that figure didn't include unconventional sources like tar sands, oil shale and methane hydrates.

They also found that in the first 10 years of this century, humans had burned through one-third of Meinhausen's 886 gigaton budget, leaving just 565 gigatons left to use over the next 40 years. In sum, 80 percent of all fossil fuel reserves would have to remain untouched to prevent uncontrollable warming, the report warned.

If it wasn't true, it would almost be funny!

Mart.

mac2008

Cardew wrote: »

What is the relevance of all these posts eulogising about solar PV.

The only reason solar PV exists in large quantities is because of the huge subsidies it attracts, which are paid for by electricity customers in increased prices.

It still doesn’t generate at night – when Europe has the greatest demand. PV output can vary almost instantly on the vagaries of the weather – a nightmare for grids to cope.


Pay a stupid enough subsidy for hamsters in their cage geared to a turbine and we would become a nation of rodent lovers! At least we would get output at night and in inclement weather.

Who's eulogising? I didn't even say the article was good. I said it was interesting.

And the point of all these posts is that they contribute to a thread called "Solar...in the news".

Regarding solar PV being a nightmare for the grid - I partially agree. However there are also times when local generation can help the grid, especially when coupled with storage. For example, this trial being run by WPD in Bristol is coupling solar PV with battery storage:

http://westernpowerinnovation.co.uk/So-La-Bristol.aspx

One of their objectives is to see how Solar PV+storage can help the local distribution network cope with thermal and voltage constraints.

There are also other trials of storage on other parts of the network, including larger installations at substation level.

I don't think Solar PV is THE answer, but it does have a role to play. I certainly feel that (ever decreasing) subsidies aimed at creating a sustainable solar industry are worthwhile.

Regarding subsidies more generally, the "IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said that global fossil fuel subsidies, worth $523 billion in 2011, are providing an incentive to emit CO2 equivalent to $110 per tonne, whereas he showed global renewable subsidies to be $88 billion in 2011. He described fossil fuel subsidies as "public enemy number one"."
(http://www.ewea.org/press-releases/detail/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=2026&cHash=fb6d42b9f07c49b2ba583ea8a8c79b48)

So, other than rodents, what do you think we should be doing?

Mac.

tunnel

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya Mac, got to say, it's not a good time to be a fossil burner. These companies have kept their heads in the sand for so long that they missed the perfect storm approaching.

You've got renewables with prices falling fast.

A "power to the people" move from a small number of central generators controlling prices.

A collapse in the share value of the giants because they couldn't see what everyone else could:

Energy companies are paying a heavy price for shunning renewables

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2013/jul/21/energy-companies-price-shunning-renewables

The argument for green solutions is not just about climate change – traditional sources of power will soon cost more


And lastly the ludicrous overvaluation of these companies based on the income they could earn, from the enormous reserves on their books, that we've known for years they can never actually take out of the ground:

Mart.

The bigwigs in these energy companies will only stand making losses for so long. The greater amount of solar that comes online then the more chance a "new tariiff" will appear, probably one with a low rate during daylight hours and a high rate at night for when you can't produce your own.

E7 will become but a distant dream;)

Martyn1981

mac2008 wrote: »

The 66% figure allows for the chopping of April by reducing the aggregate capacity to trigger the degression by a third.

An upswing in interest with the good weather perhaps, or are prices finally at a level where they are not scary sounding to the average homeowner?

Mac

Hello again Mac, don't know why installs fluctuate so much, but article yesterday shows an upswing:

Weekly installation rates top 6MW

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/weekly_installation_rates_top_6mw_2356

Mart.

Martyn1981

tunnel wrote: »

The bigwigs in these energy companies will only stand making losses for so long. The greater amount of solar that comes online then the more chance a "new tariiff" will appear, probably one with a low rate during daylight hours and a high rate at night for when you can't produce your own.

E7 will become but a distant dream;)

Very true, but I've noticed this year that half the articles I find on PV (or renewables in general), are to do with storage. The amount of R&D is incredible, and as Mac2008 mentioned, all sorts of trials are taking place, small, medium and large:

Example of medium (and mention of small):

2MW energy storage trial energised in Orkney

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/2mw_energy_storage_trial_energised_in_orkney_2356

The energy storage trial is being funded by Ofgem’s Low carbon Networks Fund. Energy storage looks set to play a pivotal role in the development of the solar study; a recent study by IHS has predicted that the residential PV storage market alone will hit 2.5GW by 2017.

Example of large:

Japan selects projects to develop large-scale storage batteries

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/japan-selects-projects-to-develop-large-scale-storage-batteries_100012383/#axzz2c3Lq3M7x

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has announced the companies that will introduce large-scale storage batteries into electricity grid substations.

[20 & 60 MWh]


Lastly, as any PV'er will know, there is also the natural shifting of some demand away from evening peaks, which makes much more sense, than always chasing peak demand with more and more generation that isn't needed for most of the year:

Solar owners help shine light on UK’s future energy needs

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/solar_owners_help_shine_light_on_uks_future_energy_needs_2356

More than 400 solar PV system owners are taking part in a new smart grid project designed to shed light on how Britain can become low-carbon.

“The data we collect will allow us to get a better understanding of the UK’s future energy needs. Our initial findings from these trials suggest that PV customers are typically more engaged and interested in their own energy use than customers without LCTs. We also found that compared to non-PV users, they tend to use more electricity during the day, which is the time when their solar energy is generating.

“These findings are interesting because these customers may therefore consume less energy during the early evening, when there are peaks in the demand for electricity, and when the network is under most pressure.”

Therefore, the project believes that the more solar energy is generated, the less demand will be placed on local electricity networks.

I'm hoping that the roll-out of domestic scale PV storage goes well in Germany. If so, then prices could come down quite considerably, and I could look a little more seriously into the matter when my older inverters start to fail (perhaps in 5-10 years?)

Mart.