Solar ... In the news

pile-o-stone

Solarchaser wrote: »

I thought for a day or so you had dropped the trolling, and were actually going to contribute.

Silly me!

This is the board that moderation forgot.

silverwhistle

Solarchaser wrote: »

I thought for a day or so you had dropped the trolling, and were actually going to contribute.

The only way I can tell is that they come along in threes, like buses, but I've no idea where they're going, (apart from the occasional confirmatory quote). It's quite refreshing..


The Lowry Beck man came yesterday and the gas was still the same as my April reading, so well done solar panels. 5.58kWh into the immersion yesterday, although the way the weather is looking it looks like the boiler will be on a bit for hot water tomorrow.



By the looks of it outside the wind farms will be taking over! I might pop over to Zarch's site to see how cheap the variable tariff was last night..

Solarchaser

Down to 2p in my region.

That's been a week now the agile has been below the go.

silverwhistle

Thanks, I'm not sure it makes making a decision any easier!;-)

Martyn1981

Dubai v's Portugal :cool:

DEWA bags $0.016953/kWh tariff for 900MW of Dubai solar park

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has confirmed that it fielded a tariff of US$1.6953 cents per kWh in a recent tender for a 900MW plot of its 5GW Mohammed bin Rashid (MbR) solar parks – a bid it claims sets a world record for the indepedent power producer (IPP) model.

The tariff comes very close to the record bid of €1.476 cents per kWh – or US $1.644 cents per kWh by today’s exchange rate – lodged in a Portuguese government auction in August.

Martyn1981

PV / PV & storage exports to the UK grid have grown, quite a bit.

Storage exports jump 600% as solar sees ‘exponential’ increase, new figures show

Exports to GB distribution networks of solar PV rose from 194GWh in 2012 to 8TWh in 2018, according to the data.

While exports from battery storage rose from 50MWh in 2014 to almost 49GWh in 2018. Between 2017 and 2018, there was a 600% increase in battery exports.

Martyn1981

Just another Perovskite story, and all going (fingers crossed) in the right direction:

No-Gold Perovskite Solar Cells Aim A Dagger At The Heart Of Fossil Fuels

The good news can be found in the new study, titled (spoiler alert!) “Carbon-based materials for stable, cheaper and large-scale processable perovskite solar cells,” which appears in the journal Energy & Environmental Science of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In the study, Fagiolari and Bella undertake an intensive review of recent research activity. They conclude that carbon-based materials (surprise!) could replace gold for the back electrode in perovskite solar cells.

Specifically, they highlight graphite/amorphous carbon, graphene, and carbon nanotubes.

Aside from low cost and ease of fabrication, Fagiolari and Bella note that these materials are “highly hydrophobic.” In other words, they help solve perovskite’s moisture problem while sparing the expense of building extra moisture-proofing into the solar cell.

Fabiolari and Bella do take stock of several issues that carbon-based materials need to overcome. Nevertheless, they propose that back electrodes made with graphite and carbon black have a good chance to beat gold at its own game.

As for why they are so confident, that’s a good question. They followed the research activity and noted that before 2012, every article on perovskite solar cells dealt with liquid electrolytes. The carbon angle began to pop up after 2012, when solid-state technology made an appearance.

Martyn1981

Tesco's and EDF 'giving it large!'

Tesco unveils major green electricity project, including 187 onsite rooftop solar installs

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced a major green electricity project, including the installation of solar panels on 187 of its sites covering 335,000m2.

The project will also include a ground-mounted solar farm and five onshore wind farms. In total, the new projects will generate enough power for the equivalent of 140,000 homes.

EDF secures a slice of UK supermarket Tesco’s corporate solar plan

The French energy giant will provide supermarket Tesco with electricity from 17 rooftop PV installations and two wind farms for a renewables portfolio generation capacity of 59 MW. The groceries retailer has announced plans to install 187 solar rooftops.

The EDF deals relate to 59 MW of renewable energy generation capacity the company will deploy for the retailer – 17 rooftop PV installations in England and two onshore wind farms in Scotland. The PPA for the solar projects is related to 5 MW of rooftop generation capacity and will hold for 20 years.

EDF Renewables will install 15,000 PV modules on the roofs of 17 Tesco stores in England. With construction already under way, all the PV systems should be operational next year. The projects are part of EDF Group’s CAP 2030 strategy, which aims to double its renewables capacity worldwide to 50 GW.

Martyn1981

Not sure 35GWp is a 'starring role'*, but it's still a massive increase in UK deployments, and a return to an appropriate FiT (perhaps just a few pence now), would be good news, especially if it was applied retrospectively to those that have installed without it, the same way it was done for those folk who had PV before 2010.

*Actually, perhaps I should take that back, it would be approx 10% of current leccy demand, and whilst I'd prefer to see something akin to 20% of the larger future demand, it's still significant for a 'not exactly' sunny country like the UK.

Opposition party pledges to nearly treble UK solar capacity in 10 years

The UK’s opposition Labour Party has pledged to almost treble the country’s solar PV capacity, taking it to 35GW by 2030.

The party today unveiled its ‘Thirty by 2030’ vision, a document comprising thirty policies the party would enact to fast-track decarbonisation of the country’s economy within the next ten years.

Central to the document is a commitment to derive almost 90% of the country’s power from renewable and zero-carbon resources by 2030, with solar set to play a starring role.

Labour said it intended to almost treble the country’s current solar PV generation capacity - ~13GW – to around 35GW by 2030. Such an achievement would require the UK to return to an annual growth rate of around 2GW, similar to that enjoyed in its prime.

Labour envisages that around 4.5GW of that 35GW figure would be small-scale, requiring a total of 2.25 million homes to have solar installed, at an average system size of 2kWp. To stimulate the further deployment the party has pledged to reinstate the feed-in tariff. The UK had a FiT in place until March this year when it was closed to new applicants.

Coastalwatch

Cenin Rnewables to build 2MW solar farm at Cardiff Airport and will form part of the former's Environmental Flight Path.

It will be built over the next eighteen months within the boundaries of the airport, and provide power to the business via a private wire, with any surplus energy exported to the national grid.

It’s also hoped that the solar farm will benefit biodiversity, providing a space for wildflowers that can help support creatures like bees. A report from the Solar Trade Association, released in June, set out the positive environemntal effects solar farms can have.

Just a little surprised that battery storage is not included. Exporting surplus energy to the grid presumaly provides an income but would have thought that storing excess and using at peak times would offer a better return. No doubt they've done their sums so perhaps the ROI didn't stack up!
https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/cardiff_airports_environmental_flight_paths_new_solar_farm