Solar ... In the news

Coastalwatch

Chinese fishery hosting 260 MW of unsubsidized solar

The solar plant was built with fixed structures on a 400-hectare water surface at a fishery in Anhui province. The project was the first unsubsidized plant approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2019 and is selling power at a price of RMB 0.3844 ($0.054) per kWh.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/27/chinese-fishery-hosting-260-mw-of-unsubsidized-solar/

So many people pooint the finger at China for the worlds ills and yes they do burn massive amounts of coal but they also manufacture the worlds most solar panels by a country mile so why not give credit where its due occasionally!

Coastalwatch

German utility-scale PV tender concludes with average price of €0.0518/kWh

Germany’s Federal Network Agency – the Bundesnetzagentur – has published the results of its third special tender for PV projects above 750 kW in size. It selected 51 solar projects with a combined capacity of 301 MW.

The final prices ranged from €0.0464/kWh to €0.0548/kWh, The average price of €0.0518/kWh was slightly lower than the €0.0568/kWh posted in the last solar tender, which saw successful bids of €0.0470/kWh to €0.0620/kWh.

Of the 51 awarded projects, 34 will be deployed on arable plots and grassland in the southern region of Bavaria.

Interesting that Germany appear to be combining Solar and agriculture ahead of the UK!

Come on England, wakey, waaaaakey!

ttps://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/27/german-utility-scale-pv-tender-concludes-with-average-price-of-e0-0518-kwh/

Martyn1981

GCL to build a bit more PV at a new Chinese plant, if an additional 50% of World consumption is a bit more.

GCL System Plans to Build World’s Biggest Solar-Panel Plant

(Bloomberg) -- GCL System Integration Technology Co. plans to build the world’s biggest solar-panel manufacturing plant, with capacity to meet half of global demand.
The Chinese manufacturer plans to invest 18 billion yuan ($2.54 billion) to construct a facility in eastern Hefei province that will be able to produce 60 gigawatts of solar panels a year, GCL System said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange on March 27. It didn’t provide a timeline.

GCL System said it will spend 5 billion yuan on the first phase of the project, for 15 gigawatts of production capacity. Another three phases will be implemented later, with the timing based on sales and utilization of the facility, it said.

Martyn1981

Remember the high mounted PV over agricultural land? Well here's another solution:

French-German alliance for vertical PV

French energy provider Total and German start-up Next2Sun have signed an agreement providing for the exclusive deployment of the Next2Sun solution, a vertical mounting technology for bifacial photovoltaic panels, on the French market, excluding the region of Alsace.
The mounting structure of Next2Sun allows vertically installed panels to exploit the incident solar radiation on their front and rear side and offer maximum performance during hours of high consumption, at dawn and at dusk. Protecting from the wind and the sun, occupying little space, and easily integrated into fencing between fields or other structures, the system is ideal for an agrivoltaic application.

zeupater

Coastalwatch said:

German utility-scale PV tender concludes with average price of €0.0518/kWh

Germany’s Federal Network Agency – the Bundesnetzagentur – has published the results of its third special tender for PV projects above 750 kW in size. It selected 51 solar projects with a combined capacity of 301 MW.

The final prices ranged from €0.0464/kWh to €0.0548/kWh, The average price of €0.0518/kWh was slightly lower than the €0.0568/kWh posted in the last solar tender, which saw successful bids of €0.0470/kWh to €0.0620/kWh.

Of the 51 awarded projects, 34 will be deployed on arable plots and grassland in the southern region of Bavaria.

Interesting that Germany appear to be combining Solar and agriculture ahead of the UK!

Come on England, wakey, waaaaakey!

ttps://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/27/german-utility-scale-pv-tender-concludes-with-average-price-of-e0-0518-kwh/

Hi

Effectively it's already being done ... a good friend has been hosting 5MWp of panels on his land for a number of years & hasn't needed to reduce the livestock density ... they simply seem to enjoy the additional shelter from sun & rain.

HTH - Z

Coastalwatch

zeupater said:

Coastalwatch said:

German utility-scale PV tender concludes with average price of €0.0518/kWh

Germany’s Federal Network Agency – the Bundesnetzagentur – has published the results of its third special tender for PV projects above 750 kW in size. It selected 51 solar projects with a combined capacity of 301 MW.

The final prices ranged from €0.0464/kWh to €0.0548/kWh, The average price of €0.0518/kWh was slightly lower than the €0.0568/kWh posted in the last solar tender, which saw successful bids of €0.0470/kWh to €0.0620/kWh.

Of the 51 awarded projects, 34 will be deployed on arable plots and grassland in the southern region of Bavaria.

Interesting that Germany appear to be combining Solar and agriculture ahead of the UK!

Come on England, wakey, waaaaakey!

ttps://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/27/german-utility-scale-pv-tender-concludes-with-average-price-of-e0-0518-kwh/

Hi

Effectively it's already being done ... a good friend has been hosting 5MWp of panels on his land for a number of years & hasn't needed to reduce the livestock density ... they simply seem to enjoy the additional shelter from sun & rain.

HTH - Z

Hi, that's great to learn! But it does beg the question why isn't it being better promoted and then implemented in many other areas of the country! Surely combining farming, be it via livestock or agriculture, and solar just makes sound economic sense with the benefit of silencing those critics who oppose solar farms on the premise that it is taking up otherwise productive farmland.

Perhaps your friends visionary exercise could be used as a prime example of the benefits to both the farming community and clean renewable energy production!

I would have thought the Solar industry itself would be keen to encourage the practise if only to increase their business and the roll out so badly needed.

Maybe there are some underlying issues I'm not aware of that's restricting this seemingly obvious means of expansion?

Martyn1981

Coastalwatch said:

Maybe there are some underlying issues I'm not aware of that's restricting this seemingly obvious means of expansion?

Just guesses, so don't assume this is right, but it may simply be down to economics. PV first being rolled out on 'easy' cheap land that has little to no agriculture value. Then on cheap land only good for sheep grazing, where it just needs to be mounted a bit higher off the ground. Then on buildings/structures for chickens and pigs.

Now, PV is getting cheaper, so it starts to make economic sense to consider land that has a higher agricultural value, and where generation will (or would have) cost more due to the higher install cost of 'trickier' PV systems, but is now coming down to acceptable costs. And of course maintaining most of the agricultural production.

Also these articles tend to suggest some use or income for the landowners/farmers, who gradually are probably starting to see the benefits of having a cheap power supply on site. Only my 'dream' but imagine if tractors etc were BEV's, powered from PV generation (or wind), with perhaps a stationary battery storage for recharge, or even swopable batt packs?

Coastalwatch

Wow, that must be a huge area it covers. I wonder how many football pitches it might equate too, or indeed what cultivation, if any, could be attracted to the previously scorched ground now receiving some shade.

Europe’s largest solar park now online

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has commissioned the largest PV plant in Europe – the 500 MW Núñez de Balboa project – following the completion of construction in December 2019.

The €300 million project, which went into operation on Monday, is located between the municipalities of Usagre, Hinojosa del Valle, and Bienvenida, in southern Spain’s Extremadura region. Iberdrola developed it in partnership with local power provider Ecoenergías del Guadiana. It features 1,430,000 solar panels, 115 central inverters, and two substations.

Iberdrola plans to install 3 GW of solar until 2022, of which 2 GW will be located in Extremadura. By 2030, the company aims to deploy approximately 10 GW. In June, it revealed plans to build two installations with a total capacity of 800 MW of solar near Cuenca, in Spain’s central-southern region of Castilla-La Mancha.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/04/08/europes-largest-solar-park-now-online/

joefizz

Coastalwatch said:

Wow, that must be a huge area it covers. I wonder how many football pitches it might equate too, or indeed what cultivation, if any, could be attracted to the previously scorched ground now receiving some shade.

I was supposed to be near Seville at the start of the year and was going to take a run up to have a look but you know, virus, etc.

One of the environmental concerns of the agriculture of the region is water (or lack of it) and waste of it in what really should be desert. Of course, excess solar then brings into play pumping stations and desalination stations near the coast but is that really environmentally friendly?
It does realise the pan european eco energy network plans just that little bit more....

silverwhistle

Talking of shade, I was reading earlier in the year of some holdings in Portugal who are reverting to a more traditional form of agriculture involving the use of trees which provide shade, bring up water, protect the soil from heavy rain.. Not so easy to mechanize as large extensive fields, but more productive in the long run.

I'd hope they would have guttering on the solar panels which they could then channel to recharge pits when they get their heavy rains.