Solar ... In the news

Coastalwatch

It would seem the many benefits of solar panels are still to be unravelled as the analysis of testing described in this piece clearly demonstrate. While I struggle to understand why a country near the equator requires greenhouses, the shading effects of the panels also show a benefit beyond that of energy generation!

Just spare it a thought next time you buy the missus a rose!

Photovoltaic blinds to improve greenhouse energy performance

A Swedish-Iranian research team modeled 14 photovoltaic blind configurations in checkerboard arrays 1m above a greenhouse roof emulated with EnergyPlus building energy simulation software. The group found a PV installation would reduce natural gas consumption, electricity demand and carbon emissions.

Scientists from Iran’s Shiraz University and Mälardalen University, in Sweden, have analyzed how a PV blind system can reduce the gas and electric demand of a rose greenhouse while driving down CO2 emissions.

The researchers considered 14 configurations of PV blind in checkerboard arrays 1m above a greenhouse roof modeled with EnergyPlus building energy simulation software, in Shiraz, Iran. “Utilizing PV panels in a checkerboard array provides intermittent shadows on plants but has no effect on the plant growth and using PV trackers above the greenhouse generates more electricity,” the group stated adding, the panels also reduce greenhouse temperature.

The best greenhouse configuration modeled saw the PV system meet 46% of power demand. The weakest configuration offered 31.9%.

“Results indicate that covering 19.2% of the roof, with no significant change in the illumination level on the plant canopy, will annually reduce natural gas consumption, electricity demand and CO2 emission by 3.57%, 45.5% and 30.56kg/m2, respectively,” the group stated.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/08/19/photovoltaic-blinds-to-improve-greenhouse-energy-performance/

Coastalwatch

Floating PV on reservoirs. Doesn't this make sense for several reasons. In the case of hydro electric dams then increasing energy output from the same footprint. The water having a cooling effect upon the panels and maybe even the panels restricting sunlight onto the water thus reducing the likelyhood of Algae or Bloom forming. It appears there are also plans for a massive 2.1GW project which is fourteen times the largest currently in existance.

South Korea’s largest floating PV plant now online

South Korean floating PV specialist Scotra has finished building a 25 MW floating solar plant on a reservoir in Goheung county, in the South Korean province of Jeollanam.

The company finished the first 9 MW phase of the project last October, but it did not connect the second 16 MW portion to the grid until now. It built the project with its plastic floaters and corrosion-resistant alloy steel frames. It did not reveal any other technical details.

However, Scotra did say that it is currently building two more large-scale PV projects in Korea – a 40 MW plant at the Hapcheon hydro-electric power dam and 72 MW of capacity at the Saemangeum sea wall on the Yellow Sea. For the Saemangeum project, it has also built a new 300 MW factory to produce floaters and frames, it added.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/08/21/south-koreas-largest-floating-pv-plant-now-online/

Coastalwatch

And news of another PV array doubling up on land use by allowing cattle to graze beneath. I know it's not new but it's great to learn of it happening elsewhere in the world even if at present the cattle are only being used for weed control purposes.

Special PV plant design for livestock in Taiwan

Taipower is experimenting with PV installations on grazing land for cattle, with the support of the Taiwan Council of Agriculture. The modules have been installed at a height of 3 meters, so the cows can graze beneath them.

Taiwanese state-run utility Taipower is experimenting with PV installations on land used for cattle grazing at a former mining waste disposal site in rural Shuili, Nantou County.

The Taiwan Council of Agriculture is supporting the project, which has been designed to determine whether cows can be used instead of lawnmowers to control weed growth. The company is deploying a 9 MW solar plant at the site, with the first 1 MW section going online earlier this month. Initially, two cows will be brought to the site for weed-control purposes.

The PV panels have been installed at a height of more than 3 meters to allow the cows to graze beneath them. The mounting structures are also not stuck into the ground, but are placed within special concrete bases, which can be easily removed. Taipower said the special design will reduce the environmental impact of the project.

“The photovoltaic park needs to be weeded to maintain the power generation efficiency,” the company said, adding that it will not use any herbicide at the site.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/08/21/special-pv-plant-design-for-livestock-in-taiwan/

Coastalwatch

News of a colossal project application in SA dependent totally on the completion of the SA-NSW interconnector. Transgrid have been pushing strongly for the interconnector for three years and is crucial if the project is to go ahead. Let's hope it is given the neccesary permissions and priority to allow it all to go ahead!

Renewable Colossus at Worlds End  – Neoen delivers Goyder South Development Application

Neoen’s proposed Goyder South Hybrid Renewable Energy project is so vast that analogy does it a disservice. The French developer has commenced the project’s notification period with the submission of its Development Application, giving us the first real opportunity to begin to quantify its sheer enormity. 1200 MW of wind, 600 MW of solar, and 900 MW/1,800 MWh of battery storage.

The project, which Neoen expects will cost at least $3 billion, is being proposed for Worlds End, 18km south of Burra, SA, around Baldina, Bright, and Koonoona, on the traditional lands of the Ngadjuri Nation. Neoen says that the Goyder region is “home to some of the best wind and solar resources in the country.” Neoen proposes to take advantage of these resources with one integrated wind, solar, and energy storage project “capable of delivering a steady, reliable, dispatchable output of power throughout the day and night.” 

Neoen says that its firm renewable facility will provide “reliable power at a cost which would likely be lower than any other renewable or conventional fossil-fuelled generator in Australia – even taking into account the additional cost of battery storage.” 

The feasibility of the project is entirely dependent on the successful construction and operation of Project EnergyConnect (PEC), the SA-NSW Interconnector. PEC, led by ElectraNet and TransGrid, is a 900km, 330kV above-ground interconnector proposed to run between Robertson, SA, and Wagga Wagga, NSW. TransGrid has been pushing strongly for this project for over three years as a way to provide “energy security to SA and unlock new renewables generation in south-west NSW.”

https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2020/08/21/renewable-colossus-at-worlds-end-neoen-delivers-goyder-south-development-application/

Coastalwatch

A few snippets from PV Magazine sees Portugal receive a world record low bid for Solar.

In Denmark an unsubsidized 200MW solar development on agricultural land to also be used for organic farming. Doesn't this just make sense, clean energy combined with organic food production!

Finally Poland scales up for GW's of solar in the next two years as rules restricting the siting of wind farms in some locations comes into effect.

Portugal’s second PV auction draws world record low bid of $0.0132/kWh

According to Portuguese financial newspaper Expresso, the lowest winning bid of the procurement exercise was €0.0112 ($0.0132)/kWh. This is slightly lower than the $0.0135/kWh bid submitted by French energy group EDF and China’s JinkoPower in a 2 GW tender held in Abu Dhabi.

Unsubsidized 200 MW PV plant under construction in Denmark

Danish PV developer Better Energy has started building a 200 MW unsubsidized PV power plant in Holstebro municipality, northwestern Denmark.

The plant will be owned and operated by Heartland, a unit of Danish clothing company Bestseller. It will provide 100% of its electricity needs, while also selling power to other Bestseller facilities, and those owned by Danish retail chains Normal and Nemlig. The group did not provide any additional details. 

 “It is not only the size of the new solar plant that is groundbreaking, but it is also the fact that the solar plant will supply Bestseller and other companies with new subsidy-free green electricity,” said Better Energy CEO Rasmus Lildholdt Kjær.

Better Energy is building the project on cultivated agricultural land that will also be used for organic farming. Construction started earlier this month. The array is scheduled for completion by the summer of 2021.

Poland to tender 3.2 GW of solar by end of next year

The Polish Ministry of Climate has said it could allocate 1.7 GW of solar generation capacity in renewables auctions planned next year, on top of the 1.5 GW of solar the government is expecting to contract in this year’s two auctions.

The government expects to tender around 800 MW of solar capacity in this year’s round for projects up to 1 MW in scale and 700 MW in the tender for larger facilities. The corresponding procurement rounds next year could secure 1 GW and 700 MW of solar, respectively, according to the ministry.

Renewables correspondent Piotr Pająk, from the Gramwzielone.pl website, told pv magazine the volume of solar power projects commissioned under the procurement program is likely to increase because of legal requirements about how far wind power projects must be from residential areas.

Coastalwatch

It would appear that Solar will become one of the cheapest froms of energy by 2025. Lower than either  On or Off shore wind and CCGT. Maybe the government weren't too far off the mark in removing subsidies when they did, although domestic installations have stalled somewhat since then suggesting it may have been premature in that particular sphere.

LCOE costs of solar PV continue to plummet in BEIS forecasts

New statistics published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show another significant drop in the expected costs of solar out to 2040, with figures for the expected costs of storage technologies also released.

The Electricity Generation Costs document details forecasts for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) across a number of electricity generation technologies. The most recent iteration – published yesterday (24 August 2020) – shows that the government expects large-scale solar PV to be developed at a LCOE of £44/MWh in 2025 in its central cost scenario, a significant drop when compared to its 2016 forecast, which placed solar at £68/MWh.

The forecasts mark solar as the cheapest of the technologies outlined, beating both onshore and offshore wind - £44/MWh and £40/MWh in BEIS’s central 2040 forecast – as well as CCGT.

https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/lcoe_costs_of_solar_pv_continue_to_plummet_in_beis_forecasts

michaels

I wonder at what point it becomes cheaper for sunny countries in the gulf to produce hydrogen or methane from excess solar power rather than drilling for it.  With a carbon price advantage (presumably it would count as renewable much like wood pellets) they could then ship it to Europe/Japan using the existing lpg infrastructure.

Martyn1981

Always nice to see installed PV costs falling, but especially in the US where they have been silly high for years due to marketing and permitting costs. The US has the money, and properties (and weather) to benefit massively from demand side PV.
Also incredible to see that the 'learning curve' for every doubling of monocrystaline panel production is still so, so high.

Solar Panel Prices Have Dropped Off Cliff & Sunk Into Ocean — Solar Panels 9× Cheaper Than In 2006

I used to write articles about solar power every day — for years. When you’re in the thick of it, you get more and more focused on details and get increasingly busy with industry conversations that are foreign, if not confusing, to outsiders. I tried to keep that in mind and tried to regularly consider what would be useful for “normal people” to read about solar power. One topic I repeatedly came back to was: solar panel prices keep dropping, and solar’s probably cheaper than you think.

For the past few years or so, I’ve been much more focused on electric vehicles, and I increasingly feel like an “outsider” in the solar industry. I’m not always up to date with the hottest topic of debate or discussion among solar policy wonks or solar industry analysts. One result in recent months is that this news has seemingly come out of nowhere: solar power prices have dropped more than I realized.

Martyn1981

Portugal retakes the title for cheapest PV.

New Record-Low Solar Price Bid — 1.3¢/kWh

When it comes to utility-scale solar power, we have another world record to highlight and celebrate. Portugal recently held a solar power auction (in which power plant developers submit different bids for what price they can offer electricity under a new contract), and one of the bids broke the world record for the lowest solar power price.

The auction was an auction for 700 megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity, with granted awards totaling 670 MW. Of those, 483 MW also include an energy storage component.

The lowest winning bid was to supply solar electricity to the grid at a price of €0.01114/kWh (or ~1.327¢/kWh). The bid slightly beat the AED 4.97 fils/kWh (or 1.35¢/kWh) record-low bid in Abu Dhabi that we wrote about in June.

Naturally, with such smaller differences in price, changes in the exchange rate could make the projects swap places in the Lowest Solar Price Rankings. However, at the moment, that’s how the two projects compare.

Martyn1981

Extracts from this week's Carbon Commentary Newsletter:

3, Solar PV prices. A Portugese auction produced another world record low price of just over 1.1 Euro cents (about 1.3 US cents) per kilowatt hour. Experts counselled scepticism as to whether this figure represents the true underlying cost for developers. First, the winning bid was for only a 10 MW tranche of the 700 MW auction, although other bids were also very competitive. More importantly, low prices in this auction reflected the relatively short duration for the agreed price (15 years) and the high value attached by bidders to acquiring permanent development rights and grid connections in Portugal. Nevertheless, the auction prices showed a clear continuing downward trend in the face of concerns about the supply of Chinese polysilicon after recent factory accidents. In the UK, the government published its forecasts for the underlying cost of all electricity generating technologies in 2025, putting solar in the lowest position for the first time at about 4.4 pence (5.8 US cents) per kWh. That’s probably still far too pessimistic; I suspect that developers would happily accept that price today on a large solar site in the sunnier parts of the country.

[Apologies for the story duplication, but there are other comments at the end.]