Solar ... In the news

Coastalwatch

Nice one Mart. I thought the added benefit detailed in the quote below made sense also.

In addition to energy generation, RMI’s analysis also examines other benefits landfill solar can provide communities. By repurposing closed landfills for sustainable, non-hazardous uses, state and local governments can advance environmental justice by creating jobs and helping revitalize the lower-income communities where many closed landfills are located.

So, a bit like the "Levelling up" programme over here! 

Guess that means the remaining Trump Republicans are unlikely to approve then! 

Martyn1981

Article here on transparent PV. I know it comes up every so often, but this is 10% efficient, so depending on cost, may be a useful tool.

Transparent Solar Windows: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

The idea of transparent solar windows almost sounds too good to be true, and it is, but not entirely. Researchers have been hammering away at the challenge of harnessing sunlight to generate electricity from see-through windows for years. The prize is acres upon acres of new sites for solar panels on buildings, without losing the energy-saving advantages of daylighting. Just look at any glass building and you can practically feel the blooming of the possibilities. The obstacles are many but it looks like a real breakthrough is finally at hand, so to speak.

JKenH

South Australia sees negative demand in a world-first for gigawatt-scale grids

Southwest  Australia had negative electricity demand on Sunday for several five-minute trading intervals, which is a first for the NEM. This happened because the combined volume of surplus rooftop solar PV and non-scheduled solar and wind generation was greater than electricity consumed in South Australia. 

https://watt-logic.com/2021/12/01/negative-demand/

Martyn1981

Good news, and it got me wondering if this bodes well for the upcoming CfD auction now that PV (and on-shore wind) is allowed to bid again.

UK fund finances two solar projects

The UK Infrastructure Bank is providing finance to fund two major subsidy-free solar farms.

The seed assets are operational at sites in Llanwern in South Wales and Strensham, Worcestershire, which together will have an installed capacity of 115MW.

The UK farms will be managed by a new fund with NextEnergy Capital that aims to double the amount of subsidy-free solar power in the UK by raising £500m (€587m).

NextPower UK ESG (NPUK ESG), is a private 10-year solar infrastructure fund.

The UK Infrastructure Bank plans to invest up to £250m, half of the fund’s total target fund size, on a match-funding basis with the private sector.

It is hoped that this support will lead to significant investment into the UK subsidy-free solar sector.

It will be the largest subsidy-free solar investment fund in the UK, managed by NextEnergy Capital (NEC) a global leader in the solar infrastructure sector.

Once the fund is fully operational it will have an expected generation capacity of around 1GW of power from around 30 solar farms across the UK.

Martyn1981

This is great news, but I recall similar studies and news saying this about a decade ago, in fact there may even be articles on this thread. Perhaps those studies were more focused on wild flowers, or honey bees, than the benefits to bumblebees of said wild flowers ..... my memory fails me.  But good news of course.

Solar parks could be used to boost bumblebee numbers, study suggests

Solar parks could provide habitats for wildlife – and particularly bumblebees – to flourish, if managed in the right way, benefiting farmers and nature, new research suggests.

There are already 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of solar parks in the UK, in which arrays of solar panels are installed over a large area, and an estimated 90,000 hectares will be needed. Yet the parks have attracted controversy over claims they are ugly, blight productive land and harm nature.

If solar park owners were encouraged to use the land to sow wildflowers alongside the solar panels, they could become valuable habitats for pollinators, research from Lancaster University has found. Managing them in this way would boost bumblebee numbers beyond the borders of the parks, to about 1km (0.6 miles) away, benefiting farmers who rely on bees to pollinate their crops.

One simulation run by the study group found four times as many bees in a solar park managed as a wildflower meadow than in one based on turf grass.

jimjames

Quick update on my post from last month, RPI has now reached 7.1% for November so if maintained for Dec it would give over 60p per kWh for the pre 2012 rate plus same increase to the export too.

QrizB

jimjames said:

Quick update on my post from last month, RPI has now reached 7.1% for November so if maintained for Dec it would give over 60p per kWh for the pre 2012 rate plus same increase to the export too.

Oh well, that's one bright side I guess!

EricMears

jimjames said:

Quick update on my post from last month, RPI has now reached 7.1% for November so if maintained for Dec it would give over 60p per kWh for the pre 2012 rate plus same increase to the export too.

We'll just have to hope that the huge increase in BoE base rates announced today  doesn't have an immediate impact ! 

Martyn1981

No idea if anyone else is as sad as me and looks at the PV installed by various countries, but I thought this article was particularly interesting and got my brain spinning.

Firstly, Germany is still rolling out a lot of PV, 5.3GWp in 2021, with a grand total now of ~59GWp. Their PV generation potential (kWh/kWp) and economics are similar to the UK, so it's OK, but not great, but a useful comparison for us.

Secondly, I spotted this line which threw me slightly as it seemed so high:

According to the climate protection projects of the Ampel coalition, the newly installed photovoltaic capacity is to be tripled in the near future, the renewable energy body added.

but reading on it's confirmed, they have a target of 200GWp for 2030, which does in fact require an annual rollout of about 16GWp pa through 2030.

That's a lot of PV, and if matched pro rata to the UK population, would be around 160GWp for us, I think we have less than 15GWp currently. 160GWp would provide about 40% of current leccy generation and import, perhaps 20% as transport and space heating shift over to leccy. [Edit - I should say in theory, since 160GWp would require one hell of a lot of management and storage.]

I'm not suggesting the UK should do this, especially with our excellent offshore wind potential, just that the German numbers (current and planned) are truly enormous, reflecting their plans to remove their remaining nuclear generation, and reduce coal/lignite use. I wish them luck.

5.3GW of German solar installed in 2021

The new federal government has set itself the goal of expanding the solar power output installed in Germany from currently around 59GW to 200GW by 2030 and using all suitable roof areas for solar energy generation in the future, BSW said.

Magnitio

Germany has a lot of work to decarbonise their grid considering the decision to remove nuclear power. This chart shows the challenge they face: