Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

Some info on the changes to large scale solar here:

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Interesting shake up of large scale solar has just been announced.

RO support for solar over 5MW to be scrapped in 2015

Industry reaction to solar RO closure for >5MW in 2015

In short, on-shore wind and large scale PV taking a hit from the govt, whilst they continue to support the more expensive off-shore wind side.

Me thinks they are trying to out-UKIP UKIP!

Mart.

mac2008

groovyf wrote: »

I've got a bunch of redundant 2U APC UPS's in our server room at work...
Here's my plan...
Stick some in the garage and plug them in to something like those Belkin WeMo remote plugs. Set a schedule for them to come on once the sun's up and power off once the sun's gone.
Plug in bits and bobs to charge off the battery overnight (as I've switched them off from the mains they'll run on battery until morning comes when they'll get switched on by the plug schedule).
Thoughts?
(I may be joking on this)

Sounds alright to me. Perhaps run some led lighting too? And perhaps a Watson optiplug instead of the WeMo. The navitron.org.uk off grid forum might be able to help with the specifics if you're serious about it.

Martyn1981

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

From what's happening around here I don't know whether that's changing ..... a 5MWp system is pretty certain to be started soon a few miles away & an additional 9MWp one is being talked about (pre-planning) a few miles in the opposite direction, these being part of somewhere around 100MWp of planned large pv farms (that I know about) within about 15miles of where I'm sitting .... this must be evidence of a reasonable supply-side margin, else why would they be built ...

HTH
Z

Hi again Z, saw this article and thought it set things out quite well, looking at the next few years. With smaller PV farms using ROCs, and larger ones maybe escaping a head to head fight with on-shore wind for a year or so. But it's a small(ish) pot of £50m.

Then possibly a move to roof top, if PV isn't quite ready to compete with on-shore wind, though some predictions are that PV could get as cheap by the end of the decade.

Too many guesses, too few crystal balls, time will tell.

Solar will ‘struggle to be competitive’ under CfD auction system

In the run-up to 2018, IHS also predicts that the sub-5MW ground-mount sector under RO support will play a greater role. Berg stated: “In the period 2015-2017, we expect the <5 MW and rooftop projects under ROC to form an increasingly important share of the PV demand.”

According to the company’s project database the UK has a ground-mount project pipeline of 5.2GW – of which a minimum of 843MW is already under construction. IHS is predicting that the UK could connect more than 3GW of new capacity before RO support is scrapped in April 2015.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Just a little (sales?) piece, with a video showing another storage product in the UK.

Renesola sells 40 energy storage units in the UK

The UK division of Chinese PV manufacturer ReneSola has sold 40 domestic energy storage units to an installation company in Essex, England.

The lithium-ion battery storage systems have been purchased by Think Green Energy, and will be delivered via a distributor, also based in Essex, east of London. So far thirty of the units, Renesola’s Novaplus RFP-2000E5 model, have been delivered, with a handful already installed.

The units are 2kW, plug and play which Renesola claims is easy to install and easy to use. According to the company, Think Green Energy has already ordered another 20 units to add to the initial 40.

Mart.

mac2008

Martyn1981 wrote: »

This (TOO much solar) is something that pops up every 6 months or so. But:-

1. Already solved in Germany a couple of years ago. Their inverters track the grid frequency, and operate shutdowns if there is too much solar, so problem solved.

2. As mentioned earlier, figures are often based on total GWp of installed PV, but actual output will vary depending on temperature, orientation and pitch (and some shading).

3. The fear factor in the UK, is a lazy sunny summer Sunday afternoon, but too much solar would push down spot prices. But over time expect clever folk to find ways to utilise this either as storage, or cheaper manufacturing on 'something'.

...

Mart.

Some pretty graphs from the Fraunhofer ISE showing electricity generation mix in Germany - 21.15GW from solar last Wednesday!

https://www.energy-charts.de/power.htm

And did the spot price go through the floor?

https://www.energy-charts.de/price.htm

Nope!

Martyn1981

UK’s 5GW of PV makes it ‘Europe’s most important solar PV market’

The UK has reached 5GW of installed PV capacity, making it “the most important solar PV market in Europe”, at least during this year, according to the latest findings from analysis firm NPD Solarbuzz.

The UK is only the sixth country globally to have reached 5GW. Germany still leads the pack by some distance with 37GW, while China, Japan, the US and Italy all have over 10GW installed. The nation can now meet around 5.6% of its electricity demand from solar, Solarbuzz says, with 90% of the total amount installed in the past three years alone.

Note: That 5.6% figure didn't make much sense to me, but after a little number crunching, I think it means equal to 5.6% of annual domestic demand.

Also, looking at the UK digest of energy statistics, I suspect PV is already close to matching total annual generation by large scale hydro, and not far from matching all hydro (perhaps another year or two).

Mart.

mac2008

Excellent news - sixth country globally? Great success story, despite the inconsistent support from government.

In other topical news given the hot weather we've had recently, passive cooling using funky patterns on silica glass could provide a worthwhile efficiency and reliability gain. I guess it could also reduce glare:

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/12/self-cooling-solar-cells-better-performance-reliability/

nigelpm

Martyn1981 wrote: »

UK’s 5GW of PV makes it ‘Europe’s most important solar PV market’



Note: That 5.6% figure didn't make much sense to me, but after a little number crunching, I think it means equal to 5.6% of annual domestic demand.


Mart.

That's decent!

But of course the timing of it is sporadic.

Martyn1981

nigelpm wrote: »

That's decent!

But of course the timing of it is sporadic.

V true, not like reliable, predictable nuclear:-

Nuclear reactors in northern England to be shut down due to faults

Four nuclear reactors at two large power plants in the north of England are to be shut down temporarily, after inspectors discovered a fault with a boiler unit.

EDF Energy said four reactors at its Heysham 1 and Hartlepool plants were to be shut down while investigations continued looking into the defect.

The outages mean a third of Britain's nuclear capacity will be offline this week, following temporary maintenance work taking place at two of EDF's other reactors in Scotland and Kent.

An EDF spokesman said the latest shutdowns would not lead to power blackouts in the area, and the investigations would take around eight weeks.

The fault, which was found in the reactor's boiler units, was discovered by chance during routine inspections on one of the main reactors earlier this year.

Sorry. Couldn't resist that one.

Mart.

rogerblack

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Sorry. Couldn't resist that one.

Mart.

Quite relevant IMO.
Discussing solar in the absence of the impact of the rest of the electricity system is a bit broken.
In this case the cost of the plants shutting down will be really small.
I do wonder what would have happened if this had happened in the middle of the winter of 2010.