Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981 · 23 July 2015 at 6:08PM

Solar can be ‘first subsidy-free’ renewable, claims REA and KPMG

Solar can be the UK’s first subsidy-free renewable energy source and could reach grid parity by 2020 as long as the government can provide a “smooth transition” over the coming years, a report issued by both the Renewable Energy Association and Big Four auditors KPMG.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 23 July 2015 at 6:13PM

China eyes further PV target increase in 13th five-year plan

The National Energy Administration is currently thrashing out the terms of the 13th iteration of its five-year plan, and may outline a 2020 PV target of 200 GW, sources say.

Early indications are that the NEA will seek to increase the targeted solar PV installation figure from 100 GW by 2020 to a far higher figure, with some sources suggesting 200 GW by that date.

In 2009, the original PV installation target for the 12th five-year plan was a mere 5 GW, but that threshold has been consistently increased over the past few years, and stood at 35 GW in 2014.

I've got to say that 200GW by 2020 doesn't sound possible. But when has the impossible ever stopped China?

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 1 August 2015 at 6:47PM

Doubt anyone will be surprised to hear that the high(ish) levels of installs this last year continued through the 2nd qtr of 2015, so another 3.5% degression has been triggered.

FiT rates 1/10/15:

up to 4kWp = 12.47p/kWh
4 to 10kWp = 11.30p/kWh

Ofgem confirms October feed-in tariff rates

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 4 August 2015 at 6:24PM

Solar once again UK’s most popular renewable energy technology

Statistics released by DECC this morning revealed that 81% of those surveyed supported solar, higher than any other renewable source of energy, while just 6% said they opposed its deployment.

Wave and tidal energy was the second most popular source with 74% support, while onshore wind was the least popular but was still supported by almost two-thirds (65%) of those surveyed.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 7 August 2015 at 7:40AM

Australia is to carry out pilot trials of PV + storage:

Australia: Queensland rolls out virtual power plant project

Some extracts:

A utility in northeastern Australia is rolling out a pilot solar+storage pilot project to create a ‘virtual power plant’ in areas where grid capacity is constrained. The 12-month project will allow for remote control of the residential solar+storage systems to provide grid support.

The pilot program will assess the impact the systems, forming a ‘virtual power plant’, have on grids in terms of managing solar feed in, supplying demand management services and reducing peak loads.

SunPower has been developing and trialing its ‘Smart Energy’ systems in Australia for over 12 months. Australia has high levels of residential solar penetration, with around one in five households nationally sporting a PV array. With limited tariffs paid for solar electricity being fed into the grid in most states and high electricity prices, Australia is emerging as a leading market in terms of solar+storage deployment.

Hopefully the economics of these systems will be made to work, then the costs will fall allowing places (like the UK) with lower generation levels to adopt them.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 20 August 2015 at 1:19PM

[Prime Minister] Modi calls solar ‘ultimate solution’ to India’s energy problem

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has described solar energy as the “ultimate solution” to India’s energy problems and called on domestic scientists to work on developing more efficient solar equipment.

Modi has put solar energy high on the agenda since coming to power last year by approving the increase of the national solar target from 22GW to 100GW by 2022. Alongside power minister Piyush Goyal, he has also pledged to give all Indians access to electricity, which would involve a significant increase in coal-fired power capacity. Nevertheless, a recent Deutsche Bank report forecast that investment in solar energy in India could surpass investment in coal by as early as 2019.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 21 August 2015 at 9:49PM

France doubles solar tender size as prices catch up with wind

The French government has doubled the size of a solar tender from 400 to 800MW, claiming that bid prices for solar had now fallen to a similar level as wind power.

For background. France has 'seen the light', when it comes to nuclear and renewables. The nuclear contribution is currently 85% of generation, and 75% of consumption (they have to export a lot of unwanted nuclear generation at night). They have decided to reduce it down to 50%, by increasing the amount of generation they get from renewables.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 25 August 2015 at 10:16PM

Report: Solar feed-in tariff rates could be cut by up to 50%

I've repeatedly said that the FiT is once again FaT. But I'm not sure a 50% cut in one go would be fair. That would take it down to around 6p. I'll hope for a figure closer to 10p with a scheduled reduction to 6p over 2 years.

The best locations, and best price quotes might still work at 6p, just, but northern locations, small rooves, off south rooves, and shaded rooves will probably be priced out. Lets hope the cowboys disappear and we see more quotes in the sub £5k range.

On the brighter side, 6p FiT + 2.5p export (at 50%) would make domestic PV funding lower than large scale nuclear (9.3p). Not sure if that'll cheer anyone up?

Mart.

michaels · 26 August 2015 at 1:00PM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Report: Solar feed-in tariff rates could be cut by up to 50%

I've repeatedly said that the FiT is once again FaT. But I'm not sure a 50% cut in one go would be fair. That would take it down to around 6p. I'll hope for a figure closer to 10p with a scheduled reduction to 6p over 2 years.

The best locations, and best price quotes might still work at 6p, just, but northern locations, small rooves, off south rooves, and shaded rooves will probably be priced out. Lets hope the cowboys disappear and we see more quotes in the sub £5k range.

On the brighter side, 6p FiT + 2.5p export (at 50%) would make domestic PV funding lower than large scale nuclear (9.3p). Not sure if that'll cheer anyone up?

Mart.

Solar PV is now big enough to have a marked impact on overall energy requirements during peak generation periods. For this reason wouldn't it make sense to have a realtively higher FIT for E and W facing installations to make up for the 10% reduction in overall generation capacity from such aspects. Surely in terms of grid economics generation outside of current peak PV hours is much more valuable?

Martyn1981 · 26 August 2015 at 2:51PM

michaels wrote: »

Solar PV is now big enough to have a marked impact on overall energy requirements during peak generation periods. For this reason wouldn't it make sense to have a realtively higher FIT for E and W facing installations to make up for the 10% reduction in overall generation capacity from such aspects. Surely in terms of grid economics generation outside of current peak PV hours is much more valuable?

Hiya michaels. Given that I have an E/W system I probably shouldn't go near this issue as I'll only get more abuse. But ..... when PV gets closer to 20GWp it may cause problems (unless we have storage by then) so it does make a lot of sense.

One solution as I see it is to reduce FiT payments without removing the inclusiveness for northern, smaller, shaded, off south installs, would be to cap the annual payments at a level (perhaps 2 or 3,000kWh's) so that lesser systems still work, but the higher FiT doesn't get paid out, as much, to better systems. But others may not agree with the inclusiveness argument and prefer PV only in the very best domestic situations, which does have a simple truth to it, but like you I think it's more complicated than that.

I just hope that whatever is decided doesn't hit the sector too hard too fast, as it can cope with a steady reduction, but all in one go, could hurt the industry.

Mart.

Solar ... In the news

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