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Solar PV more and more concentrated on energy savings

PV market is tuning into an energy saving market

The industry of solar energy is rapidly transforming from an investor’s market into an energy savings market, as the PV Parity Project states.

The solar photovoltaics industry provides its customers with electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity. The PV Parity Project is willing to participate with everything necessary to bring the technology in the EU electricity market and increase the competitiveness of the industry.

The group thinks that when the project comes to an end it will promote renewable energy technology and culminate in greenhouse gas emissions reduction, as well as diversifying energy supplies.

A new report shows that the existing costs of supporting schemes have helped the PV market grow and become more competitive, such as investment grants, net-metering, feed-in tariffs and green certificates in Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Austria. It also analyzed alternative support schemes.

The results of this report reveal the fact that self-consumption measures must be led by fair compensation for the electricity brought into the grid, in order to establish competiveness of installation driven by self-consumption.

This implies that for the time being, in most European countries, the compensation for the electricity fed into the grid, and not self-consumed has, to be even bigger than the market price for electricity.

“Self-consumption needs a specific regulatory framework, with a right to self-consume to be implemented and a lot of design criteria to be considered”, announced Fabian Pause, from SUER, the German Foundation for Environmental Energy Law.

The report noted that the self-consumption business model is dependent on the savings on grid costs and taxes.

Scientists announce solar panels could be cheaper

Scientists discovered a new ceramic material foe solar energy

Scientists have found a new ceramic material for solar panels

As we all know, solar panels give electricity by absorbing sunlight and that is only half of the process. After the electrons are energizes, they must be transferred in the same direction, a process that is typically accomplished with the help of a panel with layers of two kinds of material.

But a recent study made public by the journal Nature, the scientists reported that they found a way to simplify the process with the help of a solar ceramic material that can take care of both processes.

Until now the researchers have developed only just tablet-size bits of the new ceramic but they are sure it can be turned into panels that can produce energy and are more cost effective that the traditional silicon based ones.

The scientist announced that their creation would be more environmentally friendly as is made of potassium, niobium, barium and nickel as opposed to “thin-film” solar panels made of rare and toxic materials. Silicon also needs a lot of processing and manufacturing to be used in solar panels. The researchers say their combination of materials will become cheaper.

“We’ve opened up a new category of ways of making a solar cell,” announced Penn chemistry professor Andrew M. Rappe, who supervised modeling and computation for the project.

Solar power is still a tiny part of the energy consumed in the U.S and it represents only 1 percent of energy consumed in 2012, as to the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports.

Still, the general view is optimistic as solar power generation is only going up driven in part by government incentives.
Theoretically, this ceramic material could bring a 50% efficiency, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

UAVs could bring solar into the air

UAV perceptions could be changed by solar

UAV will bring solr in the air

UK start-up New Wave Energy is working on the UAV technology for aerial renewables to be built. The company’s plan includes raising $500,000 through crowd funding.

The project designers of the new technology that have in mind installation of solar farms on the unmanned aerial vehicles believe the project could bring a lot of opportunities for solar companies worldwide.

The director of UK start-up New Wave Energy UK, Michael Burdett, announced that the firm’s technology can offer a new capacity for solar and wind developers and manufacturers by means of the construction of renewables projects above the world’s oceans.

New Wave’s patent pending UAV technology will ‘allow for large solar farms to be constructed with ease over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans,’ added Burdett.

New Wave wants the prototype to be useful in disaster relief efforts and to prove the technology’s viability.

The company is collaborating with Texas A&M University in the U.S. in order to work on the wireless transmission aspect of the technology, that has been developed transmit energy to Earth from satellites.

The director also announced that the company has spoken to solar companies to explore collaboration and the use of various generation technologies.

“We would prefer to use thin film technologies due to the weight limitations for a UAV but we are willing to consider silicon panels and CPV technologies as well,” added the New Wave director.

Burdett added New Wave’s technology could also be used to construct solar farms above the world’s desert regions and he would be happy to work with the Desertec project, which aims to generate solar energy from the world’s desert and transmit it long distances to global energy demand centres.

The greenhouse in Fukushima tested by Solar Frontier

Thee greenhouse in Fukushima is to have PV installations

Fukushima grenhouse tested for PV

The Greenhouse PV Demonstration Project lead by Japan’s METI is included in a residential solar promotion campaign.

Japan’s thin film solar module manufacturer Solar Frontier started to test the greenhouse situated in Farmland in the Fukushima area of Japan, by planting solar installations.

Fukushima, the place of 2011’s tsunami and the following nuclear accident, is a place that has been managed very carefully since the two years old disaster.

Still, emboldened by the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s (METI) “Projects Promoting Residential Solar and Economic Recovery 2012” program, the module manufacturer has started investigating the chances of solar energy to succeed in this area by partly supplying actual greenhouses with solar panels.

The “Greenhouse PV Demonstration Project” is a gathered project initiated by Solar Frontier and the Fukushima government to prove that the potential solar sale revenue of a selected greenhouse in Fukushima is real. Solar Frontier will install 324 solar panels with 50 kW total rated capacity across 1,300m² of greenhouse roofs and the greenhouse continues to grow its produce.

The point is to test how much impact will have the shading of the solar panels on the growth of the fruits and vegetables in the area. Results are to be published at the beginning of the next year, and could be a part of a new agricultural revenue stream for the PV industry.

German ground mount experts Belectric are also a part of the project, and are responsible with constructing and engineering the project, and inverters are supplied by SMA and greenhouse expertise coming from Les Industries Harnois.

The main purpose if Solar Frontier is the recovery of Fukushima and the company is giving away the solar power to local elementary and junior high schools in an effort to help fill the energy gap created when Japan decided to take its nuclear power plants offline.

Photovoltaic installations in China are to reach 12 GW next year

Jiangsu province is leading the list of top PV installations

China is at the moment leading the total Asia Pacific baseline prognosiss to 24 GW for 2014, with the maximum of 32 GW.

China is at the moment leading the total Asia Pacific guideline prediction to 24 GW for 2014, with an upside as high as 32 GW, as NPD Solarbuzz report.

According to NPD Solarbuzz report, new solar installations are said to be as high as12 GW — a figure that certifies the preceding forecast.

The upcoming installations combine 8 GW of distributed PV generation and 4 GW of ground mounted arrays. Moreover, the Jingsu Province is said to be the head of the market with 1.3 GW of quotas in the pipeline. The provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang are next with 1.2 GW and 1.1 GW, respectively. Other provinces are in the top ten list, list that consists of Hebei, Guangdong, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Henan and Gansu.

The published measuress for 2014 should bring confidence to project investements in China PV and reflects “the positive attitude of the Bureau of Energy towards the rooftop segment,” NPD Solarbuzz announced.

The Bureau of Energy believes the allocation to the ground mounted segment can be adjusted based on the progress of installations in 2014.

NPD Solarbuzz also said that the growth in solar photovoltaic request from China was “now driving the total Asia Pacific (APAC) baseline forecast to 24 GW for 2014, with an upside as high as 32 GW.”

The solar market research company also said that the addition from the APAC region was a significant contributor to its upgrade of global prediction for 2014 to the 45-55 GW level.

China is to have the greatest request for solar PV again next year.

Google, KKR and Recurrent Energy ally on six solar farms

Google teams up with two parteners to invest in solar

Google invest in solar

The $400 million cash and debt deal mean five California solar plants and one array built in Arizona that will have a combined capacity of 106 MW.

The private equity group KKR and Google have engaged in a deal to put money, $400 million to be precise, into a six solar plants installed in the U.S states of California and Arizona. The plants are to be constructed by Sharp Corp.-owned company Recurrent Energy LLC.

Google announced that the six plants, five in southern California and one in Arizona, are expected to function in the first trimester of the next year. Their capacity is sufficient to bring light for 17,000 homes.

Google reports that it would invest $80 million as part of the settlement. The total combined investment $400 million, is consisted of cash and debt.

The Internet giant said it would invest $80 million as part of the agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the total joint investment, pegged at $400 million, was a combination of cash and debt.

This project is the internet giant’s 14th investment in clean energy and the second time it has partnered with KKR and Recurrent on solar projects. Google has invested more than $1 billion in wind and solar endeavors projects.

The San Francisco-based Recurrent, that will operate the plants n the future, has contracts for a long time with three buyers.

Google is a giant investor. Last month company reported that it will team up with Silver Ridge Power for $103 million investment in a solar plant.

Roxana MORARU

Spanish solar reforms could damage EU laws

Spanish reforms break EU laws

As industry representatives claim, proposed post-factum changes to solar support in Spain could not be employing two of the decrees issued by the UE. A letter was sent to European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, in which European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Spanish industry body Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF) are inquiring if the intentions of Spain to impose taxes for utilization of solar energy, and surmount revenues for private investors, are in fact coresponding to the aims of the European Union.

The letter states that “In summary, the proposed Electricity Sector Act undermines the internal market and runs in contradiction with the Renewable Energy Directive. It is retroactive, discriminatory and hinders fair competition. It will seriously damage the investment climate for photovoltaics, not only in Spain but throughout Europe, by turning PV into a perceived risky investment.”

“We therefore urge you to investigate any possible violation of the European law and take all necessary actions to give a new perspective to the Spanish renewable energy sector.” Spain is forcing laws that will require owners of photovoltaic panels to pay for using own generated solar energy, a tax set higher than basic electricity prices. The country is trying to recover an approximated energy budget loss of €26 billion (US$34 billion).

Simultaneously spanish investors in solar projects will have a rate of return, after tax payment, of about 5-5.5% over their original expenditure. Frequently the cost of borrowing is very much alike or higher than this.

The national policy advisor, Marie Latour, believes that EPIA and UNEF believe that this reorganization could be have a discrepancy with the directive Directive on 2009/28/EC because the retroactive measures put in danger the security needed for investments and could cause the fulfillment of the binding objectives incorporated in this directive.

“We believe that by penalising self-consumption, the proposal also runs in contradiction with the objectives of a more efficient distribution energy system as promoted by the Directive on energy efficiency [2012/27/EU],” she added.

The Energy Commission on Tuesday announced some ground rules for the intervention in the electricity market with retroactive measures vigorously restrained. The document is part of a forerunner to EU State Aid guidelines for the electricity market for the upcoming year.

“Unannounced or retroactive changes to the support schemes must be avoided. Investors’ legitimate expectations concerning the returns on existing investments must be respected,” read the commission statement.

The government of Murcia said that the Spanish government was taken to the the constitutional court with the claim that the reforms are in violation of the international 1994 Energy Charter Treaty. The document articulates the fact that signatories should “encourage and create stable, equitable, favorable and transparent conditions for investors of other contracting parties to make Investments in its area”.

Roxana MORARU

Transatlantic offer for future designed batteries for energy storage

New storage batteries to be discused in Europe

New discussions about next generetion of energy storage batteries

A project for the next generation of batteries for energy deposits, worth $120 million is searching for support all the way across the Atlantic. A conference at the US embassy in Berlin was needed for a better understanding of the German competence.

America’s Argonne National Laboratory is willing to get a safe and secure transatlantic help for a $120 million five-year expand the next generation of batteries.

When the plan was presented- a plan that has the purpose of developing batteries that have five times the energy density of today’s ones at a fifth of the cost by 2017 – at the U.S. embassy in Berlin, George W. Crabtree, the project director, announced: “We have to go beyond lithium-ion batteries for advanced renewable energybattery storage.”

The eight-month-old project at the Illinois-based university was showcasted at an energy storage roundtable at the embassy.

The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research project has already trained about two dozen partners from other national U.S. laboratories, universities and private companies that include Johnson Controls (JCI), Dow Chemicals and Applied Materials and is reviewing new materials and battery designs, at the moment.

Crabtree also reported that the project team is, as of now, talking into account the feasibility of replacing solid electrodes with liquid solutions or suspensions and also considering the use of magnesium or aluminum anodes.

German R&D institutes, ministries and private companies thalked about each others experiences at the roundtable and Juliana Walsh from the embassy spelled out: “We are glad we could give an impulse for stronger transatlantic co-operation in the field of renewable energies with our roundtable.”

Roxana Moraru

Skytron energy to install another 50 MW PV in Romania

ROmania's skytron installed PV to grow untill 115 MW

Romania grid will grow with 50 MW

65 MW of PV energy was already inaugurated in Romania by the German company. This 65 MW of solar consist of two plants and along with the last project, Skytron gathers 115 MW.

The firm that operates in the development of monitoring, control and supervision systems for clean energy programs, Berlin-based skytron solar energy, reports that it has been given to it a a 50 MW PV project in Romania by local EPC company, LSG Building Solutions. The pant is delegated to be finished until the end of the year and comes after two successfully installed PV plants, plants situated in the Romanian Giurgiu district, and both put together by skytron and LSG Building Solutions.

Skytron was not chosen to take care of this project in vain, but because of its expert knowledge of the grid system in Romania. This comes as a quite difficult request as this system is not as typical as other systems are.

skytron’s power plant controller is able to accommodate the power that goes into the grid in response to any transformation in grid frequency and the load capacity the PV plant can manage at any given time.

For this thins to happen, skytron has to measure the available PV power based on data provided by the company’s real-time condition monitoring system. A frequency stabilization system like this is one of a kind because it put into action without the necessity for expensive energy storage facilities.

“We are now realizing our third major project with skytron energy,” announced LSG’s general manager for Romania, Gerhard Lipkovich. “Initial teething troubles were quickly solved by skytron’s dependable cooperation and willingness to provide all the support and training necessary.”

“skytron energy were able to complete the final commissioning of 50 MW, including the complex controllers, in just two days. All of this convinced us about skytron’s proficiency,” he added.

Roxana Moraru

The grid of the UK recently enlarged with juvi’s commercial renewable energy

A Uk campany will have 80 % of itţs energy from clean sources

Wind turbine and solar to provide for a UK company

Renewable energy contributes to Kings Lynn-based KL Technologies energy supply providing 80% of its power needs.

A U.K.-based subsidiary of juwi group, Renewable Energies Ltd, finished a ingenious clean energy program for KL Technologies last week.

The Kings Lynn company has put their money into juwi’s facility to create a hybrid solar and wind power plant that stands for 80% of its energy needs.

The full capacity was not reached from the beginning since the 1.5 MW wind turbine was added only recently. The hybrid now brings KL Technologies the joy of low energy costs.

Since last year, when the solar plant was linked to company’s power grid, has broght approximately 2,000 MWh of renewable energy. But now, with the new wind turbine, KL technologies have little to worry about energy costs since the majority of energy is renewable. Moreover, it gives everybody an example of how solar and wind can shake hands and help companies meet their goals of using both low-priced and renewable energy.

“We save money and secure jobs by stabilizing our energy costs. The plant provides a real financial benefit to the company. With energy price increases expected each year for the foreseeable future we have locked in an electricity rate that allows the project to pay for itself while fixing our electricity price at a level where we can operate without fear of untenable energy costs” as Mark Hamilton, KL Technologies‘ financial director, announced.

Juwi said that at first the project seems difficult to implement but since the company had experience in difficult situations, it helped KL Technologies accomplish it’s plan.”We had to work around an existing industrial facility and connect the plant to it while the business was in full operation. We constructed the plant with lower costs so we could run it economically even with the lower FIT,” Jan Sisson, juwi Renewable Energies Limited MD.

From the moment the plant was put into function, the employees responded in a good way. “Employees see the investment in a UK manufacturing plant as very positive for the sustainability of the site, Customers also like the idea that their product is made by using eco-friendly energy, and the profile of the site within the local community has also increased significantly” in Hamilton’s opinion.