Solar PhotoVoltaics – Page 13

Trade war between US and China escalates

Solar trade disputes on anti-dumping duties

Solar trade war between US and China

A trade war begun between US and China as politicians argued and it all that started from a misunderstanding between solar manufacturers in China and Taiwan and U.S. Department of Commerce.

The ministry of Commerce in China responded to anti-dumping measures and counter investigations on Chinese solar products as it follows: “China will closely follow the case, assess the impact on the Chinese solar sector and resolutely safeguard our interests through various mechanisms.”

With delegates from China, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and the U.S. that participated in Friday’s pledge, the outcome of the U.S. Department of Commerce to begin anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations into Chinese and Taiwanese-made modules, including Taiwanese cells, will make sure that negotiations at the WTO, World Trade Organization, will not progress.

The list of goods for which it is hoped all tariffs and other trade barriers will be removed includes solar cells and inverters.

The US department of Commerce announced that an investigation started from a complaint that Chinese manufacturers were using alternative regarding import duties for solar imposed in 2012 to continue and sell at very low prices in the American market.

On the other hand, The Solar Energy Industries Association reported that if the US went forward with a new set of import duties regarding solar panels from China and Taiwan, it could lead to the cut off the supply of low-cost equipment that had a major impact in the industry’s boom in the past few years. A spokesman of SEIA announced that “As the conflict escalates, the threat to the industry grows.”

China sets new record in the PV world

China installed 12 GW of solar last year

Chinese PV developers reached a new milestone with 12 gigawatts of solar panels installed last year, almost doubling the total amount of solar plants in the U.S, this year they could exceed that as Bloomberg New Energy Finance announced.

The solar PV panels were made in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Xinjiang and Qinghai and bring China’s state-owned power companies the world’s biggest owners of solar valuables, as the London-based research company reported.

China was the largest solar market in 2013, outweighing the old leader Germany. Chinese solar installations are three times higher than they were two years ago, with a total of 3.6 gigawatts. This year it is said the Asian country will have 14 gigawatts of solar installed, as figures predict.

“The 2013 figures show the astonishing scale of the Chinese market. PV is becoming ever cheaper and simpler to install, and China’s government has been as surprised as European governments by how quickly it can be deployed in response to incentives.” said the lead solar analyst at New Energy Finance Jenny Chase.

Chinese investors completed the projects before the end of the year, until the1-yuan (17 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour incentive expired. This may bring maybe 2 gigawatts of late-year additions that are not part of the 12-gigawatt total.

China brought a 28 per cent raise in global solar installations in 2013. All installation may bring another 20 per cent this year, according to announcement. Until last year, no country execeded8 gigawatts of solar power installations in a year.

The SMA Fuel Save Solution authorized in APAC

Diesel gensets and photovoltaics finished in Vava'u islands

The SMA Fuel Save Solution in APAC

Diesel gensets and photovoltaics combined in a hybrid system under the umbrella of SMA Fuel Save Solution , has been commissioned in the APAC region. The infinit benefits of reduced energy costs, and a minimal reliance on fossil fuel are finally available the Tongan island of Vava’u. The hybrid contains the SMA Fuel Save Controller, which enables a smart integration of photovoltaics and leaves diesel gensets unmoved. Moreover, another unit that stores energy makes sure that rainy days are not a problem. The system is able to compensate up to 70 percent of Vava’u’s electricity demand during the day and nearly 13 percent of the total demand of the Island in a year.

The latest solar farm consists of ground-mounted PV and battery storage technology that is mixed in with the island’s diesel power station. The 500kW hybrid can generate 873MWh of energy in a year and it can coutercount approximately 225,000 litres of diesel every year. The system consists of 21 SMA Sunny Tripower 20000TL inverters, 15 SMA Sunny Backup 5000 inverters and the SMA Fuel Save Controller.

The brain of a large-scale power plant, more precisely central solar inverters, have long a primary choice among large-scale solar developers. They can provide all the needs and has a low cost per watt installation rate. Central solar inverters are destined to be a popular technology for utility-scale and large commercial solar power conversion because they bring more and more innovative features.

This type of inverters they recognize the field-proven history of the technology. The best central inverters have been set up in all kind of conditions around the world from the California desert to the Austrian Alps. Such inverters can work extreme heat and cold, sandstorms, maritime air and more. The most reliable central have an output rat of 110% in continuous operation at ambient temperatures up to 25° C.

Mark Twidell, Managing Director of SMA Australia says that “SMA is proud to be an integral part of the system at Vava’u, helping the Tongan government to reduce its fossil fuel dependency. This project benefits from the SMA Fuel Save Solution which stabilises the grid and prevents system failures.”

“The SMA Fuel Save Solution enables state of the art integration of PV into diesel genset systems without compromising operational readiness, reliability or fuel efficiency,” in Rodger Whitby’s words who is General Manager Generation of the Australian solar power company Ingenero that installed the solar farm.

Vava’u is the name of a chain made of one large island and 40 smaller ones in Tonga, in the South Pacific Ocean. The main island of Vava’u hast 90 square kilometres. Until now Vava’u used diesel generators for its electricity needs until but a hybrid energy system was developed for a cleaner energy. The Tonga Energy Road Map (TERM) aims to supply 50 percent of the Kingdom’s power demand from green energy sources until 2020. The project was possible due to Abu Dhabi based renewable energy company Masdar and is financed through a grant provided by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

The SMA Group is the global market leader for solar inverters, presents new key technologies for future power supply structures. It is has main offices in Germany, and is represented internationally in 21 countries.

Solar energy helps India with wildlife conservation

Indian village energy crisis solved by solar panels

Indian Village equiped with solar panels

Tiwaru Gaon, a Mayodia model Village, is one of the many villages that have no connection with electricity. That is the reason why Wildlife trust of India in association with the Department of Environment and Forest, Arunchal Pradesh supported by Europaeische Tierschutzstftung equiped the Indian village with solar energy installations. This comes as a solution for the electricity crises that the villagers are facing.

The action od the Wildlife trust of India comes as a premiere in the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary area (Mehao WLS) in Arunachal Pradesh in India. The villagers got solar equipment based on a total solar energy lighting system made of one solar panel, one chargeable multipurpose battery unit, one table lamp and an emergency light. The action is part of the “Interaction for Conservation Awareness & Distribution of Solar Equipment” an event organized by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in collaboration with Department of Environment & Forest, Arunachal Pradesh with support from Europaeische Tierschutzstftung that took place on Sunday.

Sunil Kyarong, Deputy Director and Regional Head of Wildlife Trust of India says that ”the community living around any protected area is the first layer of the protection shield. In order to consolidate the shield, we need to understand the psychology and the needs of the people. The distribution of solar sets will further bridge the conservation support and confidence for the ongoing Asiatic Black bear rehabilitation project and Hoolock Gibbon Translocation Project in Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary.”

Tiwari gaon is located at the edge if Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary (Mehao WLS), a place for people to sustain the bear conservation and rehabilitation project and Hoolock Gibbon Translocation Project for the safety of the wildlife.

“We do not have power supply since the inception of this village in the Mishmi hill ranges of Arunachal Pradesh. It is a great help to our villagers who has been suffering due to the energy power crisis. Despite such limitations they are actively supporting the wildlife conservation in Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary” as Napi Umpo, the village headman of Tiwari Gaon, announced.

Researchers found a way to convert solar into fuel

Solar top be converted in fuel for cheaper energy

Solar can be converted into fuel

The Frontier Research Center at UNC-Chapel Hill discovered a way to transform solar into fuel, so that people could have power even when the sun sets.

People could be truly independent with the help of this system and could say goodbye to the pricey solar batteries. U.S solar power researchers say the sun can be used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The Research Center recently published two papers about this whole process, papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tom Meyer, a chemistry Professor, explains that the system uses solar power until daylight exist, and meanwhile it cheaply separates hydrogen and oxygen from water. The two elements can then be stored separately and burned for power.

Meyer reports that power utilities have already got infrastructure for that: “See, that’s the beauty of it, I think. With this, you can plug into existing engineering, existing technologies. People know how to generate hydrogen. They know how store it. They know how to use it to extract energy in a power plant. So that’s all done. You know, all we want to do is find a way to give it to them in a relatively inexpensive way using the sun.”

Meyer also believes that this method can be used for cheaper power utilities someday:
“This is a basic research project that’s knocking on the door to become a technology. I think the principles are established and it’s really important, but the efficiency of the devices that we have are very low. That is, ‘Here’s all the sun’s energy. How much do you actually use in a useful way?’ And the answer’s about one percent.”

What Mayer says is that right now, only one percent of the solar power that gets to the device is being used to transform water into fuel. He also believes that the procedure won’t be effective for commercial use until that one percent turns into 10. His team also research for a way of separating carbon dioxide into its basic elements for fuel.

PV market is dominated by large-scale PV projects

PV industry is gowing thanks to large scale PV

Global PV growth is related to large scale project, 60% of which belong to China, the U.S. and Japan, a increase of 50% from 2010.China, the U.S. and Japan accounted for some 60% of all large-scale PV projects in 2013, up from less than 10% in 2010.

The large-scale PV market is comprised of rooftop projects larger than 100 kW and ground-mounted installations. As the most recent figures from the solar analysts, NPD Solarbuzz , show that large scale solar PV installations toped 26 GW during 2013 and stand exclusively for the annual development of global PV demand from 30 GW in 2012 to 36 GW in 2013.

Moreover, the solar analysts group say that they discovered that the large-scale solar PV market included also rooftop projects bigger than 100 kW in size and ground-mounted solar PV projects.

China stands for almost one-third of all large-scale solar PV capacity planted in 2013. PV panels installed in China, the United States and Japan stand for almost 60% of large-scale PV projects. This percentage comes after the three countries accounted for under 10% of large-scale PV additions in 2010.

Germany, India and the United Kingdom gathered with China, the U.S. and Japan in reaching or approaching GW status for large-scale PV added in 2013.

NPD Solarbuzz predicts that this trend approaching large-scale PV will carry on in 2014, and nearly 75% of all new solar PV capacity added will exist thanks to this segment. Furthermore, new PV for emerging solar PV regions will provide more upside potential.

Storing soar energy can be more cost-effective

Cheaper energy storage discovered by swiss scientist

If platinum takes the place of molybdenum in photoelectrochemical cells, as scientist from two Swiss labs report, the technique that can increase the hydrogen production through water splitting as a way of solar energy storage.

The only form of renewable that can be explored enough to supply the everybody’s up going needs is solar energy. Still, it is highly necessary to find efficient ways of storing solar energy because there is a need for a consistent energy supply when sunlight is limited.

The most effective way to do this is to utilize solar energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen and get the energy back by consuming hydrogen in a fuel cell. Scientist from two labs at EPFL have found a way to create an effective method to obtain scalable solar water splitting device with cheap materials.

Sill, solar systems cannot constantly produce adequate energy since sunlight is not always the same everywhere. This can be solved with another device that is able to store energy for a later use in the form of hydrogen with very little pollution.

Through the most sustainable methods of hydrogen production is photoelectrochemical water-splitting. In this method, they use solar energy to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen with a process called “hydrogen evolution reaction.” This method needs a chemical agent that grows its speed, named catalyst. The most familiar catalyst in this devices is platinum, that is situated on the surface of the solar panel’s photocathode—the solar panel’s electrode that transforms light into electric current.

The team from EPFL discovered that you can make efficient solar-powered water splitting devices even with abundant and cheap materials.

The group of Xile Hu came up with a molybdenum-sulfide catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction, and the group of Michael Grätzel discovered that copper oxide can be a photocathode. They also found that the molybdenum sulfide can be stored on the copper(I) oxide photocathode for use in photoelectrochemical water splitting by a deposition process.

The method reveals more efficiency then other hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts like platinum. It also preserves the optical transparency for the light-harvesting surface and it offers improved stability under acidic conditions, meaning lower maintenance. Moreover, both the catalyst and the photocathode are made of cheap, earth-abundant materials that can reduce the cost of photoelectrochemical water-splitting devices. As senior author Xile Hu says, the work is a state-of-the-art example for solar hydrogen production devices.

UK wind farm subsidies are to be cut off by Europe

Europe will oblige UK to cut wind power subsidies

U.K will cut off wind energy subsidies

The European Commission is going to request the British country to put an end to wind farm subsidies.

Ministers have been told that the present degree of state support for renewable energy sources have to be eliminated until 2020. Moreover, solar energy is not escaping either, as taxpayer support will also be phased out.

The European Commission that supervises the European single market is ready to try and convince that onshore wind in UK and solar power industries are developed enough to function even if taxpayers do not contribute.

A Government source announced that European officials have privately ordered ministers that they have to lower public support for onshore wind and solar generators.

Even if Conservative ministers don’t always agree with the Commission’s sometimes criticize the EC for its intervention in domestic matters, they are understood to be keen to cooperate in the case of renewable energy subsidies. A Conservative minister’s words are: “It’s absurd that taxpayers are being made to subsidies wind technology.”

The operators of onshore wind turbines get subsidies that make the power they generate more expensive. Ministers begun to cut off those subsidies, reducing tariffs that are applied to household bills and withering guaranteed prices for onshore wind. But the EC is pressuring him Coalition to impose a less supportive system for onshore wind and solar power. This new regime will take care of the fact that there will be a competition between wind farm operators and that there will be a share of a reduced pool of public subsidies.

The Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, announced that onshore wind and solar farm developers would be obliged to compete to secure government subsidies. The commission will announce the results of a review of support for renewable energy this month.
Although UK is happy with this cut off, other EU states do not want to reduce public support for renewables.

The EU’s climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard , said “One of the things Europe has to do better is how we subsidies renewables. That is why the commission is reviewing state aid guidelines for energy, including renewables. My view is that if you have mature technologies, renewables or not, they should not have state aid. If they can manage themselves why have state aid?”

2014 comes with a bad new for Romania: the green certificates are being reduced to half

Green certificates for solar to be reduced

Romanian Government announced the reduction of green certificates

The green certificates will be halved this year for all green energy projects that will be fulfilled after the first month of 2014. This means there will be three certificates per MW since now there are six per MW.

The Romanian government recently reported that it will reduce its support not only for solar PV, but also for wind and hydro energies by bringing down the number of green certificates. This measure is valid from today but is only valid for projects finished in February.

Unfortunately, solar PV is dealing with the biggest cut. This means that projects finished during next month will only get three green certificates per MW, as now they are getting six.

Romania is going with a measuring system for the support of renewables that says that the project developers get green certificates for every megawatt generated for 15 years after commissioning. Power suppliers and industrial users are obliged to purchase certificates based on an annual quota given by the energy regulator. So, the project developers are wining by selling certificates and also by selling electricity.

Still, a new study run by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) reveals that renewable power producers get way too many certificates for the generated energy and the investment they make in power plants is too small. So, the Romanian government was advised to cut the number of certificates per quota.

By these means, the Romanian government requested its efforts to be a struggle to minimize the effects of electricity high prices for households and industry.

The new contribution cuts, starting tomorrow, will have a purpose of obtaining a green certificate suspension approved in June by which the ministry ceases two out of six green certificates granted to PV energy producers per MWh put into the grid. These plans, however, will not be concerned in tomorrow’s policy.

Yet, the latest government policy is being regarded by many critics to be an attempt to put cuts in the investment flow into PV and other renewable techs, which have topped the initial national targets set by the energy manager bestowing to the country’s EU engagements.

Roxana MORARU

Scotland reaches 100 MW of solar

Scotland tops 100 MW of installed PV

Scotland has got 106 MW of PV capacity installed, meaning the country overcame de 100 MW milestone with 36% growth in only one year.

Official data from British energy analysts, Ofgem, show that the new 106 MW of installed PV capacity bluster represents a growth of 36% in 2013.

Although in Scotland the radiation rate is low, positive political policies and the desire for solar energy has influenced the industry boost this year and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) joined Scottish solar lobbyists in their cause to pursue the Scottish government to help the burgeoning industry develop.

Three years ago the country had only 2 MW of installed plants, 429 small-scale solar installations. This year over 28,000 homes, 56 communities, 22 industrial sites and 465 have solar modules installed, fact that encouraged the Scottish Solar Energy Group, WWF Scotland and the Energy Technology Partnership to ask the Scottish government to offer more political support for solar.

“Scotland might seem like an unlikely place for solar, but if you look at a solar radiation map, parts of Scotland receive about 80 to 90% of the solar energy of Germany, the world leader in solar deployment, with 35 GW installed to date,” said chairwoman of the Scottish Solar Energy Group, Anne-Marie Fuller. He also added that there is no reason for which significantly more solar could not be installed if people really wanted to.

The country also plans to have 100% green energy sources by 2020 taking into account the fact that offshore wind power is transitioning. Still, the country should not ignore the potential of solar PV power, especially the commercial and residential installations.

Roxana MORARU