Solar Magazine – Page 35 – Solar energy news and analysis

PV generation saved by the Japanese government. The companies are offer low-interests loans

The government in Japan is willing to help the Pv industry bloom. Regarding this matter, the government thought is for the best that the companies are offered low-interest loans for. The offer is available to those who install rooftop power systems.

The Japanese government is offering to help rooftop PV installers boost.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan will soon provide secure low interest loans to companies burrowing rooftop space for solar panels.

Citing the Nikkei newspaper, Bloomberg informs that the credit will be available via public financial institutions such as the Development Bank of Japan.

Companies will be allowed to sell electricity produced by the solar panels on the rooftops of people’s homes. These homeowners will also have something to gain in return for renting their rooftop space: they will receive between 10,000 yen ($97, €75) and 20,000 yen ($195, €150) a year.

Roxana Moraru

A new South African PV project has Google’s $ 10m investment

Richard Needham, the Google director, announced that his company invested ZAR103 million, meaning US$10 million in the Jasper Project. The search engine giant believes that the African country can become a renewable energy driver for the entire continent.

Google’s director for energy and sustainability believes that there are points to take into account when analyzing PV investments. It can have an economic sense or it can attract other investments that will “bolster the growth of the renewable energy industry and move the world closer to a clean energy future”, in the director’s terms.

The failure of the Google’s investments is almost never revealed but Bloomberg did not failed to announce that the giant is one of the equity investors in the african PV project together with SolarReserve, a U.S project developer, development partner Kensani Capital Investments; Intikon Energy; the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa; non-profit organization P.E.A.C.E.; and state pension fund Public Investment Group.

The search engine giant never fails to announce its investments in renewable energy so Reuters says that the company funded $94 million of photovoltaic projects in California and launched a $280 million financing package with SolarCity for residential solar installations among with acquiring a 49% stake in a German solar project in 2011.

Roxana Moraru

300 MW of solar projects are to be constructed by Chinese Merchants

The Chinese city of Xingtai and China Merchants New Energy Group signed a deal to develop 300 MW of solar projects in home market.

China Merchants New Energy Group (CMNE), a renewable energy project developer is going to build this year a third of the initial project, meaning 100 MW of solar project will be located in China’s Hebei province south of Beijing, as the company spokesman announced during this week.

The representatives of the company also said they will not give information regarding the financial details of Xingtai enterprise. Despite this, the company allied with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Investment Co. so that they could develop 300 MW of solar projects in the Xinjiang province in northwestern China by 2015 with a total investment of invest CNY 3 billion ($489 million, €378 million).

Moreover, in the past year CMNE invested CNY 10 billion in solar projects. The money came from China Development Bank. This was also a joint venture with with Chinese polysilicon giant GCL-Poly Energy Holdings with whom they would produce 973 MW of PV facilities.

Last year CMNE secured CNY 10 billion from the China Development Bank to finance solar projects and the group partnered with Chinese polysilicon giant GCL-Poly Energy Holdings to develop some 973 MW of PV facilities in the country.

Roxana Moraru

Renewable solar energy found new investors in India

A coal giant company, the largest in India, named Coal India Limited is said to be willing to invest in renewable solar industry.

The company is ready to acquire a 2 MW project in the renewable solar industry with the purpose of altering into PV energy.

An Indian news agency called DNAIndia announced that the Indian company, Coal India, is taking measures for a 2 MW solar PV plant at Sambalpur. Moreover, the company plans to extend a rooftop PV installation at its Central Mine Planning and Design Institute research facility in Ranchi.

As the Sambalpur plan is concerned, the Indian company is thinking of taking over nine acres of Coal India land. This is viewed as a commercial project, thus DNA says that the Ranchi rooftop would be functioning to minimize the company’s energy bills.

DNA also brings into the center of attention the fact that Coal India is barely following a veer that has seen public sector mining rival Neyveli Lignite Corp in the middle of developing the first 10 MW phase of an eventual 25 MW project near Neyveli airstrip. This means that Coal India is not even close to being an unequalled volte face.

Roxana Moraru

A new line of PV related products will be unveiled by Solar Edge Technologies

The North American market would be provided with end-to-end solar power optimization systems and monitoring solutions as announced by SolarEdge Technologies, a global supplier.

The new line of Pv related products will be available for starters for commercial applications in North America.

The global provider offers: a line of 3-phase solar inverters from 9kW to 20kW in size; a 600W capable power optimizer enabling a two-to-one connection for 60 cell modules; and a new gateway for site communication and PV monitoring.

Among with the implementations of the new line, comes the possibility to alter a simpler photovoltaic system design. Above all this is the lowering of the installation cost.

“Lower LCOE [levelized cost of energy] with a differentiated and optimized solution is the key to winning in the commercial market, Improved energy harvest, superior operation and maintenance capabilities, and a simplified system design have already led to the successful installation of 150MW of 3 phase systems in Europe and we expect to encounter similar high demand in North America” announced Peter Mathews, Vice President of Sales for SolarEdge North America. “

The new Pv related products line allows the installation of a much longer module strings. The new inverters reach a high weighted CEC efficiency of up to 98%, with the help of string voltage design that can guarantee an optimal dc/ac conversion.

The new power optimizer reaches a maximum efficiency of 99.5%. SolarEdge can also optimize the PV system by developing the magnitude of energy harvest and allowing module level monitoring and enhancing system safety.

Roxana Moraru

New PV software solutions presented by Diaspark Inc

The entire PV energy business will have personalized and adjustable software solutions. This also aims at commercial and utility-scale solar markets.

The full line of PV software solutions will be named Diaspark Energy. This new PV solutions includes photovoltaic systems connected to a utility source or electrical service provider among software development features.

The most promising articles are Performance Monitoring and Analysis, Project Management, Alert Management, Comparison of Prediction vs. Actual Power Generation, Management of Compliance and State Incentive Programs.

“Diaspark has always been focused on high performance, reliable and customizable software solutions and will continue to develop robust software solutions under this new brand, which will help us distinguish our services in the renewable energy market” announced Parvindar S Gujral, VP Enterprise Services, Diaspark Inc.

The O & M unit will increase the competence, full proofness and safety by preventing the equipment’s problem. It also identifies routine and unplanned equipment maintenance and sends automatic notifications through email.

Roxana Moraru

Analysts from Luxor Research predict a 100% growth until 2018

The photovoltaic sector is said to reach US$155 billion until 2018, in the perspective of Luxor Research.

The analysts claim PV industry will jump up to 61.7 GW, although in 2013 there was only a minor increase to 35 GW. China is ready to jump to the top and become the biggest market.

The sector has dropped since 2011, but the researchers claim that it would have a “healthy 10% compound annual growth rate.”

The investigations also show that China, Japan and India will continue from the point where Germany and Italy have left off. Moreover, the U.S is going to be the second largest market with 10.8 GW of installations in the already mentioned year. Above it will be China, leading 12.4 GW.

Luxor Research show that commercial applications will become the head segment because of the U.S. and Japan increasing markets in the rooftop installations area.

“Manufacturers’ nightmare is turning into a long-term boon for the industry. Record low prices pushed gross margins to near zero or below, but they’ve made solar installations competitive in more markets, Supply and demand will come back into balance in 2015, easing price pressure, returning manufacturers to profitability and restoring the industry to equilibrium,” announced Ed Cahill, Lux Research Associate and the lead author of the report.

Roxana Moraru

ABB is being sued by Power-One stockholders

A lawsuit has been filed by U.S. inverter manufacturer Power-One stockholders against ABB, claiming that the $1 billion acquisition price is too low.

Power-One stockholders believe that their value has been underestimated by ABB who offered $1billion for purchasing the company. The former believe that the energy market is “set to explode over the next decade.”

Mario Furtado was the one who filed the class action and announced the main reasons to do so. He implied that figures from the U.S Department of Energy are in the opinion of the fact that global energy requests will raise by 100% in the next 12 years. Moreover the International Energy agency says that photovoltaic systems market will increase with 10% every year for the next 8 years.

One day before the announcement of the deal, the stocks were rated at the price of $4.04 by NASDAQ. ABB offered a bonus of 57% on top of that, bringing a stock to $6.34 and announced after the offer of a 59% bonus. However, Furtado said that the price could go higher, in the past year the stock range being around $7.

Thus the deal is said to be closed in the upcoming half of this year.

Roxana Moraru

Photovoltaic art. A PV sunflower was design for an exhibition in Austria

Paul Klee’s word to describe art are: “Art does not reproduce what we see, rather it makes us see”.

Starting from this concept, Konrad Feichtinger created a sunflower sculpture with ertex-solar photovoltaic modules.

The sculpture was designed in order to participate in the national outgoing exhibition in Austria, “Alte Spuren, neue wegen”, or, in other words “Old Traces, new ways”.

The innovative plants produce up to 1400 watts of power. This power, with the help of a control software developed by the Ars Electronia Center in Linz, is delivered to the exposition’s visitors Their height reaches seven meters and they are distributed over nine areas.

The visitors of the exposition are enwrapped in the evening hours by the flower’s colorful light reflected by it’s LEDS. The atmosphere there is fascinating.
Konrad Feichtinger says that the plant produces more energy than the visitors consume.

Roxana Moraru

PV wafer production would increase to 19% in 2013, according to recently released estimates

Because in Japan there is a growing demand for photovoltaic wafers, the 2011 wafer production levels will be reached again in 2013.

Despite its fall to 15% in 2012, photovoltaic wafer production increase to 19% this year, the most recent data provided by Wafer Supply Chain Quarterly and NPD Solarbuzz Polysilicon state that photovoltaic wafer production will increase to 19% this year, mostly because in Japan there is a growing demand for such products.

“Supported by attractive solar PV incentive rates, Japan will account for more than 10% of global PV demand in 2013,” are the words of NPD Solarbuzz Vice President Charles Annis.

The progress of Japan in particular is said to urge the need for premium efficiency modules that use mono c-Si wafers.

“Multi c-Si wafer manufacturers are constantly improving casting approaches and developing new high-efficiency multi-wafers. Leading wafer manufacturers are now selling high-efficiency multi c-Si wafers with efficiencies as high as 18%, which is in the range of low end mono c-Si wafers, and thus helps maintain the competitiveness of multi c-Si based products,” added the Vice President.

However, if the mono c-Si wafers would increase their market share in comparison to multi c-Si wafers, improvements in mono ingot production and module efficiencies are needed, informs NPD Solarbuzz.

To sum up NPD Solarbuzz predicts that by 2015, mono c-Si cell production will develop much faster than multi c-Si cell production, creating more applications.

Roxana Moraru