Solar News. It's always sunny.

[rubato]

The last time I checked the cheapest alternative was natural gas which was about $1/watt. But natural gas is subject to fluctuating gas prices which PV does not.


https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/06/12/ ... -w-charts/

U.S. utility-scale solar falls below US$1 per watt (w/ charts)

A Q1 report by GTM Research and SEIA found PV system price declines across all sectors, following collapses in component pricing. Fixed-tilt utility-scale systems broke the US$1 per watt barrier for the first time during the quarter.

Starting in the second quarter of 2016, PV module prices began a free-fall which has brought great pain to PV makers, and may be the greatest single factor in the bankruptcies of the two largest U.S. crystalline silicon PV makers, SolarWorld and Suniva.

GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) are reporting that average module prices fell by a third from Q2 to Q4 2016, to land at $0.39 per watt in the fourth quarter, and only rebounded to $0.40 per watt during Q1, in the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight report.

However, this collapse and similar declines in the prices of other components has helped the U.S. utility-scale solar sector to reach a new record. The report found that for the first time, the average price of fixed-tilt solar PV systems has fallen a penny below $1 per watt-DC, a 6% decline from the previous quarter.

The average price of PV systems using single-axis tracking was not much above that at $1.08 per watt, which also represented a 6% fall.

[rubato]

Still another economic milestone is rapidly approaching the PV industry. And Elon Musk is looking even smarter for combining electric vehicles, battery production, and rooftop PV systems.

Study finds that storage prices are falling faster than PV and wind technologies

Energy storage projects may bring the cost per kWh of a lithium-ion battery down from $10,000/kWh in the early 1990’s to $100/kWh in 2019, according to a new study written by a research team from University of California and TU Munich in Germany, and published in Nature Energy.

This result, if confirmed, would indicate that prices for lithium-ion storage systems are dropping faster than PV or wind technologies, the scientists claim, and that the new combination of solar, wind and storage will soon be able to outcompete coal and natural gas plants on cost alone, due to this price fall. The achievement of the $100/kWh target, however, may be endangered by a recent lack of investment for basic and applied research, the researchers stated. According to the research, in fact, US federal R&D spending declined over the past four decades from about 1.2% to 0.8% of the US GDP.

The scientists have developed a two-factor learning curve model to analyze the impact of innovation and deployment policies on the cost of storage technologies, which includes production volumes and patent activity. This model, according to the research team, explains the recent plunge of battery prices better than both conventional models using economies of scale or a classic experience curve approach, as these usually overestimates prices.

Using this two-factor model the scientists concluded that long-term R&D spending and innovation were crucial to cost reductions. “Our framework supports prevailing technological learning literature that describes innovation as a more critical component of cost reductions compared to deployment” said the research team in its paper. ... "

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/07/31/ ... hnologies/


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[rubato]

One serious cautionary note; and this is something which worried me about the widespread use of Li-ion battery systems like Tesla's "power wall". Those batteries are so dangerous when they burn that they are illegal to transport by plane except when they are in a device. If I were to install one in a home it would have to be part of an exterior wall with a significant heat barrier protecting the home or a free-standing structure outside the home.





https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/02/13/ ... ian-homes/

[rubato]

Someone, or actually a lot of "someones", has found a way to get a present economic benefit from the "Chernobyl exclusion zone". Which was otherwise a natural reserve (not open to the public). The downsides are that people will have to be in the area to do the installation and then return several times a year to clear plants which would grow over the panels and to clean the panels themselves. Speaking of which I don't know what local snowfall is like but they may need much more frequent cleaning during snowy weather.


https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/08/02/ ... r-project/

Ukraine to lease area of Chernobyl nuclear plant for solar project

An area of around 2.5 million square meters will be leased for a PV project with a maximum capacity of 100 MW.
August 2, 2017 Emiliano Bellini


Ukraine’s project to make the Chernobyl’s nuclear wasteland into a solar energy hub has taken another step forward.

The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF) has announced it is now seeking solar developers interested in leasing a surface of 2.5 million square meters at a facility of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In a statement published on its website, the agency said the area will be leased for a period of 49 years, and that it can host a solar power plant with a maximum capacity of 100 MW.

The Ukrainian government had announced in late May it intended to accelerate the procedures to select PV developers interested in investing in the project to convert the contaminated area of the nuclear disaster into a huge solar park. At the time, the country’s prime minister Volodymyr Groysma said the government had begun defining bidding conditions for all interested investors, as well as a clear and transparent auction mechanism.

Later in June, the French energy company Engie began a pre-feasibility study to assess the viability of building a GW-size solar farm in the radioactive zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Furthermore, there are several more companies interested that have applied for an allocation of land parcels to build solar in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone since the beginning of the year. Ukraine’s State Agency for Managing the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone had received 39 applications for the allocation of land parcels to build solar power plants in the Chernobyl Zone as of January 1, 2017.

The Ukrainian government announced its 1 GW solar plan for the Chernobyl area in 2016. The first move made by Ukraine’s parliament at the time was to adopt a bill to reopen the exclusion zone to business developments.

I continue to be surprised at how far north people are willing to invest in PV solar projects. I guess the longer days of summer offset the low angle of the sun and short days of winter more than I thought.


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[BoSoxGal]

There was a special on CNN last night talking about solar energy and the massive investments being made by China into that and other alternative energies. It seems the US is really being left behind in a huge way by our government's ties to the fossil fuels industries. If we wait much longer, we just won't catch up - imagine all the good jobs and economic activity we aren't pursuing. Meanwhile Dear Leader panders to the dead coal industry . . .

[Long Run]

When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.

But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.

These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, roughly a fifth of these new coal power stations are in other countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/clim ... hange.html

[Gob]

Long may they burn coal...

Booming sales of iron ore and coal to China helped deliver the first trade surplus since 2011 over the past year as exports surged by 17 per cent while the nation’s appetite for imports barely changed.

China took a record 33 per cent of Australia’s exported goods over 2016-17, while Chinese students and tourists also helped to boost exports of services.

[rubato]

An article about what Chinese-based companies are doing is not an article about what China, the country is doing, just as an article about products GM sells in other countries is not an article about US vehicle regulations. A close and honest reader would have noticed. In any case China the country is doing more than all of the rest of the world combined to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution in general:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2116302416

“It is estimated that more than 260 GW of solar thermal heating capacity was installed in China by late 2015 “

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/18/technol ... index.html

“To help reach the 2030 goal, China is betting big on renewable energy. It pledged in January to invest 2.5 trillion yuan ($367 billion) in renewable power generation -- solar, wind, hydro and nuclear -- by 2020.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017 ... vironment/

“… Chinese manufacturing has changed the economics of renewable power around the world, making solar generation cost-competitive with electricity from fossil fuels like natural gas and even coal. It has brought change closer to home too, as China rolls out the world’s biggest investment in clean energy—motivated in part by a desire to ease the atrocious air pollution that kills an estimated 1.1 million of its people every year.
“The installation rates are absolutely mind-blowing,” says Lauri Myllyvirta, an energy and air pollution expert at Greenpeace in Beijing. China added 35 gigawatts of new solar generation in 2016 alone. “That’s almost equal to Germany’s total capacity, just in one year,” Myllyvirta says.
Every hour, China erects another wind turbine and installs enough solar panels to cover a soccer field, according to Greenpeace estimates. …”

http://www.wri.org/blog/2017/01/china%E ... -emissions


China’s Decline in Coal Consumption Drives Global Slowdown in Emissions
“…In the levelling of global CO2 emissions, we can now see the results of domestic action. China is the world leader in renewable energy investment, with $102.9 billion in 2015. In 2013, China banned construction of new coal plants in three industrial regions, and in 2014, the country set new targets to reduce or limit coal use in 12 provinces for the period of 2014 to 2017.
China’s power sector five-year plan, released in November of 2016, shows continued momentum. The plan sets new renewable energy targets, a limit on capacity of coal-fired power plants at 1,100 GW by 2020, and a limit on the percent of coal in primary energy at less than 58 percent, down from 64 percent in 2015. In 2016, China also announced that it was halting or delaying construction of coal plants in 28 provinces. The path will not be smooth. Demand for products such as steel and cement is falling, so China is working to reduce the overcapacity left in such energy-intense industry, as it encourages investment in services. IEA analysis looking out to 2040 anticipates a continued decline in coal consumption, with some fluctuation in the next few years, but without rising to the level reached in 2013. …”

And along the way they are proving that it is good business to do so. They have 8 of the top ten PV panel manufacturers and the produce more wind turbines than everyone else combined; providing millions of jobs along the way and capturing technologies which are only becoming more important over time. Solar water heating alone is between four and five times the US total for photovoltaic.

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[rubato]

Long may they burn coal...

Booming sales of iron ore and coal to China helped deliver the first trade surplus since 2011 over the past year as exports surged by 17 per cent while the nation’s appetite for imports barely changed.

China took a record 33 per cent of Australia’s exported goods over 2016-17, while Chinese students and tourists also helped to boost exports of services.

Pablo Escobar was similarly jubilant about Us cocaine consumption. Your moral equal.


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[Gob]

Long may we snort coke.

[rubato]

China continues to lead the world in clean technology:

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/11/07/ ... inds-bnef/

They represent 74% of global investment in clean technology overall. (with only 20% of the global population) And while the dollar value of investment decreased in 2016 solar continues to increase by 50%.

" ...Collectively, global carbon emissions increased by less than 1% in 2016 – largely thanks to concerted global efforts to install solar and wind power. BNEF estimates that $8.7 trillion will be invested in clean energy through 2040, although this figure would still be $5.4 trillion short of meeting the goals set under the Paris Agreement.

However, such calculations fail to properly grasp the impact of tumbling solar and wind costs on these investment totals. Even though non-OECD countries spent $40 billion less on clean energy in 2016, installation of solar power increased thanks to the cost of PV components falling drastically.

A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that solar PV capacity grew 50% globally in 2016 to make it the world’s fastest-growing energy source. At the same time, PV has become as cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels in many countries, and will likely become the lowest-cost source of power generation globally within five years. Given this cost-reduction trend, it is somewhat inevitable that overall investment in the sector will fall.

If we can get Republicans out of national politics we can regain momentum in changing technology as well.

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[rubato]

China continues to forge ahead on renewables:

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/01/04/ ... k-in-2017/

China’s capacity additions approach 50 GW mark in 2017

China’s cumulative solar installations reached approximately 125.8 GW by the end of November, suggesting that PV developers completed nearly 50 GW of capacity in the first 11 months of 2017, according to new government statistics.

Tesla continues to break trail on new technologies:

Tesla begins production of Solar Roof tiles at New York gigafactory

The company also says that it has begun installation of the Solar Roof on the homes of non-employee homeowners.
January 9, 2018 Christian Roselund

Others are also making PV-enabled architectural elements as well but Tesla's rollout is the most seamless.

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