[amor de cosmos]

Global solar radiation map
A new service is making high-resolution data of direct sunlight publicly available for users such as planners of large solar power systems
26 February 2014
by Constanze Böttcher

Renewable energy sources play an important role in securing future energy supply and mitigating climate change. Even though the solar energy sector, so far, only contributes little to global energy production, it has grown faster than other energy sectors over the past years, according to a report published in 2011 by the International Energy Agency. In sunny parts of the world, such as Spain or California, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are increasingly built and planned. These concentrate the sun’s energy by using mirrors or lenses, turn it to heat and, ultimately, to electricity. Knowing when, where and how much the sun shines is essential in order to plan such large solar power systems.

Data on solar radiation for any given location worldwide is precisely one of the outcomes of the EU-funded research project MACC II. “We provide solar radiation data with 15 minutes temporal resolution and three to five kilometres spatial resolution,” says Marion Schroedter-Homscheidt, sub-project leader and scientist at the Remote Sensing Data Center of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. The time series data run from 2004 until now. They will be available on the project’s website later this year as part of a European information infrastructure within the Copernicus programme.

The data stem from a so-called clear sky model of solar radiation. In addition to information on water vapour and ozone, it includes best estimates of aerosols that are based on observations and computer simulations. Combining this information with cloud data derived from satellite measurements allows the scientists to calculate the radiation reaching the surface of the earth at a given location and time. “It is the aerosol data the solar industry is particularly interested in,” Schroedter-Homscheidt tells youris.com.

Indeed, knowledge of these tiny particles in the atmosphere is crucial for determining the direct radiation from the sun. Aerosols scatter or even absorb light, which is subsequently no longer available for concentrating solar power systems. Previous models of direct solar radiation used aerosol data derived from climate models with a rather low resolution. “Now we have a much higher data quality,” Schroedter-Homscheidt says.

Experts welcome the efforts of the project consortium. Providing aerosol and direct solar radiation data is “a good service,” comments Elke Lorenz, expert in solar energy meteorology from the University of Oldenburg, Germany. While clouds have the biggest influence on the total amount of solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface, “aerosol data are important if the sky is clear, like in Spain,” she tells youris.com. In her view, the data provided by the project consortium are of better quality than previous estimates based on climatological data.

Other experts agree. “It is a better approach [for estimating aerosols] than before, in absolute values as well as in the availability of continuous data,” says Lourdes Ramirez Santigosa, head of the solar radiation group at CIEMAT, the Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, in Madrid, Spain. Her team had previously tested other sources of aerosol data for its own research. “We think that [the project’s aerosol data] is the best available for long term assessments,” Ramirez says. “For planning of CSP plants, we need at least an hourly resolution of solar radiation data covering ten to 20 years,” she adds.

However, “there is always room for improvement,” Ramirez believes. Within the next five to ten years, models should get close to resolutions of ten metres and one minute. This would enable plant operators to simulate more accurately, for example, the temperature within the tubes of the solar panels and the orientation of the CSP plant mirrors.

http://www.youris.com/Energy/Solar_E...diation-Map.kl
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem...CultureCode=en

Chinese Solar Growth to Underpin Record Global Expansion in 2014
25 February 2014

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Solar developers around the world will install record capacity this year as a thriving Chinese market drives growth, a Bloomberg survey showed as manufacturers in the $102 billion industry began to return to profit.

About 44.5 gigawatts will be added globally, a 20.9 percent increase on last year’s new installations, according to the average estimate of nine analysts and companies. That’s equal to the output of about 10 atomic reactors. Last year new capacity rose by 20.3 percent, after a 4.4 percent gain in 2012.

China became the biggest solar market in 2013, helping to end a two-year slump for manufacturers in the industry. State support for photovoltaic projects in the country, the largest energy-consuming nation, has seen installation costs tumble as the government speeds renewables development to curb pollution.

“After two years of a punishing downturn, the global solar industry is on the rebound,” said Ash Sharma, senior research director for solar at Englewood, Colorado-based IHS Inc. “Worldwide PV installations are set to rise by double digits in 2014, solar manufacturing capital spending is recovering, module prices are stabilizing and emerging markets are on the rise.”

Growth in China, Japan and the U.S., where solar-panel prices have dropped and governments have ramped up subsidies, is making up for lower installations in Europe, the industry leader until 2012. U.S. and Asian producers such as SunPower Corp. and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. are restoring profits following two years of losses caused by a glut of panels.



Chinese Growth

Yingli, based in Baoding, China, expects to report its first profit in three years as soon as the second quarter. Its home market, where solar developers installed as much as 12 gigawatts last year, may build more in 2014, according to BNEF. The government has set a 14-gigawatt cap for installations to prevent runaway growth.

“The 2013 figures show the astonishing scale of the Chinese market,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF. “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.”

Global investment in solar installations built last year totaled $102 billion, according to BNEF.

Japan may install record capacity of about 10.5 gigawatts this year, while the U.S. will build as much as 5.3 gigawatts, BNEF estimates show. The companies that survived the slowdown have emerged stronger and better prepared, Chase said.

As the industry oversupply shrinks, large manufacturers of polysilicon, a raw material used in solar equipment, and panel makers active in Asia should gain the most, IHS’s Sharma said. “We are not expecting bottlenecks, but the supply-demand gap is closing.”

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/chin...nsion-in-2014/

New Report Highlights Growth In Solar Jobs For Veterans

Fresh off the news that President Obama is making noises about withdrawing all US troops from Afghanistan, the organizations Operation Free and The Solar Foundation have released a first-of-its-kind report that offers returning veterans the prospect of civilian employment in the US solar industry. In a nutshell, the new report demonstrates that veterans are employed in the solar industry at higher than average rates.

That’s a note of optimism for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, who in this generation have faced a challenging employment picture.

The new report, Veterans in Solar: Securing America’s Energy Future, is all the more significant in light of Republican leadership policy pushing for cuts in food stamps and other safety net services on which many veterans and their families depend.

Veterans Solar Jobs On Active Duty…

It’s worth pointing out that more than a few returning veterans already have experience with solar equipment on active duty, as the Department of Defense has been pushing aggressively to transition out of dependency on fossil fuels and into more flexible, logistically sensible forms of power. That includes bases here at home as well as forward operating bases and field maneuvers overseas, too.

Just a few notable examples in the latter category are the portable solar-in-a-suitcase and solar-in-a-backpack kits, a wearable solar powered “talking vest,” and micro-grid systems with solar input.

So in a very real sense, many veterans already have solar jobs.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/26/...jobs-veterans/

Rootop Solar Use In South Australia Surges In 2nd Half Of 2013

The uptake of rooftop solar PV in South Australia – already the state with the highest penetration of solar PV in the country – surged in the second half of 2013.

According to data provided by electricity distributor Spark Infrastructure, there was 548MW of rooftop solar PV on 157,000 South Australian rooftops as the end of the year. This represents 21.2 per cent of its about 750,000 residential customers.

According to Spark, the total capacity of rooftop solar PV in the state jumped 50 per cent over the year, from 366MW.

But the rate of installations actually doubled in the second half to 121MW, from 61MW in the first half, as the feed in tariff was reduced in September.

South Australia removed a 16c/kWh payment made through the networks in September, meaning that new households connections would receive only 9.8c/kWh for electricity exported to the grid.

That price has since fallen to 7.6c/kWh, as a result of falling wholesale prices (courtesy of South Australia’s large renewable contribution and falling demand), and will fall further to 6c/kWh when and if the carbon price is removed).

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/26/...2nd-half-2013/

Ideal Power’s Converter Could Be the Key to Solar-Storage Integration
How “Power Packet Switching” could beat existing inverters in grid-integrated storage plus PV.
Jeff St. John
February 26, 2014

For a company just starting to bring its brand-new power conversion technology to market, Ideal Power has some pretty big ambitions: to disrupt the way that solar PV, grid-scale batteries and EV chargers are connected to the grid.

But if its technology works as promised, and as ongoing Department of Energy tests appear to indicate it does, then these ambitions may just be justified.

That’s the promise that this quiet startup turned Nasdaq-traded company is bringing to potential grid storage partners at this week’s ARPA-E Summit conference outside Washington, D.C. Armed with a roster of patents related to its “Power Packet Switching Architecture” technology and just under $26 million in grants, debt and public market financing, the Spicewood, Texas-based company is now developing a set of power converter devices that it says can beat existing inverter technologies for small-scale PV, energy storage and "hybrid" systems on a range of grid-edge performance features.

Those include size and weight. Ideal Power’s 30-kilowatt devices are less than one-fifth the weight of similar scale commercial inverters, based on their reduction of passive elements like electrolytic capacitors and magnetic components. Ideal Power's device also doesn’t require a transformer to electrically isolate batteries from the grid, as is required for other inverters serving that bi-directional storage-grid power flow capability, further reducing weight, complexity and efficiency losses.

But more critically, “It’s all an indirect power transfer process,” Paul Bundschuh, Ideal Power’s president and COO, told me in a Monday interview at the ARPA-E Summit. That’s because, unlike traditional inverters, Ideal Power uses a magnetic storage mechanism, or “high-frequency AC link,” to manage the conversion of direct current to alternating current.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...ge-Integration

REC Silicon to build 19,000MT polysilicon plant in China under JV partnership
By Mark Osborne - 26 February 2014, 09:38
In News

REC Silicon is licensing its polysilicon FBR technology and forming a joint venture with China-based Shaanxi Non-Ferrous Tian Hong New Energy Co to build and operate a major polysilicon production complex in Yulin, Shaanxi Province.

The polysilicon plant will use REC Silicon’s next generation fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology and have an initial nameplate capacity of 18,000MT of granular polysilicon.

However, the plant will also house 1,000MT of Siemens-based polysilicon and 500MT of silane gas loading, according to the company, which would enable the JV to offer silane gas, solar and electronic grade polysilicon.

The production joint venture will construct and operate a new plant for the production of silane gas, solar and electronic grade polysilicon, utilizing REC Silicon's next generation fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology.

The JV plans would almost double REC Silicon’s polysilicon capacity after recently noting production in 2014 would be limited to 19,764MT, down from a peak in 2012 of 21,405MT.

The new plant will be located in Yulin, in the Shaanxi Province, and is expected to have capacity of 18,000 metric tons of granular polysilicon, an additional 1,000 metric tons of Siemens polysilicon, and 500 metric tons of silane gas loading.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/rec_sili..._jv_partnershi

Solar with batteries could allow US ‘grid defection’ by 2030: Rocky Mountain Institute
By Andy Colthorpe - 26 February 2014, 11:47
In News, Power Generation, Grid Connection, Market Watch

The Rocky Mountain Institute has published a report which claims it could be possible, using PV coupled with storage, for portions of the USA to "defect" away from using grid networks entirely by 2030.

The report features what RMI claims is the first detailed analysis of when and where it will be possible for users of solar coupled with storage in the USA to go off-grid.

The sustainability research organisation claims that while more and more people and institutions, including the Edison Electric Institute, are more aware of the possibility of customers "defecting" from grid networks by using a combination of solar power and electrical energy storage (EES), the report, 'The Economics of Grid Defection', is the first detailed analysis of the subject.

According to RMI, the concept of bringing together solar and storage to create a “utility in a box”, presents an entirely new set of challenges for public utilities, even compared to previous disruptive technologies such as PV with net metering. The prospect of PV users, in a market partly driven by falling battery prices being able to affordably “cut the cord” from centralised utility generation is, in the view of the report’s authors, well within the expected 30 year economic lifespan of central power plants.

The report’s authors, including RMI senior associate Leia Guccione and editorial director Pete Bronski, examined five representative geographical regions of the USA to assess where and when it would be possible for customers to bypass their utility without incurring decreased reliability of electricity supply or higher costs. According to RMI, the report is not designed to argue for or against defection from grids, but instead models current market trends and forecasts to identify where it could take place in the US.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/rocky_mo...grid_defection

Graph of the Day: How solar can save households money
By Sam Parkinson on 26 February 2014

The Australia Solar Council says it has passed $150,000 in its “Save Solar” fund-raising campaign after receiving a $100k donation from Greenbank Environmental, a leading renewable energy certificate trader. The Australian Solar Council has been raising money in its fight to try and protect the small-scale element of the renewable energy target.

Meanwhile, the Australian Solar Council has also released this graphic below that shows what is happening in the energy markets as well as the role solar plays in bringing down costs.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/grap...ds-money-64221

Will the grid become optional? Solar and storage already at parity
By Leia Guccione and Peter Bronski on 26 February 2014

For years, low-cost solar-plus-battery systems were seen as a distant possibility at best, a fringe technology not likely to be a threat to mainstream electricity delivery any time soon. By far, the limiting factor has been battery costs. But thanks to a confluence of factors playing out across the energy industry, the reality is that affordable battery storage is coming much sooner than most people realize. That approaching day of cheaper battery storage, when combined with solar PV, has the potential to fundamentally alter the electricity landscape.

While grid-tied solar has seen dramatic recent cost declines, until recently, solar-plus-battery systems have not been considered economically viable. However, concurrent declining costs of batteries, growing maturity of solar-plus-battery systems, and increasing adoption rates for these technologies are changing that. Recent media coverage, market analysis, and industry discussions—including the Edison Electric Institute’s January 2013 Disruptive Challenges—have gone so far as to suggest that low-cost solar-plus-battery systems could one day enable customers to cut the cord with their utility and go from grid connected to grid defected.

But while more and more people are discussing solar-plus-battery systems as a potential option at some point in the distant future, there has been a scarcity of detailed analysis to quantify when and where. Until now.

THE ECONOMICS OF GRID DEFECTION

Today, Rocky Mountain Institute, HOMER Energy, and CohnReznick Think Energy released The Economics of Grid Defection: When and where distributed solar generation plus storage competes with traditional utility service. Seeking to illustrate where grid parity will happen both first and last, the report considers five representative U.S. geographies (NY, KY, TX, CA, and HI). These geographies cover a range of solar resource potential, retail utility electricity prices, and solar PV penetration rates, considered across both commercial and residential regionally-specific load profiles.

The report analyzes four possible scenarios: a more conservative base case plus more aggressive cases that consider technology improvements with accelerated cost declines, investments in energy efficiency coupled with load management, and the combination of technology-driven cost declines, energy efficiency, and load management. Even our base case results are compelling, but the combined improvements scenario is especially so, since efficiency and load management reduce the required size of the system while technology improvements reduce the cost of that system, compounding cost declines and greatly accelerating grid parity.





The results of the report show:

• Solar-plus-battery grid parity is here already or coming soon for a rapidly growing minority of utility customers. Grid parity exists today in Hawaii for commercial customers, and will rapidly expand to reach residential customers as early as 2022. Grid parity will reach millions of additional residential and commercial customers in places like New York and California within a decade (see Figures 3 and 4 above).
• Even before total grid defection becomes widely economic, utilities will see solar-plus-battery systems eat into their revenues. Factors such as customer desires for increased power reliability and low-carbon electricity generation are driving early adopters ahead of grid parity, including those installing smaller grid-dependent solar-plus-battery systems to help reduce demand charges, provide backup power, and yield other benefits. These early activities will likely accelerate the infamous utility death spiral—self-reinforcing upward price pressures, which make further self-generation or total defection economic faster.
• Because grid parity arrives within the 30-year economic life of typical utility power assets, the days are numbered for traditional utility business models. The “old” cost recovery model, based on kWh sales, by which utilities recover costs and an allowed market return on infrastructure investments will become obsolete. Utilities must re-think their current business model in order to retain customers and to capture the additional value that such distributed investments will bring.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/will...t-parity-49444
http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2014_02_25_...ecome_optional

Solectria Renewables’ Solar Inverters Power 750kW At Guantanamo Bay
February 25, 2014 Kathleen Zipp : 0 Comments

Solectria Renewables, PV inverter manufacturer, announced that its SMARTGRID Inverters, string combiners and SolrenView web-based monitoring were chosen by World Electric Supply and Miller Electric Company for the 750-kW solar array at the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Electrical supply distributor World Electric Supply and electrical contractor Miller Electric Company of Jacksonville, Florida, chose Solectria Renewables SGI 225 & SGI 500 inverters for this project.

Solectria Renewables says its the only inverter manufacturer that offers a stainless steel enclosure for its commercial PV inverters and string combiners. Their stainless steel product lines are best for marine environments, such as Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else close to the sea. In addition to their robust enclosure, the SMARTGRID 225-500 inverters are the most efficient, reliable and customizable commercial inverters in the industry today.

“Solectria Renewables is proud to be the inverter manufacturer for this project, especially being the only one that offers a stainless steel option to the PV market,” says Bob Montanaro, Southeast Regional Sales Manager. “We worked hard with World Electric Supply, Miller Electric Company and the naval engineers to provide the best possible solution with our inverters, string combiners and monitoring.”

http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com...uantanamo-bay/

Tesla Battery Jolts Shares Higher While Disrupting Power
By Mark Chediak
Feb 26, 2014 6:39 AM PT

Tesla Motors (TSLA) Inc.’s plan to boost battery production by building what Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk calls a “gigafactory” may do more to transform the power industry than it does to advance the electric car.

Utility customers throughout the U.S. have already begun turning to battery storage and solar panels as a way of reducing electricity bills and their dependency on local power companies. The trend threatens the more than 100-year-old monopoly utility business model that books about $360 billion in annual power sales.

By lowering the cost of energy-storage with its lithium-ion batteries, Tesla could accelerate the disruption of the electric utility business as it doubles its share of the global car market to about 1 percent, Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley analyst, wrote in a note yesterday. Morgan Stanley’s note helped push Tesla’s market value above $30 billion for the first time yesterday, as the company’s Model S sedan also became the first U.S. car to receive Consumer Reports’ “best overall pick” in the magazine’s annual ranking.

“If it can be a leader in commercializing battery packs, investors may never look at Tesla the same way again,” said Jonas, who rates the shares the equivalent of a buy. “If Tesla can become the world’s low-cost producer in energy storage, we see significant optionality for Tesla to disrupt adjacent industries.”

Utility Obsolescence

Tesla gained 5.8 percent to $262.32 at 9:38 a.m. in New York. The shares have climbed more than sevenfold in the past year. The company has said it may partner on the new battery plant with Panasonic Corp., which rose 5.3 percent to close at 1,259 yen in Tokyo trading, the highest in about three weeks.

NRG Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Crane, who says the U.S. utility industry is doomed to obsolescence unless it changes, drives himself to work every day in his Tesla Model S.

Tesla’s Musk told Bloomberg Television last week that the company plans to provide details on a proposed “gigafactory” to produce the batteries needed to make more affordable vehicles. With each Tesla capable of storing enough energy to power the average house for 3.5 days, a growing population of Tesla cars represents a significant increase in how much electricity can be held in a country’s infrastructure.

‘Holy Grail’

Worldwide, the market for energy storage is expected to grow from about $500 million to about $12 billion in 2023, according to Navigant Consulting Inc.

Homeowners might use battery storage, combined with solar power, to further reduce their dependence on utilities and potentially sell electricity back to the grid, a new business model known as distributed generation. Batteries allow customers with solar panels to store energy during the day and then tap the excess overnight when the sun goes down.

“Battery storage is the holy grail of the distributed generation movement,” said Travis Miller, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. “If developers can create a high-capacity battery technology, it opens the door to a significant increase in options for customers to supply their own power.”

While still considered too expensive for wide-scale adoption, a drastic reduction in the cost of home energy storage systems would be a “game changer,” American Electric Power Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Nick Akins said during an interview last year.

“If you can get batteries cheap enough and combine them with solar panels, you no longer need the utility,” said Sam Jaffe, an analyst with Navigant. “Then the question is how cheap does it have to be? And it has to be really, really, really cheap.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...ower-grid.html

Tesla, Panasonic said to plan $1B investment in US battery plant
Tesla and Panasonic may hook up on a US battery plant with a total investment close to $1 billion, according to a Japan-based report.
by Brooke Crothers
February 25, 2014 9:24 PM PST

Tesla Motors, Panasonic, and other Japanese companies are planning to invest close to $1 billion in a US battery plant, according to Nikkei.

With a target date of 2017, the lithium-ion-battery facility will "handle everything from processing raw materials to assembly," Japan's largest business daily said on Wednesday.

Panasonic, which is an investor in Tesla, is inviting a number of Japanese materials makers to join the project, with a total investment estimated to reach more than 100 billion yen ($965 million), Nikkei said.

This is a non-trivial investment for an electric car maker as the battery represents a large part of the vehicle's cost, Nikkei pointed out.

One of the aims of the plant is to bring down the cost of the battery component and make future Tesla models more affordable. The Model S starts at about $70,000.

The plant may also supply Toyota and other automakers with batteries. There are also plans for "home-use" storage batteries in order to boost product numbers, Nikkei said.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57619538-76/tesla-panasonic-said-to-plan-$1b-investment-in-us-battery-plant/

February 26, 2014 2:00 am JST
Panasonic, Tesla to set up auto battery plant in US

TOKYO -- Panasonic and California-based electric-vehicle startup Tesla Motors are in talks to build an automotive battery plant in the U.S., aiming to lower manufacturing costs via mass production.

Targeted to go onstream in 2017, the lithium-ion-battery facility will handle everything from processing raw materials to assembly. Panasonic is inviting a number of Japanese materials makers to sign on, with total investment expected to reach more than 100 billion yen ($965 million).

Slashing battery prices is key to making electric cars more affordable to consumers, as the units represent a big chunk of a vehicle's cost. With the new facility, Tesla aims to bring the vehicles down into the same price range as their gasoline-burning cousins.

The plant will produce small, lightweight batteries for Tesla and may also supply Toyota Motor as well as other automakers. Plans to make home-use storage batteries are also on the table to raise production volume.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Deal...ry-plant-in-US

Rooftop Solar Array in Palo Alto to Save Over $1.5 million over 20 Years
Published on 25 February 2014

Palo Alto’s second largest solar roof system has been installed at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center (OFJCC) campus to reduce energy costs and further its green building credentials.

Developed through a partnership with THiNKnrg, the 397.5 kW system is also the largest installation of Trinasmart solar panels to date. The OFJCC will celebrate its new solar rooftop with a ribbon cutting on 18 March.

The OFJCC solar array encompasses 1,840 solar panels spread across the rooftops of the 12 buildings of the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life (TKCJL), which also includes Moldaw Family Residences for senior living.

This solar project was financed by a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which required no capital cost to the OFJCC and utilized all available incentives. Conergy, a leading global solar photovoltaic downstream company, along with its owner Kawa Capital Management, structured the PPA to supply the OFJCC with renewable energy at less than half the current energy rate. The campus is expected to save $26,000 in the first year and an estimated $1.5 million in energy savings over the 20-year contract. The solar roof system will supply approximately 20 percent of the OFJCC’s energy needs.

The OFJCC solar installation is expected to generate 616,920 kilowatt-hours of electricity and reduce the TKCJL’s carbon footprint by approximately over 9,500 tons of CO2 over the next 20 years, the equivalent of growing over 223,000 tree seedlings or removing 1,814 passenger cars from the road.

http://www.solarnovus.com/rooftop-so...ars_N7503.html