[amor de cosmos]

China Promoting Recovery in Solar Industry, Local Official Says
By Bloomberg News
Mar 5, 2014 3:39 AM PT

Chinese authorities are working to promote a rebound in the photovoltaic manufacturing industry and to change the shareholder structure of LDK Solar (LDK) Co., a local government official said.

“We plan to promote full recovery of production of the solar industry and to change their share holding structure,” said Liu Jie, party secretary of Xinyu, the city where LDK is based, said in Beijing as the National People’s Congress gathered.

LDK, which makes solar wafers and panels, this month named liquidators to wind up its business after missing bond repayments. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and has most of its operations in China and around Xinyu.

Liu said he thought solar demand is picking up and that LDK’s moves in the Caymans are “a normal legal procedure after insolvency.” He echoed the company’s assertion that the manufacturing operations in China won’t be affected and said the factories are “currently fully operating.”

Peng Shaomin, the media director at LDK, said the company is in “full operation” despite the restructuring.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...cial-says.html

U.S. Solar Jumps 41% in 2013 Driven by Residential Demand
5 March 2014

March 5 (Bloomberg) — Demand for U.S. solar power increased 41 percent last year driven by record growth in residential projects, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Developers installed 4.75 gigawatts of photovoltaic panels in 2013, making solar the biggest source of new generating capacity after natural gas, the Washington-based trade group said today in a statement. Demand next year will increase 26 percent as rooftop power plants become more common.

Residential projects surged 60 percent over 2012 to 792 megawatts as homeowners embraced financing models such as leasing that let consumers install panels at little to no upfront cost, according to Shayle Kann, vice president of research at Boston-based GTM Research, which publishes the quarterly market reports with SEIA.

“Residential solar in the U.S. is becoming the bedrock of demand for solar and is really a market segment that benefits from extremely attractive economics,” Kann said on a call with reporters yesterday.

Residential installations swelled a record 33 percent in the fourth quarter over the third quarter, and the segment will continue to lead U.S. demand this year.

Utility-scale projects increased 58 percent with 2.85 gigawatts installed last year. That is expected to slow this year as fewer contracts for big solar farms are signed, Arno Harris, SEIA chairman and chief executive officer of solar project developer Recurrent Energy LCC, said on the call.

“The demand landscape has shifted toward projects in the 1 megawatt to 20 megawatt range,” according to the report.

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/u-s-...ential-demand/

$200 Million Coal Tax Revenue To Fund 1,000 MW Solar Park In India

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has announced yet another plan to boost India’s rapidly growing solar power capacity. SECI plans to set up a 1,000 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) park in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The project will get financial support from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The solar park will be built on 5,000 acres of land in Mehboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh and may require an investment of up to US $1 billion. About 20 per cent of this investment would come from the National Clean Energy Fund which derives revenue from tax on coal produced and imported into the country. Multilateral banks like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank may also be approached to provide financial support at nominal interest rates.

“The entire capacity will come up over the next 18 to 24 months. The site identified by the Mahboobnagar collector will be made ready with necessary infrastructure with an initial outlay of Rs 600 crore (US $97 million),” said Rajendra Nimje, Managing Director of SECI, the nodal agency for implementation of solar power projects in the country.

SECI has joined hands with Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation for the land allocation for the solar park. The basic infrastructure for the solar park is expected to be ready within 5-6 months, and after that bidders will be selected based on competitive bidding process. The developers can set up projects in a minimum modular unit size of 10 MW and above.

The development of this solar park will be followed with the development of four other solar parks in states of Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as per the current agenda of SECI. According to Managing Director of SECI, they have already signed deal for the development of biggest solar park in the country in the state of Rajasthan with an aggregate capacity of 4,000 MW.

Once commissioned, the solar park in Andhra Pradesh will overtake the one operational in the state of Gujarat, which has an installed capacity of around 220 MW.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/05/...ar-park-india/

US Solar Market Grew 41%, Had Record Year in 2013
The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of PV, according to the Solar Market Insight Year in Review report.
Mike Munsell
March 4, 2014

Continuing its explosive growth, the U.S. solar industry had a record-shattering year in 2013.

According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013, photovoltaic installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over 2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of concentrating solar power came on-line.

Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally, the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year 15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2013 there were more than 440,000 operating solar electric systems in the U.S. totaling over 12,000 megawatts of photovoltaics (PV) and 918 megawatts of concentrating solar power (CSP).

The U.S. installed 2,106 megawatts in the fourth quarter alone, 44 percent of the annual total. This makes Q4 2013 by far the largest quarter in the history of the U.S. market, surpassing the second-largest quarter by 60 percent.

“Perhaps more important than the numbers,” writes Shayle Kann, Senior Vice President at GTM Research, “2013 offered the U.S. solar market the first real glimpse of its path toward mainstream status. The combination of rapid customer adoption, grassroots support for solar, improved financing terms and public market successes displayed clear gains for solar in the eyes of both the general population and the investment community.”

*snip*

Key Findings of the Report:

• The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of solar PV in 2013, up 41 percent over 2012 and nearly fifteen times the amount installed in 2008.
• There is now a total of 12.1 gigawatts of PV and 918 megawatts of CSP operating in the U.S.
• There were 140,000 individual solar installations in the U.S. in 2013, and more than 440,000 systems operating in total today.
• Q4 2013 was by far the largest quarter ever for PV installations in the U.S., with 2,106 megawatts energized, up 60 percent over the second-largest quarter (Q4 2012).
• More solar has been installed in the U.S. in the last eighteen months than in the 30 years prior.
• The market value of all PV installations completed in 2013 was $13.7 billion.
• Solar accounted for 29 percent of all new electricity generation capacity in 2013, up from 10 percent in 2012. This made solar the second-largest source of new generating capacity behind natural gas.
• Weighted average PV system prices fell 15 percent in 2013, reaching a new low of $2.59 per watt in the fourth quarter.
• We forecast 26 percent PV installation growth in 2014, with installations reaching nearly 6 gigawatts. Growth will occur in all segments but will be most rapid in the residential market.
• The U.S. installed 410 megawatts of concentrating solar (CSP) in 2013, increasing total CSP capacity in the U.S. more than 80 percent.
• The wave of concentrating solar power installations slated for completion at the end of 2013 into 2014 kicked off with the 280-megawatt-AC Solana project and the Genesis Solar project’s initial 125 megawatt-AC phase. In early 2014, BrightSource’s notable Ivanpah project also began operating and SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes project began commissioning.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...d-year-in-2013
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...coming-in-2014

Kenya’s FiT-approved solar pipeline reaches 750MW
By Ben Willis - 05 March 2014, 09:38
In News, Power Generation

Kenya’s pipeline of PV projects given initial government approval to receive the country’s new feed-in tariff has risen to 750MW.

Despite some uncertainties last year over the status of large-scale PV in Kenya, the country’s director of renewable energy, Isaac Kiva, has revealed that 25 projects totalling 750MW are now being advanced.

Speaking at the Solar & Off-Grid Renewables Africa conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kiva said most of the projects were at the feasibility study stage. They must complete this before being able to proceed to the power purchase agreement (PPA) stage.

However, two have completed feasibility studies and, if approved by Kenya’s feed-in tariff policy committee, will be referred to national utility Kenya Power to finalise a PPA.

These projects include a 20MW plant and a 0.6MW rooftop plant being installed by Strathmore University in Nairobi. The project is intended to act as a pilot for large-scale, grid-tied solar in Kenya.

Until Kenya’s FiT was revised in 2012 to US$0.12/kWh, it had attracted little interest, but Kiva said last year the Kenyan government had received applications for 112 projects across all renewable energy types.

Kiva also revealed that Kenya was pressing ahead with plans to introduce a new net metering policy for smaller PV systems; the FiT is only available for projects of 0.5-40MW.

He said last week the government had heard presentations from a consultancy hired to advise on net metering, and that it looked as though the policy was a “viable option” for Kenya, potentially opening up the market to more small PV installations.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/kenyas_f..._reaches_750mw

NRG Solar and Boeing begin construction on 25MW PV plant in Guam
By Conor Ryan - 04 March 2014, 17:50
In News, Fab & Facilities, Project Focus

Guam is finally beginning its first foray into the renewable energy sector, as NRG Solar and Boeing announced that construction had begun on Dandan, a 25MW solar power plant.

Once completed, Dandan will serve as the first solar power project ever constructed on the small Pacific island. The facility is expected to provide enough clean energy to power 10,000 homes and offset the consumption of over 2 million barrels of fuel and diesel.

Isolated in the middle of the Pacific with little access to major ports, Guam has historically had to rely on imported fuel in order to power its energy output. However, once Dandan has been completed, the amount of clean energy created by the plant will be enough to help the island retain around US$300 million in total fuel cost savings.

Dandan will also cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by more than 40,000 metric tonnes, equivalent to removing around 7,300 cars from the roads.

Energy produced from the plant will be sold to the Guam Power Authority, the island’s only electric utility company, under two 25-year power-purchase agreements.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/nrg_sola..._plant_in_guam

Morgan Stanley says US could have 129GW commercial solar by 2018
By Sophie Vorrath on 5 March 2014

The installed capacity of solar PV in North and South America will increase more than tenfold over the coming years, jumping from 13.1 Gigawatts (GW) in 2013 to 138.8GW by 2030 – according to a new report from consulting firm GlobalData.

The research – which encompasses key solar players like the US, Canada and Brazil – also predicts that power generated by solar PV installations in the Americas will also experience a growth spurt, jumping from 21 Terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2013 to 234 TWh by 2030.

Big numbers, indeed. But will it really take until 2030 for this growth to happen? According to one Morgan Stanley analyst, the US market alone could have around 130GW installed within the next four years.

“We estimate that the commercial-scale solar market could be as large as 129GW in 2018, assuming that the investment tax credit (ITC) goes to 0% and utilities nationwide implement fixed charges on solar customers,” Morgan Stanley analyst Timothy Radcliff wrote on Tuesday, in connection with his decision to upgrade Sunedison stock to ‘overweight’.

“We believe the market currently expects an ITC-driven rush through 2016, followed by a significant decline in volumes and margins.”

As GlobalData’s Tanikella notes, the US (along with Canada) is among the global leaders in terms of renewable power generation, due mainly to the policy support mechanisms of federal and state governments.

In 2013, he says, the US held the majority share of the region’s solar PV installed capacity, with 89.1 per cent, followed by Canada and Brazil, with smaller shares of 8.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

In Brazil, says Tanikella, the government uses auctions to encourage renewables development – it approved 122MW of solar PV capacity in its first solar-only auction in 2013, with solar projects receiving $98 per Megawatt-hour for power generation.

Mexico, meanwhile, is also supporting renewable power development, its government establishing a National Energy Strategy for policies to be implemented over the next 15 years, to increase the country’s electricity generation from non-fossil sources by 35 per cent.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/morg...s-report-69999
http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com...e-growth-2030/

Virginia Makes Progress Toward More Favorable Solar Market
Sara Rafalson, Sol Systems
March 05, 2014 | 1 Comments

t is no secret that Virginia lags far behind in its track record on solar energy, especially compared to neighboring states such as D.C., North Carolina, and Maryland. Thanks largely to the development of robust solar renewable energy credit (SREC) markets, Maryland ranks fourteenth in the country in installed solar capacity, and the latest Solar Jobs Census puts D.C. third in solar jobs per capita. Even North Carolina, which has caught headlines recently for its extremely conservative state legislature, is #3 in solar capacity with approximately 388 MW of solar capacity, thanks largely to a generous state tax credit that has fueled the development of a robust solar economy.

Unlike these other markets, an unfavorable regulatory and political climate is the clear missing link for Virginia. As of November 2013, Virginia had installed a mere 15 MW of solar capacity, ranking #34 in solar jobs per capita in the United States. Since there is no solar carve-out in the state renewable portfolio standard (RPS), Virginia customers must sell their SRECs into Pennsylvania, an already over-saturated market. As for commercial solar, through our solar investment business, we have noted little investor interest in the state of Virginia due to its unfavorable regulatory environment for solar project development, which includes a “C” rating for its underwhelming net metering policies.

Let’s not get too down from this dreary news; it is not too late to create a robust solar economy in the Old Dominion. In fact, after a string of solar bills was introduced this legislative session, solar supporters are optimistic that Virginia is making strides to support the growth of the solar in the state.

One such piece of good news was an update to solar’s qualification as pertaining to the machinery and tools tax. Previously, solar has been discouraged in the Old Dominion through a machinery and tools tax which taxes solar companies for the solar equipment used in installation, making it costly and unprofitable to install solar in Virginia. At the end of February, however, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to exempt “business owned or operated solar energy equipment, facilities, or devices that collect, generate, transfer, or store thermal or electric energy” from this prohibitive tax for all projects under 20 MW. This amendment to exempt solar from the machinery and tools tax will now categorize solar equipment as “pollution prevention control” and will go into effect beginning January 2015.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...e-solar-market

Transparent, color solar cells fuse energy, beauty
Mar 03, 2014
Contact Nicole Casal Moore

ANN ARBOR—Colorful, see-through solar cells invented at the University of Michigan could one day be used to make stained-glass windows, decorations and even shades that turn the sun's energy into electricity.

The cells, believed to be the first semi-transparent, colored photovoltaics, have the potential to vastly broaden the use of the energy source, says Jay Guo, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, mechanical engineering, and macromolecular science and engineering at U-M. Guo is lead author of a paper about the work newly published online in Scientific Reports.

"I think this offers a very different way of utilizing solar technology rather than concentrating it in a small area," he said. "Today, solar panels are black and the only place you can put them on a building is the rooftop. And the rooftop of a typical high-rise is so tiny.

"We think we can make solar panels more beautiful—any color a designer wants. And we can vastly deploy these panels, even indoors."

Guo envisions them on the sides of buildings, as energy-harvesting billboards and as window shades—a thin layer on homes and cities. Such an approach, he says, could be especially attractive in densely populated cities.

In a palm-sized American flag slide, the team demonstrated the technology.

"All the red stripes, the blue background and so on—they are all working solar cells," Guo said.



The ultrathin, hybrid design helps the cells hold their color and leads to a nearly 100 percent quantum efficiency. Quantum efficiency is different from overall efficiency. It refers to the percentage of light particles the device catches that lead to electrical current in that charge transport layer. Solar cells can leak current after this point, but researchers strive for a high number.

The cells' hues don't change based on viewing angle, which is important for several reasons. It means manufacturers could lock in color for precise pictures or patterns. It's also a sign that the devices are soaking up the same amount of light regardless of where the sun is in the sky. Conventional solar panels pivot across the day to track rays.

"Solar energy is essentially inexhaustible, and it's the only energy source that can sustain us long-term," Guo said. "We have to figure out how to use as much of it as we can."

http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/v...-energy-beauty
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0304130029.htm

• Video Link

UC Researchers Report on Discovery to Make Solar Power Less Expensive and More Efficient
Early findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver.
Date: 3/3/2014 1:00:00 PM
By: Dawn Fuller

University of Cincinnati researchers are reporting early results on a way to make solar-powered panels in lights, calculators and roofs lighter, less expensive, more flexible (therefore less breakable) and more efficient.

Fei Yu, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in materials engineering, will present new findings on boosting the power conversion efficiency of polymer solar cells on March 3, at the American Physical Society Meeting in Denver.

Yu is experimenting with adding a small fraction of graphene nanoflakes to polymer-blend bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells to improve performance and lower costs of solar energy.

“There has been a lot of study on how to make plastic solar cells more efficient, so they can take the place of silicon solar cells in the future,” says Yu. “They can be made into thinner, lighter and more flexible panels. However, they’re currently not as efficient as silicon solar cells, so we’re examining how to increase that efficiency.”

Imagine accidentally kicking over a silicon solar-powered garden light, only to see the solar-powered cell crack. Polymers are carbon-based materials that are more flexible than the traditional, fragile silicon solar cells. Charge transport, though, has been a limiting factor for polymer solar cell performance.

Graphene, a natural form of carbon, is a relatively newly discovered material that’s less than a nanometer thin. “Because graphene is pure carbon, its charge conductivity is very high,” explains Yu. “We want to maximize the energy being absorbed by the solar cell, so we are increasing the ratio of the donor to acceptor and we’re using a very low fraction of graphene to achieve that.”

Yu’s research found that efficiency increased threefold by adding graphene, because the material was helping to rapidly transport charges to achieve higher photocurrent. “The increased performance, although well below the highest efficiency achieved in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices, is nevertheless significant in indicating that pristine graphene can be used as a charge transporter,” says Yu.

http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=19322
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0304095033.htm

Every Step You Take: Berkeley Lab Researchers Identify Key Intermediate Steps in Artificial Photosynthesis Reaction
March 03, 2014
Lynn Yarris

Artificial photosynthesis, in which we emulate the process used by nature to capture energy from the sun and convert it into electrochemical energy, is expected to be a major asset in any sustainable energy portfolio for the future. Artificial photosynthesis offers the promise of producing liquid fuels that are renewable and can be used without exacerbating global climate change. A key to realizing commercial-scale artificial photosynthesis technology is the development of electrocatalysts that can efficiently and economically carry out water oxidation reaction that is critical to the process. Heinz Frei, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, has been at the forefront of this research effort. His latest results represent an important step forward.

“The oxidation of water to molecular oxygen is a four-electron process involving multiple steps,” Frei says. “We’ve obtained the first direct, temporally resolved observation of two intermediate steps in water oxidation using an Earth-abundant solid catalyst, cobalt oxide, that allowed us to identify the kinetic bottlenecks. With this knowledge, we can devise and design improvements on the cobalt oxide catalyst and its support environment to partially or completely remove these bottlenecks and improve the efficiency of water oxidation.”

In an artificial photosynthetic system, the oxidation of water molecules into oxygen, electrons and protons (hydrogen ions) provides the electrons needed to produce liquid fuels from carbon dioxide and water. This requires a catalyst that is both efficient in its use of solar photons and fast enough to keep up with solar flux in order to avoid wasting those photons. It should also be robust and affordable on a large-scale. Five years ago, a study led by Frei identified cobalt oxide in the form of single crystal nanoparticles as an excellent candidate for meeting the challenge. However, realizing the full catalytic potential of cobalt oxide nanocrystals requires a better understanding of the individual events in the four-electron cycle of water oxidation.

To provide this understanding, Frei, working with Miao Zhang and Moreno de Respinis, used a spectroscopic technique known as rapid-scan Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.

“Prior to our study, it was not known whether the catalysis, which takes place on the surface of the cobalt oxide crystallites, happens at every cobalt center on the surface at the same speed, or whether a subset of cobalt sites does most of the work while other subsets are slow or merely spectators, Frei says. “Our results show that there is a subset of fast sites where a considerable fraction of the catalysis takes place, and a subset of sites where the catalysis proceeds considerably more slowly. This discovery of these fast and slow sites and the proposed structural difference between two provides the basis for designing cobalt oxide surfaces with higher concentrations of fast sites.”

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/science-sh...esis-reaction/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0304095025.htm

Can Wind and Solar Power Meet Our Energy Needs?
Mike Jacobs
March 5, 2014

News out that utility Austin Energy will meet its goal of 35 percent electricity coming from renewable energy four years ahead of schedule should help settle the question. Austin’s newest commitments bring its wind portfolio to 1.3 gigawatts. (A gigawatt is the size of a nuclear plant.)

To use wind and solar energy to cut CO2 emissions from existing power plants, we need a strong grid and a good attitude.

The Texas experience with wind power is a model to follow. Texas showered the nation with oil in 1901, and then in 2005 raised its renewable energy goals and planned for transmission to continue its energy economy. Now, wind power prices in Texas are coming in the $26-to-$36/MWh price range (crazy cheap) and grid operators across the world are managing the transition to significant levels of renewable energy.

PJM, grid operator for 61 million people, released a report describing how operations with 30 percent wind and solar will require adding reserves of less than 2 percent and reduce CO2 as much as 40 percent. Solar is now adding 5 gigawatts per year.

Our energy needs must be met now with additions that are carbon-free. Wind and solar are available today, pay for themselves in both dollars saved and emissions, and actually do work just fine. We will have to change our energy supply if we want to live in our coastal cities, grow our food on our farms, and have a climate we can all tolerate.

Bring us more clean energy, and make investments in efficiency. These are our energy needs.

http://blog.ucsusa.org/can-wind-and-...ergy-needs-436

Variable renewable power can reach 40 percent capacity very cheaply
But doing so requires careful planning, says the International Energy Agency.
by John Timmer - Mar 4 2014, 1:50pm PST

Most forms of renewable power differ from traditional electricity sources in a key way: they're intermittent. The sun doesn't always shine on photovoltaics, and when it does, it may vary in intensity. Wind speeds also vary across a wide range at many locations. All of which means that the electricity generated by wind and solar will also vary, with large implications for the stability of the grid.

It's clear that putting renewable energy onto the grid isn't without costs, but the exact nature of those costs is still the subject of some contention. Now, the International Energy Agency has weighed in with a report on integrating renewables. It finds that, as long as intermittent power sources are under 10 percent of the total energy use, they can essentially be added for free. The report also argues that renewable levels can go up to 40 percent at little or no cost, but that would require substantial reshaping of the rest of the grid—something that's much easier to do outside of mature economies.

The report lumps wind and solar into a category it terms "variable renewable energy," or VRE (as opposed to hydro and geothermal, which are typically baseline power sources). Used well, VRE can perform valuable functions for the electricity grid, like covering the peak of mid-day demand, which keeps utilities from activating their reserve plants, which are often old and inefficient. Used poorly, and you can end up with situations where the wholesale price for electricity becomes negative: the utilities have to pay someone to take power off their hands.

What makes the difference between using VRE well and poorly? The IEA report suggests that the answer depends on how much VRE there is on the grid. As a country initially starts deploying renewables, a set of best practices is all that's needed. One big problem is having all the renewable energy located in a single area, where a change in local conditions can cause huge spikes or drops in the amount of power being produced. These "hotspots" can be avoided with things like distributed solar, but may be harder to arrange with wind, where the temptation will obviously be to put the capacity where the wind resources are highest.

Other factors that contribute to the effective use of low quantities of renewables include the use of forecasting, so that changes in output can be anticipated, and rapid response of prices to supply and demand. In this latter category, Texas' ERCOT grid is recognized in the report as being a world leader, with energy prices changing every five minutes, allowing generators to quickly shape their output to demand.

With all of that in place, the cost of adding renewables ends up being equal to the cost of the renewable power itself. Things start to change as the fraction of power generated by VREs approaches 20 percent, and there are definitely new challenges as it reaches 30 to 40 percent.

From a technical perspective, going to 20 to 40 percent VRE does not pose any problems. The report also suggests that 50 percent is possible if the operators of the grid are willing to actively curtail renewable generation at times when the supply is copious. From an economic standpoint, however, there can be challenges.

The IEA modeled what would happen if a grid was switched to 45 percent renewable overnight. "The rapid introduction of VRE into a stable power system... tends to create a surplus of generation capacity," the report notes. "Such an oversupply (pre-existing capacity plus VRE additions) will tend to depress wholesale market prices." That causes economic hardships for the companies that operate the legacy equipment, which may have been built to run constantly (meaning as baseline power) under the assumption that its power would always get sold.

*snip*

Overall, the report is very optimistic about the integration of renewable power, suggesting that price increases and volatility don't necessarily need to be part of the transition to situations where wind and solar make a large contribution to the grid. But it does stop short at 50 percent renewable, well below what might be required to rapidly stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations; for that, other challenges will need to be met.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/...-very-cheaply/