[amor de cosmos]

Renewable Energy Installations to Rise 37% by 2015, BNEF Says
By Reed Landberg Apr 8, 2014 6:45 AM PT

Renewable energy installations are forecast to rise 37 percent in the next two years, driven by a drop in the cost of wind and solar power that cut the value of investment.

“What we’re seeing is clean energy competitive with what I call alternative energy -- fossil fuel energy,” Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said at the research group’s conference in New York today.

He said 80 percent of the drop in investment is attributable to falling prices for equipment. The rest is lower levels of activity. He estimated installations may rise to 112.4 gigawatts in 2015 from about 82 gigawatts in 2013.

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

India Ups 2014 Solar PV Target By 30% To 1,000 MW

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has increased its faith in solar photovoltaic (PV) technology at the expense of concentrated solar power (CSP) technology. As a result, it has increased its target for installed solar PV capacity by 30% in FY2014-15 while slashing its CSP target by 90%.

The ministry is expected to auction 1,000 MW of solar photovoltaic capacity instead of the earlier planned 750 MW in FY2014-15. Of the 1,080 MW solar thermal power capacity initially planned for auction, only 100 MW would be offered to prospective project developers.

More Confidence In Solar PV

During the first phase of the National Solar Mission, the ministry had auctioned 470 MW of solar thermal power in seven different projects. These projects were supposed to be commissioned by the first half of 2012. Till this date, only one of these projects, with a generation capacity of 50 MW, has been commissioned.

The project developers have stated that they are facing issues during commissioning of the projects as the initial estimates about solar radiation were off the mark. The ministry has also admitted that the Indian market may not be ready to adopt solar thermal power technology yet. As a result, it has slashed the CSP targets in favour of greater solar PV targets.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/07/...et-30-1000-mw/

Through Solar Jobs, Veterans Find a Continuation in Mission to Serve Nation and Environment
Pierre Bull
Posted April 7, 2014 in Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming



We talked to veterans working at all levels of the solar industry and here's what they told us:

1. Veterans view climate change as a threat to national security. Working in solar is one way for them to continue in their service as defenders of our nation.

2. Energy independence — especially a reliance on clean, domestic sources of power — is vital for our country's security.

3. Working in solar allows veterans to continue their powerful experiences of service to the nation.

4. Solar and veterans are a good fit, because many skills vets learned in the military are just the skills they need to thrive in the solar industry.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/pb...terans_fi.html

Energy News
Cheap Solar Power—at Night
New solar thermal technologies could address solar power’s intermittency problem.
By Kevin Bullis on April 8, 2014

When the world’s largest solar thermal power plant—in Ivanpah, California—opened earlier this year, it was greeted with skepticism. The power plant is undeniably impressive. A collection of 300,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, focus sunlight on three 140-meter towers, generating high temperatures. That heat produces steam that drives the same kind of turbines used in fossil-fuel power plants. That heat can be stored (such as by heating up molten salts) and used when the sun goes down far more cheaply than it costs to store electricity in batteries (see “World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Delivers Power for the First Time”).

But many experts—even some who invested in the plant—say it might be the last of its kind. David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, one of three companies, including BrightSource Energy and Google, that funded the plant, says the economics looked good when the plant was first proposed six years ago. Since then, the price of conventional photovoltaic solar panels has plummeted. “Now we’re banking on solar photovoltaics,” he told a crowd of researchers and entrepreneurs at a conference earlier this year.

The allure of solar thermal technology is simple. Unlike conventional solar panels, it can generate power even when the sun isn’t shining. But in practice, it’s far more expensive than both fossil fuel power and electricity from solar panels. And that reality has sent researchers scrambling to find ways to make the technology more competitive.

One big challenge, says Philip Gleckman, chief technology officer of Areva Solar, is that the arrays of mirrors, as well as the motors and gearboxes used to aim them at the sun, are expensive. One fix, he says, comes from a San Francisco startup, Otherlab, which replaces the motors with pneumatics and actuators that can be made cheaply using the manufacturing equipment that’s currently used to make plastic water bottles.

The head of Otherlab’s solar efforts, Leila Madrone, says the technology could cut the cost of mirror fields for concentrating sunlight by 70 percent. But even this cost reduction, she says, won’t be enough to make the technology competitive with solar panels—even though the mirrors account for a third to a half of the overall cost of a solar thermal plant.

Getting overall costs down will require increasing the amount of power a solar thermal plant can generate, so it can sell more power for the same amount of investment. One approach to increasing power output is to increase the temperatures at which solar thermal power plants can operate, which would make them more efficient. They currently operate at 650 °C or less, but some researchers are developing ways to increase this to anywhere from 800 °C to 1,200 °C. That approach is being pursued by another startup, Halotechnics, which uses high-throughput screening processes to develop new materials—including new kinds of salt and glass—that can store heat at these high temperatures (see “Cheap Solar Power at Night”).

http://www.technologyreview.com/news...ower-at-night/

Brazil to hold first PV auction this year
08. April 2014 | Global PV markets, Industry & Suppliers, Markets & Trends | By: Ilias Tsagas

The PV sector is heating up in Brazil, where developers remain excited about the country's growing electricity demand as solar becomes increasingly competitive with other sources of renewable energy.

Brazil looks set to hold its first energy auction specifically for solar PV later this year.

Altino Ventura Filho, secretary of Energy Planning and Development at Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, announced the news at a local conference in the capital city of Brasilia last month.

According to Brazilian news portal Jornal da Energia, Ventura made the comment during a speech at the 1st National Forum on Infrastructure, which took place March 27-28, although he did not specify the date of the auction nor the capacity to be auctioned, Jornal da Energia reported.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has yet to officially confirmed the news but it has referred to Ventura's presentation, which it said highlighted the importance of diversification of renewable and other energy sources.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...ear_100014770/

UN report: Solar beats trend of falling renewables investment
By Lucy Woods - 08 April 2014, 12:29
In News, Power Generation, Market Watch, Finance

Solar bucked a trend of falling investment in renewables last year, accounting for nearly half of the US$11 billion total for all new investments for renewables in 2013, according to a United Nations report.

The report noted an overall 14% dip in investment in renewables in 2013, although overall it said renewable energy accounted for 44% of all new electricity generation installed globally.

“The [14%] drop masks the many positive signals of a dynamic market that is fast evolving and maturing," said Achim Steiner United Nations’ under-secretary-general and general director for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report, ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014’, was published by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/UN_Repor...investment_dip

Mercom: Solar attracted US$7 billion investment during ‘robust’ first quarter
By Andy Colthorpe - 08 April 2014, 11:16
In News, Power Generation, Market Watch, Finance

The global solar power industry has enjoyed a strong start to 2014 in terms of corporate funding, attracting US$7 billion in the first quarter alone, according to a new report by clean energy consultancy firm Mercom Capital.

The US$7 billion figure, including venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), debt financing and other equity financings raised by private companies, showed a growth of US$2 billion from the previous quarter.

Mercom Capital chief executive officer Raj Prabhu highlighted that strong capital markets continue to exist in solar. Prabhu also pointed out that VC deals including some involving investment platforms had performed strongly in the quarter, as well as success in attracting funding for third party residential and commercial companies.

According to Mercom and Prabhu, the period just elapsed has also seen corporate solar merger and acquisition (M&A) activity surge to "a record 38 transactions", up from 25 transactions in the final quarter of 2013. The most M&A activity came in the downstream sector.

“M&A activity was strong among installers, developers, and distributors, while third-party finance firms were actively making acquisitions as they vertically integrate their businesses,” said Prabhu.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/mercom_s...er_performance

New Findings to Help Extend High Efficiency Solar Cells’ Lifetime
7 Apr 2014

OIST’s Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit has made a surprising discovery about the degradation of solar cells that could help pave the way to creating a longer lifetime for these cells. Key factors for creating cost-efficient solar cells to compete with conventional energy sources like fossil fuels include fabrication cost, efficiency and lifetime of the cells. Professor Yabing Qi and members of his unit have investigated the cause of degradation of a high efficiency solar cell. This discovery, published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, can help move various forms of solar cell technology forward now that researchers know what is causing degradation and shortening the lifespan.

Solid state dye-sensitized solar cells have shown their potential in achieving high efficiency with a low cost of fabrication. Degradation of these cells, which shortens lifespan, is not well understood. To investigate the causes of degradation, Prof. Qi and colleagues focused on a material widely used in these solar cells, which is abbreviated spiro-MeOTAD. This material is used in the upper-most layer of the solar cell and comes into contact with the outside environment. Therefore, it is a likely candidate to be susceptible to degradation from many possible sources including air exposure, continuous light irradiation, elevated temperature and dust.

The most likely source of degradation was thought to be photo-oxidation, which is a chemical process caused by exposure to both air and light. Prof. Qi and colleagues tested whether this process was occurring. Surprisingly, they showed conclusively that there was no detectable photo-oxidation, or chemical degradation, of spiro-MeOTAD even after exposure for a few days. The researchers next looked at other possible degradation mechanisms due to exposure to air alone. Spiro-MeOTAD is an amorphous substance, which is the property that makes it useful in these solar cells. However, this property could also cause a problem in that molecules from the air may easily diffuse, or freely pass into, the spiro-MeOTAD. These air molecules would then become impurities in the solar cells, leading to degradation. After a detailed analysis, the researchers determined this was precisely what was occurring; foreign air molecules were causing degradation of the spiro-MeOTAD layer, resulting in a drop in solar cell efficiency.

The next step is to find a material to encapsulate and protect the spiro-MeOTAD layer from air exposure and prevent diffusion and the subsequent degradation from occurring. Prof. Qi says, “if we can find a method of low cost encapsulation, it is possible, for the first time, to achieve low cost, high efficiency and long lifespans in the same cell.” Since these solar cells are easy and cost-efficient to produce, adding this extra step can provide one more piece of the puzzle for an ideal solar cell.

http://www.oist.jp/news-center/news/...80%99-lifetime
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0407090521.htm

Surging Solar in Germany Causes Drop in Electricity Rates
Published on 8 April 2014

Day-ahead electricity prices in continental Europe recorded a fifth consecutive monthly decline in March as surging German solar and wind output helped chase prices lower in neighboring countries, according to data just released by Platts, a global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider.

The Platts Continental Power Index (CONTI) fell 8.4% in March to €35.06 per megawatt hour (/MWh) compared to the February level of €38.28/MWh. The index is down more than 39% since peaking at €50.50/MWh in November last year.

Outside of Germany's immediate influence, near-term power prices in the United Kingdom and Italy declined as natural gas prices weakened, aided by falling coal and CO2 prices.

http://www.solarnovus.com/surging-so...tes_N7633.html

E.ON invests in residential solar, Sungevity raises $70M
By Davide Savenije
April 7, 2014

Dive Brief:

• On Friday, residential solar company Sungevity announced it had raised $70 million in its latest round of funding.
• Investors in the round included E.ON, one of the world's biggest utilities, Jetstream Ventures and GE Ventures.
• Sungevity, which has raised over $200 million to date, plans to use the latest funding to expand its reach in international markets.

Dive Insight:

Utilities and residential solar companies don't usually get along, but this partnership looks like a good business opportunity for both parties.

With 35 million customers globally, a partnership with Sungevity would enable E.ON to bring rooftop solar to its European customers. The partnership would give Sungevity a good foothold in the European market.

“E.ON is in the business of servicing energy customers across several countries, and as new, more customer-centric solutions around residential solar arise, we want to provide our customers with the best solutions available,” said Susana Quintana-Plaza, E.ON VP of strategic co-investment.

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/eon-...es-70m/248266/

April 8, 2014
Half of power plant capacity additions in 2013 came from natural gas



Solar. Solar photovoltaic (PV) added 2,193 MW of capacity in 2013, continuing the trend of the past few years of strong growth, helped in part by falling technology costs as well as aggressive state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and continued federal investment tax credits. Nearly 75% of the capacity added was located in California, followed by roughly 10% in Arizona. (Note: these figures do not include distributed capacity under 1 MW. Distributed solar PV capacity additions also grew in 2013, with industry reports estimating nonutility additions of 1,900 MW. Most of this capacity was also located in California.)

After many years of little activity, the solar thermal industry completed several large-scale solar thermal plants in 2013 located in Arizona and California totaling 766 MW of capacity, more than doubling the total solar thermal capacity in the United States. A few more projects are expected to be completed in 2014-16; however, several other announced projectes have since been cancelled or suspended because of a number of challenges such as environmental impacts on desert wildlife and water resources, cost-competitiveness, and delays in transmission development.

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=15751