[amor de cosmos]

Hyundai Motor to Install South Korea’s Largest Rooftop Photovoltaic Power Plant at Asan Factory
- Photovoltaic power plant to reduce carbon emissions, ease nation’s power supplies
- Project aligns with Hyundai’s vision of widespread expansion of renewable energy, company’s eco-friendly goals

May 8, 2013 - Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea’s largest automaker, announced that it will install the nation’s largest rooftop photovoltaic power plant at its manufacturing factory in Asan, Korea, to expand the use of renewable energy and take measures to help reduce global warming.

Hyundai’s Asan plant will host the power plant, while Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will purchase the electricity produced by the solar modules and sell it to areas near the plant, including Asan city. Working with Korea Midland Power Co., Ltd. (KOMIPO), a thermal power company, Hyundai plans to install about 40,000 solar photovoltaic modules on the rooftops of Asan’s press, welding, assembly and engine buildings by the end of this year.

The 213,000 square meter area to be equipped with the modules accounts for as much as 68 percent of the total roof space, and the peak capacity of the combined modules reaches 10 MW. With such capacity, the completed plant will be capable of supplying up to 11.5 million KWh of electricity per year, or provide a stable supply of electricity for up to 3,200 households.

As 100 percent of the photovoltaic plant at Asan will be built on existing rooftops, the construction neither requires any additional land nor causes environmental issues. The choice of the Asan plant is appropriate, as Asan manufactures the eco-friendly Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, as well as Sonata and Grandeur (Azera in some markets).

To produce the same amount of electricity – 11.5 million KWh - a thermoelectric power plant releases 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide, emission that can be prevented by the use of the photovoltaic power plant. The reduction of 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions is equivalent to the effect of planting 1.12 million pine trees on the environment.

http://www.hyundainews.com/us/en-us/...t-asan-factory
http://www.treehugger.com/green-inve...i-factory.html

Hanergy Acquiring Engensa to Expand Into U.K. Residential Solar
14 May 2013

May 15 (Bloomberg) — Hanergy Holding Group Ltd., a Chinese renewable-energy company, purchased London-based Engensa Ltd. to expand into the U.K. residential solar market.

Hanergy, based in Beijing, bought the solar installer and financing provider for an undisclosed amount, Engensa said yesterday.

The deal is Hanergy’s third solar acquisition outside China in less than a year, after its January deal for thin-film panel maker MiaSole Inc. in the U.S. and its June purchase of Q-Cells SE unit Solibro in Germany. Asian companies including LDK Solar Co. and Hanwha Corp. are snapping up overseas peers to gain access to large markets, as well as technology.

“This is the first acquisition of a U.K. installer by a manufacturer and the first Chinese manufacturer to invest in the residential market,” Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said by e-mail. “Hanergy, which claims to have 2 gigawatts of thin-film silicon manufacturing capacity already, probably means to find a sales channel.”

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/hane...dential-solar/

Solar Mandate Embraced by a Second California City
Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, Calif., joins Lancaster in backing a solar mandate for new construction, with an ordinance that is much stronger.
Earthtechling, Pete Danko: May 14, 2013

Forget about your complicated tax credits, your net metering, and your feed-in tariff schemes. Let’s go solar the straightforward way: Mandate it!

Lancaster, Calif., in Los Angeles County, did so earlier this year, and the move had the feel of a one-off, the unique inspiration of a Republican mayor with an admirable love for renewable energy and a hankering for attention. But now the town of Sebastopol, in the apple- and grape-growing rolling hills of western Sonoma County, is following suit with a much more aggressive ordinance [PDF], suggesting that solar-by-fiat might be more viable as policy than we thought.

Sebastopol leaders this week unanimously backed an ordinance that, pending final approval later this month, will require residential and commercial buildings (Lancaster’s measure covers only residential) to include a solar-power-generating system or pay an in-lieu fee.

Under the ordinance, how much solar a building will need can be calculated by one of two methods.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...alifornia-city

The True Value of Arizona Solar, By the Numbers
Every dollar invested by APS in its net metering program earns it $1.54, according to a new analysis.
Herman K. Trabish: May 14, 2013

Net metering of rooftop solar creates value for society and the utility. Every dollar invested by Arizona Public Service (APS), the state’s dominant utility, in its net metering program will earn it $1.54, according to a new cost-benefit analysis of Arizona solar.

By 2015, the APS net metering program will produce $34 million in net benefits yearly.

The Benefits and Costs of Solar Distributed Generation for Arizona Public Service, a report from R. Thomas Beach and Patrick G. McGuire of Crossborder Energy, is the latest in a series of studies undertaken to size up the benefits of the 43 net metering programs that are in place around the country. The first was the landmark Austin Energy (AE) Value of Solar Tariff (VOST) study by Clean Power Research.

“There are three or four dominant approaches for valuing solar, but they all seem to be coalescing around the same general conclusion,” explained Rabago Energy principal Karl Rabago, a former AE Distributed Energy Services VP and PUCT Commissioner. Rabago was instrumental in developing AE’s VOST program and is an expert on net metering and distributed generation policies.

The new studies are reaching similar conclusions, Rabago said. “It’s like climate studies. Pretty much everybody agrees now. When you account for all the value this stuff brings, it’s worth more than the cost.”



The researchers analyzed a set of benefits using the previous value of solar studies, as well as Crossborder’s own study of net metering in California. They included the following factors:

• Energy: The extent to which solar replaces the future avoided energy cost of APS’ long-term use of fossil fuels, mostly natural gas, and the fuel price hedging benefit of avoiding natural gas price volatility. The base case forecast of APS’ avoided energy costs from using distributed solar came out at “a 20-year levelized value of 7.1 cents per kilowatt-hour, in 2014 dollars.”
• Generation: Because of its contracted solar, energy efficiency, and demand response, APS needs no more new generation until 2017. Those resources will be in place and have value far beyond the avoided short-term energy costs, and may even hedge against unexpected delays in other contracted generation. The APS “levelized avoided capacity costs are $190.10 per kilowatt-year in 2014 dollars.”
• Ancillary Services and Capacity Reserves: Distributed solar reduces the APS peak load. Utilities are required to maintain operating reserves of 7 percent and capacity reserves of 15 percent. For each kilowatt cut from peak demand, the cost of maintaining reserves is reduced.
• Transmission: Distributed solar defers the cost of new and renovated transmission infrastructure. “Escalating these avoided transmission and sub-transmission costs to 2014 and using the current APS carrying charge of 11.05 percent for transmission yields a levelized avoided transmission cost of $65.14 per kilowatt-year.”
• Distribution: Distributed solar can also cut the costs of building and maintaining the distribution system. The Beck study valued the reductions at “$115,000 per megawatt of distributed generation.”
• Environmental: In a 2012 document, APS quantified the benefits of distributed solar’s reduction in air pollutants and water use.
• Avoided Renewables Costs: Distributed solar relieves APS of the need to invest in renewables to meet Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard Tariff (REST) requirement of 15 percent in 2027, as well as in other solar to meet the REST mandate’s 30 percent distributed generation carve-out.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...By-the-Numbers

Saudi Arabia Looks to NREL for Solar Monitoring Expertise
May 13, 2013

Saudi Arabia is planning to move aggressively into renewable energy, with plans to install more solar and wind power in the next 20 years than the rest of the world has installed to date.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is working with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for training and expertise in measuring its solar resource.

The importance of setting up networks to gauge and predict the strength of solar radiation in varying meteorological conditions convinced the Saudis to choose NREL as a partner.

Nine Saudi engineers spent nine days at NREL last month, studying and discussing topics as theoretical as Ångström's law and the scatter-absorption ratio for the atmospheric effects on solar radiation, and as practical as the effect of sandstorms on solar panels. NREL experts also engaged the Saudi staff with topics including waste-to-energy, geothermal technologies, calibrations, and solar resource forecasting.

NREL and its partner Battelle will support the installation of more than 50 monitoring stations in the Middle East kingdom this year to measure the solar resource and gauge the best spots for solar power plants and will also train local Saudis to operate and maintain the instruments and stations.

http://www.nrel.gov/news/features/fe...eature_id=2196

Fraunhofer and India sign MoU to develop solar pilot projects
By Nilima Choudhury - 14 May 2013, 13:17
In News, Power Generation

India’s Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop pilot projects in PV, solar thermal and hydrogen.

Under the agreement, the two parties will look to construct PV test centres, develop test regulations for concentrating solar collectors, provide solar thermal desalination demonstration systems and hydrogen technology for stationary and mobile applications.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/fraunhof...pilot_projects

SolarCity adds 7,000 new customers in Q1
By Mark Osborne - 14 May 2013, 13:17
In News, Power Generation, Finance

PV energy provider (PVEP), SolarCity, reported strong residential adoption in the first quarter of 2013, collecting a total of 7,000 new customers with a total of 46MW deployed, which included 33MW of residential installations.

However, management noted in a call that the better-than-expected new customer gains was not expected to alter previous guidance for the year of achieving PV installations of around 250MW in 2013.

The reason was said to be delivery constraints from customers signing agreements to actual installation times, something the company has battled with in the past.

"Extending its leadership as the nation's premier clean energy provider, SolarCity not only grew its customer base 106% year over year to over 57,400 and increased its long-term contracted cash flows to $1.22 billion, but also exceeded guidance of megawatts deployed of 41MW with 46MW in the first quarter of 2013," said Lyndon Rive, CEO at SunCity. "Through our unique, vertically-integrated platform of financing and installing solar systems, we offer customers a compelling value proposition of clean energy for lower than their local utility rate.”

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/solarcit...ustomers_in_q1

Entrepreneur Giving Shuttle Truss New Uses
05.13.13

A truss design devised to help workers process space shuttles continues to find new uses as a space shuttle engineer-turned-entrepreneur adapts it to everything from a solar-powered electric generator to a mobile cellphone tower.

The structure, which is constantly being redesigned into smaller packages that unfold to larger sizes, is also envisioned for Mars or other space destinations where it could be deployed to connect modules for astronauts.

Jim Fletcher, who worked for United Space Alliance during the space shuttle era, began working on the truss 10 years ago and started a company two years ago called CPI Technologies dedicated to produce them. The design began life as an extendable work platform that would reach over the shuttle's cargo bay.

"We were trying to come up with a way to reach out and retrieve something while the shuttle was out at the pad so we wouldn't have to roll it back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)," Fletcher said.

Engineers built a truss that ultimately was put to use in the Orbiter Processing Facility spanning the cargo bay.

From there, Fletcher built a portable solar-powered electric generator that stretched two pair of 21-foot-long trusses out from the center, complete with solar panels that locked into the top. He demonstrated the concept by deploying the prototype in the VAB parking lot where it generated enough electricity to power a house, except the air conditioning.

Fletcher returned to the VAB recently, where the truss has been stored, to collect NASA’s prototype for demonstrations at the Florida Solar Energy Center’s building in Cocoa. The FSEC and Space Coast Energy Consortium have been working closely with Fletcher since the prototype is a power generator using a clean and renewable resource. The prototype will be made into a fully operational model and returned to NASA.

Since the first model was made, Fletcher has built a few more advanced versions that open longer and wider and produce more electricity while taking up no more folded space than the original.

"You'd have a 16-foot array on a trailer the same size as this," Fletcher said. "It can produce 10 kilowatts of peak power."

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/...atormoved.html