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Solar PV YieldCo Is A Gamechanger
July 20th, 2015 by Guest Contributor
Originally published on Energy Post.
By Peter F Varadi
The invention of the YieldCo is a gamechanger that will enable spectacular growth of solar PV, writes solar pioneer Peter F. Varadi. According to Varadi, the PV YieldCo offers significant advantages over investments in fossil fuel power: no fuel supply is needed, no long-term purchasing contracts for the generated electricity and less costly infrastructure. The solar revolution meets Wall Street.
In 1982 at Solarex, a company I co-founded in 1973 which had by then become the largest PV producer in the world, we envisioned a “Solar Breeder”. The idea was that we would manufacture solar cells and modules which would be mounted on the roof of our production facility to produce electricity which would then be used to produce solar cells and modules, etcetera.
With the completion of Solarex’s new solar cell and module manufacturing facility in 1982, the realization of this idea was started.
The slanted roof of the Solarex building (see photo) was covered with a PV roof producing 200 kW of electricity. The produced DC electricity was stored in batteries and converted to AC. The system was used to power 24/7 the production control systems.
Solarex Building, Frederick MD. USA – 1982. The World’s first and at that time the largest (200 kW) rooftop PV system. Courtesy of Mr. Ramon Dominguez
The cost of PV modules in those days was quite high, but we were able to do this, because that was the time when we developed the multicrystalline wafer casting technique. We did not want to sell the early production before we had experience with PV modules produced from those wafers to ensure that the process worked well. So, the first 200 kW of modules were mounted on the roof of the facility.
The idea of the “solar breeder” was tested, but in those days to power the entire production of a solar cell and module production facility would have been prohibitively expensive. The idea went dormant.
The reincarnation of the “Solar Breeder” idea with an economic twist came about 30 years later. The Solarex idea was to produce solar cells and modules by utilizing the electricity generated by a PV system. The new “Solar Breeder” idea is to utilize the income generated by selling PV systems to finance the production of more solar cells and modules to build the next PV systems. The new “Solar Breeder” concept is called “YieldCo”. It is transforming the solar power sector.
The invention of the “YieldCo” system
The origin of the “YieldCo” idea in the USA goes back to 1960 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) law. REITs are corporations which own and operate real estate properties and distribute their income to the shareholders. The REIT idea became so popular that at present REITs exist in 37 countries and in 2014 were listed globally on 456 stock exchanges.
21 years later the idea was extended to Master Limited Partnerships (MLP) pertaining first to “natural resources” such as petroleum and natural gas extraction and transportation. The first MLP was Apache Petroleum Company in 1981, based on oil and gas resources. The idea became so popular that it was adapted to a variety of industries.
In 2012, 52 years after the REIT financial program was started the “YieldCo” idea was initiated. YieldCo is basically the adaptation of the REIT program to Renewable Energy (RE), by forming an independent power producing (IPP) corporation to operate primarily RE (water, wind and solar) assets. The company is publicly traded, “yields” a predictable cash flow, and distributes its income to the shareholders.
The first YieldCo in the renewable energy field was Brookfield Asset Management’s subsidiary Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. It was established – only 3 years ago – at the beginning of 2012 and is listed on the New York stock exchange (BEP). BEP’s assets are hydroelectric (80%) and wind plants (20%) scattered all over the world with a total installed capacity of about 7,000 MW.
The basis of the success of the YieldCos is manifold:
Because they are on the stock market the possibility of relatively small investment by mutual funds and small investment by private citizens opens the pocket book of millions.
Liquidity: one can get money out when needed.
Relatively stable cash flow: for example the electric yield of PV systems is predictable for at least 20 years and is not affected by political or financial crises which puts YieldCos, in terms of risk limitation, ahead of REITs or MLPs.
Result of the success of the first “YieldCo”
The stock market success of Brookfield opened up the floodgates to other RE YieldCos:
2013
April: Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Yield Infrastructure Capital Inc. (HASI) New York stock exchange (NYSE). [Financing energy efficiency projects also wind and solar]
July: NRG Yield Inc. (NYLD) New York stock exchange (NYSE) – [Wind, Natural gas, PV (12%)]
July: TransAlta Renewables (RNW) Toronto stock exchange. [wind 63% – Gas 31% and Hydro 6%]
September: Pattern Energy Group (PEGI) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) – [Wind]
2014
June: Abengoa Yield (ABY) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) – [50% concentrated solar thermal (not PV), 3% water, conventional power and Electric transmission].
June: NextEra Energy Partners (NEP) New York stock exchange (NYSE) – [77% Wind, and 23% PV]
July: TerraForm Power (TERP) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) [Started with 100% PV, added recently some wind]. TerraForm Power was created by SunEdison, one of the biggest PV manufacturers in the USA.
2015
June 19th: 8point3 (CAFD) New York stock exchange (NASDAQ-NMS) First Solar and SunPower the other large PV manufacturers in the USA created a joint YieldCo by transferring to it PV systems.
2015 (planned)
TerraForm Global Inc.: SunEdison after its successful first experience filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) for this initial public offering to raise US $700 million.
NSP: Neo Solar Power Corporation at the moment the largest Taiwanese Solar cell and module manufacturer announced that it plans to announce Taiwan’s first YieldCo to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock exchange by the end of 2015.
YieldCos’ solar assets
As part of a YieldCo asset mixture the utilization of PV started in 2013 (e.g. NRG Yield Inc. – 12%).
In 2014 “Abengoa Yield” (ABY), a subsidiary of Abengoa S.A., a Spanish company, was the first YieldCo that had concentrated solar (thermal) systems (CSP not PV) as the majority of its asset mixture. Abengoa produces large scale CSP systems such as “Solana” (280 MW) located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, AZ, and obviously had faith that their operation will be satisfactory. “Abengoa Yield” was created by assembling several CSP Assets in Spain and in South Africa and raised US $828 million.
But the most remarkable YieldCo in 2014 was SunEdison’s because it was the first PV manufacturing company which created a YieldCo [TerraForm Power (TERP)] consisting entirely of PV systems (utility scale PV 848 MW and distributed PV 283 MW). In 2015 SunEdison is planning to establish its second YieldCo (TerraForm Global Inc.). SunEdison was the first PV manufacturer to reincarnate the “Solar Breeder” idea. SunEdison manufactured PV systems, transferred them to a newly created YieldCo and received cash which it can use to produce new PV systems.
Following SunEdison two major US manufacturers, First Solar and SunPower, formed a joint YieldCo, 8point3, the assets of which are 100% PV and which went public on June 19, 2015. This is also a good example of the Solar Breeder system: they manufactured PV systems, transferred them to a newly created YieldCo, and received US $420 million cash which they can use to produce new PV systems. The strange name, 8point3, derives from the fact that it takes 8.3 minutes for the sun’s radiation to reach the earth.
Thus, in 2014/2015 all of the three major US PV manufacturers established their first YieldCo.
The announcement by Neo Solar Power Corporation (NSP) of Taiwan that it is planning to establish a YieldCo in 2015 indicates that the YieldCo idea has spread to the Asian PV manufacturers. It is now only a matter of time before the many Chinese, Korean and Indian PV manufacturers will see the light and establish YieldCos as well. The money to be raised for PV systems by this approach will dwarf Warren Buffett’s US $2.5 billion which his company invested in the Antelope Valley Solar Projects in California.
Why PV assets will be preferred in YieldCos
As we saw, at the outset the assets of YieldCos were primarily hydro and wind systems. Now they are turning more and more to PV. The three US PV manufacturers started their YieldCo’s with 100% PV assets. There are two main reasons why PV in future will dominate the assets assembled to create YieldCos.
Location: In order to establish a RE YieldCo one needs to build or acquire RE electric power generating system(s). These systems could be hydro, wind, concentrating solar and solar PV. Of these systems hydro, wind and concentrating solar can only be established where there is water, sufficient wind or direct, unscattered sunshine available. These are only available in a limited number of places on earth. PV systems on the other hand can be established in most parts of the Earth where people live. An example is Germany which is not the sunniest part of our planet. It is located quite far north and it has lots of cloudy days but at this time there is more PV capacity installed in Germany than in any other country. This means, that YieldCos utilizing PV assets could be anywhere. The other RE assets are more limited and soon only a limited number will be available for YieldCo.
ROFO: For tax reasons YieldCos have to invest constantly in new assets to assure the growth of income for distribution to shareholders. It is therefore extremely important that the YieldCo has a contract with the technology “sponsor” (originator) to be able to obtain assets that the “sponsor” is developing. This ensures a pipeline for future assets and a “right to first offer” (ROFO) for the assets. This strange wording is a remnant of REIT, the ancestor of YieldCo, and means “Right of First Negotiation”, so that the “sponsor” should have good faith negotiations with the YieldCo before negotiating with other parties. The idea behind this is that the YieldCo should have an assured path to new assets. To assure a pipeline in hydro or wind is complicated as they have to be found at a proper location and may not be always available. However, if a PV manufacturer is the “sponsor” it can assure the continuation of new PV assets in any size and location at any time when needed, because the PV manufacturer’s business is to produce them continuously. PV applications are ubiquitous and can be installed quickly.
The advantage of the YieldCo system for PV manufacturers
PV YieldCo is the perfect solar breeder. A YieldCo’s shares when sold can be used as a source of low cost money for producing more PV systems. The beauty for the manufacturer is, that by establishing a YieldCo based on the PV manufacturer’s need of cash it can sell
all the shares or
as many shares for as much money as the PV manufacturer needs, and enjoy the income from the unsold shares and
may retain management and maintenance contracts, which provides additional income.
PV manufacturers for a long time will not have to face overcapacity and unsold inventory, because it can be used to produce YieldCos.
PV manufacturers do not have to find single investors like Warren Buffett’s company which can afford to invest lots of money to buy a large utility size PV system. People can buy the YieldCo shares in any quantity and it has been shown that it was not a problem for PV YieldCos to generate many hundreds of millions of dollars of investment capital.
Finally, a PV YieldCo offers significant advantages over an investment in a fossil fuel power generating system. Fossil fuel power plant needs three things to be economically successful: a long term agreement for fuel supply at reasonable cost; capital investment to build the plant; and a long term guaranteed customer base.
For a PV YieldCo these issues are vastly simplified: one does not have to secure a long term contract for the fuel, because the nuclear reactor in the sun provides it free of charge; raising money on the stock market for a YieldCo turns out to be much easier than convincing lenders to provide the large amount of money to build a fossil fuel plant; and there is no need to look for customers who would sign a long term contract, as PV systems can be built anywhere and can reach customers easily: through the utilities by the existing grid or by a mini-grid; or directly when they are off-grid.
YieldCos’ influence on the future
For all these reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the effect of global implementation of the PV YieldCo system will radically increase the growth of the utilization of PV and accelerate the expansion of PV companies. More than that: it will also affect the solar PV distribution system, influencing other industries at the same time, for example reshaping the business model of utilities. Financial revolutions can be no less important than technological revolutions.
Reprinted with permission.
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$1 trillion solar, wind finance to outstrip oil and gas industry
By Giles Parkinson on 20 July 2015
Listed finance vehicles for large-scale wind and solar projects are likely to rapidly overtake the oil and gas industry in the US, but may bypass Australia altogether if the Abbott government continues to send the wrong signals to investors.
Deutsche Bank last week released a report which said the renewable energy finance vehicles – known as “YieldCos” – were likely to rapidly outgrow their oil and gas industry equivalents, and become and order of magnitude bigger than their fossil fuel rivals.
YieldCos – listed vehicles that offer a high rate of return for investment in large-scale solar farms and wind farms, in much the same way as real estate investment trusts and the oil and gas industry’s mutual limited partnerships – currently account for less than one per cent of renewable energy financing.
But Deutsche Bank expects this to change rapidly, growing from more than $30 billion in market cap now to more than $1 trillion. In doing so, it will further reduce the cost of finance for renewable energy projects, and highlight the massive shift in global investment trends, from the floundering fossil fuel industry to the clean energy sector.
“We expect YieldCos to not only increase the availability of capital, but also provide significantly lower cost of capital to the renewables sector,” the Deutsche Bank analysts write.
“Just like the MLPs acted as a key growth enabler of the oil & gas sector in the US, we expect YieldCos to be a significant growth enabler of the renewables sector. “
MLPs in the US underpinned the massive growth in the US oil and gas industry because they offered investors significant opportunities for wealth creation. They now have a cumulative market capitalisation of more than $US700 billion, after showing compound annual growth rates of 27 per cent over the last 24 years.
But Deutsche says those opportunities in renewable energy YieldCos will be even greater, because “the YieldCo phenomenon is global, growth rates are likely to be much faster than MLPs and the size of the market is likely to be much larger than the oil and gas sector.”
It says YieldCos currently account for less than 1 per cent of financing of the global renewables market and have a market cap of around $US30 billion. “We expect the market cap of YieldCos to grow at an ever faster rate as a greater percentage of renewables financing gets done by YieldCos over the next 10 years.”
In turn, this is expected to rapidly expand the opportunities for large-scale renewable energy projects, buoyed by a huge flows of capital that can provide low-cost financing. Investors are getting returns of 15 per cent or more per annum.
The market is underpinned by the huge growth expected in renewable energy. Deutsche says the number of markets where wind and solar are at “grid parity” is growing rapidly, and the global solar market alone is expected to grow by an annual rate of more than 30 per cent.
Three of the biggest US renewable energy companies have already created YieldCos to underpin their large-scale project development. SunEdison has emerged as the largest renewable energy developer in the world with the creation of Terraform and its purchase of First Wind, and is now offering this to private investors, while SunPower and First Solar have combined to create another YieldCo vehicle known as CAFD.
The above graph, from First Solar, highlights how quickly the cost of equity in the US has fallen in the past five years, from above 20 per cent in 2010 to below 10 per cent in 2010.
The next graph shows that the comparative cost of finance in key countries.
Jack Curtis, the head of operations in Australia for First Solar, says that the cost of finance is the biggest component of any project cost.
Curtis says the ability to bring those costs down will be critical in narrowing the difference between US and Australia, where the cost of large-scale solar is more than double.
That’s because, in Australia, there remains a “high perception of value risk”. That has pushed up the cost of equity and the cost of finance in Australia compared to other countries, particularly the US.
The ability of Australia to address these issues, however is uncertain, because of the lingering uncertainty around the financing market, and renewable energy policy, under the Coalition government.
Even though the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency are actively supporting large-scale solar, the federal government has repeatedly said it will dismantle both institutions if it can. It is probably only one Senate vote short of being able to do so.
Also, the Abbott government’s campaign against wind energy is making it nearly impossible for wind energy projects to gain finance, unless they are supported by long-term contracts such as that made by the ACT government. This is having a spill-over effect into solar.
Solar And Battery Storage Already Cheaper Than Grid Power In Australia
July 17th, 2015 by Giles Parkinson
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/17/solar-and-battery-storage-already-cheaper-than-grid-power-in-australia/
Originally published on RenewEconomy
Australian consumers can already install significant amounts of rooftop solar and battery storage at a cost that is cheaper than electricity from the grid, and the uptake of these two technologies is likely to be “unstoppable.”
This forecast came from Kobad Bhavnagri, the head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia, while outlining the reasons for the groups bullish forecasts, which predict 33GWh of battery storage and 37GW of solar PV in Australia by 2040.
“Solar and battery storage is simply unstoppable,” Bhavnagri said. He used this graph below to illustrate why.
Retail prices will continue to grow, but even if they remain flat, rooftop solar PV can already provide power to consumers in homes at well below the price of electricity.
Adding one kilowatt-hour of battery storage raises that cost slightly, but is still well below the cost of the grid-sourced power. Even 5kWh of battery storage can be installed and still costs are below that of the grid.
(These examples are taken in Queensland, with a 4kW rooftop solar system. A different version of this graph, showing the costs in payback terms, is included in this story on how battery storage prices are already falling in Australia).
“Storage technologies as well as PV will be able to provide costumers with electricity at a cheaper cost than the grid,” Bhavnagri says. “And as storage gets cheaper even larger amounts of storage will be able to supply consumers at a cheaper cost to the grid.
“On economic fundamentals this technology is unstoppable.”
Bhavnagri and many others, including Hazelwood coal generator owner Engie and a study by the CSIRO, believe that 50 per cent of all electricity demand will be supplied “behind the meter” by 2040.
Not that Bhavnagri is urging consumers to quit the grid altogether. He says this would not be rational. “We will still need the grid for different purposes,” he said, including for back up capacity, support services, for the “Google operated” systems of appliances. “Grid and other companies have role in providing those services.”
But it will put huge pressure on networks to adapt their business models, and the way they operate the grid, and will almost inevitably result in a write-down of the grid’s value, which has been inflated by over-investment in recent years.
“The business model of the networks has to change. They have got to sell services instead of kilowatt-hours,” Bhavnagri said. “Much of what they built is redundant, resulting in excess capacity, and networks are overcharging and not delivering a commodity or service that is valuable to consumers.”
Giles Parkinson is the founding editor of RenewEconomy.com.au, an Australian-based website that provides news and analysis on cleantech, carbon, and climate issues. Giles is based in Sydney and is watching the (slow, but quickening) transformation of Australia's energy grid with great interest.
And the cheapest electricity in the US is … solar
By John Rogers on 17 July 2015 UCSUSA
A Nevada utility and a solar developer have just struck a deal for solar electricity at a price that stands out compared not just to other solar deals, but also to just about any other option for new electricity. Here’s what it and other recent deals say about the future of solar.
Bloomberg’s story on the Nevada deal opens with this (emphasis added):
Warren Buffet’s Nevada utility has lined up what may be the cheapest electricity in the U.S., and it’s from a solar farm.
“Cheapest” and “solar” aren’t words some folks might expect to see together in something coming out of a financial outfit like Bloomberg. But folks who have been paying attention to solar’s incredible recent price drops in recent years know that the times they are a-changin’.
NV Energy, part of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company, is buying output from a project being developed by solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer First Solar at a price of 3.87 cents per kilowatt-hour(kWh). That’s probably a lower price than you’d get from just about any other source out there, except for wind or energy efficiency.
Best deal in town
No doubt about it: this power purchase agreement (PPA) is adeal. A utility analyst at Bloomberg says it’s “probably the cheapest PPA I’ve ever seen in the U.S.” Note the lack of qualifiers: no “solar”, no “renewable energy.” Just “cheapest.”
And it’s clear that this deal, for 100 megawatts (enough for more than 15,000 households’ worth of electricity), isn’t a one-off. It’s part of a suite of recent deals that testify to how far solar prices have dropped:
Another 100-megawatt NV Energy agreement in the same utility proposal, involving a project developed by PV manufacturer SunPower, came in at 4.6 cents/kWh.
Just a week earlier, Austin Energy signed a deal for solar at under 4 cents/kWh.
Some might dismiss these deals by pointing to the sunniness of the states in question or the incentives (federal or state) that are buying down the cost. Don’t let ‘em.
On the solar resource issue, you can remind the naysayers that solar is actually much more widespread than they might think.
On incentives, you can invite them to do the math on what it would cost even without the federal tax credit, for example (still under 6 cents for the lowest-cost ones). And have them look to see what solar is achieving elsewhere—5.85 cents/kWh in Dubai, for example. Or just get them to do the math on what fossil fuels like coal really cost.
Keep making it happen
And, while the sun might not be getting brighter, the future of solar certainly is. Costs for large-scale solar projects dropped by 7 percent last year, and are down by way more than half since 2009.
That price trajectory could lead some to think about waiting till prices come down even more, but that would be a mistake. Solar may keep getting better, but it’s a good deal now, and even more drops in costs aren’t guaranteed. (Neither is the future of the very successful federal tax credit.)
Even more importantly, maybe, is the fact that a big chunk of cost reductions depend not on dropping the costs of solar panels (which are way down already), but on building up local capacity to install (or approve) such systems. That build-up comes only with experience and installations.
We also need utility leaders to keep signing the contracts that keep getting us to ever-greater scales and ever-lower prices. These contracts are a driving force for the fierce competition in the solar industry.
So go forth—sign, build, thrive. And then repeat, repeat, repeat.
Just when you think that SA was getting supportive, here comes another article.....
Utility-Scale Solar Is Unlikely To Remain Dominant
Jul. 16, 2015 5:19 PM ET | 7 comments | Includes: FSLR, RUN, SCTY, TSLA, VSLR
Disclosure: I am/we are long SCTY. (More...)
Summary
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3332225-utility-scale-solar-is-unlikely-to-remain-dominant
While recent reports suggests that utility-scale solar will be far more cost-effective than distributed solar in the future, this does not look to be true when considering all factors.
Cost comparison's between utility-scale solar and distributed solar only make sense when looking at final consumer costs, in which case distributed solar looks to be increasingly attractive.
With the current energy storage cost-reduction roadmap, distributed solar will likely hold the definitive edge in the long-run.
Given that a fully financed rooftop solar system is already cheaper than grid electricity in the vast majority of states, reality seems to support the view of distributed solar's cost-advantage.
Solar PV industry analysts are increasingly becoming divided on the issue of centralized verses decentralized solar PV. On the one hand, centralized solar supporters point to how much cheaper(supposedly) utility-scale solar is compared to distributed solar. In fact, a recent Brattle Group study claims that utility-scale solar will continue to be around two times more cost-effective than rooftop solar. On the other hand, decentralized solar supporters point to the superior energy stability and independence associated with distributed solar.
While both these forms of solar will likely play a role in the future energy landscape, a decentralized solar PV model will likely dominate for many reasons. Despite the fact that utility-scale solar is still dominant by far, distributed solar has been making huge progress. In fact, distributed solar is expected to overtake utility-scale solar post-2016(solar ITC step down). This is especially great news for U.S.-based pure play distributed solar companies like SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY), Vivint Solar (NYSE:VSLR), SunRun (Pending:RUN). While the long-term dynamic between utility-scale solar and distributed solar is somewhat more murky, distributed solar should ultimately prevail.
Flawed Cost Comparisons
There are many utility-scale solar supporters claiming that utility-scale solar is approximately two-times less expensive than rooftop solar. These claims, which have been made by the likes of Brattle Group or Edison Electric Institute, are somewhat misleading. With rooftop solar being cheaper in more than 40 states, the claim that distributed solar is around two-times more expensive is patently inaccurate. While the at-site cost of utility-scale solar is indeed twice as cheap as distributed solar in many cases, this leaves out all the costs associated with the grid infrastructure, i.e. transmission, distributed, maintenance, etc.
As such, an at-site comparison between utility-scale solar and distributed is meaningless, as this is an apples to oranges comparison. The better way to compare these two solar generation methods would be to use final consumer costs, in which case rooftop is increasingly becoming more cost-competitive. With grid costs accounting for the majority of retail electricity costs in a huge number of cases, an at-site cost comparison between utility-scale solar and distributed solar makes absolutely no sense. This comparison method entirely leaves out the grid costs associated with utility-scale solar.
The only thing that matters in cost comparisons of this sort are final retail costs, in which case rooftop solar looks to be increasingly attractive. The huge costs associated with the grid makes at-site cost comparisons between utility-scale solar and residential solar irrelevant.
Real Potential Lies In Distributed Solar
There are many near-term issues associated with distributed solar that are obscuring many to its true long-term potential. The major bear argument used against distributed solar companies like Vivint Solar have been centered around solar PV's intermittently issues. Whereas utility-scale solar does not need to worry about this due to the presence of base load power generation sources, distributed solar has no such base load mechanisms. While energy storage technology is a solution to this problem, such storage devices are not yet cost-effective in the vast majority of cases.
While it is certainly true that energy storage technologies are still not cost-effective for most homeowners, the view that energy storage technologies will not progress significantly is somewhat nearsighted. This is even more true with the enormous growing demand for such technologies, which will only accelerate energy storage innovation. With Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) batteries serving as a benchmark for the cutting edge of energy storage technologies, one would be hard-pressed to think of a scenario in which such technologies would not be cost-competitive even a decade down the road.
As the continued rapid progress of energy storage technology is nearly guaranteed at this point, barring any sort of abnormal/catastrophic event, there is little standing in the way of distributed solar's dominance. Given that cost-effective energy storage technology is the only true barrier to distributed solar's long-term success, it seems rather clear that a decentralized energy generation would be optimal for most homeowners. While this scenario may currently be hard to envision given how widespread utility-scale generation is and how niche distributed generation is, it increasingly seems likely to come true.
Current Economics Already Support This View
Considering that a fully financed rooftop solar PV system is less expensive than buying electricity from the utilities in the vast majority of states, the economics are clearly starting to favor distributed solar. While distributed solar companies like SolarCity currently benefit from solar subsidies, utility-scale solar plants usually benefits from the same types of subsidies. Whereas utility-scale solar is currently only cost-effective against energy sources like coal or natural gas in a small minority of cases, distributed solar entirely beats grid prices in the majority of cases.
This would imply that distributed solar indeed cheaper than utility-scale solar when comparing the final customer electricity costs in most cases. It is clear that when grid-associated costs are factored in, distributed solar looks to be the more attractive option. The current low levels of distributed solar penetration are not a result of high costs, but rather a result of low consumer awareness. Distributed solar companies like SolarCity and Vivint Solar are successfully tackling the consumer awareness problem, as is evident by their enormous growth rates. On the growth front, distributed solar is also beating utility-scale solar, which is not surprising in light of the aforementioned information.
Conclusion
Comparisons between utility-scale solar and distributed solar can only be taken seriously when considering all costs. By factoring in all costs, utility-scale solar's supposed cost advantage disappears completely, and may in fact reverse in distributed solar's favor. This is clearly not good news for utility-scale solar companies like First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), and great for distributed solar companies like SolarCity and Vivint Solar. Talks about utility-scale solar's long-term dominance over distributed solar must be taken with a grain of salt, as this seems highly unlikely given the enormous costs associated with the grid.
30% Jump In Solar Energy Forecasting Accuracy Gained By “Machine Learning”
July 16th, 2015 by Tina Casey
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/16/30-jump-solar-energy-forecasting-accuracy-gained-machine-learning/
That old argument about solar energy being unreliable is getting weaker by the minute, and here comes IBM to knock the pins right out from under it. The company has come up with a Big Data approach to predicting the weather, and the result is a solar energy forecasting system that is up to 30% more accurate than the next-best conventional system. That’s huge news for utilities and other electrical system operators, because it helps them ensure a reliable supply of power while integrating more solar energy.
Solar Forecasting By A Very Thoughtful Machine
IBM’s new system is called SMT, shorthand for “self-learning weather model and renewable forecasting technology.”
SMT is a kitchen sink approach that pulls together — for the first time — different kinds of forecasting systems:
It advances the state-of-the-art by using deep machine learning techniques to blend domain data, information from sensor networks and local weather stations, cloud motion physics derived from sky cameras and satellite observations, and multiple weather prediction models.
The “deep thinking” comes in as the system continuously cycles through a combination of real-time measurements and historical records, drawing on thousands of weather stations.
Don’t run out shopping for your very own SMT just yet, though. The system, which is a collaborative effort between IBM and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) among other partners, is still in a preliminary phase. Scientists from the company and NREL will have more to say on the topic when they present their findings at the European Control Conference next week.
For that matter, if you check out IBM’s video, you’ll see that the collaboration is aiming for a 50% gain in accuracy, as well as providing a platform for all wind and hydro prediction, so might as well wait until version 2.0 happens:
It seems that most of the good money won't show up to the 3rd and 4th QTR.(No overtime)
Ok, who has the list of our guesses.....
If anybody hasn't noticed, that the price of newest contract was just slightly over $2 per watt....
Like I said perviously we need bigger and bigger installations to produce the same revenue.....
$2.06782464847 to be exact.....
All the news on the SAME DAY!
HERE IS A SIGNS OF THE TIMES!!!!! And our great future!
WHILE:
Walter Energy files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
This Happens:
SolarCity Corp To Build 1,460-Strong Workforce In Buffalo
SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) is gearing up for a massive hiring spree in Buffalo, New York. The residential solar installer is setting up the world's largest solar panel factory in Buffalo. Daniel Harvey, who is heading SolarCity's hiring efforts in the city, told Buffalo News that the company would start hiring this fall.
I like Elon's theory. Whether you believe in warming or not, are you going gamble your life on it?
I know what it takes to avoid GW....
And what it takes also makes your life better.....
Imagine LOWER power rates, and clean air BOTH. A win-win....... I don't care if oil and coal loses. We can move jobs to clean energy.
No car gas, no heat bill... ETCETC!
trying to scare people away from solar
The latest scam out there is how the "sun is going to turn off"......
No, Earth is not heading toward a ‘mini ice age’
Great! the air is cleared! WE ARE ON THE SAME TEAM! LOL!
It might seem off topic. But it will show our progress....
Think back to 2011. We were a fledgling $2M company.
ACI was a booming multi billion company. Like $7B+
As of right now We are worth $61B and ACI is worth $66M....
And i think that we should pass them. We passed WLT.
And as of right now we are AHEAD of ANR at $57M.
A couple of months ago they were triple us and laughing at us, that little penny stock at 16¢..... LOL!
Because as seen in Australia and Wisconsin they can do everything possible to block us using or SLTD products. In the long run we will win, but by then I might be dead. Or I might find myself sick from pollution. SLTD avoids that. For example, coal ash has heavy metals into our groundwater. All our fish have mercury warnings. SLTD will slow that. If one of those oil pipelines burst, they can screw up our rivers, SLTD solar power can stop that. I have a friend that lives 20 FT from a rail line that carries Bakken Crude. If one of those trains wrecks there HE IS DEAD! Powering cars with SLTD panels can stop that.
And what the heck, you living in the north country should be MOST interested in battery storage. Combine a wind turbine+Solar+Battery storage can be most beneficial to you. It can be done...
Future solar power dreams.........
Tesla CTO: Bulk Energy Storage Will Grow Much Faster Than People Expect
Much ado about energy storage at the Intersolar 2015 opening keynote
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/07/tesla-cto-bulk-energy-storage-will-grow-much-faster-than-people-expect.html
July 14, 2015
By Jennifer Runyon, Chief Editor
Chief Editor
Tesla CTO: Bulk Energy Storage Will Grow Much Faster Than People Expect
Much ado about energy storage at the Intersolar 2015 opening keynote
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/07/tesla-cto-bulk-energy-storage-will-grow-much-faster-than-people-expect.html
July 14, 2015
By Jennifer Runyon, Chief Editor
Chief Editor
Network of cities committing to 100 per cent renewable energy planned
Wind energy will have a key role to play in countries aiming to go in for 100 per cent renewable energy in the future.
The World Wind Energy Association plans to create a network of cities in different countries that are committing to go in for 100 per cent renewable energy, secretary general of the association Stefan Graenger told The Hindu here recently.
The association is collecting details of individual buildings, towns and cities that have already gone in for 100 per cent renewable energy. The information will be available online. The concept of 100 per cent renewable energy is discussed at the global level in several countries now. It can be expedited when success stories and examples at the local and national-levels are highlighted.
Wind energy will have a key role to play in countries aiming to go in for 100 per cent renewable energy in the future, he said.
In India, wind resource and investors are available and the Government is also giving priority to renewable energy. The problem of integration with the grid can be resolved by looking at countries that have done it successfully. India can also come with systems and show to other countries how to address issues such as fluctuation in wind energy generation.
In many countries, the grid operator has a key role to play in integration of wind energy generated with the grid.
The installed global wind energy capacity is to cross 400 GW. Last year, 52 GW wind turbines were sold, making it the highest volume sold in a year, he said. China, the U.S., Germany and India are among the leading countries in installed wind energy capacity.
“There is very strong growth in Asia. In terms of per cent of growth, there are new countries such as Brazil and Uruguay that are seeing rapid development,” he said.
Among the new investments made in energy generation, on shore wind energy is the lowest and the average capacity of a wind turbine installed is two MW. Off shore turbines are concentrated in specific markets such as the U.K. “Hybrid renewable energy systems have an important role to play in off grid rural electrification projects,” he says. Such systems are common in the African countries.
Maybe 1 motivated buyer can start a short squeeze. Now THAT would be cool!
Tesla Almost Done With First Phase Of Gigafactory Construction
by Sarah Shelton July 13, 2015
LETS GET THEM SOME NEW BATTERIES!
Tesla Motors is close to completing the first construction phase of its battery-building Gigafactory.
The latest update on the Gigafactory reveals that a 900,000 square foot building is almost fully built and will soon be ready for the manufacturing equipment to be installed. Steve Hill, director of the governor’s office of economic development, spoke with Nevada’s Legislative Commission about the progress late last month.
“They built the building,” Hill said. “They will be starting to move machinery into that building in order to make batteries relatively soon.”
As part of its agreement with Nevada, where the Gigafactory is located, Tesla must issue quarterly reports to the Legislative Commission on the building’s progress. The arrangement with Nevada also includes a $1.3 billion tax incentives package for Tesla.
During his update, Hill remarked that construction of the Gigafactory is moving faster than projected. Tesla hasn’t released any official statements about the Gigafactory’s progress recently, but had said last February that schedules “remain on plan to begin equipment installation later this year and for the start of battery pack production in 2016.”
The progress report also revelead that Tesla has invested $143 million building the Gigafactory, $80 million of which was spent during the first quarter of 2015.
At 900,000 square feet, the current facility already appears quite massive. But this will be far from its final size, which has been estimated to be around 10-million square feet. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this first phase will serve as the “pilot plant.”
Two months ago, a drone flyover captured video (posted above) of the plant under construction, putting in perspective the size of the Gigafactory’s first phase.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Court upholds Colorado’s renewable energy standard
Posted on July 13, 2015 by Bob Berwyn
taff Report
FRISCO — Colorado’s renewable energy standard is perfectly legal and reasonable, a federal appeals court held this week, rejecting a nuisance challenge from a fringe right-wing group.
Under the standard, Colorado will get 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The standard also faced a challenge in the State Legislature this year, as Republicans in the senate sought to roll back the requirement.
The legal challenge from the Energy & Environment Legal Institute claimed the standard discriminated against fossil fuel energy companies and forced outside states to comply with the standard. Read the appeals court ruling here: Energy & Environment Legal v. Epel.
Four conservation groups — Conservation Colorado Education Fund, Environment Colorado, Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society, all represented by Earthjustice and Western Resource Advocates — intervened in the case to defend the standard.
“Colorado is a national leader on clean energy, thanks in large part to its ambitious renewable energy standard,” said Earthjustice attorney Michael Hiatt. “We’re happy that the Court has rejected this attack by supporters of dirty fossil fuels.”
Colorado voters approved the renewable energy standard in 2004. It has, according to supporters, helped drive Colorado’s renewable energy economy.
When it filed the case, EELI stated that its goal was to “put wind energy on trial.” In today’s decision, the Tenth Circuit rejected EELI’s claims that the RES violated the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by regulating out-of-state businesses.
“The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized EELI’s legal arguments were ‘audacious’ and fundamentally flawed,” said Erin Overturf, energy attorney for Western Resource Advocates. “Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard, which spurs innovative clean energy solutions, does not burden commerce between the states. The Court therefore reaffirmed that the Renewable Energy Standard is constitutional.”
According to the conservation groups, the federal appeals court decision helps firm up the legal standing of renewable energy standards in other states, where oil and coal companies have also tried challenging the requirements.
The Tenth Circuit’s decision upholding the Colorado RES is the first appellate court decision squarely addressing the constitutionality of this type of state law, and affirms the authority of state governments to adopt such laws.
More than 600 sign up for Cedar Falls solar initiative
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/more-than-sign-up-for-cedar-falls-solar-initiative/article_a613b792-a4e9-5f0b-84e5-a658259e52d6.html
An artist's rendering of the Cedar Falls Utilities solar project.
1 hour ago • By Pat Kinney(0) Comments
CEDAR FALLS | Many customers of Cedar Falls Utilities are getting a charge out of the opportunity to get a portion of their electricity from solar energy.
"We wanted to give our citizens and our business the opportunity to participate in this, and so far there's been an outstanding response from our citizens," General Manager Jim Krieg said. "Over 600 people have signed up in our marketing effort."
According to Krieg, CFU officials believe that interest has been there, untapped, for some time.
"We've got a lot of interest from our residents and identified our major key account users of electricity -- the top 50 business. We are approaching them. A lot of them, like the city (government), have established goals and would like to have either 5 or 10 percent of their electric usage come from renewable -- economic renewable -- sources. So we are going out to those folks and saying we believe we have an economical, renewable source of energy."
CFU is planning to develop a solar garden -- an array of solar energy panels -- on unused city property at the northeast corner of Prairie Lakes Park off of Hudson Road. The availability of tax credits, which can be passed on to customers, is making that possible, Krieg said.
Customers are being solicited to buy shares at $399 a piece, which can be paid in 12 installments as part of the monthly utility bill. According to CFU officials, each share is expected to generate 2.5 percent of an average home’s electric usage.
Once subscribed, a homeowner would receive a monthly CFU bill credit for the electricity generated at the garden. CFU would pay the monthly bill credits for 20 years, but officials with the utility estimate a subscription would be paid back within 15 years' time. Shares also could be sold back to CFU or transferred to someone else, provided they are a CFU customer.
CFU has decided to act on this project now due to a confluence of factors, not least of which is a federal solar incentive tax credit program set to expire in 2016 that will pay for up to 30 percent of the investment. The cost of solar panels also is coming down.
Now is the opportune time to make that investment, Krieg said, suggesting this initiative is more cost-effective for individual residential customers than installing panels at their residences.
The City Council is anticipated to discuss at what level city government wants to participate over the next month.
"There appears to be council support to participate, but the level will need to be debated," City Administrator Dick McAlister said. "To a degree, the city has already invested in the project by making the land available. We’ll need to evaluate the return on investment to determine the level that we buy in at. City staff will be making those calculations and then recommending a level of involvement."
Krieg and CFU spokeswoman Betty Zeman said the utility hopes customers will make decisions on solar participation within the month so CFU can enter into a contract this fall to install the solar array.
"Cedar Falls Utilities Simple Solar Home" yard signs are popping up around town on properties where customers have signed on.
For more information, go to cfu.net or call 266-1761.
Copyright 2015 Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Solar power industry vows to step up campaign to topple Abbott government
Vow to expand marginal-seats campaign against Coalition comes after ban on Clean Energy Finance Corporation from financing wind and small-scale solar
The environment minister, Greg Hunt, said the government had asked the clean energy bank to stop financing small-scale solar and instead focus on large-scale solar. Photograph: Raoul Wegat/AAP
Australia’s solar power industry has vowed to expand its marginal-seats campaign against the Coalition and aims “to remove this government from office” after ministers directed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to avoid wind and small-scale solar investments.
The Australian Solar Council has previously targeted numerous marginal electorates in opposition to cuts to the 2020 renewable energy target (RET) but is now flagging a much larger campaign with a multimillion-dollar budget aimed directly at the prime minister, Tony Abbott.
“If the Abbott government is returned and has control of the Senate, our industry is finished,” the council’s chief executive, John Grimes, told Guardian Australia.
Abbott government extends renewable energy investment ban to solar power
Read more
“Either the Abbott government changes its policy on this – and given all of the history and indications we assess that that will never happen – so the next step is we’ve got to remove this government from office.
“They are completely out of step with the Australian public on the issue of renewables and we will harness and give voice to that constituency and the government will pay the political price.”
The latest flare-up relates to the government’s proposed instructions to the CEFC, otherwise known as the $10bn “green bank” that the Gillard government established in 2012 to invest in clean energy projects and technologies.
Abbott said he wanted the CEFC to “invest in new and emerging technologies, the things that might not otherwise get finance” and “certainly not existing windfarms”.
The draft investment mandate has not been released but the environment minister, Greg Hunt, said the government had asked the CEFC “to focus on its core mandate of emerging and innovative renewable energy technology” such as large-scale solar.
The CEFC is seeking legal advice on the correspondence it received from the treasurer, Joe Hockey, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, on 24 June. It is expected to respond by 24 July, after which the government will consider finalising the order.
Lawyer Stephen Keim SC, who provided advice to environmental groups about a previous direction issued to the CEFC in 2013, said the government had powers relating to the investment mandate, but had to tread carefully.
“The particular way in which the act describes the purpose of the investment function of the corporation, as it’s called, is to invest ‘in businesses or projects for the development or commercialisation ... or in relation to the use of, clean energy technologies’,” he told ABC Radio National.
“It doesn’t say emerging and innovative technologies and one would think that when you talk about development you’re down at the innovative end, when you talk about commercialisation you’re taking a new energy and putting it into use, but when you start to talk about in relation to the use of, that seems to me that that can include what the government calls mature technologies as well.
“So it seems to me that the emphasis that the government has is not something that is spelled out in the act.”
Section 64 of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act says the responsible ministers may give the board directions about the performance of the CEFC’s investment function.
It says such a direction “may set out the policies to be pursued by the corporation in relation to” numerous issues including “technologies, projects and businesses that are eligible for investment” and “the allocation of investments between the various classes of clean energy technologies”.
Keim said the relevant ministers could issue directions “as long as what they’re doing is not inconsistent with the act and the purposes of the act”.
“They do have to tread a fairly thin line ... and of course the purpose of the act is spelled out to get as much investment in clean energy technologies as you can, and that includes renewable technologies, and renewable technologies obviously includes wind, solar, wave,” he said.
“If there was evidence that the direction was to frustrate the purpose of the act then the corporation would have a basis for seeking to set aside the direction.”
On Tuesday the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, visited wind energy company Vestas Wind Systems in Melbourne to urge Abbott to “stop his war on windfarms and his assault on solar”.
“Mr Abbott needs to come out here and see the real jobs being created by renewable energy,” Shorten said. “There are literally thousands of jobs in the balance and billions of dollars of investment ... Why is Mr Abbott so stuck in the past that he is missing the jobs of the future?”
Hunt said the Coalition had twice tried to implement its election promise to abolish the CEFC – both attempts were blocked by the Senate – “but if you still have this body, it should be focusing on emerging technologies”.
“I’m not sure why Bill Shorten’s against focusing on large-scale solar,” Hunt told Canberra radio station 2CC on Tuesday. “I would have thought that that’s precisely the sort of thing that we want to be encouraging.”
Grimes rejected the government’s argument that it was eager to support large-scale solar, asking: “If they were so serious about large-scale solar why did they cut the RET from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000 gigawatt hours?”
Grimes said the government had misjudged public sentiment on renewable energy. “Some of our biggest supporters are traditional, rusted-on Coalition supporters,” he said.
“The reason they’re so angry is they can see that the transformation of our economy is the biggest business opportunity that Australia has ever seen. They say to me, ‘We thought this was the government of small business, we thought this was the government of competition and choice, and instead of delivering against that they want to close this down.’”
Grimes said the Australian Solar Council’s previous marginal-seats campaign on the RET demonstrated “that we are deadly serious about protecting the interests of consumers and of our industry”.
“Seven [marginal seats] is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “It has to be a budget worth millions. We spent $1m on the last campaign. This will be a multimillion-dollar budget. We will be looking to partner with unusual suspects – organisations that aren’t activist, renewable-focused organisations but are concerned about the outcomes for the Australian community.”
Grimes said the aim of the campaign was to change the government, but added: “If there’s a different prime minister then it is a different government. We don’t see a pathway where prime minister Abbott can lead Australia to a positive renewable energy future; it’s simply not possible.”
Kevin Rudd’s Labor government endured significant political pressure in 2010 when the mining industry ran an expensive advertising campaign against the proposed resource super profit tax.
It was one of the matters Julia Gillard said she wanted to resolve when she successfully challenged Rudd for the leadership. She immediately asked the mining industry to cancel the ads to allow negotiations on a revised mining tax to resume.
__________________________
Clean Energy Finance Corporation could have legal grounds to fight wind and solar ban, lawyer says
By political reporters Anna Henderson and Eric Tlozek
Updated 44 minutes ago
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) could have an avenue to fight the Federal Government's prohibition on investing in wind power and rooftop solar, according to a senior lawyer.
The Abbott Government has twice tried to abolish the taxpayer-funded $10 billion CEFC, known as the green bank, and has now issued a draft directive to stop the corporation investing in wind farms and small-scale solar.
The draft changes direct the authority to spend the money on large-scale solar projects and new and emerging technologies.
Stephen Keim QC has previously provided advice to environmental groups about the Government's ability to direct the CEFC.
He said the Government had the power to put in place an investment mandate but it had to "tread a fairly thin line".
"They can't do anything or give a direction that's inconsistent with the Act, including the purpose of the Act," he told Radio National.
"The purpose of the Act is spelled out. It is to get as much investment in clean energy technologies as you can, and that includes renewable technologies."
Mr Keim said the CEFC would have the opportunity to make submissions about the draft directive and those documents should be tabled in Parliament.
"If there's evidence that the Government's just trying to frustrate the purpose of the Act, then the corporation would have the opportunity ... to seek a legal remedy," he said.
He said at the same time the CEFC was obliged to comply with the law.
"Ultimately if the Government does bring into existence a lawful mandate, then the board is required to do everything it can to comply with that mandate," Mr Keim said.
The CEFC has confirmed it is seeking advice about its position.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has sought to capitalise on unhappiness with the draft directive by visiting a Victorian wind turbine manufacturer.
He accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of being "increasingly a hostage to the hard right of his party".
"Mr Abbott needs to stop his war on wind farms and his assault on solar," Mr Shorten said.
Yesterday the Prime Minister said it was "no secret" the Government wanted to abolish the CEFC but did not have Upper House support in Parliament.
"As long as it exists, it might as well be as useful as possible," he said.
"The best thing that the CEFC can do is invest in new and emerging technologies, the things that might not otherwise get finance, and that's why we've got this draft direction."
Government MP rejects claims of fossil fuel influences
The Government, meanwhile, has hit back at the Greens over accusations that donations from fossil fuel companies had influenced the Coalition's position on renewable energy.
"This is a prime minister who's done everything possible to handcuff our country to the coal and gas industry, doing everything he can to wipe out a low-cost competitor," Greens spokesman Scott Ludlam said yesterday.
But Government MP Angus Taylor said the Coalition's position was based on market economics, not political donations.
"It's got nothing to do with that," he said.
"There was no reduction in financing to the renewables sector in the decision that has been made here. None."
With the low volume it takes one motivated buyer/seller to move it.
Whats da matta. Everybody asleep. I guess no news no excitement!
We now have enough cash to buy WLTG Walter Energy...
$6M Mkt Cap now....
Coal YUCK!
Abbott government extends renewable energy investment ban to solar power
Clean Energy Finance Corporation banned from investing in small-scale solar projects in move industry claims is ‘revenge politics’ that will strangle the sector
A directive banning the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) from investing in existing wind technology will also apply to small-scale solar projects, a move that will effectively throttle the industry, the Australian Solar Council said.
The federal government on Sunday confirmed that the $10bn CEFC will no longer invest in wind power, instead focussing on “emerging technologies”.
“It is our policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because we think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason why they can’t be supported in the usual way,” Abbott told reporters in Darwin. “But while the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies – certainly not existing wind farms.
“This is a government which supports renewables, but obviously we want to support renewables at the same time as reducing the upward pressure on power prices,” the prime minister said. “We want to keep power prices as low as possible, consistent with a strong renewables sector.”
But it has emerged the government’s investment directive also applies to small-scale solar technology like rooftop panels that generate up to 100 kilowatts of power.
One-third of the current funding of the CEFC goes to solar projects, the majority of which are small-scale projects.
Scrapping funding for these projects would impact low-income households and renters and public housing users who cannot afford or do not otherwise have access to their own panels, head of the Australian Solar Council, John Grimes, told Guardian Australia.
“To say this is about lowering the costs of power is cynical in the extreme,” Grimes said. “What they’re doing with this is the precise opposite.”
He argued the move was payback for the solar industry’s successful campaign to keep small-scale solar power in the renewable energy target (RET).
“This certainly smells like revenge politics,” Grimes said, adding it was the government’s “backdoor” way of strangling solar power.
The environment minister, Greg Hunt, threw his support behind the industry as recently as Sunday morning.
“I’ve been repeatedly critical of the CEFC investing taxpayer funds in projects such as existing windfarms, rather than focusing on solar and emerging technologies,” he tweeted. “Our policy is to abolish the CEFC but in the meantime it should focus on solar and emerging technologies as was originally intended.”
The Coalition had secured the Senate crossbench’s support for the inclusion of wood waste in the RET in exchange for the provision of a new windfarm commissioner who would look into claims of the negative health impacts of turbines.
While the move to crack down on wind power has been welcomed by some, Grimes warned that the crossbench is still very much “committed to a solar future” and will feel as though their agreement with the government has “been absolutely violated”.
The Senate has twice voted down government legislation to scrap the CEFC, making it a trigger for a future double dissolution.
“The government is effectively blood-letting the CEFC since its attempts to abolish it have been fruitless,” the shadow environment minister, Mark Butler, said. “Tony Abbott is broadening his assault on renewable energy technologies, putting thousands of Australian jobs and billions of dollars in investment at even further risk.
“This is the most blatant example of Tony Abbott’s lack of vision for Australia’s future. The whole world is moving towards clean energy and Tony Abbott is scrambling to take Australia in the opposite direction,” Butler said.
The acting Greens leader, Scott Ludlam, told Guardian Australia the move is akin to a “protection racket” to try and ensure the viability of the coal and gas sectors.
He said the move was “designed to knock off” the very successful renewables industry by ensuring that the CEFC is not financially viable.
“By knocking off wind and solar, the only thing that you leave there is the high-risk stuff,” he said. “They’re trying to make it as difficult as possible for the CEFC.”
Storage is getting BIG! Imagine how many batteries that we could sell!
Tesla Motors Inc Gigafactory Could Be The Biggest Building On Earth
Posted By: Aman JainPosted date: July 10, 2015 10:35:12 AMIn: Technology
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/07/tesla-gigafactory-biggest-planet/
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) so-called Gigafactory could be much bigger than what was originally expected. It turns out the EV maker is planning 7 “blocks,” according to Story County official Dean Haymore. The term 7 “blocks,” does not sound that big, at least until you consider that the construction of one block is underway, and that block itself is the Gigafactory.
]
Biggest building on the planet
During a presentation at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Haymore informed that Tesla acquired another 1,200 acres of land next to the land where Gigafactory is being constructed. With the purchase, the company more than doubles its acreage in the region, and it’s not stopping, as it plans to buy 350 more acres.
If we combine all the seven “blocks,” then the factory would stretch from the original plan of 10 million square-feet to 24 million square-feet, making it the biggest building on the planet, in terms of footprint, says a report from Electrek.
The recent land grab is in-line with the comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who previously said that for the inevitable EV revolution, hundreds of Gigafactories will be required.
The first Gigafactory is expected to commence production in the not too distant future, and was initially supposed to make batteries for 500,000 electric cars a year by 2020. However, during a recent earnings call, Musk said that the company is planning to ramp up the battery production capacity following the impressive initial response for the newly unveiled stationary energy storage products. Musk also talked about adding more capacity to the plant currently under-construction near Reno.
Tesla has not announced new partners yet
Haymore revealed another interesting fact during the presentation. Panasonic Corporation (ADR) (OTCMKTS:PCRFY) (TYO:6752), which for now is the only official partner for the factory, is bringing in 14 more companies to the Gigafactory.
“Panasonic is bringing 14 other companies, besides them, over here (Tahoe Reno Industrial Center) to provide for Tesla,” Haymore said. This is in-line with Tesla’s initial announced plan, when it said to bring multiple suppliers under the same roof to lower the costs, but a year later, the company has still not named another supplier apart from its long-time battery cell supplier, Panasonic. However, given that Panasonic is expected to bring in more suppliers, this at least partially answers why Tesla has not announced any new partners to date.
Storage is getting BIG!
Tesla Motors Inc Gigafactory Could Be The Biggest Building On Earth
Posted By: Aman JainPosted date: July 10, 2015 10:35:12 AMIn: Technology
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/07/tesla-gigafactory-biggest-planet/
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) so-called Gigafactory could be much bigger than what was originally expected. It turns out the EV maker is planning 7 “blocks,” according to Story County official Dean Haymore. The term 7 “blocks,” does not sound that big, at least until you consider that the construction of one block is underway, and that block itself is the Gigafactory.
]
Biggest building on the planet
During a presentation at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Haymore informed that Tesla acquired another 1,200 acres of land next to the land where Gigafactory is being constructed. With the purchase, the company more than doubles its acreage in the region, and it’s not stopping, as it plans to buy 350 more acres.
If we combine all the seven “blocks,” then the factory would stretch from the original plan of 10 million square-feet to 24 million square-feet, making it the biggest building on the planet, in terms of footprint, says a report from Electrek.
The recent land grab is in-line with the comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who previously said that for the inevitable EV revolution, hundreds of Gigafactories will be required.
The first Gigafactory is expected to commence production in the not too distant future, and was initially supposed to make batteries for 500,000 electric cars a year by 2020. However, during a recent earnings call, Musk said that the company is planning to ramp up the battery production capacity following the impressive initial response for the newly unveiled stationary energy storage products. Musk also talked about adding more capacity to the plant currently under-construction near Reno.
Tesla has not announced new partners yet
Haymore revealed another interesting fact during the presentation. Panasonic Corporation (ADR) (OTCMKTS:PCRFY) (TYO:6752), which for now is the only official partner for the factory, is bringing in 14 more companies to the Gigafactory.
“Panasonic is bringing 14 other companies, besides them, over here (Tahoe Reno Industrial Center) to provide for Tesla,” Haymore said. This is in-line with Tesla’s initial announced plan, when it said to bring multiple suppliers under the same roof to lower the costs, but a year later, the company has still not named another supplier apart from its long-time battery cell supplier, Panasonic. However, given that Panasonic is expected to bring in more suppliers, this at least partially answers why Tesla has not announced any new partners to date.
This article is about Wind Power not Solar power, but it shows that Renewables CAN do it!
Denmark Produces 140% Of Country's Electricity Needs With Wind Power
http://www.hngn.com/articles/108543/20150711/denmark-produces-140-countrys-electricity-needs-wind-power.htm
"It shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is not fantasy," Oliver Joy of the European Wind Energy Association told The Guardian. "Wind energy and renewables can be a solution to decarbonization - and also security of supply at times of high demand."
By Taylor Tyler | Jul 11, 2015 06:43 PM EDT
Wind farms in Denmark were able to produce 140 percent of the country's electricity needs on Friday, allowing the Nordic nation to export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.
"It shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is not fantasy," Oliver Joy of the European Wind Energy Association told The Guardian. "Wind energy and renewables can be a solution to decarbonization - and also security of supply at times of high demand."
Eighty percent of the excess power was shared with Germany and Norway, with the remaining 20 percent going to Sweden.
The figures were first noticed by the Danish website energinet.dk, which provides a real-time account of the country's renewable power output. During yesterday's peaks, Denmark's wind farms were not even operating at their full 4.8GW capacity, The Guardian noted.
Near unanimous political consensus in Denmark in recent years has resulted in a significant expansion of wind farms across the country. It has a goal of producing half of its electricity through renewable resources by 2020, and 84 percent by 2035. By 2050, Denmark aims to completely end the burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, The New York Times reported.
In the U.S., the Department of Energy recently released a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. wind energy industry and determined that with "continuing technological advancements, cost reductions, and siting and transmission development, the nation can deploy wind power to economically provide 35% of our nation's electricity and supply renewable power in all 50 states by 2050."
The U.S. is already the number one producer of wind energy in the world, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Graphene Film Cools Electronics 4 Times Better Than Copper
http://reliawire.com/2015/07/graphene-film-cools-electronics-4-times-better-than-copper/
n effective method for cooling electronics using graphene-based film has been developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology.
The thermal conductivity capacity of the film is four times greater than copper’s. Not only that, but the graphene film can be attached to electronic components made of silicon. This gives favourable performance compared to typical graphene characteristics shown in earlier, similar experimental films.
Today’s electronic systems generate a great deal of heat. This is mostly because the ever-increasing demand on functionality.
Disposal of of excess heat in an efficient manner is indispensable for prolonging electronics lifespan, and also could lead to a significant lowering of energy usage. According to one study, roughly half the energy required to run computer servers is used just for cooling purposes.
A team of researchers led by Chalmers’ Johan Liu, had earlier demonstrated that graphene was able to have a cooling effect on silicon-based electronics. This marked a milestone for researchers doing work on the cooling of silicon-based electronics using graphene.
“But the methods that have been in place so far have presented the researchers with problems”, Professor Liu says. “It has become evident that those methods cannot be used to rid electronic devices off great amounts of heat, because they have consisted only of a few layers of thermal conductive atoms. When you try to add more layers of graphene, another problem arises, a problem with adhesiveness. After having increased the amount of layers, the graphene no longer will adhere to the surface, since the adhesion is held together only by weak van der Waals bonds.
We have now solved this problem by managing to create strong covalent bonds between the graphene film and the surface, which is an electronic component made of silicon.”
The stronger covalent bonds are the result of the addition of a property-altering molecule to the graphene.
n effective method for cooling electronics using graphene-based film has been developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology.
The thermal conductivity capacity of the film is four times greater than copper’s. Not only that, but the graphene film can be attached to electronic components made of silicon. This gives favourable performance compared to typical graphene characteristics shown in earlier, similar experimental films.
Today’s electronic systems generate a great deal of heat. This is mostly because the ever-increasing demand on functionality.
Disposal of of excess heat in an efficient manner is indispensable for prolonging electronics lifespan, and also could lead to a significant lowering of energy usage. According to one study, roughly half the energy required to run computer servers is used just for cooling purposes.
A team of researchers led by Chalmers’ Johan Liu, had earlier demonstrated that graphene was able to have a cooling effect on silicon-based electronics. This marked a milestone for researchers doing work on the cooling of silicon-based electronics using graphene.
“But the methods that have been in place so far have presented the researchers with problems”, Professor Liu says. “It has become evident that those methods cannot be used to rid electronic devices off great amounts of heat, because they have consisted only of a few layers of thermal conductive atoms. When you try to add more layers of graphene, another problem arises, a problem with adhesiveness. After having increased the amount of layers, the graphene no longer will adhere to the surface, since the adhesion is held together only by weak van der Waals bonds.
We have now solved this problem by managing to create strong covalent bonds between the graphene film and the surface, which is an electronic component made of silicon.”
The stronger covalent bonds are the result of the addition of a property-altering molecule to the graphene.
Global Solar Power Capacity About To Hit 200 GW
July 11th, 2015 by Zachary Shahan
Originally published on Solar Love.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/11/global-solar-power-capacity-about-to-hit-200-gw/
The global solar industry has been seeing exponential growth in recent years, and that’s expected to continue. After hitting about 178 GW of solar PV power capacity by the end of 2014, global solar PV capacity is expected to hit 200 GW shortly.
That’s according to German solar association BSW-Solar, anyhow. It projects that 22 GW of solar PV capacity was added worldwide in the first half of 2015, and expects 50 GW will be added in total this year. (Note that GTM Research projects 55 GW will be added, and other solar market research firms are in the general vicinity as well.)
Within the next 4 years, BSW-Solar expects the total global solar PV capacity will more than double, reaching at least 400 GW.
The markets most driving solar PV growth these days are China, Japan, the USA, and India. However, the good news is that solar PV is growing all across the world, as it has become more and more competitive very quickly. In a quickly growing number of places, solar power is the cheapest option for homeowners, businesses, governments, and societies.
Going solar: Governor visits welding industry
Posted: Friday, July 10, 2015 10:40 am | Updated: 10:42 am, Fri Jul 10, 2015.
By JEFF HUNT MVM News Network
Governor arrives
Lee County Marketing and Communications Manager Dana Klesner (center left) and State Rep. Dave Heaton watch as Jenny Steffensmeier (left), owner of Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing Inc. in Pilot Grove, greets Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad Thursday.
PILOT GROVE – Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing Inc. owner Jenny Steffensmeier announced Thursday the company is spending $923,000 to convert the entire operation to solar power.
This makes Steffensmeier Welding the largest commercial operation in the state of Iowa to rely solely on the energy source.
Joined by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and members of Ideal Energy Solar, the Fairfield company that will take on the two-month-long project, Steffensmeier said the project will pay for itself in four to six years.
Steffensmeier said due to a long-time friendship with Branstad, Steve Bisenius with the Lee County Economic Development Group was instrumental in getting the governor to Pilot Grove.
Ideal Energy Solar founder and CEO Troy Van Beek said as Steffensmeier’s business has grown, so has the need for cheaper power.
“This company has been doing amazing business in Pilot Grove,” Van Beek said. “And now the leadership of the company has taken it upon themselves to go 100-percent solar powered.”
The 428-kilowatt solar array will save more than $90,000 a year in energy bills, according to a news release from Steffensmeier and Ideal Energy.
Because solar panels often last 30 to 40 years, the array is expected to result in millions of dollars of savings for Steffensmeier over the next few decades.
Van Beek said installation of the solar equipment should begin in late summer or early fall and take 60 days to complete.
Following a tour of the facility, Branstad said Iowa is claiming a spot among the top renewable resources producers in the country.
“It’s important to remember that 80 percent of the new jobs in our state come from existing businesses,” he said. “The more I can be knowledgeable and helpful to eliminate some of the barriers, the better the Iowa economy and the opportunities in the state.”
Steffensmeier Welding and Manufacturing is a custom-order business, with an emphasis on integrity, precision and fine craftsmanship.
Employing 20 people, the company can take projects of any scale from the design phase through final production.
State support
On June 26, Branstad signed House File 645 into action, raising the Iowa solar energy tax from $4.5 million to $5 million. This offsets up to 18 percent of the cost of a solar system for commercial and residential taxpayers and provides a 60 percent match to the 30 percent federal tax incentive.
Branstad first passed legislation to create Iowa’s solar energy tax credits in 2012 and approved an expansion of the program in 2014.
Businesses and residents in 62 of Iowa’s 99 counties have used the tax incentive to help finance solar projects.