Category:

Solar Records

SunEdison Wins 500 MW Solar PV Bid In India At Record-Breaking Tariff

by Saurabh Mahapatra November 4, 2015

US-based renewable energy project developer SunEdison has set a new Indian record for lowest tariff bid for solar photovoltaic power plant.

The lowest bid for solar PV project in India is now belongs to SunEdison. The company participated in a 500 MW auction under the revamped National Solar Mission. While a number of companies participated in the auction, SunEdison secured the entire 500 MW capacity. The company placed a bid of Rs 4.63/kWh (US¢7.12/kWh).

For the first time in India, a company secured a winning bid of lower than Rs 5.00/kWh (US¢7.7/kWh). In fact, as many as 10 companies quoted a bid below Rs 5.00/kWh while a total of 15 companies placed bids below Rs 5.50/kWh (US¢8.5/kWh).

The 500 MW auction was oversubscribed 10.5 times. A total of 30 prospective project developers submitted bids for a total of 5.5 GW capacity. Some of the foreign developers were among the first-time participants in an India solar power auction. These included companies like Trina Solar and SBG Cleantech (a joint venture company between SoftBank, Foxconn, and Bharti Enterprises).

Other major participants included SkyPower, ACME Solar, Aditya Birla, Essel Energy, Tata Power, Azure Power, Welspun Energy, Hero Future Energies, ReNew Power, and Suzlon Energy.

SunEdison beat the lowest bid record of SkyPower which secured a 50 MW project under Madhya Pradesh solar power policy earlier this year. A subsidiary of SkyPower won the 50 MW project at Rs 5.05/kWh (US¢7.7/kWh). The lowest winning bid before that was by First Solar at Rs 5.25/kWh (8.27¢/kWh) for a 40 MW project in Andhra Pradesh.

The bid by SunEdison is at 34% discount to the tariff determined by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission for the current financial year. While SunEdison would be paid Rs 4.63/kWh (US¢7.12/kWh), the utilities would be buying this solar power bundled with power from coal-based power plants. The utilities would thus pay just Rs 3.50/kWh (US¢5.38/kWh).

The Indian government expects that tariff bids would fall further over the coming months. By the end of March 2015, around 4.8 GW solar power capacity is expected to be auctioned. A total of 6,781 MW solar power capacity has been allocated through competitive auctions for feed-in tariffs in India between December 2010 and September 2015. During the auctions, the bids have fallen by over 50%.

Earlier this year, SunEdison had pledged to install 10 GW of solar power capacity in India over the next 5 years.

November 4, 2015 0 comment

World’s Most Efficient Silver Paste Exhibited By Heraeus

by Jake Richardson November 3, 2015

written by Jake Richardson

Reportedly, the most efficient silver paste in the world will be exhibited at the PV Taiwan 2015 conference in Taipei. This paste has been said to have the world record for PERC efficiency, rated at 21.7%. PERC means passivated emitter rear contact, which is part of a different kind of solar cell architecture. The silver paste is made by the German company Heraeus.

“We are looking forward to form more partnerships with leading PERC cell manufacturers to customize our pastes to their specific cell designs. A stronger collaboration will allow us to maximize our customer’s cell performance and improve their competitiveness,” explain ed Dr. Weiming Zhang, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Heraeus Photovoltaics.

In October, Heraeus signed an agreement with SAS Sunrise to help the company maximize the efficiency of its solar cells.

Silver is used in solar cells for the formation of contact grids, which are collectors of electrons. “Grids can be expensive to make and can affect the cell’s reliability. To make top-surface grids, metallic vapors are deposited on a cell through a mask or painted on via a screen-printing method.” In fact, about 10% of the world’s silver is used in photovoltaics.

You probably won’t find that many news articles about silver paste, but it is fascinating to consider how many companies work to support the solar power industry. They don’t make solar cells or panels and don’t install them, but they do produce important elements that make it possible for solar power to exist and to function.

The sub-text for these kind of technological successes is the ongoing research and development in new and more efficient solar power. Critics of solar power seem to perceive it as something that will not steadily improve, but it has been increasing in efficiency for decades. With more funding and research, it will undoubtedly continue to do so.

Image Credit: Heraeus

November 3, 2015 0 comment

Rooftop Solar Solar Records

Sunrun Surpasses 100,000 Home Solar Customers

by Joshua S Hill October 28, 2015

written by Joshua S Hill

America’s largest dedicated residential solar company, Sunrun, announced Tuesday that it had surpassed 100,000 home solar customers.

Founded in 2007, Sunrun has made it a priority to make going solar a simple proposition for its customers, making rooftop solar customizable with their lifestyle and savings goal. Subsequently, with 100,000 customers now under its belt, Sunrun has helped customers — who together have generated more than 1.3 terawatts of clean electricity — save more than $100 million on electricity bills.

“Sunrun is proud to have helped over 100,000 customers enjoy the benefits of clean solar power and pay less for their electricity,” said Lynn Jurich, chief executive officer of Sunrun. “We strive to create an excellent customer experience to earn and keep our customers’ loyalty, and we look forward to helping even more families make the switch to solar and save money.”

The lucky 100,000th customer was Ken and Lindsey Noren of Santa Rosa, California (pictured).

“In what seems to be a sea of solar providers, I was having a difficult time finding one that met all of my family’s needs,” explained Ken Noren. “Prior to meeting with Sunrun, I had met with three different companies – all very different in price range, levels of support, and understanding of the product they were selling.”

“The two most important things that set Sunrun apart from the others was their ability to customize a solar package for what we needed, not what they needed, and their thorough understanding of their products – their ability to answer questions directly, intelligently and in a timely manner. Based on their professionalism alone I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in having solar installed on their home.”

With third quarter financial earnings just around the corner it will be interesting to see whether Sunrun has managed to keep its strong growth from the second quarter as it has obviously continued to expand its customer base. In its second quarterly earnings report for 2015, Sunrun revealed that it had finished the second quarter with approximately 87,000 customers.

October 28, 2015 0 comment

Consumer Electronics PV Rooftop Solar Solar Records

Renewable Energy Almost Double Nuclear In Germany

by Jake Richardson October 27, 2015

written by Jake Richardson

PV solar power generation in Germany is already 5% higher in the first nine months of this year than all of last year. Germany’s PV systems generated 33,193 gigawatt hours of solar electricity through the end of September, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries. Wind power in the first nine months of 2015 has generated 52% more than it did in all of 2014. 59,006 gigawatt hours has been produced, according to the same source.

114,723 gigawatt hours of electricity in Germany came from renewable sources in the first nine months of 2015, which was almost double the amount produced from nuclear sources. Additionally, some electricity prices have decreased from the previous year. For example, the cost of peak load power is nearly at 2002 levels.

This is all good news….the crazy thing about it is that you probably won’t hear about it anywhere but niche news sites like this one. This media oversight is a tragic deficiency, but the fact that Germany has come so far so rapidly confirms the effectiveness of renewables. This is not a small country like Costa Rica achieving 100% electricity from renewables for two months for 4.8 million people. Germany’s population is about 80 million!

Switching gradually from nuclear to renewables for such a large nation is very obviously a tremendous undertaking. How far along the path is Germany now? Some might say it won’t and can’t happen soon, but it seems to be progressing well.

Given that the price of PV solar power systems continues to drop, will there be an even greater acceleration in the rate of solar adoption? Price has been one of the major barriers, but is no longer nearly as much a factor. Another has been the lack of backup power or energy storage, but that one is being diminished too by the fact that the energy storage industry is growing quickly.

It should be pointed out that the decision to decrease reliance on nuclear power and increase investment in renewables was done before the most dramatic drop in solar power and the emergence of energy storage solutions. It will be fascinating to see how much more German renewable energy will grow in the next several years.

Image Credit: Rainier Lippert, Wiki Commons

October 27, 2015 0 comment

Solar Records

China Has Added 9.9 GW Of Solar PV So Far This Year

by Joshua S Hill October 22, 2015

written by Joshua S Hill

New figures from China’s National Energy Administration have proclaimed that the country installed 9.9 GW of new solar PV capacity in the first nine months of 2015.

According to the National Energy Administration (NEA), by way of the country’s state media outlet, the Xinhua News Agency, China installed a total of 9.9 GW of new solar PV capacity in the first nine months of 2015, including 8.32 GW from solar PV power stations and 1.58 GW from distributed PV projects.

The news comes not long after the NEA announced earlier this month that China’s solar PV capacity is set to reach 150 GW by 2020. According to Dong Xiufen, the director of the new energy office with National Energy Administration, “future work will focus on distributing PV in central and east China as well as PV stations in west China” in an attempt to increase PV capacity by 20 GW each year.

The NEA revealed earlier this year that China had installed 7.7 GW of new solar PV capacity in the first half of the year, bringing the country’s total capacity up to 35.8 GW. Fast forward through the third quarter of 2015, and another 2.2 GW of solar capacity was added, bringing the country’s total cumulative capacity up to 37.95, broken down into 31.70 GW from PV power plants and 6.25 GW from distributed PV projects.

This puts China well behind its own finish line, however, after announcing in March its intention to install 17.8 GW of new solar PV capacity in 2015. Furthermore, as reported, the NEA was forced to allow 9% of total installed solar PV to sit idle for the first six months of the year, a figure that has apparently increased by a percentage point or two since June.

October 22, 2015 0 comment

Solar Projects Solar Records

China’s Solar PV Capacity To Reach 150 GW By 2020, Says Xinhua

by Joshua S Hill October 16, 2015

written by Joshua S Hill

China’s official press agency has revealed that the country’s solar PV capacity is expected to hit 150 GW by 2020.

According to Xinhua News Agency, quoting Dong Xiufen, the director of the new energy office with National Energy Administration (NEA), China’s solar PV power capacity will hit 150 GW by 2020.

Dong Xiufen referenced the latest NEA data which had the country’s total solar PV power capacity standing at 35.8 GW at the end of June, and that “future work will focus on distributing PV in central and east China as well as PV stations in west China” in an attempt to increase PV capacity by 20 GW each year.

The NEA released figures earlier this year showing that China installed 7.7 GW of new solar in the first half of the year, admitting that congestion on the grid caused by a higher share of solar energy forced 9% of total installed solar PV to sit idle for the first six months of the year.

This allows for a huge second half of the year, if analyst predictions are to be reached.

IHS senior research director Ash Sharma believes that China is likely to install in excess of 17 GW in 2015, contributing heavily to a global solar PV demand demand of 59 GW.

Interestingly, China’s own predictions come in under the predictions of some analyst firms, such as cleantech advisory firm Apricum, which in August predicted China’s total cumulative solar capacity to reach 180 GW. The Berlin-based cleantech consulting firm predicted that 92 GW of solar will be added annually by 2020, with 36 GW coming from the combined forces of China, the US, and India.

October 16, 2015 0 comment

Market Research PV Solar Records Solar Research

IHS Raises 2015 Global Solar PV Forecast To 59 GW

by Joshua S Hill October 13, 2015

written by Joshua S Hill

Global solar PV demand will reach 59 GW in 2015 due to rising Asian and US deployment rates, says information and analysis firm IHS.

Earlier this year, IHS published global solar demand forecasts for 2015, predicting global solar PV would grow by 30% over 2014 numbers, reaching 57 GW. Speaking at the SNEC 9^th (2015) International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai in April, IHS analysts looked to China to be the leading driver of this growth. Ash Sharma, senior research director for IHS, stated that, “for the third year running, China will be the largest end-market and the key driver of global demand in 2015.”

“China will be the largest driver of global growth, but it also presents the largest single risk to the industry’s supply-demand balance,” noted Sharma. “If the country manages to install in excess of 17 GW in 2015—which is likely—it will generate much healthier operating conditions for solar companies and a return to healthy profit margins.”

Fast-forward to October, and IHS has had to again revise its 2015 and 2016 estimates due to rising growth in the US and in China. Specifically, IHS is predicting total 2015 global solar PV demand to reach 59 GW, up 33% on 2014 figures, while 2016 is forecast to reach 65 GW, a revision of more than 2 GW up on previous IHS estimates for the year.

Two main reasons underlie the need to revise estimates, according to IHS:

“first, an acceleration of projects in the United States, ahead of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) expiration; and, second, faster growth in China, led by a likely increase in long-term government targets.”

Growth in 2016 over 2015 figures is expected to drop to a reasonable 12%, and total cumulative global solar PV will surpass 300 GW, in advance of a lacklustre 2017 that will be caused, at least in part, by the likely expiration of the US production and investment tax credits.

“IHS Technology already had one of the most bullish forecasts in the industry,” said Ash Sharma, senior research director for IHS. “But due to accelerated and expanded deployment in the United States, as well as in China, India and other countries in Asia, our forecast has increased further.”

October 13, 2015 0 comment

Going Solar PV Rooftop Solar Science Solar $Solar Modules Solar Records

Do Panasonic & SolarCity Announcements Herald Beginning Of Solar Without Subsidies?

by Guest Author October 12, 2015

written by Guest Author

Originally published on The Handleman Post.
By Clayton Handleman

Not so long ago, Sunpower’s 20+% efficiency modules were seen as high end niche products. Last week SolarCity announced that it had leapfrogged that benchmark with its 22% modules currently rolling off of its 100 MW lines and soon to be rolling off its 1 GW line at Elon Musk’s ‘other’ gigafactory. With multiple vendors at GW scale with above 20% efficient modules, PV has reached the point of commoditizing high efficiency modules, and the ripple effect on system level costs has profound implications.

SolarCIty-Truck-1-570x330 Adding fuel to the fire, in a recent Cleantechnica post, Panasonic shot back with its announcement of production prototypes testing at 22.5% efficiency. And the longtime leader, Sunpower, is in the process of upping its game with 23% efficient modules planned for production in 2017 in its Fab 5, which at a planned 800MW (.8GW) is also at the GW scale and rivaling SolarCity’s fab in capacity.

The importance of these announcements cannot be underestimated. SolarCity has long stated that its plan is for its residential PV systems to be cost competitive without subsidies by the time US tax credits expire. Low cost, high efficiency modules offer the path by reducing the physical size of solar arrays and the size-related costs. The benefits of high efficiency include reduced footprint and reduced balance of system costs on a dollars per kW/hr basis and amortization of fixed costs over a larger system capacity.

Many residential systems are limited by roof space, not desired capacity. And a substantial fraction of the cost of residential systems is fixed. As such, by increasing the array capacity those costs can be amortized over a larger project. This reduces the cost per watt and therefore the cost per kW/hr. As module prices have dropped, Balance of System costs for racking, wires, etc. are contributing a larger percentage of system costs. Because more efficient modules provide more energy per square foot, they reduce the cost of balance of system components on a dollars per watt basis. This is explained clearly in this article which includes an easily understood graphic showing how the economics play out. And things have only gotten better since it was written. High efficiency modules are coming in lower than $1.00/W, further amplifying the benefits.

The final piece of the puzzle is gigawatt-scale manufacturing to provide high volume and lower price. SolarCity is doing that with its PV gigafactory, and Panasonic has the scale to develop manufacturing on a globally significant level. When Sunpower was the only game in town and it was producing a tiny fraction of the world’s PV modules, it really didn’t matter how much their modules cost, as it had no real impact on the cost of solar globally.

With high efficiency modules soon to be rolling off gigawatt-scale assembly lines, SolarCity’s vision of PV reaching grid parity even as incentives are phased out appears to be coming to pass. And in volumes with global significance. Clearly the industry is rapidly transitioning to greater than 20% efficiency as the new normal, and with it, the brass ring of cost effective solar without subsidies is rapidly coming within reach.

Reprinted with permission.

October 12, 2015 0 comment

Solar Records

Solar Power Overtakes Small Hydro As India’s 3rd Largest Renewable Energy Technology

by Saurabh Mahapatra October 12, 2015

written by Saurabh Mahapatra

Solar power technology in India is increasing at a much faster pace than other renewable energy technologies.

According to the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, solar power has now become the third largest renewable energy technology in India in terms of installed capacity. Installed solar power capacity (grid-connected only) at the end of August 2015 was 4.23 GW. With the addition of 119 MW capacity during August, solar power overtook small hydro power where only 16.5 MW capacity was added during the month. Small hydro power capacity stands at 4.15 GW at the end of August 2015.

By mid-September, the installed solar power capacity has increased to 4.26 GW.

The MNRE has set a target to add 1.4 GW solar power capacity between April 2015 and March 2016, so around 880 MW capacity is yet to be added during the remaining 6 months of this financial year. If this target is achieved (estimates are that about 4 GW capacity would be added in the financial year), then solar power would also overtake bio-power, i.e. biomass and biofuel cogeneration technology, to become the country’s second largest renewable energy technology. Bio-power installed capacity stood at 4.42 GW at the end of August 2015, with no capacity addition this financial year.

India plans to have 100 GW solar power and 60 GW wind energy capacity installed by March 2022. This means that around 95 GW solar power capacity needs to be added between now and March 2022 while only 36 GW wind energy capacity is to be added during the same period. Solar power would require a capacity addition rate over 2.5 times more than wind energy. Thus, it seems inevitable that solar power would become India’s largest renewable energy technology over the next few years.

October 12, 2015 0 comment

Market Research Solar Records Solar Research

Solar Overtakes Wind As Australia’s Number One Renewable Energy

by Joshua S Hill October 12, 2015

written by Joshua S Hill

Solar PV became Australia’s number one source of renewable energy in 2014, passing 4 GW of installed capacity, overtaking wind’s 3.8 GW.

The new figures came by way of energy insight company, GlobalData, and its new report, Asia-Pacific Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2015, which details renewable energy policy measures and incentives throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

According to GlobalData’s accompanying press release, the report “states that renewables have become an integral part of the energy policy in Australia” — which could be argued, depending on GlobalData’s meaning here. While renewable energy is indeed an integral part of energy policy here in Australia, this is only the case insomuch as you consider the amount of time spent arguing about renewable’s place in energy policy here in Australia. There are any number of examples across Australia that show renewable energy is not an integral part of existing energy policy.

Nevertheless, recent leadership changes in Australia have bolstered renewable energy’s role in the future of Australia’s energy policy and energy mix, which bodes well for the future of the industry.

“The government recently announced the revised Renewable Energy Target (RET) to support emission-intensive industries and slightly reduced the RET from 41 Terawatt hours (TWh) to 33 TWh,” explained Siddhartha Raina, GlobalData’s Senior Analyst covering Power. “Despite this, new renewable energy capacity of 6 GW still needs to be installed by 2020.”

Despite all of the flux around Australia’s renewable energy industry over the past few years, GlobalData points to the continued growth of Australia’s solar PV industry, which in 2014 reached 4 GW of installed capacity, overtaking wind power’s 3.8 GW.

GlobalData also believes that, while solar and wind will continue their role as the two main renewable energy technologies in Australia, bioenergy is next to make a move.

“While feed-in tariffs and renewable energy target schemes, along with other subsidies and support initiatives, have had a major impact on the solar PV and wind industries, the impact of such programs on biopower and small hydro has been minimal,” Siddhartha Raina explains.

“Despite this, strong government backing is expected to promote stable growth in the bioenergy sector. Bioenergy capacity amounted to 573.9 Megawatts in 2014 and is expected to more than treble to 1.8 GW by the end of 2025.”

October 12, 2015 1 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts