Solar Energy-Solar Mounting Systems: 六月 2014

2014年6月27日星期五

Japan Solar Power Network to add 29 MW of rooftop solar

The Solar Power Network (SPN) Japan has today announced a partnership with Beisia Corporation to install 29 MW of rooftopsolar PV across 33 buildings in greater Tokyo and the Chuba region of Japan.

The Tokyo-based distributed power generation company will design, build and operate the facilities, which will be installed across 33 buildings owned by Beisia.

Combined, the systems will add 29 MW of PV capacity to the Japanese electricity grid and will be eligible for contracts under the country's feed-in tariff (FIT). Beisia has pressed for the systems in order to meet obligations it is signed up to under a disaster relief obligation created in the wake of the 2004 Chuetu Earthquake and the 2011 Tsunami. Power provided by these solar rooftoparrays will form part of the emergency supply in the wake of another natural disaster.

Once operational, the rooftop installations will provide enough solar energy to power 9,250 local households each year, mitigating the effects of 680,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the process. SPN CEO and president, Peter Goodman, remarked that solar power is a reliable source of emergency energy in the wake of a natural disaster, and applauded Beisia’s efforts to ensure relief for communities during such disruptions.

"One of SPN's primary goals is to provide clean energy to local communities," he said. "SPN is proud to support Beisia in its initiative to move forward with its disaster relief scheme using renewable power. It is a great honor and pleasure for SPN to be part of such a visionary program that includes 33 solar power facilities."

The first of the 33 systems will be operational before the end of 2014, according to SPN, with a further 17 coming online before summer 2015.

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UK solar power generation increases 77% in 12 months

The amount of electricity generated by solar power in the U.K. rose by 77% in 2013, according to official figures released today by the coalition government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Renewable energy capacity reached a record 20.8 GW across the country by the end of the first quarter of the year (accounting for 5.2% of the entire energy mix), which represented a 15% increase year-on-year. Two-thirds of that increase was attributed to the addition of solar PV capacity, the majority of which was generated by the large-scale sector – a sector that the government is set to undermine when it withdraws its Renewable Obligation (RO) subsidy scheme for plants of 5 MW and over from April next year.

"These figures show how quickly the U.K. solar industry has developed to make a significant contribution to our energy needs," said Solar Trade Association (STA) chief executive Paul Barwell. "Solar is a secure, homegrown solution to Britain’s twin crises of security of supply and spiraling energy bills."

As solar costs have fallen by an average of 60% in the U.K. since 2011, helping to fuel the current solar boom, the STA has accused the DECC of "pulling the rug out" from under the country's second-cheapest mainstream renewable energy, forcing the British public to spend more on "expensive alternatives".

Big Six investigated
Those "expensive alternatives" could have been artificially inflated in price according to energy market watchdog Ofgem, which is investigating claims that the U.K.'s 'Big Six' energy companies have been profiteering.

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will spend the next 18 months investigating the business practices of British Gas, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), EDF, E.ON UK, npower and Scottish Power, to ascertain whether soaring electricity bills in the U.K. are a result of the leading energy companies squeezing undue profit out of their customers.

"Now is the right time to refer the energy market to the CMA for the benefit of customers," said Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan. "There is near-unanimous support for a referral and the CMA investigation offers an important opportunity to clear the air. This will help rebuild consumer trust and confidence in the energy market as well as provide the certainty investors have called for."

An Ofgem survey recently found that the majority of energy consumers in the U.K. distrust the Big Six providers, discovering consternation as to how the relationship between the supply businesses and the generation arms of the largest suppliers works, as well as reports of rising profits with no discernible improvement in service, provision or falling bills.

The investigation has been called a "watershed moment" by Richard Lloyd, executive director of the consumer group Which?, labeling the U.K. energy market as "broken" and urging that "no stone is left unturned in establishing the truth behind energy prices."

David Elmes, head of Warwick University’s Global Energy Research Network, remarked that the investigation by Ofgem has come as no surprise. "The question is, who is being investigated?," he asked. "The companies, the regulator, or the government’s policies that have driven recent reform of the energy industry?

"After many years of leaving energy to be run by the markets, the U.K. has recognized a need for a new model of collaboration between industry, the regulator and government so as to meet our needs for affordable, sustainable and secure sources of energy.

"What we need to hope for is that the CMA will step back and consider energy’s role in society and our economy, and whether the past focus on market competition is the right way to tackle today’s challenges."

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Indian state of West Bengal plans 250 MW mega PV plant

India is on the verge of finalizing plans to build one of the world's largest solar PV plants. The state government of West Bengal has proposed to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) a site near the Purulia Pumping Storage Project (PPSP) as a suitable location for the creation of a 250 MW, $365 million solar PV project.

Land availability and funding issues will be tackled once the MNRE has been given licensing go-ahead by the Ministry of Commerce, with West Bengal power minister Manish Gupta revealing that the project has "been agreed in principle" and that the biggest hurdle now facing the state is land.

The 250 MW project would require 700 acres of land, and Gupta – who addressed a collective of solar power experts and energy advisors at a seminar organized by Ashden India Renewable Energy Collective on Tuesday – is confident that the proposed site at the PPSP location will be approved.

"There are some matters regarding the location that have to be decided," he said. "The project will be either at PPSP at Baghmundi or at Thurga, which is located nearby. A detailed project report in being prepared."

In terms of funding, West Bengal state hopes to secure grants under the national clean energy fund in order to execute the project, and state officials are confident that both the monies and the land agreement will be forthcoming without any further hitches.

Gupta's government put forward the PPSP site because it is close to a natural source of water and covers massive stretches of otherwise barren land. "The plan is to pump the water through solar power. Once this happens, the site will become a complete natural water pumping system using water and solar power," said Ashden India Renewable Energy Collective chairman, Gon Chaudhuri.

The Ashden Collective also revealed plans to prepare a rooftop solar power policy for the city of Kolkata, with funding already prepared and high-level discussions at an advanced stage.

India's solar targets have been difficult to pin down in recent months given the change in leadership and proposed tariffs against imported U.S. and Asian solar equipment. Yet largely, the scope is to add masses of GW of solar PV capacity over the next decade, with the government committed to reaching 20 GW of grid-connected solar power by 2022.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission bolstered India's PV capacity by 1.68 GW during phase 1, and phase 2 is now underway, promising to add more than 5 GW of capacity over the coming years.

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Australia: PV to win in major political shift

The political environment for renewables and solar has appeared grim since the conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott was elected last September. However a rare and major reprieve has been granted to the sector today in the announcement by Clive Palmer that his party will not support changes to the RET or the dissolution of the CEFC and Climate Change Commission.

Mr Palmer’s party will hold the balance of power in the Senate as of July 1, making any changes to the RET, the CEFC and the dissolving of the Climate Change Commission nigh impossible for the government.

The announcement is not all-good news for climate policy in Australia. Mr Palmer’s party will vote to repeal Australia’s carbon tax, instead replacing it with a carbon-trading scheme. The proposed carbon-trading scheme will not kick in until other nations agree to similar carbon programs.

From coal to renewables

The irony that Clive Palmer, who is primarily a mining and property developer and is currently seeking to develop a huge coal deposit in the state of Queensland, is backing the renewable energy sector in this way has been lost on few industry observers. Nonetheless, the move could reinvigorate utility scale PV Down Under and sure up government support programs for smaller-scale solar.

The RET mandates that approximately 20% of Australia’s electricity is to come from renewable sources by 2020 and it underpinned a number of PV power plants and many MWs of wind installations over the past four years. If the RET remains in place, utility scale solar is tipped to receive a major boost as utilities and major electricity consumers seek to add low cost renewables to their generation portfolios. With high irradiation levels around most of Australia that means a major boost for solar PV.

For residential PV, the RET underpins a certificate-based subsidy program – which likely would’ve been wound up if the RET was removed or diluted.

“The Renewable Energy Target (RET) has been an extraordinary success, helping five million Australians reduce their power bills by installing solar panels and solar hot water systems,” said the Australian Solar Council’s John Grimes. “Some 14% of Australia’s electricity now comes from solar and other renewable energy sources.”

“The Abbott Government should now end the sham review of the RET and simply allow the existing RET to do its job,” said Grimes.

Clive Palmer made his announcement today, in a joint press conference with former U.S. Vice President and climate change mitigation campaigner Al Gore.

“The Prime Minister promised the Australian people prior to the last election that Australia would retain its renewable energy targets. Now, like many other promises, he seeks to break this one,” said Mr Palmer. “The Palmer United Party's role in the Senate is to keep faith with the Australian people. We will therefore not support any change to the renewable energy targets before the 2016, after the next election.”

Locking the RET in until 2016 will give potential large scale solar developments time to find funding and give utility or industrial off takers a push to develop renewable alternatives.

Al Gore’s role in Clive Palmer’s party’s stance in support of renewable is not exactly clear. Neither he nor Mr Palmer took questions after their press conference, with the latter saying they had an urgent dinner to attend.

“The Australian Solar Council congratulates Vice President Gore on his extraordinary global leadership on climate change, his ongoing commitment to solar and renewable energy and his support for the Renewable Energy Target, Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Climate Change Authority,” said Grimes.

Utility scale opportunity in Western Australia (WA)

Earlier this week, the WA Renewable Energy Alliance said that over 2 GW of solar could feasibly be developed by 2020 in the vast Australian state. With wide-open spaces prevalent and a high solar resource, the state could become a world leader in large scalePV.

In a submission to the RET review, the WA renewable energy group released modeling showing that if the RET is maintained, PVcould grow to 320 MW of capacity in 2014, to 904 MW in 2015, 1.48 GW in 2016, 1.95 GW in 2018, 2.01 GW in 2019 and 2.078 GW in 2020.

“WA has an energy hungry resources industry, still largely reliant on diesel, and many rural and remote communities in which the cost of fuel supply and generation is extraordinarily high,” wrote the state’s renewable energy lobby group.

It noted that the state government currently subsidizes electricity in the state, which is largely sourced from coal and gas generation, by $500 million each year.

The WA-based Sustainable Energy Association said that the renewable energy sector needed the stability provided by the RET and welcomed the move by Mr Palmer and his Palmer United Party (PUP) today.

“Earlier this week, we saw the Government’s modeling around the RET confirm our view that the target will reduce prices for consumers and that the industry can meet the existing target in the timeframe,” said Kirsten Rose from the Sustainable Energy Assocaition. “PUP’s move to back the RET will ensure the tens of billions of dollars poised for investment will flow into the economy, and Western Australia in particular.”

Figures from the Sustainable Energy Assocation show that 80 MW of PV projects are in the advanced development stage, however have stalled due to uncertainty surrounding the RET.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which the government also seeks to do away with, was not covered by Mr Palmer’s comments today. The Sustainable Energy Association’s CEO Kirsten Rose said that ARENA works in concert with the RET and should also be maintained.

ARENA supports a number of solar, large scale PV and battery projects and companies in Australia.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that Mr Palmer's plan for the carbon tax and renewable energy programs will top the agenda when he meets Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the first time in two years tomorrow.

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Three Washington D.C. universities plan 52 MW PV project

Three leading higher education establishments in Washington D.C., U.S., will soon boast direct access to their own solar plants totaling a combined PV capacity of 52 MW.

George Washington University, American University and the George Washington University Hospital have each signed up to the Capital Partners Solar Project, which has been orchestrated by CustomerFirst Renewables (CFR) with the intention of helping the nation's capital meet its climate action plan commitments.

Local energy company Duke Energy Renewables will supply all of the 243,000 solar panels required at the three sites, which are to be located in North Carolina. Once complete, the solar plants will offset the effects of 60,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of removing 12,500 cars from the city’s roads. All power generated will flow from the North Carolina electrical grid to the regional grid in the D.C. area.

"Thanks to this innovative partnership, the George Washington University will now derive more than half of all its electricity fromsolar energy,” said Steven Knapp, the university's president. "This will greatly accelerate our progress toward the carbon neutrality target we had earlier set for 2025."

Construction is expected to begin on the first site in the summer, and all three projects are planned to go live before the end of 2014. Under the agreement of the project, George Washington University will receive 86.6 million kWh of solar power, American University 30 million kWh, and the George Washington University Hospital 6.3 million kWh.

"Duke Energy Renewables looks forward to working with these leading D.C. institutions on an innovative solar project that demonstrates their leadership in sustainability and, at the same time, provides them with low-cost energy at a stable price for years to come," said Duke Energy Renewables president Greg Wolf.

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2014年6月25日星期三

California moves to fast-track rooftop solar applications

Already the U.S.'s brightest solar market, law makers in California have moved to expedite and standardize the state's solar permitting process in an effort to make it even easier for homeowners to install rooftop PV arrays.

Assembly Bill 2188 has been drafted by South Bay Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi and is set to go before the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on Wednesday. If passed, the legislation could simplify the permitting process for solar installations on homes – a process that, currently, can take months.

Solar experts in the state believe that a streamlined permit process could provide yet a further boom for California’s solar industry, which is already far and away the most dynamic in the U.S. In approving the proposal, the state Assembly voted 58-8 in favor back in May, and most expect the bill to pass in the Senate when it goes to the floor in August.

In a nutshell, the Assembly Bill 2188 would require Californian cities to process permits for residential-size solarinstallations within five working days, and would reduce the review process to just one post-installation inspection.

In helping to prepare the legislation, solar companies likened the current process to a ‘logistical nightmare’, citing the hundreds of idiosyncracies typical of uique applications as a snagging point for many would-be customers and installers.

"It's kind of like we're doing business in 500 different countries all at the same time," said Verengo Solar CEO Ken Button, who has been lobbying for solar permit standardization for the past six years.

The largest installation company in Southern California, Verengo Solar employs 1,000 staff in four states – 75 of which work exclusively on navigating the permit minefield. According to Button, the average application process takes three weeks between first contact and post-installation inspection. The installation itself, however, takes less than one day.

Adopting standardization
Assemblyman Muratsuchi's aim is for California to adopt the same standardized approach to reviewing applications as the industry has in manufacturing solar equipment. Most panels deisnged for residential installations fall within a narrow parameter of specifications and some cities and counties across the state already have a simple checklist in place to review the systems and application, turning them around in under an hour on occasion. Muratsuchi wants the entire state to adopt such a policy.

"It is the exact same system that we are installing from San Francisco to San Diego," said Bernadette del Chiaro, California Solar Energy Industries Association's executive director. "Some of these installations are complicated and need extra scrutiny, but the vast majority are cookie-cutter. They should get swift approval."

Support for the AB 2188 Bill has been widespread throughout the industry. With residential solar systems costing an average of $20,000, Californian residents will benefit from solar companies able to better plan their installation timelines, said Paula Mints, chief analyst at SPV Market Research.

"It is really crucial that we get our act together as an industry," she said. "Anything that simplifies, speeds up and streamlines the process is good, but it is not enough to do it in California. We need it in 49 more states."

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US: Homebuyers spooked by rooftop solar leases

A report by Bloomberg has found that some homeowners in the U.S. with a leased rooftop solar array installed have had trouble selling their property to buyers unfamiliar with the scheme and technology.

Despite helping to drive a 38% increase in residential rooftop installations in the U.S. last year, the leasing model remains alien to many would-be homeowners, forcing some vendors to lower their asking price in order to sell their property.

A typical solar leasing contract can run for up to 25 years, and the small print details often embedded in the deals are initially of little concern for residential customers. With most solar leasing contracts tying in the property for the duration of the leasehold, rather than the owner, new buyers have the added responsibility of assuming the leasehold for these systems.

In some cases, new buyers have lacked the appropriate credit scores required to become a solar leaseholder, despite already being approved for a mortgage, although SunPower vice president Martin DeBono told Bloomberg that such occurrences were rare and that the ‘vast majority’ of buyers who qualify for a mortgage can also qualify to take over a solar lease.

Deterrent, or deal sealer?
Although Bloomberg's sample of despondent vendors is small, it does hint at the potential of a wider problem in the future. According to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, funded by the U.S. Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative, homeowners who actually own rooftop solar systems can add as much as $25,000 to the value of their home for an average installation in California.

So it is not the technology that is the deterrent, it seems, but rather the prospect of taking on an additional lease and contract at the same time as dealing with a mortgage, despite the cost benefits of doing so.

"Homeowners don't understand what they're signing when they get into this,"Sandy Adomatis, a home appraiser in Florida who created the industry standard for system valuing tools, told Bloomberg. "You've got another layer to add on top of finding a buyer for the house. It's not a plus."

Bloomberg New Energy Finance's solar analyst Nick Culver said that some buyers just won't be on board with a solar leasing system, adding that even when it is evident they can save money on their bills every month, the vendor is effectively limited to "a certain subset of buyers".

Solar leasing as deterrent to home buying is a fledgling issue. Launched as recently as 2008, the model only really began to take flight in the U.S. in 2012, and the majority of leaseholders remain in their original properties. SolarCity, the country's largest solar leasing company with 110,000 customers, has only transferred the ownership of 1,500 contracts, indicating that the surface has only been scratched on a topic that could cause the surging solar segment to wobble, if only slightly and in the short-term.

SolarCity, however, is not unduly worried, and has created an eight-person team to handle the 150 or so transfers a month nationwide.

"Homebuyers are essentially moving into a home with a lower cost of ownership, a lower cost of energy," SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass told Bloomberg. "So a solar lease shouldn’t make it harder to sell a house – it becomes a selling point instead of a point of misunderstanding."

For the informed and initiated, maybe, but others have reported a noticeable cooling of interest once the issue of solar leasing is raised. "We had one offer in five months, and they pulled back as soon as they found out about the solar lease," said Dorian Bishopp, a homeowner in Arizona who was forced to lower his asking price from $155,000 to $140,000 before he could make a sale (the "one offer in five months" may have also had something to do with this). "It is a deterrent, definitely."

A local estate agent told Bloomberg that this was below the average asking price for a house of that size and type in his neighborhood, adding that people appeared to be "scared of the solar lease". However, the same agent also said that attitudes are bound to change for the better until they become a 'non-issue'. "It will soon be akin to asking 'does your house have lightbulbs?'," he said.

The lease in question belongs to SunPower, who confirmed to Bloomberg that 1% of its 20,000 solar lease customers have since sold their homes, with the majority transferring the lease to the buyer with few problems.

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India reconsidering solar duties as government opens PV floodgates

Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal has this week issued a plea to the country's Ministry of Commerce and Finance to reconsider its stance on the imposition of dumping duties applied to imported solar equipment from the U.S., China, Taiwan and Malaysia.

In a dramatic appeal to decision makers operating at the highest echelons of government, the power ministry hopes to reverse a decision put in place by the previous government on May 22, which is at odds with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-solar stance.

The proposed tariffs, ranging from US$0.11 cents/W to $0.81 cents/W, could more than double the cost of solar panels, cells and modules imported from Chinese, American, Malaysian and Taiwanese suppliers. With approximately 80% of India’s built PV capacity comprised of solar equipment from these countries, according to Bridge to India, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has warned his colleagues in the commerce and finance ministry that domestic suppliers are unable to keep pace with demand, and would certainly fail to satisfy the government's plans to quadruple PV capacity over the next three years.

"As things stand today, India doesn’t have adequate manufacturing capacity to support the kind of thrust we want to give to solar," said Goyal. "We have requested the commerce ministry and finance ministry to reconsider."

Meanwhile, Nitin Gadkari, India's Transport Minister, has warned that dumping duties would more than double the cost of solarpower in the country at a time when Modi's pro-solar stance is just beginning to take root.

One-and-a-half-years in the making, India's probe into cheap solar cells being dumped in the country concluded that a restrictive duty be imposed in order to protect the interests of the domestic manufacturing industry. The decision was met in parts with outcry, in others with support. However, with a target of adding 20 GW of solar PV capacity to the grid by 2022, India can ill-afford to stymie its supply line, nor impose measures that will increase costs at a time when solar system prices are falling almost everywhere else.

The Ministry of Finance had planned to introduce the duties on August 22. Whether Goyal’s latest plea will force the ministry to change its mind remains to be seen.

Going for the gigawatts
India’s solar ambitions – thus far pegged to an undulating rollercoaster full of peaks and troughs – have been set high since Modi came into office. The government’s support for solar has filtered down to state level and below, and pro-solar stances abound throughout the country.

In the Telangana state the local government has announced plans to implement a 1 GW solar PV park in the district of Mahbubnagar. The project will be overseen by Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation in partnership with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which has already given preliminary approval for the park.

Bidding is also about to get underway for the country's largest solar power project auction to date, with 1.5 GW of PV projects available for funding under Phase 2 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The bidding is part of a wider goal to add 10 GW of solar PV capacity by 2017, and follows a government-backed 750 MW tender launched in January. All solar power added during Phase 2 is set to be bundled with the existing unallocated quota of conventional power, and sold at an average rate to India’s power distribution companies.

Allied to domestic and government support, foreign investment in India's solar industry has gathered pace in recent months, too. This week, Cypriot solar PV solutions provider Concept Solutions & Innovation announced that it had funded India's CaptureSolar Energy (CSEL) to the tune of $125 million in backing a new 90 MW solar PV plant in Pune.

"We plan to set up a 90 MW solar park in Pune, and for this we have received funding of $125 million from Concept Solutions & Innovation for the first 75 MW," said CSEL CEO Raju Bhosale. In addition to financing, Concept Solutions will also provide technology solutions for the project, which is expected to be commercially operational by March next year.

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2014年6月18日星期三

India considering tax incentives for solar households

India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a proposal to the Ministry of Finance for the introduction of tax incentives for homeowners who install solar panels on their rooftops.

Currently, there are no tax benefits available to homeowners who install a solar PV system on their rooftop. But the proposals are intended to promote distributed solar generation, with more and more residential systems feeding end-users closer to home.

The MNRE believes that a tax incentive, based on the size of the investment made, could help this market segment grow. India already has in place an accelerated depreciation benefit for up to 80% during the first year. This benefit is calculated on output, and is only available to companies, allowing them to reduce their tax burden in any given year.

Jasmeet Khurana of BRIDGE TO INDIA has called the new proposals encouraging, but warned that such tax incentives sometimes have the effect of incentivizing short-term decisions rather than longer-term investment – the latter approach being more conducive in tackling India’s current energy challenges.

"The shape and incentive of the proposed tax incentive is not known, but broadly, it is expected to promote distributed solargeneration for households and small commercial and industrial establishments by allowing individuals to offset their investment insolar rooftop plants against their taxable income," said the consultant.

Because the proposed tax incentive will be based on the cost of the installation, the move does not encourage quality control, added Khurana, who argued that there is definite room for improvement in the planning stage. "The Indian wind sector has grappled with similar challenges," said Khurana. "Tax benefits depend on the investor’s ability to absorb the incentive and are not available to all investors, which can distort the market."

Khurana suggests decoupling the tax benefit from the investment, similar to how a carbon credit or renewable energy certificate can be traded, independent of the size of the power output.

India's Ministry of Finance will discuss the proposals with the MNRE over the coming weeks, with a decision expected in the summer.

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SunEdison acquires 50% stake in Silver Ridge Power

SunEdison Inc. has further strengthened its proposition in California with this week's acquisition of Silver Ridge Power (SRP) in a joint venture with Riverstone Holdings LLC.

The Californian solar company has purchased 50% of SRP, with Riverstone holding the remaining 50%. SunEdison's stake in the deal adds 336 MW of installed solar PV plants in California to its portfolio, as well as a 40% stake in the Tenaska Imperial Solar Energy West Center, which is a 183 MW PV facility that is scheduled for completion in 2016.

Additional SRP assets set to come under 50% SunEdison control when the deal is finalized later this month include the 266 MW Mt. Signal solar project in California.

"SRP has several strong projects in operation," said SunEdison CEO Ahmad Chatila. "We’re looking forward to working with Riverstone, a recognized leader in energy project finance and investing, to continue to monetize SRP’s operating projects."

Riverstone partner Michael B. Hoffman added: "We’re pleased to welcome SunEdison, a leader in project development, finance and asset ownership, as our new partner in SRP."

In recent months, SunEdison has successfully pursued a number of new ventures, including a 88 MW PPA deal in the U.K., raised a $50 million initial public offering (IPO) for its TerraForm Power unit, and also connected California's largest Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM) program – a 24 MW solar plant located in the Californian desert.

These early-year acquisitions and investments have added to an already-robust 3.4 GW project pipeline as of Q4 2013. Despite end-of-year losses, SunEdison has gone on the offensive so far in 2014 as the company looks to widen its revenue streams after suffering heavy losses towards the tail-end of last year.

However, figures released by the company in May revealed deeper losses of $613.6 million for the first quarter of 2014 – some $330 million more than was lost in Q4 2013. SunEdison CEO insists, however, that the company's pipeline and diversification operations set SunEdison in good stead for the longer-term future.

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2014年6月12日星期四

Solar powers Brazil's World Cup

For the following month, the world is expected to keep its eyes on the 2014 World Cup's 80 football matches between the 32 participant nations. Brazil and Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officials are hoping attention will stay on the pitch and not on Brazil's streets, often filled by locals protesting against the Cup's over-budget and alleged ill management in a country accused of under-funding educational and health care systems.

Despite the controversies of this year's World Cup there is an element Brazil can be proud of: This is the greenest World Cup in football's history. And the main reason behind its green credentials is solar PV.

Overall, of the tournament's 12 venues, only three are currently equipped with solar photovoltaic installations, although a further two stadiums are soon going to install PV systems.

Specifically, Arena Pernambuco in the city of Recife recently completed a 1 MW PV installation with panels provided by China's Yingli Green Energy. The Mineirao Stadium in the city of Belo Horizonte also boasts a 1.4 MW rooftop PV system built in 2013 by Portugal's Martifer Solar.

Yingli Green Energy also partnered with Light ESCO, EDF Consultoria and the State of Rio de Janeiro to install PV modules at the Estadio do Maracana in the city of Rio de Janeiro -- the venue for the tournament's final match on July 13.

The PV system "has a 400 kW installed capacity, consisting of approximately 2,500 square meters of photovoltaic panels on the surface covering the stadium terraces and can reach a generation of 500 megawatt hours per year supplying 3% of the stadium's power requirements," Fabiana Castro, communication officer of Maracana's operating company, told pv magazine.

Two more PV systems will be installed at Brazil's FIFA World Cup stadiums. A spokesperson for the World Cup from Brazil's federal government told pv magazine that "Brasilia's National Stadium Mane Garrincha will be equipped with a PV system and the solar panels will be installed in 2014, after the World Cup."

The installation "will have about 9,600 photovoltaic panels with capacity to generate 2.5 MW, corresponding to the supply of almost 2,000 households per day," the spokesperson added. "After its installation, the stadium will be the first in the world to be self-sufficient in energy production and also able to use the surplus energy in other parts of the city."

Brazil's federal government announced in April that a Brazilian consortium formed by Siner Engenharia e Comercio Ltda and Ebes Sistemas de Energia Sa had won the tender for the Mane Garrincha Stadium PV system, which will cover 75% of the stadium's rooftop surface.

Liana Mascarenhas, of the company that operates the Fonte Nova Arena in the city of Salvador, told pv magazine that after the World Cup, Salvador's stadium "will install 500 kW of solar PV, capable of generating 750 megawatt hours per year and equivalent to the average consumption of 3,000 Brazilians." The project, Mascarenhas said, will require an investment of around BRL 5.5 million ($2.5 million) and will use flexible panels installed on the compression ring of the roof. "The installation of the solar plant will reduce energy consumption in the arena by 10%," Mascarenhas added.

The operating companies of some Brazilian stadiums preferred to stress that although they do not currently own photovoltaic systems to generate electricity, they do use solar systems for heating their water. This is the case at the Pantanal Arena in Cuiaba, whose operator told pv magazine that "structural integrity tests have also been done on the arena and if in the future there is a decision to do install solar modules, there will not be a problem to install them."

Greener future World Cups?

Simon Trace, chairman of the British non-governmental organization Practical Action pointed out that "on the one hand, the organizers and FIFA are to be congratulated for making a considerable financial investment and making this the greenest World Cup in history. However, it is also an indictment of the investment in renewable energy in the developing world that there are 10 competing countries that do not even produce as much solar energy as a single World Cup stadium."

Trace's comment refers to Brasilia's stadium, which once completed will boast a 2.5 MW PV system. Practical Action said that "Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Iran, Ivory Coast and Uruguay all produce less solar power than the 2.5 MW solar capability of the Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha in Brasilia."

Others though have argued that although Brazil's World Cup is an improvement compared to past tournaments green-wise, the outcome is far from impressive. Solar PV in total has spread widely since the 2010 World Cup, but for a tournament accused of over-spending and which reached a total budget of some $11.5 billion, 5.9 MW of solar power is rather little, critics argue.

The 2014 World Cup matches will be played in the following twelve venues: Arena Amazonia in Manaus, Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Estadio das Dunas in Natal, Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, National Stadium Mane Garrincha in Brasilia, Pantanal Arena in Cuiaba, Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo (Arena de Sao Paulo), Arena de Baixada in Curitiba and Estadio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre.

Article From PV Magazine

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