Solar Energy-Solar Mounting Systems

2015年1月19日星期一

India updates draft guidelines for 3 GW solar auction

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued updated draft guidelines explaining how the bidding process for the next tranche of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) auction will unfold.

Phase II, Batch II, Tranche I of the JNNSM project amounts to a 3 GW solar power auction, expected to get underway in the first quarter of this year. The MNRE has revealed that the minimum capacity size for projects awarded under this tranche is 10 MW, rising in multiples of 10 and no greater than 300 MW in size.

The key announcement under Tranche I will be the "bundling" of power generated via solar PV projects with that developed under coal-based thermal energy projects. This approach gives a two-to-one rating in favor of solar PV when priced on the markets – a move that the MNRE hopes will persuade power distribution companies to purchase renewable energy rather than other forms of power. NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) will first purchase the solar power generated from the selected sites, at the agreed tariff rate, before selling it on to the utilities.

The bidding process will also be handled by NVVN, which will divide the bid lot into different-sized projects in order to match plot sizes available in each region. Capacity allocation across the country will be based on where prospective developers are located, with state-specific allocations enforced. Developers are invited to submit e-bids, with the lowest-quoted levelized tariff in each region set to be awarded the contract.

The auctions are expected to attract a record number of solar developers as India continues to make waves on the global solar scene. U.S. solar manufacturers First Solar and SunEdison recently participated in their first successful solar auction, with the latter securing a deal to develop 5 GW of solar PV capacity in the state of Rajasthan.

The MNRE also confirmed that a large proportion of the 3 GW of capacity set to be deployed under this latest round of the JNNSM would have to come from domestically manufactured sources, but did not explicitly state how much. Under domestic content requirements (DCR), however, requisite P-type or N-type wafers and other raw materials used in the manufacture of C-Si modules can be imported, but manufacturing must take place in India.

For thin-film technologies under DCR, the entire assembly process must occur within India, with only starting substrate without any semiconductor junction (solar glass) allowed to be imported. These rules apply only to projects awarded under the DCR category.

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North Carolina PV developer pitches 78.5 MW project, plans to go public

All that lacks is an investor, which the privately held developer says will be announced in the next month.

The company currently is in late-stage discussions with potential investors and plans to begin construction on the project in 2015, confirmed chief executive John Green in a brief phone call.

The project, known as Innovative Systems 46, would be one of the largest solar farms on the East Coast.

Based in Asheville, N.C., Innovative Solar Systems says it plans to expand across the United States. Last week, the company disclosed its intention to go public sometime this year in order to fuel its planned expansion.

The developer “currently has hundreds of megawatts of solar farm projects approved and ready for immediate construction in North Carolina and another gigawatt of projects in various stages of development” in East Coast, West Coast states and in the “central United States.”

The company plans to “raise the needed capital to expand operations in all 50 states and make solar energy a reality to every rate-paying customer of electricity across the U.S.”

Shared renewables programs move towards reality in California

Shared renewables programs move towards reality in California
Under the rules set by California regulators the state's three large private utilities will put online 600 MW, with PG&E and SCE to take around 270 MW each.

On December 30th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision setting out rules for utilities to comply with a 2013 law mandating 600 MW of additional renewable energy under community and “green tariff” programs.

SB43, California's “shared renewables” law was passed in September 2013. This decision by the CPUC was pushed back from July, which the agency said was due to the need to design a fair and effective program and the complexity of that task.

Under the new rules PG&E, SCE and SDG&E will use the Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM), PG&E's ReMAT “feed-in tariff” or similar mechanisms to procure the 600 MW of solar PV, including 110.5 MW in 2015. The maximum size of individual projects is set at 20 MW.

The utilities will then make electricity from these renewable projects available to the public through voluntary purchase, with customers paying a renewable energy rate plus and administrative charge.

The program is designed for customers who are not able to install solar or small wind turbines because they are renters, they don't have sufficient credit or their roofs are not good sites to host solar PV. Solar "crowd-funding" company Mosaic estimates that this includes 75% of households and 70% of businesses.

SB43 set out the share of each utility according to its retail electricity sales, which results in PG&E and SCE each assigned around 270 MW, and SDG&E getting the remaining 60 MW.

Additionally, SB43 requires 100 MW to be set aside for participation by residential customers, and another 100 MW to be located in “the most impacted and disadvantaged communities”. Finally 20 MW is reserved for the city of Davis, which bill author Senator Lois Wolk represents. These first two categories will be evenly split among the three utilities.

An important detail of the program is that the renewable energy credits for this 600 MW will be retired, meaning that this entire capacity will be in addition to the mandate that California utilities procure 33% of their electricity generation from renewable energy by 2020.

The CPUC will make a final decision on the proposed rules in its meeting on January 27th.

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Huge interest in Egyptian renewable energy tender

Newswire service Zawya has reported that Mohamed El Sobki, NREA chairman, has said that 67 companies have been selected to build some 4.3 GW of renewable energy projects in the country. The announcement shows the huge level of interest in developing solar PV, solar thermal and wind projects in the country.

El Sobki made his remarks during a conference on Egypt’s renewable energy sector today. Egypt is promoting foreign investment in renewable energy projects to meet energy production shortfalls in the country. In September, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said the country needed to invest at least $12 billion over five years to meet electricity demand in the country.

Egypt launched the first tender to construct a PV power plant in October 2013, according to reports from Daily News Egypt.

Loans for rooftop PV

The English-language Egyptian news outlet reported today than two Egyptian banks are participating in an initiative to provide loans for rooftop solar installations in the country. The Egyptian Businessmen’s Association (EBA) is organizing the initiative.

EBA’s Magd Eldeen Almanzlaoy revealed that the loans will charge interest of between 4% and 8% and will be provided by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr.

“The initiative will be implemented during the first quarter (Q1) of the current year, particularly as the legislative structure of the new tariff for renewable energy put Egypt on the map of countries producing electricity from renewable sources,” said Almanzlaoy.

The payback period for households installing solar under the loan scheme is intended to be seven years. As such, return on investment for households will total 18%.

Rooftop solar will be initially installed in parts of Cairo in the scheme’s preliminary stage, and then rolled out to other parts of the country.

India blacklists two domestic solar companies

The solar firms HBL Power Systems and Veddis Solar have been placed on a blacklist by India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, according to a statement on the department's website.

The document, which was released today, states that the reason HBL Power Systems has been placed on the blacklist was, "Company came as L1 in the tenders. However the projects were not executed."

With Veddis Solar, the MNRE said that it had been placed on the blacklist because, "[The] company has not executed to the placed work orders."

The information used for the blacklist came from the State Nodal Agencies. There is, however, some confusion, as the latter company is named as "Veddis Solar," whereas its official name is "Veddis Solars."

Turan Singh, CEO of Veddis Solars, said that the blacklisting stemmed from a project in Uttar Pradesh, where his company had been one of three which had been awarded the tender by the government. He alleges that vested interests served the two other companies, which he named as Jaiswal Batteries and Easy Photovoltaic. “There were three parties that were given this order,” said Singh, "and two were given the extension."

He added, "We were put on the blacklist. There was a bit of a delay where they could have penalized us. Instead, they chose to blacklist us. That's fine. We believe in the judiciary and we have gone to the court. We'll see what they have to say."

However, little could be gleaned from the two companies named by Singh. A Jaiswal Battery Service exists in Uttar Pradesh but could not be reached for comment. A company by the name of Easy Photovoltech also exists in Uttar Pradesh. However, the latter hung up when asked about the development in Uttar Pradesh with Veddis Solar.

Calls and emails to Dr. G. Prasad, under whose name the blacklist was created, were not returned. HBL Power Systems had not commented by the time of publication.

Limited versions of Arizona utilities' rooftop solar programs approved

Limited versions of Arizona utilities' rooftop solar programs approved
On December 18th, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) approved Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and Arizona Public Service (APS) plans to implement rooftop solar programs in their service territories, with significant modifications to the original proposals.

Under the programs, APS and TEP will install PV modules on customer roofs and sell the electricity generated to the homeowners on a fixed monthly basis, similar to the offerings of third-party owned solar companies.

The utility programs will be open to homeowners regardless of FICO scores, but TEP's program will require that customers pay US$250 up-front in administrative costs. APS' program requires no deposit from homeowners.

A main limitation imposed by The ACC will be that APS and TEP are not allowed to use funds collected from other ratepayers to support the programs. Additionally, the volume of deployment will be limited to “pilot programs”, and TEP says that it will offer the program to 500-600 customers in 2015.

Both the Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) and Tull Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed (TUSK) fought APS in a previous regulatory battle at the ACC over fees on rooftop PV systems, and have applauded the ACC decision.

“While no compromise is perfect, this measure does mean utilities won't be able to use their government guaranteed profits to drive a competitor out of business, a move that would be an anathema to core Republican principles,” stated TUSK Chair Barry Goldwater Jr.

TUSK notes that the ACC also required the utilities to use the information gathered from their rooftop PV deployment for research purposes, arguing that the commission “declined to investigate a proposal by TASC to conduct the same research for one tenth of the cost to ratepayers”.

TEP has stated that it will seek program participants in areas where PV will maximize benefits to the local electric grid, as well as looking for sites where PV modules can be positioned to match their output more closely to peak demand.

The utility notes that it would have used local businesses to install the system and alluded to TASC and its member companies as “out-of-state solar lease providers” in a press statement.

The ACC's approval of the programs comes a week after Colorado regulators rejected a similar proposal by Xcel Energy.

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UK Environment Secretary bemoans 'eyesore' solar farms

The U.K. Environment Secretary Liz Truss has remarked that solar farms installed on rural agricultural land “make her heart sink” as the government prepares to scrap the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) payments to farmers who install solar farms on their land.
From January 1, farmers will no longer be eligible to receive CAP payments for any land that is used for the production of solar energy. The grant scheme was worth £2 million a year ($3.11 million), with an acre of land eligible for around £100. Existing and planned solar farms in the U.K. cover around 18,700 acres of farmland, which is the equivalent of more than 10,000 soccer pitches.
However, the U.K. government has made its feelings on ground-mounted, large-scale solar clear: the future lies in rooftop installations, particularly commercial-scale PV.
“Solar panels are best placed on the 250,000 hectares of south-facing commercial rooftops where they will not compromise the success of our agricultural industry,” Truss told the Daily Telegraph. “That is why I am scrapping farming subsidies for solar fields.”
Truss had earlier spoken of how her heart sinks when she sees “row upon row” of large-scale solar farms on agricultural land, adding how such land should fulfill its productive potential in growing food rather than generating energy.
“I do not want to see English farmland’s potential wasted and its appearance blighted by solar farms. Farming is what our farms are fore and it is what keeps our landscape beautiful,” Truss added.
When Truss’s plans were first announced in October, many supporters of both the solar industry and the farming sector objected. The chief advisor on renewable energy and climate change at the National Farmers Union (NFU) Jonathan Scurlock told pv magazine that many farmers were in favor of using part of their land for solar development.

“Large-scale solar is already providing a lifeline for many farmers, underpinning agricultural production with additional returns that make their business more reliant,” said Scurlock.

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