Solar Energy-Solar Mounting Systems

2014年12月8日星期一

North Carolina regulators approve 80 MW solar plant

North Carolina energy company McBride Energy Services has been granted permission to construct a $200 million, 80 MW solar PV plant near to the city of Concord in the U.S. state.

North Carolina’s Utilities Commission yesterday issued an order approving the proposal for the McBride Place Energy project, which is penciled in for commercial operation by the end of 2015.

Further details are sketchy at this stage. State law decrees that no solar farm cab be built until a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a utility has been signed, and it is understood that McBride Energy Services is currently in talks with a handful of potential utilities for the park’s solar energy.

Should the plant be completed before the end of next year it would be eligible for $36 million in state tax credits, as well as around $63 million in federal tax credits and depreciation allowances.

This installation would dwarf McBride’s previous forays into the world of PV. Its current largest solar farm in operation is a 2.5 MW project in Henderson County.

North Carolina's solar landscape is currently the third-largest in the U.S. after California and Arizona, boasting more than 620 MW of installed capacity, according to data from GTM Research.

Analysts predict that the state should reach more than 2.6 GW of installed PV capacity by 2020, with private investment in the sector reaching $7.8 billion during that time, found a recent report by Pew Charitable Trust.

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2014年11月23日星期日

Indian solar market to more than double to 1.8 GW in 2015

Mercom Capital has released its India Solar Market Update, which predicts that annual installations in India will more than double in 2015 to 1.8 GW. “I've never forecast this high for India,” Mercom CEO Prabhu told pv magazine. “But that's the pipeline that we have. A lot of these are already in place.”

2014 is another story. Mercom counts only 734 MW installed in the year to date, which it predicts will rise to around 800 MW by the end of the year. This will be a 20% decline on 2013 market volume, however 2013 was also not an impressive year, with very slight market growth over 2012.

One of the problems faced in 2014 has been national elections, which delayed land acquisition for solar projects and pushed back timelines.

All of this is set to change in 2015. And while project deadlines from previous batches of the National Solar Mission (NSM) will account for some of the anticipated 2015 market volume, a strong future for India's solar market is being driven by national developments and can be traced back to new Modi Administration.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has greatly increased national ambitions, with discussion of raising the NSM to 100 GW by 2022. This includes ramping up targets for the next few phases, with goals to install 15 GW over the next five years.

As an initial step, new guidelines for Phase 2, Batch 2 tranche 1 of the NSM call for 3 GW. Tranches have also been split into sub-sections, with 1 GW in the first part.

In India, there is always the question of whether or not increasing ambitions will be enabled with practical policy support. However, here as well the Modi Administration appears to be delivering. Chiefly, the Administration declined to act on the imposition of import tariffs on solar products for four nations, which analysts feared would stifle the nations' solar market.

In another important move, the Modi Administration is requiring states to supply the land for solar projects under the NSM. “Project developers won't have to deal with private landowners, buying land,” explains Prabhu. “That was the single biggest issue. Land is expensive, and then there are all the paperwork issues.”

Additionally, India's many state-owned companies are now responsible for meeting renewable purchase obligations, an area which has suffered from lax enforcement in the past.

For such projects the Modi Administration is requiring the use of domestically produced modules. Since this is a government procurement WTO rules prohibiting domestic content do not apply, and Modi can safely appease domestic manufacturers.

Prabhu says that the Modi Administration's seriousness about renewable energy has “percolated to states”, with both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka already launching state auctions.

U.S. installs only 31 MW of utility-scale solar in October

U.S. installs only 31 MW of utility-scale solar in October
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has released data on new utility-scale generation placed in service in October, and the numbers are not good for solar. During the month FERC counted only five utility-scale PV projects coming online, for a total of 31 MW.

This is less than 20% the monthly average of 180 MW in 2014 to date, and 2014 has not been an impressive year for utility-scale solar. The 1.8 GW of solar PV that was connected to the grid in the first ten months is 31% below the level installed in the same period in 2013, and represents only 18% of new generation.

It is important to note that FERC only counts utility-scale solar, and thus these numbers leave out the growing “behind-the-meter” segment, including rooftop solar PV systems on homes, businesses and schools.

According to FERC's statistics, the largest source of new generation in 2014 has been natural gas. The agency reports that 5.4 GW of new gas plants have come online, to represent 54% of new generation during the first ten months of the year.

And despite the slow progress of utility-scale PV during this period, GTM Research expects that the overall U.S. PV market will grow in 2014 to 6.5 GW, a 36% increase over 2013. This could allow solar to overtake gas as the largest source of new generation.

However, it will require a very busy two months for PV installers and contractors.

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Walmart to install up to 400 more solar PV systems over the next four years

Walmart to install up to 400 more solar PV systems over the next four years
On Friday, Walmart announced that is has concluded a request for proposals and has accepted bids from SunEdison and SolarCity to install as many as 400 new solar PV systems on its facilities over the next four years.

The company did not say what capacity this will represent, but estimates that the PV systems will meet 10-30% of the energy needs of the facilities where they will be installed.

If 400 are built and they average the same size as Walmart's existing fleet of PV, the new installations will total around 160 MW. Walmart currently has 260 operational PV plants at its stores, representing 105 MW of installed PV capacity.

This makes Walmart, the world's largest retailer, also the largest corporate user of PV in the United States. The company boasts more than double the installed PV versus its closest competitor.

SolarCity has installed more than 200 of those PV systems, in less than four years. 13 of these systems also feature energy storage, and SolarCity will be installing another 10 energy storage projects in this new round, which will feature 200 kW/400 kWh battery systems.

Walmart has been praised for its leading role in PV adoption by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). However, the family which owns a majority share in Walmart has come under fire for donating large sums to organizations that are trying to repeal renewable energy policies.

A report by the Institute for Local Self Reliance published in October found that the Walton Family, which also owns 30% of First Solar, has donated more than $4.5 million to organizations that have led and/or initiated attempts to roll back state renewable energy mandates since 2010.

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On Friday, Walmart announced that is has concluded a request for proposals and has accepted bids from SunEdison and SolarCity to install as many as 400 new solar PV systems on its facilities over the next four years.

The company did not say what capacity this will represent, but estimates that the PV systems will meet 10-30% of the energy needs of the facilities where they will be installed.

If 400 are built and they average the same size as Walmart's existing fleet of PV, the new installations will total around 160 MW. Walmart currently has 260 operational PV plants at its stores, representing 105 MW of installed PV capacity.

This makes Walmart, the world's largest retailer, also the largest corporate user of PV in the United States. The company boasts more than double the installed PV versus its closest competitor.

SolarCity has installed more than 200 of those PV systems, in less than four years. 13 of these systems also feature energy storage, and SolarCity will be installing another 10 energy storage projects in this new round, which will feature 200 kW/400 kWh battery systems.

Walmart has been praised for its leading role in PV adoption by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). However, the family which owns a majority share in Walmart has come under fire for donating large sums to organizations that are trying to repeal renewable energy policies.

A report by the Institute for Local Self Reliance published in October found that the Walton Family, which also owns 30% of First Solar, has donated more than $4.5 million to organizations that have led and/or initiated attempts to roll back state renewable energy mandates since 2010.

Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/walmart-to-install-up-to-400-more-solar-pv-systems-over-the-next-four-years_100017256/#ixzz3JxoU0aUQOn Friday, Walmart announced that is has concluded a request for proposals and has accepted bids from SunEdison and SolarCity to install as many as 400 new solar PV systems on its facilities over the next four years.

The company did not say what capacity this will represent, but estimates that the PV systems will meet 10-30% of the energy needs of the facilities where they will be installed.

If 400 are built and they average the same size as Walmart's existing fleet of PV, the new installations will total around 160 MW. Walmart currently has 260 operational PV plants at its stores, representing 105 MW of installed PV capacity.

This makes Walmart, the world's largest retailer, also the largest corporate user of PV in the United States. The company boasts more than double the installed PV versus its closest competitor.

SolarCity has installed more than 200 of those PV systems, in less than four years. 13 of these systems also feature energy storage, and SolarCity will be installing another 10 energy storage projects in this new round, which will feature 200 kW/400 kWh battery systems.

Walmart has been praised for its leading role in PV adoption by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). However, the family which owns a majority share in Walmart has come under fire for donating large sums to organizations that are trying to repeal renewable energy policies.

A report by the Institute for Local Self Reliance published in October found that the Walton Family, which also owns 30% of First Solar, has donated more than $4.5 million to organizations that have led and/or initiated attempts to roll back state renewable energy mandates since 2010.

Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/walmart-to-install-up-to-400-more-solar-pv-systems-over-the-next-four-years_100017256/#ixzz3JxoU0aUQ

UK government refuses to intervene in solar farm plans

News of a planning application for a solar PV park at the Pasture House Farm, between Westnewton and Aspatria in Cumbria, broke this week. The story, though, has more layers than first appears.

Both planning authority Allerdale Borough Council and the applicant, Livos Energy, confirmed news of the scheme to pv magazine.

The planning application did not state the size of the farm, however Craig Miles, planning manager at the Edinburgh office of Livos Energy, told pv magazine that was because the developer is still considering the farm's capacity. Miles added, it will most probably be around 15 to 16 MW.

Miles also confirmed the project has secured financing and a grid connection and construction is going to start as soon as possible.

Reading-based Livos Energy specialises in ground-mounted solar and wind parks and is an investor and developer. The Pasture House solar farm is a typical project, although Miles added the company does not neglect the prospect of selling assets if a good opportunity arises.

UK government refuses to intervene in planning

The story made headlines this week due to the UK government's reluctance to intervene in the project's planning process.

Initially, the Allerdale Borough Council's development panel had voted in favor of the proposal at a meeting on November 4 but at the last minute, the secretary of state for communities and local government – Eric Pickles – was asked by local stakeholders to call in the application and the decision was put on hold.

Objections were mainly based on concerns about the industrialization of the area and the visual impact the solar farm would have on the landscape.

Livos Energy replied the PV park would be on low-quality agricultural land and it would keep the site available for grazing while incorporating environmental enhancements, including a biodiversity action plan.

Pickles sent a letter to Allerdale Borough Council on Tuesday saying he has carefully considered the case against the call-in policy but the policy makes clear the power to call in a case will only be used selectively.

The government, he said, is committed to give more power to councils and communities to make their own decisions on planning issues and planning decisions should be made at a local level wherever possible. On that basis, Pickles refused to intervene and planning permission has now been granted to Livos.

UK policy changes

Should Livos Energy want the Pasture House solar farm to qualify for the current Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) subsidy scheme, it would need to complete the project by March.

Starting in April, the UK will move away from ROCs in favor of its Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy program. ROCs for PV projects after April will only be available for installations up to 4.99 MW, with the ROC scheme expected to be scrapped entirely in March 2017.

The government has also recently launched its Urban Community Energy Fund (UCEF) giving community groups in England the opportunity to bid for grants of up to £20,000, or loans of up to £130,000. The UCEF has been assigned £10 million.

The policy changes, together with a revision of the UK's FIT scheme (mainly targeting smaller installations) to be announced in 2015, are expected to impact the shape of the country's solar PV sector both in terms of the number and kind of installations and the stakeholders that comprise it.

The government's reluctance to intervene in the Pasture House solar farm case is not reflected in the country's energy policy, where the government does intervene in previously untested ways, causing winners and losers.

The forthcoming, December, issue of pv magazine will analyze the UK's path to 12 GW of PV installations by 2020, also examining the prospects for community energy and the residential and commercial rooftop sectors. An introduction to alternative plans, aiming higher than 12 GW of installations, will be included.

Policy uncertainty paralyzes large-scale Down Under

New data from the renewable energy industry highlights just what impact policy certainty – or the lack of it – is having on small and large-scale markets.

Rooftop solar – largely funded by the balance sheets of Australian households and businesses – continues to surge ahead. That's helped by the fact that federal incentives – paid up front – are locked in by legislation.

The graph below shows the trend in small-scale rooftop solar systems, residential (below 10 kW and in green), and commercial-scale systems (between 10 kW and 100 kW and in blue) over the past year.

After sharp falls caused by the winding back of various state-based FITs, the deployment of solar by homes and businesses has steadied and is now growing solidly.

According to Green Energy Markets, more than 155,000 small-scale solar systems have been added across Australia this year, an average of more than 15,000 per month.

Last month, 16,729 systems were added, for a total of 75 MW (the average size being 4.2 kW), taking the total for the year to 657 MW.

Large-scale solar at a standstill

Meanwhile, construction in the large-scale renewable energy market is at a virtual standstill, thanks to uncertainty about the future of the large-scale market, which has caused bank financing to dry up, and its share of generation is also going backwards.

This is partly due to lower wind speeds, and lower hydro production, as the incentive to generate more hydro is removed because of the dumping of the carbon price and the fall in the value of LGC certificates, due to policy uncertainty.

In October, the share of renewable generation, not including rooftop solar, was 13.1 per cent. That was down from 14.2 per cent in September and 18.3 per cent a year earlier.

In the past month, just four small solar power stations and a small hydro generator were approved.

So far this year, it has been a sorry story for new developments. As this graph shows, less than 200 MW of large-scale renewable plants have been accredited in 2014.

Of those, two plants – Boco Rock wind farm and the Portland wind farm extension – were committed last year, as was the 20 MW Royalla solar farm which makes up the bulk of the solar total.

The rest of the solar component include rooftop solar projects of more than 100 kW – too big to qualify for the small-scale scheme.

Both Portland and Royalla have been supported by other schemes such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) government's solar auction.

Minister delights Indian expo with 100 GW eight-year aim

Optimism is in the air. That summed up the mood at the Intersolar India 2014 Expo which closed on Thursday.

The three-day Mumbai event attracted a much larger number of visitors than last year's expo and the euphoria following the election of a new government led by Indian solar champion Narendra Modi was visible.

'The worst is behind us' was the sentiment expressed by several industry stakeholders, including developers, manufacturers, balance-of-system (BoS) suppliers and service providers.

The industry had a lot to cheer about as three states – Karnataka, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh – had allotted 500 MW of solar PV projects each in the previous three weeks.

That came in addition to the 750 MW of solar projects allotted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the first batch of Phase 2 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

The new deals follow a year of drought in 2014 which saw annual solar installations hit a three-year low, accrding to analysts Mercom Capital.

If all the new projects materialize, India will see record installations of close to 2.5 GW next year.

Intersolar India was inaugurated by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Rajendra Pachauri who, in his address, said around 35% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come as a result of energy production and that renewable energy can play a huge role in bringing down GHG emissions.

90 GW of diesel gensets

In India, the installed capacity of diesel gensets is about 90 GW and the amount of diesel consumed by agricultural pump sets is also high. Close to 300 million people in India do not have access to electricity and it is in these areas decentralized and rooftop solar, as well as solar water heaters, can make a big impact.

The first day of the expo also saw the announcement of the winners of the Intersolar Awards.

Prestigious projects executed by Larsen & Toubro, Sterling & Wilson, Vikram Solar, and Waare Energies made it to the finals with Bosch Solar, Tata Power Solar and Trojan Batteries named winners.

The event took place a day after the minister of new and renewable energy had spoken about ways to increase the JNNSM targets from 22 GW to 100 GW by 2022.

Is 100 GW feasible within eight years?

Subsequent discussions centered on that jaw-dropping number with many industry insiders considering it a pipe dream after India took five years to reach the 3 GW mark.

Others were cautiously optimistic and of the view that if the challenges related to power evacuation, financing and policy challenges are addressed, the target is achievable. More optimistic figures said Modi's track record of introducing 1 GW of capacity in one state within two years meant 100 GW is a realistic prospect.

Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary of the MNRE, mentioned plans are being prepared to see how best the target can be achieved and hinted around 60% of the hoped-for 100 GW capacity addition is likely to come from utility-scale projects with the remainder from rooftop systems and other distributed PV generation.

He added subsidies for off-grid PV will be gradually phased out as generation in segments like industrial and commercial rooftops is economical without them.

Indian manufacturers expressed relief, in the belief a long project pipeline ensures the pie will be big enough for everyone.

They also felt a 100 GW aim will avert conflict over domestic content requirements.

A few of the PV manufacturing equipment vendors pv magazine spoke to mentioned they have seen more enquiries from India and they expect cell manufacturing capacity to expand this year as the expo ended up an upbeat note.

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