Latin America is investing more in solar power but, in line with International Energy Agency warnings, needs to do so intelligently and without multiplying costs.
Poverty-stricken Honduras is the latest home to solar energy projects in Central and South America that are driven by U.S. service providers but fitted out with Chinese-made equipment.
Colorado's Onyx Service and Solutions Inc. said it will install its newest solar energy project in Latin America, made up of Chinese-manufactured solar panels and associated equipment, at West Bay Lodge Project in Roatan, Honduras.
Onyx Management is also using Honduran personnel for the installation which fulfills a need for electricity supply expansion in the Central American country.
Honduras was severely affected by a coup in 2009 that triggered an international diplomatic, political and economic isolation of the country. Recovery has been slow despite assistance from the European Union and the United States.
The West Bay Lodge installation follows a deal reached in October to power the resort, part of the government's plan to regenerate the economy with tourism. The West Bay Beach is the most popular tourist destination on the Island of Roatan, and an international tourist destination.
Onyx said in deciding on the project it took a different course than most other solar companies, choosing to forgo competition against coal-fired electricity producers or depending on government subsidies to make a profit.
After a detailed research of the worldwide markets for power, Onyx said, it focused on sectors that relied on costly diesel generated electricity such as that in Roatan at present but offered opportunity for greater profit margins. Onyx is developing multiple solar power projects in Honduras, one as large as 22 megawatts, and Panama. The company is developing solar power distribution in Colombia and Peru.
Solar power generation and distribution is set to grow in Latin America and has enabled U.S. renewable energy companies to position in the area.
Last month scientists at Notre Dame University in Indiana announced they devised an inexpensive "solar paint" that can produce energy.
The paint, dubbed Sun-Believable, may someday be applied to homes to generate electricity from light to power appliances and equipment inside.
The paint uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy from sunlight.
"We want to do something transformative, to move beyond current silicon-based solar technology," chemistry Professor Prashant Kamat of the university's Center for Nano Science and Technology said.
"By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we've made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment."
When the paint is brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light it creates electricity, the researchers said.
"The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells," Kamat said.
"But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future."
The International Energy Agency said a more intelligent use of solar energy could help meet a growing percentage of the world's energy needs.
Enough sunlight reaches the Earth in 90 minutes to meet the world's energy needs for a year if harnessed appropriately, the IEA said in a report from its headquarters in Paris.
"While solar energy resources are abundant, their use currently represents only a tiny fraction of the world's current energy mix," said report author Cedric Philibert.
"But this is changing rapidly and is being driven by action to improve energy diversification and security, mitigate climate change and provide energy access."
The IEA warns that concerns over cost have led some governments to make hasty policy decisions that could force a reversal of any gains in the use of solar energy.
The agency calls for "comprehensive and fine-tuned policies" that back a growing portfolio of solar technology. Given the right conditions, the IEA said, solar power could become a competitive energy source within 20 years.
"Integrating all solar technologies in a system-oriented policy approach will unlock the potential of solar energy within the broader set of low-carbon technologies needed for a future sustainable and more secure global energy mix," Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA's Renewable Energy Division, said in a statement.
2011年12月29日星期四
2011年12月28日星期三
India’s Investment in the Sun
Solar power is a clean energy source. But in this arid part of northwest India it can also be a dusty one.
Every five days or so, in a marriage of low and high tech, field hands with long-handled dust mops wipe down each of the 36,000 solar panels at a 63-acre installation operated by Azure Power. The site is one of the biggest examples of India’s ambitious plan to use solar energy to help modernize its notoriously underpowered national electricity grid, and reduce its dependence on coal-fired power plants.
Azure Power has a contract to provide solar-generated electricity to a state-government electric utility. Inderpreet Wadhwa, Azure’s chief executive, predicted that within a few years solar power would be competitive in price with India’s conventionally generated electricity.
“The efficiency of solar technology will continue to increase, and with the increasing demand in solar energy, cost will continue to decrease,” Mr. Wadhwa said.
Two years ago, Indian policy makers said that by the year 2020 they would drastically increase the nation’s use of solar power from virtually nothing to 20,000 megawatts — enough electricity to power the equivalent of 20 million modern American homes. Many analysts said it could not be done. But, now the doubters are taking back their words.
Dozens of developers like Azure, because of aggressive government subsidies and a large drop in the global price of solar panels, are covering India’s northwestern plains — including this village of 2,000 people — with gleaming solar panels. So far, India uses only about 140 megawatts, including 10 megawatts used by the Azure installation, which can provide enough power to serve a town of 50,000 people, according to the company. But analysts say that the national 20,000 megawatt goal is achievable and that India could reach those numbers even a few years before 2020.
“Prices came down and suddenly things were possible that didn’t seem possible,” said Tobias Engelmeier, managing director of Bridge to India, a research and consulting firm based in New Delhi. Chinese manufacturers like Suntech Power and Yingli Green Energy helped drive the drop in solar panel costs. The firms increased production of the panels and cut costs this year by about 30 percent to 40 percent, to less than $1 a watt.
Developers of solar farms in India, however, have shown a preference for the more advanced, so-called thin-film solar cells offered by suppliers in the United States, Taiwan and Europe. The leading American provider to India is First Solar, based in Tempe, Ariz.
India does not have a large solar manufacturing industry, but is trying to develop one and China is showing a new interest in India’s growing demand. China’s Suntech Power sold the panels used at the Azure installation, which opened in June.
Industry executives credit government policies with India’s solar boom, unusual praise because businesses usually deride Indian regulations as Kafkaesque.
Over the last decade, India has opened the state-dominated power-generating industry to private players, while leaving distribution and rate-setting largely in government hands. European countries heavily subsidize solar power by agreeing to buy it for decades at a time, but the subsidies in India are lower and solar operators are forced into to greater competition, helping push down costs.
This month, the government held its second auction to determine the price at which its state-owned power trading company — NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam — would buy solar-generated electricity for the national grid. The average winning bid was 8.77 rupees (16.5 cents) per kilowatt hour.
That is about twice the price of coal-generated power, but it was about 27 percent lower than the winning bids at the auction held a year ago. Germany, the world’s biggest solar-power user, pays about 17.94 euro cents (23 American cents) per kilowatt hour.
India still significantly lags behind European countries in the use of solar. Germany, for example, had 17,000 megawatts of solar power capacity at the end of 2010. But India, which gets more than 300 days of sunlight a year, is a more suitable place to generate solar power. And being behind is now benefiting India, as panel prices plummet, enabling it to spend far less to set up solar farms than countries that pioneered the technology.
Every five days or so, in a marriage of low and high tech, field hands with long-handled dust mops wipe down each of the 36,000 solar panels at a 63-acre installation operated by Azure Power. The site is one of the biggest examples of India’s ambitious plan to use solar energy to help modernize its notoriously underpowered national electricity grid, and reduce its dependence on coal-fired power plants.
Azure Power has a contract to provide solar-generated electricity to a state-government electric utility. Inderpreet Wadhwa, Azure’s chief executive, predicted that within a few years solar power would be competitive in price with India’s conventionally generated electricity.
“The efficiency of solar technology will continue to increase, and with the increasing demand in solar energy, cost will continue to decrease,” Mr. Wadhwa said.
Two years ago, Indian policy makers said that by the year 2020 they would drastically increase the nation’s use of solar power from virtually nothing to 20,000 megawatts — enough electricity to power the equivalent of 20 million modern American homes. Many analysts said it could not be done. But, now the doubters are taking back their words.
Dozens of developers like Azure, because of aggressive government subsidies and a large drop in the global price of solar panels, are covering India’s northwestern plains — including this village of 2,000 people — with gleaming solar panels. So far, India uses only about 140 megawatts, including 10 megawatts used by the Azure installation, which can provide enough power to serve a town of 50,000 people, according to the company. But analysts say that the national 20,000 megawatt goal is achievable and that India could reach those numbers even a few years before 2020.
“Prices came down and suddenly things were possible that didn’t seem possible,” said Tobias Engelmeier, managing director of Bridge to India, a research and consulting firm based in New Delhi. Chinese manufacturers like Suntech Power and Yingli Green Energy helped drive the drop in solar panel costs. The firms increased production of the panels and cut costs this year by about 30 percent to 40 percent, to less than $1 a watt.
Developers of solar farms in India, however, have shown a preference for the more advanced, so-called thin-film solar cells offered by suppliers in the United States, Taiwan and Europe. The leading American provider to India is First Solar, based in Tempe, Ariz.
India does not have a large solar manufacturing industry, but is trying to develop one and China is showing a new interest in India’s growing demand. China’s Suntech Power sold the panels used at the Azure installation, which opened in June.
Industry executives credit government policies with India’s solar boom, unusual praise because businesses usually deride Indian regulations as Kafkaesque.
Over the last decade, India has opened the state-dominated power-generating industry to private players, while leaving distribution and rate-setting largely in government hands. European countries heavily subsidize solar power by agreeing to buy it for decades at a time, but the subsidies in India are lower and solar operators are forced into to greater competition, helping push down costs.
This month, the government held its second auction to determine the price at which its state-owned power trading company — NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam — would buy solar-generated electricity for the national grid. The average winning bid was 8.77 rupees (16.5 cents) per kilowatt hour.
That is about twice the price of coal-generated power, but it was about 27 percent lower than the winning bids at the auction held a year ago. Germany, the world’s biggest solar-power user, pays about 17.94 euro cents (23 American cents) per kilowatt hour.
India still significantly lags behind European countries in the use of solar. Germany, for example, had 17,000 megawatts of solar power capacity at the end of 2010. But India, which gets more than 300 days of sunlight a year, is a more suitable place to generate solar power. And being behind is now benefiting India, as panel prices plummet, enabling it to spend far less to set up solar farms than countries that pioneered the technology.
2011年12月27日星期二
Solar power push faces challenges in Texas
In fact, since oil started flowing here more than a century ago, energy has been at the very heart of the state's economy.
And oil remains key to Texas energy production; not only is it the biggest oil-producing state in the US, but one of the two leading global benchmarks in global oil pricing carries its name - West Texas Intermediate.
But while oil and Texas may be inseparable in the popular imagination, the state is increasingly embracing renewable energy technologies.
It is already the largest generator of wind power in the US, a country which itself generates more wind power than any other.
The Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and the Trans-Pecos regions of Texas have some of the nation's greatest wind-power potential, and plans for substantial new capacity are under way.
On top of this, the state has some of the highest solar power potential in the US, though this is only now being developed.
Three miles from downtown Austin, Texas, lies a small community that's at the cutting edge of the future of energy.
At first glance, this looks like any other American neighbourhood, but it's actually a remarkable living experiment that could have big implications for the future of energy use everywhere, not just in the US.
Homes here have some of the highest densities of solar panels in the US, and as result, some of the lowest energy bills. In fact, some people pay nothing at all.
But it's not just domestic capacity that Texas has invested heavily in. A massive new solar farm is due to begin generating electricity shortly.
The Webberville solar farm has just been completed and will start generating power within weeks.
Helping hand
For environmentalists, then, Texas, the oil state, could in theory provide something of a blueprint for the rest of the nation - if Texans can be weaned off oil, then surely there is hope for the rest of the country?
But this vision is under serious threat, for despite the proliferation of renewable energy production in Texas, serious questions are being raised about whether clean energy investment can continue at such a pace.
The first threat is cuts in the very subsidies that sparked renewable energy production in the first place. Hoping for a boom in green energy jobs, the US government introduced grants to encourage investment in clean energy.
But the jobs were never created in quite the numbers intended.
In fact, while Chinese firms flooded the market with cheap solar panels, US firms were unable to compete, with many being forced out of business.
The biggest casualty was Solyndra, which went bankrupt in August after receiving about $500m in government loans.
The US Commerce Department is investigating claims against Chinese Solar manufacturers that they "dumped solar panels on the US market below market cost.
Solarworld, which was one of the firms which brought the complaint, says US solar manufacturing jobs are at risk from cheap Chinese imports.
China has rejected the complaint. Indeed the Chinese solar industry has now asked for an investigation into US subsidies for polysilicon, which is used to make solar panels and which is exported to China in vast quantities, leading Chinese firms to complain they cannot compete with the cheap imports.
US firms representing installers have also opposed the mounting trade war. For them cheap solar panels create jobs selling and installing the panels.
Whatever the outcome, subsidies are falling and solar energy investment is no longer as attractive as it once was.
New alternative
There is, however, another potentially more serious threat facing the US solar industry - the underlying economics of renewable energy technologies are coming under strain.
Gas prices have been falling, due in large part to the discovery of large deposits of shale gas.
The impact of shale in the US cannot be underestimated - in the past 10 years, it has come from nowhere to supply about a quarter of the country's natural gas, a proportion that some believe could rise to 50% in the next 25 years.
As a result, investors in large renewable projects - including wind and solar farms - are now wondering if the numbers still add up. If gas is cheap, why bother investing in more expensive alternatives, even if they are cleaner?
So for some, then, the story of energy in Texas has come full circle, with oil and gas again reigning supreme. For others, the rise of renewable energy has passed the point of no return.
And oil remains key to Texas energy production; not only is it the biggest oil-producing state in the US, but one of the two leading global benchmarks in global oil pricing carries its name - West Texas Intermediate.
But while oil and Texas may be inseparable in the popular imagination, the state is increasingly embracing renewable energy technologies.
It is already the largest generator of wind power in the US, a country which itself generates more wind power than any other.
The Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and the Trans-Pecos regions of Texas have some of the nation's greatest wind-power potential, and plans for substantial new capacity are under way.
On top of this, the state has some of the highest solar power potential in the US, though this is only now being developed.
Three miles from downtown Austin, Texas, lies a small community that's at the cutting edge of the future of energy.
At first glance, this looks like any other American neighbourhood, but it's actually a remarkable living experiment that could have big implications for the future of energy use everywhere, not just in the US.
Homes here have some of the highest densities of solar panels in the US, and as result, some of the lowest energy bills. In fact, some people pay nothing at all.
But it's not just domestic capacity that Texas has invested heavily in. A massive new solar farm is due to begin generating electricity shortly.
The Webberville solar farm has just been completed and will start generating power within weeks.
Helping hand
For environmentalists, then, Texas, the oil state, could in theory provide something of a blueprint for the rest of the nation - if Texans can be weaned off oil, then surely there is hope for the rest of the country?
But this vision is under serious threat, for despite the proliferation of renewable energy production in Texas, serious questions are being raised about whether clean energy investment can continue at such a pace.
The first threat is cuts in the very subsidies that sparked renewable energy production in the first place. Hoping for a boom in green energy jobs, the US government introduced grants to encourage investment in clean energy.
But the jobs were never created in quite the numbers intended.
In fact, while Chinese firms flooded the market with cheap solar panels, US firms were unable to compete, with many being forced out of business.
The biggest casualty was Solyndra, which went bankrupt in August after receiving about $500m in government loans.
The US Commerce Department is investigating claims against Chinese Solar manufacturers that they "dumped solar panels on the US market below market cost.
Solarworld, which was one of the firms which brought the complaint, says US solar manufacturing jobs are at risk from cheap Chinese imports.
China has rejected the complaint. Indeed the Chinese solar industry has now asked for an investigation into US subsidies for polysilicon, which is used to make solar panels and which is exported to China in vast quantities, leading Chinese firms to complain they cannot compete with the cheap imports.
US firms representing installers have also opposed the mounting trade war. For them cheap solar panels create jobs selling and installing the panels.
Whatever the outcome, subsidies are falling and solar energy investment is no longer as attractive as it once was.
New alternative
There is, however, another potentially more serious threat facing the US solar industry - the underlying economics of renewable energy technologies are coming under strain.
Gas prices have been falling, due in large part to the discovery of large deposits of shale gas.
The impact of shale in the US cannot be underestimated - in the past 10 years, it has come from nowhere to supply about a quarter of the country's natural gas, a proportion that some believe could rise to 50% in the next 25 years.
As a result, investors in large renewable projects - including wind and solar farms - are now wondering if the numbers still add up. If gas is cheap, why bother investing in more expensive alternatives, even if they are cleaner?
So for some, then, the story of energy in Texas has come full circle, with oil and gas again reigning supreme. For others, the rise of renewable energy has passed the point of no return.
2011年12月26日星期一
Urban Grid capitalizing on interest in solar energy
Blue Crump started Urban Grid Solar Inc. in 2010 after seeing a growing interest in solar energy.
"From an installation and equipment cost perspective, solar energy is less expensive now than it has been historically," he said. "Energy rates will increase. This allows for businesses to hedge against those rising costs."
The company is a Richmond-based renewable-energy development firm and a general and alternative energy systems contractor. It also provides solar financing and development, solar installations, energy monitoring and services in other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar thermal hot water.
"As the business has evolved, the energy sector, especially solar, has outpaced anything we do," Crump said.
From 2010 to 2011, Urban Grid's revenue grew 200 percent. In 2012, the company will focus on developing energy projects in Richmond and Annapolis, Md., where it has a second sales office, Crump said.
"We'll also concentrate on the Northeast, where utility projects are the highest," Crump said. "There are a lot of energy incentives in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, which creates a lot more opportunity in Northern Virginia and the Beltway."
The company also is looking at opportunities in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
"We want to expand," Crump said.
Besides expanding its core business, the company recently started Urban Grid Mechanical. The company in Ashland works with businesses to identify strategies to lower energy consumption.
"We manage and control the consumption of energy in a building," Crump said of the new business.
When Crump started Urban Grid, he brought in partners Frank DePew, Greg Haley and Ken Gorvey.
"Our backgrounds complemented one another," Crump said, noting that he had worked in the green building industry. "Frank's background is in finance, Ken's is in accounting and Greg's is in large-scale commercial building."
The company mainly works with engineers and architects.
"We give them the tools to incorporate renewables into their projects," Crump said.
Urban Grid has a residential division.
"We are still doing a lot of green and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified building. We seek out projects that are a good fit for us," Crump said.
Urban Grid completed the first U.S. Green Building Council LEED gold-certified residential project in the Fan District in 2011. The Grove Avenue home has a green roof and a solar thermal and solar photovoltaic array of panels.
It also has a commercial division that works with medium-to-large businesses. The company works on federal and state projects.
Urban Grid has opportunities to work on state and federal government projects as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which allocated funds for energy-efficient and renewable-energy projects.
The company is working on two state projects: the 14th Street Parking Garage and the Virginia Distribution Center in Sandston.
The 14th Street project includes solar panels on the top of the garage that will provide shading for cars while generating electricity for the garage. "It is expected to offset 100 percent of the parking deck's energy consumption," Crump said.
Another project included installing a vertical-axis wind turbine at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It will be interesting to measure and monitor the winds that pass through Richmond and help offset their electric costs," Crump said.
Urban Grid also works on privately funded projects. It recently installed solar panels on the three hangars at Million Air, a Henrico County-based air charter service.
Million Air's owner, Mark Cooke, found it was easy to work with Urban Grid on the project.
"They kept us updated daily," he said. "They are extremely professional."
Scott Elliff, president of DuCard Vineyards in Madison County, worked with Urban Grid in 2010 to install solar panels that provide electricity to run the vineyard's wine-tasting operation.
"We use the sun to ripen the grapes and also to power our operations," Elliff said. "I found Urban Grid to be very competent and responsive to everything we were doing."
"From an installation and equipment cost perspective, solar energy is less expensive now than it has been historically," he said. "Energy rates will increase. This allows for businesses to hedge against those rising costs."
The company is a Richmond-based renewable-energy development firm and a general and alternative energy systems contractor. It also provides solar financing and development, solar installations, energy monitoring and services in other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar thermal hot water.
"As the business has evolved, the energy sector, especially solar, has outpaced anything we do," Crump said.
From 2010 to 2011, Urban Grid's revenue grew 200 percent. In 2012, the company will focus on developing energy projects in Richmond and Annapolis, Md., where it has a second sales office, Crump said.
"We'll also concentrate on the Northeast, where utility projects are the highest," Crump said. "There are a lot of energy incentives in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, which creates a lot more opportunity in Northern Virginia and the Beltway."
The company also is looking at opportunities in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
"We want to expand," Crump said.
Besides expanding its core business, the company recently started Urban Grid Mechanical. The company in Ashland works with businesses to identify strategies to lower energy consumption.
"We manage and control the consumption of energy in a building," Crump said of the new business.
When Crump started Urban Grid, he brought in partners Frank DePew, Greg Haley and Ken Gorvey.
"Our backgrounds complemented one another," Crump said, noting that he had worked in the green building industry. "Frank's background is in finance, Ken's is in accounting and Greg's is in large-scale commercial building."
The company mainly works with engineers and architects.
"We give them the tools to incorporate renewables into their projects," Crump said.
Urban Grid has a residential division.
"We are still doing a lot of green and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified building. We seek out projects that are a good fit for us," Crump said.
Urban Grid completed the first U.S. Green Building Council LEED gold-certified residential project in the Fan District in 2011. The Grove Avenue home has a green roof and a solar thermal and solar photovoltaic array of panels.
It also has a commercial division that works with medium-to-large businesses. The company works on federal and state projects.
Urban Grid has opportunities to work on state and federal government projects as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which allocated funds for energy-efficient and renewable-energy projects.
The company is working on two state projects: the 14th Street Parking Garage and the Virginia Distribution Center in Sandston.
The 14th Street project includes solar panels on the top of the garage that will provide shading for cars while generating electricity for the garage. "It is expected to offset 100 percent of the parking deck's energy consumption," Crump said.
Another project included installing a vertical-axis wind turbine at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It will be interesting to measure and monitor the winds that pass through Richmond and help offset their electric costs," Crump said.
Urban Grid also works on privately funded projects. It recently installed solar panels on the three hangars at Million Air, a Henrico County-based air charter service.
Million Air's owner, Mark Cooke, found it was easy to work with Urban Grid on the project.
"They kept us updated daily," he said. "They are extremely professional."
Scott Elliff, president of DuCard Vineyards in Madison County, worked with Urban Grid in 2010 to install solar panels that provide electricity to run the vineyard's wine-tasting operation.
"We use the sun to ripen the grapes and also to power our operations," Elliff said. "I found Urban Grid to be very competent and responsive to everything we were doing."
2011年12月25日星期日
Western Australia Solar Power Safety Report Questioned
An audit of a small number of home solar power systems in Western Australia carried out by EnergySafety has raised concerns about the prevalence of shoddy installation quality. However, none of the installations posed an immediate electric shock or fire hazard and the nature and timing of the report has been called into question.
EnergySafety, a state government department, is responsible for the technical and safety regulation of all Western Australia's electrical industry and most of the gas sector.
Of the 260 inspection checklists reviewed by the agency, 50% of solar power installations were found to be defect free. 50% presented at least one defect; ranging from infractions such as incorrect or no labeling through to issues including incorrect wiring of DC isolating devices.
12% of installations inspected were found to have incorrect DC isolator wiring - considered a Category 1 defect. DC isolators disconnect the solar panels from the solar inverter and isolate the modules from cabling.
11% of installations had a Category 2 defect, which includes failure to provide adequate mechanical protection to cables.
27% of solar installs were found to have a Category 3 defect; either having no labelling or incorrect labelling of components and/or incorrect/missing safety instructions and warnings.
In its report, EnergySafety said while none of the sub-standard installations posed an immediate electric shock or fire hazard, or was disconnected as a result of the inspections, the defects identified require rectification. Inspector's Orders that required the electrical contractors responsible to rectify the defects were issued in each case.
The report was welcomed but also strongly criticised by the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA).
"...For a report that was based on work commenced in June 2011 to be issued on the day before the Christmas break to offer advice that has alarmed customers about a potential but low probability risk to contact their supplier is alarmist and irresponsible," said Professor Ray Wills, SEA Chief Executive.
Of the installations with Category 1 defects, Professor Wills questioned the provenance of these systems.
"What was the nature of the 31 installations that were faulty? Was every one of these installations done by different installers, or was there a cluster of faults with one or several particular business?"
An earlier survey carried out by SEA with a far larger sample - 5,000 systems compared to EnergySafety's 260 - paints a very different picture, with 18% of systems likely defective according to the EnergySafety definitions of Category 1, 2 and 3 issues.
"Fewer than 2.1% are likely to be suffering a Category 1 defect reported at 12% by EnergySafety," said Professor Wills.
According to solar solutions provider Energy Matters' CEO Jeremy Rich, the results of the audit need further scrutiny.
"I encourage EnergySafety to engage with the SEA and the industry, and then perform a follow up study," said Mr. Rich.
"As far as I am aware, the audit process from which the inspection checklists were sourced is a probabilistic method, where newer installers or installers with recent defects are sampled at higher rates than established installers with low inspection defect rates. As such, the data is not going to be representative of the entire installation sample - it will always demonstrate higher defect rates due to the nature of the sampling."
Mr. Rich also pointed out Energy Matters and most other solar installation companies have internal quality control programs in addition to ORER /Western Power audits to prevent the types of issues reported occurring.
EnergySafety, a state government department, is responsible for the technical and safety regulation of all Western Australia's electrical industry and most of the gas sector.
Of the 260 inspection checklists reviewed by the agency, 50% of solar power installations were found to be defect free. 50% presented at least one defect; ranging from infractions such as incorrect or no labeling through to issues including incorrect wiring of DC isolating devices.
12% of installations inspected were found to have incorrect DC isolator wiring - considered a Category 1 defect. DC isolators disconnect the solar panels from the solar inverter and isolate the modules from cabling.
11% of installations had a Category 2 defect, which includes failure to provide adequate mechanical protection to cables.
27% of solar installs were found to have a Category 3 defect; either having no labelling or incorrect labelling of components and/or incorrect/missing safety instructions and warnings.
In its report, EnergySafety said while none of the sub-standard installations posed an immediate electric shock or fire hazard, or was disconnected as a result of the inspections, the defects identified require rectification. Inspector's Orders that required the electrical contractors responsible to rectify the defects were issued in each case.
The report was welcomed but also strongly criticised by the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA).
"...For a report that was based on work commenced in June 2011 to be issued on the day before the Christmas break to offer advice that has alarmed customers about a potential but low probability risk to contact their supplier is alarmist and irresponsible," said Professor Ray Wills, SEA Chief Executive.
Of the installations with Category 1 defects, Professor Wills questioned the provenance of these systems.
"What was the nature of the 31 installations that were faulty? Was every one of these installations done by different installers, or was there a cluster of faults with one or several particular business?"
An earlier survey carried out by SEA with a far larger sample - 5,000 systems compared to EnergySafety's 260 - paints a very different picture, with 18% of systems likely defective according to the EnergySafety definitions of Category 1, 2 and 3 issues.
"Fewer than 2.1% are likely to be suffering a Category 1 defect reported at 12% by EnergySafety," said Professor Wills.
According to solar solutions provider Energy Matters' CEO Jeremy Rich, the results of the audit need further scrutiny.
"I encourage EnergySafety to engage with the SEA and the industry, and then perform a follow up study," said Mr. Rich.
"As far as I am aware, the audit process from which the inspection checklists were sourced is a probabilistic method, where newer installers or installers with recent defects are sampled at higher rates than established installers with low inspection defect rates. As such, the data is not going to be representative of the entire installation sample - it will always demonstrate higher defect rates due to the nature of the sampling."
Mr. Rich also pointed out Energy Matters and most other solar installation companies have internal quality control programs in addition to ORER /Western Power audits to prevent the types of issues reported occurring.
2011年12月22日星期四
Plug pulled on Harlow Council's solar panel scheme
PLANS to fit solar panels to hundreds of council homes in Harlow will not see the light of day after the Government slashed funding for the project.
The Harlow Council-backed initiative was originally launched in July when the authority announced photovaltic panels would be fitted to 1,200 properties across the town.
All installation and maintenance costs over the 25-year life of the programme were to be met by Kier Harlow, which planned to recoup its outlay through the Government’s Feed In Tariff (FiT) scheme.
But the entire project has now ground to a halt after ministers announced plans to cut back FiT payments by 50 per cent – potentially leaving Kier out of pocket and hundreds of council tenants disappointed.
Council leader Andrew Johnson said the "unforeseen" funding reduction had left the authority no alternative but to shelve the programme less than half way through its first phase.
"Following the Government’s sudden proposed changes to subsidies, we have had to scale back the programme to 280 homes," he said. "We share our tenants’ disappointment.
"I hope the Government would consider allowing existing schemes to continue and I have lobbied our MP about this.
"In the meantime, the council and Kier Harlow are examining other ways in which we can help residents reduce their energy bills."
Harlow MP Robert Halfon said he had already raised the issue with energy minister Gregory Barker in the hope of securing additional funding to see the project through to completion.
He said: "As winter approaches we urgently need to help Harlow families and pensioners with the soaring cost of heating bills.
"I have met personally with the energy minister about this, urging the Government to finance these solar panels for our town. He is looking at this now.
"In the meantime there will be other measures to help, like the Green Deal, where Harlow households will be able to insulate their home for free.
"This will support at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015"
But Labour group leader Mark Wilkinson said the Government had "badly let down" residents who had opted in to the scheme.
"I think it is important that this situation is put right," he said. "After bragging about helping everyone and helping to bring bills down the Government have pulled the plug overnight.
"A lot of residents were looking forward to cheaper utility bills which they will no longer receive.
"I would hope Mr Halfon will do all he can to turn this decision around and fight for the people of this town because his government has badly let down residents."
The Harlow Council-backed initiative was originally launched in July when the authority announced photovaltic panels would be fitted to 1,200 properties across the town.
All installation and maintenance costs over the 25-year life of the programme were to be met by Kier Harlow, which planned to recoup its outlay through the Government’s Feed In Tariff (FiT) scheme.
But the entire project has now ground to a halt after ministers announced plans to cut back FiT payments by 50 per cent – potentially leaving Kier out of pocket and hundreds of council tenants disappointed.
Council leader Andrew Johnson said the "unforeseen" funding reduction had left the authority no alternative but to shelve the programme less than half way through its first phase.
"Following the Government’s sudden proposed changes to subsidies, we have had to scale back the programme to 280 homes," he said. "We share our tenants’ disappointment.
"I hope the Government would consider allowing existing schemes to continue and I have lobbied our MP about this.
"In the meantime, the council and Kier Harlow are examining other ways in which we can help residents reduce their energy bills."
Harlow MP Robert Halfon said he had already raised the issue with energy minister Gregory Barker in the hope of securing additional funding to see the project through to completion.
He said: "As winter approaches we urgently need to help Harlow families and pensioners with the soaring cost of heating bills.
"I have met personally with the energy minister about this, urging the Government to finance these solar panels for our town. He is looking at this now.
"In the meantime there will be other measures to help, like the Green Deal, where Harlow households will be able to insulate their home for free.
"This will support at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015"
But Labour group leader Mark Wilkinson said the Government had "badly let down" residents who had opted in to the scheme.
"I think it is important that this situation is put right," he said. "After bragging about helping everyone and helping to bring bills down the Government have pulled the plug overnight.
"A lot of residents were looking forward to cheaper utility bills which they will no longer receive.
"I would hope Mr Halfon will do all he can to turn this decision around and fight for the people of this town because his government has badly let down residents."
2011年12月21日星期三
Judge rules plan to cut solar power subsidies 'legally flawed'
Government plans to slash incentive payments for householders who install solar panels were ruled "legally flawed" by a high court judge on Wednesday. The ruling opens the door for a judicial review that could force the government to delay its plans, and let thousands more people claim the higher subsidy.
Friends of the Earth and two solar panel companies argued that the government's decision to cut the feed-in tariff – the amount paid to those with solar panels installed – with only a few weeks' notice was premature and unlawful, and had led to unfinished or planned projects being abandoned. The tariff was cut from 43.3p to 21p per kWh of energy generated.
Thousands of individuals, farmers, councils and community groups had applied to install photovoltaic panels. The subsidy was set high to encourage people to invest when the scheme was launched in April 2010. But the government announced in October that it would cut the subsidy from 12 December, arguing that the cost of solar equipment had fallen sharply. This was 11 days before the consultation ended.
The judgment, by Mr Justice Mitting after a two-day court hearing, was hailed as a victory by green campaigners and the solar industry, after firms warned that the scale and pace of the proposed cuts could cripple the sector and cost thousands of jobs.
Mitting said the minister was "proposing to make an unlawful decision".
Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "These botched and illegal plans have cast a huge shadow over the solar industry, jeopardising thousands of jobs. We hope this ruling will prevent ministers rushing through damaging changes to clean energy subsidies – giving solar firms a much-needed confidence boost."
Lawyers for the Department of Energy and Climate Change are seeking permission to appeal against the judge's ruling.
It came as a report by MPs on two select committees said the cuts were clumsily handled and may have fatally damaged a growing industry which could provide tens of thousands of jobs.
By giving consumers and companies just a few weeks' notice that it intended to halve the payments, the government has created uncertainty among investors and undermined public confidence in energy policy, said the MPs. "There is no question that solar subsidies needed to be urgently reduced, but the government has handled this clumsily. Ministers should have spotted the solar gold rush much earlier. That way subsidy levels could have been reduced in a more orderly way without delivering such a shock to the industry," said Tim Yeo, chair of the energy and climate change committee.
In addition, plans to require homes to meet a C-rated energy efficiency standard before they can receive subsidies will limit access to wealthier households and could have a "fatal impact" on the industry, the MPs warn. Eighty six per cent of homes would need to be better insulated to qualify for the scheme – increasing up-front costs for homeowners by between 5,600 and 14,000, even before the panels are purchased, they said.
Joan Walley, chair of the environmental audit committee said: "It doesn't make economic sense to let the sun go down on the solar industry in the UK. As well as helping to cut carbon emissions, every panel that is installed brings in VAT for the government and every company that benefits from the support is keeping people in work. The Government is right to encourage people to focus on saving energy before fitting solar panels, but these proposals will stop nine out of ten installations from going ahead, which will have a devastating effect on hundreds of solar companies and small building firms installing these panels across the country."
Rising energy bills and the falling cost of solar panels made the original subsidy rates so attractive that tens of thousands of households, companies and community groups have rushed to install photovoltaic (PV) systems since the scheme was introduced last year.
The government had evidence that solar panel prices were falling significantly as early as March 2011, but ministers did not act to stem rocketing levels of small solar installations until the end of October.
The MPs say the consultation then announced by the government was based on an inadequate impact assessment and unfairly set a 12 December deadline for changes to come into effect before the consultation closed on 23 December.
The scale and pace of the changes proposed was a shock for the solar industry and the suddenness of their introduction has damaged investor confidence across the whole energy sector, the MPs said. The government has proposed an even lower tariff (80% of the new rate) for generators who have more than one solar system registered for FiTs, in recognition of the economics of scale such aggregated schemes can achieve. This, said the MPs, will have an adverse impact on community solar projects.
"This could have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged and poorer communities for whom such schemes are a good way of accessing the benefits of renewable energy and reducing electricity costs. The social housing sector and community owned schemes are going to be particularly hard hit by the reduced tariffs being brought in by the Government retrospectively," said the MPs.
The MPs' report and court ruling follows the decision by BP to close its solar division, blaming the "commoditisation" of the sector. It emerged this week that Mike Petrucci, chief executive of BP Solar, wrote to his remaining 100 staff last week to say that "the continuing global economic challenges have significantly impacted the solar industry, making it difficult to sustain long-term returns for the company."
Friends of the Earth and two solar panel companies argued that the government's decision to cut the feed-in tariff – the amount paid to those with solar panels installed – with only a few weeks' notice was premature and unlawful, and had led to unfinished or planned projects being abandoned. The tariff was cut from 43.3p to 21p per kWh of energy generated.
Thousands of individuals, farmers, councils and community groups had applied to install photovoltaic panels. The subsidy was set high to encourage people to invest when the scheme was launched in April 2010. But the government announced in October that it would cut the subsidy from 12 December, arguing that the cost of solar equipment had fallen sharply. This was 11 days before the consultation ended.
The judgment, by Mr Justice Mitting after a two-day court hearing, was hailed as a victory by green campaigners and the solar industry, after firms warned that the scale and pace of the proposed cuts could cripple the sector and cost thousands of jobs.
Mitting said the minister was "proposing to make an unlawful decision".
Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said: "These botched and illegal plans have cast a huge shadow over the solar industry, jeopardising thousands of jobs. We hope this ruling will prevent ministers rushing through damaging changes to clean energy subsidies – giving solar firms a much-needed confidence boost."
Lawyers for the Department of Energy and Climate Change are seeking permission to appeal against the judge's ruling.
It came as a report by MPs on two select committees said the cuts were clumsily handled and may have fatally damaged a growing industry which could provide tens of thousands of jobs.
By giving consumers and companies just a few weeks' notice that it intended to halve the payments, the government has created uncertainty among investors and undermined public confidence in energy policy, said the MPs. "There is no question that solar subsidies needed to be urgently reduced, but the government has handled this clumsily. Ministers should have spotted the solar gold rush much earlier. That way subsidy levels could have been reduced in a more orderly way without delivering such a shock to the industry," said Tim Yeo, chair of the energy and climate change committee.
In addition, plans to require homes to meet a C-rated energy efficiency standard before they can receive subsidies will limit access to wealthier households and could have a "fatal impact" on the industry, the MPs warn. Eighty six per cent of homes would need to be better insulated to qualify for the scheme – increasing up-front costs for homeowners by between 5,600 and 14,000, even before the panels are purchased, they said.
Joan Walley, chair of the environmental audit committee said: "It doesn't make economic sense to let the sun go down on the solar industry in the UK. As well as helping to cut carbon emissions, every panel that is installed brings in VAT for the government and every company that benefits from the support is keeping people in work. The Government is right to encourage people to focus on saving energy before fitting solar panels, but these proposals will stop nine out of ten installations from going ahead, which will have a devastating effect on hundreds of solar companies and small building firms installing these panels across the country."
Rising energy bills and the falling cost of solar panels made the original subsidy rates so attractive that tens of thousands of households, companies and community groups have rushed to install photovoltaic (PV) systems since the scheme was introduced last year.
The government had evidence that solar panel prices were falling significantly as early as March 2011, but ministers did not act to stem rocketing levels of small solar installations until the end of October.
The MPs say the consultation then announced by the government was based on an inadequate impact assessment and unfairly set a 12 December deadline for changes to come into effect before the consultation closed on 23 December.
The scale and pace of the changes proposed was a shock for the solar industry and the suddenness of their introduction has damaged investor confidence across the whole energy sector, the MPs said. The government has proposed an even lower tariff (80% of the new rate) for generators who have more than one solar system registered for FiTs, in recognition of the economics of scale such aggregated schemes can achieve. This, said the MPs, will have an adverse impact on community solar projects.
"This could have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged and poorer communities for whom such schemes are a good way of accessing the benefits of renewable energy and reducing electricity costs. The social housing sector and community owned schemes are going to be particularly hard hit by the reduced tariffs being brought in by the Government retrospectively," said the MPs.
The MPs' report and court ruling follows the decision by BP to close its solar division, blaming the "commoditisation" of the sector. It emerged this week that Mike Petrucci, chief executive of BP Solar, wrote to his remaining 100 staff last week to say that "the continuing global economic challenges have significantly impacted the solar industry, making it difficult to sustain long-term returns for the company."
2011年12月20日星期二
County rethinks solar panel effort
Passaic County has gone back to the drawing board on an innovative solar project that has been touted by consultants as a money saver but could leave taxpayers paying debt for decades.
Under the original proposal, the county's Improvement Authority — its chief financing arm — would sell as much as $30 million in bonds to pay for construction of solar panels on public buildings in towns and cities. But after the county put forward projections that showed the project could cost $18.4 million more than the revenue it would generate, the Nov. 10 bid deadline came and went without a single bid submitted.
The authority said a new request for proposals to developers could be different, though the "mechanics" will be the same.
"PCIA [Passaic County Improvement Authority] is reaching out to potential interested solar developers to determine how to move forward with the RFP [request for proposals] process," a county spokesman said.
Passaic is among six New Jersey counties that have considered a plan that uses governmental bonds — and the county's favorable credit ratings — to finance solar-power installations. Three of those counties have already committed more than $100 million to the model, which promises lower energy costs.
But achieving that goal comes with higher risk and could leave Passaic taxpayers responsible for as much as $8.7 million under one of the original scenarios sent to developers. The project's consultants stressed that the projections were a guide upon which potential developers could base their bids and were not intended to be forecasts.
They also pointed to safeguards that would protect the county from loss but conceded there is some risk.
The freeholders were scheduled to vote Nov. 29 whether to proceed with the project but deferred action.
"You're right, there is a difference between the sums of those two things," Steven Gabel, the project's energy consultant, said when asked about the projected revenue falling short of the yearly bond repayments. "The way this is modeled, there are a number of moving parts designed to congeal and come together to protect the county's financial situation."
Among those moving parts is a heavy dependence on Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, which are sold to utilities on a market that has shown itself to be unstable. Utilities buy the credits to fill the gap between how much renewable energy they produce and what the state requires them to generate. A boom in solar projects has created a surplus in SRECs, causing their value to plummet to $160 in August from $650 in May. The price has been about $280 in recent weeks.
Under the original proposal, the county's Improvement Authority — its chief financing arm — would sell as much as $30 million in bonds to pay for construction of solar panels on public buildings in towns and cities. But after the county put forward projections that showed the project could cost $18.4 million more than the revenue it would generate, the Nov. 10 bid deadline came and went without a single bid submitted.
The authority said a new request for proposals to developers could be different, though the "mechanics" will be the same.
"PCIA [Passaic County Improvement Authority] is reaching out to potential interested solar developers to determine how to move forward with the RFP [request for proposals] process," a county spokesman said.
Passaic is among six New Jersey counties that have considered a plan that uses governmental bonds — and the county's favorable credit ratings — to finance solar-power installations. Three of those counties have already committed more than $100 million to the model, which promises lower energy costs.
But achieving that goal comes with higher risk and could leave Passaic taxpayers responsible for as much as $8.7 million under one of the original scenarios sent to developers. The project's consultants stressed that the projections were a guide upon which potential developers could base their bids and were not intended to be forecasts.
They also pointed to safeguards that would protect the county from loss but conceded there is some risk.
The freeholders were scheduled to vote Nov. 29 whether to proceed with the project but deferred action.
"You're right, there is a difference between the sums of those two things," Steven Gabel, the project's energy consultant, said when asked about the projected revenue falling short of the yearly bond repayments. "The way this is modeled, there are a number of moving parts designed to congeal and come together to protect the county's financial situation."
Among those moving parts is a heavy dependence on Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, which are sold to utilities on a market that has shown itself to be unstable. Utilities buy the credits to fill the gap between how much renewable energy they produce and what the state requires them to generate. A boom in solar projects has created a surplus in SRECs, causing their value to plummet to $160 in August from $650 in May. The price has been about $280 in recent weeks.
2011年12月19日星期一
Mount View solar energy project first of its kind
Students at Mount View High School will be beginning a renewable energy project today aimed at learning more about solar energy and incorporating it into their local community, one of the first of its kind in the nation.
Edward Evans, athletic director for the school, said the school will be mounting 22 250-watt solar panels on top of the school for students to use for research purposes. The program may also allow the school to become a demonstration site for future solar energy projects.
“What the kids will do is become solar energy experts,” Evans said. “We like that Mount View can become a demonstration site. Schools, businesses and other organizations can come in to see what solar energy is all about and to see solar demonstrations. We will be able to walk people out onto the roof to see the panels themselves. Solar energy isn’t new and is used all over the place, but it is not used like we will use it. This is an opportunity for the average citizen to see if solar energy is something economical to do in their home. People can tour it and see if it is something they want to be involved with. The kids involved will be the ones giving the presentations to these people coming in to see the site. This will make people aware of all that can be done with solar energy. It is a huge project. This is a big deal. No school has what we will have.”
Evans said the project will be conducted by students with Mount View’s Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA), a West Virginia math and science educational enrichment program aimed ninth through twelfth grade students. The HSTA program also provides college scholarship opportunities for students as well as resources for getting in and through college.
“To be in HSTA group, you have to participate in a HSTA major research project,” Evans said. “Over the years, our groups have done many projections. They have studied bats in West Virginia or ozone layers in West Virginia. This year, the grant will help us incorporate solar energy into the class room and the panels help to produce solar energy during the day.”
According to Evans, the around 50 students in the program will initially harness solar energy to power laptops as well as collect information for research projects.
“Right now the project is powering the laptops,” he said. “We could plug other things into the solar energy since it is a regular outlet. We are starting with the laptops and as the project goes along, we will see what else we can do. This is really three different projects. The HSTA kids will be working on these projects. One will be studying the optimum time of day to collect solar energy. They will also study ozone level through the weather station. We will be able to correlate humidity and how much solar energy is collected depending on the humidity, how much light is reflected back based on the amount of precipitation is air. We will also be seeing the amount of brown level ozone in the air in our area and what conditions produce the best ozone. Nobody is collecting this kind of data. We aren’t sure what we will do with this data, though we do know there are several universities interested in what data we find. These kids are going to be doing real-world research.”
The project was funded through a $45,000 grant Evans said would not have been possible without the aid of the several people and entities dedicated to bringing the project to Mount View.
“We were able to secure $45,000 through the U.S. Department of Energy through the West Virginia Department of Energy, Marshall University and several other entities,” Evans said. “We were approached by the Department of Energy and Rachel Lester, the former economic development director for McDowell County, helped us get the grant money. In fact, Rachel was really the initiator of the project. The grant money has to be used on a reclaimed mine site, which Mount View is, so we qualified for that. I immediately thought this would be a great project for the HSTA project. George Carico, an environmental manager with Marshall University, was able to put the grant together with us and we were funded for the project. The McDowell County Board of education was kind enough to support us for this and provide money up front, which was be reimbursed by Marshall. They were great in taking a leap of faith in us.”
Edward Evans, athletic director for the school, said the school will be mounting 22 250-watt solar panels on top of the school for students to use for research purposes. The program may also allow the school to become a demonstration site for future solar energy projects.
“What the kids will do is become solar energy experts,” Evans said. “We like that Mount View can become a demonstration site. Schools, businesses and other organizations can come in to see what solar energy is all about and to see solar demonstrations. We will be able to walk people out onto the roof to see the panels themselves. Solar energy isn’t new and is used all over the place, but it is not used like we will use it. This is an opportunity for the average citizen to see if solar energy is something economical to do in their home. People can tour it and see if it is something they want to be involved with. The kids involved will be the ones giving the presentations to these people coming in to see the site. This will make people aware of all that can be done with solar energy. It is a huge project. This is a big deal. No school has what we will have.”
Evans said the project will be conducted by students with Mount View’s Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA), a West Virginia math and science educational enrichment program aimed ninth through twelfth grade students. The HSTA program also provides college scholarship opportunities for students as well as resources for getting in and through college.
“To be in HSTA group, you have to participate in a HSTA major research project,” Evans said. “Over the years, our groups have done many projections. They have studied bats in West Virginia or ozone layers in West Virginia. This year, the grant will help us incorporate solar energy into the class room and the panels help to produce solar energy during the day.”
According to Evans, the around 50 students in the program will initially harness solar energy to power laptops as well as collect information for research projects.
“Right now the project is powering the laptops,” he said. “We could plug other things into the solar energy since it is a regular outlet. We are starting with the laptops and as the project goes along, we will see what else we can do. This is really three different projects. The HSTA kids will be working on these projects. One will be studying the optimum time of day to collect solar energy. They will also study ozone level through the weather station. We will be able to correlate humidity and how much solar energy is collected depending on the humidity, how much light is reflected back based on the amount of precipitation is air. We will also be seeing the amount of brown level ozone in the air in our area and what conditions produce the best ozone. Nobody is collecting this kind of data. We aren’t sure what we will do with this data, though we do know there are several universities interested in what data we find. These kids are going to be doing real-world research.”
The project was funded through a $45,000 grant Evans said would not have been possible without the aid of the several people and entities dedicated to bringing the project to Mount View.
“We were able to secure $45,000 through the U.S. Department of Energy through the West Virginia Department of Energy, Marshall University and several other entities,” Evans said. “We were approached by the Department of Energy and Rachel Lester, the former economic development director for McDowell County, helped us get the grant money. In fact, Rachel was really the initiator of the project. The grant money has to be used on a reclaimed mine site, which Mount View is, so we qualified for that. I immediately thought this would be a great project for the HSTA project. George Carico, an environmental manager with Marshall University, was able to put the grant together with us and we were funded for the project. The McDowell County Board of education was kind enough to support us for this and provide money up front, which was be reimbursed by Marshall. They were great in taking a leap of faith in us.”
2011年12月18日星期日
Nasheed installs solar panels on President’s Office
The government has begun installing solar panels on the rooftops of public buildings in Male’, under the Japanese government-sponsored ‘Project for Clean Energy Promotion in Male’.
This morning President Mohamed Nasheed clambered onto the roof of the President’s office to bolt down and wire up a panel, 20 kilowatts worth of which have already been installed all over the building.
The project’s 395 kilowatts of panels will ultimately cut down the fossil fuel usage of installed buildings and ultimately energy bills by 30 percent, under the State Electric Company (STELCO)’s new feed-in tariff.
Speaking during the ceremony to launch the project, Nasheed said a transition away from fossil fuels would increase the energy efficiency of the Maldives by 20-30 percent by the end of 2013.
Nasheed has previously installed 48 solar panels on the roof of his residence, Muleeage, provided gratis by LG Electronics Califorian company Sungevity. Those panels generate 11.5 kilowatts of peak output, enough to power almost 200 standard 60 watt light bulbs, and will save the country US$300,000 over the life of the system.
Minivan News understands that the government is currently revising the draft feed-in tariff – which is currently operative – to make it attractive to companies willing to invest the upfront costs of powering remote islands with solar electricity.
The government has endorsed solar as the best renewable option for reaching its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020, a goal that has broadened from one of environmental concern to an economic imperative.
Last year the Maldives spent 16 percent of its GDP on fossil fuels, making the country extremely vulnerable to even the tiniest oil price fluctuations and adding an economic imperative to renewable energy adoption.
Data collected by the President’s Energy Advisor, former mining engineer Mike Mason, shows that it presently costs between 28-29 cents to produce a kilowatt hour in the Maldives at best, and 77 cents per kilowatt hour at worst.
“Anything beyond 28-29 cents for a big island and 32-33 cents for a small island is just money being burned,” Mason said during the recent Slow Life Symposium held at the upmarket Soneva Fushi resort.
The cost of providing solar electricity straight from the panel was far below the cost of using diesel on any island, including Male’, Mason explained.
Mason collected data on energy usage from the island of Maalhos in Baa Atoll, and found that by pointing the solar panel in the same direction all day, “you can meet midday demand easily. But between 6-11 am in the morning, and after 2pm in the afternoon, you still need to meet the cooling load of fridges and air-conditioners.”
Mason had two suggestions – the first was to use (more expensive) tracking solar panels that would follow the sun and extend the daytime period in which demand could be met using solar. This would also generate the maximum yield from each panel, mitigating another problem – space.
“The challenge will be getting tracking to work in a hot, humid, salty environment,” he acknowledged, particularly if the panels were mounted in shallow lagoons.
The cost of providing electricity from solar in conjunction with current commercially available battery technology was not much different from existing diesel arrangements on many islands, Mason observed. “You lose 20 percent of the electricity putting it in and taking it back out, and it is expensive to fix. It’s not good enough.”
However on Maalhos, Mason noted, 28 percent of the electricity demand was for cooling.
“I had a think about storage. We could use really cold water refrigerated during the day, and use that to drive air-conditioning and fridges at night. This applies as much to resorts as it does home islands.”
This innovation would drop the cost to the level of the country’s most efficient diesel generators, Mason explained. For those powerplants currently running at 77 cents a kilowatt, “this is an opportunity to print money – and there aren’t many of those available to the government.”
This morning President Mohamed Nasheed clambered onto the roof of the President’s office to bolt down and wire up a panel, 20 kilowatts worth of which have already been installed all over the building.
The project’s 395 kilowatts of panels will ultimately cut down the fossil fuel usage of installed buildings and ultimately energy bills by 30 percent, under the State Electric Company (STELCO)’s new feed-in tariff.
Speaking during the ceremony to launch the project, Nasheed said a transition away from fossil fuels would increase the energy efficiency of the Maldives by 20-30 percent by the end of 2013.
Nasheed has previously installed 48 solar panels on the roof of his residence, Muleeage, provided gratis by LG Electronics Califorian company Sungevity. Those panels generate 11.5 kilowatts of peak output, enough to power almost 200 standard 60 watt light bulbs, and will save the country US$300,000 over the life of the system.
Minivan News understands that the government is currently revising the draft feed-in tariff – which is currently operative – to make it attractive to companies willing to invest the upfront costs of powering remote islands with solar electricity.
The government has endorsed solar as the best renewable option for reaching its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020, a goal that has broadened from one of environmental concern to an economic imperative.
Last year the Maldives spent 16 percent of its GDP on fossil fuels, making the country extremely vulnerable to even the tiniest oil price fluctuations and adding an economic imperative to renewable energy adoption.
Data collected by the President’s Energy Advisor, former mining engineer Mike Mason, shows that it presently costs between 28-29 cents to produce a kilowatt hour in the Maldives at best, and 77 cents per kilowatt hour at worst.
“Anything beyond 28-29 cents for a big island and 32-33 cents for a small island is just money being burned,” Mason said during the recent Slow Life Symposium held at the upmarket Soneva Fushi resort.
The cost of providing solar electricity straight from the panel was far below the cost of using diesel on any island, including Male’, Mason explained.
Mason collected data on energy usage from the island of Maalhos in Baa Atoll, and found that by pointing the solar panel in the same direction all day, “you can meet midday demand easily. But between 6-11 am in the morning, and after 2pm in the afternoon, you still need to meet the cooling load of fridges and air-conditioners.”
Mason had two suggestions – the first was to use (more expensive) tracking solar panels that would follow the sun and extend the daytime period in which demand could be met using solar. This would also generate the maximum yield from each panel, mitigating another problem – space.
“The challenge will be getting tracking to work in a hot, humid, salty environment,” he acknowledged, particularly if the panels were mounted in shallow lagoons.
The cost of providing electricity from solar in conjunction with current commercially available battery technology was not much different from existing diesel arrangements on many islands, Mason observed. “You lose 20 percent of the electricity putting it in and taking it back out, and it is expensive to fix. It’s not good enough.”
However on Maalhos, Mason noted, 28 percent of the electricity demand was for cooling.
“I had a think about storage. We could use really cold water refrigerated during the day, and use that to drive air-conditioning and fridges at night. This applies as much to resorts as it does home islands.”
This innovation would drop the cost to the level of the country’s most efficient diesel generators, Mason explained. For those powerplants currently running at 77 cents a kilowatt, “this is an opportunity to print money – and there aren’t many of those available to the government.”
2011年12月15日星期四
St. Tammany turns to solar power at 2 parish buildings
Solar energy is now powering two St. Tammany Parish buildings, thanks to a federal grants.
The buildings are a pavilion at the parish headquarters on Koop Drive, and the caretaker's cottage at Camp Salmen Nature Parkin Slidell.
The solar panels and monitoring equipment have only been in place for about a month, but the early signs, according to parish leaders, point to success.
"It appears to be generating at least as much energy as we projected, if not more," said St. Tammany administrator Gina Campo.
The money for the panels came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy, with a goal of reducing energy usage and improving energy efficiency.
"It's been a huge, huge learning experience for everybody in all the parish departments," Campo said of the solar panel project and other aspects of the federal loan.
Campo expects that in roughly 10 years, the solar panels will repay the federal investment with energy savings.
As part of the grant, St. Tammany Parish did an energy survey of all parish facilities to gauge where money could be saved.
"It'll give us, as part of our planning process going forward, the knowledge that we've gained about how we can do things to use less energy and to save dollars for the taxpayers," Campo said.
The wall-mounted monitor is located inside the parish headquarters, and is accessible to the public during normal business hours.
It has a touch screen display that explains how the solar energy is generated and collected, and it keeps real time readings of how much energy has been collected by the solar panels.
The buildings are a pavilion at the parish headquarters on Koop Drive, and the caretaker's cottage at Camp Salmen Nature Parkin Slidell.
The solar panels and monitoring equipment have only been in place for about a month, but the early signs, according to parish leaders, point to success.
"It appears to be generating at least as much energy as we projected, if not more," said St. Tammany administrator Gina Campo.
The money for the panels came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy, with a goal of reducing energy usage and improving energy efficiency.
"It's been a huge, huge learning experience for everybody in all the parish departments," Campo said of the solar panel project and other aspects of the federal loan.
Campo expects that in roughly 10 years, the solar panels will repay the federal investment with energy savings.
As part of the grant, St. Tammany Parish did an energy survey of all parish facilities to gauge where money could be saved.
"It'll give us, as part of our planning process going forward, the knowledge that we've gained about how we can do things to use less energy and to save dollars for the taxpayers," Campo said.
The wall-mounted monitor is located inside the parish headquarters, and is accessible to the public during normal business hours.
It has a touch screen display that explains how the solar energy is generated and collected, and it keeps real time readings of how much energy has been collected by the solar panels.
2011年12月14日星期三
Solar panel blast triggers panic
Panic spread in the busy Sayajigunj area on Wednesday morning when a deafening blast rocked a lane opposite traffic police station. It took a while for locals to realize that the bang that travelled for quite a distance came from the terrace of Asopalav (Sharad) apartments.
One of the five huge solar panels installed on the terrace broke down after a blast occurred in it at 9.45 am. The hot water and glass pieces got strewn across the terrace.
Interestingly, the panels weighing thousands of kilos were being used for heating water that was used by Surya Hotel adjacent to the apartment. Residents of the apartment accused the hotel owner Hasmukh Shah of illegally installing the panels on their building terrace. Shah, however, refuted the charges and said that the panels were installed legally as he owns a flat in the building. "We had opposed Shah when he tried to install the panels the terrace in January this year. But, he went ahead and installed such heavy panels that are dangerous for our 35 year old building. The blast also shows how they can be hazardous for the residents," said Ketan Purohit, who stays on first floor.
"When we locked the terrace, the hotel authorities broke it. We immediately approached the police to register complaint. But, the cops just accepted our application. Instead of questioning Shah, the cops harassed us by incessant probing. We also approached the fire-brigade officials but they too didn't act. Instead, they told us that the building is technically fit to sustain weight of the panels," Purohit told TOI.
The residents had also a filed suit in February this year requesting that the panels be removed from their terrace. "We wrote to state principal secretary, energy and petrochemicals D J Pandian in March this year informing him about the illegal installation and trespassing. All the residents have been running from pillar to post but it has not yielded any results. What if someone would have suffered injuries or died during the blast?" questioned another resident Janak Pawar.
Shah, who owns the hotel, said, "The installation is legal and I have certificate from structural engineer stating that the building can support the solar panels. The suppliers are sending their technical team to know the reasons behind the blast. It is not such a big issue."
When asked whether he is contemplating to remove the panels, Shah said if the technical team advises, he may remove them.
One of the five huge solar panels installed on the terrace broke down after a blast occurred in it at 9.45 am. The hot water and glass pieces got strewn across the terrace.
Interestingly, the panels weighing thousands of kilos were being used for heating water that was used by Surya Hotel adjacent to the apartment. Residents of the apartment accused the hotel owner Hasmukh Shah of illegally installing the panels on their building terrace. Shah, however, refuted the charges and said that the panels were installed legally as he owns a flat in the building. "We had opposed Shah when he tried to install the panels the terrace in January this year. But, he went ahead and installed such heavy panels that are dangerous for our 35 year old building. The blast also shows how they can be hazardous for the residents," said Ketan Purohit, who stays on first floor.
"When we locked the terrace, the hotel authorities broke it. We immediately approached the police to register complaint. But, the cops just accepted our application. Instead of questioning Shah, the cops harassed us by incessant probing. We also approached the fire-brigade officials but they too didn't act. Instead, they told us that the building is technically fit to sustain weight of the panels," Purohit told TOI.
The residents had also a filed suit in February this year requesting that the panels be removed from their terrace. "We wrote to state principal secretary, energy and petrochemicals D J Pandian in March this year informing him about the illegal installation and trespassing. All the residents have been running from pillar to post but it has not yielded any results. What if someone would have suffered injuries or died during the blast?" questioned another resident Janak Pawar.
Shah, who owns the hotel, said, "The installation is legal and I have certificate from structural engineer stating that the building can support the solar panels. The suppliers are sending their technical team to know the reasons behind the blast. It is not such a big issue."
When asked whether he is contemplating to remove the panels, Shah said if the technical team advises, he may remove them.
2011年12月13日星期二
MVDHS gets board’s first solar panel system
Madawaska Valley District High School is now producing electricity through alternative sources of energy as it recently installed the first microfit solar panel system in the Renfrew County District School Board.
The six-kilowatt ground-mounted fixed-panel system is being funded by the school board, which has signed a 20-year contract with the provincial government to produce electricity that goes straight to the grid.
In return, the board gets 64.2 cents per kilowatt hour for all the electricity it produces.
Lauren Wilson, the MVDHS principal, said she, as the co-chair of the board's conservation committee, has been pushing the board to get into such programs for a long time.
She said after discussion, the committee recommended MVDHS as a good site for the project.
Once approved by the board, the school had to then wait for all the financing and applications to be finalized.
Jeff Millar of Ottawa Valley Solar – who installed the panels – said applications were required for both the Ontario Power Authority and from Hydro.
After that was approved, construction happened very quickly at the school.
Wilson noted the costs of the equipment have come down a lot and the system was installed for about $38,000 instead of the original estimate of $55,000.
She also said with the return rates, the system pays for itself in about eight or nine years.
The final system, which sits along the edge of the field in between the school and the soccer field, actually will produce more energy than originally estimated.
Millar said since prices for the equipment have come down so much in the last year, the originally-planned five kilowatt system was increased to a six kilowatt system.
"So you get a little more power for the same price," he said.
For explanation's sake, Millar said that's enough energy to power about two houses.
Where the panels sit, they will run at about 90 or 92 per cent efficiency.
Millar said the location was chosen partially for aesthetics (so the panels wouldn't encroach too much on the field) and based on the shading from the surrounding trees.
The panels are not yet producing electricity, however. Brian Yemen of Yemen Electric – who is connecting the panels – said it will probably be another six weeks because they need to wait for an electrical inspection and for a permit from hydro.
They also need to put the inverter on the panel, which switches the DC-produced power into useable AC power.
Once things are up and running, the school will have a live-feed monitoring system that will allow students and staff to see how much energy is being produced.
Overall, Millar said the system is a win-win situation.
"It covers itself financially," he said referring to the monthly cheques the board will receive for producing the electricity, "and there's the education factor for the kids."
Wilson echoed this sentiment.
She said the school is excited at the different ways the information can be incorporated into the school's specialist high skills major programs such as construction, energy and environment.
During the initial phase, some students even had the opportunity to help with the system's construction.
But the hands-on aspect isn't the only benefit; there are the environmental ones as well.
"This is about helping our kids see the future and feel they are a part of it," Wilson said.
The six-kilowatt ground-mounted fixed-panel system is being funded by the school board, which has signed a 20-year contract with the provincial government to produce electricity that goes straight to the grid.
In return, the board gets 64.2 cents per kilowatt hour for all the electricity it produces.
Lauren Wilson, the MVDHS principal, said she, as the co-chair of the board's conservation committee, has been pushing the board to get into such programs for a long time.
She said after discussion, the committee recommended MVDHS as a good site for the project.
Once approved by the board, the school had to then wait for all the financing and applications to be finalized.
Jeff Millar of Ottawa Valley Solar – who installed the panels – said applications were required for both the Ontario Power Authority and from Hydro.
After that was approved, construction happened very quickly at the school.
Wilson noted the costs of the equipment have come down a lot and the system was installed for about $38,000 instead of the original estimate of $55,000.
She also said with the return rates, the system pays for itself in about eight or nine years.
The final system, which sits along the edge of the field in between the school and the soccer field, actually will produce more energy than originally estimated.
Millar said since prices for the equipment have come down so much in the last year, the originally-planned five kilowatt system was increased to a six kilowatt system.
"So you get a little more power for the same price," he said.
For explanation's sake, Millar said that's enough energy to power about two houses.
Where the panels sit, they will run at about 90 or 92 per cent efficiency.
Millar said the location was chosen partially for aesthetics (so the panels wouldn't encroach too much on the field) and based on the shading from the surrounding trees.
The panels are not yet producing electricity, however. Brian Yemen of Yemen Electric – who is connecting the panels – said it will probably be another six weeks because they need to wait for an electrical inspection and for a permit from hydro.
They also need to put the inverter on the panel, which switches the DC-produced power into useable AC power.
Once things are up and running, the school will have a live-feed monitoring system that will allow students and staff to see how much energy is being produced.
Overall, Millar said the system is a win-win situation.
"It covers itself financially," he said referring to the monthly cheques the board will receive for producing the electricity, "and there's the education factor for the kids."
Wilson echoed this sentiment.
She said the school is excited at the different ways the information can be incorporated into the school's specialist high skills major programs such as construction, energy and environment.
During the initial phase, some students even had the opportunity to help with the system's construction.
But the hands-on aspect isn't the only benefit; there are the environmental ones as well.
"This is about helping our kids see the future and feel they are a part of it," Wilson said.
2011年12月12日星期一
Solar energy heating up Clarkson Valley council chambers
Jim and Frances Babb want Clarkson Valley to see the light about the benefits of solar energy.
Instead, they fear city officials are placing a premium on looks and smothering their rights.
The Babbs, who live on Kehrsdale Court in Kehrs Mill Estates West subdivision, want to install 100 panels on the front of their 14-year-old house. The system will save them about 90 percent of their energy costs, they said.
The panels would face south, which they said is the best alignment to pick up the most solar energy.
The couple applied Oct. 14 to the city for a permit to put in the panels, but the permit is on hold while city officials draw up a new law regulating solar systems.
"I feel we've been discriminated against by the city, because it was only after our application went in that the city decided to restrict solar," said Jim Babb, an electrical engineer.
Babb said the city should have give him a permit based on its existing law.
"State law says solar energy is a property right," he said. "If your new law is so restrictive that I can't put solar on the front of my house, you've taken away that right."
While the law isn't finalized, some early provisions include:
Solar panels cannot be on the front or side of a roof and ground-mounted solar panels are prohibited.
For firefighters' safety and proper roof ventilation, panels would have to be located at least three feet below the roofline.
A city permit would be required to install solar panels.
Any electrical connection to the panels would have to be in accord with rules of the local utility company.
City officials say they want to make sure any solar systems law they approve will ensure safety and keep up property values.
"There's not a single person on this board against solar panels, and we're not taking an adversarial position," Mayor Scott Douglass said.
The council is not expected to vote on a final version until at least January, Douglass said.
In the meantime, the city is seeking comments on the proposed law. A Dec. 7 work session was attended by residents and city officials of Clarkson Valley and nearby communities, and representatives of solar energy companies.
Ellen Barnett, a neighbor of the Babbs in Kehrs Mill Estates, said she was concerned about how the panels would look.
"If it covers the entire roof, it could look trashy," she said. "The average home price in this city is $500,000 or more. Solar energy is great, but how long will these panels last? Will they fall off the roof?"
Jim Babb said panels have a 25-year warranty.
The city needs an ordinance that makes it reasonable to put solar panels on a house, but protects nearby property owners, said Dane Glueck, president of Straight Up Solar. Glueck is also president of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, which advocates for solar energy growth and reasonable practices.
Glueck called the proposed law under consideration too restrictive, such as in denying panels on the front of a building.
"It's based on Frontenac's, which is the most restrictive ordinance my organization has seen, and I'd hesitate to use it as a template," Glueck said.
Dr. Joseph Gira, a Town & Country resident, told the board he'd encountered problems last year in getting a freestanding, ground-mounted solar array installed in his back yard.
The array is about 690 square feet, painted black and less than six feet tall, and sits near a retaining wall and woods.
"Once the system was set up, our mayor and aldermen saw it was unobtrusive, and it's providing a significant percentage of our energy," Gira said.
Town & Country Alderman Phil Behnen said since the Gira system was approved, the city has approved four more such installations on a case-by-case basis through a permit process and by applicants going to the Planning and Zoning Commission. None of those approved requested panels on the front of a house, he said.
"We found we can't restrict solar based on the aesthetics argument, because the courts, time and time again, have thrown that out," Behnen told the board.
The move toward investing in solar power has been embraced by not only homeowners, but local governments, said Chuck Welegala, a Wildwood resident, who owns Heartland Alternative Energy.
Manchester recently installed a solar photovoltaic array on the city's public works garage roof, and Ballwin is putting a solar array on the roof of the city government center, said Welegala, who worked as consultant with both cities.
Chesterfield city hall, within the last year, has installed a rooftop solar system, called an evacuated tube solar thermal collector.
Behnen offered Clarkson Valley officials some advice.
"I caution you against setting up too many restrictions," he said. "Instead, you need to be proactive and ask people what the city can do to help."
Instead, they fear city officials are placing a premium on looks and smothering their rights.
The Babbs, who live on Kehrsdale Court in Kehrs Mill Estates West subdivision, want to install 100 panels on the front of their 14-year-old house. The system will save them about 90 percent of their energy costs, they said.
The panels would face south, which they said is the best alignment to pick up the most solar energy.
The couple applied Oct. 14 to the city for a permit to put in the panels, but the permit is on hold while city officials draw up a new law regulating solar systems.
"I feel we've been discriminated against by the city, because it was only after our application went in that the city decided to restrict solar," said Jim Babb, an electrical engineer.
Babb said the city should have give him a permit based on its existing law.
"State law says solar energy is a property right," he said. "If your new law is so restrictive that I can't put solar on the front of my house, you've taken away that right."
While the law isn't finalized, some early provisions include:
Solar panels cannot be on the front or side of a roof and ground-mounted solar panels are prohibited.
For firefighters' safety and proper roof ventilation, panels would have to be located at least three feet below the roofline.
A city permit would be required to install solar panels.
Any electrical connection to the panels would have to be in accord with rules of the local utility company.
City officials say they want to make sure any solar systems law they approve will ensure safety and keep up property values.
"There's not a single person on this board against solar panels, and we're not taking an adversarial position," Mayor Scott Douglass said.
The council is not expected to vote on a final version until at least January, Douglass said.
In the meantime, the city is seeking comments on the proposed law. A Dec. 7 work session was attended by residents and city officials of Clarkson Valley and nearby communities, and representatives of solar energy companies.
Ellen Barnett, a neighbor of the Babbs in Kehrs Mill Estates, said she was concerned about how the panels would look.
"If it covers the entire roof, it could look trashy," she said. "The average home price in this city is $500,000 or more. Solar energy is great, but how long will these panels last? Will they fall off the roof?"
Jim Babb said panels have a 25-year warranty.
The city needs an ordinance that makes it reasonable to put solar panels on a house, but protects nearby property owners, said Dane Glueck, president of Straight Up Solar. Glueck is also president of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, which advocates for solar energy growth and reasonable practices.
Glueck called the proposed law under consideration too restrictive, such as in denying panels on the front of a building.
"It's based on Frontenac's, which is the most restrictive ordinance my organization has seen, and I'd hesitate to use it as a template," Glueck said.
Dr. Joseph Gira, a Town & Country resident, told the board he'd encountered problems last year in getting a freestanding, ground-mounted solar array installed in his back yard.
The array is about 690 square feet, painted black and less than six feet tall, and sits near a retaining wall and woods.
"Once the system was set up, our mayor and aldermen saw it was unobtrusive, and it's providing a significant percentage of our energy," Gira said.
Town & Country Alderman Phil Behnen said since the Gira system was approved, the city has approved four more such installations on a case-by-case basis through a permit process and by applicants going to the Planning and Zoning Commission. None of those approved requested panels on the front of a house, he said.
"We found we can't restrict solar based on the aesthetics argument, because the courts, time and time again, have thrown that out," Behnen told the board.
The move toward investing in solar power has been embraced by not only homeowners, but local governments, said Chuck Welegala, a Wildwood resident, who owns Heartland Alternative Energy.
Manchester recently installed a solar photovoltaic array on the city's public works garage roof, and Ballwin is putting a solar array on the roof of the city government center, said Welegala, who worked as consultant with both cities.
Chesterfield city hall, within the last year, has installed a rooftop solar system, called an evacuated tube solar thermal collector.
Behnen offered Clarkson Valley officials some advice.
"I caution you against setting up too many restrictions," he said. "Instead, you need to be proactive and ask people what the city can do to help."
2011年12月11日星期日
Town can lease land, school roof for solar use
The tiny coastal town of Cohasset could join the growing ranks of communities that allow private developers to install solar panels on public rooftops and land, in exchange for the promise of cheap electricity.
And while similar plans have met stiff resistance in some towns - Carver residents, for example, want a bylaw to outlaw commercial solar arrays in residential neighborhoods - the Cohasset proposal sailed through a Special Town Meeting last week.
Voters overwhelmingly agreed to allow town officials to lease both the roof of the Cohasset Middle/High School and the closed landfill for $1 a year for up to 20 years.
The plan depends on private developers taking advantage of federal tax credits and other financial perks intended to stimulate the “green’’ energy industry - as well as related state rules requiring utilities to purchase a portion of their power from renewable sources.
Few details are worked out, but Cohasset officials hope the town will be able to buy back electricity from the solar arrays at a discounted rate, and get a share of profits from power sold to the commercial electrical grid. Just how much money that could amount to, however, is unclear.
“I don’t know [how much savings there would be], to be honest,’’ said David DeGennaro, business manager for the Cohasset public schools. “It depends on how many solar panels they can throw up there [on the roof] and how the proposals come back.’’
He said engineers are working to determine whether the roof of the school could support a solar array, and what size it should be. Similar study is needed at the landfill on Cedar Street to make sure the cap wouldn’t be compromised by work at the site.
“I think it would be great,’’ DeGennaro said of the project, which was proposed by the School Committee and the town’s Alternative Energy Committee. “I just hope it works out.’’
DeGennaro said that last fiscal year the bill for electricity at the middle/high school was about $215,000. The town budgeted about $674,000 altogether on electricity this fiscal year, with about $380,000 of it for all school uses, according to Town Manager Michael Coughlin, who supports the solar project. “This is a great opportunity for the town - putting solar panels at the landfill is the type of “trash talk” that makes the taxpayers happy,” he said.
There are almost 300 solar installations on public buildings in Massachusetts, according to Kate Plourd of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The projects vary widely in size and productivity.
In Brockton, for example, 1,400 solar panels sit on 3 acres of what was once the Brockton Gas Works. When “Brightfields’’ opened in 2006 on the once-polluted site, it was billed as the largest solar array in New England. It produces a substantial amount of electricity: 542,252 kilowatt-hours annually, according to the municipal webpage.
In Milton, voters approved leasing the roofs at four schools to Broadway Electric for solar panel installations. Work at one elementary school, the Tucker, is complete and the panels are producing electricity, according to William Ritchie, the town’s facilities director. But the project still needs a final approval before the town can use the power, he said.
The town itself installed 250 solar panels on the roofs of the Collicot-Cunningham Elementary School complex about two years ago, and that electricity is saving the town about $10,000 a year, he said. The project cost about $300,000, with 90 percent of the money coming from a state grant, he said.
Other south suburbs with solar arrays on public spaces include Braintree, Bridgewater, Dedham, Duxbury, Norwell, Quincy, Rockland, Walpole, Westwood, and Whitman.
Elsewhere, in Scituate and Easton, officials are in the process of getting private developers to build solar plants at the towns’ closed landfills. Scituate officials estimate the town could save about $200,000 a year in utility costs; Easton estimates its savings at about $225,000 annually.
Both the Scituate and Easton projects are bigger than what Cohasset is considering.
Cohasset is talking about solar arrays at the school and landfill that each would produce about 1 megawatt of electricity per hour, according to Tanya Bodell, who chairs the town’s Alternative Energy Committee. That would produce enough electricity to power about 150 homes for a year, according to Plourd.
Bodell said the size of the solar installations hasn’t been set, though. And while she hopes the town will be able to get electricity at about 25 percent of the market cost - because of government subsidies provided to the private developer - that figure also isn’t solid, she said.
Both the Cohasset Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee endorsed the project, although the Capital Budget Committee said it couldn’t make a recommendation because it had been left out of the loop and had no information about the proposal.
Responding to a question at Town Meeting about the impact of bankruptcies in the solar industry on the project, Bodell said the town would be sure to include protections for itself in any contract.
There are many more steps to take before the plan becomes a reality, she stressed. The time frame is “long enough to do the appropriate level of due diligence, fast enough to get it done quickly, and with enough deliberation to ensure an appropriate power pricing arrangement that benefits the town,’’ she said.
And while similar plans have met stiff resistance in some towns - Carver residents, for example, want a bylaw to outlaw commercial solar arrays in residential neighborhoods - the Cohasset proposal sailed through a Special Town Meeting last week.
Voters overwhelmingly agreed to allow town officials to lease both the roof of the Cohasset Middle/High School and the closed landfill for $1 a year for up to 20 years.
The plan depends on private developers taking advantage of federal tax credits and other financial perks intended to stimulate the “green’’ energy industry - as well as related state rules requiring utilities to purchase a portion of their power from renewable sources.
Few details are worked out, but Cohasset officials hope the town will be able to buy back electricity from the solar arrays at a discounted rate, and get a share of profits from power sold to the commercial electrical grid. Just how much money that could amount to, however, is unclear.
“I don’t know [how much savings there would be], to be honest,’’ said David DeGennaro, business manager for the Cohasset public schools. “It depends on how many solar panels they can throw up there [on the roof] and how the proposals come back.’’
He said engineers are working to determine whether the roof of the school could support a solar array, and what size it should be. Similar study is needed at the landfill on Cedar Street to make sure the cap wouldn’t be compromised by work at the site.
“I think it would be great,’’ DeGennaro said of the project, which was proposed by the School Committee and the town’s Alternative Energy Committee. “I just hope it works out.’’
DeGennaro said that last fiscal year the bill for electricity at the middle/high school was about $215,000. The town budgeted about $674,000 altogether on electricity this fiscal year, with about $380,000 of it for all school uses, according to Town Manager Michael Coughlin, who supports the solar project. “This is a great opportunity for the town - putting solar panels at the landfill is the type of “trash talk” that makes the taxpayers happy,” he said.
There are almost 300 solar installations on public buildings in Massachusetts, according to Kate Plourd of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The projects vary widely in size and productivity.
In Brockton, for example, 1,400 solar panels sit on 3 acres of what was once the Brockton Gas Works. When “Brightfields’’ opened in 2006 on the once-polluted site, it was billed as the largest solar array in New England. It produces a substantial amount of electricity: 542,252 kilowatt-hours annually, according to the municipal webpage.
In Milton, voters approved leasing the roofs at four schools to Broadway Electric for solar panel installations. Work at one elementary school, the Tucker, is complete and the panels are producing electricity, according to William Ritchie, the town’s facilities director. But the project still needs a final approval before the town can use the power, he said.
The town itself installed 250 solar panels on the roofs of the Collicot-Cunningham Elementary School complex about two years ago, and that electricity is saving the town about $10,000 a year, he said. The project cost about $300,000, with 90 percent of the money coming from a state grant, he said.
Other south suburbs with solar arrays on public spaces include Braintree, Bridgewater, Dedham, Duxbury, Norwell, Quincy, Rockland, Walpole, Westwood, and Whitman.
Elsewhere, in Scituate and Easton, officials are in the process of getting private developers to build solar plants at the towns’ closed landfills. Scituate officials estimate the town could save about $200,000 a year in utility costs; Easton estimates its savings at about $225,000 annually.
Both the Scituate and Easton projects are bigger than what Cohasset is considering.
Cohasset is talking about solar arrays at the school and landfill that each would produce about 1 megawatt of electricity per hour, according to Tanya Bodell, who chairs the town’s Alternative Energy Committee. That would produce enough electricity to power about 150 homes for a year, according to Plourd.
Bodell said the size of the solar installations hasn’t been set, though. And while she hopes the town will be able to get electricity at about 25 percent of the market cost - because of government subsidies provided to the private developer - that figure also isn’t solid, she said.
Both the Cohasset Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee endorsed the project, although the Capital Budget Committee said it couldn’t make a recommendation because it had been left out of the loop and had no information about the proposal.
Responding to a question at Town Meeting about the impact of bankruptcies in the solar industry on the project, Bodell said the town would be sure to include protections for itself in any contract.
There are many more steps to take before the plan becomes a reality, she stressed. The time frame is “long enough to do the appropriate level of due diligence, fast enough to get it done quickly, and with enough deliberation to ensure an appropriate power pricing arrangement that benefits the town,’’ she said.
2011年12月8日星期四
Solar thermal power plants switching technology to take advantage
A free fall in prices of photovoltaic solar panels has caused several large solar generating projects in California to shift plans in ways that could eventually benefit the state's electricity consumers.
Three years ago, renewable energy developers laid plans to populate the American Southwest with massive solar thermal power plants, which concentrate the sun's rays to boil water and create steam to turn turbines that generate electricity. But as the projects went through lengthy permitting and environmental reviews, the price of photovoltaic solar panels plummeted because of a global oversupply driven by a glut of low-cost panels from China.
That made PV panels, which are common on homes and commercial roofs, increasingly attractive to project developers, banks and utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison, which have to justify the cost of renewable energy contracts before state regulators. Several large solar projects have now announced plans to switch from solar thermal to PV.
State energy officials say the shift will not have an immediate impact on consumers, but eventually may result in lower-priced electricity than what would have come from the solar thermal plants.
"PV is very cheap right now and it's faster to put up," said Paula Mints, a solar industry analyst with Navigant Consulting. Solar thermal, she added, "takes about two years to build. With PV there's more instant gratification."
California utilities are required by state law to buy a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and the cost of that energy is a growing concern. The California Public Utilities Commission has begun to take a much closer look at the price of the long-term power contracts that utilities sign with developers, known as power purchase agreements or PPAs. Last month, the commission voted 4-1 to approve PG&E's 25-year contract with one solar thermal project only after a heated discussion about its cost. Commissioner Mike Florio voted against it.
"The PPA unnecessarily saddles ratepayers with extraordinary above-market costs -- $1.25 billion," Florio argued. "We could probably get almost 500 megawatts of renewable energy for the price we're paying for this 250 megawatts."
Last year, the California Energy Commission approved nine utility-scale solar thermal power plants in California's Mojave and Colorado deserts. So far, developers of five of the nine solar thermal projects -- Beacon, Blythe, Calico, Imperial Valley and Palen -- have announced they are switching from solar thermal to PV. And it's not just California -- similar shifts are happening in Arizona and Nevada.
"Solar Millennium responds quickly and pragmatically to market conditions, and at the moment the California market favors PV technology," CEO Christoph Wolff said in a statement. "We are taking decisive steps in the U.S. to maximize site value for our company and our shareholders."
Solar Millennium is now in the process of selling its California projects, including Blythe and Palen, to Solarhybrid, a German PV developer. Solarhybrid has said it intends to build both projects with PV, using solar panels made by First Solar, an American company based in Tempe, Ariz. Construction on Blythe is now expected to begin in 2013.
One advantage to solar thermal is that it is thought to be less "spiky." When clouds move over a PV plant, the amount of electricity produced can drop. But solar thermal plants take longer to build, and have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about the use of water in desert environments and impacts on native plants and species.
Three years ago, renewable energy developers laid plans to populate the American Southwest with massive solar thermal power plants, which concentrate the sun's rays to boil water and create steam to turn turbines that generate electricity. But as the projects went through lengthy permitting and environmental reviews, the price of photovoltaic solar panels plummeted because of a global oversupply driven by a glut of low-cost panels from China.
That made PV panels, which are common on homes and commercial roofs, increasingly attractive to project developers, banks and utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison, which have to justify the cost of renewable energy contracts before state regulators. Several large solar projects have now announced plans to switch from solar thermal to PV.
State energy officials say the shift will not have an immediate impact on consumers, but eventually may result in lower-priced electricity than what would have come from the solar thermal plants.
"PV is very cheap right now and it's faster to put up," said Paula Mints, a solar industry analyst with Navigant Consulting. Solar thermal, she added, "takes about two years to build. With PV there's more instant gratification."
California utilities are required by state law to buy a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and the cost of that energy is a growing concern. The California Public Utilities Commission has begun to take a much closer look at the price of the long-term power contracts that utilities sign with developers, known as power purchase agreements or PPAs. Last month, the commission voted 4-1 to approve PG&E's 25-year contract with one solar thermal project only after a heated discussion about its cost. Commissioner Mike Florio voted against it.
"The PPA unnecessarily saddles ratepayers with extraordinary above-market costs -- $1.25 billion," Florio argued. "We could probably get almost 500 megawatts of renewable energy for the price we're paying for this 250 megawatts."
Last year, the California Energy Commission approved nine utility-scale solar thermal power plants in California's Mojave and Colorado deserts. So far, developers of five of the nine solar thermal projects -- Beacon, Blythe, Calico, Imperial Valley and Palen -- have announced they are switching from solar thermal to PV. And it's not just California -- similar shifts are happening in Arizona and Nevada.
"Solar Millennium responds quickly and pragmatically to market conditions, and at the moment the California market favors PV technology," CEO Christoph Wolff said in a statement. "We are taking decisive steps in the U.S. to maximize site value for our company and our shareholders."
Solar Millennium is now in the process of selling its California projects, including Blythe and Palen, to Solarhybrid, a German PV developer. Solarhybrid has said it intends to build both projects with PV, using solar panels made by First Solar, an American company based in Tempe, Ariz. Construction on Blythe is now expected to begin in 2013.
One advantage to solar thermal is that it is thought to be less "spiky." When clouds move over a PV plant, the amount of electricity produced can drop. But solar thermal plants take longer to build, and have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about the use of water in desert environments and impacts on native plants and species.
2011年12月7日星期三
Solar power goes rural
Two developments this week, fittingly, in the final days of the COP17 climate control conference in Durban, show some innovative thinking - interestingly both are from cellphone operators.
Vodacom, which uses solar-powered cellphone base stations in rural areas, is providing Emfihlweni, a community in northern KwaZulu-Natal, with electricity for the first time.
It is part of a pilot project that could be rolled out to other areas, said Vodacom managing director Sipho Maseko.
"Twenty-five percent of the total electricity generated by Vodacom's base station in Emfihlweni is being used to supply power to the community water pump, a local shop that will provide a cellphone charging station for people living in the area and the local high school, which today switched on the power to its computer centre for the first time," said Maseko.
He believes "it shows how mobile operators can bridge the energy divide in communities by oversupplying base stations with renewable energy which can be diverted to critical points within the community".
African mobile operator Econet Wireless's subsidiary, Econet Solar, has launched its own solar generator for home use.
Called the Home Power Station, it is a standalone unit that can be used for power and lighting, but also to charge cellphones.
Cleverly it uses a prepaid system to "remove the requirement for high upfront costs which have until now prevented hundreds of millions of people across Africa benefiting from solar-powered lighting systems in their homes".
It has four LED lights (which use the least electricity) and a cellphone charger. A solar panel charges a battery, and needs only half a day's worth of sun to enable the lights to illuminate for five hours a day per charge.
Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of Econet Wireless, said: "More than 500million people in Africa are living in areas where there is no access to a reliable source of power. If we are to improve the lives and prospects of Africans living beyond the reach of the grid, it is imperative that we find practical and sustainable solutions to meet their needs.
"While there are already well-intentioned solar-powered lighting systems on the market, the reality is that they are just too expensive for people to afford. We are launching the Home Power Station to change all that."
Vodacom, which uses solar-powered cellphone base stations in rural areas, is providing Emfihlweni, a community in northern KwaZulu-Natal, with electricity for the first time.
It is part of a pilot project that could be rolled out to other areas, said Vodacom managing director Sipho Maseko.
"Twenty-five percent of the total electricity generated by Vodacom's base station in Emfihlweni is being used to supply power to the community water pump, a local shop that will provide a cellphone charging station for people living in the area and the local high school, which today switched on the power to its computer centre for the first time," said Maseko.
He believes "it shows how mobile operators can bridge the energy divide in communities by oversupplying base stations with renewable energy which can be diverted to critical points within the community".
African mobile operator Econet Wireless's subsidiary, Econet Solar, has launched its own solar generator for home use.
Called the Home Power Station, it is a standalone unit that can be used for power and lighting, but also to charge cellphones.
Cleverly it uses a prepaid system to "remove the requirement for high upfront costs which have until now prevented hundreds of millions of people across Africa benefiting from solar-powered lighting systems in their homes".
It has four LED lights (which use the least electricity) and a cellphone charger. A solar panel charges a battery, and needs only half a day's worth of sun to enable the lights to illuminate for five hours a day per charge.
Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of Econet Wireless, said: "More than 500million people in Africa are living in areas where there is no access to a reliable source of power. If we are to improve the lives and prospects of Africans living beyond the reach of the grid, it is imperative that we find practical and sustainable solutions to meet their needs.
"While there are already well-intentioned solar-powered lighting systems on the market, the reality is that they are just too expensive for people to afford. We are launching the Home Power Station to change all that."
2011年12月6日星期二
Solar panels will rise on 50 acres in Raritan Township
With a use variance and preliminary and final site plan approval granted, Millennium Development Limited LLC will place as many as 41,816 solar panels on roughly 50 acres of a 72.4-acre parcel adjacent to Copper Hill Elementary School.
The state considers solar projects “inherently beneficial,” a land use designation that makes it easier for solar developments to earn approvals from zoning and planning boards.
“If the negative outweighs the inherently beneficial, the board votes no,” board attorney Jonathan Drill said at an earlier hearing. “If the inherently beneficial is more than the negative, they vote yes, but what they’re supposed to do when they do that balancing is consider whether or not they can impose conditions.”
Taking residents’ concerns into consideration, the board imposed a list of conditions Millennium will have to abide by.
“This is a good example of making sure we get it right and there was a lot of give and take,” board member Jack Glessner said, noting that the board and neighbors pored over the details. “There’s an awful lot of people that … assisted in the application’s modifications to make this kind of a best possible solution.”
Board chairman Bernard Salmon said Millennium made a significant number of concessions.
Those included installing a triple row of 6- to 14-foot evergreens along the perimeter, relocating the site access and switchgear panels from Everitts Road, preserving five specimen trees, expanding conservation easements, and agreeing to test all metal components for toxicity.
Driven piles, helical screws and concrete footings will be used to anchor the posts into the ground, project engineer Evan Hill testified. The board imposed a 10% cap on the amount of concrete, which will only be used if crews encounter a problem with either of the first two methods.
The applicant agreed to use vibrating pile drivers instead of hammers to address concerns over noise.
The installation of posts will take between two and two-and-a-half months of the nine-month project, Hill said.
Landscaping will be planted during the first available planting season, but if construction begins before the trees are in place, a 14-foot windscreen will be installed to screen nearby residences and highway travelers from the panels and any potential glare, Hill said.
Planting season is between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 and between March 1 and June 1, said John Thomas, the township’s landscape architect.
Several 55-foot utility poles will be installed in place of the existing 35-foot poles at the point of interconnection and along Everitts Road toward Route 202-31 to run the 345-kV transmission lines.
Hill said he would ask Jersey Central Power & Light if it would consider allowing Millennium to tie into the grid through an existing utility pole closer to the intersection at Route 202-31, per the request of the Moreira family, who said the taller utility poles would be in their line of sight.
The project is in the AR-2 zone and as such, a residential development with as many as 40 homes could have also been proposed for the land, said planner Tiffany Cuviello, who testified for the applicant.
“I consider it a long-term temporary development with a very limited impact to the property in terms of disturbance,” she said of the solar field, noting that a residential developer would have to grade the site and install streets, sewer and water infrastructure. “Yet the proposed development as a solar facility allows … for the property to be farmed again in the future.”
Glessner, Salmon and fellow board members Wayne Ingram, Paul Higgins and Jayne Gilbert voted in favor of the application. Aaron Easley, who was also present at the meeting, was ineligible to vote.
Earlier in the week, hearings continued for a pair of pending solar projects.
Garden Solar is proposing a 2-megawatt field in the northern end of the township. As many as 7,940 crystalline panels would occupy about 5 acres of a 78-acre tract between Old Clinton and River roads north of Desmares Elementary School.
Meanwhile, EffiSolar Energy Corp. is proposing a larger, 18-megawatt field in the southern end of the township. Roughly 65,000 panels would occupy about 65 acres of a 155-acre tract between Everitts Road and Toad Lane west of the Cornet Way jughandle. The Black River and Western Railroad runs through the property.
Expert testimony and public comment will continue Dec. 15 for Garden Solar and Jan. 5 for EffiSolar, but the hearings may be switched due to an attendance conflict among board members.
The state considers solar projects “inherently beneficial,” a land use designation that makes it easier for solar developments to earn approvals from zoning and planning boards.
“If the negative outweighs the inherently beneficial, the board votes no,” board attorney Jonathan Drill said at an earlier hearing. “If the inherently beneficial is more than the negative, they vote yes, but what they’re supposed to do when they do that balancing is consider whether or not they can impose conditions.”
Taking residents’ concerns into consideration, the board imposed a list of conditions Millennium will have to abide by.
“This is a good example of making sure we get it right and there was a lot of give and take,” board member Jack Glessner said, noting that the board and neighbors pored over the details. “There’s an awful lot of people that … assisted in the application’s modifications to make this kind of a best possible solution.”
Board chairman Bernard Salmon said Millennium made a significant number of concessions.
Those included installing a triple row of 6- to 14-foot evergreens along the perimeter, relocating the site access and switchgear panels from Everitts Road, preserving five specimen trees, expanding conservation easements, and agreeing to test all metal components for toxicity.
Driven piles, helical screws and concrete footings will be used to anchor the posts into the ground, project engineer Evan Hill testified. The board imposed a 10% cap on the amount of concrete, which will only be used if crews encounter a problem with either of the first two methods.
The applicant agreed to use vibrating pile drivers instead of hammers to address concerns over noise.
The installation of posts will take between two and two-and-a-half months of the nine-month project, Hill said.
Landscaping will be planted during the first available planting season, but if construction begins before the trees are in place, a 14-foot windscreen will be installed to screen nearby residences and highway travelers from the panels and any potential glare, Hill said.
Planting season is between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 and between March 1 and June 1, said John Thomas, the township’s landscape architect.
Several 55-foot utility poles will be installed in place of the existing 35-foot poles at the point of interconnection and along Everitts Road toward Route 202-31 to run the 345-kV transmission lines.
Hill said he would ask Jersey Central Power & Light if it would consider allowing Millennium to tie into the grid through an existing utility pole closer to the intersection at Route 202-31, per the request of the Moreira family, who said the taller utility poles would be in their line of sight.
The project is in the AR-2 zone and as such, a residential development with as many as 40 homes could have also been proposed for the land, said planner Tiffany Cuviello, who testified for the applicant.
“I consider it a long-term temporary development with a very limited impact to the property in terms of disturbance,” she said of the solar field, noting that a residential developer would have to grade the site and install streets, sewer and water infrastructure. “Yet the proposed development as a solar facility allows … for the property to be farmed again in the future.”
Glessner, Salmon and fellow board members Wayne Ingram, Paul Higgins and Jayne Gilbert voted in favor of the application. Aaron Easley, who was also present at the meeting, was ineligible to vote.
Earlier in the week, hearings continued for a pair of pending solar projects.
Garden Solar is proposing a 2-megawatt field in the northern end of the township. As many as 7,940 crystalline panels would occupy about 5 acres of a 78-acre tract between Old Clinton and River roads north of Desmares Elementary School.
Meanwhile, EffiSolar Energy Corp. is proposing a larger, 18-megawatt field in the southern end of the township. Roughly 65,000 panels would occupy about 65 acres of a 155-acre tract between Everitts Road and Toad Lane west of the Cornet Way jughandle. The Black River and Western Railroad runs through the property.
Expert testimony and public comment will continue Dec. 15 for Garden Solar and Jan. 5 for EffiSolar, but the hearings may be switched due to an attendance conflict among board members.
2011年12月5日星期一
Solar panel users climb through roof
MORE than a million Australians now live in houses powered by solar panels and the nation is on track to generate one-fifth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, a report released overnight at the United Nations climate change talks in South Africa shows.
The Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, announced work had begun on linking Australia's emissions trading scheme, which starts in July with a fixed carbon price, with similar schemes in Europe and New Zealand.
Australia needs to link its carbon scheme to international markets to stop the price of carbon permits soaring. Mr Combet said allowing heavy-polluting companies in Australia to buy and sell carbon permits abroad was the best way to keep permit prices down because competition would promote the cheapest way to cut emissions.
Mr Combet announced Australian officials would work with European and New Zealand counterparts ''to promote deep, liquid and integrated carbon markets''. One effect of Australia's carbon price is to make renewable energy cheaper when compared with fossil fuels and the annual Clean Energy Australia report showed strong growth in the past year.
About 9.6 per cent of Australia's energy was produced from renewable sources in the 12 months until September, up from 8.7 per cent the year before.
Hydroelectricity made up the biggest proportion of renewable energy mix but wind and solar power were growing quickly.
Driven by state feed-in tariffs, rooftop solar panel installation grew exponentially, with just over 500,000 households and an estimated 1.2 million people now meeting at least part of their daily energy needs from the sun.
The number of panels has grown 35 times over since 2008, the Clean Energy Council's report shows, based on data from the electricity grid broken down into the different postcodes, though the breakneck growth is expected to slow as tariffs are reduced.
''There will be a slowdown in the short term but the medium and long-term outlook is for very strong growth for household solar systems,'' the director of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said.
Solar power has already reached ''grid parity'' - where a household pays the same price per kilowatt of energy for either solar or coal-fired energy - in some parts of NSW and Queensland. Full grid parity across most of Australia is expected to be a year or two away.
In Durban, Mr Combet was set to meet overnight with New Zealand's Minister for International Climate Change Negotiations, Tim Groser, as well his US and Japanese counterparts.
The European Union's emissions trading scheme, covers about 40 per cent of the 27-member bloc's greenhouse gas emissions. The European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard said: ''We look forward to working with Australia on international action to develop carbon markets.''
The opposition spokesman on climate change, Greg Hunt, said the plan to link with overseas carbon trading schemes had ''been re-announced in various ways at various times''.
The Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, announced work had begun on linking Australia's emissions trading scheme, which starts in July with a fixed carbon price, with similar schemes in Europe and New Zealand.
Australia needs to link its carbon scheme to international markets to stop the price of carbon permits soaring. Mr Combet said allowing heavy-polluting companies in Australia to buy and sell carbon permits abroad was the best way to keep permit prices down because competition would promote the cheapest way to cut emissions.
Mr Combet announced Australian officials would work with European and New Zealand counterparts ''to promote deep, liquid and integrated carbon markets''. One effect of Australia's carbon price is to make renewable energy cheaper when compared with fossil fuels and the annual Clean Energy Australia report showed strong growth in the past year.
About 9.6 per cent of Australia's energy was produced from renewable sources in the 12 months until September, up from 8.7 per cent the year before.
Hydroelectricity made up the biggest proportion of renewable energy mix but wind and solar power were growing quickly.
Driven by state feed-in tariffs, rooftop solar panel installation grew exponentially, with just over 500,000 households and an estimated 1.2 million people now meeting at least part of their daily energy needs from the sun.
The number of panels has grown 35 times over since 2008, the Clean Energy Council's report shows, based on data from the electricity grid broken down into the different postcodes, though the breakneck growth is expected to slow as tariffs are reduced.
''There will be a slowdown in the short term but the medium and long-term outlook is for very strong growth for household solar systems,'' the director of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said.
Solar power has already reached ''grid parity'' - where a household pays the same price per kilowatt of energy for either solar or coal-fired energy - in some parts of NSW and Queensland. Full grid parity across most of Australia is expected to be a year or two away.
In Durban, Mr Combet was set to meet overnight with New Zealand's Minister for International Climate Change Negotiations, Tim Groser, as well his US and Japanese counterparts.
The European Union's emissions trading scheme, covers about 40 per cent of the 27-member bloc's greenhouse gas emissions. The European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard said: ''We look forward to working with Australia on international action to develop carbon markets.''
The opposition spokesman on climate change, Greg Hunt, said the plan to link with overseas carbon trading schemes had ''been re-announced in various ways at various times''.
2011年12月4日星期日
Solar panels at crossroads
The state’s largest panel manufacturer, whose business has suffered in the face of cheaper competition, has joined the chorus of panel makers across the country in demanding that tariffs be placed on Chinese imports.
North Jersey project developers and installers, while sympathetic to the manufacturers’ plight, say the cheaper Chinese panels have made solar systems more affordable — up to 25 percent cheaper.
At the heart of the debate is the question of how best to create jobs in a sector that has been touted by President Obama and many others as a potential sunrise industry for the future.
"I’m conflicted," said Kurt Holmes, owner of Englewood-based Renewable Energy Associates, which develops and sells solar energy projects.
"As a citizen, I would like to see manufacturing done here at home," he said, reflecting the view of several installers. "However, I’ve got to pay the lowest price. The fact that Chinese manufacturers are driving down the price is good for the industry."
Manufacturers say protection from Chinese imports would help create jobs in the U.S. and stop them from going overseas. But some installers and project developers say Chinese imports help bring down project costs, spurring the creation of new businesses and sales, construction and installation jobs.
Tom Ferraro, owner of Solar & More, a Pompton Plains solar installation company, said he supports the manufacturers, but low panel prices help boost his year-old business, which employs four people including himself. He opened a showroom in April and plans to open two more next spring.
"Obviously, when you are selling something that’s thousands of dollars, the lower the price the easier it is to sell," he said. "I get these stores open and I’m going to need to hire service people, office and support staff."
On Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously in a preliminary ruling on the petition by manufacturers calling for anti-dumping and countervailing duties. The commission will now proceed with a full investigation.
The manufacturers accuse Chinese manufacturers of "dumping" solar panels in the U.S., selling them for less than the production and shipping costs with the help of Chinese government subsidies. The complaint asks the U.S. to impose tariffs on imported Chinese panels, which could significantly raise the price.
The dispute comes at a volatile time for the solar industry, which has been shaken in recent months by the bankruptcies of Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra, a large solar panel manufacturer that received $500 million in federal subsidies, and two other large panel makers, as low-priced Chinese imports flooded the market.
Solar-panel prices have fallen dramatically in the past year in large part due to a worldwide excess in panel manufacturing capacity, some of it the result of a collapse in European demand. New Jersey installers say panel prices have fallen 30 percent in the past year.
North Jersey project developers and installers, while sympathetic to the manufacturers’ plight, say the cheaper Chinese panels have made solar systems more affordable — up to 25 percent cheaper.
At the heart of the debate is the question of how best to create jobs in a sector that has been touted by President Obama and many others as a potential sunrise industry for the future.
"I’m conflicted," said Kurt Holmes, owner of Englewood-based Renewable Energy Associates, which develops and sells solar energy projects.
"As a citizen, I would like to see manufacturing done here at home," he said, reflecting the view of several installers. "However, I’ve got to pay the lowest price. The fact that Chinese manufacturers are driving down the price is good for the industry."
Manufacturers say protection from Chinese imports would help create jobs in the U.S. and stop them from going overseas. But some installers and project developers say Chinese imports help bring down project costs, spurring the creation of new businesses and sales, construction and installation jobs.
Tom Ferraro, owner of Solar & More, a Pompton Plains solar installation company, said he supports the manufacturers, but low panel prices help boost his year-old business, which employs four people including himself. He opened a showroom in April and plans to open two more next spring.
"Obviously, when you are selling something that’s thousands of dollars, the lower the price the easier it is to sell," he said. "I get these stores open and I’m going to need to hire service people, office and support staff."
On Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously in a preliminary ruling on the petition by manufacturers calling for anti-dumping and countervailing duties. The commission will now proceed with a full investigation.
The manufacturers accuse Chinese manufacturers of "dumping" solar panels in the U.S., selling them for less than the production and shipping costs with the help of Chinese government subsidies. The complaint asks the U.S. to impose tariffs on imported Chinese panels, which could significantly raise the price.
The dispute comes at a volatile time for the solar industry, which has been shaken in recent months by the bankruptcies of Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra, a large solar panel manufacturer that received $500 million in federal subsidies, and two other large panel makers, as low-priced Chinese imports flooded the market.
Solar-panel prices have fallen dramatically in the past year in large part due to a worldwide excess in panel manufacturing capacity, some of it the result of a collapse in European demand. New Jersey installers say panel prices have fallen 30 percent in the past year.
2011年12月1日星期四
Solyndra saw staff "mutiny" before Obama visit
Prices for solar panels were in free-fall and the company's chief executive officer was bickering with customers unhappy with the amount of electricity produced by the cylindrical panels he invented, according to new e-mails released by Republicans investigating the now-bankrupt company.
An initial public offering was on the skids, and finally, there was a "mutiny" by the company's entire executive team, who flagged the crisis to the company's board of directors.
The e-mails between senior advisers to George Kaiser, a major investor in the company, provide the best view yet into how problems took root early at Solyndra.
The company had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2009 and was held up by the Obama administration as an example of how it could help create green jobs.
Behind the scenes, Kaiser's Argonaut Private Equity was trying to right the flailing company. "To put it bluntly our poster child of private equity is acting up something fierce," a senior official from the George Kaiser Family Foundation said in an internal e-mail dated May 8, 2010, warning Solyndra's long-term business plan was in jeopardy.
The new emails highlight how the government backed a company that was in trouble from its early stages, giving more fuel to critics who believe the government threw good taxpayer money after bad.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu's top adviser on stimulus projects brushed aside White House questions about financial red flags ahead of Obama's May 25 visit.
The investment has become politically embarrassing for the administration in the 2012 presidential election race. Last month, Republicans grilled Chu about why he approved the restructuring plan, which kept the company going after it ran out of cash in late 2010.
Chu has staunchly defended his department's decisions as trying to get the best return for taxpayers. The department's inspector general, an independent watchdog, is probing the loan, with help from the FBI. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the loan since February, collecting more than 250,000 pages of documents from government departments, the White House and private investors.
The White House and Energy Department did not immediately comment on the emails.
Solyndra got the loan in 2009, the first company to receive funding under a program that was a top priority for the newly minted administration. Between November 2009 and February 2010, it became clear that subsidized Chinese solar panel manufacturers were undercutting higher-cost Solyndra, the e-mails from private investors said.
By April, Solyndra's Chief Executive Chris Gronet had "burned a lot of bridges" with customers, said Steven Mitchell, managing partner with Argonaut Private Equity, in an internal e-mail. "Gronet was unwilling to accept that the market was forcing a lower price -- he reacted unilaterally by forcing his sales people to maintain high pricing in spite of customers' pleas to 'help them out,'" Mitchell wrote.
At the same time, existing customers were "disgruntled" because panels they had bought from Solyndra were not producing as much electricity as promised. "Unfortunately, Gronet again took a unilateral stance and over the objections of his sales and marketing folks to argue with customers over their data set or power readings -- Gronet clearly never learned the 'customer is always right' slogan," wrote Mitchell, who had a seat on the company's board of directors.
That was the last straw before his executive team demanded a "derating" in the panels by 3.5 percent, another move that hurt the company's revenues.
"It took a full mutiny by management to bring this to the board's attention," Mitchell said.
Gronet's lawyer could not immediately comment about the emails on Thursday.
Argonaut first told the Energy Department about Solyndra's revenue problems between April and May 2010, Mitchell said in a November 2010 e-mail to Kaiser, a billionaire oilman and fund-raiser to Obama during last election.
After the initial public offering was withdrawn from the market in June, Solyndra hired a new CEO, Brian Harrison, and Gronet became the chairman of the board. It would have looked bad to fire Gronet, the founder, who had a good relationship with the Energy Department and was the face of the company in Washington, where the company wanted to focus more of its sales efforts, the Argonaut e-mails said.
"He has star power in DC and we need our government to step up if at all possible," one e-mail said. The company was counting on a second loan guarantee from the Energy Department for $469 million, but ultimately it was not approved.
By June, Solyndra was working with a Washington lobbying firm on a strategy to get government contracts with "Buy America" procurement rules that would give its panels an advantage, the e-mails showed. "Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra's channel strategy," an unidentified official said in an August 10 e-mail provided to Republican investigators by Argonaut.
An initial public offering was on the skids, and finally, there was a "mutiny" by the company's entire executive team, who flagged the crisis to the company's board of directors.
The e-mails between senior advisers to George Kaiser, a major investor in the company, provide the best view yet into how problems took root early at Solyndra.
The company had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2009 and was held up by the Obama administration as an example of how it could help create green jobs.
Behind the scenes, Kaiser's Argonaut Private Equity was trying to right the flailing company. "To put it bluntly our poster child of private equity is acting up something fierce," a senior official from the George Kaiser Family Foundation said in an internal e-mail dated May 8, 2010, warning Solyndra's long-term business plan was in jeopardy.
The new emails highlight how the government backed a company that was in trouble from its early stages, giving more fuel to critics who believe the government threw good taxpayer money after bad.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu's top adviser on stimulus projects brushed aside White House questions about financial red flags ahead of Obama's May 25 visit.
The investment has become politically embarrassing for the administration in the 2012 presidential election race. Last month, Republicans grilled Chu about why he approved the restructuring plan, which kept the company going after it ran out of cash in late 2010.
Chu has staunchly defended his department's decisions as trying to get the best return for taxpayers. The department's inspector general, an independent watchdog, is probing the loan, with help from the FBI. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the loan since February, collecting more than 250,000 pages of documents from government departments, the White House and private investors.
The White House and Energy Department did not immediately comment on the emails.
Solyndra got the loan in 2009, the first company to receive funding under a program that was a top priority for the newly minted administration. Between November 2009 and February 2010, it became clear that subsidized Chinese solar panel manufacturers were undercutting higher-cost Solyndra, the e-mails from private investors said.
By April, Solyndra's Chief Executive Chris Gronet had "burned a lot of bridges" with customers, said Steven Mitchell, managing partner with Argonaut Private Equity, in an internal e-mail. "Gronet was unwilling to accept that the market was forcing a lower price -- he reacted unilaterally by forcing his sales people to maintain high pricing in spite of customers' pleas to 'help them out,'" Mitchell wrote.
At the same time, existing customers were "disgruntled" because panels they had bought from Solyndra were not producing as much electricity as promised. "Unfortunately, Gronet again took a unilateral stance and over the objections of his sales and marketing folks to argue with customers over their data set or power readings -- Gronet clearly never learned the 'customer is always right' slogan," wrote Mitchell, who had a seat on the company's board of directors.
That was the last straw before his executive team demanded a "derating" in the panels by 3.5 percent, another move that hurt the company's revenues.
"It took a full mutiny by management to bring this to the board's attention," Mitchell said.
Gronet's lawyer could not immediately comment about the emails on Thursday.
Argonaut first told the Energy Department about Solyndra's revenue problems between April and May 2010, Mitchell said in a November 2010 e-mail to Kaiser, a billionaire oilman and fund-raiser to Obama during last election.
After the initial public offering was withdrawn from the market in June, Solyndra hired a new CEO, Brian Harrison, and Gronet became the chairman of the board. It would have looked bad to fire Gronet, the founder, who had a good relationship with the Energy Department and was the face of the company in Washington, where the company wanted to focus more of its sales efforts, the Argonaut e-mails said.
"He has star power in DC and we need our government to step up if at all possible," one e-mail said. The company was counting on a second loan guarantee from the Energy Department for $469 million, but ultimately it was not approved.
By June, Solyndra was working with a Washington lobbying firm on a strategy to get government contracts with "Buy America" procurement rules that would give its panels an advantage, the e-mails showed. "Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra's channel strategy," an unidentified official said in an August 10 e-mail provided to Republican investigators by Argonaut.
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