An ambitious 1.3m project to fit a 240kW solar glazing system to the roof of King's Cross station is nearing completion, BusinessGreen has learned.
While the station's new roof captured imaginations when it opened last week, the process of installing solar cells along two new barrel-vaulted glass roofs soaring high above the platforms and concourses is in many ways just as impressive.
The solar PV cells are integrated into 1,392 glass laminate units that form part of the 2,300 square metre glass roofing structure.
Meanwhile, progress installing the system has had to be synchronised with a huge rolling scaffold that slowly moves along the concourse as commuters pass by.
A spokesman for Sundog Energy, which is providing the solar system, told BusinessGreen the installation was further slowed by stringent safety regulations designed to address the risks associated with working over a live line.
The safety rules are so tight that items such as pens have to go up in a dedicated lift connected to the installation area in order to prevent them falling from a height above the station. "If you forget something, it's an hour to go back and get it," the spokesman said.
However, despite the installation challenges, the system is due to be completed "by the summer", when it should start to produce around 175,000 kWh of electricity per year, saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The system forms part of a major overhaul of King's Cross station, including the restoration of the original 1851 facade of the building, the renovation of the ticket hall and the main train shed roof, and the creation of a new public square in front of the station.
However, King's Cross is still lagging behind Blackfriars when it comes to solar power. Blackfriars, which reopened earlier this year after extensive modernisation, boasts a 4,400-panel array running along the roof of a railway bridge spanning the Thames. The Blackfriars array is expected to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, about half of the station's demand, as well as reduce annual CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year.
Both projects are part of Network Rail's wide-ranging green building programme, which aims to support the company's goal of reducing carbon emissions 25 per cent per passenger kilometre by the end of the decade.
2012年3月21日星期三
2011年10月16日星期日
Cowboy traders blighting solar power industry
MORE than 900 complaints about solar panel installations, worth $7 million, have been lodged with NSW Fair Trading this year, as homeowners increasingly find themselves victims of faulty installations, unfinished work and unlicensed workmen.
The department has also suspended licences or imposed hefty fines on at least 35 solar panel installers, prompting the Fair Trading Minister, Anthony Roberts, to warn that the industry had become a ''total magnet for cowboys''.
''What we have seen is a lot of these cowboys have moved on from pink batts to solar panels and they are doing a dodgy job, especially in regional and rural areas, and leaving people with all sorts of problems,'' he said.
Mr Roberts said complaints ranged from panels not being supplied to shoddy work and incorrect installations.
''We have heard of cases where the contract has said someone would be given German-built panels or equivalent and the equivalent turns up and are cheap panels made in China.''
He said each complaint that had been lodged with his department was worth about $10,600.
''This is going to keep costing the taxpayer because we have all the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal generated issues and the Fair Trading audit costs so, at the end of the day, we are involved in a mopping up exercise,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the department said the number of complaints had been increasing each month since May, when the government released its first audit of panels in Port Macquarie which found problems with 16 of 55 installations.
A further audit in June revealed 122 homes in Baulkham Hills, Blacktown and Kellyville had major defects in their solar panel systems that could cause fires and another 418 homes had minor defects.
A Coogee resident, Bill Hayes, lodged a complaint with Fair Trading this month after the panels he had installed on his property in March last year were switched off by an Ausgrid inspector who deemed them a potential fire risk.
The department has also suspended licences or imposed hefty fines on at least 35 solar panel installers, prompting the Fair Trading Minister, Anthony Roberts, to warn that the industry had become a ''total magnet for cowboys''.
''What we have seen is a lot of these cowboys have moved on from pink batts to solar panels and they are doing a dodgy job, especially in regional and rural areas, and leaving people with all sorts of problems,'' he said.
Mr Roberts said complaints ranged from panels not being supplied to shoddy work and incorrect installations.
''We have heard of cases where the contract has said someone would be given German-built panels or equivalent and the equivalent turns up and are cheap panels made in China.''
He said each complaint that had been lodged with his department was worth about $10,600.
''This is going to keep costing the taxpayer because we have all the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal generated issues and the Fair Trading audit costs so, at the end of the day, we are involved in a mopping up exercise,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the department said the number of complaints had been increasing each month since May, when the government released its first audit of panels in Port Macquarie which found problems with 16 of 55 installations.
A further audit in June revealed 122 homes in Baulkham Hills, Blacktown and Kellyville had major defects in their solar panel systems that could cause fires and another 418 homes had minor defects.
A Coogee resident, Bill Hayes, lodged a complaint with Fair Trading this month after the panels he had installed on his property in March last year were switched off by an Ausgrid inspector who deemed them a potential fire risk.
2011年8月18日星期四
Solar Trust Switches 500MW Power Plant to PV
Solar Trust said today that it will convert a 500 megawatt solar thermal power plant it had been planning in Blythe, California into a 500 megawatt plant made from photovoltaic panels.
The shift comes because of "improved market conditions" for building power plants with PV modules. Solar modules from some vendors now cost as little as $1.30 a watt, according to GTM Research. The switch will mean the company has to walk away from a $2.1 billion federal loan guarantee.
Switching to PV will also let Solar Trust build the plant in 250 megawatt increments, making financing and planning easier.
The 500 megawatt power plant is the first half a 1 gigawatt development so it's probably fair to look at this as a 1 gigawatt loss for the thermal industry. Solar Trust hasn't said what happens to the second half of the project, but one can guess.
Last year, we predicted that solar thermal power plants would soon begin to face severe competition from solar modules because of the rapid decline in the price of modules and the fact that PV plants are easier to build than thermal plants. Soon after, solar thermal plants began to run into trouble or get converted to PV projects. Stirling Energy gave up on two thermal power plants totaling over 1.5 gigawatt. NRG Energy converted two thermal projects to PV. Government agencies were helping thermal too: both the California Energy Commission and The Department of the Interior have been approving thermal projects.
If you add in the 500 megawatts that got canceled today, a total of 3 gigawatts of solar thermal projects have been converted to PV projects, according to GTM concentrating solar power analyst Brett Prior.
Prior further estimated that the installed cost of a thermal plants might be around $5.79 per watt while the installed cost for utility-scale PV plants is closer to $3.40.
Solar module prices alone have dropped 30 percent so far this year and we're only in the third quarter.
While the earlier conversions hurt, today's news is arguably even worse because Solar Trust had already achieved regulatory approval. It also won a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the DOE in April to build a thermal plant. Solar Trust now must tinker with its application and walk away from the loan guarantee.
This is like your mother entering someone else's child in the talent contest.
Solar Trust has an existing JV with another company for PV plants.
Solar Trust said it will still consider building thermal plants overseas. Developers can put big tanks of molten salt at their thermal power plants to save solar heat until night and make power then. PV plants can't do that. To store power at PV plants, you need batteries, which can be expensive. Both BrightSource and SolarReserve have touted molten salt. It's great technology. Unfortunately, some, if not most, U.S. utilities have been less enthused about getting energy storage through molten salt now. They like the concept, but aren't always willing to pay for it now.
Several companies could be impacted by this. Competitor BrightSource Energy, for instance, is in the midst of raising interest in an IPO. This latest cancelation will likely prompt lots of questions from Wall Street. BrightSource relies on different underlying technology which BrightSource (and others) say is cheaper than the traditional technologies, but many of the PV/thermal issues apply. The California Energy Commission has approved a BrightSource project for PG&E but BrightSource has two follow-on projects that are still in the approval and financing stages.
Equipment suppliers to thermal plants will get hit too. Schott Solar makes mirrors for these power plants. PV vendors--perhaps Chinese vendors or U.S.-based companies like First Solar and SunPower will benefit.
The shift comes because of "improved market conditions" for building power plants with PV modules. Solar modules from some vendors now cost as little as $1.30 a watt, according to GTM Research. The switch will mean the company has to walk away from a $2.1 billion federal loan guarantee.
Switching to PV will also let Solar Trust build the plant in 250 megawatt increments, making financing and planning easier.
The 500 megawatt power plant is the first half a 1 gigawatt development so it's probably fair to look at this as a 1 gigawatt loss for the thermal industry. Solar Trust hasn't said what happens to the second half of the project, but one can guess.
Last year, we predicted that solar thermal power plants would soon begin to face severe competition from solar modules because of the rapid decline in the price of modules and the fact that PV plants are easier to build than thermal plants. Soon after, solar thermal plants began to run into trouble or get converted to PV projects. Stirling Energy gave up on two thermal power plants totaling over 1.5 gigawatt. NRG Energy converted two thermal projects to PV. Government agencies were helping thermal too: both the California Energy Commission and The Department of the Interior have been approving thermal projects.
If you add in the 500 megawatts that got canceled today, a total of 3 gigawatts of solar thermal projects have been converted to PV projects, according to GTM concentrating solar power analyst Brett Prior.
Prior further estimated that the installed cost of a thermal plants might be around $5.79 per watt while the installed cost for utility-scale PV plants is closer to $3.40.
Solar module prices alone have dropped 30 percent so far this year and we're only in the third quarter.
While the earlier conversions hurt, today's news is arguably even worse because Solar Trust had already achieved regulatory approval. It also won a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the DOE in April to build a thermal plant. Solar Trust now must tinker with its application and walk away from the loan guarantee.
This is like your mother entering someone else's child in the talent contest.
Solar Trust has an existing JV with another company for PV plants.
Solar Trust said it will still consider building thermal plants overseas. Developers can put big tanks of molten salt at their thermal power plants to save solar heat until night and make power then. PV plants can't do that. To store power at PV plants, you need batteries, which can be expensive. Both BrightSource and SolarReserve have touted molten salt. It's great technology. Unfortunately, some, if not most, U.S. utilities have been less enthused about getting energy storage through molten salt now. They like the concept, but aren't always willing to pay for it now.
Several companies could be impacted by this. Competitor BrightSource Energy, for instance, is in the midst of raising interest in an IPO. This latest cancelation will likely prompt lots of questions from Wall Street. BrightSource relies on different underlying technology which BrightSource (and others) say is cheaper than the traditional technologies, but many of the PV/thermal issues apply. The California Energy Commission has approved a BrightSource project for PG&E but BrightSource has two follow-on projects that are still in the approval and financing stages.
Equipment suppliers to thermal plants will get hit too. Schott Solar makes mirrors for these power plants. PV vendors--perhaps Chinese vendors or U.S.-based companies like First Solar and SunPower will benefit.
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