Showing posts with label
solar power in the united states.
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Showing posts with label
solar power in the united states.
Show all posts
Recently, Minnesota residents participated in a community solar project. During the initial phase of development experts only expected this project to produce around 100 megawatts of power but to their surprise the project received quadruple the amount. Shared solar power is a promising field but, up until now there are very few states that have formulated the right policies to fuel its growth. There are three things that can be done to rectify the situation.
First of all, new policies are needed to encourage customers to invest in the renewable energy field. People who participate in such programs need to be given tangible benefits and the policies affecting these programs need to allow for more diverse contract models to suit the individual preferences of customers. Last but not least, the policies should not undermine existing policies; rather, they should add to the existing policies.
Secondly, it is important for virtual net metering to be made available as this allows individual residences and businesses to get credit for the electricity generated by their panels, even if the panels are located elsewhere. The right kind of virtual net metering will help in connecting customers and give them the benefits of using off-site solar power. At present, there are only eleven states in the US that offer this particular facility. New Jersey, which is considered to be a solar friendly state, still does not have the right kind of legislation. However, when states do legislate for virtual net metering they will get a windfall in the form of greater growth.
Thirdly, to enable greater community shared solar programs it is still necessary to expand the use of solar power to every consumer of energy. Many states still restrict their consumers from taking part in community solar projects. Maryland is an example of such states as it only allows certain consumers like farms and non-profit organizations as well as municipal governments to participate in community solar programs. The result is that these stats are limiting access to solar power, and those who need such power the most are the worst affected.
The bottom line is that THE SOLAR INDUSTRY has created a lot more jobs in the recent past than other industries like the oil and gas pipeline as well as drilling industries. The success of existing solar programs need to be built up on so that more Americans are able to not only invest in this new and clean energy but they should also be able to save their dollars from solar power.
For more information on Solar Power or how you can invest in residential solar panels, CONTACT THE EXPERTS AT GOLDEN SOLAR.
The post Community Solar Power Is Here,But Is It Here To Stay? appeared first on Golden Solar.
Day one of the Intersolar Europe exhibition in Munich, Germany, began with a clear message from the show's organizers and representatives of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) - to survive and thrive, PV incentives must become more sustainable.The importance of this rhetoric was underlined by the announcement that the Intersolar Europe exhibition has this year been joined by the electrical energy storage (ees) exhibition running independently alongside the show."The energy storage segment has been growing rapidly over the past few years, and it was a conscious decision of SolarPromotion to integrate this topic into our program," said Els"asser. "Storage and self-consumption are key issues for the PV market in 2014."For its debut alongside Intersolar Europe, the ees exhibition boasts 250 exhibitors focused solely on the storage market. This figure, according to Els"asser, is a 25% increase on last year, and makes Intersolar Europe the largest exhibition to combine PV, batteries and storage.Carsten Kornig of BSW-Solar remarked that the growth of the storage sector illustrates how dependence on unsustainable incentive programs around the world, such as the feed-in tariff (FIT), is decreasing. "As system costs for PV come down, particularly in Germany, there is now a new incentive to produce and use your own electricity rather than feeding it into the grid. The 250 storage specialists at the show are testament to this growth."Kornig added that grid parity, which used to be considered the Holy Grail for the PV industry, is already commonplace in a number of European markets, particularly Italy and Germany. The challenge over the next few years, and something that will be addressed at this year's Intersolar Europe exhibition, is to continue to provide incentives to invest in solar that are sustainable, profitable and affordable."We now have a good basis for a new business model - using the advantage of decentralized power and providing power close to the consumer," said Kornig. The development of intelligent energy management systems and storage technology with intelligent monitoring controls will be a key theme of the exhibition, he said.Recovering from a tough yearHowever, both Els"asser and Kornig were adamant that there can be no hiding from one inescapable fact - it has been a tough year for solar PV in Europe, and especially difficult for Germany.Globally, the market has grown by more than 20% over the past 12 months, with global PV installations forecast at between 45-50 GW. According to Kornig, Germany will look to stabilize this year at close to 3 GW, with Europe adding 10 GW collectively in 2014, and similar figures expected for next year.This trend is mirrored in Intersolar Europe's own figures. According to Els"asser, the show will attract an estimated 50,000 visitors from 151 countries this year, "which makes us the world's most international solar event," he added. Last year, the show drew 46,929 visitors from 151 countries.Exhibitor numbers are slightly down on 2013, with 1,134 companies exhibiting this year (last year there were 1,292), while the exhibition floor space has also contracted to 90,000 square meters this year, down from 121,000 square meters in 2013.Despite this year's minor shrinkage, Els"asser was confident that the Intersolar Europe event of 2014 can still set tongues wagging. The subject of energy storage and self-consumption has already been a rather hot topic and, for the first time ever, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has lent its expertise to the show, delivering a general market outlook, forecast and report on new business models. ARTICLE FROM PV MAGAZINEACCESS TO MORE ABOUT LANDPOWER SOLAR PANEL MOUNTING: SOLAR MOUNTING SYSTEMS, SOLAR RACKING, SOLAR HARDWARE, PV MOUNTING, GROUND MOUNTING SYSTEMS
(c) Solar Change Worldwide GmbH
I frequently take delivery of complaints that solar tradeshows aren't introduce far away that is new and exciting-but I beg to differ. The entire engagement I see trends emerging-trends that are frequently unseen until months in the wake of the embodiment. INTERSOLAR NORTH AMERICA was no release. This engagement I was struck by the budding school on trademark, bankability, and operations and care (O&M).
In the not on time considering, solar shows and conferences hold back been exceedingly dutiful on either gear, or sales and marketing of systems or leases. Now, in the wake of changed existence of leases collective marvelously, the owners of PV systems hold back begun to school slowly on ensuring that the systems they own choice period to impending, and administering their radio show guarantees.
I make fun of at the bankability and trademark session moderated by Minh Le, Higher of the Solar Work Technologies Department at the Division of Work. One raconteur participating in the session, Dr. Sarah Kurtz of the Back home Renewable Work Laboratory, make fun of about solar product trademark, as well as efforts to develop a PV-specific ISO 9001 middling, and to broach PV leave appropriateness ethics in a project called Qualification Set up.
The feat of Dr. Kurtz reflects the collective school on system radio show. Investors are easier said than done that system radio show risks be minimized shortest the use of higher-quality, manager strictly experienced components, higher-quality solar resource reality, and manager vanguard O&M processes.
Trendy the session, I make fun of about bankable meteorological reality for solar resource costing and monitoring. Produce real-life examples, I illustrated the importance of using geographically- and temporally-specific solar resource data-such as SOLARANYWHERE(R) DATA-for resource costing, and to set and hint radio show guarantees. I moreover make fun of about methods for combining satellite reality with excellent soil reality from companies choose Sustaining RENEWABLES, INC., to generate a solar resource dataset that offers the album grade of accuracy for siting and financing relieve scale PV systems.
Seeing as individuals topics generated amenable, it was my communication about using satellite-based irradiance to denigrate monitoring and care of dispersed PV systems that enormously baffled grassroots bother. It was unusual to listen to how many companies are fraught with the puncture of monitoring and maintaining dispersed fleets of urban or commercial systems.
Lacking a immediate paradigm to embodiment what the systems should be producing, third-party system owners and their O&M buddies are lost. It is involved to make familiar decisions about care after teensy weensy or no information to sense the core causes of radio show issues is handy.
Overhaul Command Inspect is addressing this puncture with SOLARANYWHERE(R) SYSTEMCHECK(R). Or else integrating SystemCheck arrived their O&M platforms, secure and power discover catch (PPA) providers hold back been baffled with high-priced car roles, and the phantasm of large radio show assertion expenditure or dividend dead. The do exercises has send away so considerable that I used up the deceased of my daylight hours at Intersolar this engagement spoken communication with patrons and promise patrons about SystemCheck, and how it can be used to acceptably hint their systems.
It is energizing to see the solar industry grown to the recipient where consecutive system operations and care has send away as crown as sales and installation. This choice trial an industry that is light and established for existence to remodel.
PV MAGAZINE WEEKLY NEWS ROUND-UP: AUG 22-29Every Friday, pv magazine will round up the biggest and best stories from the past week and package them here in one easily digestible news nugget. So kick back, fire up the coffee machine and get up to speed with the latest comings and goings in the global PV industry.What we learned this weekThis time last week we had no idea that the world may fall tantalizingly short of its climate change objectives - all becauserenewable energy deployment will begin to slow noticeably after 2014.Wait. That cannot be right, can it? Because we also learned this week that solar power is set to become energy's top dog by 2025, kicking big coal-fired power plants to the kerb in the process.These two, mildly conflicting reports from the International Energy Agency and UBS Bank respectively served to shine a light on just how difficult it is to make predictions and projections when it comes to solar's future.The IEA Report, presented in Paris on August 28, suggests that the expansion of renewable energy - so impressive in 2013 and enjoying good growth this year - is likely to slow over the next five years. The caveat - and it is a big one - is that the eradication of policy uncertainty will reverse this trend.Renewable energy will not reach its climate change targets unless governments the world over can agree on smooth support policies that do not spook investors. "Just as renewables are becoming a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, policy and regulatory uncertainty is rising in some key market," said IEA executive director, Maria van der Hoeven. "This stems from concerns about the costs of deploying renewables."To arrest this inevitable decline, the report notes, governments must "distinguish more clearly between the past, present and future, as costs are falling over time, and many renewables no longer need incentive levels".That, in a nutshell, is what the world's largest private bank - UBS - told its clients this week. In a surprisingly pro-solar report, the bank argued the case for solar, forecasting a tipping point "by 2025" whereby a perfect solar storm will gather speed, gusting away coal-fired power plants in the process, and setting in motion an unstoppable race to democratize energy... in Europe at least."By 2025, everybody will be able to produce and store power," read the report. "And it will be green and cost-competitive, ie, not more expensive or even cheaper than buying power from utilities." The report even went so far as to urge its wealthy client base to "join the revolution", stopping tantalizingly short of calling it a "solar revolution". Either way, the writing appears to be on the wall.For something a little more off-the-wall, we turn our attention to Scotland. During the Edinburgh International Book Festival, a lively debate between the merits of solar Vs fracking sparked up and - would ye believe it - solar won the day. In Scotland. Rainy, cloudy Scotland."Due to Scottish weather, solar energy is something Scottish policy makers didn't pay adequate attention to in the past, and that is changing now," Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, told pv magazine."Because solar is doing so well in England and Germany, and the price of solar modules has been reduced significantly, policy makers and the public in Scotland have started to realize the great potential of this technology."Encouraging words that may prove doubly prescient if Scotland decides to go it alone and vote to break away from the U.K. next month. The Scots go to the polls on September 18 and, as we have seen with solar energy, predicting what the future might hold is a rather onerous task.Nothing to stop solar's growth... or is there?Lux Research were bold enough this week to predict that the global solar PV market will reach 65 GW annual installions by 2019, according to the analysts' latest report. Such growth would represent a 75% market increase on today's figures, with China leading the way each year but rapid growth on the cards for the Americas, which could be on course for an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3%Also this week pv magazine reported that there is no global solar panel shortage on the horizon, despite what other media outlets reported earlier in the week.Stefan de Haan of IHS told us that while the cell and solar module glut had certainly dried up, current capacity is still sufficient to serve a market of 45.5 GW. "In 2014, the market is pretty balanced," de Haan said. "As installation markets are continuing to grow, and there have been no major capacity expansions last year, which helped the supply demand gap to close."With utilization rates rising, capital expenditure increasing and demand for solar spreading to all four corners of the world, the market appears to be in pretty good shape as the second half of the year kicks into gear. John Perlin, author of Let it Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy, will be unsurprised by these developments. In an interview with pv magazine, he called solar energy "unstoppable" - and he should know: Perlin has been writing about solar's potential for more than 30 years. If you've not yet checked out his fascinating interview, it is well worth a read.India and Latin America show their solar handTwo of the world's most promising emerging markets for solar - India and Latin America - both showed their hand this week, each revealing a definite thumbs-up for solar.In India, the government rejected anti-dumping duties, much to the relief of the industry's gathering gaggle of project developers and investors. India's solar potential is vast and unrealized, having stumbled over the past 12 months due to political uncertainty. But pro-solar PM Narendra Modi has cleverly navigated the solar minefield, and the National Solar Mission can hopefully now get back on track - a track that could lead to the installation of 17 GW of solar PV capacity by 2022.In Latin America, this week's Intersolar South America exhibition served to remind the world of the thirst for solar energy that exists in this region. The overall mood is one of acceptance of solar power, and a desire to get involved at a grass roots level - which means more solar manufacturing, more local expertise, more installed capacity, and more off-grid installations.pv magazine has a full and frank Latin America report coming up in next month's September issue, so be sure not to miss it.And finally...It was backslaps all round for Japan's Kyocera this week after it was revealed that the company was the only solar manufacturer to receive top marks in all six categories of GTM Research's July 2014 PV Module Reliability Scorecard.Solar power in New York received an overhaul this week following the news that the city's solar programs are to be bundled together under one initiative - the NY-Sun Incentive Program. "This approach will help the industry plan for the future, spur new development and aid in New York's transition to a cleaner, cheaper and more efficient energy grid," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.And in a bad week for renewable energy in Australia, a government-appointed review panel advised that the Renewable Energy Target (RET) be scaled back in a move that solar supporters say will cause solar system price hikes of around 50%.August 22-29: That was the week that was. Be sure to follow @pv-magazine on Twitter for continued updates and breaking news, and check back next Friday for the next pv magazine weekly news roundup.
