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The Suits Are Flocking to Renewables

May 18, 2015

The Suits Are Flocking to Renewables

Investors like the ‘predictability’ of clean energy.

If you’re looking for revolutionaries, radicals and upstart disrupters, you wouldn’t generally search among a crowd of municipal bureaucrats, policy wonks and businesspeople, all suited up for a conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver.

But the 350-odd delegates to the first Renewable Cities Global Learning Forum made it clear last week that revolution is decidedly their goal. They intend, by every means possible, to consign fossil fuels to the dustbin of history. And much, much sooner than most people are prepared to expect.

This is not journalistic interpretation or a suggestion from the most optimistic and least powerful delegates, idling on the side of the room. Ross Beaty, founder and still chair of the second-largest silver mining company in the world (Pan American Silver Corp.), and one of the conference’s main sponsors, said it plainly halfway through the first day: “It’s a revolution.”

The “it” in question is the corporate swing from non-renewable fuel sources like coal and oil to the alternatives that Beaty now makes available through his most recent venture, Alterra Power, a mid-sized renewable energy company with solar, wind, hydro and geothermal operations in B.C., Ontario and Iceland.

In a panel discussion, in answer to a question about ethical divestment of fossil fuels, Beaty said, “It’s almost irrelevant. Coal, especially, is a dinosaur industry. It’s going out of busines …. It’s just a bad industry to invest in, whether you divest for ethical reasons or not.”

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Are We Witnessing The Beginning Of The End For Fossil Fuels?

May 17, 2015

Are We Witnessing The Beginning Of The End For Fossil Fuels?

Bloomberg recently declared the era of fossil fuels irrevocably in decline: “The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there’s no going back.”

The sea change in how we power our economies officially occurred in 2013, Bloomberg’s Tom Randall writes in “Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables.” That year, there were 143 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity capacity added globally, versus just 141 GW of new fossil-fueled capacity.

Despite low oil prices, the trend toward renewables is not going to slow down anytime soon, given that the cost of solar and wind power has steadily fallen to the point that it is now cheaper than grid electricity in some parts of the world, Randall argues. “The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.”

That’s for electricity generation, of course, but before you can officially call the race in renewables’ favor, you have to consider transport. Our cars and trucks and planes mostly run on fossil fuels, after all. As Vox’s Brad Plumer points out, “Electricity and heat were only responsible for about 42 percent of global CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in 2012. For clean energy to truly win the race, it will have to make inroads in other sectors as well, particularly transportation.”

An analysis by the International Energy Agency found that the amount of energy used for transport has doubled over the past three decades, and that slightly more than half of all oil is used for transport.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How Sustainable is Stored Sunlight?

May 14, 2015

How Sustainable is Stored Sunlight?

Tesla_power_wall

One of the constraints of solar power is that it is not always available: it is dependent on daylight hours and clear skies. In order to fill these gaps, a storage solution or a backup infrastructure of fossil fuel power plants is required — a factor that is often ignored when scientists investigate the sustainability of PV systems.

Whether or not to include storage is no longer just an academic question. Driven by better battery technology and the disincentivization of grid-connected solar panels, off-grid solar is about to make a comeback. How sustainable is a solar PV system if energy storage is taken into account?

In the previous article, we have seen that many life cycle analyses (LCAs) of solar PV systems have a positive bias. Most LCAs base their studies on the manufacturing of solar cells in Europe or the USA. However, most panels are now produced in China, where the electric grid is about twice as carbon-intensive and about 50% less energy efficient. [1] Likewise, most LCAs investigate solar PV systems in regions with a solar insolation typical of the Mediterranean region, while the majority of solar panels have been installed in places with only half as much sunshine.

As a consequence, the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of a kWh of electricity generated by solar PV is two to four times higher than most LCAs indicate. Instead of the oft-cited 30-50 grams of CO2-equivalents per kilowatt-hour of generated electricity (gCO2e/kWh), we calculated that the typical solar PV system installed between 2008 and 2014 produces close to 120 gCO2e/kWh. This makes solar PV only four times less carbon-intensive than conventional grid electricity in most western countries.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

How Sustainable is PV Solar Power?

May 11, 2015

How Sustainable is PV Solar Power?

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems generate “free” electricity from sunlight, but manufacturing them is an energy-intensive process.

It’s generally assumed that it only takes a few years before solar panels have generated as much energy as it took to make them, resulting in very low greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional grid electricity.

However, the studies upon which this assumption is based are written by a handful of researchers who arguably have a positive bias towards solar PV. A more critical analysis shows that the cumulative energy and CO2 balance of the industry is negative, meaning that solar PV has actually increased energy use and greenhouse gas emissions instead of lowering them.

This doesn’t mean that the technology is useless. It’s just that our approach is wrong. By carefully selecting the location of the manufacturing and the installation of solar panels, the potential of solar power could be huge. We have to rethink the way we use and produce solar energy systems on a global scale.

 

There’s nothing but good news about solar energy these days. The average global price of PV panels has plummeted by more than 75% since 2008, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years, though at a lower rate. [1-2] According to the 2015 solar outlook by investment bank Deutsche Bank, solar systems will be at grid parity in up to 80% of the global market by the end of 2017, meaning that PV electricity will be cost-effective compared to electricity from the grid. [3-4]

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Tesla launches Powerwall home battery with aim to revolutionize energy consumption

May 1, 2015

Tesla launches Powerwall home battery with aim to revolutionize energy consumption

Larger version of battery has been tested in pilot program

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is trying to steer his electric car company’s battery technology into homes and businesses as part of an elaborate plan to reshape the power grid with millions of small power plants made of solar panels on roofs and batteries in garages.

Musk announced Tesla’s expansion into the home battery market amid a party atmosphere at the company’s design studio near Los Angeles International Airport. The festive scene attended by a drink-toting crowd of enthusiasts seemed fitting for a flashy billionaire renowned for pursuing far-out projects. For instance, colonizing Mars is one of Musk’s goals at Space X, a rocket maker that he also runs.

Now, he is setting out on another ambitious mission. “Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy,” Musk told reporters gathered in Hawthorne, Calif.

Although Tesla will make the battery called “Powerwall,” it will be sold by a variety of other companies. The list of partners includes SolarCity, a solar installer founded by Musk’s cousins, Lyndon and Peter Rive. Musk is SolarCity’s chairman and largest shareholder.

I don’t believe this product in its first incarnation will be interesting to the average person.– Peter Rive, CTO of Tesla partner SolarCity

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power

March 30, 2015

Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power

On March 18 the city of Georgetown, Texas announced that it would soon be generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Georgetown agreed to purchase the power from a 150-megawatt solar farm that is to be constructed by SunEdison and online in 2016. Coupled with a 2014 agreement to buy wind power, Georgetown will be able to generate all of its electricity needs without any help from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.

Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, is not normally known for its green tendencies. But Georgetown will be the first of many cities in Texas and around the country that will increasingly turn to renewables for electricity. And that has less to do with environmentalism than it does with dollars and cents. Solar has seen its panel prices fall by more than 63 percent since 2010, with wind posting similar cost declines. As a result renewables are the fastest growing form of electricity.

Related: The $6.8 Billion Great Wall Of Japan: Fukushima Cleanup Takes On Epic Proportion

That is upending monopolies held by utilities, which are fighting back against insurgent solar and wind. Utilities are trying to block new entrants into the market, which has earned the solar and wind industry some new and unlikely allies. In North Carolina, for example, a Republican state representative issponsoring legislation that will open up the market for third party ownership and financing of solar, something that is currently illegal. Dubbed the “Energy Freedom Act,” the legislation could provide a dramatic boost to renewable energy in a state that has in the past banned state agencies from preparing for the threats of climate change.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms

March 24, 2015

2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms 

In 2014, record low prices for solar panels fueled a solar boom. The U.S. alone installed 30% more solar photovoltaic capacity than in 2013, making last year the biggest ever for solar PV, according to the 2014 Year-in-Review Solar Market Insight report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association.

solar increase

Industry analyst Tam Hunt argues that in a few years, economics of energy alone will lead the world to achieve the “solar singularity”:

The “solar singularity” will, by my definition, occur when solar prices become so cheap that solar becomes the default power source based on cost alone. We aren’t there yet, but we’re probably just a few years away from that point, particularly since energy storage costs are already declining strongly.

The main reason why solar will become cheaper than other options for power? It’s the falling cost of solar panels, according to Hunt, following an established rate of decline. “Swanson’s law, named after the founder of SunPower, states that the price of solar panels generally drops by 20 percent with every doubling of shipped panels.”

Interestingly, Hunt notes that Swanson’s Law may not be 100% reliable if past performance is any guide. “From the mid-1990s until 2008, solar costs declined by relatively little, primarily due to stubbornly high silicon prices against a backdrop of increasing commodity prices across many markets, until the crash of 2008.”

– See more at: http://transitionvoice.com/2015/03/2014-biggest-year-ever-for-solar-but-oil-price-threat-looms/#sthash.F457M3uv.dpuf

 

 

As “Spectacular” Eclipse Covers Europe, Fears Turn To Its Power Grid

March 20, 2015

As “Spectacular” Eclipse Covers Europe, Fears Turn To Its Power Grid

Some parts of Europe witnessed a near total solar eclipse this morning, an event which, while fun to observe (not without the proper equipment please), presents a challenge for solar panels: namely, a lack of sun. As it turns out this same problem happens at night but, as WSJ reports, the rapidity with which an eclipse darkens the earth could cause blackouts if the energy grid can’t tack up the slack quick enough. Here’s more:

The solar eclipse will provide an acid test for a continent that has placed a big bet on renewable energy—but whose aging electricity grids could buckle under the strain of a sudden drop in solar power.

“Given the growth of renewables across Europe in recent years, this will require an unprecedented amount of careful balancing of supply and demand across the grid,” said Valentin de Miguel of consulting firm Accenture…

The partial disappearance of the sun Friday will place a huge strain on Europe’s energy system. Normally, when the sun goes down, it takes about an hour for the light to fade. That gives time for electricity grids to substitute the power flowing from solar panels with electricity generated from traditional sources such as coal and natural gas.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Electric Utilities Face A Disruptive Future

January 28, 2015

Electric Utilities Face A Disruptive Future

Cheap gas and oil aren’t the only forces disrupting the U.S. electric system. Solar is already wreaking havoc, and large-scale batteries are looming.

What Uber and Lyft have done to the taxi industry worldwide is just beginning to happen to the electricity industry; and it could shock consumers – particularly the less affluent – as surely as though they had stuck their finger in an electrical outlet.

The disruptive revolution is not only happening here, but also in Europe, as Marc Boillot, senior vice president at Electricite de France (EDF), the giant French utility, writes in a new book.

Ironically, here in the United States, disruption of the otherwise peaceful world of electric generation and sale last year was a bumper one for electric stocks because of their tradition of paying dividends at a time when bond yields were low.

Related: Drought Forcing Brazil To Turn To Gas

The first wave of disruption to electric generation has been a technology as benign as solar power units on rooftops, much favored by governments and by environmentalists as a green source of electricity. For the utilities, these rooftop generators are a threat to the integrity of the electrical grid. To counter this, utilities would like to see the self-generators pay more for the upkeep of the grid and the convenience it affords them.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Will New Technologies Give Critical Boost to Solar Power? by Cheryl Katz: Yale Environment 360

December 12, 2014

Will New Technologies Give Critical Boost to Solar Power? by Cheryl Katz: Yale Environment 360.

Today, despite recent progress, solar power accounts for about one percent of the world’s energy mix. Yet the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that solar energy, most of it generated by decentralized “rooftop” photovoltaic systems, could well become the world’s single biggest source of electricity by mid-century.

So how do we get from here to there?

The answer, according to scientists and engineers, lies in a new generation of super-efficient, low-cost sunlight harvesters that take up where the

perovskite

NREL
Quality and efficiency of perovskite solar cells, like the one shown here, have surged recently.

recent flood of cheap silicon panels leaves off. New designs and novel solar materials have recently been setting new efficiency records seemingly every week. Although research and development of solar power still falls far short of where scientists and engineers say it needs to be, innovators are making steady progress in creating a new generation of materials that can harvest the sun’s energy far more efficiently than traditional silicon photovoltaic cells. 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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