Vietnam install solar power surge to 5 gigawatt in only 2 years

The Economist reports that Vietnam undergoes an unexpected surge in solar power. In 2017 solar power played almost no part in Vietnam’s energy mix so to speed the technology’s adoption, the government offered that year to pay suppliers a generous $0.09 for every kilowatt-hour produced by big solar farms. However, under the conditionthatthey started operations within the following two years. The Vietnam government expected some 850MW of capacity to be installed. Instead, by the end of 2019 the country found itself with 5 gigawatts.

Full article: Vietnam grapples with an unexpected surge in solar power (LINK)

 

 

This map is taken from Global Solar Atlas, available at: https://globalsolaratlas.info/downloads/vietnam 

Bosch to strengthen strategic collaboration with fuel-cell expert Ceres Power by increasing its stake

[Press release, Bosch, LINK]

• Bosch to increase its stake in Ceres Power to circa 18 percent.
• Two steps necessary: share subscription and purchase of existing shares.
• Strengthens already successful partnership.

Stuttgart, Germany, and Horsham, U.K. – Bosch has today, January 22, 2020, increased its stake in Ceres Power from 3.9 percent to circa 18 percent. The stake increase is achieved through a subscription by Bosch for new Ceres Power shares, as well as the purchase of further shares from existing shareholders. Bosch’s total investment will be approximately 90 million euros. To enhance the strategic investment and the strength of the partnership, under the terms of the transaction, Bosch is granted the right to appoint a Non-Executive Director to the board of Ceres Power. 

Photo credit: Bosch

Since signing a strategic agreement in August 2018, Bosch and Ceres have been successfully collaborating in the development of fuel-cell stacks for stationary applications. This enabled Bosch to start initial low-volume production of pilot fuel-cell systems in autumn 2019 in Germany. It is intended that the increased stake will further support the collaboration towards future potential scale up and mass manufacture of the Ceres SteelCell® for multiple applications including small power stations to be used in cities, factories, data centers and charge points for electric vehicles.

“ Bosch strongly believes that the highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has an important role to play in energy systems’ security of supply and flexibility ”
Dr. Christian Fischer, member of the Bosch management board

“Bosch strongly believes that the highly efficient solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has an important role to play in energy systems’ security of supply and flexibility,” says Dr. Christian Fischer, member of the Bosch management board responsible for the Energy and Building Technology business sector. “Bosch, together with our development partner Ceres Power, has made good progress in the development of fuel-cell stacks for stationary power applications. With this enlarged investment in Ceres Power, we intend to further strengthen our successful collaboration with our development partner Ceres Power.”

“We welcome this further investment by Bosch which will support the continued evolution of our technology as we look to play an increasingly prominent role in tackling climate change and building a sustainable energy system for the future. We have established a successful partnership with Bosch by combining Ceres’ unique SteelCell® technology with Bosch’s engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain strength. This new investment will allow us to build on the strong momentum we have generated in recent years to further scale the business and expand into new applications,” says Phil Caldwell, the CEO of Ceres Power.

Ceres Power is a leading player in the development of next-generation SOFC technology. Its strategy is to commercialize its technology through licensing for mass production with partners, and to use this technology for grid-based and distributed power generation. The Board of Directors of Ceres Power believes there is significant future value for shareholders in broadening the application of Ceres Power’s technology, further strengthening its relationship with Bosch. Both parties believe that this transaction demonstrates the commitment to the partnership.

Viking Energy - a Offshore Vessel to Run on Ammonia-Powered Fuel Cell

[By The Maritime Executive 01-25-2020 07:21:41 ] The ShipFC consortium has been awarded €10 million ($11 million) in funding from the European Union to install the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel cell on a vessel.

The consortium consists of 14 European companies and institutions, co-ordinated by the Norwegian cluster organisation NCE Maritime CleanTech, and has been awarded backing from the E.U.’s Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 under its Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).

The project will see an offshore vessel, Viking Energy, which is owned and operated by Eidesvik and on contract to energy major Equinor, have a large 2MW ammonia fuel cell retrofitted, allowing it to sail solely on the clean fuel for up to 3,000 hours annually. As such the project aims to demonstrate that long-range zero-emission voyages with high power on larger ships is possible. The goal is also to ensure that a large fuel cell can deliver total electric power to shipboards systems safely and effectively. 

Full article: LINK

The stars are aligning behind hydrogen

Here is a promising forward-looking article by Mark Newman at Sandvik regarding the future of power to gas using Hydrogen and energy storage. The take away is that a hydrogen-based economy is much more likely today than 15 years ago. The reason is the recent expansion of electricity generation via wind turbines and photovoltaic cells. According to the article, batteries have improved a great deal over the years but are unsuitable for most grid-scale applications over a long period of an electricity outage. So far, pumped hydro plants have represented the standard for grid-scale energy storage, but it is only available in some locations due to its dependence on suitable geography.

This is where hydrogen comes in, writes Mark Newman: "Like electricity, hydrogen is an energy carrier as opposed to fuel, since it needs to be manufactured. The fuel, in this case, is the wind or the sun which is used to make electricity that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis. The part that I think is key is the fact that hydrogen doesn't always need to be used in conjunction with fuel cells in order to make electricity again when a demand peak occurs, but can instead be added into the natural gas grid and mixed with methane and be used in the same way as the methane would be used. There are numerous projects being undertaken around the world to investigate the feasibility and limits to doing this, for example, in Leeds, UK, and in Sydney, Australia, to mention just two."

"It very much looks as if the stars are aligning behind hydrogen. Some market assessments conservatively put growth rates in high single figures, but some large and credible companies are openly saying these estimates are much too low. Some have said the truth is more likely to be close to 10-fold growth by 2050."



Source: Full article LINK

Agerement made for the German coal phase-out

Reuters report, in German: LINK) that the German federal government has reached an agreement with the states and energy utilities companies on payments of several billion euros to finance the German coal phase-out (Kohleausstieg).

The compensation for the utilities companies for abandoning brown coal will amount to 2.6 billion euros in the West and 1.75 billion euros in the East, said Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Thursday in Berlin. 

 

"We will thus end the age of coal-fired power generation in a planned and economically sensible way. This is a great success", said Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU). 

 

 

 

The warmer than normal annual average temperature in Sweden since the 90s continues

The winter continues to be mild, and today Stockholm and other Swedish cities set their heat records for January, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The weather conditions are, according to SMHI's meteorologists, due to southwesterly winds that bring mild Atlantic air to Scandinavia. Although the temperatures for the season are high, it is not possible to connect a single mild winter to global warming. 

- But we have a climate indicator for winter temperatures for the whole of Sweden from 1860. We see a striking change since the 1990s, compared with the period 1961-1990. The cold winters are becoming increasingly unusual, says Erik Engström, a climatologist at SMHI, to TT.

Below you can see that the past two decaedes only one out of 20 years was slighly cooler than normal (2010).

The top maps show the annual average temperature deviation (in ° C) from the normal yearly average temperature (average 1961-1990) for the year 2000 to 2019. The analyzes are based on observations from all stations that daily report temperatures in Sweden. The lower map shows how much the average temperature for the period 1 January to 14 January 2020 deviates (in ° C) from the normal average temperature for the period (average 1961-1990). The analyzes are based on observations from about 200 stations that report daily temperatures (source SMHI).

Sweden electricity export to Finland booms due to delay in Finnish nuclear reactor completion

Swedish Radio reports (LINK) that Sweden exported record amounts of electricity to neighboring countries in 2019, according to new statistics from the industry organization Swedenergy.

It was up 50% last year compared to the year before and equaled about 15 percent of the total production of electricity in Sweden. 

One of the main reasons is problems with the electricity supply in Sweden's neighbors, with a delayed new nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3 in Finland causing problems, and reservoirs in Norway have been emptier than usual. Once Olkiluoto 3 enters commercial operation early next year, OL3 will supply about 15% of Finland's electricity demand

 

 

'The Turning Point' explores the destruction of the environment, climate change and species extinction from differentperspective,by Steve Cutts

'The Turning Point' explores the destruction of the environment, climate change and species extinction from differentperspective. Music by Wantaways. Created in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Clip Studio Pro and Cinema 4D. Written, directed and animated by Steve Cutts

Music by Wantaways
Stream song on Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/track/6Or84r...
Download song on iTunes:    https://music.apple.com/au/album/the-...

Britain's electricity since 2010: wind surges to second place, coal collapses and fossil fuel use nearly halves

According to a report in The Conversation (LINK, republished below) by  Grant Wilson, Great Britain generated 75% of its electricity from coal and natural gas in 2010. Now a decade later, these fossil fuels accounted for just 40%, with coal generation collapsing from the decade’s peak of 41% in 2012 to under 2% in 2019. Today natural gas is in the lead at 38%, followed by wind power at 21% and nuclear at about 19%.

Chart created by Grant Wilson, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham., University of Birmingham.

Full article re-publishe through Creative commons license:

Cheap and efficeint solar panles killed Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project before it came online

The 110 MW Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada was the world’s first utility-scale facility to use molten salt power tower energy storage. It has 10,347 tracking mirrors (heliostats) that follow the sun and reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a heat exchanger, a receiver, atop a 640-foot (200 m) tower. 

 

Crescent Dunes is designed for 10 hours of storage and was to deliver 500,000 MW hours of electricity per year, day and night, to 75,000 homes. In September 2011, SolarReserve received a $737 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the project and broke ground. The project had a 25-year agreement with NV Energy for 100 percent of the electricity, but this was terminated by NV Energy in October 2019 due to the project having "failed to produce." Alleging a takeover by the DOE, SolarReserve has raised the possibility of this project filing for bankruptcy. 

 

Cost of Solar Technology in $ Per Megawatt-Hour (Source & credit: BloombergNEF) 

 

According to a recent article in Bloomberg (LINK), cheap solar panels have grown wildly more efficient in recent years, and that is a disaster for such companies as SolarReserve that can’t easily upgrade their dated components. As can be seen in the graph above, the current cost (2019) per megawatt-.hour is almost 2.5 times higher for the Cresent Dune plant as compared to a photovoltaic solar farm.

 

 

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project as seen from an airliner (Wikipedia) 

 

Background: SolarReserve (LINK)

CNBC on how energy storage could revolutionize industries in the next 10 years

CNBC reports (LINK) that over the last decade a surge in lithium-ion battery production has led to an 85% decline in prices, making electric vehicles and energy storage commercially viable for the first time in history. Today the batteries hold the key to transitioning away from fossil fuel dependence, and are set to play a greater role in the coming decade.

Credit CNBC

UBS estimates that over the next ten years the energy storage market in the United States could grow to as much as $426 billion, and there are many ways to buy into the surge, including chemical companies, battery cell makers, car companies, solar companies and utility companies. “Capturing the massive economic opportunity underlying the shift to controls and battery-based energy systems requires that planners, policymakers, regulators, and investors take an ecosystem approach to developing these markets,” sustainability-focused research firm Rocky Mountain Institute said recently.

Credits: Ron DiFelice, Thanks for sharing LinkedIn!

IBM proposes sustainable successor to lithium-ion battery

IBM Research reports (LINK) on a cobalt and nickel free battery technology based on a new cathode and electrode material. Dr. Young-Hye Na (LINK) is the manager of the research group dedicated to ‘Materials and Process Innovations for Energy Industry’ at IBM Almaden Research Center. Her research team is currently focusing on the development of next generation energy storage systems including metal-air batteries, solid-state electrolytes, new battery chemistries based on Cobalt-free cathode materials, and microbatteries.

Most lithium-ion battery material stacks include metals such as nickel and cobalt, which pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks in the sourcing of metals. Especially cobalt that is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices. Recently, International Rights Advocates sued Apple, Tesla, and other tech companies over the deaths of children working in these mines (LINK).

The new battery still uses lithium, but because it is generated from seawater rather than mined, there is little impact on the environment.

IBM development lab for next-generation batteries (Photo credit: IBM Research's lab in Almaden, California)

US Federal officials plan to approve a massive solar farm with energy storage in the desert outside Las Vegas

According to the Los Angeles Times United States Federal officials plan to approve a massive solar farm with energy storage in the desert outside Las Vegas. A $1-billion project that will provide electricity to Nevada residents served by Warren Buffett’s NV Energy. At 690 megawatts across 7,100 acres, the facility would generate more power than the largest solar farm currently operating in the United States.

 

 

Germany’s energy consumption and power mix in charts 2019

Fraunhofer ISE just released the 2019 Energy charts for Germany (LINK). In 2019, solar and wind energy plants jointly produced approx. 173 TWh. This puts them ahead of the sum of lignite and hard coal at 151 TWh.

 

Credit: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

 
Photovoltaic systems fed approx. 46.5 TWh into the public grid in 2019. Production increased by approx. 0.8 TWh or 1.7% compared to the previous year. The installed PV capacity at the end of October was approx. 48.6 GW. The expansion in 2019 amounted to October approx. 3.3 GW. The maximum solar capacity was approx. 33.5 GW on 19.04.2019 at 13:00. At this time, 48% of the total power generation came from photovoltaic. The maximum share of solar energy in the total daily energy of all electricity sources on 29 June was 27%. From March to September 2019, the monthly electricity production of PV systems was higher than those of coal-fired power plants.

Wind energy produced about 127 TWh in 2019 and was about 15.7% higher than in 2018, making wind energy the biggest energy source share, followed by lignite, nuclear energy, and gas. In eight months, wind power production exceeded the lignite-based generation, and in all twelve months, wind energy was ahead of nuclear energy. The maximum capacity generated was approximately 46.7 GW on 15 March 2019 at 19:00. The share of onshore wind was approx. 102.6 TWh. Offshore Wind was able to increase production from 19.1 TWh in 2018 to 24.4 TWh in 2019. Approx. 20.2 TWh were generated in the North Sea. Offshore production in the Baltic Sea amounted to approx. 4.1 TWh. At the end of October 2019, the installed capacity of onshore wind at 53.1 GW and offshore wind at 7.6 GW.

Hydropower produced approx. 19.2 TWh compared to 15.9 TWh in 2018. The installed capacity is about 4.8 GW. It has hardly changed compared to the previous year.

About 44 TWh were produced from biomass. Production has been declining slightly since 2016. In total, renewable energy sources solar, wind, hydro, and biomass in the year 2019 about 237 TWh. They are thus 7% above the level of the previous year with 221 TWh.

Sweden to investigate phasing out fossil fuels and banning sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030

The Swedish government has appointed an inquiry (LINK) to offer proposals on how to implement a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars, and when fossil fuels should be phased out.

According to Swedish Public Service news, SVT (LINK) the goal is to prohibit to sell new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 onwards. The question will now be investigated, following an agreement between the government, the Social Democrates, the Center Party and the Liberals.

 

“Sweden will be the world’s first fossil-free welfare nation. The transport sector is responsible for a third of Sweden’s emissions of greenhouse gases, and thus has a significant role to play in the climate transition,” says Minister for Financial Markets and Housing Per Bolund.

The inquiry is to:

• analyse the conditions for introducing a national ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars, and how to exempt vehicles that run on renewable fuels and electric hybrid vehicles from such a ban;
• analyse how to bring about an EU-wide ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and the phasing out of fossil fuels in the EU;
• make the necessary legislative proposals, albeit not in the area of taxation, where the inquiry may only analyse measures and conduct impact analyses; and
• propose a year by which fossil fuels should be phased out in Sweden, and the measures needed for this to happen in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Texas on track to install large-scale battery storage in the power grid

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle (LINK), Texas is adopting large-scale battery storage as battery prices fall, technology improves, and electricity demand grows. Now in the starting point, the amount of storage on the state’s power grid is still small at just 100 megawatts in a system with a generating capacity of nearly 80,000 megawatts. However, Texas is expected to more than triple the capacity to about 360 megawatts in 2020 and grow even faster in the coming years. Also, they are considering proposals to develop some 7,200 megawatts of large-scale battery storage within the next five years or so, exceeding the amount of natural gas generation in the pipeline.

 

According to the article, the growth of battery storage has boosted by falling prices for batteries. The price for lithium-ion batteries for electricity storage fell 35 percent to $187 per megawatt-hour in March compared to the first half of 2018 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance). By 2024, the costs for installing battery storage may fall to a point low enough for batteries to undercut natural gas-fired power plants during peak hours.

 

Background on power grid battery energy storage:

 

 

Clean Energy Solutions Center This webinar introduces key concepts for understanding the value of battery energy storage systems; reviews the services they can provide to the grid; and explores when, where, why and how they can be deployed economically.

First hydrogen-powered Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system launched in France

Electrive reports (LINK) that the first hydrogen-powered Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system has gone live in Pau, in the south of France. It is called Fébus and launched with the roll-out of a fleet of eight 18m Van Hool Exqui-City FC buses, serving a special six km route. The fuel cell technology for the buses, which also feature batteries, comes from Ballard Power Systems. The 18-metre-long articulated buses offer space for 125 passengers and can cover more than 300 kilometres per hydrogen filling.

Youtube.com

More information: LINK

Earlier this year Flixbus Germany said that it has begun talks with bus manufacturers about the introduction of hydrogen models to their fleat (LINK).

“After being the first to successfully launch three fully electric buses, we now want to develop the first long-distance buses powered by fuel cells, along with Freudenberg technology, to mark another milestone in the history of mobility,” said André Schwämmlein, founder and CEO of FlixMobility.

Background Bus rapid transit (WIKI-LINK): Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to improve capacity and reliability relative to a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or purchasing fares. BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a metro with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system.

The first BRT system was the Rede Integrada de Transporte ('Integrated Transportation Network') in Curitiba, Brazil, which entered service in 1974.

As of March 2018, a total of 166 cities in six continents have implemented BRT systems, accounting for 4,906 km (3,048 mi) of BRT lanes and about 32.2 million passengers every day, of which about 19.6 million passengers ride daily in Latin America, which has the most cities with BRT systems, with 54, led by Brazil with 21 cities. The Latin American countries with the most daily ridership are Brazil (10.7M), Colombia (3.06M), and Mexico (2.5M). In the other regions, China (4.3M) and Iran (2.1M) also stand out. Currently, TransJakarta is considered as the largest BRT network in the world with approximately 251.2 kilometres (156.1 mi) of corridors connecting the Indonesian capital city.

The economic case for a coal phase-out is stronger than ever

According to several reports, coal power is losing its economic ground, and a lot of infrastructures may one day actually become stranded assesst totgether with recent, ongoing, and planned oil invest in pipelines, harbor faciliteis and refinereies etc.

As detailed analysis by Carbon Tracker analysis, 60% of the global coal capacity is uneconomic on a long-run marginal cost basis. Theis means that in the absence of changing circumstances (i.e., lower costs and/or higher revenues), coal power is, and will continue to be, inherently risky business.

 

Carbon Tracker reports: "The trend is more widespread in liberalized markets, such as those in Western Europe, as wind and solar, with their near-zero marginal costs, drive power prices below the operating cost of coal generation. For example, based on a recent Carbon Tracker report, 79% of operating hard coal and lignite capacity in the EU28 is uneconomic. This dire situation contrasts with coal generators in South Korea, where all operators are cash-flow positive due to market structures that effectively guarantee a rate of return regardless of cost.[ii] Irrespective of whether plants are in liberalized or regulated markets, low-cost wind and solar is a megatrend coursing through regions at varying levels. As detailed in Figure 2, this trend has accelerated in 2019, to the extent where we now believe over 50% of global coal capacity has a higher marginal cost than the levelised cost of either solar PV, onshore wind, or offshore wind. Even nations such as Japan, which is known to have limited renewable resources due to topographical and land-use constraints, low-cost wind and solar could soon eclipse the economics of incumbent coal as early as 2024."

 Source: Carbon Tracker analysis (2019)

Source: Carbon Tracker (LINK)

Spanish oil company Repsol has announced to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050

Carbon Tracker reports that Repsol has announced to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050. This is a step forward from their previous long-term ambition, which was to lower carbon intensity by 40% by 2040.

"This ambition entails directing all of its activities and investments to meet new and more stringent plans all in alignment with the energy transition and the effort to limit the planet’s temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius according to the Paris Agreement’s climate goals."

Now Repsol is one of a handful of oil companies that have set ambitions to lower the lifecycle carbon emissions intensity of their products, alongside Total and Shell.

Repsol is increasing by 3,000 MW its target for low-carbon electricity generation capacity, to 7,500 MW by 2025, and will begin to expand into other markets to become a leading international player in renewable energies such as photovoltaic and wind power.

Source: Carbon Tracker (LINK), Repsol (LINK)

2nd double-digit-gigawatt scale renewable energy project start in China

PV Magazine reports (LINK) that Huanghe Hydropower Development has started work on of a renewable energy project featuring 10 GW of solar generation capacity, 5 GW of wind and 1 GW of concentrating solar power. Trina will supply 600 MW of modules to the first phase of the facility.

This facility is one of two double-digit-gigawatt scale projects being planned by the China State Power Investment Corporation. The other is a 16 GW facility that is being constructed in Hainan prefecture.

Photo credit: Huanghe Hydropower Development LINK

In addition, JA Solar will supply 485 MW,  Longi 470 MW, Eging 420 MW, Solargiga 407 MW, JinkoSolar 314 MW, CPI Solar Power Xi’An 288 MW, Jolywood 150 MW and GS-Solar 48 MW. All of these panels will be bifacial products with an output of more than 400 Wp.

The monocrystalline manufacturer Longi willsupply the project with 445 Wp modules employing its new M6, 166mm wafer and PERC cells.

Earlier this year the big news was that Zhonghuan Semiconductor unveiled a 12-inch super solar wafer (LINK). The manufacturer said that its 12 inch "Kwafoo" product would improve efficiency and, if used in the optimal p-type PERC type of panel, could boast a module output of 610 W.

 

Credit : Zhonghuan Semiconductor (LINK)