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 

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

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)

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)

US Installed 2.6 GW New Solar In Q3/2019 - Up 45%

According to Taiyangnews citing the Solar Market Insight report (LINK), the US saw 712 MW of new residential solar installations in the third quarter of 2019 which is a record for this segment and helped take total PV installations in the reporting period to 2.6 GW, growing 45% over last year and 25% up from the previous quarter, according to the Q4 2019 US Solar Market Insight report. The cumulative solar PV capacity of the US market until the end of Q3/2019 has now reached 71.3 GW.

• In 2019, the report forecasts the US market to install 13 GW of total capacity, growing 23% annually
• Growing more than double over the next five years, annual installations are expected to reach 20.1 GW by 2021

Source: Taiyangnews US Installed 2.6 GW New Solar In Q3/2019

EU solar boom: over 100% solar market increase in 2019

• Strongest growth year for solar since 2010
• More new solar capacity installed than any other power generation technology in 2019
• Spain is Europe’s largest solar market adding 4.7 GW

SolarPower Europe’s first EU Market Outlook for Solar Power shows that 2019 was one of the best solar years on record for the European Union, with 16.7 GW of installations added in the region, representing a 104% increase over the 8.2 GW added in 2018. This makes 2019 the strongest growth year for solar in the EU-28 since 2010.

EU-28 annual solar PV installed capacity 2000-2019 © SolarPower Europe 2019

IRENA report on accelerated solar PV deployment until 2050 reaching >8,500 GW global capacity

A recent report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) presents options to speed up deployment and fully unlock the world’s vast solar PV potential over the period until 2050. The report states that Solar PV project costs, already below marginal fossil-fuel costs in global terms, are set to decline further in the decades ahead.

According to the IRENA scenario, Solar PV would have the most significant installed capacity expansion by 2050. Graph Credit: IRENA

The Fraunhofer ISE Photovoltaics Report 2019

[Fraunhofer ISE] Photovoltaics is a fast growing market: The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of PV installations was 24% between 2010 to 2017. The intention of the "Photovoltaics Report" published by Fraunhofer ISE is to provide up-to-date information on the PV market and on efficiencies of solar cells, modules and systems. Moreover, data on inverters, energy payback time and price developments are presented.

The record lab cell efficiency is 26.7% for mono-crystalline and 22.3% for multi-crystalline silicon wafer-based technology. The highest lab efficiency in thin film technology is 23.4% for CIGS and 21.0% for CdTe solar cells. In the laboratory, high concentration multi-junction solar cells achieve an efficiency of up to 47.1% today. With concentrator technology, module efficiencies of up to 38.9% have been reached. Graph: Fraunhofer ISE 2019.