Earth and Industry

European Subsidy Reductions Could Slow Solar Industry Boom

Silvio Marcacci — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:01:05 +0000

Solar power has been one of renewable energy’s biggest success stories, especially in Europe. But a combination of austerity measures by cash-strapped governments and the industry’s own success are creating cloudy skies on the clean energy horizon.

New grid-connected global photovoltaic (PV) capacity nearly doubled in 2011, from 16.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2010 to 27.7 GW (with almost 21 GW in Europe), according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. 2011’s boom pushed total installed capacity to 67.35 GW.

Favorable government feed-in-tariff (FIT) programs fueled this solar boom by guaranteeing above-market rates to solar power producers. But ironically, the FIT programs worked too well and by exceeding their goals, have become too expensive to maintain. This quandary is most explicitly seen in Europe’s biggest solar market – Germany.

Germany

At the end of 2011, Germany had the most cumulative installed solar capacity in the world, with 24.7 GW. New installations reached a record 7.5 GW last year and solar output reached 18 billion kilowatt-hours, but the record jump was largely attributed to prices falling ahead of planned FIT reductions, made every six months. Solar panel prices have fallen 50 percent since 2007, and as prices fall, government officials have begun to debate how much they should scale back subsidies.

Germany’s economy minister has proposed legislation to limit new FIT-supported installations to 1 GW per year, accelerate planned subsidy cuts to an every-month basis rather than twice a year, and phase subsides out completely for some facilities by 2017. Unsurprisingly, the CEO of German manufacturer Bosch said “should we do that, then photovoltaic is dead is Germany.”

However, the harsh proposal has been countered by a more moderate proposal by the country’s environment minister. The alternate plan would cap new subsidized PV installations at 5 GW per year, and seems to have a better chance at passage. While Germany is the biggest market scaling back solar subsidies, it is not the only European country doing so.

United Kingdom, Spain, Greece

The United Kingdom is expected to announce plans this week that would reduce subsidies at routine intervals to curb new solar installations through a trigger mechanism once installations reach a predetermined level. The UK’s plan has exceeded all expectations and cost estimates – 284 MW of installed capacity were expected by April 2013, but 780 MW had been installed as of January 2012.

Conditions are even worse in Spain and Greece, two of the hardest-hit economies in the Eurozone. Spain, home to the world’s highest unemployment rate, passed a decree last week to “temporarily suspend” subsidies for all new solar installations. The move is expected to save 160 million Euros in 2012, but could have a severe impact on employment.

Spain first cut its renewable subsidy by 35 percent in 2008, a move that cost 20,000 jobs, and this suspension is expected to cut just as many jobs. Spain had the fourth-most installed solar in the world at the end of 2011, with 4.2 GW, and the government once estimated renewables would create 300,000 jobs by 2020.

Greece, the epicenter of the Eurozone economic crisis, has also targeted solar subsidies as a way to trim spending. Installed capacity more than doubled in 2011, with 350 MW of new capacity and 550 MW cumulative installed solar.

But last week the government drastically cut FIT subsidies, saying it can’t pay the current rates and had licensed enough new capacity to meet its renewable energy targets. All new solar power plants that go online starting in February would be reduced, with those generating more than 100 kilowatts facing an initial 12.5 percent subsidy cut with additional reductions every six months until August 2014.

Grid parity?

Fortunately though, the end of generous subsidies may not spell the end of renewables. Manufacturing costs have fallen fast, and the CEO of Suntech Power, the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, recently predicted solar will be as cheap as fossil fuels, saying “we believe that by 2015, there will be around 50 percent of countries where it reaches grid parity.”

Google-Backed Supergrid Buoyed by OK of Offshore Wind Energy Areas

Timothy Hurst — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:37:19 +0000

A 350-mile undersea electricity transmission project designed to be the "backbone" of offshore wind energy on the Atlantic Coast of the United States received an indirect boost on Thursday as the Obama administration began the leasing process for prime offshore wind energy areas off the New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia coasts.

The Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC), led by independent transmission company Trans-Elect and backed by investments from Google, Good Energies, Elia and Marubeni Corporation, would stretch nearly 350 miles from New Jersey to Virginia and be able to connect 7,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines, enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households.

The supergrid project would be able to serve all of the areas opened up for leasing on Thursday.

Consisting of two parallel high-voltage DC (HVDC) transmission lines, the project would facilitate the development of offshore wind energy throughout the length of its Atlantic Coast route by eliminating the need for grid tie-in points for each project.

“Compared to each wind farm building its own transmission lines, our project is the most affordable, efficient, and environmentally-sensitive solution for connecting offshore wind,” Markian Melnyk, president of Atlantic Grid Development, AWC’s development company, said in December.

Placing wind farms well offshore, where they would be virtually out of sight from land, would also limit the "NIMBY" problems that plagued the decade-long permitting process for the Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.

The HVDC backbone could also connect to additional installations even further out at sea where the wind resource is stronger, more consistent — all while reducing line voltage loss that plagues AC transmission.

Timing critical

First proposed in 2010, the multi-billion dollar AWC project is currently in the early stages of review by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Interior Department announced it had concluded internal review of the project's request for right-of-way on December 20, 2011, opening up a 60-day comment period at the time.

“I think the granting of a right of way for public lands is a huge positive," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at the outset of the comment period.

But timing will be critical for both AWC project developers and wind farm developers alike as each will be dependent on the approval of the other to move forward: without offshore wind farms, the transmission project will not go forward, and without the transmission project, wind farms will face substantially higher construction costs — perhaps, prohibitively higher.

If right-of-way for the proposed route is granted to the AWC in the next few weeks or months as expected, the project would still have to undergo environmental assessment, which could take an additional 18 to 24 months.

Project developers are optimistic, however, saying that laying of the transmission cable could begin as early as 2014.

New Tool Could Prevent Wind Farm Bat Deaths

Timothy Hurst — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:12 +0000

From devastating outbreaks of white nose syndrome to large numbers of bat deaths caused by collision and dramatic changes in air pressure, the health of bat populations has emerged as a major issue for wind farm developers and operators. And while a range of solutions including specialized radar systems and purple wind turbines have been proposed and tested, there has been a gap in research and technology that helps predict the movements of migratory bats.

But now, researchers at the US Forest Service have developed a new technology and predictive tool designed to help wind farm operators reduce impacts on migratory bats while maximizing energy production. The interactive tool, created by ecologist Ted Weller and statistician Jim Baldwin from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, allows users to predict the probability of bat presence (See a demonstration of the interactive tool at the Wolfram Demonstrations Project website).

In research conducted at Dillon Wind Energy Facility in the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Resource Area in Southern California (pdf), Weller and his team used devices that detected the bats’ echolocation calls, and then linked the presence of bats to the on-site weather conditions.

"Increasing the wind speed at which turbines begin to spin and produce energy to the grid has proven to be an effective way to reduce bat fatalities; however, bat activity levels depend on more than just wind speed," says ecologist Weller. “Our work demonstrates the use of a decision-making tool that could protect bats when fatality risk is highest while maximizing energy production on nights with a low chance of fatalities.”

The researchers also found that multiple, properly-deployed echolocation detectors better characterize bat activity at the facility.

“These days, pre-construction echolocation monitoring is as common as meteorological monitoring at wind energy facilities," Weller explains, "so the basic building blocks for these models are available at most proposed sites.”

Funded by the California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research program, the study was a collaborative effort between the USDA, Iberdrola Renewables, and the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative.

Source: North American Windpower
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Caveman Chuck Coker at flickr

Can Solar Energy Lower the Cost of Carbon Capture?

Timothy Hurst — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:20:51 +0000

Researchers at the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi chart a promising course toward cheaper carbon capture

Looming above a test plot full of mirrors like some kind of Transformer-inspired arachnid, the tower at the center of Masdar City's concentrating solar power plant is almost menacing at first glimpse.

Although still only one year into the R&D phase, the 100 kW Beam-Down Solar Thermal Concentrator at Masdar City, the emerging renewable energy research hub located 15 miles from downtown Abu Dhabi, has the potential to generate 75-85 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually.

But as Masdar City Director Alan Frost tells a small group of journalists as we approach the plant on a recent January afternoon, "the Beam Down project is a different kind of concentrating solar plant."

Whereas most concentrating solar power (CSP) plants employing tower technology gather sunlight aimed at them from the mirror arrays below, the CSP tower at Masdar City goes one step further and directs the solar rays back downward and onto a receiver at the base of the tower, thereby eliminating the need for energy to pump the fluid up the tower.

Masdar City's Frost says the pilot project is "quite experimental," but he is also quick to point out that it is "the kind of thing we should certainly do."

The Beam Down at Masdar City is only a pilot project, but Dr. Matteo Chiesa, the head of the Laboratory of Energy and Nano Sciences (LENS) at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, says that substantially greater efficiencies could be found if the project was scaled up.

"The possibility of employing a multi-towers concept we have proposed (due to the fact of a simpler tower structure) can provide a way to optimize the overall energy outcome of the solar field," Chiesa said in an email.

By directing certain heliostats to different towers during the day, says Chiesa, "We have shown that one can reduce the energy losses due to cosine effect."

Solar-assisted carbon capture

But an even more important discovery made by Dr. Chiesa and his team of graduate students, though "not directly and exclusively related to the beam down," is the viability of a hybrid carbon capture process that uses solar thermal energy to assist the capture of carbon dioxide from power plant flue gases.

"Solvent-based Post-combustion Carbon Capture (PCC) is one of the promising technologies for reducing CO2 emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants due to ease of retrofitting," writes one of Dr. Chiesa's students, Masdar Institute's Marwan Mokhtar, the lead author in a forthcoming paper published in the journal Applied Energy (available online Sept., 2011).

While experts agree that the most promising PCC processes in development around the world use absorption (pdf), these technologies are still incredibly expensive because of the energy intensive CO2 separation process.

According to the research team at Masdar, however, solvent regeneration requires thermal energy of lower quality, which can be provided cost-effectively by a solar thermal plant, leaving the higher quality for use in electricity generation at the plant.
To test their hypothesis, Mokhtar, et al modeled the performance of the process on a 300MWe pulverized coal power plant in New South Wales, Australia, using actual weather and wholesale electricity price data from the area. The New South Wales location was chosen because sunny regions with long summers, substantial air-conditioning demand and a reliance on coal-fired power plants would be the most promising candidates for the implementation of this solar-assisted carbon capture technology. Given those conditions, the results of the test were favorable.

"It is shown that the proposed technology can be economically viable for solar collector costs of US$100/m2 at current retail electricity prices and optimal Solar load-Fraction of 22%," the authors write (Solar load-Fraction is the portion of solvent regeneration energy provided by solar energy).

Furthermore, the authors write, reducing the need for heat energy during the daytime coincides with peaks in wholesale electricity prices "thus increasing the revenue stream for a solar-assisted PCC plant."

And though a solar-assisted PCC plant has yet to be built, the economics are likely to become even more favorable as electricity prices continue to climb and solar collector prices decrease.

(Check out this short video of how the Beam Down's heliostats can move to track the movements of the sun and optimize efficiency.)

Disclosure: Tim Hurst's travel to Abu Dhabi was covered by Masdar.
All photos: CC licensed by Tim Hurst

A Transmission Tower Not Hindered by NIMBY Issues

Timothy Hurst — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:51:18 +0000

And now for something a bit lighter. At this week's Interior Design Show, Palette Industries is showing a design they are calling, "an homage to the transmission tower," the Nanton Coat Rack. "From city to city these queues of tapered giants tower above us with outstretched arms, carrying the lifeblood of our modern cityscapes."

"Regarded as an eyesore by some," Palette Industries says, "transmission towers have now become a staple of cascading highway horizons. These steel modern day obelisks scattered amongst our natural landscape have become symbols of transmission and connection."

According to Palette: "The steel lattice design is the contrast of strength and visual airiness. With each strut carefully laced to collectively bear the force of its own weight it becomes a marvel of robustness without the oppression of mass."

The Nanton Rack is currently available for pre-order via the Palette Industries online shop. Starting at $782, the transmission tower-inspired coat rack is not cheap, but isn't that always the case for transmission infrastructure?

(Hat tip: MoCo Loco on Facebook)

Has the Recession Doomed Cleantech Startups?

Maria Surma Manka — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:05:16 +0000

It hasn’t sounded very promising for cleantech startups lately. As even the big guys fail and falter (think Evergreen Solar’s bankruptcy or Vestas’ lay-offs), one begins to wonder whether the little guys can weather the economic storm of this recession, not to mention Congress’ generally allergic reaction to any sort of federal renewable energy standards or goals.

Furthermore, the budget and debt crises here and abroad have led many venture capitalists (VCs) and investors to hunker down and hold on to their money. Some federal policies encouraging renewables have similarly slowed or are in danger of slowing: The production tax credit (PTC) for wind expires at the end of this year, as does the 1603 Treasury grant program that provides cash support to solar start-ups.

After reading all of this negativity, I figured cleantech startups were doomed…right?

But startups are nothing if not nimble.

Some mid-sized companies are taking extreme measures, like moving operations to China: The Chinese not only have a very friendly cleantech business environment, but are the top global market for solar power.

Some analysts predict a wave of buy-outs, mergers, and acquisitions in cleantech markets like solar, especially among panel manufacturers.

And still other start-ups are sitting in somewhat of a cleantech sweet-spot, being small and nimble enough to adjust to the downturn while taking advantage of the stimulus funds Congress invested earlier in the recession. Of course, we can all point to Solyndra as the poster child for what can go wrong, but there are many examples of what can go right when the government invests in an industry hungry for innovators.

Silent Power is a distributed energy storage systems company that manufactures and markets backup power systems for renewable energy, typically solar power. Located in perhaps the unlikely locale of northern Minnesota, the company has developed a battery that can store power for renewable energy and release it back onto the grid during peak demand times, and is one of the few companies that has a system compatible with an advanced battery chemistry, such as lithium-ion.

“The stimulus money invested in the solar and smart grid sectors has created a lot of projects that will keep us busy through 2012 and beyond,” explained Todd Headlee, CEO of Silent Power. “Many of the customers for our renewable energy storage units have been the smaller utilities, like the municipals and co-ops. They can move more quickly to create and implement cleantech pilot projects than the big investor-owned utilities.”

Headlee went on to explain that these storage pilot projects aren’t just free money from the government: Oftentimes utilities have to match half of the project cost. But the desire for renewable energy storage is great and utilities are willing to experiment. As these projects pan out and the successful ones get noticed, more and more utilities have shown interest in smart grid products like Silent Power’s.

Although funding is a priority and a challenge for any startup, Headlee is optimistic about the future because of a few key policies and because of utilities’ hunger for a more efficient grid. For example, Californians are now able to apply for a $2-per-watt rebate for an energy storage unit. This is a huge incentive in a critical solar market that will keep the demand for products like Silent Power’s going. Although it has fewer than 20 employees, the company counts an impressive list of partners and customers, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

So although many cleantech start-ups have fallen victim to the recession, it’s not all doom and gloom. Many sectors will look very different coming out of the recession than they did going in, while others are able to corner a market supported by government investment, helpful policies and a returning optimism from VCs in particular areas like the smart grid and battery storage. The future indeed may still be bright.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by bisgovuk

The Changing Face of Corporate Responsibility

Guest Author — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:29:16 +0000

The following post is written by Roberta B. Bowman, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Duke Energy.

In 1999, fewer than 500 companies issued sustainability reports. That number is now over 3,500. Once only a concern for a few niche companies with sustainability as a core value and brand differentiator, corporate sustainability has moved categorically into the mainstream.

Today, there is a growing demand for companies to demonstrate a responsible, sustainable, long-term approach to business, to produce a statement of their sustainability activities, and to clearly show how this relates to their core business strategy. Corporate sustainability reports now contain detailed performance metrics and reflect the priority companies have given to measuring and managing the impact of their operations.

Several factors have driven the current momentum for sustainable corporate performance:

Stakeholder expectations: Companies understand the many benefits of sustainable operations, especially now that they engage with a wider range of stakeholders – shareholders, employees, business partners, investors, consumers, NGOs, the media – who demand accountability and transparency.

Global standards: The development and acceptance of global standards has played a critical role in sustainability reporting and performance management. Currently, over 1,500 companies across 60 countries have adopted the G3 standards – introduced by the Global Reporting Initiative, which provides a universal framework for disclosure. Additionally, groups such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Resources Institute and the World Intellectual Capital Initiative have also developed useful resources for business reporting language.

Investor interest: Institutional investors and stock exchanges have also asked for better sustainability reporting from listed companies. Consequently, environmental, social and corporate governance indices have been established, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and The Carbon Disclosure Project.

Natural resource constraints: Every company that depends on natural resources is facing increased costs and constraints. Sustainability helps companies improve their operations as natural resource constraints reshape markets.

In November, I had the honour of serving on the Selection Committee of the Zayed Future Energy Prize – a global initiative by the Abu Dhabi government that recognizes and rewards outstanding efforts in the renewable energy and sustainability sectors. I was impressed by the number of companies that had developed approaches, practices and processes to measure their performance as sustainable businesses.

From my experience on the Selection Committee, one thing is clear: corporate sustainability is becoming a boardroom strategy that is driving enormous creativity, efficiency and innovation.

The day may come when understanding the lifecycle of a product or service is so engrained in business that we won’t need to call that “sustainability”. Until then, initiatives such as the Zayed Future Energy Prize help showcase and promote the business value of sustainability, while facilitating sharing and learning between large corporations, NGOs and individuals.

Roberta B. Bowman is Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Duke Energy, and served as a member of the Selection Committee for the 2012 Zayed Future Energy Prize