Lắp đặt điện mặt trời | Khải Minh Tech: tháng 7 2020

Thứ Sáu, 31 tháng 7, 2020

Sunrun signs deals with three California Community Choice Aggregators to combat PSPSs

Sunrun has secured exclusive partnerships with three Bay Area Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), which collectively provide power for approximately one million homes. The partnerships are with East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), which supplies power to Alameda County; Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE), which supplies power to Santa Clara County; and Peninsula Clean Energy, which supplies power to San Mateo County.

The CCAs sought options to help increase the use of clean, affordable energy while also providing backup power to more of their customers following forced blackouts by PG&E that affected hundreds of thousands of customers in the Bay Area. The customers of the CCAs benefit from affordable clean energy along with backup power capabilities, while each CCA can benefit from stronger customer relationships and optimized procurement of clean capacity resources. Sunrun benefits from the co-marketing initiatives and advanced data-driven targeting and optimization enabled by the partnerships, which can enhance the value provided to each customer.

The partnerships initially target providing solar energy and backup power to up to 6,000 households over the next three years in areas vulnerable to emergency power shutoffs during wildfire season. Over 10 percent of the households will be low-income households, a population that is particularly vulnerable during power shutoffs. In total, the partnerships envision building out more than 13 megawatts of home-sited capacity resources.

“Sunrun’s Brightbox rechargeable solar battery system can help families power through blackouts and better manage energy costs when they need it most,” said Lynn Jurich, Sunrun co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We’re excited to partner with these innovative energy providers to begin paving the way towards a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system.”

In addition to providing backup power in case of a power shutoff at each home, these resources can be networked together to build virtual power plants, which can help reduce peak power demand, and effectively enable the use of local resources to stabilize the operation of California’s electrical grid in real time. This need has historically been met through purchasing electricity supply capacity from distant, centralized power plants. Sunrun’s agreements with the three community suppliers will shift a portion of those purchases to new, local solar and battery systems that provide the benefits of backup power directly to local homes. People will be able to use power near where it’s produced, which reduces the need for expensive transmission and distribution system upgrades.

-- Solar Builder magazine

Lắp đặt điện mặt trời Khải Minh Tech
https://ift.tt/2X7bF6x
0906633505
info.khaiminhtech@gmail.com
80/39 Trần Quang Diệu, Phường 14, Quận 3
Lắp đặt điện mặt trời Khải Minh Tech
https://ift.tt/2ZH4TRU

Sol-Ark solar inverters now have closed-loop communication with Discover AES batteries

Sol-Ark continues to form solid partnerships with energy storage companies, the latest being Discover Battery. The two have implemented a closed-loop communication between Discover’s Advanced Energy System (AES) LiFePO4 and the Sol-Ark 12K and 8K Hybrid All-In-One inverter systems over CANBus using a LYNK Solar Gateway.

In addition to remote reporting of state-of-charge (SOC) and system-level status through Sol-Ark’s web monitoring services, closed-loop communication allows the AES battery management system (BMS) to optimize Sol-Ark’s charge parameters to extend battery service life and reduce recharge times by over 25% when compared to other lithium solutions.

“Solar installers can offer their customers a true system solution, one that finally demonstrates the potential for advanced lithium energy storage when used in modern grid-connected and off-grid applications,” says David Norman, vice-president of Discover Battery. “We can improve recharge times by nearly a third over other lithium batteries with the same capacity while reducing the use of generators, saving money on diesel fuel and increasing useable power harvested from any solar array.”

The Discover AES communicates accurate SOC, historical and real-time status information that Sol-Ark’s networked hardware can read and react to. The AES BMS is also able to take over and control all aspects of charging based on many conditions.

-- Solar Builder magazine

Hectate Grid Awards MHPS the Johanna ESS Project

Hecate Grid, an energy storage company formed by Hecate Energy and InfraRed Capital Partners Ltd. (acting in its capacity as manager of InfraRed Infrastructure Fund V), has awarded Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Inc. (MHPS) the Johanna Energy Storage System (ESS) project.

Hecate Grid will own and operate this grid-connected energy storage system, which will be supported by long-term contracts with an electric utility and a community choice aggregator. MHPS will supply full design and turnkey engineering, procurement and construction of battery energy storage systems (BESS) totaling 20 MW / 80 MWh at Johanna 1 and Johanna 2 in Santa Ana, Calif., and will service the project under a 10-year long-term service agreement. The project will be online by the end of 2020.

The Johanna ESS is a part of a critical project integrating renewable energy into the California Independent System Operator (ISO) grid to validate distributed energy resource (DER) capacity assumptions, study grid requirements and develop technology expertise for broad-scale DER implementation. The multiyear study will determine whether clean distributed energy can offset the increasing demand for electricity in central Orange County.

“At MHPS we take pride in understanding our customers’ needs and providing customized short- and long-duration energy storage solutions,” says Tom Cornell, MHPS’ vice president of NEXT.

“We anticipate a beneficial partnership with Hecate Grid, which has deep experience in utility-scale energy storage projects, to support California’s efforts to evaluate, optimize and move forward with viable clean energy technologies,” he adds.

As more and more intermittent renewable power is added to the California grid, energy storage becomes increasingly important. The Johanna ESS project will be a stand-alone source of short-term energy storage that can relieve grid congestion and store power for up to four hours during periods of oversupply from renewables.

MHPS will provide Hecate Grid with a complete turnkey BESS solution, including a battery management system and an energy dispatch management system for a fully functional project up to the utility point of connection. To design its custom BESS solution and select the best equipment from key suppliers, MHPS draws upon its OEM experience designing lithium-ion batteries and its experience designing complete energy storage solutions.

MHPS and Hecate Grid selected lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry (LiFePO4, commonly referred to as LFP) for this project. LFP provides superior thermal stability and chemical stability, which significantly lower the risk of overheating and fire relative to other chemistries. LFP also provides a longer life than other chemistries.

Photo: A rendering of a Hectate Grid BESS

The post Hectate Grid Awards MHPS the Johanna ESS Project appeared first on Solar Industry.

Finnish industrial park gets 12 MW smart grid with central inverters

Inverter manufacturer Fimer provided its PVS980-58 central inverter solution for the project, which will derive 35% of its energy from solar PV.

Italy’s Fimer, which acquired ABB’s inverter business last year, has supplied inverters for the PV-powered Lemene smart grid project in Finland.

The municipality of Lempäälä, in southern Finland, will host a 12 MW smart grid featuring a 4 MW ground-mount PV system. The smart grid will deliver power to 300 businesses in the Marjamäki industrial area.

Finland experiences a lot of power outages, which is why many utilities have started to develop independent smart grids to improve energy security. The country also elected a new government last year, following a campaign based on green promises. The country has vowed to achieve full decarbonization by 2035 and is now speeding up the development of renewables.

The Lemene project is one of 11 planned installations to secure nearly €5 million in funding from the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. As one of the largest solar PV projects in Finland, the Lemene installation has an annual output of 3,600 MWh, which roughly corresponds to the electricity consumption of 1,620 apartment buildings.

Fimer provided its PVS980-58 central inverters for the project. It claims that the technology will be crucial in ensuring the project’s success, as its solutions allow for high energy yields in on-grid and off-grid modes.

“This is a highly innovative and prestigious project, with ambitious targets for greater decentralization and energy self-sufficiency within Finland, says Filippo Carzaniga, chairman of the board of Fimer. “A key priority for us was to ensure that the technology could consistently perform and work in synergy with other renewable sources, withstanding the varied weather conditions in Finland without compromising on the yield.”

Fimer said its central inverter solution is particularly well-suited for applications in harsh solutions due to its self-contained, low-maintenance cooling system.

“We are now looking at how we can extract heat from the solar system for co-generation and we are also investing further in a 1MW solar plant over the next five years,” said Kai-Kristian Koskinen, head of the electrical business at Lempäälän Energia.

Fimer plans to open a new R&D facility later this year in Helsinki. It will be its second research center in the Finnish capital.

“The facilities and its team support testing and verification of Fimer’s portfolio of inverters for safe operation and endurance across a wide range of climatic conditions, including the compatibility to grid codes, as well as testing and measuring harmonics and grid interactions,” the company said.

US utility invests in Australian prefab PV system manufacturer

AES, one of the world’s largest power companies, has made a strategic investment in Sydney-based prefabricated solar system manufacturer 5B.

From pv magazine Australia

US utility AES has made a strategic US$8.6 million (AU$12 million) investment in Sydney-based 5B, in a show of confidence in the company’s prefabricated, redeployable solar technology.

The funds will help the startup to scale up its operations. It has already been tapped to build the world’s largest solar farm near Tennant Creek in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Maverick is the name of 5B’s modular PV systems, which come preassembled onto concrete blocks that replace conventional mounting structures. A single Maverick is a ground-mounted DC solar array block of 32 or 40 PV modules, which can be made with any standard framed 60 or 72-cell PV module.

Prebuilt Mavericks can be folded up, packed onto trucks for transport, unfolded, and then connected to a home or business in less than a day. “These significant advantages will help us meet our customers growing needs in today’s ever-changing environment,” said Andrés Gluski, president and CEO of AES.

For the full story, please visit our pv magazine Australia site.

Chinese PV Industry Brief: Big deals in the Middle East

Shanghai Electric has won a contract to build the fifth 900 MW phase of a 5 GW solar park in Dubai. JA Solar also agreed this week to supply 138 MW of PV modules for two projects in Jordan.

Shanghai Electric said on Wednesday that it has secured a contract with Saudi energy giant ACWA Power to build the fifth 900 MW phase of the GW Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park in the United Arab Emirates. The company had already won a contract to build the fourth phase of the project. The 900 MW fifth phase will be commissioned in the second quarter of 2021, with the electricity to be sold to Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) under a long-term power purchase agreement. The fifth phase was originally supposed to feature 700 MW of CSP, but was later expanded to include 250 MW of PV capacity. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is expected to reach 5 GW and will include large-scale storage and hydrogen facilities.

JA Solar has supplied high-efficiency PERC modules for 134 MW of PV capacity at two sites in Jordan. Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Venture (FRV), a unit of Jeddah-based Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, is developing the two 67 MW plants. JA Solar has provided FRV with around 1 GW of panels since 2016.

Longi told shareholders this week that it will adjust its sales guidance for 2020 due to unexpectedly low PV development related to the pandemic. The monocrystalline module producer reported delivery delays in several countries, including India.

Trina Solar held a commissioning ceremony on Wednesday for the first phase of its 4 GW production facility in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. The company will produce PV modules at the facility, using 210mm large-size wafers.

Datang said this week that it deployed 1.46 GW of PV capacity in China last year, up 31.5% year on year. The state-owned company added that solar projects are part of its ongoing strategic shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

SFCE said this week that Deloitte has stepped down as its auditor “due to the professional risk associated with the multiple uncertainties [which] exist relating to [the] going concern of the [SFCE] group and the level of audit fees.” The Hong Kong-listed solar developer has replaced Deloitte with BDO.

Panda Green will have to wait a little longer for its shareholders to vote on a proposal for a subsidiary of state-owned majority shareholder Beijing Energy to offer it RMB1.5 billion ($215 million) of leasing services through to the end of 2022. Information about when a vote to approve the scheme will be held was due to be published on Friday, but it has now been postponed to Aug. 28.

McKinstry is expanding solar partnerships in Western Arkansas

McKinstry, a national construction and energy services firm, continues to expand its municipal government partnerships in western Arkansas with the delivery of four new solar photovoltaic systems. The new solar arrays will generate more than 6 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, saving close to $350,000 in utility costs for Sebastian County, Miller County, and the City of Nashville, Arkansas.

“McKinstry is committed to helping our partners across Arkansas identify opportunities to save taxpayer dollars by cutting utility costs while simultaneously making their facilities more sustainable,” said Skip Woessner, McKinstry’s Business Unit Manager for Arkansas Energy and Technical Services. “Together we are engineering solutions that allow communities and organizations to upgrade critical equipment and improve energy efficiency with zero cost burden for taxpayers.”

Sebastian County and McKinstry are continuing their partnership through the delivery of two solar photovoltaic systems, for a total of 1.18 megawatts of solar capacity, to reduce energy consumption costs and to provide the county with a reliable source of power. The solar photovoltaic arrays will generate 2.7 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, offsetting 77 percent of the county’s electricity consumption and saving more than $134,000 in annual utility costs. These savings will offset the $2.5 million in costs associated with the project.

Miller County is partnering with McKinstry for the delivery of a 600 kW photovoltaic solar array and numerous facility improvement measures to reduce utility and operations and maintenance costs, and to provide a reliable source of power for the county. McKinstry will enhance multiple county facilities through LED lighting retrofits, building management system optimization, HVAC replacements and renovations, building envelope upgrades, and indoor water conservation measures. A combined annual cost savings of more than $213,000 will help to offset the $5 million in costs associated with the project.

In a partnership with the City of Nashville, Arkansas, McKinstry will deliver a 1 MW solar photovoltaic array. When complete, the Nashville solar photovoltaic array will generate 2.1 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, offsetting 54 percent of the city’s electricity consumption and saving more than $138,000 in annual utility costs. These savings will pay the costs associated with the ground-mounted fixed tilt system.

These projects are made possible in part through the Arkansas Energy Office’s Arkansas Energy Performance Contracting (AEPC) program or The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS). Energy performance contracting is a tool for paying for efficiency upgrades such as lighting, chillers, boilers, water systems, and renewable generation over time through annual energy savings. McKinstry is a pre-qualified energy service company under the AEPC program and TIPS, serving multiple Arkansas clients with a focus on energy-efficiency projects, renewable energy development and consulting.

Installation of the solar photovoltaic arrays and facility improvement measures are scheduled to be complete in 2021.

-- Solar Builder magazine

FYI: Texas-based CPS Energy is prepping for some big renewable energy RFPs

CPS Energy, the largest municipally owned, fully-integrated electric and gas utility in the United States, is taking a significant step to diversify its generation portfolio and meet the energy demands of one of the fastest growing regions in the country. The San Antonio, Texas-based utility, is releasing a global Request for Information (RFI) that will help in the development of a future Request for Proposal (RFP) that will incorporate non- or low-emitting generation and demand-side resources consistent with the utility’s Flexible Path vision.

The RFI will inform the design of two strategic CPS Energy initiatives, the FlexPOWER Bundle and FlexSTEP. The FlexPOWER Bundle is the next step in CPS Energy’s Flexible Path, the over- arching strategy to transform the utility’s generation fleet to lower and non-emitting sources for decades to come.

The following are key dates for the RFI:

August 5, 2020: Deadline for Respondent’s Questions
August 12, 2020: CPS Energy Responses to Submitted Questions
August 31, 2020: Respondent Information Submittals Due

CPS Energy is open to pre-partnered proposals; it encourages respondents to engage with others to propose more creative and well-thought-out solutions.

To access the RFI, visit the CPS Energy website. Shortly after receiving feedback, CPS Energy will launch the RFP for up to 900 meawatts of solar, 50 megawatts of battery storage, and 500 megawatts of firming capacity.

Process details

The information obtained through the RFI process will help CPS Energy seek a partner or partners through a future request for proposal process to implement the FlexPOWER Bundle. The FlexPOWER Bundle package of cutting-edge generation and firming capacity technologies will supplement 1,700 megawatts of aging power generation capacity and be broadly designed to meet the needs of a growing metropolitan service area. The FlexPOWER Bundle RFP will seek to add up to 900 megawatts of solar, 50 megawatts of battery storage, and 500 megawatts of new technology solutions.

The RFI is also seeking information for innovative solutions and technologies for the next phase of the utility’s successful energy efficiency program, the Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP). STEP was launched in 2009 and was designed to empower customers to manage their energy consumption through efforts like energy efficiency, conservation and adoption of renewable energy. The goal of the program was for savings of up to 771 megawatts, roughly the equivalent of a power plant, over the course of 12 years. The goal was reached early – in August of 2019 – a year ahead of schedule.

CPS Energy is now in the one-year STEP Bridge program as it prepares to present a new, long-term version of STEP, called FlexSTEP. FlexSTEP will be designed to meet the changing needs of our customers and introduce new energy efficiency technologies.

“Our CPS Energy team looks forward to joining forces with global energy innovators who are interested in partnering with us on our Flexible Path into the future. We invite innovative energy and technology providers to participate in this RFI and to provide their ideas on how to transform our generation sources to power our future,” said Paula Gold-Williams, President & CEO of CPS Energy.

“The FlexPOWER Bundle initiative is as exciting as it is important. CPS Energy has shown it is willing to embrace the kind of bold innovation required to remain on the cutting edge of technologies and power generation solutions that we need for a clean, sustainable energy future,” said Ron Nirenberg, Mayor of San Antonio. “In recent years, the utility has come a long way in developing efficient renewable energy sources, and CPS Energy’s commitment to continue leading the way is indisputable.”

CPS Energy’s Guiding Pillars of Reliability, Customer Affordability, Security, Safety, Environmental Responsibility and Resiliency are at the basis of its Flexible Path strategy and all the utility’s decision-making processes. As a municipally owned utility, CPS Energy engages in actively listening to its customers and community. Through a survey of stakeholders and customers, CPS Energy knows affordability and service reliability are paramount to customer satisfaction.

-- Solar Builder magazine

Meyer Burger secures creditor approval to buy SolarWorld factory in Germany

Creditors of SolarWorld Industries have approved the sale of a production facility to Meyer Burger. The Swiss tech group plans to manufacture highly efficient solar modules at the plant.

From pv magazine Germany

Industrial equipment producer Meyer Burger revealed plans to become an integrated PV module manufacturer in June. Within a month, the Swiss tech group said it would build production facilities for heterojunction solar cells and PV modules in the German towns of Bitterfeld-Wolfen and Freiberg.

In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, the company will rent buildings formerly occupied by solar cell manufacturer Sovello on a long-term, cost-effective basis. And in Freiberg, it has acquired a factory from insolvent PV panel manufacturer SolarWorld Industries, in a deal that has just been approved by creditors.

As reported by insolvency administrator Christoph Niering, the purchase price for the facility in Freiberg is €12 million and includes module production and a logistics center. The four production lines still located there will be converted and integrated into a new production process in the future.

Meyer Burger’s German subsidiary also acquired all intellectual property rights, including brands, patents, and domains. “In Meyer Burger we have found a competent partner who will bring the excellent infrastructure at the Freiberg location back to life,” said Niering.

Meyer Burger plans to produce 400 MW of heterojunction solar cells per year in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It will make PV modules at the factory in Freiberg, which will also have an initial production capacity of 400 MW per year. Annual output at the Freiberg facility will be expanded to 5 GW by 2026. Both the Bitterfeld-Wolfen and Freiberg plants are scheduled to start operations in the first half of 2021.

New reports look at 2019 Arizona battery explosion

A series of failures triggered thermal runaway and an explosion at Arizona Public Service Electric's McMicken battery facility, according to two new reports that look at how to prevent similar disasters in the future.

From pv magazine USA

New details have emerged surrounding the Arizona Public Service Electric (APS) battery failure and corresponding explosion that hospitalized eight firefighters and one police officer in Surprise, Arizona, in April 2019.

Two recently published reports – one by APS, and the other by the Underwriters Laboratory Firefighter Safety Research Institute – reveal new details regarding the incident

“The suspected fire was actually an extensive cascading thermal runaway event, initiated by an internal cell failure within one battery cell in the BESS: cell pair 7, module 2, rack 15,” DNV GL Energy Insights said in the APS report. The cascading thermal runaway was likely caused by an internal cell defect – namely, abnormal lithium metal deposition and dendritic growth within the cell.

While the system’s clean agent fire suppression system began operating to contain the event, the system is designed to extinguish developing fires in ordinary combustibles, rendering it entirely ineffective against cascading thermal runaway. From there, the event spread through every cell and module in rack 15 of the system, via heat transfer, as it did not have adequate thermal barrier protections between battery cells. Such thermal barriers could have significantly prevented the spread.

Expansive thermal runaway produced a large quantity of gases, which created a flammable atmosphere within the system. Three hours after the event began, firefighters opened the system’s door, agitating the gases and allowing them to make contact with a heat source or spark that triggered the explosion.

In short, the two reports identified five root causes of the explosion:

Internal failure in a battery cell initiated thermal runaway
The fire suppression system was incapable of stopping thermal runaway
Lack of thermal barriers between cells led to cascading thermal runaway
Flammable off-gases concentrated without a means to ventilate
The emergency response plan did not have extinguishing, ventilation, and entry procedures

According to APS, existing battery storage system safety standards and procedures only acknowledge cascading thermal runaway as a risk. These standards do little to prohibit thermal runaway, and fail entirely to address the risk of non-flaming heat transfer to neighboring cells, modules and racking. According to the utility, those same standards focus on the means to manage a fire, but provide no solutions to restrict or slow cell-to-cell and module-to-module thermal runaway.

The Firefighter Safety Research Institute report came to the same conclusions regarding what led to the event, but it also outlines steps that can be taken in order to mitigate the likelihood of a similar failure in the future.

Basic Firefighter, Officer, and HAZMAT training should emphasize ESS safety
Research and full-scale testing should be conducted to understand the most effective and safest tactics for response to lithium-ion battery incidents
Fire service personnel should define a conservative potential blast radius and remain outside of it while treating the event, until definitive tactics and guidance can be established
Lithium-ion battery systems should incorporate gas monitoring that can be accessed remotely
Additional plans for increased monitoring, safety standard development and communication between the battery system, operators and first responders

While these standards will take some time to develop, there is a pressing need for them sooner rather than later. APS has plans to install at least 850 MW of nearly identical batteries across Arizona in the near future. And the United States is now on track install as much as 2,500 MW of battery storage by 2023, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

Germany added 437 MW of PV in June

June installations brought first-half capacity additions to 2.36 GW, as Europe's largest solar market largely shrugged off the impact of the pandemic.

From pv magazine Germany

Germany deployed around 437 MW of fresh PV capacity in June, according to new figures released this week by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). Installations fell slightly from 446 MW in May, but June capacity additions were still considerably higher than the monthly totals in the January-April period.

Developers connected 2.36 GW of solar to the grid in the first half of 2020. In the same period last year, new additions hit 2.02 GW. If the current pace of growth continues, this year’s installations could be on track to surpass last year’s total additions of roughly 4 GW.

As usual, the rooftop segment accounted for the largest share of deployments in June, at 336 MW. Rooftop arrays are still supported by feed-in tariffs, but the Bundesnetzagentur has said that the FITs will be cut by 1.4% in August, September and October, due to the levels of development registered in the past few months.

Germany’s cumulative installed PV capacity stood at 51.5 GW at the end of June.

This is your SolarWakeup for July 31st, 2020

Weekend Vibes. Happy Friday and end of July. Here’s your rundown and fast feedback on today’s news in solar.

Support Energy News. EPA doesn’t like the coverage they are getting from E&E News and canceled their subscription. If you can, support E&E by subscribing. They used to have a fantastic TV studio that I’d love to host SolarWakeup TV in. In the meantime, solar should make a deal with coal plants across the Country, shut down the coal plant and replace it with solar plus storage and use the savings to clean up the site and help with job training of the displaced employees.

Virtual Power Plant Contracts. A month ago, if you listened to the SolarWakeup podcast, we had this story in my conversation with Nick Chaset from East Bay Community Energy. This is another virtual power plant using local resources. This type of project will become harder to do in the future based on the decision by the CPUC to take local resource adequacy responsibility off the hands of CCAs and giving it to PG&E and SCE.

Home Electrification. In a double newsday keeping my PR friends busy, Sunrun signed a JV with SK E&S, a Korean conglomerate. Each company will contribute $75million to a joint venture aimed at home electrification, which will be interesting to watch and understand what that means. SK E&S will also buy $75million worth of Sunrun shares at $36 per share.

Earnings Season. Sunnova beat and reaffirmed guidance for the year. Generac is predicting positive cash flow in clean energy in 2020. Next week we get Enphase and Solaredge. In case you missed it, listen to the Generac earnings call and you’ll get a look at how a CEO should handle an earnings call. It was a easy flowing conversation off the cuff without talking points and scripts. Solar companies should take note.

Utilities As Public Good. Utilities get monopoly status because they have a public responsibility, a responsibility to serve. This has been hijacked by shareholder desire for growth and dividends. First Energy is not out of the woods as 5 people get indicted by an Ohio grand jury including the Ohio Speaker of the House. It shows how far utilities are willing to go to get what they want from politicians and regulators. It seems beyond potential to rectify the situation but let’s hope it can be done.

CPV Project Goes Bust. A SolarReserve project has gone bust and a DOE loan guarantee will lose a little over $200million. Digging into PR talking points from 5 years ago, here is what the SolarReserve CEO had to say about the future of CPV at the time “We can’t power the planet with rooftop solar and the case for developing CSP when PV is cheaper.” I think rooftop solar won.

Opinion

SolarWakeup Live: What Is A Virtual Battery? With Extensible Energy’s CEO John Powers

Best, Yann

The post This is your SolarWakeup for July 31st, 2020 appeared first on SolarWakeup.com.

German PV tender concludes with lowest price of €0.0490/kWh

The country's latest tech-specific PV tender was oversubscribed, but the final prices are slightly lower than those recorded in the last procurement round.

From pv magazine Germany

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) reported this week that the country’s latest tech-specific tender for large-scale PV, held on July 1, brought in 174 bids for 779.4 MW of solar capacity.

The tender’s allocated volume of 192.2 MW was significantly oversubscribed. The authorities awarded 30 bids. The final prices ranged from €0.0469(0.06)/kWh and €0.0536/kWh, down slightly from the preliminary round.

In the onshore wind energy tender, prospective developers submitted 26 bids for 191.0 MW of capacity, out of a total tendered volume of 275.1 MW. The accepted bids ranged from €0.055/kWh to €0.062/kWh. As in the previous round, the average final price was €0.0614.

“The results of the tender for wind and solar energy show the well-known picture of a slowdown in the energy transition,” said Julia Verlinden, a spokeswoman for energy policy at the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group. “The PV tenders for photovoltaics are regularly oversubscribed. In the past two years, more photovoltaics could have been awarded for almost every tender.”

The next tech-specific tender of the year for onshore wind farms and PV systems is Sept. 1. Innovation tenders will be held for the first time on this date.

Strategies to prevent overvoltage-induced inverter disconnections

Australian scientists have identified seven methods to prevent PV losses when overvoltage-induced inverter disconnections occur. The methods include battery storage, reactive power inverters, export limits, distribution static synchronous compensators, the replacement of old conductors in power grids, load reconfiguration, and dynamic voltage restoration.

Scientists at the University of South Australia have identified a series of strategies that can be implemented to prevent solar power losses when overvoltage-induced inverter disconnections occur, due to voltage limit violations.

The research group said on-load tap changers (OLTC) and shunt reactors – two conventional technologies that are used to address the overvoltage issue – are not particularly effective for PV induced overvoltages, due to the intermittent nature of solar power itself. OLTCs are used to regulate power transformers in electrical energy networks and industrial applications, by enabling voltage regulation and phase shifting by varying the transformer ratio under load without interruption. Shunt reactors are applied to high-voltage power networks to stabilize the voltage during load variations.

Seven more technologies can be used in conjunction with the existing solutions. They include battery storage, inverters that can provide reactive power, export limits, distribution static synchronous compensators, the replacement of old conductors in power grids with bigger ones, load reconfiguration, and dynamic voltage restoration (DVR).

Batteries and inverters

The first of the proposed solutions is considered very effective, especially if implemented with proper sizing, siting and energy management. Current storage costs, however, are identified as the main barrier to mainstream deployment in the short term.

“However, recent trends show a reduction in battery costs and this trend is expected to continue,” the researchers said.

Countries such as Germany and Australia have introduced rules in recent years to allow inverters to provide reactive power support. “However, enabling this mode either reduces active power generation or increases the size of the inverter,” the scientists said.

This solution, which is considered a valid option for medium-voltage grids, is considered less effective for low-voltage networks. In such grids, reactive power variations have a relatively limited impact on voltage.

“Therefore, solar inverters aren’t highly effective in reducing the PV curtailment issue,” the group concluded, adding that they are only effective in reducing PV curtailment if they are combined with storage.

Export limits

Applying a 5-kVA limit on single-phase inverters to restrict excessive reverse power flow is a measure that has been implemented by Australian utilities. However, this approach should define an export limit that can address the overvoltage problem without excessive levels of PV curtailment.

Distribution static synchronous compensators (DSTATCOM) are considered particularly effective during solar power generation peaks. The technology can provide continuous reactive power support, but it is not considered ideal for reactive power compensation.

Larger conductors

Larger conductors are one possible way to increase grid capacity and enable more solar power without voltage fluctuations. “Increasing the cross-sectional area of the conductors can reduce the voltage drops,” the researchers said. “However, this solution is costly.”

Defined as an approach than needs more research, the reconfiguration of PV installations could help to improve voltage profiles. “It will allow utilizing the network infrastructure more effectively without much additional infrastructure cost,” the scientists explained.

The last of the seven solutions – the use of a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) – is considered a low-cost, small-sized and effective approach. The device is described as a power electronic controller relying on a voltage source inverter, a filter, and a capacitor as a storage unit.“It is basically a series compensator whose output is connected in series with the distribution feeder,” the researchers said. “It can regulate the voltage by injecting a voltage of required magnitude and phase angle into the feeder.”The solution is expected to become a viable option in the future, especially if combined with storage. “With the use of the battery the size of the DVR can also be reduced,” the scientists said.

Potential impacts

The researchers presented the seven technologies in “Effects of high solar photovoltaic penetration on distribution feeders and the economic impact,” which was recently published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. They quantified the impacts of PV penetration in terms of reverse power flow, overvoltage and undervoltage events at a real 11 kV distribution feeder in South Australia, where the PV penetration level is around 21.72%.

They estimated maximum possible PV generation losses, as well as the resulting financial losses, related to inverter shutdowns triggered by overvoltage issues.

“At this level of penetration, the overvoltage events cause nearly a thousand ‘nominal voltage violation’ instances at the inverters leading to at least 625 MWh of PV generation loss due to inverter disconnections,” the scientists explained. “For the customers, this represents an annual financial loss of over $106,000 due to the loss of energy export revenue.”

Fuzzy logic MPPT to improve PV system performance

A Pakistani-Chinese research group has demonstrated a new maximum power point tracking method, based on a fuzzy logic algorithm to provide faster results. The converter tech is claimed to have an impact on PV system efficiency and provide isolation between the load and the PV array.

Researchers from Comsats University Islamabad in Pakistan and China’s Hohai University have demonstrated a new maximum power point tracking (MTTP) technique that’s based on a fuzzy logic algorithm and is said to provide faster results than conventional methods such as incremental conduction.

“It tracks the maximum power in 0.03 seconds as shown in simulation results,” the scientists said.

Fuzzy logic is known to provide clear solutions to complex problems, as it reflects human thinking and decision-making. While conventional logic works on precise inputs and produces definite outputs such as “true” or “false” and “yes” or “no”, fuzzy logic tends to include the range of possibilities between “yes” or “no” – like “certainly yes” or “possibly not,” for example. It is an approach to computing that is based on “degrees of truth” rather than the usual “true or false” dichotomy.

The researchers presented their findings in “Design and analysis of robust fuzzy logic maximum power point tracking based isolated photovoltaic energy system,” which was recently published in Engineering Reports. The proposed technique was simulated through MATLAB-based Simulink software. The scientists used a 250 W Canadian Solar panel with an open circuit voltage of 59.9 V and a short circuit current of 5.49 A, at standard conditions of 25 C and 1,000 W/m² irradiance.

They also used a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) in a simulated offgrid PV system and boosted it through a push‐pull DC‐DC converter, which consists of a transformer to provide the isolation and a proper boost in voltage.

“The boosted DC energy is inverted into AC using a sine wave inverter and LCL filter,” the scientists said. The LCL filter is commonly used to attenuate the switching frequency harmonics produced by grid-connected inverters.

“The proposed fuzzy logic voltage source inverter is capable of producing different types of output such as square wave, modified square wave, and pure sine wave depending on the requirements of application,” the scientists explained.

The transformer boosts the DC output voltage of the PV system to 330 V DC, which is in turn converted into root mean square (RMS) 220 V AC through the fuzzy logic power inverter and an H‐Bridge inverter. The H-bridge inverter is an inverter topology that enables voltage to be applied across a load in either direction. “This inverter is designed at 10 kHz switching frequency and the fuzzy logic controller is used to remove the lower order harmonics,” the scientists said.

The proposed converter technology has a significant impact on PV system efficiency, while also providing isolation between the load and the PV array, the scientists concluded. The fuzzy logic MPPT algorithm at the core of their technique can help them to sense the voltage and current at each time step and then calculate the power.

“This power is compared with the previous instant power for obtaining the change in power as well as the current is also compared with the previous current for obtaining the change in current,” the scientists wrote. “This change in power is divided by the change in current for obtaining the error. Then this error is compared with the previous error, for obtaining the change in error.”

India to hit large-scale PV target of 60 GW by 2022

India’s cumulative renewables capacity will hit 120 GW to 125 GW by December 2022, with solar to account for about 50% of the total, according to a new report by ICRA.

From pv magazine India

India’s cumulative renewable energy installations will reach 120 GW to 125 GW by December 2022, with solar to account for about 50% of the total, according to new research by ICRA, an India-based credit ratings agency.

They expect utility-scale PV capacity to hit the 60 GW target set by the government. The rooftop solar and wind power segments will not perform as strongly, however.

“While [the 120-125 GW estimate] is lower than the capacity target of 175 GW set by the government of India (GoI), the incremental capacity addition is estimated to be healthy at 33 GW to 38 GW,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, group head and senior vice president of corporate ratings at ICRA.

For the full story, please visit our pv magazine India site.

Have Your Say On Proposed Solar Export Charges

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is calling for submissions on proposed changes to National Electricity Rules, including allowing for charges to be whacked on those who export solar electricity. Surplus electricity generated by residential solar power systems is exported to the mains grid and the system owner usually receives a payment for this energy […]

The post Have Your Say On Proposed Solar Export Charges appeared first on Solar Quotes Blog.

EDF Renewables North America Signs PPA for Chuckwalla Solar+Storage Project

EDF Renewables North America, an independent power producer and service provider, has signed a 22-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy for a 200 MW AC solar photovoltaic project coupled with a 180 MW, four-hour battery storage system.

The Chuckwalla Solar+Storage project expects to come online by the end of 2023.

The project is located on the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians Reservation, 35 miles northeast of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nev. The project will benefit the Moapa Tribe and local community over its operating life through land lease, tax and other payments and approximately 300 temporary construction related jobs.

By coupling the solar facility with an energy storage solution, electricity produced during peak solar hours can be dispatched later in the day, thereby creating a balance between electricity generation and demand. Energy storage can further smooth electricity prices, manage evening energy ramps, mitigate curtailment and provide grid stability.

“EDF Renewables is pleased to strengthen our relationship with NV Energy, building on our 2019 agreement to develop and build the Arrow Canyon Solar+Storage project,” says Ian Black, vice president of west region development at EDF Renewables North America.

“The battery and solar system work together to provide more energy during the summer evening peak hours, when system needs are the greatest. NV Energy can utilize the battery at their discretion in all months of the year allowing mitigation of demand spikes,” he adds.

EDF Renewables is committed to providing solutions to meet Nevada’s carbon-reduction goals. With 35 years of experience and 16 GW of renewable projects developed throughout North America, EDF Renewables provides a fully integrated bundle of energy solutions from grid-scale wind, solar and solar+storage projects to electric vehicle charging and energy storage management.

Photo: EDF Renewables’ Solar web page

The post EDF Renewables North America Signs PPA for Chuckwalla Solar+Storage Project appeared first on Solar Industry.

Chevron Enters Partnership to Expand Renewable Assets

Chevron U.S.A Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corp., and Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., a diversified international generation, transmission and distribution utility, have entered into an agreement seeking to co-develop renewable power projects that will provide electricity to strategic assets across Chevron’s global portfolio.

Under the four-year agreement, Chevron plans to generate more than 500 MW of its existing and future electricity demand from renewable sources.

“Chevron intends to lead in the future of energy by developing affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy,” says Allen Satterwhite, president of Chevron Pipeline & Power.

“This agreement advances Chevron’s commitment to lower our carbon footprint by investing in renewable power solutions that are reliable, scalable, cost efficient and directly support our core business,” he adds.

Initial renewable power projects are expected to be sited on Chevron land and construction is planned to start in 2021. The projects will be focused on powering Chevron’s operations in the U.S. Permian Basin (Texas and New Mexico), Argentina, Kazakhstan and Western Australia. Projects will be jointly owned and co-developed by both parties. Algonquin will lead the design, development and construction of the projects. Chevron will purchase electricity from the jointly owned projects through power purchase agreements.

Algonquin, parent company of Liberty Utilities and Liberty Power, generates renewable energy through its portfolio of long-term contracted wind, solar and hydroelectric generating facilities, representing more than 2 GW of installed renewable generating capacity.

Photo: Chevron’s Sustainability web page

The post Chevron Enters Partnership to Expand Renewable Assets appeared first on Solar Industry.

AES Makes Strategic Investment in 5B to Accelerate Solar Transition

The AES Corp., a global power company, has made a strategic investment in 5B, a solar technology innovator based in Sydney, Australia.

5B’s MAVERICK design enables customers to add solar resources at a pace that is three times faster while providing up to two times more energy within the same footprint of traditional solar facilities. Together, AES and 5B will help clients accelerate their use of solar energy.

The total global investment in the solar energy market between 2021-2025 is projected to reach $613 billion as companies transition to greener sources of energy. 5B’s MAVERICK design enables companies to make that transition more quickly and while using less land.

The MAVERICK design is a pre-wired, prefabricated solar solution that is folded up, shipped to site and rolled out. The 5B approach streamlines engineering, procurement and construction for ground-mounted solar facilities. MAVERICK also removes common barriers for organizations to deploy solar resources, including the availability of land and ground penetration, making solar possible in more places while providing the flexibility to easily relocate the resources in some applications.

“Solar is the most abundant clean energy source in the world, and 5B’s innovative design produces twice the energy for any given area,” says Andrés Gluski, president and CEO of AES.

“In addition, a project using 5B’s technology can be built in a third of the time when compared with conventional solar. These significant advantages will help us meet our customers growing needs in today’s ever changing environment,” he adds.

AES will benefit from the use of 5B’s MAVERICK technology across many of the projects in its expected 2 to 3 GW of annual renewables growth. This year, AES Panama will fast-track the delivery of a 2 MW project utilizing the MAVERICK solution. In Chile, AES Gener will deploy 10 MW of MAVERICK technology as a part of the expansion of its Los Andes solar facility in the Atacama Desert in the north of the country.

Following a $8.6 million investment round that included AES, 5B joins a growing portfolio of energy technology platforms in which AES has made strategic investments. AES had a foundational role in the creation and growth of the energy storage market through Fluence, its joint venture with Siemens. Today, Fluence is the largest grid-scale battery energy storage solutions company in the world.

AES is also collaborating with Uplight, a digital customer energy platform in the U.S. AES’ strategic collaborations with and investments in these companies have helped them to accelerate the future of energy.

The post AES Makes Strategic Investment in 5B to Accelerate Solar Transition appeared first on Solar Industry.

Thứ Năm, 30 tháng 7, 2020

Community Energy finds power purchaser for 50-MW solar array in Kentucky

Community Energy has entered into an agreement with Henderson Municipal Power & Light (HMP&L), enabling 50 MW of new solar power in western Kentucky. Through a 20-year PPA, HMP&L will purchase 100% of the output of a new solar farm under development by Community Energy. Located in Henderson County, this facility is expected to be…

The post Community Energy finds power purchaser for 50-MW solar array in Kentucky appeared first on Solar Power World.

Discover AES, Sol-Ark Partner on LiFePO4 Battery Communication

Discover Battery and Sol-Ark have implemented a closed-loop communication between Discover Advanced Energy System (AES) LiFePO4 and Sol-Ark 12K and 8K Hybrid All-In-One inverter systems over CANBus using a LYNK Solar Gateway.

“We can improve recharge times by nearly a third over other lithium batteries with the same capacity while reducing the use of generators, saving money on diesel fuel and increasing useable power harvested from any solar array,” he adds.

Photo: The Sol-Ark 12K All-In-One inverter system

The post Discover AES, Sol-Ark Partner on LiFePO4 Battery Communication appeared first on Solar Industry.

Sunrun to bring more than 13 MW of solar + storage to three Bay Area CCAs

Sunrun has signed three new agreements with leading community energy suppliers in the Bay Area to provide affordable, clean solar and battery backup power to customers who are facing rising electricity costs and power shutoffs. Sunrun has secured exclusive partnerships with three Bay Area Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), which collectively provide power for approximately one…

The post Sunrun to bring more than 13 MW of solar + storage to three Bay Area CCAs appeared first on Solar Power World.

US Battery to explore using Gridtential Energy’s Silicon Joule technology with lead-acid batteries

Gridtential Energy, the inventor of Silicon Joule bipolar battery technology, and flooded lead-acid batter supplier US Battery have entered into a formal agreement to collaborate on Silicon Joule bipolar battery technology. Under the terms of the agreement, US Battery and Gridtential Energy will industrialize bipolar plate pasting and curing processes. Additionally, Silicon Joule bipolar AGM…

The post US Battery to explore using Gridtential Energy’s Silicon Joule technology with lead-acid batteries appeared first on Solar Power World.

Sunrun partners with SK Group on new venture to offer whole-home electrification

Sunrun, SK E&S and other affiliated companies announced they have co-invested in a new venture with plans to electrify the home. This partnership will use the resources and knowledge base of both well-established companies to advance the development of a modern energy system. Using Sunrun’s existing home solar and battery business as a starting place…

The post Sunrun partners with SK Group on new venture to offer whole-home electrification appeared first on Solar Power World.

Direct Solar of America Enters LOI to Acquire Standard Eco Solar

SinglePoint Inc. says its majority-owned subsidiary, Direct Solar of America LLC, has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) to acquire Standard Eco Solar, a developer and installer of grid-tied solar electric systems in Texas, Illinois and Arizona for a combination of cash and stock.

Direct Solar and SinglePoint are currently conducting due diligence and SinglePoint will issue common stock once the definitive agreement and audit are completed, facilitating this investment through Direct Solar of America. The transaction is expected to close no later than December. Standard Eco achieved unaudited revenues of $12,331,703 in 2018 and $11,345,061 in 2019 and was operationally profitable in both years.

“We are excited to have entered into this LOI and to begin the work necessary to complete this important acquisition. We believe this is an important first step forward for Direct Solar in achieving the goal of being the premier national residential and commercial solar provider,” says Pablo Diaz, CEO of Direct Solar of America.

“We look forward to reaching a definitive agreement and to add the experienced management and financial strength that comes with this acquisition, as we work to build significant long-term value within our business and for the SinglePoint shareholders,” he adds.

This is the first acquisition from the recently announced national solar expansion through targeted business acquisitions for SinglePoint and Direct Solar. This intended acquisition will broaden the combined service offering expertise and increase the revenue base in addition to expanding gross profits.

Standard Eco represents an ideal acquisition that is well-positioned to leverage and complement the sales and customer acquisition platform built by Direct Solar that has recently expanded its nearly national footprint to cover 34 states where Standard Eco currently operates. Direct Solar intends to use this potential transaction, when completed, as a catalyst for its recently announced national solar installation strategy.

Photo: Direct Solar of America’s landing page

The post Direct Solar of America Enters LOI to Acquire Standard Eco Solar appeared first on Solar Industry.

Deloitte abandons Chinese solar company SFCE because of going-concern fears

The auditor cited the threat posed to the debt saddled business as the reason for resigning its role, effective from today.

Debt-saddled Chinese solar developer SFCE has lost its auditor, it announced to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today.

A statement by the developer, which said Deloitte “confirmed that there are no matters that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company,” is unlikely to mollify investors given the reason cited for Deloitte’s resignation in today’s brief update.

SFCE said the London-based auditor had walked away, with effect from today “due to the professional risk associated with the multiple uncertainties [which] exist relating to [the] going concern of the [SFCE] group and the level of audit fees.”

The latest setback is another reminder of the mountain of debt piling up at SFCE, formerly known as Shunfeng International.

Last month, SFCE admitted it could not guarantee receipt of a more-than-60% slice of the monies expected from a fire sale of 140 MW of solar project capacity in Xinjiang. The company said it had been unable to structure the sale such that it could withdraw if the purchaser – the Zhejiang Zhengtai New Energy Development Co Ltd subsidiary of Zhejiang Chint Electronics – failed to pay the RMB288 million (US$41 million) owed by the solar project companies to SFCE on top of the RMB181 million asking price.

SFCE said Belgian-based BDO Limited would replace Deloitte as its auditor.