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Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 5, 2020

Kearsarge Energy Retains GZA for Massachusetts Solar Farm

GZA, a multi-disciplinary firm providing geotechnical, environmental, ecological, water and construction management services, has been retained by Kearsarge Energy and the town of Montague, Mass., for engineering services supporting the development of a new 3 MW solar energy farm.

The project, which will also involve the capping of a long-abandoned landfill in Montague, brings GZA’s total solar generation capacity to over 2,400 MW.

“Solar energy, landfill closings and construction-site engineering support are the three core capabilities of GZA. It’s an exciting opportunity and honor for us to deploy all three of these to support Kearsarge Energy and Montague in this ‘brownfield to brightfield’ project,’’ says Patrick Sheehan, CEO of GZA.

The project will utilize approximately 7,000 PV panels across 10 acres and will be coupled with a battery storage system. While most of the solar panels will be installed on the landfill, 300 kW of the project’s capacity will be installed on canopies placed over a parking area.

As an integral part of the project, 7.6 acres of the landfill will be permanently closed and secured to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) standards. GZA will provide third-party engineering oversight services including documentation and monthly reporting to MassDEP.

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Opportunity for Solar to Dot the Coalfields of Southwest Virginia

The coal mining industry has been declining for decades in the far southwestern corner of Virginia, a trend made even worse of late due to the pandemic. The region has experienced a significant economic downturn as a result, with unemployment and poverty levels rising as no new opportunities have successfully replaced the jobs lost to coal’s decline.

Now, with legislation enacted by the 2020 Virginia legislature, at least one new economic opportunity shines as a bright spot: solar energy.

On April 11, Gov. Ralph Northam signed two significant bills into law: the Solar Freedom Act (HB 572 and SB 710), sponsored by Delegate Mark Keam and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, and the Virginia Clean Economy Act (HB 1526 and SB 851), sponsored by Delegate Richard C. “Rip” Sullivan Jr. and McClellan.

These two laws greatly expand the power purchase agreement (PPA) programs and net metering for customers of investor-owned utilities Appalachian Power and Old Dominion Power, which serve different areas of western Virginia, including the coalfields. For both, the net metering cap now jumps from 1% to 6%, increasing capacity to approximately 14.4 MW.

The Solar Freedom Act provides another opportunity for developers: Old Dominion Power must offer a community solar program to its multifamily residential customers.

Most notably, for the first time ever, customers of Old Dominion territory can take advantage of PPAs, a provision that the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia has advocated since the group’s inception in 2016. In Appalachian Power territory, PPAs were previously limited to nonprofit higher education entities and capped at 7 MW but are now available to non-residential and low-income customers. Both utilities’ PPA programs are limited to 40 MW.

Incentivizing renewable energy

Also for the first time in the commonwealth, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) sets up a renewable portfolio standard. It requires Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to provide 100% of their electricity from renewables by 2050 and 2045, respectively.

Alhough the RPS doesn’t apply to Old Dominion or to electric cooperatives, and so doesn’t reach the furthest tip of the state, Appalachian Power and Dominion may well seek to meet part of their requirements from renewable projects developed in the coalfield region. Both utilities can procure their renewable energy from outside of their service territory, as long as it’s in Virginia. The utilities will seek bids annually for solar and wind generation, opening the door for developers to pitch projects in southwest Virginia.

New life for old coal sites

Under a key section of VCEA, Dominion specifically must develop 16.1 GW of solar and wind energy by 2035, and 200 MW of that must be placed on “previously developed project sites,” including former mine sites, former retail, commercial or industrial sites, parking lots, landfills or other brownfields.

Solar developers and advocates for coal mine land reclamation have been pursuing the possibility of solar energy development on coal-impacted land for years. One such project is slated for construction this year in the town of Wise in southwest Virginia, providing power to a nearby data center as well as cleaning up an old coal mine site.

The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy recently published a story map detailing the great potential for solar development on previously mined land in the Virginia coalfields. With strong interest in developing abandoned coal mine sites for solar energy in recent years, Dominion’s mandate under the VCEA provides a welcome level of market certainty for developers. And the DMME’s thorough analysis gives southwest Virginia a head start in helping Dominion to meet the 200 MW requirement.

A region primed and ready for solar

The new laws set up enormous opportunity for solar developers in Virginia’s coalfields. To boost the potential even more, eight local governments in the region achieved SolSmart designation in 2019, setting themselves up to more readily facilitate solar development.

Over the past four years, the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia has readied the region for solar energy development through education, collaboration and advocacy, but its efforts were stymied by policy inequities and regulatory barriers. Now, the new laws mean solar developers can walk through the region’s door of opportunity and deliver the solar services so many people are seeking.

Chelsea Barnes is New Economy Program Manager for Appalachian Voices, a regional environmental advocacy nonprofit.

Photo by Jimmy Davidson; courtesy Appalachian Voices

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US renewable energy surpasses coal for the first time in more than a century

The coal era could be said to be officially over in the United States.

From pv magazine USA.

A long time ago, as far back as 2019 in fact, the amount of energy produced from renewable sources exceeded coal-fired power generation in the United States for the first time in living memory.

With Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates about U.S. primary energy consumption stretching back to 1635, fossil fuels have been displaced from the top of the pile for the first time since 1885, when coal usurped wood as the number one energy source.

And the trend appears set to continue, with electric utilities having announced plans to shutter 13 coal plants this year, according to environment and energy news organization E&E News. Two other coal plants are due to switch to natural gas.

U.S. coal and renewable energy consumption

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review

U.S. coal consumption is at its lowest level since 1964 and natural gas-powered electricity has displaced generation from coal plants, which have closed as a result.

U.S. coal and renewable energy consumption by source

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review

“Coal-fired power generation has fallen below renewable energy for the first time in more than 130 years – when wood was the primary source of energy in the United States,” said Benjamin Nelson, VP, senior credit officer and lead coal analyst at ratings agency Moody’s. “We expect ongoing secular decline in the demand for coal, accelerated by the economic fallout from the global outbreaks of Covid-19, will persist in the early 2020s.”

Joe Daniel, an analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists reportedly told E&E News: “Right now, the economics of burning coal just don’t make sense.”

Malaysia launches 1 GW solar tender

Sunday will herald the largest PV procurement exercise ever held in Malaysia. Half the available capacity will be directed to 10-30 MW facilities with the balance reserved for plants with capacities of up to 50 MW.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has announced the fourth round of the nation’s Large Scale Solar (LSS) procurement scheme will open on Sunday.

The ministry tweeted, the maximum size of projects eligible has been halved, from 100 MW to 50 MW, to enable more developers to participate. Each developer will be limited to a maximum of three bids.

Half of the available capacity will be for 10-30 MW projects with the balance for larger facilities and successful applicants will have until the end of 2023 to get their plants connected to the grid.

The Malaysian government has already held three procurement rounds under the national tender program.

Previous rounds

A first round, in 2016, allocated 200 MW of capacity across the peninsula plus 50 MW in Sabah, northern Borneo, of the hoped-for total of 370 MW.

The second LSS tender, the following year, was nearer to its intended 520 MW target as it allocated 360 MW of peninsular solar and 100 MW across Sabah and the islands of Labuan. The exercise still fell short, however, despite attracting bids for 1.6 GW of capacity, at prices ranging from MYR0.33-0.53/kWh.

The last tender round attracted 112 bids, for more than 6.73 GW of generation capacity and with a lowest solar energy price of MYR0.17777/kWh ($0.041). However, energy regulator Suruhanjaya Tenaga has shortlisted only five bidders, for a total generation capacity of 490 MW, to hint the exercise will again be under-subscribed.

At the end of 2019, Malaysia had 882 MW of solar capacity, according to International Renewable Energy Agency figures.

GCL-Poly abandons $35m fundraising exercise

Today’s announcement indicates either the board or the listing committee of the Hong Kong exchange where the company is listed put a spanner in the works.

Hong Kong-listed solar company GCL-Poly has announced its plans to raise HK$269 million (US$35 million) to pay down debts have lapsed.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings on April 28 announced its intent to issue 1.3 billion shares – which would have made up 6.15% of the enlarged company – priced at HK$0.209 (US$0.026) each.

The parent company of the polysilicon and wafer manufacturer and heavily indebted solar project developer said the fundraising exercise would generate HK$272 million for the business, for a return of HK$269 million after expenses, with the windfall earmarked to pay off debt and for “general corporate purposes.”

GCL extended the ‘long stop’ date for the exercise until today, via an update on May 15, citing longer time needed to fulfill the conditions precedent for the shares issuance, but today the company conceded at least one of those conditions had not been met and the proposed fundraising would lapse.

The original plan mentioned only two conditions for the placing: approval by the GCL-Poly board and the listing committee of the Hong Kong exchange.

SimpliPhi deploys virtual power plant demonstration project in Louisiana

LFP energy storage manufacturer SimpliPhi Power has partnered with Heila Technologies to deploy intelligent energy storage + solar systems at a demonstration project in Shreveport, Louisiana, with the support of Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO), an American Electric Power (AEP) company. “Behind-the-meter energy storage is a cost-effective way to help utilities and customers alike manage their electricity usage…

The post SimpliPhi deploys virtual power plant demonstration project in Louisiana appeared first on Solar Power World.

PV Evolution Labs Releases Results of PV Module Rankings

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), an independent test lab for the global downstream solar industry, has published the 6th Edition of its PV Module Reliability Scorecard in partnership with DNV GL, a global certification body.

The report reveals eight new Top Performers compared to the 2019 Scorecard. However, it also shows that some manufacturers overlooked minimum safety and quality controls in the rush to bring PV cell and module technologies to market.

“A diverse array of PV technologies has upended conventional R&D timelines to achieve rapid commercialization, leading PVEL to test more cell and module combinations for our 2020 Scorecard than at any point in our 10-year history,” says Tara Doyle, CCO of PVEL.

“Developers and investors need independent, reliable data to balance the reliability risks inherent to new products against the promise of higher-performing, more lucrative projects,” adds Doyle.

PVEL’s annual scorecard ranks commercially available PV modules based on results from PVEL’s PV Module Product Qualification Program (PQP), a comprehensive sequence of performance and extended reliability tests that approximate the impact of decades of field exposure on PV modules. The PQP provides empirical data for PV module supplier evaluations and project-level energy yield and financial models.

The 2020 Scorecard includes first-of-their-kind Top Performer designations for modeled performance. The rankings are based on energy yield models built using PVEL-measured PAN files for PVsyst modeling software. Bifacial PV modules exhibited the strongest results in this new Top Performer category.

Participation in PVEL’s PQP is voluntary for manufacturers and only top-performing module models are ranked in the Scorecard. Since PVEL launched its PV Module PQP in 2012, it has tested over 360 bills of material (BOMs) from more than 50 module manufacturers.

The 2020 PV Module Reliability Scorecard is available as a free download, here.

Photo: PVEL’s landing page

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