2013年1月31日星期四

Patent explore the the solar panel application "Xintiandi"


power inverterRecently, King fog and haze continue to be engulfed in North China a wide range of the sky, to bring great harm to the life and health of the people. Henan Zhengzhou, an office building, looking at the tall buildings and traffic outside the window was shrouded by the haze, has been committed to the development of green energy, green living advocate, and create a green home, "Grace Solar panel  Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as" Yan Sun co-hui, chairman of the Science and Technology "),grid tie inverter deep in thought: With new understanding of the grim situation, serious air pollution clean energy of the whole country city also strengthened his development and utilization of clean energy to the benefit of the people's determination as a lifelong career. 71 patented technologies and products for solar panel  energy applications as soon as possible into the application to the society as soon as possible so that the people have access to clean energy and energy-saving products, contribute to air purification, and optimize the environment, healthy living. "If life use of solar panel  energy for power inverter generation, heating, cooling, drying, etc., you can save a lot of traditional coal fuel power inverter generation application, saving a lot of energy, will greatly improve the air quality of our cities."

New areas of solar panel  energy applications

About Grace Technology, learned that solar panel  Practical World is so broad use of solar panel  energy to replace the traditional coal-fired power inverter, the potential is so great.

Sun co-hui, chairman of the desk, a red five-pointed star-shaped trophy is eye-catching. This is the end of 2012, the company designed the solar panel  car alert ", with industrial design" Oscar, "said the" China Red Star Design Award "was awarded the" China Red Star Design Award.

It is understood, this solar panel  car warning innovative use of solar panel  power inverter generation light-emitting automatically hold up to rain and fog days to open the rear bracket to serve as a warning, given the eye-catching red after the car, to make up for the traditional warning in the fog The rainy day is no warning shortcomings, to ensure traffic safety. In addition, it can also be applied to the cell ID warning, road maintenance, site construction and road car breakdown maintenance alerts.

In October 2011, Sun has a well-known domestic solar panel  industry experience combined Huimin Rui see solar panel  "upstream" photovoltaic materials industry into the "winter", but the applications of solar panel  "downstream" products is in the ascendant, many traditional electricity products are almost inexhaustible supply of clean solar panel  energy to replace, but countries give preferential support subsidies. As a result, a number of entrepreneurial enthusiasm in automation, mechanical and electrical, mold, industrial design and high-end talent coming together, Tianen Technology.

Soon, these young people of the the rich patent application experience accumulated in the other company jobs, by assiduously, launched a large number of solar panel  application products with independent intellectual property rights, in addition to the research, development, installation of solar panel  photovoltaic power inverter generation, scenery complementary system generation, solar panel  heating, solar panel  cooling, solar panel  lighting systems more mature solar panel  engineering, they also launched a solar panel  drying equipment, electric toys, electrical products, charging equipment and a number of exciting new products. Such as: solar panel  cell phone chargers, electric toys, electric mop, car cleaners, table lamps, electronic scales, stereos, radios, flower pots, and even solar panel  sanitation warning clothing.

Sun Hop Hui told reporters: the only time it has applied for 71 patents, seven patents for inventions, and brewing submitted 4 PCT patent application. Developed a wide range of solar panel  application products, easy to capture the market, although the parts procurement, factory configuration, mold design and other reasons, the company more than 30%, more than ten kinds of solar panel  products into the industrial production. Monitoring of patents in the field of solar panel  energy applications, we found that foreign companies in the field of solar panel  energy products in China Patent rapid growth trend, therefore, we must speed up the patent layout, 'staking' to the future of solar panel  energy applications competition in the driving position.

Patented technology to open up "new industries"

In September 2012, the Department of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Housing and Construction Office, the Office of Science and Technology, Industry and Information, such as the Office of Henan Province five departments jointly launched "photoelectric benefit Henan" Engineering, Henan Yan do support the technology to perfect the patented technology, the successful bidder for the new Mississauga 2 MW solar panel  power inverter generation building demonstration projects, the total investment of 20 million yuan, the project will be completed and put into use before the end of March 2013.

Breakthrough advances in technology, often bring new industry is booming. Cooperative technology research and Zhengzhou University, PLA Information Engineering University Professor, Yan two agricultural areas in the the mobile solar panel  drying device, and the solar panel  automatic sprinkler achieved a technological breakthrough.

China's traditional agricultural products such as jujube, Chinese yam, wolfberry, tobacco, grapes, mostly the traditional sun burst Sai dry processing way, often by the site constraints, causing secondary pollution. Yan Technology on the basis of domestic and international greenhouse, a half greenhouse type solar panel  collectors patented technology, developed specialized households suitable for small and medium-sized agricultural and sideline products processing dry portable solar panel  drying device using vacuum tubes for collector plates, heated air continued after the drying chamber materials dried and paraffin phase change thermal storage system to automatically adjust the air temperature, fan enhanced convection heat transfer effect, so that the drying of agricultural and sideline products drying cycle is short, high efficiency, and to improve the quality of a level, to change the traditional way backward agricultural and sideline products processing, welcomed by farmers. Currently, this portable solar panel  drying device in Henan, Shanxi, Xinjiang application.

It is understood that many of our local irrigation are motor-pumped wells groundwater pumping, the amazing electricity bills when pumping often become the burden of the farmers, and wasting a lot of water and carbon dioxide production. Yan Technology developed a new type of solar panel  automatic water-saving irrigation equipment to make up for a variety of deficiencies. This equipment joint use of solar panel  energy, nano-materials, and electro-hydraulic drive automatic detection and other advanced technology, the solar panel -power inverter extraction of groundwater at the same time, the sensors scattered in the field, which automatically senses the humidity of the soil, according to the needs of the plant, deep remote control valve and buried in the depths of 80 cm underground sprinklers, automatically extending the ground to open and close, automatic irrigation, automatic fertilization automatic spraying pesticides Trinity, this technology will set off a revolution in agricultural science and technology in China, to the vast number of farmers with to the gospel.

The world's most advanced solar panel automatic water-saving irrigation equipment has begun to enter the pilot phase in Zhongmu efficient agricultural base. Around this technology, Henan Yan Technology 8 invention and utility model has been publicly and authorization has aroused interest in domestic and international agricultural research and capital investment institutions. The American the Huitong capital, London Jinqiao Risk Investment Group and other investment institutions at home and abroad, has begun approaching and Yan Technology investment and large-scale promotion of this patented technology and prepare counseling Yan technology companies listed in the UK.

Tianen Technology from the date of the establishment of the position for a new science and technology research and development company, solar panel  technology R & D, design-based industry, in addition to the the solar panel  core components "Grace" trademark for the company to master other products, zero production and assembly components through domestic and international bidding. Sun said Hop Huizi Hao, May Henan Yan Technology advocate of the concept of the development of green energy, green living advocate, and create a green home "and the use of renewable energy practice, to create a better environment to contribute to the national energy saving"! let the people breathe cleaner air, a May class air pollution incident does not happen!

All-glass vacuum tube solar panel water heater to run in the winter

I. Introduction



The variety is very early all-glass vacuum tube solar panel collector (hereinafter referred to as the vacuum tube) single to the late 1990s, the main products are long 1.2m, cover glass tube outside diameter 47mm tubes. But precisely made of all-glass vacuum tube solar panel water heater (hereinafter referred to as the vacuum tube water heater), normal winter running, and gradually replaced the winter can not run flat-type water heater, so it is to the rapid development . Variety of vacuum tube, vacuum tube water heater industry, the situation is excellent. But over the years has been spreading some ambiguous statement, such as pipe length is shorter than 1.8m vacuum tube water heater in the winter "bad", will "hibernate", will "strike". In this paper, a vacuum tube water heater in the winter run test data, hoping to play a valuable role in recognize these claims.



Second, the vacuum tube thermal performance test



Vacuum tube to the technical requirements of the national standard nine, three of which related to the thermal properties, they are: air drying performance parameters Y (m2 ° C / kW) the Y larger the value, the better; amount of stuffy sun irradiation H (MJ / m2), H values ​​the smaller the better; Average heat loss coefficient ULT (W/m2 ℃), ULT smaller the value, the better. Table 1 lists the different length of the tube of the same manufacturer, different diameter vacuum collector tube test parameters (Note: they are to meet the technical requirements, where Y ≥ 190m2 ° C / kW, H ≤ 3.7MJ/m2 and the H ≤ 4.7MJ/m2 the cover glass tube diameter of 47mm and 58mm two kinds ULT ≤ 0.85W/m2 ° C), table 37/47-1500 37/47 said inner tube, cover glass tube diameter 37mm and 47mm, 1500 said pipe length 1.5m, the rest and so on.



Can be seen from Table 1, regardless of the length of the tube is 1.5m, 1.6m, 1.8m, cover glass tube diameter is 47mm, 58mm, strict production process, the production of different length, different diameter vacuum collector tube hot Performance does not have significant differences.



Vacuum tube water heater thermal performance test



Vacuum tube water heater according to the technical requirements of the national standard of 17, which is a thermal performance, thermal performance is divided into day useful energy q (q value is excellent) and the average heat loss factor USL (USL smaller). Table 2 lists the different length of the tube of the same manufacturer,power inverter different diameters,grid tie inverter different types of water heaters thermal performance parameters (Note: they are able to meet the technical requirements, where q ≥ 7.5MJ/m2 USL ≤ 22W/m3 · K ), Table 2 Ф47 Ф58 cover glass tube diameter, L1500, L1800, said the length of the tube. L1500 4 L1800 6.



Seen from Table 2, any collector tube consisting of 10 models of the water heater, as long as the quality assurance, its thermal properties, and no significant differences.



1. Water heater in a single day in the winter



Vacuum tube water heater JB4715-21-150/45, it is composed by 21 pipe length 1.5m, cover the collector tube of glass tube diameter 47mm, the center of the tube spacing 70mm, water 150kg, collector inclination 45 °, lighting area 2.04 m2, with the ginning aluminum reflector. A year tracking test this model of water heater, place in Beijing. Table 3 is a water heater in the winter under three different climatic conditions results run from 8:00 to 16:00.



In the three-day average daily temperature below 0 ℃, if a sufficient amount of solar panel radiation, water heater running day to a hot water bath, such as 12, 26 May; hearing amount of solar panel radiation, water heater running day reach the bath water temperature from the hot water temperature required auxiliary heating, add a point of heat, as December 14; snow, such as December 19, the amount of solar panel radiation are undetectable, the water heater warming 0.2 ℃ (can be negligible), the vacuum tube water heater only play the holding role, have to thanks to the auxiliary heating bath water, even so, it will continue to work, not "dormant", not "strike". Solar panel water heaters are generally equipped with electronic instruments to control the electric auxiliary heating device, under the conditions of insufficient sunshine timing to provide auxiliary heating, and electric water heaters are not very different. Case of snow days, nor auxiliary heating,grid tie inverter pipe length 1.8m vacuum tube water heater temperature to reach the bath temperature, then the tube long at 1.8m vacuum tube water heater will be able to reach the bath water temperature? From a scientific point of view, the expert in this field did not dare to jump to conclusions.



2 runs continuously for many days in the winter, the water heater



To sum up, the vacuum tube water heater has the advantage of "dormant" in the cold winter weather,power inverter insufficient light conditions nor auxiliary heating, for this reason, it can continuous multi-day run. Table 4 shows the vacuum tube water heater running continuously for many days in Daqing in JB4715-24-150/45 test results. The water heater by 24 pipe length 1.5m,power inverter cover the glass tube diameter 47mm tubes, pipe center spacing of 61mm, water 150kg, the collector is inclination of 45 °, daylighting area 2.042m2, without the reflector plate.

2013年1月30日星期三

How To Write A Hit Piece Power inverter On The Solar panel Industry In 6 Steps


Hey reporters, having trouble coming up with an idea for a new article? Why don’t you write an attack on the solar panel  industry — media outlets love these! If you want to read that solar panel  is going to destroy the environment or the grid tie inverter , fail miserably, bankrupt your town or the country, just pick up the morning paper. While well-informed solar panel  pros regularly and meticulously refute these articles, publications keep running them and rarely even change the arguments.
But seriously, the solar panel  industry is convoluted and relatively esoteric, so when good business reporters write about the business, it’s not a surprise that they don’t get everything correct, but it is a shame. These articles all tend to point out and ignore the same facts — which is why they have all been wrong about the future of solar panel  power inverter . These articles are rarely factually inaccurate, but they often lack context, mislead with incorrect data usage, or do not account for many of the more power inverter  factors at play.
In fact, these articles are so formulaic, common, and wrong that I decided to save everyone a lot of time and teach you how to make one. So here is how to write a hit piece on the solar panel  industry.
Start off with pointing out some of the industry’s success. Maybe you point to the rapidly growing employment in solar panel , the plummeting costs of systems, or solar panel  widening geographic appeal.

Transition (often with a weather pun) about dark days ahead, clouds on the horizon, or a storm’s a brewing.
Politics!
DO: Say that the industry is reliant of government support and point out some federal government support the industry receives, like the solar panel  investment tax credit. Then say that it looks like they will not get extended because of whatever the political issue de jure is. Past examples have been the recession, the debt ceiling, the election, and the fiscal “cliff.”
DO: Ignore that clean energy incentives have been extended on multiple occasions, sometimes before the deadline and sometimes after it has lapsed.
DO: Ignore the huge bipartisan support for clean energy, the solar panel  workers across red and blue districts, and that many Republican Congresspeople (and citizens) who have been vocally supportive of extending clean energy tax credits.
DON’T: Mention that, as the technology continues to improve, the level of support it needs has decreased over time.
DON’T: Mention that these programs are designed to sunset while subsidies for fossil fuel companies are much larger, are literally decades old, and have no sunset provisions. This is particularly important if you are saying the clean energy incentives will not be extended because of some budgetary consideration.
Bankruptcies
DO: Have a Solyndra section! What’s an anti-solar panel  piece without a Solyndra section?
DO: Mention the loan guarantee program, the Congressional investigation, and the bankruptcy.
DON’T: Mention that the loan guarantee program has otherwise been a massive success with much better record than private investors, that there was never any wrongdoing on behalf of the company and that all those investigations were nothing but noise without substance.
DO: Mention that other solar panel  manufacturers are going bankrupt.
DO: Ignore that that’s a natural part of how industries grow. Like the car and computer chip industries, solar panel  manufacturing started out with hundreds and hundreds of different companies making the products, and is now in a period of consolidation that will just leave a dozen or so really big and really profitable companies standing. While it is messy, it is good for long-term R&D and for consumers.
DON’T: Mention the flip side of the coin — that these companies are going broke because solar panel  are so cheap now — which has caused a massive explosion in the solar panel  installation sector. So please ignore Solar panel City, Sungevity, SunRun, and the hundreds of small, local installers across the country that are helping people in your neighborhood save money by going solar panel .
Try to Establish Neutrality
DO: Throw the industry a bone and mention the multi-year trend of improving solar panel  technology and affordability.
DON’T: Mention that this trend is expected to continue, since that will undermine your article.


Natural Gas
DO: Talk about how “cheap” fossil fuels are. Bring up the recent expansion in natural gas production in the US. This is a good part to throw in some numbers, and maybe go on a tangent about how natural gas is cleaner than coal and how this could split environmentalists. Definitely mention the low price natural gas is selling at because of the increased use of nearly unregulated hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
DO: Talk about how utilities are switching away from coal to natural gas because of low natural gas costs and how that could kill solar panel .
DON’T: Suggest that massively increasing the demand for natural gas will raise its price.
DON’T: Mention the unpopularity of fracking among people who live around drilling sites, the fracking bans that exist across the country (and the world), the potential regulation that might limit fracking,grid tie inverter the fact that the Federal Government supported the R&D that invented fracking, fracking’s cost on human and environmental health, or that fossil fuels are finite.
Basically, point out all the things that are working against the clean energy and for fossil fuels — and none of the things that are going for clean energy and against fossil fuels. Above all else, never mention that the clean energy industry has thrived in spite of all odds. Even with loud and power inverter  detractors and the deck fully stacked against them, it has and will keep growing.
Hopefully, knowing this formula will help keep business journalists from writing mediocre pieces about a widely successful industry.

With solar panel PV Power inverter , we are starting to see the solar panel light


Schools and clinics in rural areas, as well as cellphone masts dotted all over the country, have demonstrated the effectiveness of PV in these situations.

But despite an abundance of solar panel  radiation, we have been slow to follow the lead set by southern European and Brics countries in building large solar panel  PV farms to generate power inverter .

Now South Africa has boldly followed in their footsteps, with the first large-scale renewable energy projects having been signed off by the Department of Energy.

The procurement process, while slow and cumbersome, has been roundly applauded by the industry for its integrity and methodical planning.

Quite significantly, there are some large PV projects included in the list, generating up to 75MW of power inverter .

In all, there are 18 solar panel  PV farms that have been selected as preferred bidders, which between them will generate more than 630MW of power inverter  - equivalent to a small coal-fired plant.

This is a big shift in the PV industry. And there are social benefits beyond the low-carbon renewable energy.

A total of 6351 jobs will be created during the construction of these farms. Operating and maintaining the PV farms is not labour-intensive, but will, nevertheless-create another 283 jobs.

The projects have come a long way in their development, but they have faced some difficult regulatory hurdles on the way. One of them is the rather arduous Environmental Impact Assessments requirements for solar panel  PV projects.

Despite some of the projects taking place on already developed land, and despite the limited environmental impact of PV panels, the projects still have to go through a full environmental impact assessment before they can be registered and accepted by the department.

Following a number of engagements between the PV industry and the Department of Environmental Affairs,grid tie inverter the Department of Energy has agreed to amend the Environmental Impact Assessments regulations in order to expedite PV projects on developed land.

This is a big step forward for the industry. Now they are talking about expanding into small- scale rooftop PV panels. Watch this space for a big expansion of PV projects in the future.

2013年1月29日星期二

POWER INVERTER GRID TIE INVERTER International Magazine Names Projects of the Year at DistribuTECH 2013


Winners were selected in four categories: Best Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project, Best Grid tie inverter  Integration of Renewables Project, Best Smart Grid tie inverter  Project and Best Smart Metering Project. Further details on winning projects will be featured in the April issue of POWER INVERTER GRID TIE INVERTER  International magazine.
Best Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project
Gulf Power inverter  Co. won the Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project of the Year for its Energy Select Program. Based in PensacolaFla., the Southern Co. subsidiary initiated the automated dynamic pricing program for residential electricity users to increase efficiency and sustainability while meeting growing demand. The program's 10,000 participants can automate their home energy usage by programming intelligent devices through a Web portal. The devices automatically respond to the utility's dynamic pricing signals based on settings chosen by the participants. Gulf Power inverter  expects the program will expand to 16,000 participants by 2016.
Runner-up for the 2013 Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project of the Year is Western Power inverter  in PerthAustralia, for its demand response air conditioning trial.
Best Grid tie inverter  Integration of Renewables Project
Duke Energy Corp. won the Grid tie inverter  Integration of Renewables Project of the Year for the Rankin Energy Storage System. In 2010, Duke, S&C Electric Company and FIAMM, a producer of sodium-nickel-chloride batteries, solved a problem Duke was experiencing on distribution circuits with distributed solar panel  generation: Passing clouds were causing solar panel  energy output to fluctuate. In some cases, more than 80 percent of a solar panel  unit's output would drop in less than five seconds. FIAMM delivered 12 sodium-nickel-chloride Zebra batteries to S&C Electric Company for assembly and testing, and the system was delivered to Duke in December 2011. Duke installed the system in the Rankin Avenue Retail Substation in Mount HollyN.C. Since then, the battery control system has been adjusted continuously to develop the most effective way to use storage for solar panel  integration.
Runner-up for the 2013 Grid tie inverter  Integration of Renewables Project of the Year is Acciona Energy for implementing power inverter management capability with advanced control and energy storage systems.
Best Smart Grid tie inverter  Project
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) won the Smart Grid tie inverter  Project of the Year for SmartSacramento, which incorporates grid tie inverter  modernization, customer programs and pilot projects. More than $307 million has been invested in SmartSacramento, including a $127.5 million Department of Energy smart grid tie inverter  infrastructure grant. The program includes more than 20 projects to modernize the grid tie inverter , reduce costs, increase its electrical system's efficiency, boost energy savings, improve reliability and introduce customers to better energy-management tools. SMUD installed more than 619,000 smart meters and has saved more than $15 million of labor charges for billing, meter reading and disconnects and reconnects. In addition, SMUD partnered with six local government agencies to install and implement building emergency management systems with automated demand response capability in more than 120 buildings.
Runner-up for the 2013 Smart Grid tie inverter  Project of the Year is Progress Energy Carolinas for its Virtual Generation on Grand Scale project.
Best Smart Metering Project
NV Energy won the Smart Metering Project of the Year for NVEnergize, which integrates customers with the utility through advanced technologies. NVEnergize has enabled immediate customer benefits by providing customers access to Web-based information about their usage and tools to manage their energy. More than half of NV Energy's customers have signed up for the MyAccount portal, which includes access to AMI presentment and alerts. NVEnergize saves $35 million annually and eliminates nearly 17 million monthly manual meter reads. The integrated remote disconnect and connect switch has eliminated more than 1 million truck rolls. The utility has deployed more than 1 million electric meters and 156,000 gas modules across its service territory, encompassing more than 98 percent of Nevada's population.
Runner-up in the 2013 Smart Metering Project of the Year category is Central Maine Power inverter  for its AMI project.
About POWER INVERTER GRID TIE INVERTER  International
POWER INVERTER GRID TIE INVERTER  International magazine is celebrating its 18th year as the power inverter  industry's leading source of information on electric power inverter  transmission and distribution automation, engineering and information technology. It reaches 40,000 electric utility professionals, managers, engineers and other qualified subscribers. The magazine and DistribuTECH are owned by PennWell Corp., a worldwide media company based in TulsaOkla.
About PennWell
PennWell Corp. is a diversified business-to-business media and information company that provides quality content and integrated marketing solutions for the following industries: oil and gas, electric power inverter ,solar panel water and wastewater, renewable, electronics, semiconductor, contamination control, optoelectronics, fiberoptics, enterprise storage, converting, nanotechnology, fire, emergency services and dental. Founded in 1910, PennWell publishes more than 100 print and online magazines and newsletters, conducts 60 conferences and exhibitions on six continents, and has an extensive offering of books, maps, websites, research and database services. In addition to PennWell's headquarters in Tulsa, it has major offices in Nashua, N.H.; Houston; London; Mountain View, Calif.; Fairlawn, N.J.; Moscow; and Hong Kong.

Breakthrough For Hawaiian Solar panel Power inverter Announced By Clean Energy Groups


Honolulu, HI – January 29, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, national organizations Earthjustice and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC) commended the Hawaiian Electric (HECO) utilities’ path-breaking plans to enable more rooftop solar panel  systems to connect to the grid tie inverter . The utilities and clean energy stakeholders laid out a new and innovative “Proactive Approach” to planning for rooftop solar panel  growth as part of a multi-party working group convened by the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which just concluded its deliberations last week.
HECO will take the initiative to determine how continued growth in rooftop solar panel  may affect the utility circuits, and how the grid tie inverter  needs to be upgraded to enable further expansion. This should ease the way for Hawaiʻi homes and businesses to install more rooftop solar panel . It also offers a model for other utilities across the country to follow as the levels of renewable energy increase on their grid tie inverter .
This proactive approach to distributed solar panel  is the next evolutionary step toward transforming the grid tie inverter  to enable homes and businesses to produce their own clean power inverter ,” said Earthjustice attorney Isaac Moriwake, who represented the Hawai‘i Solar panel  Energy Association in working with HECO, Hawai‘i PV Coalition, IREC, and others to develop the recommendation. “This wave is already happening, and it’s in the utilities’ best interests proactively to move into the future.”
HECO’s proposed proactive approach puts Hawaiʻi on the cutting edge of accommodating high levels of solar panel  energy on the utility grid tie inverter ,” said IREC’s attorney Tim Lindl. “Few, if any, utilities in the country have taken such a progressive stance on this issue, and this program will position Hawaiʻi as the nation’s leader in the integration of small-scale solar panel  resources.”
Utilities nationwide traditionally take an unwelcoming approach to connecting rooftop solar panel  and other on-site generation. They apply conservative blanket limits on renewable energy fed into local circuits (generally 15 percent of peak load), beyond which they may require a customer wanting to install solar panel  to pay for a costly and time-consuming study of the potential impacts on their circuits.
As Hawai‘i reaches higher levels of rooftop solar panel , this has led to logjams of studies that burden the utilities while stalling or blocking new rooftop hookups. The Hawai‘i utilities’ new proactive approach aims to get ahead of such holdups, by having the utility independently track and plan for rooftop solar panel  growth so that when a customer asks to hook up a system, the utility can be ready.
Hawai‘i is seeing a boom in rooftop solar panel , with year-over-year growth over the last several years. In March 2010, HECO reacted to this rapid upsurge by proposing a moratorium on distributed installations on the neighbor islands, which it quickly retracted in response to public outcry. Since then, the penetration of rooftop solar panel  has risen further with no apparent ill effects, and HECO has raised the circuit penetration limit repeatedly to accommodate more customer installations.
In October 2012, HECO again raised the limit to 75 percent of minimum load (which roughly translates to 23 percent of peak) for certain smaller systems. California utilities raised their limit last year to 100 percent of minimum load, which HECO is looking to adopt in the coming months.
This proactive approach, in essence, aims to move beyond arbitrary limits, toward a grid tie inverter  that is planned to fully incorporate rooftop solar panel  and other green energy. The plan filed with the PUC outlines a timetable to implement the proactive approach that continues to 2015.
While building a clean energy economy won’t happen overnight, we have little time to lose,” said Moriwake. “We hope this new future-facing approach will provide a roadmap for other utilities to become more rooftop solar panel  friendly.”
Hawaiʻi is a national trendsetter for renewable energy, and timely and efficient implementation is going to be key for this proactive approach to succeed,” said Lindl. “We will continue to track its progress to help keep up the momentum.”
Procedural Background
The proactive approach recommendation was developed in a multi-party process called the Reliability Standards Working Group (RSWG), involving utilities, state agencies, and clean energy groups. The PUC convened the RSWG in September 2011 at HECO’s suggestion to deal with reliability concerns arising from increasing levels of renewable energy entering the HECO grid tie inverter .
At the PUC’s direction, the RSWG formally concluded its work this month by submitting an array of recommendations and reports, which included the proactive approach recommendation. Other recommendations included proposed further refinements to the utility rules and practices relating to rooftop solar panel  and other distributed generation, and a set of transparent reliability standards for the operation and planning of the utility grid tie inverter .
About IREC
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is a non-profit organization accelerating the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency since 1982. Its programs and policies lead to easier, more affordable connection to the utility grid tie inverter ; fair credit for renewable energy produced; best practices for states, municipalities, utilities and industries. IREC is a respected resource and national leader in quality assessment, workforce development, consumer protection and stakeholder coordination. Since 2005, IREC has provided a foundation for the growing clean energy workforce through the credentialing of trainers and training programs and through the development of quality standards
, About Earthjustice
Earthjustice is the nation’s leading non-profit environmental law firm. The Mid-Pacific Office opened in Honolulu in 1988 and represents environmental, Native Hawaiian, and clean energy organizations. Earthjustice is the only non-profit environmental law firm in Hawai‘i and the Mid-Pacific and does not charge clients for its services.

2013年1月28日星期一

Use of solar energy "eat" junk


Qiantong Town's first solar waste disposal site will be completed and put into use in February, Liang Huang village garbage processing to achieve waste disposal reduction, harmless and resources.

Rural garbage collection and disposal work has been carried out since, "three bags of household, group Cleaning, Village collection, removal and transportation of the town" mode in the first comprehensive promotion Tong village. However, due to the higher ground, transport the garbage in the garbage generated by the Emperor Liang mountains nearly 100 villagers and visitors in place landfill processing. According to town staff, inside and outside the Mount Liang Huang Liao and Western Hills Lane, two villages, the resident population of more than 250 people, and Leung Wong scenic village can reach thousands of people, a large number of visitors, the large amount of garbage, and incineration and landfill impact on villages and scenic environment. In October last year, the former child town town's the first solar waste disposal station construction project site in Liang Huang Shan, "digest" organic waste by means of solar energy.

It is understood that the use of solar energy to and harmless biological treatment of high organic matter content of the garbage, the estimated 60% of the garbage can ultimately the formation of the maturity of compost, farmland, orchard nutritious meals. Not use garbage sent to landfills for centralized landfill. The beam the Tsarskoye Selo solar waste disposal station was put into use, is expected to be able to handle a variety of organic garbage daily 80 kg, will greatly reduce the amount of waste transportation and incineration, in order to improve the village and scenic environment.
A center of the road in TaiyuanShanxi isolation barrier openings interspersed due to motor vehicle between the U-turn, can easily result in a collision. Attention to traffic safety, and recently, a new type of solar panel warning lights in Yingze Street "posts", designed to prevent and reduce the incidence of road traffic accidents in order to remind the driver of the vehicle.
It is understood that the 25 sets of new solar warning lights installed in Yingze East Street center guardrail openings, has begun to use sustainable LED flashes at night, very eye-catching, the driver can serve as a warning, urging them to increase their attention , strictly control the speed of the standard traveling, to ensure traffic safety.
ChileBrazilMexico, the largest growth potential. PeruEcuador, as well as other Caribbean island market will grow.

Caribbean, Latin American photovoltaic market will grow by 400% in 2013

The authors of the report pointed out: So far, the installation in the Caribbean and Latin America have been small-scale and grid tie inverter-connected photovoltaic systems.

The solar industry in these countries dealer services market off-grid system. The lack of competition in these countries, many solar companies as the first opportunity to enter these countries with huge growth potential. Solar energy as the main business of the company and these countries very few companies in similar industries easily can transition to the solar industry. Many foreign solar companies more valuable in these solar market run, local experience than the specific solar market.

Chile reserve projects in Latin America, the Chilean government announced the construction of photovoltaic power plants installed capacity of more than 6GW. Which 10.8MW project has been generating operation, another installed capacity of 22MW power plant under construction. Earlier this month, Chile approved plans to build a 3.1GW PV projects.

Although Chile hopes to become Latin America's largest PV market, but the complex structure of the electricity market in Chile, the project contractor, construction is slow, and the shortage of funds will become a major obstacle to development of the solar market in Chile over the next five years.

Brazilian solar energy market has developed rapidly in 2012. At the beginning of the year, the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency developed a new tariff deduction legislation to develop a distributed power plant market in Brazil. Although the development potential of the Brazilian market in its distributed manager market, the large ground-based power plants of the Brazilian market, a large proportion. The Brazilian government has proposed to build the capacity of more than 2GW PV power inverter plant. In addition, the Brazilian government also announced the construction of a number of the installed capacity of less than 1MW photovoltaic project to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games preparation.

Mexico was the last meaningful growth potential of the market. Unlike ChileMexico and BrazilMexico, the rapid growth of ground-based power plants and rooftop photovoltaic system framework already exists. Deductible tariff program in Mexico in 2007, which greatly simplifies the solar the development of the entire country of Mexico. Large ground-based power plants, clean energy independent power producers has gained a foothold. Mexico's National Power Supply Bureau CFE has been building two experimental projects, and has 46.8MW of power supply contracts and the project developed SonoraEnergyGroup signed, the project's installed capacity of 46.8MW.

The said: Chadbourne & Parke project finance partners KeithMartin 5.7GW of solar power generation capacity in Latin America in 2017 and the conclusion is very alarming, you can say that the market is just taking off.

We have seen a lot of clean energy activities in areas such as MexicoChilePeruBrazil and Puerto Rico. In the past 18 months, Europe and the United States in a lot of wind energy and solar manufacturers and developers have turned to the attention and resources to this region.

The spare core Yeti150 of the Transformers Multi jack solar power


Action power in the end how much power inverter is enough? Many people like to buy 12,000 mA capacity or higher capacity mobile power, but really only large capacity is the best thing? If you choose a large-capacity mobile power, then it is the volume than you expected to imagine, but extremely difficult to carry around, which lost its portability. Goal Zero, the world's largest manufacturer of portable solar products on display at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show next-generation solar generator Yeti 150, a portable power solutions for camping and emergency relief.

 If you are a "Transformers" fans, then you first see it will think that is the heart of the Transformers who this "snowman (Yeti)" named solar mobile power use onboard 15-watt Bolder 15 solar panels for electricity supply, Do not look at its size to be larger than the average mobile power many times, but in fact it weighs only 12 pounds, translated to 5.5 kg, plug-and-play. Put it in the sun for 15 hours can be filled with built-in 150-watt battery can provide 50 hours of power by the AC, USB port, etc. lamps, two fully charged laptop, tablet PCs and smart The phone offers 15 hours of power.

The Yeti 1250 Solar Generator is not for general use, but to disaster prevention application products as a starting point, therefore special emphasis on works with solar panel to charge, can be the highest AC 1200W output, but also non-lithium battery lead-acid batteries available for general electronic products charging, or even provide refrigerators, medical equipment, and the have triple group AC output, cigarette lighter hole, 5V 1.5A USB-powered, As for the prices as high as 400 dollars about 2500 yuan.

Solar controller the ViewStar series, the Beijing EPSOLAR Limited production passed the EU RoHS certification. RoHS certification is to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment "(The restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances ins electrical and electronic equipment) abbreviation, RoHS certification directive by the Council of the EU adopted in 2003 and promulgated . Referred harmful substances including Pb lead, Hg mercury, Cd cadmium, Cr6 + hexavalent chromium, PBDE polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBB poly polybrominated biphenyls six substances, six material composition may be formed on human health and the environment the risk of the EU directive form a green standard, which requires that all finished products and parts components must RoHS materials, building green manufacturing system, the entire supply chain to become "green supply chain", all products shall not contain more than six prohibited substances. The ViewStar series controllers suitable for small and medium off-grid tie inverter PV systems, liquid crystal display, menu-driven operation, load control mode with complete on-site control parameter settings and modify, and rich content. In recent years, the exchange energy product sales always maintain a higher annual growth rate, and the attitude of the leader successfully opened up the international market, international market share also increased dramatically. The Huineng EPSOLAR carry the products of international operations, based on the health of the human body in green awareness, rigorous inspection of finished parts and products in the procurement of raw materials, production processes do control and improvement. ROHS certification success was not only affirmed the efforts and the strength of the exchange energy, and enhance the quality of the brand, more sinks Army the EU market has created favorable conditions to further explore.

2013年1月27日星期日

Constellation Completes 5.7 MW Solar panel Power inverter Project For PGE


Constellation, a business unit of Exelon Corp., has announced the completion of an aggregate 5.7 MW solar panel  generation project for Portland General Electric (PGE) in Lake CountyOre. Constellation financed, owns and operates the solar panel  power inverter  system. In return, PGE purchases and receives all of the electricity generated by the solar panel  at a fixed rate from Constellation under a 25-year solar panel  power inverter  purchase agreement (PPA).
"Portland General Electric is working hard to diversify its portfolio of renewable generating resources while maintaining a reliable supply of power inverter  for its customers," says Jim Lobdell, PGE's vice president for power inverter  operations and resource strategy. "The project marks a significant addition to that effort, and will help us serve homes and businesses in our service area for years to come."
The project, which comprises more than 20,000 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, was supported through a grant from the Energy Trust of Oregon and a business energy tax credit from the Oregon Department of Energy. Through its PPA with Constellation, PGE did not have to commit up-front capital to build the project and retains the environmental attributes of the project to meet the state of Oregon's renewable portfolio standard requirements.
The solar panel  project was co-developed by Obsidian Finance Group and Smart Energy Capital. Belectric Inc. provided engineering, procurement, construction services and construction financing before Constellation acquired the project, and Belectric will also provide operations and maintenance services.
It's not the best day for solar panel  and wind in California, it would seem: it's cloudy even in the desert, and there isn't much wind across the state. But the weather's always the same underground: geothermal power inverter  plants plug along delivering around 20 gigawatt-hours of power inverter  to the California grid tie inverter  every single day. Why aren't we taking more advantage of this 24-7 power inverter  source?
Related
Explained: Understanding Geothermal It's a fair question. Even on days with lots of wind and sunshine, California's geothermal plants often provide more power inverter  to the grid tie inverter  than any other renewable source, or at least come in in second place behind wind turbines. The constant flow of this renewable would seem to offer a solution to that whole "intermittent renewables" dilemma that's prompting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of research into high-tech battery banks and costly solar panel  thermal storage solutions. And yet while wind and solar panel  installations have grown several times over in the last few years, geothermal output in California hasn't grown at all.
Part of the reason is that geothermal power inverter  plants literally do offer a solution: a solution of potentially hazardous materials that emerges from the reservoirs of geothermally heated water deep underground. The fluid that emerges from these reservoirs can include heavy metals, arsenic, and boron, methane, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, and even radioactive elements. The evaporates from this briny fluid, called "filter cake" in the geothermal trade, are regulated as hazardous waste. Imperial County geothermal plants produce between between 40,000 and 60,000 tons of this waste each year.
One person's hazardous waste is another person's ore deposit. Geothermal brine often includes potentially valuable minerals such as lithium that could conceivably be extracted and used in related industry. And comparing geothermal's waste stream to coal-fired plants makes geothermal look pretty good. Still, the hazardous waste issue does make siting geothermal facilities a potentially fraught matter in a political sense.
There's another aspect to the siting problem: geothermal doesn't work everywhere. Right now, to build a geothermal plant, you need three things:
Geothermal heat close enough to the surface that you can reach it;
An area of fractured rock in that heated zone to provide reservoirs for geothermal water and steam;
Water to fill those reservoirs.
Finding all three of those prerequisites in the same place isn't always easy, and at present geothermal power inverter  is only viable where they naturally coincide -- namely, in areas with hot springs and geysers. That's why seismically active Nevada and California are national leaders in geothermal power inverter  production. Even within California, geothermal is more or less limited to a few areas: the north end of Wine Country, the Imperial Valley, the general vicinity of Mammoth Hot Springs.

Seattle-based startup AltaRock is working to develop ways of creating geothermal reservoirs where they don't already exist, by using a technology similar to fracking -- and then injecting recycled plastic to create barriers within the reservoirs they've created. That creates multiple reservoirs from one new one, theoretically allowing more power inverter  plants to harness the newly opened deep-earth cracks.
If AltaRock's technology proves successful, it may prove a huge boon to the geothermal industry -- and will likely open up whole new arenas for public opposition due to siting and seismic concerns.
We'll be watching such experiments with interest. Even if new technology opens up new geothermal territories, however, the field will continue to suffer one distinct disadvantage over wind and solar panel : modularity. It's easy to add relatively small amounts of solar panel  to the grid tie inverter . Solar panel  power inverter  generating capacity can be connected to the grid tie inverter  a few hundred watts at a time. Individual wind turbines have capacities of 2.5 megawatts or less. While geothermal plants don't have to be as large as coal-fired plants to be practical -- plants of less than 50 megawatts aren't unheard of -- it's impractical to add a megawatt or two of geothermal at a time. The plants are more complex than wind or solar panel  photovoltaic facilities, what with deep drilling and high-pressure steam to be piped into turbines and reinjected into the earth.
It's no wonder that wind and solar panel  have seen significantly greater attention in California: they're the low-hanging fruit. For the long term, though, it's clear that geothermal's basic reliability means it has a crucial part to play in balancing California's grid tie inverter  as we wean ourselves from fossil fuels.

Trina Says It’s ‘Open’ to Buying Solar panel Project Developers Grid tie inverter


Trina Solar panel  Ltd. (TSL), the third-biggest solar panel  maker, is considering whether to buy project developers as seeks profits by shifting into the construction of power inverter plants.
I certainly see a huge shakeout” in the solar panel  industry, Ben Hill, president of Trina Solar panel  Europe, said yesterday by phone from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Trina is always open and interested in opportunities. If there is anything that is advantageous to Trina, then we’d action that.”
Trina, based in Changzhou, China, in August detailed plans to develop solar panel  farms using its own modules. It’s seeking to tap more diverse streams of revenue after a global glut of panels and slowing sales in Europe made manufacturing the technology unprofitable.
The company has reported five successive quarterly losses, and its net margin sank as low as minus 26.6 percent in the second quarter last year. Trina trails JA Solar panel  Holdings Co. Ltd. (JASO) and Suntech Power inverter  Holdings Co. Ltd. (STP) in cell manufacturing, and all three Chinese companies are unprofitable.
On Jan. 15, Trina said it received approval from China’s Gansu province for a 50-megawatt solar panel  farm. Chief Financial Officer Terry Wang said last week he expects profits to be generated from the business expansion after the second quarter. The move into developing power inverter  plants is a strategy also implemented by competitors including First Solar panel  Inc. (FSLR), the largest U.S. solar panel  company.
Opportunities’
I don’t think buying more module manufacturing capacity is interesting for Trina at the moment,” Hill said. “But there are other opportunities for us to expand our scope and we will certainly be looking at that.” When asked if that meant buying project developers, he replied, “That could be a possibility.”
Hill said Trina sees “a route to profitability” after undertaking a “large cost-cutting exercise.” Delayed payments from customers that the company had to write off last year are now being received, so the company is looking for a reversal in those write-offs this year, he said.
Trina may benefit from a shift in the global solar panel  market away from Europe, with demand in countries like China, India and the U.S. compensating for a drop-off of installations in European markets such as Germany and Italy, Hill said.
These other markets are picking up the slack, which is fantastic and a big change from Europe really being very dominant over the global market,” the executive said. “Now it’s becoming spread. So for an international company like Trina, it’s really good.”
China Outlook
Hill said it’s possible that China may exceed its target to install 10 gigawatts of solar panel  power inverter  this year. He forecast 5 gigawatts of installations in Germany, down from 7,634 megawatts last year, when it was the biggest market. Globally, “we’re not expecting a significant dip in the market,” he said.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts global installations of about 33.5 gigawatts in 2013, up from about 30 gigawatts in 2012. China, the U.S. and Japan are likely to be the biggest markets, according to the London-based analyst, with Germany and Italy dropping out of the top 3.
Because of a cap on subsidies in Italy, that market will be “challenged” this year, according to Hill. Even so, it’s close to grid tie inverter  parity, meaning it may be able survive without government aid, he said.
There’s still some fat in the value chain which can come out so we can reach grid tie inverter  parity,” Hill said. “Our own projects team is examining possible grid tie inverter  parity project options. That’s ongoing, but I think the market will still shrink in 2013.”

2013年1月25日星期五

Solar panel PV breaks 1GW in 2012,power inverter contraction ahead


Each year about this time, SunWiz sits down for a few days brainstorming with Nigel Morris (Solar panel  Business Services) in which we gaze into a crystal ball and forecast how much solar panel  power inverter  will be installed in Australia over the next five years. Last year the crystal ball was clouded by the inevitability of a roll-back of feed-in tariffs and a severe reduction in solar panel  multiplier, which at one stage we feared could have crippled the solar panel  industry.
Whether paradoxically or ironically, the reduction in government incentives unleashed a Solar panel  Tsunami, to the point where SunWiz is confident that 1 gigawatt has been installed in 2012. When held up to the sun, our crystal ball for 2013 reveals a mixed story, with hope for some and disappointment for others. Government incentives for PV can't really get lower, but this doesn't mean the worst is over.
The headline bad news is that we expect the solar panel  market will contract in 2013. Most people active in today's solar panel  industry haven't experienced an overall market contraction (though those in NSW know how painful it can be).  But were it not for Premiers Newman and Baillieu, 2012 might have been far smaller. The life might have been sucked out of the industry by 2012's incentive-driven solar panel  surges, but anecdotally there's plenty of evidence that new buyers are keeping up with the Jones' in sufficient volumes to soften the blow. We expect that the market contraction won't be as bad as it might once have been... for the market has shown itself to be both resilient and creative; the low barriers to entry have spurred both high competition and will inevitably deliver some new business models that will re-shape the industry. Businesses will experiment with new sales channels, financing models, technologies, and some will be successful. However, any contraction will still result in more losers than winners and it will (now more than ever) pay to be "sun smart".
And in spite of overall market contraction, some sub-markets will grow - the key strategic challenges for PV businesses is therefore how to identify, target, and convert the growth markets, and to open up new markets. Commercial PV will be one of these markets, but its overall volume won't be enough to sustain - don't put all your eggs in that basket. Residential PV (once recovered from the January doldrums) will finally provide some degree of stability, hopefully in sufficient volume to keep businesses cashflow positive while they tackle strategic jobs and opportunities. Financing will provide access to new customers, but will need to be cleverly crafted to differentiate itself. One of the key challenges on the horizon are those of increasing market penetration. Saturation still seems a fair way off,grid tie inverter but marketing efforts will increasingly need to avoid the wastage of reaching customers who have already purchased. Solutions that minimise exports and address network issues will be a challenging but ultimately highly-rewarding offering for the companies that bring and package the right product to market at the right time.
How does the future look, and which are the key sectors and states of opportunity? We're not able to release figures yet, but keep your eyes peeled for the release of our detailed forecast in the next few weeks.

Draft bill seeks to enable industry to solar panel generate own power inverter in WV


In our world of big, centralized power inverter  plants, proposals for the many kinds of small plants distributed here and there pose challenges.

"Distributed generation could bring a lot of benefits, but our regulatory structure just isn't set up to handle it,"solar panel said James Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law. "The utilities aren't required to buy their power inverter  from them and, if they do agree to buy it, it isn't clear what is a fair price."

West Virginia policy allows residential-scale generators to run their meters backward, up to the point of offsetting all purchases.

The challenge is really about the big small plants: installations of tens of megawatts that industrial facilities put in to take advantage of efficiencies that are specific to their industrial processes — and often generate more electricity than the facility itself needs.

Plants like these have benefits well beyond the facilities they serve, Van Nostrand said.

Because the plants are of significant size and they're located on-site, they help utilities — and that means ratepayers — postpone the need for both generation and transmission investments.

Because they often rely on renewable or highly efficient fossil fuel technologies, they support economic activity with little or no additional emissions of pollutants.

And when the industrial facilities capture the heat that is typically wasted in power inverter  generation and use it, for example, to heat a greenhouse — a practice known as "combined heat and power inverter " — efficiency skyrockets, from a typical 35 to 40 percent of the fuel's energy content put to work to upwards of 75 percent. That reduces industry's costs, increases competitiveness and preserves and creates jobs.

But such investments face two major,grid tie inverter and related, barriers, according to a distributed generation working paper drafted by Energy Efficient West Virginia and Industries of the Future – West Virginia: It's hard for businesses to finance projects with an indeterminate payback period. And existing regulations make it hard to find favorable markets for excess power inverter .

West Virginia project illustrates. The example was presented at a conference in Charleston last year, where the name of the company was withheld, and was reviewed in the working paper.

The company proposed to burn a biomass waste-product stream to generate heat and power inverter , according to the white paper. Sized to provide the right amount of heat for the facility's needs, the project would have 14 megawatts' more generation capacity than the company could use. But because the rate offered by the local utility for the excess power inverter  was insufficient to attract financing and the law prevents sales directly to third parties, the project did not go forward.

What can be done to enable job-creating projects like these?

A study resolution drafted by EEWV and IOF-WV for introduction in the coming legislative session would direct the Joint Committee on Economic Development to study policies that could remove the barriers to distributed generation in West Virginia.

State policies could specify which generation technologies qualify, the working paper states. They could set the size of eligible projects and the terms of power inverter -purchase contracts.

And they also could outline a means of arriving at a fair price for the power inverter . That could be different, specific prices for different generation technologies, or it could be based on some calculation of costs avoided on the parts of the utilities.

While the intent of this legislation is, in part, to open up cost-saving opportunities for industry, Derrick Williamson, attorney for the West Virginia Energy Users Group of large industrial users, cautioned lawmakers to look carefully at cost in any study that would be done.

"While it may be true that individual industrial users could benefit from combined heat and power inverter  initiatives," Williamson said, "if a utility is required to purchase the excess electricity at a cost that is in excess of current rates, then other ratepayers will end up paying for that."

The study resolution would have the committee report to the Legislature in 2014 with recommendations and draft legislation.

2013年1月24日星期四

Why solar panel PV without subsidies is a “no-brainer”grid tie inverter for households


There was a huge response to our article on Wednesday, summarising the UBS report on how a boom in un-subsidised solar panel  installations would cause a revolution in energy markets. Most people wanted more details of how UBS arrived at their calculations, so weve decided to share more of their report on what makes solar panel  PV – and battery storage – such a compelling proposition to households and businesses, even without subsidies.
There are two principal pieces to the equation – the falling cost of solar panel  and battery manufacturing on one side, and the rising cost of grid tie inverter -based electricity on the other. UBS estimates the total cost of installed solar panel  PV (including inverters and balance of systems costs) has fallen by well over half in the last few years, and will continue to do so, while grid tie inverter  prices (ironically including the cost of renewable subsidies) have risen and will continue to do so.
In combination, we see this as a game-changer for the competitiveness of solar panel  systems,” the UBS energy team writes. “Private households and commercial users will be able to save on their electricity bills if they install a solar panel  system – without any benefits from subsidies.” As we noted yesterday, just on economics, it said every household in Germany, Italy and Spain should have a solar panel  system by the end of the decade.
UBS says unsubsidised solar panel  systems are now at break-even but, on its estimates, the payback time of unsubsidised solar panel  systems will shrink to some five years for commercial installations and some 10 years for residential rooftops by 2020. It says the economics work in Germany, Italy and Spain, even if financing might be a problem for the latter economy.
As an example, UBS gave the cost of a family-home rooftop solar panel  system (4kWp) in Germany at today’s prices (€7,400 fully installed) – which amortised over 20 years equated to €450 a year. Without subsidies, a solar panel  system’s profitability depends almost entirely on the amount of solar panel  power inverter  directly consumed by its owner (rather than sold back into the grid tie inverter  with a feed in tariff).
UBS estimates a 4,500kWh household with a 4kWp PV system should be able to reduce its electricity purchases from a utility by 30 per cent without significantly changing its consumption habits. In southern Germany, such a household would save around €380 on its electricity bill, which would otherwise amount to some €1,260. Another €80 of income results from the sale of excess electricity if a price of 25 €/MWh is assumed. In the example above, it would already be worth installing a PV system, as the combined cost would be slightly smaller. It says solar panel   PV systems will become even more attractive as retail tariffs continue to rise, and solar panel  costs continue to fall.
As well, the increase in unsubsidised solar panel  PV capacity will ultimately lead to higher electricity prices, because the demand reduction will force utilities to spread the grid tie inverter  investments and cost of the renewable subsidies over a smaller base. But as grid tie inverter  prices rise, households will respond by increasing their self-consumption rate.
They could do this by co-ordinating the timing of energy-intensive processes, aiming at increasing the self- consumption rate of a PV system, in the same way utilities offer time-of use meters. Solar panel  developers are already offering such technology. And/or they could add a battery storage system, which UBS describes as the other big game changer in the energy game.
UBS says storage technologies allow the owner of a solar panel  PV system to further cut electricity purchases from utilities: either because they can store solar panel  PV power inverter  not immediately consumed, or they could charge the battery on low rates overnight for use in the morning or at other time.
UBS notes that  According to different field tests suggest a battery with a capacity of 3kWh allows a 4,500kWh household with a 4kWp PV system to lower its electricity consumed from the grid tie inverter  by 50-60%. (Note that this graph below is for Germany).
Note that the cost of these technologies will be lower in southern Germany, primarily because of the better solar panel  resources. UBS notes that in Spain, a 3.5kWp solar panel  PV system could deliver the same output as a 5.5kWp system in Germany, which would make that attractive even though retail prices in Spain are not as high as in Germany.
UBS says solar panel  PV without subsidies will also be very attractive to commercial groups – particularly stores, supermarkets and offices, but also to most manufacturing enterprises that operate  during daytime, because they can consume virtually all of the electricity they produce, and because some could  use cheaper ground mounted systems rather than roof mounted modules.
A 130kWp solar panel  PV system could deliver a self consumption rate of around 70 per cent for a German manufacturing company with an electricity consumption of 200MWh per year. A 200kWp system could deliver more solar panel  power inverter , but at the same time more energy would be either wasted or sold back into the grid tie inverter  for little added benefit to justify the extra cost.
From a managerial point of view, the installation of an unsubsidised PV system is nothing but a one-time investment that leads to a sustainable cost reduction and constitutes a partial hedge against increasing energy prices or general cost inflation over a 20-year period,” UBS notes. “However, an enterprise will only make the investment decision if the expected cost savings exceed the company’s internal required rate of return – ie, the PV installation competes with other investment projects. In this regard, we note that any cost savings that exceed the depreciable investment costs are treated as taxable earnings.”
What does all this mean for the utilities themselves? As we noted in our report yesterday, it’s bad news. UBS estimates that unsubsidised solar panel  in Germany alone could amount to 80GW, and cut up to 14 per cent from demand from the grid tie inverter . The addition of battery storage would lower the peaks in the morning, midday and evening (up to 11pm), and the profit pool for utilities could be slashed by half. As much as 55 per cent of demand from the grid tie inverter  by family homes could be reduced by solar panel , and 18 per cent of demand from commercial businesses, and 60 per cent from agriculture. In Spain, the total reduction in demand from the grid tie inverter  could be 18 per cent.
The consequence of this is the closure of both coal and gas-fired generation. As if on cue, RWE announced on Wednesday that it may mothball some gas fired plants, because they are operating 1,500 hours a year instead of planned 3,000 to 3,500 hours a year, while Jochen Homann, head of federal grid tie inverter  regulator Bundesnetzagentur, predicted a “a string of closure announcements,” of fossil fuel plants because they are now losing money. He said Germany needed “intelligent reform of market design.”
Companies most affected by the predicted boom in unsubsidised solar panel  – and UBS nominates RWE, E.ON, CEZ and Verbund, along with Italy’s Enel and Spain’s Iberdrola – will be arguing strongly for this. But don’t expect this to slow down the pace of renewables significantly, as the Opposition parties, the SDP and the Greens, which won power inverter  in Lower Saxony over the weekend, are even more pro-green energy than the Merkel government. And as UBS notes, “we think the awareness of ‘green’ investments is higher in markets like Germany.”
One final graph, a breakdown of where self-consumption solar panel  could replace demand in Germany, by industry segment.
On battery storage technology, UBS notes that traditional battery technologies from the vehicle sector, such as lead-acid batteries, have mainly been used as back-up solution for blackouts. While low cost  (50-800 €/kWh), their lifetime is limited to 2-6 years, and give a maximum of up to 2,000 cycles. Other technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries, are more promising, given deep-cycle resistance, a long lifetime, and higher cost-reduction potential in the near future.
UBS says although the products already available come at an end-customer cost of €1,500-2,500 per kWh of usable storage capacity – and a battery management system is also needed, which adds another 500-1,000 €/kWh to the costs for small-scale PV systems – these products are the first of their kind and are not yet produced at large scale, and they contain high margins for sales agents (up to 30%).
We expect the end-customer cost of lithium-ion technology applied in the PV sector to decline significantly over the next few years. We do not attribute this to any technological leaps, but rather to the start of industrial manufacturing, which should lead to lower unit costs; higher production volumes should improve components purchase conditions, and a more widespread application should decrease margins for sales agents,” UBS says. And because the  characteristics required by batteries used to store solar panel  power inverter  are similar to those for batteries used in e-vehicles, progress in the production of batteries for e-vehicles should directly benefit solutions in the field of solar panel  power inverter  storage.
We also highlight that the current cost of an e-vehicle battery pack based on the lithium-ion technology and manufactured at low volumes ranges from 800 to 900 €/kWh, while in the area of consumer electronics, the battery cost ranges from 200 to 300 €/kWh. In our analysis, we assume that a complete battery solution for storing PV power inverter  currently comes at a total cost of 2,500-3,000 €/kWh and will decline by 10% per year.”
The first graph below compares the current retail price of electricity in Germany with the cost of PV and battery at different battery technology costs. It assumes that the price of solar panel  PV is constant (which it is not).