Is your roof suitable for PV? Just google it.

Article Parished www.sunwindenergy.com on the 21st of august 2015

One of the engineers at Google has a PV system on his roof. A lot of his friends and acquaintances always told him that they certainly couldn’t install a PV system on their roof because their place was not sunny enough. If you are already working for Google, the idea presents itself to use its own services and start a new project which turns Google Maps into a big solar land registry.

Thus “Project Sunroof” was born. This webpage lets users enter their address and uses a combination of Google’s mapping data and solar irradiation data to calculate how sunny their roof actually is. More specific, Google wants to show how many sunshine hours per year a house gets and even provide an estimate as to how much money the homeowners could save by installing a PV system. 

Potentially, everything could be a business model

For these calculations, the orientation of the roof in question, shade by trees and nearby buildings and even the weather patterns of the location will be taken into consideration. Additionally, users can enter a mean value for their electricity bill to further personalise the calculation of potential savings.

Now, Google wouldn’t be Google if it did not think of including search results in this new service. People who own a sunny roof could get forwarded to an installation technician from their area. That companies might be willing to pay for being listed further up would probably be far from inconvenient for Google.

Today Fresno, tomorrow the world

So far, the project is still in its early phases and the “sunniness” of their own roof can only be analysed by citizens of Boston, the San Francisco Bay area and Fresno. Why those cities? This is also mentioned (in a likeable way) in the info video about the project: The Sunroof Project Team comes from Boston, Google has its headquarters in Mountain View in the SF Bay Area and in Fresno, well, apparently, one of the engineers’ mother is living there.

If the prediction of the announcement video turns out to be correct, the service might be available all over the U.S. rather soon. Maybe even worldwide, but that probably depends on the realisation and the success of the new project. The link to Project Sunroof unfortunately does not work from Germany (where Sun & Wind Energy is based) but if you are somewhere else, feel free to check it out: www.google.com/get/sunroof(link is external)

A nudge for the PV sector

It is unclear how exactly the search giant wants to factor in things such as a roof’s inclination, different amounts of shade at different times during the day or whether this is even planned at all. The accuracy/precision of Sunroof might leave room for improvements. The underlying idea is nevertheless a good one. Since, even if the project does not deliver the most exact data ever, at least the PV industry might profit from two big things: simplicity and awareness. Google is one of the best known brands worldwide. If such a company supports solar energy, this can only increase the amount of people asking themselves: “Why don’t I have a PV system on my roof?” And if they can answer this with a comfortable: “I’ll just sunroof this quickly!” and find out how well their roof is suited for a PV system: So much better!

Why not do the same with water ponds? Floating solar system are already viable and economical alternative to rooftops systems. Check Ciel et Terre Solution

Can Solar In India Change The World?

Article published on www.cleantechnica.com , in August 20th, 2015

The Indian solar story is much bigger than the story of one country and one technology. It is one of those game-changing developments that will have an impact on many aspects of our lives, around the globe.

It is the opportunity of a lifetime for India, for the global energy industry, and for the climate. Here is why:

A Lifetime Opportunity for Indians

India is where China was 30 years ago: It needs to industrialise, and for that, it needs to massively expand its energy infrastructure. The difference is: its choices are much better and clearer.

A look at China shows the downsides of a coal-heavy strategy: severe pollution and enormous water-usage. At the same time, the costs of wind and solar have fallen to about 10% of what they were in 1990.

India today has an option China never had: to build its future energy infrastructure around solar (and other renewables, storage, and smart grids), rather than coal.

This will be a choice that costs less, is much cleaner, saves water, provides a maximum of energy security, and allows India to move to the forefront of key future technologies. Solar has enough potential to satisfy vastly increased power demand in India.

It is also the opportunity of a lifetime for Indians that have no access to power (mostly in the villages) or face highly unreliable power (in many cities and industrial hubs). Solar now puts the power into the hands of consumers. It is quick and easy to install, making distributed power generation possible. In the future, if the government won’t fix it, consumers will do it themselves.

A Lifetime Opportunity for Energy Companies

India is a huge market, perhaps the largest future energy opportunity anywhere. As compared to China, it is also a much more open market. Also, solar is typically a more transparent (less corrupt, less political), more competitive, less complex, and more environmentally friendly market than thermal power.

The promise of the Indian solar market attracts an entirely new crowd of international investors, ranging from American and European utilities to the Japanese entrepreneur Masayoshi Son and his Softbank, to leading private equity investors and the Russian oil major Rosneft — often shifting away from other energy businesses (oil, coal, nuclear). They are making investment bets as large as any in the global energy market and India has attracted the biggest share of international investments this year.

A Lifetime Opportunity for the Global Climate

Last but not least, solar in India is one of the biggest single measures to save the global climate. If India goes down China’s path of coal, it will be very near impossible to keep the 2° Celsius target.

On the other hand, if India can build a modern energy infrastructure around solar, it will be of enormous benefit to everyone. And think of the effect this would have on development conversations everywhere: it can show the way for many other countries in a similar stage of development in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East — altogether half the world’s population. 

Floating solar is now a viable and installed alternative to ground mounting system. India has a high potential for systems.

ReneSola, Pristine Sun to form JV for 300MW solar projects in US

Article published on http://solar.cleantechnology-business-review.com/ , in august the 6th, 2015

China's ReneSola and San Francisco-based Pristine Sun have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) to develop, build and operate more than 300MW of solar projects in the US.

ReneSola will own a majority stake in the JV, dubbed Baynergy while Pristine Sun will own about 49% interest, depending on several conditions.

The JV will initially own solar projects in several development stages, including ground-mounted facilities and distributed generation arrays.

Baynergy JV intends to have about 150MW of solar projects in operation by the end of next year.

ReneSola CEO Xianshou Li said: "The U.S. market is full of tremendous opportunities in the downstream project sector with 25 gigawatts projected to be constructed in the commercial and utility space in the next five years.

"We believe we can capitalize on these opportunities and grow the joint venture by leveraging ReneSola's global reputation, network, high-quality green energy products and solar project execution."

Pristine Sun CEO Troy Helming said: "Capturing synergies from ReneSola's global platform and high product quality and Pristine Sun's in-depth U.S. market expertise, Baynergy is expected to accelerate efforts in promoting the use of renewable energy in local communities and yield healthy returns for investors of both companies."

ReneSola supplies photovoltaic (PV) modules to large-scale solar power projects globally including the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy.

Pristine Sun developed and built more than $100m of PV solar energy projects in the last two years.

US is a high potential market for floating solar systems

PV in Brazil: 382 projects accredited for auction on August 14th

article orginally published on www.solarserver.com, in June 4th, 2015

Solar PV rooftop system at a football stadium in Brazil

Brazil’s Energy Research Company (EPE), which is conducting the nation’s Reserve Energy Auctions, on June 1st, 2015 announced that the volume of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects accredited for the next tender adds up to an installed capacity of 12,528 megawatts (MW).

The 382 PV projects will now enter the qualification phase, in order to participate in the PV only tender scheduled for August 14th, 2015.

Brazil’s government sets a ceiling price for the energy tenders, and developers bid down the price at which they are willing to sell solar power from the projects. The lowest bids win long-term power purchase agreements. In the October 2014 auction PV developers agreed on an average solar power sales price of approx. USD 71.77 (MWh), amongst the cheapest in the world.

Brazil has set a goal of reaching 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar PV capacity by 2023, producing about 1.8 percent of the country’s electricity, up from less than 35 MW in 2014.

Honduras to Overtake Mexico as Latin America’s Second-Largest Solar Market in 2015

Article originally published in www.solarplaza.com, on may 12th, 2015

With 349 megawatts of utility-scale PV projects under construction despite concerns about country risk, Honduras has emerged as Latin America's 2015 surprise story. There is incentive to quickly finish projects in the Central American nation, as the first 300 megawatts of projects to connect by July qualify for a bonus tariff of $155 per megawatt-hour.

GTM - In the latest edition of the Latin America PV Playbook, GTM Research forecasts Honduras to install 460 megawatts of PV this year. This puts Honduras second in the rankings, behind perennial market leader Chile, which is expected to install 1 gigawatt in 2015. Mexico, Latin's America's No. 2 installer in 2014, will be bumped into third place.

116 MW Of Trina Solar Modules For Japan’s Largest Solar Plant

Article published on cleantechnica.com, on April 16th 2015

A 231 MW solar power plant will be built in Setouchi City, Japan, in an area that was previously used as a salt field. Trina Solar will supply 116 MW of solar modules for the huge Japanese project, which is expected to be up and running by 2019.

“We believe that demand for clean and sustainable energy in Japan will continue to increase and that solar energy will play a key role in the growing diversification of the country’s energy mix. Japan is a key market for us where we expect to further deepen our penetration,” saidZhiguo Zhu, COO.

Toyo Engineering will build the new solar plant, which is expected to cost about $1.1 billion, backed by Mizuho Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Setouchi City is in Okayama Prefecture, which is located in southern Japan, and has a population of about 40,000 out of the entire prefecture’s 2 million residents. Fishing and agriculture are the top two industries in Setouchi, which is not surprising as it has a port that used to be very well known.

It has been written that something good did result from the Fukushima nuclear disaster: it woke up the Japanese public to the dangers presented by old nuclear reactors, “The atmosphere today,” says Setouchi, “is exactly like 1941, ’42.” Back then, the public and mass media bought the official line that Japan’s victory was assured. In our own time, the public and mass media bought the official line that the safety of nuclear power was assured.” The Setouchi quoted here is a Buddhist nun and author. She protested the nuclear industry along with thousands of Japanese citizens.

Fukushima sparked a greater interest and commitment to renewable energy in Japan, and then in Germany as well, as there are a number of old nuclear reactors with potentialproblems there too.