Prediction Time
December 24, 2009
Now is the time to look forward to the new year in terms of the tone for clean tech and sustainability. Check this article for some predictions: link. Much of Rob Day’s focus is on investing.
Category » Renewables
SunPower, Wells Fargo in $100M Solar Deal
This new partnership could be huge for SunPower to provide financing for commercial and utility scale systems. Also, it signals an opening up of credit for renewable energy in general, which is critical because banks stopped buying tax credits last year when the economy turned. These tax credits are integral to power purchase agreements (PPAs) which is an important arrangement for the larger projects.
PV Prices Are Down Again
July 20, 2009
In late April I made a post about tracking solar PV price trends. Prices have continued to erode. The module index price reported on US Solarbuzz is now at $4.56/Watt. They report:
“The reductions in recent months are a function of a major structure shift in demand, most notably a less attractive PV policy in force in Spain than prevailed last year. This severely cut demand in the country and, in turn, caused reverberations around the world, as PV companies seek to re-balance their supply/demand positions.”
More specifically, Spain set a 500 MW cap on their solar subsidy program. See this link for more detail. Interesting that a European feed-in tariff can result is solar prices going down.
And here is their latest chart:
- – From Solarbuzz –
Arduino Peak Power Tracker Solar Charger
June 13, 2009
Tim Nolan has had a site up for years that included a home build Maximum Peak Power Tracker (MPPT.) Recently, he redesigned the project and this time used an Arduino hobbyist microcontroller board to accomplish the same function with less complexity and lower cost.
Any solar inverter worth its salt has this function build in. The MPPT is essential for maximizing the conversion efficiency. It is great that Tim has now published a way for those familiar with Arduino to make their own MPPT.
“The Local Feed-in Tariff Solution”
May 7, 2009
Here is an excellent post regarding Feed-in Tarrifs:
http://www.localcleanenergy.org/node/150
The author gives a little background and effectiveness of FITs, and then proceeds to discuss the best pending California Bill for FITs as well as something called Community Choice Aggregation, which is giving local governments the authority to establish a FIT.
More on PV Cost Trends
April 26, 2009
Solarbuzz is a good source of PV module price trends. The great thing about their posting each month is that, in addition to reporting the results, they also provide a detailed write-up of their interpretation of the trend. So, while I have replicated their latest graphic below, I recommend that you also click on the link to get more detail.
http://www.solarbuzz.com/Moduleprices.htm
The other point that should be made about the Solarbuzz information is that it is not a forecast at all. It is historical information based on surveys that they conduct monthly. It is challenging (and fun) to predict future trends, but it is even more interesting to compare predictions to historical fact, which I will be doing through the course of this year.
PV Costs Set to Plunge?
April 15, 2009
Many have been waiting for a long time for a reduction in photovoltaic pricing for end users. There have been quite a few predctions recently that 2009 is the year for that to occur. An article in Renewable Energy World gets to the point:
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2008/12/pv-costs-set-to-plunge-for-200910-54380