Solar glass shortage threatens China's plans to be carbon neutral by 2060

 

The world's greatest sunlight based force organization says a lack of glass is raising expenses and deferring creation of new boards, messing up China's arrangements to quicken its work day to clean power.

Costs for glass that coats photovoltaic boards have risen 71% since July, and makers are battling to deliver it sufficiently quick to keep over seven days of deals in stock, as per Daiwa Capital Markets. The lack comes as the sun based industry moves in the direction of bifacial boards, which increment both force yield and glass prerequisites.

Sunlight based board makers like Longi Green Energy Technology Co. have asked the legislature in China, home to most sun powered assembling, to address the circumstance by favoring new processing plants. In any case value climbs hazard making sun based force too costly and stopping the business' energy.

"On the off chance that sunlight based force generators consider sun oriented to be as uneconomical, they will defer putting resources into new activities and that will haul down sun powered interest," said Charles Jiang, senior supervisor of the flexibly chain the executives place at Longi, the world's greatest sun based organization by market capitalization. "Sunlight based force plant benefits will dip under worthy levels without government appropriations if glass producers proceed to push up the expenses."

In 2018, with the energy escalated and contaminating glass industry looking over-limit issues, China's legislature restricted organizations from adding new creation limit. Longi and five other major sun oriented organizations on Tuesday met with government authorities and offered for them to eliminate the limitations, at any rate for sunlight based glass.

Bifacial Panels

Glass request includes additionally been ascending inside the sun based industry due to the expanding noticeable quality of bifacial boards, which cover both the top and base with glass, considering a slight uptick in power age from daylight reflected off the ground. Such boards are required to make up a large portion of the market in 2022, up from about 14% a year ago, as per examiners at Sunwah Kingsway.

Tariff for round-the-clock solar power is competitive: ReNew's Sumant Sinha

India’s first tender to provide round-the-clock (RTC) solar power was won last week by Goldman Sachs-promoted ReNew Power, which quoted a tariff of Rs 2.9 per unit (kwh) for the complete capacity of 400 Mw offered by the government.
The tender is unique in several ways. Unlike the nature of solar to run for a few day-time hours, this project would provide power for 24 hours. For this purpose, the tender had proposed that solar power would either be blended with other sources such as wind or hydro, or would have an energy storage system. To include that cost in the project, the tender provided for 3 per cent escalation in the tariff annually for 15 years. Industry experts said the average tariff would land around Rs 3.6 per unit.
Speaking with Business Standard, Sumant Sinha, Founder & CEO, ReNew Power said the tariff quoted for the project is not high, rather it is very competitive. “I would say the number (average tariff) is lower than what you what you are mentioning (Rs 3.6/unit). To provide that kind of firmness of power, you do have consider certain issues that you have to take care of,” he said.
At Rs 3.6 per unit, the tariff is closer to the average rate of thermal power in India. This RTC tender was floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to supply power from solar power plant all around the day. SECI is the nodal tendering agency under the ministry of new and renewable energy. The project will have 80 per cent plant load factor (operational capacity).
Sinha further added, “For example, procurers won’t buy more than 100 per cent power from you. But in the designing of the plant, you end up with times when the power generation is more than 100 per cent. We have to account for conditions such as these. That is why the tariff has been so aggressive. But it was quite lower than what the government was expecting,” Sinha said.

He also said the capital cost of most companies is higher than what regulators assume in their calculations. This therefore increases the discounting rate that the companies take. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in the tariff determination of renewable power, provide for a discounting rate, which is the ‘post-tax weighted average cost of capital’ or the cost of capital over the period of the project. This rate is higher than the capital cost and is added to the total bid amount quoted by a company.

Batteries may rewire world's power grids, spell trouble for utility firms

International News

It's just a marketing gimmick. But it casts a spell.
A pale orange-and-gold sunset bathes the macadamia plantations and avocado orchards that sweep down to Australia's Byron Bay. The coming dusk is a cue for two sleek Tesla battery packs in the garage at Amileka, a secluded holiday villa nearby. They stir silently into action—powering the appliances in the five-bedroom home's twin kitchens, recharging a $100,000-plus Model X SUV, driving a filter pump for an 18-meter swimming pool sparkling in the shade of a century-old native black bean tree.
From first light on this Southern Hemisphere autumn day, a bank of 33 rooftop solar panels has been capturing the sun's energy. At times, the electricity is directed back to the local grid. But mostly it's funneled into the garage and stored in Powerwall units, in the same type of rechargeable cells that fuel the automaker's vehicles. The batteries—as tall as refrigerators, as thin as flat-screen TVs—will power this unusually energy-hungry villa deep into the evening.
But not all night. The solar array and batteries meet just half of Amileka's average energy needs. So after a few hours, the 25-acre, $1,160-a-night miniresort that Tesla Inc uses to promote its products must tap into the local electricity grid.
The photogenic demonstration on Australia's eastern coast presents a vision of what some see as the most significant shift in the energy sector since the late 19th century: rechargeable batteries—in electric vehicles, homes, industrial plants, and power grids—that will make the transition to renewable energy possible.

 The actual future of energy may be less postcard-worthy. It may look more like a fleet of electric school buses. And the end of utility companies as we know them...Read More