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Author Topic: Photvoltaics (PV)  (Read 20895 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #45 on: May 18, 2014, 04:08:49 pm »

 
Squeak!

 
 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: Below please find an "entertaining" discussion I had at Cleantechnica in regard to an article on an overpaid CEO of a Solar Power Advocacy Group trying to play the "corporate CEO cult of personality" BS game that got us to the biosphere destroying state we are in.


Denver
I think you mis-interpreted his salary. His actual paycheck was closer to $566,000. The remainder is mostly deferred pay, and the way IRS rules are set up, he may get or he may not. See rules on 457(f) SERPs.

While i realize near $600k is still lot, it’s not for trade group advocates and association CEOs, it’s pretty much inline. Perhaps you should look salaries of the people Resch is going up against at Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association or American Petroleum Institute.

I want solar to succeed and I think we need strong, talented advocate at the head of SEIA. You may disagree that person should be Resch, but I have no problem with his salary.

agelbert Denver
Talent = Salary is what got the USA into the Greed is Good situation destroying the biosphere. You are so wrong to equate talent with salary. Talent goes with Vocation, not salary. Every spare nickel available needs to be put into the product or lobbying efforts, the way Elon Musk did and does. That's how it is done; not with the me first crap! Nobody needs that much money to live when they are supposedly fighting big oil and a polluted world future. If you claim he is "indispensable", I'll tell you what first year business administration texts say: "Find the indispensable man; and fire him!" I would fire that pig in a microsecond if I could. We do not need more "personality cult" greedball, ego trip, narcissistic, arrogant type CEO people in the Vocation of Renewable Energy, period.


Peter Quill agelbert
@agelbert: Seems like that online business degree  has prepared you well. Something they teach in actual business schools or economic courses is what's called "network effect." Resch and his staff's relationship with policy makers increases the probability of positive spillovers to the solar industry in the form of advantageous public policy. Advocacy is not like a business. Lobbyists don't go to work, turn on machines, and churn out public policy at the lowest marginal cost possible. It's about relationships with policy makers and their staff. In that regard, Resch is very valuable  to the solar industry. You can't simply substitute him out with a lower paid widget CEO and expect those countless hours of relationship nurturing  to transfer over.


agelbert Peter Quill
Yes, of course. You just gave me chapter and verse on "how the world really works". You brainiacs have done so well with that attitude straight from "Manufacturing consent ideology" haven't you? 

Damnant quodnon intelligent.

Civilitas successit barbarum.

"We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so."
Bertrand Russell




Peter Quill agelbert
Throwing out incorrect applications of Chomsky, a few lines of Googled Latin, and a quote from a British philosopher is not a substitute for making a cognizant point. What's next, calling me a Nazi? Let's prove Godwin's Law correct.

agelbert Peter Quill
My, but you are good at attacking the messenger in hopes of undermining the message, aren't you?
Okay Peter, here's what I humbly believe you don't get. I will dispense with all sarcasm. This is serious and the pro-profit culture of the USA is destructive to the future of Homo sapiens, period.

That doesn't mean we can't make money off of Renewable Energy. Anyone with half a brain and some knowledge of cost accounting, that includes environmental bioremediation costs, understands that fossil fuels were never cheap and renewable energy is the default setting of everything that lives in the biosphere.

IOW, the issue is not which technology is more "competitive", "cost effective" or "convincing to the consumer and the government" through an intelligent and planned advocacy of Solar or whatever.

The Goal of Renewable Energy advocacy is Demand Destruction of Fossil Fuels. Why? because the profits from the sale of fossil fuels have been (and continue to be used for this heinous purpose to this day) used to buy the government and make laws that corner, stifle and strangle any technology that competes with fossil fuels for the last century or so.


People want Renewable Energy. All the polls confirm that. An advocacy has to go out there and get renewable energy in more and more hands, not try to influence the bought and paid for big wigs with bragged about "connections" like your hero. You need to shave $500,000 from his salary and write a check for $500 to a thousand people to be used on a small solar panel setup in their homes. They will then start scrimping to try to "get more our of the panel" and want to add more panels!  That is how you destroy demand for fossil fuels and beat them out of existence, period.

Here's a post I just made to illustrate what I hope china is doing and what I know we should be, but aren't, doing.

The rapid growth of the Chinese offshore wind power sector requires a rational and clear tariff structure, something the Chinese are serious and methodical about because they are clear eyed about what the future holds if they do not make sure ALL renewable energy technologies achieve the goal, and achieve it SOON, of total demand destruction for fossil fuels. That's what the USA can't seem to understand.

This is NOT about replacing an inferior technology for harvesting energy with a superior and cheaper technology; this is about Homo sapiens survival. The Chinese understand this. If only the USA did. We have, in the USA, the stupidest, most suicidal energy policy on the planet.

I hope the Chinese pull the plug on the building of coal power plants, decommission built ones and embrace Amory Lovins' accurate assessment of industrial civilization that with efficiency increases in the energy production technology from power source to consumer, over 90% of the wasted energy can be eliminated and we can power ALL the needs of present industrial civilization with only 10% of what we now use.

It's called negawatts and it is real. Why? Because a 5 to 10% efficiency increase (easily achievable with modern technology) in the transmission and/or generation of power has a multiplicative effect when it reaches the consumer. A 5% efficiency increase at the generation source equals over 70% energy saving at the consumer.

That is why the consumer savings, so far, have had such a small effect on fossil fuel demand. That has to change. Amory Lovins knows how to do that and has been doing it for several years.
I think China gets it. Our US (s)elected (by the fossil fuel oligarchy) "representatives" don't.
http://www.renewableenergyworl...

Give $500,000 to Amory Lovins and you will see real fossil fuel demand destruction.

Peter Quill agelbert
Making the point that we have a compromised political system that allows corporations to exert undue pressure on our policy making apparatus is a different point and one in which I agree. However, until that system is radically changed, it would be foolish for the solar industry not to play ball by those rules, however skewed they may be to incumbent industries.

You keep throwing out terms like "demand-destruction." There isn't "demand" for oil, coal or gas. There is demand for "power" and "energy" - i.e. what you can do with those resources. People largely don't think about or care how it is harnessed.     Oh sure, they might answer that they support renewables when called up by a pollster, but there is strong social incentive to do that.


What you are really saying, I think, is that the FULL marginal cost - the private cost plus social cost - needs to be included in the price of a unit of power. To that I totally agree.

I believe that a stiff carbon tax is the most efficient way to do this. It eliminates the economic inefficiencies that arise when you subsidize and regulate products and markets, and allows marginal users (i.e. a peak gas plant that runs 10 days a year) to continue running because economic surplus is created in that case, even after accounting for the social cost of carbon. So yea, let's tax carbon. Until we can get to that point, let's not sit on our hands and refuse to play ball in the current system just because we find it morally repugnant or because its not the most economically efficient way to achieve results. 


agelbert Peter Quill
I hear you and I understand you are trying to make the best of the hand you have been dealt, so to speak. I hope you are right and I am wrong.

I still believe the application of the negawatts course of action (to increase fossil fuel demand destruction in order to de-empower the fossil fuel industry from driving solar into a box canyon and proceeding to stifle it) is not optional because, after stifling solar through restrictive laws and such low down and dirty tactics, the fossil fuelers scream that solar is not cost effective and a "waste" to "subsidize". 

Then they crow about how "great" and "competitive" fossil fuels are. 


They did it to ethanol in the 1930s with Prohibition (and are trying to do it again now by backing the wrong crop - corn - as a biofuel source).

They game all these renewable energy technologies. Check out how Reagan turned the lights on Solar.

How Ronald Reagan turned the lights out on solar power

These people do not believe in a level energy sources playing field. Their version of a level energy playing field is an alpine slope with them looking down at you [/i]with lots of big rocks ready to toss at you if you get good at climbing that slope. If you play their game, you will lose.

If it weren't for the severe climate we are beginning to experience due to fossil fuel burning folly, solar would have been crushed just like wind, CSP and geothermal were in the 1980s.

We need the demand for fossil fuels rug pulled out from under the fossil fuel polluting, mendacious propaganda pushing pigs so they can no longer buy our politicians.


Peter, I see you are practical fellow. Well, the only practical approach to the fossil fuel pushing criminals is a paradigm shift. That's not about idealism; it's about survival.

Perhaps you do not believe the issue is that serious. I think it is. Taxing carbon is, of course, part of the solution to the overall equation.

But bear in mind that, historically, punitive measures have never worked on Big Oil and Coal because they buy the politicians. You must destroy their profits or they will destroy you (and, in the time tested path of the criminally insane, suicidally destroy our hope for a viable biosphere). 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #48 on: May 25, 2014, 07:07:28 pm »
Mount Signal Solar Is Online: World's Largest Single Axis Solar PV Project 

SustainableBusiness.com News

Yet another enormous solar plant is producing energy in California, Mount Signal Solar.      


 Built by Abengoa (MCE: ABG; Nasdaq: ABGB), it is the world's largest single-axis solar PV  plant, which means the solar panels track the sun.

 At 206 megawatts, it will bring clean electricity to about 72,000 homes in the San Diego area.  More than three million modules are spread over almost 2000 acres - each rotates on a north-south axis to track the daily path of the sun.



Solar Mount Signal

Abengoa doesn't own the plant - they designed and built the project for Silver Ridge Power under a $365 million contract. Google invested $103 million in the project. At peak construction it employed over 700 people from the surrounding area, building it in a record 16 months.

 In the US, Abengoa also built Solana - the world's largest parabolic trough solar plant and the first to store energy - that came online last year in Arizona. It will soon complete the 250 MW Mojave Solar Project, another parabolic trough plant, in California.

 Based in Spain, Abengoa recently began trading on Nasdaq (ABGB), in addition to its home market exchange, and will soon spin off Abengoa Yield, one of many "yieldcos

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25731
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #49 on: May 29, 2014, 10:59:50 pm »
« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 04:04:37 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #50 on: May 31, 2014, 02:31:33 pm »
Rapid Solar Growth Offers Hope In Fight Against Climate Change




 Rhone Resch 
 May 30, 2014 

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2014/05/rapid-solar-growth-offers-hope-in-fight-against-climate-change#comment-132079
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Middle-Class Americans Leading The Solar Rooftop Revolution



According to recent Center for American Progress (CAP) studies, middle-class America is buying into the solar market. This is great news — rooftop solar isn’t just for mansions and millionaires anymore; it is accessible to suburban households across the country. How will the power industry and legislators react to this power being in the hands of the people?

Last year, CAP found that in Arizona, California, and New Jersey – the three largest solar markets in the United States – the majority of solar panels being installed are in areas with median incomes ranging from $40,000 to $90,000. And this year, CAP found that emerging solar markets in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are following similar patterns. More than 80% of installations in New York and nearly 70% of installations in Massachusetts occur in areas with incomes ranging from $40,000 to $90,000. Interestingly, just 45% of Maryland’s rooftop solar installations occurred in middle-class neighborhoods — a lower percentage than New York and Massachusetts, but still a significant percentage.

While the studies didn’t look at the reason behind the trend, it can be assumed that it has to do with the cost benefits of going solar.   Net metering and other solar policies allow households to save money while doing something good for the environment. And saving $600 or even thousands of dollars in electricity costs a year means a lot to middle-class families.

But utilities and fossil fuel companies don’t want to give up their power, so to speak, to the people. They argue that net metering unfairly advantages people who produce their own electricity through solar. They don’t pay to maintain transmission lines, substations, and computer systems that make up the grid, although they rely on them for backup. 

This “unfairness”  has prompted the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC — a conservative organization funded by big oil — to draft model legislation targeted to undercut net metering benefits, as well as states’ renewable energy standards. ALEC hasn’t had much success yet, but many are looking at Ohio right now and the possible decision by the state House to gut Ohio’s renewable energy standards in response to ALEC’s lobbying.

The power industry’s actions only serve to highlight how powerful solar is becoming in the United States. An energy revolution has begun that threatens the wealthy, old establishments. And with more and more families installing rooftop systems, legislators may hopefully become less interested in turning their back on the voting public and gutting renewable energy benefits.

As Victor Hugo said, “All the forces in the world are not as powerful as an idea whose time has come.”   


http://cleantechnica.com/2014/05/31/middle-class-americans-leading-solar-rooftop-revolution/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #52 on: June 10, 2014, 09:08:33 pm »
Pakistan Breaks Ground On One of the World’s Largest Solar Parks   

06/09/2014 03:07 PM     

SustainableBusiness.com News

Last month, Pakistan began construction on its first major solar park, starting out with one of the largest solar PV projects in the world.

Until now, this land of sun hasn't produced even a kilowatt of solar energy.  :(

Being built in phases, the first 100 megawatts starts generating this year and by 2016, the 400,000-panel project will produce 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity. Then it will become even larger, eventually covering 15,000 acres and pumping out 1.5 GW.   ;D


Smaller solar projects are also being built around Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park, with a road and transmission structure that make it convenient.

Islamabad-based Safe Solar Power, for example, is building a 10 MW project, and about 20 companies are planning projects from 10-50 MW, reports The Express Tribune. 

To support solar development, Pakistan is also inaugurating a  feed-in tariff for solar PV. Rates vary based on geography, but they are around $0.20 per kilowatt hour, reduced to  $0.083 after 10 years. It is limited to PV plants between 1-100 MW.

Solar Pakistan


What is now a barren, parched desert will gleam with solar panels, spurring the economy with it. "You will see a river of panels, residential buildings and offices - it will be a new world," site engineer Muhammad Sajid told The Express Tribune.


No longer will people have to "sweat and curse" their way through the summer, says The Express Tribune, beleaguered by chronic energy shortages (half the people don't have electricity) and regular outages. Says Prime Minister Sharif, scarcity of reliable electric power "has pushed the country backwards and its entire industry and agriculture sector have suffered immensely."

People are already migrating away, finds a study in Nature Climate Change. Pakistan's climate is increasingly inhospitable between heat stress and atypical torrential floods - and is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts because its environment has been so degraded.  :P  :(

Just 2-5% of forest cover remains and with 166 square miles cleared each year, it has the highest deforestation rate in Asia, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Incredibly, the country has only a one month supply of water in reserve, which makes growing food increasingly challenging.

Then there's the other side of the equation. In another part of the desert, a $1.6 billion coal plant is being built and two others have been approved, 660 MW and 600 MW.

                                                    

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25756
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #53 on: June 17, 2014, 01:44:22 am »
Texas, Land of Wind, Could Soon Also Be Land of Solar
06/16/2014 01:19 PM   

SustainableBusiness.com News

Texas, land of wind, could soon also be the land of solar, as the state embarks on its first utility-scale solar farms - at prices that compete with conventional energy.

 Recurrent Energy, the solar developer arm of Sharp Corp., won the contract to build a 150 megawatt (MW) solar farm from the state's leading utility on renewable energy, Austin Energy. It comes online in 2016, and the utility is buying all its energy under a 20-year power purchase agreement.   

 "Solar power has reached a price that is competitive in the ERCOT market, allowing us to further diversify our energy portfolio with renewable resources," says Larry Weis, General Manager of Austin Energy.     

"The Texas market represents one of the most exciting opportunities for the solar industry," says Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy. "The industry's growing scale and decreasing costs are enabling us to successfully compete against conventional energy in deregulated markets like ERCOT.

Earlier this year, Austin Energy signed a contract for what could be the lowest price for solar electricity ever, just under $0.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh), locked in for 25 years - without any local or state subsidies. The electricity comes from two solar farms also going up in West Texas, a 150 MW and 50 MW plant built by Sun Edison.   

The price is less than a third of what Austin Energy paid in 2009 for solar, and beats natural gas ($0.07), coal ($0.10) and nuclear ($0.13)!  ;D


The utility's goal is the highest in the US - 35% of electricity from renewables by 2020- and it's almost there, six years early, demonstrating that it's not that hard to meet aggressive renewable energy targets. It's also been getting incredibly cheap deals for wind energy.

Recurrent says it has over 500 MW of operating solar projects in North America and 2 gigawatts under development.

400 MW Project Moves Ahead

Meanwhile, the first phase of a 400 MW project is online in San Antonio. Rather than being built as one, massive project, South Korea's OCI Solar Power consists of four separate solar plants - the first phase is the 41 MW Alamo I solar farm.   

When the entire project is finished, Texas will be one of the top solar producing states.

 Alamo 1: (picture at link)
Solar OCI Alamo 1

"By 2020, 65% of our community's electricity will come from resources that are low- or no-carbon emitting   ;D - reducing emissions in an amount that's equal to removing more than a million cars from local roads," says CEO Doyle Beneby of San Antonio's municipal utility, CPS Energy.

 The project represents one of the most creative agreements for bringing solar to a state. Negotiated by San Antonio's Mayor Julian Castro, he convinced the utility to tie clean power purchase agreements to economic investments in the city. As a result, OCI Solar Power moved its headquarters there and opened a $100 million manufacturing facility that makes the components for all its North American projects, creating 800 permanent jobs and $700 million in an annual economic impact for Texas. 

Castro led an impressive turnaround at CPS Energy, turning it away from "bullheaded reliance on a fleet of enormous nuclear and coal-fired power plants built decades ago," to instead following a "New Energy Economy" plan. Now it's aiming to get 20% of its power from renewables by 2020, and is on track to beat that goal.   

Also in Texas


San Antonio's leadership on renewable energy is bringing other rewards - the city is attracting talented individuals that work in the space and companies like Microsoft that want renewables to run their data centers.

 Microsoft announced a 3-year partnership with the University of Texas to "transform how data centers consume energy." Noting that CPS Energy "is the largest publicly owned purchaser of wind power in the country," the team will evaluate using micro-turbines instead of diesel generators during times of peak demand and grid outages.

The company is also donating $1 million to the university's Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute. 

Last year, Microsoft made its biggest purchase of renewable energy, 100% of the energy from the 110 MW Keechi Wind Farm in Texas, to power its data center there. The money came from Microsoft's internal carbon fee.

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25770
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #54 on: June 18, 2014, 02:02:54 pm »
Texas Utility Doubles Large-Scale Solar, Says It Will Be Coal-Free By 2016 



By Kiley Kroh on June 17, 2014 at 12:53 pm

"Texas Utility Doubles Large-Scale Solar, Says It Will Be Coal-Free By 2016"
 
Thanks to new investments in natural gas and utility-scale solar energy, El Paso Electric, a Texas utility with nearly 400,000 customers, announced on Monday that its electricity mix will be free from coal by 2016.

Thanks to successive investments in large solar projects, EPE has doubled its utility-scale solar portfolio in less than one year. “Our west Texas and southern New Mexico region has the right kind of sun for optimal solar energy production, making this region the ‘goldilocks’ in terms of climate, humidity and heat characteristics that allow us to expand our renewable portfolio with cost-effective technologies and reliable energy resources,” said Tom Shockley, Chief Executive Officer at El Paso Electric, said in a statement.
 
The utility signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the massive Macho Springs solar plant in New Mexico, a 50 megawatt (MW) facility with the capacity to power more than 18,000 homes. According to the agreement, signed last year, EPE would buy solar power from Macho Springs for 5.79 cents a kilowatt-hour — less than half the 12.8 cents per kilowatt-hour average price for electricity from new coal plants, according to Bloomberg.

In February, EPE signed a 30-year power purchase agreement with Newman Solar to build a 10 MW solar facility in El Paso that is expected to come online by the end of 2014 and power an additional 3,800 homes.

Deciding “it is in the best interest of its 395,000 customers,” EPE plans to sell off its seven percent stake in the Four Corners coal plant, located on Navajo Nation land near Farmington, New Mexico. The plant came in at number 15 on Environment America’s list of the nation’s top 100 dirtiest power plants, emitting 13.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Of course, a significant portion of EPE’s electricity is derived from natural gas and the utility came under fire last year for its proposal to build a new natural gas power plant in a low-income neighborhood. The company agreed not to expand beyond the four planned units and will establish a fund for residents to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

“While we wish the plant was not in our neighborhood, we are very pleased with the settlement agreement, particularly EPE’s agreement not to build additional turbines and possibly install solar panels at the plant,” Ralph Carrasco, the citizens group’s executive director, said in a statement.

El Paso Energy’s announcement that it is “well-positioned” for the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations aimed at cutting the carbon pollution from the nation’s existing fossil fuel-fired power plants came on the same day Texas governor Rick Perry joined eight other Republican governors  saying the rule will cost millions of jobs and slow economic growth.     Such claims, trumpeted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others, have been widely debunked.

Texas is the top carbon emitter in the country and, as the Texas Tribune points out, “Texas officials and politicians have long refused to regulate greenhouse gases.” However, the regulations will have a less dramatic effect on Texas than on other states that rely more heavily on coal, particularly considering the state already has a diverse electricity mix. “In 2013, natural gas (41 percent) outpaced coal (37 percent) in powering the electric grid covering most of the state,” the Tribune reported, citing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. “Meanwhile, the state’s wind sector (10 percent) is booming, thanks in large part to multibillion-dollar investments in infrastructure under Perry, while shifting economics has increased interest in Texas’ long-untapped solar power potential.”


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/17/3449604/texas-utility-solar/

Agelbert NOTE: See George  Orwell 1984 to understand the statements by the Republican Governor WHINER FOSSIL FUELERS.  
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #55 on: June 29, 2014, 03:38:21 pm »

Legislation to End Fossil Fuel Tax Breaks Introduced by Sen. Sanders, Rep. Ellison
Friday, November 22, 2013


WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 – As House and Senate budget negotiators look for ways to lower deficits,

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) today introduced legislation to eliminate tax loopholes and subsidies that support the oil, gas and coal industries.

The End Polluter Welfare Act of 2013 would remove tax breaks, close loopholes, end taxpayer-funded fossil fuel research and prevent companies from escaping liability for spills or deducting cleanup costs. Under current law, these subsidies are expected to cost taxpayers more than $100 billion in the coming decade.

The White House budget proposal for next year calls for eliminating several of the same provisions that the legislation by Sanders and Ellison would end.

“At a time when fossil fuel companies are racking up record profits, it is time to end the absurdity of American taxpayers providing massive subsidies to these hugely profitable fossil fuel corporations,” Sanders said.

“The five biggest oil companies made $23 billion in the third quarter of 2013 alone. They don’t need any more tax giveaways,” Ellison said. “We should invest in the American people by creating good jobs and ending cuts to food assistance instead of throwing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars at one of the biggest and most profitable industries in the world.”

The five most profitable oil companies (ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and ConocoPhilips) together made more than $1 trillion in profits over the past decade.

The Sanders and Ellison legislation is supported by environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International and 350.org.

The fiscal watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, which has worked for nearly two decades to eliminate wasteful energy subsidies, also supports the bills.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/legislation-to-end-fossil-fuel-tax-breaks-introduced-by-sen-sanders-rep-ellison
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #56 on: August 01, 2014, 10:58:12 pm »
SunPower Planning New 700-MW Factory as Demand Swells
Ehren Goossens, Bloomberg

NEW YORK -- SunPower Corp., the second-largest U.S. solar manufacturer, is planning a new factory that will expand production capacity by more than 50 percent from current levels, in an effort to increase market share.

SunPower’s Fab 5 may start production in 2017 and will eventually be able to make at least 700 megawatts of solar panels a year, more than double the size of a plant due to start up next year, Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner said yesterday.

SunPower is seeking to increase its capacity as global demand surges. Total industry shipments may increase as much as 29 percent to about 52 gigawatts this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. SunPower expects to recognize sales of 1.2 gigawatts to 1.3 gigawatts of panels this year, and its factories are running at full speed, Werner said.

“Our share has been in single digits for a while and demand for the last 24 months suggests that we can expand share,” Werner said in an interview. “Our five-year plan is to at least double market share.”

Werner spends a “significant” amount of time talking to manufacturing executives about how to coax more output from factories that have reached capacity. “This is really the market telling us they want more of the product.”

The company’s Fab 4 in the Philippines will begin production in the first half of 2015, and will eventually have 350 megawatts of capacity. SunPower hasn’t determined where to build Fab 5, which Werner said will be at least twice that size. He wouldn’t say how much the new facility may cost.

SunPower reported net income of $14.1 million for the second quarter, or nine cents a share, compared with $19.6 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier, San Jose, California-based SunPower said in a statement after the close of regular trading yesterday. Revenue fell 12 percent to $507.9 million.

Including revenue recognized for some utility-scale power plants and other one-time items, earnings of 28 cents beat the 26-cent average of 14 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
First Solar Inc. is the largest U.S. solar manufacturer.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/sunpower-planning-new-700-mw-factory-as-demand-swells
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #57 on: August 03, 2014, 01:09:29 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: Don't get Cognitve Dissonance Whiplash from the next two stories: There's A WAR going on! You are getting the Blow by Blow!   

Arizona Utility's Sneak Attack On Solar Leasing
SustainableBusiness.com News

Snippet:
Now they are asking regulators for permission to add a new form of solar leasing to their services. They want to own and install solar systems on customer rooftops - at no cost to the customer. In exchange for the electricity, customers would get a monthly $30 credit on their electric bill for 20 years. 

APS wants to install 20 megawatts of residential solar on about 3,000 homes next year. They would choose locations where peak power is needed most and control power flows remotely.

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25848

Arizona Public Service Performs 180, Decides to Install Rooftop Solar Dillon Holmes
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2014/08/aps-performs-180-decides-to-install-rooftop-solar
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #58 on: August 08, 2014, 01:18:48 am »
China Installs Equivalent of Australia's Total Solar Capacity — In Six Months ;D

In a big push to cut carbon and support industry, China added more than 3 GW of solar in the first half of 2014.

 Feifei Shen, Bloomberg 
 August 07, 2014 
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/china-installs-equivalent-of-australias-total-solar-capacity-in-six-months
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Photvoltaics (PV)
« Reply #59 on: August 08, 2014, 06:09:16 pm »
A First: Net-Zero Manufacturing  ;D

SustainableBusiness.com News

This is the first time we've heard of a manufacturer running completely on solar - 2.77 megawatts provides more than they need.


OPEX Corp., which makes automated mail handling and package-picking equipment, occupies a 30-acre campus five miles east of Philadelphia, in New Jersey. Their PV system is the largest for a privately held company in the state.

---

by Jim McMahon

 In New Jersey, a leading manufacturer of automated material-handling equipment recently slashed its utility bills 84% thanks to a huge solar PV array - 2.77 megawatts (MW).

 OPEX Corp. now produces more than 100% of the electricity needed to operate its 250,000-square-foot manufacturing, distribution and administrative complex in Moorestown, NJ. That makes the facility net-zero for electricity.

It's the largest solar installation in New Jersey by a privately held company.

Efficiency Measures

Before going solar, OPEX reduced internal loads. "We were spending a lot of money on electricity, and were constantly battling to reduce those costs," says Dave Andrews, OPEX Facilities Manager.

 "We had installed efficiency fluorescent lighting throughout the manufacturing/ distribution areas and in our administrative offices, and added motion-sensitive lighting in other areas. We also installed a computer-based programmable system for our rooftop HVAC units to run on a more efficient user-occupied basis. These changes produced significant savings."

Late in 2009, CEO Dave Stevens began exploring solar as a next cost-saving step. OPEX conducted a systematic cost-benefit analysis, taking into account the company's long-term business and sustainability goals.

 "This was a logical next step for us," says Andrews. "As we started learning about it, the potential began making good financial sense. The incentives looked really attractive, including a 30% rebate from the federal government." OPEX also expected to benefit from solar renewable energy credits, then worth $660 per megawatt-hour.

Optimizing Solar Energy Use

OPEX selected H2 Contracting of Marlton, NJ as a general contractor. The traditional grid energy consumption for the Moorestown complex was 2.6 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year.

 To cover all that, H2 designed a 2.77 MW solar installation consisting of 8372, 250-watt Canadian Solar modules covering the roofs of two buildings and two parking pavilions, along with a three-acre solar field array, for a total projected annual output of 2.77 kWh.

This was previously a softball field:
(solar panel farm picture at link)


Solar OPEX manufacturing

"The solar system installed at OPEX is not a typical design," says Mark Heenan, president and LEED-Accredited Professional with H2. "Because we mounted the panels on multiple rooftops, canopies and a field array, the 82,000 square feet of PV panels are oriented in six different directions, and with various tilts to better capitalize on available sunlight and space. We used Satcon's Smart Combiner to optimize production." The array, on RBI racking, sends power at 590 volts to four Satcon Solstice 500 inverters.

The grid-tied system, completed in April 2012, directly supports the company's manufacturing and distribution operations and administrative offices.

Embracing Sustainability

The company's parking pavilions now provide two EV charging stations for employee use. All scrap materials and oils used in manufacturing, and paper products from administrative offices, are recycled. OPEX sank its own 175-foot well to irrigate eight acres of open land on campus, replanted with native fescue grass that requires little water. Rainwater runoff from the 22 acres of roofing and parking areas is funneled to open ground to percolate into the aquifer.

OPEX products - automated mail sorting and material-handling products - are designed to be energy efficient and sustainable. Its Mail Matrix sorter and perfect Pick warehouse picking system rely on robot delivery vehicles, equipped with ultra-capacitors to recapture energy during operation.
                 
                                   

++++

Jim McMahon writes on renewable energy and sustainability, with feature stories appearing in hundreds of industrial and technology publications throughout the world.

This article first appeared in Solar Today (March/April 2014), the magazine of the American Solar Energy Society. 

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25852
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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