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SFCE Sept 10
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Suniva starts production capacity expansion at Georgia HQ
Sep 9, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Ivan Shumkov
US crystalline silicon solar cells and modules maker Suniva Inc said on Wednesday it has initiated the planned increase of its domestic production capacity to 400 MW. The expansion will be implemented at the company’s headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, where it will create up to 500... -
China to Tighten Aspects of Air Pollution Law in 2016
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Michael Standaert
China has amended its main air pollution law to increase oversight of local governments and of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants, and to begin the process of regulating airborne emissions from marine vessels.The amendments to China's Air Pollution Control and Prevention Law, which the Standing Committee of the National... -
U.K. to Tighten Rules on Solar Subsidies
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Reed Landberg
The U.K. government took another step toward reducing the support it pays for solar energy by tightening rules on when developers can lock in electricity prices. The Department of Energy and Climate Change said that starting Oct. 1, companies can no longer “pre-accredit” for feed-in tariffs, the rates paid for power sold to the grid. -
Strong Q2 numbers show the increasing competitiveness of U.S. solar
Sep 10, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Christian Roselund
GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released their quarterly solar market data for the United States today, showing a slight growth in both sequential and year-over-year installations to 1.393 GW. This is the seventh sequential quarter that the nation has installed more than 1 GW of solar... -
Australia $246m to spur large-scale solar development
Sep 9, 2015 | Recharge
By Andrew Lee
Australia today committed A$350m ($246m) to help finance up to 10 new large-scale solar projects, in another signal that the sun – not the wind – is the renewable source of choice under its current government. The country’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) unveiled a $250m large-scale solar finance programme ... -
U.S. Solar Power on Track for Record 2015
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Martin
Developers installed 1.4 gigawatts of solar power in the U.S. in the second quarter, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier, putting the country on track for a record 7.7 gigawatts this year. Residential systems swelled 70 percent while the utility market remained “the bedrock driver” of the U.S. solar market... -
Mexico to award longer PPAs under energy auctions, specific scheme for renewables
Sep 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Blanca Diaz Lopez
The final rules of the Mexican electricity market published on Tuesday in the Mexican official government journal establish longer PPAs for projects and a specific supply category for clean energy projects awarded in future national energy auctions. Long-term PPAs will last 15 years and clean energy certificates obligations... -
Indian government gives green light to offshore wind development
Sep 9, 2015 | Recharge
By Andrew Lee
The Indian government has approved the country’s national offshore wind policy, with local turbine group Suzlon saying it is already laying plans to develop a project off the coast of Gujarat. The Indian cabinet decision authorises the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) to allocate offshore ...
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Suniva starts production capacity expansion at Georgia HQ
Sep 9, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Ivan Shumkov
US crystalline silicon solar cells and modules maker Suniva Inc said on Wednesday it has initiated the planned increase of its domestic production capacity to 400 MW.
The expansion will be implemented at the company’s headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, where it will create up to 500 job positions, according to a Wednesday press release. The project will see Suniva boost the production of its Optimus modules, with power ratings up to 290 W for a 60-cell format and 340 W for a 72-cell format.
The new jobs that will be created as a result of the expansion will include management, administrative, supervisory and production positions.
Last month, Chinese clean energy technology company Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd (HKG:1165), formerly Shunfeng Photovoltaic International, announced it was buying a 63.13% stake in the US firm. Suniva, in turn, noted it will use the net proceeds from the USD-57.8-million (EUR 51.8m) investment to finance its planned expansion.
Link: http://renewables.seenews.com/news/suniva-starts-production-capacity-expansion-at-georgia-hq-492181
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China to Tighten Aspects of Air Pollution Law in 2016
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Michael Standaert
China has amended its main air pollution law to increase oversight of local governments and of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants, and to begin the process of regulating airborne emissions from marine vessels.
The amendments to China's Air Pollution Control and Prevention Law, which the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress formally approved Aug. 31, will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.
China's central government has marked air pollution as the primary enemy in its “war on pollution,” giving it an even higher priority than its steps to clean the nation's water and soil pollution problems.
It pushed through an action plan for better air quality in late 2013 and also made it a focus of the Environmental Protection Law that went into effect Jan. 1 (66 DEN B-1, 4/7/15). A recent report linked air pollution in China to 4,000 deaths a day in the country (157 DEN A-4, 8/14/15).
Cai Shouqiu, a law professor at Wuhan University and former head of the Institute for Environmental Law who helped work on drafting parts of the law, said significant updates in the amendments include better control of local government management of air pollution; stronger oversight of coal-fired power; vehicle and marine vessel emissions; joint regional air pollution controls and early warning systems for heavy air pollution; pollutants emissions trading stipulations; and more specific legal liability and punishments.
The amendments and other recent steps will “help to protect public health, to accelerate China's clean energy transition and tackle global climate change,” Sze Ping Lo, head of environmental advocacy group WWF China, said in a statement to Bloomberg BNA.
But Cai told Bloomberg BNA in a response to questions received Sept. 7 that the amended law does not move forward public interest litigation regarding air pollution violations and places “too much emphasis on administrative punishments” instead of criminal or civil liability.
And Lo said his organization “regrets” that the amendments lack “several key points,” including “emphasis on public health protection and other measures to encourage the public to exercise environmental rights, such as environmental public interests litigation.”
The amended law also will not require local governments to limit vehicle use during air pollution emergencies—which had been proposed in a draft of the amendments—and instead will leave it up to the discretion of local governments.
Emissions Control Zones
The amendments, however, will begin the process of eventually creating emissions control areas around port areas to curtail airborne emissions from marine vessels, which will likely be put into effect sometime during the next 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020).
China's Ministry of Transport also released a more detailed action plan Aug. 31 on the prevention of pollution from ships, which dovetails with much of the language included in the amended air law, but also includes timelines and plans for steps such as using more liquefied natural gas and onshore power facilities.
The ministry stated that emissions control area implementation plans for both the Pearl River Delta area in south China and the Bohai Rim area near the port of Tianjin in northeast China should be released by the end of 2015, with step-by-step plans and pilot programs for forming those zones, with stringent airborne emissions control requirements imposed by the end of 2018 for those areas.
‘Significant First Step.'
Freda Fung, a consultant with Natural Resources Defense Council in Hong Kong who has been following developments on controlling marine air pollution in China's ports, told Bloomberg BNA that the amended law “is a significant first step” for forming the legal basis on emissions control zones in China's ports and “requires that fuels used on ships while berthing must comply with requirements set for meeting air quality standards.”
Fung also said there should be “concrete language” from the Ministry of Transport in the near future about fuel-switching at berth in future emissions control areas.
Peng Chuansheng, deputy chief engineer at the China Water Transport Research Institute, who has been working on formulating evaluation standards for “green ports,” told Bloomberg BNA that the institute has finished a draft emissions control area plan with input from vessel companies and will submit it to the National People's Congress by the end of the year, with the goal of prompting implementation of the plan starting in 2017.
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U.K. to Tighten Rules on Solar Subsidies
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Reed Landberg
The U.K. government took another step toward reducing the support it pays for solar energy by tightening rules on when developers can lock in electricity prices.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said that starting Oct. 1, companies can no longer “pre-accredit” for feed-in tariffs, the rates paid for power sold to the grid. Under the current system, developers can nail down a price during the planning stage for new projects. Now it will be determined when the plant begins working.
The Solar Trade Association said the move will damage the industry by leaving developers vulnerable to any reduction in the subsidy rate that happens during construction. With less certainty on rates, developers will be less able to finance new projects, the group said.
“This removal of pre-accreditation and the devastating cuts to tariffs are both going against the tide of public opinion where 80 percent of people support solar power, more than any other technology,” said Leonie Greene, head of external affairs at the Solar Trade Association.
The U.K., which has become among the most lucrative solar markets in Europe, in part due to government support, wants to keep a boom in installations from driving up electricity bills. Payouts for renewable energy are due to exceed the Treasury's budget even after subsidy cuts that were announced in July.
“Our objective is to maximize the value for money deployment,” the energy department said in a paper outlining the changes released in London on Sept. 9. “Removing pre-accreditation will achieve this by limiting the value of the deployment surge in response to tariff reductions.”
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Strong Q2 numbers show the increasing competitiveness of U.S. solar
Sep 10, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Christian Roselund
GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released their quarterly solar market data for the United States today, showing a slight growth in both sequential and year-over-year installations to 1.393 GW.
This is the seventh sequential quarter that the nation has installed more than 1 GW of solar, pushing cumulative installations to over 20 GW. Market volumes have reached a level that is nearly an order of magnitude higher than only five years ago.
Underneath these headline numbers, the trends for the U.S. market look even better. Residential solar installations grew to a record 473 MW, with steady growth quarter to quarter. And while completions of non-residential capacity fell again, GTM Research expects the market to bounce back, particularly in 2016.
Utility-scale solar made up the difference, and much more is on the way. GTM Research counts 16.7 GW of U.S. solar PV projects with signed power contracts, 5.3 GW of which is under construction. Of the total, roughly 2/5 has been procured not because of environmental mandates, but economic considerations.
“Forty percent of them have landed power purchase agreements primarily because those projects are competitive with natural gas alternatives,” said GTM Research Senior Solar Analyst Cory Honeyman, one of the report's authors.
“We've reached a point with the pricing of solar where it's not just being bought to meet some environmental mandate. An increasing portion is being procured because of its cost.”
GTM Research expects growth in all sectors throughout the end of the year, and has forecast that the nation will install 7.7 GW of solar over the course of 2017.
This growth is expected to intensify in 2016, as developers rush to get projects completed to beat the drop-down of the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) to 10% at the end of 2016.
And while a crash is anticipated in 2017 if the ITC is not extended, GTM Research says this will be temporary. The company expects residential solar in particular to continue its path of growth despite challenges to net metering policies, many of which are driven by utilities.
“Net metering and rate design battles have resulted in mostly favorable outcomes for residential solar,” notes Honeyman. “Utility attacks have largely either been rejected or they have resulted in minimal impact.”
“There is a strong case for resilience in residential solar economics.”
Link: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/strong-q2-numbers-show-the-increasing-competitiveness-of-us-solar_100021001/#axzz3lJmNxhjk
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Australia $246m to spur large-scale solar development
Sep 9, 2015 | Recharge
By Andrew Lee
Australia today committed A$350m ($246m) to help finance up to 10 new large-scale solar projects, in another signal that the sun – not the wind – is the renewable source of choice under its current government.
The country’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) unveiled a $250m large-scale solar finance programme designed to help attract private capital to support projects that will add 200MW to Australia’s solar fleet.
The CEFC finance adds to a $100m funding programme launched by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) aimed at solar projects with a minimum capacity of 5MW (AC).
The two bodies plan to help add to existing large-scale developments in Australia, including AGL Energy's 102MW Nyngan Solar Plant in New South Wales, which uses modules from project-partner First Solar.
Big solar has emerged as the favoured renewable source of an Australian government widely seen as sceptical at best – and often openly hostile – to clean-energy development.
Under Prime Minister Tony Abbott the current administration has reversed renewable-friendly policies implemented by its predecessor and cut the national Renewable Energy Target (RET), a move criticised by solar and wind developers alike as damaging to investment prospects.
The wind power sector has borne the brunt of the policy reverses, with Abbott and his ministers openly voicing their dislike of the industry, but the government has been more conciliatory to large PV plants.
In July Abbott told the CEFC to exclude wind and small-scale PV from its finance remit, while environment minister Greg Hunt told reporters “I love large-scale solar”.
Today ARENA said its competitive funding programme has the “aim of bringing down the cost of large-scale solar developments in Australia and achieving cost parity between large-scale solar and wind energy by 2020.
“Australia has huge natural advantages in this area: more sun than almost anywhere else and a solar R&D sector that is the envy of the world,” ARENA added.
The CEFC said: “When fully deployed, the CEFC finance will be the single largest debt financing commitment to the Australian large-scale solar sector. The CEFC’s provision of fixed-rate longer-dated senior debt finance is designed to directly support the network of financiers, project suppliers and developers in the delivery of additional large-scale solar in Australia.”
Link: http://www.rechargenews.com/solar/1410788/australia-usd-246m-to-spur-large-scale-solar-development
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U.S. Solar Power on Track for Record 2015
Sep 10, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Martin
Developers installed 1.4 gigawatts of solar power in the U.S. in the second quarter, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier, putting the country on track for a record 7.7 gigawatts this year.
Residential systems swelled 70 percent while the utility market remained “the bedrock driver” of the U.S. solar market, accounting for more than half the installations, GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a joint statement Sept. 9.
The solar industry is rushing to complete projects before the end of next year, when a federal tax credit is set to expire for residential and utility-scale projects. Declining costs for solar power have also made them viable competitors to fossil fuels in many states, with 40 percent of the 16.7 gigawatts of utility projects in development beating coal and natural gas on price.
Total U.S. solar capacity in operation now exceeds 20 gigawatts, enough to supply 4.6 million homes and reduce carbon emissions by 25 million metric tons a year, according to the report.
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Mexico to award longer PPAs under energy auctions, specific scheme for renewables
Sep 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Blanca Diaz Lopez
The final rules of the Mexican electricity market published on Tuesday in the Mexican official government journal establish longer PPAs for projects and a specific supply category for clean energy projects awarded in future national energy auctions.
Long-term PPAs will last 15 years and clean energy certificates obligations will have a duration of 20 years. Earlier this year the government proposed PPAs of only up to ten years in duration.
Longer PPAs was one of the requests submitted by the solar sector to the government. The local solar association Asolmex asked the government for at least 20 year or longer contracts.
Renewable energy producers will be offered specific conditions for the supply of electricity under long-term PPAs. The rules establish a category for the supply of energy aimed for intermittent clean energy sources.
The auctions will be a part of an electricity market which is being introduced with the energy reform in Mexico and will start to operate at the beginning of next year.
Successful projects under the scheme are to commence operations about two years after the auction date. Specifically, standard starting operation date is on the first day of the third year after the auction has been launched.
Energy auctions for long-term supply will take place every year. Additional auctions under altered PPA and technology conditions could be introduced in the future as required.
First auction for this year
Mexico's Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquín Coldwell announced last month that the first energy auction is to be launched in October 2015 and the results are to be published in March next year. The auction is expected to be open to renewable energy projects.
Several renewable energy companies like Sowitec and Sunedison have expressed their interest in participating in the auction.
Further details about the auction are yet to be published. Sub-secretary of Electricity César Emiliano Hernández Ochoa said on Tuesday, during the announcement of the rules of the electricity market, that details about the auctions and the operation of the market will be put into consultation in September in published market manuals.
35% of clean energy in 2024
Mexico has a goal of 35% clean energy by 2024. This target, that is estipulated in Mexico's renewable energy law, doesn't establish an specific goal for solar energy.
Solar energy installation to date in Mexico is of about 150 MW and government forecasts, published in the grid program Prodesen released last month, point to 1.8 GW of solar energy to have been grid connected by 2029.
However to date about 8 GWof solar projects have been awarded permits from the Mexican Energy regulator. Alone this year, the authorities have greenlighted about 5 GW of solar projects.
Link: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/mexico-to-award-longer-ppas-under-energy-auctions--specific-scheme-for-renewables_100021006/#axzz3lJmNxhjk
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Indian government gives green light to offshore wind development
Sep 9, 2015 | Recharge
By Andrew Lee
The Indian government has approved the country’s national offshore wind policy, with local turbine group Suzlon saying it is already laying plans to develop a project off the coast of Gujarat.
The Indian cabinet decision authorises the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) to allocate offshore wind development blocks and steer R&D activities, working under the direction of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE).
A government statement said: “With the introduction of the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy, the government is attempting to replicate the success of the onshore wind power development.
“The policy will provide a level playing field to all investors and beneficiaries, domestic and international. All the processes would be carried out in a transparent manner by NIWE.”
Early studies have already identified significant development potential off states including Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
The first memorandum of understanding in the Indian offshore sector was signed last October in relation to a 100MW demonstrator off Gujarat.
Suzlon chairman Tulsi Tanti welcomed the cabinet's strategy approval and claimed it would spark an "offshore wind energy revolution in our country, given India’s very long coast line.
"One of the key advantages of offshore wind energy is that large sized projects of 1GW and above can be built with the capacity utilisation factor ranging from 45%-50%. This also enables better utilisation of transmission infrastructure and better dispatchability."
Tanti added: "Offshore wind energy implementation requires [a] fair amount of approvals from various departments. I am confident this announcement will simplify and create a single window system for relevant approvals from various central government departments and state maritime boards too."
Suzlon is carrying out a feasibility study off Gujarat, where it says it has identified more than 1GW of development potential in the Kutch region.
"We believe this is likely to be the first private-sector offshore wind energy project of the country," Tanti said.
The deal under which Suzlon sold German turbine OEM Senvion to a US private equity group in January this year included a clause granting Suzlon a licence for technology in the Indian offshore market.
Spanish turbine OEM Gamesa has also said it expects to win future business in India's offshore market.
Link: http://www.rechargenews.com/wind/1410817/indian-government-gives-green-light-to-offshore-wind-development
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