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How soon is SolarCity’s 1GW fab equipment order-frenzy?
Oct 8, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osbourne
SolarCity’s 1GW fab has recently entered the final construction phase, seemingly on target for the end of the year and on budget at around US$350 million. -
New York State plans for solar on 150,000 homes and businesses by 2020
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Christian Roselund
California has long been the standard-bearer for clean energy in the United States, with ambitious renewable energy mandates backed by regulatory action to reform not only the way that utilities procure power, but how they approach resources on the customer side of the meter. -
China again lifts 2015 solar target, now aims at 23.1 GW
Oct 9, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Militsa Mancheva
Fighting to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions but ignoring the high power curtailment rates, China has revised for the third time its official photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions target for 2015, this time gearing for as much as 23.1 GW.
Industry News
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How soon is SolarCity’s 1GW fab equipment order-frenzy?
Oct 8, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osbourne
SolarCity’s 1GW fab has recently entered the final construction phase, seemingly on target for the end of the year and on budget at around US$350 million.
The company was also able to work up a media-frenzy over its announcement of its new PV module performance from its 100MW pilot line facility in Silicon Valley.
This milestone should also generate the initial US$50 million ‘earnout’ to Silevo shareholders if you are familiar with PV Tech’s in-depth coverage, which is payable before 31 December 2015.
With the Buffalo fab near construction completion, interest turns to the US$400 million capital expenditure plans for manufacturing equipment, which is being funded and controlled by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York.
The pilot line is SolarCity’s stepping stone to the 1GW fab, providing a technology and process migration path as well as future process upgrades and cost reduction strategies for the main production fab as it ramps and gets to a planned full-capacity in 2017.
PV Tech recently highlighted that SolarCity had increased its own spending, which was primarily related to the 100MW pilot line.
This sparked some investigations as to what tools from which suppliers had been ordered for the pilot line and also another look at Silevo’s previous toolset, which was transferred to the new, larger pilot line.
This provides some clues as to the likely tool selection for the Buffalo fab as there is expected to be a close correlation of key tooling from the pilot line and those ordered for the 1GW fab.
That initial investigation proved more difficult than expected, given selection was done on a very discrete basis. However, a certain level of success has ensued.
The pilot line is believed to be using turnkey back-end module assembly equipment from Japanese supplier NPC Group, well known for specialist PV module assembly equipment for monocrystalline and N-type monocrystalline product offerings.
There are several logical reasons for the selection of NPC tools, driven importantly on a long history of supplying mono equipment tool variants for complete back-end assembly lines.
Unlike SunPower that relies on proprietary tools, Silevo/SolarCity wanted high-performance modules but at a cost competitive level, ensuring a preference for standard equipment from established suppliers. In the case of NPC, Silevo/SolarCity have ticked that box.
Therefore, NPC would have to be in the running for a major order with the State University of New York.
However, checking NPC’s financial reports it looks pretty clear that through the end of August, 2015 the company has not received a major order of any kind.
During EU PVSEC in September a topic of discussion with equipment and material suppliers was the dearth of evidence over major equipment orders for the Buffalo fab and a certain level of head scratching.
With fab construction coming to a close and expected tool install in the first half of 2016, order placements should be coming to the surface in one form or another.
Typically, back-end equipment lead times are relatively short with order turnarounds in 3-4 months so not alarming for the Buffalo fab yet.
Front-end equipment though is a different matter and can take nine months turnaround typically. However, major PV equipment suppliers are already struggling with full order books and extending lead times.
However, Silevo’s hybrid-heterojunction cell architecture relies heavily on PVD processes and copper electroplating deposition, depending on their preferred supplier(s) may not be suffering from full order books as these suppliers could come from the semiconductor/Flat Panel Display and printed electronics markets.
With an initial US$400 million spending frenzy planned the wait to start putting these pieces of the Buffalo 1GW fab jigsaw together is nearly over.
http://www.pv-tech.org/editors_blog/where_is_solarcitys_1gw_fab_equipment_order_frenzy
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New York State plans for solar on 150,000 homes and businesses by 2020
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Christian Roselund
California has long been the standard-bearer for clean energy in the United States, with ambitious renewable energy mandates backed by regulatory action to reform not only the way that utilities procure power, but how they approach resources on the customer side of the meter.
But New York may be giving California a run for its money as the most progressive state for policy to enable a transformation of the electric grid. As the latest, on Thursday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a series of new goals which deepen the state's embrace of clean energy as a means for greenhouse gas reduction.
Topping the list, Governor Cuomo set a target for the state to install solar arrays on 150,000 additional homes and businesses by 2020, a five-fold expansion on the 30,000 arrays that the state has supported since 2013.
As a means to reach this goal, the governor's office mentioned the new "Shared Renewables" virtual net metering program. Under the program, New York residents can subscribe to receive the benefits of a PV array up to 2 MW-AC located on a sponsor's property, through net metering.
This includes multi-unit master metered buildings, which will allow tenants to share in the benefits of solar PV.
EQ Research Director of Research Justin Barnes says that the NY-SUN MW Block incentive program for large-scale solar will also be key in meeting this goal. The program provides geographically differentiated performance-based incentives to systems up to 2 MW.
“It's going to be as critical to a community renewables project as it is to any other large-scale industrial project,” states Barnes. He also says that while there were few applications for the program after it was rolled out, that interest is increasing.
In addition to the 150,000 new PV installations, Governor Cuomo announced that the State University of New York (SUNY) system will install renewable energy at each of its 64 campuses by 2020. This builds on a previous SUNY commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2020.
A third pledge was to engage the states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to explore the possibility of linking this market with carbon markets in Quebec, California and Ontario.
These three were announced concurrent with the signing of the Under 2 MOU, an agreement between states, provinces and cities globally to play their part in keeping the earth's average temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius by 2100, versus pre-industrial levels.
New York already has one of the most aggressive targets in the nation for greenhouse gas reduction, with plans to reduce emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
As a key means to meet this target, New York is currently engaged in a process to rethink the structure of its electricity system, including the role of utilities. Reforming the Energy Vision may be the most advanced process of restructuring in the nation, and is specifically focused on distributed energy resources and providing tools and knowledge to allow customers to manage their resources under a more dynamic system.
http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/new-york-state-plans-for-solar-on-150-000-homes-and-businesses-by-2020_100021483/#ixzz3o5Mfh8YB
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China again lifts 2015 solar target, now aims at 23.1 GW
Oct 9, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Militsa Mancheva
Fighting to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions but ignoring the high power curtailment rates, China has revised for the third time its official photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions target for 2015, this time gearing for as much as 23.1 GW.
In comparison, the initial target was for 15 GW. In March, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) revised it to 17.8 GW without making a division in terms of power plant and distributed generation (DG) capacity.
In the first half of the current year, however, the Asian country managed to install only 7.73 GW of PV parks. In other words, following the 30% increase in the national solar strategy, domestic sector players will have to deploy almost twice as much capacity in the remainder of 2015.
Most of the new solar power plants are planned to be located in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, as well as in Hebei province. In order to comply with the plan, construction works at the sites have to be wrapped up by end-2015, while grid-connection may be postponed through June 2016.
All in all, the world’s leader in installed PV is set to reach 100 GW by the end of the decade.
http://renewables.seenews.com/news/china-again-lifts-2015-solar-target-now-aims-at-23-1-gw-496550
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