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Suntech and Tigo Introduce Creative Energy Optimization to the Solar Market
Nov 3, 2015 | The Jakarta Post
Suntech has announced today the introduction of a new smart solar module to its product portfolio. Officially unveiled in September, Suntech’s smart DC modules integrate the Tigo’s modular TS4 platform. -
China to Boost $100B Green Bond Market for Renewables
Nov 3, 2015 | Bloomberg
China is set to become a hotbed for the $100 billion market in bonds tied to environmentally-friendly investments as authorities and developers seek alternatives to loans for funding a transformation to clean energy supplies. -
China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks
Nov 3, 2015 | The New York Times
By Chris Buckley
China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming. -
U.N. climate official: VW emissions scandal is boon to electric cars
Nov 3, 2015 | Politico
By Andrew Restuccia
Christiana Figueres, the United Nations' top climate change official, said on Tuesday that she welcomed the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal because it is accelerating a shift toward electric vehicles. -
Companies Vie to Cut Costs of Solar Inverters
Nov 4, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Martin
Seen prices for solar panels lately? Sure, they've plunged two-thirds in the past five years, but the rate of decline has leveled off—in the past 18 months, they're down just 5.1 percent. -
Why are solar panel failures rising so fast?
Nov 3, 2015 | Recharge
By Bob Olsen
With countries around the world focused on diversifying their energy mix, and with prices for solar panels at record lows, global demand for PV continues to climb. -
Morocco to build world's largest concentrated solar power plant
Nov 3, 2015 | CNN
By Milena Veselinovic
It may be famous for its meandering medinas and the scenic Atlas Mountains, but Morocco might soon make its name as a solar superpower.
Press Release - Suntech and Tigo Introduce Creative Energy Optimization to the Solar Market
Industry News
Full Text of Stories Below
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Suntech and Tigo Introduce Creative Energy Optimization to the Solar Market
Nov 3, 2015 | The Jakarta Post
Suntech has announced today the introduction of a new smart solar module to its product portfolio. Officially unveiled in September, Suntech’s smart DC modules integrate the Tigo’s modular TS4 platform. The new application will enhance Suntech’s smart DC module system’s performance through the accessibility of wireless communications, the optimization of power output, and the availability of real-time monitoring, while ensuring a reduction in the overall maintenance costs. Suntech plans to integrate the TS4 to a variety of its modules that cater to both rooftop and commercial markets in Europe and Australia.
“2015 has been an exciting year for Suntech, with the launch of several new products that we’ve brought to the solar market,” says Victor Xiong, president of Suntech. “This smart DC module design eliminates module-level or cell string mismatch, reduces the chance of module malfunction, and increases the overall cell performance. The Tigo TS4 is a remarkable new product application that we’re adding to many of our existing modules, particularly the HyPro module. The smart DC module offers increased safety, flexible system design, reduced O&M costs, and real-time monitoring. This new module enriches Suntech’s portfolio by differentiating its products from others in the market.”
The TS4 Platform replaces the traditional JBox (junction box), allowing customers to install different functional covers to their solar panels. The covers currently offer a range in functionality from diodes and rapid shutdown to full functional long string and optimization – all providing unique, customized unprecedented capabilities. These personalized covers are selectively deployed on each module at different price points, utilizing predictive IV (PIV) technology to maximize energy harvest at minimal cost.
Compared to a traditional module, the smart DC module provides system with greater connectivity, efficiency, and output. The smart module with the Tigo TS4 is fully integrated and compatible with all leading inverters, monitoring equipment, and mounting solutions. By providing shade tolerance at the cell level, the Suntech smart DC modules will produce more energy than modules equipped with the leading DC optimizers or micro-inverters. Increasing power output in constricted installation spaces, the Suntech smart DC module offers up to 30% longer strings which reduce system BOS cost.
“Tigo is distinguished in the industry as being the sole company to offer a modular platform where customers can cater their PV Module behavior according to their needs by simply replacing the covers,” says Zvi Alon, Tigo CEO. “We are focused on partnering with tier 1 solar companies in order to focus on spreading our innovation and energy optimization. By combining our leading technologies with Suntech, we will be able to provide the solar market with the finest solar energy generation products and management systems.”
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China to Boost $100B Green Bond Market for Renewables
Nov 3, 2015 | Bloomberg
China is set to become a hotbed for the $100 billion market in bonds tied to environmentally-friendly investments as authorities and developers seek alternatives to loans for funding a transformation to clean energy supplies.
The timing is ripe for so-called green bonds in China because policymakers are “more driven to promote healthy development during a period of economic slowdown,” said Xu Nan, a policy analyst at the Research Center for Climate and Energy Finance under the Central University of Finance and Economics.
Bonds labeled as green channel their proceeds for fund low-carbon transport, renewable energy and other technologies aimed to curtail global warming.
In 2014, global green bond issuance more than tripled to $36.6 billion from the year earlier, according to data from the Beijing-based Central University’s research center. China accounted for none of that market. Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which hosts a conference in Shanghai starting Tuesday, says value of new green bond lending may reach $40 billion this year, a big expansion on the $100 billion raised in the past five years.
By issuing green bonds, “you’re explicitly telling everyone else you want to channel your capital allocation towards low carbon or green activities,” said Wai-Shin Chan, a Hong Kong-based strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc. “That’s an important signal because it tells not only the government that you want to be part of this, it might increase your chances of gaining public projects in the future.”Expanding Market
While relatively tiny compared with the total size of the global bond market, the potential in China is ripe given the vast sums being spent on record installations of solar and wind capacity.
“Green bonds in international markets are driven by the needs of ethical investors, which focus on investing in projects with higher sustainable benefits, while China still needs to foster such investor groups,” Central University’s Xu said.
The total volume for the green bond market worldwide may exceed $40 billion this year, Moody’s Investors Service estimates.Asia Focus
China and India, a pioneer in Asia’s nascent green bond market, are expected to be "prominent drivers of regional issuance over the coming years given the government’s ambitious targets on building out renewable energy capacity," according to an Oct. 19 note by Moody’s.
Until now, bank lending has been the primary source of funding for environmentally friendly projects in China. Green project lending from 21 major Chinese banks -- including China CITIC Bank Corp. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. -- exceeded 6 trillion yuan ($949 billion) as of the end of 2014, according to data from China Banking Association. That represented almost 10 percent of the lending activity on the part of the group.
The green credit ratio will continue to rise, Ma Jun, the chief economist at the People’s Bank of China’s research bureau, said at a briefing in Beijing on Oct. 28.
The nation needs green bonds to broaden financing channels and lower capital costs, he said.
"We think policy banks are certainly primed to issue green bonds," said HSBC’s Chan. China’s local governments may also be interested in issuing muni-green bonds based on infrastructure needs like Europe and North America, said Chan.Goldwind’s Issue
Some early green bond sales in China have already tested the market. In July, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. issued $300 million three-year bonds, marking China’s first sale of green bonds denominated in dollars. The deal was almost five times more than the allotment. In October, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.’s sale of 600 million yuan of two-year green bonds were eight times oversubscribed, receiving 4.9 billion yuan of orders.
"Such bonds, which usually have a lower yield, are popular because they meet investors’ specific needs for green concepts," said Nick Duan, a Beijing-based analyst from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Small and medium-sized companies in China are crying out for ways to secure cheaper and easier financing, Central University’s Xu said.
Including environmental protection, China’s green industry needs 2.9 trillion yuan of investment annually in the next five years, the Financial Research Institute of the State Council’s Development Research Center forecasts. Two-thirds of that will be funded through capital markets at home and abroad, the institute says.
China’s entry to the market in “full force” would be a “game-changer” for the green bond market, Standard & Poor’s said in March. World Leader
China led in renewables last year with investments of $89.5 billion, accounting for almost one out of every three dollars spent on clean energy in the world, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance figures released in January.
The Chinese government aims to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables and nuclear power by 2030 as a means to help cut carbon emissions.
China has the potential to be a leader in green bonds because it aspires to be seen as a leader in green financing among G20 nations, said Deborah Lehr, a senior fellow at the Paulson Institute, a research center on China that’s based in Chicago.
"We’re still waiting to see the regulations but we understand they will be coming out both for green municipal bonds and green corporate bonds by the end of the year," Lehr said. "We’re hoping that’s going to be a really new innovative way of encouraging both the acquisition and deployment of clean technologies."
China may want to have its own standards on green bonds, including which projects are eligible, the management of proceeds and evaluation processes, HSBC’s Chan said.
"The PBOC is working on a set of green bond guidelines,” Chan said. “I suspect there could be more encouraging incentives for buyers too.”
In fact, the Green Finance Committee, a PBOC-approved think tank, has finished a draft report on the definition and categories of green bonds and is seeking comment, Ma Jun, chief economist at the People’s Bank of China, said at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance forum in Shanghai on Tuesday.
The market has also spurred the need for ratings. Noah Holdings Ltd., a wealth management services provider in China, is trying to set up a ratings system for green debt with six rating organizations, its chief research officer, Jin Hainian, said at the BNEF forum.
The system will look at the performance of projects on pollution management, impact on the ecological environment and the sustainability of development, said Jin.
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China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks
Nov 3, 2015 | The New York Times
By Chris Buckley
China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.
Even for a country of China’s size, the scale of the correction is immense. The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.
The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels.
Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month to negotiate an international framework for curtailing greenhouse-gas pollution. The data also pose a challenge for scientists who are trying to reduce China’s smog, which often bathes whole regions in acrid, unhealthy haze.
The Chinese government has promised to halt the growth of its emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse pollutant from coal and other fossil fuels, by 2030. The new data suggest that the task of meeting that deadline by reducing China’s dependence on coal will be more daunting and urgent than expected, said Yang Fuqiang, a former energy official in China who now advises the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“This will have a big impact, because China has been burning so much more coal than we believed,” Mr. Yang said. “It turns out that it was an even bigger emitter than we imagined. This helps to explain why China’s air quality is so poor, and that will make it easier to get national leaders to take this seriously.”
The new data, which appeared recently in an energy statistics yearbook published without fanfare by China’s statistical agency, show that coal consumption has been underestimated since 2000, and particularly in recent years. The revisions were based on a census of the economy in 2013 that exposed gaps in data collection, especially from small companies and factories.
Illustrating the scale of the revision, the new figures add about 600 million tons to China’s coal consumption in 2012 — an amount equivalent to more than 70 percent of the total coal used annually by the United States.
“It’s been a confusing situation for a long time,” said Ayaka Jones, a China analyst at the United States Energy Information Administration in Washington. She said the new data vindicated her earlier analysis of China’s preliminary statistics, which flagged significantly increased numbers for coal use and overall energy consumption.
The new data indicated that much of the change came from heavy industry — including plants that produce coal chemicals and cement, as well as those using coking coal, which goes to make steel, Ms. Jones said. The correction for coal use in electric power generation was much smaller.
Officials accepted the need to correct worsening distortions in the old data but have not commented publicly on the changes, according to Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University in eastern China. Mr. Lin said in a telephone interview that this was partly because the new figures made it more complicated to set and assess the country’s clean-energy goals.
“It’s created a lot of bewilderment,” he said. “Our basic data will have to be adjusted, and the international agencies will also have to adjust their databases. This is troublesome because many forecasts and commitments were based on the previous data.”
When President Xi Jinping proposed that China’s emissions stop growing by 2030, he did not say what level they would reach by then. The new numbers may mean that the peak will be higher, but they also raise hopes that emissions will crest many years sooner, Mr. Yang, the climate adviser, said.
“I think this implies that we’re closer to a peak, because there’s also been a falloff in coal consumption in the past couple of years,” he said.
Chinese energy and statistics agency officials did not respond to faxed requests for comment on the data revisions.
The press office of the International Energy Agency said by email that the organization would revise its own data to reflect China’s revisions, starting with numbers for 2011 to 2013 that will be released Wednesday. The agency estimated, based on the new figures, that China’s carbon dioxide pollution in 2011 and 2012 was 4 percent to 6 percent greater than previously thought.
But some scientists said the difference could be much larger.
Jan Ivar Korsbakken, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, said that based on his preliminary analysis, the new data implied that China had released about 900 million metric tons more carbon dioxide from 2011 to 2013.
That would be an 11 percent increase in emissions, he said. For comparison, the International Energy Agency estimated before the revision that China had emitted 8.25 billion tons of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels in 2012. Dr. Korsbakken, a physicist, emphasized that deeper analysis of the new data was needed before firm conclusions could be drawn.
When estimating emissions, scientists prefer to account for coal use by the amount of energy in it rather than by its raw mass, which includes impurities that end up as ash. Measured in energy terms, Dr. Korsbakken said, China consumed 10 percent to 15 percent more coal than the old data had showed from 2005 to 2013, the last year for which the new and old figures can be compared. The revisions for 2001 through 2004 were smaller.
Economists have grown increasingly skeptical about the economic data China publishes, and the revisions open a new episode in the debate over its energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions.
China burned or otherwise consumed 4.2 billion metric tons in 2013, according to the new data, and its emissions now far exceed those of any other country, including the United States, the second-largest emitter.
This is not the first time China has underestimated its coal consumption. In the late 1990s, small coal mines were ordered to close, but many of them simply stopped reporting their output to the government. For a time, this created an erroneous impression that China had succeeded in generating economic growth without increasing emissions.
More recently, some scientists concluded that China’s emissions were lower than widely believed because the coal it was using burned less efficiently than researchers had generally assumed. But Mr. Yang said that conclusion had been disputed.
The revised numbers do not alter scientists’ estimates of the total amount of carbon dioxide in the air. That is measured directly, not inferred from fuel consumption statistics the way countries’ emissions are usually estimated.
So if China’s emissions have been much greater than believed, researchers will want to understand where the extra carbon dioxide output ended up — for example, how it might have been absorbed in natural “sinks” like forests or oceans, said Josep G. Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, which studies the sources and flows of greenhouse-gas pollution.
“If the emissions are partially wrong,” Mr. Canadell said, “we’ll be wrong in attributing carbon sources and sinks.”
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U.N. climate official: VW emissions scandal is boon to electric cars
Nov 3, 2015 | Politico
By Andrew Restuccia
Christiana Figueres, the United Nations' top climate change official, said on Tuesday that she welcomed the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal because it is accelerating a shift toward electric vehicles.
"I am actually delighted about Volkswagen," Figueres said at an event in Washington, explaining that she hopes the company's plan to transition its vehicles from diesel engines to plug-in hybrids and electric models will inspire more companies to follow suit.
"I ask you," she added, "Is it not time to build the museum to the internal combustion engine?"
Figueres will chair the U.N. climate talks that begin in Paris on Nov. 30, where nearly 200 nations hope to finalize a deal to place limits on heat-trapping emissions and provide financial assistance for poor countries.
Climate negotiators have been sharply divided on the amount of money wealthy governments and businesses should put forward to help developing nations build clean energy projects and adapt to a warmer world. Figueres said the goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year from public and private sources by 2020 is just a starting point. It's "politically critical" to reach the goal, she said, but "it makes no impact" relative to the scope of the problem.
The U.N.-established Green Climate fund has raised just more than $10 billion so far. Figueres said that sum is "not even peanuts. It’s the bag that you throw out after you’ve had your peanuts because it's too tiny.”
"This transformation is not about $10 billion. It’s not about $100 billion. It’s about trillions" of dollars, she said. The key question, she continued, is whether the money that will be invested in infrastructure and urbanization over the coming decades will "go into the technologies of the past, in which case we are majorly screwed, or are they going to go into the technologies of this century?"
Developed countries like the United States "have to make a very solid showing" on climate finance in Paris, Figueres said, although she stopped short of asking for a specific dollar figure from any particular country.
"I know that the industrialized countries are working on this," she said. "It’s definitely homework."
Asked if Paris will be a success, Figueres said it depends on your definition of success. She said the final agreement will "draw the arc into the future" by putting in place an infrastructure to further ratchet up ambition over time with a goal of carbon neutrality in the coming decades. A regular review process with an eye toward further cutting emissions, perhaps every five years as many countries have proposed, is "absolutely fundamental" to the deal, she added.
Figueres also warned reporters on Tuesday to stop badgering her about why the climate agreement countries hope to seal in Paris won't by itself keep the increase in global emissions below 2 degrees Celsius — the threshold for preventing the most catastrophic effects of global warming.
Indeed, Figueres and other top officials have long sought to manage expectations about what can realistically be accomplished in Paris, worrying that assumptions that the talks will save the planet will result in the final agreement being panned as a failure.
A United Nations report released last week said the collective climate pledges submitted so far by nearly 150 countries would limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius, overshooting the 2-degree goal. While Figueres said she was optimistic the world would hit that target eventually, she was clear it would not happen under the Paris agreement.
“I will chop the head off the person who asked that question," she deadpanned, "because I have been saying for at least a year, if not more, that that is impossible."
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Companies Vie to Cut Costs of Solar Inverters
Nov 4, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Martin
Seen prices for solar panels lately? Sure, they've plunged two-thirds in the past five years, but the rate of decline has leveled off—in the past 18 months, they're down just 5.1 percent.
That's why solar companies are looking at Enphase Energy Inc. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc. to help them wring more costs out of the electronic gadgetry that drives rooftop power systems.
Enphase and SolarEdge are the two biggest suppliers of inverters for U.S. rooftop systems—a critical yet unheralded component. They're generally seen as the brains of a system and account for as much as one-third of the total cost. The two companies are locked in a technology battle, offering competing approaches and racing to lower prices. They'll both report results soon, and the numbers will help crown a winner.
“The weakest link in a solar system is the inverter, and it's a big part of the cost,” said Jigar Shah, a clean-energy investor and consultant. “Anyone who can offer a smart panel at a lower price is going to win market share.”
Converting Current
An inverter is essentially a box full of magnets and wires that converts the direct current electricity that flows from solar panels into the alternating current that's sent across the grid. As demand for clean power booms, and especially demand for residential solar, the inverter market is on track to increase 15 percent to $7.3 billion this year, and another 9 percent in 2016 to $8 billion, according to GTM Research.
The company to watch is SolarEdge, which is expected to become the top inverter supplier for U.S. rooftops this year, surpassing incumbent Enphase, according to GTM. The Herziliya Pituach, Israel-based company's growth stems from a design that the company says makes it cheaper than products from Enphase.
SolarEdge introduced a new inverter at the Solar Power International conference in Anaheim, Calif., in September that Lior Handelsman, co-founder and vice president of marketing, said reduces weight and uses digital processing to improve performance.
“This is revolutionary,” he said. Those changes translate to more power produced on more rooftops at a lower cost than competing products. “It puts us on a much better improvement curve.”
Inverter Pricing
In the quarter that ended in June, Enphase sold inverters for an average of about 52 cents a watt, compared to SolarEdge's average price of about 35 cents a watt, based on the amount of megawatts shipped and total sales, said Michael Morosi, an analyst at Avondale Partners LLC in Nashville, Tenn.
SolarEdge is expected Nov. 4 to report quarterly sales of $110 million, up 64 percent from a year earlier, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income will increase almost fivefold to $12 million.
Enphase sales aren't increasing as fast. The Petaluma, Calif.-based company is expected to report this week revenue of $103 million for the third quarter, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier, and a loss of $2.64 million, compared with an $813,000 profit.
Market Share Loss
Enphase has lost 76 percent of its market value this year through Nov. 2, the most in the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index of 105 clean energy companies. SolarEdge's U.S. shares, which aren't in the NEX index, have gained less than 1 percent since they were listed in March.
Those numbers reflect a shift in the market, said Vishal Shah, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in New York.
“Enphase remains at risk of share loss against SolarEdge despite benefiting from strong growth of the U.S. market,” Shah said in a note to clients. He downgraded the shares to sell, saying profit margins are under threat from increasing competition and pricing pressure. “Until the company releases new lower-cost products in late 2016, we expect downside risk to margins.”
Technological Advances
Historically, solar installers would connect a single inverter, about the size of a laser printer, to a bank of about a dozen or so panels. Smaller rooftop systems typically used a single inverter to control all the panels. A key problem with this design is that if one panel fails, they're all wired together and they all go down.
Enphase addressed this by introducing in 2008 micro-inverters, smart-phone-size units that attach to the bottom of every panel and handle the electricity from only that one. That can make installation easier, and cheaper, and also help meet tightening fire safety regulations that require ways to shut off rooftop power systems within 10 feet of the panels. That helped make Enphase the top inverter supplier for the U.S. rooftop market.
SolarEdge entered the U.S. rooftop market in 2012 using a different design: a single centralized inverter to control the system, plus another device called an optimizer, small units that attach to each panel. The setup means individual panels can be monitored and controlled, and the whole thing won't go down if a single panel has problems.
Handelsman said this approach is more cost-effective than Enphase's approach.
“Value-wise, we're always the best,” he said at the Solar Power International conference.
Lower Costs Give Edge
“SolarEdge is definitely gaining market share from Enphase in the U.S. residential market,” said Scott Moskowitz, an analyst at GTM Research in New York. “Pricing is a big part of that. SolarEdge has been able to prove their system lowers overall costs.”
Enphase CEO Paul Nahi concedes that his company is losing share in the U.S. rooftop market and has a plan to expand production and cut costs.
“Solar is going to be a huge part of the energy puzzle, and we're providing the brains that make it much more valuable,” Nahi said in an interview. “Outside of the U.S., we're gaining market share. We're seeing dramatic growth globally.”
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Why are solar panel failures rising so fast?
Nov 3, 2015 | Recharge
By Bob Olsen
With countries around the world focused on diversifying their energy mix, and with prices for solar panels at record lows, global demand for PV continues to climb.But with the tides of incentives rising and falling at different times in different countries, it’s still a turbulent, competitive and cost-sensitive environment.
With or without incentives, solar remains a considerable investment. Calculating the true price of solar electricity requires an accurate measure of value in which all the costs of energy production are spread across the system’s expected lifetime (typically 25 years) and assessed on a cost-per-kWh basis. This metric provides an understanding of a system’s true value over time — the levelised cost of electricity (LCoE). LCoE = Capital Expense + Operational Expense ÷ Lifetime Power Output.
It makes sense: a solar panel that lasts longer is more cost-effective. LCoE would more than double by reducing a system’s lifetime to ten years from 25. Industry economics require continuous improvement, and we must pay attention to quality and durability to maximise system lifetimes and returns.
Studies are revealing the industry’s growing pains. TÜV Rheinland, a leading testing authority, recently revealed that the percentage of defective modules has increased by 2.5 times in the past two years.
Ultimately, warranties are hard to track and rarely claimed, and in many cases system owners can only watch as their hard-earned, eagerly awaited investment requires replacement long before expectations.
But doing some homework to identify proven, trusted materials, manufacturers, installers and system owners can mitigate risk more effectively.
Here’s a key example. Of the components that make up a typical solar panel, one of the most critical to longevity is the backsheet, an otherwise nondescript plastic film that undergirds and protects all the other components against the elements. The backsheet is a panel’s first line of defence. Many different backsheet materials are available at many different prices. If the backsheet is compromised, power production can fade faster than it should or suddenly cease altogether, which can double operational expense. Electrical safety can even be compromised.
A five-year field study by DuPont that surveyed fields worldwide representing 1.5 million solar panels reveals that 30% showed yellowing and cracking of the backsheet in as little as two years. The study highlighted a significant performance advantage for panels constructed using polyvinyl fluoride film-based backsheets. Materials matter.
On the cost-control front, the backsheet makes up just 10% of the cost of a panel, so even a relatively small cost increase for materials proven to deliver long-term value will have little impact on the price of the panel. Saving on the backsheet is like skipping oil changes on the family car, only to have to replace the motor well before its time. Penny wise can be pound foolish.
As the solar industry matures and evolves, it is vital to learn as we grow. By seeking out new data, understanding more about how modules and materials degrade, and making informed decisions about key system elements, we can specify component materials that are proven to stand the test of time.
We can choose panels from manufacturers with established quality controls and find experienced installers that know how to do the job right. These are all essential to making solar a safe, rewarding experience, at precisely the time we should be doing everything we can to ensure more people choose solar and that they love the experience.
Bob Olsen is director of corporate marketing at DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions
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Morocco to build world's largest concentrated solar power plant
Nov 3, 2015 | CNN
By Milena Veselinovic
It may be famous for its meandering medinas and the scenic Atlas Mountains, but Morocco might soon make its name as a solar superpower.
The north-western African nation is building the world's biggest concentrated solar power plant, which will supply electricity to 1.1 million Moroccans by 2018, according to the World Bank.
The plant is being constructed in a 30 square kilometer area outside the city of Ouarzazate, on the fringe of the Sahara desert, famous as the filming location of Hollywood blockbusters like "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gladiator," and the TV series "Game of Thrones."
The first phase, titled Noor 1, will be operational in the next few weeks, according to officials.
"Morocco stands at the forefront of climate-friendly policies in the region," Inger Andersen, World Bank Regional Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, says in a report.
"The country is well positioned to benefit from its head-start at a time when other regional powers are beginning to think more seriously about their own renewable energy programs," he adds.
Energy even at night
The Noor complex will use a technology called Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), which is more expensive to install than the widely used photovoltaic panels, but unlike them, allows to store energy for nights and cloudy days.
It uses mirrors to focus the sun's light and heat up a liquid, which is mixed with water and reaches a temperature close to 400 degrees Celsius. This produces steam, which in turn drives a turbine to generate electrical power.
It's hoped that the project, whose construction was officially launched by Morocco's King Mohammed VI in 2013, will reduce carbon emissions by 700,000 tons per year and even generate an energy surplus for exports.
Morocco heavily depends on fossil fuel imports at the moment, which currently provide over 97% of its energy, making the country vulnerable to their fluctuating price.
An unreliable supply of electricity causes daily obstacles to lives of tens of thousands of people in Morocco's rural areas -- from flickering light bulbs to malfunctioning hospital equipment.
To tackle the problem, the country is hoping to install enough diverse clean-energy plants to meet42% of its demand for power, including 14% from solar, by 2020.
The African nation already hosts the Turfaya wind farm which, with 131 turbines, is the largest on the continent, and it is rapidly becoming a mainstream market for renewable energy investment according to Ernst and Young. The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy was established in 2010 to spearhead new and ongoing projects.
Gateway to Africa
"There is a very strategic sense in Morocco of diversifying energy sources," says energy specialist, Roger Coma-Cunill in a World Bank blog, "and a clear sense, with all these targets to reach by 2020, of adding to a green growth plan and being a model for Africa. Morocco is trying to be a gateway to Africa - that's part of this endeavor," he adds.
A lack of reliable power has long been Africa's Achilles heel, blamed for stunting the continent's development.
Only 24% of population in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity, which is the worst rate in the world. Excluding South Africa, the region's entire installed generation capacity is equivalent to that of Argentina.
In rural areas connectivity falls even lower to 5% in Kenya, 4% in Mali and just 2% in Ethiopiaaccording to the African Development Bank.
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