Forbes’ Take On What is Holding Back The Growth of Solar Power…

May 24th 2012: Yesterday, Justin Gerdes, a contributor for Forbes magazine, wrote a piece that breaks down what he believes is holding back the growth of Solar Power.

Please take a moment and read this very informative and insightful article:

Solar Power More Competitive Than Decision-Makers Or Consumers Realize

Michael Charles Tobias, Contributon

Are the decision-makers entrusted with determining the future of energy infrastructure operating under an outdated understanding of the cost-competitiveness of solar power? In many cases, the answer is yes, according to a paper released last week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

In “Reconsidering the Economics of Photovoltaic Power,” (PDF) BNEF CEO Michael Liebreich and nine collaborators document the precipitous decline in the price of solar power since 2009. “Average PV module prices have fallen by nearly 75% in the past three years,” they write, “to the point where solar power is now competitive with daytime retail power prices in a number of countries.”

Those facts so quickly upended what had been conventional wisdom (i.e., solar power is prohibitively expensive) that the new economics of solar power apparently caught decision-makers flat-footed. Here are the authors’ conclusions:

 

• The shift in prices of solar technology carries major implications for policy and investment decision-makers, especially when it comes to the choice of generating technology and the design of tariff, fiscal and other support policies.
• Many observers and decision-makers have yet to catch up with the improvements in the economics of solar power that have resulted from recent PV technology cost and price reductions.
• Recent reductions in PV prices are likely to be sustainable. While overcapacity has caused severe pain for manufacturers, the price falls are primarily a reflection of reductions in manufacturing costs, not solely a reflection of stock liquidation and other short-run factors.
• Commonly used estimates for PV power’s competitiveness – including the concept of “grid parity” – are often misleading, given the complex realities of the electricity system. [emphasis in the above mine]

The aim of the paper, the authors say, is to “inform policy-makers, utility decision-makers, investors and advisory services, in particular in high-growth developing countries, as they weigh the suite of power generation options available to them.” That understated language masks a deadly serious message, with the authors’ words practically shouting from the page: We’re trying to help you prevent the conventional energy infrastructure lock-in that will tip runaway climate change.

Despite the forces arrayed against it – its perceived high cost, the lack of a price on carbon in much of the world, and concerted efforts by cosseted fossil-fuel incumbents to stifle its rise – solar power is booming. “Large drops in solar module prices have helped spur record levels of deployment, which increased 54 percent over the previous year to 28.7 GW in 2011. This is ten times the new build level of 2007,” the paper finds.

A new paper from Bloomberg New Energy Finance argues that solar power is much closer to competitiveness than many policymakers and commentators realize. Credit: DOE/NREL 13739/Arizona Public Service

According to BNEF, the levelized cost of electricity (the cost distributed over a project’s lifetime) for conventional silicon PV declined by nearly 50% from an average of $0.32/kWh in early 2009 to $0.17/kWh in early 2012; thin-film PV dropped from $0.23/kWh to $0.16/kWh over the same period. As of the first quarter of 2012, BNEF pegs the levelized cost range at $0.11/kWh to $0.25/kWh. Residential customers in the United States pay an average retail price for electricity of $0.115 cents/kWh.

The authors contend that if decision-makers understood the new economics of solar, it would hasten the deployment of PV in existing and new markets. “Despite the substantial drop in PV costs,” they write, “many commentators continue to note that PV-generated power is prohibitively expensive unless heavily supported by subsidies or enhanced prices. Outdated numbers are still widely disemminated to governments, regulators and investors.”

Outdated information has led not just to poorly designed and overly generous feed-in tariff (FiT) schemes but to missed opportunities. “If PV power is perceived to be too costly,” write the authors, “governments are less likely to take on the financial burden. This was the case in China in 2010, where the anticipated national PV FiT was dropped because solar PV costs were deemed too high.”

Homeowners overestimate cost of installing solar

If policymakers have not fully grasped the new economics of solar, it should come as no surprise that homeowners are similarly unaware. A Harris Interactive survey released last month found that 97% of homeowners polled overestimated the cost of installing solar; just 3% of respondents knew that the upfront cost to install solar could be less than $1,000, and, in some cases, nothing at all.

To be fair, the survey was self-serving; it was commissioned by California-based solar installer Sunrun, which specializes in little- or no-money-down solar leasing. (The survey was basically an advertisement for Sunrun’s business model.) No matter. Gone are the days when homeowners determined to install solar had to pay $20,000, or considerably more, upfront to buy the panels outright. Forty percent of the Sunrun survey respondents still thought this to be the only option; meanwhile, nearly 8 in 10 said they would install solar if cost were not a factor.

The rapidly falling price of solar panels (combined with state and federal subsidies) has made viable the business model of Sunrun and competitors like SolarCity and Sungevity. The popularity of solar leasing (it now accounts for 75% of the residential solar market in California and more than 80% in Massachusetts) suggests that Americans wanting to switch to clean energy and hedge against rising electricity prices will increasingly choose to install solar.

It’s a shame that bad or incomplete information is holding back the growth of solar power. Those in a position to reach decision-makers and consumers, journalists like myself included, must ensure that the improved economics of solar power becomes the new conventional wisdom.

A Great Read…

A great and informative read:  Recognizing the Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Underwriting by Steven Winter Associates

 

U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center

Below are the Department Of Energy’s updates regarding the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center. The DOE announced these developments on April 13th:

Selections Named for U.S.-India Joint Energy Center

The Energy Department on April 13 announced the selection of three consortia that will make up the $125 million U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center. The consortia are led in the United States by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as the University of Florida. They will bring together experts from national laboratories, universities, and industry in both the United States and India. Consortia researchers will leverage their expertise and resources in solar technology, advanced biofuels, and building efficiency to unlock the potential of clean energy technologies that can reduce energy use, cut dependence on foreign oil, and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources.

The three lead U.S. institutions have partnered with three lead Indian institutions: the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology-Hyderabad, and CEPT University-Ahmedabad. The Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center is part of the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy.

As part of a planned five-year initiative, DOE will make $5 million available in fiscal year 2012. The Energy Department plans to request as much as an additional $20 million of Congress over the next four years, subject to available appropriations, to support research conducted by U.S. institutions and individuals. The Indian Government also committed to funding $25 million over five years that will be used to support work by Indian institutions and individuals. In addition, U.S. and Indian consortia members have pledged more than $75 million in matching funds, for a combined funding total of more than $125 million for joint research and development in solar energy, advanced biofuels, and building energy efficiency. See the DOE press release.

Partner Energy, Inc., Named as the Commissioning Authority for Edwards Lifesciences’ New Biological Research Center!

April 12, 2012: Edwards Lifesciences is constructing a new Biological Research Center (BRC), which will be located in Irvine, CA. The new BRC Building will replace an existing facility located at the site, and will be comprised of approximately 20,000 usable square feet.

Partner Energy, Inc, will act as the Commissioning Authority for the project, providing CALGreen services.

For further information and/or to discuss Commissioning projects of your own, please contact Partner Energy directly:

P: 888-826-1216
Website: www.ptrenergy.com

Partner Energy’s Lance Collins makes the news!

On April 10, 2012, Partner Energy’s Lance Collins was featured in the Long Beach Business Journal. This article focuses on Long Beach’s USGBC chapter and on the working (environmentally conscious) professionals that make this chapter so successful:

Working To Bring Public And Private Sectors Together On Environment

By Sean Belk – Staff Writer

April 10, 2012 – The nonprofit trade organization known as the U.S. Green Building Council is often mistaken for a government agency, since many governments, including the City of Long Beach, have adopted its “green” standards as the benchmark for new construction.

But, in actuality, the council is made up of working environmentally conscious professionals involved in a myriad of different disciplines, ranging from architecture and design to construction and planning. Since being developed in the 1990s, the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) grading system has changed the way buildings are constructed, designed and operated.

Co-chairs of the Long Beach branch of the U.S. Green Building Council, Lance Collins,
AIA, LEED AP, co-owner of Greenside, LLC, and Meg Beatrice, AIA, LEED AP, and principal
of Architecture M, stand in front of the Mark Twain Library. The library, located at
Anaheim Street and Alamitos Avenue, is the first LEED-certified “green” public building
in Long Beach. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)

Lance Collins, a licensed architect and LEED professional, co-chairs the Long Beach branch of the U.S. Green Building Council that was formed in 2009 as part of the nearly 1,000-member Los Angeles chapter. He said the U.S. Green Building Council began forming smaller branches as a way to better serve areas that have shown a commitment to green practices and have more localized issues. Other branches in L.A. County include the San Gabriel Valley branch and the Westside branch.

The Long Beach branch, which has about 80 members, brings together private and public entities and individuals on issues that involve the local environment and the green building industry, Collins said.

“Everything works best in a public-private partnership,” he said.” It can’t just be the city saying, ‘we want to do this,’ or a private individual saying, ‘this is what we want.’ They have to work together . . . Where those opportunities occur . . . is where you see the most success.”

The local branch has a seven-member steering committee and holds monthly public program events that draw professionals and interested parties from around the region to Long Beach. With 250 LEED accredited professionals in Long Beach currently, Collins said interest in the group continues to grow.

Some of the more popular events have included a tour of a LEED certified building at the Port of Long Beach, beach cleanups and a recent workshop about “reimagining” urban infrastructure in the city.

Collins, a Long Beach resident who formerly worked for Long Beach-based architecture and design firm Studio One Eleven, co-founded his own firm known as Greenside, LLC in Malibu. He said Long Beach is a prime example of how to make major strides in green building and sustainable infrastructure planning, such as the city’s new bikeways downtown and other efforts that have put the city on the map.

“We have some unique opportunities here for what’s going on in Long Beach,” he said. “Everybody always wants to see real life examples and touch what it’s like . . . So, to provide that resource to everybody and have exposure to meet other professionals working in the industry is very valuable.”

According to the project directory on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Web site, there are a total of 47 public and private structures registered as LEED projects, either certified or in the process of being certified, in Long Beach. Some examples are: the new downtown courthouse; industrial headquarters near the Long Beach Airport; and newly constructed buildings on the Middle Harbor port terminal.

The Long Beach branch’s next program event includes a workshop on how local residents are able to take advantage of rebates and incentives for making energy efficient retrofits to their homes through the state’s Energy Upgrade California program. Certified contractors, the City of Long Beach’s Office of Sustainability and County of Los Angeles representatives are expected to be in attendance. The workshop is being held from 1-3 p.m. on April 14 at Whaley Park Community Center, 5620 E. Atherton St. The event is free, but RSVP is recommended. For more information, visit www.usgbc-la.org.

Webinar Announcement

On Wednesday March 21st, Partner Energy Inc. president, Tony Liou, will be featured on a Globe St. webinar. This webinar will discuss the essentials on maximizing your building’s efficiency and profitability.

This webinar is FREE. If you are interested in attending, please follow the link below to sign up:

 

DATE: March 21st, 2012 TIME: 2:00PM ET REGISTRATION COST: FREE! Register Now  “Energy Efficiency” isn’t just a hot buzzword – investing in energy efficiency measures can yield significant ROI through increased asset values and lower ownership costs. Partner Energy’s Tony Liou discusses the essentials on maximizing your building’s efficiency and profitability. This webinar will cover: - Identifying your energy goals - Establishing a baseline to improve upon with Energy Benchmarking - Where is Energy Benchmarking required in the U.S.? - The nuts and bolts of an Energy Audit - What energy efficiency upgrades can you make to your building? - Rebates and incentives available for your energy project - Making decisions based on your bottom line - Implementation and tracking performance Moderated by: Jenny Redlin Principal, Partner Engineering & Science, Inc. REGISTER NOW General Questions For general questions, contact Teresa Thaler at (212) 457-7791 or by email at tthaler@alm.com Frequently Asked Questions If you are having any trouble with registration or have any questions, please visit our FAQs.

Produce Scraps —-> Gas?!?!?!

2/15/12: This morning good.is posted a very interesting article about a european pilot program, focused on turning scraps of produce into bio-gas. Take a few minutes to read the full article, posted below:

Fuel Gets Fruity: Converting Produce Scraps into Gas

•  Zak Stone

The compost pile and worm bin are no longer the only appropriate resting places for peach pits, banana peels, and apple cores. The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Europe’s largest applied research center, announced last week that it will begin turning old produce into bio-gas at a pilot site in Stuttgart, Germany. Conveniently located next to the city’s wholesale vegetable market, the facility will use microorganisms to transform food scraps into methane gas, which can power a car once compressed and emits less carbon dioxide during combustion than gasoline.

According to the research lab, the conversion process from fruit to fuel will only take a few days. But the challenge lies in dealing with the inconsistency of the raw materials—the acidity of a mound of food scraps can vary wildly. (Oranges are acidic. Lettuce, not so much.) The facility’s managers have to adjust the pH balance of the system accordingly to keep the microorganisms that do the converting work healthy and happy.

While other researches are working on converting fruit peels into fuel and plastics elsewhere, one exciting aspect of Fraunhofer’s project is the versatility of all the components it generates, not just the bio-gas. Making methane releases carbon dioxide and waste liquid, both of which are captured and used to nourish the 21st century’s hippest organism: algae, another feedstock for biofuel. And the only waste product, a “sludgy fermentation residue,” is shipped to another lab in Switzerland where it’s made into even more methane.

Via Gas 2.0; Photo courtesy of Fraunhofer

Startup Making Big Moves In The Solar Energy Field

Below is a fantastic article about one company’s solar panels that are able to concentrate sunlight, making it the world’s most efficient solar panel:

 

 

Concentrated Solar Startup Sets a New Efficiency Record

Semprius makes solar modules using tiny cells that need less cooling.

• Friday, February 3, 2012
• By Kevin Bullis

Semprius, a startup that makes miniscule solar cells capable of capturing concentrated sunlight without costly cooling systems, announced this week that it had made the world’s most efficient solar panel.

The company’s solar panels use tiny solar cells made of gallium arsenide—the record-breaking solar module contains hundreds of such solar cells, each about the width of a line drawn by a ball-point pen, arranged under lenses that concentrate sunlight 1,100 times.

Gallium arsenide is far better at absorbing sunlight than silicon, the material used in most solar cells, but it’s also more expensive. Furthermore, although concentrated solar modules use less semiconducting material, they usually require expensive optics, cooling systems, and tracking systems to keep them aimed at the sun. Semprius’s microscaled solar cells are inherently much better at dissipating heat, making them cheaper.

Semprius’s modules have another advantage: whereas a silicon solar cell only efficiently absorbs a narrow band of sunlight, the solar cells in this module are made of three layers of gallium arsenide, each modified to convert a different part of the solar spectrum into electricity.

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Tests by a third-party certified the efficiency of Semprius’s solar panel at 33.9 percent, marking the first time any solar module has been able to convert more than one-third of the sunlight that falls on it into electricity. Conventional silicon solar panels typically convert less than 15 percent of light into electricity, and the record for a silicon solar panel is 22.9 percent. The previous record for any solar panel was 32 percent, Semprius says.

One-off, experimental modules have achieved higher efficiencies, but Semprius’s record-setting module is designed for commercial use. It was made with the same type of equipment that the company is installing in a small factory in Henderson, North Carolina, that it will open this summer. “It’s a good indication of the efficiencies our customers can expect,” says Joe Carr, Semprius’s CEO.

Semprius’s process forms tens of thousands of tiny solar cells on a single wafer of gallium arsenide, and uses chemical etching and a robotic system to transfer each layer to an inexpensive substrate. The same gallium-arsenide wafer can be reused many times, reducing costs. The approach is based on a method for transferring small electronics from a wafer to other substrates that was developed by John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

3 Utility Companies + 1 Online Tool = Customers and Businesses Saving $ and energy!

Wed. January 18, 2012: Three utility companies (Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Pacific Gas,) announced, on Wednesday, that they are launching a web-based tool to assist their customers in saving energy and money.

Take a moment and read the full article that was printed in the Los Angeles Times:

 

Utilities unveil online tool to help customers save energy

Three California utilities are launching an online tool to help customers save energy — and money.(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

By Nancy Rivera BrooksJanuary 18, 2012, 2:48 p.m.

Three big California power utilities are launching a Web-based tool to help their customers save energy – and money.

Called “Green Button,” the online tool unveiled Wednesday by Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric will allow consumers and businesses to see how much electricity they’re using and to download the data so that they can figure out how to use less.

SDG&E and PG&E are in the process of rolling out the energy-information program for their 6 million customers, and Edison will follow later this year for its 4 million customers, the companies said. The utilities are responding to a challenge issued last September by the White House to allow customers more access to their own energy data.

The utilities say they’re hoping that customers will be able to better respond to how their consumption changes over the day, week and seasons using the data along with smart meters, which transmit energy usage information in real time. The idea is to spur entrepreneurs to create programs and devices that will incorporate customers’ usage data to help them conserve both energy and cash.

The Green Button project “is one of many initiatives designed to offer our customers choice, convenience and control,” Ted Reguly, SDG&E’s director of customer programs and assistance, said in a statement.

The three utilities are the first in the nation to adopt the technology, which uses a cloud platform developed by Tendril, a Boulder, Colo.-based company.

ALSO:

California zaps energy vampires

Boxer urges Edison to hurry renewable projects

Energy consultant nominated as DWP ratepayer advocate

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

Use Energy-Efficient Chargers… It will soon be the law!

On January 12, 2012, the state of California passed a vote to required device manufacturers to only ship energy-efficient handset chargers. This law is on track to be implamented in February 2013 and is anticipated to save households money on their electricity bills. Read Slash Gear’s  full article below:

 

The eco-friendly state of California has just passed a unanimous vote requiring device manufacturers to ship energy-efficient handset chargers starting 2013. This new requirement applies to all cellphones, tablets, and hundreds of other electronic devices. The new law was passed by the California Energy Commission with a 3-0 vote despite objections from electronics makers.

 

The CEC says that these power-sapping chargers waste as much as 60 percent of the electricity they consume. Many of these chargers also continue to draw power from an outlet even when a device is not attached. There is an estimated 170 million of these so called “vampire” chargers and they account for up to 13 percent all the power used in California.

The CEC believes that this new regulation can save enough electricity to power 350,000 homes. It’s expected to save residential and commercial electricity customers a total of $306 million each year. The new standard will take effect February 1, 2013.