Orlando —

Consumers who need resilient, reliable, “always-on” power that the utility can’t deliver are driving the growth of microgrids in the U.S. In addition, renewable energy and energy storage technologies are becoming essential components of microgrids. These were two of the many issues discussed during Wednesday’s Renewable Energy World Conference, North America session titled Microgrids: Opportunities, Challenges, and Innovative Solutions.

John M. Carroll of IPERC explained that the case for microgrids is quite simple. He said that power outages are on the rise and expected to increase over the years and there are customers “up and down the east coast” who simply can’t afford to lose electricity. These include customers such as biotechnology research centers that must maintain refrigeration or freezers; fire and emergency service centers serving critical roles; and military bases that due to security implications cannot be without power. In the past, these enterprises wanted backup power but didn’t want to pay for it, but Carroll said that because of the way that renewables have increased the use of PPAs, now there are new ways to view who owns microgrids and how to pay for them.

Traditionally when the grid goes down, renewables such as PV are taken offline so they don’t backfeed the grid and cause safety issues for line workers. With a microgrid and the right controllers in place, that’s no longer necessary.  

Carroll, a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, also highlighted the SPIDERS program in his presentation. The program is set up to create smart power infrastructure demonstration for energy reliability and security and is in use on military bases including Camp Smith in Hawaii, a base that will be almost net zero and fully “islandable” when complete next year. A key component of the SPIDERS program is cyber defense, he said.

John Dirkman of Schneider Electric explained how the brains behind a microgrid work and how they impact an electric utility’s network. He said the impact is not just financial (although they do indeed have a revenue impact) but also technological. With microgrids on their networks, utilities now have to deal with reverse power flow and new voltage profiles, adding complexity to an already complex system. Dirkman showed how an Advanced DMS provides network automation, FLISR, VVO, SCADA, outage management, energy management and demand side management including load forecasting and demand response. 

In addition, Dirkman told attendees that utilities already expect a transformation to occur in their energy mix. According to a survey of utility executives, more than 80 percent of North American utilities expect their energy markets to be made up of a mix of large central generation and distributed generation assets by 2030.

C.J. Colavito of Standard Solar presented eight lessons learned from building one of the first commercial grid-interactive microgrids with solar and energy storage in North America. Standard Solar was involved in a Maryland microgrid that uses 402.3 kW of solar PV capacity and employs 300 kWh of lithium-ion energy storage. The system also has a 250-kW inverter from Princeton Power. The microgrid includes EV charging stations. Colavito emphasized how important it is to have clear and consistent communication with all of the stakeholders in a microgrid project, including meeting with the utility face-to-face at the start of the project.  In addition, he said when creating a project like this you need to document a sequence of operations and consider equipment layout carefully.  He said it is also important to evaluate the total load and select your backup loads early.  Finally, Colavito reminded attendees that managing customer expectations are also a key component to creating a successful grid-interactive microgrid. 

These are the principal findings of new research from Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira and Xiaochun Zhang, and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures that compares the temperature increases caused by different kinds of coal and natural gas power plants. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters.

There is an ongoing debate among people concerned with power plants and the future of energy policy and greenhouse gas emissions. Does it makes sense to replace old coal-fired power plants with new natural gas power plants today, as a bridge to a longer-term transition toward near zero-emission energy generation technologies such as solar, wind, or nuclear power? A key issue in considering the decision has been the potential climate effects of natural gas versus coal. Studies have yielded different results by focusing on power plants with different characteristics and using different definitions of what it means to be «better» for climate.

Carnegie’s Caldeira and Zhang, along with Myhrvold, aimed to identify the key factors that are responsible for most of the difference in greenhouse gas emissions between individual gas and coal plants. The key factors, they found, are power plant efficiency and, in the case of natural gas plants, methane leakage during the supply process. They used these factors to derive a simple model for resulting temperature change caused by the carbon dioxide and methane released by a particular plant.

The team chose a simple and understandable way to compare climate effects of different types of power plants. They predicted how much global warming would be produced by different kinds of power plants during and after their period of operation.

They found that because natural gas plants are overall more efficient than coal plants, producing more energy per unit of carbon, they could cause less warming in the long term. However, it all depends on the amount of methane leakage that occurs. Natural gas plants that leak a substantial amount of methane during their supply process can produce more warming than comparable coal plants.

«If there is substantial natural gas leakage, then building new natural gas plants would lead to more near term climate damage than using the old dirty coal plants,» explained Caldeira. «But natural gas plants would help reduce other types of air pollution that damage our health, and would be somewhat better for climate in the long term.»

If faced with the choice of shutting down either a typical coal plant or a typical gas plant and methane leakage from the natural gas plant is below about 2 percent of total fuel, there would be a short-term climate benefit to shutting down the coal plant instead of the natural gas plant, the team found. But if methane leakage would be greater than 2 percent, there would be less warming in the near term if the natural gas plant were shut down instead of the coal plant.

Regardless, the team emphasized that meeting upcoming greenhouse gas emission targets will require deeper emissions cuts than just building natural gas plants with low methane leakage. If natural gas is to be a part of a future near-zero emission energy economy, methods for capturing and storing carbon from gas-fired power plants will likely be necessary.

Due to the stagnating demand for photovoltaic systems, the board of directors of SMA Solar Technology AG has reduced its turnover and earnings forecast for 2014 and can no longer rule out a loss. For this reason, the company has announced a reduction in its workforce.
According to the new forecast, the board now expects a turnover between 850 and 950 million euros instead of the previously expected 1.0 to 1.3 billion euros. At best, SMA can now expect to break even. In the worst case scenario, it will have to deal with a loss of approximately 45 million euros.

The new generation of high-quality polycrystalline solar modules from Hanwha SolarOne, HSL S, replaces the successful HSL module series; production on new, fully-automated lines is already running.
Hanwha SolarOne, a top-10 global photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer of high-quality, cost-competitive solar modules, today introduced its new HSL S Series PV modules at the Solar Power International exhibition, taking place in Las Vegas, USA. The event marks the worldwide roll-out of the new product series, of which the first deliveries have just been completed. The new HSL S modules feature significant improvements in yield, performance and quality, and are available in both 60 and 72 cell models.

More than 300 megawatts of residential power systems were installed in the quarter and have “become a remarkably consistent, growing market,” Shayle Kann, senior vice president of GTM Research, said in a statement. “By the end of this year there will be more than 600,000 homes outfitted with solar, and we see no signs of a slowdown next year.”

The U.S. is on pace to install 6.5 gigawatts of solar capacity this year, which would be 36 percent more than 2013, according to the report. Through the first three quarters, 36 percent of all generating capacity added in the country was solar, compared with 29 percent a year ago and 9.6 percent in 2012. Developers added 2.1 gigawatts of solar power in the fourth quarter of last year.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

Lead image: Solar panels via Shutterstock

PlanET Biogas UK Ltd. has recently commissioned their fifth Biogas plant into service. The 1.5 MW plant is situated on Singleton Birch’s Ltd. site at Melton Ross, Barnetby, North Lincolnshire. In future, Singleton Birch Ltd, focussed on processing and delivery of limestone, will produce 40% of their onsite power requirements from biogas. Four local farmers are providing 30,000 tonnes of feedstock every year.

IRVINE, CA —(eSolarEnergyNews)— S-Energy® Co, Korea’s #1 manufacturer of high-quality PV Solar Modules, has completed the installation and grid connection of 3.33 megawatts of solar carport structures at 2 Los Angeles County, California school districts. S-Energy America, the wholly owned US operation of S-Energy, provides CVD-free Korean-made modules to major residential and commercial solar installers throughout North America, as well as development, financing and operations expertise to move solar projects to completion.

S-Energy contracted Gehrlicher Solar America, a leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm, to install over 7,000 S-Energy PC8 72-cell modules at 12 school facilities within the Lynwood Unified School District. Another 4,400 S-Energy high-performance solar modules were installed at 6 school facilities within the Bassett Unified School District in the City of La Puente. The solar installations will offset more than 50% of each school’s electricity usage and will ensure a constant, low-cost source of clean energy via a power performance agreement between S-Energy America and the School Districts. Key Equipment Finance, a division of KeyBank National Association, provided additional financing for the project.

«The solar panels that are now at many of the schools within our district are not only a commitment to the environment in which our families live,» said Peter Wong, Chief Business Official of the Lynwood Unified School District. «They also help fulfill our goal to lower operational costs and put more of our taxpayer’s funds directly into the classroom.»

«S-Energy’s high quality products and strong financial standing make them a natural partner to collaborate with on solar project funding,» said Luis Gutierrez of Key Equipment Finance. «We were able to work together to provide an extremely attractive lease rate based upon the financial standing of its parent company and merits of the underlying projects.»

S-Energy Co., Ltd., formed as a spin-off of Samsung Electronics, is one of the global solar industry’s oldest and most experienced module manufacturers – continuously building PV modules since 1994. The Company’s reputation for industry-leading quality and long-term performance is backed by 20 years of field operating data. S-Energy’s project development activities include building some of the world’s first megawatt scale solar power plants dating back to 2006.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—(eSolarEnergyNews)— Three new utility-scale solar farms have been added to North Carolina’s energy mix, propelled by a partnership between Washington, D.C.-based solar investment and financing firm Sol Systems, National Cooperative Bank, and Strata Solar. The projects are located on rural farmland in Erwin, Efland, and Hickory and total 18MW of solar capacity which equals the reduction of automobile travel by approximately 24 million miles.

This second deployment for the partners follows on the heels of another 18.2 MW earlier this year. Sol Systems managed the investment on behalf of an international bank as part of the firm’s tax equity initiative to produce secure, sustainable solar investments for banks, insurance companies, utilities, and Fortune 100 clients. Strata Solar developed the project opportunities provided EPC services, and National Cooperative Bank served as the lender in the transactions.

«North Carolina is a robust market for tax structured investments, which have been instrumental in stimulating the state’s solar growth,» said Dan Yonkin, Director of Tax Equity at Sol Systems. «Equally, in an industry where long-term relationships are essential for keeping transaction costs low, we are vigilant in working with such esteemed partners.»

«Reliable, long-term relationships are a key component of success in this industry. Strata Solar chooses partners that are credible and allow us to move our business forward with confidence,» said David Scoglio, CFO of Strata Solar.  «Sol Systems and NCB are fine examples of some of the partnerships that help us continue to create great opportunities for business development and investment.»

«The solar industry in the United States is booming, and National Cooperative Bank has been committed to supporting this important sector since 2008, having financed over $300 million and 250 Megawatts,» said Matthew Wright, Senior Vice President, National Cooperative Bank. «We look forward to working with Strata Solar and Sol Systems in the future.»

North Carolina now ranks fourth in the country in terms of installed solar capacity according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The 2013 Solar Jobs Census counted 3,100 solar jobs in the Tar Heel State, which will likely be even higher for 2014.

The three new arrays will displace about 15 000 tons of carbon dioxide each year, about the same as providing electricity for over 1800 homes for one year.