The market currently has access to several types of energy storage technologies, each with its own strengths and limitations, as well as price points depending on power to energy ratio. Some technologies, however, are at best in advanced pilot programs, or still in the lab. The technologies on this graph are compared based on commercial maturity and a key technical capability, discharge duration.

The latest Green Tech Media report on U.S. solar-paired-with-storage, reviewed by media this morning at Intersolar North America, says the storage market is “nascent,” while activity within it is “frantic.” The report, supported by Intersolar North America, ees North America and CalSEIA, looks at storage technologies, behind-the-meter issues and storage in different market segments. It also offers a market outlook.

Here are nine key takeaways from the report:

Battery and system costs will continue to drop for the next four to five years. By 2020, GTM expects battery costs to reach $250 – $300/kWh. In 2014, costs hovered around $500/kWh. An important note: Batteries are useless without a system (including inverters) to support them. System components can be as much as 60% of the total installed cost, but their prices are trending downward, too.

Five states offer incentives for behind-the-meter storage systems. California’s SGIP program is the largest, offering $1.46/W in 2015. Hawaii, New Jersey and New York are supporting solar-plus-storage projects with cost sharing and upfront incentives for commercial customers. Arizona has proposed a $1 million rebate program to study the grid benefits of solar-plus-storage.

Batteries for a backup power supply will struggle to make economic sense in most cases. Historically, backup power has been the leading driver of battery usage, and it is still important in regions with an unreliable grid (emerging countries, for instance). But for back-up power to pencil today in, say, California, the consequences of not having it need to be sufficiently high. This could be the case for financial and data centers, where a 24/7 power supply is critical. Even then, however, solar-plus-storage will compete with natural gas generator sets, which have a much lower upfront cost. One exception to this rule is when a case can be made for the public good. For example, federal incentives helped equip 115 schools with solar-plus-storage in Florida, and state funding will build 13 solar-backup systems as part of an Energy Resiliency Bank in New Jersey.

Time-of-use electricity rates will lead more residential consumers to energy storage. With storage, consumers can use their excess solar generation from the middle of the day, when electricity consumption in homes is low, to peak hours in the evening – when families arrive home and fire up their electronics. In order for the economics to work, the differential between peak and off-peak energy rates must be sufficient.

Attacks on net metering could increase storage use among households. More than 30 states offer net metering at the full retail rate. If a consumer receives fair compensation for the energy he produces mid-day with a solar system, storage doesn’t make much sense. But retail-rate net metering is under attack in 20 states. Storage may be necessary to enable solar if its value is reduced via changes to net metering structure, according to GTM, but solar-plus-storage may still only be viable for a limited set of customers.

Storage for commercial use has a clear driver: time-of-use tariffs. Demand charges can contribute from 20% to 50% of a commercial customer’s electricity bill. Solar alone can’t be relied on to offset those charges, as its intermittent nature could lead to a mismatch between peak demand and generation. But pairing storage with solar enables a reduction of peak demand energy use, though the extent of reduction depends on a number of factors, key among them is a customer’s load profile. When does the customer use most of its energy? If it’s during peak demand hours, the economics of solar-plus storage could become more attractive.

By 2020, GTM Research forecasts 769 MW of solar-plus-storage, much of it in the residential, commercial and industrial markets.

In the future, storage could provide benefits to the grid, such as demand side management, resiliency and capacity improvements. Besides a few state pilot programs and PJM’s inclusion of behind-the-meter resources for fast frequency regulation, existing market rules and state policies restrict using customer resources for grid services. Still, GTM says storage used for grid improvement is an untapped opportunity. Grid services could be monetized through payments by utilities or from ISO/RTO for wholesale market participation.

Utility-scale projects increasingly will be paired with storage, driven mainly by energy storage mandates. The rise of utility-scale storage projects with other generation assets has been fairly common, and utility-scale solar is seeing similar adoption as solar and storage costs keep coming down. In recent months, several utilities have issued RFPs to deploy storage at new or existing solar farms. The main uses of these systems will be to provide renewable integration as well as firmer solar output.

We will soon see the rise of solar-plus-storage. Right now, the market is in its infancy. Less than 00.1% of solar installations were paired with storage in 2014, adding up to a total of 4 MW. The numbers become more impressive, however, through the end of the decade. GTM forecasts 22 MW of solar-with-storage in 2015 and 776 MW of solar-storage in 2020. For comparison, the U.S. installed 7,000 MW of solar last year.

Solar Power World

The Smart Grid Research Consortium (SGRC) announced new SGRC Utility Solar PV Forecasting Models and Forecasting Service. The SGRC Solar Models and Service provide the first commercially available annual forecasts of residential solar PV system installations, energy and hourly load impacts, costs and benefits over a 10-year forecast horizon. Forecasts are provided for distribution feeders, substations, ZIP areas, and the entire utility service areas. Low, medium and high forecasts are provided to reflect the range of likely PV installation and load impacts.

The Consortium, which is known for its Smart Grid Investment Models (SGIM), recently extended its analysis to “grid-edge” new technology applications and, with the Solar PV Forecasting Models and Forecasting Service, is now addressing utility financial and load impacts of solar PV distributed energy resources.

Continuing PV cost reductions, growing popularity of power purchase agreements, tax incentives and other factors are responsible for year-over-year doubling, or more, of PV installations in many states. Recent Austin Energy and NV Energy utility-scale procurements at less than 4 cents/kWh portend a rapidly arriving transformation for residential utility customer installations with significantly increasing solar PV penetrations in nearly all utility service areas. These PV impacts present both utility challenges and benefits that are quantified with the SGRC Solar PV Forecasting Models and Forecasting Service.

The Consortium Models and Service provide utilities with annual, geographically detailed forecasts of the likely number and hourly load impacts of residential PV installations on their distribution systems over the next decade. The agent-based statistical models underlying these forecasts are estimated with data on more than 7 million utility customers and nearly 500,000 solar PV installations. Models are applied at feeder/substation and ZIP level and reflect the “clustered” nature of PV installations resulting from geographic patterns of household, dwelling unit, neighborhood and other characteristics that drive PV sales.

PV forecasts are designed both to assist utility distribution planners and to provide a program evaluation tool for utility solar program development. Additional information on the Solar PV Forecasting Service and the Consortium’s Solar PV Forecasting Model is available at the SGRC web site: smartgridresearchconsortium.org/solarforecasts.htm

“While installations are still a relatively small percentage of the total utility customer base, they tend to be geographically highly concentrated with potentially large impacts in certain ZIP areas, substations and along certain individual feeders” said Dr. Jerry Jackson, the Smart Grid Research Consortium leader and research director. “Heavy saturations of PV along feeders create power quality issues, asset life degradation due to excessive regulator and capacitor bank switching, and other problems. Some locations in Hawaii, California, New Jersey, and Arizona are reportedly already facing these challenges. With the substantial increase in solar installations expected in coming years, these issues will become more problematic for many utilities. The Consortium’s PV Forecasting Models estimate the number, location and load impacts of residential solar PV installations annually over the next ten years. Results identify specific geographic areas where future solar PV installations are likely to be great enough to require distribution modifications to address PV-related issues.”

“An equally important application supports utility solar program planning and development for utilities promoting solar resources. Models provide residential solar PV installation forecasts for entire utility service areas including alternative forecasts that reflect different levels of utility and other incentives and different assumptions on future PV costs. Forecast results can be applied to evaluate program costs and benefits and to assess residential solar PV contributions to meeting utility renewable energy goals. Model results quantify reductions in loads, system losses and delayed capital investments.”

The SGRC Solar PV Forecasting Models have been developed by merging the Consortium’s Smart Grid Investment Model (SGIM) financial analysis resources and Jackson Associates (JA) MAISY Utility Customer Databases and Agent-Based Energy and Hourly Load Forecasting Models. The SGIM has been applied for 20 electric utilities since its development in 2010 while MAISY modeling and forecasting analysis have been applied at more than 100 energy-related organizations including utilities, equipment manufacturers, state and federal regulatory agencies and other energy-related organizations.

“This application is one of the most exciting new technology forecasting applications that we have developed in recent years because the dramatic decline in solar PV prices is driving an industry decentralization transformation that will soon impact every utility at its most publicly vulnerable point: reliable delivery of service to its customers” says Jackson. “MAISY agent-based modeling has been applied in utility smart grid and other technology impact analysis for equipment manufactures/suppliers including solar, CHP and fuel cells, as well as for forecasting future energy and hourly load impacts for utilities and public utility commissions so this application reflects a natural extension to specifically address

Solar Power World

EcoFasten Solar officially launched their newest product, the Rock-It System, a rail-free solar roof mount, at Intersolar N.A. in San Francisco.

The Rock-It System conforms to UL Subject 2703, bearing the ETL Listed mark by Intertek Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL), and holds a Class A Fire Resistance Rating when using Type 1, listed PV modules.

Product compliance was determined through rigorous, uncompromised testing per UL Subject 2703.

UL 2703 is comprised of three required testing parameters:

• Integrated Grounding and Bonding
• Fire Classification
• Mechanical Loading

The solar roof mount system features North-South adjustability of up to 4 in., and the unique top-down leveling allows the installer the freedom to level as they go, as well as after the array is installed.

One tool (1/2 in. socket) is all that’s needed to install any size or orientation array, and integrated electric bonding and a built-in wire management tray make the Rock-It System a fast, easy and hassle-free solution. Configurations are available for composition shingle, metal and tile roofs.

View complete documentation, as well as the installation video by visiting the Rock-it System product page.

Solar Power World

Solar Impulse | Anna Pizzolante | Rezo.ch

Despite the hard work of the Solar Impulse team to repair the batteries which overheated in the record breaking oceanic flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the solar powered airplane of Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will stay in Hawaii until early spring 2016.

Following the longest and most difficult leg of the round-the-world journey which lasted 5 days and 5 nights (117 hours and 52 minutes), Solar Impulse will undergo maintenance repairs on the batteries due to damages brought about by overheating.

During the first ascent on day one of the flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the battery temperature increased due to a high climb rate and an over insulation of the gondolas. And while the Mission Team was monitoring this very closely during the flight, there was no way to decrease the temperature for the remaining duration as each daily cycle requires an ascent to 28’000 feet and descent for optimal energy management.

Overall the airplane performed very well during the flight. The damage to the batteries is not a technical failure or a weakness in the technology but rather an evaluation error in terms of the profile of the mission and the cooling design specifications of the batteries. The temperature of the batteries in a quick ascent / descent in tropical climates was not properly anticipated.

Irreversible damage to certain parts of the batteries will require repairs which will take several months. In parallel, the Solar Impulse engineering team will be studying various options for better cooling and heating processes for very long flights.

The University of Hawaii with the support of the Department of Transportation will host the airplane in its hangar at Kalaeloa airport. Post maintenance check flights will start in 2016 to test the new battery heating and cooling systems. The round-the-world mission will resume early April from Hawaii to the USA West Coast. From there Solar Impulse will cross the USA to JFK in New York before making the Atlantic crossing to Europe and then returning the point of departure in Abu Dhabi.

Solar Impulse is attempting a historic first of flying around the world only on solar energy. And while Solar Impulse has completed 8 legs, covering nearly half of the journey, setbacks are part of the challenges of a project which is pushing technological boundaries to the limits. Solar Impulse will try to complete the first ever round-the-world solar flight in 2016 and this delay will in no way influence the overall objectives of this pioneering endeavor.

Solar Power World

As solar continues to boom companies from storage, software and other fields are attracted to the potential for success in the industry.  At forum at Intersolar NA 2015, five new innovative companies spoke about becoming part of the solar revolution. Here’s a quick look at each.

kWH Analytics: Solar risk management
kWh Analytics helps the solar industry organize and learn from its data. It believes that creating asset transparency helps the industry to evolve into a well-understood, healthy, and massive asset class. The company enables solar asset owners to take control of their risk management and analytics with its software platform. The analytics are generated on the industry’s largest database of operating solar assets, encompassing 40,000+ PV systems and nearly 1 GW of capacity across all major U.S. markets. Clients include leading solar originators, financial institutions, and a State “Green Bank.”

PVComplete: Solar project design automation and optimization
PVComplete is a commercial solar rooftop design platform built to streamline the most time-consuming tasks. The software tool completely automates module layout using a cloud-based PV module database while observing roof zones and obstructions with sophisticated shadow models. PVComplete fully automates the electrical design as well by assigning modules to strings and determining wiring requirements. The software is seamlessly integrated with AutoCAD and can be delivered as a package simplifying the start-up process. The tool can save up to $500 on each design iteration, amounting to thousands of dollars savings in labor on monthly basis.

Savenia Solar Ratings: CARFAX for solar
Savenia Solar Ratings is a rating label like CarFax, but for home solar systems. The ratings are meant to help home sellers and buyers more easily understand and unlock the monetary value in solar systems with rating labels and marketing materials. They report solar system earnings and environmental impact by zip code. Since solar systems can add tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a home, these labels revolutionize shopping for solar-outfitted homes at a glance. Savenia has rated homes in 6 states, including the solar system on The White House. “We want to help installers increase their conversion rates and home owners capture the full value of their solar systems when selling,” said founder John Jabara.

UtilityAPI: Data Automation, proposals to customer management
UtilityAPI is is taking on a choke point in the solar customer acquisition process, the cumbersome and time-consuming process of getting utilities to cough up their customers’ energy usage and billing data. Today, that involves phone calls, authorization forms and long waiting periods, a gauntlet that can turn some customers away and add significant costs to serving those that do stick with it. This software delivers simple access to energy usage data. It aims to provide quick and accurate utility data to help decrease customer acquisition cost, which can make up roughly 10% of a residential solar system’s total cost. “We are building the data infrastructure for the new energy economy. we are automating getting the messy data out of the utilities and into the solar consultants hands so they can do their jobs from day one,” said CEO and co-founder Elena Lucas.

Solar Site Design: Reducing customer acquisition costs up to 50%
Solar Site Design is an app and online platform that connects highly-qualified solar project referrals to leading solar companies to drive down customer acquisition costs. Its business process is designed to reduce the solar industry’s customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. “Customer acquisition cost is a huge problem in our industry and we’re ready to attack it. We’re connecting the dots to get well-qualified leads and save everybody money. We’re empowering the next generation of independent solar agents nationwide,” said president and founder Jason Lovet.

Solar Power World

Solar Power World caught up Juan Romera-Wade, CEO of distributor Krannich Solar, to learn more about the company’s role in the industry and what he hopes to share with attendees at Intersolar North America. This is what Romera-Wade had to say:

SPW: For installers, what’s the advantage of working with a distributor versus ordering materials directly from a manufacturer?

Romera-Wade: A wholesaler has buying power because we order materials in bulk. Small commercial and residential installers do not have the capacity for a lot of material nor the free cash flow for buying material at once. Thus ordering materials from a wholesaler is cheaper as well as more consistent.

Another advantage in buying from a wholesaler rather than the manufacturer is the convenience of getting all materials from one location rather than multiple manufacturers. It is a lot easier to keep track of one order with one point of contact.

Is a “wholesaler” different from a “distributor”?

Interesting question. I think that the words “wholesaler” and “distributor” are often used interchangeably. However, in the solar PV space, Krannich Solar makes a difference. We do not act like a huge supermarket that sells a lot of stuff like a wholesaler would. At Krannich Solar, you will find handpicked products we sell to our installers, more like a boutique.

When solar installation firms approach a distributor for the first time, what questions should they ask in order to make an informed decision about who they should partner with?

On the top of the list is the importance of the product range and their stock levels. It is important that a distributor is consistent in stocking product for easy reordering. Another important point is the customer service a company provides. At Krannich our sales reps are experts in the solar field. They have great technical knowledge and know their customers well. Logistics is also a fact that shouldn’t be overseen. We have three office and warehouse locations for convenient ordering and shipping processes.

Does Krannich offer services beyond supplying installers with components?

We can calculate the BOM and advise you on which components to use. On top of that, we grant financing terms for quicker order turnaround. We offer a lot of services. You just have to install the system yourself!

That said, which components in your product line excite you most at the moment?

That would be the Axitec panel with integrated SolarEdge optimizer hands down. Although Axitec offers a lot more and has a panel for every application.

Battery storage also excites us at the moment. Our German office already has a lot of storage solution in their product line and we are looking forward to introducing them to the American market.

Krannich has been in the solar industry since 1995, over which time the industry has seen remarkable change. Looking ahead, though, how do you think the solar marketplace will change in the next 20 years?

Wow, looking 20 years ahead from now is something we don’t often get to think about in this fast moving industry.

Krannich has been in the solar market for 20 years and we have seen a lot of manufacturers and competitors come and go. Our vision of the future is a 100% renewable energy and we are optimistic to reach that goal even after the ITC 2016, because we believe the market will find its way to continue growing.

What brings Krannich Solar to Intersolar (booth #7219)?

Krannich sees itself as a major player in the solar market. We have a lot to offer and we want to make sure that everyone sees that. An exciting trade fair lays ahead of us and we can’t wait to keep showing the market leaders that we are a reliable partner at Intersolar.

Solar Power World

Storage will increasingly play a pivotal role in the solar industry. Private and public firms are figuring out ways to bundle storage with solar in economically attractive ways. But storage is more than just a way to store electricity harvested during the day. Storage systems will be used for multiple revenue streams and applications like grid balancing and demand response.

At the Growth Company Forum: Energy Storage Edition, energy storage experts shared their visions for the future and the opportunities for bringing the solar and storage together. Here is some of what they said:

Sunverge Energy CEO Ken Munson discussed the battery market and price points, saying many suppliers estimate price points based on typical market expectations, and they may or may not pan out in reality. There is also the question of what hardware (and software) any given price point includes. Does it include just the battery or all of the BOS, as well?

Whatever the case, “a cheap battery is not the answer,” Munson said. “If we focus on the cheapest battery we can put in a box, at the cost of reliability and safety, then we are all heading for a big surprise down the road.”

Growing Energy Labs, Inc., otherwise known as GELI, develops software to integrate, network and economically operate energy storage systems. The software, which works with any energy storage hardware, makes operational decisions based on the price of power and energy in addition to the electrical status and activity of the grid and other system components.

“EPCs have been connecting panels to inverters forever,” said Andrew Tanner, VP of GELI. “Why can’t they connect to a battery? You just need some software.”

But for any software to be fully effective, it needs heaps of quality data from which to operate. Tanner called for further transparency from battery suppliers, particularly when it comes to long-term reliability testing. Determining the reliability of a battery is a “nine-dimensional problem,” Tanner said, with numerous variables, and suppliers need to offer more data.

Ready to fill the data void, Voltaiq can help suppliers achieve more transparency with its predictive analytics for better batteries. The company can also save manufacturers’ time by eliminating repetitive data management tasks.

“People don’t understand how storage will act when it’s out in the field,” said CEO Tal Sholklapper. “It takes thousands of tests to analyze batteries, but there’s no one place holding data, so it can’t be utilized to help improve the next generation of batteries,” he said. Currently, much of the data is sitting in silos, being unproductive.

Avalon Battery co-founder Matt Harper asked attendees to consider the value of batteries. While so-called value can be found in various places on both sides of the meter, Harper suggested that what really matters is a customer’s utility bill and whether the battery system is sufficiently reducing that cost.

“What are the specific qualities of a site that determines whether a battery will bring value or not?” he asked.

When assessing the usefulness of a battery, detailed power-usage charts that model the profile of any given site can be an important evaluative tool. Some utilities, however, are making the collection of such data more difficult, panelists said, or reducing the frequency of data from 15-minute intervals to 30-minute intervals.

Manal Yamout , VP of policy and markets at Advanced Microgrid Solutions, presented on the company’s unusual plan to develop behind-the-meter storage systems that give utilities, rather than customers, control. The concept aggregates many storage systems for utility use to regulate the grid.

“Typically when we think of behind-the-meter, you think about 5 to 10-kW systems,” Yamout said. “But to scale, you need to knock on a lot of doors.” The company focuses on 250 to 500-kW systems.

Solar Power World

Hanwha Q CELLS Co. Ltd. announced a new solar module supply agreement with Sunrun, the largest dedicated residential solar company in the U.S. Through the partnership, a subsidiary of Hanwha Q CELLS will provide Sunrun with 50 MW of solar modules beginning this year. The cells and modules will be manufactured from Hanwha Q CELLS’ fully automated and efficient diversified global manufacturing facilities, including production in South Korea starting in 2016.

“Sunrun is pleased to partner with Hanwha to give U.S. consumers the choice to power their homes with clean solar energy,” said Mr. Paul Winnowski, chief operating officer of Sunrun. “We selected Hanwha as a trusted partner because of their high quality modules and service, which will continue to advance Sunrun’s mission of making solar more accessible and affordable for homeowners.”

Mr. Justin Lee, President of Hanwha Q CELLS America said, “Our modules possess the quality and high-efficiency characteristics that Sunrun requires for its customers,” Mr. Lee also added, “This contract, combined with other previously announced supply agreements, has further strengthened our position as one of the leading suppliers of solar modules to the U.S. market.”

“This supply agreement follows Hanwha Q CELLS’ recent successful combination with Hanwha SolarOne Co., Ltd. to form a global leader in solar power and further validates the financial stability, advanced technology, and manufacturing leadership of the new company”, Mr. Lee concluded.

Solar Power World

Draker and Inaccess have announced that they will be joining forces in a strategic cooperation agreement to provide PV monitoring and asset management solutions. This agreement enables the two U.S & U.K.-based market leaders to combine their technology platforms and global delivery capabilities that currently serve a combined portfolio of 5GW of utility and commercial-scale solar power plants from 3,400 sites across 5 continents.

The companies look to cultivate an unparalleled ability to serve global solar asset portfolios by harmonizing data acquisition systems, extensive protocol libraries, operational and financial reporting and asset management and analytics software.

This strategic cooperation will also enable Draker and Inaccess to continue serving their existing clients, but with greater efficiency, more comprehensive support and a wider portfolio of complementary and compatible offerings.

In their comprehensive report ‘Global PV Monitoring 2014-2018′ GTM Research and SoliChamba Consulting named Draker the No. 1 supplier of monitoring software in the U.S. industrial PV segment (system size 1 to 5 MW) and the fastest-growing independent monitoring provider in the U.S. PV market. The same study found Inaccess to be the No. 1 and fastest growing PV monitoring provider in the U.K. across segments as well as in the utilityscale segment (plants larger than 5MW).

“This partnership between Inaccess and Draker illustrates the consolidation trend in the PV monitoring space and the desire from vendors to be present in multiple countries,” said Cedric Brehaut, founder of SoliChamba Consulting and author of the report. “The monitoring market tends to be very country-specific with buyers giving preference to local providers, so partnerships between firms across continents is the fastest way to achieve a global footprint.”

“The cooperation with Inaccess opens up a wide range of operational optimizations for the two companies and will generate significant positive effects on customers and costs,” said Everett McGinley, CEO of Draker. “The established international standing of the two companies provides the best guarantee for superior service and inter-continental coverage of existing and upcoming global portfolio owners.”

According to Christos Georgopoulos, Inaccess CEO, “The proven unique capabilities of the two companies, along with their superior platform technology and operational capacity that are being repeatedly confirmed by the market, will be accelerated by the technical and business synergies of this strategic cooperation. Our combined global offerings will define a new unsurpassable standard to sustain today’s massive investments in the solar PV sector worldwide, a trend that will only increase in the next decade.”

Solar Power World

Array Technologies, Inc. (ATI), manufacturer of tracking systems, and turnkey provider, Swinerton Renewable Energy, have entered into a agreement to supply and install more than one gigawatt of solar tracking projects in the United States. The pipeline involves over a dozen utility-scale projects across varying geographies.

The projects will feature ATI’s recently launched DuraTrack HZ v3. This innovative single-axis tracker builds on ATI’s 3 gigawatts of design and manufacturing experience. Boasting a 6% power density advantage, the industry’s highest reliability, significant installation efficiencies, and zero scheduled maintenance over the 30-year life of the product, the DuraTrack HZ v3 is a groundbreaking design built to lower the levelized cost of electricity.

“We are very excited to see the successful launch of v3. Its advancements will allow us to provide the lowest installed cost tracker in the industry. ATI’s high reliability and low maintenance costs provide our clients the best overall plant performance. Swinerton is proud to be a long-term partner with ATI and we look forward to successfully delivering our 1GW portfolio together,” said George Hershman, Vice President and Division Manager of Swinerton Renewable Energy. “This was a clear and logical choice–quality and reliability at the lowest overall cost, ATI hit the mark with v3.”

“Our new DuraTrack HZ v3 has been designed for utility-scale efficiency. With an intense integration of function and engineered simplicity, we are able to reduce installation and maintenance costs as well as increase reliability, making it the clear choice for Swinerton’s growing pipeline,” explained ATI founder and CEO, Ron Corio. “Our partnership is based on a mutual interest to increase the dissemination of solar by lowering LCOE and improving its economic viability. We are honored to work with such a well-respected organization and believe that the experienced team at Swinerton proves to be a superior asset to the solar industry.”

The agreement to mass-supply ATI’s revolutionary new solar tracking system comes as solar energy’s competitiveness with conventional fuels is rapidly improving. Key balance of system innovations, such as the utility-focused DuraTrack HZ v3 single-axis tracker, continue to drive down the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and propel the solar industry towards a bright future.

Solar Power World

How do you stay on top of knowing your customers’ needs? What are their biggest challenges and how can you help? Is talking to them on the job site enough? We spoke with Trent Mostaert, Vice President and general manager of solar at Mortenson Construction to find out how his company conducts a survey to learn more about the needs of its customers.

Solar Power World

Solvay Specialty Polymers, a leading global supplier of high-performance thermoplastics, announced last week at Intersolar North America 2015 that films extruded from its Advanced Halar 500 ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE) resin helped enable two lightweight, yet durable photovoltaic (PV) front sheets developed by Amcor, a top world-wide supplier of films and flexible materials. Now available in the U.S., Amcor’s lightweight, flexible Rayotec and Ceramis front sheets greatly expand options for advanced solar energy applications by eliminating structural weight limitations and rigidity imposed by glass, thereby improving the integration of PV modules into complex shapes.

“Durable, lightweight performance and protection are among the key criteria for front sheets targeting today’s fast-growing U.S. market for building-integrated photovoltaic applications,” said Wojciech Skalbani, global sales and marketing director of technical products at Amcor. “The unique combination of performance properties provided by Solvay’s Halar 500 ECTFE resin allowed our Rayotec and Ceramis films to meet these and other demanding requirements and deliver a competitive new solution to the U.S. solar industry.”

Halar 500 ECTFE is a melt-processable fluoropolymer that can be extruded into transparent films with widths up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) and varying thicknesses. A typical 50-µm thick (0.002-in) film delivers over 90 percent light transmission and weighs only 84 g/m2 (2.9 oz/10.8 ft2). This is in marked contrast to a sheet of identically sized, conventional 3-mm thick glass targeting the same PV applications, which weighs 7.5 kg/m2 (16.5 lbs/10.8 ft2). Applied as the lightweight core material for Amcor’s Rayotec front sheet, Solvay’s Halar ECTFE resin offers expansive new options for significantly lowering the weight of crystalline silicon solar panels.

Amcor also chose Halar 500 ECTFE resin-based film as an additional protective layer for its Ceramis PV front sheet, which targets copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panel applications. This front sheet incorporates a sensitive silicon oxide layer that provides the durable moisture barrier that’s critical for long-lasting performance of CIGS panels. Halar 500 ECTFE’s excellent UV-resistance protects this sensitive layer to support the overall reliability of both the front sheet and finished CIGS panel. Further, the flexibility of Halar ECTFE-based film vs. glass enables more efficient roll-to-roll processing of Amcor’s Ceramis front sheet.

In addition to these benefits, Halar 500 ECTFE-based films offer very high moisture barrier properties (<1 g/m2/day) and abrasion resistance, as well as greater fire resistance, higher stiffness and lower density than competitive ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE)-based films. They are self-cleaning and can withstand more than 20 years of direct exposure to sunlight. Combined with Amcor’s primer technology, films based on Halar 500 ECTFE form durable protective laminates for encapsulant films commonly used by the solar industry.

“Solvay’s high-performance Halar ECTFE resins help industry-leading innovators like Amcor to explore new pathways for designing durable, lightweight solar modules that are more easily integrated into complex shapes,” said Philippe-Jacques Leng, Solvay Specialty Polymers’ global market manager for Films. “We are committed to supporting the growth of building-integrated PV applications and other solar energy markets as consumers around the globe seek more sustainable sources of energy.”

Solvay’s Halar ECTFE resins and Amcor’s flexible PV front sheets are both available globally.

Solar Power World

Many companies offer products with different tracking possibilities, varying from single-axis to dual-axis. Dual-axis solar tracking is known to harvest significantly more energy from the sun compared to other PV module mounting structures. For mass deployment of dual-axis tracking system into the market place, two conditions need to be met: simplifying the hardware structures in order to lower the capital and O&M costs, and also to guarantee stability and reliability against the weather elements.

Generally, solar tracking systems use linear actuators, ball screw or slew wheel drive systems that are complex and carry high capital and O&M costs resulting from the over-sized components. To lower costs, BIG SUN Group has developed a commercial dual axis tracker unit called iPV Solar Tracker (3 kW and 6 kW) which uses simple hardware configurations and control systems. The key feature of the iPV Solar Tracker that differentiates it from other solar tracking devices is the steel cable drive mechanism.

The iPV Solar Tracker drive mechanism consists primarily of electronic control unit, two electric motors, shafts, ball bearings, cable reels, pulleys, shackles, anchoring bolts, springs and steel cables. The two motors are attached to a central pole and positioned perpendicular to each other. Each motor has a two-slot cable reel fitted on a rotation shaft. Steel cables attached to the diagonal corners of the module frame are wound on the reel slots—one in clockwise direction and the other in anti-clockwise direction.

When the electric motor rotates the cable reels, the winding and unwinding of the steel cables pulls the module mounting frame into a rotational motion. The pulley connecting the anchor bolt diverts the horizontal force into vertical motion so that less force is used to pull the module mounting frame downwards. The springs connecting the middle anchor bolts help to modulate the tension of the steel cables so they will not be too tight or too loose. Once the frame moves to the target position, all four steel cables will be tightened, hence providing four anchoring strengths to the mounting frame. The steel cables anchors also provide additional stability to the tracker in the event of gusty wind of up to 220 km/h.

The tracking accuracy of the iPV Solar Tracker is managed by an electronic control unit based on astronomical algorithm. This enables a full 360° azimuth rotation and altitude tilt of -40° to 40° (0 = horizontal). The tracking position moves every five minutes along the sun’s path, requiring as few as 30 motions per day with a consequential low power consumption, less wear and tear and low O&M costs. The controller algorithm also includes backtracking capability which allows optimization of the ground cover ratio. The performance evaluation of iPV Solar Tracker power plants in Taiwan (23∘N) shows an average of annual energy gain of 30% compared to a fixed-tilted PV system. This result bares a testament to the high accuracy of the sun tracking capability of the iPV tracker using simple cable drive mechanism.

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Photo: Array Technologies, Inc.

Solar backtracking is a tracking control program that aims to minimize PV panel-on-panel shading, thus avoiding production losses. When a tracker, or a linked tracker row, is used near another, it shades the adjacent tracker during early morning and late afternoon hours.

The backtracking algorithm is implemented to drive the panels’ position during these periods of low solar height, said Laurent Sarrade, global product manager at Exosun.

Though the angle of the panels is not optimal, the loss from the off-angle is typically less than the loss that would result from shading the panels, added John Williamson, director of engineering at Array Technologies.

When a single cell in a crystalline module is shaded, it affects the power production of the entire module.

“For example, if half of a single cell is shaded, the panel will reduce in power output by about 50%. By backtracking, losses due to shading are eliminated, optimizing the amount of power that the panels can produce,” Williamson said.

This increase in power production widens the “shoulders” of the power production curve for any given day, and results in a better LCOE.

There are no additional costs to enable backtracking. Williamson acknowledged an up-front cost for the development of the product, but it’s small in comparison to the benefits gained from shade prevention.

The amount of backtracking performed on average should be minimized for a site to produce the maximum amount of power, however. When laying out a site, it’s important to keep the field density to a minimum to allow for greater spacing between rows, which means less backtracking.

Sarrade asserted that any serious tracking system provider should be able to propose a basic backtracking program, citing Exosun’s patented tracking process SMARTracking.

“If the system is simply based on a light sensor and feedback system, it is much more difficult to make backtracking function properly,” Williamson explained. “Most astronomical algorithm-based control systems can be programmed with backtracking.”

When a tracker is stand-alone and doesn’t have adjacent trackers or tracker rows, backtracking is not typically required. Some PV panels are not as sensitive to shading, and some thin film modules do not decrease power output if a single cell is shaded. However, running simulation software to determine whether backtracking is needed is suggested. Backtracking is never completely unnecessary, Sarrade said.

By: Joshua Smalley, SPW research assistant

Solar Power World

EV ZEV Summit 2015 Sacramento

EnvisionSolar International, a renewable energy, media and branding and electric vehicle (EV) charging product company, has announced that California has awarded the company contract #1-15-61-16 to supply EV ARC products to state and local governmental agencies or entities. The contract is valid from June 12, 2015, through June 11, 2016, and there are two one-year renewal options.

In January 2015, California’s Governor Brown announced an ambitious set of climate goals, including reducing petroleum use in cars up to 50 percent by 2030. Achieving these goals will require broad electrification of the transportation sector. The EV ARC delivers clean solar energy directly to an EV, without any disruption or environmental impact to its location. It is rapidly deployed and can be placed in locations that would have been impossible to provide EV charging in the past.

Invented and manufactured in the US, the EV ARC fits inside a parking space and generates enough clean, solar electricity to power 150 miles of EV driving each day. The system’s solar electrical generation is enhanced by EnvisionTrak, which enables the array to follow the sun, generating 18 to 25 percent more electricity than a fixed array. The energy is stored in the EV ARC™ Power Storage Technology, allowing EV’s to charge during the day or at night. The EV ARC requires no trenching, foundations or installation work, allowing it to be deployed in minutes and moved to a new location with ease. Envision Solar’s EV ARC products are manufactured in San Diego by veterans, minorities, workers with disabilities and other highly talented and mission-driven team members.

“California has about 40% of the United States’ EVs,” said Desmond Wheatley, CEO of Envision Solar. “Our EV ARC™ product is the perfect solution for a State that requires a scalable, sustainable and easily deployable EV charging infrastructure that does not require trenching or foundations and can be easily moved. We are thrilled to have won this contract and we are looking forward to growing our Californian work force to fulfill it.”

According to a report from NavigantResearch, the states of California, New York,Washington and Florida will lead the United States in annual sales of PEVs through 2022. Envision Solar shares these views and is focused on being a major supplier to all key states needing sustainably powered EV charging solutions.

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SoloPower uses CIGS-based solar cells which allow for flexibility.

Background 

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Goodwill Industries of Central Florida and local elected officials recently unveiled a 140-kW, 12,000-square-foot solar array installed on the roof of the nonprofit’s Oviedo Retail Store. As part of Goodwill’s “Solar for Good” initiative, the cost savings generated by renewable energy will benefit job training and placement programs.

Goodwill CEO Bill Oakley accepts a check from Duke Energy to support the array.

The 423-panel system is also part of Goodwill’s “Made in America” initiative and was manufactured by Suniva in the U.S. It will offset an estimated 80 percent of the store’s annual electricity needs. Orlando-based NovaSol Energy was the project’s developer. Goodwill installed the array with the support of a SunSense grant from Duke Energy.

Goodwill plans to install solar arrays at nine of its locations across Central Florida. The installations are expected to save nearly $5.4 million – and divert nearly 59,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – over the next 25 years. Defraying these costs will allow the nonprofit to provide job training and placement to an estimated 42,000 more Central Floridians.

“Sustainability is something we practice every day at Goodwill – turning generous donations from our community into job training and placement opportunities for Central Floridians,” said Bill Oakley, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Florida. “Generating renewable energy with Solar for Good is the next natural step, and we look forward to serving more job-seekers in our community through this initiative.”

The Oviedo solar array is Goodwill’s second Solar for Good project. In April 2014, Goodwill installed a 14,000-square-foot rooftop array on its Waterford Lakes Retail Store with financial support from Duke Energy. Since then, the array has offset approximately 76 percent of the store’s total energy. Between the Waterford Lakes and Oviedo stores, Goodwill’s combined solar capacity is now 293 kW, enough to power over 28 average Floridian homes annually.

“We’re proud to take part in this project and help advance Goodwill’s mission,” said Haseeb Qadri, president and CEO of NovaSol Energy, the project’s developer. “When organizations like Goodwill invest in their own solar resources, it not only benefits their own bottom line, it also lessens the burden on the energy infrastructure, which benefits the entire community.”

NovaSol Energy also installs its solar arrays at no cost to qualifying large-scale commercial clients under a long-term leasing arrangement that provides for relatively flat monthly energy bills.

Duke Energy Florida state president Alex Glenn added, “At Duke Energy, we are looking for ways to help our customers meet their sustainability goals and expand their use of renewable energy. The $130,000 grant we provided will help cover the cost of the solar array and allow the nonprofit to focus more of its funds on its important mission – helping people. We are honored to play a small role in that.”

Goodwill Industries of Central Florida was recently awarded an Energy Star Award from Goodwill Industries International for its energy conservation efforts in new constructions and existing stores.

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IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, today announced the installing of solar panels is complete atop its St. Louis store opening September 30, 2015. Once the other components are mounted, connected and operational, the project will be the largest rooftop solar installation in the State of Missouri. The store’s 259,000-square-foot solar array comprises a 1.28-MW system, built with 4,085 panels, and will produce approximately 1,780,000 kWh of electricity annually for the store, the equivalent to reducing 1,227 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) – equal to the emissions of 258 cars or providing electricity for 169 homes yearly (calculating clean energy equivalents at www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html).

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IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) today revealed that solar and wind forecasts it is producing using machine learning and other cognitive computing technologies are proving to be as much as 30 percent more accurate than ones created using conventional approaches. Part of a research program funded the by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, the breakthrough results suggest new ways to optimize solar resources as they are increasingly integrated into the nation’s energy systems.

IBM also announced that for a limited time it will provide foundational solar forecasts at five-kilometer spatial resolution to help government agencies and other organizations in the lower 48 states best evaluate their impact on supply and demand as well as operations.

Entering the third year, IBM researchers worked with academic, government and industry collaborators to develop a Self-learning weather Model and renewable forecasting Technology, known as SMT. The SMT system uses machine learning, Big Data and analytics to continuously analyze, learn from and improve solar forecasts derived from a large number of weather models. In contrast, most current forecasting techniques rely on individual weather models that offer a more narrow view of the variables that affect the availability of renewable energy.

IBM’s approach provides a general platform for renewable energy forecasting, including wind and hydro. It advances the state-of-the-art by using deep machine learning techniques to blend domain data, information from sensor networks and local weather stations, cloud motion physics derived from sky cameras and satellite observations, and multiple weather prediction models. The SMT system represents the first time such a broad range of forecasting methods have been integrated onto a single, scalable platform.

“By continuously training itself using historical records from thousands of weather stations and real time measurements, IBM’s system combines predictions from a number of weather models with geographic information and other data to produce the most accurate forecasts — from minutes to weeks ahead,” explained Dr. Siyuan Lu, Physical Analytics Researcher at IBM.

“By improving the accuracy of forecasting, utilities can operate more efficiently and profitably. That can increase the use of renewable energy sources as a more accepted energy generation option,” said Dr. Bri-Mathias Hodge, who oversees the Transmission and Grid Integration Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a collaborator in the project.

In 2013, solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas[1]. A USA SunShot Vision Study suggests that solar power could provide as much as 14% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030 and 27% by 2050[2].

Currently, there are two main customers for renewable energy forecasting technologies: utility companies and independent system operators (ISOs). However, the inherent difficulty in producing accurate solar and wind forecasts has required electric utilities to hold higher amounts of energy reserves as compared to conventional energy sources. With solar power installations rapidly growing, future solar penetration levels will soon require increased attention to the value of more accurate solar forecasting.

“Solar photovoltaic resources have expanded dramatically in New England in the last five years, going from just 44 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts,” said Jonathan Black, lead engineer on ISO New England’s solar PV forecasting efforts and a collaborator in the project. “Currently, most of the solar installations in New England are ‘behind the meter’ on the distribution system, so their output isn’t ‘visible’ in real time to the ISO’s system operators, but it reduces the amount of electricity demand they observe. The growing aggregate output from all these resources across our region will increasingly change the daily demand curve, so the ISO will need accurate solar forecasts to help grid operators continue to balance power generation and consumer demand.”

The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. The team of scientists from IBM and NREL are presenting a paper on their preliminary findings this week at the European Control Conference (ECC 2015) in Linz, Austria.

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Massachusetts-based Solect Energy (No. 84 on the upcoming 2015 Top Solar Contractors list) founder and CEO Ken Driscoll discusses the company’s unlikely partnership with the Melanoma Foundation of New England (MFNE).

Solar Power World: How did you come to partner with the MFNE? 

Driscoll: Our partnership with the Melanoma Foundation of New England was quite serendipitous. The foundation was looking for a location to host their Boston Marathon runners, and we were looking for a charitable organization that we could help and give back. We also happened to be based in Hopkinton, which is where the marathon starts. It was this coincidental engagement that has grown into a partnership to help each other educate about the power of the sun.

More companies are investing in the health of their employees. Why do it?

Our people are our greatest asset. Solect strongly believes in a “people, planet, profit” philosophy. The people part of that means taking care of our employees, customers and partners. We’re committed to our employees and to building a culture of excellence through creating a work environment that inspires healthy habits, innovation and teamwork.

What are some practical health tips for solar installers?

The following is a list of tips that we give employees prior to working and encourage them to practice:

• Keep your shirt on.
• Wear a hat with a brim or a flap that covers the ears and back of the neck.
• Wear sunglasses with a UV protection (both UVA and UVB light) rating of 100%.
• Stay in the shade whenever possible, during your breaks and especially at lunch time.
• Use a high factor sunscreen of at least SPF 30 on any exposed skin.
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours.
• Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.
• Schedule an annual skin exam with a dermatologist.
• Check your skin regularly for any unusual moles or spots. See a doctor promptly if you see anything that is changing in shape, size or color, itching or bleeding.

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