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Rooftop Solar: will subsidies benefit wealthy early adopters, while grid limits lock out the latecomers?

September 14, 2023 by Juan Jose Cuenca Silva, Barry Hayes and Hannah Daly

Subsidies encouraging homeowners to install rooftop solar are being won by the affluent who can afford to be first movers. And when the technology has come down in price, the remaining majority of households will be shut out of the benefits of own-generation because the grid won’t have the capacity to integrate everyone. That’s the argument made by Juan Jose Cuenca Silva, Barry Hayes and Hannah Daly at the University College Cork who summarise … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids, Renewables Tagged With: batteries, California, Germany, grids, integration, Ireland, JustTransition, renewables, rooftop, solar, spain, storage, subsidies

Rooftop Solar for industry: up to 35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors could supply all their own power

September 7, 2023 by Matthew Eckelman

Rooftop solar could supply the complete electricity needs of 5-35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors, explains Matthew Eckelman at Northeastern University who summarises his co-authored paper “Technical feasibility of powering U.S. manufacturing with rooftop solar PV”. At present, only 0.1% of industrial electricity demand in the U.S. is supplied by on-site sources of renewable energy. But large, unobstructed industrial rooftops and the declining … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Industry Tagged With: clothing, decarbonisation, electricity, furniture, grids, industry, manufacturing, power, printing, rooftop, solar, textiles

Community Batteries: when they’re the best option for overcoming grid constraints. And when they’re not

June 5, 2023 by Bjorn Sturmberg, Alice Wendy Russell, Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Louise Bardwell and Marnie Shaw

Community batteries are a shared asset in neighbourhoods with rooftop solar, avoiding the need for every household to have its own battery. Even people unable to have rooftop solar can use it. It’s taking off in Australia, supported at both the state and federal level. But Bjorn Sturmberg, Alice Wendy Russell, Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Louise Bardwell and Marnie Shaw at the Australian National University summarise their research which warns that it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: australia, batteries, community, EVs, PumpedHydro, rooftop, solar, suburbs, transformers

Solar PV windows on highly glazed skyscrapers can cut energy by 40%+

November 30, 2022 by Wayne Hicks

Around a third of the world’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions come from buildings. Highly glazed skyscrapers and buildings may look beautiful and let in plenty of light, but waste a lot of energy due to the extra cooling needed in summer and heating in winter. Modern skyscrapers can have window-to-wall ratios of 70%+. But modern thermally efficient photovoltaic windows not only provide insulation but turn the absorbed light into power. Wayne … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, emissions, generation, innovation, insulation, PV, rooftop, skyscrapers, windows

Grid Distribution Systems: access to usage data is uncovering the optimal design for future electrification

July 18, 2022 by Meredith Fowlie

The more efficient a distribution grid is, the less likely other potential supply bottlenecks (from lithium for batteries to trained electricians) will slow the transition to greater and greater electrification. State-of-the-art modelling of future grids is already happening, but the robust modelling of the distribution system is conspicuously missing because good data are notoriously hard to find, says Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: buildings, charging, costs, data, Distribution, electrification, EVs, grids, HVAC, rooftop, SmartCharging, solar

Latest U.S. modelling shows Battery Storage can support an 80% Renewables grid by 2050

May 18, 2022 by Madeline Geocaris

NREL’s latest Storage Futures Study concludes that battery storage should be able to support an 80% renewables grid mix in the U.S. by 2050. Madeline Geocaris at NREL explains how they modelled hundreds of future scenarios to accurately represent the value of diurnal (<12 hours) battery energy storage. The high-storage scenarios made different cost and performance assumptions for storage, wind, solar PV, and natural gas. 15 storage … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Storage Tagged With: batteries, buildings, costs, distributed, diurnal, gas, lithium, modelling, PV, rooftop, scenarios, solar, storage, US, wind

U.S. Solar breaks new records. What’s needed to keep the momentum?

May 10, 2022 by John Rogers

The latest available data reveals it’s been a record breaking 2021 for U.S. solar. John Rogers at UCS runs through the highlights. Solar passed the 100GW milestone, with 23.6GW newly installed, up 19% on 2020 and 77% up on 2019. Solar was the biggest source of new electric generating capacity for the third year in a row. Residential, non-residential and utility-scale all performed well. Across the nation, solar accounted for 3.9% of total … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: California, costs, electricity, Illinois, Indiana, policies, residential, rooftop, solar, Texas, US, Utility, Virginia

Piloting peer-to-peer electricity markets in China and the EU

April 29, 2022 by Helena Uhde

Peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading is being promoted, to varying degrees, in both the EU and China. It allows individual citizens and businesses to produce and trade their own solar power (local, rooftop), while enabling the close-to-real-time balancing of supply and demand to maintain system stability. Helena Uhde at the ECECP gives an insight into the current status, implementation, regulations and policies in both regions. She cites two … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: China, electricity, EU, Germany, Henan, Landau, markets, P2P, policies, regulations, rooftop, solar, stability, trading

Grid-scale modelling of Distributed Energy Resources and dynamic pricing for all customers

February 7, 2022 by James Conca

Smart grids can solve multiple problems now and throughout the lifetime of the energy transition. The supply from hundreds (existing + new wind, solar, etc.) and ultimately millions (rooftop solar, EV batteries) of power sources can be matched in real time with demand from all major customer devices (air conditioners, water heaters, batteries, EVs). Dynamic pricing keeps the peaks low and the troughs high. It takes the pressure off total load, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: AI, batteries, dynamic, ERCOT, EVs, grids, HVAC, modelling, PNNL, pricing, rooftop, Shanghai, smart, solar, Spokane, Stem, storage, Texas, US, wind

Distributed Energy Resources and Smart Grids: an opportunity or a distraction?

November 23, 2021 by Doyob Kim and Alyssa Fischer

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are poorly understood by the utilities, explain Doyob Kim and Alyssa Fischer at the IEA. Part of the problem is that new innovations and solutions are coming fast, and policy-makers aren’t creating the incentives and frameworks to make them an imperative. But, done right, the successful integration of DERs into the grid will accelerate electrification, address grid stability, and reduce spending on expensive … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids, Smartgrids Tagged With: batteries, DERs, Digitalisation, electrification, EVs, grids, infrastructure, rooftop, smartgrids, solar, stability, VPPs

Compact voltage converters for integrating new DERs into the grid

October 20, 2021 by NREL

The switches and converters needed to plug new clean energy technologies into the grid are going to be needed soon. The cheaper and smaller they are, the easier it will be to cope with the wide range of solutions coming down the pipe. NREL and its partners are building a megawatt-scale prototype converter that could fit the bill. They will be 1/5th the size and 1/10th the weight of existing alternatives: small enough to place almost anywhere. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: batteries, biomass, converters, EVs, grids, Microgrids, protection, rooftop, solar, stability, storage, switches, transformers, voltage, WasteHeat

Surging U.S. renewables on track to take 30% market share by 2026

October 19, 2021 by Dennis Wamsted and Seth Feaster

While the U.S. Congress debates whether backing the transition is a winning strategy, the energy sector is clearly showing the nation’s direction of travel. Dennis Wamsted and Seth Feaster at IEEFA look at the impressive growth of the clean energy champions, wind and solar. Since 2019, wind and utility-scale solar generation has risen by 76 TWh — a 31% increase — while coal and gas has fallen by 1.6%. By 2026, wind and utility-scale solar will … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: coal, electricity, gas, grids, hydro, renewables, rooftop, solar, transition, US, wind

Next German government’s climate and energy plans: what will Olaf Scholz do?

October 4, 2021 by Kerstine Appunn and Benjamin Wehrmann

Olaf Scholz led Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) to an unexpected win in the 2021 elections held in September. He now needs to finalise a coalition with the Green Party and the pro-business FDP before forming a government and becoming chancellor. Like his predecessor Angela Merkel, Scholz has said he wants to become a "climate chancellor". Kerstine Appunn and Benjamin Wehrmann at Clean Energy Wire try to understand what his climate and energy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: CarbonPrice, carmakers, chancellor, Climate, CoalExit, emissions, Energy, EVs, finance, Germany, grids, renewables, rooftop, Scholz, solar, SPD, sustainable, transport, wind

Community Scale Solar plugs the gap between “rooftop” and utilities

April 30, 2019 by Laurie Stone

Rooftop residential and utility solar exist at two ends of the scale. Is there a sweet spot between those two that can capture the advantages of small-scale (no transmission loss, grid resilience through distribution) and large (economies of scale, easy to invest in)? Yes, reports Laurie Stone of the Rocky Mountain Institute, and it’s being called Community-Scale Solar. More than a sweet spot, it can reach communities underserved by rooftop solar … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovations, Renewables Tagged With: Arch Electric, Climate Collaborative, Dr. Bronner’s, electricity, OneEnergy Renewables, rooftop, solar, UMMEG, US

Most read this week

  • U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition by Hannah Perkins | posted on September 19, 2023
  • 10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness by Ella Adlen | posted on November 11, 2019
  • Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage by Pablo Ruiz | posted on September 25, 2023
  • Affordable €25k EVs by 2025: Europe’s carmakers can do it. Instead they’re making more profitable SUVs by Transport & Environment | posted on September 22, 2023
  • Sodium-ion batteries ready for commercialisation: for grids, homes, even compact EVs by Carlos Ruiz | posted on September 11, 2023
  • Oil & Gas business is fatally flawed: Russia-Ukraine only delayed the relentless decline in prices by Clark Williams-Derry | posted on September 21, 2023
  • Understanding the new EU ETS (Part 2): Buildings, Road Transport, Fuels. And how the revenues will be spent by Simon Göss | posted on February 6, 2023
  • Micro-nuclear reactors: up to 20MW, portable, safer by Christina Nunez | posted on April 22, 2021
  • Concawe Symposium tackles climate and pollution as RED commits fuel companies to 29% renewable content from 2030 by Matthew James | posted on September 22, 2023
  • Though the price shocks hurt, Renewables installed between 2021-23 saved Europe €100bn by Joe Myers | posted on September 18, 2023
  • Space-Based Solar Power: getting closer as SpaceX and Blue Origin bring down the cost of heavy-lift launches? by Matteo Ceriotti | posted on September 20, 2023
  • Agrivoltaics: GWs of solar power from farmland using strategically placed panels (and raising crop yields) by Joshua Pearce | posted on September 26, 2023
  • What’s best for Hydrogen transport: ammonia, liquid hydrogen, LOHC or pipelines? by Herib Blanco | posted on May 5, 2022
  • EU Energy Outlook to 2060: how will power prices and revenues develop for wind, solar, gas, hydrogen + more by Alex Schmitt | posted on December 6, 2022
  • Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks by Simon Read | posted on July 27, 2022
  • The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric by Schalk Cloete | posted on December 6, 2021
  • Farming Algae for Carbon Capture: new research cuts “fouling.” Scale-up in 3 years? by David Chandler | posted on June 21, 2023
  • EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework: new rules to turn greenwashing into genuine removals by Simon Göss | posted on May 16, 2023
  • Can Aluminium-air batteries outperform Li-ion for EVs? by Helena Uhde | posted on September 8, 2021
  • Can we expect Gas price volatility and spikes this winter? Why? by Michael Bradshaw | posted on September 8, 2023

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      Recent Posts

      Concrete supercapacitor: works like a battery, much cheaper, easy to make

      Agrivoltaics: GWs of solar power from farmland using strategically placed panels (and raising crop yields)

      Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage

      Concawe Symposium tackles climate and pollution as RED commits fuel companies to 29% renewable content from 2030

      Affordable €25k EVs by 2025: Europe’s carmakers can do it. Instead they’re making more profitable SUVs

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