World’s largest solar plant, $1 trillion in green bonds, vertical solar, solar+pears – plus more – Podcast #14

The Clean Power Hour – a weekly clean energy headline review and commentary podcast run by Tim Montague, and yours truly – the CommercialSolarGuy – John Fitzgerald Weaver.

Big cash is flowing in renewable energy – some of the largest money moving globally

$200 billion worth of green bonds have been issued in 2020 thus far – $50 billion in a strong September. This represents a 12% increase compared with the first nine months of 2019. And in total $1 trillion have been sold since 2007.’ Source

Possibly the world’s largest solar power plant has come online in China

Largest 2.2 GW solar and storage goes live in China – very high DCAC rating, and a connection to the UVHDC network – is this straight solar panels to a transformer/controller to grid? No inverters? Source

Nevada utility applies for three solar+storage power plants – plus big power lines

In case you were wondering, the sun never sets – and the wind never stops blowing. Those who suggest this mostly haven’t left their local place of residence. We have two killer apps that would make wind+solar+hydro+nuclear run our planet – batteries and power lines. Batteries are coming, and power lines might or might not get there in time – and the battery manufacturers are just fine with that. It would be smarter if we did both, but we the species isn’t always smart. We do have the knowledge though, and we do have the tools. Source

Vertical solar installation

The 87 panels on Docklands’ Harbour One can produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 11 apartments per year, save the residents $6000 every 12 months in total and also offset 27 tonnes of carbon Source

Land use and solar power are a challenge. If we can figure out solar+various crops – that argument ends, and we pay farmers more!

Solar+pears – ‘solar modules placed at a height of 4.6 meters – the height of the agricultural machinery that is commonly used for pear trees. 40% transparent backsheets and conventional, equally spaced 156 x 156 mm silicon cells with 21% efficiency.’ Source

First California, now New York is talking it – who’s next? MA? Hawaii?

A New York bill quietly seeds the ban of new ICE cars by 2035 Source

The European continent is doing an amazing job at cleaning electricity – France over 90%, Switzerland with hydro+nuclear, the UK went almost two months with no coal, Denmark  wind powered, Iceland and Sweden too – all amazing work.

Germany saw 52.9% from renewables – personally, I’d prefer they remove the biomass and add the nuclear – adding 3% – but also, that means renewables plus nuclear = 65.5% of German electricity was arguably CO2. Source

This is my favorite new LinkedIn account. Carlos’ company repowers old solar projects, and sells the hardware to other sites.

For any kind of PV system repower or removal and re-installation project, leaving as much of the racking, combiner boxes, and existing conduit/wiring in place can prevent the risk of component damage. Pulling all new wire is best, but often unnecessary. An insulation resistance test should be performed as part of any re-commissioning process. Source

Solar PV+Thermal for a private house

Photovoltaic-thermal panel, multi-junction solar cells, 34.6%-efficient; 91% solar electric+thermal efficiency; peak power is 3.5 kW (1 kW electric plus 2.5 kW thermal). 30,000 to 35,000 kWh/year in northern Italy – 1/3 electric 2/3 heat; incentive available – €16,725 Source

Cool picture – remote wind repair shop?

 

And of course, the great video where we discuss it all!