PV News Brief 9 –22 July
Jul 22, 2014
Iberdrola close to completing Africa’s largest PV plant
Iberdrola Ingenieria has announced it was approaching the completion of Jasper PV power plant in South Africa, which at 96 MW is the largest in Africa. The consortium of IberdrolaIngerieria and South African firm Group Five have been working on this project after being selected by Jasper Power Company, a project company in which US firm Solar Reserve has a stake, and signing a contract value at €121 million. The tender procedure for the project was launched during Round 2 of the South African renewables programme.
The contract included the engineering, equipment supply, civil engineering work, assembly and start-up of the facility, as well as the development of the transformer substation that will feed the plant's energy and a 132-KV overhead power line that will connect the infrastructure to the national grid. Both Iberdrola Ingenieria and Group Five will be responsible for the plant's operation and maintenance for the next 15 years.
Comprising more than 325,000 polycrystalline modules, the project is located in Northern Cape province in a remote, semi-desert location with extreme temperatures and covers a surface area equivalent to 205 football pitches.
Higher efficiency Perovskite solar cell developed
Scientists have designed a perovskite solar cell that reduces the cost of manufacture and increases energy conversion efficiency of the promising material that holds tremendous potential in propelling solar power into the marketplace. The photovoltaic (PV) cell achieved energy conversion efficiency of 12.8% and was stable for over 1000 hours under full sunlight.
Published in The Science, the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the perovskite solar cell was developed by a team of scientists in China, led by Professor Hongwei Han in cooperation with Professor Michael Grätzel at EPFL.
The new perovskite solar cell eliminates the need for a hole-transporting layer, and resulting perovskite crystals have shown strikingly high stability. These solar cells have been strong contenders for thin-film photovoltaics due to their large absorption coefficient, high charge carrier mobility and long diffusion length. But they are also costly because of the hole-transportation layer, which demands high purity materials and complicated fabrication procedures.
According to The Science, researchers are convinced that there is still plenty of room for improvement, predicting that perovskite cells will surpass 20% efficiency by the end of the year.
PV leads in distributed generation
A new study by GlobalData found that solar photovoltaics are leading the world in the distributed power market, accounting for 48% of the total distributed power capacity installed in 2013. In addition, the amount of annually installed distributed generation is expected to increase from 190 GW in 2013 to nearly 389 GW in 2019.
Last year, PV made up roughly 92 GW of newly installed distributed power capacity, or 48% of the total installed capacity, the study revealed. Meanwhile combined heat and power made up 38 percent of new distributed generation and wind 13 percent of new generation.
Europe currently has the majority of the world’s distributed PV capacity, according to GlobalData. “Due to a number of EU member states that pioneered in offering subsidies and incentives to boost solar PV installations, Europe now holds an impressive 66% share of the world’s distributed solar PV capacity,” said Ankit Mathur, GlobalData’s Alternative Energy project manager.
The situation is anticipated to change, however. “Most of the European PV markets have retracted their support by reducing such incentives. It is therefore expected that Europe will be supplanted by Asia-Pacific as the market leader by 2019.” Mathur said. The company anticipated that by the end of 2019, Asia will lead the world with 89 GW of PV installed annually by the end of 2019, driven by China and Japan.
SMA commissions 3.2MW solar testing facility
SMA has put into operation a 3.2MW ground-mount PV based solar farm inverter manufacturer that it will use for testing new system solutions for worldwide use. The facility is located in the Sandershäuser Berg industrial park in Niestetal, near Kassel, Germany.
Constructed in just three months, power generated at the facility will be consumed by SMA Solar Factory 3 as well as in other of the company's buildings. Along with testing inverters, combiner technology, battery storage solutions and medium-voltage components for large-scale PV plants, SMA will also use the PV plant to gain experience in using the new 1,500 Volt-DC technology and the PV park control function.
“The ground-based PV plant in the Sandershäuser Berg industrial park has been specially designed for our testing purposes. We can test our new system solutions under real conditions, in close proximity to developers and demonstrate them to our customers as if in the field. This saves us time and money,” said Jürgen Reinert, managing board member for technical development.
“We are currently testing the SMA Utility Power System with a Sunny Central inverter, a medium-voltage block and DC technology there, which we already presented to the public at Intersolar in Munich June 2014.”
ARENA funds renewable-diesel project with AU$18m
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced AU$18.5 million of funding support for Energy Developments Ltd.’s (EDL) renewable energy-diesel hybrid project at Coober Pedy in South Australia. EDL is proposing to combine wind, solar and diesel to provide the town with 70% renewable energy over the life of the project. The project will include short-term energy storage, fast start diesel engines and an advanced control system to enable smooth operation.
“With ARENA’s support, EDL is seeking to integrate up to 2 MW of solar PV, 3 MW of wind generation and enabling technologies into its existing 3.9 MW diesel power station at Coober Pedy. This ambitious project may demonstrate a combined approach for powering off-grid Australian communities that currently rely solely on expensive trucked-in diesel,” ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said.
“These enabling technologies have been successfully tried and tested by Hydro Tasmania at the ARENA-supported King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project,” said Frischknecht.
EDL intends to restructure its existing power purchasing agreement with the District Council of Coober Pedy with a new 20-year agreement, providing a long-term customer base to support the renewable energy project. The project is now subject to final investment decision by EDL, along with approvals and agreements. If approved, completion is anticipated in mid-2017.
AUO receives certificates on PV storage system
AU Optronics Corp’s “PowerLegato” announced that its high-energy density integrated energy storage system designed for residential and commercial solar PV users has successfully entered the European, Japanese and Australian markets.
According to the Chinese manufacturer, PowerLegato is TUV certified and can run both on-grid and off-grid in Germany and the UK, depending on user demands. In addition, the energy storage system is eligible for Japan's S-Mark incentive program, allowing owners to receive subsidies from the government. PowerLegato has won iF and Reddot design awards, and this year EnergyOptimizer has also won iF Communication Award for its intuitive system design.