According to Jim Wilson/The New York Times on Dec. 15th 2022 : Under the proposal adopted on Thursday, compensation for the energy sent to the grid by rooftop panels will be reduced by about 75 percent for new solar mounted rooftop homes, starting in April. California regulators voted unanimously on Thursday to significantly reduce how much utilities have to pay homeowners with solar mounted rooftop for power they send to the electric grid — a decision that could hurt the growing renewable energy business. The five members of the California Public Utilities Commission said the existing payments to homeowners through a program known as net metering amounted to an excessively generous subsidy that was no longer needed to encourage the use of solar panels. Under the proposal adopted on Thursday, compensation for the energy sent to the grid by rooftop panels will be reduced by about 75 percent for new solar mounted rooftop homes starting in April. The move could have national ramifications because regulators in other states often follow California’s lead. Debates about how far states should go in encouraging the use of renewable energy have been simmering across the country. Many utilities have long opposed net metering, arguing that it does not adequately take into account the cost of maintaining electric grids and that it places too high a value on the electricity supplied by rooftop panels. “This decision is significantly more equitable than the status quo,” said Alice Busching Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. She added that the solar industry provides many benefits to California but that it has been subsidized by residents who do not have solar panels. “We need to be very careful how we design subsidies for this industry when we are using ratepayer funds,” she said. The California Solar and Storage Association said the decision would limit the growth of rooftop solar even as the state was trying to increase the use of clean energy and reduce the burning of fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change. Consumer and environmental groups that criticized the proposal have noted that California has experienced some of the most destructive impacts of climate change, including deadly wildfires, extreme heat and severe drought. “This decision flies in the face of everything California stands for: clean energy leadership, climate solutions and equity,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association. “It runs counter to the Biden administration’s clean energy goals for America. This decision will result in job losses and business closures, especially small businesses, which make up the majority of the installers here in California.” California began to greatly encourage the use of solar under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, starting in the early 2000s. It quickly became the nation’s leader in the use of rooftop solar. About 1.5 million home and business so...

Erthos, the creator of Earth Mount Solar PV, a solar mounting solution that secures panels flat to the ground, signed an agreement with Industrial Sun for a utility-scale solar project in Texas. Although the exact size of the plant has not yet been disclosed, Erthos has revealed that the project exceeds 100 MWDC. We Xiamen Xhfsolar Industrial Co., Ltd. offers free design for various solar projects as per the application, no matter for residential or commercial.  We welcome you to contact us for the free design and our best quote.   Industrial Sun, a renewable energy and storage developer based in Austin, has collectively delivered more than 6,000 MWAC of power projects throughout the United States, with a concentration in the ERCOT market. The Erthos project has an expected interconnect capacity of 100 MWAC, and Industrial Sun will be the sole off-taker. A project of this size using traditional ground solar racking system would typically require between five and six acres of land per megawatt, Erthos stated in a press release, however, with Earth Mount Solar PV, it takes fewer than 2.5 acres per megawatt. “Erthos technology allows us to maximize our project capacity, particularly in those areas where our projects are land-constrained. Erthos is a very welcome solution for our business, and for any developer needing to up-size the capacity of their projects,” said Wade Gungoll, managing director of Industrial Sun. The agreement with Industrial Sun is Erthos’ largest contract to date. “There’s no question that our business is continuing to accelerate,” said Charles Pimentel, CCO of Erthos. “That’s in large part because of our ability to deliver improved energy density, higher wind ratings, and short build times — and to do so at a lower cost.”

Israel’s scarce land resources and lack of interconnections to neighboring countries have driven the rise of rooftop solar mounting. Now a number of recent policy changes, mainly due to electricity reforms, are set to reinforce the decentralization trend, reports Ilias Tsagas.   Image: pv magazine/Ilias Tsagas The opportunities for Floating PV Solar Mounting are rising in Israel, as irrigation plays a big role in its agricultural sector. Israel’s solar sector started in earnest in 2008 with the introduction of a feed-in tariff (FIT). Since then the country has embarked on several policy changes concerning the allocation and remuneration of PV. The nation runs regular tenders for utility scale solar and the rooftop segment is also catching the eye. Israel is a small nation with land-shortage issues, but developers seeking ground-mounted solar system project opportunities are also handicapped by the fact that most of the population is concentrated in a central belt, where prices are very high. While the government is investing in ambitious plans for agrivoltaics, agricultural and commercial activity further restricts the number of solar sites available. Despite the lack of space, Israel has a goal of generating 30% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. And given that wind power is limited, that largely means solar. With policymakers, industry associations, and business agreeing on the need for dual-use deployment, rooftop solar mounting offers a neat solution as part of the puzzle. A good FIT Whereas other nations have phased out fixed payments for solar, Israel’s rooftop FIT remains. The FIT payments have a duration of 25 years and are currently the main force supporting Israel’s rooftop PV segment. Last year, rooftop arrays with a generation capacity of up to 200 kW (AC) qualified for FITs. This year that rule changed to permit only systems up to 100 kW to bank the €0.12 ($0.12)/kWh payment, although owners of systems up to 300 kW can still receive a reduced tariff. Those sky-high property prices in the central belt also prompted a recent move to offer an additional, top-up payment of €0.014/kWh for sub-100 kW systems in such locations. The current embrace of FITs was not always the case. In fact, the government had previously halted the FIT scheme, replacing it with a net metering program that ran from 2013 to 2018. But the government has now scrapped the net-metering program, re-introducing FITs. During its rollout, the net-metering program drove around 380 MW of largely rooftop generation capacity – although floating solar plants and at least one big ground-mounted solar system operated under the payment regime. Nir Zohar, sales director at Israeli solar module cleaning company RST CleanTech, says the net metering system was attractive for factories and energy users with similar consumption profiles and high bills. For everyone else, Zohar says...

Proposals for the Botley West Solar Farm, with an estimated capacity of 840 MW, are being brought forward by Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP) in what will be the first of a series of public consultations on the scheme. Botley West, split across three site areas located within Cherwell, West Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse, would connect to the National Grid and generate enough renewable energy to power every home in Oxfordshire, England. Botley West could deliver significant benefits at a time when the demand for electricity is increasing, and there is an urgent need to address climate change and reduce household energy bills. Oxfordshire is leading the way in the fight against climate change with ambitious targets that can make a real difference. Oxfordshire's Energy Strategy, signed up to by all councils within Oxfordshire, sets out that "the majority of the low carbon energy needed in Oxfordshire is likely to be met by solar PV." Botley West will significantly contribute to Oxfordshire's target of reducing the County's carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. Brian Robert Marshall, The hamlet of Chilson, Cropping, CC BY-SA 2.0 A solar farm is actually a large collection of photovoltaic solar panels that absorb energy from the sun, and convert it into electricity.  The electicity will be sent to the power grid for distribution and consumption by customers or local residents. It is also called solar parks or photovoltaic power stations.  Solar farms are usually ground mounted solar systems, instead of rooftops mounted solar systems and come in all shapes and sizes. The developer, PVDP, is working with supportive landowners, as landlords of their estates, with a genuine and long-held connection to the local area, including Blenheim Estate. PVDP are working to ensure that their plans for Botley West align with the landowners' long-term strategies for sustainably managing their estates. Botley West presents a rare and fantastic opportunity to bring about significant environmental gains in Oxfordshire. The project will be designed to boost biodiversity by enriching soil quality and introducing new habitats to provide an attractive area for a variety of wildlife. The project also provides the opportunity for continued agricultural use. This could include sheep grazing, beekeeping, allotments and community gardens. Today, PVDP has launched the first phase of community consultation for Botley West. The developer welcomes feedback from the communities across the site areas and is committed to undertaking a transparent and rigorous consultation process, which also involves engaging with the local planning authorities, nature conservation groups and statutory consultees. This first phase of consultation will run until December 15. PVDP will also be holding public consultation events for the project across the local area. A spokesperson for PVDP said: "PVDP has over 18 years of experience developing s...

According to the news dated Dec. 2nd, by LOUIS INI, from now on, the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) will supply its administrative offices located in the country's capital with a solar plant installed by Grupo Ibereólica Renovables. The plant has a power of 16 kW, with a generation capacity of 22,740 kWh per year, which will be used both to supply the electricity consumption of the COE offices, and to feed the double charger for electric vehicles next to the plant, as well installed by Grupo Ibereólica Renovables. This project is actually a ground mounted solar system. We Xhfsolar provides a variety of ground mounted solar system for both commercial and residential. The project will make it possible to avoid the annual emission of 600 tons of CO2, equivalent to planting 266 trees in the same period. The facility, inaugurated this week by the presidents of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco Bravo, of the Ibereólica Renovables Group, and Gregorio Álvarez, respectively, is part of a collaboration agreement, signed by both entities in 2018 and renewed last September, in efficiency energy and renewable energy development. In fact, the will to replicate this self-consumption project in other sports facilities dependent on the COE has been announced.

A long-term study shows gradual progress in expanding who is able to benefit from solar panel mounted rooftop. Roger Garbey, from the Goldin Solar company, installs a solar panel system on the roof of a home on Jan. 23, 2018 in Palmetto Bay, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Last year, the median U.S. household with solar panel mounted rooftop had an income of $110,000, which is nearly double the $63,000 median for all households. The difference shows that the benefits of solar continue to disproportionately go to wealthier households. But the gap has been shrinking. The numbers come from the latest edition of a long-term study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with a trend that hasn’t changed much from previous editions: Solar is becoming more accessible, but the shift is gradual. “Progress is good, but I’m not thrilled with the imperfect world of incremental progress,” said Stephen Campbell, senior manager of policy and business development for Grid Alternatives, an Oakland-based nonprofit that has a variety of solar power programs. In 2010, the median income of households with solar was $129,000, according to the study. Access to solar panel mounted rooftop has improved thanks to reductions in the costs of solar systems and the growth of programs—including some run by Grid Alternatives—to help people with low and moderate incomes afford solar. Like so many aspects of the transition to clean energy, the trend is moving in the right direction but not quickly enough. Rooftop solar is growing, but is not yet part of the mainstream in most of the country. Only about 3 percent of households have solar, a share that rises to 5 percent if we’re only looking at owner-occupied, single-family houses, according to the report’s co-authors. The goal, Campbell said, should be for solar to be within reach of anyone who wants it. This is important because of the larger imperative to build as much renewable energy as is feasible, which includes big increases in solar panel mounted rooftop and utility-scale solar.

According to pv magazine Global dated Nov. 28th, an irrigation community has built a 786 kW floating solar array on a small water reservoir in Murcia, Spain. The facility will provide power for a solar water pumping system, a desalination unit, and the community itself. The floating structure supports 1,728 solar panels. Comunidad de Regantes de Águilas, a Spanish irrigation community, recently completed the installation of a floating PV plant on one of its irrigation ponds in the municipality of Águilas, in the southern Spanish region of Murcia. The 786 kW floating solar array features 4,256 Isifloating 4.0 floats from Isigenere. The floating structures support 1,728  solar panels, each with a nominal power of 455 W. Due to the dimensions of the pond, a flexible joint has also been designed along the entire floating platform. In addition, the PV installation is directly attached to the outer slopes of the pond via aluminium profile supports. This installation, together with the floating one, provides electricity to the pumps to lift the pond and part of the desalination plant. The installation is the second floating PV project to support water pumping in Spain. In September, the Sur-Andévalo Irrigation Community in the southern province of Huelva completed the installation of a 1.6 MW floating solar plant for this purpose. The system, which was built on a pond in the municipality of Cartaya, features floats provided by Isigenere and 3,584 solar panels, each with a rated power of 450 W. In March, the Spanish government submitted a royal decree to regulate the installation of floating PV plants. According to its estimates, around 7.5 GW of floating solar capacity could be deployed on public bodies of water.

In the search to find space for large solar arrays, many countries are looking to floating systems. Now the Netherlands is taking this one step further, with water-based arrays that follow the Sun. According to the BBC news dated on Nov. 18th By Isabelle Gerretsen On a lake in the Netherlands, a shiny circular island floats, covered in dozens of shimmering solar panels. But this is no normal solar array, nor even simply one of the many new floating solar farms being installed in lakes, reservoirs and coastal areas across the world. That's because its panels are doing something none of these other floating solar farms can do: meticulously tracking and following the Sun as it moves across the sky, to catch as many rays as possible. This glistening installation, named Proteus after the ancient Greek sea god, is among the first to combine floating solar panels with Sun-tracking technology – all in an effort to maximize the amount of clean electricity it can produce. The island, floating in Oostvoornse Meer, a lake in the south-west Netherlands, is covered in 180 of these moving solar panels, with a total installed capacity of 73 kilowatt of peak power(kWp). It's a tiny amount in a world rapidly trying to switch to renewable energy, but SolarisFloat, the Portuguese company which built Proteus, believes this small installation could be scaled up to generate large amounts of clean electricity – and, crucially, without taking up valuable land. Floating solar panels are experiencing a boom around the world. Floating solar capacity has grown hugely in the past decade, from 70 MWp in 2015 to 1,300 MWp in 2020. The market for the technology is expected to grow by 43% a year over the next decade,reaching $24.5bn (£21.7bn)by 2031. Alongside this massive growth, researchers continue to look for improvements in solar technology. Most of the solar panels installed so far across the world lie on solid land. But solar technologies which float on water offer a unique advantage: they don't take up land space that may be needed for other uses. In a world looking to rapidly expand solar arrays, this gives floating solar a significant edge,especially for countries facing land scarcity.Conventional solar farms are often criticized for the amount of land they occupy– land which could otherwise be used to grow crops to feed the world's growing population, or carbon-absorbing trees. Solar energy requires a huge amount of space, at least 40-50 times more than coal plants and 90-100 times more than gas, according to research by Leiden University in The Netherlands. Conservationists have also expressed concern that land-based solar and wind farms can have a harmful impact on biodiversity, especially those that are built in species-rich areas. Building sun-absorbing technology on water is therefore a smart way to free up land, while also making use of unoccupied lakes and reservoirs. Countries such as Japan and Singapore are investing heavily in floating solar farms b...

According to a five-year study conducted by Sandia Labs on the degradation of solar modules shows that 13 types of modules, out of 23 tested, have an effective lifespan of more than 30 years. Under the auspices of the United States Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories has just completed a five-year study on the degradation of solar modules in their early life stages. This study reviewed 834 PV modules, of 13 different types and from seven manufacturers, used in the field in three climates. The report, which recently appeared in Progress in Photovoltaics, looked at 23 systems in total. Six of them have recorded degradation rates that will allow them to exceed the limits set by the panel's warranty, while 13 systems have demonstrated their ability to extend their lifespan beyond 30 years. The study defines “lifetime” as the period over which a panel's electrical production is greater than 80% of its initial production rate. According to this document, the cost of modules has fallen by 85% since 2010, due to economies of scale, increased efficiency in cell design, automation of production lines, modules larger ones and changes in the BOM of components such as rear films. The report says lower costs would have helped make solar a central part of energy infrastructure in place today, but points out that drastic cuts in design costs and material changes could lead to worse energy efficiency rates. degradation, which, in turn, could offset many of the positives resulting from these cheaper modules. The study indicates that the degradation is not at all linear over time and that seasonal variations are to be observed on certain types of modules. The average and median values of the degradation rates, respectively −0.62%/year and −0.58%/year, are consistent with the rates measured on older modules. According to the report, the market share of different cell types has changed drastically in recent years. In 2018, conventional models with an aluminum back surface field (Al-BSF) accounted for up to 90% of global solar cell production. In 2020, the market share of Al-BSF fell to only 15%, compared to 80% of high efficiency cells such as PERC (passivated emitter back contact cell), PERL (passivated emitter back cell). locally diffuse), PERT (fully diffuse passivated back emitter cell), SHJ (silicon heterojunction cell) and TOPCon (passivated tunnel oxide contacts cell). The researchers point out that there is little long-term field data for these new cell and module technologies. They therefore sought to overcome this lack of data by studying each of these technologies over time in the field. Variations in nominal power ranged from −3.6% to 4% with initial power stabilization varying from −3.3% to +0.6%. Flash over voltage measurements showed variable performance, amplified depending on the season. Overall, the research has revealed degradation rates of the same order of magnitude as the...