Green Energy

GE Renewable Energy announced on Monday that it will partner with Helios Energy to develop a new hybrid solar + storage system in upstate New York, which is expected to reach commercial operation in the second quarter of 2020.

Specifically, GE Renewable Energy will integrate two solar PV arrays built by Helios Energy with two battery energy storage systems comprised of GE’s Reservoir technology, Reservoir Inverter units, control systems, and combiner boxes. The two energy storage systems are expected to store and generate 3 MW/12 MWh and 2 MW/8MWh respectively.

The solar arrays to be built by Helios Energy are being built in Lenox, New York, with construction to begin later this year with commercial operation in the second quarter of 2020.

The hybrid system will use a direct DC coupled configuration with a single inverter and single point of interconnection shared between the solar arrays and storage systems, a design GE hops will improve the overall energy output of the hybrid system while optimising equipment and installation costs and increasing the overall reliability of the system.

“The world is seeing an increased penetration of renewable generation, driven by the declining Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCoE) of wind and solar,” said Rob Morgan, Energy Storage CEO, GE Renewable Energy. “In addition, with the context of declining costs of battery storage, combining renewable energy generation sources together with storage will help unlock new revenue and value streams in the renewable hybrid industry and accelerate the energy transition to more renewables.”

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has placed a definitive bet on wind, water, and sunshine. Last week, he signed a bill, the Public Energy Policy Law of Puerto Rico, to power the island solely by renewable energy by 2050. Along the way, the island must draw 40 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2025 and give up coal by 2028.

This puts Puerto Rico in league with more than 90 cities, counties, and states like Hawaii and New Mexico that have set 100 percent clean energy targets. It also gives the territory a head start in bigger, more aggressive climate proposals like the Green New Deal.

“I’m pretty sure that this will be, by leaps and bounds, the quickest transition to renewables that’s ever happened anywhere on the planet,” said P.J. Wilson, president of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico. “To go from [2] percent today to 40 percent by five years from now will be the biggest challenge the renewable energy industry [in Puerto Rico] has ever faced, on top of a very challenging political situation and a challenging financial situation.”

Indeed, Puerto Rico will be pursuing an aggressive renewable energy target from a fragile position. It currently gets the bulk of its electricity from fossil fuels and its power grid has suffered from years of poor maintenance and neglect. As an island, it’s isolated from a larger power grid, so there are few backup options if energy infrastructure fails.

This was all too apparent in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which left the island shrouded in the largest blackout in US history. Emerging from the chaos of the storm, Puerto Rico is now undergoing one of the sharpest and most abrupt changes to its energy system of any part of the United States. There is an opportunity here to build a cleaner and more resilient grid, but the factors that contributed to the mess in the first place remain.

But just as it’s committing to renewables, the Trump administration has been pressuring it to invest in more fossil fuels. Let’s break it down.

All of Puerto Rico’s energy woes converged after Hurricane Maria
The past two years have been brutal for the 3 million Americans living in Puerto Rico.

When Hurricane Maria tore through the island in 2017 with 175 mph winds, it knocked down 80 percent of the utility poles and damaged critical power generators. A delayed and botched response effort subsequently left millions of customers sans power for months. Without electricity, critical medical equipment shut off, food spoiled, drugs became unusable, and sanitation systems went offline, allowing infections to spread. An estimated 2,975 people died in the wake of the storm.

The final portion of Puerto Rico’s devastated grid — an undersea power cable to the island of Culebra — was just reconnected last month, marking 18 months between the time when the storm hit and when power was fully restored.

During the blackout, rumbling gasoline and diesel generators filled much of the electricity shortfall, but renewable energy also found its time to shine. Businesses, hospitals, and some homeowners installed their own solar panels and batteries rather than waiting for repair crews.

But even before the storm, Puerto Rico’s power grid was in dire shape. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the public utility in charge of the grid, had been struggling financially for years and was effectively bankrupt ahead of Hurricane Maria’s landfall. And the island as a whole has been suffering from a debt crisis.

As a result, PREPA decided not to invoke mutual aid agreements the way Texas and Florida did ahead of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. These agreements help utilities secure assistance for reconstruction from other utilities after a natural disaster.

PREPA officials said they were worried they would not be able to pay back repair crews. Instead, they opted for a reconstruction bidding process that was rife with allegations of mismanagement and corruption.

That’s a big reason why reconstruction dragged on for so long. Though power has been restored now, many of the repairs are temporary fixes, and the risk of another destructive hurricane and ensuing blackout is growing.

“If we have another Maria again, we will have the same result,” PREPA CEO José Ortiz told House lawmakers last week. “The difference is the response will be a lot quicker.”

That means officials have to quickly figure out a more permanent solution to the energy problems. PREPA needs a business model that works and the power grid needs to stand up to the next storm. All the while, Puerto Rico is still constrained by its finances, and climate change is increasing the risks of future devastation.

Puerto Rico is betting on renewable energy, but it will be expensive
Before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico generated just 2 percent of its electricity from renewables. After the storm, some homeowners and businesses began to invest in rooftop solar power and batteries. The number of rooftop solar installations doubled in the months since Maria made landfall.

However, it’s still a long way to 40 percent renewable energy, let alone 100 percent. “I don’t think anybody has a clear answer for exactly how to get there,” Wilson said.

That said, Puerto Rico’s new renewables mandate does remove many of the roadblocks that were blocking small-scale energy projects like rooftop solar. Installers, for example, don’t have to get utility permits for photovoltaic arrays smaller than 25 kilowatts. New rules make it easier for neighborhood-scale renewable projects to connect to the larger power grid. And for larger wind and solar projects that do need regulatory approval, the process has been sped up, from years to months.

The renewables law also adds a net-metering incentive for renewable energy installations up to 5 megawatts. That means if a homeowner or a co-op puts more power on the grid than they use over the course of a year, they can get a rebate from the power company.

Wilson said he expects new renewable energy deployment to split evenly between distributed installations like rooftop solar and utility-scale projects like wind farms.

However, getting the money to pay for it all is still a challenge. Companies are still trying to come up with a rooftop solar business model that would work in Puerto Rico, where homeowners are still trying to recover from storm damage and may not have the credit or cash needed to acquire a photovoltaic array. For larger-scale projects, financing is difficult for a utility and a government that are both effectively bankrupt. Puerto Ricans already pay some of the highest electricity rates in the United States, and power bills take up a larger share of incomes on the island than on the mainland.

Some money for renewables has been earmarked in the post-Maria recovery effort. The Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated about $400 million for solar and energy storage in Puerto Rico, with funds to be disbursed later this year.

The Trump administration would prefer if Puerto Rico used more natural gas
The federal government, however, isn’t as enthusiastic about Puerto Rico’s commitment to renewable energy.

US Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Bruce Walker warned the House Natural Resources Committee last week that Puerto Rico’s aggressive clean energy goals could undermine the stability of its power grid.

“DOE believes increasing natural gas generating capacity in the San Juan area would be one of the single most valuable investment for PREPA’s long-term recovery,” Walker said in his prepared remarks. “However, pursuing this investment may be at odds with the island’s energy policy should the Governor choose to sign the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act.”

He added that investing in a few natural gas power plants rather than thousands of distributed solar and wind energy projects would be more cost-effective, freeing up money for PREPA to perform much-needed repairs and upgrades to the power grid. Some of the funding for these plants could come from recovery aid.

Meanwhile, PREPA is undergoing privatization. The move is expected to boost the utility’s credit rating, helping it gather the money needed to transition toward cleaner energy and a more robust transmission system. However, Puerto Ricans are worried that private management could also lead to even higher utility bills. It would also give outside shareholders a say in where the utility invests, whether in renewables or fossil fuels. Analysts also say that privatization won’t solve the corruption problems like graft and nepotism that have plagued the utility.

“If the currently favored privatization process is limited to transferring a corrupt company in the public sector to a group of corrupt investors in the private sector, we will have achieved absolutely nothing,” Sergio Marxuach, policy director at the Center for a New Economy, told House lawmakers last week.

PREPA has requested $2.5 billion in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make its power infrastructure more resilient to future disasters. Federal officials expect that Puerto Rico will receive $82 billion over time in disaster recovery funds, but President Trump has complained about the total amount and blamed Puerto Rico for its financial woes. So while Puerto Rico’s government wants to aggressively shift to clean energy, it may not have the biggest say in its own destiny.

Tesla published its first-ever Impact Report on Monday, which measures and quantifies the effects of the company’s products and operations on the environment and its communities. Based on the results of the report, Tesla’s products are not the only ones that are making an impact; the company’s operations and culture are helping the push towards sustainability as well.

The electric car maker has sold over 550,000 zero emissions vehicles since it started production of its first electric car, the original Tesla Roadster. Since then, Tesla’s fleet of vehicles has driven over 10 billion miles to date, helping prevent over 4 million tons of CO2 from polluting the environment. Tesla Energy has made a similar impact, with the company’s solar electricity generation of 13.25 TWh to date far exceeding the 5.26 TWh that the company’s electric cars have consumed from charging.

While Tesla’s products have made a considerable impact on their own, the company’s operations have played a part in the company’s mission towards sustainability as well. Tesla notes that the Fremont factory is home to one of the company’s first battery pack installations, which monitors the site’s energy use throughout the day and manages the power taken from the grid during peak hours. Efficiencies continue to be introduced for the Fremont factory as well, including improvements to manufacturing systems and a new energy-efficient paint shop. Plans are also underway to install rooftop solar panels in the facility where possible.

Being designed and built from the ground up by Tesla, Gigafactory 1 presented an opportunity to implement sustainable solutions from Day 1. Among these include the lack of a natural gas line within Gigafactory 1, having a roof that is optimized for solar panel installation, using natural processes to generate dry air, and utilizing a chilled water plant to generate a surplus of cold water naturally at night to provide cooling needs during the day. Of course, Tesla’s assembly and distribution plant in Tilburg, NL has been fitted with a 3.4 MW solar array, which generates enough electricity to meet the facility’s needs throughout most of the year.

As part of what appears to be Tesla’s holistic approach to sustainability, the company has also mentioned some of its employee and community impacts, as shown in its work culture that is known to be safe, fair, and rewarding for employees. This was highlighted recently when Tesla was listed by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s as one of the best workplaces for members of the LGBTQ community. Community-wise, Tesla is also heavily involved in partnerships with local schools, nonprofits, and education leaders to develop programs that encourage students to be at the forefront of the sustainability revolution, as shown recently when the company interviewed students for its third annual post-graduation Manufacturing and Development Program at Nevada.

China’s solar industry is expected to transition towards a subsidy-free market which could begin as early as 2021, according to a new analysis of China’s solar industry published by Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory.

The Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (AECEA) published its new analysis last week, analyzing a new consultation paper published by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) entitled Work Plan for the Construction of Unsubsidized (Grid-Parity) Projects for Wind & Solar PV. It follows in the footsteps of China’s efforts to revitalize its solar industry after it took a significant hit in May of 2018 when the NEA essentially capped installations.

Already this year, China’s NEA has announced plans to drive the development of new subsidy-free solar (and wind) projects through political support and requirements and hinted that it intends to re-open its solar subsidy project with a 2019 cap of 3 GW.

“This signals a permanent policy shift towards zero-subsidy renewables,” explained Jonathan Luan, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance who spoke to me via email in January regarding the NEA’s plans to push the development of subsidy-free renewable energy projects. “Though the industry suspected it coming after the May 2018 announcement applying breaks to the subsidy flow, the new policy clearly steered the market to a new direction. The two-year policy window should stimulate new build. We are more inclined towards the optimistic scenario of our 34-44GW solar forecast for 2019.”

The focus on subsidy-free projects has been given further clarity after the NEA published last week its consultation paper which, according to the AECEA, gives confirmation priority to the construction of unsubsidized solar projects ahead of any projects that require or apply for subsidies. The NEA is hoping new projects will be developed without the need for subsidies from China’s Central Government, or that already-proposed projects may be converted so as to not require subsidies.

To further push the country’s solar industry towards subsidy-free solar projects, the NEA also announced that it would cancel approval for any solar project which has been approved for two years but which has not started construction or has not applied for an extension, and any projects which have applied for an extension but have not begun construction within the extension period, regardless of intentions to complete said project. Any of these cancelled projects which do wish to continue will have to re-participate in the 2019 bidding process as a new construction project.

Solar projects which require state subsidies have also all been put on hold and all provinces and regions have been prohibited from conducting any competitive bidding rounds for solar projects which require state subsidies until the NEA has confirmed the first round of subsidy-free projects.

The highlight from AECEA’s analysis of the NEA’s new consultation paper was the “greater clarity” provided for what the AECEA is describing as a “transitional” period between the Chinese solar PV market relying on subsidies, to a market utilizing both grid-parity and subsidized projects, to what is expected to be a subsidy-free market beginning 2021. The end to Feed-in Tariffs for both solar and wind has already been signaled by the NEA in its 3-year Clean Energy Consumption Action Plan 2018-2020 released on November 30, 2018, which effectively provides political certainty for the completion of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan.

As to what this means for China’s solar industry, anyone’s guess is as good as ours. Further clarity over the coming months is promised (as highlighted above) by the NEA which will allow for a better understanding of what 2019 will look like for China’s solar industry — and, therefore, the global solar industry — and will also begin to provide some clarity for 2020 and the future of a subsidy-free Chinese solar industry.

When it’s fully complete, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, will be the largest building in the world, sprawling over 15 million square feet on a plot of land more than three times larger than Central Park. The building, which Elon Musk has called “the machine that builds the machine,” will eventually also be the first large-scale battery factory to run on 100% renewable energy. The factory currently makes battery packs and electric motors for the Model 3 car, along with the company’s Powerwall and Powerpack battery storage.

Designing the factory from scratch “provided some great opportunities to rethink manufacturing,” says Rodney Westmoreland, director of construction management for Tesla. “We look at challenges from first principles–breaking things down to the very basics of physics and what’s possible–since we’re doing something that has never been done before. As a result, our teams of mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing engineers have spent the last few years creatively building a sustainably powered facility with no on-site combustion of fossil fuels. This was critical to our mission of moving the world to a sustainable energy future.” A new environmental impact report released on April 15 includes a case study on the factory’s sustainable design.

On the roof–designed to accommodate solar power–a solar installation that is currently underway will eventually include around 200,000 solar panels that can provide most of the building’s energy when paired with Tesla’s batteries. When it’s finished, it will be the largest rooftop solar array in the world.

Inside the factory, high-energy manufacturing processes that would normally be powered by natural gas have been redesigned to avoid fossil fuels by maximizing energy efficiency. Waste heat from equipment like compressors or high-temperature ovens can be used both to run the equipment efficiently and to help keep the factory warm in the winter. LED lights and a lighting system designed to reduce power use means that lighting the building can save 144 megawatt-hours of energy in a month versus traditional lighting setups (the equivalent, the company says, of the energy needed to drive a Model S 480,000 miles).

The company has been working with vendors to find new techniques to make it possible to meet its goals. The process “pushes the general contractors and design-build firms to change the way that they think, hire, and construct,” says Westmoreland. “For example, Tesla engineers partnered with our equipment vendors to look at ways we could reverse engineer air compressors to handle incredibly [hot] waste heat, which makes our factory and equipment more efficient. These have become solutions that vendors can use throughout the industry.”

Because manufacturing batteries is so energy intensive, the equipment in the factory generates so much heat that it’s necessary to pump chilled water through the building to cool it down–something that normally also takes a huge amount of energy. To solve the problem, Tesla designed a unique chilled water plant that makes use of the desert climate: When the air is cool at night, the plant generates more chilled water than needed, and that extra water can be used during the day. The system, which uses one of the largest thermal storage tanks in the world, will cut electricity used in the process by up to 40%, and cut water consumption up to 60%. “Upfront, it seems quite monumental to design, construct, and estimate, but ultimately it eliminates the need for numerous chillers and the amount of energy required to run them,” Westmoreland says.

In parts of the manufacturing process that require dry air, the factory can pull in desert air to reduce the use of dehumidifiers. A heat pump helps power another process that coats part of the battery cell with a solvent. (Liquid waste from the process is also refined and recycled onsite, rather than shipping it to a separate processing center, eliminating the need for 30 tanker trucks a week.)

The company is building the factory in phases so that it can continue improving the design. Right now, though it began mass producing lithium-ion battery cells in 2017 and started making battery packs and drive units for its Model 3 cars in 2018, the building is only 30% complete. At the moment, as the solar installation continues, it’s also still using power from the local grid. But all of the elements of the factory’s design, and the eventual switch to 100% renewable energy, will help Tesla shrink the carbon footprint of making electric cars. (One study found that building a battery alone, in a factory running on fossil fuel power, makes manufacturing an electric car typically more polluting than making an efficient conventional car.)

The factory’s efficiency also helps reduce cost, and batteries are the most expensive part of electric cars. Other battery manufacturers could follow Tesla’s example. “We believe Gigafactory could be a blueprint for a more sustainable construction industry,” Westmoreland says. “When Tesla decided to create a net-zero initiative for the completed facility, we took it seriously. We care as much about the sustainability of our products as we do the way we build them.”

A global transition to 100% renewable energy is possible across the electricity, heat, transport and desalination sectors by 2050, and it can be done for cheaper than the current global energy system, a new study claims.

The study from Energy Watch Group and LUT University of Finland outlines a path to a 1.5°C scenario that is able to achieve “a cost decline without the reliance on high-risk technologies such as nuclear power and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).” A group of 14 energy transition scientists conducted the study over four and a half years using a “state-of-the-art” modeling simulation.

Solar and wind energy are “the new workhorses of the future” in this new projected global energy system, with solar making up an astonishing 69% of the total energy supply by 2050, requiring a enormous total installed capacity of 63,400 gigawatts. Wind energy would make up 18% of the mix, with bioenergy, hydropower, and geothermal accounting for most of the rest.

The study relies on existing technology and battery storage, with an emphasis on electrification and decentralization. While fossil fuels and nuclear energy phase out completely in this scenario, electricity consumption will account for more than 90% of the primary energy consumption by 2050. Lead researcher Christian Breyer said,

“The study’s results show that all countries can and should accelerate the current Paris Climate Agreement targets. A transition to 100% clean, renewable energies is highly realistic – even today, with the technologies currently available.”

This scenario sees 9 million coal mining jobs phased out by 2050, but “overcompensated” for by more than 15 million new jobs in renewable energy. Researchers also foresee the future system as slightly cheaper, costing 53 €/MWh by 2050, compared to 54 €/MWh by 2015.

Getting There

Like many other studies, this one places an emphasis on government intervention to “ensure the swift uptake in the development of renewable energy, storage technologies, sector coupling, and smart energy systems.” The researchers make a number of policy recommendations, including:

• Policies and instruments focused on sector coupling and enabling direct private investment in renewable energy and other zero emission technologies.
• Feed-in Tariff laws should be adopted to enable investments (under 40 MW) from decentralised actors, such as small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, communities, farmers and citizens. Tendering procedures for large scale investors should only be applied for utility-scale capacities above 40 MW.
• A responsible phase-out of all state subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear energy generation is necessary.
• Introduction of carbon, methane and radioactivity taxes.
• Incentives created to spur the growth of renewable energy technologies; such as tax exemptions, direct subsidies, and legal privileges.
• Policies and frameworks that promote research, education and information sharing on renewable energy and zero emission technologies.

President of the Energy Watch Group Hans-Josef Fell said, “The energy transition is not a question of technical feasibility or economic viability, but one of political will.”