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Germany’s Photovolt Development Plans 400MW Solar Farm
11 April 2013
April 12 (Bloomberg) — Photovolt Development Partners GmbH, a German developer of solar projects, plans to build a 400-megawatt plant on an island in southwestern Japan.
The company will develop the plant for TeraSol G.K. on Ukujima in Nagasaki prefecture, Managing Director Peter Gerstmann said in an e-mailed response to questions.
The Berlin-based company is developing the station with partners and the project may cost 90 billion yen ($905 million) to 110 billion yen including the cost of an undersea cable, he said. The cable, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) long, will link the plant to the grid network of Kyushu Electric Power Co.
Construction is scheduled to start in the second half of this year. It may take 2 1/2 years before the plant starts running, according to Gerstmann.
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http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/germ...mw-solar-farm/
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Arizona Utility Picks Up Solar Installation Pace
After adding a record 148 megawatts of solar in 2012, Arizona Public Service expects to bring on-line more than double that amount this year.
Earthtechling, Pete Danko: April 12, 2013
If solar power is going to be big in the United States, it better be big in sun-drenched Arizona. And it’s getting there.
The state’s largest electricity utility, Arizona Public Service, said last week that it added a record 148 megawatts of solar capacity in 2012, impressive enough on its own. But in 2013, new capacity should come in at more than twice that figure.
“APS will have more than 600 megawatts of solar on the system by the end of 2013, generating enough electricity to serve 150,000 customers,” Don Brandt, APS chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “This puts us well on pace to meet the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard, which calls for APS to get 15 percent of our power from renewable sources by 2025.”
During 2012, Arizona passed New Jersey as No. 2 in the U.S. in installed solar capacity, with 1,097 megawatts as of the end of the year. (California was at 2,902 megawatts and New Jersey was at 971 megawatts.)
Much of the new APS capacity expected to arrive this year will come from one huge plant: the 250-megawatt Solana Generating Station, from which APS will purchase 100 percent of the power produced.
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http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...tallation-pace
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GTM Solar Summit 2013: Transition to a Post-Subsidy Reality
Can we live without incentives?
Shayle Kann: April 11, 2013
Greentech Media’s 6th annual Solar Summit is less than two weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be our biggest yet. The agenda is full, with more than 90 world-class speakers on topics ranging from technology (modules, inverters, balance of systems components, and more) to markets (the U.S., China, Latin America, and more). We’ll spend hours dissecting today’s global solar market and predicting tomorrow’s dynamics in great, and sometimes excruciating, detail.
These are the issues we will be discussing during the Solar Summit session titled “The Transition to a Post-Subsidy Reality” on April 23. Joining the discussion will be four panelists from different walks of solar life:- Gregory Bernosky, Manager, Renewable Energy Program, Arizona Public Service (APS)
- Edward Fenster, co-CEO, Sunrun
- Albie Fong, Key Accounts Executive, Talesun Solar
- Nat Kreamer, Chief Executive Officer, Clean Power Finance
Some of the topics we’ll be discussing:
The Basic Question:
Defining Terms:
Understanding Demand Growth:
The Transition:
The Role of Utilities:
Bottlenecks:
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http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...e-without-them
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Report: Solar takes 100% share of new US grid-connected electricity in March
By Julia Chan - 12 April 2013, 10:04
In News, Power Generation
Solar energy has achieved a milestone after it emerged that for the first time, solar accounted for all new utility electricity capacity added to the grid in the US in March.
The landmark was revealed the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's March Energy Infrastructure Update — which focuses exclusively on larger facilities and does not include energy generated by net-metered installations.
It found that 44MW of PV capacity was installed last month following the start-up of seven new projects located in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, and North Carolina.
The report also reveals that solar had a strong presence in the first quarter of this year with 537MW of PV added to the grid in the US during the three-month period.
“This speaks to the extraordinary strides we have made in the past several years to bring down costs and ramp up deployment,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “Since 2008, the amount of solar powering US homes, businesses and military bases has grown by more than 600 percent—from 1,100MW to more than 7,700MW today. As FERC’s report suggests, and many analysts predict, solar will grow to be our nation’s largest new source of energy over the next four years.”
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http://www.pv-tech.org/news/report_s...ty_capacity_in
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A solar booster shot for natural gas power plants
April 11, 2013
Frances White, PNNL
PNNL’s concentrating solar power system reduces greenhouse emissions — at a price that’s competitive with fossil fuel power
RICHLAND, Wash. – Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The system converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which power plants can burn to make electricity.
"Our system will enable power plants to use less natural gas to produce the same amount of electricity they already make," said PNNL engineer Bob Wegeng, who is leading the project. "At the same time, the system lowers a power plant's greenhouse gas emissions at a cost that's competitive with traditional fossil fuel power."
PNNL will conduct field tests of the system at its sunny campus in Richland, Wash., this summer.
With the U.S. increasingly relying on inexpensive natural gas for energy, this system can reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. DOE's Energy Information Administration estimates natural gas will make up 27 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020. Wegeng noted PNNL's system is best suited for power plants located in sunshine-drenched areas such as the American Southwest.
Installing PNNL's system in front of natural gas power plants turns them into hybrid solar-gas power plants. The system uses solar heat to convert natural gas into syngas, a fuel containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Because syngas has a higher energy content, a power plant equipped with the system can consume about 20 percent less natural gas while producing the same amount of electricity.
This decreased fuel usage is made possible with concentrating solar power, which uses a reflecting surface to concentrate the sun's rays like a magnifying glass. PNNL's system uses a mirrored parabolic dish to direct sunbeams to a central point, where a PNNL-developed device absorbs the solar heat to make syngas.
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http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=981
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