Sonnenbatterie, Ecotricity and SMA-backed Energy Storage events and media to target UK market

Top names have signed up to support the Energy Storage division of Solar Power Portal’s publisher Solar Media, which has launched a series of events and media activities for next year, targeting the UK’s nascent industry.

Germany’s market leader in the residential storage space, Sonnenbatterie, multi-national grid-scale storage developer NEC Energy Solutions, solar inverter maker SMA and “green utility” Ecotricity are just some of the big names already signed up as partners to Energy Storage.

With the involvement of the PV Tech Storage editorial team, Energy Storage has been fact-finding and meeting with stakeholders to get the clearest idea of the best ways to help the industry grow, in both PV-related and non-PV applications for energy storage.

There is a sense of urgency in the timing, as Britain’s renewable energy industry appears to be on the brink of severe cuts to policy support. Residential solar feed-in tariff (FiTs) rates are expected to be cut by as much as 87%, rendering the support mechanism essentially meaningless.

David Hunt, chief of Hyperion Executive Search, a recruitment agency specialising in renewables, told Solar Power Portal’s sister site PV Tech Storage he believed the UK solar market will be a challenging one for at least the next year and a half. Hunt was himself a solar installer in Britain before setting up Hyperion.

“Clearly the UK policy landscape for the solar sector is at present is not good, cuts to the RO [Renewable Obligations] and proposed cuts to the FiT will make the UK a difficult market for the next 12-18 months,” Hunt said.

“There may be a surprise in the consultation results coming, but the likelihood is a tough period in the UK with some closures and consolidation.”

While for the most part manufacturers, which typically spread their risk over a number of markets, are less affected, as has been seen in Germany, many solar installers and developers are now taking a closer look at energy storage. In some cases, companies have been diversifying to include storage alongside their solar offerings, or in other cases, mothballing solar operations and switching over to storage. With incentives gone, the business case for storage at household level is likely to be found in self-consuming PV power generated onsite, which would lead to savings on electricity bills over time. 

“Like most companies in the renewables sector we have had to adapt, and are helping many of our clients who are doing the same,” Hunt said. 

“Of course developers and installers alike are looking at other technologies to balance the loss of solar income and opportunities. Energy storage is by far the hottest topic in the industry at present, from utility scale for the developers, to domestic scale for the installers. Installers see storage as a logical step; most are in essence electrical contractors, so the technology isn’t too difficult to grasp, and many have a database of ‘low hanging fruit’ existing customers for whom they have installed solar PV, some of whom are on the highest FIT tariffs. Offering to retrofit energy storage to these is the obvious first step.”

Energy Storage events and media

There are clearly both barriers and opportunities ahead. The need to solve these and other problems, as well as offering reinforcement of the more positive aspects of the industry and to get the message out on what storage can do, for the environment and for flexibility in the electricity network, has inspired the Energy Storage team under the leadership of new division director Dan Caesar to put together a calendar of events.

Starting this week with a closed-doors steering committee discussion on Friday about the prospects for commercial-scale energy storage in the UK, the division will also go on to host Energy Storage Business Models in London in February, looking at the best ways to monetise those business models.

After that, in April, the company will host the Energy Storage Summit at Twickenham Stadium, which recently hosted matches in the Rugby Union World Cup, as well as Energy Storage 100, a celebration of the 100 most influential companies in the space.

Finally, Solar Media’s flagship show, Solar Energy UK, which is in Birmingham in the third quarter of each year, will host Energy Storage UK for the second time after a successful first outing this year.

As David Hunt of Hyperion said, there are clearly challenges in establishing an energy storage industry, both within the context of what it can do for solar and as a standalone industry. Yet despite what we have seen in the past few months in renewables policy, the UK, closing in on 9GW of installed PV generation capacity, is attracting interest from around the world for storage.

“Along with Australia the UK is certainly a key target market for storage manufacturers, certainly those with solutions for the domestic sector, such as Sonnenbatterie and Aquion (maker of the Aqueous Hybrid Ion battery),” Hunt said.

“An established base of installed PV, and a receptive and established network of distributors and installers makes entry relatively easy and attractive. There are many similarities with the UK and the German markets, and logically there is an assumption that the UK will follow suit on storage as it has on solar.”

Partners to have already signed up include Sonnenbatterie, British Solar Renewables, Ecotricity, NEC Energy Solutions, Wattstor, Green Acorn, Sunamp, Rexel, CCL components, SMA, Cumulus, ChargeSync, Hyperion, Camborne Capital and Smart Power Systems.

Solar Media is the publisher of Solar Power Portal and Next Energy News as well as the international sites PV Tech and PV Tech Storage.  For more information on the Energy Storage division and related platforms and events, contact Liam Callaghan, Account Manager. Email: lcallaghan@solarmedia.co.uk

Sonnenbatterie, Ecotricity and SMA-backed Energy Storage events and media to target UK market

Solar Energy target spiked five times to one lakh MW

Just when a Swiss pilot ‘s solar powered aircraft mesmerised the world by setting a record of longest solo flight without a drop of fuel, India’s solar energy ambitious plans are set to leap frog. The Centre has revised cumulative targets under National Solar Mission from 20,000 MW by 2021-22 to 1,00,000 MW- a quantum jump.

After launching of signature initiatives ‘Smart city,’ ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India,’ massive efforts are underway to tap the untapped renewable energy resources-mainly solar power. Official sources said the Ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) currently pushing solar city programme to reduce dependence on fossil fuel based energy has selected 50 cities to be developed as solar centres. Of these, 44 cities have already prepared master plans. Stakeholder committees have been formed in all the 50 selected cities.The programme entails that the selected cities will have to ensure desired level of generation from renewable energy resources .

India’s huge and vibrant market of 1.25 billion people has triggered interest among foreign players. Union Minister for Power and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal, on completion of one year in office, said that steps were afoot to accomplish Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of ensuring 24×7 power to all and RE sector would play a major role. At least a dozen nations have signed MoUs to work with India in the development of renewable energy in past few years.During his recent visit to France, Mr Modi laid thrust on India’s vision towards solar energy. French companies are working in the solar sector here and they aim at contributing in a big way. President Francois Hollande has already conveyed France’s commitment to develop clean energy here.

If the goals set for the solar energy are realised, the country will surpass Germany which is a global leader in solar power generation by producing three times higher energy from the discipline. Though technology is getting cheaper , experts feel that the sector might be a game changer so the government should revisit its policy of financing of projects. They feel that at present India RE projects are financed for 10-12 years with an annual interest rate of 12-13 per cent while in Europe and US, the projects are funded for 17-18 years with an interest rate of 4-5 per cent.

To make 100 GW ( giga watt )solar energy target a reality, an ambitious scheme of creating sector skills has been launched recently under which 1,00,000-“Surya Mitras” will be trained to help achieve scaled up objectives and service the arena . Experts feel that the RE sector will create one million jobs by 2022 as the government has scaled up the target which includes100 GW from the solar sector and 60 GW from the wind energy by 2022. Various states are coming up with their own plans of regulatory norms and other policies. Almost every day, states are coming up with solar plant announcements as well as commencements.

The world’s largest solar project is going to be set up in Rewa ,which will have 750 MW capacity plant spread over 1,500 hectares of land. Similarly, M Chinnaswamy stadium in Karnataka has emerged as yet another hallmark of grid connected solar roof top system ,now luring others to follow suit. It has now 400KW of net metered rooftops power plant.About two dozen states have notified net metering policy, laced with incentives to promote the rooftop solar plants connected with grid.The net metering is the process through which discoms will generate bills to solar power plant owners as per consumption and credit will be given to the consumer of contribution to the gird is higher than the consumption.

In some areas in the national capital,the phenomenon is catching up,say experts ,contesting the perception that solar power is back up in case of regular breakdowns outage and insist that it is going to be hassle free power. Plagued by outages, increasing power tariffs , corruption in power companies, the aam aadmi is evincing keen interest in solar power –technology which was costly a few years back. Even in remote places kiosks selling solar panels can be spotted. Small LED bulbs are emerging another attraction among consumers.

A retired central government employee, Harish Chandra Bhardwaj, appeared upbeat by spotting such kiosks near his village Samadha in mofussil Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.” Solar power is becoming lucrative among poor people who buy some panels to harness the energy to recharge their mobiles and one or two lights in the house,” he asserts admitting cost is to be brought down.

In upscale colonies, RWAs now mull over installation of common solar powered system instead of going for big gen sets.At a number of public meetings, the Prime Minister recently put his government’s approval to step up of solar power capacity target under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) by five times.The target will principally comprise of 40 GW Rooftop and 60 GW through Large and Medium Scale Grid Connected Solar Power Projects. With this ambitious target, India will become one of the largest Green Energy producers in the world, surpassing several developed countries.

The total investment in setting up 100 GW will be around Rs. 6,00,000 crore. In the first phase, the Government is providing Rs. 15,050 crore as capital subsidy to promote solar capacity addition, official sources say. This capital subsidy will be provided for Rooftop Solar projects in various cities and towns, for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) based projects to be developed through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and for decentralised generation through small solar projects.

Official sources said the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) intends to achieve the aim of 1,00,000 MW with targets under the three schemes of 19,200 MW. Apart from this, solar power projects with investment of about Rs. 90,000 crore would be developed using Bundling mechanism with thermal power. Further investment will come from large Public Sector Undertakings and Independent Power Producers (IPPs). State Governments have also come out with State specific solar policies to promote solar capacity addition.

JNNSM was launched in 2009 with a target for Grid Connected Solar Projects of 20,000 MW by 2022. In the last two to three years, the sector has witnessed rapid development with installed solar capacity increasing rapidly from 18 MW to about 3800 MW during 2010-15. The price of solar energy has come down significantly from Rs 17.90 per unit in 2010 to under Rs 7 per unit, thereby reducing the need of VGF/ GBI (Generation based incentive) per MW of solar power.

With technology advancement and market competition, Green Power is expected to reach grid parity by 2017-18. These developments would enable India to achieve its present target of 20,000 MW. But considering its international commitment towards green and climate friendly growth trajectory, New Delhi has taken this path-breaking decision.

Sources said steps are afoot to approach bilateral and international donors as also the Green Climate Fund to achieve this target. Solar power can contribute to the long term energy security of India, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels that put a strain on foreign reserves and the ecology as well. The solar manufacturing sector will get a boost with this long term trajectory of solar capacity addition.

This will help in creation of technology hubs for manufacturing. The increased manufacturing capacity and installation are expected to pave way for direct and indirect employment opportunities in both the skilled and unskilled sector. The new solar target of 100 GW is expected to abate over 170 million tonnes of CO2 over its life cycle. This Solar Scale-up Plan has a target of 40 GW through Decentralised Solar Power Generation in the form of Grid Connected Rooftop Projects.

While Decentralised Generation will stabilise the grid, it will minimise investment on power evacuation. To facilitate such a massive target, the Prime Minister’s Office has been pushing various Ministries to initiate supporting interventions, including incorporating changes in land use regulations and tenancy laws to facilitate aggregation and leasing of land by farmers/ developers for solar projects; identification of large chunks of land for solar projects and identification of large government complexes/ buildings for rooftop projects. Other steps include clear survey of wastelands and identification of transmission/ road infrastructure using satellite technology for locating solar parks; development of power transmission network/Green Energy Corridor; setting up of exclusive parks for domestic manufacturing of solar PV modules.

These interventions also aim at provision of roof top solar and 10 percent renewable energy as mandatory reform under the new scheme of Ministry of Urban Development; amendments in building bye-laws for mandatory provision of roof top solar for new construction or higher FAR and considering infrastructure status for solar projects.

These also envisage raising tax free solar bonds; providing long tenor loans; making roof top solar a part of housing loan by banks/ NHB and extending IIFCL credit facility to such projects by the Department of Financial Services; suitable amendments to the Electricity Act for strong enforcement of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and for providing Renewable Generation Obligation (RGO); incorporating measures in Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) for encouraging distribution companies and making net-metering compulsory.

Official sources said upto December last year,17 Solar Parks of aggregate capacity of 12759 MW were planned to be set up in 12 States and a grant of Rs 172.50 crore has been released to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) towards development of solar parks. Further, proposal for release of Rs 80 crore have been initiated.

(By Neeraj Bajpai/ PIB Features)

Solar Energy target spiked five times to one lakh MW

Thin-film technology best placed to secure Saudi Arabia's solar target

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

In the fall of 2014, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research of Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), Manz’s exclusive development partner, was …

Thin-film technology best placed to secure Saudi Arabia"s solar target

Japan Looks to Increase its Renewable Energy Target

While Australia is looking to scale back its renewable energy efforts, Japan is looking to expand its own quite dramatically.

Japan’s environmental minister Nobuteru Ishihara was quoted as saying 30% of Japan’s energy should come from renewable sources. This is a 10% increase from the target Japan laid out in 2010 of having 20% of all energy be renewable by 2030.

The plan is part of a long-running effort to change the country’s energy profile in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March of 2011. At last year’s UN Summit in Warsaw, Poland, the Japanese government reneged on its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It argued that to meet its goals would be impossible because of the disaster.

Since then, however, the government has made more attempts to go green, becoming a leader in renewable energy in the Asia-Pacific region. Large clean energy subsidies have driven solar investment in the country as well, making them one of the sunniest in the world.

Beyond the environmental issue, Ishihara believes that driving clean energy production would help foster jobs and economic growth in regions of the country that are severely lacking. Some also believe that the focus could lead to partnerships with other countries in the region, such as Korea and the U.S.

The ramping up of the target could also lead investors leaving Australia as they look to scale back their RET to look toward Japan, as the country looks as it will present strong investing opportunities in the near future. 

Japan Looks to Increase its Renewable Energy Target