Attended a breakfast meeting in San Francisco with panelists from various solar companies - established and start ups - working on a variety of aspects and markets in solar.
Here are the key concepts that I learned:
LCOE - Levelized Cost of Energy - levelized over peak and non peak. Just one metric and should not be all that is used to make decisions.
Feed In Tariff - utility pays you (homeowner) for production
Grid Parity
There are different kinds of solar technology and which one is the best to use depends on your location.
Wind energy has achieved grid parity. 4-8 cents for nuclear and coal.
Wind has large maintenance costs that solar does not.
Solar projected to reach grid parity in 2013.
Solar industry is running on very thin margins.
Different solar technologies:
Thin film PV - cost not there yet, up and coming
Crystalline Si
Concentrated PV - cheapest with clear sun
Tracking technology increasing energy production without having to add additional panels.
The efficiency of the WHOLE system, not just the solar cells, makes the different between being profitable and not profitable. Example- invertors and other items that decrease the energy that does make it out of the solar cells.
Utilities are becoming distributors, not generators, and they are fighting this change.
Germany has driven a lot of innovation esp, with the Feed In Tarriff. You are paid a bonus for generating electricity - you have to run and maintain it.
Big companies are buying smaller VC backed companies that are doing software products related to controlling the grid.
Future of Distributed Energy promising but the challenge is marrying it to the Smart Grid which does not exist.
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