News & Articles on Solar Energy
While I have primarily worked with wind energy, I have long been a proponent of renewable energy in the broadest sense. This includes solar energy. My work in Canada, especially Ontario, stressed inclusion of solar energy because it had been previously overlooked. At one time Ontario was one of the leading jurisdictions in North America developing solar photovoltaics due in part to the programs I and others pushed. The political winds changed and these policies were abandoned and with it Ontario’s progress toward a renewable energy future.
Up to 100 Japanese solar PV firms could go bust this year, report finds
By
Andy Colthorpe
While the market overall has rapidly expanded from the launch of the feed-in tariff (FiT) in July 2012, Teikoku Databank acknowledged that there has been a slowdown in deployment in the past couple of years as the government successively made cuts of 10% or more on an annual basis to the premium prices paid for solar energy fed into the grid.
Photo Essay: Japan’s Renewable-Energy Revolution
By
Sam Hall and Brian Eckhouse
These images, from a series of flights over the Tokyo and Kobe/Osaka regions of Japan, show a range of photovoltaic projects on former golf courses, quarries, dams, man-made islands and floating projects on ponds and reservoirs.
Solar PV cheaper than LNG-power in Japan makes massive deployment possible
By
Tomas Kåberger, Romain Zissler
Their recently published data on Japan shows that despite falling prices on gas in Japan (~$7/Mbtu in fiscal year (FY) 2016, -54% compared with FY2014 according to Japan Ministry of Finance), the best solar PV plants now provide lower cost electricity than the average gas fired power plant (chart).
Solar now provides more installed power, and more electricity than nuclear in Japan
By
Tomas Kåberger, Romain Zissler
Already since FY2013 solar electricity contributes more to Japan’s electricity supply than nuclear reactors.
Chernobyl Radioactive Zone May Get Giant French-Built Solar Park
By
Anna Hirtenstein
Ukraine is talking to one of France’s largest energy companies about building a giant, billion-euro ($1.25 billion) solar park in the uninhabited radioactive zone surrounding the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
Solar covered 76% at the peak in a day in Japan’s Kyushu Province
By
Keiji Kimura and Tatsuya Wakeyama
It is important to balance supply and demand in the grid. In that sense, renewable energy can contribute to adjusting the demand-supply balance through curtailment. On the other hand, nuclear power, unable to deliver any flexibility, seems to be one of the major problems from the grid management point of view.
Number of Ukrainian households with roof solar power plants 18% up in Q1 2017
By
The number of households that installed roof solar power plants and selling power at the feed-in tariff grew by 18% in January-March 2017 or by 200 households, to 1,309, according to a posting on the website of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine.
China installed 7.21GW of solar in Q1 2017, curtailment issues remain
By
Tom Kenning
The country’s cumulative deployment stood at 84.63GW by the end of Q1, of which 72GW is utility-scale. Last year, China added 34.24GW.
60GW of Solar Projects Might Shift to New Certification System in Japan
By
Kenji Kaneko
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the estimated number and capacity of renewable energy-based power generation projects that can shift to the new certification system after the revision of the feed-in tariff (FIT) policy April 21, 2017.
Danish CSP plant becomes fully operational
By
The 26,929m2 concentrated solar power (CSP) plant now provides the city of Brønderslev with sustainable heating, but it will also enable power production as an add-on to a biomass-fuelled organic rankine cycle (ORC) system scheduled for completion in the second half of 2017.
