[Guest greensolar]

BYD: Plenty of expertise in solar and storage

18. OCTOBER 2012 | INDUSTRY & SUPPLIERS, STORAGE & GRID INTEGRATION | BY: ECKHART K. GOURASEarlier this week, pv magazine visited BYD Company Limited in the outskirts of Shanghai to discuss the company’s solar and storage plans with Tom Zhao, general manager of BYD Solar Division.

In China, BYD's four 100 MW module production lines in Shanghai are in full operation to meet demand.

Eckhart Gouras

Given its combined expertise in PV and storage, BYD can provide comprehensive on- and off-grid solutions in various markets as power storage becomes a key component of PV solutions. Others are recognizing the company’s multi-faceted energy expertise and it is one of three finalists in the 2013 Zayed Future Energy Prize.

BYD can tap the battery technology it developed for its electric vehicles and then applied to communications products and the energy field. Zhao says the company has shipped 165 MW of such storage solutions already, with about half going to solar and other renewable energy applications.

In terms of cost, he points to a project in the Middle East with the U.S. energy multinational Chevron, where a single BYD container priced at about US$1 million delivers 1 MWh of stored electricity. These standard containers can be connected, so that storage capacities of 2 MWh and more can be readily realized.

For residential PV markets, the company offers a 3 kW/ 8 kWh battery which, according to Zhao, represents an ideal solution for various U.S. markets, where residential users pay the highest prices for electricity in the morning and evening.

By incorporating its Distributed Energy Storage System (DESS) as part of the PV solution, homeowners can tap the stored electricity in the morning and then do the same in the evening after the PV system has provided new energy to the battery. And during the night, the battery can be charged using power provided from the grid at off-peak rates.

On the PV module side, of course, the current trade dispute and anti-dumping and countervailing duties in the U.S. market are putting a damper on BYD’s plans in that region of the world. But like similar Chinese companies, it is turning to Taiwanese cell manufacturers to come up with a duty-free solution for the U.S.

However, as attractive as this loophole might appear, new cells require recertification of the modules for the American market. And certification in the U.S. can take a number of months to secure.

Another option, which would not rely on the loophole currently available, would be to set up a production facility in the U.S. As Zhao points out, just setting up a module production facility in the U.S. like the one in Shanghai would not be good enough, though. To be really tariff-proof, an expensive cell production facility would have to be placed there as well and that gives the business case a completely different dimension.

Where module fabs are sufficient to gain traction in a national market, BYD is considering such international expansion. One example is South Africa, where the company will supply 100 MW of modules the country’s first bidding round, and 200 MW under the second. To service this market and future tenders, a module production plant is in the planning.

On the international front Zhao can tap strong partnerships in Europe, where juwi Holding AG in Germany is the leading customer for BYD’s panels. He sees Ukraine as a "very good market based on the very high electricity price of three to five US cents per kilowatt-hour."

In Japan, the situation has also improved a lot with the new ground-mounted PV segment open to Chinese manufacturers like BYD. So far Chinese suppliers have been largely shut out of the residential PV market, the mainstay of Japan’s market prior to the new feed-in tariff launched in July 2012, but this is not the case in the large-scale market. Given its established network on the automobile side, BYD is in a good position to enter this market.

And down under in Australia, the company is teaming up with the Canberra-based utility AGL Energy to supply its panels to a 400 MW PV project AGL is building.

Meanwhile, at home in China, its four 100 MW module production lines in Shanghai are in full operation to meet demand.

A string of research and development centers in Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen, provide a strong base for BYD’s competitiveness going forward. This innovation is flowing into the company’s integrated PV and storage solutions and into new PV panel products, like aluminum back-skin modules optimized for performance in desert environments, where sand storms can be a significant challenge.

Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/byd--plenty-of-expertise-in-solar-and-storage_100008892/#ixzz29gUnPLnB

[Guest greensolar]

I'm posting this if this true could be a possible storage solution for solar.

British engineers produce amazing 'petrol from air' technology

Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight.

Image 1 of 4

An Air Fuel Synthesis technical team member with a flask of AFS fuel Photo: Air Fuel Synthesis

By Andrew Hough

11:30PM BST 18 Oct 2012

</iframe>751 Comments

A small company in the north of England has developed the “air capture” technology to create synthetic petrol using only air and electricity.

Experts tonight hailed the astonishing breakthrough as a potential “game-changer” in the battle against climate change and a saviour for the world’s energy crisis.

The technology, presented to a London engineering conference this week, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The “petrol from air” technology involves taking sodium hydroxide and mixing it with carbon dioxide before "electrolysing" the sodium carbonate that it produces to form pure carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen is then produced by electrolysing water vapour captured with a dehumidifier.

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Air Fuel Synthesis, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.

Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside.

The fuel that is produced can be used in any regular petrol tank and, if renewable energy is used to provide the electricity it could become “completely carbon neutral”.

The £1.1m project, in development for the past two years, is being funded by a group of unnamed philanthropists who believe the technology could prove to be a lucrative way of creating renewable energy.

While the technology has the backing of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, it has yet to capture the interest of major oil companies.

But company executives hope to build a large plant, which could produce more than a tonne of petrol every day, within two years and a refinery size operation within the next 15 years.

Tonight Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) officials admitted that while the described the technology as being “too good to be true but it is true”, it could prove to be a “game-changer” in the battle against climate change.

Stephen Tetlow, the IMechE chief executive, hailed the breakthrough as “truly groundbreaking”.

“It has the potential to become a great British success story, which opens up a crucial opportunity to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

“It also has the potential to reduce our exposure to an increasingly volatile global energy market.

“The potential to provide a variety of sustainable fuels for today’s vehicles and infrastructure is especially exciting.”

Dr Tim Fox, the organisation's head of energy and environment, added: “Air capture technology ultimately has the potential to become a game-changer in our quest to avoid dangerous climate change.”

Peter Harrison, the company’s 58 year-old chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph that he was “excited” about the technology’s potential, which “uses renewable energy in a slightly different way”.

“People do find it unusual when I tell them what we are working on and realise what it means,” said Mr Harrison, a civil engineer from Darlington, Co Durham.

“It is an opportunity for a technology to make an impact on climate change and make an impact on the energy crisis facing this country and the world.

"It looks and smells like petrol but it is much cleaner and we don't have any nasty bits."`

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fuel/9619269/British-engineers-produce-amazing-petrol-from-air-technology.html

[odyd 1,339]

5 of 11 companies are trading below $1. There is a very real condition they can become delisted. What will happen then?

[explo 648]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-government-mulls-policies-support-042552552.html China increasing efforts to support PV. Grid connection facilitation dictated by central government will be a catalysts for PV growth in China.

[explo 648]

Sees 850 GW installed in Europe alone by 2030 as a possibility. http://www.epia.org/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=fileadmin/EPIA_docs/documents/Cites/Connecting_the_Sun_Shorter_version.pdf&t=1350985122&hash=aa9f609fcf1dd8a56eebdcdc5fa3d8f2

[explo 648]

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121023PR200.html

[odyd 1,339]

REC closing the ingot production temporarily, buying it from third parties. I suspect that Q3 will be a nightmare for all. Now my Chinese contacts do not see consolidation in China to take a toll only until Q1 to Q2. I am analyzing who is left in there and there are at least 500 plus companies, which may be still in some form of activity left. So this is just ridiculous. I just got the note from one company willing to cell for 0.58 per watt REC presentation http://hugin.info/136555/R/1651702/532923.pdf Short results for Q3, REC made money by eliminating wafer division form its books. https://solarpvinvestor.com/analysis/quarters-half-years/2012-qs-and-h1/q3-2012

[Guest redsolar]

Good post! I have long been worried about this scenario...where a company can build a state of the art module assembly factory and source all the cheap cells/wafers to build them. All of a sudden they are extremely competitive with a very little accumulated debt. 40c cell + 20 c module processing = 60c production cost per W module. If I co-locate this company to the geo graphic location...my selling cost will be much less. One catch here is ....the warranty and the bank-ability for the new company...if they choose to serve the international markets.

[odyd 1,339]

New article from Solarzoom https://solarpvinvestor.com/spvi-news/361-weekly-solar-market-price-trends-mainland-china-report-12-

[odyd 1,339]

SPVI was asked to produce couple articles a month for PV-Magazine. I have submitted one today. If they like it, it will be available on PVM. If not we will publish on SPVI. Stay tuned.