Solar Energy –

Happy Holidays from SolarEdge! –

Renewable Energy World — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Every year, solar technology company, SolarEdge, brings its community a new holiday video to show support of the shift to renewables and stay virtually connected.

Their 2020 video titled Freedom: The 2020 SolarEdge Holiday Video continues this message with the powerful chorus of “Our technology makes the world a better place using solar energy.” The vocalists are also featured on televisions, tablets and more to represent the unprecedented digital era due to COVID-19.

Watch the full video:

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Alongside their annual holiday video, the company often shares content to educate customers worldwide. Check out their YouTube channel!

SolarEdge provides a distributed PV power harvesting and monitoring solution and works with partners to embed its electronics into PV panels. SolarEdge’s technology provides more power, eliminates design constraints and aids in monitoring and maintenance.

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A climate of political change for 2021? –

Renewable Energy World — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 09:00:00 +0000

The recent political mood music around action on climate change gives some cause for optimism in what otherwise has been a grim year.

Joe Biden’s election as US President — lawsuits permitting — was greeted by a collective sigh of relief in environmental circles and restores to the White House a recognition that there is an existential problem to be solved. How that will translate into law, though, is subject to many ‘what-ifs’ and maybes.

The first problem facing Biden is that the Democrats do not currently have control of the Senate. If January run-off elections in Georgia go the Democrats’ way, they could draw level in seats with the Republicans, in which case Vice President Kamala Harris would have a casting vote.

Although it may not be required, Biden has had a long Senate career with experience of negotiating measures, and several Republicans have shown themselves to be sympathetic to green measures. According to his plan, he intends to rely — as Obama and Trump frequently themselves did — on executive orders, but these can be legally challenged, and the Supreme Court currently has a strongly conservative line-up.

Notwithstanding the various hurdles he might have to clear, Biden’s willingness to engage with climate issues is a welcome change from his predecessor. Although the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement became official as recently as November 4, 2020, Biden has committed to signing back up to it as soon as he takes office. He has also lined up a two trillion-dollar package to reduce carbon emissions over his four-year term, which will set the country on its way to carbon-free electricity production by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050.

Xi Jinping

China is the one country whose emissions exceed the USA’s, in no small part to its burgeoning economic development and a reliance on coal generators. Premier Xi Jinping addressed the UN (by recorded video) in September and committed China to carbon neutrality by 2060, with carbon emissions peaking before 2030. Jinping also praised the aims of the Paris Agreement and urged all countries to take decisive steps to honor its commitments.

There hadn’t been any sign beforehand that such a positive commitment would be given, which made it doubly welcome. On the other hand, China is still building new coal-fired power stations at an alarming rate, and subsidies supporting solar PV are coming to an end. We will learn more about China’s true direction of travel when its fourteenth five-year plan is published in March.

In his UN address, Jinping also referenced the coronavirus pandemic, urging countries to use scientific and technological innovation to drive a green recovery. Several have already set out their ambitions to do just that, including here in the UK, where Boris Johnson has announced a ten-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’. This includes financial support for offshore wind, but disappointingly not for onshore wind or solar. Overall, the package will see an additional £12 billion ($14.6 billion) of government money spent, which, will hopefully in turn generate private investment of more than three times as much.

Enthusiasm has to be tempered somewhat by virtue of the new money being available only over the whole decade up to 2030. By comparison, an expansion to the defense budget involving an extra spend of £4 billion ($4.8 billion) each year over the next four years was announced just a few days later.

A key aspect of Johnson’s 10-point plan for green industry is that it is projected to add 250,000 jobs to the UK economy, mostly in areas that will help to redress the nation’s regional imbalances.

Employment creation and regional regeneration is central to Biden’s plans as well. His plan claims that “If executed strategically, our response to climate change can create more than 10 million well-paying jobs in the United States that will grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class enjoyed by communities across the country, not just in cities along the coasts.”

The emphasis on job creation is astute. There are still plenty of people who do not feel they are immediately affected by climate change, but a lot of them are concerned about the prospects of work, particularly after the pandemic.

Across the channel, the EU has announced its own stimulus package — at €1.8 trillion ($2.19 trillion), its largest ever — to help its members recover from the effects of the pandemic. Of this fund, nearly a third will be dedicated to fighting climate change.

This broad shift in political perspective around the world has been mirrored in how green energy production is perceived by investors. Not long ago, the ability to store coal and oil to cover peaks in demand was touted as an advantage over renewables. However, as multiple countries introduced lockdowns and demand for energy plummeted, capacity was quickly filled. Even once demand picked up again, and in spite of oil and coal prices remaining at their lowest levels for decades, renewable sources offered the most competitively priced electricity as they took up the slack.

An IEA (International Energy Agency) report published in November found that although the pandemic had led overall energy demand to decline by 5%, demand for electricity from renewable sources had increased by 1%. The report also highlighted the attractiveness of renewables to investors, as the global value of shares in solar companies having doubled in value between December 2019 and October 2020.

Although there are numerous holes that can be picked in the various plans, and polluting industries continue to receive more than their fair share of subsidies, the general direction of travel is encouraging. As Dulas’ Managing Director Ruth Chapman puts it, “While those of us in the industry have always believed that renewables are the only viable source of energy for the future, it is gratifying that mainstream political opinion now sees them not only in relation to climate change but as solutions to fundamental economic problems. The post-COVID ‘new normal’ has seen renewables arrive at the front and center of political thinking.”

Jemma King

Jemma L King began her career in renewables at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, before moving to Dulas – a green engineering firm operating globally.

She is now an independent writer focusing on her twin interests – the arts and cleantech. Jemma is the winner of the Terry Hetherington Young Welsh Writer of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Wales Book of the Year Prize for her debut publication, ‘The Shape of a Forest’ (Parthian). Her following book, ‘The Undressed’ (Parthian) sold out on the first day of publication. She has read and published her work internationally and her work has been translated into 13 languages.

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Gas and renewables combined hold the key to a faster energy transition –

Renewable Energy World — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Accelerated and strategic deployment of renewables and gas power can change the trajectory for climate change, enabling quick and substantive reductions in emissions, while in parallel continuing to advance the technologies for low or near zero-carbon power generation.

This is according to the latest white paper release by GE, entitled Accelerated Growth of Renewables and Gas Power Can Rapidly Change the Trajectory on Climate Change.

GE states that the power industry has a responsibility, and the technical capability to take significant steps to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help address climate change at scale.

The solution for the power sector is not an either/or proposition between renewables and natural gas, but rather a multi-pronged approach to decarbonisation with renewables and natural gas power at its core.

The paper emphasises the following:

Addressing climate change must be an urgent global priority, requiring global action
Additional renewable energy with natural gas, which has the benefits of flexibility and dependable capacity, is the most effective near-term solution to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector
Even with rapid growth, renewable energy production is not occurring at a fast-enough pace or scale to deliver the CO2 reductions needed to fight climate change
Gas power is an affordable, efficient and dispatchable means to complement renewables, with less than 50% of the CO2 emissions compared to coal
To impact the trajectory of climate change globally, we need accelerated, strategic deployment of renewables and gas power.

Viewed separately, renewables and gas generation technologies each have merits and challenges as a means to address climate change and optimum solutions will differ regionally.

Such solutions will depend upon factors such as fuel availability and security, land use constraints, renewable resource availability, and the emphasis a particular region is placing on climate change.

Together, their complementary nature offers tremendous potential to address climate change with the speed and scale the world requires.

Download the white paper to learn more about the technologies, policy landscapes, opportunities and pitfalls.

This article was originally posted on Power Engineering International and was republished with permission.

Pamela Largue

Pamela is responsible for researching market trends within the global energy sector, creating content strategies around key focus areas and writing articles for online and print publication. She works closely with the Clarion Power & Energy Series events to identify content themes, interview key speakers and industry leaders, as well as ensure crucial information reaches the market in the right way, at the right time.

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