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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

PV - inverters have created a production bottleneck. Picture source: Mhassan abdollahi

Demand for PV inverters continues to boom, according to a report from IMS Research. IMS calculates that 8.3 GW of inverters – worth $2.8 billion – were shipped during 2009. That is a 35% increase in GW terms and 17.9% in cash terms over 2008. During 2009, the price of inverters deciined by around 13% in prices per watt.

In 2010 producers are expected to ship 13.9 GW of inverters – an increase of more than 66% – and the growth would be even greater if a sever component shortage was not limiting inverter production. Prices are expected to stabilize despite the dramatic output growth. 14.6 GW of new PV capacity are expected to be added worldwide in 2010 says The World Market for PV Inverters – 2010’, published July 2010. The figures are based on surveys of inverter suppliers undertaken by IMS Research, together with estimates of demand in 40 countries around the globe.

Utilities reshaping the Inverter market

The development of utility-scale solar plants is changing the shape of the market for PV inverters. Here’s how:

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’d be lying if I said I spend more than a few minutes a week with the New York Times, but I do try to keep track of the columnists whose opinions I respect. Last week, next to an op-ed by Timothy Geithner that suggested that we were in the midst of recovery, was what I thought was a much more thoughtful and reasonable presentation by Richard Florida on his piece he called “The Great Reset.”

His point – one that I’ve been asserting for a decade now, is that we in the US are experiencing a bifurcation – a splitting – of the haves and the have-nots. Of course, this theme – the growing disparity between rich and poor – has been a subject of conversation since the Karl Marx and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. If I’m not mistaken, Marx suggested that this is an unavoidable byproduct of capitalism. Whether or not that’s true, here we are, 150 years later, with elaborate charts to show that the rich factually have gotten richer while the poor got poorer. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Sorry to have been absent from the blogosphere for a bit here.

Thursday I was standing in a dairy in Northern Virginia surrounded by hundreds of cows — checking out a methane digester, talking about waste-to-energy, and how feed-in tariffs and carbon credits change the game for dozens of different types of farmers. A few minutes later a thundershower swept in and drove us to cover, but not before a bolt of lightning struck almost directly over our heads. I thought we were goners, but we were spared. Maybe the Man Upstairs recognized that we were trying to do something good down here.

After the meeting, I took my rental car a couple of hundred miles south, through the stunningly beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Friday found me in Charlotte, NC talking to some extremely seasoned auto execs about their business plan concerning practical and very affordable electric pick-up trucks. They lament, as do I, that exactly zero dollars of the stimulus money went to start-up EV companies, and that 31 of the 32 grants went to companies over $1 billion in revenues — despite the promises that the core concept was to create growth in nimble and innovative businesses.

I’m in Syracuse, NY right now, preparing for my meetings tomorrow; the discussion centers around paper made from sugar cane waste — affordable, high-quality paper that leaves the world’s trees standing. This trip’s first two meetings were very quite productive — but this has the potential to be the best of the three.

Home tomorrow night.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

The Spanish Solucar PS10. Source: afloresm

Spain is world leader in utility-scale solar power generation with a capacity of more than 430 MW, following commissioning of their latest plant in the North West of the country. The United States’ utility scale solar generation is a little over 420 MW. Within a year another 600MW will come onstream in Spain and by 2013 solar capacity will have reached 2.5 GW, according to Protermosolar, the country’s generation industry association.

Despite Spain’s enthusiastic promotion of solar generation, there are other areas of the world where solar can operate much more efficiently. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the southern states of the US, have higher solar power generation potential. The German-led Desertec project to generate power for Europe in the Sahara continues to progress. A number of North African countries, including Egypt, are interested in getting involved.

At the same time, utility-scale solar generation is becoming more competitive.  Reports that suggest this include the following:

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_TzbiitLao&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

I believe it won’t be long until the EMCycle, a unique E-bike design, is offered onto the market. In this recent episode of the 2GreenEnergy Report, company’s CEO Michael Scholey explains the market and the business model.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

It’s hardly news that the lithium ion battery industry is poised for huge growth. Lithium ion batteries account for about 20 percent of $50 billion battery sales worldwide and they are expected to play a major part in electrical and hybrid vehicles as well in the crucial energy storage sector for utilities providing a greater proportion of their electricity from solar and wind sources. But there are some who worry that lithium ion battery producers may experience considerable turbulence as they climb.

A group of experts at a California event hosted by Silicom Ventures last April pointed to opportunities for massive growth for the industry. According to Atiq Raza, CEO of lithium ion battery producer Seeo, even if electric vehicles only experience tiny growth, battery production will have to increase ten-fold in ten years.

Here’s what Mark Platshon, a partner with VantagePoint Venture Partners (San Bruno, Calif. — the folks who invested in electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors as well as battery companies) said recently: (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxzOJstlYs&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

On a recent episode of the 2GreenEnergy Report, EMCycle CEO Michael Scholey explained to me why he believes the unique design of his company’s E-bike has features customers will really like. I have to agree; this is a terrific idea.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCgYI5YPjx0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

For better or worse, I’ve advertised my willingness to review business plans in the renewables and electric transportation space — and to provide a comment without cost or obbligation. This, as you can only imagine, as landed some pretty strange ideas in my inbox.

Having said that, I believe that EMCycle, with its great new Ebike design, holds fantastic appeal to investors. CEO Michael Scholey agrees, and explains why from his perspective.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

According to the publication Energy Intelligence Finance, $150 billion per year is being spent globally on renewable power. That’s a stunning figure and it shows that, even with last year’s cap-and-trade capitulation in Washington, green energy is thriving. Of course, if you’re an American, you have to be concerned, because so much of that money is being spent OUTSIDE the U.S., and thus America is losing out on millions of permanent new jobs are being lost.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

I always try to keep my fingers on the pulse of concentrating solar power as the clean energy technology that will get us through the next century. Right this minute, 10,836MW of CSP are under development, but only 423MW in operation or under construction. And since only 4% of proposed CSP projects are actually happening, it certainly raises questions about the other 96%. What delays are they encountering? What exactly happens during project development that delays – or, in some cases kills, these efforts?

It seems that this subject: how does one get a CSP project off the ground – is the core concept of a trade show, the CSP Project Development Conference & Expo, coming in Denver in October. The show claims to assemble external decision-makers, lobby groups and government organisations to discuss how to solve CSP development hurdles and increase their speed to market. I think I might check this one out.

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