Commentary

The deployment of PV has seen a dramatic increase in the last decade and is poised to take over wind in this decade as wind reaches its “easy-to-reach” potential and solar is barely starting to penetrate the generation mix worldwide.

A free market where the present lowest cost fuel solution wins. per se and per definition.

Doing nothing is not an option.

TSMC recently announced a 1.09 m2 champion copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) module with a 15.1% total area efficiency. The module was produced using the current equipment at the company’s 100 MW capacity facility in Taiwan with its process licensed from Stion. The company claims a world record for monolithic thin-film modules, although Miasolé (purchased by Hanergy) demonstrated a 15.5% aperture area efficient 1.68 m2 discretely integrated (non-monolithic) flexible module.

Smart metering and Smart grid in electricity sector recently have attracted much attention to improve the performance of power utilities. Many countries in the West including USA, Canada and within the EU are already involved in smart metering on pilot projects or in selective roll out for specific urban areas.

The months of November and December saw a huge influx of FIT applications submitted to METI and the respective Utility Companies. Reason behind was the fact that the first revision of the current FIT is due by end of March 2013, after which the new tariffs will become effective from April onward. Considering an application period around 3 months, makes end of December a cutoff date to secure the current rates.

Many power generation facilities have been constructed or are under development in Asia. Thus, many plant personnel will encounter issues related to water/steam chemistry.

Before 2008, encapsulant suppliers from Germany, the U.S., and Japan, such as STR Solar, Mitsui Chemicals, Bridgestone, and Solutia (Etimex), were the dominant companies producing EVA film – taking 60% of the global market share. However, Chinese encapsulant suppliers have steadily increased their market share with players like Hangzhou First PV Material, exceeding Bridgestone and Solutia, to become one of the top three suppliers in 2008.

The October 2012 All India Seminar On Clean Energy & Energy Conservation, Nagpur, seemed more developed and urgent than in 2008. Exemplified in that conference and after the 2012 blackouts, the seminar focused on the fact that conservation, only, will not offset energy requirements. Whole systems replacement, or augmentation, is required and coincides with integrating clean energy sources. Actionable methods and wares for increasing renewable energy efficiency were directly addressed. Intriguing descriptions of solar power, wind energy, and control topologies were prominent. Discussions rounded out on using intelligent grids to allocate loads of existing or new utilities.

Electricity industry has witnessed certain trends during the last decade which can potentially bring significant changes in the industry structure and the relationship between consumers and their utilities. One of these trends is the rising share of intermittent sources of energy, such as wind and photovoltaics, in the overall energy generation portfolio. Another is the ever rising level of consumer dependency on electricity which makes it a basic core necessity and absence of which can cause severe economic and health damages. This was evident during the recent super storm Sandy which effected large densely populated areas on the northeast shores of the United States.

So, hence my interest to find answers and solutions on some of our key and pressing question(s):

Electricity market reform moves slowly in Japan. Recently, however, the Japanese government further clarified its position and called for legal unbundling in the sector – one of the options previously proposed for breaking up the electricity industry.

We live in interesting times. Our world civilisation is experiencing an accelerating and dynamic change. Through technology, through innovation and through social changes.

Interest in the Asian power game has shifted to Southeast Asia for thermal and renewable power. These nations are mostly emerging markets with a mix of fuel options and underserved markets.

At the recently concluded climate change summit in Doha, Qatar, world leaders met and extended the carbon markets till 2020.

Development of hydropower projects in Asia, especially small and medium scale, has received significant interest over the past decade as important advantages for power system generation expansion are being recognized. Importantly, hydropower provides predictable long term energy cost, after the initial capital investment during construction is completed. As a source of renewable energy, hydropower offers lower carbon energy with the attendant global benefits while having no exposure to fuel pricing uncertainty. From the perspective of the power system, hydropower projects offer dynamic benefits such as frequency regulation, reserve capacity, and peaking capacity. If some storage can be provided there can be significant energy storage potential that can assist with the scheduling of other renewables such as wind and solar energy. Energy storage provides the opportunity to increase the value of renewables by converting non-scheduled generation from the off-peak to on-peak periods. Small hydro will often be distributed through a power system, which can provide some advantages in the cost and operation of the power transmission grid.