Solar Power

It’s designed to cut the energy costs for the Cherokee Nation Community Center by over half.

 

Appearing on COMMUNITY CONNECTION, Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin Jr. announced the plan to install cost-saving solar panels on the Cherokee Nation Community Center beginning Tuesday, September 28.   

 

Hoskin said the cost is about $1,700 a year to keep the lights on but with the addidition of the solar panels, he estimates the cost will only be around $700 a year to run power to the center.

 

Hoskin said the savings of about a thousand dollars a year could be better spent on the elderly and the children of Cherokee Nation.

 

MONTEVARCHI, Italy–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tigo Energy, Inc., the solar industry’s worldwide leader in Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics), confirms the Company’s presence at the upcoming Intersolar Europe in Munich, Germany. Tigo representatives will showcase the entire family of Tigo TS4 Flex MLPE devices, including the recently introduced TS4-A-2F and the Tigo Energy Intelligence software platform. Together, these Tigo products make up the most cost-effective and advanced solution for rapid shutdown on large-scale solar projects.

Tigo Energy has led solar innovation with its Tigo TS4 Flex MLPE by providing the freedom for customers to choose the features and components for their solar installations. Over the past 12 months, Tigo released key updates and innovations to its Flex MLPE product line to address the growing demand for high-power solar modules and energy projects that call for a diversified set of fire safety, monitoring, management, and power optimization features.

“The Tigo TS4 is a fixture in the systems we deploy because they provide a level of utility and value simply not found elsewhere,” said Ines Zion, Head of Business Development at Energy Rockstars GmbH & Co.KG. “The TS4 units are quick and easy to install, and the module-level monitoring they enable through the Tigo EI app gives us an outstanding overview of the installed components. The system reporting offered by Tigo also helps us quickly understand system performance and manage maintenance, both of which our customers value.”

The Tigo Energy Intelligence (EI) solution, a comprehensive digital platform, is designed to optimize the installer experience around commissioning, monitoring, and maintaining fleets of solar installations. Tigo EI also delivers the tools to decrease operation and maintenance costs, increase system performance and revenue, and improve the user experience for installers and customers. The platform also simplifies the commissioning process by providing greater system visibility and information to end installers and EPCs.

“The Tigo Energy Intelligence platform takes the installer experience to the next level, and we look forward to showing our installer partners exactly what Tigo EI can perform for them,” said Mirko Bindi, Vice President EMEA Sales and MD Europe at Tigo Energy. “The data granularity and analytics provided by the Tigo EI platform enables deep insights into systems that allow EPCs and installers to speed up commissioning, reduce operations and maintenance costs, maximizing system performance and revenue.”

To learn more about Tigo Flex MLPE solutions and the Tigo Energy Intelligence monitoring platform, please visit Tigo Energy at Intersolar Europe (Messe München, Pavilion B5, Booth 150) from October 6-8, 2021.

About Tigo Energy

Tigo Energy is the worldwide leader in Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics) with innovative solutions that increase solar energy production, decrease operating costs, and significantly enhance safety of solar energy systems. The Tigo TS4 platform maximizes the benefit of solar and provides customers with the most scalable, versatile, and reliable MLPE solution available. Tigo was founded in Silicon Valley in 2007 to accelerate the adoption of solar energy worldwide. Tigo systems operate on seven continents and produce gigawatt hours of reliable, clean, affordable, and safe solar energy daily. With a global team, Tigo Energy is dedicated to making the best MLPE on earth so more people can enjoy the benefits of solar. Find us online at www.tigoenergy.com.

‘Sunnyside is ignored no more’

‘Impact would be global’

‘Transformative in nature’

The power station company Bluetti is constantly pushing the boundaries and improving the technology behind portable power stations. Their products come in sizes for every type of situation, whether you need something small for short camping trips, or you’re looking for a full backup solution for power outages. Bluetti is one of the best options to stay prepared for any type of situation where you’ll need power. Now they are going a step further by offering two new solar panels for charging your power station.

Are you expecting to find yourself off-grid on a camping trip any time soon? You can bring your Bluetti power station with you, as well as one of their new solar panels, as a way to stay charged even when you don’t have access to any electricity source. With a portable and lightweight design, these modular solar panels are the key to being totally power-independent.

Compare the new PV120/PV200 models to the previous options:

Overall Design

With the release of the new PV series, the designs come with some major improvements. The handle has undergone some improvements, using a blue ABS material. The PV series features a one-piece waterproof coating design that encapsulates all of the solar cells, while the panels on the SP series are stitched together on one giant raw canvas.

An improved kickstand design gives the PV200 more angle adjusting options. Both the PV and SP series are similar in dimensions. However, the PV series solar panels are heavier by about two pounds. This is due to the advanced waterproof coating.

Efficiency

The Bluetti PV200 opts for a monocrystalline design, which uses a single large silicon crystal. Monocrystalline panels are arguably the most effective because they’re able to produce a high amount of power even when sunlight is lacking. When it comes to efficiency, monocrystalline solar panels are the best. While they’re the most expensive of the three types (Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, Amorphous), they’re usually the most durable and least sensitive to high temperatures.

This is why both Bluetti’s PV and SP solar panels are made of monocrystalline, resulting in overall efficiency of around 23%~24%. Bluetti claims these are the best portable solar panels on the market.

Shading Performance

You’ll obviously want to try to avoid shade when setting up your PV200 solar panel, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If one panel is shaded even partially, this will bring down the production of the whole system. In the SP200 panels, when 10% of the panel is covered in shade, you will experience as much of a 40% power loss.

To improve this issue, Bluetti changed the connection type of solar battery cells in the PV series. These new solar panels now use a parallel connection, which means each circuit on the panel can run as an individual and at the same voltage. You will only lose power from cells directly covered in shade.

Where To Buy

Bluetti’s new PV panels are currently on sale with solar generator bundles. The 200W PV200 was listed for $549 per piece, and the 120W version for $399, but with an AC200P and three PV200 bundles, you can get the 200W panels for as low as $425 each.

The sale will end at 7:00pm PDT on September 30th. Grab your discount while it lasts.

We thank Bluetti for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

September 27 (Renewables Now) – The concessionaire of the 3.75-GW Jirau hydropower plant (HPP), Energia Sustentavel do Brasil SA, also know as Jirau Energia, plans to hold an energy auction on October 20, 2021 to contract wind and solar power.

Jirau Energia did not disclose the specific amount of energy it seeks but stated in the tender notice that some of it will be used to meet demand in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest markets.

The company will award power purchase agreements (PPA) under which power supply is set to start on January 1, 2024 and end on December 31, 2038 for both sources.

To participate in the tender, companies have to meet certain criteria, such as being registered with the Brazilian Electric Power Commercialization Chamber (CCEE) as energy sellers or as independent power producers (IPPs) as well as having a minimum of 100 MW of installed capacity in commercial operation in Brazil.

Interested parties have until October 5, 2021 to register with Jirau Energia. All the details can be found on the company’s tender website: https://leilao.paradigmabs.com.br/esbr/

FRANKFURT, Sept 27 (Reuters) – The European Energy Exchange (EEX) on Monday expanded its yearly power futures contracts for Germany, Italy and Spain to 10 calendar years ahead from six currently, part of a move to help integrate renewable energy into the wholesale power market.

EEX, a subsidiary of Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE), is the world’s leading electricity exchange, where annual maturities form price benchmarks for producers, consumers and investors in power generation.

The sector is changing rapidly as conventional production from burning fossil fuels like gas and coal gives way to the roll-out of wind and solar power.

To finance the expansion of renewables, the market needs to transition away from state-guaranteed feed-in tariffs, which pay producers for energy fed into the grid, towards other instruments to make infrastructure operable.

So-called power purchase agreements (PPAs) – long-term deals under which businesses contract to buy electricity from renewable energy producers – can help drive renewable investment by guaranteeing generators’ revenues. They are becoming increasingly popular, especially in Spain and Italy.

Because the price picture beyond the six years available on EEX has so far been murky, would-be PPA investors often felt blocked because they could not demonstrate to lenders that their proposals were backed by a solid plan to hedge price risks.

Would-be producers also faced similar risks due to reduced price visibility. The ten-year span now on offer on EEX changes this, said Chief Operating Officer Steffen Koehler.

“The fact that we already have six annual maturities improves the starting position of the market participants for the new products,” Koehler said.

In turn, the exchange’s liquidity in the existing six years should receive a further boost from wider participation, he said.

The EEX is striving to widen its role in environment, freight and other products to complement its flagship power and gas business. read more

Steffen Riediger, EEX’s director for European power derivatives, said demand for renewable power was rising from the corporate sector keen to reduce its carbon footprint, and that companies were seeking PPAs.

“The deals we will see will have massive volume sizes and massive nominal values,” he said.

The contracts will be displayed on Refinitiv Eikon on this chain:

Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Jan Harvey

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The global economy is starting to get serious about reducing carbon emissions. This decarbonization megatrend represents an enormous investment opportunity. Companies need to spend trillions of dollars per year over several decades on deploying additional renewable energy capacity to achieve net-zero emissions.

Many companies will benefit from this megatrend. Some of the emerging leaders include electric utilities Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED), Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK), NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), and Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL). Here’s why that makes them great renewable energy stocks to buy for 2021 and beyond.

A quiet leader in solar power

Consolidated Edison has a long history of distributing electricity and natural gas to the New York City area. That base business has steadily expanded over the years, enabling Consolidated Edison to pay one of the best dividends in the utility sector. The company has increased its dividend for 47 straight years, the longest growth streak in the industry. 

However, while the company’s utility operations generate steady cash flow, what stands out about Consolidated Edison is its solar energy business. It might come as a surprise to learn that Consolidated is the second-largest solar developer in the country and seventh-largest globally. The company started by acquiring solar energy projects from other developers. It launched an internal development program in 2014 and currently has a large pipeline of opportunities to continue expanding its solar energy operations in the coming years. That should enable Consolidated Edison to keep growing its dividend, putting it on track to become a Dividend King in a few years.

Betting big on clean energy

Duke Energy set a bold goal to transform into a clean energy company, targeting net zero emissions by 2050. The utility expects to spend $59 billion on clean power generation and grid investments over the next few years to support this ambitious plan. These investments will push renewable energy to 23% of its power mix by 2030, up from 7% last year. Meanwhile, 91% of its overall power mix will come from cleaner fuel sources (natural gas, nuclear, and renewables), up from 79% last year.

Duke believes these investments will pay direct dividends for its shareholders. The company estimates it can grow its earnings per share at a 5% to 7% annual rate through 2025. That should support continued dividend growth, allowing Duke to extend its streak of raising the dividend, which it has done for the last 14 consecutive years.

Leading the charge

NextEra Energy boasts that it’s the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy. However, it’s still getting started. The company plans to spend up to $55 billion on new infrastructure investments through next year, which will enable it to produce even more clean power. 

The company estimates that these investments will support 6% to 8% annual earnings-per-share growth through 2023. However, the company has repeatedly said it would be disappointed if it didn’t deliver results at or near the top-end of that range. In addition, it sees dividend growth of around 10% per year through at least 2022. These factors should enable NextEra Energy to continue generating powerful total returns for its shareholders.

The wind’s at its back

Xcel Energy was the first electric utility to publicly pledge to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. The company currently expects to spend $24.3 billion on capital projects through 2025, including new renewables and other grid-related investments. It has a large and growing wind business and is starting to make greater inroads into solar. In addition, it’s evaluating using hydrogen as a fuel source while also helping enable the deployment of more electric vehicles.

Xcel Energy believes these investments will pay dividends for shareholders. It expects to grow its earnings per share at a 5% to 7% annual pace through 2025. In addition, it believes it can increase its dividend at a similar rate. That should enable the utility to generate attractive total returns for investors in the coming years.

Powerful growth ahead

These electric utilities are embracing a cleaner future. All four are emerging as leaders in investing in renewable energy, which should power steady earnings and dividend growth over the next several years. That makes them great renewable energy stocks to buy and hold for the long term.

Solar power isn’t “free” or “clean.” It destroys oxygen-producing forests and wildlife habitat and is much more expensive than electrical power generated by abundant, clean-burning natural gas.

Its actual cost, however, is hidden by huge tax subsidies. The state of N.C. mandates an 80% reduction of local property tax for industrial solar power, which must be made up by all other local taxpayers. 

Modern society must have electrical power every second of every day, which requires spinning turbine generators that function every second 24/7. Solar delivers its rated power only during the middle of sunny days, very little on cloudy days and none at night. California’s heavy dependence on solar and windmills is now causing sporadic power blackouts there. Little North Carolina (as compared to Texas and California) is now second in the nation for solar, and Duke Energy is being choked by it.

We might well have the same experiences as California, if this state continues its headlong rush into solar.

— William Rumburg

Gold Hill

Like you can’t judge a book by its cover, it’s not always wise to judge a law by its title. 

A gigantic new energy package signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Sept. 15, may live up to its name. 

“The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act is, to put it in a nutshell, is a gamechanger,” said Delmar Gillus of the Chicago environmental equity nonprofit Elevate Energy. “It is going to 1) create literally tens of thousands of jobs in underserved and environmental justice communities. It’s going to create opportunities for those that want to get into the space from a job creation, entrepreneurship perspective. CEJA is also going to reduce, significantly, the amount of pollution in underserved communities.” 

CEJA sets a goal of 2045 for Illinois to have all its energy from carbon-free sources. 

“Because of what we’re talking about, the magnitude of what we’re talking about here in the energy space — I mean we’re talking about powering the entire state of Illinois using green energy. Windmills, solar energy. This is something that’s going to be taking place, dare I say, over the next 30+ years,” State Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, said. 

Davis said there aren’t currently enough people working in the sector, period – and especially people of color work. 

A report by E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) found that people of color made up about 27% of Illinois’ clean energy industry. 

Revamping the energy sector’s presents an opportunity to change that. 

“In the next 10 years, renewable energy businesses are going to create more than 50,000 new jobs: Building projects in every corner of the state,” said Nakhia Crossley of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “We are proud of the diversity and equity commitments in this legislation and we look forward to making sure that as the renewable energy industry grows, it fully reflects the diversity of Illinois.”

Among the equity initiatives included in Public Act 102-0662 are:

• The creation of a “green bank” to provide seed money to help Black and Brown contractors who may otherwise have a hard time raising capital 

• Training support for helping formerly incarcerated individuals to enter the clean energy sector 

• Setting reporting requirements to make sure the intended diversity goals are met; Illinois will beefing up the renewables industry through financial incentives, but only contractors that meet diversity thresholds will be able to access them

• The allocation of $80 million a year paid by ratepayers to be spent on development programs for individuals from “equity-focused communities” 

 “We have 13 workforce hubs that will be providing training. They will be providing support for workers, they will be providing things like tools and placement services and retention services and travel stipend and for those that need them, child care,” Gillus said. “There also are going to be workforce hubs that will be providing pre-apprenticeships as well, so that those that are interested in getting jobs in the solar industry, especially from underserved communities, will have access to a plethora of training options and support.” 

Other programs are intended for a “just transition,” supporting workers who will lose their jobs when fossil fuel-powered plants close, such as scholarship, health care coverage and employment education. 

While CEJA mandates the closure of carbon-emitting plants, many are closing on their own due to market forces. NRG is closing a pair of coal-fired plants in summer 2022, something for which Clean Power Lake County leader Dulce Ortiz has spent years fighting. 

According to the U.S. Census bureau, Waukegan has a 17% Black and 55% Latino population. 

“I am a Mexican immigrant and having the basic human right to breathe clean air, have clean water and clean soil, and equitable access to the clean energy economy is deeply personal to me,” Ortiz said at the bill signing ceremony last week. “This work helps ensure that Black and Brown sisters and brothers everywhere are empowered to own their own future.”  

Ortiz said CEJA’s priority to retiring coal and gas plants in environmental justice communities is a “huge win for Waukegan.” 

While 2045 is decades away, a lot of this work is already underway given previous energy laws.

CEJA, with its focus on equity threaded through much of the measures’ complexities, gives a significant boost to those initiatives.

Ratepayers may initially notice the impacts via surcharges on their next electric bills. 

As Gillus looks to 2045, he’s excited. 

“What I visualize is a clean energy workforce in the state of Illinois that resembles the demographics of the state. I see Black and Brown businesses growing,” Gillus said. “I see Black and Brown contractors being able to hire people from their communities. I see opportunities for the expansion of electric vehicles across the state. I see solar panels in every community.”

---