No climate debate at the DNC, NREL/First Solar improve thin-film cells: pvMB 8/23/19

Share

DNC will not host a climate debate – Surprise, surprise, grass is green, rocks are hard and there will be absolutely no climate debate at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. This is something pv magazine has alluded to before, but now it’s official, as at a party conference Thursday in San Francisco, the DNC’s resolutions committee voted 17-8 against hosting the debate, which has become a premier issue among candidates and voters. The decision has suspicious timing, as well, coming the day after Washington Governor Jay Inslee dropped out of the race. Source: Huffington Post

 

NREL, First Solar collaboration improves thin-film solar cells – “Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and First Solar unwound 30 years of history to create a new approach for making cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells, paving the way for this technology to further undercut the costs of electricity from conventional energy sources. For decades, CdTe solar cells have been made with the addition of copper and chlorine, because attempts to make them without one or the other have led to reduced performance… Researchers at NREL and the world’s leading thin-film manufacturer, First Solar, were able to successfully alter the longstanding approach by removing copper and placing—or “doping”—elements from the fifth column of the periodic table (Group V), such as antimony or arsenic, onto tellurium crystal sites at extremely high speeds by low-cost methods required for mass production… The new paper reports a cell efficiency of 20.8%, representing a crossing point for the new group V technology relative to historic copper technology.” Source: NREL

 

Detroit Zoo to be 100% renewably powered – The Detroit Zoo has announced that it will become 100% powered by renewable resources under DTS Energy’s MIGreenPower program. The move is expected to offset 7,425 metric tons of carbon dioxide. According to DTE, the goal is set to be completed some time in 2020. Source: DTE Energy

 

BRIEF BREAK: Check out this super-cool Cypress Creek video of large-scale solar project:

 

LONGi achieves AA bankability – “LONGi Solar, a subsidiary of LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd, has achieved AA-Rating status, in the first quarterly release of PV-Tech’s new PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings. LONGi Solar is one of only four solar photovoltaic (PV) module suppliers that qualifies within the top-performing rating category of AA across the sector. The PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings system is the solar industry’s first qualified tool that allows investors to understand and benchmark solar module suppliers; the analysis tracks a wide range of manufacturing and financial performance metrics, combining these to generate an overall bankability score between 0 and 10. Companies are then graded across nine risk categories from AAA-Rated (most bankable) to C-Rated (high risk).” Source: Longi Solar

 

6 MW community solar coming to Maryland – Prince George and Baltimore counties are set to be the happy recipients of 3 solar projects representing 6 MW of community solar. TurningPoint Energy and ForeFront Power announced the projects yesterday, sharing also the anticipated completion of the projects before the end of the year. These projects were awarded to and developed by TurningPoint Energy as part of the State of Maryland’s Community Solar Pilot Program. Source: ForeFront Power

 

Duke/Georgia power complete 9 projects, 14 MW in Georgia –Duke Energy Renewables announced that nine solar projects developed with SolAmerica Energy totaling 14.1 megawatts (MW) have begun commercial operations across central Georgia under Georgia Power’s Renewable Energy Development Initiative. These projects bring Duke Energy Renewables, operating through its REC Solar business unit, to 27.4 MW of solar projects in Georgia… The nine solar projects, which were acquired by Duke Energy Renewables in 2018, are expected to contribute $10 millionto local communities in leasing and taxes. A total of 54,590 solar panels were built into the projects. The last site began commercial operations in May 2019. Each project, was developed under an engineering, production and procurement (EPC) agreement between REC Solar and SolAmerica and a 35-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Georgia Power, selling all energy and renewable attributes to Georgia Power as a part of their Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) Customer-Sited Distributed Generation Program.” Source: Duke Energy

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.