Solar Power First

Kenya are set to add 80MW through the creation of two now 40MW solar plants being built in 2021, a significant increase for a nation who generates approximately 200MW of solar at present. Kenya’s energy regulator made the announcement recently, with Caroline Kimathi, who is the principal renewable energy officer at the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), stating "Private investors have received approval to build two solar electric plants at 40 MW each that will be operational in 2021." Kimathi was speaking to a forum reviewing a draft regulation on solar energy. Kenya currently imports more than 90% of the solar equipment it uses, with local production limited. Regulations being proposed  in the country will recommend various key standards for solar equipment imported into the nation in order  to safeguard Kenyan consumers. There is plenty of potential for the nation to increase its capacity even further, with Kenya an ideal location for solar energy generation...

  We love hearing about companies who are taking ownership over their environmental impact and making the switch to renewable energy. This week, we were particularly pleased to hear about a recent milestone reached by SPAR Austria. Since 2010, SPAR Austria has put a real focus on powering their stores via renewable energy. During November, they added solar panels to the roof of the SPAR Supermarket in Wolkersdorf, Lower Austria, alongside solar storage. This happened to be their 100th solar-powered store in the country!  During 2019, SPAR’s rooftop solar systems at their stores generated around 4.8 MWh of green electricity, used onsite and bringing a CO2 reduction of around 800 tonnes. SPAR uses their solar energy to power instore cooling, lighting and IT systems.  They’re not stopping there though, as SPAR Austria currently spends around €1m per year on the expansion of solar energy, and they plan to continue to expand this scheme across the county. With the increase in ...

  We’ve covered a few different innovative and creative forms of solar panel designs here on the blog over the past few months, but it’s fair to say that today’s may be the most interesting one to date! Carvey Ehren Maigue, a student at Mapua University, has created a solar panel that involved retrieving the luminescent particles found in certain types of food waste and storing them in a resin substrate.This was done in the attempt to solve a key efficiency issue facing solar panels. Namely, their dependence on direct sunlight for peak performance.  It is claimed that Maigue’s design, known as the AuREUS system, is designed to continue harvesting light for solar energy generation almost half of the time, with many current panels only producing for 20-25% of the time. Maigue envisions his system working in the same way as the Northern Lights, hence the name AuREUS , derived from “aurora borealis.  A single AuREUS solar panel is roughly three feet tall and two feet wide, a ...

When it comes to the global solar investment race, we’re used to seeing China, the USA and a few others at the top of the list, but it was exciting to see India make a huge commitment to solar in recent days. The government of India has announced a funding package that includes over £450m - or 45 BILLION Indian rupees! - of investment over the next five years. This funding will be put into the production of solar panels and solar storage as part of developing high-efficiency PV projects across the country. This solar investment is part of a move by India’s cabinet to help boost domestic manufacturers, become globally competitive in a number of new industries, create economies of scale and increase exports.  The government said their solar investment “will incentivise domestic and global players to build large-scale solar PV capacity in India and help India leapfrog in capturing the global value chains for solar PV manufacturing”. A further 181 billion rupees, around £1.8bn has bee...

While many industries have been hit hard by the impacts of COVID-19, with some even becoming obsolete, solar is certainly one that is continuing to grow in its impact and importance. There are many countries who are leading the way with solar panel production and widespread implementation, but it is China who has been making many of the most large-scale moves, often alongside international partners. This is certainly the case with a new production centre opening in Brazil. The Brazilian arm of Amerisolar, a Chinese maker of solar panels, will open a new factory in early 20201, with the new site it is building being near the southeastern Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, as reported by Brazilian media outlet Estado de Minas.  The Brazilian newspaper says the factory will employ 100 people directly and help create up to 2,200 new jobs in other companies. The story also says that the factory is meant to produce 30,000 panels a month, with around half of them likely to be used for exp...

  Yes, you did read that title correctly! A major financial research company has claimed that it is now cheaper to build an entirely new solar facility than to persist with a coal or natural gas plant in many locations. That seems like quite the claim, but BloombergNEF has stated with confidence that within the next five years, it will actually be more costly to operate existing coal or natural gas power plants than it will be to construct a new solar or wind energy facility. This is supported by a recent report from the International Energy Agency which found that solar energy will soon replace coal as the cheapest source of electricity. The IEA’s World Energy Outlook has stated that solar energy is going to be at the forefront of a huge increase in renewables over the next decade, with up to 80% of the world’s electricity likely to be sourced through renewables in the not too distant future. With solar technology constantly improving, as well as solar panel cost continuing to be...

  A new report, produced by the Environment America Research & Policy Center and entitled “Renewables on the Rise 2020,” has found that the US produces 30-times as much solar energy in 2019 as it did in 2010. Now that’s a trend we can get behind! The report actually documents the developments within several of the clean energy industries over the past 10 years: solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency and electric vehicles. A key factor in the growth in renewable energy utilisation has been the adoption of battery storage, with improved technology and reduced smart battery cost seeing a 20-fold increase since 2010. Even further benefit comes in the fact that energy consumption per person has actually declined in the US over the past decade thanks to increased energy efficiency, including more than one million electric vehicles on US roads. Susan Rakov, the current chair of Environment America Research and Policy Center’s Clean Energy program, shared: “People have always...

We’re always up for hearing new ideas of how to raise the efficiency even further, and with available land at a premium in many places, finding efficient ways in which to create space for solar facilities is almost as important as making sure the solar generation itself is efficient.  With the shortage of land, could there have been an alternative staring us in the face the whole time? Could we put them on water?  This is what is starting to happen across Asia with floating solar panels popping up on lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. The benefits of this could actually extend much further than we realised, with a new study published in Renewable Energy suggesting that floating solar farms at current hydropower reservoirs could not only reduce solar costs, but meet anywhere up to 40% of the planet’s energy needs. Reservoirs are being put forward by many as the top option, over using lakes or ponds, for a couple of key reasons. First, the solar power equipment could make use of the...