Solar Progress Winter 2012 - Sample by CommStrat

ISSN: 0729-6436

Horizon Power Solar on a small scale Smart Grid The all-round benefits of interlinked systems BluesScope Steelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solar roofing Taking BIPV to the next level CSP Unravelling the potential of large-scale solar

07/12 Winter

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN SOLAR ENERGY SOCIETY

It’s time to look at

Solco in a new light

You may know us as Australia’s first choice for Solar PV and Pumping products. But today, we’re so much more.

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Building on the success of our wholesale components and system supply business, last year we established new divisions in Power Generation (IPP) and Project development (EPC). For our existing wholesale customers, Solco Solar Products is extending its product lines and service offerings to further improve our customer service levels across Rural and Regional Australia. With Solco Solar Power, we’re actively investing in our own or joint-venture large-scale PV power generation opportunities.

Talk to us at the East Solar Expo & Conference Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 21-22 August 2012 Call 1800 074 007 or visit solco.com.au

Powering Australia’s solar energy future.

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And where project scale and risks exceed our wholesale partners’ capabilities, Solco Solar Projects can step in to manage commercial PV project development from design, through procurement, installation and maintenance. With over 25 years experience and a long term, ongoing commitment to Australia’s sustainable energy future, what can we do for you?

Contents Solar Society

Special features

Review of solar landscape by AuSES

Solar intermittency under the

CEO and Solar Progress Editor

microscope 18

East Solar Expo and Conference

VSASF research team focuses on

AuSES state branch activity

thin-film technology

AuSES AS5033 and Best Practice workshops

Colac residents form a solar collective 34 37

ASI’s three minute solar challenge

AuSES Golden Jubilee in late 2012 47 AuSES Corporate Members

Products and services Solar perspective by Anthony Coles

Tech Talk

of Solco

Glen Morris helps usher in AS5033 36

Solpac, RA Power, Sungrow and REFUsol 43

Solar advances Horizon solar on a small scale

Smart grids, efficient systems, by Ishaan Khanna

Saudi Arabia’s quantum leap to RE 16 BlueScope’s BIPV mission:

ASI funded research

CSP’s potential spelt out, by Bill Parker

News and views Local and global solar developments 4 Nigel Morris takes stock of the solar market

45 SOLAR PROGRESS Published by CommStrat for Australian Solar Energy Society Ltd. Solar Progress subscriptions: contact Anna Washington Executive Assistant, AuSES anna@auses.org.au or call 0409 802 707

Wayne Smith: generating 20% of power from solar by 2030

Beyond the laboratory, by

Front cover: Children from the Marble Bar Primary School get a handson introduction to the town’s solar power station.

Warwick Johnston 46

EDITOR Dr Bill Parker, AuSES Phone: 0403 583 676 editor@auses.org.au CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Gipe, Warwick Johnston, Ishaan Khaana, Glen Morris, Nigel Morris and Wayne Smith. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Nicola Card NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Brian Rault Phone: 03 8534 5014 brian.rault@commstrat.com.au

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Annette Epifanidis COMMSTRAT MELBOURNE Level 8, 574 St Kilda Rd MELBOURNE 3004 Phone: 03 8534 5000 AUSTRALIAN SOLAR ENERGY SOCIETY LTD CEO John Grimes PO Box 148, Frenchs Forest NSW 1640 www.auses.org.au ABN 32 006 824 148 CommStrat ABN 31 008 434 802 www.commstrat.com.au

Solar Progress was first published in 1980. The magazine aims to provide readers with an in–depth review of technologies, policies and progress towards a society which sources energy from the sun rather than fossil fuels. Except where specifically stated, the opinions and material published in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or AuSES. While every effort is made to check the authenticity and accuracy of articles, neither AuSES nor the editors are responsible for any inaccuracy. Solar Progress is published quarterly

SolarProgress | 1

Bill Parker Editor

John Grimes Chief Executive, Australian Solar Energy Society SOLAR WON! The war is over. Solar won. We know we can deploy solar – generate electricity – at a very reasonable 15 cents per kW hour. Nowhere in the country can you buy electricity as cheap as this; the average price of grid electricity across the country is 22 cents per kW hour, and by 2014/2015 the average price of electricity around the country will be 34 cents per kW hour. Why so? It has been estimated that Government needs to invest over $100 billion on grid infrastructure between now and 2020. Already a staggering $56 billion has been spent, which is almost twice the cost of the broadband network, but incredibly there is no debate around this. We know who pays for that – it is electricity users. Governments are being deceptive by stating electricity prices are rising because of solar energy; the fact is, green energy raises prices by just three percent. That means 97% is due to other factors, including marketing costs. But those of us in the solar energy sphere can see the future and it is only a matter of time before the whole electricity sector transitions much more fundamentally. It will be breathtaking; the solar future is extremely bright. This is helped in part by Australia’s carbon tax which sends a signal to the public that we are moving toward renewable energy. STATE OF PLAY IN CHINA Having spent around two months in China thus far this year, I have observed a fundamental shift in the solar scene. With significant and strategic investment by the Chinese government, the country is fast becoming a super player in solar manufacturing and the imminent introduction of domestic feed-in tariffs in China is poised to significantly boost solar energy. This year China is on track to take solar installation capacity to between 3 and 5 gigawatts, and to a staggering 21 gigawatts by 2015. Let us not forget the Chinese solar industry exists because of Australia; many industry leaders were educated here and have a natural affinity with Australia. We want to see more of that value come back to our county and believe that the strategic partnership we have forged will take us a long way.

John Grimes 2 | WINTER 2012

In this edition, one year after our new format was launched; we have articles about innovation and the challenges that are presented by the inevitable penetration of solar generation into our electricity grids. The issues can be distilled down to Australia’s differences from the rest of the world. We have solar radiation about as good as it gets. Solar technology, at whatever scale, is functional and will be a significant part of our energy system, but we also have the legacy of a multiplicity of electrical networks; a large underpopulated area where small towns generally have radial grids, which have inherent limitations. The poles and wires of our ageing networks require upgrading to accommodate intermittent sources such as solar and wind. Yet the public has hardly any concept of what this means, and the costs of making the grids solar amenable are substantial. However, on the other side of the ‘ledger’ are scientists and engineers who are capable of solving the problems. It is a case of political will. CHANGING THE PARADIGM One senior engineer interviewed for this edition is firmly convinced that the electricity supply industry will change to taking on the role as ‘balancer’. Instead of the uni–directional energy flow, it will be bidirectional and, to manage the new paradigm better, the customer will install the means to store electricity both short and longer term, even though they are connected to a grid. Storage devices such as capacitors and fuel cells could become part of the household generation system based on PV. The balance extends to the marriage of PV with large–scale solar plants that store energy. Nothing will move smoothly until the deliberate misinformation is quashed.

Bill Parker

Printed using FSC® mixed source certified fibre by Printgraphics Pty Ltd under ISO 14001 Environmental Certification.

Making news

IEA’S

rosy forecast An International Energy Agency (IEA) report says that despite economic uncertainties in many countries, global power generation from hydropower, solar, wind and other renewable sources is projected to increase by more than 40% to almost 6 400 terawatthours – or roughly one-and-a-half times that of current electricity production in the United States. Renewable generation will increasingly shift from the OECD to new markets, with non-OECD countries accounting for twothirds of this growth. Of the 710GW of new global renewable electricity capacity expected, China accounts for almost 40%. Significant deployment is also expected in the United States, India, Germany and Brazil, among others.

GERMANY

sets 52GW cap on PV support German legislators have hammered out a compromise deal over cuts to the nation’s support regime for PV installations – which will now end altogether once 52GW of capacity is in place. The capacity cap is part of an agreement reached by Germany’s federal and state governments over plans to lower support levels by between 20% and 30%, depending on system size. The proposed revisions have been locked up in Germany’s parliamentary mediation committee after several states blocked the original plan, fearful of its impact on the country’s solar industry. Most of the changes first unveiled in February remain, although a new feed-in tariff (FIT) support band of 10kW-40kW for rooftop installations will receive €0.185/kWh – above the €0.165/kWh originally mooted. The changes will be backdated to 1 April. Plans to remove FIT support altogether for projects larger than 10MW remain in place. As well as setting the 52GW "absolute upper limit" for support – roughly twice the figure currently in place in Germany – the agreement maintains an annual growth target corridor of 2.5GW-3.5GW. 4 | WINTER 2012

WA Low Energy Emissions DEVELOPMENT FUNDING The West Australian State Government will invest $12.7million in new low emissions energy projects in Perth, the Mid-West and the Wheatbelt. In June, Environment Minister Bill Marmion and Energy Minister Peter Collier announced in-principle funding from the Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) Fund for Curtin University; Morton Seed and Grain; Biogass Renewables; Green Rock Energy Ltd; Solastor, in consortium with Carbon Reduction Ventures; and The University of Western Australia (UWA). “The funding is subject to these companies matching every $1 of Government funds with at least $3 from elsewhere, which will lead to a direct total investment of more than $50million in low emissions technology in WA,” Marmion said. “LEED funding provides vital support to technological development aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Government is proud to support these important projects.” One of the recipients, Solastor, in consortium with Carbon Reduction Ventures, plans to spend $3.775 million on a 1.5MW grid-connected CSP

plant incorporating heat storage technology near Morawa, a mining town on the fringe of the South West Interconnected Grid. The heat storage medium is high purity graphite and heat transfer is via an embedded heat exchange system. Since Morawa is in an arid area, the water conservation features of the plant are ideally suited. Similar technology is being used at Lake Cargellico in NSW where a plant commenced producing electricity in May 2011 using heliostats and graphite storage (although the operator there has no connection with Solastor).

That

One

With the carbon tax kicking in on July 1, the economics around solar power are looking rosier. Jeff Bye of ASX listed CBD Energy stated the carbon tax widens the gap between low cost solar power and more expensive traditional generation and that “If you have your own solar power station on your roof you not only avoid these costs but your source of power, the sun, is free and your low cost is locked in for 25 years.” Blackening the landscape however is the spike in pokies’ revenue, which coincided with cash hand-outs from the government.

In late June up to 50,000 Queenslanders lodged solar applications in the nick of time to benefit from the 44 cents per kilowatt hour rebate for households exporting power back to the electricity grid before it plummeted to 8 cents.

new TAX …

MAD DASH …

Making news

BOSCH …

Coordinated by Frederik Troester and Paul Scerri, PV manufacturer Bosch Solar Energy proudly supports Holmesglen (Victoria) by providing samples and other teaching material for the institute's Clean Energy Council Accreditation courses for PV systems. In its latest effort to showcase a high quality system, Bosch sponsored the installation of 10x240W monocrystalline solar panels at the Moorabbin campus’ Renewable Energy Training Centre. Visit www.bosch-solarenergy.com.au and sales.se@au.bosch.com

Solar dawn The future of Australia’s biggest solar energy scheme – the 250 MW Solar Dawn project in Queensland – is in the balance and will be determined by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Federal Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, has written to the agency referring the project to it for further consideration following a decision by the Queensland Government to withdraw $75 million funding from the project at Chinchilla. Ferguson says Solar Dawn offers Queensland the opportunity to be at the forefront of solar thermal technology and home to one of the largest solar power stations in the world and that such opportunities “have to be grabbed but the Queensland Government seems content to let them slip by”. The State Government, he says, is putting at jeopardy a project that represents $1.5 billion in economic investment to regional Queensland, 300 construction and local manufacturing jobs and a $68 million solar research and development program at the University of Queensland. Canberra has committed $464 million to the Solar Dawn project under the Solar Flagships Program and the project was given until 30 June to meet financial close. According to Ferguson the project’s proponents indicated they couldn’t meet the conditions. 6 | WINTER 2012

PV wins out OVER WIND The construction of the 300MW Silverton wind farm has been set aside in favour of PV. AGL will now focus on thin-film solar projects, which will be built with the help of Solar Flagships support scheme and state funding. AGL and US thin-film giant First Solar

“That’s going to bring the solar project online first...and that will sit ahead of Silverton.” Thomas adds that there is significant overlap between the work on Silverton and the solar projects, for example in grid connection. Thomas insists Silverton remains a priority for AGL, which bought the project

won A$195 million in federal and state government funds to build two PV projects with a combined capacity of 159MW – a 106MW project at Nyngan and a 53MW project at Broken Hill, both in NSW. “There are some key milestones around when [the solar projects] need to be delivered, in order to get Solar Flagships funding,” says AGL’s general manager of power development, Scott Thomas.

development rights in March from Germany’s Epuron and Australia’s Macquarie Capital. Silverton has development approval for an initial 282 turbines with a maximum capacity of 300MW, subject to market conditions and electricity network capacity. This could be expanded to as much as 1GW in later stages. The rapidly-falling price of PV means that many proposed wind projects owned by larger developers will be put aside in favour of solar.

SMA Bonus Program

SMA Solar Technology has extended its rewards program to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. This rewards programme is available to any person or company installing SMA inverters. It’s free of charge and easy to register. Installers can create an account at www.SMA-Bonus.com and start benefiting immediately. In the Rewards Shop gifts begin at 300 points, and installers can choose from a range of items including radios, barbeques, ipads and televisions. More information: www.SMA-Bonus.com

Award winning

STADIUM

The solar and wind energy map that featured in Autumn 2012 Solar Progress listed larger solar installations, which meant some notable and significant structures were omitted. Among these was the multi award-winning Metricon Stadium 215kW BIPV system at Carrara, that won Best System at ATRAA and Ecogen. The Gold Coast structure also took out the prestigious NECA awards. The designer of the Metricon Stadium solar system was Warwick Johnston, Managing Director of SunWiz and AuSES Award Winner 2011 for Outstanding Industry Contribution.

A powerful partnership Trina Solar is proud to partner with the Advanced Solar Research Team at ANUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, on the development of our next generation silicon cell technology. In a project supported by the Australian Solar Institute, the team in Canberra is using advanced nanotechnology for precise structuring of the solar cell surfaces to deliver significant increases in cell efficiency whilst cutting manufacturing cost. A powerful partnership. www.trinasolar.com.au

Special technical feature

Solar power in WA– open for business In the past, power stations in outback WA were fuelled by diesel or diesel-gas hybrids running 24 hours a day. Now, with the massive input from PVs, the local grids have to be managed to respond to the intermittency of the solar resource. Solar Progress met with two of the engineering staff at Horizon Power – David Edwards and Jeremy Rotstein – to hear about the challenge of incorporating PV into isolated power grids. Story by Bill Parker.

Horizon Power is an electricity retailer and infrastructure manager with a difference. Formed in 2006 following the disaggregation of Western Power, vertically integrated Horizon generates, distributes and retails electricity for the area well beyond the populous South West corner of Western Australia. That’s 2.3 million square kilometres but only 45,000 customers, in environments ranging from the cold south coast, through to deserts in the state’s centre and stretching way up north to tropical rainforests. Apart from a small inter–connected grid in the North West at Port Hedland, Horizon’s customers are located in small towns and communities serviced by radial grids mainly fuelled by diesel or gas or a mixture of both. Two notable exceptions are Marble Bar and Nullagine, which have solar–diesel power stations. In the far north, hydro–power from Lake Argyle contributes, as does wind at Esperance, Hopetoun, Denham, Coral Bay, and Exmouth. The cost of diesel is an issue for any dependant user, and certainly for an electricity utility. Security of supply is also critical and may become more so in the future. With road transport the only means

8 | WINTER 2012

of delivery for the isolated power stations in WA, that too is a further cost issue. The answer is solar, and here is where Horizon Power has been innovative. In September 2009, the company commenced construction of their own solar–diesel hybrid power stations in what is Australia’s hottest region, just inland from Port Hedland. These two power stations at Marble Bar and Nullagine are also unusual for the use of 500kW flywheels as system smoothing buffers – spinning reserve to cope with fluctuations in solar supply. Awarded prizes and now well known and unique in the world, these two stations may be the only ones that Horizon Power builds. The reason is simple. In the time since the two stations came on-line, there has been a massive increase in the installations of roof–top PV in remote WA, and according to David Edwards, Senior Engineer in the Commercial and Business Development Division at Horizon Power, the drive is now to give the consumer more opportunity to generate their own electricity and empower them to make informed decisions not just about their consumption, but also where they get their energy from.

The net result is that rural and isolated customers will be generating their own power, just when the power is needed. However, it is clear from local experience in the region and elsewhere, that the introduction of uncontrolled PV needs careful management. From July 1 this year, Horizon presented customers with a renewable energy buyback scheme that offers a rate that differs according to location. The rate varies from 10 to 50cents/kWhr reflecting the cost of electricity production for each town. Where other factors act (hydro, wind, proximity to gas pipelines and diesel delivery costs) to reduce production costs, the buyback rate is lower, and clearly fine–tuned when the published rates are quoted down to the last cent, eg Marble Bar at 47.10 cents/kWhr, and Nullagine (a further 100kms inland) at the maximum 50 cents/kWhr. The main issue underpinning the success of the new scheme is generation management. In the days before solar, a diesel plant would run 24 hours a day. Now, the intermittent and growing uncontrolled solar input has its challenges, one of which is the radial nature

of the small town power supply networks that are unsuited for the dispersed solar input. “We needed to find ways of increasing the hosting capacity for solar on our networks, to meet customer demand for installing renewable energy systems but do so without compromising on our quality of supply obligations,” David Edwards said. “Like many other utilities, Horizon Power has been grappling with the challenge of managing customer demand for renewable energy technology with the need to provide reliable and secure power supplies,” he added. “I am thrilled to say that Horizon Power is well progressed to overcome this challenge and from 1 July 2012, customers have had the option, subject to an approvals

process, of installing a generation managed system, that is a system where the output can either be stored or managed by Horizon Power, in towns where restrictions are currently in place.” Clearly in a small town there is a limit to the penetration of PV, and Horizon publishes hosting capacity data for each town. Once the “uncontrolled” capacity is reached, Horizon Power will manage the additional solar systems, even if it does not export to the town system. In order to maximise the amount of renewable energy connected to the electricity system, new connections will need to meet Horizon’s generation management requirements (some exemptions exist regarding generation management).

Solar developments

MARBLE BAR

NULLAGINE

Capacity (diesel)

1280kW (4 units)

960kw (3 units)

Capacity (solar)

300kW

Max/Min load

600kW/200kW

450kW/120kW

Solar System (SunPower T20 tracking system)

Flat plate single axis tracking. >65% of daytime energy. World record of 92% achieved. 34% of year–round energy.

FLYWHEEL Powerstore 500kW, 3tonne, magnetic bearings in helium environment Diesel savings

405,000L/year each station

This control is written into the agreements the customer has with the utility, and when the system cannot take more input from a solar system, an automatic signal is sent to the customer’s system to “ramp down”, but not to switch off. However, there has to be a limit in such small supply areas – demand must exceed supply, there is no possibility of “wheeling” the energy to another location.

From the market aspect, things have moved and will move further away from the utility being the sole supplier towards being an ‘energy balancer’. The costs of electricity supply by the conventional means and the imperative for companies like Horizon is to find ways of providing supply that minimises fossil fuel usage and allows the public to become its own generator. The sustainable energy industry has responded extremely positively to the new renewable energy buyback offer, says David Edwards.

“We have developed simple standards that will provide the market with a clear pathway to be innovative,” he said. Edwards explained that the inclusion of energy storage as a ‘shock absorber’ to the network during a cloud event opens the door for higher levels of renewable energy, and that by providing a clear framework for connection he expects the market to find the most cost effective solution, which at first will likely include wet energy storage. “It’s not too hard to imagine the advent of a home–based fuel cell as a possibility for the smoothing capacity, although there are many options already available such as solid state forms of energy storage for example super-capacitors,” he explained. “The door is open for commercial enterprises to offer renewable energy power supply technologies, but clearly these will be smaller systems considering the hosting capacity of most of Horizon’s local town supplies being in the kilowatt range. Horizon Power is keen to provide as much information as it can, and commendably so, since we are taking

“Learning from our experiences with system stability using flywheels at Marble Bar and Nullagine, we are moving towards a technology agnostic way in for the customers to offer their own energy storage systems.

steps further towards the change from the one way supplier of electricity to our own ‘power stations’. This approach may well succeed in other remote areas of the world blessed with an adequate solar resource.

The utility as ‘energy balancer’

10 | WINTER 2012

Horizon Power supply areas

Further information http://www.horizonpower.com.au/