German Renewable Energy Act Reform is not a “Feed-in Tariff 2.0”

The German government has presented a first draft to reform the Renewable Energy Act, cornerstone of Germany's energy transition. Anna Leidreiter explains the shortcomings.

Protests last winter against the looming EEG reform – main criticism: Energy democrary is to be pushed back in favor of big industry. (Photo by Jakob Huber/Campact, CC BY-NC 2.0)

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On April 8th, the German cabinet approved the Renewable Energy Act Reform. The reform, referred to by some as the Feed-in Tariff 2.0 (FiT 2.0), was necessary: In the past few years, Feed-in Tariffs successfully boosted renewable energy deployment in the country. This sparked public and policy discussions around the grid development, market integration and financial instruments that would finally enable Germany to reach its policy target of 80% renewable electricity by 2050.
Unfortunately, the bill passed fails to address any of these questions. Instead, it strengthens the corporations and energy utilities that have failed to integrate renewables into their business model in the past decade. The following analysis shows why the reform cannot be considered FiT 2.0.

A brief recap of history
In 2000, Germany was one of the first countries to implement a Feed-in Tariff law (Renewable Energy Source Act) – thus becoming a role model for the world. Since then, about 100 countries, states and regions have copied the best policy that created an industrial revolution for renewable energies (RE). In Germany, Feed-in Tariffs have resulted in a more than 25% share of renewable electricity, technological innovation, thousands of tonnes of CO₂ savings, 370,000 jobs as well as high revenues for communities and regions. About 20 million Germans today live in so-called 100% RE regions (in total about 140 country-wide) that aim to supply 100% of their electricity and often also heat demand with renewables. These regions create local value by saving high costs for energy imports, creating local jobs and generating tax income. The FiT law leveraged private investment: About 888 energy cooperatives as well as private investors, farmers, banks and enterprises own about 95% of total installed RE capacity. The "big four" power providers own the other 5%.

Reform brings end to success story

Given the long success of renewables in Germany, it is not surprising that the world now expects the German government to design the policy framework for an infrastructure of permanent, safe and sustainable energy. Unfortunately, with this reform the German government ends its success story by putting the energy system back into the hands of those who have a deep interest in remaining with conventional, dirty fossil energy sources. The new policy creates deficits for communities and regions and protects industry interests. In fact, the reform is a collection of compromises that shields fossil autocracy and large energy utilities at the expense of energy consumers, citizen cooperatives and the renewable energy sector with its 370,000 employees. It threatens climate protection and planetary habitability – all for short-term profits.

While international experts last week again called for a fast phase out from fossil resources, the German government with its reform is slowing the rapid expansion of renewable power, as it forces investors to take higher risks when investing in a future-just energy system. The new bill protects industry from bearing the brunt of future cost rises by forcing households and middle-class enterprises to pay more. This reform clearly has the handwriting of the industry and proves again how corporations govern our lives.

A quick summary of the key reform elements:

Cap for wind and sun energyThe bill caps the amount of renewable electricity that qualifies for the FIT depending on the technology: on-shore wind 2.5 GW per year, photovoltaic 2.5 GW per year, biomass about 1 GW per year and offshore wind 6.5 GW to 2020. This is an attempt by the government to centralise and control the Energiewende – a transition that was successful precisely because of its decentralised and community-driven approach.


Exemptions for energy intensive industryThe reform continues to shield major industrial users of power from a renewable energy surcharge, which adds currently 6.3 euro cents per kilowatt-hour to the electricity bill of consumers. Exemptions for energy intensive industry are the main driver of the increasing electricity prices in Germany. Changing this was the key intention of the reform process and one of the main election promises of both governmental parties CDU and SPD. However, despite the fact that the European Commission would stop the exemptions due to European competition regulation, the German Energy Minister has helped ensure that 1,600 industry users are likely to continue to be exempt, saving them some 5.1 billion euros per year.


Taxing self-consumption of solar PVThe reform applies a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) surcharge to direct consumption. So far, owners of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems who use the electricity they themselves generate did not pay the FiT surcharge, which resulted in new business models for energy cooperatives and regional energy providers. This will now change for all operators of systems larger than 10 kW (existing installations are excluded). The industry has again successfully bargained an exception as the reform notes that energy intensive industries that generate their own electricity will pay only 15% of the surcharge, even if they are powered by gas or coal plants. Experts and associations have already announced that they will take legal action against this. Applying the FiT surcharge to direct consumption will destroy decentralised and cooperative-based business models.
Direct marketing
While the old Renewable Energy Act provided investment security by ensuring a fixed Feed-in Tariff for 20 years, the government now implements mandatory direct marketing. The reform foresees the mandatory direct marketing first for renewable energy plants with a capacity over 500 kW (from August 2014 onwards). From 2016 onward, this will also apply to installations over 250 kW and from 2017 installations over 100kW. Hence, owners are forced into a marketing system with immense bureaucracy and increased risk for them. It excludes energy cooperatives and private investors from the market – which have hitherto been the backbone of the energy transition.


Quota system instead of Feed-in TariffsThe government foresees a change of the renewable energy policy approach from the successful FiT to a tender or quota system by 2017. Doing so scraps the determining success element – the purchase obligation – which provided guaranteed grid access for renewable energies and thus enabled the uptake of renewables in Germany. Studies and experience from several countries prove that a FiT system results in cheaper electricity than the quota model. Further, due to volatile market and trading prices for certificates, plant operators are affected by a lasting trend of little planning security. This has a major impact on the variety of actors involved in the energy market because energy cooperatives, farmers and individuals do not have the resources to take part in elaborate bureaucratic tendering.


Feed-in Tariff (FiT) surchargeWith the FiT surcharge, consumers pay the difference between the fixed price for renewable energy fed into the grid and the sale of the renewable energy at the energy stock market. As the price of renewable electricity on the stock market decreased, the amount of the FiT surcharge therefore increased. This leads to the paradox of electricity consumers paying more for their electricity through the surcharge added to their bill despite decreasing prices on the stock market. This mechanism was created by former governments and is not addressed in the new Renewable Energy Act reform. The reform, therefore, will be unable to achieve its ultimate goal of cost reduction.


Conclusion
This analysis shows why the Renewable Energy Act Reform is not and does not deserve the term "Feed-in Tariff 2.0 (FiT 2.0)": It does not build on the successes of the best policy of the past but rather ends it. This policy development demonstrates again the shift from public to corporate government which cannot and must not be accepted. The transition to 100% renewable energy is a political decision and an ethical imperative which our government must take up. In times of climate change, energy policy is not about seeking competition between clean and dirty energy sources but about providing a path towards 100% RE. Our government has the moral duty to protect and empower its people – not its corporations. The energy market as designed by the German government is a market that disproportionately robs the 99% and rewards the 1%. It is neither a free market nor a liberal market. It is a 1% market that serves the short-term profit interests of a few.



Source: EnergyTransition.de

UK government unveils Solar Strategy

The U.K. government is looking to encourage more commercial rooftop usage of solar panels.

The U.K. government today unveiled the European Union's first dedicated national solar strategy in the English West Midlands. The government's strategy is a shift in emphasis away from solar farms into utilizing south-facing commercial rooftops.

Greg Barker, the United Kingdom's minister for energy and climate change, unveiled the strategy at the new Sunsolar factory in Oldbury near Birmingham. The Solar Strategy aims to double the number of U.K. solar homes to one million by next year, install 20 GW of solar by 2020, and implement 1 GW of solar on government-owned infrastructure.

Barker said, "There is massive potential to turn our large buildings into power stations and we must seize the opportunity this offers to boost our economy as part of our long term economic plan. Solar not only benefits the environment, it will see British job creation and deliver the clean and reliable energy supplies that the country needs at the lowest possible cost to consumers."

The strategy also includes a commitment to harness the potential of the mid-size and large-scale rooftop market as well as providing a viable alternative to the "big six" energy supply companies in the U.K.

The Solar Strategy was formulated by the department for energy and climate change, with input from the Solar Trade Association. 

Source: PV Magazine

Japan FIT Changes Reflect End of Residential PV Program and Delay in Non-residential Projects

Changing government policies may cast a shadow over growth of the Japanese PV market. With the strong national government-supported residential rebate and feed-in tariff (FIT) programs, the Japanese PV market has accelerated its growth and is re-emerging as one of the world's top markets. Past performance, however, is not a guarantee of future success as has often happened in the PV market.



End of the Federal Residential PV Program
The Japanese federal government is ending the national residential PV subsidy program. The program started 20 years ago and laid a strong foundation for the world's largest residential PV market. When the program closes its door in March 2014, it is expected to have solarized over 1.5 million residential roofs, or added about 6 GW-worth of PV capacity, in Japan.

Japan initiated solar technology R&D and field testing under the "Sun Shine Project" after the 1^st Oil Shock of the 1970s. The Project was to bring a safe, stable energy supply to the nation. As part of the Sun Shine Project, the government launched the Residential PV System Dissemination Program in 1994.



Between 1994 and 2005, this program funded close to 300,000 residential PV systems. During this period, Japan dominated the world PV market in terms of both installation and production. The average residential PV system cost was greatly reduced to ¥661 (US$108) per watt even with an incentive rate of just ¥20 (US$3.00) per watt (or 3 percent of the system cost). At that point, the federal government concluded that the domestic PV market became self-sufficient and discontinued the residential incentive program.

In the meantime Germany and a few other countries expanded their share of the market by infusing national FIT policies. In 2006, Japan faced its first market contraction.  The domestic market suffered not only from the lack of incentives, but also lack of modules since domestic module makers shifted their focus to Europe for greater demand and better profits.
To stop the domestic market from further decline, the federal government brought back the residential PV incentive program in January 2009 with an incentive rate of ¥70 (US$11.30) per watt.  The domestic PV market was revitalized and Japan celebrated its one million solar-roof installations in April 2012.

According to data published by the Japan Photovoltaic Expansion Center (J-PAC), the program supported 276,051 residential PV system installations during fiscal year 2012 (April 2012 to March 2013). Although the program is closing its door for good in March, the number of applications submitted for fiscal year 2013 is less than the previous year.
This can be attributed not to a reduction in consumer interest, but to a reduction in available installers. Manager of a domestic module marker said, "This reduction is partly because installers are focusing more on small non-residential systems (than residential systems)."  A national installer also commented that this represents the shift in many installers' business to more lucrative, small non-residential systems.


National FIT — Trouble with Completing Large Systems
Japan shifted its focus from the traditional residential segment to the non-residential segment with the launch of the national FIT program in July 2012. The national government believed that deploying the larger, non-residential segment was a quick way to expand the national PV market and to catch up with Germany and Italy.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) approved close to 25 GW worth of PV systems under the FIT program between July 2012 and October 2013. Systems sized over 1 MW represented about 60 percent of the approved systems. While many large-scale PV projects became successfully operational, a large portion of the approved systems still remains uncompleted.

Last October, METI began investigating the causes of the low completion rate, including possible intentional delays by project developers or owners who are waiting for further reduction in cost of components and labor to improve project returns.

The agency mandated project status reports to FIT applicants who reserved the FY2012 FIT rate (¥42/kWh) between April 2013 and March 2013 for a system sized over 400 kW. Out of 13.3 GW (or 4,699 systems), METI found that only 8% of the FIT-approved PV capacity has become operational as of this January. In fact, 4.7 GW worth of the approved projects have neither selected a sit nor placed a purchase order for the equipment.

Table: METI Fiscal Year 2012 FIT PV Project Survey

Project Status		No. System	GW
Operational		1,049	1.1
Withdrawn		419	0.9
Not operational	Site decided and system purchased	1,588	3.9
	Either site decided or system purchased	784	2.6
	Neither site decided nor system purchased	758	4.7
Not responded		101	0.2
Total		4,699	13.3

METI announced that it will disqualify uncommitted projects from the FIT program.  For example, the projects that are categorized as "neither site decided nor system purchased" will be delisted if they fail to show proof of valid millstones by this March and the projects categories as "either side decided or system purchased" will be disqualified unless they commit both site selection and system purchase by the end of this August.

In a separate survey, METI found that the average installed cost of systems greater than 1 MW increased to ¥305 per watt in the fourth quarter of 2013 from ¥280 per watt in the same quarter in 2012. This increase is due partly to higher priced imported components because of the yen's devaluation and the rise of domestic installation costs.




Another reason that non-residential system costs have not decreased quickly is that system integrators, or EPCs, do not have a strong incentive to lower their prices. This is because so many PV projects with the FY2012 FIT rate (¥42/kWh) remain uncommitted and those projects are expected to provide better profit margin than the projects with FY2013 FIT rate (¥37.8/kWh).


FIT for FY2014
"There is a rumor circulating that projects can be disqualified unless a system purchase or installation order is placed within six months of the date of the FIT application approval notice," said a project developer. The agency is currently considering toughening the FIT application approval process and imposing time restrictions to weed out bad applicants.

METI is also deciding new FIT rates, effective April 1, 2014. At a recent FIT purchase price committee meeting, a few committee members requested METI to take the lack of the rebate program into consideration for the new FIT rate for residential systems to prevent the residential market from slowing down. Takeshi Wada, a committee members, suggested that the program should focus more on the distribution generation by providing better rates for residential and small, non-residential systems that can utilize available roof space.

He and other committee members also suggested METI to consider different FIT rates for such as small, medium and large-scale, non-residential systems, instead of current one rate for all non-residential systems. A project developer speculates new rates to be ¥36/kWh for systems below 50 kW and ¥32/kWh for systems above 50 kW while other developer said that the government will not change the current one-rate structure for the new fiscal year.
METI will announced the new rates sometimes in March.

Source: Renewable Energy World

Global market for Residential PV Storage expected to boom

Global installations of residential PV storage systems will grow to 2.5 GW by 2017, according to a new report by research group IHS, which finds that Germany's energy storage subsidy has kickstarted the surge.

With incentives and subsidies such as FITs being cut, it is increasingly attractive for end-consumers to self-consume. It has thus become less attractive to feed excess generated PV electricity into the grid and retail electricity prices have been increasing as well. This is boosting the incentive for on-site energy self-consumption as the new IHS report “The Role of Energy Storage in the PV Industry” highlights.

"Residential PV customers are striving to maximize their own consumption of the energy they are generating," said Abigail Ward, PV analyst at IHS. "This is because rising electricity prices and decreasing feed-in-tariffs (FITs) are serving as a disincentive for consumers to export their power to the electricity grid."

The cumulative installations are expected to grow to 2.5 GW by 2017, a leap from 12 MW in 2012. The number of PV residential energy storage installations are expected to be greater than the total number of residential solar systems in Germany today.



"An energy storage solution enables a PV system owner to shift energy from when it is generated to a later time for consumption," Ward added. "As a result, demand for residential energy storage products will continue to accelerate as PV energy reaches grid-parity in a number of countries."

Kickstart in Germany

The introduction of the German Energy Storage Subsidy is said to represent the turning point by increasing the return-on-investment of a residential PV system installed with an energy storage solution. Nevertheless with today's prices, the financial gains to be obtained by increasing self-consumption do not yet offset the increase in upfront costs associated with the addition of an energy storage solution in a residential PV system over the expected 20-year lifetime of the installation. The German storage subsidy program is however one way to make it easier on the pocket.

"Not only will the incentive reduce the upfront cost of residential storage solutions deployed in Germany by up to 30%, it will also generate volume in this immature market — and price reductions achieved by mass production will also benefit installations in other countries," said Sam Wilkinson, PV research manager and co-author of the report. "For battery-based residential PV energy storage systems, IHS predicts an average cost reduction of around 45% during the next five years, largely due to decreases in battery prices."

Large-scale storage market

The market drivers for large-scale storage systems though differ from residential systems. Wilkinson added that the deployment in these massive systems is anticipated to shift from pilot demonstration projects to commercial installations during the next year. He stated, "Annual installations for the total grid-connected market are forecast to reach nearly 6 GW in 2017."



Source: PV Magazine

Australian utilities urged to prepare for rapid storage adoption

“Batteries are a little bit like bacon. Everything is better with batteries,” quipped Michelle Taylor of Queensland utility Ergon Energy at session on energy storage at Clean Energy Week in Brisbane.

“There’s no doubt that storage linked with the appropriate interface mechanism presents fantastic opportunities for the customer and utility,” the utility’s technology development manager added more formally. Yet in Ergon’s home state of Queensland, grid-connected batteries supporting solar PV are currently unavailable to residential customers.

With opportunities under review by both Ergon and its state-owned counterpart Energex, storage proponents are concerned that energy storage will end up down the same bumpy road travelled precariously by residential solar PV over the several years.

“Utilities were caught by surprise by the uptake of PV. This time, with storage we need to have them involved,” said Bruce Leslie, R&D manager and director at Brisbane-based LC Energy.

“Government subsidies are very important if we are to have a viable system, and we need the support of the utilities and generators,” he added. A residential peak demand tariff would make grid-connected home batteries an economic proposition.

“The PV industry tends to view itself as saving the planet – the stairway to heaven – and who could possibly object [to their existence]?”

But the Energex view of PV is very different; after all it lost 14 per cent of the energy distributed for the same peak demand. The Queensland-owned utility received 14% less income for no change in costs.

Ergon’s Taylor admits many challenges stand in the way of efficient electricity network management. “We have a vast network as a distribution company and while the whole system-load may look one way, the various distribution networks may look very different,” she says, noting Ergon is one of the most dispersed distribution companies in the country with about 130,000 km of line and 65,000 km serving only 25,000 customers – equivalent to one customer every 3km.

Although the cost of storage is falling quickly, uptake of energy storage by the distributors is severely hampered by outdated policies and regulations, which Taylor expects to disperse with some of the new policy directives issued by the state government.

Ergon is looking at ways of integrating renewable energy onto its square networks.

“Renewables are great, but if you put renewables onto square alignments, it’s a disaster…. just plonking renewables doesn’t do a thing for us, in fact it causes a lot of problems for us.


Ecoult, a company spun out of the CSIRO and now owned by the US’s East Penn Manufacturing, has developed energy storage solutions which are suited to isolated grids. The company also offers a fix for power companies wanting to implement the integration of gas or diesel with renewables.

“You can pay for the storage [cost] from what you gain by running the diesel in a fuel-efficient zone rather than not running it in a fuel efficient zone. And the storage is to take care of the renewable variability,” said John Wood, CEO of energy storage company Ecoult.

Ecoult’s Ultrabattery is a completely new class of lead-acid technology, the company claims. It’s a hybrid, long-life lead-acid energy storage device containing both an Ultracapacitor and a lead-acid battery in a common electrolyte.

The company is approaching potential customers both in Australia and abroad. “The good thing in Australia is you have the chance to mature the technologies here and supply them to the international business model,” Wood said.

Ecoult will supply the largest battery-based renewable energy storage system in Australia to Hydro Tasmania’s King Island Renewable Energy Project. The 3 MW/1.6 MWh UltraBattery storage system – to be installed later this year – will complement other elements of Hydro Tasmania’s project, which in recent weeks has managed to switch off diesel generators for up to 90 minutes, relying solely on wind power.

The King Island project came in the wake of Ecoult’s success at ‘smoothing wind’ in Hampton, where is implemented a MW scale wind power storage system using UltraBattery. It demonstrated the ability to smooth turbine’s output (turbine plus battery – orange line) using an algorithm developed by the CSIRO.

Wood went on to explain the Ultrabattery’s application in solar PV smoothing and firming at Public Service Co. of New Mexico’s (PNM) Prosperity Project, located south of Albuquerque.

The project integrates an advanced VRLA (Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid) and UltraBattery energy storage solution with a separately installed 500KW solar plant.

Few standalone opportunities for large-scale grid-connected energy storage systems exist without government incentives.

In the US, where Ecoult launched the Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland Interconnection Regulation Services project, the government awarded grants to get storage projects up quickly. Subsequently, government support turned to regulation and will eventually move further towards tax credits.

“There’s a lot of federal support in the US and state support in California through regulation. All of that means you can do storage and have standalone economic justification,” Wood said.

In a challenging market such as Australia, it is up to technology developers to prove their mettle, Wood believes.

“If you are representing the capabilities of a technology it is really up to you to demonstrate to the market the viability and purpose and really push your case.

LC Energy’s Bruce Leslie has taken this path, producing a study that compares ‘energy shifting’ with ‘peak shaving’ applications for a typical moderate-to-high energy-use house. He found that the peak-shaving application uses less energy from the battery, while that batter doesn’t cycle as deeply.

The peak-shaving application is set up to monitor the grid power. Whenever the grid exceeds a set point, power is taken from the batteries.

If Energex and Ergon introduce an optional residential peak demand tariff households have an incentive to switch to a peak-shaving application.

“We can shave a lot off the peak with a relatively small mount of storage. In fact, as we add storage we actually get diminishing returns, give the costs to the system is the mount of storage,” Leslie said.

“I think we can move to a peak-shaving scenario on a reasonable peak demand residential tariff,” he added.

Utilities and governments must get in front of the curve and set standards that will drive desired behaviours, Leslie said.

Talking to Renew Economy, Leslie warns Ergon and Energex are perhaps a year or two away from a flood of cheap batteries and cheap systems coming into the country that will take them out of the driving seat.

“I think they are in denial. Storage will be undeniably big in the future. Will they avoid the problems that arose with PV? So far I can’t see it.”



Source: Renew Economy

How should the UK support the uptake of domestic Solar PV Storage ?

"Increasing self-consumption reduces the growing burden on the grid, the associated costs of system upgrades and the electricity bills of generators. Storage can assist with balancing demand, reduce the need for peaking plant and importantly it will enable the continued growth of decentralised energy"

Despite all the benefits energy storage provides to the grid and generators and its integral part in the future of solar PV in the UK, it is not yet a financially viable investment for any distinct part of the value chain.

A varied range of solutions and opportunities designed to encourage the adoption of domestic scale energy storage are being used around the world for the UK government to understand and learn from. Ongoing research hopes to identify additional policy options and suitability in the UK market

Domestic scale PV accounts for 1.5GW of the 2.5GW currently installed in the UK and it is expected to remain the main driver of growth in this sector. Due to the intermittent nature of solar PV, energy storage needs to form part of the predicted potential of 20GW by 2020. Increasing self-consumption reduces the growing burden on the grid, the associated costs of system upgrades and the electricity bills of generators. Storage can assist with balancing demand, reduce the need for peaking plant and importantly it will enable the continued growth of decentralised energy.

Similar grid infrastructure problems exist for global major solar pv market players. In order to address this problem, a range of solutions to encourage the adoption of storage are being introduced in the US, Japan and Europe. As set out below, legislation, targets, investment into innovation and financial incentives such as the feed-in tariff, variable electricity tariffs and capital subsidises are all being introduced and developed within a range of political, economic and social settings.

California

The California Renewable Energy Resources Act requires 33% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. The proposal, which is currently in the consultation stage, sets a suggested 2020 procurement target of 1.3GW of battery storage for the Californian utilities, 15% of the target is to be achieved from customer storage. Alongside this, the California Solar Incentive (CSI) is scaling back and storage is being subsidised at $1,800/kW through the Self-Generating Incentive Programme (SGIP)

Market rate net metering in California provides solar generators with a credit for export, at the current retail price. Time of use (TOU) meters will be required for recipients of solar incentives when TOU tariffs are available. Storage will allow sales at peak times when retail prices are high and purchases or storage at off peak times.

In a strategic analysis on energy storage by California’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Programme to encourage take up, it was suggested the Independent System Operator could implement imbalance charges for intermittent resources and regulatory bodies could provide greater certainty of investment return by developing a valuation method to help monetise the benefits provided by energy storage. A ruling this month by the Federal Energy Regulation Committee requires installed storage reporting and accounting for greater monitoring and to inform policy decisions.

Germany

The leaders in solar pv per capita, Germany, has a goal of producing 35% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050. Whilst its successful generous FiT’s have slowly been cut and will unlikely continue past 2018, storage remains an integral part of policy revision in this area where they have launched a subsidy for purchases of solar pv battery systems paying €660/kW ($863). Initial reports suggest the subsidy has complexity issues and slow take up at present. Loans have also been made available by the government owned bank KfW. Prior to introducing this subsidy and until a review of Germanys energy policy, solar generators were paid a bonus per kWh for greater than 30% self consumption.

Japan

While many European countries have been cutting back on solar incentives, Japan introduced one of the highest FiT’s levels in July 2012 in order to encourage more widespread take up. This has lead to Japan becoming one of the fastest growing markets in solar pv. Following the Fukishima disaster, Japan has set a 20% target by 2020 for renewable generation. Driven by power outages and to secure its leadership position in battery manufacturing, Japan has introduced a 3 year subsidy program that covers 1/3 of the total cost of residential energy storage systems.

Earlier this year a joint venture, One Energy Corporation launched an energy service for households combining storage battery rental plans and a smart house application.

The UK

In the UK, focus has been on innovation and pilot projects. The Low Carbon Network Fund (LCNF) is a £500m fund for distribution network operators to support projects that are trying out new technology, operating and commercial arrangements. One of the LCNF projects led by Western Power Distribution, SoLa Bristol is combining a Real-Time Pricing tariff with integrated network control and domestic solar energy storage. At a recent seminar WPD suggested such variable tariffs are being considered but could take 3-5 years before they would be in place.

Developing a sustainable solar storage policy is a complicated task and time is of the essence. Ensuring investors are adequately rewarded for the associated benefits as well as giving consideration to targets, energy prices, security for investment and support to the industry are all important when developing a suitable policy.

Whilst having regard to the barriers and opportunities that are characteristic to different energy markets and political structures, lessons can be learnt from the current proposed solutions and can assist in us in the UK with developing our own policies.

To comment and make suggestions on future UK storage policy possibilities please complete this survey as part of research being undertaken. For information purposes results will be shared with the DECC Solar Storage Strategy Group and BRE National Solar Centre.


Source: Solar Power Portal

Dick Smith wrong on Energy Costs - Renewables are Cheapest

"The only thing stopping an even faster rush for rooftop solar installs on domestic residences are discriminatory policies which prevent householders subject to a previous feed-in-tariff schemes from upgrading and adding more panels to their systems, and utilities that unreasonably limit the size of new systems"

Dick Smith has got the relative costs of fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable power all mixed up in his latest polemic, “Ten Bucks A Litre.”

I am from Energy security think-tank Zero Emissions and I wrote the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan which is briefly showcased during the film.

The stationary energy plan, the first of its kind to show that Australia could run on 100% renewable energy a combination of wind power, rooftop solar photovoltaic, and solar thermal with storage (featured in the film), along with a huge “mining” effort to find energy efficiency in housing, commerce and industry. It was a landmark that helped caused the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the organisation that runs Australia’s electricity supply, to write and publish this year its own plan and validate much of our work.

Whether you care about climate change or not, we’re moving rapidly away from coal because domestic and international banks, including the World Bank, will no longer invest in coal fired power. And a shift to gas would involve the burning of coal seam gas, due to a massive upswing in demand in Asia especially Japan the cost of gas here is becoming prohibitive.

The anticipated three-fold increase in the cost of gas (once we’re linked to international markets) means that wind power is now already the cheapest source of new energy capacity. And it is also cheaper for householders to generate their own power during the day from rooftop solar than to buy it through the meter from the big power companies. The only thing stopping an even faster rush for rooftop solar installs on domestic residences are discriminatory policies which prevent householders subject to a previous feed-in-tariff schemes from upgrading and adding more panels to their systems, and utilities that unreasonably limit the size of new systems.

The cost of gas being is being driven by the building of LNG export terminals in Queensland. Once we have a sizable link through these processing and port facilities to send gas including coal seam gas and shale out to the world’s markets, the gas market will mirror the oil market and always react to world pricing signals. We will never go back to having a sheltered market with gas as a cheap source of energy. What has really driven this international price up is the Nuclear disaster at Fukushima.


The Fukushima nuclear disaster two years back closed down a massive industrial manufacturing area for good, causing the abandonment of billions of dollars of factories and their robotic tooling and other plant. The cleanup bill is estimated at $60-70 billion and the country only has two out of 54 nuclear reactors operating. What’s more, it turns out that the two reactors that are operating were built atop a major earthquake fault line. So it is quite likely that they will be shut down in September, leaving Japan with no nuclear power plants at all.

Nuclear is the most expensive option when you take into account the external factors, followed by coal and coal seam gas. These external factors include devastating effects on health, agricultural output, land degradation, acid rain and the ability for us to feed ourselves, and of course in the case of the fossil fuels, climate change.

Already, in India and China renewables are either the cheapest form of new generation, wind is beating fossil fuels in Brazil and elsewhere. Even in Australia, wind and solar are considered the cheapest option for new capacity. Further price reductions are all about economies of scale, and economies of scale is what India and China have a lot of. Only renewable energy’s flagship technologies of wind power, rooftop solar and solar thermal with storage have small footprints and superior environmental performance, with innovation improving this all the time.

Dick Smith needs to revise his conclusion. If we want cheap power for the 21st century we need to invest much more in renewables, if we want to flounder, get sick and risk our economies then nuclear and fossil fuels will do the trick.

I look forward to a series of town hall debates with Dick Smith on the right way to a renewable future for Australia.


Source: Renew Economy

Wasting a lot since I am on vacation and turned OFF the ESS ... Oh well

I know it is a shame but I am wasting a lot of Solar Energy these days because I switched OFF my LiFePO4 ESS, but left the SMA inverter ON; I just did not want to leave it ON all this time while far away from home with not much usage but the fridge and small appliances

So it is producing during the day and covers my daytime small usage at least , but all the Surplus is just fed back to the grid (for free and invoiced to my neighbors by the utility company BTW)

This is the perfect time to see all the surplus energy that can be stored on a daily basis

Germany : The commercial sector discovers “own consumption”

The figures for ownership of renewables in Germany indicate a shift from private citizens, who still make up about half of investments, to the commercial sector. Craig Morris says some people saw this coming.

Photovoltaic power station in Lower Saxony

In my last post, I compared ownership statistics from 2011 and 2012 for renewables in Germany. One of the major energy policy changes in 2012 was the expiration of feed-in tariffs for new solar arrays larger than 10 megawatts. To give you an idea of how big that is, the average homeowner probably has space for 3 to 5 kilowatts – 10 megawatts is 10,000 kilowatts.

There was therefore a rush in 2012 to finish up the last systems larger than 10 megawatts, which may account for the two percent uptick in ownership among funds & banks, a likely group to own such systems. But the largest shift – five percent – went from private citizens to the commercial sector. Here, the German policy of “own consumption” (Eigenverbrauch) is probably at work.

Essentially, own consumption is a bit like net-metering with a time factor added to it. In net metering, your power meter simply runs backwards if you produce more solar power than you purchase from the grid. But in Germany’s “own consumption,” the meter never runs backwards – if you produce more than you consume at some point, you are required to store it on your side of the grid connection for later consumption.

The problem for most homeowners is that solar roofs produce most of their power in the afternoon, when most people are at work, not at home. A lot of power therefore has to be stored, and bigger battery packs make the approach less profitable. But the situation is fundamentally different for businesses, which generally have quite a large roof area and consume power during business hours. As I wrote back in 2010, this policy was thus bound to be popular among businesses.

Your average mom-and-pop shop that pays retail rates (around 27 cents) can thus benefit greatly from a solar roof, with feed-in tariffs for new systems installed in June dropping to 15 cents. But even midsize and large industry – which pays wholesale, not retail rates – is discovering the benefits of direct consumption, even of wind power. Last year, BMW put up four wind turbines at one of its plants in Germany. You see, it’s not just a question of the price of a kilowatt-hour, but also of maximum load. Power companies may charge extra if a firm consumes more than a certain amount at any time. Renewables can help keep the maximum load from the grid down.

The tradeshow halls in Freiburg are covered with photovoltaics, but the system still only has a capacity of 245 kilowatts. (Photo by Craig Morris)

This trend will continue. Indeed, it is hard to see how it could be stopped. And because commercial roofs are so much bigger than residential ones, the commercial sector may continue to take up a larger piece of the pie.

Likewise, the losers are also clear to see: the Big Four. They are sitting on a large fleet of conventional power plants designed to run for decades, and there is less and less demand for this power. Their strategy will therefore not be to increase their already small investments in renewables (which would only speed up the process), but to increasingly export power to Germany’s neighbors.


Craig Morris (@PPchef) is the lead author of German Energy Transition. He directs Petite Planète and writes every workday for Renewables International.

Source : German Energy Transition

Fighting Blackouts: Japan Residential PV and Energy Storage Market Flourishing

San Diego, CA -- In the past, a PV system with battery storage was associated with the off-grid system — not connected to the utility grid. The battery stores the energy produced by the PV system and when the sun goes down, electricity is drawn from the battery. In Japan, the battery became attractive to store electricity from "the grid," to reduce electricity bills.

After the devastation of the Tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Mach 2011, Japan became painfully aware of the importance of both safety and maintaining a steady supply of electricity. The combination of a PV system and battery storage gives consumers the ability to produce, store and supply electricity throughout the day at their own home for power outages and emergencies. However, the system can bring economic benefits — electricity bill reduction — during normal days.

Like California, utilities in Japan offer Time-of Use (TOU) rates. How homeowners can reduce electricity bills can be illustrated by using Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) current (non-summer) TOU rates for all-electric homes with a PV system.

- Purchase and store electricity from the grid at off-peak hour (11 pm – 7 am) at ¥11.82/kWh [US $0.12]

- Sell PV-generated electricity to the utility at the FIT premium rate of ¥38.0/kWh [US $0.38]

- Use PV-generated electricity during day time, otherwise paying at ¥30.77 (10 am – 5 pm) [US $0.31] and use stored electricity between 7 and 10 am and between 5 and 11 pm, otherwise paying ¥25.2/kWh [US $0.25]

With the battery storage, PV homeowners can ultimately buy electricity at the lowest rate (¥11.82/kWh or $0.12/kWh) and sell at the highest price (¥38/kWh or $0.38/kWh).

The key domestic PV makers, Panasonic, Kyocera and Sharp, all now offer lithium-ion battery storage along with a PV home system to meet consumers’ demand. Their goal is to move beyond PV and expand into a total Home Energy Management System (HEMS3) arena.

Kyocera started offering PV plus lithium-ion battery storage to homeowners in early 2012 with a target of selling 10,000 units from April 2012 to March 2013. Panasonic also released home battery storage systems that can be connected to Sanyo’s (now Panasonic) HIT PV system. The battery has a capacity of 4.65 kWh and is priced at ¥1.218 million MSRP [US $11,984].

In April, Kyocera released the largest residential lithium-ion battery in Japan. The battery has the capacity of 14.4 kWh, which is priced at an MSRP of ¥4.45million [US $43,784]. This large capacity allows it to power a home refrigerator, TV, computers, lights and cell phone chargers for up to 24 hours.

Kyocera has teamed up with Rakuten, Inc., which operates the nation’s largest internet shopping site, to offer a PV system (poly-Si) and a lithium battery (7.2 kWh) set for homeowners at an affordable price. Rakuten provides options with different sizes of PV systems with the battery, and installed system price (after tax) varies from ¥2.94 million ($29,730) with a-2.28 kW system to ¥4.168 million ($42,153) with a 6.27-kW system. These systems are installed by one of the nation’s largest installers, Nippon Ecosystem, which is part of Itochu Corp.

Residential battery systems remain expensive to average homeowners. To solve this issue,One Energy Corp. has just begun the nation’s first residential energy storage leasing service. Like SolarCity or SunRun’s PV leasing service in the U.S., this requires zero upfront payment to homeowners. The company is a joint venture between Orix, NEC and Epco. NEC provides lithium batteries, whose technology is used for Nissan Leaf electric vehicles.

Besides the energy storage leasing service, One Energy also offers “Yanekari (PV rooftop space leasing)” service. A homeowner can lease a storage system with 5.53 kWh of capacity at between ¥3,045 ($31) to ¥5,145 ($52) a month from One Energy while offering the roof-space to One Energy, making a monthly revenue of ¥2,500 ($25). The image below illustrates how a customer could use an energy storage system to offset the high cost of purchasing energy during peak times.




One Energy currently offers this leasing service in the TEPCO region only and is planning to expand to the Kansai region by the second half of this fiscal year and eventually expand nationwide.

NEC started mass production of residential storage systems in February. Besides partnering with One Energy, the company sells home batteries directly to homebuilders and building material distributors with the goal of selling 15,000 units during this fiscal year.

The company stated that PV homeowners will start storing PV electricity in batteries even more as the FIT rate gets lower in the future, creating a more self-sufficient and less grid-dependent environment.

It is declining, but the national government provides upfront, capacity-based rebates (¥15-20/kW) and a net FIT of ¥38/kWh on excess electricity generation for 10 years) for PV home systems. The government also currently provides a subsidy for lithium-ion battery storage for homeowners. The subsidy is one third of the installed system cost or up to ¥1 million ($10,823).

The hot and humid summer is approaching in Japan. Some of the nation’s utilities have just raised electricity rates and many of them will request that consumers limit and/or shift electricity consumption from peak to off-peak to control raising fossil fuel cost caused by the shutdown of nuclear power plants. With PV + battery systems, homeowners are moving to take energy matters into their own hands in defense against rolling blackouts and rising electricity bills.

Source: Renewable Energy World