Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1160769)	8/30/2019 12:28:53 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 1574453

Department of Energy shows wind and solar power dominating fossils A Department of Energy report on wind energy, showed nuggets of research on solar power – including a 280 GW interconnection queue, continuing lowering of pricing, as well solar’s encroachment on wind’s mid-west territory. August 30, 2019 John Weaver Business Markets Procurement Utility-scale PV United States Ken Oltmann - CoServ Solar Station in Krugerville, Texas - NREL Hit me with your Sunshot Share Even the closest of siblings have a bit of a rivalry as their intertwined lives evolve – with wind and solar power being no different. Recent business trends show that the analogies have big money truths behind them. For instance, NextEra has 20 GW+ pipeline of wind+solar+storage potential, and they’ve begun to let their existence leak out with the first in Oregon – 300 MW of wind, 50 MWac of solar, and 30 MW / 120 MWh of energy storage – and a second in Oklahoma – 250 MW wind farm, 250 MWac solar farm, and 200 MW / 800 MWh of energy storage. And with research suggesting that a mix of wind+solar+storage being able to get us to 80% renewables, this analogy will only become more valid. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) Wind Technologies Market Report, shows great growth – with more projected, efficiency increases, and continued pricing decreases in the wind industry. Really – if you like wind – you ought read this report ( here’s the full version in PDF format)! Within the document, there was a bit of solar research for us to chew on as well – starting with a great graph (below) showing the evolution of the future interconnection queues of the United States. And while very little of this capacity has started construction, overall trends are definitely representative of the future. The most significant aspect of this document is the increasing sizes of wind, solar and – just starting – energy storage in the queues. If we add up the roughly 280 GW of solar and 230 GW of wind, we break 500 GWac of capacity that has been considered across the United States. What this truly represents is that there are this many sites, in various locales across the country, that developers have already found and decided to invest some capital in. Research by pv magazine USA (that is six months fresher and slightly different in its reporting methodology), that will appear in depth our Special Edition Solar Power International hard copy, shows that (below image) the majority of this queue volume is schedule to come online before the end of 2023, is widely spread across the country, and has a lot of more energy storage coming. While most of these projects won’t get built within their projected completion dates, they are considered hopeful opportunities by some salesperson somewhere, and could get built through the 2020s. Note that in the above image, which is of the queues on July 31, 2019, show almost 65 GW of energy storage being considered – versus less than 25 GW in the LBNL report. This is a doubling in six months. Another great chart within the document shows the progression of power purchase agreement (PPA) pricing from 2008 through 2019 for both wind and solar power. The utility scale solar data included 252 unique PPAs totalling 15.7 GWac of capacity. As we all know, pricing is down, and it is getting really close to the pricing of large scale wind. Historically, we know that most of these contracts have been geographically focused – wind contracts in the middle of the country, and most of the solar in the southwest. However, as the report notes – as pv magazine USA has reported on – these low price contracts are moving far from the deserts of Arizona. The last major point made about wind and solar, is related to the above chart their respective price competitiveness with gas. In the below chart, the black dash markers show the 20-year levelized fuel costs from then-current EIA projections of natural gas prices delivered to electricity generators. The circles represent PPA prices of wind contracts, and as you can now get why – the “Interior” ppa prices of wind have been competing with gas for a very long time. Now, in your minds – superimpose the solar contracts on top of these – and you’ll see why the queue chart from above is what it is. pv-magazine-usa.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1160769)	8/30/2019 12:30:46 PM
From: Sdgla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574453

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1160769)	8/30/2019 12:32:06 PM
From: Jamie153	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574453

The entire story is bogus but it's on fox so it's gospel truth. "Contrary to some reports, the City does not have a policy to be 100 percent renewable in its energy supply. In 2014 and 2015, the City selected wind and solar energy providers because of the long-term cost stability and reduced regulatory risk. The City’s goal is to have 30 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030."

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1160769)	8/30/2019 12:42:52 PM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Recommended By rdkflorida2 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574453

coal lapse Indiana gas plant spurned – wind, solar and storage respond Vectren’s 2016 proposal to replace coal with a gas plant was declined as too large and financially risky for the small utility, requiring a new bid – which recently came in showing wind, solar and storage dominating the list of offers. August 29, 2019 John Weaver Business Energy Storage Energy Storage Markets Policy Procurement Utility-scale PV Indiana United States IndSolarFarm.com Share Indiana’s Speedway Solar Project came in at under $1/watt, and renewable energy is causing gas turbine manufacturers sleep issues – which means soon enough, pv magazine USA might not cover this angle again. Vectren, a utility in southwestern Indiana serving 144,000 customers, has received bids in its 2016 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The purpose of the IRP was to fulfill a projected capacity need of approximately 700 MW beginning in the 2023/2024 planning year. 32 companies submitted a notice of intent, and a large majority of these were proposing wind, solar and energy storage – with solar having a majority of the 100 bids submitted. Vectren’s electric customers are currently served by a mixed portfolio of 1,000 megawatts (MW) of coal fired generation, up to 225 MW of gas-fired generation and 4 MWs of solar coupled with 1 MW of storage. Other power purchase agreements exist for electricity wheeled into the region. And while we are light on data just yet for pricing and volume specifics, we might be able to find some insight from a similarly and nearby IRP last summer where solar, wind and storage took a leading position to replace NIPSCO’s coal plants – actually shutting them down early – in 2023 and 2028, and saving rate payers money. The actual pricing information (below image) came from later on public revelations in the IRP process, than the release highlighted in the above paragraph. Two formats – asset sale or PPAs – were submitted. Solar power asset sales, for 1.3 GW-AC worth of projects, were priced at $1.15/watt. The solar+storage project asset sales, 705 MW-AC worth, were bid at $1.18/W. The solar PPAs, 26 of which that totaled almost 3.6 GW-AC of capacity, were averaged to 3.57¢/kWh. Solar+storage projects, just over 1 GW-AC, included the standard PPA price above and added a $5.90/kW per month capacity payment. A pattern -> Coal or Gas, or Gas declined, Solar+Wind+Storage+Efficiency Historically speaking though, what we’re really interested in here is a story of how this came together – and much of this was brought to this author’s attention by Evansville Courier & Press reporter Mark Wilson. In Glendale, California an upgrade from a 267 MW 80 year old gas plant to 310 MW plant was declined. Part of the reason for the decline was that during the three years of predicted downtime while the power plant is rebuilt, only 75 MW of power was noted as needed per a contract with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Instead a quite modern solution was decided upon: 75 MW, 300 MWh battery energy storage system, up to 50 MW of distributed solar projects, energy efficiency and demand response programs – plus a 50 MW simple-cycle gas turbine known as Unit 9 will remain, and Glendale will retain rights to the 50 MW Magnolia power plant in Burbank. The NIPSCO project above linked to above modeled between 600 and 1,750 MW of coal to be retired, with the middle suggestion of 1.35 GW being chosen as a highly desired economic solution. The trading of coal and gas infrastructure, one utility infrastructure resource plan at a time is slowly is turning from a trickle to a roar. pv-magazine-usa.com