Solar Energy

Shining a light on the true value of solar power

Published

4 years ago

February 12, 2021

sarosh

Shining a light on the true value of solar power

Beyond the environmental benefits and lower electric bills, it turns out installing solar panels on your house actually benefits your whole community. Value estimations for grid-tied photovoltaic systems prove solar panels are beneficial for utility companies and consumers alike.

For years some utility companies have worried that solar panels drive up electric costs for people without panels. Joshua Pearce, Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University, has shown the opposite is true – grid-tied solar photovoltaic (PV) owners are actually subsidizing their non-PV neighbors.

Most PV systems are grid-tied and convert sunlight directly into electricity that is either used on-site or fed back into the grid. At night or on cloudy days, PV-owning customers use grid-sourced electricity so no batteries are needed.

“Anyone who puts up solar is being a great citizen for their neighbors and for their local utility,” Pearce said, noting that when someone puts up grid-tied solar panels, they are essentially investing in the grid itself.

“Customers with solar distributed generation are making it so utility companies don’t have to make as many infrastructure investments, while at the same time solar shaves down peak demands when electricity is the most expensive.”

Pearce and Koami Soulemane Hayibo, graduate student in the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab, found that grid-tied PV-owning utility customers are undercompensated in most of the U.S., as the “value of solar” eclipses both the net metering and two-tiered rates that utilities pay for solar electricity. Their results are published online now and will be printed in the March issue of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

The value of solar is becoming the preferred method for evaluating the economics of grid-tied PV systems. Yet value of solar calculations are challenging and there is widespread disagreement in the literature on the methods and data needed.

To overcome these limitations, Pearce and Hayibo’s paper reviews past studies to develop a generalized model that considers realistic costs and liabilities utility companies can avoid when individual people install grid-tied solar panels. Each component of the value has a sensitivity analysis run on the core variables and these sensitivities are applied for the total value of solar.

The overall value of solar equation has numerous components:

+ Avoided operation and maintenance costs (fixed and variable)

+ Avoided fuel.

+ Avoided generations capacity.

+ Avoided reserve capacity (plants on standby that turn on if you have, for example, a large air conditioning load on hot day).

+ Avoided transmission capacity (lines).

+ Environmental and health liability costs associated with forms of electric generation that are polluting.

Pearce said one of the paper’s goals was to provide the equations to determine the value of solar so individual utility companies can plug in their proprietary data to quickly make a complete valuation.

“It can be concluded that substantial future regulatory reform is needed to ensure that grid-tied solar PV owners are not unjustly subsidizing U.S. electric utilities,” Pearce explains. “This study provides greater clarity to decision makers so they see solar PV is truly an economic benefit in the best interest of all utility customers.”

Solar PV technology is now a profitable method to decarbonize the grid, but if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided, emissions from transportation and heating must also decarbonize, Pearce argues.

One approach to renewable heating is leveraging improvements in PV with heat pumps (HPs), and it turns out investing in PV+HP tech has a better rate of return than CDs or savings accounts.

To determine the potential for PV+HP systems in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Pearce performed numerical simulations and economic analysis using the same loads and climate, but with local electricity and natural gas rates for Sault Ste. Marie, in both Canada and U.S. North American residents can profitably install residential PV+HP systems, earning up to 1.9% return in the U.S. and 2.7% in Canada, to provide for all of their electric and heating needs.

“”Our results suggest northern homeowners have a clear and simple method to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by making an investment that offers a higher internal rate of return than savings accounts, CDs and global investment certificates in both the U.S.and Canada,” Pearce said. “Residential PV and solar-powered heat pumps can be considered 25-year investments in financial security and environmental sustainability.”

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Solar Energy

New system offers early warning of dust storms to protect solar power output

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2025

sarosh

New system offers early warning of dust storms to protect solar power output

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 10, 2025

A new predictive platform called iDust is poised to transform dust storm forecasting and improve solar energy output in dust-prone regions. Developed by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, iDust offers high-resolution, fast-turnaround dust forecasts that could help mitigate power losses across solar farms, particularly in arid zones.

The tool was created under the leadership of Dr. Chen Xi from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and detailed in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES).

“Dust storms not only block sunlight but also accumulate on solar panels, decreasing their power output.” said Chen, outlining the motivation behind the project. With China’s rapid expansion of solar installations in desert areas, the need for precise and timely dust forecasts has become increasingly urgent to avoid operational disruptions and revenue shortfalls.

Traditional systems like those from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) often lack the spatial resolution and processing speed needed for optimal solar planning. iDust addresses these limitations by embedding dust-related dynamics directly into its forecast engine. This allows the system to generate forecasts with 10-kilometer resolution-a fourfold improvement over previous models-while maintaining near-parity in computational load. Crucially, iDust can deliver 10-day forecasts within six hours of initial observations.

The effectiveness of iDust was put to the test on April 13, 2024, when it successfully tracked a severe dust storm over Bayannur in northern China. Such storms can distort solar energy projections by as much as 25% if unaccounted for, underscoring the value of integrating dust modeling into energy planning.

Designed for practical deployment, iDust aims to assist solar facility operators and grid managers in optimizing power production and reducing losses due to airborne particulates. As China pushes toward its carbon neutrality goals, innovations like iDust will be central to achieving sustainable energy reliability.

Researchers plan to expand the system for global application, allowing other countries with desert-based solar assets to benefit from enhanced dust forecasting.

Research Report:The Efficient Integration of Dust and Numerical Weather Prediction for Renewable Energy Applications

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Solar Energy

Going green with fluoride-enhanced perovskite solar cells

Published

4 days ago

April 15, 2025

sarosh

Going green with fluoride-enhanced perovskite solar cells

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 15, 2025

A team of scientists from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has unveiled a sustainable method for fabricating perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by using a fluoride-based additive in a water-only solution. This innovation replaces hazardous solvents typically used in PSC production, achieving a notable power conversion efficiency exceeding 18%.

Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a promising technology for the future of solar energy, thanks to their high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Yet, their commercial scalability has been hindered by the environmental and health hazards posed by conventional toxic solvents used during manufacturing. While water-based methods offer a more sustainable route, they have so far underperformed in delivering high-efficiency devices.

To overcome this barrier, QUT researchers introduced lead(II) fluoride (PbF2) into the aqueous precursor mix. This additive plays a dual role: it speeds up the formation of the light-absorbing phase and aligns the crystallization process to optimize light conversion. The fluoride ions also passivate surface defects in the perovskite grains, minimizing charge loss and improving conductivity.

“With the PbF2 additive, we achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.1%, compared to 16.3% in the control device,” said Dr. Minh Tam Hoang, a postdoctoral researcher at QUT and lead author of the study. “Even more exciting is the improved operational and environmental stability, which brings us closer to scalable, green manufacturing of PSCs.”

This advancement signals a meaningful shift in perovskite solar cell development, offering a pathway to produce efficient and durable solar modules through eco-friendly processes. The results demonstrate the value of fluoride-based chemistry in advancing both performance and sustainability in solar technologies.

The findings were published in the journal Materials Futures, underscoring the growing role of green additives in next-generation clean energy solutions.

Research Report:Lead (II) fluoride additive modulating grains growth of water-processed metal halide perovskites for enhanced efficiency in solar cells

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Solar Energy

Launch of AI-powered solar diagnostics platform boosts PV asset performance

Published

4 days ago

April 15, 2025

sarosh

Launch of AI-powered solar diagnostics platform boosts PV asset performance

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 15, 2025

The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has launched a commercial spin-off called the “PV Doctor,” marking a significant leap forward in managing and optimizing solar photovoltaic (PV) system performance. Officially unveiled on April 2, 2025, the platform leverages 15 years of R and D into the behavior of PV systems in diverse climates and aims to restore and maintain peak energy output for solar installations worldwide.

The PV Doctor combines AI-based analytics with routine monitoring and benchmark comparisons to ensure that solar assets operate at maximum efficiency. In addition to diagnostics, the service provides corrective action plans and hands-on rectification, helping system owners recover lost energy output and maximize returns on investment.

“Our mission is to ensure that every PV system under our care performs at its peak potential,” the founders stated. “By integrating deep expertise with real-time diagnostics, we can prevent losses before they escalate.”

Many PV systems are sold under the misleading premise of being maintenance-free, despite the reality that even minor oversight can result in substantial inefficiencies. Global preventable losses from underperforming systems are estimated at $10 billion annually. PV Doctor targets this gap by offering root-cause analysis and active management for both healthy and ailing systems. Its Smart O&M algorithm tracks performance in real-time, detecting anomalies before they degrade output.

Initially trialed by SERIS across Asia, the Smart O&M services quickly proved their value. In just under a year, PV Doctor systems reached over 200 MWp of assets under management, covering 400 sites in 10 countries. In Singapore, more than 3% of all PV installations are already being managed by the platform.

PV Doctor’s capabilities are structured around six core services:

1. Smart O&M – This foundational offering provides real-time performance monitoring, automatic issue detection, and root-cause analysis. The system integrates seamlessly with inverter portals, using a combination of sensor inputs, satellite data, and machine learning to pinpoint losses from pollution, shading, grid disruptions, and component failures.

2. Preventive O&M – For owners seeking a passive role, this service delivers scheduled maintenance, inspections, and early fault resolution, ensuring systems remain operational without owner involvement.

3. Rectification and Special Investigations – PV Doctor tackles complex issues such as potential-induced degradation or mechanical defects, especially common in low-tilt systems near the equator. Thorough diagnostics precede tailored interventions to restore full performance.

4. Repowering – Older or obsolete systems can be upgraded with the latest high-efficiency modules and inverters. Repowering revitalizes aging assets, increases output, and prolongs operational lifespan.

5. Audits and Performance Assessments – Independent third-party assessments support transactions and compliance needs. PV Doctor uses thermal imaging, satellite-derived irradiance, and electrical testing to deliver objective performance evaluations.

6. Technical Support – Beyond system operations, the platform assists stakeholders across the solar value chain with project planning, risk analysis, component selection, and due diligence for acquisitions.

PV Doctor positions itself as an essential partner for solar developers, asset managers, EPC firms, and investors, offering scalable solutions from residential systems to large-scale solar farms.