Solar energy is coming
I am huge supporter of clean energy. This morning I have found very interesting article on Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-12/solar-surpasses-gas-and-wind-as-biggest-source-of-new-u-s-power
It shows that Solar energy surpasses Gas and Wind as biggest source of new U.S. Power. President Trump has imposed tariffs on imported panels to protect U.S. solar companies from Chinese solar companies and everybody expected that this tariffs and tax reform will have very negative influence on new solar installations because it will drive up costs but hopefully that didn't happened.
I am long term investor in solar energy companies and my largest holdings are FSLR( First solar), JASO( JA Solar) and JKS(Jinko Solar). I can't say that these were great investments, these stocks don't fit into my investment principals but I will continue holding them because I believe in a clean energy and I feel like I am supporting industry change.
OIL industry is still dominant and probably it will be a leader for some time but switch is inevitable. Efficiency of Solar cells is improving and costs are dropping and it is just matter of time when will this switch happen.
Costs of Solar panel installation are much lower than before, they have dropped hard and they are more affordable now and they will be more affordable in the future.
People often make mistake when they think that Solar panels can be installed only in extremely sunny areas. Yes, they gonna be more efficient when there is more sun but new technology alouds that Solar panels do their job even through clouds.
There is already solar car:
and solar airplane:
I am sure that without interfering of oil company giants, industry switch would happen much sooner but there is huge money in oil and it is normal that oil companies will fight against that.
Smarter oil companies are entering solar field and for example, french oil giant Total has bought Sun Power corporation and it became one of largest Solar panel producers in the world.
Clean energy is coming and hopefully we will have cleaner world in the future!
Regards,
I am looking forward to be able to install solar panels and wind turbines in my home. I hope to generate enough energy for my home and sell back extra to the grid, if possible using a blockchain like #PowerLedger.
Sounds like a good plan :-)
We have 18 panels. The previous owners bought them to power the Jacuzzi.
We sold the Jacuzzi this year because too energy consuming and we sid not use it enough!
So lots of free power 😁 what is even better is that the government pays us 450€ for each 1000kwh we produce!
Here the report for this year
Cheers,
Peter
In Russia solar panels are still a net loss. Not only there is low insolation, but snow... snow makes panels do nothing for a half of the year ((
is indeed very important. Wind energy could be a solution but you would need a community to fund it.
We bougth shares for our ons in a windmill park. They do get an interest of 4.4%
Russia is a big country, you cannot make general statement about its climate like that. For example, in my home region (Rostov region), solar PV cells would be a profitable investment (albeit with a long repayment period to reach ROI>1). But solar panels used for heating would be an even more profitable investment with a much shorter ROI period.
Wow @fullcoverbetting it is really good to hear you get money back from the government for those 1000 KWh, the only thing I don't understand is, do you supply back to the system, or do you get that 450 euros even when you use the electricity yourself? :)
We would even get it when we would consume all the generated power ourselves.
This idea behind it was to decrease the CO2 exhaust. It is called the "Green Power Cerificates".
For installations certified before 2009, these certificates are valid for 20 years. Since 2009 the government has decreased the value and the duration of these.
For installations after 2013 no certificates were handed out anymore!
We have still 8 to 9 years to go!
Besides that we do not consume the power generated, which is often. We do give supply it to the grid. The electricity counter runs backwards then. When there is no sun and we do consume power the counter goes forward again.
The only thing is that we can't have a negative balance. So even if you do produce more than you would consume in a year, the counter will stand on 0 for that year!
Ah Okay, I used to sell electricity in Australia as a summer job and they would actually get paid a few cents per kw/h they would deliver to the grid, so in the negative. It's a shame you don't have that, but it is good to hear you get the 450 per 1000kwh, that is 0.45 per kw/h which is really good. I live in The Netherlands myself. I think we idon'thave that, I think we have the same system as in Australia :)
While I do work in the Netherlands, I don't know neither how it works here.
My wife works in Belgium with an electric company so I do have some knowledge about it in Belgium. They are planning to let you go below 0, but then smart meters are required. The price in the electricity market can have some swings, so if you want to sell energy they need to know when.
Looked like a great summer job!
Ah yeah that makes sense. In the Netherlands most meters have been switched to smart meters :)
We are always running behind!
But we are at the World Cup 😂
Haha yeah :P well that's a good thing :)
Perfect example what I have wrote in the article, Belgium is not sunny country and Solar energy is working.
Hope that you are satisfied with Solar energy :-)
Cheers mate :-)
We are! The good thing is that the roof is southern orientated which helps a lot! I am surprised how much it produces cause the panels are already 12 years old!
Last year we did have to replace the converters, but at least that was an investment which pays itself back! Just like cryptos we hope :)
Glad to hear that :-)
Solar panels are way overpriced in my area and the tax rebate-taxes me more indirectly :(
Don’t have a clue how much they cost here. They were in the house when we did bought it 😎
I like to hear about people taking the initiative to install paneling for themselves.
That's what is required, grid scale solar plants are what gets pushed all the time, but then you have transmission and other losses that, except for more sunny areas, becomes a losing business venture.
At least as a personal venture, even if you don't make a profit, it still eases pressure on an ever more demanding grid.
Here on Belgium at least 10% of the houses do have solar panels. Most of the were installed 10 to 12 years ago when the government handed out some rewards for installing them. But because it is a free economy the prices of the channels where very expensive, because people got a lot funded by the government.
Now these rewards are dropped for new installations, but the prices of the installations also have dropped immensely !
For the grid controllers, solar panels are a real nightmare. It will make their work a lot harder. When there are only nuclear power station of others, it is much easier to predict how much energy will be produced and how much they need to buy in. With the private solar paneling it is much harder from them to predict at what capacity they should run the power plants. And don't forget that too much energy on the grid is as bad as too low energy!
In Belgium, when you do have solar panel you do have to pay an extra grid fee to donate the not consumed power to the grid. As a reward the personal counter will runs backwards. But it won't go negative.
In some cases it isn't a good investment but at least these people are doing something for the environment!
Cheers,
Peter
Hi Peter, the extra grid fee has to be paid even if you keep the energy you produce ? Is this valid also for wind produced energy ? I'm also living in Belgium .
Yep, the grid fee always have to be paid. Remeber the Turtle tax!
Don’t know about wind energy. Probably the government doesn’t know either because they don’t expect that a private person would own a windmill 😂
@cicbar clean energy is what we have always longed for in the world and the most attracting fact in this post is that you raised the hope of many with the assurance that with time we would have a clean kind of energy whereby the carbon dioxide would be safe and the ozone layer would also be free from gases (chlorofluorocarbon) that we get from machineries that we use in our various houses and factories at large... I stand with you to see a world whereby hydroelectricity would be a second option for our domestic uses.
Thanks mate :-)
This is a great idea. Solar energy is a great help for us humans. We could soon have a better and cleaner earth once we used solar energy. Also less pollution and less electricity bill.
Absolutely! :) And there are sooo many spots where they can be installed, just as well as windmills.
How I wish it could be done in the near future.
YEah, well we are installing a lot of windmills in the ocean of the Dutch coast, however people are complaining about the view. Even though the windmills are 32km out! So yeah, I mean people will always complain I guess. I'm happy to see these things generating electricity for small cities and large ones alike :)
Gradually they will move their money from oil to solar panels and the industry around it. It's just that for the moment there is still money to be made from oil. Once the pipes are starting to dry up we will see these "oil tycoons" advocating the solar energy and investing in it. If they haven't started already in silence.
Agree. Sooner it happen, better will be :-)
Hey @cicbar. Thank you for the informative article. I would like to check out the possibility of installing a few solar panels at my home. I’ve always liked the idea of being off-grid. Here in South Africa we had huge issues with our electricity supply a while ago, with ‘load-shedding’. Load-shedding was the most bizarre concept – they sporadically cut the power supply to residential areas to save energy as the power plants couldn’t sustain and supply the need. They’ve remedied the situation in the meantime though, with repairs and new installations. Most people here have generators as back-up. Solar panels have become very popular because of this as well. I think the initial cost is still quite high, but it’s an investment. As you mention in your article, it’s already much cheaper than a few years ago. I think the power bank is the biggest expense initially.
Here in South Africa we have a lot of sun we can utilize! :)
By the way, talking about investments, I see you are interested in checking TA’s, and with the recent dramatic moves in bitcoin, you might be interested in our Daily Summary of BTC Technical Analysts. Feel free to come have a look.
Sorry mate but I don't like and believe in TA. I saw at your blog that you do lot of TA but I will occasionally look at your blog if you have some other posts beside TA.
Cheers,
I totally agree. Despite the costs, solar energy in the long term turns out to be cheaper than any other. The only explanation for which we are still using the fossil fuel is the large amount of money that the giants of the oil industry would lose and for no one is a secret, the domain they exercise over governments and even over the world economy. But the change is unstoppable, we will soon celebrate together this great step for humanity.
I believe that with the astonishing numbers spent on oil and lobbying, if we would invest that in research for solar and alternative energy sources solar would be even more affordable today. Those oil companies and gas companies don't want to lose money though @sony-albornoz ;)
It is true! It is a strong fight against very powerful companies but we still have a more powerful weapon, the information. We need to use it to educate the world on this issue and that we can exert pressure on the state.
Yes I hope that we will be able to make changes in the future. A friend of mine started Zero Waste Netherlands and I try to support them on their campaigns. It's a small step, but I hope it will lead to big things :)
I liked your article a lot and you encouraged me to look for this type of energy,thank! here my humble collaboration
https://steemit.com/life/@cabosatoshi/solar-cone-with-20-x-more-effective-and-3-times-cheaper
Oil stocks are over, and it is inevitable to look for an alternative, and the sun is the best because it has an inexhaustible resource and the energy created by it is ecologically clean.
YEah, no idea why these oil companies are still running the world haha :P
Interesting topic @cicbar, I congratulate you! the oil industry will remain dominant ... until the end of the world! Of course this is very good, and the presidential decrees ... that help, but I believe that this progress must be a balance between the greed of business and the big capitalist. Really, I believe that this should be applied in other continents like Africa, because it would help in some way ... to fight with the hunger and misery that some countries have ... but it takes many resources such as managing the priorities of society, Thanks for sharing!
I'm glad that you like post. Thanks!