Tag: solar
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What do we do in a world where energy is in abundance?
The cost of solar power is falling in direct relation to the amount of solar power modules being produced. With no end in sight to this price reduction, we should soon be in a world where energy is in abundance. Moore’s Law, the law that says the number of transistors in computers doubles every two…
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Here comes the sun… IBM and solar forecasting
For decades now electricity grids have been architected in the same way with large centralised generation facilities pumping out electricity to large numbers of distributed consumers. Generation has been controlled, and predictable. This model is breaking down fast. In the last decade we have seen a massive upsurge in the amount of renewable generation making…
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SunSpec Alliance setting standards for the solar industry
Photo credit Tom Raftery (Me!) Sunspec.org is an alliance of renewable industry companies whose aim is to define communication standards data monitoring for the solar power industry. Up until now there haven’t been any standards agreed around data communication in the solar power industry which added huge cost and complexity to the monitoring and management…
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Is there really any need for baseload power?
Photo credit wonderferret The electricity grid may not need “baseload” generation sources like coal and nuclear to backup the variability of supply from renewables. Jon Wellinghof is the Chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC is an independent agency that amongst other things, regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and…