L R AS Published on Wednesday 7 November 2018 - n° 253 - Categories:News of the Month

October News of the Month


THIS MONTH'S NEWS

October 2018

Last Nudeméro free


FRANCE

The French government is faced with a choice: nuclear or RE, with, in the background, what to do with EDF?

Clearly, France's energy choices for the next decade are difficult to make. The alternative lies between extending

the construction of nuclear power plants, and the alternative of renewable energies. Hence the further postponement of the official presentation of the EPP. It's probably because negotiations are intense on the future of EDF. Hence the leaks in the EPP press, and the announcement of the construction of new nuclear power stations. Probably, the debate would be between maintaining EDF in its present structure and its split between two distinct companies, one receiving nuclear power, the other receiving nuclear energy.The carrot for the approval of this project would be the approval by EDF of the construction of new nuclear power stations, following the example of what has been done in Germany. This would make it possible to confine the power stations which have to be renovated and to envisage the end of life of the old power stations with the storage of nuclear waste .

Even if the decision to build new power stations is taken, nothing will prevent the development of renewable energies. Large-scale solar power plants provide energy at between €0.05 and €0.06 per kWh, making it possible to conclude more and more private contracts between power plant developers and owners and user customers. PV installation on roofs will have to become more widespread in order to comply with RT 2020, i.e. the standards for the construction of new buildings.

* Preparatory working document of the EPP online
* According to leaks, the decision to build nuclear power plants has been taken

* Is a reorganisation of EDF under consideration? A dismemberment?

*Cumulation of the first five CRE 4 calls for tenders and analysis.

* Result of the call for tenders for storage.

To go further:
*Will France achieve its 23% target by 2020?
* France's delay in deploying renewable energies
* Massive use of PV from 2020 in France

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THE FILE

The fall in prices is not over: manufacturers continue to reduce their prices

After the drop in producer prices for panels of between 20 and 30% since the end of May and the abolition of the minimum import price in Europe, operators are wondering whether the drop is complete. On the European market, the decision to abolish it at the beginning of September has not yet been reflected in prices because the new shipments of Chinese panels (cheaper than those from Taiwan or South East Asia) have not yet arrived in European ports. For the moment, there is a shortage of panels, which tends to hold prices or push them up. Hence this question!

The six to nine-month drop is far from over because many silicon production plants are or will be commissioned in the coming weeks. They are located in regions where the cost of electricity is very low (Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, ...). These new plants have a much higher productivity than the previous units. The cost price per kilogram of silicon is between 50 and 60 RMB compared to 80 RMB on the market today. In addition, diamond cutting has been introduced, which reduces the cost price. A new specialisation around cutting specialists has been formed, allowing the price of the insert to be reduced even further. Finally, the producers of ingot or monosilicon wafers are breaking prices to eliminate the manufacturers of multicrystalline

Consequently, cell and especially panel manufacturers must not keep the extra profit margin obtained upstream... For the moment, the latter are facing a slump and are tempted to lower their prices in order to maintain a reasonable activity of their production capacities....

* Have we reached the bottom of the price drop?
* In 9 months, the price of panels has fallen by 20% to 25% in the world.
* Facilities in Western China reduce costs.

* Destabilisation of the Chinese PV industry

Note the particularly detailed overview of photovoltaic technology.

* Presentation of the photovoltaic landscape by D. Lincot *

To go further
* Floating power plants are multiplying

* What if integrating solar energy into the grid was very profitable?
* Corporate energy purchase contracts are at a new record high
* According to EcoSynergies, it would be in our interest to develop self-consumption.
* Energy demand in American homes is more flexible than previously thought.

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THE WORLD
The current period is prosperous for installers around the world and especially in Europe: Chinese measures have slowed down distributed installations and stopped the construction of large power plants. The companies, oriented towards the domestic market, are obliged to quickly look for outlets elsewhere and for this a good recipe, the fall in prices. It reaches 20% to 30% in production. In addition, in Europe, the end of the minimum import price has been added, which reduces prices by a further 10 % to 15 %... Developers who had building sites in progress benefit from this fall in prices. Owners are encouraged to start building. Solar energy becomes cheaper than grid electricity, which encourages more construction, which is happening spectacularly in Spain and Portugal, but also to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The extent of this price reduction means that by 2020 or 2021, all installations in European countries will no longer need subsidies.

As a result, the Chinese PV industry is suffering and is trying to adapt with production units in the regions where energy is cheapest.

* Installers welcome the abolition of the minimum price
* Chinese PV in the third quarter: a sharp drop in production
* Sharp drop in profits in the third quarter in the Chinese PV sector
* Daqo launches silicon production in Xinjiang
* Commissioning of a silicon unit by Tongwei

To go further
* The heat of the summer did not make the American networks explode

* U.S. solar production forecast for 2018 revised upwards
* Net slowdown in equipment orders in Germany
* Spanish decisions in favour of solar energy
* Italy will have 20 GW installed by the end of 2018
* Private power sales contracts proliferate in South America

* 11 GW power complex under study in Australia

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THE PRODUCTS

* A special issue is dedicated to storage * *
Inverter manufacturers in the first half of the year

* Radical transformation in the follower sector.

* Necessity to couple batteries and management software
* New cell connector

* TOPCon technology seems the most promising one
* Tongwei relies on heterojunction and TOPcon cells

* Non-flammable battery with 50,000 cycles (10 times a lithium battery)

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THE COMPANIES

A brutal selection is made among the companies of the sector :
The Chinese government measures of 31 May shook the industry. With the accounts for the third quarter, a brutal split has been created between companies which have selected the right products or the right strategy and which see their quarterly accounts being less good, but quite satisfactory.

* Phenomenal net margin of LONGi

* First Solar's upward phase in Q3
* SolarEdge in Q3

* SolarEdge: combining inverters with lithium batteries*

*SolarEdge wants to become a manufacturer of inverters for large power plants.

and those who suffer the brutality of the shaking :

* SunPower faces liquiditycrisis (Sunpower has completed the acquisition ofassets from SolarWorld America) * *
In the third quarter, REC Silicon is sinking
* * Wacker Chemie's poor third quarter results

* GCL is drowning in debt

And those for which the prognosis is still uncertain:

* Meyer Burger bets more on Asia

* The Managing Director of SMA has resigned
* *Leclanché in the first half of the year: seems to see the end of the difficulties

Many major manufacturers have withdrawn from the stock exchange listing, (Trina, Hanwha...) which prevents them from communicating on their accounts.

MISCELLANEOUS
* What motivates employees in clean energy?

* Solar power increases water consumption in some regions
* * We should be able to increase the efficiency of a cell to 40%!

* Will the big oil companies switch to renewable energies?

* RE would have positive effects on international relations

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