Renewable Energy

The making of: Kabai Solar Park

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The number of large scale solar parks is growing worldwide and we at IBC SOLAR are also contributing to this. From countries within Europe to Asia with projects in Japan and India. More and more countries want to increase their share of a green power supply with the help of photovoltaics. And each of these projects is unique in terms of the task at hand, always exciting in its implementation and peppered with some challenges. The most recent example is Hungary’s largest solar park in Kabai with around 43 MW. It emerged from the collaboration between IBC SOLAR Energy (the international project division of IBC SOLAR AG) and MET Asset Management AG during the course of 2020. A year full of surprises and challenges for the entire Energy team. (more…)

A forest, a PV system and clean drinking water

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Often one hears and reads about the potential of photovoltaics and how it can be used everywhere. It is a fact that PV is not only one of the most popular and cheapest types of electricity generation, but also highly flexible and often the solution for difficult situations. The latter applied to the community of Urphertshofen in Middle Franconia, Germany. Here, a photovoltaic system is used for the treatment of drinking water – in the middle of the forest. (more…)

The right time for solar energy

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Even though South Africa is still considered to be the most developed nation on the continent, the country is facing tremendous energy challenges like many other African countries. The Rainbow Nation’s energy provider Eskom is over indebted, operates mostly old generation facilities and struggles with an unstable grid. The utility provider is often not able to meet the country’s electricity demand and regularly implements “Load Shedding” – planned power cuts to avoid a breakdown of the system. In addition, Eskom is likely to implement a rise of electricity prices by 15 percent from July 2021 on after an increase of around 7 percent in July this year already. (more…)

Spain and the boom in solar energy

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If you look at the list of European countries that have attracted attention in recent years with a strong increase in solar energy, there is no way around Spain. No other country is currently experiencing such a large PV boom. Spain breaks its records of newly installed capacity year after year. For example, from 135 megawatts (MW) in 2017 to a total of 551 MW (2018). And the latest forecasts are also impressive and show a further increase in 2020 with 4.9 gigawatts (GW) of newly installed services. This means that by the end of 2020 the country will have a total photovoltaic output of 8.7 GW. But where does the strong growth come from? A market outlook:  (more…)

How to use sector coupling effectively

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A fully electric heated house in Upper Austria (source: my-PV)

Power-to-heat: heating with electricity has long been considered uneconomical and harmful to the climate. With the energy transition, the focus is once again on heat generation using self-generated green electricity. Both efficiency and cost-effectiveness are now under good auspices. Sector coupling is moving more and more into the spotlight and is already showing what our future green energy system can look like. (more…)