the research consultancy for energy technologies
…power grids, or to recuperate energy that would otherwise be lost. Some interesting examples are below. Yamanshi Solar. In 2015, Japan built the world’s largest super-conducting flywheel, to back up…
…as they accept project risk. This might include building out power grids, pipelines, fiber-optic cables, and PPA-backstopped wind and solar. And thus another legitimate strategy in the energy transition investing…
…increase power grid aluminium and copper demand even further. Including utilization factors in the transmission network halving due to volatility of wind and solar (page 5), rising remoteness (page 6)…
…factors in a portfolio, timing volatility, understanding complexity, unearthing specific opportunities and benchmarking ESG leaders and laggards. We recently enjoyed exploring this topic on the Capital Cyclists podcast. The theme…
…more extensive than expected. For example, Stanford’s “Deep Solar” project, has used machine learning to identify over 1.5M solar installations from 1bn satellite images. 5% of houses in California are…
…0.5-1.0 acres per MW. Other options are more land-intensive, but is the land intensity of energy transition really an issue? At 7 acres/MW, a 100 x 100 mile solar plant…
The purpose of this model is to break down the most likely contribution of photovoltaic silicon to overall solar panel costs. The model starts from quartz, which is smelted into…
…example, wind and solar are more volatile than conventional generation. They do not inherently provide any inertia or reactive power. For an explanation of these effects, and an example of…
How fast can wind and solar accelerate, especially if energy shortages persist? This 11-page note reviews the top ten bottlenecks that set the ‘upper limit’ on renewables’ capacity additions. Seven…
…more materials becomes harder. Unfortunately solar panels do not grow on trees. Building more solar requires building more PV silicon, or silver, or copper production facilities. These are also capital…