Search results for: “renewables”
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Solar trackers: efficiency improvements?
Trackers re-position solar panels to face the sun, as it arcs across the sky, day-by-day, season-by-season, due to the Earth’s 23.5-degree tilt. Solar tracker efficiency improvements typically range from 20-40%. Capex cost increases are c20%. Thus 40-90% of utility solar now uses trackers.
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Solar volatility: interconnectors versus batteries?
The solar energy reaching a given point on Earth’s surface varies by +/- 6% each year. These annual fluctuations are 96% correlated over tens of miles. And no battery can economically smooth them. Solar heavy grids may thus become prone to unbearable volatility. Our 17-page note outlines this important challenge, and finds that the best…
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Electrification: the rings of power?
Electrification is the largest, most overlooked, most misunderstood part of the energy transition. Hence this 10-page note aims to explain the upside, simply and clearly. Electricity rises from 40% of total useful energy today to 60% by 2050. Within the next decade, this adds $2trn to the enterprise value of capital goods companies in power…
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Energy costs of energy transition?
Reaching net zero requires building wind, solar, grid infrastructure, energy storage, EVs and capturing CO2. Thus the total energy costs of energy transition reach 1% of total global primary energy in 2025, 2% in 2030, 4% in 2040 and 6.5% in 2050. Energy transition is materially easier to achieve from a period of energy surplus.
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Silicon carbide: faster switching?
Silicon carbide power electronics will jolt the energy transition forwards, displacing silicon, and improving the efficiency of most new energies by 1-10 pp. Hence we wonder if this disruptor will surprise to the upside, quintupling by 2027. This 12-page note reviews the technology, advantages, challenges, and who benefits?
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New energies: the age of materials?
Over the past decade, costs have deflated by 85% for lithium ion batteries, 75% for solar and 25% for onshore wind. Now new energies are entering a new era. Future costs are mainly determined by materials. Bottlenecks matter. Deflation is slower. Even higher-grade materials are needed to raise efficiency. This 14-page note explores the new…
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MOSFETs: energy use and power loss calculator?
MOSFETs are fast-acting digital switches, used to transform electricity, across new energies and digital devices. MOSFET power losses are built up from first principles in this data-file, averaging 2% per MOSFET, with a range of 1-10% depending on voltage, switching, on resistance, operating temperature and reverse recovery charge.
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Solar and wind: what decarbonization costs?
The costs of decarbonizing by ramping up solar and wind are highly dependent on context. But our best estimate is that solar and wind can reach 40% of the global grid for a $60/ton average CO2 abatement cost. This is a relatively low cost. Yet it still raises retail electricity prices from 10c/kWh to 12c/kWh.…
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New energies: filter feeder?
The $1bn pa harmonic filter market likely expands by 10x in the energy transition, as almost all new energies and digital technologies inject harmonic distortion to the grid. This 17-page note argues for premiumization in power electronics, including around solar, and screens for who benefits?
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Energy market volatility: climate change?
This 14-page note predicts a staggering increase in global energy market volatility, which doubles by 2050, while extreme events that sway energy balances by +/- 2% will become 250x more frequent. A key reason is that the annual output from wind, solar and hydro all vary by +/- 3-5% each year, while wind and solar…
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