#solar grid

"Evening is approaching at the confluence of two rivers in the Bay of Bengal — the Payra and Bishkhali. Still, the fishermen at the pier in Gazimahmud village are busy preparing for the next day’s work — every boat here is now illuminated by small solar-powered devices.

“Solar power is now not only in homes, it is also at our work. Now, there is no rush to return home when it is evening,” says fisherman Altaf Hossain, who is arranging fishing nets in his boat so that he’s ready for tomorrow.

Hossain is now able to work longer hours and boost his income, and he doesn’t have to worry about his wife and kids at home at night. The children sit under a solar-powered light to study, while Hossain’s wife, Roksana Begum, does various chores.

“The sun gives us light both during the day and at night,” Begum says. “It has made our lives much easier and has changed our livelihoods.”

Gazimahmud village is about 30 kilometres away from Barguna Sadar, the southernmost district of Bangladesh. A winding road leads to this village, where the sea and two rivers meet. The people of this remote community still remember the devastation caused by the powerful Cyclone Sidr in 2007, when 30 locals died. When the storm hit, it was difficult for many to reach safety as the entire area was dark. Now, thanks to most of the houses in the village having solar power, the community feels better prepared for future disasters.

“We have more faith in solar power, because, when a storm comes, the electricity connection may be disconnected or the power may be turned off, but solar power helps us to find a safe shelter by showing us the way,” says resident Monir Hossain.

Unprecedented success

Bangladesh has implemented the world’s largest off-grid solar power programme, with 20 million people across the country benefiting, according to the World Bank.

What began as a pilot project in 2003, involving 50,000 households, ultimately reached 14% of the population within 15 years, while some 200,000 rural businesses and religious facilities benefited from the Solar Home Systems (SHS) initiative as well.

The programme, which officially ran until 2018, was implemented in partnership with the private sector. Among other measures, the state provided generous incentives, such as tax breaks, for rooftop solar installers, and also focused on ensuring financing mechanisms were in place.

Together with 56 partner organisations, the government installed 4.1 million solar systems in remote areas by 2018.

According to the World Bank, the initiative has improved health and living conditions — including by reducing the use of kerosene lamps and thereby tackling indoor air pollution — and boosted school attendance. It also led to household solar becoming “a credible electricity source”.

“The Solar Home Systems programme has shown that millions of dollars raised internationally can be efficiently leveraged to provide loans of as little as $100 in remote corners of the country, enabling a rural household to purchase a solar home system,” according to Amit Jain, a senior energy specialist at the World Bank...

To clean up its power grid and contribute to the fight against climate change, Bangladesh plans to install 4.1GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, up from around 1.2GW today."

All solar energy systems work on the same basic principles. Solar panels first convert solar energy or sunlight into DC power through a process known as the photovoltaic (PV) effect. DC power can be stored in a battery or converted by a solar inverter into AC power that can be used to run household appliances. Depending on the type of system, excess solar energy can be fed into the electric grid for credits or stored in various battery storage systems. Here in this post, we are going to discuss solar on grid system.

Grid-tied solar or grid-tied solar systems are by far the most common and are widely used by homes and businesses. These systems do not require batteries and use solar inverters or microinverters and are connected to the public electricity grid. Any excess solar energy you produce is exported to the power grid, and you are typically paid a Feed-In Tariff (FiT) or credit for the energy you export.

Unlike hybrid systems, grid-tied solar systems cannot conduct or produce electricity during blackouts for safety reasons. Since blackouts usually occur when the power grid is damaged; If the solar inverter were still supplying power to the damaged grid, it would pose a safety hazard to those repairing the grid fault. Most hybrid solar systems with battery storage can automatically isolate from the grid (known as islanding) and continue to supply some power during blackouts.

The batteries can be integrated into the grid-connected system at a later stage if required. The Tesla Powerwall 2 is a popular AC battery system that can be integrated into an existing solar system.

In a grid-tied system, after the electricity reaches the switchboard:

Metering Excess solar energy flows through the meter, which calculates how much electricity you are exporting or importing (purchasing).

India, UK to launch global solar project ‘Green Grids Initiative’ at COP26

Image Source : AP Ajay Mathur, director-general of the International Solar Alliance. India and the U.K. will launch a project that aims to create a solar grid connecting countries in different parts of the world at the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. India and the U.K. will launch a project that aims to create a solar grid connecting countries in different parts of the world at…

Lithium-ion vs Lead-acid Batteries For Your Solar Grid

Lithium-ion vs Lead-acid Batteries For Your Solar Grid When choosing an energy storage option for your private solar grid, you come across several types of batteries to choose from. However, the choice almost always boils down to Lithium-ion or Lead-acid. Today we are going to compare two of the most common battery options for solar installations in order to help make an informed…

http://www.getsolarize.com/floridas-solar-powered-town/

Florida's solar powered town

Families are starting to move into what is being called America’s first solar powered town. Babcock Ranch, about half an hour northeast of Fort Myers, Florida, is supposed to produce more energy than it consumes once it’s finished.

There are more than 300,000 solar panels spread across 440 acres there, producing enough electricity not only for the town, but also the surrounding areas, reports CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez.

In developer Syd Kitson’s city of the future, people leave their car in the garage and take rides in self-driving shuttle buses.

“I think it’s a lot sooner than I think people actually understand. It’s much sooner,” Kitson said.

A zero-emissions autonomous vehicle, hailed with an app, is powered by electricity generated from the sun, just like the street lamps, the buildings and the lights used for this interview.

Kitson wouldn’t want it any other way. Building Babcock Ranch as a solar powered town has been his passion project since 2005.

“We want to be the most sustainable new town in the United States,” Kitson said. “We had the advantage of a green field, a blank sheet of paper. When you have a blank sheet of paper like this, you really can do it right from the beginning.”

He says it’s not actually any more expensive to build — or live — in a place like Babcock Ranch.

“The people here pay the exact same amount that everybody else pays in the Florida Power and Light network,” Kitson said.

Even a hurricane, according to Kitson, wouldn’t destroy the city’s power source.

“When Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the eye of the storm came right over the top of Babcock Ranch….Not one panel out of 343,000 panels were dislodged,” he said.

The solar powered town cant run on sun-power all the time however, at night, when the sun is down, it has to draw from the traditional electrical grid. Kitson says the technology for storing all that surplus energy the solar cells generate during the day is still too costly.

This month, Richard and Robin Kinley became the first residents to move in. The lake next to their house is named after them: Lake Kinley.

“I thought, you know, the air is nice and clean here and I think these types of communities are the future,” Robin said.

“I felt very much like when I bought a Tesla back in 2013 and I said, this is definitely is going to make it,” Richard said. “I felt the same way about Babcock Ranch.”

Their first neighbors, Donna and James Aveck, move in at the end of the month.

“We love the innovation here,” Donna said. “We think it’s a very small planet and we want to do our part to conserve it.”

http://www.getsolarize.com/floridas-solar-powered-town/

Florida's solar powered town

Families are starting to move into what is being called America’s first solar powered town. Babcock Ranch, about half an hour northeast of Fort Myers, Florida, is supposed to produce more energy than it consumes once it’s finished.

There are more than 300,000 solar panels spread across 440 acres there, producing enough electricity not only for the town, but also the surrounding areas, reports CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez.

In developer Syd Kitson’s city of the future, people leave their car in the garage and take rides in self-driving shuttle buses.

“I think it’s a lot sooner than I think people actually understand. It’s much sooner,” Kitson said.

A zero-emissions autonomous vehicle, hailed with an app, is powered by electricity generated from the sun, just like the street lamps, the buildings and the lights used for this interview.

Kitson wouldn’t want it any other way. Building Babcock Ranch as a solar powered town has been his passion project since 2005.

“We want to be the most sustainable new town in the United States,” Kitson said. “We had the advantage of a green field, a blank sheet of paper. When you have a blank sheet of paper like this, you really can do it right from the beginning.”

He says it’s not actually any more expensive to build — or live — in a place like Babcock Ranch.

“The people here pay the exact same amount that everybody else pays in the Florida Power and Light network,” Kitson said.

Even a hurricane, according to Kitson, wouldn’t destroy the city’s power source.

“When Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the eye of the storm came right over the top of Babcock Ranch….Not one panel out of 343,000 panels were dislodged,” he said.

The solar powered town cant run on sun-power all the time however, at night, when the sun is down, it has to draw from the traditional electrical grid. Kitson says the technology for storing all that surplus energy the solar cells generate during the day is still too costly.

This month, Richard and Robin Kinley became the first residents to move in. The lake next to their house is named after them: Lake Kinley.

“I thought, you know, the air is nice and clean here and I think these types of communities are the future,” Robin said.

“I felt very much like when I bought a Tesla back in 2013 and I said, this is definitely is going to make it,” Richard said. “I felt the same way about Babcock Ranch.”

Their first neighbors, Donna and James Aveck, move in at the end of the month.

“We love the innovation here,” Donna said. “We think it’s a very small planet and we want to do our part to conserve it.”