Trend of solar power in 2014

For a poor village, solar power companies need to concern about electricity prices. The cheaper, the better, as long as they still can earn some money to run their business. However, the fact is that the electricity generated by solar power plants  is not that cheap due to different reasons, including their solar panel prices, technology research costs, PV inverter prices, land rent costs, employment costs etc.

First off, community solar is big and getting bigger in the US. Also known as solar gardens, community solar allows residents, businesses and government customers to purchase solar energy produced from somewhere other than on their own rooftops. It enables people who are unable to install solar to still benefit from clean energy.

As solar energy was introduced to the world years ago, it has developed quickly and deprived darkness from many power users. In recent years the residential solar PV system has been invented and introduced to homes too. The highlight of its features is the family which has installed the system doesn't need to pay the power bill from the state grid, and can even begin to make money by it. Yet, to install the PV power plant at home, the owner needs to consider his budget for installing the special system. It is not that much, while it requires to pay the price first and use the electricity generated by it later.

Today, no matter in the US or in China, to help people protect the fragile environment, the two countries have subsidized the newly-launched project. The US is promoting the project, so is China, where more and more solar panel and solar inverter companies and factories have been built to manufacture the components that such a system needs.

The US Department of Energy announced that Clean Energy Collective, a specialist in community solar, will receive a $700,000 SunShot cooperative award to develop and implement a National Community Solar Platform. Undoubtedly we will hear more about community solar as it is embraced by more states and municipalities around the world.

Energy storage has not been so much of a trend as it has been a technology in need of useful solutions. At SPI last week we started to see some exciting movement in this direction. GS Battery, with manufacturing facilities in Roswell, Georgia, was showing a storage system housed in a weather-proof enclosure. Not only did the enclosure contain batteries, inverter, charge controller and cooling system, but hanging off the side is a car charger. If foot traffic to a booth is any indication of a hot solution, GS Battery just may have a winner.