Solar ♦ news digest
Today there remains much room for increasing SiC device usage in PV inverter applications, Roussel underlined. “Each inverter manufacturer’s product line- up has just one or two models with SiC in them, among dozens,” he said. “But it’s a very positive starting point.” That helped SiC power device industry revenues to $76 million in 2012, including R&D but excluding military use. PV inverter producers are the second industry to broadly adopt SiC devices, after manufacturers using SiC for power factor correction in high-end server power supplies.
Some PV inverter manufacturers use a SiC diode and silicon IGBT or MOSFET, and some offer full SiC inverters. “They’re just the first attempt, as inverter makers have limited their SiC development investment,” Roussel said. “They’re doing a simple replacement for silicon devices, taking the minimum extra work.” But that means that inverter producers are selling more expensive SiC products on their efficiency, without fully exploiting the material’s benefits. “The next step will definitely be a full redesign within the inverter that should fit with SiC’s high frequency and temperature capabilities, reducing the number of capacitors and inductors needed,” Roussel said.
Working with reverse costing specialist System Plus Consulting, Yole has modelled the benefits of increasing the standard PV inverter switching frequency from 12 to 32 kHz. That shortens the payback time on the SiC investment, and would make large 50 kW SiC inverters cheaper than their silicon equivalents by 2020. Such benefits will help increase annual revenues for SiC devices sold into PV inverters to $200 million by 2020, Yole predicts.
Even though PV inverters are currently better established, EV/HEV inverter producers could still be more advanced in making full use of SiC. “Efficiency drives adoption, but putting SiC in any system could also make it smaller and lighter,” Roussel stressed. “For EV/ HEV, that is just fantastic.”
Soitec Completes $100 Million Solar Financing Bond In South Africa
The bonds tol finance the construction of a 44 MWp utility-scale CPV solar power plant
Soitec , a supplier of materials for the energy and electronics markets, has successfully finalised the ZAR 1,000,000,000 (more than $100 millions) solar financing bond issued by CPV Power Plant No.1 Bond SPV (RF) Ltd, an affiliate of Soitec Solar GmbH.
The bonds will finance the construction of a 44 MWp utility-scale CPV solar power plant in Touwsrivier, South Africa.
This is the first publicly-listed project bond ever issued to finance a solar power plant based on CPV technology. In terms of financing solar energy projects, the bond is an inaugural transaction in South Africa and only the third such transaction worldwide.
A consortium comprised of Deloitte & Touche, The Standard Bank of South Africa, Trident Capital and Webber Wentzel Attorneys advised Soitec throughout the transaction, with the bank acting as lead manager, book runner and debt sponsor for the offering. Moody’s, the credit rating agency, confirmed the supportive investment grade rating of
Baa2.za assigned to the Touwsrivier project.
“Soitec is the world’s leading developer and technology provider for utility-scale CPV projects, and the successful placement of these bonds is a significant endorsement of Soitec’s solar technology,” said Bo MacEwan, Associate Director Corporate Finance, Deloitte & Touche. “The bonds were placed with a diverse pool of South African institutional investors, pension funds and asset managers, all of whom welcomed the opportunity to participate in this inaugural offering,” said Kimon Boyiatjis, Chief Investment Officer, Trident Capital. “The bond provides developers with a new and attractive capital market instrument to finance solar power plants” said Rainer Nowak, Director at Webber Wentzel.
“We are very pleased that Soitec has succeeded with this inaugural transaction. It opens an entirely new field of project funding to the solar industry in South Africa,” said Ompi Aphane, Deputy Director General Energy Policy and Planning of the Department of Energy. “We hope that this will contribute to the creation of a new pool of financial resources that can support the South African government’s ambitious plans for renewable energy.”
“Together with the selected equity investors for this June 2013
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