The Renewable Energy Data and Information Service (REDIS) has been updated with new data up until June 2017. REDIS provides project data for 121 renewable energy generators, and now features more than one million hourly electricity production data records from 83 plants in operation, from April 2012 to June 2017. In this REDIS update, […]
The growing global demand for energy, coupled with the increasing popularity of the “green” lifestyle, has fueled the search for clean, renewable energy resources in recent years. Wind energy, in particular, is being harnessed throughout the world and is quickly becoming the utility industry’s most popular renewable energy source. Taking advantage of this naturally […]
Pumped-storage (PWS) hydroelectricity systems are to be found throughout the world, but mainly on a large scale. The demand for storage associated with distributed renewable energy (RE) systems, particularly wind and solar power, has opened up the market for a new generation of PWS facilities can be built on a much smaller scale, while […]
Before a wind energy farm (WEF) is connected to the grid it must be tested to certify that it complies with both performance requirements and the grid code. Testing and verification is made difficult because the dependence on primary source conditions, i.e., sufficient wind and sun of the required level and stability. For this […]
With the increase in very large utility solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, it is becoming common practice to install utility scale storage together with PV solar farms, rather than rely on grid storage or user storage. This is influenced by the choice to rely on controllable output than external factors such as grid interconnections. The […]
The Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (IPPPP) was put in place to manage the involvement and development of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Most of the IPP projects will be connecting to the Eskom electrical network. To this end the IPP sites need to be mapped. This article describes how they are mapped at […]
Solar PV project development and construction is well established internationally and particularly so in Europe and America. Africa has caught onto the wave with utility scale projects operational in Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Reunion, Rwanda, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda, with developments ongoing in many other countries. This article discusses the development of […]
One of the main drivers in photovoltaics (PV) has been increasing conversion efficiency. Solar PV is limited by the fact that it cannot use the full spectrum of energy available in sunlight. Thermal PV was originally developed to overcome this limitation, but has also found an application in the conversion of high temperature stored […]
The performance requirements of wind power plants (WPPs) are defined by the respective regulatory bodies for power system operation and are usually described in the form of a grid code. These codes usually define the expected operational ranges of frequency and voltage, the requirements for reactive power/voltage control and active power/frequency control. This article […]
Often hundreds of rotors can be installed in a typical wind farm. A little-known fact, however, is that the shadowing caused by the wind turbine rotors impacts the performance of neighbouring turbines and reduces their lifespan. As part of an EU project, researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are studying these interactions […]
