Posted on 06/30/2018 12:09:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
LG Electronics is expanding its U.S. presence with a new solar module assembly plant in Huntsville, Alabama.
The South Korean technology giant will invest $28 million to set up the factory that's expected to create 160 new full-time jobs. LG will add two production lines at its 48-acre campus in Huntsville, where the company has had operations for four decades. The solar module plant will bring LG's total employment in the Southern city to more than 400 workers.
Starting in early 2019, the new manufacturing plant is expected to produce 500 megawatts of solar modules per year. LG joins a steadily growing list of solar companies to have announced plans to invest in American manufacturing since President Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar cells and modules earlier this year. The tariffs stemmed from a Section 201 trade case brought by struggling U.S.-based solar companies Suniva and SolarWorld Americas.
"This demonstrates our commitment to being a long-term leader in the U.S. solar industry," Soon Kwon, global president of the LG B2B (business-to-business) Company. "LG's investment in U.S. manufacturing is consistent with the administration's goal of creating U.S. jobs."
In recent months, JinkoSolar, First Solar and Hanwha Q Cells have unveiled plans to open new solar module facilities in the U.S. California-based SunPower Corp. announced it will acquire trade case petitioners SolarWorld Americas, in an attempt to avoid the impact of tariffs.
Suniva, which instigated the Section 201 case, was released from bankruptcy earlier this month by financial firm SQN Capital Management. SQN supported Suniva through the trade dispute and is now looking for partners to reboot operations.
LG, a top module provider in the U.S. residential solar market, said its expanded Huntsville factory will enable the company to better serve its U.S. customers. The solar facility will initially assemble LG's NeON 2 series 60-cell modules, which the company claims can generate 17 percent more power than most conventional 60-cell panels.
"U.S. manufacturing makes a lot of sense for LG after the imposition of Section 201 tariffs," said Jade Jones, senior solar analyst at GTM Research. "The company focuses on higher-efficiency modules, exclusively focused on n-type monocrystalline modules. As such, LG's modules demand a higher premium than the standard multi or p-type monocrystalline PERC (passivated emitter and rear cell) modules being shipped to the U.S., so the 201 tariff would impact LG pricing more."
But while this is a smart move for LG, companies have now reached the point where total domestic crystalline-silicon module capacity exceeds the 2.5-gigawatt cell quota under Trump administration's trade remedy, Jones added. The Section 201 decision allows for 2.5 gigawatts of foreign-made solar cells to be imported tariff-free each year, for the duration of the four-year tariff period.
"There is no room for more suppliers to add module capacity in the U.S. if they want to import non-tariffed cell capacity," Jones said.
Jones' calculation excludes SunPower's SolarWorld facility and Tesla's joint U.S. manufacturing plant with Panasonic, as both ventures have cell-to-module integrated capacity.
Once all of the recent new manufacturing announcements have ramped up production, more than half of U.S. crystalline-silicon module capacity will be foreign-owned, she said. That does not include Tesla's Buffalo solar facility, despite its connection to Japanese multinational Panasonic.
LG said Wednesday that it selected Huntsville for its new solar module production plant after conducting a competitive multistate search.
The company has a long history of working in Alabama. LG established its service division in Huntsville in 1987, after launching the company's first U.S. manufacturing subsidiary in 1981. Today, Huntsville continues to serve as LG's headquarters for North American service operations. The campus also includes the technical call center, service training center, field service operations and parts warehouse.
Local policymakers heaped praise on the tech giant for investing further in their region. Attractive state and local incentives were a key element of LG's decision.
"LG has a long history as a leading corporate citizen in Alabama," said Governor Kay Ivey, in a statement. "Now, LG is launching our state's first solar manufacturing plant, which represents a major milestone both for Alabama and for the company. We look forward to seeing where this great partnership takes us in the future."
The solar factory announcement coincides with several other major LG manufacturing initiatives in the U.S. The South Korean company is currently finishing construction of a new $250 million washing machine plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, which is expected to create 600 new jobs when production starts in the fourth quarter. The Trump administration announced tariffs on foreign-made washing machines in January.
Later this year, LG will open an advanced electric-vehicle components factory in Hazel Park, Michigan, as well as an expanded research and development center in Troy, Michigan. The two facilities will collectively create nearly 300 new jobs. Finally, LG is investing $300 million in its new North American headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The office park is expected to open in 2019.
Do I REALLY need a </sarcasm> tag???
500 MW is about half a typical nuke power plant.
There is no question solar power will be an important part of our energy production mix in the future, and they actually make sense if you think of them as "peakers" in hot climates because they work best when air conditioners create higher demand. They will become more useful when the cost-per-KW come down enough to make them viable in the marketplace. It should not be done with government subsidies.
Of course, to make the whole thing work we would have to have a pretty large over-capacity so natural gas peakers can take over when solar isn't producing.
I read somewhere that a typical wind turbine requires 0.75kW of spinning reserve for each wind-generated kW.
The average actual solar power ratings for DELIVERED annual power is about 21% of the nameplate panel rating. Over time, as the panels degrade in the sun, that deliveted power ratio (capacity factor) goes even lower.
Yeah, they degrade by what? 5% per year, something like that. And they have to be washed, and rain leaves dust on them. Washing them requires power and water, even if done by robots. Constitutes "hotel load."
Yeah, I don't think giant pinwheels are the way to go. Solar panels, however, will eventually become competitive.
I remember reading once that the energy required to manufacture a solar panel is equal to the amount of energy that panel will ever produce, which kind of makes them energy STORAGE devices, rather than energy producers. But that will (or already has?) change, and eventually they will make more sense.
They will never dominate the energy production industry, though
Yeah, an oddity about photovoltaic cells is, over their first six months to a year of operation, their output declines to about half of whatever they originally were supposed to produce, and it stays there for the life of the cell. Also, the Sun doesn’t shine all day, and the day length and sunlight intensity varies seasonally.
Thanks for the info on photo voltaic, I was about to plop down a lot to install solar panels on my home in S Florida.
Maybe not on Earth, but...
“And the Sun is not a power source!”
Fusion is most definitely a source of power!
Gotcha!
See post #13...
...is what, exactly?
In the electricity generation business, demand (or load) management is a huge issue; this is the problem of matching the amount of electrical energy generated to the amount of demand that's present at any given moment. Since electrical energy can't be stored for rapid withdrawal, every watt demanded must be supplied instantly by generating capacity somewhere in the grid.
There are several types of "reserve" that is available throughout the day. Some are more expensive, some are less expensive. Some can be brought on-line very quickly (like in a fraction of a second), others take minutes or even hours to become available.
"Spinning reserve" is reserve that's in the form of generators that are already spinning; it's possible for even a big generator to be supplying just a small fraction of its potential output at a given moment, just like when your car is parked with the engine running; the engine is supplying power for the generator to run the car's electric system, computers, perhaps the air conditioning compressor, but these loads represent just a small fraction of what the engine is capable of, like when you're accelerating onto a highway in heavy traffic, for example.
Since the engine is already spinning, just a quick press on the accelerator will bring that capability "on line" as it were.
Electrical generators are just the same, although the particulars are obviously somewhat different.
"Spinning reserve" is that reserve that the utility company has access to immediately; in fact, it's usually tapped automatically; increased electrical load on the generator (often called an "alternator") increases torque seen by the turbine, which slows down a little bit; electronic sensors immediately sense this, and move a valve to admit more steam (or fuel) to the turbine. This happens in a fraction of a second.
I was once lucky enough to get a tour of a running fossil fuel generating plant. I got to see the main steam valve controlling the flow of steam into the turbine driving a 240MW alternator. The valve stem was literally trembling, making tiny motions up and down as it worked to hold the turbine's output RPM constant, while the people of Asheville North Carolina turned lights, air conditioners, and countless other things on and off.
“energy required to manufacture a solar panel is equal to the amount of energy that panel will ever produce”
If that’s so then the panels would be too expensive to even consider buying.
Solar water heating is practical, easier to maintain, And does return a reasonable rate on your investment. (Hot house water, pool water to extend your pool srason. ) PV cells? Never, if you have grid power available
.
Which is why solar PV cells ONLY are used under TWO circumstances. If there is no grid power available AND the generated power is not essential 24 x7. Or if the government subsidies the solar installation .
OTOH, think about where our internal combustion engine is today compared to what it was 100 years ago. Same as rocket and missile systems.Use will promote efficiency, right along with battery technology.
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