Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
THE TARGETED reduction of the consumption of energy within the public sector last year failed to meet the announced objective, falling short by two thirds.
Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell told
Barbara Gayle,
GTM Research Senior Analyst Shyam Mehta provides actionable intelligence for the solar module manufacturing industry.
ERIC WESOFF: APRIL 25, 2013
GTM Research Senior Analyst Shyam Mehta spoke at this week’s Solar Summit in Arizona on solar module manufacturing. Rather than preaching “big ideas [and] grand narratives [that] don’t always give you actionable intelligence,” Mehta tried to provide real-world data points and tried to “start from the ground.”
Here are a few of his points and the accompanying data.
The performance gap between p-type mono-crystalline silicon and multi-crystalline silicon is narrowing
Efficiency gains in conventional multi c-Si have accelerated and the gains have come “without significant increase in capex or material cost,” according to Mehta. Yet mono crystalline still commands a 4 cent to 8 cent per watt premium in sales price. Mehta suggests that the value proposition for p-type mono continues to deteriorate.
P-type might make sense in highly real estate-constrained Japan, but in the long term, Mehta sees n-type mono as a key to maintaining the efficiency advantage of mono. Panasonic, SunPower and Yingli are working on n-type cells.
Are 72-cell modules the future?
Mehta noted that 60-cell modules are the current standard but there are 72-cell, 96-cell, and 128-cell modules available. He said that 72-cell modules have gained significant market share because large modules can reduce balance-of-system costs by up to 7 cents per watt.
The 60-cell modules still have an advantage over larger modules in that they are more rigid, can be carried by one person, and more modules can be fit onto complicated rooftops.
Mehta suggests we will start to see increasing numbers of larger and different sized modules that are “highly segment-specific.”
Will module prices just keep dropping?
Spot pricing for polysilicon, as well as for cells and modules, has actually risen 5 percent to 15 percent this year. Is this an indication of a sustained price increase? Mehta points to some salient data from GTM research — 81 percent of ASP reduction over the last two years has come from margin evaporation and polysilicon. He notes that non-silicon materials such as glass and encapsulants have little cost-reduction potential remaining.
Long
THE Government, after more than 10 years trying to divest the Petroleum Company of Jamaica Limited (Petcom), has set up an enterprise team for the privatisation of the entity.
“Mr Erwin Jones, chairman of Petrojam, will lead this team. We are currently having a valuation of the company’s assets done and we will announce more as information becomes available,” Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell told Parliament yesterday during his contribution to the 2013/14 Budget Debate at Gordon House in Kingston.
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Petcom has a service station network of some 28 stations in Jamaica
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Paulwell, arguing that Petcom has been a strategic asset in the petroleum marketing sector, said he hoped that the entity would remain a strong player in the market. “Again, I encourage local investors to participate in the ownership of this important Jamaican asset,” the minister told the House.
Petcom
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Hardly a day goes by without me hearing of electricity theft from Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) supply lines. What about armoured cable? Has JPS tried this?
Twin armoured cables are made up of a minimum of five layers of insulation, the individual insulation of the two conductors, an overall insulation of these two, then comes the armour rap which in the low cost cables is normally made from aluminium and finally the outer insulation.
Steel armoured cables are considered the best. The 16mm steel armoured cables come in at about US$600 per 100 metres.
I know that there are many Jamaicans who are very ingenious at theft – and not much else – but unless one calls the Grim Reaper and asks him to stay away, it would be a very brave person, or possibly a fool, who tries to make a connection to an armoured cable without first switching the power off and using the correct tools.
You can’t connect to an armoured cable by throwing up a hook! Yes, I know that future legal connections to such a line will take longer and cost more, but it is a one-off payment. This will, in the end, cost less than going to and fro to remove illegal connections or throwing up hands and saying, “We don’t know what else to do.” We can’t go on like this!
JPS does not (I stand corrected) have any means of determining the difference between line loss which varies and theft, but as it is allowed to charge you and me for that which is guessed theft, why bother to go to the expense of putting up armoured cables in predominantly theft areas.
PHIL FOSTER
croc@cwjamaica.com
St Elizabeth
Read more:
The local oil refinery Petrojam, which has served Jamaica for a generation, should be shut down unless negotiations with the new Venezuelan government result in expansion plans, according to Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell.
The plant expansion has been delayed for eight years.
“In relation to Petrojam, this is a project that is well delayed. If Petrojam is not upgraded and expanded, we will have to shut it down. It is as simple as that,” Paulwell said at a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister on Thursday in Kingston.
“So we are awaiting the settling in of the new government and we were promised that as soon as that occurs, there will be a very important meeting with the players.”
Petrojam, the company, was incorporated 31 years ago. Government owns 51 per cent of the plant and Venezuela has the remaining 49 per cent since 2006.
Petrojam is projected to earn US$21.2 million net profit for this fiscal year ending April 2014 on US$1.9 billion of revenues. The capital expenditure for the year is projected at US$26.9 million.
Jamalco Refinery, the alumina joint venture between the Jamaican Government and Alcoa, aims to build the island’s first major coal plant in order to lower the cost of alumina production, Mining Minister Phillip Paulwell indicated on Thursday. The plant will lower the high cost of energy that currently threatens the viability of the bauxite/alumina sector, which earns the third-highest levels of foreign exchange for Jamaica. Majority owner and managing partner Alcoa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the matter with the Government, said Paulwell at his post-Budget presentation press conference. Ministry’s plans Paulwell laid out his ministry’s plans to lawmakers on Wednesday. “For Jamalco, we are going to have an energy solution that is different from what we have now. The Cabinet has signed off and I have signed an MOU with Alcoa for them to pursue a coal option, and they are pursuing a bidding arrangement where they are seeking investors who will establish the plant and will do a take-or-pay contract with them,” he told journalists at the Office of Prime Minister in Kingston on Thursday. “So that is a part of the mix and it is a requirement going forward,” he said. Tackle high costs Financial Gleaner Beginning in June, the Government will commence accepting bid submissions from investors to develop projects aimed at generating up to 115 megawatts of energy from renewable sources, which could potentially reduce Jamaica
Jamalco
