Generation Guide: Monthly Digest of Insights Shared by Your Peers in the Energy Central Generation Network – April 29, 2022

Welcome to the Generation Network roundup, Generation Guide. As always, your fellow network members are paying close attention to generation and clean power trends and sharing their insights. This month’s selection includes information about the considerable potential of hydropower, the rise of agri-PV, and more. Be sure to like and comment on your favorite posts. Happy reading!

Tapping Hydropower’s Potential: New Hydropower Prize Challenges Innovators To Improve Grid Reliability and Resiliency

Brittany Enos

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/pip/tapping-hydropower%E2%80%99s-potential-new-hydropower-prize-challenges-innovators-improve

While not discussed as much as solar and wind power, hydropower has the potential to play an important role in the emerging renewable energy grid. In this article, Brittany Enos, Communications Specialist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) notes that hydropower already provides 37% of total U.S. renewable electricity generation. And she announces the creation of the Hydropower Operations Optimization Prize offered by the DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office in partnership with NREL. Its purpose is to encourage the development of cutting-edge hydropower solutions.

The Rise of Agri-PV: From Niche Idea to Megatrend

Toby Couture

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/cp/rise-agri-pv-niche-idea-megatrend

Agri-PV is the positioning of PV panels above agricultural plants, yielding two uses from the same land. In this post, Toby Couture, Director at E3 Analytics describes the many benefits of this arrangement, including increased revenues for farmers and developers, reduced water use for crops, increased PV panel efficiency, and a widened range of crops that can be grown. He notes that this arrangement faces challenges as well, but they are overshadowed by the advantages.   

Is Now the Time to Tackle Solar Panel Recycling & the Industry’s Waste Problem?

Emilie O’Leary

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/pip/now-time-tackle-solar-panel-recycling-industry%E2%80%99s-waste-problem

As solar power becomes more common, it’s critical to think about what happens to solar panels when they reach end of life. In this piece, Emilie O’Leary, Owner and CEO at Green Clean Solar explains that experts expect 88 million tons of solar panel waste to be produced by 2050. Solar waste contributes to carbon emissions, but this pattern can be changed with solar project recycling.  In the EU, the recycling rate for solar panels is at 95%, partly due to a mandate for manufacturers to recycle solar panels. Similar efforts could and should be implemented in the U.S.

How Solar Chimneys Can Help Renewables Grow

Jane Marsh

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/cp/how-solar-chimneys-can-help-renewables-grow

Here, Jane Marsh, Editor-in-Chief at Environment.co describes what solar chimneys are and how they can meet the growing need for innovative renewable energy systems. The primary benefit of solar chimneys is that they rely on warm air rather than direct sunlight, making them suited to operating at night. The primary challenge with this technology is the high expense combined with low efficiency, resulting in the need to build them at a large scale to generate a return on investment. However, Jane suggests these issues could be addressed down the road.

Thanks again for reading this edition of Generation Guide! The authors listed above are eager to hear your thoughts and questions, so don’t hesitate to engage them. And if you want your content to be featured in this spot in future issues, be sure to publish your posts within the Generation Network Community.

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