Nowadays in some European countries, a significant support is brought to photovoltaic (PV) energy. However, the technology still presents high investment costs, and people willing to invest in this clean energy are facing legal and administrative obstacles.

deSOLaSOL aims to minimise those barriers, and to make easier for interested stakeholders – individuals, small organisations, SMEs, etc. – joint-investments in grid-connected PV plants. Within a joint-investment scheme, only a limited capital amount is needed, so that many people can get involved, thus becoming direct participants of a sustainable energy model and acting as information disseminators. It is indeed an excellent opportunity for people and organisations willing to concretise their environmental commitment.

deSOLaSOL is analysing all relevant procedural aspects, assessing good practices and providing useful tools in order to foster the deployment of jointly-owned grid-connected PV plants.

The consortium is formed by a balanced team of PV-related SMEs, NGOs and financial entities who gather a critical experience in the setting up of grid-connected PV plants and in the development of successful information campaigns. The German partner ecovision GmBH has a wide practical experience in realising joint-owned grid-connected PV plants. We aim to import its experience to other countries. In Spain, the non-profit foundation Ecología y Desarrollo and the NGO Cives Mundi are promoting similar models and structures, while in France is Hespul (a non-profit organization known by its specialisation in energy efficiency and renewable energies promotion) and in Portugal is Aflops (a forestry producers association) who are trying to overcome the different barriers. This combination is completed by the presence of the European leader in social and ecological banking, Triodos Bank, and La Nef, a French cooperative society of solidarity finances, who contribute with their experience and knowledge about financial aspects.

www.desolasol.org

You can find all the information regarding the deSOLaSOL Project on the website www.desolasol.org , already available in English and Spanish. Information about the project and the partners, PV-news and events coming up, interesting links, a PV-library with different documentation, and all the deliverable results from the project can be found at this website. We encourage you to visit it!

Our Online Forum is set up to bring the photovoltaic closer to the people. You can find it at www.desolasol.org/forum/

Feel free to participate in one of the following categories or to propose other topics of your interest:

- Technical aspects: you can Exchange information on technical problems & solutions when installing a grid-connected PV plant!

- Legal, administrative and financial aspects: The perfect channel to discuss legal, administrative and financial aspects in establishing a jointly-owned grid-connected PV plant. Share your problems, ideas and tips

- Good practices: Share your experience in setting-up or managing a multi-owners grid-connected PV plant!

PV has the largest Potential from all renewables.

Even though, grid-connceted Photovoltaics is still not cost-competitive.

PV has strongly developped in this segment. In 2006, the growth has been approximately 30% world-wide. Germany is leading with 52 % followed by Japan with 330 MWp and USA with 190 MWp. The significant development in 2006 was due to the lack of silicium as raw material for wafers, as capacities for refining have – by far not been suficient. The market is reacting by purchasing more thin- film in  particular from Cd-Te. This material is cheaper for big power plants in the MWp-size.

With the point of view of a Financial Entity, nowadays it is well known that investing and financing a PV project is profitable. In order to prove the previous statement, it is needed only to review the return of investment in a PV project, approximately about 10% in a normal scenario. Furthermore, a PV projects is not a risky investment, more and more used as a pension plan tool. However, a PV project is more than a financial investment so it has to be analysed in a more wide way, taking in account not only economic figures. A PV project is a sustainable energy supply so has to be classified as responsibility investing so by extension a responsibility financing. Moreover, environmental and climate change benefits of PV projects have been highly demonstrated. At last, PV projects have a social value themselves due to their contribution in the local society development and assuring energy access in isolated places.

Therefore renewable energy represents a major step forward innovation as compared with existing energy supply options.
And in the same way, investing and financing in renewable plants is different from doing the same in conventional fossil-fuelled power plants and requires a new thinking and also new risk-management approaches.

Assuming that preliminary analyses of a PV project have identified a viable opportunity, the developer should be prepared to start a hard process of developing in the project itself. The next steps that he should develop are: initiating the interconnection process with the local utility; developing the plant layout and design; obtaining permits and licenses of administration, etc.
Moreover, it is important for project developers to understand all the elements that are part of a feasibility analysis of a renewable energy plants, specifically in a PV project, for example: performance ratio, guaranties, technical risks. It is also essential to know the regulatory framework under which the project will be developed.
In a PV financing, a key issue for a Financial Institution is the quality and precision of a loan application (type of panels, technology, solar data bases, production study, etc). Financing PV requires of structured analysis. It is not financing a mortgage. An analysis for financing a PV project requires approximately between 6 and 12 months in addition to the previous development works.

In this entire process of developing a PV solar project, a Financial Entity could be a strategy partner that could not only finance also make an assessment and participate actively in this challenge of develop a PV project and contribute in a positive change of our society.

1. The joint initiatives of Hespul and La Nef
   

   In France, only few jointly owned PV projects exist. La Nef and HESPUL are working with different project developers to enhance this kind of investment.

   A very interesting project is at study in Chambery : the city council - which has just led an important public PV plant project- would like to incentive citizens from the city to invest in PV plants realised on roofs of buildings possessed and rent gracefully by public administrations. The estimated power of the whole system is around 500 kWp.
   Approximately 50 potential investors (individuals and small firms) have been identified. The difficulty is now to find the best legal form and financial mechanism to collect and invest the savings and therefore to transform these project into an exemplar reality.

   Many areas are available on the roofs of old farms in the region of the “Monts Du Lyonnais”. A meeting have been organized the 15 of may 2007 at the Château de Pluvy, where 25 persons attended. Most of the attendee were farmers interested in working with other investors and enhance a project whose aim is to jointly invest in a PV system. Some of the participant proposed their own farm roof or factory roof. The conclusions of this first workshop have led us to consider an SARL structure to be the owner of a roof integrated PV system. Architectually integrated projects are economically more interesting. However, an integrated system introduce the problem of the responsibility of the roof ; the owner of the PV system (different than the owner of the building) is responsible of any damage caused by the installation to the roof. This responsibility will introduce new insurance fees.
   The constitution of the lending contract will also include special fees due to a legal study.

   In Belgium, children legally represented by their parents are the main investors in a cooperative society « Allons en vent », owner of a wind mill. A similar project is being developed in France. A young society Sunseo, specialized in the fotovoltaic system development, is the initiator of the project. The project is still in his first stage ; the search for a public building to receive the PV system on his roof, and the search for a group of parents willing to invest for their children.
   

2. The PV framework in Portugal
   

   Portugal is one of the European countries with the highest availability of solar radiation.
   The average number of hours with sun, per year, varies between 2.200 and 3.000 h.
   Portugal, due to its climatic characteristics, has excellent conditions for the photovoltaic conversion with production index between 1.000 and 1.500 kWh per year, for each kWp installed.
   There are several reasons for the slow development of solar energy in Portugal:
   - Some bad experiences during the first period of expansion of solar (80’s), associated with the low quality of the equipment and, especially, of the installations, that negatively affected its image;
   - Lack of specific information distributed among the potential users explaining the reasons for the interest on this technology and its possibilities;
   - High cost on the initial investment, not encouraging the adoption of such a solution to compete with the conventional alternatives;
   - Technical and technological barriers to the innovation at the levels of industry, construction and installation of thermal equipments;
   - Not enough and adequate support and incentive measures.

   There is a Law-Decree (nº 68/2002, of 25th March) regulating the general micro-generation as electrical energy production activity in low voltage with the possibility to connection to the public electrical grid.
   This legal diploma predicts that the electrical energy produced would be predominantly self-used and the exceeding amount would be whether:
   - delivered to third parties, or
   - delivered to the public grid, on this case with until a limit of 150 kW electrical power.

   The Law-Decree nº 29/2006, of 15th March, established the general basis for the organization and functioning of the National Electrical System, classifying the electricity production in two regimes:
   - the production in ordinary regime, and
   - the production in special regime.

   The special regime corresponds to the electrical energy production by means of incentives:
   - to the utilization of endogenous renewable energy sources, or
   - to the combined heat and power production.

   However, the number of electrical energy micro-generation systems, licensed and functioning, have no expression. The reasons may be the excessive administrative and burocratic centralization of the licensing processes for the small and micro generation projects and also the lack of authorization of licenses for connection to the grid.

   There is a new Law-Decree foreseen for application of a simplified licensing regime for local grid connection, low tension, for small producers based in renewable energy sources (until 1,5 kW – PV and until 2,5 kW – micro wind power). This legal document will come out around March 2008.

Una veintena de premios Nobel alerta de las consecuencias del cambio climático Valencia, 19-06-2007 La amenaza del calentamiento global y sus consecuencias potencialmente desastrosas para el futuro de nuestro planeta constituyen uno de los mayores desafíos al que se enfrenta la Humanidad ...

Bruselas alerta a España por el incremento de sus emisiones de CO2 Madrid, 17/06/2007 El balance por países sobre el acercamiento al Protocolo de Kioto que hizo público ayer Bruselas -correspondiente a 2005- coloca a España como el peor alumno y el más alejado de los objetivos ...

Rothschild lança fundo de energias renováveis O forte potencial de crescimento do sector de energias renováveis levou o Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild a lançar em Portugal um fundo de "private equity" que quer investir 100 milhões de euros nos próximos ...

No Binding Climate Agreement at Heiligendamm Heiligendamm (Germany), Jun 8th 2007 The worlds eight most industrialized nations (G8) failed to reach a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but decided to discuss the issue within the ...

Merkel: G-8 Agreement On Climate Change HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jun. 7, 2007 Merkel: G-8 Leaders Agree On Plan For 'Substantial Cuts' To Greenhouse Gas Emissions, while thousands of activists blocked most of the routes leading to the G8 meeting ...

Industria y el sector solar quieren elevar objetivos energía fotovoltaica Madrid, 04/06/2007 La tarifa regulada que recibirán los parques fotovoltáicos de más de 100 kilovatios (KW) aumenta el 82 por ciento respecto a la regulación actual, según los datos que ha difundido Industria.

Jornada a favor de las Energías Renovables Zaragoza, 6 de junio Ecología y Desarrollo y Greenpeace os invitan a participar en la Jornada a favor de las ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES que tendrá lugar en el Centro Joaquín Roncal de Zaragoza [San Braulio 5-7] ...

I ENCUENTRO SOBRE ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES Soria, 7 y 8 de junio Avenia proyectos de desarrollo organiza en Soria los próximos 7 y 8 de junio el I Encuentro sobre Energías Renovables coincidiendo con la Semana del Medio Ambiente. Las charlas tendrán ...

More news on www.desolasol.org/en/noticias/NewsAndEvents.asp

From	To	What	Where	Logo / web
21/06/2207	23/06/2007	Intersolar 2007	Freiburg, Germany
26/06/2007	28/06/2007	PowerGen Europe 2007	Madrid
26/06/2007	28/06/2007	Renewable Energy Europe	Madrid
03/09/2007	60/09/2007	Bioenergy 2007	Jyväskylä, Finland
03/09/2007	07/09/2007	22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition	Milano

 
See more events on www.desolasol.org/en/noticias/events.asp

The solstice is a unique moment, which corresponds to the shortest day of the year and the longest night (winter solstice) or vice versa, (summer solstice). Today, 21st of June, is, in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year, in which the Sun reaches the highest point in the sky, at the astronomic noon, casting its zenith on the Cancer Tropic… thus, depending on climatology, it could be the day of biggest photovoltaic energy production too! It also coincides with the astronomic passage from Spring to Summer.

In many cultures, there are different rites and traditions around this date. For example, in Spain, the traditional pagan bonfires that were lighten during this night to give strength to the Sun, who from this moment weakens, were absorbed lately by the Catholic Church. The Saint John’s night, that until year 325 in which some adjustments from the calendar and the astronomic cycle were made, it corresponded exactly with the solstice, is celebrated in many places. There are innumerable traditions and legends around purification with fire, how to attract good luck, assure a fruit-bearing harvest or how to pick up the plants in order to strengthen it medicinal or magical properties.