and now a solar powered prison?

Photo by Alice Dull

Charleston County (South Carolina) has applied for a federal stimulus grant to install solar panels on the entire flat area of the roof of the Charleston County Detention Center including the area on the left where workers are completing an addition to the center.

Sunshine and jail are two things that don't usually go together, but there could soon be a close connection in Charleston County.

The huge, flat roofs of the county's detention center complex could become home to the largest array of solar panels in the Lowcountry, if the county's plans are successful.

The detention center is responsible for the county's largest electricity bills, and its $100 million expansion now under construction is expected to roughly double power consumption, to around 8.5 million kilowatts yearly.

Covering the roofs with hundreds of American-made solar panels could offset a portion of the power needs, an estimated 640,000 kilowatts, and the county has applied for more than $1.1 million in federal stimulus grants to make it happen.

The panels would more than pay for themselves and would save taxpayers money, according to county estimates.

Deputy Facilities Manager Gilbert Pohl believes the value of the project could be greater than the projected cash benefits, because it could help attract clean energy companies to the area.

"I really believe the government needs to take the lead on this," Pohl said. "We need to get the seed planted."

The city of Charleston separately is taking a similar approach, seeking a smaller federal stimulus grant to put solar panels on the roof of 75 Calhoun St., a building that houses city offices and the Charleston School District's administrative offices.

"What I've been calling it is a market transformation program," said Brian Sheehan, Charleston's recently-hired director of sustainability. "The goal is to use this potentially high-profile project to learn some lessons about our permit and approval process."

Charleston has requested a $93,000 grant for the project, which has a total cost of $169,000.

The solar panels account for most of the expense, but the project also includes an education and outreach component, and is aimed at reviewing city regulations that would affect anyone who wants to install a solar power system.

The county's larger initiative would come in several phases, the first two of which have been recommended to the South Carolina Energy Office by the Berkeley-Dorchester-Charleston Council of Governments.

The county is requesting $325,000 for those phases, for design work and a 157-kilowatt solar array.

The county estimates the solar panels in the first two phases would save county taxpayers more than $1.4 million over the course of 30 years.

The county is competing for that money only with other applicants from the tri-county area that were reviewed by BDC-COG, and the county's application was among the top-ranked proposals.

"We feel pretty good about the first two," Pohl said.

John Clark, director of the state Energy Office, said the South Carolina Research Authority will review the proposals to make sure the scientific assumptions and projections of cost savings are sound.

"We're trying to spend money on stuff that makes sense, from the standpoint of cost-effectiveness," he said. "If that money is going to be repaid three or four times over, then that is a good use of taxpayer money."

The grant applications for the larger third and fourth phases of the county's solar initiative, along with Charleston's grant application, will face greater competition. They are among about $8 million in statewide grant requests competing for $2.8 million in federal funds for renewable energy projects.

Clark said a decision on the first-round grants for the tri-county area should be made by mid-December, and the statewide grant requests could be decided upon in January.

Thousand Suns is born...

After years of secret meetings and planning, Thousand Suns is finally open for business...
here are the importnant links:
the website
the products
the catalog
the blog

We wish ourself the best future.
We will continue this blog in parallel with Thousand Suns...

Spain: from going all green to bursting the Solar bubble...

As world leaders converge in Pittsburgh for a major economic summit this week, one of the biggest questions they face is this: How do you begin to replace the millions of jobs destroyed by the Great Recession, now that the worst of the crisis has potentially passed?

Here on the sun-drenched and windy Iberian Peninsula, Spain thinks it has an answer: create new jobs and save the Earth at the same time.

Green jobs have become a mantra for many governments, including that of the United States. But few nations are better positioned -- or motivated -- to fuse the fight against recession and global warming than Spain. The country is already a leader in renewable fuels through $30 billion in public support and has been cited by the Obama administration as a model for the creation of a green economy. Spain generates about 24.5 percent of its electricity through renewable sources, compared with about 7 percent in the United States.

But with unemployment at 18.5 percent, the government here is preparing to take a dramatic next step. Through a combination of new laws and public and private investment, officials estimate that they can generate a million green jobs over the next decade. The plan would increase domestic demand for alternative energy by having the government help pay the bill -- but also by compelling millions of Spaniards to go green, whether they like it or not.

In the long term, the government envisions a new army of engineers and technicians nurturing windmills and solar farms amid the orange orchards and carnation fields of Andalusia and Galicia. In the short term, officials say, the renewable-energy projects and refurbishing of buildings and homes for energy efficiency could redeploy up to 80 percent of the million construction workers here who lost their jobs in 2008.

Spain's ambitious effort is being closely watched by the Obama administration and other governments forming their own green-job plans. The U.S. stimulus bill is dedicating billions in grants and loans to renewable-energy projects, marking a shift away from Washington's more passive approach to green growth, which relied largely on tax incentives.

But the bid for governments to take an ever larger role in creating jobs in the private sector -- which many leaders gathering in Pittsburgh see as their mission -- is also fraught with risks.

Though the Spanish government estimates that the alternative-energy sector generates about 200,000 jobs here, about double the number in 2000, critics contend they have cost taxpayers too much money.

In some instances, the government's good intentions have distorted the energy market.

Take, for example, the recent Spanish solar bubble.

Though wind power remains the dominant alternative energy here, the government introduced even more generous inducements in recent years to help develop photovoltaic solar power -- a technology that uses sun-heated cells to generate energy. Lured by the promise of vast new subsidies, energy companies erected the silvery silicone panels in record numbers. As a result, government subsides to the sector jumped from $321 million in 2007 to $1.6 billion in 2008.

When the government moved to curb excess production and scale back subsidies late last year, the solar bubble burst, sending panel prices dropping and sparking the loss of thousands of jobs, at least temporarily.

"What they're talking about now -- creating a new sustainable economic model through alternative energy -- is going to be exactly the opposite of sustainable," said Gabriel Calzada, a Spanish economist and critic of the government's alternative-energy policy. "You're only going to create more distortion, more bubbles. It isn't going to work."

Solar-powered LED lamp post is wrapped with a flexible solar panel

Here is a good piece I found on EDN...

In spite of their high lighting efficiency, the cost of high-brightness (HB) LEDs for commodity applications is not low enough yet to compete head-on with older forms of lighting such as incandescent and high-intensity discharge (HID). However, certain applications can justify paying a premium for high-efficiency, long life, ruggedness, and light-color temperature control, and these applications are the sweet spot for HB LEDs.

Here’s a good example (pictured in the brochure): Solar-powered outdoor lighting for off-grid applications. This Solar Vision Pole’s lamp post is especially novel, because rather than use a standard rigid solar panel that requires additional bracing for wind shear (and can attract the attention of scavenging thieves), the pole itself is wrapped with a flexible solar panel that charges 4 gel batteries located in the base of the pole. The size of the panel and the number of batteries limits the lighting to 50W which would be a pretty weak traditional light source, but makes for a strong cool-white LED light. 6 hours of charging is enough to run the light all night.

Each pole/light/battery combination sells for about $5,000, which seems steep, but imagine lighting, say, a parking lot where there’s no access to electrical power. This approach can be a practical, low-maintenance lighting solution.

For more ideas on what the future holds for LEDs, catch Cary Eskow’s keynote speech at EDN’s free “Designing with LEDs” Workshop in Chicago next week on October 6.

2010 PV: demand 6GW - Supply 10.8GW !

Hapoalim Securities analyst Gordon Johnson, who accurately predicted a fall in solar stocks last year, said solar companies face excess supply and other challenges through 2010, according to Barron's on Sunday.

The photovoltaic sector will see a supply of 7.1 gigawatts this year and about 10.8 GW the next, compared with demand of roughly 4.3 GW this year and some 6 GW in 2010, Johnson told the weekly business newspaper.

Manufacturers of crystalline polysilicon, which is used in some solar cells, could also face lower demand, even as plants that take three years to build come online, Johnson told Barron's in an interview.

Johnson told the paper that polysilicon prices, now $50 per kilogram to $60 per kilogram, are likely to fall and might dip below the break-even level -- $25 per kg to $28 per kg -- which is bad news for producers like MEMC Electronic Materials and Wacker Chemie .

Johnson has a price target of $9 on MEMC. It closed at $17.29 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Johnson told Barron's that solar companies have seen their stocks rise of late on expectations of demand from China this year and the next, but those hopes were overblown.

He downgraded one such company, China-based Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, to "sell" this year because of accounting and other risks, according to Barron's.

Suntech faces certain cost disadvantages compared with some rivals as Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd and Trina Solar , Johnson said.

Suntech has committed to buy polysilicon at higher than current market prices and it outsources a part of the manufacturing process, which is more expensive, he told Barron's.

Johnson has a target of $9 on the stock and expects the company to make 7 cents per share this year, and 12 cents per share in 2010, according to Barron's. Suntech closed at $15.75 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Among other stocks, Johnson told the paper investors had become bullish on First Solar Inc because of a memorandum of understanding for a solar project in China.

But he also told Barron's the project was subject to a key government decision and did not yet have financing.

He sees the company make a profit of $6.56 per share and revenue of $1.8 billion this year, and $3.07 per share and $1.9 billion in revenue in 2010, the paper reported.

San Jose, California-based SunPower Corp's advantage of better quality products is eroding as the quality of Chinese modules has gone up while their costs are lower, Johnson said.

He sees a profit of 98 cents per share and revenue of $1.3 billion this year, and $1.11 per share on $1.8 billion in revenue in 2010, but added SunPower has one of the highest stock-option expenses in the sector.

He has a "sell" rating on the stock with a $15 target, Barron's said. It's stock closed at $30.53 on Friday on Nasdaq.

Johnson said that Trina was the best placed among these firms. He has a price target of $24. Trina closed at $31.44 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

For Yingli, Johnson told Barron's he sees a risk of write-downs on inventory for the third and fourth quarter.

He has a price target of $9 for Yingli, it said. Yingli closed at $12.60 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

PV Market Share Forecast in 2010

Thanks to our good friends of Solarbuzz...

Twelve months ago, anticipating that the global photovoltaic (PV) industry would return to a demand-constrained market in 2009, Solarbuzz commenced a year-long project to analyze downstream PV markets around the world. Today, they released the results of that research in three reports that set out the activities and opportunities in each of the major photovoltaic markets around the world.

The suite of PV Market 2009 reports addresses the current status and future prospects for the European PV markets, the United States On-Grid PV Market and the Major Asian and Pacific PV markets. These three regions will account for 96% of global PV demand in 2010.

After extremely challenging industry conditions in 2009, characterized by excess manufacturing capacity and accentuated by a 2 GW demand reduction in Spain after a major policy adjustment, the PV industry will return to a growth path in 2010, resulting in a global market of 7.4 GW in that year, based on a mid-range scenario*. This is up from the 5.95 GW market in 2008.

Underpinning that growth will be a more than doubling of the US market size to well over 1 GW in 2010, together with a mid-range German market size of 3.2 GW.

Major global factory-gate module price reductions in the first half of 2009 have established the foundation for rapid demand growth in feed-in tariff driven European markets, in both 2009 and 2010. European country markets are characterized by wide variation in customer and application segments as well as differing barriers to market development. Germany, Italy and Spain will claim a 83-88% market share in Europe by 2010, while emerging European PV markets will contribute 2.9 GW to market demand by 2013.

In the Asian and Pacific region, emerging PV markets in Australia, China and India will soon join Japan and South Korea as major regions contributing to global market demand over the 5 year forecast period. This will transform China and India's primary industry role from just being a manufacturing hub to an engine for PV market demand growth. The project pipeline for Asia Pacific (defined as identified project proposals not necessarily yet possessing confirmed financing and incentive structures) has already surpassed 7 GW. Meanwhile, Japan is also set for a steady return after four years in the wilderness.

In India, there are now 67 distinct projects proposals over one megawatt, while in China, the project pipeline has grown to 45 identified megawatt-scale project proposals. With over 70 distinct funding programs and incentive policies at the national and local level collectively in India and China targeting systems smaller than one megawatt, these countries represent a significant market opportunity over the next five years. This leaves the primary industry challenge to ensure that the existing suite of policies, and those under development, allow these projects to reach fruition.

In the US, 97% of the market size of the mid-range forecast in 2010 is already backed up by identified funding sources, projects under development and Renewable Portfolio Standard driven demand. This means that the pace of growth in that market will primarily be determined by financing, permitting and regulatory issues, rather than by product supply or PV subsidy constraints, factors that impacted market size over the last four years. A listing of over 60 large planned projects contributes to the 2.3 GW order book and together with planned Stimulus Bill-driven PV projects, provide the basis for rapid demand growth in the US. Nonetheless, companies all through the downstream US PV chain will need to reshape their strategies in response to significant changes in both end-market trends and supply mix over the next 5 years, in order to preserve their market shares.

Silicon nanotubes could increase li-ion battery by 10 folds

I'll give it to you, this is not 100% related to solar energy but big enough to change the rules in the battery world...

In news that could greatly extend the range of electric cars, researchers have shown that replacing the conventional graphite electrodes in lithium-ion batteries with silicon nanotubes can produce a battery that can store ten times more charge. The researchers developed a silicon anode that, aside from extending the range of electric cars, could also make gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles more efficient by allowing them to run in electric mode for longer periods.

The researchers say that, if the new silicon anode can be matched to a cathode with similar storage capacity, the resulting battery should be able to power a car for three or four hours without recharging. This is a marked improvement of six to eight times on today’s technology, which sees the battery in a current, typical hybrid car lasting only 30 minutes.

The silicon anode developed by researchers at Stanford University and Hanyang University in Ansan, Korea, in collaboration with LG Chem, a Korean company responsible for producing the lithium-ion battery used in the Chevy Volt, can store much more energy than graphite electrodes because they absorb higher levels of lithium when the battery is charged. In fact, the silicon can take up to ten times more lithium by weight than graphitic carbon.

But the ability of the silicon to absorb more lithium has a downside. Since it takes up so much lithium, it can increase in volume by as much as four times. This places so much mechanical strain on the brittle material that the silicon anodes tend to crack after only a few charge/discharge cycles. To combat this the researchers turned to nanostructured silicon.

Jaephil Cho, professor of energy engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in Korea, and Stanford materials scientist Yi Cui, had made silicon nanowire anodes and nanoporous silicon anodes before teaming up to develop the silicon nanotube anodes that boast better storage capacity than either of those previous nanostructured materials.

The performance of the silicon nanotube anode lies in its shape, which looks like a bunch of hollow straws. This provides more surface area exposed inside and therefore, much more area for the lithium to interact with. Also, because the shape provides extra space for the silicon to expand and contract, there is a reduction in the mechanical strain caused when the battery is charged and discharged.

Cho believes that batteries incorporating the silicon electrodes could be on the market in as little as three years because the process to produce them is simple and the template used is already available commercially. It involves repeatedly immersing an aluminum template in a silicon solution, and then heating it and etching the structure in acid to remove the aluminum. Along with LG Chem, Cho is also working with the template manufacturer to make a template compatible with large-scale manufacturing.

There are, however, other challenges that will need to be overcome before silicon anodes find their way into electric vehicles. Although Cui and Cho have demonstrated their anode’s performance after 200 charges, the technology needs to be proven over hundreds of thousands of charges to become viable for use in vehicles. The problem lies in getting back from silicon all the energy that is put into it – a condition that worsens over time.

Additionally, to receive the full benefits of silicon anodes, they need to be paired with cathodes whose storage capacity is also ten times greater. To match the capacity of the silicon anodes in a working battery for testing their technology the researchers have been using large-volume cathodes made of conventional materials. However, Cui and Cho are working on developing new cathode materials in collaboration with LG Chem.

The team’s research is detailed in the study, Silicon Nanotube Battery Anodes, which appears in the journal Nano Letters.

Source: Technology Review via TreeHugger