Solar Industry performance,global PV market shares and the 'How to' and 'Top 10' of the latest solar technology.
Monday, February 28, 2011
FIT doubts; UK solar installations to fall below 250MW
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Is It An Animal, Is It A Solar Panel: No It's A Solar-Powered Sea Slug!!
Gene 'theft'
Human photosynthesis?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
UK School Creates Green Lab With Use of Solar Panels
A Science department at a school in Alveston is attempting to become more sustainable.
Marlwood School has recently had 11 Solar Photovoltaic Panels installed onto the roof of one of its science laboratories so it can be developed as a ‘green lab’.
(On the right: The proud team of Marlow school)
The energy produced by the panels will run appliances and lighting in the lab and any excess will be sold to the national grid.
Students being taught in the ‘green lab’ will be able to monitor the amount of energy being produced.
Mel Jeffries, Science College community development officer, said: "The ultimate aim is for this educational environment to become carbon neutral and subsequently impact upon the students thinking in terms of the sustainable future.
"The benefits to be gained from this environment will be monitored by the students during relevant aspects of their learning. This will extend across the curriculum and not just be restricted to science lessons."
The panels cost £15,000 to install and were paid for by grants from The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP), The Thornbury Grammar School Foundation and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.
Other projects being considered for the ‘green lab’ include rainwater harvesting, energy-conserving lighting and insulation improvements.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Reported Solar Growth up to 70% Worldwide 2010
Despite the continued financial crisis, falling solar prices around the world, good government subsidies (particularly in Germany and Italy), and an interest in addressing accelerated climate change helped to make 2010 such a successful year for the solar photovoltaic industry.
Cumulative solar capacity is now at 40 GW, 70% higher than the 23 GW it was at at the end of 2009.
Europe, alone, added about 13 GW of new solar power installations in 2010. Clearly, leading the world. Feed-in tariff programs in Germany and Italy, where nearly 7 GW and approximately 3 GW were added, respectively, were a major driver of 2010′s growth.
“Solar PV is continuing to develop in countries that put a feed-in tariff in place,” said EPIA economist Gaetan Masson.
Other than Germany and Italy, other countries with significant solar power growth were:
•the Czech Republic (1.3 GW)
•Japan (1 GW)
•United States (0.8 GW)
•France (0.5 GW)
•China (0.4 GW)
•Spain (0.4)
•Belgium (0.25)
•Greece (0.2)
“Solar panel prices have halved since 2007, say analysts, at about $1.8 per watt at the end of 2010 compared with $3.7 three years earlier,” Reuters reports.
Source: Cleantechnica.com, Zachary Shahan
Friday, February 18, 2011
£12bn For UK Councils Available; Green Subsidies
Green energy subsidies could alleviate the financial pressures of UK councils to the tune of £12bn in the next 20 years, according to UK think tank New Local Government Network (NLGN).
Its latest study found that an estimated pot of up to £12bn is available to councils in the country in the next two decades if they make greater use of green energy subsidies. The findings come at a time when some councils face budget cuts of nearly 9 per cent next year.
The Power and Money report highlights that although some authorities have accessed funding through the feed-in tariff (FIT) and Renewable Heat Incentive, a lack of regulatory clarity on the schemes and the early consultation has prevented councils making full use of them.
With only 275 community properties among the 20,000 FIT-funded installations accredited last year, there is a danger that the vast potential for green energy solutions across the local government estate will be left largely unfulfilled, it said.
NLGN’s report author Luke Hildyard said, ‘We estimate that the FIT and the Renewable Heat Incentive could represent an estimated £12bn investment in renewable energy. Local authorities will be able to access what could be a potentially vital source of revenue at a time of unprecedented budget cuts.
‘But by carrying out the review of the FIT earlier than planned and delaying the renewable heat incentive, the government has increased the risk factor for those planning to roll-out micro-generation installations locally. Renewable energy projects require costly and time-consuming planning and research, which councils may be reluctant to undertake in an uncertain environment.’
Green investment, the think tank said, can soften the blow of public sector job losses by creating new eco-friendly jobs in the private sector.
Source:http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/energy-efficiency/green-subsidies-could-release-12bn-for-councils.html
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Coming Soon Near You: Solar Powered Mobile Phone!
Walking around on the Mobile World Congress 2011, they are hard to miss: e Umeox Apollo, an Android smartphone with a green edge–it runs on solar power!
It’s not just the solar power that makes this one notable, either; it’s running Android 2.2, it’s got a built-in flashlight, a rear-facing camera of as yet unannounced resolution, a 3.2 inch touch screen display, a MediaTek processor, and a microSD card slot for adding storage.
And though it sounds a bit slack in terms of features, one thing that will impress is its low price. Word has already emerged suggesting that this one will go for $100, off contract. Getting a contract with this one will likely drop the price through the floor, possibly even into the free category.
Naturally, this one’s no iPhone killer. Maybe if you got it real drunk, told it the iPhone was sleeping with its girlfriend and then gave it a gun it might, but on its own, there’s no way these two would even play in the same ballpark. A lot of the features you might be hoping for–HD video, plenty of room for pictures and songs in the media player…frankly, I’d be surprised to find Android Marketplace was available on this one–will probably not be found here. But if you’re gearing yourself more toward the basics, I’d say this one could probably do a lot of people a lot of good.
Still though, it’s not the first green item to come out of MWC, and so we’ll have to keep a close eye on what all’s going on in that vein. We might be looking at the start of a real trend here–the eco-friendly mobile hardware trend–and it’ll be things like the Umeox Apollo that drive it.
Source:http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/855616-mwc-2011-umeox-apollo-the-solar-powered-android-smartphone
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
By 2050 World Energy Can be 95% Renewable, according to study
Almost all of the world’s demand for energy for electricity, transportation and heating could be met from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power by 2050, WWF International said.
The share of oil, coal, gas and nuclear power in the global energy mix could be whittled down to 5 percent over the next four decades, WWF said today in an e-mailed report produced with researchers at Dutch organizations Ecofys and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Energy saving measures can cut total demand by 15 percent from 2005 levels even as the population, industrial output, freight and passenger travel rise, they said.
The effort would require $3.5 trillion euros ($4.8 trillion) a year in spending by 2035 on modernizing buildings and electricity grids and expanding wind farms and solar parks. It would take until 2040 to pay off.
“This is insurance against the volatility of oil and gas prices and climate change,” Stephan Singer, editor of the study and director of energy policy at WWF, said from Brussels. “It can be done using currently available technologies” and ones due in the market in the next few years.
Ecofys is a Utrecht, Netherlands-based energy consultant, and WWF, based in Gland,Switzerland, is known as the World Wildlife fund in the U.S. The Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s AMO research arm, which studies architecture and clean energy, also contributed to the study.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency last year estimated that $33 trillion of energy infrastructure investment is needed by 2035 if countries are to meet their international commitments to limit greenhouse gases.
Consumer Impact
That figure, which averages out at $1.3 trillion a year, doesn’t include consumer purchases of goods such as more efficient cars and refrigerators, which are included in today’s study, Singer said. Those alone could total another $2 trillion a year, closing the gap with the IEA research, he said.
Singer said new technologies that aren’t currently close to commercialization could make it possible to get 100 percent of the world’s energy needs from renewables by 2050.Inefficient products should be phased out, and “strong, legally-binding standards” should be implemented for all energy using products, Singer said.
Achieving the ramp-up in energy efficiency and renewable power would require behavior changes including eating less meat, using more public transport, and electrifying cars, he said. New financing models will be needed to promote investments that generate long-term gains rather than immediate profits, he said.
“Sufficiency must be part of the solution -- technology is not the sole provider,” Singer said. “The global middle classes and the global rich of this world are not a blueprint model for the poor.”
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-03/world-could-get-95-of-its-energy-from-renewable-sources-by-2050-wwf-says.html
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
World's 10 Most Ingenious Solar Boats!
Monday, February 14, 2011
China profits from Solar-Power Strategy as Europeans backpedal
The government will spend at least a year studying Europe’s system of paying above-market prices for solar power before deciding if there’s a better way to spur clean-energy plants across China, said Wu Dacheng, an adviser to national power regulators. .
“We need to learn from European countries like Germany” that pay subsidized rates to spark solar-panel installations, Wu, vice chairman of the Solar Photovoltaic Committee of China’s Renewable Energy Society, said in an interview.
Europe, which attracted more than $65 billion in solar plant investment in 2010, is providing lessons for China. Germany, the largest panel market, together with Spain and France carried out four unscheduled subsidy cuts in 2010, trying to slow a torrent of projects by developers and speculators.
China’s wait-and-see strategy on projects is part of a broader industrial plan to take a leading global role in harnessing energy from the sun. China is first focusing state support on its own equipment manufacturers. That helps them gain market share and cut prices, lowering the eventual cost of a nationwide solar construction program China plans for itself.
“China is definitely playing a longer game in solar,” Daniel Guttmann, head of renewable energy strategy at the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London, said by telephone. “It has done a lot to subsidize its manufacturers.”
Polysilicon to Panels
The government’s China Development Bank alone approved more than 126 billion yuan ($19 billion) in credit facilities in the second half of last year for makers of everything from the raw material of polysilicon to the finished solar panel, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Chinese solar equipment makers outperformed most U.S. and European competitors in stock markets in the last 12 months. The top three, led by LDK Solar Co., gained about 57 percent on average in the period, compared with 50 percent for the top three based in the U.S. and 6 percent for the Europeans.
China this year will increase its share of the global solar photovoltaic panel market by about 10 percentage points and for the first time supply a majority of the devices that turn sunlight into power, according to London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In contrast, China bought less than 3 percent of the 18.5 gigawatts in estimated worldwide panel sales for its domestic projects.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/china-profits-from-solar-power-strategy-as-europe-backpedals-on-subsidies.html, by Reed Landberg
Friday, February 11, 2011
Solar energy takes over; even in Alaska!
The project will cost about $100,000, but qualified for a 30 percent tax credit from the federal government, the report said. It will generate between 5 and 10 percent of the building's energy needs. Alaska, we salute you!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
New method for calculating lifetime solar energy costs
Gartner's analysts and U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) have developed a new and more instructive approach to calculate the lifetime cost for a solar-generated energy system for comparison to other energy systems.
Usually when people consider the cost of solar energy they use the dollars per Watt metric, which is only a measure of the initial capital cost and the solar panel vendor’s performance specification. This doesn’t take into account the actual energy you will get from the system or other cost factors such as maintenance. A far more informative metric is the levelized cost of energy (LCOE).
"In typical LCOE projections for solar energy, many assumptions are swept under the rug, and we wanted to make a small step toward lifting up that rug and showing how you can truly get a handle on those assumptions to develop a more accurate picture of the potential costs," said Argonne solar researcher Seth Darling, who leads the development of the new approach. LCOE is the cost of an energy supply over its lifetime per energy unit produced.
"Specifically, the Argonne approach uses a Monte Carlo simulation that statistically selects from probability distributions to account for the uncertainly associated with various cost and production parameters," Darling said. A Monte Carlo simulation can produce millions of possible performance outcomes that might occur in the future, weighted to reflect their likelihood.
The new methodology is presented in the paper "Assumptions and the levelized cost of energy for photovoltaics" in Energy & Environmental Science. The lead author of the paper is Seth Darling. Argonne researchers Fengqi You and Thomas Veselka and Gartner analyst Alfonso Velosa are co-authors. The DOE's Office of Science provided funding for this research.
Source: Scandinavian Oil-Gas Magazine;http://www.scandoil.com/moxie-bm2/news/spot_news/new-approach-calculates-lifetime-solar-energy-cost.shtml (full article)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Solar-panel cycle path coming to Netherlands town
A town in The Netherlands will soon become home to a solar cycling path which it is hoped could pave the way for a new source of sustainable energy.
Called SolaRoad, the project in the town of Krommenie, around 10 kilometres to the northwest of Amsterdam, is backed by the Province of North Holland, construction firm Ooms Avenhorn Group, research group TNO and technology business Imtech, and essentially sees the standard road surface replaced by solar panels.
The cycle path being used to pilot the scheme will have between 1.5 and 2.5 metres of concrete base, with a tough glass surface, underneath which will be a 1 centimetre layer of crystalline silicon solar cells, reports the website Green Blorge, which adds that the surface will be tough enough to withstand the force of a lorry being driven over it.
The website adds that the group developing the concept believe that the cycle path should generate 50 kWh per square meter annually. ICT systems will allow electricity to be distributed during peak sunshine hours as well as at night and during cloudy conditions.
It is hoped that eventually the concept could be rolled out across the 137,000km road network in the Netherlands, providing power for everything from traffic signals and street lights to nearby homes.
In response to concerns expressed in the comments below regarding the possibility of cyclists slipping on the surface, particularly during wet conditions, a spokesman for one of teh project's partners, TNO, told road.cc: "The safety and comfort of the future users of the SolaRoad is an important requirement in the technical development.
"In the current prototype the glass surface is treated to create a roughness, which gives sufficient skid resistance for a safe use of the road, both in dry and wet conditions. We are currently testing the durability of the roughness and skid resistance and will make improvements when and where necessary."
from: http://road.cc/content/news/30460-solar-panel-cycle-path-coming-netherlands-town