My Solar News

Personal Electricity System Uses Solar Energy and Mobile Phone Technology

2011-10-12T21:30:00.004+01:00

What if you could tap into a personal electricity system that uses solar energy and mobile phone technology, rather than grid-based power? Recently, a UK company called Eight19 announced a solution called IndiGo, which is a pay-as-you-go, personal electricity system for the developing world. Combining solar power and mobile phone technology subscribers can light their homes and charge mobile phones using scratchcards.

Using solar energy, Eight19 believes it can increase access to electricity for over 1 billion people who are not connected to the grid. The project will not only help improve the lives of Third World residents by bringing light and refrigeration to the villages, but it also helps minimize the negative impacts of living with kerosene – both via the fumes and expense.

Steve Andrews, CEO of Solar Aid, commented:

“We are excited to be working with Eight19 on this revolutionary technology. Solar energy offers huge economic, health and social benefits to the world’s poorest people; for lighting and mobile phone charging. Eight19’s technology opens up these benefits to many more people. This is a major breakthrough”, said Steve Andrews, CEO of Solar Aid, a charity supporting product trials in Kenya.

Its easy to switch to solar power with the IndiGo system. Components include a low-cost solar panel, a battery unit with inbuilt mobile phone charger and a high efficiency light emitting diode (LED) lamp. Users can put credit on their IndiGo device using a scratchcard, validated over SMS using a standard mobile phone.

Simon Bransfeild-Garth, the CEO of Eight19 comments:

“We are very encouraged by this new way of delivering energy to off-grid applications in emerging markets. Indigo enables a new generation of solar power products that are affordable, providing customers with access, often for the first time, to clean low cost energy that eliminates the health risks and carbon emissions of kerosene.”

Source : http://thegreenenergyblog.com/http:/thegreenenergyblog.com/uncategorized/personal-electricity-system-solar-energy-mobile-phone

Rooftop solar prices fall 'precipitously'

2011-09-19T18:31:00.002+01:00

The upside to the brutal global competition in the solar industry is a steady and sizable price drop for homeowners and utilities.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory yesterday released the latest figures in a multiyear study of price trends for solar photovoltaic equipment and installation. Overall, the study, commissioned by the Department of Energy and the Clean Energy States Alliances, paints a picture of a maturing industry and falling product prices.

From 2009 to 2010, the price of a residential solar electric system fell 17 percent to $6.20 per watt, or a $1.30 decline. Measured from 1998, the installed costs fell 43 percent. The data is garnered from more than 100,000 installations of commercial and grid-tied residential solar panels, which are usually under 10 kilowatts in capacity. The costs don't include a 30 percent federal tax rebate and state incentives.

"Wholesale PV module (panel) prices have fallen precipitously since about 2008, and those upstream cost reductions have made their way through to consumers," Galen Barbose of Berkeley Labs' Environmental Energy Technologies Division and report co-author said in a statement.

Related stories:
• Econ 101: Solar panels increase home values
• Falling solar costs: Good for buyers, bad for makers
• Solar industry shakeout leads to more large projects

The trend will continue this year as the average cost of systems has already fallen 70 cents per watt, or 11 percent in the first half of 2011, the study found. Larger systems, including commercial arrays and utility-scale plants, saw the lowest price declines. The average installed costs for systems over 500 kilowatts fell 26 percent from 2009 to 2010.
(Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

The data should not be a surprise to solar industry followers who have seen three U.S. solar companies declare bankruptcy in the past few weeks and ongoing industry consolidation. In another indication of tough times, solar industry analyst Jesse Pichel of Jefferies this morning cut his ratings for three Chinese solar manufacturers, citing questions over demand in Europe and "adrift" prices.

Another notable finding from Berkeley's data is that costs separate from the panels, or modules, are moving downward as well. About half of the cost of a solar installation is tied to other equipment, such as inverters, and the installation.

"The drop in non-module costs is especially important as those are the costs that can be most readily influenced by solar policies aimed at accelerating deployment and removing market barriers, as opposed to research and development programs that are also aimed at reducing module costs," report co-author Ryan Wiser said in a statement.

Systems prices can vary by state significantly and new homes have significantly lower installed costs compared to retrofits, the study found.

Analysts say that lower prices will help entice homeowners and businesses to buy panels, but the bigger impact may well be on solar leasing financing programs. Because solar installers have lower equipment costs, they can offer financing services, which avoid upfront costs, in more regions.

Waiting for prices to fall further, however, does not seem to be the best strategy. The Berkeley study notes that price declines were offset by changes to state incentives for renewable energy. Pre-incentive prices dropped $1 per watt for residential customers and $1.50 for commercial customers last year, but incentive changes resulted in net installed cost decreases of 40 cents per watt and 80 cents per watt.

Jeremy Leggett

2011-09-05T16:58:00.003+01:00

Green entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett advocates following China and Germany's move towards investment in solar power now that start-up costs are falling drastically.

Wall Street has developed an aversion to solar-company stocks. Yet in the USA, solar jobs now outnumber steel jobs and in Germany solar jobs outnumber nuclear jobs.

Most big energy companies and half of Whitehall profess that solar can never be a serious player in national energy plans. Yet the UN and others have recently concluded that solar could play a major role in a world mostly run on renewable energy.

Who to believe?

“Follow the money” is a useful guide. The global average cost of manufacturing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has been falling 18% for every doubling of capacity in factories for many years now. As a consequence the average price for a solar PV power plant in the US was $7 per watt in 2007 and $3 per watt this year. In the 6 years it would take to build a new coal plant in America starting today, solar PV will be the cheaper option.

This inexorable fall of 18% in cost means that solar electricity ever nears costing the same as conventional electricity: "grid parity", as energy pundits call it. Grid parity is coming in every country. The timing varies with domestic electricity pricing, but there can be little doubt that solar electricity is going to be cheaper than conventional energy almost everywhere within the decade. Those who say “solar is more expensive than gas and coal” take a misleading snapshot in time: they make a one dimensional statement about a two dimensional phenomenon.

A nuclear plant takes more than ten years to install, a solar PV plant of similar output one year. As for rooftop solar, zero-emission solar homes can be built in a matter of months, as SSE and Solarcentury have shown in practice in the UK.

A revolution is unfolding. At least some investors appreciate this. A record $211 billion flowed into clean energy in 2010, driven in the main by Chinese wind power and European solar roofs.

British industry must not miss out on this revolution. Neither must our increasingly hard-pressed citizenry, few of whom will want to be paying ever rising Big 6 electricity prices based on coal, gas and nuclear, beyond the UK’s solar grid-parity crossing point.

It is no longer credible to say that solar can’t play a major role in a sustainable energy mix. Deutsche Bahn intends to run the entire German railway system on wind, solar and hydropower. The German economics ministry has collaborated with German companies to run a scaled model of the national economy on a real mix of renewables, including solar, and concluded that a healthy modern economy could be run on renewables, including baseload electricity. In a report due out later this year, the International Energy Agency will admit that solar can provide 60% of global electricity by 2060.

It is not good enough to say, as some do, that if a global mass market is inevitable, the UK should sit back and partake come the day, not before. This is a strategic miscalculation. We do not want to be importing every aspect of our energy infrastructure ad infinitum. National security considerations such as peak oil increasingly demand that we have domestic industries that are as stand-alone as humanly possible.

In this respect there should be many opportunities for the government. The prime minister has emphasised the Big Society idea as a flagship programme of his tenure, and he envisions many of the jobs that must countervail the austerity measures will come from British participation in the green industrial revolution that he says is unfoldling around the world. Solar is an important part of that. Ask the Chinese. In 2000 they had little solar. Now every second solar cell is made in China. The government would not have to do much to fashion a Big Society/green industrial revolution case-history worth boasting about.

Around the nation, as things stand, thousands of jobs are being created in the embryonic British solar industry. Tens of thousands of citizens are in the process of being empowered in community projects. The cause of this is a solar-energy feed-in tariff: a market-enablement process used by over 40 countries around the world that entails premium pricing for solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity funded by a small levy on all energy bills. With its feed-in tariff introduced in April last year, the UK has belatedly joining the party in one of the fastest growing markets of any kind globally.

The opportunities extend well beyond solar. Solar generation would soon be marriable at scale with the energy efficiency measures due to be stimulated by the government’s Green Deal. Innovative integrated energy-services financing would become possible, unleashing substantial net energy cost savings.

Feed-in tariffs are supposed to decrease annually, as solar prices fall. That is part of their inate attraction. Unlike nuclear, solar does not need subsidising forever. But the staged reductions in tariff, down to zero within the decade, have to match the market. It is no good introducing sudden deep cuts. That stalls a market, as a number of governments have discovered this year.

The first reductions for UK rooftop solar PV tariffs will begin in April 2012, and are under review right now. The government has to get this just right. Reductions in tariff have to be deep enough to fairly reflect falling solar prices, and not too deep to stall the development of a domestic UK solar industry.

Ministers like Greg Barker and Chris Huhne understand. Others do not. They listen to the calls of the nuclear and gas industries, who among others lobby to slow or kill the solar rollout in multiple countries by cutting feed-in tariffs to the bone. In France, for example, the nuclear industry has all but emasculated the French solar feed in tariff, and hence market.

Creating a Big Society/green-industrial-revolution case-history worth bragging about will involve the government creating a smooth glide path to solar grid parity in electricity markets. This in turn will involve not listening to many of the lobbyists working for the big energy companies, and many civil servants too. They are too wedded to the past, and cannot see what Silicon Valley investors, and the Chinese, see.

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/earth/the-age-of-energy/8741600/Jeremy-Leggett.html

Solar plants could be able to run at night with a new system developed by BrightSource

2011-08-10T15:08:00.006+01:00

By Kevin Bullis

BrightSource Energy has become the latest solar thermal power company to develop a system for generating power when the sun isn't shining. The company says the technology can lower the cost of solar power and make it more reliable, helping it compete with conventional sources of electricity.

The company, based in Oakland, California, is building one of the world's largest solar thermal power plants. The 392-megawatt solar plant in Ivanpah, California, however, will not include the storage technology. Instead, BrightSource is working with utilities to determine which future projects could best benefit from storage.

Solar thermal systems use mirrors to focus sunlight, generating temperatures high enough to produce steam to drive a turbine. One of the advantages of the solar thermal approach, versus conventional photovoltaics that convert sunlight directly into electricity, is that heat can be stored cheaply and used when needed to generate electricity. In all solar thermal plants, some heat is stored in the fluids circulating through the system. This evens out any short fluctuations in sunlight and lets the plant generate electricity for some time after the sun goes down. But adding storage systems would let the plant ride out longer periods of cloud cover and generate power well into, or even throughout, the night. Such long-term storage could be needed if solar is to provide a large share of the total power supply.

BrightSource is using a variation on an approach to storage that's a decade old: heating up a molten salt—typically, a combination of sodium and potassium nitride—and then storing it in a tank. To generate electricity, the molten salt is pumped through a heat exchanger to generate steam. BrightSource CEO John Woolard says one big factor in making this technology economically attractive is the use of power towers—in which mirrors focus sunlight on a central tower—that generate higher temperatures than other solar thermal designs. That higher temperature makes it possible to store more energy using a smaller amount of molten salt. "It's a much more efficient system and much more cost effective, overall," he says. Source : http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38257/page2/

Beyond Capacity: Why Italy Changed Its PV Strategy

2011-07-22T09:54:00.004+01:00

By Yoav Banin, Solergy
20 juillet 2011

Reducing costs is essential to achieving broad acceptance of solar energy and lessening dependence on fossil fuels. However, the latest episode in Italy's PV incentives drama has proven that grid parity alone is not enough to drive widespread adoption.

In addition to cost, both urban and rural Italians are carefully considering how to integrate PV into their environments in a way that is compatible with their daily lives and broader energy sourcing goals. In the short-term, they are prepared to pay higher incentives and accelerate permitting for certain PV configurations that reflect these goals, such as building integrated (BIPV), rooftop, and CPV.

The previous version of Conto Energia succeeded in driving record PV adoption but at an unforeseen price. The runaway success of Italy’s 3^rd Conto Energia resulted in a boom of PV installations that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. Today, Italy has a total installed capacity more than 7.2 GW, enough to be considered a world leader alongside Germany. The nation also boasts some of the largest PV plants in the world.

However, the expected cost of the program raised alarms in the government and led to the suspension of the 3^rd Conto Energia law only five months after it was enacted, far short of its intended three-year duration. Further concerns over land use, aesthetics, a loss of critical agricultural lands, and insufficient local content and job creation have led to a ‘pushback’ from regional governments, industry groups and consumers.

Even before the government got involved, individual regions were already fighting PV speculation by placing restrictions on the size and type of plants installed. For example, the Puglia region, the leader in total and per-capita PV installed in Italy, blocked many permits and authorization requests to limit the consumption of precious land, especially due to its rich tradition in olive orchards. Sicily resisted giving up its land to foreign speculators to install PV plants without a clear, long-term return on this investment.

Instead, the regional government focused on programs whereby local jobs and factories are created as part of an overall package to promote both solar energy and local economic development. A successful example of this policy is the recent opening of the 3Sun factory in Catania, Italy’s largest PV panel factory with over €200 million investment and immediate creation of 280 jobs.

Changing priorities

To remedy the unintended problems with the previous statewide policy, the government approved the 4^th Conto Energia law in May. While generally reducing incentives across the board, the revised law specifically discourages deployment of PV plants based on flat panels. Incentives for these plants are being reduced every month with cuts as high as 20 to 30 percent by the end of year, depending on plant size.

Additional size restrictions for large plants aim to reduce land consumption. ‘Large’ plants are defined as any ground-mounted plant greater than 200 kW and any rooftop installation greater than 1 MW. These large plants have an installation cap of 2,690 MW and an incentive budget of €580 million ($824 million) between now and the end of 2012. Further, there is a complex system of access restrictions to ensure that the expense budget for large plants is respected.

There are also restrictions on use of agricultural lands for PV. In order to be eligible to receive incentives, an installation must not exceed 1 MW, occupy more than 10 percent of the crop-producing land, and must be at least 2 km from another plant. This design not only avoids destruction of productive land but also prevents the visual destruction of Italy’s beautiful countryside. It is no secret that huge PV plants or wind towers can be quite an eyesore and destroy the panorama for miles.

In contrast to the above restrictions, incentives for CPV and innovative building-integrated PV have remained virtually untouched. The new law precisely promotes PV systems that are innovative and aesthetic in their design, installation and integration. Further, it encourages smaller plants that are harmonious with broader land use strategies.

Grid parity, Italian style

With the announcement of the 4^th Conto Energia law, Italy has declared its intention to continue its drive to renewable and clean energy sources. It has re-affirmed its commitment to PV by targeting 23 GW of installations by 2016 and voting against nuclear power development in a recent national referendum. Further, the PV incentives have been maintained despite the passage of the recent austerity budget cuts.

Italy has evolved its tariff policy not only to help usher PV into the age of grid parity (estimated to take place by 2015/2016, the point after which all incentives will be phased out), but also to guide the manner in which PV is deployed. The tariff program encourages self-consumption of the energy at the point-of-use rather than just feeding electrons into the grid indiscriminately. It leverages the fact that the sun's energy is available everywhere and therefore lends itself to distributed generation as opposed to fossil fuels that must be transported to large, central power plants.

Italy’s new alternative energy vision reflects the fact that the country lacks the spare land or open deserts that can be carpeted with utility-scale PV like in the United States or Australia. Instead, it has a rich and varied terrain filled with precious agricultural lands, orchards, dense urban areas, tourist attractions, and archaeological treasures that must be preserved.

Despite the past construction of some of the world’s largest PV plants (often by foreign multinational developers), going forward, the integration of PV must better reflect the nations’ needs and available resources. This requires PV installations that maximize efficiency and energy output in constrained spaces and flexibly respond to the particular integration requirements of each location. Emerging technologies such as CPV and BIPV respond to these requirements and at the same time are quickly working their way down the cost curve toward grid parity.

Italy is still one of the most-lucrative markets in the world for PV developers. Now, they will have to adapt and align their offerings with the more mature and demanding specifications of this unique market.

Source : http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/07/beyond-capacity-why-italy-changed-its-pv-strategy

Africa - Renewable Energy Rising Rapidly

2011-07-15T14:22:00.004+01:00

"Global investment in renewable energy jumped 32% in 2010, to a record $211 billion. It was boosted in particular by wind farm development in China and small-scale solar PV installation on rooftops in Europe. ... Significant investment is also starting to be seen in Africa, which posted the highest percentage increase of all developing regions, if the emerging economies of Brazil, China and India are excluded. ... Total investment on the continent rose from $750 million [in 2009] to $3.6 billion [in 2010]." -- Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011

As noted in another AfricaFocus Bulletin released today and available on the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/clim1107.php), progress at global climate talks is painfully slow and inconsistent, with serious setbacks likely unless there is new momentum by the end of the year. But, as indicated by this new report on renewable energy, there is significant progress on some fronts away from the global negotiations. The new UNEP report on global trends in renewable energy investment, excerpted below, comments:

"There was a sense, in both the second half of 2010 and early 2011, that progress in renewable energy was taking place at a pace that public opinion and policymakers in many countries were simply failing to spot. This progress was both in investment levels and, even more, in costcompetitiveness with conventional power sources."

Another sign of increased momentum on the renewable energy front was the launch of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), with headquarters in Abu Dhabi. An initial consultation earlier this month resulted in the "Abu Dhabi Communiqué on Renewable Energy for Accelerating Africa's Development," also included in this AfricaFocus Bulletin. While the language of the declaration echoes all too familiar conference boilerplate commitments, it indicates a growing consensus that renewable energy must take higher priority in Africa's development plans. As prices drop, and renewable energy becomes more competitive, private investors as well as policy makers are taking the sector more seriously.

Source : Allafrica.com http://allafrica.com/stories/201107150955.html

Japan's Richest Man Challenges Nuclear Future with Nationwide Solar Plans

2011-07-05T14:40:00.000+01:00

Solar energy is going to be a driving force in rebuilding of Japan's energy sector after the devastating earthquake that caused much destruction earlier this year.

Billionaire Masayoshi Son has a track record in taking on monopolies after building a business that opened up the nation’s telecommunications industry. Now he aims to shake up Japan’s power utilities after the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Son, the 53-year-old chief executive officer of Softbank Corp. (9984), plans to build solar farms to generate electricity with support from at least 33 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. In return, he’s asking for access to transmission networks owned by the 10 regional utilities and an agreement they buy his electricity.

Radiation has spread across at least 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) in northeastern Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in May he will rethink a plan to increase atomic power to 50 percent of the nation’s total from 30 percent. Renewable energy accounts for 10 percent, according to Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, and Son wants that ratio to be tripled by 2020.

“The question is how this nation is going to survive after cutting nuclear power,” Son said at a government panel meeting June 12. “A framework should be designed in a way to make the power business open for anyone who has the will to start it.”

Sunny Farms

Solar plants using 20 percent of unused agricultural land in Japan can have the generation capacity of about 50 gigawatts, almost matching that of Tokyo Electric, Son said.

“We can probably invite more companies to invest in our solar projects once a business model is set up,” said Yukiko Kada, governor of Shiga prefecture, who is one of Son’s partners.

The Japanese government may break up utilities’ regional monopolies and separate their power-generation businesses from distribution operations, Kyodo News reported May 31, without saying where it obtained the information. A panel will begin discussing the issue from June as the government seeks to reform the power industry by 2020, Kyodo said.

Any move to separate power distribution from utilities “should have a national discussion after careful analysis on the merits and demerits as well as the impact on the stability of power supply and electricity fees,” Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Keidanren, Japan’s biggest business lobby, said on June 6.

“It’s an extremely important issue that can impact the international competitiveness of Japanese industries,” he said

Article Source: posted on The Asia-Pacific Journal

A scientific advance promises a revolution in the ease and cost of using solar cells

2011-07-05T13:51:00.005+01:00

A scientific advance in renewable energy which promises a revolution in the ease and cost of using solar cells, has been announced on July 4, 2011. A new study shows that even when using very simple and inexpensive manufacturing methods -- where flexible layers of material are deposited over large areas like cling-film -- efficient solar cell structures can be made

The study, published in the journalAdvanced Energy Materials, paves the way for new solar cell manufacturing techniques and the promise of developments in renewable solar energy. Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge used the ISIS Neutron Source and Diamond Light Source at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire to carry out the research.

Plastic (polymer) solar cells are much cheaper to produce than conventional silicon solar cells and have the potential to be produced in large quantities. The study showed that when complex mixtures of molecules in solution are spread onto a surface, like varnishing a table-top, the different molecules separate to the top and bottom of the layer in a way that maximises the efficiency of the resulting solar cell.

Dr Andrew Parnell of the University of Sheffield said, "Our results give important insights into how ultra-cheap solar energy panels for domestic and industrial use can be manufactured on a large scale. Rather than using complex and expensive fabrication methods to create a specific semiconductor nanostructure, high volume printing could be used to produce nano-scale (60 nano-meters) films of solar cells that are over a thousand times thinner than the width of a human hair. These films could then be used to make cost-effective, light and easily transportable plastic solar cell devices such as solar panels."

Dr. Robert Dalgliesh, one of the ISIS scientists involved in the work, said, "This work clearly illustrates the importance of the combined use of neutron and X-ray scattering sources such as ISIS and Diamond in solving modern challenges for society. Using neutron beams at ISIS and Diamond's bright X-rays, we were able to probe the internal structure and properties of the solar cell materials non-destructively. By studying the layers in the materials which convert sunlight into electricity, we are learning how different processing steps change the overall efficiency and affect the overall polymer solar cell performance. "

"Over the next fifty years society is going to need to supply the growing energy demands of the world's population without using fossil fuels, and the only renewable energy source that can do this is the Sun," said Professor Richard Jones of the University of Sheffield. " In a couple of hours enough energy from sunlight falls on the Earth to satisfy the energy needs of the Earth for a whole year, but we need to be able to harness this on a much bigger scale than we can do now. Cheap and efficient polymer solar cells that can cover huge areas could help move us into a new age of renewable energy."

Source : ScienceDaily (July 4, 2011)

Find out how much green energy you could generate and install your solar panels in the right place

2011-07-01T16:00:00.018+01:00

Before spending a lot of money installing a PV solar (1) or wind turbine (2) generating system, it is vital to survey the planned site to ensure that the prevailing weather conditions are suitable.

The Power Predictor not only logs wind speed and direction data, but also counts the number of hours of sunshine. The Power Predictor (6) from Better Generation Ltd (7) includes a solar radiation sensor, wind direction vane, and wind speed measuring anemometer. This is connected via a rugged 5 metre cable to a self-contained waterproof recorder unit with LCD (display) which when powered by a 9 Volt battery will provide up to one year of continuous monitoring. It retails (price last checked on 11th March 2010) at £152.75 (including a twelve month software license for the analysis software on the Power Predictor website).

Power Predictor was invented by Toby Hammond, a managing director of Better Generation, and is the result of 2 years of research and development. He said,
"For most people, micro power generation is a step into the unknown. No one should spend thousands of pounds on renewable energy equipment without knowing the payback time based on the amount of energy they could generate at their premises. Our intention has been take the guesswork out of micro generation by creating a device that is not based on modelled data, which is often inaccurate, but on site specific data that shows anyone at home or at work, how much they could save by generating solar or wind energy."

Collected data are written to a removable 512MB memory card which can be read by a PC or Mac via USB (using included USB adapter), and uploaded to the Power Predictor website once you have collected more than 30 days of data. With a constantly updated database of the many solar panels and wind turbines on the market, different generation options can be compared to see which will offer the biggest financial and carbon (8) savings, and the fastest payback periods at the tested site.

The Power Predictor is powered with a 9V (PP3) battery (included) and should last 6 months in normal conditions.

Web Link References

(1) http://www.reuk.co.uk/How-Do-PV-Solar-Panels-Work.htm
(2) http://www.reuk.co.uk/wind.htm
(3) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Survey-Wind-Speed-at-Turbine-Site.htm
(4) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Anemometer.htm
(5) http://www.reuk.co.uk/LeWL-Wind-Logger.htm
(6) http://store.powerpredictor.com/where#a_aid=reuk
(7) http://store.powerpredictor.com/where#a_aid=reuk
(8) http://www.reuk.co.uk/carbon.htm
(9) http://store.powerpredictor.com/where#a_aid=reuk
(10) http://store.powerpredictor.com/where#a_aid=reuk
(11) http://store.powerpredictor.com/where#a_aid=reuk

Source : REUK.co.uk

Top 10 Myths Surrounding Solar Energy: Interview with Edwin Koot

2011-06-17T13:22:00.003+01:00

'Solar energy in the UK? You are joking right!' Ever heard that phrase? Edwin Koot, CEO of Solarplaza addresses the 10 major myths surrounding solar energy.

1. Generating solar energy is only possible in countries with an abundance of sunshine

The fact is, the sun's energy is the most evenly-spread source of energy in the world. In any part of the world where there is light, solar panels will work. The world’s largest market for solar energy is Germany, a country not particularly blessed with long sun-filled days, but a country with a smart government nonetheless. In the summer, almost 10% of the household electricity in the south of Germany is generated by solar panels. Of course, when you’re developing systems in the Sahara region, your return on investment (ROI) will be higher - but many other factors come into play, such as the presence of a grid, the local consumer price for electricity, your energy usage pattern, the political stability in your country, your need for independence from external sources of energy, and much more. As an example, in Northern Alaska it is smarter to invest in solar energy than to pull a cable from a far-away power plant or grid connection point.

2. Solar panels are only attractive in niche markets

Solar energy is an attractive product in any place in which people need electricity - which nowadays is anywhere in the civilised world, globally. That is a much larger market than just large-scale solar plants in desert areas, which are very competitive markets because they require the creation of new grids, are competing with wholesale electricity prices and are crowded with many other power-generating enterprises. When you focus on solar panels that can be mounted on a rooftop, for household or entrepreneurial use, you can compete against the local consumer and corporate rates for electricity. You can compare this with the market for compact fluorescent lamps, where the consumer saves money on a longer term by investing a small sum of money. The ROI is made at the end-consumer level: the cost of the electricity bill. The investments are very simple, and no new grids or other types of costly infrastructure are needed.

3. Solar energy needs a lot of public financial support and could never become competitive

“People will never buy laptops.” “Flat-screen televisions are too expensive for the general consumer market.” “Mobile communication is too expensive in comparison with landlines.” These are some of the opinions that we have heard in the past - and how untrue they are! Laptops, flat-screen televisions and mobile phones are now everywhere, because people wanted them and were willing to pay for them - with the result that in the end prices fell due to mass production methods that could be applied for these innovative products. The same is now happening with solar energy systems.In the past three years, the prices of solar panels have dropped by half, as a result of the introduction of large-scale production methods. Market research shows that innovative consumers want solar energy now. In five years’ time the masses will also switch over, as throughout Europe solar energy will have become cheaper than the polluting electricity from the grid.

Public funding was created in the past to accelerate this process of acceptance by the general consumer. In the largest markets, subsidies are now in the process of being terminated. By next year, Italy and Germany will see their non-subsidised solar energy already proving cheaper than electricity from the grid. The other European countries will soon follow this trend.

And further countries will follow worldwide, for the simple reason that the global market is growing bigger and solar systems are being produced on a larger scale, resulting in cheaper modules. That is one thing that’s for sure. The other side is that nobody knows what the costs for traditional energy will be 10 years from now. Today, new nuclear plants are not even being built without substantial government funding because their future is so insecure.

4. The efficiency of solar panels is still too low

True, there’s room for improvement. Like cars getting more economical every year, solar panels are getting more efficient every year. Does this mean that the current panels aren’t good enough? No, the technology is mature. What is at stake now is not the efficiency of panels, but the price per generated kilowatt-hour. Just as it is no longer about the type of motor in a car, but rather about how much fuel the motor consumes per mile.There will still be new types of solar panel developed, with improved efficiency, but the real success of solar energy in the future will lie in large-scale production and the growth of the global market. A low purchasing price for a solar panel will be the determining factor for low-cost generation of solar energy for the consumer.Are you waiting before buying a car because the models will be better, faster and greener in two years' time? Not if you need a car right now… In the same way, people need solar panels right now and buy them now, because they help them realise certain goals, such as independency from the grid, lower electricity costs and a carbon footprint shift. No new technologies are needed to create a breakthrough for solar panels. Solar panels are the breakthrough.

5. Solar panels have a high carbon footprint and are not sustainable

Solar panels are usually made from silicon. Silicon is found in sand, one of the most widespread natural elements on earth. The ovens used to transform the sand into silicon use a lot of energy - that is true. But the payback time for the energy used to produce a solar panel is only one to two years. This means that in this time the panel generates the total amount of energy that has been used in its entire production.All power generated after the payback time is pure green profit, while solar panels can last 25 to 40 years! Other sources of energy have much longer payback times. Specifically, nuclear power plants have extremely long payback times - so long in fact that it is questionable whether all the power that generated during their lifetime is enough to pay for the energy used to build and disassemble them.

6. Solar panels are unreliable because they do not work on cloudy days or during the night

Right now, the wind energy market is (still) bigger than the solar energy market, although the sun is a more reliable source of energy than the wind. But solar energy will soon surpass wind energy - firstly because solar panels can be used anywhere, and secondly because they can be implemented in a modular way. This means that it is very easy to expand the solar energy system over the course of months or years.The combination of solar and wind energy is a nice option, but the future lies in the combination of solar energy with energy storage at both the local and central levels, especially now that the market for transport of electricity is set to develop further.The market for decentralised energy storage is also going to be a phenomenal growth market. Decentralised energy storage in batteries makes it possible to store the power generated during the day and use it in the night. An example is charging your electric car at night. Energy storage is already a hot item - you only have to think of laptops, iPods, iPads and electric scooters and bicycles - but solar energy will give this market a massive boost. The combination solar power generation and energy storage for later use is a perfect one. The central energy storage market and solar energy systems market will stimulate each other mutually because when storage gets cheaper, it becomes cheaper to generate solar energy with the purpose of storing it and using it at a later stage.

7. The major energy corporations do not believe in solar energy and thus it cannot be good

Shell has ended their engagement with solar energy. Exxon does nothing with solar energy. Many of the large energy corporations prefer to invest in coal power plants. But, don’t expect a wholesale slaughterhouse to specialise in gourmet green meat products. Shell has oil in its blood and their business is based on it. Large multinationals are like large tankers on the ocean: they are very difficult to manoeuvre and cannot make quick changes in their course. Solar energy is a sport for fast and flexible entrepreneurs, with a preference for innovation and sustainability. The market is volatile and ever-changing, like the wind in the sails of an elegant and fast-sailing ship. An entrepreneur in solar energy has to be like the shipper of such a sailing ship, sometimes tacking in headwind, sometimes sailing with ease down the wind - but never windless…And in this light, the electronics market giant Sharp, a worldwide market leader in solar panels, has shown us that some large companies do believe in solar panels. Sharp has understood that the mass production of solar panels would lower their price, and that ‘mass = cash’. The mass market for solar panels is about to enter the playing field – and not just in Japan. Shell has predicted that in 2040, 50% of worldwide energy will be generated by sustainable sources. Chances are big that sooner or later Shell will buy one of the consolidated winners in the solar energy market. Some of the ‘small’ solar panel-producing companies have already grown into large corporations, with thousands of employees and turnarounds of a few billion dollars per year.Google grew in ten years to become one of the largest companies worldwide - so why not a company in solar energy systems?

8. Solar energy has no role in global energy generation

Today, solar energy provides only 1% of the worldwide energy needs. But this contribution could be growing surprisingly fast. Germany is the guiding country, where it is expected that in five years' time, 10% of all energy used will come from solar panels.And what Germany can do, other countries can do too. For emerging economies, building large coal or nuclear power plants has already become redundant, as solar panels are becoming so cheap so quickly. You can compare this with the introduction of the mobile phone in India and other countries that didn’t even have a mature landline grid. Those grids were never further developed and never will be, because they were made redundant by the introduction of the mobile technology. The same thing could happen with the introduction of solar energy in emerging countries' markets. The building of new, large power plants will become redundant, because individual, decentralised power generation is cheaper, more efficient and much more flexible. The photovoltaic world market has grown by over 100% in 2010, compared to 2009, and it already started to grow in this way in 2009. If this logarithmic growth percentage of 100% continues, then solar energy will cover the entire global energy needs in less than ten years' time!

9. Solar panels are unsightly and take up a lot of space

That really depends on personal taste. Of course, there will always be people who believe a smoking chimney of a coal power plant is the apex of industrial technology and aesthetics. Other people don’t mind showing that they are generating their own electricity and therefore have solar panels on their roofs. Anyway, there will always be enough space on earth for all the solar panels ever needed.Mind you, only a relatively small desert area of 200 by 250 kilometres (125 by 155 miles) filled with today's solar panel technology would be needed to fulfil Europe's entire electricity requirements. But, luckily, we don’t have to enter into those beautiful desert landscapes because there is enough roof area available in Europe to realise this supply. And on a lot of roofs, the panels won’t even be visible.Also, more attractive panels will be introduced on the market as production methods and innovations progress. Compare this with modern-day cars, which are so beautiful, compared to the vintage cars of the ‘sixties and seventies… or not?

10. Solar energy systems are unreliable and require maintenance

Solar energy systems do not have moving parts and therefore require no or hardly any maintenance. The most fragile part in a grid-connected solar energy system is the inverter, which converts the DC from the solar panels into AC equal to the voltage of the grid.An inverter costs about 10% of your total energy system cost. It consists of some pieces of micro-electronics, can last about ten years, and can easily be replaced - and by then probably at an even lower price.Only in dry and dusty climates can it become necessary to clean the panels regularly with a little water. If you live in an environment where it rains often, you don’t even need to do that. A solar panel recycling programme has already been implemented in many countries, so if, after 25 years of loyal service you need to replace your solar panel, the solar energy sector has processes to recycle all panels 100%. And no coal power plant can beat that.

Article Source:

The big boys enter the solar race!

2011-05-27T09:56:00.001+01:00

Traditionally a market reserved for niche players, the solar sector is now drawing increasing interest from energy behemoths like General Electric and Total as well as unexpected new investors like Google.

US giant General Electric entered the solar power race in April when it announced the acquisition of PrimeStar Solar, Inc. — a company in which GE has held a majority equity stake since 2008.

GE entered the wind energy business about a decade ago and has since grown its turbine manufacturing arm to generate about $6 billion in annual sales.

It now hopes to repeat this success with solar, with plans to open America's largest solar photovoltaic factory in 2013.

Global demand for solar PV is likely to increase by 75 gigawatts over the next five years, GE said, justifying a decision to invest $600 million in solar technology and commercialisation.

Scale – and cost – is everything

The move marks the US giant's entry into the race to build low-cost photovoltaic panels with the aim of bringing solar power to the mainstream.

The new US factory will produce thin-film photovoltaic panels relying on Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), a market now dominated by First Solar, another American company, which pioneered the technology.

Although less efficient than conventional solar panels, CdTe allows for quicker assembly and mass production of solar panels at lower cost, a method designed for energy production at utility-scale rather than for small rooftop installations.

And for GE as well as First Solar, scale – and cost reduction – is everything.

"This will be the initial market to focus on: utility-operated and utility-scale solar farms," said Mark Vachon, vice-president of GE Energy's Ecoimagination programme. "I still think the market is largely immature and I think our scale will bring us to a position we will be proud of," he told EurActiv.

Vachon declined to say how big the scaling up was going to be, simply saying "it is pretty big". "You can imagine we want a return on that investment."

The company's chief executive, Jeff Immelt, told investors in December that he believed it could be a $2 billion to $3 billion business for GE by 2015.

Total bid could signal further acquisitions

In a related move, French energy major Total SA has offered in April to buy up a majority stake in US company SunPower Corp. for a price of $1.37 billion.

Total's move is one of the biggest ever by an oil and gas giant into the market for renewable energy and could signal the start of large-scale consolidation in the solar sector, something for which investors have been waiting for years.

Big utilities have so far shunned the sector – which predominantly features small roof-installed systems – in favour of large-scale wind farms that fit better into their business models.

The deal "is something we have been waiting for and with the industry gradually moving more from Germany, Italy and the rest of Europe to the US and China, the utilities and power groups will get a bigger role," said Jon Sigurdsen, renewable fund manager at DnB Nor Group unit Carlson. "We are now becoming a lot more positive [on the sector] and we have recently bought a lot of solar shares actually since the start of the year," Sigurdsen told Reuters.

Arno Behrens, head of energy at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank, believes the sector is braced for further consolidation. "With constant pressure on the solar industry to become more competitive, further consolidation of the sector is unavoidable, also in view of increasing competition from China," Behrens told EurActiv. "This will involve mergers within the industry, but also take-overs from other power and energy companies."

Growing interest

The moves by GE and Total are not isolated. In April, US Internet search giant Google announced $168 million of investment to help build a thermal solar plant in California's Mojave Desert.

Google's venture into solar thermal follows a $5 million investment in a solar photovoltaic power plant near Berlin, Germany – Google's first investment in Europe.

Although smaller in scale than the GE and Total deals, the investment signals growing interest in the solar sector from big listed companies.

With the EU mandating a 2020 target for renewables and the Fukishima nuclear disaster in Japan, energy utilities have an incentive to diversify their portfolio, said Georg Zachman, a research fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic policy think-tank.

"Solar companies are […] a great hedge for a conventional portfolio and also provide a potentially valuable 'ear on the ground' in the highly politicised renewables sector," Zachmann told EurActiv. However, he said solar is still far from entering the energy mainstream as it cannot yet compete with lower cost fossil fuels and still relies heavily on subsidies.

According to experts, solar photovoltaic is on track to reach so-called grid parity with fossil fuels in 2017 on average across the European Union.

Article source

Solarpod, the first portable solar generator, goes live in th UK!

2011-05-23T14:10:00.000+01:00

Thousand Suns Ltd has recently announced its successful start of the production of the solarpod by thousandsuns™.Solarpod is the first portable solar generator of its kind.

‘After 2 years of R&D, a stint at Dragon's Den and a lawsuit by Apple, we are finally starting the distribution of Solarpod in the UK!’ says Jean Viry-Babel, Managing Director of Thousand Suns. The students of Swafhamm Bulbeck primary school in Cambridge, have received the first ever mass produced Solarpod. ‘As the kids have worked hard for their solar energy project, from a sponsored walk to selling home-grown fruits and veggies and an old clothes tailoring stand, we decided to donate solar panels and personally bring Solarpod to their school. Solarpod will power their computers and laptops!’

Solarpod is designed to be able to provide energy self-sufficiency in areas where there is either an unreliable or a non-existent grid network. For instance, at your summer beach house in Cornwall, out fishing, camping, in your shed/allotment or in regular power cut stricken Japan.

It is the first lightweight, portable solar generator and It contains the latest in Lithium Iron Phosphate battery and 400W inverter technology. By connecting solar panels directly to Solarpod with cables, you can produce your own power in 5 minutes and it powers a lot of appliances found in the home, office, shed or workplace; such as TVs, stereos, games consoles, under the counter refrigerators, laptops, phones, power tools etc. It works out-of-the-box and is completely plug and play with no installation required.

With 800 units pre-ordered Solarpod is now available in India, Finland, Japan, Malta, Germany and Spain. In the UK, Solarpod is now for sale on Amazon or at Thousand Suns online store for £499!

Follow Thousand Suns and Solarpod’s developments on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SolarpodTS

Solar Trade Association:Government neglects solar’s retail potential

2011-05-10T09:31:00.000+01:00

The Solar Trade Association has highlighted an apparent shortcoming in the Committee on Climate Change’s renewable energy report that could underestimate the potential of the UK solar industry.

The trade body claims the report neglects the solar industry’s potential as a retail industry, gauging its potential for future growth only by looking at wholesale prices.

‘[The report] underestimated the potential for solar in the UK through its apparent lack of understanding of the retail energy marketplace,’ the Solar Trade Association said in a statement.

‘The Committee for Climate Change has failed to recognise that solar power should be compared to retail rather than wholesale electricity prices.’

The Committee for Climate Change is an independent body tasked with advising the UK government on setting carbon budgets. It reports to parliament on progress the country has made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

While its latest renewable energy report acknowledged the huge solar resources on offer in the UK, the Solar Trade Association claims it has given a limited outlook of the economic part the technology will play in the country’s gross energy industry through until 2030.

Howard Johns, chairman of the Solar Trade Association, said, ‘[The Committee for Climate Change has] made the very basic mistake of comparing the costs of solar with the costs of large-scale wind and nuclear. Solar works directly on your roof and therefore cuts out the costs of networks, supplier profits and all sorts of additional costs.

‘Solar competes directly with what the end-user pays for electricity – the retail, not whole, electricity market. That is a critical difference when evaluating the different technologies.’

Johns said that the Department for Energy and Climate Change similarly overlooked the industry’s potential as a key part of the future competitive retail market in its Electricity Market Reform proposals.

A recent report by European Photovoltaic Industry Association showed that even at the wholesale level, solar power will be competitive with new gas plants in some countries within less than five years. Germany anticipates deriving ten per cent of its electricity from solar power by 2020.

Article source

The future of PV solar: according to Jigar Shah

2011-04-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

"By 2013 20% of global electricity sales will be most cost-effectively supplied by solar PV"

A renowned visionary, Jigar Shah is committed to renewable energy and sustainable solutions that enable prosperity beyond the carbon economy. As CEO of the Carbon War Room, Jigar is dedicated to indentifying business-as-usual practices and replacing them with low-carbon solutions. Prior to the Carbon War Room, Jigar founded SunEdison in 2003. In this interview, Jigar Shah talks about how he thinks that the PV market will develop in the near future.

The PV market seems to grow more each year than analysts can predict. Most predictions turned out to be too pessimistic. How do you see the PV market for 2011 and 2012?

Solar prices are coming down quickly. This is not just in modules but the innovation has really been in power electronics and balance of systems. The lower costs are causing many countries to grow quickly. People underestimate the number of entrepreneurs focusing on climate solutions such as solar.

Will the PV market continue to increase spectacularly in the coming years or will it decrease because of governments ending or reducing feed-in tariffs?
In fact the reduction of feed-in tariffs is critical to reaching the next phase of growth. Solar will reach grid parity for over 20% of all electricity sold globally by 2013 - that’s an enormous market.

What are your expectations for the global PV market in 2011 (size in MW new installed power) and 2012? Will a consolidation phase hit the solar industry as production capacity expands quickly while on the other hand there are uncertainties about markets such as Germany, Italy, France, USA, Czech Republic, UK, etc.?
I think we will exceed 20 GW in 2012. The oversupply is only in manufacturing equipment – only about 20 GW or so will be able to sell panels for less than US$1.40 per Wp. Concentration is likely, but consolidation probably not. It is simply not worth buying other competitors when you can grow market share less expensively. The uncertainties in the markets are good because you will see a move towards grid parity markets in a big way in 2012.

What PV projects that you support or know of do you see as the most promising in the coming years?
I think there are large new markets coming in India, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines.

What do you see as the biggest threat to solar energy? And the biggest opportunity?
As a distributed generation technology, PV is not affected by cheaper natural gas. My sense is that you will see incredible growth in the off-grid market – replacing diesel fuel usage around the world.

Critics are waiting for the time solar electricity will be cheaper (for residential customers) than electricity from the grid. When and where do you see that happening first? And does reaching grid parity make incentives and feed-in tariffs obsolete?
This is already the case in California, Italy, and other markets with high electricity costs and insolation. Over the next two years all diesel electricity markets will experience aggressive PV conversion and by 2013 20% of global electricity sales will be most cost-effectively supplied by distributed solar PV.

What is your vision on the development of the US PV market? Will the USA surpass Germany in the next 3 years - and if so, why?
The US solar market has been a sleeping giant. The financial products and sales efforts are more advanced than in any other market worldwide. As solar continues to come down in price, solar will double each year for the next 3 years, surpassing Germany in 2014. At The Carbon War Room, we harness the power of entrepreneurs to implement market-driven solutions to climate change – Solar is certainly one of the most attractive opportunities and makes economic sense right now.

Solar Panels Are 'Contagious' : according to Stanford Study

2011-04-13T13:22:00.000+01:00

Are you more likely to install solar panels if your neighbor has them? A photovoltaic study (PDF) out of Stanford says that you are!

More specifically, it finds that for every 1 percent increase in the number of installations in a particular zip code, the time until the next adoption of solar decreases by 1 percent. Thus solar is contagious!

So just how quickly can solar power spread as this snowball effect gets rolling? John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's New Rules Project explains:
'If you start with a neighborhood with 25 solar installations, where it was 100 days between the 24th and 25th installation, this peer pressure effect will reduce the time between installations to just 10 days by the 250th photovoltaic project'.

Here's what the effect looks like:

Of course, this process can take a pretty long time to actually unfold. In the example above, in a hypothetical zip code starting with one solar installation, it takes 15 years for the gap between installations to come down to 10 days.

What neither Browning or Farrell got into was what, exactly, caused solar power's contagiousness. Is it peer pressure? Infrastructure and training? Marketing density?
It turns out it's a little bit of everything. One predictable factor is social caché. Call it Keeping up with the Joneses. Homeowners see others putting up solar panels, and they want to projecting the same "green image." Another is information transfer. It gets easier to find out about solar panels if there are people in your zip code who have them. Neighbors talk to neighbors, explaining the benefits of rooftop solar, and demystifying the installation process. Likewise, once local contractors are familiar and comfortable with the systems, they can serve more customers, and talk to other contractors.

Finally, companies like SolarCity are taking a hyperlocal approach to marketing and sales. It benefits the company to have a lot of projects in one area, so they'll target a city or town, blast through, and move on.

All of this evidence points to the fact that the best possible way you can get more people to adopt solar energy is to put panels on your own home first!

Article Source

Google Goes Solar; Invests €3.5 million In Solar Energy Plant In Germany

2011-04-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

Google has invested €3.5 million in a German photovoltaic park, marking the internet giant’s first venture into the renewable energy market outside the United States.

The park, near the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, produces about 18 million kilowatt hours per year and is one of the largest photovoltaic facilities in Germany.

Joining Google in the investment is the German financial group Capital Stage, the largest independent solar energy investor in the country, according to the company’s own figures.

Google, with its massive server facilities, is also a major consumer of energy. But the facility in Brandenburg is not intended to serve as a Google data centre. Its goal is to provide green energy to about 5,000 households in Brandenburg and surrounding regions.

The park lies on the 47 hectare plot of the Brandenburg-Briest airport, which was used for military purposes until the early 1990s.

Google has so far invested in two wind energy projects in the United States. The choice of the Brandenburg plant as its first energy venture outside the US is no coincidence, said Benjamin Kott, Google’s Clean Energy Advocacy Manager.

For many years, he said, Germany has been at the cutting edge of renewable energy development.

“The land is in good condition, the local residents are in favour of clean energy and the German manufacturers deliver outstanding technology,” Kott said.

More than 70 percent of the solar plants installed in Brandenburg are German-made.

Google recently began two other projects in Germany, including an initiative to get small businesses online called "Online Motor Deutschland," and the announcement of plans to open an internet institute in Berlin.

Article source

US Secretary Chu Announces Over $110M In SunShot Projects To Advance Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing In The U.S.

2011-04-06T13:30:00.001+01:00

Solar Manufacturing Partnerships will boost American competitiveness in the global solar energy industry and lower the cost of clean, renewable energy. As part of the SunShot Initiative, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced the selection of up to $112.5M over five years for funding to support the development of advanced solar photovoltaic (PV)-related manufacturing processes throughout the United States.

The Department's SunShot Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships will help the solar power industry overcome technical barriers and reduce costs for PV installations, help the U.S. regain the lead in the global market for solar technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come.

This program is modeled in part on SEMATECH (Semiconductor Manufacturing TECHnology). Faced with falling U.S. market share for the domestic semiconductor industry from 57% in 1982 to 38% in 1988, SEMATECH began working with domestic equipment suppliers to improve their capabilities. As a result of SEMATECH's work to solve common manufacturing problems by leveraging resources and sharing risks, within ten years the domestic semiconductor industry had grown by 16%. Through this award, SEMATECH will now apply similar ingenuity to helping the U.S. recapture the lead in solar manufacturing.

"Expanding the U.S. solar energy industry is an important part of the Administration's goals to diversify our electricity supply and rebuild America's manufacturing base to create jobs now and in the future," said Secretary Chu. "The SunShot Initiative will not only keep the United States at the forefront in solar energy research and development, but will help us win the worldwide race to build a solar manufacturing industry that produces solar systems that are cost competitive with fossil fuels ."

Today's investments are part of DOE's SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent so that they are cost competitive at large scale with other forms of energy without subsidies by the end of the decade. Achieving this goal – equivalent to approximately $1 a watt or roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for utility systems – would allow solar energy systems to be broadly deployed across the country.

By engaging multiple companies across the PV supply chain, the SunShot Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships program intends to have broad impact on the U.S. solar industry. Selected projects will create organizations designed to bring PV companies together in a coordinated environment to address common technology needs. The facilities established through these projects will provide services, tools, and facilities to PV companies and suppliers to assist them in developing and demonstrating new technologies and in making the transition to commercial production. The program will also link universities and national labs with PV cell, materials, and equipment suppliers to help speed the rate of innovation through coordinated and focused PV manufacturing development. The selected industry-focused organizations will strongly leverage industry, state, and local funds, and are expected to achieve financial self-sufficiency after five years.

Article source

Solar Panels Price Likely To Drop 20% In US Market In 2011

2011-04-06T13:18:00.000+01:00

Solar panel prices in the United States are likely to drop by 20 cents per watt this year, according to the head of SolarCity, one of the nation's largest photovoltaic solar service companies. T hat drop would put the price of the panels that convert sunlight into electricity at about $1.40 per watt on average, or about 12.5 percent below prices quoted at the beginning of 2011.

Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive said the decline will help privately held SolarCity, which buys the panels from manufacturers and installs them for homes and businesses, to reach its cost-cutting target of 5 to 8 percent this year.

"It's hard to carve out 20 cents anywhere in this business," he told Reuters in an interview.

Prices for solar panels have dropped by about 75 percent in the past decade, and make up less than half the total cost of installing a rooftop system.

Most major solar manufacturers are increasing their output capacity of solar panels this year in a bid to grow their market share, even as key markets in Europe trim spending on the subsidies that are crucial to the fast-growing industry. That could lead to a glut of solar panels on the market, squeezing margins at companies such as Trina Solar, First Solar Inc and SolarWorld AG.

However, market experts say those price declines are necessary to help the renewable power source compete with other sources of energy such as natural gas and coal, as well as reduce its dependence on government supports.

SolarCity recently bought groSolar, a solar power project developer and distributor, expanding its reach into 10 states.

The company's solar lease program for property owners has been a key part of its growth by enabling its customers to pay a monthly fee for solar panels rather than a large up-front installation price. That monthly fee is often offset by the customer's savings on electric utility bills.

While many states have instituted support mechanisms that aid the solar industry, some -- such as Massachusetts, Oregon and New York -- have set caps on the number of projects or how much of a subsidy a single company can get, which inhibits growth, Rive said.

"It doesn't help anyone but the small guy, and he's going to go away when the subsidy does," Rive said.

Driving down the costs of solar often means that companies must take advantage of economies of scale that are achieved by growing a company's size, he said.

"Unless you plan to (subsidize) this thing forever, you have to let them compete, and see who wins," he said.

Article Source

Switzerland Welcomes Cleantech Industry: EMPA

2011-03-31T12:10:00.001+01:00

Swiss companies are investing heavily in cleantech and energy efficiency technologies, as the country beings to realise the potential of the industry, according to a new study.

Environmentally friendly technologies are becoming increasingly important to Switzerland as an economic and research hub, the study by Empa found.

Empa is the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technologies and is one of the project partners of the report.

The study found that investment in cleantech and energy efficiency technologies was increasing across the board, making Switzerland now a leader in innovation.

Recent findings by the Business Research Centre at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich looked at the economic mechanisms involved in generating and expansing energy efficient technologies. It concluded that Swiss companies channeled, on average, between five and seven per cent of their total investment into energy efficient technologies.

As such, the Swiss economy is now using clean technologies on a wide-scale.

‘As far as R&D is concerned, Switzerland is indeed top notch,’ Gian-Luca Bona, director of Empa. ‘But it takes much more for Swiss industry to be able to take advantage of the ‘big business’ that cleantech is likely to become.

‘We need to transfer research results much more effectively into innovative – and marketable – technologies.’

The study found that the proportion of investment in energy efficient technologies is particularly high in the paper and electrical engineering industries, with 12 per cent of spend being directed into this area.

Meanwhile, power supply companies allocate some 48 per cent of their entire investment into such technologies.

Empa said the principle driver behind this proportion of investment – regardless of the size of the power company – was high energy prices and environmental factors.

One of the most notable deals in recent weeks to impact the region has been the business unit of Siemens, which has secured an order for its energy efficiency technology from Viessmann, which has operations in the country.

Article source:

Cincinnati Zoo Completes 6,400 Panel Solar Canopy

2011-03-29T15:33:00.000+01:00

The Cincinnati Zoo has finished installing a four-acre solar canopy that it calls the largest publicly accessible urban solar project in the country.The zoo has installed 6,400 solar panels, totaling 1.56 MW, over its concrete parking lot.

The $11 million array will provide about 20 percent of the zoo’s energy needs, generating enough electricity to power 200 homes a year, and will provide shade for nearly 800 of the 1,000 parking spots available at the zoo’s main entrance.

The zoo said the panels will save it millions of dollars off of its electric bills.
“When we talk about the unknown future of energy policy and energy rates, we can know that 20 percent of our load is locked in and accounted for,” senior director of facilities, planning and sustainability Mark Fisher (pictured) said.

The zoo’s annual electric bill is about $700,000, Cincinnati.com reports.
Melink Corporation developed the installation and will own and operate the panels. The project was supported by PNC Bank, the local non-profit Uptown Consortium, National Development Council and the zoo’s electric utility, FirstEnergy, with funds from federal renewable energy and economic development tax credits.

Melink will sell the electricity for about eight cents a kWh, about what the zoo currently pays FirstEnergy, but the price will be locked in for seven years, Cincinnati.com said.
“Nowhere else has an array of this magnitude been placed in such an urban environment, allowing our visitors, and the general public at large, to be able to see first hand what solar photovoltaic energy is all about,” Fisher added. “The education potential of this advanced energy project is off the charts.”

Solarbuzz presents annual PV Market report: Global Growth of 139% on Solar Photovoltaic (PV)

2011-03-21T10:24:00.000Z

From our friends at Solarbuzz: Worldwide solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations reached a record high of 18.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2010. This represents growth of 139% over the previous year, according to the annual PV market report, Marketbuzz® 2011, issued today by Solarbuzz, a California-based solar energy consultancy, and a part of The NPD Group.

The PV industry generated $82 billion in global revenues in 2010, up 105% Y/Y from $40 billion in 2009. Companies throughout the PV chain successfully raised more than $10 billion in equity and debt over the last 12 months.

In 2010, the top five countries by PV market size were Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Japan, and the United States—representing over 80% of global demand. European countries represented 14.7 GW, or 81% of world demand in 2010. The top three countries in Europe were Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic, which collectively totaled 12.9 GW. In 2010, the Japanese and US markets grew by 101% and 96%, respectively. In all, over 100 countries made some contribution to soaring global PV demand last year.

Worldwide solar cell production reached 20.5 GW in 2010, up from 9.86 GW a year earlier, with thin film production accounting for 13.5% of total production. Producers in China and Taiwan continued to build share, and now account for 59% of global cell production, up from 49% last year. The top two cell manufacturers in 2010 were Suntech Power and JA Solar, who tied for the first position, followed closely by First Solar.

The Top 8 polysilicon manufacturers had 145,200 tonnes per annum of capacity in 2010, while the Top 8 wafer manufacturers accounted for 45% of global wafer supply. The excess of production over market demand caused crystalline silicon factory gate module prices to drop 14% in 2010, significantly less than the 38% reduction of the previous year.

After addressing 2010 outcomes, the Marketbuzz 2011 report sets out three scenarios for supply, demand, and prices over the next five years. By 2015, Solarbuzz projects the European market share to fall to between 45-54% as North America and several Asian markets grow rapidly. The US will be the fastest growing major country market over this period. Over the next five years, factory gate module prices are projected to drop between 37% and 50% from 2010 levels.

In the short term, assumptions about the immediate policy environment remain critical to outcomes over the next 24 months.
“The industry has now entered a phase of tightening incentive terms across important European markets. Cuts in unit tariffs will be far more rapid than the industry’s pace of cost reduction,” said Craig Stevens, President of Solarbuzz. “While some key markets will decline in size as a result over the next two years, the US, Canada, China, and Japan are some of the major countries that still offer growth potential. In addition, the rush to beat mid-year tariff reductions will ensure strong first half 2011 demand performance in Italy and Germany.”
Stevens added, “Planned manufacturing capacity expansions will ensure the industry has adequate cell supplies over 2011 and 2012. However, the potential for excess supply taken together with already planned subsidy cuts will make both years challenging for the industry.”

The new Marketbuzz 2011 report sets out 2010 industry outcomes and provides a forecast for the 2011–2015 period, including a preview of market developments, policies, supply requirements versus manufacturer plans, factory-gate prices, manufacturing costs, and gross margins. All of the essential data is included for companies to navigate the abrupt changes in Y/Y growth rates over the next five years.

Change of Plan: UK to Halve Large-Scale Solar FIT

2011-03-21T10:13:00.000Z

The UK government has triggered the reduction of financial support for larger scale solar projects under the feed-in tariff (FIT) incentive scheme that it launched last April.

It has proposed to lower the support for all new photovoltaic installations larger than 50kW, meaning projects that would have received 30.7 pence per kWh will now receive between 8.5 pence and 19 pence per kWh.

Projects of between 250kW and 5MW will receive the lowest rates of 8.5 pence per kWh, while projects of between 50kW and 150kW will get 19 pence per kWh and all capacities in between will get 15 pence per kWh.

Due to a lack of uptake by farm-scale solar and anaerobic digestion projects, the government has raised the tariff for anaerobic digestion projects to 14 pence per kWh for projects below 250kW, with installations of up to 500kW getting one penny per kWh less.

The consultation follows the government’s launch of a fast-track review of the FIT for projects over 50kW after planning applications were made for solar projects with a combined capacity of 169MW. The government said it is concerned that large projects could soak up the funding that would otherwise finance smaller solar schemes or be used to subsidise other renewable energy projects.

UK Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said, ‘I want to make sure that we capture the benefits of fast falling costs in solar technology to allow even more homes to benefit from FITs, rather than see that money go in bumper profits to a small number of big investors.

‘These proposals aim to rebalance the scheme and put a stop to the threat of larger-scale solar soaking up the cash. The FITs scheme was never designed to be a profit generator for big business and financiers.’

PV FIT schemes in Germany, France and Spain have been reduced sharply over the past year.

The government has promised not to act retrospectively on existing FIT contracts and said those that are already accredited will not be affected.

Article source:

Expected Decline of German Solar Market: According to Phoenix Solar

2011-03-17T10:04:00.001Z

German solar systems integrator Phoenix Solar has issued a stark warning that the country’s solar market, currently the world’s largest, will decline from 2011 onwards.

‘Phoenix Solar anticipates stagnation in the global market in the current financial year,’ the company said in its earnings statement.

‘The German market was once again global leader in 2010 but is likely to have reached its maximum market volume, and will decline from 2011 onwards.’

Phoenix brought in revenues of €635.7m in 2010, a 34 per cent rise on the previous year’s figure of €473m and the highest the company has ever recorded.

Its earnings before interest and tax were €36.4m, triple the €12m it made in 2009. Net earnings were €24.0m, or €3.42 per share. Phoenix’s management proposes a €0.35 dividend, subject to approval by its board.

But the company declined to offer a forecast for 2011, given regulatory uncertainty gripping the sector.

Germany cut feed-in tariffs ahead of schedule in July and October last year. Italy has also said it will cut subsidies early, while the UK is debating a similar move.

Article source:

Floating Solar Panels: New Solar Technology test

2011-03-11T12:13:00.000Z

A collaboration between an Israeli and a French company has resulted in the design of a solar panel prototype that floats on the water. Solaris Synergy of Israel and EDF Group of France have partnered to test a new silicon solar cell module that is said to be the first floating concentrated photovoltaic system.

Source image: Solaris Synergy

The system is based on a floating platform in which individual modules can be placed and arranged. Each module produces what is said to be 200 kilowatts of electricity, which we assume is dependent upon the configuration of CPV panels in a given module. The two companies are using concentrated solar technology in order to reportedly limit the amount of space the system needs in order to produce a usable amount of energy. The design process began in March of 2010, and is expected to be implemented in testing in September of this year.

The tests will be conducted at Cadarache in the south east of France, due to its location to the electric grid and a hydro-electric facility. The water-basin of the hydro-electric plant will be the surface on which the solar modules are tested. According to scientist Dr. Elyakim Kassel, the coordinator of the projected dubbed AQUASUN, there are many benefits to using an already established water-basin for the floating solar system:

First, the project will not have to use or purchase land, and instead can implement water that is already being used for another purpose. Second, the cooler temperature of the water will help the overall efficiency of solar cells.

The testing phase is expected to last nine months, during which the team will note water levels, cost, and efficiency. The companies hope to report their findings to the market in June of 2012.

Article Source

US Solar Industry Saw Impressive Growth in 2010

2011-03-11T10:17:00.000Z

The market value of the US solar industry grew by 67 per cent to $6bn in 2010, from $3.6bn a year earlier, according to research by GTM commissioned by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

A total of 878MW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity and 78MW of concentrating solar power were installed in the US over the year, while 65,000 homes installed solar heating systems.

Installations more than doubled over 2009 figures, in contrast to the broader economy, which grew by less than three per cent.

The SEIA said the expansion was driven by declining costs, greater economies of scale, industry expansion into a wider number of states and improved installation practices.

Another growth driver was the Treasury’s 1603 programme, a set of tax credits and grants for renewable energy installations, which was due to expire at the end of 2010 but has now been extended for another year.

‘The US PV market saw a breakthrough in 2010 and is emerging as a global demand centre for both suppliers and project developers,’ said Shayle Kann, managing director of solar at GTM Research.
‘This report shows that solar energy is now one of the fastest growing industries in the US.’

Cheers for the Green energy efforts!

Article Source

UK’s First Citywide Solar Potential Mapping Project

2011-03-09T15:08:00.000Z

In a first for a UK local authority, Bristol City Council have awarded Blom UK, and their German partner Sun-Area, the contract to provide a detailed, interactive solar potential map of the entire city.

The map will be integrated with their website to allow local property and business owners to find out if their buildings are suitable for solar PV or solar thermal (hot water) panels.

Bristol’s decision to award a solar potential mapping project to Blom UK and Sun-Area follows a Government announcement at the end of 2010, of a grant of £260,000 towards the city’s green plans. The city is one of 30 pioneering councils across the country to receive money to help develop its climate change plans and share best practice with other councils.

As the first council to undertake a solar potential mapping project, Bristol will use the experience gained and any lessons learned to create detailed guidance for other Local Authorities who are interested in undertaking similar schemes. It is hoped that in this way, local authorities up and down the country can encourage property owners to adopt solar panels, saving money and reducing their carbon output.

When announcing the grant last year, Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “Local Councils can play a vital role in cutting carbon because they have unrivalled local knowledge, experience and influence. We want to tap in to this, so we have awarded just over £2 million to be shared between 30 pioneering councils to work with individuals, businesses and communities to find the best and most effective ways to reduce emissions and stimulate their local economy. The results of the project will decide what works best so other councils across the country can benefit and learn.”

Blom UK’s solar potential map will provide a detailed analysis of every building in the city, taking into account the orientation, height, pitch and shape of each roof, as well as shading from obstructions including trees, buildings and terrain. The resulting map will provide information on the suitability of each building for the installation of either solar PV or solar thermal panels.

Managing Director of Blom UK Dave Fox said “We are thrilled to be working with our partner Sun-Area on this pioneering project. As the first council in the UK to undertake a citywide solar potential mapping project, Bristol City Council is demonstrating their commitment to reducing carbon across the city, whilst providing residents with a way to find out if they can save money by fitting solar panels.”

Article Source

Forecast PV Marketshare 2015: USA And China On The Top (IMS Research Interview)

2011-03-09T14:26:00.000Z

Sam Wilkinson is one of the analysts in the PV Research Group at IMS Research. IMS Research is a leading provider of market intelligence to the global electronics industry and has been providing research and statistics on the industry for over 20 years. IMS began researching the PV market in 2006 and now cover almost every part of the PV supply chain in great detail.

What are your expectations for the global PV market in 2011 to 2012 (in terms of new GWs)? IMS Research estimates that global installations will increase by around 20% in 2011, to between 20-22 GW; however, this is very dependent on how the market reacts to the changes in France and Italy. It’s possible we see a big pull-forward in demand again, but also possible that demand stalls and prices come down rapidly. Inventive reductions during, and at the end of 2011 mean that installations are likely to be roughly flat in 2012.

What do you expect to be the leading PV markets in the coming years? We forecast that the largest PV markets (in terms of installations) in the next four to five years will be USA, China and Germany. Generally we see the global market diversifying and becoming less depending on just one or two markets – which of course will help stabilise demand.

What are your forecasts for the German and Italian PV market? And what other European PV markets will play a dominant role till 2015? Following what has been an incredible two years for the German market, with installations estimated to have reached around 7.5 GW in 2010, we are seeing the incentive reductions start to take effect, and predict that installations will begin to decline in 2011, and again in 2012. That said, we don’t see Germany disappearing off the map or crashing altogether and believe that it will continue to install significant amounts of PV over the coming years.

It is currently very difficult to make a solid forecast for installations in Italy, as new information regarding its feed-in tariff is being released all the time. Based on the shipment information that we have collected (from inverter and module suppliers), we believe that genuine completed installations in 2010 were between 3-3.5 GW. We predict that there will be a surge in installations until the end of May when the current feed-in tariffs will finish. Currently, the rates that will be offered after this date are not available and there is still a chance that annual installations will be capped. Until this information is confirmed, it is very difficult to make a forecast. Although, it is certain that the new incentives policy will be designed to reduce the installations.

The Chinese PV industry is growing tremendously. Not only are the existing giants expanding their capacity, new entrants with huge ambitions are still entering the market. How does this match with the global market growth? Chinese suppliers are carrying out extremely aggressive expansion plans. Chinese module suppliers added capacity very quickly throughout 2010 and capacity in China at the end of the year was over 80% higher than it was at the end of 2009. This growth was roughly in line with total industry demand. However, 2011 looks a little different; aggressive capacity expansions are continuing and Chinese suppliers are forecast to add a similar amount in 2011, but in contrast to 2010, installations are not predicted to grow at the same rate.

It is also significant that a number of other large Asian electronics suppliers are entering the market. Companies like LG, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor are able and willing to spend large amounts of capital and plan to quickly add capacity over the next few years.

What will the solar industry look like in five years’ time? Isn't the solar industry likely to follow the wind-energy industry in the near future, with more than 90% of the market shared among only ten major manufacturers? With incentive levels in the largest markets being quickly reduced over the last year or so, and further reductions likely, there will certainly be increased pressure on PV module prices. The leading, and surviving, companies will therefore be those that are able to reduce their costs in order to offer attractive prices whilst still maintaining a healthy margin. It is likely than only a small number of the hundreds of suppliers active in the market today will be able to achieve this.

Where in the supply chain (silicon to module) do you see the highest potential for further cost reductions? As I previously mentioned, cost reduction is key to companies in a market that is ultimately aiming to reduce prices to the point where it no longer relies on subsidies and incentives, and can compete with conventional energy sources.

On the crystalline side, a clear strategy of some of the larger suppliers is the move to vertical integration. It is not difficult to see that the cost structure of a fully integrated module supplier (manufacturing polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules in house) has the potential to be significantly lower than a non-integrated one. A non-integrated module supplier’s cost structure could include the margin of a cell supplier, a wafer supplier and a polysilicon supplier, as well as the extra transportation costs etc. involved with the purchase of each item.

What module price development do you expect this and next year? Will the ASP for c-Si modules hit €1/Wp in 2012? Following some increases in price during the second half of 2010, due to the high demand and short supply of modules, IMS Research predicts that prices will begin to fall again throughout 2011 and 2012. We predict that some crystalline modules will reach the €1/W milestone during 2012. Some thin film modules will reach this price this year though.

Europe seems to focus more on residential PV applications with their FiT support mechanisms. In the USA on the other hand, utility scale projects seem to drive the market. What is your view on the market segments that will drive the demand in the coming years? IMS Research predicts that utility-scale PV systems will represent an increasing proportion of installations over the coming years, for a number of reasons:

Firstly, some of the largest markets in a few years time will be ones that favour large utility-scale projects, such as China and USA.

Secondly, the high volume nature of large utility-scale plants once again leads to lower prices and costs, on a per watt or per kWh basis at least.

In your opinion, where will the solar industry and markets be in 2015? We predict that the largest end markets (geographically) will be USA, Germany and China in 2015. However, as I mentioned earlier we see full vertical integration becoming more and more common in the market, and we are likely to see a number of cell, module and wafer suppliers becoming their own ‘end customer’ and increasingly being involved in developing systems themselves.

Article Source

US Defense Forms Green Energy Efforts

2011-03-07T15:24:00.000Z

The US energy and defence departments are to take fresh steps to strengthen national security through the development of advanced clean energy technologies.

The move comes as Middle Eastern unrest has caused oil prices to rise to pre-credit crunch levels, in turn leading to many to call for the US to tap into its oil reserves.

The agreement signed between the Department of Energy and Department of Defense said national enhance security will be increased while also the Obama Administration’s plan to transition to clean energy is implemented.

Daniel Poneman, Deputy Secretary of Energy, said, ‘Advances in innovation are helping to solve our military challenges, protect our troops, and enhance our national security. At the same time, these efforts have the potential to yield spin-off technologies with both military and civilian applications that will help create jobs in the US and speed America’s transition to a clean energy economy.’

The departments said alongside renewable energy deployment, energy storage technologies and grid security will also be in focus.

The application of these within the US military will be of particular focus.

‘Our joint efforts in everything from advanced vehicles to energy storage to grid security are protecting our men and women in uniform, promoting America’s economic prosperity, and improving our environment.’

Article Source:http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/energy-storage/us-energy-defense-departments-form-joint-green-energy-efforts.html

African Teachers Use Solar Power Whiteboards

2011-03-02T11:50:00.000Z

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Republic of Senegal has given CyberSmart a grant to finance a pilot program which uses solar-powered, interactive whiteboards in rural classrooms.
The innovate design forgoes the need for infrastructure, relying on a low cost solar energy system, the specifics of which have not been announced, most likely because the company’s product is still patent-pending.

The interactive whiteboard is complimented by a ‘Smartpen’ that allows teachers and students to interact with the content on the screen, and, according to the company’s website [pdf], affordable USB drives are being adapted for wide-scale use. In order to be effective, all of the components are transportable so that the tools can be shared with educators in a variety of locations.

Source: cybersmart.org

Nearly 1.5 billion people lack access electricity, the largest populations living in developing Africa and Asia. Without the ability to learn with the help of adequate technology, children in the poorest areas of the planet will be left further behind in modern development. Cybersmart’s whiteboard is currently being tested in four schools in the Western African nation among teachers instructing students in elementary and middle school.

Hopefully, more and more companies like CyberSmart will find support for similar global projects that can bring information to people regardless of their location. The more energy efficient, sustainable, and low cost these tools are, the better chance they have of being implemented all over the world. And the more people who are educated, the greater possibility of a future student finding the next scientific breakthrough that will better all of our lives.

Source:http://www.updt.me/go?item=solar-power-whiteboards-help-african-teachers&t=tw

FIT doubts; UK solar installations to fall below 250MW

2011-02-28T14:42:00.000Z

The UK is unlikely to install even 250MW of solar projects this year, due to unclear planning for renewable energy feed-in tariffs (FIT), according to a source within the industry.

While Germany has installed 17GW of solar capacity to date, using the tariff scheme to develop renewable power resources, the UK has installed just 40MW since introducing the tariff last April.

The UK solar tariff system is under review following Climate Change Secretary Greg Barker’s proposals to slash the FIT by ten per cent next year.

‘The German Federal Network Agency has imaginatively used FITs to develop their renewable power resources,’ said mo3 Power CEO Ken Moss.

The UK’s potential proposals to reduce the tariff mark an unwise departure from Germany’s regime, which the country used as a blueprint for its photovoltaic (PV) industry, according to Moss.

Although Germany proposed cutting the rate of its FIT by as much as 15 per cent, the Federal Network Agency last week set a tariff rate that will be responsive to the growth of PV in the country.

Germany’s tariff rate will increase by 2.5 per cent if PV installations do not meet a 2.5GW target in the next year, but will keep the rate at its current level if installations reach 3.5GW, only increasing further if installations exceed 4.5GW.

Moss said, ‘The UK government clearly adopted the success of German FITs as a blueprint for the PV industry in the Britain but they are now making decisions solely based on cost cutting. Britain needs a politically secure, safe renewable power industry.’

Source:http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/

Is It An Animal, Is It A Solar Panel: No It's A Solar-Powered Sea Slug!!

2011-02-23T16:20:00.000Z

It's the ultimate form of solar power: eat a plant, become photosynthetic. Now researchers have found how one animal does just that.

Elysia chlorotica is a lurid green sea slug, with a gelatinous leaf-shaped body, that lives along the Atlantic seaboard of the US. What sets it apart from most other sea slugs is its ability to run on solar power.

Mary Rumpho of the University of Maine, is an expert on E. chlorotica and has now discovered how the sea slug gets this ability: it photosynthesises with genes "stolen" from the algae it eats.

She has known for some time that E. chlorotica acquires chloroplasts - the green cellular objects that allow plant cells to convert sunlight into energy - from the algae it eats, and stores them in the cells that line its gut. Young E. chlorotica fed with algae for two weeks, could survive for the rest of their year-long lives without eating, Rumpho found in earlier work.

But a mystery remained. Chloroplasts only contain enough DNA to encode about 10% of the proteins needed to keep themselves running. The other necessary genes are found in the algae's nuclear DNA. "So the question has always been, how do they continue to function in an animal cell missing all of these proteins," says Rumpho.

Gene 'theft'

In their latest experiments, Rumpho and colleagues sequenced the chloroplast genes of Vaucheria litorea, the alga that is the sea slug's favourite snack. They confirmed that if the sea slug used the algal chloroplasts alone, it would not have all the genes needed to photosynthesise. They then turned their attention to the sea slug's own DNA and found one of the vital algal genes was present. Its sequence was identical to the algal version, indicating that the slug had probably stolen the gene from its food. "We do not know how this is possible and can only postulate on it," says Rumpho, who says that the phenomenon of stealing is known as kleptoplasty.

One possibility is that, as the algae are processed in the sea slug's gut, the gene is taken into its cells as along with the chloroplasts. The genes are then incorporated into the sea slug's own DNA, allowing the animal to produce the necessary proteins for the stolen chloroplasts to continue working.

Another explanation is that a virus found in the sea slug carries the DNA from the algal cells to the sea slug's cells. However, Rumpho says her team does not have any evidence for this yet.

In another surprising development, the researchers found the algal gene in E. chlorotica's sex cells, meaning the ability to maintain functional chloroplasts could be passed to the next generation.

The researchers believe many more photosynthesis genes are acquired by E. chlorotica from their food, but still need to understand how the plant genes are activated inside sea-slug cells.

Human photosynthesis?

Greg Hurst of Liverpool University in the UK says that DNA jumping from one species to another is not unheard of but that normally the DNA does not appear to function in the new species. "Here we have something going across and working in an entirely different context, which is altogether more interesting." "There was an example recently of a whole bacterial genome that ended up in a fruit fly species, but no-one knows if it functions," he says. "What is really unique here is the fact that the gene is transferred and appears to function."

Other animals are able to harness sunlight after eating plants, says Rumpho, but this is only because they acquire entire plant cells, which is very different to transforming an animal cell into a solar-powered plant-animal hybrid.

It is unlikely humans could become photosynthetic in this way. "Our digestive tract just chews all that stuff up - the chloroplasts and the DNA," she adds.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16124-solarpowered-sea-slug-harnesses-stolen-plant-genes-.html

UK School Creates Green Lab With Use of Solar Panels

2011-02-22T10:20:00.003Z

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.

Source:http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/8862210.School_uses_solar_panels_in_bid_to_become_more_sustainable/

Reported Solar Growth up to 70% Worldwide 2010

2011-02-21T10:46:00.002Z

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has reported that solar photovoltaic (PV) power increased by 16 GW in 2010 around the world, approximately double the increase seen in 2009.

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

£12bn For UK Councils Available; Green Subsidies

2011-02-18T09:24:00.003Z

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

Coming Soon Near You: Solar Powered Mobile Phone!

2011-02-17T10:27:00.002Z

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

By 2050 World Energy Can be 95% Renewable, according to study

2011-02-16T09:22:00.004Z

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

World's 10 Most Ingenious Solar Boats!

2011-02-15T09:43:00.003Z

The bright sun has been the ’soul’ of our civilization for centuries, and it will continue to vitalize us even in our modernistic future, by providing us with the all important solar energy. Renewable solar energy is being used in panels, roofs, heaters and less familiar its mark in electric bikes, cars and even buses. Now is the time we discover its full potential in the ‘field’ of water as we look at the 10 most innovative and exclusive solar powered boats. Enjoy!

1. Pedal-powered solar boat:

This latest gem of a concept designed by Jonathan Mahieddine is basically a pedal powered boat embedded with a solar panel connected to a battery pack. So once we get tired of pedaling, we can always switch on the electric motor which draws its power from solar charged batteries.

2. ARKKI Solar Boat:

Conceived by Janne Leppänen, the ARKKI concept boat incorporates a significant open space covered with a polished surface. This entire surface is comprised of small multilayer photovoltaic cells that can produce the required solar energy to power up the boat.

3. Solar Proa Catamaran:

This green technology fueled boat is designed by Carolin Dissmann, Tibor Bartholomä, Daniel Boos and Andreas Schwab. Basically the boat has two folding covers with solar panels imbued in them. When the boat is docked, these covers can be enclosed to form a singular, flat surface that can readily harness solar energy to power the boat.

4. Onda Velocita Powerboat:

The Onda Velocita Powerboat is a unique, luxury ‘hybrid’ boat, which is powered dually by a pair of traditional water jet propulsion units, and a photovoltaic system on its roof. The propulsion unit can be switched off on sunny days, as the power generated by the photovoltaic battery is adequate enough to propel the boat.

5. Sea Raider:

Brilliantly contrived by Muhammad Imran, the Sea Raider is implemented with photovoltaic modules to collect solar energy during the day and simultaneously recharge the onboard batteries. So during the day the boat can power itself using the harnessed solar energy via the embedded modules, and during nighttime the boat’s batteries take over the system, ensuring a zero-emission ride, all throughout day and night.

6. SunCat23 Catamaran:

Developed by Horizon Yachts, the SunCat23 Catamaran incorporates four solar panels capable of producing a whopping 760W of power to fuel a 2.8KW electric motor. The sturdy catamaran with a capacity of 12 passengers is capable of achieving a top speed of 6 knots. The fully charged battery pack can additionally power the boat for a day trip, even on a cloudy day.

7. Iron 23 Motorboat:

Conceived by industrial designer Carl Hagerling, this dually powered boat has a capacity for three people, with included space for a kitchen and a toilet. Primarily, the boat is powered by an singularly compact solar array, and additionally a conventional engine is provided in case the battery runs out of electricity.

8. The Float:

Designed by Rami Tareef and Milos Ristin, this boat concept features a double motor exclusively powered by solar energy. A system of solar panels occupies the roof, providing enough juice for a speed of 10km/hr. The boat is also daintily equipped with a table, grill and a refrigerator!

9. Buffalo’s Solar-Powered Boat:

Designed by Buffalo Solar Boats, this pontoon boat capably tours inland waterways and lakes by utilizing solar power from a rooftop array of photovoltaic modules. The PV modules generate up to 1KW of power, which is stored in a large onboard battery for use during overcast days.

10. Mercury Marine hybrid concept boat:

This electrically powered boat features two 100hp electric engines, run by lithium-ion batteries. These batteries can be charged on shore, as well as by an array of solar panels fitted on the deck and mounted atop the roof. This boat also has a conventional diesel powered engine which can be used if the situation demands.

Source:http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/10-most-ingenious-solar-powered-concept-boats/

China profits from Solar-Power Strategy as Europeans backpedal

2011-02-14T09:32:00.005Z

iChina, the world’s biggest electricity consumer, is figuring out how to capture a larger share of the solar-energy market without losing money.

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

Solar energy takes over; even in Alaska!

2011-02-11T09:13:00.007Z

Few eyebrows were raised when we heard about Alaska getting 'HOT' for solar energy. However even in a state like this where the sun's rays are precious, solar power is gaining a foothold.

A building in down town Anchorage, Alaska, will soon be outfitted with solar panels, making it one of the few clean energy projects of its type in the entire state, according to a report from the Anchorage Daily News. The building will be dressed up with 64 solar panels on its south side, replacing a number of unsightly metal panels.

The project may also (read: probaply) have been driven by the fact that a number of the building's tenants are conservation groups with a particular interest in reducing the state's dependence on fossil fuel, the report said. It made the decision to retrofit the wall, which needed replacing anyway, with solar panels an easy one for owner Steve Zelener. (Go Steve!)

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!

Complete article:Danny Vo; http://solar.coolerplanet.com/News/800396014-alaska-building-turns-to-solar-power.aspx

New method for calculating lifetime solar energy costs

2011-02-10T15:31:00.008Z

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)

Solar-panel cycle path coming to Netherlands town

2011-02-09T11:42:00.003Z

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

Solar-Powered Cargo Pants Provide Green Energy on the Go

2010-12-20T15:36:00.000Z

Solar powered accessories are on the rise, but clothing that can harvest energy from the sun isn’t something we see too often. A practical piece from their newly launched GO Collection, the Go Urban cargo pant by Silvr Lining includes a pair of built-in photovoltaic panels able to give you all the juice you need to keep your portable electronics jumping throughout the day. Composed of animal-friendly Ultrasuede, this casual and comfy cargo is lightweight, water-resistant, stain-repellent, and tough as nails. We think this could be a great piece for hitting the snowy and sunny slopes this winter!

The Netherlands unveils the first public hydrogen fuel station

2010-12-08T16:51:00.000Z

Europe is truly embracing hydrogen refueling stations — first we saw Italy install solar-powered pumps, then Germany announced plans for a hydrogen fuel network that will be finished by 2015. The latest nation to jump on the bandwagon is the Netherlands, which recently unveiled the first public hydrogen fueling station in the country. The first pump is installed in Arnhem and it is reportedly one of the first stations to be installed along Europe’s Hydrogen Highway.

The hydrogen station includes a small-scale plant that produces hydrogen, which is stored in compressed form. The hydrogen fuel is then fed through a special hose into hydrogen vehicles – just like a standard gas pump. As it is the first hydrogen facility in the country, it has a limited capacity and will mainly serve local vehicles that have been converted to hydrogen.

There is currently one major drawback for hydrogen cars and that is the huge tanks that they have, which often take up all of the trunk space or back seats of the cars. It is hoped that hydrogen car makers such as Daimler, BMW, GM, Ford, Toyota and Honda will be able to remedy this and make a smaller, more convenient hydrogen vehicle that the public will embrace. With the construction of the European Hydrogen Highway now underway, this is bound to be the first of many hydrogen pumping stations that will pop up on the continent.

Solar powered computer tablet designed for developing countries

2010-12-02T15:03:00.000Z

Sure, the iPad is cool but is it solar-powered? The I-Slate is! Developed through a partnership of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Houston’s Rice University and the Villages for Development and Learning Foundation (ViDAL), an NGO in India, the I-Slate is a cheap, solar-powered computer tablet that has been designed to help children in developing countries have access to computer technologies.

As part of the I-Slate’s test period, an electronic version of the tablet was given to millions of Indian school children to try out and play with. If the trials go successfully, the tablets will be installed with solar panels in the frame (like calculators) so they can be fully sustainable. Many of the children have never used a computer, but early reports state that they have taken to the I-Slate like fishes to water.

The I-Slate has already gained acclaim; last year, it was selected by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as one of seven technologies that “will have world-changing implications on the way humans interact with machines, the world and each other.”

“Children in Indian village schools are just like their peers anywhere in the world: eager to learn, tech savvy, and willing to try new pedagogical tools that engage their creative minds,”said Rajeswari Pingali, ViDAL president. “The I-slate can help bring the marvels of ICT into thousands of rural schools and contribute to an improved learning experience.”

Rice undergraduate Lauren Pemberton said the trial had already yielded results. “They immediately picked up on the technology,” she said. “They clearly didn’t like some of the things we expected to work really well, like the button placement, but they loved the scratch-pad application which was added at the last minute.”

More solar panels installed at Audi HQ in Ingolstadt

2010-12-01T13:07:00.000Z

Back in December 2009, German manufacturer Audi announced it will be installing 11,600 square meters (124,861 square feet) of solar panels at its headquarters in Ingolstadt, in an attempt to make the facilities there less dependent on external energy sources.

Now, one year later, the car maker announced that it will be expanding the use of the electricity generated by the solar panels to charge the batteries of the electric e-tron models. In addition, an extra 7,500 square meter area will be covered with photovoltaic panels.

“This concept shows that Audi is tackling the topic of electromobility systematically,” said Peter Kossler, Audi Ingolstadt plant manager.

“The photovoltaic installation uses innovative thin-layer modules that satisfy the most stringent environmental protection, efficiency and flexibility standards. We aim to set the standards in every area.”

The new solar panels will be installed by Green City Energy, the same company which handled the job for the car maker last year. The 1,000 MWh of electricity by the current system will be enriched with the 460 MWh coming from the expansion.

Currently, the panels have begun feeding electricity directly in Audi’s electric network. The power is used for charging stations for electric cars for now, but other production facilities will be powered this way soon.

In October this year, Audi announced a similar endeavour for the Neckarsulm center. The panels here, 10,700 modules, can reach 1,900 megawatt hours, fed into the public grid of the utility EnBW. The Neckarsulm facility is currently undergoing major upgrades, with the carmaker already announcing the beginning of the second phase of construction at the site.

Boeing set to start large scale production of the highest efficiency solar cells on the market

2010-11-30T10:26:00.000Z

Best known for their massive jet planes, powerhouse Boeing is set to begin the large scale production of their highly efficient concentrator photovoltaic cell (CPV), the C3MJ+. The cell is said to be one of the highest efficiency cells on the market today, with an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent. The cells, produced by Spectrolab, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing company, are will be a major improvemnt on the C3MJ cells currently in production, which currently convert 38.5 percent of the sun’s rays into electricity.

Spectrolab is a market leader when it comes to the production of solar cells and photovoltaic technology, and has been producing such elements for various space and terrestrial applications for 50 years. Since 2007, the company has been introducing the large-scale production of solar cells that have consistently boasted an increased energy-conversion efficiency rate year on year.

The researchers at Spectrolab have even set a world record for solar cell efficiency with a test prototype that peaked at 41.6% – it has been said to be the basis for the solar cell C3MJ+ technology.

Speaking about the new cells, Russ Jones, Spectrolab director of CPV Business Development stated, “Given the new cells’ close similarity to our existing production cells, we believe that our current C3MJ customers will be able to easily upgrade for more efficiency.”

The important difference between concentrator photovoltaic cells and conventional PV cells is the multi-layer structure of semiconductor material aimed at generating power in correspondence to various frequencies of sunlight. The overall system is a combination of lenses and mirrors consisting of multi-junction cells.

Considering their success in the past, it is no surprise to learn that Spectrolab is expecting a 40 percent average production efficiency for terrestrial solar cells in 2011.

World's largest renewable energy project in the Saharan desert

2010-11-29T12:49:00.000Z

A giant step has been made in what will be the world’s largest renewable energy project. While previously just a grand vision for the production of clean energy in the Saharan desert, the project now has a core group of backers and a signed agreement between 12 companies wanting to move forward with the $555 billion renewable energy belt. The 12 collaborators signed articles of association last week for the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative (DII), which will work to bring more companies and groups on board as well as focus on regulations and conditions to get the project successfully completed and generating pure power from the sun.

The DESERTEC Foundation vision is to install 100 GW of solar power throughout Northern Africa, with the goal of supplying 15% of Europe’s energy demand with clean renewable power. So far a number of blue chip and powerful companies have signed on to be part of the project, including ABB, ABENGOA Solar, Cevital, DESERTEC Foundation, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE, SCHOTT Solar, and Siemens. The project will link multiple solar concentrating facilities around coastal North Africa and transmit most of the renewable energy through high-voltage DC lines to Europe. Additionally, desalination plants will be coupled with the solar concentrating plants to bring fresh water to people in Africa.

Although still many years out from completion, the signed agreement between the founding partners will help bring cohesion and a unified force to the project. A considerable amount of work must still be done to bring this to reality, and more support must be garnered from both European agencies and companies along with organizations from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Questions regarding energy security, fairness, social justice, water and solar rights, as well as compensation must be dealt with along the way.

New DESERTEC CEO van Son says, “Now the time has come to turn this vision into reality. That implies intensive cooperation with many parties and cultures to create a sound basis for feasible investments into renewable energy technologies and interconnected grids. The DII will primarily focus on the economic, technical and regulatory conditions that must be fulfilled for successful project implementation.”

World’s largest solar-powered boat attempts to break world record circumnavigation

2010-11-25T10:07:00.000Z

The world’s largest solar-powered boat – TÛRANOR PlanetSolar – departed from Monaco on September 27th in an attempt to become the first boat to circumnavigate the globe using only solar energy. Aside from getting another world record under the boat’s belt, the aim of the expedition is to demonstrate that, through the use of existing materials and technology, high-performance solar mobility can be realized today.

The multihull vessel is covered in 537 square meters (5,780 sq ft) of solar panels, which power the four electric motors (two in each hull) that have a maximum output of 120 kW and can propel the boat to a speed of 14 knots. Although the vessel is capable of hosting 40 passengers and is destined to be used as a luxury yacht after the circumnavigation attempt, the vessel is crewed by just six people and that is the number that will be making the round the world journey.

The 31 m (102 ft) long, 15 m (49 ft) wide vessel was built by Kiel-based boatbuilding firm, Knierim Yachtbau, using light yet durable carbon-sandwich construction. In total, 20.6 tons of carbon fiber, 11.5 tons of foam core and 23 tons of resin and hardener were used to create the craft, whose 537 square meters of solar panels consists of a total of 825 modules, equipped with 38,000 individual photovoltaic cells made by SunPower Corp. The energy they capture is stored in six blocks, each containing 12 lithium-ion batteries.

The vessel is driven by two contra-rotating carbon propellers that each have a diameter of almost two meters (6.6 ft), which is twice the usual size for a craft of the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar’s size. As only half the propeller is underwater, a “wheel effect” is created which makes it possible to steer the ship without a rudder.

At the time of publication, the TÛRANOR PlanetSolar had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was just north of Cuba, making its way towards its next planned stopover in Miami. Other planned stops for the PlanetSolar team include Cancun, San Francisco, Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi before finishing in Monaco sometime in 2011.

Completion of the Park Hotel in Hyderabad, India's first LEED Gold certified hotel

2010-11-24T11:03:00.000Z

Andhra Pradesh, India recently announced the completion of the country's first LEED Gold certified hotel, the Park Hotel, Hyderabad. Described as a 'Modern Indian Palace', the new eco hotel designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) combines local craftsmanship and high performance design into a 250 room hotel. The hotel is designed to be ultra modern and sustainable, yet it is influenced strongly by local vernacular architecture - read on for a look inside!

The Park Hotel in Hyderabad is distinguished by its impressive facade of perforated metal, which serves as a sun and rain screen that protects the building’s high-performance windows. Daylighting, orientation, solar gain and local climate were all taken into account during the design of the building to maximize light and minimize heat gain. The mostly square volume wraps around an elevated large courtyard that provides protection for the hotel’s pool, restaurants, bars, retail shops, and other mixed-use programs. Rooms enjoy expansive views of Hussain Sagar Lake and the city yet are shielded from receiving much sun.

SOM collaborated with Stevens Institute of Technology’s Product Architecture Lab in Hoboken, New Jersey in order to minimize the hotel’s energy consumption — and they succeeded in reducing it by 20%. The team also collaborated on incorporating an on-site waste water treatment plant that processes both gray water for reuse and waste water before it is released back into the city’s sewer system. The hotel is the first in India to achieve LEED Gold certification and it has been awarded Best New Hospitality Project of 2010 from Cityscape India.

170-meter skyscraper capable of collecting water and generating energy

2010-11-22T16:52:00.000Z

Like a plant that opens its petals to collect dew, the Blooming Tower by Mekene Architecture responds to environmental changes with a kinetic facade that opens and closes throughout the day. The mixed-use recreational facility combines playgrounds, a library, a conference space and picnic areas under a lightweight tower covered in sail cloth material. The 170-meter tower designed for Dubai is also capable of collecting water and generating energy.

The base of the eco tower is slightly sunken into the surrounding gardens, and a large dome creates recreational space, picnic areas, a library, and a conference area. The tower is designed with a lightweight aluminum frame, and it narrows as it rises up 170 meters tall. The top-level features a cafe and viewing level that is accessible via a cable car elevator.

The tower was inspired by the city’s strong connection to the sea, which is expressed through the use of sail cloth material. The exterior is covered in a facade of movable white sail cloth that has multiple purposes. During the day, the sail cloth is closed and serves to provide protection from the sun. While the flaps are closed, a chimney effect is created in the tower and hot air rises up and out, drawing in cool air.

Each flap also has the ability to move, and as it vibrates with the wind an attached piezo-electric device generates power for the building. At night, the sail cloth flaps open like the petals of a flower and collect dew from the night air and store it underground in a reservoir. This dew collection system is expected to capture enough water to accommodate the entire building’s needs.

London 2012 - London to fall short on environmental pledges

2010-11-19T11:11:00.000Z

London 2012 organisers are on course to fall short of their environmental pledges, according to the London Assembly.

A new report - Going for Green - from the Assembly's Environment Committee has stated that London 2012 may not be as environmentally transformative as originally hoped and said more must be done as the Games approach.

High on the list of the Assembly's concern were that original targets on renewable electricity during the Games were unlikely to be met while the report also labels the failure to secure more electric vehicles as a ‘missed opportunity'.

In July, the Assembly criticised organisers, stating they will fail to meet its target to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from new local renewable energy sources.

That largely came as a result of having to shelve plans to erect a wind turbine in the Olympic Park, after changes to health and safety legislation.

Environment Committee chairman Darren Johnson said: "We fully support London 2012's ambition to be the most sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in recent history, and there has been some excellent work towards that goal.

"However we don't want to see environmental standards compromised in the run-up to what I am sure will be a fantastic Games.

"We need to see clear targets for re-using temporary materials, more detail on how organisers will promote sustainable travel and plans for recycling facilities on site and around London."

The report also states that London's air quality has not improved as hoped since 2015 and claims that will in turn result in harmful levels of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in parts of the capital in 2012.

"London's air quality is a particular cause for concern, as failing to reduce levels of pollutants could have consequences for London's international reputation as well as the health of those attending the event," added Johnson.

The report went on to set out work that Locog must complete if the Games are to live up to their environmental aspirations include a plans to promote sustainable travel.

Transparent Solar Material Could Lead to Photovoltaic Windows

2010-11-18T10:10:00.000Z

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven and Los Alamos National Laboratories have created a new type of transparent photovoltaic film that can be spread over large areas to absorb light and create an electrical charge. It is hoped that the technology could lead to the development of power-generating windows and transparent solar panels.

This isn’t the first ‘solar window‘ story that we have reported on, so what makes this technology so different? According to the scientific journal Chemistry of Materials, “though such honeycomb-patterned thin films have previously been made using conventional polymers like polystyrene, this is the first report of such a material that blends semiconductors and fullerenes to absorb light and efficiently generate charge and charge separation.”

Lead scientist Mircea Cotlet, a physical chemist at Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials said that the material stays transparent because the polymer chains pack densely only at the edges of the hexagons, while remaining loosely packed and spread very thin across the centers. “The densely packed edges strongly absorb light and may also facilitate conducting electricity,” Cotlet explained, “while the centers do not absorb much light and are relatively transparent.”

“Combining these traits and achieving large-scale patterning could enable a wide range of practical applications, such as energy-generating solar windows, transparent solar panels, and new kinds of optical displays,” said co-researcher Zhihua Xu, a materials scientist at the CFN. “Imagine a house with windows made of this kind of material, which, combined with a solar roof, would cut its electricity costs significantly. This is pretty exciting,” Cotlet said.

She is right — with so many companies each working on separate ways to create ’solar windows’, surely it is only a matter of time before everyday items such as windows and doors are able to generate electricity for homes and businesses.

The World’s Smallest Solar-Powered Movie Theater

2010-11-17T12:10:00.000Z

While An Inconvenient Truth may have opened our eyes to the perils of global warming, most of us still saw it in a cinema powered by large amounts of electricity. Fortunately, movie fans now have an option to see films in a more sustainable manner – The Sol Cinema, which is the world’s smallest solar-powered movie theater!!

The Sol Cinema was made from a converted two-berth caravan and funded by the media arts charity Undercurrents. Its film projector is powered by four large lithium-ion batteries that are charged by two 120W solar panels. You need not worry about large crowds or people talking on their phones either, as the Sol Cinema only seats eight adults or twelve children.

The cinema says it has a “full library of comedies, quirky movies, music videos and short films with inspiring environment themes.” Situated in Kent in the UK, the Sol Cinema hopes to raise people’s awareness about solar power while showing educational films. Earlier in the year, the cinema was used at Ramsgate town’s new Summer Squall arts festival, where it played a number of local documentary films.

The Sol Cinema is an innovative idea that shows what can be done on a small scale — it just makes this writer wonder why more cinemas don’t install solar panels on their roofs.

Glastonbury festival unveils the largest private solar system in the UK

2010-11-12T11:06:00.013Z

If U2 or the Rolling Stones had been performing on his cow shed roof, the Glastonbury Festival supremo Michael Eavis could hardly have been more excited. "It's fantastic. This is the best fun I've had here for ages," he said. "We had to make a big statement – and that is what we've done."

Eavis' statement is an "array" of 1,116 solar panels installed on the roof of that cowshed - nicknamed the Mootel. To the sound of a musician called Harriet playing Here Comes The Sun on the vibraphone (deemed suitable because its aluminium bars resemble solar panels), Eavis today unveiled what is believed to be the biggest private solar electric generating system in the UK.

The photovoltaic (PV) modules will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 40 homes annually. Power generated will be used, in the first instance, for Eavis' Worthy Farm and any left over will be fed into the National Grid.

Wearing shorts on a chilly but perfectly blue Somerset day, Eavis said: "We had to make a major statement because we use so much power. This has brought us one big step closer to our goal of operating the farm as ecologically as possible." The 1,500-acre site effectively turns into a small city at festival time with more than 200 diesel-powered generators hauled into place to make sure bands can play, food-and-drink suppliers can operate and the place is lit up at night.

Much has been done already. Eavis and his team have built reservoirs so water does not have to be brought on site and linked into local sewerage systems so human waste does not have to be carted off. They recycle all they can and encourage people not to drive if they can help it. But on a busy night they need up to 15 megawatts of power to make sure everything runs smoothly. Eavis felt they were still "losing the argument" so when he built the new cow shed seven years ago, he made sure its roof sloped gently southwards and was strong enough to support 20 tonnes of solar panels.

He has been impressed by how easy it has been. The bank lent him most of the money and the government's feed-in tariff - a subsidy for small-scale renewable energy generation - has meant it makes economic sense to launch the project. He should earn £60,000 a year from the project. Eavis's cow shed, which enjoys a fine view of the pyramid stage - skeletal at this time of year - and Glastonbury Tor in the far distance, now generates up to 200 kilowatts of power. It should also save around 100 tonnes of carbon a year. He expects to make the money he has invested back in nine years.

Lucy Brooking Clark, green initiatives co-ordinator for the Glastonbury Festival, said it was an "amazing" day. "It feels like one big step for Glastonbury today. It's been four or five years in the planning. We have to constantly look at how we can make the festival more sustainable - we have to keep raising the bar." Steve Riches, a planning engineer for Western Power Distribution, which makes sure the electricity generated on the roof reaches the National Grid, said it was a "symbolic day." Riches said: "I think other farmers and landowners will look at what Michael Eavis has done here and try to do the same. I think this is an important step."

Next week, the Farming Futures project, which works to inform farmers about climate change, will be hosting a workshop with Eavis at Worthy Farm for others thinking of investing in solar panels. Bill Egan, who for the last 26 years has made sure Worthy Farm has all the power it needs for the festival (mainly by bringing in all those generators), was trying to work out whether he would still have a job for a few years to come.
However, festival is so energy-hungry though that he concluded he would. Using the power generated on the cow shed roof would probably allow only six temporary diesel generators to be lost. As Eavis bounded from interview to interview, Egan calculated that they would need between 50,000 and 100,000sq m of solar panels to be sure of generating enough electricity. "You'd lose a lot of camping space for that. I think my job is safe for a while."

But he said they had already thought about how best to use the new source of electricity, perhaps using it to charge generators that are used for long periods, for example by crew members who are on site for months before and after the festival. "We'll start getting those cables in now," he said. Phil Miller, the infrastructure manager for the site, said they were always on the look-out for new ways of cutting the festival's carbon footprint. "I heard about an idea of using urine to generate power. That could work for us. Or what about putting solar panels on marquees? We have to keep trying." Eavis is already thinking about the future. "We've got the best festival in the world and the best solar power system in the country - so far. We've got to keep pushing, trying to do more." And with that he was off to make sure the panels were performing properly - and the cows beneath them were as content as he was.

Farmers across the country, but especially in the south-west of England, are becoming more interested in the idea of supplementing their income through solar power. Claire Wyatt, of Farming Futures, a government-funded organisation that helps farmers cope with and prepare for climate change, said farmers were "hungry" for information. "I think it's because the technology has improved, and so you no longer need the perfect site, but the feed-in tariff [under which landowners are paid for the energy they supply to the National Grid] has shown them it is economically valuable."

It was standing-room only at an event held in Oxfordshire last week, and there are 200 people on a waiting list for a Farming Futures session at Glastonbury site Worthy Farm next week. Companies that supply solar panels have started to organise seminars for farmers in the West Country – the Californian-based SunPower Corporation recently held well-attended events in Somerset. One of the most eye-catching schemes revealed earlier this year was a £40m network of solar farms in Cornwall. If the network is built, it would triple the UK's current solar generating capacity.

Produce your own power with solarpod by thousandsuns

2010-11-11T16:45:00.019Z

solarpod by thousandsuns^TM : Portable Solar Generator

solarpod by thousandsuns^TM is an ideal way to achieve energy self-sufficiency using solar power. It contains the latest in battery and inverter technology and with our optional high performance solar panels. It can power electrical and electronic devices when off grid. It can power most appliances found in the home, office, sheds or workplace – such as TVs, stereos, games consoles, laptops, phones, power tools etc.

solarpod by thousandsuns^TM works out-of-the-box and is completely plug-n-play with no installation required. It is compact, light, durable and amazingly powerful.

60 Watt foldable/angle adjustable solar panel

To complete solarpod by thousandsuns^TM, we recommend the Thousand Suns 60W foldable solar panel. It features a robust yet light and waterproof aluminium stand that allows stability on most surfaces. The panel can be angled as required to ensure the optimum inclination depending on location.

Produce your own power within 5 minutes of unboxing the kit

solarpod by thousandsuns^TM contains a high performance LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery which is a safe and environmentally friendly. It is fitted with a 300W inverter, a UK 3-pin socket (or a continental 3-pin socket), 2 USB and a 12V Car socket. It can be charged either by solar panels or directly onto the mains (an auxiliary charger is provided).

Solar energy and battery indicator

solarpod by thousandsuns^TM features LED light strips that indicate the amount of solar energy being collected by the solar panel as well as the amount of stored energy in the battery.

A 5 kWh storage system for solar panels with a cycle life matching that of most solar panels.

2010-11-10T16:12:00.000Z

Dispatch Energy and Fraunhofer ISE and ISIT have developed a 5 kWh storage system for solar photovoltaics (PV) with a cycle life matching that of most solar panels.

Dispatch Energy specialises in electrochemical energy storage systems which exploit lithium-ion polymer technology.
The Black Diamond product range has been designed for decentralised, building integrated solar PV installations.
“Thanks to an extremely high cycle life, the calendrical service life of the cell technology and the refined modular system concept with its integrated battery management system, the battery bank can be used efficiently throughout the typical service life of a modern photovoltaic installation,” says Dr Matthia Vetter, Head of the Off-grid Photovoltaic Systems and Battery System Technology Group at Fraunhofer ISE.
“The battery system is therefore adapted to match the guaranteed service life of the remaining components in a grid-connected PV system.”
The solar PV storage system is protected against overcharging and overdischarging, and is said to have an efficiency of over 95%.
Its modular construction allows it to be easily connected to charge controllers and inverters already available on the market. Furthermore, customers can retrieve data on the reserves of electricity available at any time via a touch screen phone, laptop or smartphone.
Series production is scheduled for mid-2011. The aim is to equip over 1000 solar PV homes with battery systems annually.

Battery module monitoring circuit, with cell balancing as well as state of charge and aging determination using Kalman filters. (© Fraunhofer ISE.)

Mass series production with a total capacity of 250 MWh is currently being planned.
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) contributed expertise in the fields of battery module and battery system construction, battery and energy management system development and integration into grid-connected and off-grid solar PV systems. Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) has a new pilot cell production line, which Dispatch Energy Innovations GmbH is benefitting from.

This article is featured in:
Energy storage including Fuel cells • Photovoltaics (PV)

A new concept: fuel cell-powered bicycle

2010-10-07T16:16:00.001+01:00

Here's a novel concept -- rather than rolling up to a recharge station in the year 2020, plugging your Volt in and reading the latest issue of Esquire while life passes you by, why not swap out a dead fuel cell for a fully rejuvenated one? We can't say for sure the idea will catch on, but it's certainly one that would save Earth-lovin' motorists an awful lot of time. A little-known outfit by the name of Signa is to thank, as the company's new fuel cell-powered bicycle operates using this scheme; riders simply pop in a recyclable 1.5 pound cartridge (where sodium silicide and water mix to create hydrogen power), toss on a pair of Ray-Bans and cruise for 20 to 30 miles. Once that runs out, you can either break out the pedal power or pop in a new cell -- given the right infrastructure, this could one day be as simple as stopping to refuel. In reality, this new bike is just a way to show off the company's technical aptitude, but we're told that it is actually going on sale next summer for an undisclosed amount. Dollars to donuts Floyd Landis already has one on pre-order.