Green Options » PV

Thin-Film Solar Panels to Double their Share of the Market by 2013?

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:12:39 +0000

A new report by iSuppli Corp. predicts that by 2013, 31% of the solar panel market will be accounted for by thin-film solar panels. These thin-film panels are rapidly replacing traditional crystalline photovoltaic panels.

Thin-film solar is being used in a variety of new applications, from solar roof shingles to solar tiles (like clay tiles) to solar panels glued right onto the roof. Its flexibility in use is one major benefit of this technology.

Lower cost is the number one factor responsible for its anticipated growth, but there are trade-offs as well.

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M&M’S® and MARS Going Green? New Solar Garden at Headquarters in New Jersey

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:13:04 +0000

Candy giant MARS, parent company of M&M’S®, DOVE®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, and TWIX®, turned on a huge new solar array (a “solar garden”) at its headquarters in New Jersey today. No matter what you think of candy food like this, it is good to see such a company going solar. Popular with millions, billions perhaps, and about as mainstream as you can imagine, this is a good step for solar’s more widespread use across the country.

This facility is PSEG Solar Source’s first large-scale solar project. It is one of the largest solar projects in the state of New Jersey, which is already 2nd only to California in its amount of installed solar capacity. The MARS headquarters adjacent to the solar garden is the workplace of about 1,200 employees and is where M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies are manufactured.

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Scientists Make Foldable 3D Solar Cells around an Optical Fibre

Andrew Williams — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:45:11 +0000

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made a three-dimensional photovoltaic solar cell around an optical fibre, a revolutionary new approach that could pave the way for a new generation of hyper-flexible solar systems.

According to team-leader Professor Zhong Lin Wang, “Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile. Optical fibre could conduct sunlight into a building’s walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell.”

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Spanish Solar Company SOLARIG Building 8 PV Parks in Italy

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:15:24 +0000

SOLARIG, a company based in Spain that incorporated about four years ago, just began construction of eight photovoltaic parks in Italy this month. The parks will provide 8 MW of energy in total. Over the next few months, it plans to construct photovoltaic projects producing 30 MW throughout different regions of Italy.

But this is just the beginning. SOLARIG has a more global vision.

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South Africa’s Move to Solar Power Threatened By Eskom’s Problems.

Dave Harcourt — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:10:37 +0000

Eskom, the South African state owned electricity generator, recently announced that it has budgeted a billion dollars over the next ten years for a demonstration and pilot concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. However, moving from budget to implementation is proving more difficult!

Why Concentrated Solar Power

Two of the widely used alternatives for collecting the suns energy are the concentrated solar power (CSP) plant where sunlight is focussed on a receiver in which a circulating working fluid is heated and used as the heating media for a conventional power station and the photo voltaic (PV) plant where sunlight is converted directly into electrical energy.

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Solarmer Breaks Plastic Solar Cell Efficiency World Record, Again

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:37:57 +0000

Solarmer Energy broke the world record for plastic cell efficiency last year. Now, they’ve just broken it again.

The new efficiency record is 7.6% and it breaks 7% for the first time.

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Solar Report Shows 30% Decrease in Cost of Solar Over 10 Years

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:10:25 +0000

Just the other day, I wrote that it was a great time to go solar, especially due to the great rebates and discounts on solar technology. Apparently, I jumped the gun and was a few days early. A new report by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab — “Tracking the Sun II: The Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the US from 1998-2008” — shows a significant decrease in solar costs over the last ten years and shows that now is a great time to go solar.

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Why American PV Makers Do Not Want Cheap Solar

Joe Walsh — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:00:57 +0000

If it were possible to make perfect public policy, we would not be in the middle of our nation’s 111th Congress. Alas, there is no “set it and forget it” formula for governing. Add in complex scientific questions, global-scale economics and technological innovation, and you have the energy and environmental policy challenge: how do we succesfully incentive and subsidize renewable fuels (or penalize emissions and fossil fuels)? Feed-in tariffs pose problems. Cap-and-trade has proven thorny. Green power options still need a lot of fine-tuning.

One universal difficulty is the continuing cost gap between renewable and fossil fuels. Creating an incentive program that works within the prevailing market - even a heavily regulated one - without interfering with normal market operation is very difficult when the price points are so far apart. Internalizing some of the costs of burning fossil fuels would help close that gap, and that is what cap-and-trade is all about: promote and subsidize clean energy and put downward pressure (both economically and through command and control) on dirtier fuels.

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Obama’s Grandma — Gets Solar Panels on her Kenyan Home from Greenpeace

Zachary Shahan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:49:35 +0000

Greenpeace’s “Solar Generation” activists installed solar panels on President Obama’s Grandmother’s house in Kenya last week.

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New World Record in Solar Power Efficiency

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:21:34 +0000

A Chinese company set a new world record in solar power efficiency this week. According to the company, Suntech Power Holdings, they achieved a 15.6% conversion efficiency on “a commercial grade multi-crystalline silicon PV module.” This breaks a 15-year-old world record set by US company Sandia National Labs.

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More Sunshine Falling than Rain on the Parade of PV across Spain

Danny Kennedy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:29:03 +0000

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Hail – the Return of the Sun

There’s been a lot of negativity around the solar space in recent weeks because it has been hard going for some companies. And I don’t want to belittle their pain – manufacturers have big stockpiles and if they’re publically listed their share price is down; project developers can’t get bank finance or government cash fast enough, despite the stimulus; and installers may be seeing some consumer sentiment dropping in places.

But please don’t think that’s all she wrote. The future of photovoltaics is bright as the sun!

Just for one example of how serious a contender PV is becoming, consider Spain. Right now that beautiful country is copping a lot of blame because of changes in the incentive structure that have led to a major drop in solar sales there, large and small. Indeed, little old Spain is being held responsible for most of the oversupply currently being experienced by the PV manufacturing industry, which I think could be seen differently…

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Solar: When Will It Achieve Grid-Parity?

Fred Etcheverry — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:26:15 +0000

Exciting developments are occurring in solar PV (photovoltaic) power generation. New technologies are improving manufacturing processes. Thin-film and organic (plastic) films promise to reduce PV power cost. Solar “grid-parity,” the time when solar power will cost the same as fossil fuel power, is coming soon.

PV refers to devices that turn sunlight into electricity. In a previous post, I discussed generation by solar thermal (Solar Thermal: The Other Solar Energy). Both schemes have advantages and disadvantages.

PV can turn solar energy into electricity that can supply households and industry without using any moving parts. Since mechanical devices are less reliable than electronic, these systems are nearly maintenance free. Solar Thermal requires a heat engine, such as a steam engine, and an electrical mechanical generator to produce electricity.

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Italy to Get Largest Rooftop Solar Power Plant in the World

Andrew Williams — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:53:08 +0000

An Italian company has announced plans to install the world’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic plant, with an energy capacity equivalent to the power needs of 5,000 households.

Solon SE will establish the facility at its Padua warehouse and truck-loading complex, generating an output of up to 15 megawatts when the sun is at its brightest.

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What we can Learn from China’s Heavy Investment in Solar Energy

Jeff Wolfe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:31:37 +0000

As I write this I am preparing to board a very long flight to China, where I’ll be talking to a few Chinese PV module manufacturers, as well as our existing inverter supplier, Motech, in Taiwan. This will be a chance to meet and greet potential future suppliers on their own ground, and review factories as we consider sourcing more materials from China, but there are many things I already know before embarking.

New York Times Columnist, Tom Friedman is right. China is investing heavily and preparing to leave the rest of the renewable energy world in the dust. In the past two weeks Suntech, currently the largest solar module manufacturer in the world, signed 2 GW (2000 MW) of projects in China. Those 2 GW represent merely the contracts of a single company. Last year – and likely this year – the total U.S. market is 350 MW (0.35 GW). Granted, not all the Chinese projects happen this year, but plans are on paper – there is a schedule.

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PV Oversupply is Good For Solar Customers & Planet Earth

Danny Kennedy — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:05:28 +0000

Editor’s Note: The is a guest contribution by Danny Kennedy, President of Sungevity. This is the fourth post in a series from the CEO’s of major solar companies. You can follow the complete series here.

Like a tide turning, there’s a big shift happening in the solar market that many people aren’t really seeing because they’re bobbing about on an ocean of opportunity. The implications are huge in terms of who will get capital and attention in the industry, and the trend should lift all boats and take this solution to climate change further than before.

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Futuristic Catamaran to Attempt First Solar-Powered Circumnavigation

Derek Markham — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:37:50 +0000

PlanetSolar, when completed and covered with 1500 square feet of solar panels, will be the largest solar powered ship in the world. A ship with an audacious agenda: to be the first to circumnavigate the globe powered solely by solar energy.

“In 2010, the first round-the-world trip powered by solar energy will be realized, with stopovers, along the equator, where the maximum amount of sunlight is available. The over 40,000-km voyage will last 120 days, for an average speed of 10 knots. PlanetSolar’s two-man crew will cross the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and finally the Suez Canal, to return to the Mediterranean.”

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Florida to Build First Solar Powered City in U.S.

Derek Markham — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:49:02 +0000

The first 100% solar powered city in the U.S. is in the works, and will be powered by the world’s largest photovoltaic plant.

The eco-city, called Babcock Ranch, is a joint venture between a real estate developer, Kitson & Partners, and Florida Power & Light, and will be located near Fort Myers, Florida.

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Hot Hot Heat: U.S. Solar Costs Going Down

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:53:00 +0000

According to a new study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, The average installed costs for photovoltaic cells (in real 2007 dollars) went down from $10.50-per-watt in 1998, to $7.60-per-watt in 2007.

What’s most amazing about this report is that it appears to validate a whole slew of state and local solar initiatives. The researchers found that—despite the many, many reported advances to solar cell efficiency—most of the savings during this nine year period came from reductions to installation and external hardware costs.

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Can the World’s Worst CD and DVD Manufacturer Do Better with Solar Energy?

Matthew Phelan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:44:35 +0000

Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.

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Portable Communications Soon To Rely on Renewable Energy

Isa Cann — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:55:50 +0000

We’ve all been hoping for that magic green solution to powering the increasing number of electronics imbedded in our communications hungry lifestyle. Freescale Semiconductor has an answer for us in the way of a new power conversion technology. Hoping to have the product released in mid 2009, one of the effects of the technology is that “a single solar cell attached to a mobile phone or other handheld device could charge the gadget” reported Todd Wooder for the Green Wombat.

The chip responds to some fundamental problems in solar technology:

1. The unwieldy size of the photovoltaics (PVs) required to power or recharge the battery of a component

2. The significant drop in energy output of a PV array when some of the panels are shielded from the sun

Addressing the latter, given that the converter can be integrated into each solar cell, buildings depending on solar power can expect a significant increase in energy conversion even when some of the panels are shaded; more power created, requiring fewer panels. Cool! One of the companies interested in incorporating the technology into its panels is Suntech Power Holdings (STP)

As for our portable communications addiction, we may soon be able to live a guilt reduced life as we power those social media and IM wielding components with the renewable energy of solar power -without having to carry the power source in its own attache.