Green Options

Solar venture investments hit a three-year low in the second quarter, the Cleantech Group said Wednesday. According to Brian Fan, senior director of research for the group, solar startups in North America, Europe, China and India raised a total of only $113.8 million for the quarter, which is down 7 percent from $365.7 million in the first quarter and down 86 percent from $834.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

SRS Energy, a developer of sustainable solar roofing systems, is launching Solé Power Tile this month, bringing the first building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing product to curved roofing systems.

“Sustainability and green living is high on the consumer agenda for 2009, with so many homeowners looking to save money and also be eco-conscious. With green building playing such a significant role in the Obama administration’s economic stimulus efforts, it could not come at a better time.” - Marty Low, CEO of SRS Energy

A new piece of thin film manufacturing equipment with the unlikely name of Viper (TM) could help bring solar energy to the masses.  Viper (TM) was developed by Sencera, a North Carolina company that got its start supplying thin film hardware for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits.

A new European Union funded research project called “ROD-SOL” aims to improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using nanotechnology.  The three year project has a budget of EUR 4 million and may yield a breakthrough for solar power.  

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a study this week concluding that the solar industry could use many cheaper and more abundant alternatives to silicon, including iron pyrite — most commonly known as fool’s gold.

In total, the researchers found 23 alternative semiconductors, but only 12 are more easily found than silicon. Iron pyrite was named the most probable solution among those 12. Solar producers have often faced shortages of silicon, so even one new material would be a welcome jolt for the industry.

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.

At first glance, the latest numbers from the Cleantech Group look like terrific news. After all, they conclude that 2008 was a record year for cleantech investments, with venture deals in North America, Europe, Israel, China and India reaching a total of $8.4 billion, up 38 percent from $6.1 billion in 2007.

But most of that money was dealt out in the first three quarters, with investment slowing significantly – as expected – in the fourth quarter.

According to preliminary numbers, venture capitalists in these regions committed $1.7 billion in 99 deals in the fourth quarter, down 35 percent from the third quarter and 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. In North America, by far the biggest venture-capital region, fourth-quarter investments totaled $1.14 billion, a decrease of 38 percent from $1.83 billion in the third quarter and of 5.8 percent from $1.21 billion in the last quarter of 2007.

If you’ve ever flown into LAX on a clear day, you have seen the miles of industrial buildings that stretch out into the desert. Edison International has seen it too, and has taken advantage of one of those empty rooftops to install the largest solar panel installation in the state.

Mounted on the roof of a distribution center owned by Prologis in Fontana, 50 miles east of LA, the 600,000 square feet of panels will produce about 2 megawatts, enough electricity to power up to 1,300 homes. The thin-film panels were installed by First Solar. Even better, this is only the first of about 150 similar projects planned for factory and warehouse roofs in SoCal.

Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has pioneered a new thin film solar technology process, which it claims has made its solar cells 7 per cent efficient - a 16 per cent energy improvement over its previous technology. The advance has led to a 50 per cent increase in the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant.

So, why is this important? Well, thin film cells are typically a lot cheaper to produce than more common silicon solar cells, but often suffer from significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Oerlikon’s breakthrough moves us a lot closer to the day when thin film becomes more cost-effective than silicon-based panels - which could mean a dramatic rise in the adoption of solar power in homes and businesses.

Scientists at the University of New South Wales have set a new world record by creating the first silicon solar cell to achieve 25% efficiency.

Team leader, Prof. Martin Green of the university’s ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence, says their world-beating solar cell is now a massive six percent more efficient than the next best technology. The record edges the current generation of solar cell technology closer to the theoretical limit of 29% efficiency.

A season has passed since we covered the installation of Magco Inc.’s new thin film solar panel installation. The previous article generated a lot of interest and questions, so it’s time to get back on the roof and report on some real-world figures.

If you need a refresher on thin film solar technology, check out two of our previous posts. The important thing to remember here is that thin film solar is lighter than silicon panels, and uses different wavelengths of light.

In May of 2008, Magco Inc. installed 27kW of Unisolar’s triple-junction laminate panels. That’s 4,900 sq ft of thin film goodness. The building contains a warehouse and offices, and it has a metal roof. The solar panels were literally glued to the roof.

Total installation cost: US$215,000 (including inverter and hiring a master electrician)

Energy produced each month provides about 1/3 of Magco’s total needs. That may not seem like a lot, but recall that this includes a warehouse with associated heating/cooling, machinery and equipment. Magco anticipates producing about US$9,000 each year from the panels. So let’s do the math: