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on December 14th, 2011% ![]()
It wasn’t exactly a chamber-of-commerce day in Tucson as a keyU.S. Energy Department official visited on Monday to talk solarenergy with local researchers and industry folks.
But despite the rain and gloom outside, Ramamoorthy Rameshdelivered a message of hope and urgency in a meeting at theUniversity of Arizona Science and Technology Park.
Ramesh is director of the DOE’s Sunshot Initiative program,which aims to cut the unsubsidized, installed cost of solar energyby 75 percent – to about $1 per watt – by the end of thedecade.
It’s going to be tough to beat China and other Asian competitorsin the solar market on the price of solar modules, as China inparticular is pouring money into solar manufacturing, Rameshsaid.
He noted that the state-run China Development Bank Corp. hascommitted $30 billion in loans to back solar energy companies,mainly silicon photovoltaics (PV) manufacturers. such subsidieshave been cited as unfair in a pending trade complaint by U.S.solar companies.
“We’re not just fighting companies: We’re fighting countries,”said Ramesh, who is on leave as a professor at the University ofCalifornia-Berkeley. “This is now a global competitiveness issue -we can’t give that away.”
But it’s well worth the effort, and new technologies in suchareas as installation and energy storage hold promise to set theU.S. industry apart, Ramesh said during a roundtable with localsolar researchers, industry leaders and UA officials.
In September, the DOE announced the award of more than $145million to companies, labs and universities for about 45 researchprojects on subjects including advancing solar cell efficiency,grid integration, next-generation photovoltaics and so-called”balance of system” costs – such as mounting structures, labor,cables, engineering and combiner boxes.
None of the awards were to researchers in Arizona, but Rameshsaid his office is preparing to solicit proposals for new awardsfor balance-of-system research that might be right in thewheelhouse of local researchers.
During the discussion, Ramesh was told of local solar research,including the Solar Zone, a 225-acre technology demonstration areaat the UA tech park.
The zone has two PV arrays with five more planned, and a projectto study compressed-air and advanced battery storage technologies.the effort is being funded and conducted by the UA’s ArizonaResearch Institute for Solar Energy, local solar manufacturer SolonCorp. and Tucson Electric Power Co.
Ramesh said his office plans to issue a solicitation for fundingof storage projects in January.
The agency also will look to fund projects on cutting”non-hardware” balance-of-system costs, such as governmentpermitting, he said, adding that he’d like to see standard,”plug-and-play” solar systems.
The balance-of-system cost-cutting approach resonated at themeeting.
Solon research chief Bill Richardson noted that the companyrecently launched a commercial rooftop PV panel system with anintegrated mount made from a wood composite, cutting installationcosts by 85 percent.
Urs Schoop, chief technology for thin-film PV maker Tucson-basedGlobal Solar Energy inc., said his company’s new flexible stick-onPV panels for the building-integrated commercial market are a goodexample of cutting balance-of-system costs.
Ramesh didn’t get to see the Solar Zone because of the rain, buthe was favorably impressed by Monday’s visit, which was set up byRep. Gabrielle Giffords’ office.
“It’s great. I think the UA and the tech park are doing afantastic job,” he said.
“No one person has the resources to do this, so you needpartnerships.”
Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner atdwichner@.com or 573-4181.
on December 13th, 2011% ![]()
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy refers to the energy which comes from sources which are naturally replenished. these sources may be wind, water or solar energy. when we talk about non-renewable sources of energy like coal, crude oil etc. these fuels are consumed while producing energy and cannot be reused. on the other hand when we talk about such energy sources, they can be reused. it is very easy to use the wind flowing for n number of wind mills to generate electricity. The sun rays which are already falling on the earth without being used are utilized to generate electricity using photovoltaic cells. The water stream falling from high waterfalls is made to fall on turbine which generates electricity. Renewable energy sector has tremendous scope and potential and it can help the world reduce dependability on fuel based energy production as fuel shortage is a big problem for most of the countries.
Renewable Energy in Germany
Germany is the first country in the world to have Renewable Energy Economy. around 17% of the total power production of Germany occurs through renewable sources which is even higher than the production done by gas fired power plants. Energy production by renewable sources is also a source of large employment. around 0.37 million people in Germany, were employed in the sector in year 2010, showing a steep increase of 2 times as compared to year 2002.
Germany along with other states of the European Union started working for increasing their share of these sources in total power production in year 1997 after the passage of Directive on Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources, 1997. The target was set to produce 12% of the total power consumption from these sources by year 2010. Germany achieved this target much earlier in year 2007 and reached 17% in 2010.
Renewable Energy Industry
Germany’s renewable energy industry is one of the fastest growing and most innovative industries worldwide. The major companies involved in energy production by renewable sources are
Wind – Nordex, Repower, Enercon
Solar – SolarWorld, Q-Cells, Conergy
The success of Germany’s renewable energy sources can be assessed by the fact that every third solar panel and every second wind rotor used worldwide is made in Germany. In 2010, Germany set up a new world record by installing solar energy set up for producing 7,400 MW power in one year.
Major Competitors
Wind – Denmark, Spain, US
Solar – Japan, US, China
Wind Power – Germany is world’s second largest producer of wind energy after US. Wind energy supplies 7% of total energy requirement of Germany. The negative side is that the wind turbines are known to cause a bad impact on the landscape, bird population and tourist industry. as a solution Germany is focusing on offshore wind farms away from the coastlines where the wind blows more consistently.
on December 13th, 2011% ![]()
Author name: Maryln B.J. Atma
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Tesla was initially of Serb lineage but they worked primarily within the usa and often times others took credit report for your partner’s work. Although this is the lawsuit he’s nonetheless famend as the one who invented typically the 20 th 100 years.
The ’1000′ from the name signifies the fact that machine may well generate as many as 1, 000 T (1 kilowatt) about electricity.
Your brains in back of this creation are Hawaiian engineers, Mark Christie along with Lou Brits. Within 2001, they exhibited off a younger prototype in the world, before that you had the chance to obtain patents and find the system independently verified to meet investors.
on December 12th, 2011% ![]()
Author name: Dipippo R.N. Dyll
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on December 11th, 2011% ![]()
Demand for solar energy is strong enough that Memphis-based Sharp Manufacturing Co. plans to soon add another 30 people to its 500-employee workforce to make solar panels.
Sharp vice president T.C. Jones Jr. announced the planned hires Thursday during a state teleconference about the state of Tennessee’s solar industry.
The sector is growing fast, the Tennessee Solar Institute reported.
“With companies old and new investing and innovating, the solar sector is putting some of our 297,000 unemployed Tennesseans back to work, while growing our state’s economy and capturing a bigger slice of the $240 billion global clean energy market,” John Sanseverino, the institute’s programs director, said.
Sharp, which began in Memphis by making color televisions starting in 1979, started making solar panels in 2003. The operation doubled in just four years the number of employees working on solar panels, said Jones, vice president for human resources and general affairs.
“We need a lot of people to turn the 180,000 solar cells that arrive each morning into 3,000 solar panels that ship out at the end of every day,” Jones said.
Overseas competition hurt Sharp for a while, Jones said. but business has rebounded, spurring the need to add 30 employees. “We’re already interviewing,” Jones said.
“The modules are shipped throughout America and many are exported to Canada,” Jones said. “We produced our 2 millionth solar module in 2010. That’s enough modules to fully power more than 65,000 average-size American homes.”
Energy-producing solar farms consume most of Sharp’s panels, Jones said, but the company makes them for both residential and commercial use.
Solar panels now account for 80 percent of the products made by the Memphis operation, at Raines and Mendenhall. Sharp also makes microwaves and copier products there.
The Tennessee Solar Institute report shows the growth of the state’s solar industry.
More than 200 organizations are in the state’s “solar value chain,” including 174 for-profit companies.
The institute was started last year as part of Tennessee’s solar initiative focusing on job creation, education, renewable power production, and technology commercialization.
The institute says its grants have leveraged $40.3 million in private investments, creating a $63.8 million benefit to the state’s economy.
– Tom Bailey Jr.: (901) 529-2388
State of solar
The Tennessee Solar Institute released the first comprehensive look at the state’s solar industry. The report states:
Solar is growing rapidly. The state had only the solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity to power 20 percent of one average home in 2008, but has enough now to power 1,300 average homes.
Tennessee ranks 22nd for its amount of installed solar PV.
By the end of 2012, cumulative solar power should exceed 23 megawatts; now it’s 17 megawatts.
Solar or solar-related industries account for more than 6,400 jobs.
Eighteen entrepreneurs in Tennessee have sought to protect intellectual property related to solar.
The 236 organizations in the state’s “solar value chain” include 174 for-profit companies and 62 non-profit organizations.
on December 11th, 2011% ![]()
Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, is venturing into solar energy, according to a report in new Zimbabwe.
Masiyiwa, 50, is the founder and executive chairman of Econet Wireless, a publicly-listed mobile telecoms company with operations in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Burundi and Rwanda.
The company’s subsidiary, Econet Solar, recently launched a solar power device intended to help light up rural areas in Zimbabwe and other areas across rest of Africa which are beset by an erratic supply of electricity.
The device, called the Econet Home Power Station, will allow individuals and families across Africa to light up their homes, charge their mobile phones and generally utilize energy at a relatively inexpensive cost compared to current solar energy devices currently available in Africa. In a press statement, Masiyiwa said that the Home Power Station will allow individuals to pay for their energy on a pre-paid basis, in much the same way airtime is purchased for mobile phones in much of Africa.
While the retail price of the Home Power Station has not yet been revealed, officials of Econet Solar have promised that the device will be sold at a “small cost” to allow accessibility to low-income earners across Africa. Customers will only be charged for electricity in proportion to how they use it.
In a statement to the media, Masiyiwa said that “whilst there are already well-intentioned solar powered lighting systems on the market, the reality is that they are just too expensive for people to afford.”
“We are launching the Home Power Station to change all that,” he said.
The device will contain a typical Econet mobile SIM card that will enable the device to link up with the cellular network, thereby making it possible for the customer to pre-pay for energy usage, in the same way mobile phone users currently pay for airtime on their cell phone.
“It has been designed to supply, on a pre-paid basis, affordable lighting for small homes and cell phone charging,” Masiyiwa said, while expressing his optimism that the product will help light up the “70 percent of Africa that does not already have access to electricity.”
If Masiyiwa and the Econet Solar team play their cards right, the Home Power Station device could easily and quickly become immensely popular in various parts of the African continent, considering that several African countries, especially Nigeria, have to contend with severe electricity outages every day.
In Nigeria citizens have to depend heavily on imported generators to produce their own electricity. The droning reverberations of fuel-guzzling generating sets have become the soundtrack of urban life in the West African country. It’s become an extremely burdensome, expensive and environmentally risky affair for the Nigerian citizen, but the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, has done nothing to remedy the situation. If the Econet Solar device is as inexpensive as the manufacturers claim it will be, the Home Power Station could be a runaway success in Nigeria.
on December 10th, 2011% ![]()
The target, disclosed by a senior official with the cabinet-level National Energy Administration in November, remains unofficial until the 12th five Year plan for new and Renewable Energy is released early next year, but “15GW has been talked about for some time. this is a solid number,” said Dylen Liu, Shanghai-based solar analyst at research firm Pacific Epoch.
“and I think there is some upside potential for this number,” he added. “Originally, the 2015 target was 5GW, and then it was increased to 10GWs this June. and industry right now is lobbying the government to increase this number even higher than 15GW.”
A 15GW target would drive installations of 3-4GW per year over the next four years, said Li Min, Hong Kong-based head of renewable energy at Taipei-based Yuanta Securities. “As long as China has a nationwide tariff they should be able to exceed this target,” he added. Beijing implemented a provisional feed-in tariff in August that is driving installations of 2-3GW this year. this compares with a base of only 800MW at the end of 2010.
Government sources have said in the past that Beijing would wait until solar could match the price of wind power before supporting the sector’s development on a large scale. “What they are doing right now is building demonstration projects to see how cheap solar energy can be,” said Li. but with solar panel prices dropping about 40% this year alone, “by our calculations, in the next two to three years solar is going to be cheaper than wind.”
However, in the short term, new domestic demand is “not big enough to go from a sell to a buy,” on China’s new York-listed solar companies, whose shares have fallen an average of 71% this year, said Andrew Grieve, Hong Kong-based renewable energy analyst at Religare Capital Markets. “You’re looking at one market increasing while another [European] market decreases, so you’re looking at flat or negative demand growth.”
China’s solar sector: facing consolidation (Photocredit)
For China’s estimated 350 smaller, unlisted PV producers, the outlook is bleaker still. a grossly oversupplied market, Chinese competition – and alleged unfair trade practices – have forced bankruptcies and mergers amongst European and US solar companies this year. Lack of access to their own domestic market may hasten the exit of most Chinese vendors. “I think they are being squeezed out of the market,” says Li. “I don’t think the smaller players will get any significant orders.”
Meanwhile, short sellers continue to target US-listed Chinese solar companies. They see mounting losses, unsustainable debt, accounting risk, and the possibility of punitive tariffs imposed by the US and EU eventually toppling Beijing’s solar champions, even as these companies advance their dominant position in global market share this year.
However, “I don’t see the bigger guys falling over,” said Grieve. Even with shrunken margins and flat demand, “at this point the cost structure allows you to make a profit. They are still making products and selling them; it’s not as though they are about to go bust, it’s just that things are worse than people were hoping.”
“I still think that the government would never let these companies go bankrupt,” added Liu. “They are just too big to fail. We’ve seen this many times: the local governments will align with the banks to help these companies solve their problems.”
Joshua Speckman
on December 10th, 2011% Nuying Huang, Taipei; Jackie Chang, DIGITIMES [Friday 9 December 2011]
Green Energy Technology (GET) has cleaned its inventory of solar wafers, and its supply of A++ wafers with energy conversion rates of 17-17.2% has been slightly short of demand with one week taken from receiving orders to shipments, according to company president Lin Her-lon. GET currently appropriates 70% of its total production capacity for making A++ wafers and is deleting bottlenecks in equipment for the remaining 30% to increase output, Lin said.
Of every shipment of solar wafers, about 5% of wafers will have a conversion efficiency at 16.8%, and the rest above 16.8%. Solar cell makers can easily produce solar cells from these wafers without worrying about making products that do not meet demand, said Lin. many solar wafer suppliers in the Greater China region provide batches with 30-40% of units having an efficiency at 16.8%, added Lin.
According to Lin, the solar market is still unstable, despite that price drops for solar wafers has been eased. Demand still exists, Lin pointed out, but market fluctuations have been large.
However, with its inventory cleared out, GET can focus on increasing revenues and achieving better financial performance.
Lin Her-lon, GET president, predicts GET to perform better in 2012Photo: Digitimes file photo
Categories: Bits + chips Solar
Tags: demand GET Green Energy Technology inventory president PV renewable energy solar cell solar wafer wafer
Companies: Green Energy Technology Green Energy Technology
on December 9th, 2011% ![]()
Solar energy is a green energy source because it is a renewable and it does not cause any harm to the environment. This is achieved by converting the sun’s rays into electricity with the help of solar cells.
There are three basic approaches how we can use this form of green energy source namely passive, active and by using photovoltaic cells.
When we refer to passive solar energy, nothing is converted. What happens is the building’s design helps avoid heat loss and gets the most out of day lighting.
Such a technique can also be used in homes because studies have shown that this can reduce the heating requirements by as much as 80% with minimal cost. This means you don’t have to turn on the air condition or heater that often and if everyone does that, we don’t consume that much electricity which we get from non-renewable resources.
The second approach which is active solar energy is the first way of converting sunlight into heat. You should know that there are certain limits to this one and all it can do is make sure you have hot water.
The third approach is the big scale version and it can power an office or an entire home. This is done with the help of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. The smallest ones around can be seen in calculators and watches with large ones planted over huge acres of land.
The only limitation to this green energy source is the fact that it can only generate power when the weather is good and the sun is out. should it rain, then nothing is collected and converted. When this happens, the auxiliary system is turned on until the weather improves.
Despite that, scientists and students themselves have made solar powered cars. NASA or the National Aeronautical Space Administration has sent satellites into space that are powered by solar panels. a fully functional airport can function on its own thanks to solar power even if it is situated in the middle of the frozen desert.
So people can see the awesome power of solar energy, did you know a kilowatt of solar energy can produce 5.5 hours of electricity per day. If you have more solar cells in place, naturally you will be able to produce enough power to last several days.
Solar energy is just one form of green energy source around. Through the years, we have learned to tap other resources and these examples include wind power, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity and biogas. these are all safe and by using these more often, we don’t need to depend on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.
To make this happen, we have to persuade our law makers to promote the use of such resources. although you hear speeches left and right about their concern for the environment, it is all talk and not that much action. It is something that has to change.
Two countries that have increased solar usage happen to be Germany and Japan. Spain, France, Italy and South Korea are next in the list and where is the United States? well, one thing is for certain and that it is not in the top 10 despite the fact that it is an industrialized nation.
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on December 8th, 2011% ![]()
Princeton Solar Solutions (PSS) is a consulting energy developer that examines the renewable energy industry on a global platform because renewable energy technology is ever changing, dynamic and fluid – much like the energy sources themselves.
Established back in 2009, PSS initially focused on offering consulting services to companies that performed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects for the solar energy industry.
It soon became increasingly obvious that there was a lack of good, full service EPC companies serving the industry and PSS was being asked by many of its clients to provide these services directly. PSS responded to this clamor by transforming into a full service EPC firm by the end of 2010.
Over the years, PSS has been involved in the development, design and installation of more than 25 solar projects domestically, as well as in international markets, having a combined system generation capacity of over 150MW with a total capital cost in excess of $500m.
PSS is continually evaluating new technologies, products and manufacturers in order to provide the most efficient systems to an environmentally conscious customer base. The company’s commitment to customer satisfaction continues to guide its core values. PSS acknowledges that no two clients are ever the same and every client, regardless of their industry, has unique needs that require individual solutions.
Princeton Solar Solutions employees are seasoned experts in the solar energy industry. Boasting more than 40 years’ experience in construction and project management, PSS employees have been working in the solar industry in new Jersey, across the US and worldwide long before the recent surge in solar energy interest.
Building on its expertise and track record, the company’s mission is to provide quality energy solutions to commercial and residential customers, with from consulting to installation of complete solar power systems.
Princeton Solar Solutions, Inc.282 Alexander Street, Princeton, NJ 08540 Tel: +1 609 454 3689 Fax: +1 609 935 0883princetonsolarsolutions.com
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