Free solar power - too good to be true?
You can generate energy at home for FREE and have solar panels at no extra cost.
YOU know the old adage – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So when Consumerwatch heard that solar panels were being fitted for free, we immediately asked: "What is the catch?"
For those who simply want to realise a dream by becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, then there is no catch.
You get to help the planet by harnessing sunlight that in turn cuts your bills – an average three or four bedroom house would save £150 on electricity, according to the Energy Saving Trust.
The company benefits as it gets to cash in on any extra electricity that you generate and fail to use by selling it back to the national grid.
Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) work out how much green energy has been pumped back into the national pot.
And it seems that this is where the real money-making potential lies for anyone investing in sun energy.
Continue
readingLabels: solar cells, Solar News, Solar power
PG&E partners with SunRun to finance home solar photovoltaics
PG&E Corp. is partnering with yet another Bay Area solar company, investing $100 million to help pay for the installation of more than 3,500 home photovoltaic arrays.
This time, the parent of the Pacific Gas & Electric utility is pairing with San Francisco-based SunRun Inc. to create a tax equity fund. But the company had already stepped into the banker role in January, when it put $60 million into a similar fund for Foster City-based SolarCity Corp.
Pacific Energy Capital II, a subsidiary of PG&E, will manage the financing vehicle, which the companies claim is the largest of its kind to date.
SunRun, which like SolarCity offers solar leases to homeowners, will use the money too install panels throughout 2010 and 2011 in at least five states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and New Jersey. The PG&E subsidiary will get any government tax credits associated with the home projects.
Once the panels are installed – at low or no cost to homeowners – SunRun owns the photovoltaics while customers pay a set rate for the generated power. The arrays would otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars for homeowners to buy outright and install.The announcement is the latest in a string of developments in the home solar leasing market. SolarCity revealed a $90 million fund with U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., a division of U.S. Bancorp, in March. Homebuilder Lennar Corp. said last week that it was partnering with SunPower Corp. on a solar leasing option for some of its homes.
SourceLabels: solar cells, Solar Energy, Solar Projects, SunRun
Solar plane set for night flight
A solar-powered plane is getting ready to hit the skies once again - this time, at night.
It will be the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by solar energy.
Solar Impulse will lift off from an airfield in Switzerland, on a sunny day sometime at the end of June.
It will then fly around, charging the solar cells on the plane's wings, in a bid to store enough energy for the electric motors to last until dawn.
The aim of the project's founders, Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard, is to show that a solar-powered craft is able to fly day and night - and eventually long-distance flights - without any fuel.
SourceLabels: solar cells, Solar News, solar plane, Solar power, Solar Technology
Panasonic Entry into Solar Power
The Panasonic Group will launch on July 1, 2010 its HIT(R) 215 Series* household solar power generation systems, the first series of collaborative products to be developed since SANYO became a part of the Group. The launch signifies how the newly extended group has combined its collective strengths for a full-scale entry into the solar cell business.
Since the announcement of the capital and business partnership with SANYO in December 2008, Panasonic has established a Collaboration Committee and promoted discussions, under all applicable laws and regulations, to maximize the potential synergy effects within the new Panasonic Group. Following the subsequent formalization of this takeover on December 21, 2009, 27 different sub-working groups have engaged in more advanced discussions, and the HIT 215 Series household solar power generation systems, featuring HIT 215 solar power generation modules with the world's highest-level energy conversion efficiency, represent the first tangible fruit of these collaborative efforts.
The new products combine SANYO's solar power generation modules with Panasonic's energy management technology, construction materials, and electrical technology, and will be broadly promoted across the companies' various sales routes, including home appliances, electrical and construction products. In doing so, the Panasonic Group is seeking to maximize its combined strengths to achieve significant business expansion within the rapidly growing solar power generation market, and aims to establish a position as the top manufacturer in the market with a target share in Japan of at least 35% by 2012.
SourceLabels: Panasonic, solar cells, Solar Energy, Solar power
Trina Solar Announces New Technology to Boost Conversion Efficiency
Trina Solar Limited (TSL) ("Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, today announced it achieved a breakthrough in its development of monocrystalline cell technology.
As part of the Company's ongoing research and development strategy, Trina Solar has developed a square monocrystalline cell with enhanced power output using its proprietary improved cell manufacturing process. Using specially designed metallization and passivation techniques, the advanced cell structure is expected to significantly boost cell conversion efficiency, achieving up to 18.8% efficiency in test laboratory production. In addition, this technology is expected to improve module output due to increased light absorbing surface area of the square shaped cell.
"We are excited to announce this breakthrough in monocrystalline cell efficiency, which demonstrates the competence of our R&D team and the centrality of product development at Trina Solar," said Jifan Gao, Trina Solar's Chairman and CEO. "Trina Solar will continue to advance its extensive R&D program, aiming to develop solar cell conversion efficiencies of more than 20% over the coming two years."
SourceLabels: solar cells, solar efficiency, Solar Energy, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology, Trina Solar, TSL
Solar cell powers LG e-reader
LG Display has developed a solar-powered e-reader, which it says gives a day's power after four or five hours in the sun.
The Solar Cell e-Book is based around a 100m solar cell just 0.7mm thick and weighing 20g. It fits the six-inch TFT LCD display panel which the company already produces.
Produced by placing electrodes onto a glass or plastic substrate, the cell is lighter than the standard type of crystalline solar cell based on silicon wafers, says LG, and means process efficiency can be raised through increasing the substrate size. Because the technology is similar to TFT-LCD, the entry barrier is relatively low for LCD manufacturers such as LG.
“E-books are attracting a lot of attention because they offer the advantage of storing thousands of books’ worth of contents in an easy-to-carry device. The idea of e-book combined with solar cell will offer users the added benefit of longer usage," said Ki Yong Kim, head of the Solar Cell Office at LG Display.
sourceLabels: LG, solar cells, Solar power, Solar Powered
New World PV Efficiency Record
Making solar cells and modules as efficient at converting light to electricity as possible has been a long-standing goal in the solar photovoltaic space. Much progress has been made in the past few years, but this week world-record breaking efficiencies were reached...
Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. announced that it has beaten all previous records, including its own, for multi-crystalline silicon module conversion efficiency. The new world-record conversion efficiency (aperture area only) was measured at 16.53% by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.
Suntech's world-record breaking multi-crystalline silicon module is powered by Pluto PV cells utilizing solar grade silicon with each PV cell having a conversion efficiency well over 17%.
...
Sunovia Energy Technologies Inc and EPIR Technologies, said that they have fabricated single-junction and two-junction cadmium telluride (CdTe) based solar cells that have far surpassed the long-standing world record open circuit voltage (Voc) for thin-film CdTe solar cells.
The companies' single-junction and two-junction devices exceeded the highest Voc values ever reported publicly by research institutions on thin film CdTe solar cells, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and others, by over 45%.
Full article
sourceLabels: solar cells, solar efficiency, Solar power, Solar Stocks, Solar Technology, Suntech Power
Chinese Firms Poised to Roll Thin-film Solar Cells
An exhibition of solar photovoltaic technologies indicated that full-scale mass production of thin-film solar cells will begin in China within 2009.
At Solarcon China 2009, an exhibition that took place at Shanghai New International Expo Center in Shanghai, China, from March 17 to 19, 2009, Best Solar Energy Technology Co, Chint Solar (Zhejing) Co Ltd, Baoding TianWei SolarFilm Co, Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, etc exhibited samples of their thin-film solar cells and announced their future production plans.
Also, Oerlikon (Shanghai) Co Ltd and Applied Materials Inc, which provide turnkey lines to these companies, exhibited the track record of contracts with Chinese companies, showing their enthusiasm for the Chinese market.
Full articleLabels: China, solar cells, solarstocks, STP, Suntech Power, Thin film solar cells
The Top 10 Green-Tech Breakthroughs of 2008
Wired published an article with the top10 green technology breakthroughs, with plenty of solar energy technologies in the mix. It's a must read:
Green technology was hot in 2008. Barack Obama won the presidential election promising green jobs to Rust Belt workers. Investors poured $5 billion into the sector just through the first nine months of the year. And even Texas oilmen like T. Boone Pickens started pushing alternative energy as a replacement for fossil fuels like petroleum, coal and natural gas.
The Top 10 Green-Tech Breakthroughs of 2008 @ Wired.comLabels: solar cells, Solar Energy, Solar Technology, wired
Spray-on solar cells
An inch-long array of some of the tiniest solar cells ever built has been successfully tested as a power source for microscopic machines, a new study reports.
Xiaomei Jiang of the University of South Florida and her colleagues needed a power source for a microscopic sensor that can detect dangerous chemicals and toxins, potentially helping to sniff out chemical leaks. So the team turned to solar cells.
But these aren't the traditional solar cells that you see perched on rooftops. Most solar cells in use now have a brittle backing made of silicon (found in sand, and the same material computer chips are made with).
Check the full article
hereLabels: solar, solar cells, solar spray
Applied Materials entering the competition
Applied Materials (AMAT) is now competing in the solar panel market, with more manufacturing plants, Barron's source:
Is serious competition coming to solar panel darlings First Solar (FSLR) and SunPower (SPWR)? The two’s shares traded down today after a note from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Mehdi Hosseini stated that a customer of equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT) was able to build a panel factory in three months’ time using Applied’s tools, according to the Associated Press, signalling that Applied could boost supply in the market, which could conceivably spell sharper competition for First Solar and SunPower.
...
“Applied’s customers are attempting to make a similar thin film solution to First Solar’s that is applicable to the same end market,” he noted, “But First Solar is producing higher efficiencies than Applied on an R&D basis.”
Applied Materials Perhaps Not So Bad For First Solar, SunPowerLabels: AMAT, factory, FSLR, solar cells, SPWR
Future Apple Devices May Be Solar-Powered
Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display, according to the filing.
Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.
When generating electricity from solar panels, the larger the panel the better -- but as the patent "Solar cells on portable devices" warns, after allowing space for buttons, screens and a way to hold the device, only a small area is left on most devices for solar cells.
Continue reading at
PC WorldLabels: Apple, ipod, isolar, solar cells, Solar Powered
Last post of 2007
This is the last of 2007, and hopefully next year will bring more activity to this blog.
So the latest news on solar energy are...
Thin film solar cells are coming finally in mass production:
Solar energy 'revolution' brings green power closerThe holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.
The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company, Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European consumers are increasingly buying to generate power from their own roofs. Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal.
Yesterday Nanosolar said its order books were full until mid-2009 and that a second factory would soon open in Germany where demand for solar power has rocketed. Britain was unlikely to benefit from the technology for some years because other countries paid better money for renewable electricity, it added.
Full article at
guardian.co.ukOther articles:
Best Stocks for 2008: Block buyer bets on First Solar (FSLR)Drilling up’ into space for energy
While great nations fretted over coal, oil and global warming, one of the smallest at the U.N. climate conference was looking toward the heavens for its energy.
Read the rest at:
Daily Times ArticleLabels: CIGS, FSLR, solar cells, Solar Energy Products, Thin film solar cells
40% efficient solar cells
Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, seem to have broken the latest performance record of efficiency in photovoltaic solar cells.
The solar energy industry keeps growing not just in producing capacity but in technology achievement and cost efficiency, probably surpassing the other alternative green energy methods in the following years.
Full news article from
physorg.com:
40% efficient solar cells to be used for solar electricity By Lisa Zyga
Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, have recently published their research on the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone—the highest efficiency achieved for any photovoltaic device. Their results appear in a recent edition of Applied Physics Letters.
Most conventional solar cells used in today’s applications, such as for supplemental power for homes and buildings, are one-sun, single-junction silicon cells that use only the light intensity that the sun produces naturally, and have optimal efficiency for a relatively narrow range of photon energies.
The Spectrolab group experimented with concentrator multijunction solar cells that use high intensities of sunlight, the equivalent of 100s of suns, concentrated by lenses or mirrors. Significantly, the multijunction cells can also use the broad range of wavelengths in sunlight much more efficiently than single-junction cells.
"These results are particularly encouraging since they were achieved using a new class of metamorphic semiconductor materials, allowing much greater freedom in multijunction cell design for optimal conversion of the solar spectrum," Dr. Richard R. King, principal investigator of the high efficiency solar cell research and development effort, told PhysOrg.com. "The excellent performance of these materials hints at still higher efficiency in future solar cells."
In the design, multijunction cells divide the broad solar spectrum into three smaller sections by using three subcell band gaps. Each of the subcells can capture a different wavelength range of light, enabling each subcell to efficiently convert that light into electricity. With their conversion efficiency measured at 40.7%, the metamorphic multijunction concentrator cells surpass the theoretical limit of 37% of single-junction cells at 1000 suns, due to their multijunction structure.
While Spectrolab's primary business is supplying PV cells and panels to the aerospace industry (many of their solar cells are used on satellites currently in orbit), the company envisions that this breakthrough will also have applications in commercial terrestrial solar electricity generation.
The research that led to the discovery of the high efficiency concentrator solar cell was funded partly by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and will play a significant role in the government’s Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional electricity generation by 2015. The company has said that these solar cells could help concentrator system manufacturers produce electricity at a cost that is competitive with electricity generated by conventional methods today.
The Spectrolab scientists also predict that with theoretical efficiencies of 58% in cells with more than three junctions using improved materials and designs, concentrator solar cells could achieve efficiencies of more than 45% or even 50% in the future.
Citation: King, R. R., Law, D. C., Edmondson, K. M., Fetzer, C. M., Kinsey, G. S., Yoon, H., Sherif, R. A., and Karam, N. H. “40% efficient metamorphic GaInP/GaInAs/Ge multijunction solar cells.” Applied Physics Letters 90, 183516 (2007).
http://www.physorg.com/news99904887.htmlLabels: photovoltaic, solar cells, Solar Energy Products
