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NLPWESSEX, natural law publishing |
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| SOLAR ENERGY AND WORLD PEACE | |||
| To Go Direct To Current Solar Energy News Reports - Click Here | |||
| Solar News Reports 2010
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Those who believe that future wars will be fought over global energy supplies and other natural resources include John Reid (former UK Defence Minister), Paddy Ashdown (former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bill Clinton (former US President), Joe Lieberman (Senator and former Vice Presidential running mate to Al Gore), and Mike McConnell (US Director of National Intelligence to George W Bush). Improved global energy conservation will need to play a vital role in trying to pre-empt the occurrence of these harrowing scenarios. But large amounts of energy will still be required as the world population expands and develops. Finding new sources of energy in this context is an essential part of establishing and maintaining world peace and stability. Reserves of traditional fossil fuels are depleting, and their are even doubts about the adequacy of global uranium supplies to fuel nuclear reactors. By contrast there are other sources of energy which cannot be depleted as long as the sun continues to shine. Most forms of renewable energy are driven partly or wholly by the sun - wind, wave, hydroelectric, near surface ground source heat, biomass, and even tidal (through gravitational effects, although the influence of the moon is much greater), are all part of the framework of solar energy in one form or another. All of these have a potentially important role to play in moving humanity towards the onset of a new solar based society. This web page, however, focuses on news items related to the development and use of direct solar thermal and solar photovoltaic energy systems. MORE ENERGY INFORMATION |
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| Contact | 'We Need A New Way Of Thinking' - Consciousness-Based Education |
| SOLAR ENERGY NEWS |
| 2010 |
"The UT Administration has
adopted the theme, 'generating electricity from solar power', under the Solar City
initiative, for which a proposal has been made before the Union government for its
approval. According to the draft plan, which proposes to accord Chandigarh a solar city
status, the UT Administration has recommended energy efficiency measures for the
residential and commercial sectors of the city. The
plan was finalised after discussion with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). 'You
install solar panels and generate electricity for your house or commercial establishment.
The surplus energy generated can be transmitted to a common grid, and its value shall be
deducted from the monthly electricity bill of the generating source (electricity
connection holder),' said a senior UT official. Sources said that various government
institutions, nationalised banks and certain private players are also in the process of
generating electricity through solar power, for which talks are on with the UT
Administration." |
"A unmanned solar aircraft has
smashed the world record for continuous flight. The
'Zephyr' plane, developed by UK defense technology company, QinetiQ, took off from the
U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on Friday July 9. Seven days on, it is still
flying high. Zephyr program director, Jon Saltmarsh told CNN: 'It's extremely
exciting. What we now have is an eternal plane. It has the same amount of fuel at the
start of one day as it does at the start of another.' The aircraft has already doubled its
own unofficial record of over 82 hours and smashed the previous world record for unmanned
flight of 30 hours and 24 minutes, set in 2001 by U.S. aerospace company, Northrop
Grumman's RQ-4A Global I." |
"Sweden leads the European Union
on renewable energy, producing 44.4 percent of its energy from renewable sources but
Malta, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom lag behind. Renewable
energy contributed 10.3 percent of total energy consumption in the EU27 in 2008 according
to a July 13 report by the statistical Office of the European Union Eurostat. The three
countries which had the highest share of renewable energy compared to total energy
consumption were Sweden, Finland and Latvia, with 44.4 percent, 30.5 percent and 29.9
percent of renewable energy sources in total consumption respectively. The countries
with the lowest share of renewable energy compared to total energy consumption in 2008
were Belgium (3.3 percent), the Netherlands (3.2 percent), the United Kingdom (2.2
percent), Luxembourg (2.1 percent) and finally Malta, where only 0.2 percent of
total energy consumption comes from renewable energy. Almost all member states of
the European Union increased their share of renewable energy from 2006-2008. The top three
countries with the largest increases in their share of renewable energy compared to total
energy consumption were, Austria (24.8 percent in 2006 to 28.5 percent in 2008), Estonia
(16.1 percent in 2006 to 19.1 percent in 2008) and Romania (17.5 percent in 2006 to 20.4
percent in 2008)." |
"Spain
has opened the world's largest solar power station, meaning
that it overtakes the US as the biggest solar generator in the world. The nation's total solar power production is now equivalent to the output
of a nuclear power station. Spain is a world leader in renewable energies and has long
been a producer of hydro-electricity (only China and the US have built more dams). It also
has a highly developed wind power sector which, like
solar power, has received generous government subsidies. The new La Florida solar plant
takes Spain's solar output to 432MW, which compares with the US output of 422MW. The
plant, at Alvarado, Badajoz, in the west of the country, is a parabolic trough. With this
method of collecting solar energy, sunlight is reflected off
a parabolic mirror on to a fluid-filled tube. The heated liquid is then used to heat steam
to run the turbines. The mirror rotates during the day to follow the sun's movement. The solar farm covers 550,000 square metres (the size of around 77
football pitches) and produces 50MW of power." |
"With electric vehicles on the
horizon, it's going to take a lot more electricity generation to keep them charged. Sure,
utilities could add more generators. But most are dirty, and they're expensive. Now comes
one of the most obvious of ideas: turn parking lots into urban solar farms. We all want covered parking when we go to the work or the mall
to keep our cars from becoming solar collectors themselves. And all that asphalted space
is essentially wasted. So the answer that seems to be popping up around the world is to
cover the lots with a roof of solar panels, generating electricity from sunlight that can
either go directly into an plug-in electric cars parked in the lot, or fed back into the
grid. Envision Solar in La Jolla, Calif., is one company giving the idea a try. It's
already in demonstration at Dell Computer's facility in sun-baked Texas. A solar parking
lot is also being tested as a prototype oat the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) in Golden, Colo. The facility uses its solar for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
Gizmodo says the installations can pack some punch. The solar parking lot at Dell
generates 130 kilowatts of electricity." |
| "Germany could derive all of its
electricity from renewable energy sources
by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel
habit, the country's Federal Environment Agency said today. The country already gets 16%
of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources – three times' higher
than the level it had achieved 15 years ago. 'A complete conversion to renewable energy by
2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view," said Jochen
Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency. 'It's a very realistic target
based on technology that already exists – it's not a pie-in-the-sky prediction,' he
said....Thanks to its Renewable Energy Act, Germany
is the world leader in photovoltaics: it expects to add more than 5,000 megawatts of photovoltaic
capacity this year to reach a total of 14,000 megawatts. It is also the second-biggest wind-power producer after the United
States. Some 300,000 renewable energy jobs have been created in Germany in the last
decade." Electric cars must be taxed to pay for more power stations 'or National Grid could fail' Guardian, 7 July 2010 |
"President Barack Obama announced Saturday the awarding of nearly 2
billion U.S. dollars to two solar energy companies as an effort to boost employment and
solar power in the United States. 'We're going to keep competing aggressively to make sure
the jobs and industries of the future are taking root right here in America,' Obama said
in his weekly radio and online address. The energy companies, Abengoa Solar and Abound
Solar Manufacturing, will receive the funds from 862 billion dollars in economic stimulus.
Abengoa will build the 'world's largest solar plant' in Arizona, which will create about
1,600 construction jobs. The 280-megawatt Solana generating station will supply electric
power to approximately 70,000 homes while avoiding more than 475,000 tons of greenhouse
gases, Abengoa said. It estimated that the plant could sell 4 billion dollars worth of
energy over 30 years. The power generated will be
purchased by Arizona Public Service. Abound Solar is
to build two new plants in Colorado and Indiana that will create more than 2,000
construction jobs and over 1,500 permanent jobs." |
"It might be sunny but solar panels around Britain are failing to
generate any electricity because of a shortage of parts. The introduction of 'Feed-in
Tariffs', that pay homeowners for electricity fed into the grid, has led to a rise in
demand for solar panels. But householders who have installed the expensive technology are
unable to start generating electricity because of a shortage of inverters'. The microchips
are in short supply because of increased demand in Germany, the US and China. Solar panel manufacturers say the shortage is a 'blip' that will
not stop the massive growth of solar in the UK in the long run." |
"New
technology for 'photosynthesising' fuel could lead to cars running on 'petrol' made from
carbon dioxide and sunlight. Fuels made in this way are sufficiently similar to those
currently used in cars that major redesigns of engines and refuelling stations should not
be necessary. If fuels can be made entirely from atmospheric carbon, running a car on that
fuel would be carbon neutral. One such machine, the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor
Recuperator (CR5), created by a team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, captures carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust fumes. In the
future, however, they hope to extract it directly from the air. The system uses a giant parabolic mirror, which
concentrates sunlight on to two chambers separated by spinning rings of cerium oxide. As the rings turn, the cerium oxide is heated to 1500C and
releases oxygen into one of the chambers. The oxygen is then pumped away. As the ring
spins, the now de-oxidised cerium moves into the other chamber. Carbon dioxide is pumped
in, and the deoxidised cerium steals one of the oxygen molecules, creating carbon monoxide
and cerium oxide....Another team, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, uses
a similar system, but with calcium oxide, zinc oxide and steam, which can create a stream
of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Their system can already use atmospheric carbon dioxide.
At the moment the two reactors have problems. The New Mexico team's system currently only
works for a few seconds at a time, while the Swiss model runs at a mere 10 kilowatts. But
both hope to improve reliability and yield." |
"Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are
hot on the heels of a discovery that could more than double the
efficiency of solar cells. The trick is to use tiny nanoscale crystals called quantum
dots to capture more of the available energy in sunlight, including energy at the high
end of the scale. The researchers estimate that the
use of high energy sunlight could boost efficiency from its present rate of about 31% for
conventional solar cells, up to a whopping 66%. What
this all means is the potential for solar energy to become cost-competitive with fossil
fuels at an increasingly rapid pace. Paired with next-generation flywheels and other new energy storage technologies, intermittent
sources such as solar and wind can provide an energy stream that is every bit as steady
and reliable as oil, coal, or natural gas. High energy sunlight comes in the form of 'hot
electrons.' Until now, that energy has been too hot to convert into electricity, and it
escape as heat. The researchers, headed by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu, found a way
to conduct the hot electrons out by using quantum dots, which have conductive properties
that can be precisely controlled. Their work is built on a foundation recently
established by another team from the University of Chicago, which showed that a specific
type of nanocrystal can be used to control the rate at which hot electrons cool down.
Conventional quantum dots are made of toxic heavy metals, and Zhu’s research was
carried out on quantum dots made of lead selenide, a
crystalline form of lead. However, Zhu notes that other materials could also be used,
opening up the potential to construct a high efficiency solar cell with quantum dots made
of non-toxic materials. Magnolia Solar, for example, is one company that has
developed thin film solar technology based on non-toxic quantum dots.
Quantum dots made of diamond nanocrystals are also in development. The wonder
material graphene and its newly discovered mate graphane could also offer
another non-toxic route." |
"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. 'These night flights in an aircraft propelled uniquely by solar energy
are intended to demonstrate the potential of the renewable energies and the technologies
that will gradually enable us to diminish our dependence on oil', said Dr Piccard..... The pilot said that for him, the most exciting part of the venture is
'being on the plane during the day and seeing the amount of energy increasing instead of
decreasing as on a normal aircraft. That's what you can enjoy with this solar generator'.
If the 24-hour flight is a success, it will be the first important step towards using
renewable solar energy in a continuous manner." |
| "The biggest problem with solar panels is that
they're expensive. Solar
power is actually the most expensive type of renewable energy.
But a Swiss professor has just received the Millennium Technology Prize for developing low-cost solar cells that
can be built into glass windows. So instead of installing solar panels on your roof; you'd
just install them as windows, which you need anyway. Michael Gratzel spent two decades
developing a revolutionary type of dye-sensitized
solar cell called a Gratzel cell (guess where he got the name for it). The group that
presented the award, the Technology Academy
Finland, says this invention is a huge leap forward for solar technology. In a
prepared news release, the group says, "The price/performance ratio of
Grätzel's dye-sensitized solar cells is excellent. [It] is a promising alternative to
standard silicon photovoltaics....This technology was first built into consumer products
in 2009. A company called G24 Innovations developed a backpack
that uses Gratzel cells to charge the batteries in portable electronics." Windows that Work as Solar Cells DiscoveryNews, 13 June 2010 |
"A Hong Kong-based company has
introduced what it bills as the world's only solar-powered light bulb with the hope of
reaching millions of people with little or no access to electricity. The Nokero N100 solar LED light
bulb is meant to replace kerosene lamps as a lighting source in the developing world. The
company says 1.6 billion people still lack sufficient access to electricity, and many burn
fossil fuels for light, which can be dangerous and expensive. The N100 solar bulb is about
the size of a standard incandescent bulb and has four small solar panels in its rainproof
plastic housing. Five LEDs and a replaceable NiMH battery inside provide up to four hours
of light when the device is fully charged. People
hang it outside during the day and then turn it on at night." |
"Unless you follow blogs such as The Wall Street Journal's excellent China Realtime Report, you probably missed the biggest global energy
news in recent weeks (and no, I'm not forgetting about BP): Last week, China announced considerable subsidies for consumers who buy electric or
plug-in hybrid vehicles. Beijing will pay the first $7,800 to $8,800 of the sticker price
for the first 50,000 such vehicles bought in five designated Chinese cities, or roughly 31
percent, for instance, of BYD's $25,000 F3DM. The subsidies put hard
action behind China's stated intentions to become the largest consumer market on the
planet for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles (you
can see a nice slideshow about that by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants here).
Other pieces need to fall into place, such as a cleanup of China's smoke-belching
semi-trucks and the well-on-its-way expansion of its cargo railroad network. But China
appears to be trying on the coat and liking the notion of a wholesale shift of its energy
portfolio. Why should we care? Because of the chain reaction that
will follow. How future Chinese motorists drive -- whether in gasoline-powered cars, or
plug-in hybrids -- will have a consequential impact on global oil demand. China's appetite
for oil is going to grow whatever the case, but if Chinese motorists largely buy hybrids,
the rise in the country's oil demand will not be as steep." |
"A professor who invented
low-cost solar cells that may be incorporated into energy-producing windows has been
awarded the Millennium Technology Prize.Finland's Technology Academy on Wednesday awarded
Swiss professor Michael Gratzel with the prize, which is said to be the biggest award in the field of
technology. The award, which is given as 800,000
Euros, amounts to about $960,000. The groups says 'Gratzel cells' are significant because
they are cheaper than other types of technology that seek to capture energy from the sun.
'Gratzel's innovation is likely to have an important role in low-cost, large-scale
solutions for renewable energy,' Ainomaija Haarla, president of Finland's Technology
Academy, says in a prepared news release on the group's website. The Technology Academy says this
new form of solar cell is still 'still in relatively early stages of development,' but has
made its way into some consumer products. Gratzel
says windows could be made into solar panels. You would be able to see through them, but
they may have a slight tint because of the solar cells....Gratzel says his panels are 'the best in terms of efficiency in ambient
light.' The academy that awarded the prize said, 'the technology, often described as
'artificial photosynthesis,' is a promising alternative to standard silicon
photovoltaics,' which are more expensive to make." |
"First Solar, the world’s
cheapest solar panel maker, is reporting that they cannot meet this years demand for solar
panels, and three more major manufacturers; Suntech, Yingli and Trina are also signaling
that they are sold out, according to Reuters. This is a huge
turnabout. It is only a year ago that solar panels flooded the global market, driving down
the cost of solar installations worldwide, after Spain suddenly eased off on its generous
Feed-in Tariff, leading to a worldwide solar panel glut and a resulting 40% drop in panel
prices. The benefits of that suddenly cheap solar has had a huge impact. California alone installed as much solar in the first three months as
it did in all of last year, at least in part due to cheap panels. But
now it appears that prices might rise again, due to ricocheting demand. First Solar is
having to postpone projects in the United States to meet demand in Europe, supplying
growing markets in France, Spain and Italy, as well as in China and Australia. As we enter
the Peak Oil years and start the very bumpy slide down the other side of Hubbert’s Peak, this
kind of increased competition for all sources of energy is increasingly likely.... Solar
estimators say for every 10,000 miles that you’ll drive annually, you should plan on
including about 250 extra kilowatt-hours a month for charging an electric car. So, if you
drive 5,000 miles annually, you’d need 125 kilowatt-hours a month to power that Volt, LEAF, TH!INK, or whatever,
or about as much as to power a swimming pool pump." |
"For decades the silicon chip
was the beating heart of our electronic lives but now a cheaper, more flexible and durable
plastic chip is taking over.Experts believe the global market for so-called plastic
electronics could exceed £300bn in less than 20 years. The technology in which flexible,
ultra-thin micro-chips can be incorporated into clothing, glass or building frames is
expected to generate a new industrial revolution. Now, it is thought a project aimed at
co-ordinating academic research and industrial interest in advanced low-cost solar cells
using plastic electronics could make the UK a world leader in micro- generation
technology. The project, called Specific (for Sustainable Product Engineering Centre for
Innovative Functional Industrial Coatings) will attempt to come up with new window glass
and steel roofing incorporating special dye-sensitised solar cells. These are a new class
of low-cost, thin film solar cell which produce much more energy than previous cells.
Specific is bidding for up to £12m in financing from sources including the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Technology Strategy Board and the Welsh
Assembly..... According to Professor David Worsley
at Swansea University: 'Using the building envelope so it can generate its own energy is
going to be crucial to meeting future carbon reduction targets, along with other
renewables. All the universities involved in the project have something significant to
contribute to this challenge. But we need to be able to co-ordinate this effectively,
working closely with our industrial partners.' While conventional electronics uses
circuits etched into solid silicon chips,
plastic electronics, on the other hand, uses sheets of PET (polyethylene terephthalate)
plastic – the flexible but tough material used in the production of plastic bottles.
Circuits are then printed on these sheets using ink-jet printers or techniques much like
those used to print magazines and newspapers – resulting in a process that is cheap,
easy to do and faster to produce. And the circuits can be printed on virtually any surface
so, in the near future, breakfast cereal boxes could contain YouTube-like announcements
and films." |
"From electric cars to wind
turbines, environmentally-friendly technology around the world needs rare earth metals.
But China - where over 90% of these minerals are mined - is saying it now wants to keep
more for its own industry. The leafy banks of the
Birmingham and Worcester canal may be an unlikely place to discuss a looming industrial
crisis but it was here that Professor Rex Harris of Birmingham University took me on his
hydrogen-powered electric barge. The super efficient
motor, like most electric vehicle motors, uses rare earth magnets. Rex gave me two matchbox sized neodymium-boron magnets, offering me £50
to push them together. His money was safe, the magnetic field was too strong. Such power
is vital to green technology, so much of which is based on the efficient generation, use
and storage of electricity. So we need to be sure of good supply of rare earth magnets. 'We worry about peak oil,' he says, 'we should worry about peak
magnets as well.'...The Chinese motives are pretty
clear. They want Western users to do their manufacturing in China and they need supplies
for their own ambitious wind energy programme..... The former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
once remarked 'There is oil in the Middle East, there is rare earth in China.'....However,
Professor Animesh Jha at Leeds University thinks he
may have a cleaner alternative. He has discovered that titanium dioxide ore could be an
important source. The purification of this chemical,
commonly used in paints, leaves a residue of rare earths. He believes this could by-pass
the Chinese and the environmental problems of mining. 'There are very nice deposits of
titanium oxide all over the world... Norway, India, Brazil, US. They all have rare earths
in them.' Combine Professor Jha's technique with the
fruits of new mines and the careful recycling of rare earth metals currently in use in our
laptops and mobile phones and we may be able to provide sufficient supplies in the future.
But new processes take time to perfect and new mines take years to come on-stream. That
still leaves a long gap when the green revolution will rely on the economic and political
judgement of China's exporters." |
"Scientists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite
of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs. Susan
Hockfield, MIT's president, and Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italian oil company Eni, on Tuesday
officially dedicated the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center. Eni invested $5 million
into the center, which is also receiving a $2 million National Science Foundation grant,
said Vladimir Bulovic, the center's director. The printed solar cells, which Bulovic
showed at a press conference Tuesday, are still in the research phase and are years from
being commercialized. However, the technique, in which paper is coated with organic
semiconductor material using a process similar to an inkjet printer, is a promising way to
lower the weight of solar panels. 'If you could use a staple gun to install a solar panel,
there could be a lot of value,' Bulovic said. The materials MIT researchers used are
carbon-based dyes and the cells are about 1.5 percent to 2 percent efficient at converting
sunlight to electricity. But any material could be used if it can be deposited at room
temperature, Bulovic said. 'Absolutely, the trick was coming up with ways to use paper,'
he said. MIT professor Karen Gleason headed the research and has submitted a paper for
scientific review but it has not yet been published. MIT and Eni said this is the first
time a solar cell has been printed on paper.....The paper solar cells are one of many
avenues being pursued around nanoscale materials at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Layers of these materials could essentially be sprayed using
different manufacturing techniques to make a thin-film solar cell on a plastic, paper, or
metal foils. Silicon, the predominant material for solar cells, is durable and is made
from abundant materials. Many companies sell or are developing thin-film solar cells,
which are less efficient but are cheaper to manufacture." |
"Hydrogen would command a key
role in future renewable energy technologies, experts agree, if a relatively cheap,
efficient and carbon-neutral means of producing it can be developed. An important step
towards this elusive goal has been taken by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department
of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University
of California, Berkeley. The team has discovered an inexpensive metal catalyst that can
effectively generate hydrogen gas from water....a
paper describing this work... appears in the April 29, 2010 issue of the journal Nature,
titled 'A molecular molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water.'
Co-authors of this paper were Christopher Chang and Jeffrey Long, who also hold joint
appointments with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. Chang, in addition, is also an
investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).....Hydrogen gas, whether
combusted or used in fuel cells to generate electricity, emits only water vapor as an
exhaust product, which is why this nation would already be rolling towards a hydrogen
economy if only there were hydrogen wells to tap. However, hydrogen gas does not occur
naturally and has to be produced. Most of the hydrogen gas in the United States today
comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel. While inexpensive, this technique adds huge volumes
of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Hydrogen can
also be produced through the electrolysis of water -- using electricity to split molecules
of water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. This is an environmentally clean and
sustainable method of production -- especially if the electricity is generated via a
renewable technology such as solar or wind -- but requires a water-splitting catalyst....Nature has developed extremely efficient water-splitting enzymes --
called hydrogenases -- for use by plants during photosynthesis, however, these enzymes are
highly unstable and easily deactivated when removed from their native environment. Human
activities demand a stable metal catalyst that can operate under non-biological settings.
Metal catalysts are commercially available, but they are low valence precious metals whose
high costs make their widespread use prohibitive. For example, platinum, the best of them,
costs some $2,000 an ounce. 'The basic scientific challenge has been to create
earth-abundant molecular systems that produce hydrogen from water with high catalytic
activity and stability,' Chang says. 'We believe our discovery of a molecular
molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water without the use of additional
acids or organic co-solvents establishes a new chemical paradigm for creating reduction
catalysts that are highly active and robust in aqueous media.' The molybdenum-oxo complex
that Karunadasa, Chang and Long discovered is a high valence metal with the chemical name
of (PY5Me2)Mo-oxo. In their studies, the research team found that this complex catalyzes
the generation of hydrogen from neutral buffered water or even sea water with a turnover
frequency of 2.4 moles of hydrogen per mole of catalyst per second." |
"Newly designed giant gravel
batteries could be the solution to the on-off nature of wind turbines and solar panels. By storing energy when the wind stops blowing
or the sun stops shining, it is hoped the new technology will boost to renewable energy and
blunt a persistent criticism of the technology - that the power from it is intermittent.
Electricity cannot be stored easily, but a new technique may hold the answer, so that
energy from renewables doesn't switch off when nature stops playing ball. A team of
engineers from Cambridge think they have a potential solution: a giant battery that can
store energy using gravel. 'If you bolt this to a wind farm, you could store the
intermittent and relatively erratic energy and give it back in a reliable and controlled
manner,' says Jonathan Howes, founder of Isentropic
and previously an engineer at the Civil Aviation Authority. The Labour government
committed to cutting the country's carbon emissions by 34%
by 2020 and 80% by 2050, both relative to 1990 levels. To achieve this, ministers outlined
plans to build thousands of wind turbines by 2020. The only economically viable way of
storing large amounts of energy is through pumped hydro – where excess electricity is
used to pump water up a hill. The water is held back by a dam until the energy is needed,
when it is released down the hill, turning turbines and generating electricity on the way.
Isentopic claims its gravel-based battery would be able to store equivalent amounts of
energy but use less space and be cheaper to set up. Its system consists of two silos
filled with a pulverised rock such as gravel. Electricity would be used to heat and
pressurise argon gas that is then fed into one of the silos. By the time the gas leaves
the chamber, it has cooled to ambient temperature but the gravel itself is heated to 500C.
After leaving the silo, the argon is then fed into the second silo, where it expands back
to normal atmospheric pressure. This process acts like a giant refrigerator, causing the
gas (and rock) temperature inside the second chamber to drop to -160C. The electrical
energy generated originally by the wind turbines originally is stored as a temperature
difference between the two rock-filled silos. To release the energy, the cycle is
reversed, and as the energy passes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes
electricity. Isentropic claims a round-trip energy
efficiency of up to 80% and, because gravel is cheap, the cost of a system per
kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55. Howes says that the energy in the
hot silo (which is insulated) can easily be stored for extended periods of time - by his
calculations, a silo that stood 50m tall and was 50m in diameter would lose only half of
its energy through its walls if left alone for three years. To demonstrate how much less
infrastructure his system requires, Howes uses the example of the Bath County Pumped
Storage hydro-electric dam in Virginia, US. This is the biggest energy-storage system in
the world, with two reservoirs covering 820 surface acres can store up to 30 GWh storage
capacity. An Isentropic gravel battery of the same capacity would occupy 1/300th of the
area, according to Howes. John Loughhead, executive
director of the UK Energy
Research Centre, said that the novelty of the Isentropic system lay in using cheap
materials as the heat store, thus making a normally expensive and mechanically complex
process very simple." |
"A battery able to match the output of those used in cellphones from
1/20th of their electrode area may have you dreaming of more talk time. But putting it in
your pocket would be a bad idea - it's full of molten metal. Instead, its inventors hope
it will provide much-needed storage capacity for electricity grids. Grid-scale batteries
would boost efficiency by allowing solar energy to be used at night, for example, or
excess power from a nuclear plant to be stored for later. Engineers led by Donald Sadoway
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were inspired by the way aluminium is smelted
using electricity. They created a similar but reversible process that can either consume
or release energy. Their batteries are simply tanks filled with three separate layers of
liquid at 700 °C that float on top of one another: the top one is molten magnesium, the
bottom antimony and the one in between a salt containing magnesium antimonide, a dissolved
compound of the two metals. When the battery is being charged, magnesium antimonide in the
middle layer breaks down into the pure elements and so the upper and lower layers deepen.
Discharging the battery reverses the process and releases electrons to provide power. Once heated up to its operating temperature, the battery generates
enough heat on its own to keep the liquids molten. A small prototype provided up to 20
times as much current as a lithium-ion battery - the kind used in portable devices and
electric cars - from the same area of electrode, says team member Luis Ortiz. The
materials used are much cheaper than lithium (New
Scientist, 12 December 2009, p 23), making scaling to up to grid scale feasible, he
says." |
"A new technique developed by
engineers for producing power-conducting plastics could slash the cost of making solar
panels, say researchers. With mounting concerns about global warming and energy demand,
plastics could represent a low-cost alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), an expensive
conducting material currently used in solar panels, according to the researchers. 'Conductive polymers (plastics) have been around for a long time, but
processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity,'
said Yueh-Lin Loo, associate professor of chemical engineering at Princeton University,
who led the research team. 'We have figured out how to avoid this trade-off. We can shape
the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity,' Yueh-Lin Loo added.
The area of research, known as 'organic electronics' because plastics are carbon-based
like living creatures, holds promise for producing new types of electronic devices and new
ways of manufacturing existing technologies, but has been hampered by the mysterious loss
of conductivity associated with moldable plastics.... By allowing plastic solar cells to
be manufactured using low-cost printing techniques and by replacing ITO as the primary
conducting material, the plastics the team developed hold potential for lowering the cost
of solar panels, said a Princeton release. These findings were published online in the
March issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." |
"A smart electricity management
system is needed for a successful mass uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in Britain, by
smoothing out power demand and generation spikes in a future that includes more wind
farms. Britain has committed to smart technology --
which supplies real-time power usage data to consumers with smart meters; and demand and
generation information to network operators in the form of a smart grid -- with plans to
supply all homes with a smart meter by 2020. The British government also offered financial
incentives to support EV development, with Japanese car maker Nissan (7201.T) to build its
Leaf electric compact car in England, and Ford (F.N) receiving a grant to develop low
carbon vehicles in the UK. 'Smart grids will be critical for the mass adoption of EVs,'
Rick Hanks, smart metering practice lead at consultant Accenture, said. 'A slow charging
car consumes as much power as 10 plasma TV screens. But fast charging a car in 15 minutes
would be the equivalent of boiling up to 96 kettles continuously and would place
unsustainable stress on today's grid.' Local distribution network operators (DNO), which
deliver power from large overhead cables to households, are well aware of the potential
strain on the system and see smart technology as a way to mitigate demand and generation
surges. A smart grid could see when wind generation
was high and use this excess power to charge EVs instead of asking coal or gas power plant
to switch off to stop overloading the grid. 'Generation and networks can cope perfectly
well with the anticipated growth in EVs over the next 10 years provided that we are able
to develop the necessary complementary `smart' controls and tariffs on the back of smart
meters,' Cristiano Marantes, engineering projects
manager at DNO EDF Energy Networks (EDF.PA) said." |
"Tougher U.S. fuel economy standards for new cars and trucks should
be completed next week, Gina McCarthy, an assistant
administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, said today. Officials at the EPA,
which has jointly proposed with the U.S. Department
of Transportation to raise the average fuel economy benchmark to 35.5 miles per gallon, expect to establish final standards by April 1, McCarthy said in
testimony prepared for a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The
higher fuel economy standards are aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions and reducing
oil consumption." |
"Police and firefighters will
help to test Britain’s first fleet of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which is to be
introduced in time for the 2012 Olympics. A network of hydrogen filling stations will be
built across London to refuel about 150 vehicles
— including 50 taxis, eight buses, and 50 cars and vans that will be used by public
bodies such as the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. The vehicles will emit
only water instead of exhaust fumes, and represent the first steps towards a long-term aim
to switch all motorists from petrol and diesel to renewable fuels. Unlike battery-powered
electric cars, which take up to eight hours to charge, fuel-cell vehicles can have their
high-pressure tanks filled with hydrogen gas in only three to four minutes. The Greater
London Authority is borrowing the concept of a 'hydrogen highway' developed by Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. This aims to encourage manufacturers to supply
fuel-cell vehicles by providing a cluster of refuelling stations. Previous attempts to
introduce fuel-cell vehicles in Britain have failed because they depended on a single
fuelling point — with drivers forced to return to base every time they needed to fill
up." |
"Hopes that Britain could become
the hub of a global green motoring revolution were boosted yesterday when Vauxhall
indicated that its Ellesmere Port plant could become the home of the new electric Ampera. The Merseyside factory is expected to go to a third shift this year when
production begins — months earlier than expected — of the new Vauxhall Astra
estate. But the standing of the plant would be greatly enhanced it it does become the
European production base of the Ampera, the new extended-range electric vehicle that
General Motors, Vauxhall’s American parent, is promoting as a big rival to the Toyota
Prius hybrid. Whereas most electric cars going into
production will be suitable only as city runarounds with a range of a few dozen miles, the
Ampera will have a range of more than 350 miles on an electric motor fuelled by a
lithium-ion battery and petrol or ethanol." |
"The re-emergence of the British
motor industry is shifting up a gear, with £2.6 billion worth of investment flowing into
the UK, safeguarding or creating thousands of jobs. Nissan is to start mass production of
electric vehicles in Sunderland; Ford plants in
Dagenham, Southampton and Bridgend will build the next generation of cleaner diesel and
petrol engines for its cars around the world; and the Formula One team McLaren is to build
supercars in Woking to rival Ferrari and Lamborghini in the retail market.....Nissan will commit £420 million to building 50,000 electric
vehicles from 2013 at its base in Sunderland. It is
already the country’s single biggest carmaking facility, producing 338,000 vehicles
last year. Nissan has chosen Sunderland to be the third base for its Leaf model after
plants in Japan and the United States....The latest Nissan initiative follows its
commitment to make the lithium-ion batteries for its electric vehicles and those of its
partner Renault. Nissan is now committing to
producing 60,000 of the batteries a year in Sunderland." |
"Dyesol is in a joint venture
with British steelmaker Corus to produce Colorbond-style roofing and fencing, which
doubles as giant solar panels. DSC captures sunlight even in gloomy northern hemisphere
conditions. Corus is planning commercial production from July next year.Earlier this
month, Dyesol announced a tie-up with US glassmaker Pilkington to produce glass flatpanels
with the same energy-producing traits. And there's
another collaboration in the offing, with a German carmaker (hint: there's a new
subsidiary called Dyesol Automotive Bavaria). The
emphasis here will be on a flexible plastic blind to recharge batteries on hybrid cars. Dyesol executive chairman Richard Caldwell says the glass tie-up takes
Dyesol back to its original intention of using glass." |
"US solar energy company
SunEdison has announced final plans to build the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in
the world,.. in Italy. SunEdison’s new solar PV
farm will be a 72MW farm in the northern Italian province of Veneto near the town of
Rovigo. It has just received final approval from the Italian government and the farm is
expected to be finished and in use before the end of the year (with power generation
starting in the second half of 2010). The PV farm will pass up 60MW
Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park in Olmedilla, Spain to take the world title. However,
China is close on its heels with a mega-project that would make this 'farm' look like a
small 'potted plant'. SunEdison’s new farm 'is expected to use ground mounted solar
panels that are capable of turning to track the sun’s movement,' Business
Green reports. According
to SunEdison, 'the system will generate sufficient energy
to power 17,150 homes and avoid 41,000 tons of CO2 –the equivalent of removing 8,000
cars from the road' in its first full year of operation." |
"One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy
cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in this
Midwestern city once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass. Xunming Deng, a
physicist, started a solar company in Ohio eight years ago as a spinoff from his research
at the University of Toledo. He's attracted $40 million in venture capital, and designed
and purchased manufacturing equipment. He now thinks that his Xunlight Corp. is on the
brink of profitability and fast growth. It expects certification this spring and is
getting ready to ramp up production. Deng's story reflects one of the innovative
approaches that U.S. thin-film photovoltaic solar companies are taking to bring down the
costs of solar installations for homes, businesses and utilities. All aim for a mass
market with economies of scale that make solar energy comparable in price to energy from
fossil fuels....Deng's work is in thin-film photovoltaic solar, an area in which there's
been a great deal of innovation in recent years. Thin-film is an alternative to the
crystalline silicon solar cells commercialized in the U.S. in the 1950s, the kind
typically seen powering highway signs and the most widely used solar panels today.
Thin-film cells cost less to make. They're essentially a layer of semiconductor material
on a thin base of metal, plastic or glass. Xunlight's thin-film cells are light and
flexible, making them easier to install and ship. The amount of material used in the
active layers of thin-film solar cells is a tiny fraction of what goes into a conventional
solar cell, so the material costs are much lower, said Joe Verrengia, a spokesman for the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is working with companies and doing its own
work on thin-film research and development. Xunlight grew with the help of grants, loans
and business help from Ohio's Department of Development. Ohio has one of the most
ambitious renewable-energy requirements of any state: Twenty-five percent of its
electricity must be produced by renewable sources by 2025. Of that total of 6,000
megawatts, 800 must be solar. The policy will make Ohio one of the top markets for solar,
said Nadeane Howard, the director of the Energy Resources Division of the Ohio Department
of Development... The company is developing utility-scale solar farms in California, New
Mexico and Nevada. It uses cadmium telluride to make its thin-film cells. 'For us, that's
the big factor to lower the costs' compared with first-generation solar, company spokesman
Alan Bernheimer said. Its manufacturing process is another key. The company's cost to produce solar modules was more than $3 per
watt in 2004 and now is 84 cents per watt, Bernheimer said. The company projects that
costs will drop still further in the next few years.
Installation costs also have declined steeply, Bernheimer said. First Solar predicts that
it will match the cost of conventional electricity in four to five years." |
"Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home
solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's (7267.T) latest idea in its drive to
make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars. The
Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term
alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that
it says points to a home version down the road. Most
major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel
cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But
Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors GM.UL put
more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt. One of the big barriers to hydrogen car deployment is the lack of
refueling infrastructure, leading Honda to bet that the future lies in combining a public
station network with a more modest home option. Honda's home option will comprise a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station
using solar panels. 'Customers can choose how they
interact with both of them based on their annual miles and their habits,' said Stephen
Ellis, fuel cell manager at the Honda's North American headquarters in Torrance,
California. 'The key thing to remember is that with five-minute refueling you are good for
another 240 miles,' Ellis added. That range comes from the 'fast-fill' public station, of
which there are just a handful in Southern California, where Honda leases 15 FCX Clarity
hydrogen-powered vehicles and is set to distribute more in coming months. Eight hours of
home solar refueling would guarantee a smaller range of 30 miles (50 km) or about 10,000
miles (16,000 km per year -- enough for an average commuting car. At the Los Angeles R&D center, engineers refueled the sleek
FCX Clarity sedan with a new single-unit station connected to a solar array that replaces
a two-unit system, cutting costs and improving efficiency by 25 percent. 'This is
wonderful progress, the biggest progress,' said Ikuya Yamashita, the chief engineer of the
station. The station uses a 6-kilowatt solar array, composed of 48 panels and thin film
solar cells developed by a Honda subsidiary. It breaks down the water into hydrogen in
what Honda calls a 'virtually carbon-free energy cycle.' The FCX Clarity's hydrogen
'stack' -- or the electricity generator -- is around the size of an attache case, tucked
between the two front seats, and is a fifth of the stack size developed a decade ago. The
car is likely to be sold commercially around 2018 in the luxury large sedan category,
while the solar hydrogen refueling system could move beyond the research stage and into
the market-ready phase around 2015. 'A lot of this
work is not necessarily for today's economic situation,' said Ellis. 'This is for
tomorrow, when most people feel energy prices will be higher'." |
"Red tape is strangling a scheme designed to encourage millions of
families to generate their own green electricity with home-mounted solar panels, wind
turbines and heat pumps, according to the UK’s biggest manufacturer of central
heating equipment. Starting next month,
Britain’s 26 million households will be able to collect a fixed fee of up to 41p a
kilowatt hour for electricity they generate from roof-mounted solar panels and sell on to
the grid. Up to 34½p a kilowatt hour is available for home-mounted windmills. But
Worcester Bosch says that the scheme, which seeks to kick-start a boom in so-called
microgeneration, is being hobbled by a chronic shortage of certified engineers who must
fit the equipment for consumers to qualify for the payments. 'To qualify as an installer, it’s expensive, onerous and full of red
tape,' said Neil Schofield, head of sustainable development for Worcester Bosch, which
controls 28 per cent of Britain’s boiler market and is a big supplier of solar panels
and air and ground-source heat pumps. Across the UK there are about 500 certified
installers of renewable energy equipment, compared with about 120,000 registered gas
engineers, under the equivalent Gas Safe scheme, formerly known as Corgi." |
"Japanese solar-panel manufacturers are expanding capacity in spite
of concerns about oversupply in the sector, as they eye long-term growth in demand for
renewable energy. Mitsubishi
Electric, Toshiba and Showa
Shell on Monday each unveiled plans to boost their solar panel production,
underscoring a renewed determination by Japanese manufacturers to hold their lead in the
green technology in the face of cheaper competition from China and elsewhere. Shigeaki
Kameda, president of Showa Shell’s solar subsidiary, said the company intended to
become the world’s largest producer of thin-film photovoltaic panels, with the
business eventually rivalling its Y3,000bn ($33.6bn) oil-refining and petrol operations in
scale. The company, in which Royal
Dutch Shell owns a one-third stake, is spending $1bn to convert a former Hitachi
plasma-screen television factory into one of the largest solar-panel plants in the
world, capable of producing 900 megawatts’ worth of thin-film photovoltaic cells a
year. Mr Kameda said Showa Shell hoped to sell 70 per cent of its output outside Japan
under a new global brand launched on Monday called Solar Frontier. The company is opening
two overseas offices, in California and Munich, to market its technology to residential
and commercial buyers. Mr Kameda said the prospect of higher oil prices over the long term
combined with more government-imposed
curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions justified the company’s aggressive
stance." |
"PlanetSolar has unveiled the
world's largest solar boat that will be powered by more than 35,000 high-efficiency solar
cells and which will embark on a round-the-world tour in 2011. The boat, which was unveiled Thursday at the HDW Shipyard in Kiel,
Germany, was designed using 38,000 next-generation solar cells that will operate at an
efficiency of at least 22 percent, matching the best efficiency of any cells on the
market. The cells will be integrated onto the skin of the boat to generate the solar
energy required to power the boat. 'We are excited that the solar-powered boat is
now a reality,' said Raphael Domjan, CEO of PlanetSolar. 'As we embark on the next phase
of this project, we look forward to our around-the-world trip, and are confident that
SunPower's proven technology will get us there.' The catamaran-style boat is also expected
to be the fastest solar boat to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean during its round-the-world
trip that will take place next year. During the trip the boat will be available for public
display in each of its stopover sites, which will include Hamburg, London, Paris, New
York, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi." |
| "The Obama
administration gave preliminary approval Monday for $1.4 billion in federal loan
guarantees to help build what it says will be the world's largest solar power complex --
in California's Mojave Desert. The Department
of Energy is offering to back the loans of California-based BrightSource Energy so it can
build three solar-energy plants capable of powering 140,000 homes. It says
the project could nearly double the amount of solar power generated in the
United States." U.S. backs loans to build world's largest solar power complex USA Today, 23 February 2010 |
"A scientist has come up with a
new method to reconfigure the way solar panels are connected, which could lead to solar
arrays in the future that are more energy efficient and reliable. According to Dr Jonathan Kimball, an assistant professor of electrical and
computer engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, the conventional
method of connecting solar panels is in a series, one after the other. 'But just as one
bad bulb in a string of Christmas lights can black out the entire set, so can a single
solar panel disrupt the flow of electrical current through the other panels in a series,'
Kimball said. 'If one of the panels is shaded, dirty or damaged, it affects them all,'
Kimball said. 'The conventional approach to solar arrays inherently limits the amount of
power they produce if there's any variation in the panels,' he said. Rather than
connecting solar panels in a series - where the electrical current must flow from one
panel to get to the next - Kimball suggests parallel wiring for the panels. The parallel
approach would connect each panel to its own power converter instead of sending the
electrical current through a series of panels to a single converter." |
| "CEPS AS, the Czech electricity-grid operator, said the pace of
solar-power investment risks overloading the network and driving up prices for consumers. Output from solar panels may overwhelm the grid by 2011 and plants may need to be temporarily disconnected to prevent blackouts,
CEPS Chief Executive Officer Petr Zeman said today. Total solar capacity may reach 3,000
megawatts in 2015, six times last year’s level and about half the country’s
off-peak consumption at summer weekends, the state-run company said." Czech Power Grid Says Solar Boom Risks Blackouts Bloomberg, 15 February 2010 |
| "U.S. researchers have devised a
way to make flexible solar cells with silicon wires that use just 1 percent of the
material needed to make conventional solar cells. The
eventual hope is to make thin, light solar cells that could be incorporated into clothing,
for instance but the immediate benefit is cheaper and easier-to-install solar panels, the
researchers said. The new material, reported on Sunday in Nature Materials, uses
conventional silicon configured into micron-sized wires (a micron is one-millionth of a
meter) instead of brittle wafers and encases them in a flexible polymer that can be rolled
or bent. 'The idea is it would be lower cost and easier to work with by being more
flexible than conventional silicon solar cells,' Michael Kelzenberg of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who worked on the study, said in a telephone
interview. Solar cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, are in high demand
because of higher oil prices and concerns over climate change. Many companies, including
Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp Corp (6753.T) and
Germany's Q-Cells SE (QCEG.DE),
are making thin-film solar cells using organic materials such as polymers, but they
typically are less efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than conventional
cells using silicon. The study is among the latest to combine the flexibility of the new
organic or carbon-containing films with the high efficiency of silicon, which is heavy and
stiff. Kelzenberg said the material uses about 1/100th as much silicon per cell area as a
silicon wafer. 'It is potentially a route to bypass
many of the costs associated with producing solar cells,' he said. He said a big problem with working with silicon wafers is they
are fragile. More testing is needed but Kelzenberg said the material would be about 15
percent to 20 percent efficient, about the same level as solar cells used on roofs to heat
homes. A similar effort is under way in the lab of John Rogers, a professor of materials
science at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Campaign, who is working on ways to make
inorganic materials more flexible. While many companies are investing in organic solar
cells -- basically materials like plastic that contain carbon -- Rogers said these
materials have relatively low performance, less long-term reliability and an unproven cost
structure. 'We like the inorganics -- trying to adapt them and use them in non-standard
ways,' Rogers said in a telephone interview. Last year, his team reported on a new
manufacturing process that creates thin arrays of solar cells that are flexible enough to
be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings
or cars. 'We can make them stretch like a rubber band or bendable like a sheet of
plastic,' he said." A new wire twist on silicon solar cells Reuters, 14 February 2010 |
"IBM researchers are developing
a solar cell with an eye towards what's in the ground. Researchers on Wednesday published
a technical paper
in the journal Advanced Materials that describes a solar cell made of abundant materials
with relatively high efficiency. The cell can
convert 9.6 percent of solar energy into electrical energy, a 40 percent boost over
current methods. That level of efficiency is already far exceeded in commercial
silicon-based cells and even beat by thin-film solar cells, which are cheaper to make than
silicon cells but are less efficient. But IBM researchers set out to make a cell that uses
materials that are relatively abundant elements--copper, zinc, tin, and sulfur, or
selenium (CZTS). The availability of materials for existing solar technologies limits
their long-term potential, according to IBM. First Solar, which claims to have the lowest
cost per watt, makes its thin-film cells from cadmium and tellurium. GE, too, plans to
sell solar panels with cadmium
telluride cells as early as next year as well. There are also several start-up
companies, including Nanosolar, Miasole, and HelioVolt, which make cells using a
combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide, or CIGS. The problem with these
is the scarcity of materials or the environmental impact, according to IBM researchers
Teodor Todorov, Kathleen Reuter, and David Mitz, who authored the paper. That means that
other solar cell materials are needed to meet anticipated renewable energy demands, they
said..... One of the advantages of thin-film technologies is that that not much material
is needed to make a cell, compared to traditional cell manufacturing. CIGS cells can be
made using high-speed fabrication techniques, such as roll-to-roll manufacturing.
The technique developed by IBM uses a similar 'ink-based' method. Matthew Beard, a
researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratories not involved in the work, called
the IBM research a 'breakthrough.' The researchers estimate that if the technology can be taken
beyond its basic state right now and achieve 12 percent efficiency, it could be an
economically viable alternative to current products." |
"Sunlight + water = hydrogen gas, in a
new technique that can convert 60 per cent of sunlight energy absorbed by an
electrode into the inflammable fuel. To generate the
gas Thomas Nann
and colleagues at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, dip a gold electrode with
a special coating into water and expose it to light. clusters of indium phosphide
5 nanometres wide on its surface absorb incoming photons and pass electrons bearing
their energy on to clusters of a sulphurous iron compound. This material combines those
electrons with protons from the water to form gaseous hydrogen. A second electrode –
plain platinum this time – is needed to complete the circuit electrochemically. Organic
molecules have been used before to perform
the same feat. But they are quickly bleached by the sunlight they are collecting,
rendering them inefficient after a few weeks. The inorganic materials used in the
University of East Anglia's system are more resilient. Their
first generation proof of concept is 'a major breakthrough' in the field, they say, thanks
to its efficiency of over 60 per cent and ability to survive sunlight for two weeks
without any degradation of performance. 'In fact the
60 per cent figure is probably a worst-case scenario,' says Nann. 'This is still a
preliminary study.'...He and colleagues now plan to refine the system, including lowering
the cost by making it with less expensive materials. 'There is no major reason for using
gold or platinum,' he says: those materials were used simply because they are common in
the laboratory." |
"When it comes time to refuel
Honda’s FCX Clarity fuel-cell car with hydrogen, the company is letting the sun shine
in. Last week, Honda
announced that it had begun operating a 'next generation' solar hydrogen refueling
station, using Honda’s own solar cells, at its
Torrance research and development headquarters. The
new solar station is small enough to fit into a Clarity owner’s garage, and
that’s its intended home. 'We’ve
eliminated the compressor, which was the largest and most expensive component,' said a
Honda spokesman, Chris Naughton. 'The station pulls
in solar energy during the day and then the customer can slow-fill with hydrogen over an
eight-hour period at night.' Honda claims that its
smaller station is the world’s most compact, as well as the first home unit without a
compressor. The station uses 48 panels of thin-film
Honda-developed cells to produce six kilowatts of electricity. It’s designed to complement the network of public stations that
California has endeavored to create as part of its 'Hydrogen Highway,' but which in practice is
developing slowly. Honda’s Soltec panels are also being used by Dongfeng Honda in
China, the company said, providing lighting and air-conditioning at an administrative
facility. According to Honda, the Chinese panels are
capable of generating 100,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, and can displace 101 tons of carbon dioxide. According to Patrick
Serfass, a spokesman for the National
Hydrogen Association, 'One of the benefits of hydrogen is that it can be made from a
variety of different sources, including both renewable and traditional fuels. We applaud Honda for producing hydrogen renewably.
At this point, fossil fuels are still very cheap, so it takes a commitment to advance the
installation of renewable energy.'" |
"China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the
United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind
turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China
has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest
manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is
pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal
power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect
that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on
solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China. “Most of the energy
equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ' said K. K. Chan, the
chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private
equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. President
Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United
States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. 'I do not accept a
future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I
know you don’t either,' he told Congress. The United States and other countries are
offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called
for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to
prevail in the energy-technology race. Multinational corporations are responding to the
rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China.
Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing
complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest
electronic controls and generators." |
"Businesses in the Tees Valley are being urged to get a move on if
they want to secure as much Government cash for electric cars as possible. Teesside has been chosen as a testbed area to trial the low-carbon
vehicle revolution - but first a robust network of chargepoints must be installed.
Stockton Council is among the organisations already signed up. Between 30 and 50 plug-in
points will be installed at key locations, including car parks, community centres and
supermarkets, for both authority and public use. A
council spokesperson said: 'Stockton Council is committed to carbon reduction, both for
its own operations and the wider community.' But time is running out for private
businesses that want to help rev things up. Spending chiefs at regional development agency
One North East have told company bosses if they sign up for a charging point at their
premises before January 31, the Government will meet half the costs, bringing the bill
down to £2,500." |
"Although the commercial solar-cell business dates back almost 50
years, solar panels still cannot compete with fossil fuels when it comes to generating
electricity relatively cheaply. Even during periods of high oil prices, government
subsidies are needed to encourage consumers and companies to install solar power, exposing
the sector to sharp contractions when support is dramatically reduced, as happened in
Spain in 2009 and could happen in Germany later this year. Yet
solar-panel companies are increasingly optimistic that, with technological advances and
improvements in manufacturing efficiency, it won't be too long before 'grid parity' —
the point at which solar power is equal to or cheaper than conventional energy sources
— is reached, especially if oil prices remain high. Manufacturers of the common
crystalline variety of solar cells continuously leap-frog each other with claims of
improving their product's efficiency (measured by the percentage of solar energy put into
a cell that emerges as electricity). Last month,
Norway's REC, together with Dutch research institute ECN, unveiled a 17%-efficient solar
module, trumping Suntech, which a few months earlier had hailed its creation of a
16.5%-efficient module. Other manufacturers, like First Solar, are improving on a type of
solar-cell technology known as 'thin film,' in which an energy-generating substance —
usually a compound called cadmium telluride — is layered onto a glass, plastic or
steel substrate. Thin-film cells are generally less energy-efficient than the crystalline
variety but are potentially much cheaper to manufacture. If
the technology continues to improve, solar power could achieve parity within five to 10
years, says Peter Thiele, executive vice president of Sharp's energy-solutions division in
Europe. Or even sooner, if panel prices continue to fall while oil prices rise. Observers say sales growth is rebounding as buyers respond to
increasingly cost-effective solar power." |
"United Nations climate talks are a bigger threat to top oil exporter
Saudi Arabia than increased oil supplies from rival producers, its lead climate negotiator
said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia's economy depends on oil exports so stands to be one of the
biggest losers in any pact that curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.....The
possibility that oil demand might peak this decade was a 'serious problem' for Saudi
Arabia, Sabban said. The kingdom had looked at the assumptions behind studies that pointed
to demand peaking in 2016 and saw 'some truth in it,' Sabban said. The kingdom was
watching future demand projections closely and would match any future investment in
capacity expansion with demand, Sabban said. 'We will continue keeping the same spare
capacity but no more,' he said. Saudi had plenty of spare capacity to increase output if
global demand warrants, Sabban said. Demand should grow this year with the economic
recovery, he added. The kingdom completed a program to boost its capacity last year,
coinciding with the global contraction in oil demand due to the economic recession, and
led record OPEC output cuts, leaving it with more than double the spare capacity it
targets. The kingdom has around 4.5 million bpd of spare capacity while having a policy of
holding 1.5 million to 2.0 million bpd to deal with any surprise outage in the global oil
supply system. The kingdom is producing around 8 million bpd. Meanwhile
Saud Arabia plans to invest heavily in solar energy technology, Sabban said, and hopes to
begin exporting power from solar energy by 2020. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi has said
the kingdom aims to make solar a major contributor to energy supply in the next five to 10
years." |
"India plans to install 20
million solar lights and 20 million square meters of solar thermal panels to generate
20,000 megawatts by 2022 as part of its National Solar Mission, formally launched Monday. 'We propose to provide up to 90 percent support for setting up solar power
plants,' Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said at the launch. 'In many other
solar applications, where the initial cost is still very high, we're considering proposals
for providing up to a 30 percent grant in aid,' he said. India, Asia's third-largest
energy consumer, relies on coal for more than half of its power capacity. Just a small
fraction of India's power currently comes from solar energy, which costs about two and a
half times more than power from coal. By installing 20 million solar lights, for
example, the minister said India would save 1 billion liters of kerosene every year. As a
'first benchmark' in the next three years, India also plans to add 1,300 megawatts of
solar power of which 1,100 megawatts will be grid-connected and 200 megawatts will be
off-grid, Abdullah said. 'If we achieve this, achieving the remaining target will not be
impossible.' Noting the high initial cost of solar energy, especially for grid power
generation, Abdullah said he aims to bring down the cost 'as quickly as possible.'
Abdullah said India is working in 'close coordination' with other stakeholders,
particularly the United States, so India can emerge as a global solar power while making
solar energy affordable in the country." |
"A U.S.-based solar power
company has entered into a large-scale agreement with a Chinese power equipment
manufacturer that will lead to the creation of solar thermal power plants across China
that will generate at least 2 gigawatts of power. The
deal, which was signed last week in the Chinese State Council building, will partner U.S.
solar power plant builder eSolar with Penglai Electric to make official what will become
China's largest concentrating solar power project." |
"As it moves rapidly to become the world’s leader in nuclear
power, wind
energy and photovoltaic solar panels, China is taking tentative steps to master
another alternative energy industry: using mirrors to capture sunlight, produce steam and
generate electricity. So-called concentrating solar
power uses hundreds of thousands of mirrors to turn water into steam. The steam turns
a conventional turbine similar to those in coal-fired
power plants. The technology, which is potentially cheaper than most types of renewable
power, has captivated many engineers and financiers in the last two years, with an abrupt
surge in new patents and plans for large power operations in Europe and the United States.
This year may be China’s turn. China is starting
to build its own concentrating solar power plants, a technology more associated with
California deserts than China’s countryside. And Chinese manufacturers are starting
to think about exports, part of China’s effort to become the world’s main
provider of alternative energy power equipment. Yet
concentrating solar power still faces formidable obstacles here, including government
officials who are skeptical that the technology will be useful on a large scale in China.
Much of the country is cloudy or smoggy. Water is scarce. The sunniest places left for
solar power are deserts deep in the interior, far from the energy-hungry coastal provinces
that consume most of China’s electricity. Provinces deep in the interior have few
skilled workers or engineers to maintain the automated gear that keeps mirrors focused on
towers that transfer the heat from sunbeams into fluids." |
"A new study in West Africa
shows how farm irrigation systems powered by the sun can produce more food and money for
villagers. The study in Benin found that
solar-powered pumps are effective in supplying water, especially during the long dry
season. Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world with the least food security. The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than one billion of
the world's people faced hunger last year. Around two hundred sixty-five million of them
live south of the Sahara Desert. Lack of rainfall is one of their main causes of food
shortages....The researchers note that only four percent of the cropland in sub-Saharan
Africa is irrigated. Using solar power to pump water has higher costs at first. But the
study says it can be more economical in the long term than using fuels like gasoline,
diesel or kerosene." |
"Massachusetts is planning a new
drive for solar energy in 2010 with a string of programs designed to dramatically increase
the number and size of solar panel arrays in the state. The push comes as Gov. Deval
Patrick, heading into an election year, hopes to make good on his pledge to turn
Massachusetts into one of the nation’s renewable energy hubs. The administration is
already touting what it says are its successes in helping encourage the use of solar
panels — pointing to 'a nearly 15-fold increase in solar installations over Governor
Patrick’s first four-year term.'....The state is also developing regulations for a
third program, a new solar credit market. The program was authorized by the state’s
2008 Green Communities Act to provide predictable market support for the solar industry.
The initiative is also set to begin this month. Secretary
of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles said the goal of all the programs is to
make Massachusetts 'a national solar energy powerhouse.'....The administration said the
solar push has also translated into jobs." |
| 2009 |
"Light-emitting wallpaper may
begin to replace light bulbs from 2012, according to a government body that supports
low-carbon technology. A chemical coating on the walls will illuminate all parts of the
room with an even glow, which mimics sunlight and avoids the shadows and glare of
conventional bulbs. Although an electrical current will be used to stimulate the chemicals
to produce light, the voltage will be very low and the walls will be safe to touch. Dimmer
switches will control brightness, as with traditional lighting. The Carbon Trust has awarded a £454,000 grant to Lomox, a Welsh company
that is developing the organic light-emitting diode technology. The trust said it would be
two and a half times more efficient than energysaving bulbs and could make a big
contribution to meeting Britain’s target of cutting carbon emissions by 34 per cent
by 2020. Indoor lighting accounts for a sixth of total electricity use. The chemical
coating, which can be applied in the form of specially treated wallpaper or simply painted
straight on to walls, can also be used for flat-screen televisions, computers and mobile
phone displays. As the system uses only between three and five volts, it can be powered by
solar panels or batteries. Lomox, which will use the grant to prove the durability of the
technology, believes it could be used in the first instance to illuminate road signs or
barriers where there is no mains electricity. Ken Lacey, the chief executive of Lomox,
said that the first products would go on sale in 2012. 'The light is a very natural,
sunlight-type of lighting with the full colour range. It gives you all kinds of potential
for how you do lighting,' he said. Although organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been
available for several years, Mr Lacey said that concerns over cost and durability had
prevented further development. He said that Lomox had developed a much cheaper process and
discovered a combination of chemicals that were not vulnerable to the oxidation that
shortened the operating life span of other types of organic LEDs. Mr Lacey said the
technology could be used to make flexible screens that could be rolled up after use, or
carried into a presentation, for example. Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the
Carbon Trust, said: 'Lighting is a major producer of carbon emissions. This technology has
the potential to produce ultra-efficient lighting for a wide range of applications,
tapping into a huge global market...'" |
"While the world's attention was tuned to the recent global climate
conference in Copenhagen,
in an old airplane hangar on a small Swiss airfield, a group of visionaries, dreamers and
engineers was busily assembling a vehicle that is their solution to global climate change
and the future of commercial aviation. This airplane uses no fossil or bio-fuels. It is a
solar-powered airplane, collecting the sun's rays on 12,000 solar cells spread across its
wings to charge the special lithium-polymer batteries that will continue to power the
airplane from sunset till the next sunrise....Solar Impulse president Dr. Bertrand Piccard
reminds those skeptics that when Charles
Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927, his airplane was only large enough for the
pilot and a whole lot of fuel and it took 33 hours to cross the ocean....Piccard wants to
demonstrate that solar power can be used for most modes of transport. 'If we manage to fly around the world with an airplane that takes
no fuel at all,' says Piccard, 'nobody will be able to say afterwards that it is
impossible for cars.' Looking like an astronaut in
his pilot jump suit, Dr. Piccard conjures another famous Picard: the legendary Jean-Luc
Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as he takes us
where no one has gone before.... The Solar Impulse airplane is not the first solar
airplane to take flight. Numerous other solar airplanes have been successfully tested in
the last few decades, but the Solar Impulse airplane could become the first to fly
continuously day and night, and the first to fly around the world if successful. Over the
past six years, Piccard has assembled a team of 70 engineers and business support staff
and has raised approximately $67 million of the $105 million budgeted for the project.
Major corporations like Deutsche
Bank, Swiss watch maker Omega, and pharmaceutical giant Solvay are underwriting the
Solar Impulse venture. If all goes according to plan, the solar airplane will take off
next summer and climb to an altitude of 27,000 feet. On a 36-hour flight it will fill the
batteries and run the engines all day. 'Then there is only one goal,' says Piccard: 'To
reach the next sunrise before the battery dies.'" |
"A hi-tech company in Cardiff is poised to take advantage of the
global growth in solar power generation with its next generation solar technology.
High-efficiency solar cells are being developed by IQE in Cardiff – including one of the first photo-voltaic (PV) devices of its kind in the
world using semiconductor materials. Project manager
Rob Harper said the development of the world class product will position IQE for strong
growth in the future, securing and creating highly skilled jobs at its Cardiff plants. The technology developed at IQE uses specially engineered layers
known as multi-junctions to convert different parts of the solar spectrum into electrical
energy. A higher percentage of solar radiation can be harvested using this method compared
to other types of solar cells. IQE’s solar
cells are already capable of converting around 40% of solar radiation into electrical
power and further research is being conducted to improve this. By concentrating sunlight
using inexpensive lenses and mirrors, the amount of active solar cell material can be
reduced, further lowering the overall unit cost. Known as concentrating photo-voltaic
(CPV) this approach is suited to large installations of 5MW and above, and works best in
regions with high levels of direct sunlight. Although CPV is a new technology and accounts
for less than 0.5% of currently installed PV power, a number of large CPV installations
are under way in Australia, the US, Spain, Italy and Greece. CPV has substantial market
potential because of its high conversion efficiencies, and industry experts anticipate a
compound annual growth rate of 45% between 2009 and 2015. IQE, whose manufacturing
facility and global headquarters was established in St Mellons, Cardiff in 1988, has
recently produced the world’s first triple junction devices with a new, patented
combination of semi-conductor materials. This is attracting the attention of CPV
manufacturers worldwide because it has the potential to provide improved efficiency at
lower cost." |
"Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged
every Londoner will be no more than one mile from an electric car charge point by 2015. His £60m plan would see 22,500 charge points at workplaces, 500 on the
street and 2,000 in public car parks. Mr Johnson made the announcement at a meeting of
city leaders in Copenhagen. But London Assembly's Green Party said there are doubts about
the environmental gains of charging vehicles using grid electricity. 'A golden era of
clean, green electric motoring is upon us and London is well ahead of cities around the
globe in preparing the right conditions for this,' Mr Johnson said at the
conference." |
"The Japanese Government is working on a 'growth blueprint' that
would exploit the prolonged weakness of the US dollar and mount a state-backed resource
grab for rare technology metals around the world. If the plans, which are in their early
stages, come to fruition, the Government would assist companies in buying the rights to
mine rare earth minerals wherever they are up for grabs. Tokyo
is understood to have placed a high economic priority on securing global rare earth rights
for Japanese companies because of the looming prospect of a resource war with China. The
metals most coveted by Japan are a collection of 14 lanthanides that make hybrid vehicles
possible and will be critical to the future of electric cars because their strong magnetic
properties allow for lighter motors....Over the past
decade, Beijing has reached the point where it enjoys a 90 per cent global monopoly over
the production of rare earth metals. As its high-tech industries have developed, it has
consumed an increasing quantity of those produced domestically and significantly lowered
export quotas to places such as Japan. Even large Japanese manufacturers have resorted to
illegal quota-busting and source about a quarter of their annual supplies from illicit
rare earth mines in China. As China has hardened its stance on exports, Japan has begun a
frantic search for supplies elsewhere." |
"The world’s electricity industry will set out a plan on Tuesday
for rolling out the technologies needed to cut carbon dioxide emissions, showing how
ambitious plans to
tackle global warming could be achieved.Electricity generation accounts for about a
third of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, which in turn accounts
for two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions. This is one of the sectors in which deep
cuts in emissions are most practicable – the technologies for producing electricity
without emitting carbon dioxide are either in use or close to deployment. Europe’s
electricity industry has already committed to going carbon-free by 2050. Electrification
also offers the prospect of cutting emissions from other sectors. Electric cars look a better bet than biofuels for greening road
transport. Electric heat pumps, which carry heat into the home, are an alternative to
burning coal and gas for warmth. However, low-carbon
power is going to be more expensive, at least initially, and will require a huge
investment in infrastructure as well as a steep improvement in energy efficiency. In
short, there will have to be an entirely new type of electricity grid.... Even so, any
transition to carbon-free generation will take decades. Low-carbon technologies are
generally more expensive than fossil-fuel plants: in the case of some, such as offshore
wind, they are a lot more expensive. At the same time, power generation will not always be
available. The British government, which is backing Europe’s fastest expansion of
wind power, is building into its plans for 2030 a huge margin of spare generation capacity
which can be used when there is no wind. Managing demand will become crucial. Lars
Josefsson, who is chief executive of Sweden’s Vattenfall, one of Europe’s
biggest electricity companies, and president of Eurelectric, the industry association,
says: 'The key to Europe’s low-carbon future will be on the demand side.' If power
supply is inflexible, it is particularly important that demand is flexible to balance the
grid. A higher cost of energy will make consumers more worried about wasting it. The
electricity system will probably have to be based on a “smart grid”, which uses
information technology to manage flows of power around the network. This would include
smart meters – which show consumers how much energy they are using and also allow
flexible pricing – devices in homes that can send information and receive
instructions, and even smart appliances, that would switch off automatically when not
needed." |
| "The Solar Impulse prototype plane, part of a planned solar-powered
circumnavigation of the globe, has left the ground for the first time. The maiden
flight was dubbed a 'flea hop' by project leaders, at 350m in length and a height of just
one metre. The next flight, at the Payerne air force airfield in western Switzerland, will
see the plane reach an altitude of nearly 9,000m, once more using on-board batteries. The final version of the plane will attempt a solar-powered
transatlantic flight in 2012 prior to the round-the-world trip." Record-attempting solar powered plane's first 'hop' BBC Online, 4 December 2009 |
"California regulators on
Thursday approved an ambitious project to beam solar energy from space starting in 2016. Under a power purchase agreement approved by the
California Public Utilities Commission, utility Pacific Gas & Electric will purchase
electricity from technology provider Solaren if it successfully deploys its space-based
solar collectors, which would be the first of its kind. PG&E has contracted to
buy 1,700 gigawatt hours per year for 15 years from Solar for its space-based solar
arrays, which will have a generating capacity of 200 megawatts. That's smaller than a full
scale nuclear or natural gas plant but enough to supply thousands of homes. The anticipated date of operation is June, 2016. Space-based solar, an idea that has been around for decades, is being
pursued by companies and researchers around the world. Its key advantage over land-based
solar or wind power is that can generate renewable energy around the clock. The California
Public Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead to the project in an effort to meet the
state's aggressive renewable energy goals." |
"Mazda, EnerDel, Think Global,
and others are partnering on a test project that will pair all-electric cars with stationary
storage units as charging stations, EnerDel and
Mazda announced this past week. Mazda plans to convert some of its Mazda2
vehicles (known as the Mazda Demios in Japan) to all-electric cars running a
Think drivetrain with EnerDel lithium ion batteries. The cars will be offered to
Japanese customers through a rental car program, called the Tsukuba
Environmental Style Test Project, which should be up and running by March 2010 in
Tsukuba City, Japan, near Tokyo, according to Mazda. U.S. battery manufacturer EnerDel has
described the test project as the Japanese equivalent to Zipcar in the States, a program
in which customers join a car club that offers car rentals on an hourly or daily basis.
Instead of recharging stations tapping directly into a smart grid, those in the Tsukuba
test project will use stationary grid storage units also developed by EnerDel. The
stationary storage units will enable the rapid charging of the all-electric Mazda2 cars,
while avoiding the possibility of having to tap into a smart grid during peak usage hours.
'The unique combination of on-site battery storage with rapid charging allows the use of
direct current throughout the system, sharply reducing the amount of time needed to charge
a vehicle,' according to a statement from EnerDel. The recharging stations, which will
draw from solar panels as well as grid power, will be located at Family Mart convenience stores
in the Tsukuba City area." |
"Egypt, which plans to start its
first solar power unit in 2010, said on Tuesday it wanted to expand solar power production
for export but that costs of the technology would need to fall first to make it feasible. The North African country, a gas and oil producer, aims to generate 20
percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. It already has installed wind
capacity of 430 megawatts and is adding 120 megawatts by mid 2010. Wind farms are expected
to meet 12 percent of Egypt's power needs by 2020 but solar power projects have lagged.
'Solar energy is four times as expensive as energy generated from combined cycles so when
this figure starts going down to three or two times as much, this is when we will see
developing countries go heavily into the business,' Electricity and Energy Minister Hassan
Younes told Reuters. 'Exports are in our plan, but taking into consideration the
development of suitable technology and its spread so that the price goes down,' he added.
Egypt, whose population is concentrated on just 10 percent of its land, has ample desert
areas to set up solar power units. The most populous Arab country is also situated in the
sun belt where sunshine is available all year round for power generation." |
| "The cost of installing and
owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected according to new research. Tests
show that 90% of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20
years. According to the independent EU Energy
Institute, this brings down the lifetime cost. The institute says the panels are such a
good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes.
At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with
energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 - without a subsidy....Dr
[Heinz] Ossenbrink says 40-year panels will be on the market soon. A key goal for solar is
what is known as grid parity. That is the point when it is as cheap for someone to
generate power on their homes as it is to buy it from the grid. It varies from country to
country depending on electricity prices, but the institute estimates that Italy - which
has a combination of sunny weather and relatively high electricity prices - should reach
grid parity next year. Half of Europe should be enjoying grid parity by 2020, it
estimates. Cloudy northern countries like the UK could wait further, possibly up to 2030.
But the day would come when solar panels on homes would be cost-competitive without a
subsidy, even in Britain. Dr Ossenbrink says: 'Basically everything (in the industry) is
bound to grow still further. Growing further means less cost. Less cost means grid
parity.' Professor Wim Sinke, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who leads the
solar umbrella group the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform, says the industry has
even greater ambitions. 'The target of the sector as a whole is to reach grid parity in
almost all of Europe over the next 10 years. So by 2020 we should have grid parity in most
of Europe,' he told BBC News.... It will take much longer for solar to match fossil fuel
power at the point of generation, the institute says, as wholesale electricity prices are
much lower than retail prices." Solar panel costs 'set to fall' BBC Online, 30 November 2009 |
"Sun Catalytix, a company
that's trying to develop a revolutionary clean-energy system, has finished a round of seed
funding and secured a technology license from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company was formed about one year ago to commercialize research from MIT professor
Daniel Nocera in which he attempts to mimic the process of photosynthesis. Polaris
Ventures finalized a $3 million seed round of funding for Sun Catalytix and expects to
raise a series A round next year, said Polaris' Bob Metcalfe, who is also on the board.
The core of the company's technology, which
Nocera has sought to patent, is a low-cost catalyst for an electrolyzer, a device that
splits water to make hydrogen. That hydrogen can be used with a fuel cell to make
electricity. Or the hydrogen could be combined with other materials to store energy in a
liquid fuel, such as methanol or ammonia, Metcalfe said. Nocera
envisions that homes would be equipped with solar panels to produce hydrogen from water
during the day. At night, the stored hydrogen could power a home without releasing carbon
emissions. The key difference with the Sun Catalytix
electrolyzer is that it is being designed to be made with cheap materials and work with
all sorts of water, said Metcalfe. 'Splitting water to make hydrogen is as old as the
hills. The breakthrough here is that it's dirt cheap. They operate in dirty water like
water from the Charles River and they've used salt water from the Boston Harbor,' he said.
The catalyst that splits the water molecules uses cobalt phosphate, which is cheap and
abundant compared to expensive metals such as platinum, Metcalfe added. So far, the
five-person company has built a number of prototypes made from PVC plastic. A fully functioning system would take a number of years to develop
and depend on other components being cheaper, including solar panels and hydrogen storage,
Nocera has said. But Metcalfe said that Polaris believes the company can commercialize the
technology 'in the short attention span of a venture capitalist.' Typically, venture capitalists expect to generate a big return in five to
seven years." |
"A shingle that generates solar energy was named one of the 50 Best
Innovations of 2009 by Time magazine. Dow Chemical, the Powerhouse Solar Shingle's
inventor, will make the shingles commercially available by the middle of next year. Dow's
technology 'will make affordable renewable energy a reality now and for future
generations,' said Dow Solar Solutions managing director Jane Palmieri. The Powerhouse
design includes thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide. Dow notes the cells'
low cost relative to other solar technologies. And, on top of low cost, Dow's new shingle
has other advantages. The company reports that the
installation process is no different than that of traditional shingles, making Powerhouse
shingles attractive to contractors. And in addition
to saving money for homeowners by cutting energy use, the shingles are anticipated to make
a lot of money for Dow - up to $10 billion a year by 2020. The Powerhouse Solar Shingle
was number 13 on Time magazine's list." |
"If every south-facing building
in the UK fitted solar panels, the country would have all the electricity it needs, an
expert has claimed. Tim Bruton, chief technology
officer of the New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec), in Northumberland,
was speaking ahead of a national conference in County Durham that will highlight the
business opportunities photovoltaics – solar power – could bring. The North-East
is putting foundations in place to become a European centre for renewable energy
expertise, bringing with it scores of jobs and new industries, with photovoltaics (PV),
alongside wind power, electric vehicles and green energy, playing a major part. Mr Bruton,
a fellow of the Institute of Physics who has published over 70 papers in the PV field,
believes the North-East is on the verge of 'something very exciting'. He said: 'The
University of Northumbria carried out a study for the Department of Trade and Industry
looking at the existing south-facing buildings in the UK. All we have to do is take the
things we have already built and put solar panels on them and we can generate all the
electricity we need.' Rather than being the technology of the far future, Mr Bruton
believes it is only two to three years away from being widely used in the UK. He said: 'If
you look at what has happened in Germany, Spain and California where you have the right
subsidy structure from the government, the market has taken off.' Mr Bruton pointed out
that a similar subsidy scheme was due to be introduced by the Government in this country
in April. It is then that the new Renewables Feed In Tariff (FIT) system comes into force,
offering both domestic and business customers using technology such as photovoltaics for
electricity, payback rates of up to 40p per kWh." |
"Every two weeks, the sun pours more energy onto the surface of our
planet than we use from all sources in an entire year. It is an inexhaustible powerhouse
that has remained largely untapped for human energy needs. That may soon change in a big
way. If a consortium of German companies has its way, construction of the biggest solar
project ever devised could soon begin in the Sahara desert. When completed, it would
harvest energy from the sun shining over Africa and transform it into clean, green
electricity for delivery to European homes and businesses. Prospects for the project,
called Desertec, have blossomed over the past year, and this month 20 major German
corporations are expected to announce the formation of a consortium that will provide the
€400 billion needed to build a raft of solar thermal power plants in north Africa.
They include energy utilities giants E.ON and RWE, the engineering firm Siemens, the
finance house Deutsche Bank and the insurance company Munich Re. The current plan,
outlined by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a report to the federal government,
envisages that the project will meet 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050,
with a peak output of 100 gigawatts - roughly equivalent to 100 coal-fired power stations.
Preliminary designs in the German report show electricity reaching Europe via 20
high-voltage direct-current power lines, which will keep transmission losses below 10 per
cent (New Scientist, 14 March, p 42). Trans-Mediterranean links will cross from Morocco to
Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar; from Algeria to France via the Balearic islands;
from Tunisia to Italy; from Libya to Greece; and from Egypt to Turkey via Cyprus....But is
this really the best use of such a colossal amount of money? Critics are lining up to
point out the project's shortcomings. They say it could make Europe's energy supply a
hostage to politically unstable countries; that Europe should not be exploiting Africa in
this way; that it is a poor investment compared to covering Europe's roofs with
photovoltaic (PV) solar panels; and that, while deserts have plenty of sun, they lack
another less obvious but equally indispensable resource for a solar thermal power plant -
water. Is Desertec really the model of future power generation, as its promoters would
have us believe, or is it politically misconceived and a monumental waste of money?....
Solar thermal energy is now coming to the fore, as it proves itself to have several
advantages over PV. Among these is its ability to produce electricity in power-station
quantities, without the complex organisation that distributed generation entails. What's
more, it can feed electricity into the grid at night as well as by day. This is done by
storing the heated fluid in an insulated container and releasing it hours later when the
energy is required. Storing energy from PV panels would require a new generation of
high-capacity batteries - still a research project in its infancy for the scale needed.
The clincher is cost. Building a power-station-scale solar thermal installation costs only
a fraction of PV generators with the same output. As a result, an army of new solar
thermal plants are being planned for the US, China, Australia and Israel....PV cells have one clear advantage, however. Solar thermal requires
direct sunlight, and so a cloudy day will slash power output to near zero, whereas PV
cells will generate at least some power until night descends. But the intensity of
sunshine blasting the Sahara desert more than compensates for this. Every year, each
square metre of the Sahara receives more heat from the sun than would be obtained by
burning two barrels of oil. Desertec reckons that a patch less than 600 kilometres across
could meet the entire world's electricity needs today and that all of Europe's electricity
could be made in an area 250 kilometres across.....Out
in the Sahara, however, another problem has to be solved. Like
a regular coal or oil-fired plant, a solar thermal generating station requires large
amounts of cooling water to condense the steam after it goes through the generator's
turbines, and there are inevitable losses from evaporation. The solar trough plant in the Mojave desert consumes around 3000 litres
of water for every megawatt-hour of electricity it produces, and others are likely to need
similar amounts. That's a lot of water to find in a desert. A typical Saharan solar farm
would be expected to deliver abount 120,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year per
square kilometre. That equates to some 350 million litres of water,or enough to flood its
area to a depth of 35 centimetres - not much less than would be needed to irrigate a crop
of wheat....Switching to air cooling for thermal solar power stations would cut water
demand by up to 90 per cent, but brings problems of its own. Air cooling is less efficient
than water cooling, so the installations would require more land and more mirrors, adding
to the capital and running costs. David Mills, whose company Ausra in Palo Alto,
California, wants to build an air-cooled solar thermal plant in the Nevada desert, says
air cooling involves about a 10 per cent penalty in terms of cost or performance.....If the argument comes down to cost, how do the numbers stack up?
In terms of capital cost, large-scale solar thermal installations are the clear winner.
Building the plant now operating in Spain has cost €1670 for each megawatt-hour of
electricity it produces each year. Jeremy Leggett, who heads Solar Century, a London-based
company which sells PV technology, says that installing PV panels would eat up more than
double that, at €4000 per megawatt-hour per year. But capital cost is not the end of
the story. While a solar thermal power plant requires a round-the-clock crew, PV
installations pretty much run themselves. What's more, PV power plants can grow piecemeal:
they can start generating power for the grid from the day the first panel is installed,
while solar thermal mirrors are useless until the entire power station is completed. For
Desertec, there is also the small matter of getting Desertec's electricity from Africa to
Europe. With this many variables in the equation it becomes hard to make realistic
comparisons between the available options. To fill the gap, Anthony Patt of the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a think tank in Laxenburg, Austria,
is conducting a detailed feasibility study of solar thermal power generation. He reckons
that Desertec is unlikely to be competitive with coal-fired power generation for at least
two decades, during which time it will swallow between €20 and €50 billion,
similar in scale to Germany's expected subsidy for PV cells over the same period. And then
there are the tricky political issues that arise from a plan that will exploit land in
Africa, and possibly Asia too, to generate electricity for Europe. Desertec says that
two-thirds of the potential solar resource in north Africa and the Middle East lies in
Algeria, Libya and Saudi Arabia. Europe, like the US, wants to reduce its reliance on
energy imported from distant lands with an unpredictable political future. Why create a
new hostage to fortune? The stage is set to recreate
an uncomfortable parallel with western dependency on oil from Saudi Arabia, Iran and
Iraq." |
| "Solar incentives seem to be working to both increase the number of
solar installations in the U.S. and bring down the initial cost, according to a report
released Wednesday by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 'Findings...show that, after a three-year plateau, costs decreased
by 3.6 percent from 2007 to 2008, marking a pivotal year for the American solar industry,'
said the report (PDF). Broken down
into real 2008 dollars, the report estimated that the actual cost of installing
photovoltaic solar systems--excluding tax credits or financial incentives--was $10.80 per
watt in 1998 versus $7.50 per watt in 2008. That initial cost to the installer dropped
significantly once incentives and tax credits were
factored in. Last year, the average cost of installation was $2.80 per watt for
residential photovoltaic, when incentives and tax credits are counted, and $4.00 per watt
for commercial...the report did include outside data for comparison of markets. It showed
that the recent growing popularity of solar is not just a U.S. phenomenon. About 5,948
megawatts of photovoltaic were installed globally in 2008 compared to 2,826 megawatts in
2007. Spain was the largest
photovoltaic market in terms of installation in 2008, followed by Germany and then the
U.S., according to the report. Undoubtedly, the global installation figure will increase
even more dramatically in the coming years. China alone has announced plans for
large-scale photovoltaic installations ranging from 500 megawatts in Baotou, Inner
Mongolia to 2,000 megawatts in Ordos City,
Inner Mongolia. In the U.S., First Solar has been given rights to develop a 550-megawatt plant in
California." Solar really is getting cheaper, report says CNet News, 22 October 2009 |
"The U.S. military is tackling a
new mission in the field of alternative energy, moving to power up a 500-megawatt solar
facility at Fort Irwin's sprawling desert complex in California....The project, located at the Army's largest training range in
California's Mojave Desert, could grow as large as 1 gigawatt in the future. The companies
will finance and build the plant in exchange for leasing of the military land. The
project, planned for five sites over 13 years, could cost $2 billion. The solar power
plant is part of the Army's mission to meet a federal mandate that calls for it to cut its
energy use by nearly a third by 2015 and get a quarter of its energy needs from renewable
resources by 2025." |
| "California is heating up its
push for clean energy, as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a new subsidy for solar
power on Monday and joined forces with the federal government to fast-track renewable
energy projects. California has the most aggressive
renewable energy goals in the United States, which Schwarzenegger increased last month
when he ordered that the state get a third of its electricity from renewable resources by
2020. FBR Capital Markets analyst Mehdi Hosseini said the new subsidy for solar generation
could be 'explosive' on top of the existing investment tax credit for installing solar
systems. 'This is above and beyond the subsidies that
are already in place,' Hosseini said. Feed-in tariffs set a higher price for renewables,
and in Germany, such tariffs have pushed the country to be the world's market leader in
solar power. California's new solar program
guarantees that utilities will pay owners of commercial solar systems -- up to 3 megawatts
in size -- a higher price for solar electricity, a subsidy meant to spur development of
solar rooftop systems. Currently, if utilities want to charge more than the retail price
for such systems they have to ask for permission from regulators. Now the California
Public Utilities Commission will set the price. Hosseini estimates the tariff could be
between 15 and 17 cents per kilowatt hour and could help drive as much as 500 MW worth of
new commercial rooftop systems in 2010." California heats up incentives for solar power Reuters, 12 October 2009 |
| "The European Commission is expected to introduce a plan to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions that directs the largest slices of €50 billion available for
research and development to solar power and capturing and burying emissions from coal plants. The plan, to be
released on Wednesday, is partly intended to show that the European Union is taking the
additional steps needed to meet ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gases before a summit
meeting in Copenhagen in December on reaching a new global agreement to curb climate
change. But the plan also signals the need for a reordering of the bloc’s industrial
priorities by requiring governments to spend significantly greater sums of money on clean
energy even as the world emerges from a deep financial crisis. 'Markets and energy companies acting on their own are unlikely to
be able to deliver the needed technological breakthroughs within a sufficiently short time
span to meet the E.U.’s energy and climate policy goals,' the commission said in a draft of the plan obtained by the International
Herald Tribune. Introducing low-carbon technologies also 'represents a major challenge in
the context of the financial crisis, where risk-aversion is higher and investment in new,
riskier technologies is not high in investors’ priorities,' the draft said. European
Union commissioners are expected to seek agreement on the final sums to be allocated to
low-carbon power industries at a meeting on Wednesday. The recommendation is from the
European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm. The plan is at an early stage of
development, mostly because governments still would need to agree to finance it. The bloc,
with 27 member countries, already operates a costly cap and trade system to regulate
greenhouse gases, and some countries also tax carbon dioxide emissions associated with
heating homes and running cars. Under the plan, the solar sector would receive the largest
amount, €16 billion, or $23.5 billion, over the next decade. By allocating the
second-highest sum, €13 billion, to carbon capture and storage of greenhouse gas
emissions, the commission said it was aiming to make the technology commercially feasible
in all power plants that go into operation after 2020." E.U. Plan to Curb Carbon Dioxide Would Favor Solar Power New York Times, 6 October 2009 |
"Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N) said on
Monday it would begin selling a new rooftop shingle next year that converts sunlight into
electricity -- and could generate $5 billion in
revenue by 2015 for the company. The new solar shingles can be integrated into rooftops
with standard asphalt shingles, Dow said, and will be introduced in 2010 before a wider
roll-out in 2011. 'We're looking at this one product that could generate $5 billion in
revenue by 2015 and $10 billion by 2020,' Jane Palmieri, managing director of Dow Solar
Solutions, told Reuters in an interview. The shingle will use thin-film cells of copper
indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a photovoltaic material that typically is more efficient
at turning sunlight into electricity than traditional polysilicon cells. Dow is using CIGS
cells that operate at higher than 10 percent efficiency, below the efficiencies for the
top polysilicon cells -- but would cost 10 to 15 percent less on a per watt basis. Dow
Solar Solutions said it expects 'an enthusiastic response' from roofing contractors for
the new shingles, since they require no specialized skills or knowledge of solar systems
to install. The new product is the latest advance in 'Building Integrated Photovoltaic'
(BIPV) systems, in which power-generating systems are built directly into the traditional
materials used to construct buildings. BIPV systems are currently limited mostly to
roofing tiles, which operate at lower efficiencies than solar panels and have so far been
too expensive to gain wide acceptance. Dow's shingle will be about 30 to 40 percent
cheaper than current BIPV systems. The Dow shingles can be installed in about 10 hours,
compared with 22 to 30 hours for traditional solar panels, reducing the installation costs
that make up more than 50 percent of total system prices." |
"China launched on Wednesday the
country's biggest on-grid solar power project with electricity capacity of 10 megawatts in
Shizuishan of Ningxia, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The project, run by the China Energy Conservation Investment Corp, was
only the first phase of a total 50-MW project, Xinhua said. 'After the completion of the
first phase, construction for the second and third phases will be finished by 2011,' it
added." |
"Google Inc is in the early
stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid
vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle
charging load. 'We are doing some preliminary work,' said Dan Reicher, Google's director
of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives. 'We have
begun some work on smart charging of electric vehicles and how you would integrate large
number of electric vehicles into the grid successfully. 'We have done a little bit of work
on the software side looking at how you would write a computer code to manage this sort of
charging infrastructure,' he said in an interview on the sidelines of an industry
conference. Google, known for its Internet search engine, in 2007 announced a program to
test Toyota Prius and Ford Escape gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that were converted to
rechargeable plug-in hybrids that run mostly on electricity. One of the experimental
technologies that was being tested by the Web search giant allowed parked plug-ins to
transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening a potential back-up source of
power for the system in peak hours. Google has pushed ahead in addressing climate change
issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm. Reicher said Google has been
testing its fleet of plug-in hybrids 'pretty intensely' for the last couple of years. 'One
of the great things about plug-ins is this great opportunity for the first time to finally
have a storage technology,' he said. Reicher said the company is trying to figure out how
to manage the impact of having millions of future electric vehicle owners plugging in
their vehicles at the same time. 'We got to be careful how we manage these things,' he
said. 'On a hot day in July when 5 million Californians come home, you don't want them all
plugging in at the same moment.' Reicher laid out a scenario where power utilities, during
a time of high demand, could turn on or off the charging of electric vehicles. The owner
of these vehicles, who have agreed to such an arrangement, would get a credit from the
utility in turn. 'The grid operators may well be indifferent to either putting 500
megawatts of new generation on or taking 500 megawatts off,' he said. 'The beauty of
plug-in vehicles is that with the right software behind them, you could manage their
charging.' Apart from plug-in hybrids, Google also is working on other green technologies
such as developing its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building
solar thermal plants by a quarter or more, and looking at gas turbines that would run on
solar power rather than natural gas. The often-quirky company also said in late 2007 that
it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable
energy -- at a price less than burning coal -- within a few years, casting the move as a philanthropic effort to
address climate change." |
"Only in California, some observers are saying, but solar enthusiasts
see the solar electric car charging stations as the wave of future. A joint venture between Foster City-based SolarCity
and San Carlos-based Tesla Motors, the solar charging stations will be placed at four
specific Rabobank locations (Salinas, Atascadero, Santa Maria and Goleta) along the 101
route from San Francisco to Los Angeles, one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the
world. Rabobank, another participant in the revolutionary endeavor, is an international
financial services provider located in 16 countries with headquarters in the Netherlands.
Together, the three entities now offer solar charging venues to Tesla drivers. Next year,
according to SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass, the company will refit the charging
stations to correspond to standards established by the Society of Automotive Engineers,
making them available to drivers of other electric vehicles as well. The solar charging
stations are part of a marketing strategy, of course, but they also represent the
companies’ focus on reducing the use of fossil fuels and the attendant emissions that
contribute to global warming....Funding for the project came from the California Air
Resources Board, which in 2007 provided a grant to Tesla of $641,000, according to Tesla
spokeswoman Rachel Konrad. Part of that grant went into the cooperative development, with
Auburn-based EV supplier Clipper Creek, of a fast-charging unit that Tesla has named the
'High Power Connector'. This unit delivers up to 70
amps (240 volts) of electricity, which can charge the Tesla Roadster in as few as 3.5
hours....The High Power Connector comes with a price
tag of $3,000, but can be installed in any garage or carport with a 15-amp circuit. Tesla
cars can also be charged with any 110-volt outlet, but this process can take up to 1.5
days." |
"Marc Zakian - I am cruising the outskirts of London
in a vehicle that could turn white van drivers green. Green
with envy, as a tank of diesel costs £100 compared with our £5 fill-up; and environmentally green because the van I am steering is electric. The
curved-nosed box-van can carry up to two tonnes (think Transit, but longer and taller). It
is made by Modec, a Midlands-based company set up in 2004 by the former chairman of
Manganese Bronze – makers of the iconic London taxi. After a £30m development, the
Modec was launched in 2007. Driving the Modec is a contradictory experience. Perched in
its cabin, you command the road, and yet the ride is extraordinarily quiet; with none of
the shake and rattle or the whiff of diesel of a traditional van – only the squeaks
from the chassis and the beehive hum of the electric motor let you know you are driving.
With no noise pollution or tailpipe emissions, the electric van should be the bright green
future for commercial transport. But if the Zev (Zero Emission Vehicle) is to replace
Britain's 3m diesel vans it will have to satisfy two demands: the distance it can travel
on one charge, and its price....It is once the Zevs are on the road that savings are made.
'We spend £25 a week charging an electric van, compared with £200 on a diesel
equivalent,' says Nick Murray, TNT's communications manager. 'After three years an
electric van works out cheaper than diesel.' As well
as costing less in fuel, electric vans don't need an MOT, are zero-rated for road tax and
have no oil or filters to change. And with only four moving parts in the engine –
compared with more than 1,000 on an internal combustion engine – electric vehicles
are cheaper to maintain and suffer fewer breakdowns....Although
electric HGVs are starting to make an appearance – last May the port in Los Angeles started using electric trucks to
move sea containers – they are short-range vehicles. Electric vans recharge on the
move, generating power when the vehicle brakes and returning that power to the battery. So
the stop/start rhythms of a delivery van are well-suited to electric power. Long-distance
trucks drive for hours without stopping, way beyond the current 100- to 150-mile battery
range. One potential solution is already incorporated into the Modec van. The battery is
exchangeable. This future-proofs the vehicle, so that as technology improves, vehicles can
be retrofitted with the latest batteries. Currently this swap takes about 15 minutes. But
if the exchange were speeded up, it would pave the way for a relay of 'battery stations'
around the country, with electric vans or trucks swapping spent batteries for charged
ones, giving them an infinite range. This potential is being exploited by Project Better
Place, who with Renault and Nissan are planning an electric car battery station network
which they plan to deploy by 2011. But Dan Jenkins, from Smiths Electric Vehicles,
believes the eventual solution will be improved battery technology. 'Lithium ion battery technology is only at the beginning of its
performance curve,' he stresses. 'In the next few years we will see the range being
extended to 200 miles and beyond. And in the long term, batteries using ultra-capacitors
should mean you can fast-charge in minutes.' In the
meantime, for the newly greened white van driver the Zev is good news. Goodbye to the
bone-battering rattle of the diesel engine, and hello to the gearless, silent, stress-free
world of the electric van." |
"India wrong-footed the United States and other rich nations
yesterday by agreeing for the first time to set numerical targets for curbing its
greenhouse gas emissions. The move added to pressure on the Obama Administration to
deliver on its own climate change pledges even as senior Democrats warned that US
legislation may face severe delays....The announcement marks a breakthough in
international talks, which have stalled over whether emissions curbs in a new UN climate
treaty should apply to developing nations as well as to the developed countries covered by
the Kyoto Protocol.... India has long refused to commit itself to any cuts on the ground
that its per capita emissions are far lower than developed countries’ and any caps
would hamper its economic development. Mr Ramesh said that in Copenhagen, India would
stick to its long-standing commitment to keep per capita emissions below those of
developed nations – and would not agree to any internationally binding cuts. He
added, however, that India was drafting legislation that would set its own targets for
mitigating carbon emissions through various domestic initiatives, such as a massive plan to promote solar energy. Carbon emissions in India are set to soar as its economy expands rapidly
and industrialisation gathers pace. The new targets would be consistent with an annual
growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent for India’s GDP, Mr Ramesh said. The announcement was
designed to improve India’s image in the West as an obstacle to climate change talks
and to put the onus on the developed world to commit to deeper emissions cuts." |
"BrightSource Energy Inc. today
said it has scrapped a controversial plan to build a major solar thermal power facility in
eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (D.-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument. The announcement ended
a long-running dispute between backers of renewable energy and environmentalists strongly
opposed to the idea of creating an industrial zone within 600,000 acres of former railroad
lands that had been donated to the Department of Interior for conservation." |
"California is on track to more
than double its power generated by solar panel installations in 2009, going against a
downward global trend, according to research
released on Wednesday. Research house iSuppli Corp
also expects the Golden State's hot-streak to continue in 2010, when California's
photovoltaic installations, in terms of megawatts of power generated, would increase
another 68 percent, while solar panel installations around the world grow 54 percent. The solar power industry has suffered in the credit crisis, which has dried up available financing for new projects and a dramatic
fall in solar panel prices has cut into companies' profits." |
"A solar-powered house built by a group of Texas students offers a
blueprint for recession-hit U.S. families to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and
their electricity bills without busting their budget. The Zerow House, built by students
at Rice University in Houston, will compete against other solar homes in Washington D.C.
in October as part of the Solar Decathlon sponsored by the U.S. Energy Department. But
unlike some of its competitors, which are integrating high-concept, high-price features
like tricked-out home entertainment systems and moving solar arrays that track the sun, the Rice team's aim is affordability...The house, about the size of a New
York-style efficiency apartment, is a case study in frugality, and could easily be built
in Houston for about $100,000, Sanchez said....Thanks
to strong government incentives, Germany is the world's biggest solar market and is
expected to remain so until 2013, when the United States will become its equal. China will
be slightly behind, according to research firm Lux Research." |
"Since its founding in 2002, Nanosolar has raised a lot of money – half
a billion dollars to date – and made a lot of noise about upending the solar industry, but
the Silicon Valley start-up has been a bit vague on specifics about why it’s the next
big green thing. On Wednesday, Nanosolar pulled back
the curtain on its thin-film photovoltaic cell technology — which it claims is more
efficient and less expensive than that of industry leader First Solar — and announced
that it has secured $4.1 billion in orders for its solar panels. Martin Roscheisen, Nanosolar’s chief executive, said customers
included solar power plant developers like NextLight, AES Solar and Beck Energy of
Germany. The typical Nanosolar farm will be between 2 and 20 megawatts in size, Mr.
Roscheisen said in an e-mail message from Germany, where he was attending the opening of
Nanosolar’s new factory near Berlin. 'This is a sweet spot in terms of ease of
permitting and distributed deployment without having to tax the transmission
infrastructure.' Nanosolar, based in San Jose, Calif., has developed a solar cell made
from copper indium
gallium (di)selenide. The semiconducting materials and nanoparticles are contained
within a proprietary ink that makes it possible to print flexible solar cells on rolls of
cheap aluminum foil." |
"Chinese officials have signed a
deal with America’s First Solar, the world’s largest manufacturer of solar
cells, to convert a remote desert area of inner Mongolia into a giant power station. First
Solar, based in Arizona, said that the plant would be the largest solar station on the
planet and would eventually involve carpeting 25 square miles of the remote Chinese
province — an area roughly the size of Manhattan — with gleaming panels. Once
completed, in 2019, the site will generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity —
equivalent to nearly double the output of the Dungeness nuclear power station and enough
to power three million Chinese homes. Mike Ahearn,
the chief executive of First Solar, said that construction of a pilot project would begin
by June 2010. A further three phases will gradually boost power generation at the site
from 30 to 2,000 megawatts.... He added that a solar plant of this size would cost $5
billion (£3 billion) to $6 billion in the US, but that it would be cheaper to build in
China. While some of the details have not yet been worked out, the plant will be located
within a huge new development zone that is eventually expected to generate nearly 12
gigawatts of renewable energy from wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric power. Beijing
is eager to position China as a world leader in renewable energy. It plans to generate 15
per cent of its energy from green sources by 2020 and a variety of government incentives
have been introduced. First Solar will provide about 27 million thin-film panels for the
site by 2019 and is considering building a factory to support the project." |
| "A joint US-China
plan to 'take over the world' in low-carbon technology will be revealed tomorrow at a
meeting of Davos's World Economic
Forum in Dalian. The sweeping initiative to secure the opportunities arising from tackling
climate change is based
on top-level business collaboration between the two superpowers, with some deals already
done. One obstacle, however, will be growing trade friction over clean technology. Leading industrialists, entrepreneurs and financiers from the
world's two biggest polluters have marked out the development strategy for a trillion
dollar 'greentech' market for inclusion in a bilateral climate agreement that is expected
to be signed by the two governments when Obama visits China in November. The global clean technology market would get a major boost from any deal
at the global climate summit in Copenhagen in December. Under the plan, cash from the two
nations and private sector acumen would be used to massively expand China's solar, wind, carbon capture
and smart-grid markets in a move that could be as groundbreaking as the commercialisation
of the internet. The authors of the plan, which was six months in the making, sketched out
their proposal at a gathering of business executives in Shanghai today. 'This is a
coming-out party for China's 'greentech' initiatives,' said Ming Sung, of the Clean Air
Task Force. 'China and the US can takeover the world on low-carbon technology.' Executives
from Boeing, General Electric and other major US firms talked to counterparts from China,
including senior figures from Suntech, the solar cell maker, and BYD, a manufacturer of hybrid and electric cars. Rod
Quinn, a regional director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was among those
leading the charge for collaboration on 'clean coal' technology. 'I'm very upbeat,' he
said. 'Two great nations. One great plan. That's what we hope for.' Chinese policymakers
noted the government's focus on improving energy efficiency but were
positive about the prospects for shared research in the fields such as gasification of
coal for cleaner burning and the capturing and storing of carbon dioxide emissions. These
two expensive technologies are expected to play a central role in minimising the impact of
coal on global warming – both the US and China are heavily dependent on coal.The
perception that technology development in China relies on western ideas – and a loose
view of patents – is also changing. Progress was made in Shanghai last month on what
has been billed as the world's biggest and most efficient carbon capture and storage
project. The facility is expected to capture carbon at a cost of $40 (£24) a tonne,
compared to $100 a tonne at less-advanced facilities in the US. Its operating utility,
Huaneng has already signed a commercial deal with Duke Energy, one of the biggest oil
companies in the US. Chinese policy advisers said 105 geological sites, mostly saline
aquifers and empty oil shafts, had been identified for possible carbon sequestration.
China is also taking the lead in coal gasification technology, known as Integrated
Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology." US and China to unveil joint plan to 'take over' cleantech market Guardian, 9 September 2009 |
"Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment
ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new
mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter
or more. 'We've been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the
reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on,' the company's
green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in
San Francisco on Wednesday. Google, known for its Internet search engine, in late 2007
said it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable
renewable energy within a few years. The company's
engineers have been focused on solar thermal technology, in which the sun's energy is used
to heat up a substance that produces steam to turn a turbine. Mirrors focus the sun's rays on the heated substance. Weihl said Google is
looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the
sun, by at least a factor of two, 'ideally a factor of three or four.' 'Typically what
we're seeing is $2.50 to $4 a watt (for) capital cost,' Weihl said. 'So a 250 megawatt
installation would be $600 million to a $1 billion. It's a lot of money.' That works out
to 12 to 18 cents a kilowatt hour. Google hopes to have a viable technology to show
internally in a couple of months, Weihl said. It will need to do accelerated testing to
show the impact of decades of wear on the new mirrors in desert conditions." |
| "The rise of the mobile phone has left the streets of Madrid littered
with increasingly redundant telephone booths. But
these underused installations are now set to play a key role in Spain's electric car revolution
under government plans to make them part of a network of electric charging stations for
vehicles. Some 30 telephone boxes have been
earmarked to form part of a test network of 546 state-subsidised recharging points in
Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. Phone boxes are often ideally placed close to the curbs of
pavements and already have their own electricity supply, making them relatively easy to
adapt. The Spanish government will spend €10m (£8.7m) on kick-starting the use of
electric cars over the next two years, with €1.5m going on recharging points. Madrid
city council said that telephone boxes were a possibility, but that it was still in the
process of identifying the recharging spots it planned to build....Electric vehicles would
fit in well with Spain's
extensive network of wind-powered generators. Wind turbines remain operative during
periods of low demand at night, which is when car batteries could be charged up." Madrid reverses the chargers with electric car plan Guardian, 8 September 2009 |
"In a nation known more for its belching smokestacks, solar water
heaters are on nearly every roof in some cities. Manufacturers are eyeing foreign markets,
including Southern California....Before her family bought a solar water heater, Liu Yan
would bathe the way many working-class Chinese have for generations: boil water, dampen a
rag and wipe away the dirt. Today, the 40-year-old mother and her family shower every day
and wash their dishes with hot water. The stainless steel heater affixed to her red-tiled
roof cost about $220. The device has become a symbol of China's rising standard of living
and its leap into the era of clean energy. In the seaside city of 2.8 million where Liu
lives in Shandong province, 99% of households use
solar water heaters. The mattress-sized contraptions
dominate Rizhao's skyline, resting haphazardly on almost every residential rooftop. In the
global race to develop green technology and stem climate change, China has quickly become
a leading producer of solar panels and wind turbines. It also dominates the lesser-known
technology of solar water heaters. Using principles of solar heating more than a century
old, the humble, low-cost devices consist of an angled row of cola-colored glass tubes
that absorb heat from the sun. The most common models fill the tubes with cold water. As
it heats, the water rises into an insulated tank where it can remain hot for days....The
technology's gains here lie in its affordability, the dearth of residential natural gas
service and the modest expectations of consumers, many of whom had never enjoyed hot water
at home before. The starting price for one of the clunky devices is around $220, about the
same as an electric heater in China. In the United States, where labor costs are higher
and systems tend to be larger and more elaborate, solar water heaters can easily cost
$1,500 or more. 'The key to the success in China is that the low price enables people to
have an instantaneous payback,' said John Perlin, a solar energy historian and author of
'From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity.' A thriving, hyper-competitive
industry of 5,000 manufacturers has grown up in the last decade or more, driving costs
down and widening the range of quality. 'The market is huge, but the competition is
fearsome,' said Bi Bangquan, president of Ri- zhao Gold Giant Solar Power, one of 150
manufacturers based in the city." |
"The technological breakthrough that led to digital cameras was the
charge-coupled device, or CCD. The equivalent for electric cars is the lithium-ion
battery, or Li-ion. Just as CCDs were used first in specialist applications, such as
television cameras, so Li-ion batteries have been used in laptop computers and mobile
phones. By 2003, however, their price had dropped to a level where Elon Musk, an
entrepreneur who had helped launch PayPal, an online payments service, thought that they
might be cheap enough to form the basis of an all-electric sports car. The 'killer app' of
this car would be its acceleration. Unlike internal-combustion engines, electric motors
have full torque, as pulling-power is called, from zero revs. They are thus predisposed to
go like a bat out of hell without the aid of a gearbox. Mr Musk’s brainchild is known
as the Tesla Roadster (pictured above). The sports version goes from zero to 100kph
(62mph) in 3.7 seconds—not much slower than a top-line Ferrari. The desire for
acceleration at any price ($121,000, since you ask) is a niche market, but niche markets
are the classic way in for a disruptive technology. Tesla’s next vehicle, the Model
S, is a more mainstream family car. At about $50,000 it will still not be cheap, but it
should be cheap enough to appeal to those who like to think of themselves as early
adopters, but who also have spouses and children to worry about. Another reason for
the high price of Tesla’s cars is their range. According to its maker, the Roadster
can travel almost 400km between charges. The Model S should be able to do even better. But
cheaper electric cars have to make a trade-off between range, price and convenience. Since
batteries can be recharged only slowly (the process takes hours, not minutes), a
car’s effective range is limited by the size of its battery. And batteries are
expensive. A lot of researchers are working on making them cheaper and faster to charge,
of course. In the meantime, though, there are three approaches to the trade-off, each of
which has its champions. One is to accept the range limit and design small, thrifty
vehicles specialised for city use. This has the virtue of simplicity and the vice of
inflexibility. The second is to add a petrol-driven generator known as a 'range extender'.
This complicates the mechanics, but provides the driver with a security blanket, for he
knows he will never be stranded if he can find a petrol station. The third answer is to
keep the car all-battery, but to introduce a network of battery-exchange stations similar
to the existing network of petrol stations, so that someone who is running out of juice
can pull in, swap over and pull out. A leading contender in the first category is
Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV, which should go on sale next year. Its
initial price will be ¥4.6m ($49,000), although that is expected to be cut in half once
the car goes on sale outside Japan. That halving (and potential quartering) of price
compared with a Tesla Roadster is achievable because the i-MiEV’s battery has only 88
Li-ion cells, rather than the Tesla’s 1,800. It
uses its limited resources well, however. Its quoted range is 160km. Other electric city
cars are expected from firms such as Fiat and Toyota. And in November Daimler (which also
owns 6% of Tesla) plans to start producing a Li-ion-powered version of its Smart Fortwo.
In Germany, a full charge will cost about €2 ($2.80) and keep the vehicle going for
around 115km—although there is room in the car, as the name suggests, for only two
people....The third answer, though, is perhaps the
most radical. Instead of a petrol engine, with its widespread infrastructure of filling
stations providing the security blanket, why not build new infrastructure to refuel cars
with new, fully charged batteries? The leading
proponent of this idea is Better Place. This firm, which is based in California, has been
scouring the world for car markets that are, in its terminology, 'islands' and offering to
fit them with networks of car-charging and battery-swapping stations that will use robots
to exchange exhausted batteries for fully charged ones in seconds. Better Place defines an
island as a place with an edge that motorists rarely cross, and the first to be picked by
Shai Agassi, the firm’s founder, was Israel. Though more of the country’s edge
is land than sea, few cars leave by either route. Israel is now being fitted out with the
Better Place infrastructure. Meanwhile, Nissan is tooling up to start building cars with
batteries of the appropriate dimensions, for sale starting next year, and Tesla plans to
offer swappable batteries on the Model S. Other 'islands' that Better Place has signed
deals with include Denmark, Hawaii and Australia. The firm also has a partnership with
Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, to provide swappable batteries for a new
fleet of electric taxis which will take to the streets of the Japanese capital. With some
60,000 taxis in Tokyo, this could turn into a huge market. Besides providing drivers with
secure refuelling, the Better Place approach has a second advantage. Separating ownership
of the battery from ownership of the car changes the economics of electric vehicles. If
you rent the battery rather than buying it, that becomes a running cost (like petrol) and
the sticker price of the car drops accordingly. This might not matter to a sophisticated
economist, who would amortise the battery cost over the life of the vehicle. Many people,
though, are swayed by the number they write on the cheque that they give to the dealer.
Better Place, indeed, plans to go further. It will charge for its services (battery and
electricity) by the kilometre travelled. The cost per
kilometre will be lower than for petrol vehicles, and if you sign up for enough kilometres
a month, it will throw in the car for nothing....That is possible in part because electric cars are efficient.
According to Bosch’s calculations, a conventional internal-combustion-engined car can
travel 1.5-2.5km on a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy. A hybrid with a combined electric and
diesel engine would go up to 3.2km. But a battery-powered car can travel 6.5km. On top of
that, the energy put into them is cheaper. Owners with garages or driveways can top up at
night using the domestic supply. The long recharge time will thus not be an issue, and the
electricity will be cheap, off-peak power. Even if more expensive daytime power is needed
(some office and supermarket car parks are already being fitted with recharging points, in
anticipation of mounting demand), the cost of such juice is still favourable compared with
petrol. Only for garageless owners does recharging become complicated. They will need street-based electrical infrastructure, and a lack of this
will limit the spread of electric vehicles to start with. That said, the batteries are
expected to get better quite fast. No one is talking of Moore’s Law—a doubling
of capacity every 18 months or so. But an improvement
of about 8% a year into the foreseeable future is on the cards. A doubling in a decade, in
other words. Bosch, for example, calculates that a
car fitted with a 40kW motor capable of speeds of up to 120kph would need a Li-ion battery
with a capacity of 35kWh. Today such a battery might cost around €17,000. With the
technology and economies of scale Bosch expects to be available in 2015, that could drop
to €8,000-12,000. As Ford recently pointed out,
if the industry were to move towards a common standard for battery packs, this would help
boost production volumes and so bring prices down even more. Bosch reckons that for electric cars to become universally popular, a
threefold increase in energy density and a fall of two-thirds in the price of batteries
will be needed. To that end, it has set up a joint venture with Samsung of South Korea to
develop and produce Li-ion batteries for automotive use. Indeed,
battery firms, both old and new, are coming up with innovations that add up to the 8%
annual gains. These involve changes to the lithium
chemistry of batteries, their mechanical properties and the electronics that control them.
Among the newcomers are two American firms, A123 Systems and Boston Power, both of which
are based in Massachusetts. A123 was founded in 2001 and is backed by General Electric. It
uses nanoscale materials to boost the performance of its batteries (making an electrode
out of nanoparticles increases its surface area, which in turn decreases the
battery’s internal resistance and improves its ability to store and deliver energy).
Its batteries are already used in power tools, and the company has formed alliances to
supply Chrysler and SAIC Motor Corporation of Shanghai with car-sized versions. Its
batteries were also being considered for the Volt, but GM eventually picked ones made by
LG Chem, a South Korean firm.... Some carmakers are forming partnerships with
battery-makers to ensure supplies and gain access to technology. Others are building their
own battery factories. And some are doing both: Nissan has formed a joint venture with NEC
to produce advanced Li-ion batteries that use a laminated structure to improve cooling.
The firm is planning to put the batteries in a new five-seater family car called the Leaf
that it intends to launch late next year in Japan and America as part of its alliance with
Renault. The group plans to build 200,000 a year, the most ambitious production target so
far for a pure-battery car. The Leaf will be powered by an 80kW electric motor and will
have a range of at least 160km on a full charge. It
can be charged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes with high-powered quick chargers which Nissan
hopes will be installed in petrol stations and other public places. At least one
battery-maker, though, has loftier ambitions than merely supplying carmakers with its
wherewithal. BYD, a Chinese firm, seems to have Panasonic’s success in the world of
cameras in mind. Earlier this year it launched the first of what it promises will be a
range of electric cars that will undercut those made by American and European producers,
in part by using a novel material in the batteries’ electrodes." |
"The number of cars in the rich world will grow only slowly in the
years ahead, but car ownership elsewhere is about to go into overdrive. Over the next 40 years the global fleet of passenger cars is
expected to quadruple to nearly 3 billion. China, which will soon overtake America as the
world’s biggest car market, could have as many cars on its roads in 2050 as are on
the planet today; India’s fleet may have multiplied 50-fold. Forecasts of this kind led Carlos Ghosn, boss of the Renault-Nissan
alliance, to declare 18 months ago that if the industry did not get on with producing cars
with very low or zero emissions, the world would 'explode'. Cars already contribute around
10% of the man-made greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change. In big
cities, especially those in fast-developing countries in Asia and Latin America,
gridlocked traffic is responsible for health-threatening levels of local air pollution. To
its credit (and under increasing pressure from legislators), the car industry is heeding
Mr Ghosn’s call. Biofuels have fallen out of favour because of concerns that those
produced in rich countries are not particularly green; but huge efforts are being made to
develop cleaner conventional engines and, at the same time, move beyond them to electric,
battery-powered vehicles, which produce fewer emissions even when the generation of the
electricity needed to charge them is taken into account. By the end of next year, in
addition to the increasing number of petrol-electric hybrids on offer, it will be possible
for the first time to buy proper cars from mainstream manufacturers that are propelled
solely by electric motors (see article).
Among them will be Nissan’s Leaf and Chevrolet’s Volt. The Leaf will rely on
battery power alone and will have a range of about 160km (100 miles) before it needs to be
plugged in for a fresh charge. The Volt will have a small petrol-engine generator to
recharge its batteries on trips of more than 65km. Both are medium-sized cars offering
decent performance, practicality and safety—and neither looks off-puttingly weird.
Electric cars from other mainstream manufacturers are not far behind. Problem solved,
then? Alas, electric cars still face several roadblocks. The Leaf and the Volt will be
expensive, costing around twice as much as comparable petrol-engined cars. That is because
of the high cost of batteries, and because other components must be redesigned for
electric vehicles. In an industry driven by scale, small volumes lead to high costs. A
further problem is that the Volt and the Leaf must be plugged into the mains every
night—fine if you have your own garage or driveway, but a bit tricky otherwise. All
this could limit the appeal of electric cars to affluent greens living in leafy suburbs.
Carmakers cannot overcome these problems on their own. Governments must also do their
part, and not just in order to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. A switch to electric
vehicles, along with better public transport, would also reduce choking air pollution in
the developing world’s megacities. And most
governments would prefer to be less dependent on imported oil: no country has embraced
electric cars with more enthusiasm than Israel." |
"The electric car, so long
promised, may finally be pulling into your driveway. In the U.S., a humbled General Motors
just showed off one of its rare rays of light — the plug-in Volt, which GM says will
get 230 miles per gallon when it hits roads in late 2010. Daimler is trialing an electric
version of its baby Smart car and claims to get the equivalent of 300 m.p.g. In Japan this
month, a confident Carlos Ghosn said that Nissan's upcoming, all-electric Leaf will get
367 m.p.g. Compared with those experienced players,
Chinese manufacturers are like teenagers just getting their car keys. When it comes to
electric, though, that could be an advantage. Beijing knows that promoting electric
vehicles could be a way to stem the country's rising dependence on foreign oil and clear
its polluted air. At the same time, Chinese battery companies like Lishen and
Shenzhen-based BYD are looking to leverage their technology and leap into electric cars.
Foreign automakers may have a century-long head start on conventional cars, but Chinese
companies can compete on new electric technology today — on cost and on performance.
'When it comes to electric and hybrid cars, China is challenging the automotive industries
in the Western industrial countries,' writes Wolfgang Bernhart, a consultant with Roland
Berger who estimates that electrics and plug-ins could account for more than half the auto
market in China by 2020. 'The race for electric mobility is just getting under
way.'....the government in Beijing has made it very clear that it considers electric and
plug-in vehicles a priority for Chinese companies, and it's willing to spend. The Chinese
State Council announced in January that it would spend $1.6 billion over the next three
years to develop alternative fuels, and there's already an $8,800 subsidy for local
governments and taxi companies that buy electrics and hybrids — which is more than
the U.S. government offers. And China already makes more lithium-ion batteries — the
energy-dense technology key to new electric cars — than any other country on the
planet. 'This is a priority for the Chinese government,' says Kelly Sims Gallagher, author
of the book China Shifts Gears: Automakers, Oil, Pollution, and Development. 'They see it
as a pathway to a more energy-secure future.'...'The Chinese customer is just getting off
a bike, so they're not worried about not being able to drive six hours without a
recharge," says Philip Gott, a director for automotive consulting at research firm
IHS Global Insight. 'China has the chance to work out the kinks in its own
backyard.'...Chinese companies don't have a hundred years of auto manufacturing to unlearn
before they tackle electrics. Just as the country skipped ahead on mobile phones, it could
do the same on electric cars. 'Electrics could be a way for Chinese automakers to leapfrog
the rest of the globe,' says Perkowski. If automakers in the U.S. and elsewhere aren't
worried about losing the race for the next great technology to the Chinese, they should
be. On Aug. 5, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a long-awaited $2.4 billion in
government grants to support the manufacture of electric cars and batteries. 'I don't want
to just reduce our dependence on foreign oil and then end up dependent on foreign
innovations,' Obama told an audience in the economically depressed state of Indiana. 'I
want the cars of the future and the technologies that power them to be developed and
deployed right here, in America.' U.S. automakers will need to move fast — China is
already pulling away." |
| "Nearly a century ago, American engineer Frank Shuman
erected five immense, trough-shaped mirrors in Meadi, Egypt. The parabolic reflectors
directed sunlight onto a tube suspended above their 200-foot lengths. Water inside the
tubes boiled and created steam. The steam powered a 65-horsepower engine, which pumped
6,000 gallons of water per minute from the Nile River to nearby cotton fields. It was the world’s first concentrated solar power (CSP)
plant. Now CSP is poised for a second – or
third, depending on when the count begins – renaissance. And this time, say experts,
it’s here to stay. World CSP capacity is forecast to increase nearly 18-fold in the
next five years, from its current 588 megawatt potential to around 10.5 gigawatts. (Very
roughly, 100 megawatts is enough energy to power 80,000 houses.) More than half of that
new CSP capacity will be installed in the United States. Several factors are driving the
CSP boom. Although utility companies have long viewed CSP as an option for generating
electricity from the sun, they’ve hesitated to commit to the technology. That’s
partly because CSP becomes efficient and cost-effective only at the megawatt (MW) scale.
Photovoltaics, by contrast, can be installed piecemeal on the kilowatt scale – a
panel here, another there. And that’s why photovoltaics have so far dominated the
solar market. Now, the specter of carbon regulation has shifted attention back toward CSP.
The prospect of large-scale solar plants is again attractive. The “renewable
portfolio” standard – which requires increased production of energy from
renewable sources – has also encouraged investment in CSP. And the investment tax
credit – a potential 30 percent credit on qualifying solar projects – has made
investors more willing to risk capital in CSP ventures.... For their part, power companies
like CSP for old-fashioned reasons. For one, it uses a technology – steam-driven
turbines – that is familiar after decades of use in coal-fired plants. CSP plants
also have thermal inertia. That means that, if a cloud passes overhead, they can continue
operating for a time with the heat already gathered, and that’s without storage.
Assuming no rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic fields, by contrast, stop producing
electricity when clouds arrive. Technology for storing heat in molten salts, meanwhile,
promises to extend CSP plants’ generating capacity well into the night.... Earth has
a natural 'sun belt,' a swath of relatively empty subtropical deserts including the US
Southwest, the Sahara, the Middle East, and much of Australia. By one estimate, installing
CSP plants in just 1 percent of the world’s deserts – an area slightly larger
than Ireland – could supply all the world’s electricity. The German Aerospace
Center calculates that, assuming high voltage, transmediterranean transmission lines, just
6,023 square miles of CSP in North Africa could keep all of Europe electrified..... The real challenge is making CSP technology competitive with coal.
Currently, CSP costs about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), within striking range of
current combined-cycle natural-gas plants, in which a gas turbine generator generates
electricity and a steam turbine uses the waste heat to generate more. A combined-cycle
natural-gas plant produces electricity for about 12 cents per kWh. Pulverized coal plants,
on the other hand, generate electricity for 6 cents per kWh – less than half
CSP’s cost. But, says Mr. Mehos, if you assume that future coal-fired plants will
require carbon sequestration, then that cost moves up to about 10 cents per kWh. That
means CSP prices still need to drop by nearly one-third to be competitive with future coal
plants. A plethora of CSP companies are racing to
innovate and reduce costs. At this point, CSP technology comes in four general 'flavors,'
each with different perceived strengths and weaknesses....which technology will dominate
and how it will store heat is still very much an open question." Sunrise for solar heat power Christian Science Monitor, 18 August 2009 |
| "If all goes as expected, solar panel sales people across Australia
will at some point this week uncross their fingers and toes and crack open the champagne.
Among the immediate winners when the renewable energy
bill becomes law will be the 100 staff at Solar Shop
Australia, who have been told their jobs depend on it. The solar industry has been without
Government support since the $8000 rebate was axed in June. The replacement, a solar
credit scheme expected to yield between $4000 and $6000, has been in limbo for two months
since the renewable energy bill was deferred to a committee. The result has been the
plummeting sales of rooftop panels. Beyond boosting the solar industry, the renewable
energy target - requiring that 20 per cent of electricity comes from clean sources by 2020
- is expected to increase electricity prices by 4 per cent compared with what would
otherwise have been expected." Sun to shine again on solar The Age (Australia), 17 August 2009 |
| "Sumitomo, the Japanese trading
house, has struck a landmark deal with Kazakhstan's state nuclear power company in a bid
to secure supplies of rare earth metals — the 'green' minerals whose global supply is
dominated by China and which are used to make environmentally friendly products such as
wind turbines. Sumitomo's plan is to establish a
refinery operation at Kazatomprom's nuclear facilities — uranium ore is one source of
rare earth metals, and the Kazakh facility is refining that at its plant to extract the
uranium. The country is also temptingly full of abandoned Soviet-era uranium mines, over
which Japan and China are expected to tussle. The move is expected to spark tit-for-tat
dealmaking by Beijing, which has moved quickly to
crush any assault on its 98 per cent worldwide monopoly on rare earth production. It may also create a 'gold rush' for Kazakhstan's crumbling Soviet-era
uranium mines. A resource war is now inevitable, say
observers in Tokyo. Governments and consumers around the world may be getting excited
about the dawning of the era of the electric car, but the proposition depends on minerals
which, increasingly, China is making sure stay at home. The rare earth metals comprise a
group of 14 'lanthanide' minerals essential to almost all environmental technology: they
are used in products ranging from low-energy light bulbs and solar panels to hybrid motors
and wind turbines. Critically, their powers of magnetism means they are needed to make
electric motors at a weight that makes them commercially viable for electric cars. The two
most important, neodymium and dysprosium, are thought to be abundant in Kazakhstan's ores. Every year during the past decade, just as Toyota, Mitsubishi and others
have boosted production of hybrid cars and worked on the development of fully electric
vehicles, China has cut its export quotas of rare earth metals by about 6 per cent
annually. Japan expected to be allotted only 38,000 tonnes in 2009 — the amount
consumed by Toyota and Honda alone. Mining experts in Australia, where China has been
buying rare earth mines, have predicted a wider supply crunch within three years as global
rare earth demand surges beyond existing refinery and extraction capacity. The Sumitomo deal, said trading house analysts in Tokyo, marked
the first serious Japanese gambit in what was tipped to be a long and fiercely-fought
resource war: initially between China and Japan, but expected to soon embroil other
nations with strong manufacturing industries. Toyota
Tsusho, the resource buying arm of the world's biggest car company, is also poised to join
the fray with a Y40 billion (£255 million) investment in rare earth metal mining ventures
in Indonesia and Mongolia. China's near stranglehold on the world supply of rare earth
metals has already spawned a vast smuggling network as Japan and others cheat Beijing's
draconian export quotas." Sumitomo in deal with Kazakhstan to supply rare earth minerals London Times, 12 August 2009 |
| "Every now and again there comes along a new technology that changes
civilization. Gunpowder, steam engines, electricity, internal combustion, nuclear energy,
transistors, and the integrated computer circuits readily come to mind. Looming just over the horizon is the possibility that another such
disruptive technology may, and I emphasize may, be in the offing. This technology would be
a capacitor with the ability to store large amounts of high-voltage electricity as a
static charge in a relatively small and inexpensive device. No chemical reactions - just
electrons in and electrons out. Should such a technology become available, the
implications would be immense for the worldwide production and use of energy. Starting
with intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar, a cheap and reliable means of
storing the electric power would make such sources far more useful. Electricity storage
devices stationed along smart power distribution networks could lead to major efficiencies
in the distribution of electrical energy; and inexpensive home storage devices could make
rooftop solar and wind efficient, competitive with centralized generation of power. The
most immediate impact, however, could be on transportation. If a car or truck could be
built at modest cost with a 250 mile all electric range, instantly rechargeable, and a
long life, the automobile and petroleum industries would be transformed forever. This of course all sounds too good to be true and skeptics that large
paradigm-changing capacitors can be built abound. Here the matter would rest except for a small firm down in Texas called EEStor that from all indications
has been working diligently on the development of a high-voltage, high energy density
capacitor for several years....One of the more
fascinating aspects of the story is that EEStor has an agreement with a tiny Canadian
manufacturer of low-speed neighborhood electric cars called Zenn Motors that gives the
Canadians an exclusive license to manufacturer small electric cars powered by EEStor's
capacitor technology and a promise that Zenn will be the first to receive working
capacitors. To further confuse skeptics, EEStor has an agreement with Lockheed Martin to
handle government sales of the capacitor. A few weeks ago a lengthy and candid interview
with the founder of EEStor, Dick Weir, made its way onto the internet. During the
interview, Weir discusses many of the steps and details involved in the development of his
new dielectric material, Composition Modified Barium Titanate powder. Weir said EEStor has
completed the development of the material and now has a small production line in place to
produce the dielectric material which is the key to the device. He further says that
pre-production electricity storage devices built to the specifications of Zenn Motors and
other customers currently are being fabricated and will be available for testing and
certification next month....There would seem to be too many reputable people and
organizations involved with and certifying milestones in this project for EEStor to be a
total fraud. Lockheed Martin has had their scientists examine the project in detail and
concluded that 'while we cannot guarantee that the technology will work as intended, we
see no reason why it won't.' It is unlikely that EEStor would be making arrangements to
take the device to Underwriters Laboratories for electrical certification unless there has
been sufficient integration and testing to insure that it actually works. When and if the
EEStor battery works and is publically displayed, the Lithium-ion battery industry and
many recently announced automobiles based on them could be in trouble. Unlike lithium which is in limited supply, barium is plentiful and can be mined domestically. If EEStor's CEO is to be believed, it is
relatively easy and inexpensive to build production lines for his device as compared to
building lithium batteries." Tom Whipple - The Peak Oil Crisis:A Disruptive Technology Falls Church News-Press, 12 August 2009 |
| "Tesla Motors turned profitable for the first time in July, when the
electric car manufacturer shipped a record 109 vehicles, the company said Friday. A surge
in sales and reduced manufacturing costs of Tesla's Roadster 2 sports car helped boost the
company to $1 million in earnings and $20 million in revenue. 'There is strong demand for
a car that is unique in offering high performance with a clean conscience,' said Tesla
Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a prepared statement. 'Customers know that in buying the
Roadster they are helping fund development of our mass market electric cars.' The Roadster has a range of about 244 miles per charge -- the
first production electric vehicle to cross the 200-mile mark, according to the press
release. The Roadster is the only highway-capable electric vehicle for sale in North
America or Europe, and the company says it is faster than a Porsche and twice as
energy-efficient as a Toyota Prius. In June,
privately owned Tesla borrowed $465 million from the Department of Energy to fund
development of an all-electric sedan called the Model S -- slated to sell for $49,900, or
about half the price of the Roadster. Tesla has also partnered with Daimler to
develop an electric version of mini vehicles called Smart cars. The company said it plans
to launch a test fleet of 1,000 electric Smart cars in late 2009." Electric roadster maker making money CNN, 7 August 2009 |
| "Want to know why the Obama administration’s announcement of
$2.4 billion in electric vehicle grants could be very important? It’s simple: The
commitment show that Washington may be getting serious about keeping batteries from
becoming the new oil. Right now, overseas manufacturers, primarily in Asia, are the world
leaders in the mass production of advanced vehicle batteries. Even US-made hybrids such as
the Ford Fusion have a foreign battery at their core. But the White House and many
lawmakers in Congress say they don’t want to swap reliance on Saudi oil for reliance
on South Korean batteries as part of the nation’s green energy future. Thus the
administration has steered $1.5 billion of the $2.4 billion in electric technology
development funds to battery manufacturing projects. 'I don’t want to have to import
a hybrid car,' said President Obama at an appearance in Warakusa, Ind., Wednesday. 'I want
to build a hybrid car here.' If you think the comparison between oil and batteries is
overblown, consider that IHS Global Insight predicts that by
2020 some 47 percent of the vehicles sold in the US will have some kind of battery power at their core, either coupled with small sparked engines in
hybrids, or alone in full electric cars and trucks." The real reason for Obama’s $2.4 billion electric car grants Christian Science Monitor, 5 August 2009 |
| "For centuries Hindus have revered the sun god, Surya, as a source of
health and prosperity, building lavish temples and holding festivals in his honour across
a country with more than 300 days of sunshine a year. Now
India is putting its faith in the sun in a more literal sense by revealing what experts
describe as the world’s most ambitious plan to develop solar energy over the next
three or four decades. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, will chair a meeting today to
decide whether to approve a National Solar Mission designed to curb India’s carbon
emissions and ease its crippling power shortages. It proposes boosting India’s solar
power generation capacity from almost zero to 20 gigawatts (20 billion watts) by 2020,
100GW by 2030 and 200GW by 2050, according to a draft seen by The Times. The entire world can generate about 14GW of solar power today. India’s plan also proposes reducing the price of solar power
to the same level as that from fossil fuels by 2020,
according to the draft, dated April 29. Solar power in India currently costs about 15
rupees (20p) per kWh, compared with an average 3.5 rupees per kWh for electricity from the
national grid, which is largely produced by coal-fired thermal power plants. Other targets include forcing all government buildings to have
solar panels by 2012 and developing micro-financing to encourage 20 million households to
install solar lighting by 2020. The plan also
outlines a system — similar to Germany’s — of paying households for any
surplus power from solar panels fed back into the grid. To achieve these and other goals,
the mission proposes that the Government invest 920 billion rupees (£11.5 billion) in
developing, manufacturing and installing solar technology over the next 30 years. The mission is primarily designed to improve India’s energy
security as it has abundant supplies of coal — the dirtiest of the fossil fuels
— but has to import 70 per cent of its crude oil and half its natural gas. It is also meant to ease a chronic power shortage that has left 400
million Indians without electricity, causes daily blackouts in cities, and represents one
of the biggest obstacles to economic growth." India looks to the sun for ambitious surge in green power London Times, 3 August 2009 |
| "Without a way to store their power, no number of solar panels will
free a home from the electrical grid. Researchers at
Utah-based Ceramatec have developed a new battery that can be scaled up to store 20
kilowatt-hours—enough to power an average home for most of a day. An easy sell for solar users, but it could also allow the grid-bound to
stockpile energy during less expensive off-peak hours. The new battery runs on
sodium-sulfur—a composition that typically operates at greater than 600 F.
'Sodium-sulfur is more energetic than lead-acid, so if you can somehow get it to a lower
temperature, it would be valuable for residential use, Ralph Brodd, an independent energy
conversion consultant, says. Ceramatec’s new battery runs at less than 200 F. The
secret is a thin ceramic membrane that is sandwiched between the sodium and sulfur. Only
positive sodium ions can pass through, leaving electrons to create a useful electrical
current. Ceramatec says that batteries will be ready
for market testing in 2011, and will sell for about $2000." The Key to the Battery-Powered House Popular Mechanics, July 2009 |
| "It's a simple idea: cure
Europe’s addiction to fossil fuels by connecting its electricity-hungry consumers to
the deserts of north Africa that are rich in solar energy. Simple, but surely this is
straight out of science fiction? There may be plenty of sun power in the Sahara, but the
cost and political problems in creating an infrastructure to harvest it are daunting. Some
serious players, however, have joined together to see if the obstacles can be overcome.
Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance group and a leader among financial
institutions on climate change, brought together 12 finance and energy companies in Munich
a fortnight ago to seek a solution. The reinsurer,
which has had to make high payouts in recent years for damage caused by erratic weather,
believes solar power in north Africa could deliver 15% of Europe’s electricity by
2050. The concept of harnessing solar power from the
deserts has long been promoted by Desertec, a European network of scientists and
engineers, but this is the first time that commercial companies have come together to
discuss how to turn it into reality.Deutsche Bank, Eon, Siemens and ABB attended the
meeting, along with representatives from Desertec, the European Union and the League of
Arab States. Delegates agreed to fund a three-year feasibility study and set up a
consortium, with all 12 members having pledged to contribute to the $2.5m (£1.5m) running
costs for the first year. So what is the likely price
tag for a scheme that would provide the 15% specified by Munich Re? $560 billion. 'We believe that the technology is available but we want to see if the
concept can be realised from a political and economic point of view,' said the reinsurer.
The plan would depend on an enormous expansion of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in
countries such as Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. CSP plants use mirrors to direct sunlight
into a small area and generate heat. That creates steam, which drives a turbine to
generate electricity (see graphic above). The advantage over photo-voltaic solar panels is
that it does not need expensive silicon to generate power. CSP needs lots of direct
sunlight, making it unsuitable for European countries but ideal for deserts. Power
generation can continue at night, using spare heat that has been held over from the
daytime and stored in tanks filled with melted salts such as sodium nitrate or potassium
nitrate, or in blocks of concrete. This enables generators to offer a constant power
supply and match the peak demand that occurs in the evenings. Desertec
claims that the world’s present electricity needs could be met by covering just 1% of
the world’s deserts with CSP. Cost is a problem.
Electricity generated by CSP costs about €0.15
per kilowatt, compared with €0.06 per kilowatt for electricity generated from coal or
nuclear stations. Supporters of the Desertec plan believe the price of CSP can be brought
down to the same level as fossil fuels if European governments provide subsidies for 10 to
15 years. These would probably take the form of feed-in tariffs, which would give CSP
generators a guaranteed price above market rates for a fixed time. These subsidies would
cost anything between €50 billion (£43 billion) and €250 billion, according to
a study by the Vienna-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, which
presented its findings at the Copenhagen global warming conference in March. At least another €200 billion would be needed to build the CSP plants
and invest in a transmission grid that could bring the power to European countries. The
institute’s Anthony Patt believes that north African countries are cautiously
supportive of the Desertec concept, provided local energy needs are also met. 'I’m
confident that a deal can be struck that is good for north Africa,' he said....The plan is
not without its critics. Hermann Scheer, head of the European Association for Renewable
Energy (Eurosolar), has said the initiative is unviable, claiming its proponents have
underestimated the technical and political challenges and the likely cost." Desert sun power pulls in the big guns London Times, 26 July 2009 |
“Homeowners who install solar
panels and wind turbines will be paid for any electricity that they feed back into the
National Grid, the Government confirmed yesterday.
The payments will be based on a fixed price per unit of electricity and will be set high
enough to encourage hundreds of thousands of homes to invest in renewable sources of
power. Local energy suppliers will adjust the bills that they issue according to the
number of units fed back into the grid. Homeowners with low energy consumption and a solar
panel could receive net payments from their energy company. Ed Miliband, the Energy and
Climate Change Secretary, said that the ‘feed-in tariffs’ would be available from next April.” |
“The world's
most ambitious green energy project is about to take shape. It
is a plan for a chain of mammoth sun-powered energy plants in the deserts of North Africa
to supply power to Europe's homes and factories by the end of the next decade. In a few
days' time a consortium of 20 German firms will meet in Munich to hammer out plans for
funding the giant €400bn (£343bn) project, named Desertec. The scheme is being
backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and several German industry household
names including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and the energy companies RWE and E.ON. The Munich meeting will also involve Italian and Spanish energy concerns,
as well as representatives from the Arab League and the Club of Rome think-tank. Energy
experts have calculated that Desertec could meet at least 15 per cent of Europe's needs,
and be up and running by 2019. By 2050, they estimate the contribution could be between 20
and 25 per cent. Although no host countries have been named, Desertec envisages a string
of solar-thermal plants across North Africa's desert. The
plants would use mirrors to focus the sun's rays, which would be used to heat water to
power steam turbines. The process is cheaper and more efficient than the usual form of
solar power, which uses photovoltaic cells to convert the sun's rays into electricity. The project also envisages setting up a new super grid of high-voltage
transmission lines from the Mahgreb desert to Europe. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, of German
Aerospace, has researched the project for the German government. He said that although the
idea behind the scheme had been around for several years, investors had been deterred by
the high costs of setting up the infrastructure. .. Germany's
largest solar energy company, SolarWorld, argues that North Africa is too risky a
location. ‘Building solar power plants in
politically unstable countries opens you to the same kind of dependency as the situation
with oil,’ said Frank Asbeck, the firm's managing director. Other critics claim that
by singling out comparatively poor North African countries as a location for a
sophisticated European solar energy project amounts to a form of ‘solar
imperialism’.” |
| "It may take a little bit of color to create cheaper solar energy.
Israeli start-up 3GSolar says it has developed the world's first commercial-size solar
energy system that uses colored dyes to turn sunlight into electricity. The technology
emerged from a relatively new field in solar energy that uses simple organic dyes instead
of rare or costly materials, like silicon, which scare many consumers away from solar
power. Energy companies have been struggling for years to make dye-sensitized solar cells
(DSC) large enough to be used in commercial-size systems. Such
next generation cells could be used in cutting-edge applications, like windows that turn
passing sun rays into electricity. Japanese
electronics conglomerate Sony Corp said last year it had developed dye-sensitized cells
with an energy conversion efficiency of 10 percent, a level seen necessary for commercial
use, but that its technology was still in the research and development stage. A 1.5 square
meter (16 square foot) prototype, boasting red panels, stands on the rooftop of the
3GSolar's Jerusalem laboratories. The company's founder, Jonathan Goldstein, says it is by
far the largest in the world. It transforms just seven percent of the sunlight it absorbs
into electricity, but he said that its efficiency would increase steadily in the coming
years. Scaling up the size of solar panels has been hampered by problems of metal
corrosion in their grids. 3GSolar would not disclose the exact process it used to overcome
the obstacle. 'These cells, each individual one of 225 square centimeters (34 square
inches), we believe are the largest of this type in the world and give a record-breaking
current,' Goldstein said. Dye-sensitized solar cells are also known as Graetzel cells,
after Michael Graetzel, a professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in
Switzerland, who discovered them about 20 years ago. He found that sunlight excites the
dye and creates and electronic charge without the need for pricey semiconductors, similar
to the way a plant uses chlorophyll to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis. Graetzel told Reuters the dye-based technology has been gaining
momentum in the renewable energy market. He said there were key advantages over other
systems. These included lower costs, its ability to create electricity in cloudy areas or
in non-peak sunlight, and the smaller amount of energy needed to manufacture the panels,
which leaves a smaller carbon footprint. '3GSolar came up with a solution. They report to
have a collector that doesn't corrode,' Graetzel said. He added that the company has shown
promising results from durability tests on their panels carried out over 1,500 hours at 85
degrees Celsius....3GSolar says its first system --
with two solar panels, a charge controller and a battery -- will hit the market in two
years. It will target the off-grid market in developing countries, where many villages
still depend on candlelight. The Brussels-based Alliance for Rural Electrification
estimated the off-grid market at $1.5 billion. 3GSolar said its system will have a
lifespan of about seven years and have an output of 110 watts, enough to power many types
of refrigerators.It will cost $400, less than similar silicon-based systems, when produced
locally. That translates into 30 cents per kWh, which is still much higher than fossil
fuels. The company expects the price will come down as the lifespan increases and
production costs drop." Colored dyes offer cheap solar power: Israeli firm Reuters, 9 July 2009 |
| "On June 26, a prototype of the world's latest solar-powered airplane was
unveiled at an airfield in Dubendorf, Switzerland, by company co-founders and future
pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. The Solar Impulse HB-SIA is
designed to fly both day and night without the need for fuel and without producing any
pollution. The plane, which is scheduled to make its first flight later this year, was
built to stay airborne for several days operating just on the power emitted by the sun and
captured by its solar panels. The goal and challenge of the craft is to show the viability
of renewable energy. 'If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled
solely by solar energy,' says Piccard, 'let no one come and claim that is impossible to do
the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems, and
computers'" Soaring ambition for solar aircraft CNET News, 3 July 2009 |
| "The solar energy industry will grow faster than expected during the
next few years as American utilities invest heavily in large-scale solar farms, analysts
with Barclays Capital said Tuesday in
a research note. Barclays analyst Vishal Shah noted that demand for utility-scale solar projects could eventually make up
half of the U.S. market. Major utilities could install about 5 gigawatts of solar
photovoltaic projects during the next three years, the analyst said. Solar power is still
a tiny player on the American electrical grid, however. The
utility-scale projects currently in operation in the U.S. provide 444 megawatts of energy
to the grid according to the Solar Energy Industries
Association. That's enough to power 2.8 million homes, and it's only a fraction of the power generated by another alternative
energy source, the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Phoenix. That amount is expected to jump more
than 12-fold in the next few years, however, with dozens of new solar plants under
development in California, Arizona, Florida and Hawaii." Solar industry to see faster than expected growth Associated Press, 23 June 2009 |
| "Britain could become a booming market for solar power from next year
when the UK introduces a support system used
successfully by dozens of other countries. Last week 240 MPs signed a parliamentary motion
supporting the mass rollout of solar photovoltaic (PV) power. The support was the biggest
of any such motion introduced in this parliament. Colin
Challen MP, who tabled the motion, said: 'There is an enormous opportunity to drive
forward this technology through the forthcoming feed-in tariffs.' Feed-in tariffs (FITs)
work by paying a guaranteed, above-market price for any electricity fed into the grid for
a period of 20-25 years. They have been designed to offer returns close to 10%, thereby
reducing payback times for any household investing in a PV system to 10 years or
less." Sunnier times ahead for solar energy as MPs back tariff boost for photovoltaic power Guardian, 15 June 2009 |
| "The desolate, sun-baked deserts of southwestern Bolivia are poised
to become the energy battleground of the 21st century, with China and Japan staking early
and aggressive claims in the great lithium land-grab. Japan, observers say, may have won
the first round, but, with its mainstream resource ambitions thwarted on the Rio Tinto
deal, China could redouble its efforts to gain a foothold in the salt flats of South
America and the all-important technology metals. The
flurry of ruthlessly competitive diplomatic and corporate overtures to Bolivia from both
Tokyo and Beijing is driven by the same dream: ultimate control of the future global
market for electric vehicles. An ample supply of lithium, at least using current
technology, is the critical weapon in that quest and Bolivia is to lithium what Saudi
Arabia is to oil, say geologists. Masao Kando,
director-general of the metals strategy department of the Japanese Government, told The
Times: 'We all know that China is becoming the world's biggest car producer and we see
them as our biggest rival. Looking at the Rio Tinto case, we see that China is moving to
secure resources by throwing incredibly abundant capital at the effort and it is sometimes
hard to compete with that.'...At present, Chile is the world's biggest annual producer of
lithium, but half the planet's known reserves of the metal are thought to lie under the
Salar De Uyuni in Bolivia. The right relationship with La Paz will hold the key to
everything, according to senior Japanese officials. For the two rival Asian economic
giants, control of lithium supplies - or at least a firm guarantee of stable future flows
- is vital. For Japan, whose export-led economy is dominated by the lithium-hungry auto
and electronics industries, it is a fight for survival of the status quo. With reliable long-term sources of lithium, Japanese companies can
continue producing batteries for the world's laptops, digital cameras and mobile phones.
With the same guarantee, Japanese car companies will be able to convert their
manufacturing prowess to mass production of electric vehicles. Yet for China the
motivation for lithium dominance is even more compelling: the United States, Germany and
Japan led the world in the development of petrol-driven cars in the 20th century and it
would take many years for Chinese carmakers to match that expertise. Electric vehicles, on
the other hand, represent a blank slate: these are pioneering days in the post-combustion
engine era and a potentially huge opportunity for China to lunge for early leadership,
increasingly nervous Japanese automaker executives believe....China, whose lands hold about a tenth of the estimated global reserves
of lithium, is the world's third-largest producer and several of its companies have
rapidly grown to become substantial global players in lithium battery production.
Beijing's efforts to butter-up the authorities in La Paz have included a donation of cash
to help to build a school in the town where President Morales was born and a gift of about
50 military vehicles, including two ships." Japan and China fight it out for right to mine lithium under Bond's battlefield London Times, 15 June 2009 |
| "U.S. demand for residential
solar power installations is surging despite an economic recession, thanks to government financial incentives, some easing in credit
availability, and increasing public recognition of its environmental benefits, industry
executives said on Tuesday. Companies represented at the PV America solar conference in
Philadelphia said the volume of their installations as much as tripled in 2008 and they
see further gains this year as more people recognize that they can cut their electricity
bills by at least 15 percent with an array of solar panels installed on the roof of their
homes....Faced with a cost of about $50,000 for installation of a 7-kilowatt system on a
typical 2,500-square-foot house, a New Jersey homeowner can defray the expense with a
$12,500 rebate from the state and a federal tax credit of $11,000, Naik said. After the
first year, the homeowner can also expect a refund check for about $3,200 from the local
utility in return for installing the solar panels, Naik said. The owner can expect to save
about $1,700 a year in electricity bills, and should recoup the initial investment within
five to eight years, he said. According to industry
trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association, there was an overall 16 percent
increase in solar capacity, including commercial installations, in 2008. Jeffrey Wolfe, chief executive of Vermont-based installer groSolar, said
the market has also been boosted by lower prices for solar panels due in part to an
increase in the supply of the polysilicon, the raw material used for their construction.
Wolfe argued the industry is benefiting from a cultural change that is more accepting of
the need to find alternatives to fossil fuels, in part because of last year's surge in
gasoline prices to more than $4 a gallon. 'People have seen what energy prices can do, and
they have come to the end of their rope in denying climate change,' Wolfe said. Companies
are also getting creative in bringing the upfront costs of solar power down for customers.
groSolar, for one, is providing financing to customers who are unable to front the
$40,000-$50,000 price tag for a typical solar installation. Wolfe's company now operates a
lease program requiring a down payment of $1,000 and then regular monthly payments for use
of the system. In California, Arizona and Oregon, SolarCity installs systems without any
down payment from the customer, who then pays a lease fee which typically ranges from $25
to $60 a month, said David Arfin, vice president of customer financing. The company owns
and maintains the system but the homeowner benefits from the reduced utility bills, he
said." U.S. demand for residential solar rising in '09 Reuters, 9 June 2009 |
| "China said it will introduce a
preferential tariff it will pay energy companies that use solar power for their generating
capacity, as part of the government's push for
greater use of clean technology. The preferential tariff -- the price that China's two
state-owned electricity transmission and distribution companies will pay energy companies
for their solar power -- aims to make solar power competitive against traditional fuels,
such as coal..." China to Encourage Solar Use Wall St Journal, 3 June 2009 |
| "The U.S. solar market is poised
to triple next year as federal stimulus funds become available and access to financing for
renewable energy projects is unfrozen, Suntech Power
Holdings Co Ltd Chief Strategy Officer Steven Chan said on Tuesday. Despite the weak
economy, Chan also said he expects the solar market in the United States to be about flat
in 2009 compared with 2008. At the same time, Suntech expects to double its U.S. market
share to 20 percent this year from 10 percent last year. 'The prospects for 2010 and
beyond are quite significant,' Chan told the Reuters Global Energy Summit
via phone. 'Next year, I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. market tripled off of this
year.'" Suntech sees U.S. solar tripling in 2010 Reuters, 2 June 2009 |
| "President Barack Obama
Wednesday announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to
expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy
across the United States. The funding is intended to
help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new
technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs. 'We have a choice,' said the
President, addressing armed services personnel and legislators at Nellis Air Force Base.
We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s
leading exporter of clean energy. We can hand over the jobs of the future to our
competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity
of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will
be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That’s the nation I want
America to be." Obama Invests $467M in Solar and Geothermal Development Environment News Service, 28 May 2009 |
| "Europe should scrap its support for wind energy as soon as possible
to focus on far more efficient emerging forms of clean power generation including solar
thermal energy, one of the world’s most distinguished scientists said yesterday.
Professor Jack Steinberger, a Nobel prize-winning director of the CERN particle physics
laboratory in Geneva, said that wind represented an illusory technology — a
cul-de-sac that would prove uneconomic and a waste of resources in the battle against
climate change. 'Wind is not the future,' he told the symposium of Nobel laureates at the
Royal Society. Instead, he said, technologies such as solar thermal power — for which
parabolic mirrors reflect the Sun’s rays to generate heat and electricity —
represent a more promising way of supplanting fossil fuels. 'I am certain that the energy
of the future is going to be thermal solar,' he told The Times. 'There is nothing
comparable. The sooner we focus on it the better.' Professor
Steinberger said that all known reserves of fossil fuels would be depleted within 60 years
and that a network of solar energy farms in the Sahara could reliably supply nearly 80 per
cent of Europe’s energy needs by the middle of this century. He called for European governments to fund a big pilot project in North
Africa linked to Europe via high-voltage undersea cables. Solar thermal power was already
economic and on the brink of big advances that would place it way ahead of rival forms of
wind, geothermal, wave and tidal energy, he said. 'Governments need to focus on this area
right now.' A 3-3.5 gigawatt solar thermal project in North Africa, which would generate
enough electricity to supply two million homes, would cost £20 billion to build. 'I am
certain you could make electricity and ship it to Europe at a price equivalent to fossil
fuels.' He said that intermittent energy sources, such as wind, required back-up power
generation, which undermined their contribution to emissions reductions. In contrast,
solar thermal power could generate heat energy that could reliably generate 24-hour
electricity. Britain has made wind energy a priority in reducing carbon emissions by 34
per cent by 2020. The Government plans to build 33 gigawatts of offshore wind power by
2020, which the professional services organisation Ernst & Young estimates will cost
more than £100 billion. Professor Steinberger said that it would cost about £440 billion
and take 30 years for Europe to remove its reliance on fossil fuels, which supply 80 per
cent of its energy needs, but that governments needed to make bold decisions about which
technologies to support. Commercial-scale solar thermal power plants were operating in
Spain, the US and Germany, but further research was needed to refine the technology and
cut costs, he said." Solar power should replace wind energy, says Jack Steinberger London Times, 27 May 2009 |
| "The government intends to make
mandatory the use of solar heating systems in all functional buildings under the first
phase of the proposed National Solar Mission. To be
implemented between 2009 and 2012, the Mission proposes to make it compulsory for all
hospitals, guest houses, hotels and nursing homes to install solar water heaters. This
will be applicable to residential complexes too if a minimum plot area of 500 square
metres is available...The Mission also proposes to further expand the solar lighting
system to provide access to lighting for 3 million households by 2012 in urban and rural
areas. The setting up of solar charging stations are also proposed for solar lanterns
currently being distributed on a large scale in the rural areas. This is estimated to cost
Rs.1,200 crore." Mandatory use of solar heating system The Hindu, 25 May 2009 |
| "Solar power stations that
concentrate sunlight could generate up to one-quarter of the world's electricity needs by
2050, according to a study by environmental and solar industry groups. The technology, best suited to the desert regions of the world, could
also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and save millions of tonnes of CO2 from
entering the atmosphere. Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight
onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity. It
differs from photovoltaics, which use solar panels to turn sunlight directly into
electricity and can operate even on overcast days. CSP only works in places where there
are many days with clear skies and is a proven, reliable technology. At the end of 2008
CSP capacity was around 430MW, and worldwide investment in the technology will reach
€2bn (£1.8bn) this year, according to Sven Teske of Greenpeace International
and co-author of the report. He said investment could increase, under a relatively
moderate scenario, to €11.1bn by 2010 and provide 7% of the world's generating
capacity by 2030. By 2050 investment could reach €92.5bn, creating almost 2m jobs by
2050 and saving 2.1bn tonnes of CO2 every year. 'Due to the feed-in tariff in Spain and a
few schemes in the US, this technology is actually taking off and we wanted to highlight
that we have a third big technology to fight climate change — wind, photovoltaics and
now CSP,' said Teske. Spain is leading the field on CSP: more than 50 solar projects in
the country have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, it will
generate more than 2GW of power from CSP, comfortably exceeding current national targets.
Spanish companies are also exporting their technology around the world. Environmentalists
argue that many countries in the 'sun-belt' around the equator would benefit from CSP
technology — including desert regions in the southern United States, north Africa,
Mexico, China and India. The new study, carried out by Greenpeace International, the
European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency's (IEA)
SolarPACES group, looked at three scenarios of future growth in CSP. The first was
business-as-usual reference scenario that assumed no increases at all in CSP; the second
continued the CSP investments seen in recent years in places such as Spain and the US;
while the advanced scenario was most optimistic, removing all political and investment
barriers to give figures for the true potential of CSP. Under the third, most optimistic,
scenario there could be a giant surge in investments to €21bn a year by 2015 and
€174bn a year by 2050, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. In this case, solar
plants would have installed capacity of 1,500GW by 2050 and provide 25% of the world's
electricity capacity. Even in the second scenario, which sees only modest increases, the
world's combined CSP capacity could reach 830GW by 2050, representing up to 12% of the
world's energy generation needs. Teske acknowledged that these estimates were far higher
than official figures from the IEA. It says that by 2050, CSP would provide only0.2% of
global power generation. But Teske added that the IEA analysis does not assume any
increases in production capacity in the next few decades, hence CSP forms a very small
part of the overall energy mix. The new report also said that CSP technology was improving
rapidly, with many new power plants fitted with storage systems for steam so that they
could continue to operate at night. In addition it said the cost of the electricity
produced , currently at €0.15 to €0.23 a kilowatt, would fall to
€0.10-€0.14 by 2020 if governments continued to support the technology with
incentives such as feed-in tarriffs." Concentrated solar power could generate 'quarter of world's energy' Guardian, 26 May 2009 |
| "Australia plans to build the world's largest
solar power station with an output of 1000 megawatts in a A$1.4 billion (US$1.05 billion)
investment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday.The plant would have three times the
generating capacity of the current biggest solar-powered electricity plant, which is in
California, Rudd said during a tour of a power station. Tender details will be announced later in the year, and successful
bidders will be named in the first half of 2010. Rudd said the project was aimed at
exploiting the country's ample sunshine, which he called 'Australia's biggest natural
resource'' It was also aimed at helping the country become a leader in renewable, clean
energy, he said....The project should eventually lead to a network of solar-powered
stations across the country, Rudd said, with locations chosen to fit in with the existing
electricity grid and ensure good access to sunshine....Rudd also said Australia would
become a full member of the International Renewable Energy Agency, which will have its
first global meeting in June." Australia to build world's largest solar energy plant: PM Reuters, 17 May 2009 |
| "San Francisco took a major step today toward building California's largest solar photovoltaic system -- a plan that would more than triple the city's solar energy output by
carpeting the rooftop of its biggest reservoir with almost 25,000 panels. Recurrent
Energy, a San Francisco firm, will install and operate the 5 megawatt array atop the
reservoir, an area roughly the size of 12 football fields. Standing atop the Sunset
Reservoir -- so named because it lies in the city's Sunset District -- Newsom signed an
ordinance into law this morning that enables the installation project and a 25-year
contract with the distributed power firm Recurrent Energy to go forward." San Francisco Moves Ahead with Plans to Build 5MW Solar Farm Reuters, 15 May 2009 |
| "New York wants to install up to 100 megawatts of solar photovoltaic
power at public and private facilities to help meet the state's aggressive renewable
mandate, the governor said in a release Friday. Specifically, the state-owned power
generating company, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), will seek parties interested in
entering into public-private partnerships with the state to install the solar arrays. The solar power generated by the arrays would power about 15,000
homes, according to NYPA. Proposals are due by July
7. The state said any proposals it selects would likely start in 2010.The solar power
would help the state meet the governor's 45-by-15 program. By 2015, the governor wants New
York to receive 45 percent of its electricity through energy efficiency and renewable
power. The state has estimated the 45-by-15 program would create about 50,000 new jobs.
Officials at the governor's office were not immediately available for comment. The state
did not estimate how much it would cost to build 100 MW of solar power. Solar photovoltaic
power is one of the most expensive types of generation. A
kilowatt costs an estimated $6,000, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration. It could cost about $600 million to build 100 MW of solar photovoltaic
power. Wind power, meanwhile, costs about $1,900 per kilowatt to build onshore and $3,800
per kilowatt offshore, while combined cycle natural gas-fired generation costs about
$1,000 per kilowatt and coal-fired generation costs about $2,000 per kilowatt. Unlike natural gas and coal-fired generation, wind and solar power are
only available about a third of the time." NY wants to install 100 MW of solar power Reuters, 15 May 2009 |
"Declaring it a record total, Pacific Gas & Electric on Wednesday
announced an expansion of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a
total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough
to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours of noon to 7 p.m. The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants,
add to a previous contract the two companies struck in April 2008 for up to 900 megawatts
of solar thermal power. BrightSource called it the largest solar deal ever. The company
now has 2,610 megawatts under contract, which it said is more than any other solar thermal
company and represents more than 40 percent of all large-scale solar thermal contracts in
the United States." |
| "The Mohave Sun Power company is
planning a project in Mohave County that could begin construction in the fourth quarter of
2010. It will use 4,000 acres of land and employ concentrating solar power. Molten salt will be the storage medium. Mitchell Dong, the company's CEO
explained the technology, 'It's a parabolic trough, or a 'U'-shaped mirror that reflects
or concentrates the sunlight by a factor of 100 to this thin tube of transfer fluid. In
this case, it's a synthetic oil heated to 800 degrees by the sun's light. There are rows
and rows of these collectors and this 800 degree oil is pumped to a central power block, a
central location where that hot oil goes to a boiler. It makes steam and drives a single
steam turbine. Of course the whole installation would use many arrays of parabolic
troughs. Energy generated by the plant would be purchased by California, Nevada, Arizona
and Colorado. If the planning and construction processes go smoothly the plant could
starting producing electricity by 2013. The planning actually has been going on for some
time: 'We have been working on this for over a year,' said Mohave County Supervisor Buster
Johnson. (Mohave County has already had a different 200 MW project planned for
construction.) This larger one will depend upon federal stimulus money for financing. If
approved and funded, the project could generate an estimated 1,500 jobs during the
construction phase, and require 100 employees when operational. Such a large plant would
also generate local tax revenues. Construction cost is estimated at two billion
dollars." World's Largest Solar Thermal Plant Planned for Arizona Reuters, 13 May 2009 |
| "Calling Silicon Valley 'the most innovative place in the world,'
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday told an audience of solar technology executives and
industry representatives that 'we need to find ways to reduce our use of fossil fuel and
use what we have in abundance in California — the sun.' 'I'm a big believer in solar
technology,' he told about 350 people attending a daylong 'solar summit' in San Jose meant
to accelerate the state's solar economy. 'We want to make this state the solar state.'
Schwarzenegger has already played a major role in pushing for solar in California. At his
direction in 2006, the California Solar Initiative created a $3.3 billion, 10-year program
to put solar panels on 1 million roofs in the state. The program includes state renewable
energy incentives and a rebates program. But he is frustrated by the public's capricious
reception to solar energy, the popularity of which seems to fluctuate with gas prices. 'You've got to look ahead 20 to 30 years,' he said. 'Every time
oil prices go down, we abandon that vision. '... You've got to have a plan and stick with
that plan.' The conference focused on developing
standards to reduce installation time and costs for solar-power systems." Schwarzenegger touts solar technology in San Jose Mercury News, 8 May 2009 |
| "Solar company Konarka has
developed a transparent solar cell that it hopes will be built onto electricity-generating
windows. The Lowell, Mass.-based company on Tuesday
said it has reached an agreement with Arch Aluminum & Glass to use Konarka's plastic
solar cells in building materials, including windows. Under its Arch Active Solar Glass
development, the company has built prototypes of windows with the solar cells between two
panes of glass. The photovoltaic cells can be tinted different colors.....But these
organic photovoltaics aren't very efficient at converting sunlight to electricity and
won't last as long as a rooftop solar panel, which is typically under warranty for 25
years. Konarka said late last year that it achieved 6 percent efficiency in its labs but
that's not yet available in its products. A high-efficiency silicon solar cell, the most
common cell material, can be over 20 percent. Konarka's factory is turning out red solar
cells but has started making the transparent cells in limited runs for prototypes and
development, according to a representative. Although Konarka has raised over $100 million
and has signed a number of partnerships, there are many people who are skeptical that the
company can be profitable. 'The real key will be to see if they can make
building-integrated products that can stand the weather for 20-plus years,' clean-tech
venture capitalist Rob Day from @Ventures told Greentech
Media in December last year. Konarka also faces
growing competition in the building-integrated photovoltaics field. Thin-film solar
manufacturers, including Heliovot, also make flexible cells that can be fitted onto glass
or building structures such as awnings but are more efficient. Nanosolar's cells made from
CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide), for example, are in the 9 percent to 10 percent range." Transparent plastic solar cells fitted into windows | Green Tech CNET News, 8 May 2008 |
| "Cars powered by hydrogen fuel
cells, once hailed by President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for reducing
the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, will not be practical over the next 10 to 20
years, the energy secretary said Thursday, and the government will cut off funds for the
vehicles’ development. Developing those cells
and coming up with a way to transport the hydrogen is a big challenge, Energy Secretary
Steven Chu said in releasing energy-related details of the administration’s budget
for the year beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects
that would bear fruit more quickly. The retreat from cars powered by fuel cells counters
Mr. Bush’s prediction in 2003 that “the first car driven by a child born today
could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” The Energy Department will
continue to pay for research into stationary fuel cells, which Dr. Chu said could be used
like batteries on the power grid and do not require compact storage of hydrogen." U.S. Drops Research Into Fuel Cells for Cars New York Times, 7 May 2009 |
| "Just as we already have a problem with peak oil having caused last
year's massive price spike at the pumps, there may be a similar paucity in the world's
capacity to produce lithium, the miracle metal key to so many automakers' future plans for
hybrid and electric vehicles.This lightest metal in the periodic table was used primarily
in the production of ceramics and high-temperature glass, not to mention anti-psychotic
drugs. But, about two decades ago, it started gaining prominence as a material used for
battery production, thanks to the relatively high energy density and comparatively light
weight of lithium ion cells. Virtually all cellphone and laptop batteries use lithium as a
core constituent. The much-ballyhooed but seldom-seem Tesla electric roadster uses more
than 6,000 computer-sized batteries all mashed into one package. But whether they are the
lithium cobalt batteries used in portable devices -- not very useful for automotive use
because of their reputation for overheating -- or the newer lithium phosphate or lithium
manganese formulations developed for cars, all use a base of lithium metal, which is most
easily extracted from salt brine....Now there may be
problems with how much lithium the Earth holds and how quickly it can be mined. On the
pessimistic side, there is William Tahil, author of the research paper The Trouble with
Lithium, who estimates the world's lithium reserves at about four million tons. He claims
the production of hybrid and electric cars will soon tax the world's production of lithium
carbonate. At the other end of the spectrum is Keith Evans, who has released An Abundance
of Lithium, a report estimating there are 28 million tons of the base metal to be had,
plenty enough to go around. Somewhere in the middle of these two opposing viewpoints is
the United States Geological Survey's somewhat dated estimate of 11 million tons. Part of the discrepancy is due to how economical and easily each group
thinks the mining of lithium will be, dividing their estimates between 'reserves' (think
of easily obtained Saudi Arabian oil literally bubbling to the surface) and the more
difficult to process 'base reserves' (think Canada's Athabasca Oil Sands). Even the
optimistic Evans allows that, like oil, his more generous prediction is based on the price
of lithium rising in order to make increased mining cost-effective. This is not good news
to automakers since it's estimated that these new high-tech batteries already cost as much
as US$10,000. While existing mining levels are able to cope with current demand, there is
no consensus on how many lithium-powered electric cars can be produced. Tahil says any
more than 1.5 million GM Volt-type vehicles annually would strain current production. SQM
S. A., Chile's largest producer of lithium carbonate, says there is plenty for about five
million electric vehicles. Evans predicts there's enough lithium for far more.Bob Kruse,
GM's executive director of Global Vehicle Engineering, also notes that some of the lithium
in his company's new Chevy Volt will be recyclable, thereby reducing demand. The
discrepancies owe as much to the types of electric cars being produced -- fully electric
cars need bigger batteries and, therefore, more lithium than hybrids -- as to the exact
amount of the world's lithium stocks. However, virtually everyone readily agrees that the
world's current production of lithium -- approximately 20,000 tons -- is woefully short of
what's needed if electric car production really takes off. Argentina, Australia and Chile
account for more than 50% of the world's lithium production; Russia also produces
significant amounts.But the real power player in the lithium market is Bolivia. Whether
you take the pessimistic or optimistic estimate of its reserves, the South American
country's Salar de Uyuni salt desert has about 40% of the world's lithium, so far
untapped. Mitsubishi, which thinks electric car production will outstrip lithium supply as
early as 2015, is already in talks with Bolivia about sourcing its lithium. Ditto Toyota,
one of the few automakers producing its own batteries." The problem with lithium National Post (Canada), 1 May 2009 |
| "Consumers are to be offered
incentives of up to £5,000 to purchase an electric car under government plans to be
unveiled today that will also see the creation of electric car cities across the UK and
the launch of large-scale experiments with ultra-green vehicles. The proposals are part of a £250m strategy, seen by the Guardian,
spelling out a revolution in Britain's road transport network based on ultra-low carbon
vehicles. It will be launched today by Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, and Lord
Mandelson, the business secretary, with the aim of kickstarting the market for cleaner
road vehicles and slashing the UK's CO2 emisisons." Labour's £5,000 sweetener to launch electric car revolution Guardian, 16 April 2009 |
| "A leading American power company is hoping to turn science fiction
into reality by supporting a project to set up solar panels in outer space and beam the
electricity generated back to Earth. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which serves San
Francisco and northern California, has agreed to buy electricity from a startup company
claiming to have found a way to unlock the potential power supply in space. The firm,
Solaren Corp, says it will launch solar panels into orbit and then convert the power
generated into radio-frequency transmissions, which will be beamed back down into a depot
in Fresno, California. The energy would then be converted into electricity and fed into
the regular power grid, PG&E said....PG&E
announced this week that it had agreed to buy 200 megawatts of electricity from Solaren
starting in 2016. The deal has yet to be approved by
California state government regulators and PG&E has not put any money into Solaren,
but the promise alone has turned the notion of space based solar power from fantasy to
reality. 'There is a very serious possibility they can make this work,' said PG&E's
spokesman Jonathan Marshall. Unlike on earth, with its cycle of nights and days and where
there can be clouds, sunshine in space is practically constant – aside from a few
days around the spring and autumn equinoxes. That means the space-based solar panels could
potentially produce a steady supply of electricity. The sunlight hitting solar panels 200
miles in space would be 10 times as powerful as the light filtering down to Earth through
the atmosphere. The satellite would then convert the energy into radio waves and beam them
down to a receiving station on Earth. Spirnak did not give details of how this would work
but said the technology was based on that now used by communications satellites,
describing it as 'very mature'. He added that power losses via the radio-wave route are
lower than transmission cables used on Earth. Another advantage of the plan is that it
does not require large amounts of real estate. Ground-based solar installations require
huge tracts of land." US power company to tap solar energy in space Guardian, 16 April 2009 |
| "Toshiba Corp is ready to mass-produce a quick-charging lithium ion
battery for hybrid vehicles with the highest electrical output for a battery of this kind,
the financial daily Nikkei said in its Tuesday edition. The
paper said Toshiba has quadrupled the output density of its Super Charge ion Battery, or
SCiB, to 3,900 watts. Output density is the power output per kilogram of the battery's
weight. It said the battery can be charged in as little as 90 seconds, making it suitable
for plug-in hybrids, and can be recharged more than 10,000 times. Nikkei said Toshiba has started shipping the battery to major Japanese,
U.S. and European automakers on a trial basis. It said Toshiba has also developed a
lithium ion battery with a high energy density aimed at electric vehicles that will be
able to discharge power over a long duration and hopes to start sample shipments in the
fall. Nikkei said Toshiba now makes 150,000 SCiBs a month but plans to start building a
plant this fall that would make about 2 million batteries a month on start-up, with hopes
for expansion to about 10 million by about 2015." Toshiba has quick-charge hybrid car battery: Nikkei Reuters, 13 April 2009 |
| "The U.S. solar energy industry expanded in 2008, but the recession
has cut demand for some solar installations, according to a solar trade group. Solar
capacity in the United States rose about 9 percent, or 1,265 megawatts, to 8,775 megawatts
last year, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a summary of an annual report
to be released on Thursday. Solar panel capacity rose 78 percent from 2007, as solar water
heater installations increased 50 percent. But the housing crisis led to a 3 percent
decline in shipments of solar pool heating systems -- the largest segment of the sector by
capacity. The recession has brought financing
problems to some solar companies, the association said. 'Many companies report that although consumers continue to express
interest in solar, concerns about personal finances and tight credit have reduced sales,'
the association said." Recession cools solar energy growth Reuters, 18 March 2009 |
| "New technology that was developed in Sydney and allows solar panels
to capture more sunshine is expected to influence panel production around the world. The
technology is about to be demonstrated at the University of NSW. A world-first silicon
solar cell production line will be built at the university, using funds from a German
energy corporation and the Federal Government....The
pilot program at the university will demonstrate new production techniques that allow
traditional panels to catch more light from the blue end of the spectrum, the short
wavelengths. The problem with many existing solar
cells is that the shorter wavelengths of light are reflected back by a layer of phosphate
ducting within the panel. The new technique allows the phosphate ducts to be better
aligned, so more light can be absorbed without adding to production costs. It will also
deploy new laser-cutting techniques that allow greater precision when cutting the edges of
wafer-thin silicon and aligning it to the metal frames that conduct electricity from the
panel to the battery. The work will be done at the university's new Solar Industrial
Research Facility, which will focus on applying Australian research to commercial
production. 'There have been a lot of people looking at solutions to these problems around
the world for a long time, but I think we've got it,' said Dr Richard Corkish, the head of
the university's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering." Uni's solar panel captures more light Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2009 |
| "European countries could transform their electricity supplies within
a decade by investing in a giant network of solar panels in the Sahara desert, an expert
told a global warming conference in Copenhagen today. Dr Anthony Patt of the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Africa said some £50bn of government investment
was needed over the next decade to make the scheme a reality. That would convince private
companies that power from the Sahara was both feasible and an attractive investment, he
said. In the long term, such a plan, combined with strings of windfarms along the north
Africa coast, could 'supply Europe with all the energy it needs'. He said technological
advances combined with falling costs have made it realistic to consider north Africa as
Europe's main source of imported energy. 'The sun is very strong there and it's very
reliable. There is starting to be a growing number of cost estimates of both wind and
concentrated solar power for North Africa....that start to compare favourably with
alternative technologies. The cost of moving [electricity] long distances has really come
down.' He said only a fraction of the Sahara,
probably the size of a small country, would need to be covered to produce enough energy to
supply the whole of Europe. The results are the
first findings of a major research effort, together with experts at the European Climate
Forum and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, to judge whether such a
Sahara solar plan is realistic. Patt said the team was looking at questions of security
and governance, as well as ways to pay for the technology. The full results will be
presented to governments later this year. He said sunshine in the Sahara is twice as
strong as in Spain and is a constant resource that is rarely blocked by clouds even in the
winter. The scheme would use mirrors to focus the
sun's rays onto a thin pipe containing either water or salt. The rays boil the water or melt the salt and the resulting energy used to
power turbines. Unlike wind power, which usually has to be used immediately because of the
cost of storing the electricity generated, the hot water and salt can be stored for
several hours. Trials of such concentrated solar power plants are planned for Egypt,
Morocco, Algeria and Dubai, but Libya and Tunisia could also be considered." £50bn of European investment needed to kick-start Saharan solar plan Guardian, 11 March 2009 |
| "The people of the world will drive some two billion cars by 2030, up
from roughly 700 million today. One of the leading hopes for avoiding greenhouse gas
overload from all those tailpipe emissions is electric cars.
From the Chevy
Volt to the Tesla
Roadster, cars that run on battery power rather than gasoline are fueling hopes for a
cleaner transportation future. Even if we switched all U.S. cars to run on electricity
from coal-fired power plants we'd emit less than we do now, according to a study from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. But, in terms of
economics, are we trading peak oil for peak lithium? Lithium is, obviously, a primary component of the lithium ion batteries
powering the first generation of electric cars. The bulk of it is found in Bolivia. Even
worse, according to some, most of these advanced batteries are made in Asia. In fact,
General Motors selected a battery from Korean company LG over American start-up
A123Systems for its initial Volt. But GM, assuming it survives, is also investing in a
battery manufacturing plant in Michigan and there are deposits of lithium in the U.S. as
well. Peak lithium may yet become a concern but first there would have to be a lot more
electric cars on the road." Electric Cars and Peak Lithium Scientific American, Podcast 12 March 2009 |
| "The day after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Emanuel
Sachs decided that it was time to get back into the solar-energy business... To Sachs, September 11 was a reminder of the perils of an
oil-dependent U.S. energy policy. The events that
transpired that day were jarring enough to prompt him to restart his solar research.
Nearly eight years later, he is chief technical officer at 1366 Technologies, a company formed two years ago to
commercialize the work he had done at MIT....The
20-person start-up has an ambitious economic target: to make solar cheaper than coal in
three years. That means producing silicon solar cells at less than $1 per watt, cutting
the current costs by about half. More than a few
people believe that 1366 Technologies has a shot at being one of the first companies to
hit the long-pursued goal of undercutting fossil fuel electricity on price. Among those
impressed with the technology and management team is Ethernet co-inventor and energy tech venture capitalist
Bob Metcalfe, who is on the company's board. Metcalfe's firm, Polaris Ventures, led a $12.4 million round in the
company last year. And last month, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded 1366
Technologies a $3 million grant for low-cost solar manufacturing....The name 1366 Technologies comes from the solar constant, or the
amount of solar energy that hits Earth's surface: 1,366 watts per square meter. That focus on keeping to the basics, and trying to do it affordably, are
what executives hope will set them apart from the solar-tech pack. The company's
headquarters--a one-story brick building among a dozen nondescript offices in an office
park outside Boston--reveal a bare-bones operation. A full-size solar panel hanging on the
wall serves as artwork in an otherwise-spartan office. A bank of cubes fronts a small
factory floor crammed with solar-manufacturing machinery bearing obscure names like a
'diffusion furnace' and a 'plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition' system. This is
where engineers are now producing small numbers of solar cells that put Sachs' ideas to
work. The modest building may not be where you'd expect the solar industry to finally
break through the $1-per-watt cost barrier for silicon cells. First
Solar earlier this month claimed to crack the $1 cost
barrier for its thin-film cells, made from alternative material cadmium telluride, but
1366 Technologies wants to hit that price using silicon--a more common and abundant
material. To get there, Sachs and company engineers
say they have four innovations they intend to perfect one by one....At the company's ribbon-cutting
ceremony last fall, Sachs, in a soft but direct manner, implored local politicians and
employees assembled to act, rather than talk, about greening the economy. 'The science is understood, the material abundant, the product
works,' he said. 'All that is left is to build the biggest manufacturing industry in the
history of human kind. Time is a-wasting.'" Making solar cheaper than coal Cnet News, 6 March 2009 |
"Solar panels provide a cheaper and more effective way to power
buildings. 'If you had one of these arrays on your home,' says Vaguhn Prost of Missouri
Solar Applications, 'it would produce about half of your electricity that you'd need for
your average home.' This array is Columbia's solar panel, which provides a small amount of
electricity to Columbia's electric grid. But Prost's company, which built the panel, will
soon be bringing solar energy to Columbia's rooftops in another form. 'In the coming
years, I think that people will look at solar shingles on their house as something as
normal as having plumbing inside their house,' says Prost. His
company has teamed up with the Dow Chemical Company to produce solar shingles. 'The solar market in Columbia is getting going,' says Connie Kacprowicz
of Columbia Water and Light. 'It's still going to be a few years before we see a huge
amount of production, but I think it's important that we're developing a renewable
resource right here in Columbia.' The solar shingles would collect the energy and send it
through a series of wires and transformers and into the home or power grid. While
estimated costs are high right now, Prost says he is confident that demand will drive
prices down once the shingles are on the market. 'It's going to be a little higher to
start with, but you've got to try and work it and find ways to get the price down, and
eventually it will get down,' he says. The solar shingles aren't scheduled to be sold until 2011. Prost said that part of the $50 million project will include test
roofs in the same location as the current Columbia solar panel." |
| "Dow
Chemical Co. says it aims to start selling power-generating
roof shingles by 2011. The Midland-based chemical
giant has been at work for the past year on a $50 million project called Dow Solar
Solutions. The company's scientists and engineers are working to develop a product to sell
thermoplastic solar roof shingles throughout North America. Dow Chemical is collaborating
with three home builders -- Lennar Corp. of Miami, Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills
and Prost Builders Inc. of Jefferson City, Mo. -- and with Tucson,
Ariz.-based Global Solar Energy Inc., a maker of flexible materials. The researchers have
conducted numerous tests in preparing the shingles for market, said Robert J. Cleereman,
senior director of solar development for Dow Chemical. 'We've thrown everything you can
imagine at them from (simulated) hail to fire to see how they react,' he told The Saginaw
News. "One day, a person would no more think about buying a house without solar
shingles than they would buy a house without plumbing. That is our hope, at least." Dow Chemical plans to sell solar shingles by 2011 Associated Press, 15 February 2009 |
| "Beginning on March 1, residents
of Gainesville, Florida with newly-installed solar photovoltaic systems will be able to
receive $0.32 per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by their system and added to the
regional grid. Yawn, right? Wrong. The so-called
feed-in tariff will guarantee payment for any power produced over the subsequent 20 years.
For some, the feed-in tariff is a long time coming. Advocates see the immediate potential
the policy mechanism can have on growing renewable energy generation, as well as the
impact said growth can have on the burgeoning solar, wind, and other clean energy
industries.Feed-in tariffs have been responsible for meteoric rise in renewable energy
generation and the industries supporting it in Germany,
Spain, and Denmark, but they have yet to take hold in the U.S., largely because of the
fragmented nature of our electricity generation and transmission." Florida City Passes First Solar Feed-in Tariff in US Red, Green, and Blue, 6 February 2009 |
| "A Pennsylvania-based marketing firm, The Information Network,
recently published a report projecting that the nanomaterials for solar cells industry is
expected to grow by 44 percent in 2009, after a growth rate of 47 percent in 2008. The
report, 'Nanomaterials for Solar Cells, Displays, Sensors, Lighting, and RFID Marketing
Analysis and Driving Forces,' says that Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) solar
cells pushed the market as manufacturers developed unique deposition methods and
substrates using nanomaterials. According to Dr. Robert Castellano, president of The
Information Network, '[C]ompeting with GICS are traditional crystalline and
polycrystalline cells made with silicon wafers. On
the horizon is a new nanomaterial that promises to cut solar cell prices.' Dr. Castellano
describes a steel based on nanotechnology that would allow solar wafer manufacturers to
reduce the amount of waste, or kerf, when slicing silicon wafers. This development could save the industry US$866 million, and drive down
the price of solar cells." Nanomaterials for Solar Cells Expect to Grow Another 44% in 2009 Meridian Institute, 5 February 2009 |
| "The United States overtook
Germany as the biggest producer of wind power last year, new figures showed, and will
likely take the lead in solar power this year, analysts said on Monday. Even before an expected 'Obama bounce' from a new President who has vowed
to boost clean energy, U.S. wind power capacity surged 50 percent last year to 25 gigwatts
(GW) -- enough to power more than five million homes....German wind power capacity reached
nearly 24 GW, placing it second ahead of Spain and fourth-placed China, which doubled its
installed wind power for the forth year running, said the Brussels-based Global Wind
Energy Council....Obama wants to double U.S. alternative energy output over three
years." U.S. becomes top wind producer, solar next Reuters, 2 February 2009 |
| "Renewable energy industry
sectors have begun campaigning to secure the feed-in tariff levels they believe will
be necessary to support their technologies in the domestic, business and community
sectors, writes Rachel Johnson. The drive
has been kicked off by the solar sector, with a 'We Support Solar' campaign, launched last
week by the UK Solar PV Manufacturers Association.
The London based solar firm Solarcentury hand-delivered 500 letters to MPs in Parliament
as part of the campaign, urging them to support solar technology ahead of the
implementation of the new feed-in tariffs. Feed-in tariffs are long-term contracts that
will be offered to small-scale generators of renewable electricity to provide an incentive
for householders, schools, hospitals and other organisations to invest in micropower
technology. The government gained the powers to set feed-in tariffs for renewable energy
projects below 5MW in size through last year's Energy Act (see
this New Energy Focus report).The solar campaign, which has the support of 30 MPs so
far, as well as campaign groups, solar manufacturers, businesses and industry bodies, is
aiming to promote solar at a what it sees as a critical time for the development of the
industry, with feed-in tariffs (FIT) expected to be launched by April 2010. Michael
Meacher MP, a former environment minister, gave his support to the drive, saying: 'Ed
Miliband's decision to introduce a feed-in tariff for solar PV and other small-scale
renewable electricity technologies is potentially a real turning point for the UK solar PV
sector. It gives the UK a vital new policy tool that should help to maximise the
contribution from solar PV to our demanding renewable energy target.'" Solar industry launches campaign for feed-in tariff support NewEnergyFocus, 2 February 2009 |
| "For all the hope and hoopla surrounding the largest public works
program since the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, the share spent on long-term
'green' investments is surprisingly small. Most of the stimulus package goes to temporary
measures, such as tax cuts, emergency aid to the states, and the extension of unemployment
benefits. Nearly a third of the $550 billion Congress is set to allocate in direct
spending is called 'green,' including money to modernize electricity transmission and experiment with a 'smart grid.' But just
$8 billion is destined for renewable power and electricity-related spending, according to
an analysis by FBR Capital Markets. Another $16 billion in tax credits – of $275
billion of overall tax credits – is devoted directly to green-energy development. Is
that green investment of $24 billion enough to meet President Obama’s goals of
creating tens of thousands of new jobs and doubling renewable-energy capacity in three
years? No, say renewable-energy advocates. They see the stimulus as only a down payment on
green-energy development that will be fulfilled in a separate energy bill not yet
formulated. Even the success of the stimulus’s
'down payment' will depend crucially on how details of the plan are implemented,
especially renewable energy tax credits, they add. 'In order to achieve President
Obama’s goal of doubling energy in three years, we will have to triple utilization of
these tax credits,' says Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries
Association. That’s tricky, unless the industry can find a way to let companies trade
credits for cash. 'Without the tax-credit market, it’s going to be difficult to
achieve that.'...As of 2007, renewable energy sources supplied only a tiny sliver of US
energy supplies, about 7 percent. (Petroleum supplied 40 percent, coal 22 percent.) Of
that renewable sliver, energy from biomass (such as corn ethanol) accounted for 53
percent, hydroelectric 36 percent, geothermal 5 percent, wind power 5 percent, and solar energy 1 percent. The
Obama administration has set ambitious goals for the energy portion of the stimulus plan.
Of the 3.7 million jobs that the plan is supposed to create or save, about 460,000 would
come from energy-related expenditures. A large but undetermined portion of those jobs
would be in the renewable-energy sector....The most crucial piece involves tax credits. In
the past, investment banks and other deep-pocketed investors could spend huge amounts on
wind farms and other renewable-energy projects and then reap production tax credits, which
they could use to offset taxes on profits elsewhere. But the
severe economic downturn has reduced profits and the number of major renewable-energy
investors from 20 to about five. Thus, the tax
credits are far less valuable than they were. So, wind and solar industries want
essentially to convert those tax credits into grants from the US Department of Energy. In
legislation last week, the House version of the stimulus bill allowed the switch; the
Senate version did not. 'A couple of things in the House measure are going to alarm fiscal
conservatives – and one of those is loan guarantees being replaced by explicit
payments,' says Kevin Book, vice president for energy policy, oil, and alternative energy
with FBR Capital Markets. 'If Congress approves this, it absolutely will have investors
looking at this as a green light' to invest in green-energy projects, he says. In other
areas, the House and Senate are in lock step. Both would provide $13 billion to extend the
important 'production tax credit' for wind power for another three years. Without it,
credits would be unavailable for projects not completed by the end of this year. Another
provision in both bills is a 30 percent investment tax credit that had been given only to
solar and will now be extended to wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, and landfill gas.
That would enable the latter projects to get a tax credit in just one year rather than a
production tax credit over 10 years. Some $8 billion from the Department of Energy would
also be available for loan guarantees for clean-power projects. But it’s not yet
clear if those projects must be 'advanced' and 'innovative.' If not, this could give a
boost to wind and solar. Such a boost would be key to achieving the president’s goal
of doubling renewable-energy capacity nationwide within three years. Much of that plan is
yet to come in an expected energy bill. And there is reason to believe the jobs Obama
wants to see can indeed be created, experts say. 'The stimulus package would turbocharge
our efforts to use energy more efficiently and build more renewable electricity
facilities,' says Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American
Progress, who has analyzed the stimulus provisions." ‘Green’ energy a tiny share of stimulus plan Christian Science Monitor, 27 January 2009 |
| "Abu Dhabi's Masdar said on
Thursday it is building the Middle East's largest solar power plant for the carbon-neutral
Masdar City. Half of the 10 megawatt photovoltaic
plant's solar panels will be supplied by First Solar Inc (FSLR.O), the
U.S.-based company said in a statement. Its shares rose 6.5 percent following the
announcement. The $22 billion Masdar City -- the green city in the desert -- will be home
to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. No cars will be allowed...The $50 million solar
plant will begin producing power in 2009 and will supply any excess energy to the Abu
Dhabi power grid, Masdar said....Masdar was set up by the Abu Dhabi government to develop
sustainable and clean energy. " First Solar to help power Masdar, UAE's green city Reuters, 15 January 2009 |
| "Toyota Motor Corp. plans to launch as many as 10 new gas-electric
hybrids in the next five years, including the third-generation Prius and an all-new Lexus
hybrid, the HS 250h, that it will unveil at the Detroit auto show. The Japanese automaker also said it would market an electric city
car with a roughly 50-mile range by 2012, and it will show an electric concept car, the
FT-EV, at the 2009 North American International Auto Show to give an idea of what type of
vehicle it has in mind....In addition to the new Prius scheduled to hit U.S. dealer
showrooms late this spring, Toyota confirmed that it would start deliveries of 500 Prius
plug-in hybrids equipped with lithium-ion batteries to lease-fleet customers in late 2009. It said 150 would be delivered to U.S. fleet customers...General Motors Corp. plans to bring its plug-in, the Chevrolet
Volt extended-range electric vehicle, to the market by late 2010. It will be powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are more powerful
than nickel-metal-hydride and most other batteries." Toyota amps up hybrids, plans an electric city car by 2012 Detroit News, 10 January 2009 |
| "An electric car costing only
$25,000 could be on sale in Australia within three years. The Japanese car maker used the 2009 Detroit motor show to unveil the
FT-EV, a concept car that previews a new battery-electric 'urban commuter' vehicle set to
go on sale globally in 2012. US media is reporting the diminutive FT-EV could wear an
affordable price tag of about US$20,000 (about $25,000). The FT-EV will see Toyota join
the growing number of manufacturers who in the early years of the next decade will offer
vehicles that run on electricity. The FT-EV is based on Toyota's iQ micro-car that landed
in European and Japanese showrooms in 2008, though swaps that car's 1.0-litre petrol
engine for a 45kW electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. Toyota says the
three-metre-long, four-seater FT-EV has a cruising range of 80km and a targeted top speed
of 112km/h. It takes between 2.5 and 7.5 hours to
recharge the FT-EV, depending on the voltage of the power supply. The company says the FT-EV will broaden its range of alternative-fuel
vehicles as the world faces dwindling oil supplies, and will be aimed at city residents
who would use the battery-electric car to commute between home and work, or to drive to
other forms of public transport such as railway stations. 'Last year's spike in the price
of petrol was no anomaly,' says Toyota Motor Sales group vice president, environmental and
public affairs, Irv Miller. 'It was a brief glimpse of our future. We must address the
inevitability of peak oil [when the world's oil supply starts a permanent decline] by
developing vehicles powered by alternatives to liquid-oil fuel, as well as new concepts,
like the iQ, that are lighter in weight and smaller in size. This kind of vehicle,
electrified or not, is where our industry must focus its creativity.'" Affordable electric car to 'hit streets in 2012' Sun-Herald, 11 January 2009 |
| "Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly
developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic
ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday. The Nikkei newspaper, however,
said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's
offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an
electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle,
and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of
homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the
vehicle, the newspaper said without citing
sources." Toyota Secretly Developing Solar Powered Green Car Associated Press, 1 January 2009 |
| 2008 |
| "Two Chinese companies have
proposed a massive, 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in China's northwest, one
that would be the worlds biggest if it's completed....The
project in Qinghai's Qaidam Basin will start out in 2009 with a more modest initial goal
of 30 megawatts at a cost of 1 billion Yuan ($146 million), and will combine crystalline
silicon and thin-film solar panels, the firm reported. The timeline and projected cost of
the entire 1-gigawatt project were not disclosed.But if built, it would be almost twice
the size of the largest solar photovoltaic power project announced so far, a 550-megawatt
thin-film power plant to be built in San Luis Obispo, Calif." China Plans World's Largest Solar Power Plant Greentechmedia, 31 December 2008 |
"Iran has announced the opening of
its first ever solar power plant in the town of Shiraz in the Southwest of the country. Energy Minister
Parviz Fattah told reporters that the facility was constructed using Iranian materials and
expertise. Speaking to the Iranian News Agency he said, 'The country backs the use of
alternative and renewable energy sources. In future
alternative energy sources will be greatly developed in the country. The growth of investments in this sphere is expected.' According to
Fattah, the Shiraz solar plant employs parabolic mirrors to direct energy
from the sun’s rays into its solar receivers. At this stage, it appears that the
plant is a pilot project intended to test the viability of future larger-scale projects. Any movement towards the development of domestic renewable energy supply
is likely to be welcomed by many of the countries suspicious of Iran’s ambitions to
develop nuclear power." |
| "At a time when politicians are targeting 'green jobs' as a source of
economic growth, New Jersey's only manufacturer of solar panels has announced a temporary
shutdown. Just weeks after it began production at a new manufacturing plant in Germany,
EPV Solar Inc. will shutter its manufacturing and research facilities in Lawrence and
Hamilton for two weeks starting tomorrow, leaving a local work force of about 400 with an
unexpected unpaid holiday vacation. EPV described the
shutdown of its Mercer plants as a cost-cutting linked largely to a tight credit market,
which has made it difficult for customers to obtain financing for solar panel purchases. 'The demand (for solar panels) is still absolutely there,' Tom Werthan,
EPV's chief financial officer, said last week during a tour of the company's manufacturing
facility off South Gold Drive in Hamilton. 'Banks are telling our clients they are
analyzing the prospects of the solar industry before financing more projects, but that
takes time. So there is a domino effect,' Werthan said. He added that prospects for the
company's unique thin-film solar panels are very strong, but EPV needs assistance in
getting through the next few months." Solar firm to suspend work The Times of Trenton News, 21 December 2008 |
| "Aiming to mass-produce a
lithium battery for vehicles, 14 U.S. companies with expertise in batteries and advanced
materials have formed an alliance with a government laboratory, the lab said on Thursday. The alliance, which includes battery industry
giants such as 3M (nyse: MMM
- news - people ) Co and Johnson Controls
(nyse: JCI
- news - people )-Saft, intends to secure $1
billion to $2 billion in U.S. government funding over the next five years to build a
manufacturing facility with an 'open foundry' for the participants to pursue the goal of
perfecting lithium-ion batteries for cars." US gov't lab, 14 firms team up on lithium battery Reuters, 18 December 2008 |
| "An electric transport company
is to install thousands of recharging points for electric cars across Israel ready for
commercial use by 2011 in the first such nationwide network. The firm, Better Place, showed off its first charging spot yesterday at a
car park above a shopping centre in Ramat Hasharon, near Tel Aviv. In a pilot project, it
will install 500 of the charging points by the end of this year in cities, including Tel
Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. It expects to have 500,000
charging points by the time the first cars are marketed. Moshe Kaplinsky, head of Better Place Israel, said the firm believed it
presented a fundamental challenge to petrol-driven cars. 'This vision is to stop this
addiction to oil,' he said....It expects a lithium-ion car battery to last for 106 miles.
Given Israel's small size, the company expects relatively little need for changing
batteries. A return trip from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, for example, covers 75 miles. For
longer journeys, battery changing stations will be set up across the country and would
replace a car battery within minutes. Payment for the service would be through a monthly
account, similar to a mobile phone bill. No prices have been announced, but Kaplinsky said
the cost of buying the car and paying for recharging would be less than the costs incurred
with petrol-driven cars. 'We intend that by 2020
almost all the cars in Israel will be electric vehicles,' he said." Israel pilots electric car network Guardian, 9 December 2008 |
| "Hawaii is to become the first US state to create a transport
infrastructure that will allow cars to run almost entirely on electricity. The plan
involves building up to 100,000 charging stations in car parks and streets by 2012 and
importing electric vehicles manufactured by a joint venture between Nissan and Renault.
Motorists who buy the cars will be able to purchase mileage plans — including
recharging services and battery swaps — or use the charging stations on a
pay-as-you-go basis. Linda Lingle, the Governor of Hawaii, said that the programme would
help the six large islands in the state to meet the goal of reducing the use of fossil
fuels by 70 per cent within the next 30 years. About 1.3 million people live in Hawaii,
most of them in Honolulu. The islands import 90 per cent of their oil from countries such
as Saudi Arabia, an arrangement that costs an estimated $7 billion (£4.7 billion) a year.
'Today is a part of the execution of our energy independence [strategy], and our getting
off the addiction to oil,' Ms Lingle said. Most of the infrastructure will be provided and
funded by Better Place, a Silicon Valley company — although the $75 million-$100
million cost of the project has yet to be raised. It will build the charging stations and
provide charged batteries. The electricity is
expected to come from renewable sources, such as
wind power. All of this will require a significant investment, however, because Hawaii has
limited wind power and there are no transmission lines to carry electricity between the
islands. Shai Agassi, the founder and chief executive of Better Place, said electric cars
would cost the same as petrol vehicles but that over time they would become cheaper
because they used half as many parts as cars with internal combustion engines." Electric cars put Hawaii on the road to independence London Times, 4 December 2008 |
| "The cracks in the future supply of the 'picks and shovels' of green
technology, scientists and financial analysts argue, have begun to show. In the case of lithium, the metal on which the vision of the
electric car is based, the level of worldwide reserves may prevent more than a few tens of
thousands of units of the hotly anticipated Chevrolet Volt ever being produced. Since the commercialisation of lithium ion batteries in the early 1990s,
production and use of the technology has soared. The metal - difficult to extract and with
reserves skewed to certain pockets of South America - has been seized on by the global
electronics industry as the answer to its prayers. The power of the lithium battery drives
personal information technology, from iPods and mobile phones to laptops and BlackBerrys.
Between 2003 and 2007, industrial demand for lithium doubled and now consumption stands at
about 80,000 tonnes a year: give or take 18 months of global downturn, the growth rate for
lithium demand is soon expected to return to about 25 per cent per year. However, some
experts say, the present calculations of lithium reserve usage do not take sufficient
account of the potential demand from the car industry if it truly plans to convert the
world to cleaner, emission-free electric cars. The sort of batteries large enough to power
a car use about 100 times more lithium than a laptop and, according to William Tahil,
research director of Meridian International Research, there is not enough commercially
extractable lithium in the world to meet the sort of demand implied if motoring goes
electric. By his calculations, world reserves of lithium - that is, the quantity that can
be extracted economically - are about four million tonnes. Mr Tahil told The Times that
production of lithium cannot possibly be expanded to meet the ambitions of the car
industry. Even highly productive lodes of the material, such as the deposits at the Salar
de Atacama salt lake in Chile, may be past their peak already. Although Mr Tahil's
warnings are not universally accepted by industrial users and producers of lithium,
actions speak louder than words. Toyota is said to have scrapped plans to use a lithium
battery in its 2009 Prius hybrid and will stick with the heavier, less efficient, nickel
battery. The company said recently that it did not believe that future lithium supply
would be able to sustain the dual demands from the electronics and car industries." Grand plans for global energy are under threat - but from unexpected sources London Times, 29 November 2008 |
| "Electric cars will be in widespread use by 2020 as part of measures
to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, the
government advisory body, said yesterday. Transforming
private transport from reliance on the internal combustion engine to electric and hybrid
cars was highlighted as one of the most effective ways of reducing fossil fuel
consumption. Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the
chairman of the committee, said that such measures were necessary to enable Britain to
meet ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a third over the next decade.
Electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to form up to 40 per cent of cars on the road by
2020....The committee published its first report, Building a Low-Carbon Economy, as
the United Nations conference on climate change opened in Poznan, Poland. The conference
is seeking ways of reaching an international agreement that will replace the Kyoto
Protocol to ensure that global warming is combated with reductions in greenhouse gases
worldwide." Britain’s cars may go electric by 2025 London Times, 2 December 2008 |
"Using computer modeling, researchers at MIT
are working to boost the output and efficiency of solar
cells while lowering the cost of solar power. A team of MIT physicists and engineers
say they have been able to boost the output of solar cells by as much as 50% by adding a
combination of antireflection coatings and multilayered reflective coatings to silicon
films on the cells. The research team said that the
advancement could dramatically reduce the cost of using solar power because the amount of
very pricey high-quality silicon traditionally used is slashed down to 1% of the normal
amount." |
| "The biggest single rooftop photovoltaic solar project in California
was officially opened on Monday by electric utility Southern California Edison at a
warehouse 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Over the next five years, SCE plans to install 250
megawatts of solar panels atop 2 square miles of commercial roofs in 150 separate projects
in its service territory of southern, central and coastal California, as long as state
regulators approve passing the $875 million cost on to customers....First Solar sold 33,700 thin-film solar panels to SCE, which paid
a contractor to install them over 600,000 square feet of rooftop at a ProLogis PLD.N
distribution warehouse in Fontana. It can generate enough electricity at peak -- 2
megawatts -- to serve 1,300 average homes, SCE said. Its cost was $10 million, which comes
in at $4,200 per kilowatt, compared to $7,000 per kilowatt average for photovoltaic solar
in California, SCE said. The utility told the Public
Utilities Commission when it presented its five-year plan that it would bring the cost
down to half -- $3,500 per kilowatt -- of the state average. Craver said that by the time
the first few projects are in place, it could realize that target. 'We believe that one of
the benefits of the program is to drive economies of scale, which will benefit our
projects and also lower the cost for everyone,' said Craver in a telephone
interview." Utility SCE opens biggest solar rooftop in Calif Reuters, 1 December 2008 |
| "Britain roads would become
green, clean and silent if the plans to be set out by the government’s Committee on
Climate Change tomorrow were realised. It will warn that motorists must get rid of their
dependence on the internal combustion engine and switch in large numbers to vehicles
powered by electricity, hydrogen and other low or zero-emission fuels. The recommendation will be contained in Building a Low Carbon Economy -
the UK's Contribution to Tackling Climate Change, the inaugural report of the committee,
chaired by Lord Adair Turner. The 500-page report will set out what Britain needs to do if
it is to achieve the 80% target for cutting emissions it has set itself. It will say that,
currently, Britain generates the equivalent of 10-12 tons of CO2 annually per person -
about 700m tons in total. This must be cut to two tons a person by 2050, equivalent to
about 12lb of CO2 per person each day. The report will warn such cuts are impossible while
internal combustion engines are the main means for propelling cars. A typical family car
emits 11-13lb of CO2, a day’s 'allowance', in 25 miles of motoring. Last month, Professor Julia King, a committee member, told the
Royal Society that the days of the internal combustion engine were numbered. 'In the long term, CO2-free road transport fuel is the only way to
decarbonise road transport,' she said. 'That means electric vehicles, with novel batteries
charged by zero-carbon electricity or hydrogen produced from zero-carbon electricity.'
King believes a concerted effort could see cars that emit 50% less CO2 than today’s
dominating Britain’s roads by 2025. Most of them would be plug-in hybrids with an
electric system incorporating a small internal combustion engine." Britain’s cars may go electric by 2025 London Times, 30 November 2008 |
| "Saudi Arabia on Saturday cited $75 a barrel as a 'fair price' for
oil, the first time in years that the world's biggest exporter has identifed a target for
crude prices. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said
oil prices needed to return to $75 to keep the more expensive new projects at the margins
of world supply on track. His comments may come as a
relief to consumer nations fearful of a return to $100-plus oil. U.S. crude was valued at
$55 late on Friday. 'There is a good logic for $75 a barrel,' Saudi Oil Minister Ali
al-Naimi, OPEC's most influential voice, told reporters in Cairo, where the producer
cartel was meeting. 'You know why? Because I believe $75 is the price for the marginal
producer. If the world needs supply from all sources, we need to protect the price for
them. I think $75 is a fair price,' he said. Saudi King Abdullah announced $75 as a fair
price in an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah." Saudi targets 'fair' oil price at $75 Reuters, 29 November 2008 |
| "In reality, today's bulky and
expensive solar panels capture only 10% or so of the sun's energy, but rapid innovation in
the US means that the next generation of panels will be much thinner, capture far more of
the energy in the sun's light and cost a fraction of what they do today. They may not even be made of silicon. First Solar, the largest
manufacturer of thin panels, claims that its products will generate electricity in sunny
countries as cheaply as large power stations by 2012. Other companies are investigating
even more efficient ways of capturing the sun's energy, for example the use of long
parabolic mirrors to focus light on to a thin tube carrying a liquid, which gets hot
enough to drive a steam turbine and generate electricity. Spanish and German companies are
installing large-scale solar power plants of this type in North Africa, Spain and the
south-west of America; on hot summer afternoons in California, solar power stations are
probably already financially competitive with coal. Europe, meanwhile, could get most of
its electricity from plants in the Sahara desert. We would need new long-distance power
transmission but the technology for providing this is advancing fast, and the countries of
North Africa would get a valuable new source of income." The 10 big energy myths Guardian, 27 November 2008 |
| "The marginal cost of producing a barrel of oil is about $50. This is
how much it costs the average oil company to drill, dig, pump and deliver a barrel of
crude to market. If the price falls below this level, some producers will be pumping oil
at a loss. So, with the oil price close to its marginal cost of production, Questor
believes now is the right time to buy oil. Most of
the world's easily pumped oil has been found; probably all of it. Most new oil discoveries
are located in deepwater environments, such as those recently identified by Brazil's
Petrobras. This oil is much more expensive to produce than oil from more conventional
locations, such as Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field. Other new sources of oil include the
Canadian tar sands in Alberta. This oil also costs significantly more to turn into crude
than traditional sources – maybe as much as $75-$80 a barrel. This is because the tar
sands are extremely viscous. They do not flow like normal oil, so they have to be
strip-mined or injected with steam. This uses significantly more energy and water. So, with the oil price now at $54, many producers will be feeling severe
pain – especially when they have become accustomed to receiving massive piles of
petrodollars throughout the oil price spike. According to research by Deutsche Bank,
Venezuela needs to see oil at $95 a barrel to balance its current account. Saudi Arabia
needs oil at $55. The falling oil price is also crippling the Russian economy, so much so
that the country may even start co-operating with Opec in a formal basis....The credit
freeze has certainly had a dramatic effect on the oil market. In October, Goldman Sachs
said: 'A combination of fear, de-stocking and disruptions across the supply chain owing to
frozen credit markets is currently depressing oil demand far below where underlying
economic fundamentals would suggest." Investing in crude oil could be a slick move Daily Telegraph, 27 November 2008 |
| ".....some of the best minds in the energy business insist that this
latest bear market is only baiting the trap for a huge price run-up that will likely come
around 2015. And – despite all of the current turmoil – they may end up being
right....I’ve spent a good bit of time over the past couple of months talking to two
of the sharpest analysts in the oil business: Peter Wells and Charley Maxwell. And both
are convinced that peak oil is real, it’s coming, and the pain that will accompany
its arrival will be severe. Who are these guys? Wells has a Ph.D. in geology and three
decades of experience in the global oil industry. He has worked extensively in the Middle
East, Russia, West Africa, and Europe, and is an expert on the oil politics and geology of
Iran and Iraq. He spent 12 years with Shell International, 4 with BP, and 6 with LASMO,
the British oil and gas independent, where he led the company’s business development
efforts in the Mideast, including Iran. In 2001, he helped start Neftex, a British oil
consulting firm. Since 2005, he has been a consultant to Toyota, developing world oil
supply and price forecasting models. I have known Wells since 2005 and heard him speak
several times...What sets Wells apart from the pack of alarmists is that he has done the
deep and dirty analysis of individual field production data. In fact, Wells utilized field
output info supplied by Denver-based consulting firm I.H.S., which owns one of the
world’s most extensive oilfield databases. This same field-by-field data was utilized
in 2006 by an I.H.S. subsidiary, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), to come up
with their study on future global oil production, which claimed that global output could
reach an 'undulating plateau' of 130 million barrels per day by 2030. The study concluded
that the peak oil argument 'is based on faulty analysis which could, if accepted, distort
critical policy and investment decisions and cloud the debate over the energy future.' The
study also claimed that the remaining global oil resource base is about 3.74 trillion
barrels. Wells took the same data and came up with a far different conclusion. He
estimates that global liquids output will peak in about 2015 at no more than 100 million
barrels per day. And that’s when things will get very interesting for automakers like
Toyota and, of course, for the rest of us. Wells’s work on peak oil began in 2003,
which led him to publish a piece in
the Oil and Gas Journal in 2004. Looking back at
that initial work, Wells says that his prediction at the time was that the peak in global
liquids output would likely come at a level of about 95 to 110 million barrels per day,
somewhere between 2020 and 2035, 'depending on OPEC
reserves and OPEC’s willingness/ability to invest in new capacity.' When he began his
consulting work for Toyota in 2005, Wells decided on a 'bottom up' approach using the
I.H.S. database and Neftex’s own data for the U.S. He then disaggregated all of the
potential sources of oil – conventional crude, NGLs, tar sands, shale oil, biofuels,
coal-to-liquids, etc. – so that he could look at their growth potential on a
segment-by-segment basis. The I.H.S. data included field-by-field information as well as
production information for the former Soviet Union, the U.S., all of the OPEC members, and
all non-OPEC producers. Among his most important conclusions is that non-OPEC production
is peaking this year. That is in line with analyses done by the E.I.A. and by John S.
Herold Inc., on the non-OPEC producers and the major international oil companies....In the mid-1980s, the world had a peak in spare capacity, with
some 10 million barrels per day of excess production capability. Predictably, that spare capacity led to a price collapse that persisted
until the first years of this century, a period during which, according to Wells, the
floor price of oil was largely set by the spending needs of the Saudi government. Today, and for the foreseeable future, supply and demand will be
in much tighter alignment, with Wells seeing excess capacity growing slightly this year
and next to about 2 MMbbl/d....The tight spare
capacity exacerbates several other factors. The peak in non-OPEC production means that
future production must come from OPEC members. That’s a problem. Saudi Arabia stands
alone as the player with the resources, technical skill, and desire to increase production
in a meaningful way in the near term. The other major OPEC members with big resources
– Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Kuwait, and Nigeria – all face political constraints
that will limit their ability to add large increments of new production. Of course, if
those political constraints were removed, the issue of peak oil would probably be
forgotten for another 20 years or so. Wells believes
that Iraq could eventually produce 7 MMbbl/d, but that level won’t be reached until
at least 2020, due to the obvious obstacles: political wrangling, violence, and the lack
of technically savvy personnel who can manage large new exploration and production
projects. Iran, Venezuela, and Nigeria could
likewise ramp up production, but all are beset by political regimes that have little
interest (or ability) to dramatically increase output for the export market. Wells
predicts that Iran may be able to increase its output to about 5.5 MMbbl/d, but not much
beyond that.....History shows that sharp increases in oil prices are often followed by
recessions. Those recessions typically lead to sharp decreases in oil demand and
therefore, prices. The most obvious example of that slackening demand occurred after the
sharp price increases of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Those prices reached
about $98 per barrel (in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars) in January 1981. In 1978, U.S.
oil consumption averaged 18.8 MMbbl/d. It stayed below that level until 1998, when it hit
18.9 MMbbl/d. That period of slack demand was accompanied by a sustained period of low
prices. From the mid-’80s through the early ’00s, prices largely stayed under
$20 and even fell as low as $9.39 per barrel ($12.57 in 2008 dollars) in December 1998.
Today, we have similar slackening of demand due to higher prices. For instance, in July
2008, consumption was 19.4 MMbbl/d, substantially below the all-time high of 21.6 MMbbl/d
in August 2005. Furthermore, U.S. oil demand has been
falling nearly every month since December 2007. So
will demand destruction take the peak out of peak oil? While it’s tempting to answer
in the affirmative, several factors appear to show that it will not. Before going to those
factors, let’s look at the forces that could lead to slower demand growth. They
include, most obviously, a sustained recession. If world economic growth stalls for a
sustained time, oil demand will continue to be slack. Second, automakers are working hard
on hybrid vehicles and electric cars that could slow gasoline demand. Third, new tougher
efficiency standards for U.S. automakers, combined with ongoing additions of billions of
gallons of corn ethanol into the gasoline pool, will likely further dampen U.S. gasoline
demand....Even so, there are major differences
between the current situation and the conditions that existed in the ’80s and
’90s. First and foremost is the paucity of spare production capacity to be had.
Further, there are far fewer oil producers with big reserves remaining to be tapped. As
shown in Table 2, 10 different oil-producing nations peaked between 1996 and 2004. Those
producers will not be able to add significant amounts of new crude production to the
global market. Perhaps most crucially, in decades past China and India were largely still
on the sidelines. That’s no longer the case.
According to an October 7 report from the E.I.A., China’s August crude oil imports
jumped by 12 percent, while its oil products imports increased by 32 percent, over the
year-earlier period. Of course, it’s not just China. Other developing countries, like
India, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, are also rapidly increasing their energy
consumption. And much of that is focused on transportation. In July, the I.E.A. estimated
that the total number of motor vehicles could increase to as many as 1.2 billion by 2013,
from the current 800 million. While a very small percentage will run on electricity,
natural gas, or other alternatives, the overwhelming majority will be fueled by refined
petroleum products. Additionally, any future increases in OPEC output, particularly among
the Persian Gulf members of the cartel, could be directed toward internal use. Energy
demand in the Persian Gulf is soaring. According to the latest BP Statistical Review, in
2007, oil consumption in the Middle East grew at the same rate – 4.3 percent –
as did demand in China. That increasing oil demand is a reflection, in part, of the
region’s growing electricity demand." Gasoline’s Cheap Again, But Peak Oil Still Looms Large Energy Tribune, 26 November 2008 |
| "Russia's state uranium miner
plans to invest 203.6 billion roubles ($7.4 billion) by 2015 to fund a massive expansion
plan as demand from the nuclear power sector grows, the company's general director said on
Wednesday. Atomredmetzoloto
(ARMZ) General Director Vadim Zhivov told Reuters the company, which produces uranium in
Russia and Kazakhstan, planned to increase output of the metal to 4,300 tonnes next year
from 3,880 tonnes expected in 2008. Zhivov said in
an interview the financial crisis had not affected his company's spending plans so far,
despite the fact 172.3 billion roubles ($6.3 billion) of the planned investment would not
be funded from the Russian state budget. 'In the next two years, we can finance this
through our own means,' said Zhivov. Russia holds more than 10 percent of the world's
uranium reserves and is positioning itself as a major player in meeting growing demand
from the fast-growing nuclear industry. Zhivov said ARMZ, the mining arm of Russian state
atomic agency Rosatom, would seek external funding from banks and would team up with
strategic partners to develop new deposits, most of them in Siberia and the Russian Far
East. 'All our strategic partners, in Japan, France and Canada, have confirmed their
plans,' Zhivov said. 'Of course, there could be corrections to these plans, but nobody has
said anything about that.' ARMZ is participating in joint ventures with Canada's Cameco
Corp, the world's largest uranium miner, and Japan's Mitsui & Co to develop Russia's
reserves, the world's third-largest....ARMZ produced 3,527 tonnes in 2007, of which 3,413
tonnes was produced in Russia. The 2008 forecast of 3,880 tonnes includes 3,580 tonnes of
Russian production. The largest uranium miner within the state holding is the Priargunsk
Mining and Chemical Production Union, which mined 3,037 tonnes at its deposit near the
Chinese border last year. This year's growth will come mainly from new deposits elsewhere
in Russia. Another company within the group, ZAO Dalur, last year produced 350 tonnes of
uranium in the Siberian region of Kurgan and plans to raise 2008 output to 410 tonnes. The
Khiagda mine in the Buryatia republic produced 26 tonnes last year and plans to produce
120 tonnes in 2008. Additional production will come from the company's two joint ventures
in Kazakhstan: Zarechnoye and Akbastau. In the longer term, growth will come from large
deposits such as Elkon in the Russian Far East, in which Mitsui & Co has agreed to
participate." Russia uranium miner plans $7.4 bln expansion Reuters, 26 November 2008 |
| "Los Angeles plans to become the first solar city in the US by
generating 10 percent of its electricity through solar power, the Los Angeles Times
reported Tuesday. The ambitious plan would create the largest solar base of any city in
the world, according to solar energy experts. Under
the plan proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa the sprawling city would purchase 1,280
megawatts of solar power - about 500 megawatts would come from private generating plants
in the Mojave Desert, a further 380 megawatts would come from a programme to encourage
residents to put solar panels on their roofs, while another 400 megawatts would come from
panels on city-owned buildings." Los Angeles bids to become first US solar city IANS, 26 November 2008 |
| "AFS Trinity Power Corporation todayannounced it intends to file for
$2.5 billion of funding from the $25 billion 'green retooling' fund just established by
Congress, with up to $2 Billion ofthe funding to be used for retooling
an existing factory of a major Americancar maker whose assembly line employees will be
retrained to produce plug inhybrid SUV's that utilize AFS Trinity's 150 mile per gallon
'Extreme Hybrid' technology....Furia said that all
three American carmakers have current models that are candidates to be redesigned as
Extreme Hybrids and they have factories wherethey can be built. The Saturn Vue Greenline
mid-size SUV was used as aplatform by AFS Trinity in creating the first two 150 mpg
prototypes, but the Extreme Hybrid technology can be
used with a variety of models from any carmaker. The
Saturn Vues were purchased directly off the showroom floor of GM Saturn dealerships, but
GM, itself, was not involved in the Extreme Hybrid development program in any way. Furia
said about $2 billion of the total $2.5 Billion loan will used topay whichever carmaker is
selected by AFS Trinity and Ricardo to retool theirplant and train their employees who
will manufacture and market the first production vehicles. The remaining $500 million
would be used by AFS Trinityand Ricardo for technology transfer and support of engineering
for modelredesign and retooling....Yesterday, AFS Trinity reported results of a ten month
battery testingprogram delivered to AFS Trinity November 7, 2008, from an
independentscientific laboratory that evaluated the comparative durability of lithium ion
batteries used alone or, as in the AFS Trinity dual energy storage system, coupled with
ultra capacitors and subjected to typical plugin hybrid vehicle current demands. The
outcome of the tests was that the battery/ultracapcombination was 6 times as durable as
the same lithium ion battery used alone. Furia said,
'These tests demonstrated that our battery/ultracap combinationsurvived the equivalent of
150,000 miles of continuous use in a plug in hybrid duty cycle compared to only 25,000
miles durability of the same batteries when used alone.' Battery tests were conducted by America's leading independent
batterytesting laboratory, Mobile Power Solutions of Beaverton, Oregon. 'However,' Furia
said, 'AFS Trinity does not rule out the possibility thatmore durable cost effective
batteries could be invented that could be used alone and which might be sufficient to
handle the duty cycle of a PHEV. However, no such battery, of which AFS Trinity is aware,
currently exists.'....Describing the prototypes, Furia said AFS Trinity's XH150 is not
only a roomy SUV but 'a fully operational Extreme Hybrid (TM) that can go at least 40miles
without burning a drop of gasoline in the electric vehicle mode with atop EV speed of 87
MPH. . . . and from zero to 60 in 11.6 seconds in allelectric mode and 6.9 seconds in full
hybrid mode. After 40 miles as anelectric vehicle the Extreme Hybrid automatically
converts to gas.'" AFS Trinity to Seek $2.5 Billion to Retool for Mass Production of Its 150 mpg SUV Using an Existing Factory and the Workers of a Major American Car Maker International Business Times, 18 November 2008 |
| "Solar panels glisten across Ota City's tiny Pal Town neighbourhood,
nestled among strawberry fields in one of Japan's sunniest spots, a testament to the
allure of renewable energy in this resource-poor country. Three-quarters
of Pal Town's homes are covered by solar panels, which are distributed for free and have
become one of the main draw-cards for residents keen to minimise their power bills." 'Solar City' proves allure of sun's energy in Japan Reuters, 11 November 2008 |
| "Researchers in China and
Switzerland are reporting the highest efficiency ever for a promising new genre of solar
cells, which many scientists think offer the best hope for making the sun a mainstay
source of energy in the future. The photovoltaic cells, called dye-sensitized solar cells
or Grätzel cells, could expand the use of solar energy for homes, businesses, and other
practical applications, the scientists say. Their
study is scheduled for the November 13 issue of ACS’ The Journal of Physical
Chemistry C, a weekly publication. The research,
conducted by Peng Wang and colleagues — who include Michael Grätzel, inventor of the
first dye-sensitized solar cell — involves photovoltaic cells composed of titanium
dioxide and powerful light-harvesting dyes. Grätzel
cells are less expensive than standard silicon-based solar cells and can be made into
flexible sheets or coatings. Although promising,
Grätzel cells until now have had serious drawbacks. They have not been efficient enough
at converting light into electricity. And their performance dropped after relatively short
exposures to sunlight. In the new study, researchers describe lab tests of solar cells
made with a new type of ruthenium-based dye that helps boost the light-harvesting ability.
The new cells showed efficiencies as high as 10 percent, a record for this type of solar
cell. The new cells also showed greater stability at high temperatures than previous
formulas, retaining more than 90 percent of their initial output after 1,000 hours in full
sunlight....These cells offer two potential
advantages: First off, they should be lower cost due to expected ease in manufacturing.
Second, both their flexibility and their light weight will allow installation in places
which otherwise would not support the presence of solar cells. For example, cars could have them on their roofs without a big weight
penalty. Also, side walls and other vertical surfaces could be covered with lightweight
solar cells whereas much heavier weight silicon photovoltaics would weigh too much for
easy installation. Skyscrapers might some day get covered with Grätzel solar cell
sheeting." Advance In Flexible Thin Plastic Solar Cells FuturePundit, 9 November 2008 |
| "Miniature solar cells - about a quarter the size of this 'o' - have
been tested in the US as a power source for microscopic machines. Xiamei Jiang and
colleagues at the University of South Florida made an array of 20 such cells, to show they
could power a tiny sensor for detecting dangerous chemicals. The miniature cells,
described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, are made of an organic
polymer (plastic) rather than the silicon used for traditional solar cells." Miniature solar cells power up Financial Times, 7 November 2008 |
| "Blue Square Energy, a developer and manufacturer of low-cost silicon
solar cells, today announced that it has produced a 14.6 percent efficient solar cell with
its patent-pending Bright Point technology. BSE's efficiency result is one of the highest
in the world on upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) silicon and has been verified
independently by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). 'What we've been able to
accomplish is a major milestone towards achieving our goal of creating low-cost solar energy for
homes and businesses,' said Joseph Babin, CEO of BSE. 'This proves that inexpensive
silicon typically considered unsuited for the solar industry can be utilized to create
solar energy that is price accessible for most Americans. Solar modules made with our
Bright Point technology will soon be the best choice for those who care about our
environment and their wallets -- and want to save both'...UMG silicon has drawn a great
deal of industry attention as companies seek substitutes to traditional and rare solar
grade silicon in the fabrication of their solar cells. However, most UMG technologies
being developed focus on blending low percentages of inexpensive UMG silicon with
expensive solar grade silicon. This results in a minimal cost reduction. Through Bright Point, Blue Square Energy uses 100 percent 4N UMG
silicon, which results in a significant cost reduction relative to other UMG silicon solar
cell products. Creating low-cost solar cells is the first step in BSE's goal of eventually
manufacturing the world's highest efficiency, lowest cost solar cell. This Bright Point II technology is currently in research and
development." Blue Square Energy Announces 14.6 Percent Efficient Solar Cell on Upgraded Metallurgical Grade Silicon MarketWatch, 5 November 2008 |
| "Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered and
demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy. By developing a new antireflective coating that boosts the amount
of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire solar
spectrum from nearly any angle, the research team has moved academia and industry closer
to realizing high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power. 'To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity,
you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of
the sun’s position in the sky,' said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer
and a member of the university’s Future Chips Constellation, who led the research
project. 'Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.' Results of the year-long
project are explained in the paper 'Realization of a Near Perfect Antireflection Coating
for Silicon Solar Energy,' published this week by the journal Optics Letters. An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of
sunlight shone upon it — meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected
away and thus unharvestable. From an economic and
efficiency perspective, this unharvested light is wasted potential and a major barrier
hampering the proliferation and widespread adoption of solar power. After a silicon surface was treated with Lin’s new nanoengineered
reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it
— meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This
huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to
visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward
economic viability. Lin’s new coating also
successfully tackles the tricky challenge of angles. Most surfaces and coatings are
designed to absorb light — i.e., be antireflective — and transmit light —
i.e., allow the light to pass through it — from a specific range of angles. Eyeglass
lenses, for example, will absorb and transmit quite a bit of light from a light source
directly in front of them, but those same lenses would absorb and transmit considerably
less light if the light source were off to the side or on the wearer’s periphery.
This same is true of conventional solar panels, which is why some industrial solar arrays
are mechanized to slowly move throughout the day so their panels are perfectly aligned
with the sun’s position in the sky. Without this automated movement, the panels would
not be optimally positioned and would therefore absorb less sunlight." Solar Power Game-Changer: 'Near Perfect' Absorption of Sunlight, From All Angles Rensselaer Polytechnic, 3 November 2008 |
| "Researchers at Ohio State
University have accidentally discovered a new solar cell material capable of absorbing all
of the sun's visible light energy. The material is
comprised of a hybrid of plastics, molybdenum and titanium. The team discovered it not
only fluoresces (as most solar cells do), but also phosphoresces. Electrons in a
phosphorescent state remain at a place where they can be 'siphoned off' as electricity
over 7 million times longer than those generated in a fluorescent state. This combination of materials also utilizes the entire visible
spectrum of light energy, translating into a theoretical potential of almost 100%
efficiency. Commercial products are still years
away, but this foundational work may well pave the way for a truly renewable form of
clean, global energy. A complete study of the team's
work appears in the current issue of 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' (PNAS).....Today's best solar cell technologies utilize several material
layers to convert the infrared, ultraviolet and visible portions of the spectrum into
electrical energy. This equates to about 61% efficiency in the furthest extremes of the
technology, though something around mid-40% is far more typical. Solar cells like these
are also incredibly expensive, fragile and impractical for mass production, making them
useful for projects like satellites. They have no real potential to become real
alternatives for the base consumer's energy needs. Quite recently, plastic solar cells
have been created which achieve between 7% and 11% efficiency. While this may not sound
like a lot, such products and materials are extremely inexpensive to produce in bulk
quantities, costing about $3 per square meter. The idea of having a rooftop covered by
plastic solar cells in place of tar-based shingles has drawn many a consumer's thought
since being first reported in 2007. Commercial consumer products based on the technology,
which could offer up to 14% efficiency if theories are to be believed, are promised within
the next five years....The materials these researchers have created is not ready for prime
time. Only a few molecules were created through a joint effort of the Ohio State
University team and a team of chemists from the National Taiwan University. They
synthesized enough of the material to carry out preliminary tests. And while these early
findings are truly remarkable, there are still more on the horizon....It won't be too long
before supercomputers light the way for the truly revolutionary form of renewable energy
generation." New solar cell material achieves almost 100% efficiency, could solve world-wide energy problems TGDaily, 20 October 2008 |
| "There's a global scramble to drive down emissions of
carbon dioxide: the electricity to power just refrigerators in the U.S. contributes
102 million tons annually. Solar refrigeration can also be inexpensive and it would give the electric grid much-needed
relief. Electricity demand peaks on hot summer days—150 gigawatts more in summer than
winter in the U.S. (A gigawatt equals on billion watts.) That's almost 1.5 times the
generating capacity of all the coal-fired power plants west of the Mississippi River.
Further, solar is plentiful. The solar energy hitting
54 square feet (five square meters) of land each year is the equivalent of all the
electricity used by one American household, according to data from the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory and Energy Information Administration, both part of the U.S. Department
of Energy....Absorptive chillers like solar
refrigerators use a heat source rather than a compressor to change the refrigerant from
vapor to liquid. The two most common combinations are water mixed with either lithium
bromide or ammonia.
In each case, the refrigerating gas is absorbed until heat is applied, which raises the
temperature and pressure. At higher pressure, the refrigerant condenses into liquid.
Turning off the heat lowers the pressure, causing that liquid to evaporate back into a
gas, thereby creating the cooling effect." Solar Refrigeration: A Hot Idea for Cooling Scientific American, 20 October 2008 |
| "A protracted shortage of raw silicon that impacted the fortunes for
some makers of solar photovoltaic panels is beginning to ease. The broader supply will put
emerging thin-film panel makers under renewed pressure, said one market watcher. 'There
will be significant supplies of raw [silicon] material beginning in 2010,' said Paula
Mints, principal analyst with Navigant Consulting (Palo Alto, Calif.), speaking at a recent
IEEE event on solar energy. 'This will exert extreme downward pressure on average
prices for all technologies, but particularly thin films,' she added....Vendors using one
of several thin film technologies were able to capitalize on the shortage because they
required very little silicon. First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.) was among the leaders of the
group, rising to become the fifth largest panel maker in 2007 with its cadmium
telluride-based technology. But the tide is turning. Supply
of silicon is easing this year and could be in overcapacity by mid-2010, Mints forecasts. That should benefit the crystalline vendors who make up
nine of the top ten panel makers. Crystalline vendors have been working hard to minimize
their use of silicon. SunPower Corp. (San Jose), ranked as the tenth largest panel maker,
slashed its use of silicon per solar cell in half from about 12 to six grams, said
SunPower President Richard Swanson." Silicon supply shifts solar dynamics EETimes, 6 October 2008 |
"In three years, buildings covered in steel sheets could be
generating large amounts of solar electricity, thanks to a new photovoltaic paint that is
being developed in a commercial partnership between UK university researchers and the
steel industry. A laboratory built to develop the new solar technology that replicates
plant's photosynthesis is due to start work on October 30th in Shotton, North Wales. 'If
the solar cell paint can be successfully brought to the market, it could spell big changes
when it comes to the future production of electricity,' said Steve Fisher, spokesperson of
the Corus Group, the
Anglo-Dutch steel manufacturing group that is believed to be pouring tens of millions of
euros into the venture. The photovoltaic paint is made up of a layer of dye and a layer of
electrolytes and can be applied as a liquid paste. Altogether, the sheets of steel get
four coats of solar paint — an undercoat, a layer of dye-sensitized solar cells, a
layer of electrolyte or titanium dioxide as white paint pigment and, finally, a protective
film. The paste is applied to steel sheets when they are passed through the rollers during
the manufacturing process. The four layers of the solar cell system are built up one after
the other in rapid succession. Light hits the dye-sensitized solar cells, exciting the
molecules that act as a light absorber or sensitizer. The excited molecules release an
electron into the nanocrystalline titanium dioxide layer, which acts as an electron
collector and a circuit. The electrons finally move back into the dye, attracted by
positively charged iodide particles in a liquid electrolyte. The solar electricity that
the area covered with paint generates is collected and provides power for whatever
application it is connected to. Corus Colours produces about 100 million square meters of steel sheets
a year. If the company's entire output of steel is
given a lick of solar paint, then these steel sheets together could have a capacity of as
much as 9,000 gigawatts [hrs] (GW) of electricity every year, assuming the solar cells
attain a power conversion efficiency of about 11 percent. Because the photovoltaic paint
has none of the material limitations of conventional silicon-based solar cell, it could,
at least in theory, provide terawatts of clean solar electricity at a low cost in the
coming decades. These new solar cells also have the
advantage of being able to absorb across the visible spectrum. That makes them more
efficient at capturing low radiation light than conventional solar cells, and so well
suited to the British climate with its many cloudy days. Stephen Fisher said that Corus
was developing the photovoltaic paint as part of its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions....Researchers working at the PV Accelerator
Laboratory in Shotton are aiming to develop a method of applying the solar paint to
steel at a rate of 30 to 40 square meters per second. Swansea University is leading the research together with Imperial College London and Bangor and Bath
University. G24 Innovations
started manufacturing dye-sensitized thin-film solar cells to be used for solar-powered
chargers for mobile phones and digital cameras in Cardiff in Wales in 2007. The company
claims its cells are the closest human beings have as yet come to replicating plant's
photosynthesis." |
| "U.S. researchers have found a way to make efficient silicon-based
solar cells that are flexible enough to be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or
cars. The finding, reported on Sunday in the journal
Nature Materials, offers a new way to process conventional silicon by slicing the brittle
wafers into ultrathin bits and carefully transferring them onto a flexible surface. 'We
can make it thin enough that we can put it on plastic to make a rollable system. You can
make it gray in the form of a film that could be added to architectural glass,' said John
Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the research. 'It opens
up spaces on the fronts of buildings as opportunities for solar energy,' Rogers said in a
telephone interview....Many companies, including Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp
Corp and Germany's Q-Cells are making thin-film solar cells, but they typically are less
efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than conventional cells. Rogers said
his technology uses conventional single crystal silicon. 'It's robust. It's highly
efficient. But in its current form, it's rigid and fragile,' he said. Rogers' team uses a
special etching method that slices chips off the surface of a bulk silicon wafer. The
sliced chips are 10 to 100 times thinner than the wafer, and the size can be adapted to
the application.....Adding flexibility to the material would make the cells far easier to
transport. Rogers envisions the material being 'rolled up like a carpet and thrown on the
truck.'" Scientists develop solar cells with a twist Reuters, 5 October 2008 |
| "AKNS, one of the nation's leading designers and installers of solar
power systems, believes the key elements are now in place for unprecedented growth in
residential solar adoption. 'Finally, the federal government has implemented a set of
policies that will spur the long term growth of the solar industry,' said Barry Cinnamon,
CEO of Akeena Solar. 'Our customers can now achieve a
payback on their solar investment in five years instead of ten, with a 20 percent return on investment (ROI). In today's uncertain
economy, rooftop solar power may be the very best investment a homeowner can make.' An
eight-year extension of the federal investment tax credit and the removal of the $2,000
limitation for residential installations will drastically decrease the cost of solar for
homeowners. The solar tax credits, first introduced in 2005, have been instrumental in
encouraging the expansion of the industry." Rooftop Solar Power Now the Best Investment Under the Sun MarketWatch, 3 October 2008 |
| "Mrs Sheila Dixit, the chief minister of Delhi will launch the
‘soleckshaw’, a vehicle driven by solar power on 2 October in the National
Capital. The vehicle has been designed by scientists of Durgapur-based Central
Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, a CSIR organisation. Four such
soleckshaws have already been transported to New Delhi. Dr Amitava Roy,
director, CMERI said: 'Soleckshaws can be described as an efficient pedal
powered, motor-assisted three wheeler that is expected to find good utility in downtown
urban transportation and freight.'” Solar power driven autorickshaws to ply soon The Statesman (India), 26 September 2008 |
| "The electricity generated by the three Pelamis devices will be
carried by undersea cable to a substation in Aguçadoura, which will then feed the power
into the Portuguese national grid. In addition to this flagship wave power, the Portuguese
are investing heavily in other renewable technologies. They are already spending £250m on
more than 2,500 solar photovoltaic panels to build the
world's largest solar farm near the small town of Moura in eastern Portugal. It will have
twice the collecting area of London's Hyde Park and supply 45MW of electricity each year,
enough to power 30,000 homes." 'Wave snakes' switch on to harness ocean's power Guardian, 25 September 2008 |
| "We have an ocean of electricity and heating profligacy to mine in
this country. British Gas ran an interesting experiment recently. Eight British streets
were asked to compete in cutting their fuel bills, using only the easiest of efficiency
measures. In no time at all, they cut their CO2 by an average 20% and fuel bills by a
third. The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), which monitored
the exercise (pdf) for BG, suggests that 10,000 advisers be appointed nationwide, one
per 20 streets. The cost would be £500m annually against national energy savings of
£4.6bn. The IPPR gives a telling example of what householders, energy-services companies,
and government could do could if they worked together. A £524 loan package for cavity
wall and lost insulation would give annual savings of £395 per household. A quick payback
indeed....Modern solar electric and heating tiles,
fitted to a maximally energy-efficient home, can take that property's emissions to zero.
The whole thing can be put up in a matter of days using modern offsite methods of
construction. More than half the UK's greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings; the
majority from homes. We can cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero, we can get rid of the
need for energy bills of any kind once the capital cost is paid, and we can dump gas, coal
and nuclear alike. Then there is transport. Car manufacturers are aligning behind
electricity as the fuel of the future. They are already well into systemic change, even at
$100-barrel oil. Renewable energy can charge the plug-in super-efficient vehicles of the
near future, even as massive new public transport
infrastructure is built by the carbon army. Long term, we save much more money than we
invest making this happen. It is all doable, if we just have the imagination and the
will." Independence from the street up Guardian, 23 September 2008 |
| "The world must speed up the deployment of solar power as it has the potential to meet all the world's energy needs, the chairman of an industry gathering which wrapped up Friday in Spain
said. 'The solar energy resource is enormous, and distributed all over the world, in all
countries and also oceans,' said Daniel Lincot, the chairman of the five-day European
Photovoltaic Solar Energy conference held in Valencia. 'There is thus an enormous resource
available from photovoltaics, which can be used everywhere, and can in principle cover all
the world energy demand from a renewable, safe and clean source,' he added. Lincot, the
research director of the Paris-based Institute for Research and Development of
Photovoltaic Energy, said solar energy was growing rapidly but still made only a
'negligible' contribution to total energy supply. Last
year the world production of photovoltaic models represented a surface of 40 square
kilometres (16 square miles) while meeting the electrical consumption of countries like
France or Germany would require 5,000 square kilometres, he said. Under current scenarios, photovoltaic models will represent about 1,000
square kilometres by 2020 accounting for about only 3.0 percent of energy needs in the
27-member European Union, he added." Agence France Presse, 5 September 2008 |
| "Vast greenhouses that use sea water for crop cultivation could be
combined with solar power plants to provide food, fresh water and clean energy in deserts,
under an ambitious proposal from a team of architects and engineers. The Sahara Forest
Project, which is already running demonstration plants in Tenerife, Oman and the United
Arab Emirates, envisages huge greenhouses with
concentrated solar power (CSP), a technology that uses mirrors to focus the sun's rays,
creating steam to drive turbines to generate electricity....The solar farm planned by the
project runs seawater evaporators, pumping damp, cool air through the greenhouses. This
reduces the warmth inside by about 15C, compared with the temperature outside. At the
other end of the greenhouse from the evaporators, water vapour is condensed. Some of this
fresh water is used to water the crops, some for
cleaning the solar mirrors. 'So we've got conditions in the greenhouse of high humidity
and lower temperature,' said Paton. 'The crops sitting in this slightly steamy, humid
condition can grow fantastically well.'....Paton said the greenhouse produced more than
five times the fresh water needed to water the plants inside, so some of the water could
be released to the outside, creating a microclimate for hardier plants such as jatropha, a
crop that can be turned into biofuel. The cost of the Sahara Forest Project could be
relatively low as both CSP and Seawater Greenhouses are proven technologies. The designers
estimate that building 20 hectares (nearly 50 acres) of greenhouses combined with a 10MW
CSP scheme would cost about €80m (£65m).... Neil Crumpton, an energy specialist at
Friends of the Earth, said the potential of these desert technologies was huge.
'Concentrated solar power mirror arrays covering just 1% of the Earth's deserts could
supply a fifth of all current global energy consumption. And 1 million tonnes of sea water
could be evaporated every day from just 20,000ha of greenhouses.' Governments should
invest in the technologies and 'not be distracted by lobbyists promoting dangerous nuclear
power or nuclear-powered desalination schemes', Crumpton added." Solar plant yields water and crops from the desert Guardian, 3 September 2008 |
| "Battered by soaring energy costs and aghast at dwindling fish
stocks, Japanese scientists think they have found the answer: filling the seas with giant
'eco-rigs' as powerful as nuclear power stations. The
project, which could result in village-sized platforms peppering the Japanese coastline
within a decade, reflects a growing panic in the country over how it will meet its future
resource needs. The floating eco-rig generators which measure 1.2 miles by 0.5 miles (2km
by 800m) are intended to harness the energy of the Sun and wind. They are each expected to
produce about 300 megawatt hours of power. Some
energy would be lost moving the electricity back onshore, but when three units are
strapped together, scientists at Kyushu University say, the effect will be the same as a
standard nuclear power station. The eco-rigs' gift to the environment does not stop there:
some of the power that the solar cells and wind
turbines produce will be hived off to fuel colossal underwater banks of light-emitting
diodes (LEDs). The lamps are intended to convert the platforms into nurseries for
specially selected seaweed that absorbs carbon dioxide and feeds fish and plankton. Deep-sea water that is rich in minerals will enhance the seaweed growth.
The wind turbines will power pumps that will then draw the water to the surface.The rigs
will be unmanned and comprise several hexagonal platforms....The Kyushu team says the
plans are about three years away from becoming reality. It began tests on a scale version
of the eco-rig last month, and full-scale official evaluation is expected to begin
soon." Massive floating generators, or 'eco-rigs', to provide power and food to Japan London Times, 1 September 2008 |
| "Nanosolar, a maker of thin-film solar panels, said that it has
raised $300 million to accelerate production of solar-power facilities in Berlin and San
Jose, Calif. The round of funding, which was completed this spring but announced Wednesday
by Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen on the company's blog, brings the total money the
six-year-old company has raised to half of a billion dollars. Nanosolar is one of the
darlings of the clean-tech investing craze.... the funding will help the company meet
demand for the thin-film solar technology it introduced in December. Nanosolar is one of several
companies betting on a photovoltaic-alternative known
as copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), which
purportedly convert more sunlight into energy than other types of thin-film
materials." Nanosolar raises $300 million for thin-film solar CNET News, 27 August 2008 |
"A UK-built solar-powered plane
has set an unofficial world endurance record for a flight by an unmanned aircraft. The
Zephyr-6, as it is known, stayed aloft for more than three days, running through the night
on batteries it had recharged in sunlight. The
flight was a demonstration for the US military, which is looking for new types of
technology to support its troops on the ground. Zephyr has demonstrated that it can cope
with extremes of temperature - from the blistering 45C heat found at ground level in
Arizona's Sonoran Desert, to the minus 70C chill experienced at altitudes of more than
18km (60,000ft). The engineers from the Farnborough-based company are now collaborating
with the American aerospace giant Boeing on a defence project codenamed Vulture. This
would see the biggest plane in history take to the sky, powered by the sun and capable of
carrying a 450-kilo (1,000lb) payload. US commanders say the design must be able to
maintain its position over a particular spot on the Earth's surface uninterrupted for five
years. QinetiQ is also developing UAV technology for
civilian uses." |
| "California's largest utility
company has signed deals to build the world's two biggest solar plants that would supply
electricity to 250,000 homes and reestablish the United States as the global leader in
solar power, officials said Friday. Pacific Gas and
Electric (PG&E), which is based in San Francisco and serves most of northern
California, will use the two massive solar facilities to help it meet state requirements
to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, according to
Chief Executive and Senior Vice President Jack Keenan. 'This commitment not only moves us
forward in meeting our renewable goal, it's also a significant step forward in the
renewable energy sector,' Keenan said in a statement. PG&E has signed contracts with
two Silicon Valley firms, Optisolar and SunPower, to build the plants in the sunny central
California coast city of San Luis Obispo, which is almost equidistant from the state's two
population centers San Francisco and Los Angeles. Optisolar
will build a 550-megawatt solar farm using thin-film photovoltaic panels, while SunPower
will build another 250-megawatt plant on former farm land, PG&E said, adding that the OptiSolar plant could reduce as much
carbon emissions by 90,000 cars alone. Energy sector
officials said that the new project is so large that it will double the entire installed
base of solar power generation in the United States.
The world's largest solar facility is currently in Spain with a 23-megawatt generation
capacity, while a 154-megawatt station is under construction in Australia." California to build world's biggest solar power plants Xinhua, 16 August 2008 |
| "The world's largest solar power
project is reportedly being planned for the state of Gujarat in western India at a cost of
about $5 billion. Total power generation capacity is expected to reach 5 gigawatts. The U.S.-based Clinton
Foundation is reportedly in talks with the state government to establish an
'Integrated Solar City' able to produce the raw materials needed for solar-based power
generation, including glass and solar panels. According to a report in Business Standard
on Friday (Aug. 8) from Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, an unnamed senior state government
official was quoted as saying the cost of materials for the huge project will be much less
than previous power generation projects. The official also said the project could reduce
the cost of power generation from 25 cents per unit to 10 cents. The state government has
recruited John Byrne, University
of Delaware professor of public policy and Nobel Prize winner, to develop a solar energy
roadmap for the state. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's foundation, supported by
corporate giants like Microsoft and GE Energy, wants to use its $12 billion kitty to
finance 'green' energy initiatives. The Clinton Foundation is also talking with state
officials in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan about establishing other solar power projects,
the report said. Several major
solar panel manufacturing plants have been proposed here, with a total investment of
about $17 billion. The projects are awaiting government approval and tax breaks." World's biggest solar farm planned in India, report says EE Times, 8 August 2008 |
| "MIT researchers say they have discovered a way to use solar energy
cheaply even after the sun goes down, which could make it a mainstream source of power
within the next decade.Solar energy has been expensive and inefficient to use after dark,
said Daniel Nocera, 51, the Henry Dreyfus professor of energy and professor of chemistry
at MIT. But in an article published in the July 31
issue of the journal Science, Nocera and other Massachusetts Institute of Technology
researchers say they have found a simple, inexpensive process for storing solar energy.....Nocera and the other researchers based their work on a compound made
from cobalt and phosphate, both readily available. When the sun is out, electricity from
solar panels can be fed to the compound in water, causing the water to split into hydrogen
and oxygen. The elements create a chemical fuel that can be recombined to create energy
later, when the sun is not shining. The discovery
breaks 'the connection between energy and fossil fuels because my energy is coming from
water,' said Nocera, 'unleashing the solar energy, not in real time, but when you want
to.' The researchers said the findings open the door
for large-scale use of solar energy around the clock - not right away but within 10 years. The next
step is engineering the system to create and use the solar power. That task will be part
of an engineering design project at MIT during the upcoming semester, Nocera said. Cost is
the biggest challenge facing the solar energy industry, said Monique Hanis, spokeswoman
for the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry trade group in
Washington, D.C. 'The industry is trying to cut costs and improve efficiency all along the
supply chain,' Hanis said. 'The cost of solar should
be on par with sort of traditional fossil sources in about eight years,' based on the
rising costs of other forms of energy and the trends the association has seen in cost
reductions in solar over the last decade, she said.
Nocera and the MIT research group said they opted to publish their findings to allow the
science community to work on the technology. 'The challenges confronting the world in
energy are too big to let anybody's single ego or money get in the way,' Nocera said. 'And
we're talking about some really challenging problems.'" Cheap solar at night? MIT may have answer Boston Globe, 1 August 2008 |
| "A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that
could make it practical for home owners to store
solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night. A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to
generate electricity, while using far less energy
than current methods. With
this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to
power the process that produces the fuel, said the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.....Current
methods of producing hydrogen and oxygen for fuel cells operate in a highly corrosive
environment, Nocera said, meaning the entire reaction must be carried out in an expensive
highly-engineered container. But at MIT this week, the
reaction was going on in an open glass container about the size of two shot glasses that
researchers manipulated with their bare hands, with no heavy safety gloves or goggles. 'It's cheap, it's efficient, it's highly manufacturable, it's
incredibly tolerant of impurity and it's from earth-abundant stuff,' Nocera explained.
Nocera has not tried to construct a full-sized version of the system, but suggested that
the technologies to bring this into a typical home could be ready in less than a
decade." MIT develops way to bank solar energy at home Reuters, 31 July 2008 |
| "The rising popularity of lithium-ion (Li-Ion) in batteries has sent
demand soaring again, and pundits now worry that electric cars will strain our supplies.
Your laptop might use six finger-sized Li-Ion cells in its battery, but US-based Tesla
Motors bolts together 6,000 cells to power one of its high-end electric sports cars. Now
others, drawn to Li-Ion's light weight and high capacity, are joining in. Toyota's Prius
hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) runs on a small battery powered by braking energy that
switches to petrol when it runs out. The group will switch its Nickel Metal Hydrid (NiMH)
chemistry to Li-Ion in 2010. GM will be putting Li-Ion batteries in the Volt, its plug-in
hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) due out the same year. Other vendors also promise PHEVs,
which are similar to HEVs, but with a larger, plug-in battery. Many will take the Li-Ion
approach. So how much lithium do we have? 1m tonnes of lithium metal is used to produce
5.3m tonnes of lithium carbonate, says Brian Jaskula, an analyst at the US Geological
Survey (USGS), which goes into Li-Ion batteries. Data from USGS puts total world resources
of lithium metal at around 14m tonnes. The total world resource includes all the lithium
metal we know about, whether it is commercially viable to extract it or not. But the USGS data is based on
a 1976 National Research Council report....now two independent researchers are hoping to
update the facts. In the pessimist corner is William Tahil, research director at Meridian
International Research, who predicted two years ago that demand for lithium in cars would
outpace supply. 'There is no surplus lithium carbonate available for the automotive
market. It's all being used by existing industrial applications,' he says. His report
provoked a rebuttal from retired industry veteran Keith Evans, who worked on the original
1976 report. In March, he released An Abundance of Lithium, claiming a world resource of
28m tonnes, almost half of which he says could be extracted commercially (worldlithium.com). This would produce nearly 74m
tonnes of lithium carbonate.....Disagreements over lithium reserves aside, the other
debate is about how much lithium we can produce from our reserves, and whether it can
match the growth of the car industry. Analysts say that we won't be needing 17m
lithium-powered cars for a considerable time. Anjan Hemanth Kumar, an analyst with Frost
& Sullivan, says Europe will be the biggest market for electric vehicles, and he
predicts that there will be some 250,000 vehicles in Europe by 2015. The US and Europe
combined will have about 160,000 PHEVs by then. And Li-Ion battery vendor Hitachi says
that most hybrid vehicles will use NiMH batteries until 2015.... Zenn has invested $2.5m (£1.2m) in eeStor, a Texas-based
ultracapacitor group. Ultracapacitors are storage devices traditionally used for
delivering large kicks of power, but they have little long-term energy capacity. eeStor
promises to deliver one that stores as much energy as a lithium battery at less than half
the weight - and with a charging time of under 10 minutes. Lockheed Martin has already signed an exclusive licence to use it in
military applications. Other technologies are being investigated by carmakers too. Last year, Tata Motors, the Indian carmaker, gave MDI, a company
started by a former Formula One engineer, €20m (£15.8m) for the rights to build cars
based on its compressed air design. Both Zenn and MDI's US subsidiary ZPN hope to have
cars housing their new technologies on the roads by 2010. Fossil fuel cars are unlikely to disappear just yet. But as we seek
cleaner transport, other technologies are just around the corner." What is going to power our cars? Guardian, 31 July 2008 |
| "China is ever to produce a challenger for the title of the world's
richest and most respected businessman, a leading contender is likely to be Shi Zhengrong.
The world's first solar billionaire sits at the intersection of two of the most important
vectors of the 21st century - China's economic rise and the global imperative to cut
carbon emissions. Since founding Suntech Power - China's largest photovoltaic manufacturer
- in 2001, Shi has capitalised on a surge of environmentally driven demand in Germany, the
US and elsewhere that has turned his company into a global powerhouse and made him, by
some estimates, the richest man on the mainland. But that is just the start, according to
the Australian-educated scientist, who predicts solar power will rival oil and coal before
the end of the next decade. 'We believe that in 10 years, Suntech will be an energy giant
like BP or Shell today,' he says. 'Since we were founded, we have grown by more than 100%
every year, but we still can't keep up with demand. We must grow faster.'" Bright future for China's solar billionaire Guardian, 25 July 2008 |
| "If giant solar thermal power plants spread across the desert are
like a mainframe, Sopogy is making the equivalent of a personal computer. The Hawaii-based
company on Tuesday at the Intersolar
2008 conference will show off the latest version of its MicroCSP--essentially a shrunk-down
version of concentrating solar power (CSP)
equipment used in power plants. It's a trough with a
reflective coating that focuses sunlight onto a pipe that carries an oil. That heated
liquid goes through an organic Rankine cycle engine
to convert it into electricity. The conventional
thinking in solar these days is to think big. Proposals for
concentrating solar power plants call for hundreds of rows of troughs or mirrors to make
steam to drive an electricity turbine. The output of these proposed plants will be
hundreds of megawatts, approaching the size of traditional power plants. Sopogy's product,
called SopaNova 4.0, is aimed at utilities as well, but for smaller-scale projects, in the
range of 250 kilowatts to 25 megawatts. The latest edition is longer--between 12 feet and
18 feet long--than previous editions because of a new manufacturing process. 'On cost per watt, we're cheaper than PV (photovoltaics),' said CEO Darren Kimura. 'But that's not what really matters. We can do
more production. We actually get more sun energy every day.'" Sopogy thinks small to make megawatts of solar power CNet News, 15 July 2008 |
| "A new type of solar panel that allows light to pass through it like
a pane of glass has been invented by scientists who said that it is 10 times more powerful than conventional methods of producing
energy from sunlight. The discovery raises the
prospect of using ordinary domestic windows to
generate electricity with minimum structural alterations, although scientists have not yet worked out how much it would cost to
convert a domestic home to a solar-powered generator. Instead of coating the entire solar
panel with solar cells - the expensive semiconductor devices that turn the energy of
sunlight into electricity - the new solar panel works on the principle of concentrating
the light, and the energy, at the edges of a pane of glass where it can be collected by
the solar cells. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston
said that the 'solar concentrator' is made from a film of organic molecules that can be
coated on to glass window panes or other surfaces exposed to sunlight. This allows light
to pass straight through the window even though it is being used to generate power. It
also means that the expensive solar cells need only be placed around the edges of the
collecting area, so that there is little need to track the movements of the Sun for
generating maximum power, as well as reducing overall costs....The MIT solar concentrator
involves a mixture of two or more dyes that are painted onto a pane of glass or plastic.
These dyes absorb light across a range of different wavelengths, which is then re-emitted
at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to the waiting solar cells at
the edges. Jon Mapel, one of the MIT scientists who worked on the project, said that the
trick was to improve the efficiency of the process, which ultimately leads to better
performance and lower costs.... Solar power is seen as one of the greenest sources of
energy but it has been dogged by the relatively high costs of installing photovoltaic
cells on houses and buildings, which can take years to pay off in terms of energy savings.
Their efficiency in low-light conditions is also a problem for countries such as Britain
were sunlight is a rare commodity in the coldest months of winter." New windows double as solar panels Independent, 11 July 2008 |
| "MIT engineers have turned plain glass into a virtual goldmine of
solar energy with the help of a sophisticated, yet affordable, concentrator developed by
them. Because the materials are affordable,
relatively easy to scale up beyond a lab setting, and easy to retrofit to existing solar
panels, the researchers believe the technology could find its way to the marketplace
within three years. The technology, using dye-coated
glass to collect and channel photons otherwise lost from a solar panel's surface, could enable
an office building to draw energy from its tinted windows as well as its roof. The engineers coated glass panels with layers of two or more
light-capturing dyes. The dyes absorbed incoming light and then re-emitted the energy into the glass, which served as a conduit to channel the light to
solar cells along the panels' edges. The dyes can vary from bright colours to
chemicals mostly transparent to visible light. Because the glass panel edges are so thin,
far less semiconductor material is needed to collect light energy and convert it into
power. The new technology emerged in part from an NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research
Team effort to transfer the capabilities of photosynthesis to solar technology, reports
Eurekalert. The researchers' approach succeeded where efforts from the 1970s failed
because the thin, concentrated layer of dyes on glass is more effective than the
alternative -- a low concentration of dyes in plastic -- at channelling most of the light
all the way to the panel edges. These findings appeared in the Friday edition of
Science." MIT turns plain glass into goldmine of solar energy Economic Times, 11 July 2008 |
| "A Michigan company, Energy Conversion Devices, plans to announce
Tuesday that it is providing the solar electric system for what it says will be the
world's largest rooftop array, on a General Motors assembly plant in Zaragoza, Spain.
The project will be 12 megawatts, a huge number in a
field where most arrays are measured in kilowatts, units 1,000 times smaller. The project will use solar devices manufactured in rolls, like carpet
runners. Installation will be completed this fall, according to the company, which is
based in Rochester Hills, Michigan Energy Conversion will supply the equipment to Veolia
Environment and Clairvoyant Energy, which will lease the rooftop space from GM and own and
operate the installation, which will be two million square feet. Spain has become a
center of solar installations because it offers generous subsidies, 0.42 euro a
kilowatt-hour (66 cents). That is about five times the average cost of a kilowatt hour to
residential customers in the United States. The Spanish government is considering a
reduction in the subsidy for installations after September.... According to the Solar
Energy Industries Association, a trade group based in Washington, the largest installation
planned in the United States, announced in June, was in Atlantic City, where the
convention center will have 2.36 megawatts, about one-fifth the size of the installation
to be completed in Spain." Large solar energy array set for GM in Spain International Herald Tribune, 8 July 2008 |
"The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday said it reversed an earlier decision freezing solar project applications
in six Western states and would accept new
applications.'We heard the concerns expressed...about waiting to consider new applications
and we are taking action,' BLM director James Caswell said in a statement. The government
agency announced a freeze a month ago and the decision was criticized by many in the solar
industry." |
| "The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has declared a moratorium on development of new solar power projects on
government land in six western states. The agency
said the huge increase in the number of plans for solar power plants has caused worries
about their environmental impact, The New York Times reported. Officials expect an impact
study to take two years. The moratorium affects millions of acres in Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials said 130 applications to lease public
land for solar projects have been filed since 2005. The high price of oil makes solar
power an attractive alternative, energy analysts say. Advocates say sun-drenched public
lands in the Western deserts are a resource that should be used. 'It doesn't make any
sense,' said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for
Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. 'The Bureau of Land Management
land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the
growth of the industry.'" U.S. government delays solar projects United Press International, 29 June 2008 |
"A new type of solar energy collector
concentrates the sun into a beam that could melt steel. Researchers say the device could
revolutionize global energy production. The prototype is a 12-foot-wide mirrored dish was
made from a lightweight frame of thin, inexpensive aluminum tubing and strips of mirror. It concentrates sunlight by a factor of 1,000 to produce steam. 'This is actually the most efficient solar collector in existence,' said
Doug Wood, an inventor based in Washington state who patented key parts of the dish's
design — the rights to which he has signed over to a team of students at MIT." |
| "A team of Americans and Israelis launched an experimental solar
technology plant Thursday in Israel's Negev Desert, a
prototype designed to drastically cut the cost of energy produced from the sun. Israeli company Luz II, Ltd. and its American parent, Brightsource
Energy, Inc., plan to use the Israeli solar array to test new technology for the three new
solar plants they are building for California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
Arnold Goldman, founder of the Oakland, California-based company, called the array 'the
highest performance, lowest cost thermal solar system in the world.' His previous company
built the first commercial solar plants in the 1980s. The new technology uses fields of
computer-guided flat mirrors called heliostats to track the sun and focus its rays on a
boiler at the top of a 200-foot tower. Water inside the boiler turns to steam, which
powers a turbine and produces electricity. The steam is then captured and cooled naturally
so the water, scarce in the desert, can be reused." 'Israeli technology may offer cheap solar power' Associated Press, 12 June 2008 |
| "Quartz, the raw material for
solar panels, is one of the most abundant minerals on earth. But for years, the solar industry has faced a bottleneck in processing
quartz into polysilicon, a principal material used in most solar panels. The problem
stalled a steady decline in prices for solar panels. Now the silicon shortage may be
coming to an end, predict some solar analysts, thanks to new factories coming online. If
true, the price for solar panel modules could start falling by as much as a third by 2010,
says Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development in
Cambridge, Mass. That’s good news for an industry that remains one of the most
expensive power sources." Brighter future for solar panels: silicon shortage eases Christian Science Monitor, 5 June 2008 |
| "Solar power from Africa's
deserts could supply all 600 million citizens currently without electricity and even
export power to Europe, a green energy conference in
Nairobi heard Thursday. The ferocious desert sun could provide the energy equivalent of
1.5 barrels of oil per square kilometre, said Gerhard Knies, project manager for
Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), at a meeting of nine African
states. 'The largest source of energy is the solar radiation (and) the best place to
receive solar radiation is the desert,' he told reporters at the start of meeting of 20
parliamentarians in Kenya. 'Deserts get 700 times more energy per year than all human kind
is using,' he explained.'It is as if a layer of 25 centimetres (10 inches) of oil is
falling down in the deserts year after year.'" Africa's deserts could supply solar electricity to continent: experts Agence France Presse, 5 June 2008 |
"It has been called the holy grail of the modern era - cheap solar
energy. And scientists say it may be within our grasp soon. Queensland University team has
grown the world's first titanium oxide nano crystals that are likely to revolutionise the
way solar energy is harvested and used. Creating
these highly efficient miniature crystals with large reactive surfaces was thought of as
impossible by most scientists. Max Lu, who led the
study, sounded upbeat that they were a step closer to the holy grail of cost-effective
solar energy with their discovery. 'Highly active surfaces in such crystals allow high
reactivity and efficiency in devices used for solar energy conversion and hydrogen
production,' said Lu. 'Titanium nano-crystals are promising materials for cost-effective
solar cells, hydrogen production from splitting water, and solar decontamination of pollutants. The beauty of our technique is
that it is very simple and cheap to make such
materials at mild conditions.' .... Details of the
project have been published in the latest edition of the journal Nature." |
| "Check out the Czeers MK1 prototype
solar speedboat, a
10-meter long rig that manages to pack in 14 square meters of solar panels to power an
80kw electric motor. The MK1 plows through the water at a breakneck 30 knots, using no oil
and producing no fumes or engine noise. ..The boat is made from 100 percent carbon fiber and has an LCD
touch-screen control system, leather trimmings and, most importantly, photovoltaic cells
on almost all its horizontal services." World's First Solar Speedboat Does 30 Knots Gas-Free Gizmodo, 24 May 2008 |
| "Along a dusty two-lane highway in California's Mojave Desert,
550,000 mirrors point skyward to make steam for electricity. Google Inc., Chevron Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are betting this
energy will become cheaper than coal. The 1,000-acre plant uses concentrated sunlight to
generate power for as many as 112,500 homes in Southern California. Rising natural gas
prices and emissions limits may make solar thermal
the fastest-growing energy source in the next decade,
say backers including Vinod Khosla, the founder of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.
Costs for the technology will fall below coal as soon as 2020, the U.S. government
estimates. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. invested last year in the
biggest solar plant built in a generation; Chevron and Google are funding research; and
Goldman Sachs is seeking land to lease as demand outpaces wind turbines and geothermal.
'Solar thermal can provide a substantial amount of our power, more than 50 percent,' says
Khosla, who along with the Menlo Park, California, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers led a $40 million investment in solar power producer Ausra Inc. 'This
is an industrial-strength solution.'...The Ardour Solar Energy Index, covering all forms of solar
power, climbed 55 percent in the 12 months through yesterday, outperforming an 8.5 percent
decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Unlike photovoltaic solar panels that
convert sunlight to electricity, solar thermal focuses sunrays with mirrors to heat oil in
glass pipes to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit (370 degrees Celsius). The oil turns water to
steam, which spins an electric turbine....Solar thermal companies are trying to develop
backup heat storage using pressurized boiling water or molten salt that can be warmed to
more than 1,000 degrees....A solar thermal unit that begins operation in 2010 will produce
power at 14.2 cents a kilowatt hour, almost triple the 4.8 cents for a plant using
pulverized coal, the Energy Information Administration estimates. Costs for solar thermal may fall as low as 3.5 cents a kilowatt
hour by 2020, according to a report
commissioned by the U.S. Energy Department. Meanwhile, coal expenses may rise...Ausra's plants will produce electricity at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour
starting in 2010, and the price will fall to 8 cents a few years later as it adopts
systems with fewer parts that will be less costly when widely deployed, the company says.
'We are going to beat coal,' says Bob Fishman, Ausra's chief executive officer.'' Google, Chevron Build Mirrors in Desert to Beat Coal With Solar Bloomberg, 23 May 2008 |
| "Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely leader in the race
to harness the sun's energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems,
which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world's total
installations. And it is the third-largest producer
of solar cells and modules after China and Japan.Now, though, Conservative lawmakers want
to pare back generous government incentives that support solar development. They say solar
generation is growing so fast that it threatens to overburden consumers with high
electricity bills.... At the heart of the debate is the Renewable Energy Sources Act. It
requires power companies to buy all the alternative energy produced by these systems, at a
fixed above-market price, for 20 years. This mechanism, known as a feed-in tariff, gives
entrepreneurs a powerful incentive to install solar panels. With a locked-in customer base
for their electricity, they can earn a reliable return on their investment. It has worked:
homeowners rushed to clamp solar panels on their roofs, and farmers planted them in fields
where sheep once grazed. The amount of electricity generated by these installations rose
60% in 2007 compared with 2006, faster than any other renewable energy. This is in a
country that gets an average of only 1,528 hours of sunshine a year, less than a third of
the total daylight hours. That figure is comparable to London's but it is one-third fewer
sunshine hours than in Florence, Italy, and only half San Diego's, making German solar
installations less efficient, and their growth all the more remarkable. With wind, biomass
and other alternative energy also growing, Germany derives 14.2% of its electricity from
renewable sources. That puts it ahead of a European Union target for countries to generate
12.5% of electricity from alternative sources by 2010." Future of solar cells industry too bright for its own good Scotsman, 18 May 2008 |
"IBM today announced a research breakthrough in photovoltaics
technology that could significantly reduce the cost of harnessing the Sun's power for
electricity. By mimicking the antics of a child using a magnifying glass to burn a
leaf or a camper to start a fire, IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the
Sun’s power, capturing a record 230 watts onto a centimeter square solar cell, in a
technology known as concentrator photovoltaics, or CPV. That energy is then converted into
70 watts of usable electrical power, about five times the electrical power density
generated by typical cells using CPV technology in solar farms. If it can overcome
additional challenges to move this project from the lab to the fab, IBM believes it can
significantly reduce the cost of a typical CPV based system. By using a much lower number
of photovoltaic cells in a solar farm and concentrating more light onto each cell using
larger lenses, IBM’s system enables a significant cost advantage in terms of a lesser
number of total components. For instance, by moving from a 200 sun system ('one sun' is a
measurement equal to the solar power incident at noon on a clear summer day), where about
20 watts per square centimeter of power is concentrated onto the cell, to the IBM Lab
results of a 2300 sun system, where approximately 230 watts per square centimeter are
concentrated onto the cell system, the IBM system
cuts the number of photovoltaic cells and other components by a factor of 10....The trick lies in IBM’s ability to cool the tiny solar cell.
Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small area generates enough heat to
melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced first hand in their
experiments. But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips,
the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85
degrees Celsius. The initial results of this project will be presented at the 33rd IEEE
Photovoltaic Specialists conference today, where the IBM researchers will detail how their
liquid metal cooling interface is able to transfer heat from the solar cell to a copper
cooling plate much more efficiently than anything else available today. The IBM research
team developed a system that achieved breakthrough results by coupling a commercial solar
cell to an advanced IBM liquid metal thermal cooling system using methods developed for
the microprocessor industry....While concentrator-based photovoltaics technologies have
been around since the 1970s, they have received renewed interest in recent times. With
very high concentrations, they have the potential to offer the lowest-cost solar
electricity for large-scale power generation, provided the temperature of the cells can be
kept low, and cheap and efficient optics can be developed for concentrating the light to
very high levels." |
| "Thanks to nanostructures that scatter and channel light, University
of California, San Diego electrical engineers are working
toward thin-film 'single junction' solar cells with the potential for nearly 45 percent
sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies.
This effort to break the theoretical limit of 31 percent efficiency for conventional
single junction cells recently received a big funding boost from the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Solar America program." Nanostructures Will Raise Thin-Film Solar Cell Efficiency ScienceDaily, May 15, 2008 |
| "A Pennsylvania
energy company is putting up what it says will be the largest
rooftop solar installation in the country. The
1.7-megawatt solar system will go on the rooftops of eight buildings at the Summit, N.J.,
campus of pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough
Corp. PPL Renewable Energy of Allentown,
Pa., said Monday it will plan, construct and operate the system. PPL also will own the
system, which will supply power to the Schering-Plough campus. It will reduce the
company's emissions of greenhouse gases -- a goal of the drugmaker -- by about 1.3 million
pounds a year, equal to saving about 66,000 gallons of gasoline. PPL said such solar
systems reduce energy bills by generating electricity during peak daytime hours when power
prices are highest." Biggest US solar rooftop system planned Newsday, 12 May 2008 |
| "A Silicon Valley start-up says it has developed technology that can
deliver solar power in about a year at prices
competitive with coal-fired electricity, a milestone
that would leapfrog other more established players and turbocharge the fast-growing
industry. SUNRGI's 'concentrated photovoltaic' system relies on lenses to magnify sunlight
2,000 times, letting it produce as much electricity as standard panels with a far smaller
system. Craig Goodman, head of the National Energy Marketers Association, is expected to
announce the breakthrough Tuesday. Under its plans, which experts call promising but
highly ambitious, SUNRGI
would initially target utilities and large industrial and commercial customers. The
company — founded by veterans of computer, digital design, aerospace and solar
industries — would market to homes within three years. Executives of the year-old
company say they'll start producing solar panels by mid-2009 that will generate
electricity for about 7 cents a kilowatt hour,
including installation. That's roughly the price of
cheap coal-fired electricity. 'We're bringing the cost of solar electricity down to be
competitive with' fossil fuels, says Bob Block, a co-founder of SUNRGI. Solar power is
acclaimed as free of greenhouse gas emissions and able to supply electricity midday when
demand is highest. But its cost — 20 cents to 30 cents a kilowatt hour — has
inhibited broad adoption. Solar makes up less than 1% of U.S. power generation. An armada
of solar technology makers aim to drive solar's price to 10 to 18 cents a kilowatt hour by
2010, and 5 to 10 cents by 2015, at or below utility costs. SUNRGI's timetable is far more
aggressive." Start-up: Affordable solar power possible in a year USA Today, 28 April 2008 |
| "The sun blasts Earth with enough energy in one hour—4.3 x 1020
joules—to provide all of humanity's energy needs for a year (4.1 x 1020
joules), according to physicist Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. The question is how to most effectively harness it. Thin-film solar cells may be the
answer: One recently converted 19.9 percent of the sunlight that hit it into electricity,
surpassing the amount converted into power by mass-produced traditional silicon
photovoltaics and offering the potential to unleash this renewable energy source.
Prices for high-grade silicon (that can generate electricity from sunlight) shot up in
2004 in response to growing demand, reaching as high as $500 per kilogram (2.2 pounds)
this year. Enter thin-film solar cells—devices that use a fine layer of
semiconducting material, such as silicon, copper indium gallium selenide or cadmium
telluride, to harvest electricity from sunlight at a fraction of the cost. 'The
fundamental advantage of thin film comes in the form of the amount of material you need,'
says electrical engineer Jeff Britt, chief technology officer of thin-film manufacturer Global Solar Energy in Tucson, Ariz. 'These are
direct bandgap semiconductors. You can get by with one or two microns and still absorb 98
percent of the sunlight.' (In other words, it takes at least 100 times less thin-film
material to absorb the same amount of sunlight as traditional silicon photovoltaic
cells.)...In March, the company opened a new factory in Tucson, where it plans to produce
enough thin-film CIGS solar cells to generate 40 megawatts of electricity next
year—enough to power roughly 15,000 average American homes; it hopes to boost the
juice to 100 megawatts by 2010 in response to what it predicts will be a growing
market." Solar Power Lightens Up with Thin-Film Technology Scientific American, 25 April 2008 |
| "The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and the Chesonis Family Foundation said today that they are launching a
"solar revolution" project with the ultimate aim of making solar energy
America's primary carbon-free fuel. The Solar Revolution Project, funded by a $10 million
gift from the Chesonis Family Foundation, aims to transform solar power from a ''boutique'
option to an affordable, dependable, mainstream energy solution,' MIT said. The project
will complement and interact with other large solar projects at MIT, creating one of the
largest solar energy clusters at any research university, MIT said." MIT unveils new solar energy project Boston Globe, 22 April 2008 |
| "It was with some trepidation that I went into the cellar this week
to take some meter readings in order to find out how the solar panels we had fitted on our
house exactly a year ago have been performing. Was the hefty sum of £8,500 we forked out
last year a good investment or a waste of money? Well, the news is better than I had
expected. We, a family of four, have produced 92% of
our electricity usage from the roof of a century-old terraced house in south-east London - laying to rest the idea that Britain is not sunny enough for solar
power. It also disproves any suggestion this sort of technology only works in
state-of-the-art, modern detached houses. Not only will we not pay for any electricity, we
should get a rebate of about £50 once a payment from the so-called renewables obligation
(RO) scheme, which rewards microgeneration schemes with cash, is included. In all, the
saving for the past year will be around £500, giving a return on our investment of 6%,
which is not subject to tax." Solar so good for our house Guardian, 19 April 2008 |
| "The race for high-capacity solar power is on. Southern California
Edison Co. announced plans last month to build the country's largest solar installation. The project is expected to power 162,000 houses in the greater Los
Angeles area - about 5 percent of the area's homes - with 250 megawatts of power by the
year 2010. This announcement came soon after the
Spanish firm Abengoa Solar launched its massive solar project - Solana Generating Station
- which it is calling the biggest in the world. This will be 70 miles southwest of Phoenix
and is expected to generate 280 megawatts by 2011. Both these plants are designed to
use 'concentrating solar power,' or CSP, technology to harness the sun's heat and convert
it to electricity. CSP is more efficient than other renewable energy alternatives. This
solar technology does what so many have talked about: it creates jobs.....The goal of
producing 4,000 megawatts of concentrated solar power is within sight, though, because
3,500 megawatts are already under contract to be built, says Morse. If all proposed
projects get built, CSP can become competitive with fossil fuel energy sources by
2013." Harnessing the Sun: Future of Green Jobs Washington Independent, 11 April 2008 |
| "Saudi Arabia's oil minister on Thursday slammed biofuels, saying
they did not protect the environment or help supply security, but added solar power had to be considered one of the best clean energy
sources.'Let's be realistic, ethanol and biofuels
will not contribute to the protection of the global environment by reducing (carbon
dioxide) emissions, they will not increase energy security, nor will they reduce
dependency on fossil fuels to any appreciable degree,' Ali al-Naimi told an oil
conference. 'Biofuels are not the solution,' he added. The rise in biofuel use was largely
due to government subsidies, high import taxes and financial favoritism vis-a vis others,
he added. 'That's why we have to look beyond biofuels... and concentrate instead on truly
renewable sources of energy,' he said, adding that solar power was perhaps the best clean
energy source available in all parts of the world. 'It is abundant, clean and available to
all,' he said.'There is a great chance to expand its usage to all parts of the world
especially in developing countries and to all economic sectors and activities including
power generation, manufacturing and so on,' Naimi said. What was needed, he said, was to
expand the use of solar energy and to make solar cells more effective to make the
transmission of solar power more cost effective." Saudi oil minister slams biofuels, favors solar energy Reuters, 10 April 2008 |
| "A solar-powered hydrogen fueling station is officially open, just
days after the state gutted rules designed to increase the number of hydrogen-powered cars
on the road. The station uses solar energy to
separate hydrogen from water to power clean-fuel vehicles. Its solar panels produce 80 kilowatts of electricity, roughly enough to
power 40 homes, or about 14 fuel-cell vehicles. The station opened Tuesday as a joint
venture between the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, British Petroleum, Ford Motor
Company and the U.S. Department of Energy. It will power SMUD's fleet of seven fuel cell
vehicles." Solar-powered hydrogen fuel station opens despite cuts Daily Democrat, 5 April 2008 |
| "After 11 years of testing and trying - and not making money -
startup Global Solar Energy says it has refined its thin-film flexible photovoltaic cell
to the point it says it can produce solar panels at
one-third to one-half the cost of the current industry standard. 'We're sold out for the next year at a price that ensures we're
profitable,' said Mike Gering, president and CEO of Global Solar. 'There's a big
difference between production and the laboratory. We're in production. We can replicate
this time after time.'...In December, the company achieved greater than 10 percent average
efficiency for its flexible solar cells, an ability to convert sunlight into clean energy
on par with Wall Street thin-film solar powerhouse First Solar, and near that of the
industry standard crystalline silicon, which, at 12 to 14 percent efficiency, dominates 90
percent of the solar market. But the Tucson firm, which will employ 180 people at the new
factory, is banking on the ultra-low manufacturing costs of its thin, flexible product to
make a glass-fronted rooftop solar panel that is lightweight, durable and cheaper than the
industry standard by a third to a half. 'What's significant is that (10 percent) is their
production average, not their best,' said Bill Shafarman, a materials scientist with the
University of Delaware's Institute of Energy Conversion. 'Other thin-film companies (such
as First Solar) are making single, large modules on glass with module efficiencies between
9 to 13 percent. So it's not as good as some of those companies, but this is a unique product because it's flexible and lightweight. Unlike First Solar, which uses cadmium telluride (CdTe) deposited
directly on large modules of glass, Global Solar uses a semiconductor material known as
CIGS - for copper, indium, gallium and di-selenide. At high temperatures, the material can
be applied to stainless steel foil in 3,000-foot rolls in a closed chamber about the size
of a refrigerator. The product is then printed with a conductive contact of metal ink, cut
into individual cells, tested, reassembled and laminated in clear plastic or glass." Global Solar brings cheaper solar a step closer Vail Sun, 1 April 2008 |
| "Solar energy is getting a big boost in Southern California with the
unveiling of two projects that will be capable of
generating a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve more than 300,000
homes. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Southern
California Edison plan to announce today the country's largest rooftop solar installation
project ever proposed by a utility company. And on Wednesday, FPL Energy, the largest
operator of solar power in the U.S., said it planned to build and operate a 250-megawatt
solar plant in the Mojave Desert. The projects would help
California meet its goal of obtaining 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by
2010. In 2006, about 13% of the retail electricity
delivered by Edison and the state's other two big investor-owned utilities came from
renewable sources such as sun and wind, according to the California Public Utilities
Commission. Energy experts were struck by the size of the two projects, which would
bolster the state's current total of about 965 megawatts of solar power flowing to the
electricity grid. 'Five hundred megawatts -- that's substantial,' said spokesman George
Douglas of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 'Projects
of that size begin to show that solar energy can produce electricity on a utility scale,
on the kind of scale that we're going to need.'....
FPL Energy's proposed 250-megawatt plant, dubbed the Beacon Solar Energy Project, will be
situated on about 2,000 acres in eastern Kern County. More than half a million parabolic
mirrors will be assembled in rows to receive and concentrate the sun's rays to produce
steam for a turbine generator -- a process known as solar thermal power. The generator
will produce electricity for delivery to a nearby electric grid. Construction is scheduled
to begin in late 2009 and will take about two years to complete, the Juno Beach,
Fla.-based company said." 2 big projects will amp up solar power in Southland Los Angeles Times, 27 March 2008 |
| "Spanish renewable energy firm Sener and Abu Dhabi's clean-energy
initiative, Masdar, announced a joint venture on Wednesday to build several power plants
fueled by the sun's heat. The newly created firm, Torresol Energy, said it plans to build at least
two large concentrating solar power plants a year with a goal of generating 320 megawatts
over the next 5 years and 1,000 megawatts in 10 years. A large coal-fired power plant
typically can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity....One of the designs that the
venture intends to use is a solar receiver tower to be built in Abu Dhabi....The new company underscores the surge in investment on solar thermal technologies, which
use the sun's heat, rather than photovoltaic panels, to generate electricity. A number of solar thermal power plants are being proposed for the
Southwest United States and Spain, where conditions are best. Sener already operates three
50 megawatt plants that use parabolic troughs to reflect light
and generate heat. They also incorporate molten salt storage to
generate electricity when the sun is not shining." Solar tower of power coming to Spain, Abu Dhabi Cnet News, 13 March 2008 |
| "Corus and Dyesol have been
working closely for the past two years and in January completed a detailed feasibility
study that revealed extended product lives, lower material costs and steadily increasing
efficiency gains from the technology, which could make it suitable for large surface area
applications on a range of building types. When commercialized, dye solar cell technology
on steel for BIPV applications may become significantly more cost effective than other
competing PV technologies and achieve high market capture, the companies say. Funding has
been secured from the Welsh Assembly
government allowing the next stage of prototyping and development to be undertaken. A
new facility, based in North Wales, will become the home of Corus and Dyesol scientists
and engineers jointly engaged on the development." Corus and Dyesol Make Solar Cell Plans RenewableEnergyWorld, 12 March 2008 |
| "Paint that could generate as much electricity as 50 wind farms is
being developed by Welsh scientists. Materials experts at Swansea University are working
alongside steel giant Corus on developing a method of spraying solar cells onto steel used
for cladding buildings. If the work is a success it could lead to houses and offices
becoming giant solar energy converters powering their own lighting, heating, televisions
and computers. And if the material was sprayed onto car and lorry roofs they could
eventually use solar power to split hydrogen from water. That would allow vehicles to be
powered by hydrogen fuel cells at no cost to the environment. Unlike
conventional solar cells, the materials being developed at Swansea University are more
efficient at capturing low light radiation, meaning they are better suited to the British
climate. Dr Dave Worsley, a Reader in the Materials
Research Centre at Swansea University’s School of Engineering said, 'We have been
collaborating with the steel industry for decades. But we have tended to focus our
attention on improving the long-term durability and corrosion-resistance of steel. Until
now we haven’t really paid much attention to how we can make the outside of the steel
capable of doing something other than looking good. One of our Engineering Doctorate
students was researching how sunlight interacts with paint and degrades it, which led to
us developing a new photovoltaic method of capturing solar energy.' Corus currently
applies paint to certain steel products when they are passed through rollers during the
manufacturing process so the paint is ingrained into the steel. It is hoped the same
approach can be used to build up solar cell layers. Dr Worsley believes the potential for
the product is immense. He said, 'The Corus Colours
division produces around 100 million square metres of steel building cladding a year. If
this was treated with the photovoltaic material, and assuming a conservative 5% energy
conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4,500 gigawatts of electricity
through the solar cells annually. That’s the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind
farms.' A research grant from the Assembly
Government’s Welsh Energy Research Centre (Werc) enabled Dr Worsley to work with
Corus to investigate the feasibility of developing an efficient solar cell system that can
be applied to steel building products. The success of the study led to the award of a
three-year project worth over £1.5m by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC). Swansea University is now leading a partnership with Bangor University,
the University of Bath, and Imperial College London to develop commercially viable
photovoltaic materials for use within the steel industry." Spray-on solar cells being developed Western Mail, 7 March 2008 |
| "Saudi Arabia, the world's
biggest oil exporter, plans to become an expert in another, cleaner field of energy by
investing in solar power, the country's oil minister
said in an interview released Sunday. 'For a country like Saudi Arabia ... one of the most
important sources of energy to look at and to develop is solar energy,' Ali al-Nuaimi told
French oil newsletter Petrostrategies. He added: 'One of the research efforts that we are
going to undertake is to see how we make Saudi Arabia a centre for solar energy research
and hopefully over the next 30 to 50 years we will be a major megawatt exporter. 'In the
same way we are an oil exporter, we can also be an exporter of power.'" Oil giant Saudi to become solar power centre: minister Agence France Presse, 1 March 2008 |
| "Investors and utilities intent on building solar power plants are
increasingly turning to solar thermal power, a
comparatively low-tech alternative to photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity. This month, in the
latest in a string of recent deals, Spanish solar-plant developer Abengoa Solar and
Phoenix-based utility Arizona Public Service announced a
280-megawatt solar thermal project in Arizona. By
contrast, the world's largest installations of photovoltaics generate only 20 megawatts of
power. In a solar thermal plant, mirrors concentrate sunlight onto some type of fluid that
is used, in turn, to boil water for a steam turbine. Over the past year, developers of
solar thermal technology such as Abengoa, Ausra, and Solel Solar Systems have picked up
tens of millions of dollars in financing and power contracts from major utilities such as
Pacific Gas and Electric and Florida Power and Light. By 2013, projects in development in
just the United States and Spain promise to add just under 6,000 megawatts of solar
thermal power generation to the barely 100 megawatts installed worldwide last year, says
Cambridge, MA, consultancy Emerging Energy Research. The appeal of solar thermal power is
twofold. It is relatively low cost at a large scale: an economic analysis
released last month by Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California's
Energy Institute, notes that solar thermal power will become cost competitive with other
forms of power generation decades before photovoltaics will, even if greenhouse-gas
emissions are not taxed aggressively. Solar thermal developers also say that their power
is more valuable than that provided by wind, currently the fastest-growing form of
renewable energy. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, wind power costs about 8
cents per kilowatt, while solar thermal power costs 13 to 17 cents. But power from wind
farms fluctuates with every gust and lull; solar thermal plants, on the other hand, capture solar energy as heat, which is much easier to store than
electricity. Utilities can dispatch this stored
solar energy when they need it--whether or not the sun happens to be shining.... In fact,
the capacity to store energy is critical to the economics of the solar thermal plant.
Without storage, a solar thermal plant would need a turbine large enough to handle peak
steam production, when the sun is brightest, but which would otherwise be underutilized.
Stored heat means that a plant can use a smaller, cheaper steam turbine that can be kept
running steadily for more hours of the day. While adding storage would substantially
increase the cost of the energy produced by a photovoltaic array or wind farm, it actually
reduces the cost per kilowatt of the energy produced by solar thermal plants. Morse says
that while the design of solar thermal power stations is rapidly diversifying, most will
use essentially the same system for storing energy: tanks full of a molten salt that
remains liquid at temperatures exceeding 565 °C. 'It's basically two tanks with a lot of
heat exchangers, pipes, and pumps,' says Morse. For a sense of scale, consider that the
50-megawatt plants that Germany's Solar Millennium is building in Spain near Granada will employ 28,500
tons of molten salt in twin tanks standing 14 meters high and 38.5 meters in
diameter." Solar without the Panels Technology Review, 29 February 2008 |
| "Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which
aims to become the world's biggest maker of solar cells, is looking abroad to raise annual
output of thin-film solar cells by sixfold to 6,000 megawatts after 2012 and beat silicon
shortages. Sharp aims to raise its annual thin-film solar cell production capacity 'as
soon as possible' after a planned new plant in Osaka, western Japan goes online by March
2010 with eventual output of 1,000 MW per year, Toshishige Hamano, corporate senior
executive director, said on Wednesday. The electronics group, which also supplies liquid
crystal display panels, now has thin-film cell capacity of 15 MW per year at its Katsuragi
Plant in Nara, western Japan, and plans to raise this to 160 MW in October.... Thin-film solar cells use roughly one-hundredth of the silicon
needed in conventional solar cells, cutting production time and costs." Sharp looks abroad for thin-film solar cell output Reuters, 27 February 2008 |
| "Australia is to build the
world’s biggest solar power plant after the
Hong Kong-based CLP power generating group announced on Monday that it would invest $270m
in the project. The 154MW scheme, located in the south-eastern state of Victoria, would
have nearly twice the capacity of the biggest existing solar power plant, in
California’s Mojave desert. The Mojave system, however, links nine power plants
together for a total capacity of 354MW. The Victoria project was conceived and planned by
Solar Systems, an Australian private company, and aims to lower generating costs by using
mirror arrays that track the sun to concentrate light on to advanced photovoltaic cells.
The project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2013 would generate enough electricity
to power 45,000 homes. However, that is equivalent to only about 0.1 per cent of
Australia’s electricity generation in 2006. The cost of solar power has dropped by a
factor of 10 in the past three decades, according to Christophe Inglin, managing director
of Singapore-based solar systems specialist Phoenix Solar. 'But there is still a long way
to go before it is competitive with grid [ie conventional] energy costs,' he said. Mr
Inglin said that he expected some markets to achieve 'grid parity' within the next five to
10 years." Australia thinks big on solar power Financial Times, 26 February 2008 |
| "A team of US researchers has developed an anode coating strategy
which they claim significantly enhances the
efficiency of solar energy power conversion. The
'breakthrough' at Northwestern University promises cheaper
solar cells which are more easy to manufacture and implement. Tobin J. Marks, a research professor in the Weinberg College of Arts and
Sciences, and Robert Chang, professor of materials science and engineering in the
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, led the research team. The
scientists explained that solar cells fabricated from plastic-like
organic materials are attractive because they can be printed cheaply and quickly by a
process similar to printing a newspaper, i.e. roll-to-roll processing." Boffins boost solar cell efficiency vnunet.com, 25 Feb 2008 |
| "Transparent electrodes created from atom- thick carbon sheets could make solar cells and LCDs without depleting precious mineral resources, say researchers in Germany. Solar cells, LCDs and some other devices, must have transparent electrodes in parts of their designs to let light in or out. These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but experts calculate that there is only 10 years' worth of indium left on the planet, with LCD panels consuming the majority of existing stocks....Although experimental alternatives to ITO exist, these are also unstable and of unproven efficiency, said the report in New Scientist. Zhi and colleagues Xuan Wang and Klaus Muellen believe they have a cheaper, more stable alternative. The report said the team i |
