ESA Renewables Complete Power Plant Monitoring Solution Includes Both Inverter Hardware and Software

Total solution eliminates need for separate hardware and software companies, resulting in a single source responsibility for more streamlined monitoring.

ESA Renewables, recently announced its proprietary monitoring system for renewable energy power plants that provides a complete turnkey product. This innovative solution includes not only the integrated hardware, but also the monitoring software.

“Unlike other companies, ESA doesn’t need to use third party solutions for its monitoring equipment. ESA is able to provide the inverter hardware and the software as a complete package to the end customer,” said Jeffrey Burkett. “This reliable and complete solution demonstrates that ESA truly is a cutting edge and proactive company.”

ESA’s renewable energy monitoring solution addresses strong customer demand for an integrated monitoring system. Providing both the hardware and software inside a complete monitoring option eliminates the troubleshooting, project delays and additional costs associated with traditional in-field monitoring installations. Factory integration and testing of ESA’s UL-listed monitoring solution ensures turn-key operation at installation and no need for an external monitoring software provider.

ESA’s proprietary monitoring system can be integrated into any renewable energy installation. It allows for simplified, centralized, reliable and secure data management of power plants, an essential part of achieving maximum energy production from a renewable energy system. The monitoring system also allows plant owners to reduce system downtime, increase performance and make informed decisions as to operations and maintenance (O&M) services. Additionally, with ESA’s monitoring solution, system managers are automatically alerted of events to allow for quick response, resulting in maximum energy output with minimal expenses.

With the company’s ability to provide EPC, financing, O&M services and a single source monitoring system, ESA closes the loop providing a complete turnkey solution. Customers receive a complete renewable energy plant development and management solution that is backed by ESA’s years of experience gained from their testing facility, in the engineering of innovative products, inverter monitoring, site expertise and worldwide services infrastructure for optimum project performance.

“Not only does ESA’s monitoring system give our customers one point of contact, but by partnering with ESA, our customers can count on us for everything from EPC, to financing, commissioning, monitoring and O&M. ESA does it all,” added Burkett.

About ESA Renewables, LLC:

Located in Lake Mary, FL, ESA Renewables has positioned itself as a leader in the industry providing turnkey solar PV systems globally. ESA owns and operates a diverse portfolio of over 475 solar PV power generating facilities located in the United States, Puerto Rico, Spain and Italy. ESA’s scope of services includes financing, engineering, construction, testing and operation and maintenance. With headquarters in Castellon Spain, ESA has additional offices in Florida, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, France and Italy. For more information about ESA Renewables, LLC, please visit http://www.esarenewables.com or call 407-268-6455.

Largest Solar Thermal Plant in World Converting to PV

Two months ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Gov. Jerry Brown were at the ground breaking ceremony for Solar Millennium's Blythe solar plant. The project was slated to create 1,000 jobs inject $460 million into the local economy.

That rosy vision was clouded this week as Solar Trust of America, Solar Millennium's parent company, announced the 1,000-megawatt project is now on hold for retooling. The company is abandoning its plans to use solar thermal technology and will switch to the less expensive and less complex photovoltaic -- and an estimated cut of 50 percent in jobs.

The change will mean fewer jobs and delays of a year or more while the project gets new permits from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Solar thermal, also called concentrated solar, produces electricity from heat gathered in reflective solar troughs. Photovoltaic solar panels generate electricity directly from sunlight.

Edward Sullivan, Solar Trust's vice president for external affairs, acknowledged using photovoltaic panels would mean fewer jobs overall but more for local workers since installing panels does not require as high a skill-set as solar thermal.  He also said the decision to go with PV was driven by money.

The change also means the project no longer qualifies for the $2.1 billion federal loan guarantee it was awarded earlier this year. It will be financed instead through commercial markets.

The Blythe plant is among four large-scale solar projects planned on public land off Interstate 10 east of the Coachella Valley.  Whether the project's environmental impact report also will need to be revised or amended has yet to be decided, although that has been required for other projects switching to PV such as the 663-megawatt Calico project in San Bernardino County.

Joan Taylor, chair of the Sierra Club's Desert Energy Committee, hopes repermitting will provide the opportunity for a second look at the project's impact on the sensitive plants and animals on the site.  Sullivan said the project's footprint, 7,025 acres, will likely remain about the same.

Touted as what would be the largest solar plant in the world, the Blythe project is the latest in a growing list of solar thermal projects that have been converted to PV, a trend driven by the falling price of solar panels.  While the cost for solar thermal is now running about $4 per watt, panels come in around $2.90 a watt.

Such figures could mean Blythe and other solar thermal projects do not pencil out well for potential investors, driving developers such as Solar Trust to PV to ensure financing.

SOURCE: http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110820/BUSINESS/108200308/Massive-solar-project-hold?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Overloading a Typical Residential Solar Installation

HelioPower, an integrated energy solutions company with over 2000 solar and clean energy systems engineered and installed since 2001, today launched "Solar Overload" a first-of-its-kind video demonstrating how many appliances it takes to overload a typical residential solar installation.

"Solar Overload, How Many Appliances Does It Take to Spin the Meter Forward?" features a 4 kilowatt (kW) residential solar power system in Laguna Niguel, CA. The system was installed in 2006 on the home of Scott Gordon, now the vice president of residential sales for HelioPower. Scott and team member, Bret Pursuit, demonstrate how many appliances it takes in Scott's 2200 square foot home to incur a utility charge, or "spin the meter" forward.

"As a leading solar installation firm in California, HelioPower is committed to educating consumers on the benefits of solar," said Scott Gordon, Vice President, Residential Sales, HelioPower, Inc. "In 'Solar Overload' I'm able to show just how many appliances it takes to activate a utility cost from my residential solar power system. Over the five years I've had the solar panel system my family has saved $10,000 in utility bills. We are able to demonstrate how that happens when you see the many appliances it takes to spin the meter forward."

Filming took place at approximately 2pm on a sunny day last month. Scott turned on two refrigerators, two DVRs, one laptop and 21" monitor, one cell phone charger, 56 light bulbs, one attic fan and five ceiling fans set on high. The solar power system still generated enough power to keep the meter running backwards. Find out what happens when he turns on a microwave, electric clothes dryer, energy efficient washing machine and a pool pump!

Click on the following link to download and view the "Solar Overload" video: http://www.heliopower.com/videos/solar-overload

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 To Help Inspire Sustainability, Innovation, Education

To spur growth of the solar industry and support education, Dow Corning has announced that it is a sustaining sponsor of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011, which will be held Sept. 23 - Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C.


The sponsorship includes overseeing the creation of educational resources that will help strengthen middle school students' understanding of solar energy and sustainability and the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The materials include:

-- A school curriculum for teachers, designed to introduce students in grades 5-8 to the principles and potential of renewable energy technologies by showcasing the cutting-edge applications of solar power and energy efficiency solutions at the Solar Decathlon;

-- A Student Welcome & Education Center on the Decathlon grounds where students, teachers and parents can access educational materials about solar energy and engage in a series of interactive, hands-on and video-based educational opportunities; and

-- A student-oriented Solar Decathlon program to be made available to students visiting the Solar Village in-person and virtually via the Solar Decathlon website.

"Education, research and development, and manufacturing are part of a cycle that allows the United States to compete in a fast-paced global market," said Dow Corning President and CEO Robert D. Hansen. "Our participation in this year's Solar Decathlon will help fulfill our promise to be an active, involved collaborator with students, researchers, manufacturers, and governments as we prepare the next generation to address the complex problems in our world."

The Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

"There has never been a more important time to further develop viable, renewable, clean, domestically generated energy sources, and there is no better way to achieve that goal than by challenging great minds from universities all over the world," said Hansen. "The students' hard work is a testament to the endless possibilities attainable through math and science education. We hope these efforts will help fuel the next generation of scientific discovery."

The Solar Decathlon was previously held in 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2009. Dow Corning sponsored an electronic scoreboard that provided daily results to event spectators at the National Mall in 2009.

"The Solar Decathlon depends on the valuable support of our many sponsors," said Richard King, director of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. "Our sponsors play an integral role in ensuring that the Solar Decathlon provides a rich learning experience for the student decathletes and that we effectively educate the public about the money-saving opportunities and environmental benefits presented by clean energy products and design solutions."

A global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, Dow Corning is applying more than 65 years of experience to bring innovation and efficiencies to the silicon-based materials that are ideal for solar applications, including silicon-based materials for next-generation solar cells, protective coatings for solar cells, high-performance silicone encapsulants, adhesives, and sealants. Dow Corning is also the majority shareholder in the Hemlock Semiconductor Group joint venture, a leading provider of polycrystalline silicon.

In the past six years, Dow Corning and the Hemlock Semiconductor Group have announced investments of more than $5 billion to research and develop as well as to expand production of materials critical to the solar industry.

SOURCE: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110810005744/en/Dow-Corning-Sponsoring-U.S.-Department-Energy-Solar

Harnessing Solar Energy After Sunset

Solar energy giant Brightsource, currently building one of the world’s largest solar thermal power plants (Ivanpah) in California's Mojave Desert, is now developing a system called SolarPLUS, targeted at utilities, to generate power even when the sun is not shining.

Brightsource is liaising with utilities to clarify which future projects would best benefit from this technology, which combines its power tower solar thermal technology with two-tank molten-salt storage - the latter technology is a proven one that has been around for the past decade.

Molten salt storage, otherwise known as 'solar salts', is used widely in solar thermal plants in Spain. Solar salts are composed of 60pc sodium nitrate and 40pc potassium nitrate.

Combining its solar thermal technology with molton-salt storage, according to Brightsource, will extend the production of electricity into later parts of the day and after the sun sets when it is most valued by utilities.

It predicts that the SolarPLUS technology will reduce the cost of renewable power for utilities' customers by increasing a plant's capacity factor and by offering higher efficiencies than competing solar thermal power plants.

Brightsource also says its technology will offer utilities and grid operators extra operational and market value, by "providing balancing and shaping capabilities, as well as ancillary services to support a reliable grid".

"Coupling storage with BrightSource's high-efficiency LPT solar thermal technology represents a natural and critical advancement in utility-scale solar power generation," said Israel Kroizer, EVP of Engineering, R&D and Product Supply, BrightSource Energy and president of BrightSource Industries (Israel).

Brightsource is currently building the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert. When construction of Ivanpah is completed, it is expected to nearly double the amount of commercial solar thermal electricity produced in the US today.


Two new solar plants planned for California

The privately held Oakland, California-headquartered Brightsource has also filed an application with the California Energy Commission to develop two 250MW solar plants in California's Inyo County.

If the project goes ahead, Hidden Hills will be poised on 3,280 acres of privately-owned land in Inyo County, California, adjacent to the California/Nevada border. The proposed site is situated 18 miles south of Pahrump, Nevada, and 45 miles west of Las Vegas, Nevada. In the past the property has been used as an orchard.

The Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS) will use the company's next-generation plant design, which Brightsource says will take advantage of economies of scale - driving down the cost of energy while also reducing the project's land use footprint.

For utility-scale solar projects of similar capacity, the new configuration reduces land use by 33pc or more compared to a typical photovoltaic (PV) farm and parabolic trough solar thermal plant, said Brightsource in a statement released on 8 August.

BrightSource is hoping to construct two separate 250-megawatt (nominal) solar thermal power plants, each with its own solar field and solar power tower. When complete, the two plants are expected to produce enough electricity to power 178,000 homes and avoid more than 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
1,000 green collar jobs for California

According to the company, the Hidden Hills SEGS project has the potential to create more than 1,000 construction jobs at the peak of construction and about 120 operations and maintenance jobs.

Over the plant's 25-year life, construction wages are expected to reach nearly US$160 million, with total employee earnings estimated at nearly US$390," said Brightsource on Tuesday.

"The economic benefits that will be created by the Hidden Hills SEGS are significant, especially in the context of the economic challenges the region continues to face," said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst for Applied Analysis, a business advisory services firm that carried out an analysis of the economic and fiscal impacts of the Hidden Hills SEGS.

"After doing a detailed analysis of the HHSEGS, we expect the project to directly generate nearly 2,900 jobs related to onsite construction and the fabrication of materials over the two-year construction period, and contribute over $265 million in local and state taxes over the plant's lifetime. These new jobs and extra tax revenue will likely have a noticeable impact on the surrounding communities," he said.
Solar field design

Brightsource says Hidden Hills will harness the company's proprietary LPT solar thermal energy system, which generates power the same way as traditional power plants - by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine - but using the sun's energy rather than fossil fuels or nuclear power.

"At the heart of the LPT system is a state-of-the-art solar field design, optimization software and a control system that allow for the creation of high temperature steam. The steam can then be integrated with conventional power plant components to produce predictable, reliable and cost-competitive clean energy," the company added.

The new plant design at Hidden Hills will also feature a taller tower that allows for greater concentration of heliostats, which Brightsource says will significantly lower the amount of land required to produce energy.

The company is also planning to place mirrors on individual poles that are placed directly into the ground, allowing the solar field to be built around the natural contours of the land and avoiding areas of sensitive vegetation.

Closed-loop cycle

And in order to conserve desert water, Brightsource says Hidden Hills will use an air-cooling system to convert the steam back into water in a closed-loop cycle.

"By using air-cooling, the project will use only 140 acre feet of water per year, less than ten percent of the total amount of water used in competing solar thermal technologies with wet-cooling," the company said.

Hidden Hills SEGS will provide power to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) pursuant to two power purchase agreements approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2010.

Brightsource currently has 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of power contracts with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric Company, California's two largest utilities.

The company also manages an 110,000-acre development site portfolio in California and the US Southwest, which it says has the potential to allow for approximately 11GW of installed capacity.

SOURCE: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/green-tech/item/23087-brightsource-develops/

Soldiers to Use Solar Power in Combat

Australian soldiers could soon be using the sun to power their devices in the field thanks to wearable lightweight solar panels.

The solar cells, developed by the Australian National University (ANU) convert light directly into electricity via SLIVER solar cell technology.  The ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems developed the SLIVER cells as part of a $2.3 million contract with the Department of Defense.  The project's chief investigator Professor Andrew Blakers said the new sliver cells built by Transform Solar in Boise, Idaho were the basis for the wearable solar panels.

The silver cells are flexible in that they can be rolled up, put in a package, and carried long distances and then unfurl them for use in remote areas. The wearable panels could be worn on a soldier's helmet, on their front and/or back, their packs, their weapons and tents.  The solar panels were more rugged than conventional panels and they could operate in temperatures from minus 40 degrees to 65 degrees.

The sliver solar panels would reduce the weight soldiers carried in the field.  Whereas typically they need to carry dozens of AA, AAA, C cells and D cells for operations in Afghanistan. The average soldier would be carry around half a kilogram of batteries to operate radios, night vision devices, torches, communications.

The sliver cells could be used also by civilians to provide mobile power for things like iPods, iPhones, remotes, sensors and the like.

SOURCE:  http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8284395/solar-to-power-soldiers-in-combat

Solar Powered Oil Rigs

Instead of using natural gas to generate the steam that is injected into reservoirs to force oil to the surface in oil recovery operations, oil companies are now using a greener option - solar power.

With a combination of lightweight mirrors encased in a glass house, this technology uses the sun to produce steam. This new method is five times more productive per acre than that of a traditional solar tower facility.

Using this new solar technology to create steam, almost eighty percent of the oil recovery needs, lowering the amount of natural gas used in an equal percentage.

While this technology is still in its early-stages of development, it is just now being commercialized.

Read More: http://energy.aol.com/2011/07/14/the-solar-powered-oil-rig/?a_dgi=aolshare_linkedin

New Solar Cell Technology Boosts Efficiency 80%

The creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform has allowed a team of scientists to boost the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent.

The team led by's Jun Xu discovered the technology substantially overcomes the problem of poor transport of charges generated by solar photons.

These charges, negative electrons and positive holes, typically become trapped by defects in bulk materials and their interfaces and degrade performance.

"To solve the entrapment problems that reduce solar cell efficiency, we created a nanocone-based solar cell, invented methods to synthesize these cells and demonstrated improved charge collection efficiency," Xu, a member of ORNL's Chemical Sciences Division, said.

The new solar structure consists of n-type nanocones surrounded by a p-type semiconductor. The n-type nanoncones are made of zinc oxide and serve as the junction framework and the electron conductor.

The p-type matrix is made of polycrystalline cadmium telluride and serves as the primary photon absorber medium and hole conductor.

With this approach at the laboratory scale, Xu and colleagues were able to obtain a light-to-power conversion efficiency of 3.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent efficiency of conventional planar structure of the same materials.

"We designed the three-dimensional structure to provide an intrinsic electric field distribution that promotes efficient charge transport and high efficiency in converting energy from sunlight into electricity," Xu said.

Key features of the solar material include its unique electric field distribution that achieves efficient charge transport; the synthesis of nanocones using inexpensive proprietary methods; and the minimization of defects and voids in semiconductors.

The latter provides enhanced electric and optical properties for conversion of solar photons to electricity.

Because of efficient charge transport, the new solar cell can tolerate defective materials and reduce cost in fabricating next-generation solar cells.

"The important concept behind our invention is that the nanocone shape generates a high electric field in the vicinity of the tip junction, effectively separating, injecting and collecting minority carriers, resulting in a higher efficiency than that of a conventional planar cell made with the same materials," Xu explained.

The research will be published in the IEEE Proceedings. The papers are titled 'Efficient Charge Transport in Nanocone Tip-Film Solar Cells' and 'Nanojunction solar cells based on polycrystalline CdTe films grown on ZnO nanocones'.

SOURCE: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-30/news/29490820_1_efficiency-photons-solar-material

Large Orders for Printed Solar Cells

Thin-film solar company Nanosolar said today it has secured sizable customer orders and it expects to match solar industry cost leaders in a few years.

Nanosolar, one of dozens of companies founded last decade to use thin-film cells to lower the cost of solar, said it has customer orders that could be as much as 1 gigawatt worth of solar panels over six years if the company meets technical milestones and ramps up volume as it projects. The panels are designed for utility-scale solar projects over 1 megawatt in size.

The contracts are a boost to San Jose, Calif.-based Nansolar, which has raised close to $500 million but replaced its CEO last year, a sign of some troubles at the company. The contracts are with existing partners, solar developers Belectric from Germany, EDF Energies Nouvelles of France, and Plain Energy from Germany.

By the end of this year, Nansolar expects to manufacture solar cells at a rate of near 115 megawatts per year in San Jose. Those cells are transported to Germany where another factory makes panels specifically designed for utility customers.

Once it's at full capacity in its San Jose plant, Nansolar expects its production costs will be at a $1 per watt, making its costs lower than panels made with traditional crystalline silicon cells, according to Brian Stone, Nanosolar's vice president of sales and marketing.

The company expects that improved efficiency of its solar cells, from 10 percent now to 14 percent in 2014, will get production costs below 60 cents a watt by the end of 2013, making it competitive with other thin-film solar manufacturers. The key to its lower production costs is Nansolar's roll-to-roll cell manufacturing, said CEO Geoff Tate, who joined the company about one year ago.

Most thin-film solar companies use a vaccum deposition process where solar cell material is layered on to a substrate. Nanosolar's photovoltaic material, made from a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS), starts in a liquid form and is coated onto an aluminum foil. The layer evaporates and then is heated to create a crystalline structure needed for a solar cell, explained Tate.

The manufacturing process, where cells are essentially printed, allows for faster production and greater cost reductions over time, compared to both other CIGS makers and companies that make cadmium telluride thin-film cells, including industry price leader First Solar.

"We believe CIGS has higher efficiency potential but printing is actually more important than whether we are doing cad tel or CIGS because it gives us a cost structure that none of the others have," said Tate.

The solar panels themselves are designed specifically for utility-scale projects, with relatively large panels able to produce 200 watts each and a mounting system which saves on material and cabling.

To get to the company's projected volume target, Nansolar doesn't need to raise any more money. In 2008, the company raised $300 million, bringing the total raised to near $500 million. After ramping up to full scale at its current locations in California and Germany, the company intends to double its manufacturing capacity with new plants, said Tate.

SOURCE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20057991-54.html

First Solar-Window Project Completed by Indian Company

Moser Baer India Ltd. (MBI), the country’s second-largest maker of solar cells, completed its first project to convert the exterior of a building to produce power from the sun.

Window panes at a shopping mall in Hyderabad in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh were replaced with 24 solar panels based on thin-film technology with an installed capacity of 1.8 kilowatts, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.

The global market for projects that integrate solar panels into building facades is expected to expand almost 10-fold to 11,392 megawatts by 2015, according to the statement.

Most solar panels convert sunlight into electricity using traditional silicon-based cells. Thin-film modules use less costly photovoltaic coatings, such as cadmium telluride.

Moser Baer produces thin-film modules at its plant in Noida, which has a capacity of 90 megawatts per year, according to its website.

SOURCE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-18/moser-baer-india-completes-solar-window-project-in-hyderabad.html

Huntsville Alabama Finalist for National Solar Observatory

The city known for helping send men to the moon may soon add the sun to its intellectual galaxy.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville announced Thursday that the city is one of two finalists for the new site of the National Solar Observatory.

Working closely with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in the bid to bring the NSO to Huntsville, UAH survived the elimination of five other sites and is now competing against the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Just how important is Huntsville's bid to become the new site of the NSO?

"The first meeting I had when I learned I was going to be interim president was with Gary Zank to discuss it," said Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the University of Alabama system and interim president at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Zank, an eminent scholar and chair of the UAH physics department, and Elizabeth Newton, director of Policy Research Programs at UAH, spearheaded the overall proposal effort.

"We're doing everything and more that we need to do to be able to attract it here," Portera said Wednesday in an interview with The Times.

The NSO currently has operations in Sunspot, N.M.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Pukalani, Hawaii. The NSO made a visit to Huntsville in February.

According to a UAH news release, the NSO is the nation's premier ground-based scientific research program to study solar physics and space weather and is operated under the auspices of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

In short, Portera said, landing the solar observatory would mean "tremendous international and national exposure."

Then Portera provided an anecdote to prove it. He was in India last month, attending a conference at the Brabha Atomic Energy Commission. During a presentation on astrophysics, a conference official turned to Portera and said, "I understand you are competing for the national (solar) laboratory at one of your universities."

Portera then laughed about the distance between India and Huntsville.

"That's a few miles from here, by the way," Portera said.

UAH and Marshall are at the forefront of the project, but it has backing throughout the city and state. Other members of "Team Huntsville" include the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Sci-Quest, Alabama A&M University, Oakwood University and other regional universities, along with companies and government laboratories.

Newton also singled out the support of Gov. Robert Bentley, Mayor Tommy Battle, the chamber of commerce, the airport authority, Redstone Arsenal and Cummings Research Park as aiding in the project.

The observatory is expected to bring about 70 scientists and engineers to Huntsville, as well as an annual budget of $20 million.

Portera talked about the "groundbreaking research" that would be done at the observatory.

"It's being able to do what, in this business, we're all about doing," Portera said, "which is discovering new knowledge and passing that knowledge on to young people."

SOURCE: http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/04/uah_bid_for_national_solar_obs.html

Solar Power Without Solar Cells

A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.

The researchers found a way to make an “optical battery,” said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.

In the process, they overturned a century-old tenet of physics.

“You could stare at the equations of motion all day and you will not see this possibility. We’ve all been taught that this doesn’t happen,” said Rand, an author of a paper on the work published in the Journal of Applied Physics. “It’s a very odd interaction. That’s why it’s been overlooked for more than 100 years.”

Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.

“This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation,” Rand said. “In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source.”

What makes this possible is a previously undetected brand of “optical rectification,” says William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics. In traditional optical rectification, light’s electric field causes a charge separation, or a pulling apart of the positive and negative charges in a material. This sets up a voltage, similar to that in a battery. This electric effect had previously been detected only in crystalline materials that possessed a certain symmetry.

Rand and Fisher found that under the right circumstances and in other types of materials, the light’s magnetic field can also create optical rectification.

“It turns out that the magnetic field starts curving the electrons into a C-shape and they move forward a little each time,” Fisher said. “That C-shape of charge motion generates both an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole. If we can set up many of these in a row in a long fiber, we can make a huge voltage and by extracting that voltage, we can use it as a power source.”

The light must be shone through a material that does not conduct electricity, such as glass. And it must be focused to an intensity of 10 million watts per square centimeter. Sunlight isn’t this intense on its own, but new materials are being sought that would work at lower intensities, Fisher said.

“In our most recent paper, we show that incoherent light like sunlight is theoretically almost as effective in producing charge separation as laser light is,” Fisher said.

This new technique could make solar power cheaper, the researchers say. They predict that with improved materials they could achieve 10 percent efficiency in converting solar power to useable energy. That’s equivalent to today’s commercial-grade solar cells.

“To manufacture modern solar cells, you have to do extensive semiconductor processing,” Fisher said. “All we would need are lenses to focus the light and a fiber to guide it. Glass works for both. It’s already made in bulk, and it doesn’t require as much processing. Transparent ceramics might be even better.”

In experiments this summer, the researchers will work on harnessing this power with laser light, and then with sunlight.

The paper is titled “Optically-induced charge separation and terahertz emission in unbiased dielectrics.” The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property.

SOURCE:   http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-solar-power-cells-hidden-magnetic.html

New Solar-Thermal Device Harnesses Heat & Light

Researchers at Wake Forest University have developed a new type of polymer solar-thermal device that combines photovoltaics with a system that captures the Sun's infrared radiation to generate heating. By taking advantage of both heat and light, researchers say the device could deliver up to 40 percent savings on the cost of heating, as well as helping reduce power bills by producing electricity.

The hybrid cell is designed with an integrated array of clear tubes, five millimeters (approx 1/4 inch) in diameter. Lying flat, visible sunlight shines into the clear tube which is filled with an oil blended with a proprietary dye, heating the oil which then flows into a heat pump to transfer the warmth inside a home.

Electrical current is produced via a polymer photovoltaic sprayed onto the back of the tubes.

The result is a solar-thermal device with an impressive 30 percent conversion efficiency.

In comparison to flat solar cells, the tube design also has the advantage of being able to capture light at oblique angles, so it can accumulate power for a much longer stretch in the day and be more readily integrated into building materials – it could be produced to resemble a roofing tile for example.

The research team aims to produce a 3 foot square solar thermal cell over the coming months, a key step in bringing the technology closer to market.

"It's a systems approach to making your home ultra-efficient because the device collects both solar energy and heat," said David Carroll, Ph.D., director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University. "Our solar-thermal device takes better advantage of the broad range of power delivered from the sun each day."

SOURCE: http://www.gizmag.com/solar-thermal-cell/18346/

Solar PV Test Lab Opens in Albuquerque, New Mexico

On April 7th, 2011, a consortium of testing organizations announced that they will open a new solar photovoltaic (PV) testing laboratory in Albuquerque in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
 

The CFV Solar Test Laboratory will offer complete certification and non-certification PV testing services, including testing for flat panel, thin film and concentrating solar power (CPV) technologies.
 

"Solar panels are high-voltage electrical devices - often being placed in very close proximity to people in offices and homes - that must be properly tested and certified as being safe and effective in generating power," said Ash Sahi, president and CEO of the CSA Group, a part-owner of the facility.

"We are proud to be one of the partners in this joint venture as no other solar testing facility offers the complete range of services and global capabilities as this new laboratory."

Facility to Enable International Certifications

The companies state that the facility will help manufacturers to enter the market rapidly and at lower cost, and will be able to certify PV modules to the standards used in several nations.

The facility's 2,300 square meter indoor lab will include climate chambers for thermal cycling and humidity freeze up of modules to 4m x 2.5m, a large area AAA+ rated solar simulator with temperature controlled enclosure for performance measurements.

The testing center will also feature a 20,000 square meter outdoor testing area with single and two-axis trackers for accelerated light soaking and CPV testing.

Joint effort of CSA Group, VDE Testing and Fraunhofer Institutes

The facility will be jointly owned by the CSA Group (Toronto, Canada), the VDE Testing and Certification Institute (Offenbach, Germany), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Freiburg, Germany), and the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.).

The organizations state that this joint venture combines Fraunhofer's technical expertise and extensive research capabilities with CSA Group and VDE's solar certification proficiency. 

SOURCE:  http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2011/kw14/solar-pv-test-lab-opens-in-albuquerque-new-mexico.html  

Does Solar Energy Hurt the Grid?

Solar power is in on the rise in the U.S. and it is helping consumers take control of their electric bills. Instead of simply consuming energy through the grid from a power plant, solar homeowners are generating their own electricity but also sending excess electricity generated from their solar panels back onto the grid. A recent article from the San Diego Union-Tribune wonders what the impact is of thousands of solar systems turning the electric grid from a one-way highway from a power plant to your home to a bi-directional flow of electricity.

Power then flows both ways, affecting the amount and quality of electricity. As more and more solar panels are installed, the possible headaches for those who run the grid grows….

…a single large installation in the county, a one-megawatt array, fluctuated from making 700 kilowatts to making nothing on a second-by-second basis as clouds passed by.

That caused the voltage on the circuit to which it's connected to fluctuate beyond the standards, as more power had to be brought in to deal with it.

Voltage is a function of how much power is on a system and where it comes from Fluctuations can cause malfunctions for customers.

The one draw back to solar power is that it is sunlight dependent so, as the article points out, a large solar array could be generating large amounts of energy for the grid one minute and then completely shut off the next minute creating a huge power fluctuations that can affect non-solar customers.

One way utility providers are trying to deal with this issue is through better forecasting, energy storage and cloud tracking. In addition, understanding consumer behavior with respect to electricity usage will also help as utility providers could potentially engage turbines that are already spinning in reserve and ready to put power on the grid or in grid batteries. The problem with this is that these changes cost money and for the most part, those using renewable energy systems are not shouldering their share of the burden.

Most solar customers right now put extra power they make during the day on the grid, then draw power at night when the sun is not shining.

In effect, they're using the grid as a giant battery.

Right now, the cost of the wires, cables and substations is included as part of the electricity, the actual energy you use. But if people are making as much electricity as they use -- or if they make more -- they're not paying for the cost of running the grid.

Renewable energy, particular solar energy, is a wonderful technology that can help provide clean power to consumers and help them save money over the long term. However, this article highlights some of the issues that we have to face as we attempt to integrate these technologies into our existing infrastructure. As more and more people turn on to solar power, grid issues will only get worse unless the proper solutions and funding for those solutions are found.

SOURCE: http://www.solar-energy-installers.com/2011/03/03/does-solar-energy-hurt-the-grid/

Solar Powered ATM Opens in India

Union Bank of India on Saturday unveiled its first solar-powered voice enabled biometric rural ATM at Ghawaddi in Ludhiana. Executive director of the bank S S Mundra inaugurated the ATM.

He was accompanied by general manager Lalit Sinha, deputy general manager P K Khandelwal and assistant general manager J S Khare.

Mundra said the ATM was a result of research and development efforts of IIT Chennai. The machine works on solar power, has low power consumption of 40-100 W, can work on single phase power connection, has ability to work without air-conditioning and has support for both biometric and PIN-based transactions.

Solar Screens May Make Phone Chargers Obsolete

How would you like to have a cellphone that never needed to be charged? That’s the promise of French company Wysips, which wants to turn your phone’s screen into a solar charger.

It works like this: a transparent photovoltaic film covers the screen of your device, and provides 250mW of power to trickle-charge the battery. The film is thin — just 100 microns or 0.1mm — and won’t dim the screen when incorporated into the LCD panel. Wysips says the film will typically add just a dollar to the cost of a phone, and hopes to have shipping units within a year.

The beauty of the design is that it scales. The bigger the screen of a device, the bigger the solar panel. A typical phone will be fully charged in six hours, and the second-gen version will give you a half-hour’s worth of power with just one hour of charging.

The real winner here will be ebooks. These typically sip power anyway, and have pretty big screens. While you may still have to plug in an iPad to charge it at night, a Kindle with Wysips’ tech in its screen would likely never, ever need to be charged, especially as you can only read it when there’s enough light to do so.

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/solar-screens-may-make-phone-chargers-obsolete/

Solar Panels Fit Better Than Wind in Suburban or Urban Areas

When it comes to distributed energy in suburban or urban areas, solar panels do a better job of fitting in than small wind turbines.

Small wind turbines, which are increasingly being marketed to homeowners, can provide power for both grid-tied and off-grid applications, typically require a strong steady wind to meet their generating capacity, and meet estimates for annual production. To tap into a good wind resource, turbines need to be placed high and clear of obstructions, such as trees and buildings, according to experts.

By contrast, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are less fussy about placement. To make the investment worth considering, they need several hours of sunlight a day but, compared to small wind, that means a wider set of potential locations.

"Small wind is a viable distributed generation option, but it has a lot more siting constraints than PV. Part of it is the complexity and the analysis to determining if you have a good site," said Peter McPhee, a project manager at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center where he manages the state's microwind program. McPhee was a speaker on a wind energy panel at the Building Energy conference here earlier this month, where there were fewer displays of small wind turbines compared to earlier years.

In the past few years, small turbines of various designs with a generating capacity under 100 kilowatts have been introduced in the U.S., leading to rapid growth and about 10,000 installed units by the end of 2009. Manufacturers often recommend that consumers or businesses should only consider small wind turbines if there is a minimum average wind speed of 10 miles per hour.

There are national wind maps, such as a free one offered by 3Tier, that rate the wind resources for different zones in the U.S. But determining wind dynamics at a specific location can be tricky.

For example, a review of one small wind turbine in Massachusetts found that obstructions from nearby buildings created a high degree of wind turbulence, resulting in a far lower performance than online tools had predicted, said Charles McClelland, an associate at the consulting company the Cadmus Group, which does wind project feasibility testing and monitoring. Similarly, a study of roof-mounted wind turbines in the U.K. found that turbulence diminished wind speed, one reason for disappointing performance.

To get around turbulence from trees and buildings, wind installers should have turbine towers at a minimum of 100 feet, McClelland said. But those high tower heights can often run afoul of local ordinances, making permitting complicated and limiting the available space.

Lonely places
In 2008, Massachusetts did a review of all its small wind installations and found that some of the turbines did not perform as well as expected. That led to a new microwind program in 2009 that sought to stiffen the siting requirements. It also developed a software tool to better assess the wind resource at a specific location, which is a requirement to receive rebates.

As a result of the changes, the state is focusing homeowners and installers on the best wind locations, which are typically near the water or in fields without obstructions. That makes small wind "not as applicable in scope as PV is," said McPhee.

In a survey with small wind manufacturers, the American Wind Energy Association noted that falling prices in solar PV have put more pressure on small wind installers and technology developers. The industry is pushing for equipment certification to provide more certainty on how small wind turbines will perform.

"Increasing publicity, public incentives, and competition from falling prices of solar PV technologies place greater pressure, survey respondents say, on small wind turbines to perform well in the field," AWEA said in its 2009 report on small wind.

Wind turbines can generate more energy per dollar than solar photovoltaics with the right conditions of a good turbine, site, people, as well as proper installation and maintenance, said Gary Harcourt, the founder and manager of installer Great Rock Windpower, who has commissioned more than 30 small wind turbines.

"Proper installation takes knowledge and experience. Short towers don't work--you need to get up there where the wind resource is," he said. "Most really good sites are pretty empty spaces--there's great wind out there."

SOURCE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20045425-54.html

Scotch Tape Maker Could Reduce Rooftop Solar Installs

Moisture resistant front-side film to support scale-up of flexible CIGS, CdTe, and OPV

The world would be quite a different place without Scotch tape or, for that matter, duct tape, and if history is any indicator then some time in the sparkling green future another kind of “tape” will be found in just about every household in America – not in a kitchen drawer, but on just about every sunny rooftop. That’s because 3M, the same company which brought us the ubiquitous Scotch and duct tapes, has just won a $4.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to speed up the development and commercialization of its new thin film solar technology, Ultra Barrier Solar Film.

3M’s Thin Film Solar Technology
3M introduced its Ultra Barrier Solar Film last October. The moisture-resistant film is designed to replace the glass used in conventional thin film solar panels, thereby eliminating the need to use metal rack systems. Without racks, installation costs are generally lower, and this is a factor in reducing the overall cost of the technology (it should be noted, though, that turnkey modular systems can also help reduce installation costs). To add a little green jobs frosting to the cake, 3M plans to expand an existing plant in Missouri to manufacture the new film.

SunShot Grants for Renewable Energy

The Department of Energy’s Sunshot Program is the source of 3M’s development grant for the new technology. SunShot is a reference to the Apollo “moonshot” project, the all-out race to the moon spearheaded by NASA. With SunShot, DOE is aiming to stimulate a similar kind of urgency, providing support for the private sector to create low cost renewable energy that is cost-competitive with fossil fuels. 3M’s contribution is to develop a cost-effective method for producing high efficiency CIGS [copper indium gallium (di)selenide] thin films, widely regarded as one of the most promising technologies for bringing that goal within reach.

Pesky Meddling Government Energy Programs

Sunshot was launched just weeks before the disastrous tsunami and earthquake in Japan, a natural catastrophe that has devolved into a manmade calamity due to the damage it caused to the Fukushima nuclear power facility. Sunshot was initially conceived in order to transition the U.S. more rapidly out of fossil fuels, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and disentangle ourselves from global oil politics. Now it seems that a major result of the program will be to transition us away from high risk nuclear energy as well.

SOURCE: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/03/25/scotch-tape-maker-on-a-roll-with-low-cost-solar-tape/

Solar Powered Steam for Industrial Processes

The heat and rays of the sun aren’t just being harnessed for electricity. An early stage startup called Thermata, backed by Bill Gross’ Idealab, is looking to build a business around solar-powered boilers that produce steam for industrial processes, like paper making, food processing, and petroleum processing.

This type of industry already uses standard boilers, traditionally powered by natural gas. Thermata CEO Brad Hines said recently at the Cleantech Forum that the market for industrial heat via boilers is already a $26 billion business in the U.S. Thermata’s plan is to install heliostats (big mirrors) on the roof of a factory. The heliostats concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on top of an adjacent tower, which in turn powers the boiler to produce steam.

Hines said he thinks Thermata can produce steam in this way at a cost of $4.60 per MBTU compared to average prices for natural gas-powered steam, which can cost between $6 and $10 per MBTU. Beyond being lower cost, the process has far fewer carbon emissions.

However, you can probably already guess that it’s a complicated and expensive proposition to convince an industrial plant owner to commission the construction of one of these solar-power steam systems. It’s a separate tower, and then they have to connect the tower to the existing boiler and also install the solar tech on the roof. But Hines says even with the upfront cost, the pay-back period is two years for potential customers.

So far Thermata has a partnership with boiler and receiver maker Aalborg CSP, and has the benefit of the experience developed in the solar thermal incubation lab of Idealab. Hines was the founding CEO of concentrating solar photovoltaic startup Soliant Energy, and was VP of engineering for Idealab’s CPV startup Energy Innovations. Before that, he worked in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab for 14 years.

Hines said that the company has been backed by $500,000 in funds from Idealab and is looking for another $600,000 from investors to build its first pilot system by 2012. Competitors include Sopogy, Chromasun, Heliodynamics and Cogenra.

SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/idUS218324342920110321