The future of solar panels is looking even brighter. New research by Cambridge University scientists has led to the development of a more efficient solar cell.
Currently, solar cells capture part of the sun's light. Much of the energy of the absorbed light is lost as heat, meaning a maximum of 34% of the sunlight is converted to electrical power. However, Cambridge scientists have made a breakthrough which could allow 44% of solar energy to be converted. More work needs to be done to realise the full benefits of the scientists' findings, but even using today's solar PV panels is providing huge savings for businesses and householders.
Boston Council in Lincolnshire recently installed solar panels on the roof of a leisure complex at a cost of GBP 105,167. The investment is expected to recover its costs within nine years and generate a profit of at least GBP 260,000 over the next 25 years. Boston Borough Council leader Peter Bedford said the energy-saving income generated may also be higher than anticipated - closer to 80 or 90 per cent rather than the 50 per cent allowed for, so the energy saving may be more.
He said: "Our investment in solar PV represents a good deal for the council, providing low-carbon clean energy and also making the facility less vulnerable to future energy price increases at a time of global insecurity."
Homeowners can make comparable savings by installing solar panels. Energy suppliers such as British Gas pay for any excess electricity generated as it's fed back to the National Grid. You can even earn money for every kilowatt hour of electricity you generate through the Government's Feed-in Tariff (also known as Clean Energy Cashback), even if you use it.
An average system is 3 kWp and will cost around GBP 10,000 (including VAT at 5%). Most domestic PV systems cost around GBP 3,000 to GBP 3,500 per kWp installed. A 3 kWp system can generate over 2,500 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. If your system is eligible for the Feed-In Tariff scheme it could generate savings and income of around GBP 670 per year.
Solar energy is going to become more efficient and even cheaper to install. According to Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, solar power is now cheaper than diesel 'anywhere as sunny as Spain'.(i) The economy of scale through increased global use will soon mean cheaper solar panels and electricity for everyone.
2012年3月31日星期六
2012年3月30日星期五
Solar Energy Ideal Option for Many Jamaicans
With the increase in oil prices and ultimately electricity bills, for many Jamaicans, solar energy can prove to be an ideal source of power for homes and businesses.
To this end, the Government has been encouraging Jamaicans to use renewable energy, such as solar energy, as a means of reducing electricity cost.
Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Gerald Lindo, tells JIS News that there are two ways in which to install a solar system in homes or businesses and still reap the benefits.
“You can put the solar panels on your roof, have them connected to some batteries that feed into your local needs at your house or your small business, or you can have a grid-type system to (show) that you are connected to your solar panel and you are connected to the electricity grid as well,” Mr. Lindo explains.
He explains that when the solar panels are active and the sun is shining, energy or electricity is being produced from the solar panels.
“When there is cloud cover or it’s night, you switch back in a dynamic way to the grid, so you are drawing either from the panels or from the grid. That way the grid acts as your back up. The grid style system is a lot cheaper for people to implement generally, because batteries are very expensive and they tend to wear out over time. It is usually more economical, even though you are never truly independent of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS),” Mr. Lindo states.
The Senior Engineer points out that since the user will be tied to the grid, the consumer will be feeding electricity back into the grid and hence a licence will be needed by the consumer.
“We want people to use this. We did develop a standard offer contract in September of 2011 that was headed up by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which sets out the regulatory terms by which a person can generate solar energy and really any renewable energy source, but solar is the one we think people will desire the most,” Mr. Lindo tells JIS News.
“It allows for people who are generating electricity through renewable means to connect to the grid. Not only can they use the grid as a back-up, but in times when they are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell power to JPS and get some remuneration, and that again will help to defray the cost of putting the system on their roof,” he adds.
Mr. Lindo notes that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica is currently working on standards for the interconnections.
In the meantime, he says there are a number of ways in which persons can acquire solar energy equipment without having to bear all the cost at once.
“One of them is a loan through the National Housing Trust (NHT). The NHT has offered solar loans since 2006 for solar water heaters and in 2008 for photovoltaic panels. We applaud the NHT for what they are doing (but) we think there are ways they can adjust the loan to further optimise it and make it available for people, because the uptake of the loan has perhaps not been as aggressive as one would hope, but we’re working on it to make the loan even more attractive,” Mr. Lindo says.
He points out that the NHT has the lowest rates and the best terms in the marketplace and “we want more people accessing that, so that they can put some solar panels on their roof."
“We have been engaging the NHT since late last year regarding that, and we continue to do so,” Mr. Lindo says.
The NHT provides financing to contributors for installation and retrofitting of solar heating systems. The loan is available to contributors who can provide a title for a residential property or who has at least enough funds in their Contribution Account at the NHT equal to the cost of the system, plus $20,000. The loan can be obtained at an interest rate of 3 per cent over a maximum period of 5 years with a 5 per cent service charge.
The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) also has loans available which can assist in buying solar energy equipment. The funds that are available through the DBJ are provided by the World Bank.
“One of the flagship projects we have at the Ministry is the Energy Security and Efficiency Enhancement Project. It’s US$15 million and is devoted to improving the regulatory conditions for energy in the country and a good deal of that money was set aside for the DBJ to lend to businesses to do their energy projects,” Mr. Lindo says.
President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association, Roger Chang, says with these institutions available to provide financing, more Jamaicans can invest in solar energy equipment for their commercial and residential use.
To this end, the Government has been encouraging Jamaicans to use renewable energy, such as solar energy, as a means of reducing electricity cost.
Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Gerald Lindo, tells JIS News that there are two ways in which to install a solar system in homes or businesses and still reap the benefits.
“You can put the solar panels on your roof, have them connected to some batteries that feed into your local needs at your house or your small business, or you can have a grid-type system to (show) that you are connected to your solar panel and you are connected to the electricity grid as well,” Mr. Lindo explains.
He explains that when the solar panels are active and the sun is shining, energy or electricity is being produced from the solar panels.
“When there is cloud cover or it’s night, you switch back in a dynamic way to the grid, so you are drawing either from the panels or from the grid. That way the grid acts as your back up. The grid style system is a lot cheaper for people to implement generally, because batteries are very expensive and they tend to wear out over time. It is usually more economical, even though you are never truly independent of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS),” Mr. Lindo states.
The Senior Engineer points out that since the user will be tied to the grid, the consumer will be feeding electricity back into the grid and hence a licence will be needed by the consumer.
“We want people to use this. We did develop a standard offer contract in September of 2011 that was headed up by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which sets out the regulatory terms by which a person can generate solar energy and really any renewable energy source, but solar is the one we think people will desire the most,” Mr. Lindo tells JIS News.
“It allows for people who are generating electricity through renewable means to connect to the grid. Not only can they use the grid as a back-up, but in times when they are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell power to JPS and get some remuneration, and that again will help to defray the cost of putting the system on their roof,” he adds.
Mr. Lindo notes that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica is currently working on standards for the interconnections.
In the meantime, he says there are a number of ways in which persons can acquire solar energy equipment without having to bear all the cost at once.
“One of them is a loan through the National Housing Trust (NHT). The NHT has offered solar loans since 2006 for solar water heaters and in 2008 for photovoltaic panels. We applaud the NHT for what they are doing (but) we think there are ways they can adjust the loan to further optimise it and make it available for people, because the uptake of the loan has perhaps not been as aggressive as one would hope, but we’re working on it to make the loan even more attractive,” Mr. Lindo says.
He points out that the NHT has the lowest rates and the best terms in the marketplace and “we want more people accessing that, so that they can put some solar panels on their roof."
“We have been engaging the NHT since late last year regarding that, and we continue to do so,” Mr. Lindo says.
The NHT provides financing to contributors for installation and retrofitting of solar heating systems. The loan is available to contributors who can provide a title for a residential property or who has at least enough funds in their Contribution Account at the NHT equal to the cost of the system, plus $20,000. The loan can be obtained at an interest rate of 3 per cent over a maximum period of 5 years with a 5 per cent service charge.
The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) also has loans available which can assist in buying solar energy equipment. The funds that are available through the DBJ are provided by the World Bank.
“One of the flagship projects we have at the Ministry is the Energy Security and Efficiency Enhancement Project. It’s US$15 million and is devoted to improving the regulatory conditions for energy in the country and a good deal of that money was set aside for the DBJ to lend to businesses to do their energy projects,” Mr. Lindo says.
President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association, Roger Chang, says with these institutions available to provide financing, more Jamaicans can invest in solar energy equipment for their commercial and residential use.
2012年3月29日星期四
Nalgonda village pioneers solar power revolution
At a time when the entire state has plunged into darkness due to unscheduled and prolonged power cuts, Nalgonda is gearing up to become a shining example of a power cut-free district. As a first step to achieve the distinction, Pagidipalli village in Bibinagar mandal in the district has successfully put behind power cut woes by installing solar panels.
Funded by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the pilot solar scheme was launched in Pagidipalli a year ago. As part of the initiative, 63 solar stand-alone streetlights and 360 8-watt light emitting diode (LED) bulbs have been installed in the village at a cost of Rs15 lakh.
Pagidipalli has 230 households with a population of 1,500, majority of whom are either farmers or those who work in the surrounding factories.
This automatic system can provide light for 12 hours in the night. BEE distributed LED lamps to the households at 50% subsidy. "We don't have much problem in using them. If we face any problem with solar panels, Nedcap which has supported the initiative helps us," Ch Chandrasekhar, a villager, told TOI. He says that there is 70% decrease in their electricity bill after they started relying on solar power and LED lamps.The village panchayat played an active role in convincing the people to use solar bulbs when there was some resistance to the proposal. "Not just villagers but the village panchayat has also benefited from this. We are saving Rs 1 lakh per year ever since we switched over to this programme," V Venkatesh, former sarpanch, told TOI. Buoyed by the success, officials are planning to implement a similar project in Miryalaguda at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
The municipality is willing to allocate Rs 2.5 crore. Officials are mulling offering subsidy for those who are willing to take solar power connections. "We will hold discussions with the stakeholders including the residents of the town before implementing the project," Neelakantham, in-charge joint collector, said.
Funded by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the pilot solar scheme was launched in Pagidipalli a year ago. As part of the initiative, 63 solar stand-alone streetlights and 360 8-watt light emitting diode (LED) bulbs have been installed in the village at a cost of Rs15 lakh.
Pagidipalli has 230 households with a population of 1,500, majority of whom are either farmers or those who work in the surrounding factories.
This automatic system can provide light for 12 hours in the night. BEE distributed LED lamps to the households at 50% subsidy. "We don't have much problem in using them. If we face any problem with solar panels, Nedcap which has supported the initiative helps us," Ch Chandrasekhar, a villager, told TOI. He says that there is 70% decrease in their electricity bill after they started relying on solar power and LED lamps.The village panchayat played an active role in convincing the people to use solar bulbs when there was some resistance to the proposal. "Not just villagers but the village panchayat has also benefited from this. We are saving Rs 1 lakh per year ever since we switched over to this programme," V Venkatesh, former sarpanch, told TOI. Buoyed by the success, officials are planning to implement a similar project in Miryalaguda at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
The municipality is willing to allocate Rs 2.5 crore. Officials are mulling offering subsidy for those who are willing to take solar power connections. "We will hold discussions with the stakeholders including the residents of the town before implementing the project," Neelakantham, in-charge joint collector, said.
2012年3月28日星期三
Solar panels will keep lights twirling
Ames-based PowerFilm has a new partnership with a company that makes lighting bars and other gear for emergency vehicles.
The agreement will allow Streamlight Inc. to add PowerFilm’s 14-watt flexible solar panels as an option for emergency responders and others looking for an auxiliary source of power for the lights, computers, radios and other electrical components that are now built into vehicles.
The Streamlight deal is the second vehicle partnership announced by PowerFilm. In January, the company said it would join with Textron Co. to make solar power an option for E-Z-GO golf cars and other electric vehicles.
In a statement announcing the Streamlight venture, PowerFilm President Tim Neugent said the company’s new solar panels provide enough supplemental power to the battery of an emergency vehicle “to ensure that the vehicle will start when needed and reduce the need to idle the vehicle, saving fuel and reducing emissions.”
Streamlight President Ray Sharrah said in an email that most solar panel makers “are targeting large commercial or residential installations using thousands of square feet of panel. PowerFilm’s focus on smaller products met our needs for vehicular mobile applications and their design proved itself in a year of field trials.” He said the Iowa company’s “solar technology is unequaled and provides us with amazing versatility.”
Streamlight will begin shipping PowerFilm products next month, Sharrah said.
The potential market is substantial, he said: “In the U.S. alone there are 18,000 law enforcement agencies. There are 25,000 vehicles in service in just state police and highway patrols. American auto manufacturers sell more than 50,000 new police cars a year. When we add this to industrial and utility vehicles and look internationally, it presents a considerable market need.”
The agreement will allow Streamlight Inc. to add PowerFilm’s 14-watt flexible solar panels as an option for emergency responders and others looking for an auxiliary source of power for the lights, computers, radios and other electrical components that are now built into vehicles.
The Streamlight deal is the second vehicle partnership announced by PowerFilm. In January, the company said it would join with Textron Co. to make solar power an option for E-Z-GO golf cars and other electric vehicles.
In a statement announcing the Streamlight venture, PowerFilm President Tim Neugent said the company’s new solar panels provide enough supplemental power to the battery of an emergency vehicle “to ensure that the vehicle will start when needed and reduce the need to idle the vehicle, saving fuel and reducing emissions.”
Streamlight President Ray Sharrah said in an email that most solar panel makers “are targeting large commercial or residential installations using thousands of square feet of panel. PowerFilm’s focus on smaller products met our needs for vehicular mobile applications and their design proved itself in a year of field trials.” He said the Iowa company’s “solar technology is unequaled and provides us with amazing versatility.”
Streamlight will begin shipping PowerFilm products next month, Sharrah said.
The potential market is substantial, he said: “In the U.S. alone there are 18,000 law enforcement agencies. There are 25,000 vehicles in service in just state police and highway patrols. American auto manufacturers sell more than 50,000 new police cars a year. When we add this to industrial and utility vehicles and look internationally, it presents a considerable market need.”
2012年3月27日星期二
Boonville hotel embracing solar panels
As the weather warms up, the Boonville area is getting a little greener. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding and it’s time to mow the grass again.
The Hotel Frederick, 501 High St., in Boonville, Mo., is getting a bit greener, too.
The downtown Boonville hotel has begun installation of solar panels designed to put less pressure on the environment and to take advantage of the bright Missouri sun.
Hotel Frederick owner Bill Haw, Jr. is also assisting in the development of the Telegram Building, a historic property located in Kansas City’s Stockyards District.
“This is our second project,” said Haw of the solar panel project at Hotel Frederick. “Our first project was in Kansas City, at the Telegram Building.”
The progress that has been made with the solar panels there inspired Haw to install them in Boonville, he said.
“Now’s a great time to do something that was good for the environment and worked for us financially,” said Haw.
The installers of the panels, Brightergy Energy Solutions, has been imperative in the process, he said.
“We had a fantastic experience on the first (installation),” said Haw. “Everything went very smooth.”
Brightergy, which is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in St. Louis and Boston, has been brightening up buildings all over, from the city of Florrissant, Mo. to Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
But then there’s the other important “green” — the kind you find in your wallet. The project needed to be financially sound before installing the solar panels, said Haw.
According to Haw, in 2011, there was funding available from both federal sources and locally from Ameren, and dipping into those coffers made the plan work out for the hotel.
Local law firm Conway and Blanck took advantage of these credits when they installed solar panels atop their office in August 2011 at their 213 Main St. location, near the hotel. Previous Boonville Daily News reports notes a $150 per month savings from the panels.
The solar power generated on the roof of the Hotel Frederick will feed directly into the building’s power, said Haw, rather than being stored in a battery. That means if the hotel is using a lot of power on a sunny day, electrical costs will be lower.
Better yet, said Haw, “when you’re not consuming (power), it runs the meter backwards,” which pumps electricity back into the grid. That electricity can earn the customer full retail credit for this electricity on their bill, according to the Missouri Easy Connection Act, passed in 2007.
With those savings, the system should pay for itself in about five years, he said.
Haw said the project has generated a fantastic amount of praise on Facebook, and may be a draw for the hotel, citing its green amenities. In years past, the hotel has moved towards an environmentally friendly experience, including aluminum recycling, bulk soaps and water conservation.
“This is part of something bigger that’s going on,” said Haw. “We’re excited too.”
The Hotel Frederick, 501 High St., in Boonville, Mo., is getting a bit greener, too.
The downtown Boonville hotel has begun installation of solar panels designed to put less pressure on the environment and to take advantage of the bright Missouri sun.
Hotel Frederick owner Bill Haw, Jr. is also assisting in the development of the Telegram Building, a historic property located in Kansas City’s Stockyards District.
“This is our second project,” said Haw of the solar panel project at Hotel Frederick. “Our first project was in Kansas City, at the Telegram Building.”
The progress that has been made with the solar panels there inspired Haw to install them in Boonville, he said.
“Now’s a great time to do something that was good for the environment and worked for us financially,” said Haw.
The installers of the panels, Brightergy Energy Solutions, has been imperative in the process, he said.
“We had a fantastic experience on the first (installation),” said Haw. “Everything went very smooth.”
Brightergy, which is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in St. Louis and Boston, has been brightening up buildings all over, from the city of Florrissant, Mo. to Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
But then there’s the other important “green” — the kind you find in your wallet. The project needed to be financially sound before installing the solar panels, said Haw.
According to Haw, in 2011, there was funding available from both federal sources and locally from Ameren, and dipping into those coffers made the plan work out for the hotel.
Local law firm Conway and Blanck took advantage of these credits when they installed solar panels atop their office in August 2011 at their 213 Main St. location, near the hotel. Previous Boonville Daily News reports notes a $150 per month savings from the panels.
The solar power generated on the roof of the Hotel Frederick will feed directly into the building’s power, said Haw, rather than being stored in a battery. That means if the hotel is using a lot of power on a sunny day, electrical costs will be lower.
Better yet, said Haw, “when you’re not consuming (power), it runs the meter backwards,” which pumps electricity back into the grid. That electricity can earn the customer full retail credit for this electricity on their bill, according to the Missouri Easy Connection Act, passed in 2007.
With those savings, the system should pay for itself in about five years, he said.
Haw said the project has generated a fantastic amount of praise on Facebook, and may be a draw for the hotel, citing its green amenities. In years past, the hotel has moved towards an environmentally friendly experience, including aluminum recycling, bulk soaps and water conservation.
“This is part of something bigger that’s going on,” said Haw. “We’re excited too.”
2012年3月26日星期一
Think solar power can't compete with big utilities? Think again
Most Americans think clean energy is futuristic — a good idea some day, but not practical now. But a new report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance suggests that within 10 years, 100 million Americans in the nation's largest cities could get cheaper electricity from rooftop solar — without subsidies — than that provided by their utility.
For example, one-quarter of San Diego residents could power their homes with cost-effective solar by next year. Even in Boston, solar could cost-effectively power one-third of homes by 2020.
The current electricity system is ill-equipped for this surge in local rooftop solar — or even for the 21st century. It's a relic of the last century, when utilities located dirty coal-powered plants far from population centers, connecting them via high-voltage transmission lines to customers hundreds or thousands of miles away.
An electricity system powered by local solar is fundamentally different. Wherever the sun shines, solar panels are right at the customer's location, on a rural farm or an urban rooftop. And because solar power is modular, it lends itself to construction at a local scale.
Solar also lends itself to local ownership instead of utility conglomerates. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that locally owned renewable energy projects — like rooftop solar — can offer twice the jobs and more than three times the local economic impact of absentee-owned projects, because revenue from local projects stays in the local economy. Having an economic stake in energy ownership also gives citizens a sense of political ownership. Researchers in Germany found a 45 percentage-point increase in support for more local wind power when wind turbines were locally owned instead of absentee-owned.
The rooftop revolution doesn't need more subsidies, but it does need new rules.
Subsidies for solar must change before exponential growth creates exponential resistance to rising costs. This requires us to move away from fixed, one-size-fits-all incentives like the federal solar tax credit toward more flexible and transparent incentives that can phase out as solar becomes competitive in different regions.
The solar tax credit should also be replaced because it is inefficient. Indeed, as much as half of taxpayers' money goes not to solar power plants, but to the middle men who funnel it to large corporations and wealthy households.
The tax credit's inefficiency also undermines solar's greatest asset: local ownership of energy generation. Local ownership of solar could be best achieved through community institutions — cooperatives, schools or cities — but federal tax incentives are for taxable entities, not these organizations. Instead, community institutions must rely on complex partnerships with large corporations to use tax credits, with as much as half the credit used to reduce the tax liability of the private partner instead of the cost of local solar.
Policy makers could replace the inequities and inefficiencies of the tax credit with a feed-in tariff: an energy policy that allows anyone to get a long-term contract for generating electricity from solar, at a price sufficient to earn a modest return on investment (without using the tax code). Used by leading solar nations like Germany, the feed-in tariff can adjust to solar market conditions, as well as offering different contract prices in less sunny regions or places with lower grid electricity prices.
The new rules for the electricity system are needed now, because otherwise billions of dollars will be spent on the last century's power plants and power lines just as a local solar revolution supplants them.
For example, one-quarter of San Diego residents could power their homes with cost-effective solar by next year. Even in Boston, solar could cost-effectively power one-third of homes by 2020.
The current electricity system is ill-equipped for this surge in local rooftop solar — or even for the 21st century. It's a relic of the last century, when utilities located dirty coal-powered plants far from population centers, connecting them via high-voltage transmission lines to customers hundreds or thousands of miles away.
An electricity system powered by local solar is fundamentally different. Wherever the sun shines, solar panels are right at the customer's location, on a rural farm or an urban rooftop. And because solar power is modular, it lends itself to construction at a local scale.
Solar also lends itself to local ownership instead of utility conglomerates. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that locally owned renewable energy projects — like rooftop solar — can offer twice the jobs and more than three times the local economic impact of absentee-owned projects, because revenue from local projects stays in the local economy. Having an economic stake in energy ownership also gives citizens a sense of political ownership. Researchers in Germany found a 45 percentage-point increase in support for more local wind power when wind turbines were locally owned instead of absentee-owned.
The rooftop revolution doesn't need more subsidies, but it does need new rules.
Subsidies for solar must change before exponential growth creates exponential resistance to rising costs. This requires us to move away from fixed, one-size-fits-all incentives like the federal solar tax credit toward more flexible and transparent incentives that can phase out as solar becomes competitive in different regions.
The solar tax credit should also be replaced because it is inefficient. Indeed, as much as half of taxpayers' money goes not to solar power plants, but to the middle men who funnel it to large corporations and wealthy households.
The tax credit's inefficiency also undermines solar's greatest asset: local ownership of energy generation. Local ownership of solar could be best achieved through community institutions — cooperatives, schools or cities — but federal tax incentives are for taxable entities, not these organizations. Instead, community institutions must rely on complex partnerships with large corporations to use tax credits, with as much as half the credit used to reduce the tax liability of the private partner instead of the cost of local solar.
Policy makers could replace the inequities and inefficiencies of the tax credit with a feed-in tariff: an energy policy that allows anyone to get a long-term contract for generating electricity from solar, at a price sufficient to earn a modest return on investment (without using the tax code). Used by leading solar nations like Germany, the feed-in tariff can adjust to solar market conditions, as well as offering different contract prices in less sunny regions or places with lower grid electricity prices.
The new rules for the electricity system are needed now, because otherwise billions of dollars will be spent on the last century's power plants and power lines just as a local solar revolution supplants them.
2012年3月25日星期日
Students invested in school’s solar energy
Ryan Markham, a middle school student intent on saving the environment, is impressed by solar power. On his way from lunch to class, he scans a flat display monitor, seeking real-time updates about the energy produced by panels on the school roof.
"I like saving the environment. I like that we are conserving energy," said Ryan, 13, an established recycler who is now mastering a new environmental arena.
At Norwell Middle School, renewable resources are a hot topic. Students are developing personal interest in energy technologies, a curiosity triggered by their growing awareness of a flank of solar panels installed on the left wing of the school last summer. The project, which was funded by a $150,000 grant from the Department of Energy Resources, is part of a statewide clean-energy initiative.
Now a series of demonstrations, experiments, and opportunities to interact with the solar project have created excitement at the school. In classrooms, students will soon be using solar cells to power fans and lightbulbs, and an after-school science group plans to power a toy solar car.
Students will also be building miniature wind turbines and solar houses, a hands-on means of learning about alternative energy sources and climate change. All of this is creating buzz at the school, where curious young people have been gathering in front of a central hallway monitor for updates on the solar project.
"I really like to check the monitor to find out how much energy is being created and what objects can be run with it. I look at it every day," said Ryan, pointing as the screen flashed the number of hypothetical hairdryers and laptop computers powered by the day’s solar energy intake.
The school is using a solar photovoltaic module, or PV system, that converts solar radiation into electricity, an output reliant on the position and strength of the shining sun.
They track energy production, weather conditions, and the position of the sun in the sky via a popular display system, one of several learning tools supplied by Broadway Renewable Strategies, the electrical company that installed the 53.76kW photovoltaic system.
"The students like to come out and look at the monitor to see where the sun is in the sky. It gives them that perspective about where it is rising and setting," said Chris Bailey, Green Team coordinator and a science teacher at the school.
The school is learning to tap the depth of possibilities offered by this solar project, according to Bailey. She said the project offers engaging material on alternate energy cultivation, but also astronomy and global climate.
"This project is a fabulous teaching tool for so many science topics. It is also creating enthusiasm and helping students to think about alternate energy sources," said Bailey.
She said the solar project is accessible for students; they really do love the flat panel monitor with its easy-to-read graphs and weather information.
Principal Derek Sulc recently stood in front of the monitor, noting its growing popularity. "This thing right here is creating a lot of interest," he said.
"If this project encourages students to be more interested in science or do something to help the environment, it had a benefit," Sulc added.
Jessica Foster, 13, said she enjoys tracking the solar project as part of the Green Team. "We are all working together to improve the environment," she said.
The entire school was involved in a January ceremony to celebrate the solar project, which culminated with students from all grades peppering invited experts with questions about solar energy.
"The kids actually wanted to stay and ask more questions. They were invested," said Lawrence M. Hurwitz, chief executive officer of Broadway Renewable Strategies.
The project, which will reduce the school’s energy costs by about 15 percent annually, offers a "great teachable moment" about how solar power works, according to Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
"I like saving the environment. I like that we are conserving energy," said Ryan, 13, an established recycler who is now mastering a new environmental arena.
At Norwell Middle School, renewable resources are a hot topic. Students are developing personal interest in energy technologies, a curiosity triggered by their growing awareness of a flank of solar panels installed on the left wing of the school last summer. The project, which was funded by a $150,000 grant from the Department of Energy Resources, is part of a statewide clean-energy initiative.
Now a series of demonstrations, experiments, and opportunities to interact with the solar project have created excitement at the school. In classrooms, students will soon be using solar cells to power fans and lightbulbs, and an after-school science group plans to power a toy solar car.
Students will also be building miniature wind turbines and solar houses, a hands-on means of learning about alternative energy sources and climate change. All of this is creating buzz at the school, where curious young people have been gathering in front of a central hallway monitor for updates on the solar project.
"I really like to check the monitor to find out how much energy is being created and what objects can be run with it. I look at it every day," said Ryan, pointing as the screen flashed the number of hypothetical hairdryers and laptop computers powered by the day’s solar energy intake.
The school is using a solar photovoltaic module, or PV system, that converts solar radiation into electricity, an output reliant on the position and strength of the shining sun.
They track energy production, weather conditions, and the position of the sun in the sky via a popular display system, one of several learning tools supplied by Broadway Renewable Strategies, the electrical company that installed the 53.76kW photovoltaic system.
"The students like to come out and look at the monitor to see where the sun is in the sky. It gives them that perspective about where it is rising and setting," said Chris Bailey, Green Team coordinator and a science teacher at the school.
The school is learning to tap the depth of possibilities offered by this solar project, according to Bailey. She said the project offers engaging material on alternate energy cultivation, but also astronomy and global climate.
"This project is a fabulous teaching tool for so many science topics. It is also creating enthusiasm and helping students to think about alternate energy sources," said Bailey.
She said the solar project is accessible for students; they really do love the flat panel monitor with its easy-to-read graphs and weather information.
Principal Derek Sulc recently stood in front of the monitor, noting its growing popularity. "This thing right here is creating a lot of interest," he said.
"If this project encourages students to be more interested in science or do something to help the environment, it had a benefit," Sulc added.
Jessica Foster, 13, said she enjoys tracking the solar project as part of the Green Team. "We are all working together to improve the environment," she said.
The entire school was involved in a January ceremony to celebrate the solar project, which culminated with students from all grades peppering invited experts with questions about solar energy.
"The kids actually wanted to stay and ask more questions. They were invested," said Lawrence M. Hurwitz, chief executive officer of Broadway Renewable Strategies.
The project, which will reduce the school’s energy costs by about 15 percent annually, offers a "great teachable moment" about how solar power works, according to Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
2012年3月22日星期四
Saskatchewan researchers hope to build better solar cell
Materials chemist Tim Kelly moved to Saskatoon to catch some rays.
Originally from Newfoundland, the young researcher is setting up labs at the University of Saskatchewan with the aim of building a better solar cell.
Rather than designing solar cells made out of silicon - like a typical commercially available solar panel - Kelly is joining researchers who are working to develop devices that capture the sun's energy using organic compounds and polymers.
"(Crystalline silicon) makes great solar cells," he said. "They're very efficient. But making devices out of those materials is extremely energy intensive and therefore, extremely expensive. You need very high purity silicon and it's the refining and purification process that adds a lot of expense to a photovoltaic device."
The problem with existing organic solar cells so far is their underwhelming efficiency.
Lab-built silicon cells are about 25 per cent efficient, whereas researchers around the world have struggled to nudge organic cells up to the 10 per cent efficiency mark.
Kelly, who receives federal funding as a Canada Research Chair in photovoltaics, is interested in using so-called nanomaterials - tiny particles smaller than some viruses - to capture and use more of the light hitting the solar cell.
Kelly plans to use silver and gold particles, which can absorb different wavelengths of light depending on their size. That would allow the solar cell to soak up a wider spectrum of light to convert into usable energy.
Kelly's lab is also working with U of S photochemistry Prof. Ron Steer, who last month garnered a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant, also for research on solar cells. The groups intend to design cells that convert infrared light - which we feel as heat - into visible light solar cells can absorb and convert into electricity. Half of the energy that comes to Earth from the sun arrives as infrared radiation.
The solar panels Kelly builds will be small experimental ones - just a few square millimetres in size - designed to test how well the technology works.
"I'm not powering my lab on these solar cells," he quips. Scaling them up into functional solar panels will be another engineering project.
When asked if he has an interest in commercializing any successful new solar technology from his lab, Kelly said he'll "have to see how that goes."
It was more than 50 years ago researchers discovered and developed the polymers capable of conducting electricity that are now finding a use in solar cells. It underlines the importance of funding pure science with no immediately known application, he says.
"It's an interesting thought on the need for fundamental science. Sixty years ago, nobody was thinking about these materials as interesting solar cell materials. I mean, they were just doing some interesting science and studying some polymers they thought were neat."
Originally from Newfoundland, the young researcher is setting up labs at the University of Saskatchewan with the aim of building a better solar cell.
Rather than designing solar cells made out of silicon - like a typical commercially available solar panel - Kelly is joining researchers who are working to develop devices that capture the sun's energy using organic compounds and polymers.
"(Crystalline silicon) makes great solar cells," he said. "They're very efficient. But making devices out of those materials is extremely energy intensive and therefore, extremely expensive. You need very high purity silicon and it's the refining and purification process that adds a lot of expense to a photovoltaic device."
The problem with existing organic solar cells so far is their underwhelming efficiency.
Lab-built silicon cells are about 25 per cent efficient, whereas researchers around the world have struggled to nudge organic cells up to the 10 per cent efficiency mark.
Kelly, who receives federal funding as a Canada Research Chair in photovoltaics, is interested in using so-called nanomaterials - tiny particles smaller than some viruses - to capture and use more of the light hitting the solar cell.
Kelly plans to use silver and gold particles, which can absorb different wavelengths of light depending on their size. That would allow the solar cell to soak up a wider spectrum of light to convert into usable energy.
Kelly's lab is also working with U of S photochemistry Prof. Ron Steer, who last month garnered a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant, also for research on solar cells. The groups intend to design cells that convert infrared light - which we feel as heat - into visible light solar cells can absorb and convert into electricity. Half of the energy that comes to Earth from the sun arrives as infrared radiation.
The solar panels Kelly builds will be small experimental ones - just a few square millimetres in size - designed to test how well the technology works.
"I'm not powering my lab on these solar cells," he quips. Scaling them up into functional solar panels will be another engineering project.
When asked if he has an interest in commercializing any successful new solar technology from his lab, Kelly said he'll "have to see how that goes."
It was more than 50 years ago researchers discovered and developed the polymers capable of conducting electricity that are now finding a use in solar cells. It underlines the importance of funding pure science with no immediately known application, he says.
"It's an interesting thought on the need for fundamental science. Sixty years ago, nobody was thinking about these materials as interesting solar cell materials. I mean, they were just doing some interesting science and studying some polymers they thought were neat."
2012年3月21日星期三
Solar panels help power revamped King's Cross station
An ambitious 1.3m project to fit a 240kW solar glazing system to the roof of King's Cross station is nearing completion, BusinessGreen has learned.
While the station's new roof captured imaginations when it opened last week, the process of installing solar cells along two new barrel-vaulted glass roofs soaring high above the platforms and concourses is in many ways just as impressive.
The solar PV cells are integrated into 1,392 glass laminate units that form part of the 2,300 square metre glass roofing structure.
Meanwhile, progress installing the system has had to be synchronised with a huge rolling scaffold that slowly moves along the concourse as commuters pass by.
A spokesman for Sundog Energy, which is providing the solar system, told BusinessGreen the installation was further slowed by stringent safety regulations designed to address the risks associated with working over a live line.
The safety rules are so tight that items such as pens have to go up in a dedicated lift connected to the installation area in order to prevent them falling from a height above the station. "If you forget something, it's an hour to go back and get it," the spokesman said.
However, despite the installation challenges, the system is due to be completed "by the summer", when it should start to produce around 175,000 kWh of electricity per year, saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The system forms part of a major overhaul of King's Cross station, including the restoration of the original 1851 facade of the building, the renovation of the ticket hall and the main train shed roof, and the creation of a new public square in front of the station.
However, King's Cross is still lagging behind Blackfriars when it comes to solar power. Blackfriars, which reopened earlier this year after extensive modernisation, boasts a 4,400-panel array running along the roof of a railway bridge spanning the Thames. The Blackfriars array is expected to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, about half of the station's demand, as well as reduce annual CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year.
Both projects are part of Network Rail's wide-ranging green building programme, which aims to support the company's goal of reducing carbon emissions 25 per cent per passenger kilometre by the end of the decade.
While the station's new roof captured imaginations when it opened last week, the process of installing solar cells along two new barrel-vaulted glass roofs soaring high above the platforms and concourses is in many ways just as impressive.
The solar PV cells are integrated into 1,392 glass laminate units that form part of the 2,300 square metre glass roofing structure.
Meanwhile, progress installing the system has had to be synchronised with a huge rolling scaffold that slowly moves along the concourse as commuters pass by.
A spokesman for Sundog Energy, which is providing the solar system, told BusinessGreen the installation was further slowed by stringent safety regulations designed to address the risks associated with working over a live line.
The safety rules are so tight that items such as pens have to go up in a dedicated lift connected to the installation area in order to prevent them falling from a height above the station. "If you forget something, it's an hour to go back and get it," the spokesman said.
However, despite the installation challenges, the system is due to be completed "by the summer", when it should start to produce around 175,000 kWh of electricity per year, saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The system forms part of a major overhaul of King's Cross station, including the restoration of the original 1851 facade of the building, the renovation of the ticket hall and the main train shed roof, and the creation of a new public square in front of the station.
However, King's Cross is still lagging behind Blackfriars when it comes to solar power. Blackfriars, which reopened earlier this year after extensive modernisation, boasts a 4,400-panel array running along the roof of a railway bridge spanning the Thames. The Blackfriars array is expected to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, about half of the station's demand, as well as reduce annual CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year.
Both projects are part of Network Rail's wide-ranging green building programme, which aims to support the company's goal of reducing carbon emissions 25 per cent per passenger kilometre by the end of the decade.
2012年3月20日星期二
The solar panel made from a particle collider
If ever there was a story at the intersection of big theoretical science and applied engineering, this is it.
CERN, the international Swiss physics lab renowned for hunting the elusive Higgs boson, smashing subatomic particles, unravelling the mysteries of antimatter, toying with faster-than-light neutrinos and so forth, has something much more pedestrian to tell the world: It has developed and commercialized a solar panel, and installed a few hundred of them on the roof of the Geneva International Airport.
But this is no ordinary solar panel. CERN built it using technology first developed for its particle colliders - in case you’ve been sleeping these last few months, CERN has been busy operating its 17-mile underground circular particle accelerator and collider to try find the Higgs boson, a sub-sub atomic particle that would help confirm what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. We won’t digress onto that.
“The panels emerged from vacuum technologies that were developed for fundamental physics purposes, and it is highly gratifying to see them put to use for renewable energy,” says CERN scientist and the panel’s inventor Cristoforo Benvenuti, in a press release.
The thin film solar panel deploys a vacuum with ”getter” strips, which CERN describes as “a material which attracts residual gas molecules like bugs to flypaper.” CERN first used getter strips in the 1980s in its Large Electron-Positron Collider, a predecessor to the Large Hadron Collider which it uses today.
In the solar panels, the strips presumably attract photons that then transform into electricity via a photovoltaic process. But CERN won’t tell me. They fobbed off that question and others I posed, referring me to their commercial partner, a Spanish company called SRB.
My journalistic instincts tell me it’s going to take a while to receive meaningful responses, so I’m posting this now, before the news gets too stale. CERN announced it on March 9.
The panels’s vacuum chamber provides excellent insulation according to the CERN press release, which says that they have maintained internal temperatures of 80 degrees C when covered in snow.
The panels make use of thin film technology rather than conventional silicon solar cells. Most solar panels in the market today are based on silicon, although some, like those from First Solar and Solar Frontier, use thin film.
I tried to get CERN to tell me what thin film material they use, but see the account of the brush-off a few paragraphs above. First Solar uses cadmium-telluride, and Solar Frontier uses copper-indium-gallium- selenide (CIGS).
None of this sounds like the sort of thing the common man could afford. In an era when solar panel prices are plunging, I can’t imagine that a “getter” stripped, vacuum-chambered solar panel could come to Main Street without a sizable bank loan.
I applaud CERN for putting its heady technology to practical use. It’s not the first time something with everyday potential has emerged from the Swiss wonderama land. Tim Berners Lee conceived the World Wide Web while at CERN.
But until I get some more answers, this one feels a little like CERN is trying to show a practical side to offset its critics who complain that it spends tons of public money on big science machines and experiments.
CERN, the international Swiss physics lab renowned for hunting the elusive Higgs boson, smashing subatomic particles, unravelling the mysteries of antimatter, toying with faster-than-light neutrinos and so forth, has something much more pedestrian to tell the world: It has developed and commercialized a solar panel, and installed a few hundred of them on the roof of the Geneva International Airport.
But this is no ordinary solar panel. CERN built it using technology first developed for its particle colliders - in case you’ve been sleeping these last few months, CERN has been busy operating its 17-mile underground circular particle accelerator and collider to try find the Higgs boson, a sub-sub atomic particle that would help confirm what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. We won’t digress onto that.
“The panels emerged from vacuum technologies that were developed for fundamental physics purposes, and it is highly gratifying to see them put to use for renewable energy,” says CERN scientist and the panel’s inventor Cristoforo Benvenuti, in a press release.
The thin film solar panel deploys a vacuum with ”getter” strips, which CERN describes as “a material which attracts residual gas molecules like bugs to flypaper.” CERN first used getter strips in the 1980s in its Large Electron-Positron Collider, a predecessor to the Large Hadron Collider which it uses today.
In the solar panels, the strips presumably attract photons that then transform into electricity via a photovoltaic process. But CERN won’t tell me. They fobbed off that question and others I posed, referring me to their commercial partner, a Spanish company called SRB.
My journalistic instincts tell me it’s going to take a while to receive meaningful responses, so I’m posting this now, before the news gets too stale. CERN announced it on March 9.
The panels’s vacuum chamber provides excellent insulation according to the CERN press release, which says that they have maintained internal temperatures of 80 degrees C when covered in snow.
The panels make use of thin film technology rather than conventional silicon solar cells. Most solar panels in the market today are based on silicon, although some, like those from First Solar and Solar Frontier, use thin film.
I tried to get CERN to tell me what thin film material they use, but see the account of the brush-off a few paragraphs above. First Solar uses cadmium-telluride, and Solar Frontier uses copper-indium-gallium- selenide (CIGS).
None of this sounds like the sort of thing the common man could afford. In an era when solar panel prices are plunging, I can’t imagine that a “getter” stripped, vacuum-chambered solar panel could come to Main Street without a sizable bank loan.
I applaud CERN for putting its heady technology to practical use. It’s not the first time something with everyday potential has emerged from the Swiss wonderama land. Tim Berners Lee conceived the World Wide Web while at CERN.
But until I get some more answers, this one feels a little like CERN is trying to show a practical side to offset its critics who complain that it spends tons of public money on big science machines and experiments.
2012年3月19日星期一
Is Solar Power for Data Centers a Bad Idea?
Solar power has become the hot new accessory for major data centers. In the past several years, arrays of photovoltaic solar panels have been announced for data centers from Apple, Facebook, Cisco and Emerson Network Power.
But do these solar arrays make sense, given the current economics of solar energy and the volume of power required to support a modern data center? James Hamilton of Amazon Web Services, who often presents on data center economics at industry conferences, challenges the wisdom of solar in a new blog post.
“I love solar power, but in reflecting carefully on a couple of high profile data center deployments of solar power, I’m really developing serious reservations that this is the path to reducing data center environmental impact,” Hamilton writes. “I just can’t make the math work and find myself wondering if these large solar farms are really somewhere between a bad idea and pure marketing, where the environmental impact is purely optical.”
Solar power hasn’t been widely used in data centers because it takes a very large installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to produce even a fraction of the energy required by most data centers. Some arrays, like the one at Facebook’s Oregon facility, provide power for office space rather than the servers n the data center itself. Looking at solar output data at different geographies, Hamilton says the output of these arrays – even Apple’s proposed 20 megawatt facility in North Carolina – just doesn’t add up.
While praising Facebook for its efficiency, Hamilton says the array in Prineville is “very close to purely marketing expense.” So what are the economics of solar from a marketing perspective? It’s probably not an accident that the flurry of on-site solar arrays appeared after Facebook took a public relations beating from Greenpeace, which launched a high-profile “Unfriend Dirty Coal” campaign to protest the low volume of renewables in the power sourcing for the Facebook facility in Prineville.
But seeking to appease Greenpeace with solar panels seems a foolhardy undertaking, as evidenced by the environmental group’s reaction to Apple’s announcement of its 20-megawatt solar array. Rather than praise Apple for its commitment to on-site solar for its data center, Greenpeace used the release of the “new iPad” to bash the company for relying upon coal-sourced energy from the local utility.
“Apple could apply the innovative spirit so evident in its latest iPad to its iCloud by powering it with renewable energy like wind and solar,” said Greenpeace Senior Policy Analyst Gary Cook. “Or, it could continue to lag behind the rest of the industry by sticking with coal, a 19th-century technology that poisons communities and the climate.”
Like Hamilton, Cook argues that the solar array is inconsequential given the overall energy used by Apple. “While Apple has been more than happy to draw the media’s attention to how large the solar farm is, it has kept its lips stapled firmly shut when it comes to just how much coal will still be required to power the cloud,” Cook writes in Greenpeace’s response to the Apple solar announcement.
So if the economics don’t work, and Greenpeace isn’t impressed, what’s the future for solar in the data center? When it comes to renewables at data center scale, hydro power remains the best option.
But do these solar arrays make sense, given the current economics of solar energy and the volume of power required to support a modern data center? James Hamilton of Amazon Web Services, who often presents on data center economics at industry conferences, challenges the wisdom of solar in a new blog post.
“I love solar power, but in reflecting carefully on a couple of high profile data center deployments of solar power, I’m really developing serious reservations that this is the path to reducing data center environmental impact,” Hamilton writes. “I just can’t make the math work and find myself wondering if these large solar farms are really somewhere between a bad idea and pure marketing, where the environmental impact is purely optical.”
Solar power hasn’t been widely used in data centers because it takes a very large installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to produce even a fraction of the energy required by most data centers. Some arrays, like the one at Facebook’s Oregon facility, provide power for office space rather than the servers n the data center itself. Looking at solar output data at different geographies, Hamilton says the output of these arrays – even Apple’s proposed 20 megawatt facility in North Carolina – just doesn’t add up.
While praising Facebook for its efficiency, Hamilton says the array in Prineville is “very close to purely marketing expense.” So what are the economics of solar from a marketing perspective? It’s probably not an accident that the flurry of on-site solar arrays appeared after Facebook took a public relations beating from Greenpeace, which launched a high-profile “Unfriend Dirty Coal” campaign to protest the low volume of renewables in the power sourcing for the Facebook facility in Prineville.
But seeking to appease Greenpeace with solar panels seems a foolhardy undertaking, as evidenced by the environmental group’s reaction to Apple’s announcement of its 20-megawatt solar array. Rather than praise Apple for its commitment to on-site solar for its data center, Greenpeace used the release of the “new iPad” to bash the company for relying upon coal-sourced energy from the local utility.
“Apple could apply the innovative spirit so evident in its latest iPad to its iCloud by powering it with renewable energy like wind and solar,” said Greenpeace Senior Policy Analyst Gary Cook. “Or, it could continue to lag behind the rest of the industry by sticking with coal, a 19th-century technology that poisons communities and the climate.”
Like Hamilton, Cook argues that the solar array is inconsequential given the overall energy used by Apple. “While Apple has been more than happy to draw the media’s attention to how large the solar farm is, it has kept its lips stapled firmly shut when it comes to just how much coal will still be required to power the cloud,” Cook writes in Greenpeace’s response to the Apple solar announcement.
So if the economics don’t work, and Greenpeace isn’t impressed, what’s the future for solar in the data center? When it comes to renewables at data center scale, hydro power remains the best option.
2012年3月18日星期日
Israel demolishing solar panels, depriving Palestinian of electricity
Hundreds of Palestinians will be left without electricity should Israel’s order for the demolition of 8 solar panels in the West Bank go ahead, in what many say is an attempt to drive Palestinians out of the Israeli-controlled part of the territory.
“We are suspended between heaven and earth; the solar panels were a glimmer of hope for us,” Ali Mohamed Ihrizat, the village head of Imenizil, one of the places where the solar panels are scheduled to be demolished, told Agence France-Presse.
The panels were constructed by international charities, but the Israeli authorities say they were built without permission.
Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military, has explained the decision: “Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations.”
This is just the latest standoff in Area C – a festering flashpoint of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where the battles are fought not with guns and rockets, but permits and bulldozers.
Created under the Oslo Accords in 1995, it constitutes nearly two-thirds of the West Bank, and is administered by Israel. More than 300,000 Jews live there alongside 70,000 Palestinians.
Over the past decade Israel has freely given Area C’s Jewish residents permits to build entire new “settlements,” which Israel’s critics have branded a form of colonization by stealth. In turn, Israel has routinely rejected over 90 per cent of Palestinian applications for construction and demolished nearly 2,000 Palestinian buildings in the last decade.
While the Israeli settlements are hooked up to the Israeli water and electricity grid, the Palestinian settlements have to rely on wells and generators.
“The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a ‘silent transfer’ of the Palestinian population from Area C,” claims Peace Now, an Israeli think-tank sympathetic to Palestinians.
This is where the solar panels come in. Funded by European governments, NGOs have built dozens of these devices across Area C, serving an estimated 1,500 Palestinians. Each panel costs tens of thousands of dollars.
An unnamed UN source told the Guardian that the demolition is not random. “From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley,” the source said. “Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished. There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron.”
A legal challenge by activist group Rabbis for Human Rights has temporarily frozen the demolition orders, though there are no plans as yet to cancel them.
Noam Dotan, an Israeli who heads one of the NGOs that installed the panels, says the Israeli plan is immoral and self-defeating. He told AFP, “The panels are not a security threat. It’s a positive project. What do they want? Do they want the people to be more poor? To be more violent?”
“We are suspended between heaven and earth; the solar panels were a glimmer of hope for us,” Ali Mohamed Ihrizat, the village head of Imenizil, one of the places where the solar panels are scheduled to be demolished, told Agence France-Presse.
The panels were constructed by international charities, but the Israeli authorities say they were built without permission.
Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military, has explained the decision: “Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations.”
This is just the latest standoff in Area C – a festering flashpoint of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where the battles are fought not with guns and rockets, but permits and bulldozers.
Created under the Oslo Accords in 1995, it constitutes nearly two-thirds of the West Bank, and is administered by Israel. More than 300,000 Jews live there alongside 70,000 Palestinians.
Over the past decade Israel has freely given Area C’s Jewish residents permits to build entire new “settlements,” which Israel’s critics have branded a form of colonization by stealth. In turn, Israel has routinely rejected over 90 per cent of Palestinian applications for construction and demolished nearly 2,000 Palestinian buildings in the last decade.
While the Israeli settlements are hooked up to the Israeli water and electricity grid, the Palestinian settlements have to rely on wells and generators.
“The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a ‘silent transfer’ of the Palestinian population from Area C,” claims Peace Now, an Israeli think-tank sympathetic to Palestinians.
This is where the solar panels come in. Funded by European governments, NGOs have built dozens of these devices across Area C, serving an estimated 1,500 Palestinians. Each panel costs tens of thousands of dollars.
An unnamed UN source told the Guardian that the demolition is not random. “From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley,” the source said. “Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished. There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron.”
A legal challenge by activist group Rabbis for Human Rights has temporarily frozen the demolition orders, though there are no plans as yet to cancel them.
Noam Dotan, an Israeli who heads one of the NGOs that installed the panels, says the Israeli plan is immoral and self-defeating. He told AFP, “The panels are not a security threat. It’s a positive project. What do they want? Do they want the people to be more poor? To be more violent?”
2012年3月15日星期四
Twin Creeks Aims To Cut Solar Panel Cost In Half
Twin Creeks, a start-up company headquartered in San Jose, CA, aims to revolutionize the solar industry by combining old Soviet technology and newfangled American innovation to enable the production of flexible, ultra-thin solar cells at half the cost of the current industry standard.
Twin Creeks is doing this by selling copies of its first, and to date, only, product: Hyperion, a room-sized particle accelerator that slices off wafers of silicon, the most common ingredient in solar cells, at the molecular level.
To that end, Twin Creeks aims to offer manufacturers a way to bring down the cost of solar cells — those are the constituent parts that make up a solar panel — from about 80 cents per watt to 40 cents per watt.
The process is called “proton-induced exfoliation,” and Twin Creeks compares it to a “proton knife,” albeit an extremely fine and precise one, capable of slicing sheets of materials ranging from silicon to diamond into 20 micron-thick segments, about half the thickness of a human hair.
“Proton exfoliation was a phenomena first discovered by the Soviet Union in the 1980s,” Twin Creeks spokesman Michael Kanellos, in an interview with TPM. “They found that in their nuclear reactors, the steel walls around the reactor cores were deteriorating because hydrogen ions from the reactors were getting under steel.”
The technology eventually made its way into scientific literature and was used to create semiconductors that are found in most modern electronics.
Flash forward to 2008, when Siva Sivaram, a former executive manager at SanDisk and Intel, now Twin Creeks’ CEO, began reading papers on the subject. He and his friend, physicist and venture capitalist Alain Harrus, began to think about the various novel ways that the technology could be used.
“Nobody had ever thought of it to make really thin solar panels,” Kanellos told TPM. “But they did.”
The duo quickly recruited an army of experts on the technology, many of whom had retired decades earlier.
“There’s more people in the company with PhDs than not,” said Kanellos, of the 75-person strong staff. “The joke within the company is the age spread goes from 23 to 82.”
On Wednesday, after four years of secertive internal testing on two different and armed with 20 patents or patent applications, Twin Creeks announced it was offering the first copies of Hyperion for for sale on the commercial market beginning immediately, for a price somewhere between $1 million and $10 million (the company declined to specify). The company is demonstrating the process to interested parties at its plant in Senatobia, Mississippi.
To be clear, Twin Creeks’ prospective customers aren’t individuals, but other existing solar manufacturers, who have been hit hard lately by a sudden drop in the price of polysilicon, a type of silicon that’s used in the majority of the solar panels around the world.
Twin Creeks’ Hyperion proton accomplishes this by drastically improving the efficiency when it comes to converting polysilicon or other types of materials from thick, crytalline ingots, which is how they are first synthesized, into the thin wafers necessary to make solar cells.
Currently, the industry goes about the process in a blunt force sort-of way, physically sawing wafers off of the ingots with blades, which produces lots of wasted materials.
But Hyperion “saws” wafers off ingots on the molecular level, shooting hydrogen ions (aka protons) deep into whatever material the solar manufacturer is using to make their cells, forming microscopic bubbles. Heating the material then causes the bubbles to expand to a precise amount, lifting an ultra-thin, ultra-flexible layer right off the original ingot. In this way, the original ingot can actually be re-used over and over again to produce solar wafers at the precise thickness of 20 microns, up to 10 times, according to the company’s tests.
The process also allows companies to use far less material to begin with, thanks to the precision of the proton gun’s “cutting” abilities.
And with Hyperion able to accomodate a number of different types of materials, from polysilicon to gallium arsenide, its not hard to see why the company is already been talking about providing the technology to “a large number of the top 10 solar manufacturers in the world,” along with dozens of up-and-coming companies, according to Kanellos.
“We expect that there will be 6 to 10 of these in the field a year from now,” Kanellos told TPM. By 2014, the company expects to have over 100 in the field.
But that’s just the beginning of what Twin Creeks wants to do with Hyperion. Eventually, the company wants to use the same technology to make cheaper LEDs and image sensors in the cameras increasingly found in mobile digital devices.
And as for the question of just how green a high-powered particle accelerator can really be, Kanellos said that Twin Creeks spent many of its early years dialing down the power consumption to its current level: 1.2 megavolts, close to the level of a power transformer.
“The gun takes a lot of juice,” Kanellos confirmed to TPM, “But you’re also using one-tenth the amount of silicon to make the wafers as conventional processes.”
Kanellos said that the savings in materials more than made up for the power consumption. It normally takes 2 years worth of operation for a solar cell to work off its carbon footprint, but Twin Creek’s process takes only 25 days.
Twin Creeks is doing this by selling copies of its first, and to date, only, product: Hyperion, a room-sized particle accelerator that slices off wafers of silicon, the most common ingredient in solar cells, at the molecular level.
To that end, Twin Creeks aims to offer manufacturers a way to bring down the cost of solar cells — those are the constituent parts that make up a solar panel — from about 80 cents per watt to 40 cents per watt.
The process is called “proton-induced exfoliation,” and Twin Creeks compares it to a “proton knife,” albeit an extremely fine and precise one, capable of slicing sheets of materials ranging from silicon to diamond into 20 micron-thick segments, about half the thickness of a human hair.
“Proton exfoliation was a phenomena first discovered by the Soviet Union in the 1980s,” Twin Creeks spokesman Michael Kanellos, in an interview with TPM. “They found that in their nuclear reactors, the steel walls around the reactor cores were deteriorating because hydrogen ions from the reactors were getting under steel.”
The technology eventually made its way into scientific literature and was used to create semiconductors that are found in most modern electronics.
Flash forward to 2008, when Siva Sivaram, a former executive manager at SanDisk and Intel, now Twin Creeks’ CEO, began reading papers on the subject. He and his friend, physicist and venture capitalist Alain Harrus, began to think about the various novel ways that the technology could be used.
“Nobody had ever thought of it to make really thin solar panels,” Kanellos told TPM. “But they did.”
The duo quickly recruited an army of experts on the technology, many of whom had retired decades earlier.
“There’s more people in the company with PhDs than not,” said Kanellos, of the 75-person strong staff. “The joke within the company is the age spread goes from 23 to 82.”
On Wednesday, after four years of secertive internal testing on two different and armed with 20 patents or patent applications, Twin Creeks announced it was offering the first copies of Hyperion for for sale on the commercial market beginning immediately, for a price somewhere between $1 million and $10 million (the company declined to specify). The company is demonstrating the process to interested parties at its plant in Senatobia, Mississippi.
To be clear, Twin Creeks’ prospective customers aren’t individuals, but other existing solar manufacturers, who have been hit hard lately by a sudden drop in the price of polysilicon, a type of silicon that’s used in the majority of the solar panels around the world.
Twin Creeks’ Hyperion proton accomplishes this by drastically improving the efficiency when it comes to converting polysilicon or other types of materials from thick, crytalline ingots, which is how they are first synthesized, into the thin wafers necessary to make solar cells.
Currently, the industry goes about the process in a blunt force sort-of way, physically sawing wafers off of the ingots with blades, which produces lots of wasted materials.
But Hyperion “saws” wafers off ingots on the molecular level, shooting hydrogen ions (aka protons) deep into whatever material the solar manufacturer is using to make their cells, forming microscopic bubbles. Heating the material then causes the bubbles to expand to a precise amount, lifting an ultra-thin, ultra-flexible layer right off the original ingot. In this way, the original ingot can actually be re-used over and over again to produce solar wafers at the precise thickness of 20 microns, up to 10 times, according to the company’s tests.
The process also allows companies to use far less material to begin with, thanks to the precision of the proton gun’s “cutting” abilities.
And with Hyperion able to accomodate a number of different types of materials, from polysilicon to gallium arsenide, its not hard to see why the company is already been talking about providing the technology to “a large number of the top 10 solar manufacturers in the world,” along with dozens of up-and-coming companies, according to Kanellos.
“We expect that there will be 6 to 10 of these in the field a year from now,” Kanellos told TPM. By 2014, the company expects to have over 100 in the field.
But that’s just the beginning of what Twin Creeks wants to do with Hyperion. Eventually, the company wants to use the same technology to make cheaper LEDs and image sensors in the cameras increasingly found in mobile digital devices.
And as for the question of just how green a high-powered particle accelerator can really be, Kanellos said that Twin Creeks spent many of its early years dialing down the power consumption to its current level: 1.2 megavolts, close to the level of a power transformer.
“The gun takes a lot of juice,” Kanellos confirmed to TPM, “But you’re also using one-tenth the amount of silicon to make the wafers as conventional processes.”
Kanellos said that the savings in materials more than made up for the power consumption. It normally takes 2 years worth of operation for a solar cell to work off its carbon footprint, but Twin Creek’s process takes only 25 days.
2012年3月14日星期三
Solar-panel plant: 'Concerns misplaced'
State-owned investment arm InvestPenang has moved to deflect concerns about the 520 million euro solar-panel plant to be built in Batu Kawan by Germany’s Bosch Group.
InvestPenang head Lee Kah Choon pointed out that every industry produces waste.
"The critical component is whether it is properly treated and managed," he said in a statement.
"Solar energy industry is no different but environmental concerns of it being more serious than other industries are not valid. This is because it is considered not only a clean energy but also a renewable one encouraged by all countries.”
Gerakan has criticised Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for allowing the project while objecting to the Lynas plant in Gebeng, Kuantan, because of potential radioactive hazards.
On safety and environmental issues, Lee said the Department of Environment (DOE) will ensure that the solar-panel project adheres to guidelines laid out in the National Policy on the Environment.
"I am confident that the DOE will carry out rigorously its requirements in compliance and enforcement of environmental guidelines in Penang," he said.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) has identified the photovoltaic (PV) industry as a main area for growth, Lee said.
Activities promoted include R&D; manufacture of core components; assembly, packaging and testing; and sales, distribution and services for PV.
"According to the ETP, Malaysia targets to be the world’s Number 2 producer of PV by 2020,” said Lee, who was once Gerakan’s Jelutong parliamentarian.
"This is in line with the target for renewable energy sources to contribute at least 5.5 percent of the country’s entire energy mix by 2015, as outlined in the National Renewable Energy Policy.”
Lee also said the International Trade and Industry Ministry has identified solar cells as a product that is eligible for incentives such as pioneer status or investment tax allowance.
Efforts to promote investment in the world’s fastest growing energy industry have now placed Malaysia as the world’s third-largest solar module manufacturer.
Malaysia, he said, has witnessed an influx of PV global players notably First Solar in Kedah, Q-Cells in Selangor, AUO SunPower in Melaka, and MEMC in Sarawak.
The most recent investment has come from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic which will set up a solar manufacturing base in Kulim, that will be operational in December.
Lee said Penang has always ensured that its economic directions are aligned with federal policies.
"Penang failed to attract First Solar when it first came in 2005 and as a result, (the state) lost 4,000 direct employment opportunities and the chance to participate in the PV industry," Lee added.
"The success in attracting Bosch Solar Energy is to plug that gap.”
InvestPenang head Lee Kah Choon pointed out that every industry produces waste.
"The critical component is whether it is properly treated and managed," he said in a statement.
"Solar energy industry is no different but environmental concerns of it being more serious than other industries are not valid. This is because it is considered not only a clean energy but also a renewable one encouraged by all countries.”
Gerakan has criticised Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for allowing the project while objecting to the Lynas plant in Gebeng, Kuantan, because of potential radioactive hazards.
On safety and environmental issues, Lee said the Department of Environment (DOE) will ensure that the solar-panel project adheres to guidelines laid out in the National Policy on the Environment.
"I am confident that the DOE will carry out rigorously its requirements in compliance and enforcement of environmental guidelines in Penang," he said.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) has identified the photovoltaic (PV) industry as a main area for growth, Lee said.
Activities promoted include R&D; manufacture of core components; assembly, packaging and testing; and sales, distribution and services for PV.
"According to the ETP, Malaysia targets to be the world’s Number 2 producer of PV by 2020,” said Lee, who was once Gerakan’s Jelutong parliamentarian.
"This is in line with the target for renewable energy sources to contribute at least 5.5 percent of the country’s entire energy mix by 2015, as outlined in the National Renewable Energy Policy.”
Lee also said the International Trade and Industry Ministry has identified solar cells as a product that is eligible for incentives such as pioneer status or investment tax allowance.
Efforts to promote investment in the world’s fastest growing energy industry have now placed Malaysia as the world’s third-largest solar module manufacturer.
Malaysia, he said, has witnessed an influx of PV global players notably First Solar in Kedah, Q-Cells in Selangor, AUO SunPower in Melaka, and MEMC in Sarawak.
The most recent investment has come from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic which will set up a solar manufacturing base in Kulim, that will be operational in December.
Lee said Penang has always ensured that its economic directions are aligned with federal policies.
"Penang failed to attract First Solar when it first came in 2005 and as a result, (the state) lost 4,000 direct employment opportunities and the chance to participate in the PV industry," Lee added.
"The success in attracting Bosch Solar Energy is to plug that gap.”
2012年3月13日星期二
100% of state's power can come from wind, solar
If you've ever driven past the wind farms in southern Minnesota or seen a house with solar panels, maybe you've wondered how much of the state's total electricity demand wind and solar power could support.
According to a study released Tuesday, March 13, the answer is 100 percent.
All of Minnesota's electricity generation could be met by a combination of wind and solar energy, as long as it's combined with big energy storage and grid improvements that dramatically reduce demand, the study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research says.
In the end, electricity would cost about 3 cents more per kilowatt hour than today's statewide average of about 10.6 cents for residential customers, the study by the Takoma Park, Md.-based think tank concluded.
That's a steep increase. But the researchers say that by the time these improvements take in place - in roughly 40 years - Minnesota will have to replace its aging coal and natural gas plants, so prices would be going up one way or another.
Reducing demand would offset the greater cost of creating new generation alone, the study argues.
Arjun Makhijani, president of the group, acknowledges the study's conclusions fly in the face of conventional wisdom about renewable energy.
That wisdom says wind and solar energy are intermittent and therefore need assistance. Only coal and nuclear plants can produce what utilities call baseload power - steady, uninterrupted electricity.
Makhijani called the baseload concept obsolete. "It's like living in the age of punch cards and IBM machines when we should be living in the age of the iPhone," he said.
Compressed-air energy storage - think pressurized underground caverns - could act like batteries and solve the intermittence problem, Makhijani said. Utilities could pressurize underground caverns at night when the wind blows hardest and tap the pressure to turn turbines when the wind tends to die, advocates have long said.
The paper also suggests that major reductions in electricity demand can be achieved.
According to Makhijani, 58 percent of the grid's capacity is idle during the year. Most of that occurs at natural gas plants that are turned on only when demand begins to peak, he said.
If the grid was more "intelligent," allowing machinery to be turned on and off to manage the load, about one-third of residential demand could be eliminated with no discernable notice, he argued.
The state is moving toward renewable energy but its goals are less lofty. It wants most utilities to produce 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and Xcel Energy, the state's dominant utility, to hit a 30 percent target by 2020.
At present, Minnesota produces 10 percent of its energy from wind, according to American Wind Energy Association. Solar power, meanwhile, represents about one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. energy supply and about the same percentage in Minnesota, solar advocates say.
The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research wanted to show that a fully renewable system was technically and economically feasible, Makhijani said. Now he wants some entity to conduct a demonstration project to prove out the concept.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, the nation's No. 1 wind power provider, would not comment directly on Makhijani's study. But it said it is on target to meet it own renewable energy goals.
The utility, which has the state's biggest coal plant in Becker and two nuclear power plants in Minnesota, said it tries to put together a balanced energy portfolio that includes energy conservation and efficiency programs.
"Because it is good for customers and the environment, we will continue to look to add renewable resources onto our system if it makes economical sense," the utility said in a statement.
According to a study released Tuesday, March 13, the answer is 100 percent.
All of Minnesota's electricity generation could be met by a combination of wind and solar energy, as long as it's combined with big energy storage and grid improvements that dramatically reduce demand, the study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research says.
In the end, electricity would cost about 3 cents more per kilowatt hour than today's statewide average of about 10.6 cents for residential customers, the study by the Takoma Park, Md.-based think tank concluded.
That's a steep increase. But the researchers say that by the time these improvements take in place - in roughly 40 years - Minnesota will have to replace its aging coal and natural gas plants, so prices would be going up one way or another.
Reducing demand would offset the greater cost of creating new generation alone, the study argues.
Arjun Makhijani, president of the group, acknowledges the study's conclusions fly in the face of conventional wisdom about renewable energy.
That wisdom says wind and solar energy are intermittent and therefore need assistance. Only coal and nuclear plants can produce what utilities call baseload power - steady, uninterrupted electricity.
Makhijani called the baseload concept obsolete. "It's like living in the age of punch cards and IBM machines when we should be living in the age of the iPhone," he said.
Compressed-air energy storage - think pressurized underground caverns - could act like batteries and solve the intermittence problem, Makhijani said. Utilities could pressurize underground caverns at night when the wind blows hardest and tap the pressure to turn turbines when the wind tends to die, advocates have long said.
The paper also suggests that major reductions in electricity demand can be achieved.
According to Makhijani, 58 percent of the grid's capacity is idle during the year. Most of that occurs at natural gas plants that are turned on only when demand begins to peak, he said.
If the grid was more "intelligent," allowing machinery to be turned on and off to manage the load, about one-third of residential demand could be eliminated with no discernable notice, he argued.
The state is moving toward renewable energy but its goals are less lofty. It wants most utilities to produce 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and Xcel Energy, the state's dominant utility, to hit a 30 percent target by 2020.
At present, Minnesota produces 10 percent of its energy from wind, according to American Wind Energy Association. Solar power, meanwhile, represents about one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. energy supply and about the same percentage in Minnesota, solar advocates say.
The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research wanted to show that a fully renewable system was technically and economically feasible, Makhijani said. Now he wants some entity to conduct a demonstration project to prove out the concept.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, the nation's No. 1 wind power provider, would not comment directly on Makhijani's study. But it said it is on target to meet it own renewable energy goals.
The utility, which has the state's biggest coal plant in Becker and two nuclear power plants in Minnesota, said it tries to put together a balanced energy portfolio that includes energy conservation and efficiency programs.
"Because it is good for customers and the environment, we will continue to look to add renewable resources onto our system if it makes economical sense," the utility said in a statement.
2012年3月12日星期一
Will sun still shine on Germany solar power industry?
It has between a third and a half of the world's photo-voltaic cells - but in this heartland of solar energy, the industry sees dark clouds looming.
Subsidies are falling. Makers of solar panels have gone bankrupt.
Thousands of employees, fearing for their jobs, have just held a demonstration in Berlin.
Mainstream, influential magazines run headlines like Solar Subsidy Sinkhole: Re-evaluating Germany's Blind Faith in the Sun.
And if solar is being eclipsed in the world's green heartland, can its future be brighter elsewhere?
The source of the immediate woe is a cut in subsidies by 30% in the next year.
The government says that's because of the great success of the scheme: so great has been the demand for solar panels because of the lower price that the budget for it has been far exceeded.
But now the subsidy is being cut, the industry is finding it tougher.
Some German manufacturers of solar panels have gone out of business. All feel a chiller wind.
Ina von Spies is one of the executives at Q.Cells which makes solar panels.
"There's a lot of pressure on the makers of solar panels because we have a very, very high over-supply and that makes it very difficult to sell the products we produce at a reasonable price," she told the BBC.
Cut-price competition from China hasn't helped German producers either.
Some makers of solar-panels say the German government made a mistake by not making sure that when subsidies went to German installers of these photo-voltaic cells, it would be German manufacturers that got the money in the end - rather than Chinese ones who were quick to spot a market.
The subsidy, they say, should have helped German industry too.
But there is also broader questioning of whether Germany's embrace of solar power was wise. It is not the sunniest country.
"We should deploy solar energy where the sun is shining - in Spain, Italy or North Africa, but not in Germany," says Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, chief executive of the big energy company, RWE Innology.
He says Germany gets the same amount of sunshine as the US state of Alaska, while Spain gets three times as much - and that means that Spanish solar power could be a third cheaper than that in Germany.
Prof Vahrenholt has written a book called Die Kalte Sonne - The Cold Sun - which is sceptical of global warming being caused by human activity, and because of this scepticism, questions the need for the switch into alternatives to carbon fuels.
He told the BBC that the way the solar subsidy works in Germany means it is a redistribution of money from poor to rich, because people in apartment blocks do not have solar panels and tend to be poorer than those who own their own homes and so can put them on their roofs.
Subsidies are falling. Makers of solar panels have gone bankrupt.
Thousands of employees, fearing for their jobs, have just held a demonstration in Berlin.
Mainstream, influential magazines run headlines like Solar Subsidy Sinkhole: Re-evaluating Germany's Blind Faith in the Sun.
And if solar is being eclipsed in the world's green heartland, can its future be brighter elsewhere?
The source of the immediate woe is a cut in subsidies by 30% in the next year.
The government says that's because of the great success of the scheme: so great has been the demand for solar panels because of the lower price that the budget for it has been far exceeded.
But now the subsidy is being cut, the industry is finding it tougher.
Some German manufacturers of solar panels have gone out of business. All feel a chiller wind.
Ina von Spies is one of the executives at Q.Cells which makes solar panels.
"There's a lot of pressure on the makers of solar panels because we have a very, very high over-supply and that makes it very difficult to sell the products we produce at a reasonable price," she told the BBC.
Cut-price competition from China hasn't helped German producers either.
Some makers of solar-panels say the German government made a mistake by not making sure that when subsidies went to German installers of these photo-voltaic cells, it would be German manufacturers that got the money in the end - rather than Chinese ones who were quick to spot a market.
The subsidy, they say, should have helped German industry too.
But there is also broader questioning of whether Germany's embrace of solar power was wise. It is not the sunniest country.
"We should deploy solar energy where the sun is shining - in Spain, Italy or North Africa, but not in Germany," says Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, chief executive of the big energy company, RWE Innology.
He says Germany gets the same amount of sunshine as the US state of Alaska, while Spain gets three times as much - and that means that Spanish solar power could be a third cheaper than that in Germany.
Prof Vahrenholt has written a book called Die Kalte Sonne - The Cold Sun - which is sceptical of global warming being caused by human activity, and because of this scepticism, questions the need for the switch into alternatives to carbon fuels.
He told the BBC that the way the solar subsidy works in Germany means it is a redistribution of money from poor to rich, because people in apartment blocks do not have solar panels and tend to be poorer than those who own their own homes and so can put them on their roofs.
2012年3月11日星期日
As public attitudes change, can solar power work in the North Country?
Knowing we have months of cold, snowy, cloudy winter each year, St. Lawrence County homeowners might think using solar energy is a pipe dream in the North Country, but a Canton solar energy installer says it’s a viable, and burgeoning, alternative.
Scott Shipley of Northern Lights Solar Energy says the equivalent of southwestern sunlight isn’t needed to make home solar power a cheaper choice than NationalGrid electricity alone. The sunny days during most of the year make up for the dreary days of winter.
In fact, Shipley’s 4,000-kilowatt-hour-per-year home system, which has two large panels on the roof and a free standing panel on the ground, makes about 30 percent more energy than the household can use annually.
“The only thing that matters is the amount of sun that shines over the course of a year,” he explains. “It turns out the amount of sun we have over a year is not much different than the rest of the country.”
Shipley said he and most of his customers choose to stay “on-grid,” which means the energy his solar panels produce goes out into the National Grid and is used by everyone. It’s a kind of barter system; when it’s sunny, his panels produce more power than his home needs so the extra is given away to the grid. But when it’s cloudy and he needs more than the panels produce, he can draw extra from the grid.
Annually, this means big savings. Shipley said his household pays $17 a month for service fees, but saves about $600 annually compared to a traditional electric utility.
The initial cost outlay, if a homeowner chooses to buy the equipment rather than lease it, can be between $5,000 and $10,000, but NYSERDA and other agencies give incentives to help defray the expense.
Shipley said the important thing is to keep the cost in perspective. All of the cost is equipment, not in fuel. “It’s the cost of the system versus what you now pay for electricity,” he said.
With the incentives, Shipley said homeowners should see the system pay for itself in five to 15 years depending on the system.
“People need to think of it in terms of ‘what it costs to can your own tomatoes versus buying them.’ Is it cheaper?” he asked.
The silicon panels are very durable, too, he said. There are no moving parts and they’re designed to take worse weather than we have in the North Country.
“Nobody really knows how long they last,” Shipley said, noting panels first developed in the 1970s are still in use. Manufacturers will provide 20- to 30-year warranties.
Over a long period of time, the panels may not be as efficient as they once were, but he estimates they might only lose about 80 percent of their original power production.
Snow isn’t really much of an issue, either, Shipley said. While it does create shade initially, the panels are slanted and still heat up when it’s sunny out, causing the snow to slide right off.
So why don’t more people have at least some form of solar energy supply? Shipley said the public mind is finally starting to change. In addition to the cost savings, solar energy is also eco-friendly and reduces our dependence on pollution-causing forms of energy.
“It’s difficult to argue a more socially and environmentally responsible form of energy,” he said. People never hear about a solar power spill. But they hear about nuclear disasters in Japan, the Gulf oil spill and coalmining tragedies, not to mention air and ozone quality concerns caused by fossil fuels, he said.
“Solar energy is growing by leaps and bounds,” he said, noting his phone is ringing more and more these days with requests. “We are in the midst of a solar revolution.
Scott Shipley of Northern Lights Solar Energy says the equivalent of southwestern sunlight isn’t needed to make home solar power a cheaper choice than NationalGrid electricity alone. The sunny days during most of the year make up for the dreary days of winter.
In fact, Shipley’s 4,000-kilowatt-hour-per-year home system, which has two large panels on the roof and a free standing panel on the ground, makes about 30 percent more energy than the household can use annually.
“The only thing that matters is the amount of sun that shines over the course of a year,” he explains. “It turns out the amount of sun we have over a year is not much different than the rest of the country.”
Shipley said he and most of his customers choose to stay “on-grid,” which means the energy his solar panels produce goes out into the National Grid and is used by everyone. It’s a kind of barter system; when it’s sunny, his panels produce more power than his home needs so the extra is given away to the grid. But when it’s cloudy and he needs more than the panels produce, he can draw extra from the grid.
Annually, this means big savings. Shipley said his household pays $17 a month for service fees, but saves about $600 annually compared to a traditional electric utility.
The initial cost outlay, if a homeowner chooses to buy the equipment rather than lease it, can be between $5,000 and $10,000, but NYSERDA and other agencies give incentives to help defray the expense.
Shipley said the important thing is to keep the cost in perspective. All of the cost is equipment, not in fuel. “It’s the cost of the system versus what you now pay for electricity,” he said.
With the incentives, Shipley said homeowners should see the system pay for itself in five to 15 years depending on the system.
“People need to think of it in terms of ‘what it costs to can your own tomatoes versus buying them.’ Is it cheaper?” he asked.
The silicon panels are very durable, too, he said. There are no moving parts and they’re designed to take worse weather than we have in the North Country.
“Nobody really knows how long they last,” Shipley said, noting panels first developed in the 1970s are still in use. Manufacturers will provide 20- to 30-year warranties.
Over a long period of time, the panels may not be as efficient as they once were, but he estimates they might only lose about 80 percent of their original power production.
Snow isn’t really much of an issue, either, Shipley said. While it does create shade initially, the panels are slanted and still heat up when it’s sunny out, causing the snow to slide right off.
So why don’t more people have at least some form of solar energy supply? Shipley said the public mind is finally starting to change. In addition to the cost savings, solar energy is also eco-friendly and reduces our dependence on pollution-causing forms of energy.
“It’s difficult to argue a more socially and environmentally responsible form of energy,” he said. People never hear about a solar power spill. But they hear about nuclear disasters in Japan, the Gulf oil spill and coalmining tragedies, not to mention air and ozone quality concerns caused by fossil fuels, he said.
“Solar energy is growing by leaps and bounds,” he said, noting his phone is ringing more and more these days with requests. “We are in the midst of a solar revolution.
2012年3月8日星期四
Convention center studies solar panels
Nashville’s new convention center, already set to have a green roof, probably will have a solar one, too.
The Convention Center Authority has hired a local consulting firm to explore options for solar panels on top of the Music City Center, the $585 million building under construction downtown. An installation on the roof above the ballroom on the building’s north end would make the facility one of the most high-profile in Middle Tennessee to use the alternative energy source.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has a program that allows building owners that meet certain requirements to get credits for the electricity they generate through the sun’s energy and feed back into the power grid.
“The building is unique enough and obviously prominent enough that it can serve as an example to other property owners, as a testimonial to the long-term value of solar,” Mayor Karl Dean said Thursday. “I don’t want to do a project just to have panels up there. I want a real, tangible benefit for the city.”
The consulting firm, Energy Source Partners, will look at “small,” “medium” and “large” solar options for the convention center, including costs, energy savings, financing structures and maintenance. Ron Merville, the company’s president and CEO, said 50 kilowatts or less is considered small by TVA standards, while 200 or more is considered large.
Holly McCall, a spokeswoman for the convention center authority, said the Music City Center was designed to accommodate solar panels and they fit within the project’s budget, though a specific amount of money has not been set aside. While installing the panels would not lift the facility’s LEED certification above the silver level that is already expected, Dean said, it would add to the project’s energy efficiency.
McCall said Energy Source Partners, which opened for business in 2008, had the most experience of the six firms that applied for the job. Merville, a licensed professional engineer who has worked on some 500 public works projects for Metro, said his company’s solar projects have included the HCA headquarters near Centennial Park, a C.B. Ragland Co. building on Second Avenue South and a wastewater treatment plant under construction in Franklin.
Energy Source Partners also could do a Music City Center installation. Merville said the center, which is scheduled to open in about a year, is “a perfect site” for solar panels.
“Solar would help offset the electrical costs in the center — and do it with renewable energy,” he said.
The authority will pay Energy Source Partners $125 an hour, but the total payment can’t exceed $25,000, according to the contract. The firm is expected to deliver its report in 30 to 60 days.
A four-acre green roof is already being built atop the Music City Center. Dean said solar panels would make the undulating roof even more eye-catching.
“This roof is unlike any other roof that has ever been built in Nashville,” the mayor said. “The roof is visible from the interstates. We’ve been very conscious of the fact that the roof needs to be something special.”
The Convention Center Authority has hired a local consulting firm to explore options for solar panels on top of the Music City Center, the $585 million building under construction downtown. An installation on the roof above the ballroom on the building’s north end would make the facility one of the most high-profile in Middle Tennessee to use the alternative energy source.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has a program that allows building owners that meet certain requirements to get credits for the electricity they generate through the sun’s energy and feed back into the power grid.
“The building is unique enough and obviously prominent enough that it can serve as an example to other property owners, as a testimonial to the long-term value of solar,” Mayor Karl Dean said Thursday. “I don’t want to do a project just to have panels up there. I want a real, tangible benefit for the city.”
The consulting firm, Energy Source Partners, will look at “small,” “medium” and “large” solar options for the convention center, including costs, energy savings, financing structures and maintenance. Ron Merville, the company’s president and CEO, said 50 kilowatts or less is considered small by TVA standards, while 200 or more is considered large.
Holly McCall, a spokeswoman for the convention center authority, said the Music City Center was designed to accommodate solar panels and they fit within the project’s budget, though a specific amount of money has not been set aside. While installing the panels would not lift the facility’s LEED certification above the silver level that is already expected, Dean said, it would add to the project’s energy efficiency.
McCall said Energy Source Partners, which opened for business in 2008, had the most experience of the six firms that applied for the job. Merville, a licensed professional engineer who has worked on some 500 public works projects for Metro, said his company’s solar projects have included the HCA headquarters near Centennial Park, a C.B. Ragland Co. building on Second Avenue South and a wastewater treatment plant under construction in Franklin.
Energy Source Partners also could do a Music City Center installation. Merville said the center, which is scheduled to open in about a year, is “a perfect site” for solar panels.
“Solar would help offset the electrical costs in the center — and do it with renewable energy,” he said.
The authority will pay Energy Source Partners $125 an hour, but the total payment can’t exceed $25,000, according to the contract. The firm is expected to deliver its report in 30 to 60 days.
A four-acre green roof is already being built atop the Music City Center. Dean said solar panels would make the undulating roof even more eye-catching.
“This roof is unlike any other roof that has ever been built in Nashville,” the mayor said. “The roof is visible from the interstates. We’ve been very conscious of the fact that the roof needs to be something special.”
2012年3月7日星期三
Solar Panels on a Ski Helmet
Just when you thought--as you were undoubtedly thinking--that ski helmet design could not be improved upon any further, someone has to go and stick a solar panel on the thing. Please revise your mental representation of the world accordingly.
Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin is responsible for this particular disruption. Having a solar panel atop your ski helmet doesn’t mean you can harness the sun’s energy to do our skiing for you--you’ll still have to exert old-fashioned muscular effort to navigate those moguls. But the modern, tech-savvy skier apparently has electrical needs nonetheless. Explains Fraunhofer IZM: “Mobile devices like smart phones and MP3 players can then be connected wirelessly via Bluetooth. Incoming calls can be received without breaking glide using the accompanying Bluetooth-enabled glove. The user can even operate an MP3 player remotely from the glove, ensuring that cumbersome removal of gloves in sub-zero temperatures is finally a thing of the past.”
The main innovation here, points out Treehugger--and it’s a significant one--is in the flexibility of the solar panels. Researchers have made flexible solar panels before, but typically only ones that could bend in single direction. Fraunhofer engineered a new solar cell structure solution that enables a solar panel to conform to the spherical curve atop a helmet. They explain that their new packaging tech features “extremely high quality, monocrystalline silicon solar cellars can be divided into tiny individual chips and adapted to a three-dimensional, curved shape.”
Although Fraunhofer appears focused on the iPhone set, the idea can have many, even life-saving applications. Treehugger imagines integrating communications headsets into the hard hats of rescue workers, or fans into those worn by construction workers . Treehugger's vision of bike helmets with integrated lights is fantastic one, though.
I, who personally thought that headwear-with-technology had reached its apogee with the beer hat, stand humbled by Fraunhofer’s innovation. It hopes to bring the product to market for around 300 Euros , by year’s end. If you can’t wait till then, book a ticket to the Energy Harvesting & Storage expo held in Berlin on the ides of May, and make your way to the Fraunhofer booth, where they’ll be touting an iteration of the helmet prototype.
Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin is responsible for this particular disruption. Having a solar panel atop your ski helmet doesn’t mean you can harness the sun’s energy to do our skiing for you--you’ll still have to exert old-fashioned muscular effort to navigate those moguls. But the modern, tech-savvy skier apparently has electrical needs nonetheless. Explains Fraunhofer IZM: “Mobile devices like smart phones and MP3 players can then be connected wirelessly via Bluetooth. Incoming calls can be received without breaking glide using the accompanying Bluetooth-enabled glove. The user can even operate an MP3 player remotely from the glove, ensuring that cumbersome removal of gloves in sub-zero temperatures is finally a thing of the past.”
The main innovation here, points out Treehugger--and it’s a significant one--is in the flexibility of the solar panels. Researchers have made flexible solar panels before, but typically only ones that could bend in single direction. Fraunhofer engineered a new solar cell structure solution that enables a solar panel to conform to the spherical curve atop a helmet. They explain that their new packaging tech features “extremely high quality, monocrystalline silicon solar cellars can be divided into tiny individual chips and adapted to a three-dimensional, curved shape.”
Although Fraunhofer appears focused on the iPhone set, the idea can have many, even life-saving applications. Treehugger imagines integrating communications headsets into the hard hats of rescue workers, or fans into those worn by construction workers . Treehugger's vision of bike helmets with integrated lights is fantastic one, though.
I, who personally thought that headwear-with-technology had reached its apogee with the beer hat, stand humbled by Fraunhofer’s innovation. It hopes to bring the product to market for around 300 Euros , by year’s end. If you can’t wait till then, book a ticket to the Energy Harvesting & Storage expo held in Berlin on the ides of May, and make your way to the Fraunhofer booth, where they’ll be touting an iteration of the helmet prototype.
2012年3月6日星期二
Solar cell maker needs workers for new Portland plant
SoloPower, a California-based maker of thin solar panels, announced Tuesday they are looking to hire people to work in their new Portland manufacturing facility.
The SoloPower manufacturing plant, a 225,000 square-foot former distribution warehouse located on North Marine Drive, should employ about 90 people by the end of the year, according to CEO Tim Harris. Eventually, the company hopes to employ about 450 people.
Prospective employees can apply for work with the company at the Interstate Career Expo on Wednesday, March 7, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pre-registration for the expo is required.
SoloPower will be “looking for equipment engineers, chemical engineers, production and process engineers and front-end and maintenance technicians,” Thomas Barker, Director of Human Resources, said in a press release. “We’re proud to help Oregon continue on the path towards establishing a broad clean technology manufacturing base and a stronger state economy.”
Harris said the company has already hired about a dozen people who are prepping the facility now for the installation of manufacturing equipment, a process that will be completed in a few more months. He also said a small number of current employees in San Jose will relocate to Portland.
Once an initial production line is operating, a planned expansion, coupled with a Department of Energy loan guarantee, will include a second local manufacturing facility, Harris said. The plan is to have four production lines employing about 450 people two years from now, Harris said.
Harris said the production facilities will be similar to wafer manufacturing plants in the computer chip industry, but without the clean-room environment. He said the SoloPower international customer base includes buyers in Japan, China, South Korea and some European countries.
“We’re excited about SoloPower’s ability to bring clean tech jobs to Oregon and promote smart job-growth in the private sector, which would not have been possible without the visionary support we’ve received from the State of Oregon, the Oregon Department of Energy and the City of Portland, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy,” Harris said. “A big reason SoloPower chose to build our new manufacturing facility in Oregon was because of the highly skilled work force, and we look forward to drawing on that local talent as our facility comes online.”
Harris said the company, which is currently producing solar panels at a facility in San Jose where they are based, did a lot of research about where to locate their next plant, including looking at overseas locations. “At the end, the Portland area was very attractive,” Harris said.
“We were very happy to come up with a good package to locate here in the states” rather than moving production out of the country, Harris added.
Not surprisingly, the Portland plant will eventually feature rooftop solar panels but Harris said right now their focus was on getting the operation up and running and getting their product to customers around the world.
The solar power cells the company plans to make in Portland will have a flexible, lightweight design that requires less electrical system balancing hardware and are easier to install than traditional solar panels, SoloPower said in their press release.
Harris said the unique design of SoloPower’s thin solar cells makes it more attractive to businesses looking to turn otherwise empty rooftops into solar arrays that generate power. He said current solar panel designs are too heavy for large-scale installation on the rooftops of some large buildings.
Harris, who has been with SoloPower for two years as CEO, comes from a tech background and compared the emerging solar power industry to the evolution of another tech mainstay: computer hard drives.
He said that as solar power technology advances, the cost to make solar cells and the price for consumers will continue to drop while performance increases, making solar power an attractive alternative to current legacy power-producing technologies.
He said in some countries, solar power is already becoming a viable alternative to other sources of energy in terms of cost for the consumer.
The SoloPower manufacturing plant, a 225,000 square-foot former distribution warehouse located on North Marine Drive, should employ about 90 people by the end of the year, according to CEO Tim Harris. Eventually, the company hopes to employ about 450 people.
Prospective employees can apply for work with the company at the Interstate Career Expo on Wednesday, March 7, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pre-registration for the expo is required.
SoloPower will be “looking for equipment engineers, chemical engineers, production and process engineers and front-end and maintenance technicians,” Thomas Barker, Director of Human Resources, said in a press release. “We’re proud to help Oregon continue on the path towards establishing a broad clean technology manufacturing base and a stronger state economy.”
Harris said the company has already hired about a dozen people who are prepping the facility now for the installation of manufacturing equipment, a process that will be completed in a few more months. He also said a small number of current employees in San Jose will relocate to Portland.
Once an initial production line is operating, a planned expansion, coupled with a Department of Energy loan guarantee, will include a second local manufacturing facility, Harris said. The plan is to have four production lines employing about 450 people two years from now, Harris said.
Harris said the production facilities will be similar to wafer manufacturing plants in the computer chip industry, but without the clean-room environment. He said the SoloPower international customer base includes buyers in Japan, China, South Korea and some European countries.
“We’re excited about SoloPower’s ability to bring clean tech jobs to Oregon and promote smart job-growth in the private sector, which would not have been possible without the visionary support we’ve received from the State of Oregon, the Oregon Department of Energy and the City of Portland, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy,” Harris said. “A big reason SoloPower chose to build our new manufacturing facility in Oregon was because of the highly skilled work force, and we look forward to drawing on that local talent as our facility comes online.”
Harris said the company, which is currently producing solar panels at a facility in San Jose where they are based, did a lot of research about where to locate their next plant, including looking at overseas locations. “At the end, the Portland area was very attractive,” Harris said.
“We were very happy to come up with a good package to locate here in the states” rather than moving production out of the country, Harris added.
Not surprisingly, the Portland plant will eventually feature rooftop solar panels but Harris said right now their focus was on getting the operation up and running and getting their product to customers around the world.
The solar power cells the company plans to make in Portland will have a flexible, lightweight design that requires less electrical system balancing hardware and are easier to install than traditional solar panels, SoloPower said in their press release.
Harris said the unique design of SoloPower’s thin solar cells makes it more attractive to businesses looking to turn otherwise empty rooftops into solar arrays that generate power. He said current solar panel designs are too heavy for large-scale installation on the rooftops of some large buildings.
Harris, who has been with SoloPower for two years as CEO, comes from a tech background and compared the emerging solar power industry to the evolution of another tech mainstay: computer hard drives.
He said that as solar power technology advances, the cost to make solar cells and the price for consumers will continue to drop while performance increases, making solar power an attractive alternative to current legacy power-producing technologies.
He said in some countries, solar power is already becoming a viable alternative to other sources of energy in terms of cost for the consumer.
2012年3月5日星期一
Japanese Developers Find Growing Interest in Homes With Solar Panels
When new trends in apartment living emerge, they often take hold quickly in fad-conscious Japan. That is what happened with “solar apartments,” residential buildings that have solar panels on their roofs. Now, such buildings are being aggressively promoted by some Japanese developers.
People here are enamored of new homes and apartments, and so are developers, who find them profitable — about two-thirds of houses and apartments bought and sold here are new.
Interest in solar apartments grew after the March 11 earthquake last year. The aftermath, which included a meltdown at one nuclear power plant after a tsunami struck and the shuttering of others, periodically deprived Japanese households of electricity. There were many calls for greater reliance on renewable forms of energy, including solar.
“Whenever the conditions allow, we want all our new apartments fitted with solar panels,” said Toshiya Kitagawa, executive officer at Takara Leben, a midsize apartment developer in Tokyo.
The company’s first solar apartment went on sale last June, in the city of Wako in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, and sold almost instantly, according to the company. Takara Leben — like its rivals Sankei Building and Daikyo, which have developed similar projects recently — had conceived the solar-apartment idea before the earthquake. But the disaster “gave a big boost” to sales of the 112 units, Mr. Kitagawa said. The price tags were 30 million to 38 million, or roughly $350,000 to $470,000.
The company was so happy with the results that it now has five projects in the pipeline, two to be completed this spring.
Sankei Building, another midsize developer, had also set out to build a solar apartment in 2010 in Musashino, a popular suburban residential district of Tokyo. Last June, the company announced its sales to great acclaim. “They sold out quite instantaneously,” said Yukari Sasaki, the managing officer who heads the residential development department at Sankei in Tokyo. “People’s awareness for natural energy and disaster readiness has been greatly enhanced” after the earthquake.
Each apartment’s solar system comes with control panels and a display that compares energy generation and use on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis. The apartments also have batteries that kick in when grid-supplied energy is cut in emergencies. Sankei Building has three new solar apartment buildings in the works.
There is another reason midsize developers favor solar apartments. They tend to build on the outskirts of Tokyo, while their bigger rivals, like Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate and Sumitomo Realty, have an edge in developing inner-city high rises in prime locations. But high-rises are generally unsuitable for solar apartments, because they require expansive roof space relative to the number of units.
“The building shouldn’t be taller than five to six stories,” said Ms. Sasaki of Sankei Building. “You end up with too little roof space per housing unit.”
Sankei Building and Takara Lebel assigned six solar panels to each unit. “That’s the minimum, given the need to generate enough solar power to each household,” Mr. Kitagawa said.
An expensive lot in the city center that could fit a 30- to 40-story structure is a poor choice for solar panels. Besides, “You want be clear of tall buildings in the surrounding areas, which could compromise full exposure to sun you need to have,” said Hiroshi Iwamoto, sales manager for Takaka Leben’s solar apartments in Yokohama.
According to Takara Leben, the six panels per household for most of its apartments in Tokyo and Yokohama will be enough to cut electricity bills 56 percent in a typical household of four, based on a simulation conducted by the Tokyo Electric Power. According to the company’s math, the energy bill falls to 6,150 a month on average from 14,035 — to about $75 from $170.
Hiromu Sato, 37, an owner and a resident of Takara Leben’s solar condominium in Wako, said he did not necessarily believe the electric company’s calculations when he was considering buying an apartment.
“I thought that figure was kind of hype,” he said. But he found the savings warranted the claim. “I am quite comfortable saying we are saving in excess of 10,000 a month, compared to the bill we used to pay” at the last apartment he and his wife shared, which was considerably smaller than the 70-square-meter, or 750-square-foot, unit they now own.
People here are enamored of new homes and apartments, and so are developers, who find them profitable — about two-thirds of houses and apartments bought and sold here are new.
Interest in solar apartments grew after the March 11 earthquake last year. The aftermath, which included a meltdown at one nuclear power plant after a tsunami struck and the shuttering of others, periodically deprived Japanese households of electricity. There were many calls for greater reliance on renewable forms of energy, including solar.
“Whenever the conditions allow, we want all our new apartments fitted with solar panels,” said Toshiya Kitagawa, executive officer at Takara Leben, a midsize apartment developer in Tokyo.
The company’s first solar apartment went on sale last June, in the city of Wako in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, and sold almost instantly, according to the company. Takara Leben — like its rivals Sankei Building and Daikyo, which have developed similar projects recently — had conceived the solar-apartment idea before the earthquake. But the disaster “gave a big boost” to sales of the 112 units, Mr. Kitagawa said. The price tags were 30 million to 38 million, or roughly $350,000 to $470,000.
The company was so happy with the results that it now has five projects in the pipeline, two to be completed this spring.
Sankei Building, another midsize developer, had also set out to build a solar apartment in 2010 in Musashino, a popular suburban residential district of Tokyo. Last June, the company announced its sales to great acclaim. “They sold out quite instantaneously,” said Yukari Sasaki, the managing officer who heads the residential development department at Sankei in Tokyo. “People’s awareness for natural energy and disaster readiness has been greatly enhanced” after the earthquake.
Each apartment’s solar system comes with control panels and a display that compares energy generation and use on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis. The apartments also have batteries that kick in when grid-supplied energy is cut in emergencies. Sankei Building has three new solar apartment buildings in the works.
There is another reason midsize developers favor solar apartments. They tend to build on the outskirts of Tokyo, while their bigger rivals, like Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate and Sumitomo Realty, have an edge in developing inner-city high rises in prime locations. But high-rises are generally unsuitable for solar apartments, because they require expansive roof space relative to the number of units.
“The building shouldn’t be taller than five to six stories,” said Ms. Sasaki of Sankei Building. “You end up with too little roof space per housing unit.”
Sankei Building and Takara Lebel assigned six solar panels to each unit. “That’s the minimum, given the need to generate enough solar power to each household,” Mr. Kitagawa said.
An expensive lot in the city center that could fit a 30- to 40-story structure is a poor choice for solar panels. Besides, “You want be clear of tall buildings in the surrounding areas, which could compromise full exposure to sun you need to have,” said Hiroshi Iwamoto, sales manager for Takaka Leben’s solar apartments in Yokohama.
According to Takara Leben, the six panels per household for most of its apartments in Tokyo and Yokohama will be enough to cut electricity bills 56 percent in a typical household of four, based on a simulation conducted by the Tokyo Electric Power. According to the company’s math, the energy bill falls to 6,150 a month on average from 14,035 — to about $75 from $170.
Hiromu Sato, 37, an owner and a resident of Takara Leben’s solar condominium in Wako, said he did not necessarily believe the electric company’s calculations when he was considering buying an apartment.
“I thought that figure was kind of hype,” he said. But he found the savings warranted the claim. “I am quite comfortable saying we are saving in excess of 10,000 a month, compared to the bill we used to pay” at the last apartment he and his wife shared, which was considerably smaller than the 70-square-meter, or 750-square-foot, unit they now own.
2012年3月4日星期日
Mesa considers solar incentives for homes, businesses
Mesa is preparing to bolster incentives to residents and businesses who want to cut their electric bills by installing solar panels.
The city’s current approach hasn’t made solar a popular option. Of the 15,000 customers in the Mesa-owned utility, only five homeowners have solar panels. But other homeowners are considering solar panels if the city offers the right incentives, said Frank McRae, Mesa’s energy resources director.
Now, Mesa doesn’t allow homeowners to get credit when solar panels produce more energy than a house consumes. The meter simply stops.
But the city is looking to have meters spin backward at time of excess energy production, which McRae said is an important financial consideration for those considering panels.
“There is more of an incentive for them,” McRae said.
Some homeowners have probably put off solar panel installation until the city allows them to get credit for that extra energy production, he said.
Mesa’s initial round of incentives will be small. It will offer rebates of $1,000 per kilowatt of solar production, with a limit of 5kW for a home and 10kW for a business. The program is capped at $100,000 of incentives, split evenly between businesses and homes.
The city will study the financial impact to avoid losing money if its solar customers begin producing large amounts of energy. After evaluating that, Mesa will look at the possibilities of industrial-level solar production.
“Then we’ll use that data to see how the city can invest in solar in larger scales, whether buying large power plants or put in our own facilities,” McRae said.
The solar program will include energy audits. It’s more cost-effective to address leaks or poor insulation than to install excess solar panels on an inefficient building, he said.
“We feel that’s really important when customers are contemplating solar to make sure they’ve done as much as possible to make sure they’re consuming energy as efficiently as possible,” McRae said.
The city’s current approach hasn’t made solar a popular option. Of the 15,000 customers in the Mesa-owned utility, only five homeowners have solar panels. But other homeowners are considering solar panels if the city offers the right incentives, said Frank McRae, Mesa’s energy resources director.
Now, Mesa doesn’t allow homeowners to get credit when solar panels produce more energy than a house consumes. The meter simply stops.
But the city is looking to have meters spin backward at time of excess energy production, which McRae said is an important financial consideration for those considering panels.
“There is more of an incentive for them,” McRae said.
Some homeowners have probably put off solar panel installation until the city allows them to get credit for that extra energy production, he said.
Mesa’s initial round of incentives will be small. It will offer rebates of $1,000 per kilowatt of solar production, with a limit of 5kW for a home and 10kW for a business. The program is capped at $100,000 of incentives, split evenly between businesses and homes.
The city will study the financial impact to avoid losing money if its solar customers begin producing large amounts of energy. After evaluating that, Mesa will look at the possibilities of industrial-level solar production.
“Then we’ll use that data to see how the city can invest in solar in larger scales, whether buying large power plants or put in our own facilities,” McRae said.
The solar program will include energy audits. It’s more cost-effective to address leaks or poor insulation than to install excess solar panels on an inefficient building, he said.
“We feel that’s really important when customers are contemplating solar to make sure they’ve done as much as possible to make sure they’re consuming energy as efficiently as possible,” McRae said.
2012年3月1日星期四
Obama's Green Energy Failures Continue To Abound
Another stimulus-backed solar panel maker, one the president touted in a weekly radio address, lays off most of its workers. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
President Obama is the Little Orphan Annie of presidents. He is always singing that the sun will come out tomorrow and shine on the American economy and his dreams of green energy. Yet companies such as Solyndra have proved the rule rather than the exception, producing more pink slips than green jobs as solar power and alternative energy continue to be eclipsed by advances in fossil fuel production.
The latest casualty is Abound Solar Manufacturing. The Longmont, Colo.-based recipient of a $400 million federal loan guarantee to expand solar panel production said Tuesday it is laying off 280 workers and delaying a new factory in Indiana. That amounts to a 70% reduction in its workforce.
The company says it's merely restructuring. "We are facing tough market conditions and falling prices," said Steve Abely, Abound's chief financial officer, in remarks eerily reminiscent of Solyndra's last will and financial testament.
Lost in the tap-dancing verbiage is the simple fact that solar power is not financially competitive without subsidies like Abound and Solyndra have received.
This is a far cry from the bright future painted by the president in his weekly radio address of July 3, 2010. Touting his push for a clean energy economy, Obama said Abound would "manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs" at plants in Indiana and Colorado.
Apparently Abound was not helped by last July's $9.2 million Export-Import Bank loan to support exports of thin-film solar photovoltaic modules from Abound Solar to Punj Lloyd Solar Power Ltd., a company in India building a five-megawatt solar project on a 62.5-acre site near the village of Bap.
In a January report, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News counted at least 12 clean energy companies that were having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: the junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES' subsidiary Eastern Energy and the infamous Solyndra.
President Obama is the Little Orphan Annie of presidents. He is always singing that the sun will come out tomorrow and shine on the American economy and his dreams of green energy. Yet companies such as Solyndra have proved the rule rather than the exception, producing more pink slips than green jobs as solar power and alternative energy continue to be eclipsed by advances in fossil fuel production.
The latest casualty is Abound Solar Manufacturing. The Longmont, Colo.-based recipient of a $400 million federal loan guarantee to expand solar panel production said Tuesday it is laying off 280 workers and delaying a new factory in Indiana. That amounts to a 70% reduction in its workforce.
The company says it's merely restructuring. "We are facing tough market conditions and falling prices," said Steve Abely, Abound's chief financial officer, in remarks eerily reminiscent of Solyndra's last will and financial testament.
Lost in the tap-dancing verbiage is the simple fact that solar power is not financially competitive without subsidies like Abound and Solyndra have received.
This is a far cry from the bright future painted by the president in his weekly radio address of July 3, 2010. Touting his push for a clean energy economy, Obama said Abound would "manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs" at plants in Indiana and Colorado.
Apparently Abound was not helped by last July's $9.2 million Export-Import Bank loan to support exports of thin-film solar photovoltaic modules from Abound Solar to Punj Lloyd Solar Power Ltd., a company in India building a five-megawatt solar project on a 62.5-acre site near the village of Bap.
In a January report, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News counted at least 12 clean energy companies that were having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: the junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES' subsidiary Eastern Energy and the infamous Solyndra.
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