Department Of Energy Makes $150M Bet On US Solar Tech That Reduces Costs By 50%

On Friday, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu announced a "game changing" development in solar energy. A company called 1366 Technologies, headquartered in Lexington, Mass., has developed a silicon solar wafer that would cut the cost of solar cell manufacturing by an estimated 50 percent.

The wafer technology was developed with the support of a pilot innovation investment program housed under the Department of Energy, known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). According to director Arun Majumdar, "ARPA-E is looking for high risk ideas that, if successful, can be high impact. Those that don't exist today."

Unlike traditional wafers--which are sliced from a large block, resulting in considerable losses of material (up to 50 percent)--these new wafers are individually cast to specific measurements, a more efficient model of production.

In 2009, ARPA-E made an initial $4 million dollar investment in 1366 Technologies, and on Friday, announced it would make an additional $150 million dollar loan guarantee to take the company's research and development to the next level.

If projections regarding cost savings are accurate, solar may be on its way to becoming competitive with traditional fossil-fuels -- though some in the industry remain concerned about barriers still in place.

"There are two main areas of concern: price and value," said Brian Keane, president of Smart Power, a green energy marketing group. Keane explained that the primary "value" of solar "is that it's good for the environment. But quite frankly, no American actually thinks that's good value."

Keane says that U.S. consumers need to be convinced that solar is a viable proposition. "The perception is that solar is an idea from the 1970s that just didn’t work. They think it’s not strong enough to power their lives, compared with oil, coal and nuclear power."

Still, Keane added, "If we can cut the price [of manufacturing] in half, that really helps us with the value proposition to the American people."

Others point to concerns around the marketplace itself. Lew Milford, president of the Clean Energy Group, a non-profit advocacy group focused on energy and climate concerns, said that many new and innovative technologies fail because they never reach commercialization. Milford called this the "valley of death" that innovative tech companies must cross after their initial rounds of funding, and the hurdle that oftentimes prevents them from becoming scalable and reaching market potential.

Milford suggested that the problem of access to capital might be solved with something like the President's suggested--"Clean Energy Bank"--to finance clean energy initiatives, but acknowledged that the highly political climate surrounding budget negotiations would complicate its creation.

With ARPA-E in particular, Milford thought that a better and more robust relationship with state governments was essential for the success of the agency's investments. "In the end, I think states are a really critical backstop for all of this," he said. "State policy is increasingly going to create these markets."

While many state governors remain skeptical of climate change policy and energy reform on the whole, Milford contended that many of the same governors were nonetheless supportive of clean energy technology, given its potential to create jobs and strengthen state economies. By way of an example, Milford pointed to New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is critical of climate change concerns but remains "a strong supporter of offshore wind farms in the state."

"ARPA-E just doesn’t have the states as customers," said Milford, and it still needs to figure out "how to you commercialize the products that it is funding."

ARPA-E director Majumder insisted that the agency already has a close relationship to the states. As evidence, he pointed a program, Sunshot, that specifically addresses the question of cost competitiveness and solar technology. "We have a very close relationship with the states," he said.

Majumder said that one of his primary concerns around solar energy had to do with manufacturing: "In the mid-90s, the U.S. had 40 percent of the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells," he explained. "Now we have less than 5%. We have to regain that technology lead back -- and that will be based on innovation in the U.S."

Article by Alex Wagner, HuffingtonPost

Google Invests $280 Million in SolarCity (Video)

Google's investment in SolarCity will fund 7,000 to 9,000 home solar arrays

Google and rooftop solar power company SolarCity announced a $280 million investment deal Tuesday, the largest such deal for home-based solar power systems in the United States.

The investment will give San Mateo, Calif-based SolarCity the funding to build and lease solar power systems to a 7,000 to 9,000 homeowners in the 10 states where it operates.

Founded five years ago, SolarCity has 15,000 solar projects around the nation completed or under way. Customers who wish to have the company's solar system installed at their home can pay for it outright, but most choose instead to let SolarCity retain ownership of the equipment and rent back the use of it through monthly solar lease payments.

As SolarCity's financing partner, Google plans to recoup its investment over time through those lease payments.

"We hope to be seen as a model," said Rick Needham, Google's director of green business operations.

Needham wouldn't elaborate on the exact terms of the deal, but said "these investments are designed to earn us a good return on our capital."

Funding arrangements like this are not uncommon in the energy businesses, but they have previously been restricted mostly to utilities and a handful of banks with specialized industry knowledge.

Google's entry into this type of financing is both a sign that more companies may be interested in funding alternative energy ventures and a nod to the fast-growing market in leasing residential solar panels.

"Google is out in front on this," said Nathaniel Bullard, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "It's a sign of confidence in the space."

Google likes to experiment with clean energy investments -- witness last year's wind farm investment -- but the SolarCity deal marks its first move into the residential market. SolarCity is one of a handful of companies that lease solar panels to homeowners.

The idea behind leasing is to keep things as simple and cheap for the customer as possible.

In SolarCity's case, the customer signs a multi-year agreement with the company and begins writing a monthly check to the firm that's ideally 10% to 20% percent lower than what they were previously paying for their monthly power bill.

Click here to see video

SolarCity then handles the rest -- everything from purchasing and installing the panels to claiming the various tax credits offered by the federal, state, and sometimes even local governments.

Eliminating the often hefty upfront costs for buying a solar system, as well as handling the maintenance and tax issues, has been a boon for the industry. Nationwide, the number of homes installing solar has gone from under 10,000 annually in 2006 to nearly 50,000 in 2010, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

"The biggest constraint is financing," said SolarCity chief executive Lyndon Rive.

Generous government subsidies are the main reason the economics for solar work in the United States. Between federal, state and local incentives, up to 50% of the cost of a solar system can often be subsidized.

The government is funding this industry because it hopes that creating a market will foster technological innovation in the space, driving down the cost of solar panels to the point where they are competitive with fossil fuels.

Rive hopes more companies will follow Google's lead and use some of the trillions in cash they have stockpiled to invest in the clean-energy market.

Google may well be getting a return on its investment, but the company also sees an advantage in promoting cheap, renewable energy. Its server farms eat up massive amounts of electricity.

"Energy drives our businesses, and we want our energy to be clean," said Needham. "Over time renewable energy will be cheaper than fossil fuel. We're doing what we can to make that happen faster."

Article by Steve Hargreaves, CNN Money Tech

Nevada Could Be THE Hot Spot For Solar in US (Video)

Nevada—home of nuclear testing and 99-cent ham and eggs—could become a hot spot for conservatives and conservationists. 

CARSON CITY, Nev. --- Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and other state officials recently sat down with a few of us environmental journalists to discuss the state's green initiatives.

 

“I’ve taken it upon myself to make this a priority,” he said. “Nevada historically has been a mining and gaming and tourism state, and everyone understands we need to put another leg on the stool.”

 

He also talked about recent meetings with Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

It’s not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a sitting Republican.

But Sandoval, as well as Republican Lieutenant Governor Brian Krolicki, might represent a trend I suspect (or hope) exists beneath the radar -- namely, that the antagonism toward renewable energy on the national level maybe isn't as deep as it might look. Yes, Fred Upton might get attention by calling for a repeal the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, a bill he sponsored, but it doesn't mean that his constituents in Michigan see the new battery factories in the state as the harbinger of one-world socialism.

Environmental politics have only recently become so polarized. Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty objects to carbon legislation now, but he favored such policies back in 2008. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped steer California’s green policies. And don’t forget, cap and trade was an idea devised under George Bush I to curb acid rain.

So what might make the pendulum swing back?

1. Green = Jobs. Both Sandoval and Krolicki emphasized how green equals employment. Plus, Nevada doesn’t have a fossil fuel industry, which means a noticeable absence of coal and natural gas lobbyists.

Instead, the state is populated with contractors, who’ve been saddled with declining incomes and intermittent employment since 2008. While renewable power plants do employ people directly, most of the jobs come through construction: erecting solar fields, putting up wind farms, etc.

“There are [Native American] tribes in southern Nevada that see this as an opportunity for jobs and to diversify themselves,” said Sandoval.

More than 60 bills addressed energy in the last legislative session, noted Stacey Crowley, the state’s energy director, second only to education.

2. Resources. Most of the seventh largest state in the U.S. looks like a set from Mad Max: miles of hot, empty desert broken up by the occasional town. It’s attractive in a Jean-Paul Sartre sort of way. It’s also ideal for solar farms. SolarReserve just obtained a $737 million loan guarantee for a 110-megawatt solar thermal plant with molten salt storage near Tonopah.

3. Exports. California and its 33 percent renewable portfolio standard sits right next door. Nevada is looking at establishing three east-west transmission corridors to send power to the state. Nevada has its own RPS -- 25 percent by 2025 -- but it has more raw resources than it needs.

“They’ve got a very aggressive standard. We’ve got the supply,” he said. “It is an opportunity for a marriage between Nevada and California.”

4. Flexible attitudes. Nevada has always exhibited a somewhat skeptical view toward government. I know. I grew up there. Grocery stores used to sell handguns. Some bars haven’t been closed since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. We gave the world no-limit pai gow, drive-in marriage chapels and Area 51.

The important part, however, is that this attitude isn't fostered out of some die-hard strain of Libertarianism. Instead, it's pragmatic. Gambling became legal to help the state wiggle out from beneath the power of mining conglomerates.

Geez, people. It's not Arizona.

5. Low-Hanging Fruit. Nothing stimulates momentum for green industries more than early victories or losses. Luckily, some of the local experiments have gone quite well.

Reno, for instance, replaced the lights in its downtown arch (“The Biggest Little City in the World”) with 2,076 LEDs, according to Jason Geddes, environmental services administrator for the city. It reduced power consumption for the sign by 70 percent.

The city is now switching out street lights and pedestrian crossing signals with LEDs. Reno’s city hall reduced its own power consumption, from $4.54 a square foot to $2.54, by 45 percent with new hot water boilers and lights. OK, so ROI on the small wind turbines might take 35 years and the legislature just killed a feed-in tariff: just imagine what you can do with LEDs in slot machines.

Geothermal has been a hit, too. The 100-megawatt Galena geothermal plant outside of Reno provides 22 percent of Reno’s daytime power.

6. Size = Power. Last year, we asked Mississippi officials how they managed to convince four rising startups to open factories in its borders, particularly when the state didn’t even have a renewable portfolio standard.

Low-cost loans and fairly low labor rates turned out to be the answer. But the state also noted how it can provide personalized service because of its small size. A manufacturer wants to meet a high-ranking state official. One phone call and the meeting is set.

The same circumstances exist here. Sandoval touts the state's ability to offer “service after the sale,” i.e., ensuring that the state will smooth out potential bureaucratic nightmares.

“As governor, I’m making phone calls to CEOs,” he said. “I literally have call lists.”

Google is currently lobbying the state to let robotic cars on the road. What do you want to bet that that measure passes?

7. Housing. The state was number one in foreclosures in 2009 and 2010. Relocation will be cheap.

8. A Cluster of Expertise. Because of the state’s geology, it has emerged as one of the centers of geothermal power and research.

Interestingly, you’re also now beginning to see the formation of lateral industries. ElectraTherm, headquartered in Reno, makes low-temperature waste heat recovery devices. The company’s Green Machine absorbs heat to boil an organic refrigerant. The vapor is then exploited to turn a turbine.

Basically, it is an above-ground geothermal system, but instead of getting the heat from hot springs beneath the ground, ElectraTherm harvests heat from burning discarded wood chips or industrial equipment.  A former drag racer founded the company.

“It [heat] is huge and it is completely untapped,” said CEO John Fox. “A Caterpillar engine is 33 percent efficient, so two-thirds of the energy is lost.”

The company has shipped units to Alaska and Australia. Senators Bingaman and Murkowski are trying to get waste heat added to the list of renewables that qualify for tax incentives, he added.

Will other states and regions try to develop industries based around exploiting heat? Absolutely. Is heat going to be as big as solar? Maybe not, but there’s no denying that an island of expertise has begun to coalesce in Nevada.

Interestingly, President Obama spent Earth Day in 2011 at ElectraTherm’s headquarters.

Maybe there is something to this bipartisanship thing after all.

Flexible Solar Cells Reach Record Efficiency of 18.7%

The Previous Record was 17.6%

Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have made flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) with a light-conversion efficiency of 18.7 percent, a new world record. This milestone, about 1% higher than the previous record, might seem like a small step forward, but when looked at in the context of constant incremental improvement, it is significative. What truly matters is the rate of improvement, and how it can be leveraged (1-2% multiplied by many gigawatts of capacity makes a huge different).

The measurements have been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.

It's all about money. To make solar electricity affordable on a large scale, scientists and engineers worldwide have long been trying to develop a low-cost solar cell, which is highly efficient, easy to manufacture and has high throughput. Now a team at Empa's Laboratory for Thin Film and Photovoltaics, led by Ayodhya N. Tiwari, has made a major step forward. "The new record value for flexible CIGS solar cells of 18.7% nearly closes the "efficiency gap" to solar cells based on polycrystalline silicon (Si) wafers or CIGS thin film cells on glass," says Tiwari. He is convinced that "flexible and lightweight CIGS solar cells with efficiencies comparable to the "best-in-class" will have excellent potential to bring about a paradigm shift and to enable low-cost solar electricity in the near future."

One major advantage of flexible high-performance CIGS solar cells is the potential to lower manufacturing costs through roll-to-roll processing while at the same time offering a much higher efficiency than the ones currently on the market. What's more, such lightweight and flexible solar modules offer additional cost benefits in terms of transportation, installation, structural frames for the modules etc., i.e. they significantly reduce the so-called "balance of system" costs. Taken together, the new CIGS polymer cells exhibit numerous advantages for applications such as facades, solar farms and portable electronics. With high-performance devices now within reach, the new results suggest that monolithically-interconnected flexible CIGS solar modules with efficiencies above 16% should be achievable with the recently developed processes and concepts.

At the forefront of efficiency improvements

In recent years, thin film photovoltaic technology based on glass substrates has gained sufficient maturity towards industrial production; flexible CIGS technology is, however, still an emerging field. The recent improvements in efficiency in research labs and pilot plants -- among others by Tiwari's group, first at ETH Zurich and since a couple of years now at Empa -- are contributing to performance improvements and to overcoming manufacturability barriers.

Working closely with scientists at FLISOM, a start-up company who is scaling up and commercializing the technology, the Empa team made significant progress in low-temperature growth of CIGS layers yielding flexible CIGS cells that are ever more efficient, up from a record value of 14.1% in 2005 to the new "high score" of 18.7% for any type of flexible solar cell grown on polymer or metal foil. The latest improvements in cell efficiency were made possible through a reduction in recombination losses by improving the structural properties of the CIGS layer and the proprietary low-temperature deposition process for growing the layers as well as in situ doping with Na during the final stage. With these results, polymer films have for the first time proven to be superior to metal foils as a carrier substrate for achieving highest efficiency.

Record efficiencies of up to 17.5% on steel foils covered with impurity diffusion barriers were so far achieved with CIGS growth processes at temperatures exceeding 550°C. However, when applied to steel foil without any diffusion barrier, the proprietary low temperature CIGS deposition process developed by Empa and FLISOM for polymer films easily matched the performance achieved with high-temperature procedure, resulting in an efficiency of 17.7%. The results suggest that commonly used barrier coatings for detrimental impurities on metal foils would not be required. "Our results clearly show the advantages of the low-temperature CIGS deposition process for achieving highest efficiency flexible solar cells on polymer as well as metal foils," says Tiwari.

The projects were supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI), the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), EU Framework Programmes as well as by Swiss companies W.Blösch AG and FLISOM.

Scaling up production of flexible CIGS solar cells

The continuous improvement in energy conversion efficiencies of flexible CIGS solar cells is no small feat, says Empa Director Gian-Luca Bona. "What we see here is the result of an in-depth understanding of the material properties of layers and interfaces combined with an innovative process development in a systematic manner. Next, we need to transfer these innovations to industry for large scale production of low-cost solar modules to take off." Empa scientists are currently working together with FLISOM to further develop manufacturing processes and to scale up production.

Article courtesy of Science Daily

SEIA: “Solar is the Fastest-Growing Industry in the US”

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) hosted a press teleconference today to discuss an emerging trend in the utility-scale solar market toward diversifying solar technologies in utility-scale power plants. But the call strayed from the diversification topic and addressed some of the major issues confronting the U.S. market in 2011.

 

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Rhone Resch, President of SEIA, said that the solar industry employs 100,000 Americans and that that number could double in the next two years. Within a few years, the U.S. will be the world's largest solar market, according to SEIA.

 

1603 Tax Grant Program and Solar

Resch said that the 1603 tax grant program has filled the void in the collapse of the tax equity market and that the grant program has doubled the efficiency of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). He remarked that it is scheduled to expire despite the tax equity market not having fully recovered. (The 1603 program provides a 30 percent grant in lieu of the tax credit.)

Resch said, "We have found it to be absolutely critical in the last two years." Resch added that SEIA wants the1603 program extended through 2016 "so we have business certainty. We've found that the 1603 program is an extremely efficient policy for job creation." In the last two years, the solar industry has created 50,000 jobs, according to Resch, adding that the U.S. market will double from 1 gigawatt in 2010 to 2 gigawatts in 2011 and could possibly double again if the tax credit is extended.

This is the kind of policy that yields huge results, creates jobs and doesn't have an enormous impact on taxpayers, according to Resch.

Extension of 1603 is the number-one priority of SEIA and they are working with Republicans and Democrats on the issue. SEIA thinks it has a good chance of extending the program -- and instead of extending it for one year, the group would prefer to see "it ingrained in the tax code through 2016."  The 2012 Obama budget does have an extension of the TGP for one more year, according to Resch.

Resch added that 1603 is "simply the most important policy for continuing renewable energy growth in the U.S." The 1603 grant provision was actually passed during the Bush Administration.

It's not just large-scale solar that will feel the pain if 1603 expires. Tax equity and grants are what keeps solar residential financing companies like SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity in business. 

According to law firm K&L Gates, "The 1603 Treasury Grant Program is dead after 2011. There won't be an extension." That information was reported by Ed Gunther while attending a GABA event.

 

Pushback From the Environmental Community on the Solar "Land-Grab"

Large-scale solar farms on public lands have pitted environmentalists against solar developers, with a bit of help from media amplification. And tortoises.

Resch notes that the oil and gas industry has received 74,000 permits for drilling on public lands over the last century, while the solar industry has received nine permits to build on public lands. "There is no land grab," said Resch, adding, "The EIR [environmental impact report] to study these areas has been comprehensive."

Resch also notes that 75 percent of the U.S. public support locating solar on public land instead of using it for grazing or other uses.

 

Technological Diversification, etc.

Arizona wants to be a leader in solar. (In 2010, Arizona was the fourth largest state market for solar with 55 megawatts of solar installed.) But that is certainly set to change.

Pat Dinkel, VP of Resource Planning, Arizona Public Service spoke of the Solana solar trough plant -- an Abengoa project with a U.S. DOE loan guarantee, the $500 million, 100 megawatt Arizona Sun project and the plan for Gila Bend to be the solar capital of the world.

In addition to those large projects, APS is working on a number of projects in the 15-megawatt to 20-megawatt range using c-Si panels on trackers or CdTe on fixed mounts. 

Tom Georgis, Senior VP of SolarReserve, spoke of the Crescent Dune project (which is backed with a loan guarantee) and the Rice project (which is currently going through the loan guarantee process). Georgis restated the need for clarity and certainty around policy in order to attract project and corporate capital.

Jim Stein, VP of Government Affairs, Schott North America, does qualify as a diverse supplier, as the company manufactures PV panels as well as CSP tubes. The firm has nine manufacturing sites in the U.S. and a flagship Albuquerque solar facility employing over 300 people and looking to expand to a workforce of 1,500 in the near future.

Article by Eric Wesoff, GreenTechMedia

Water Solar Panels – Can Floating Solar Energy Farms Using CPV Succeed?

Solar Panels have grown exponentially in the last few years driven by declining costs and growing energy prices. The advent of the low cost manufacturers of silicon solar panels from China, falling raw material polysilicon costs, subsidies from governments fighting climate change have all contributed to the more than 150% increase in world solar demand in 2010.Solar Panels are not only being used on solar roofs and giant rooftop ground plants, but also are being integrated in buildings known as BIPV applications. 

Solar Panels are also available in flexible forms which can be used in backpacks and other innovative ways. Now there is another niche for solar panels that is growing. Note most of these companies are using the Concentrated Photovoltaic Technology (CPV).The traditional CPV suffers from heating problems as high concentration of sun power leads to high temperature. Building the CPV systems on water will help them solve their problems according to these companies.

Floating Solar Systems

Water Solar Panels are Solar Panels that float on water instead of being fixed on land. A number of companies are pioneering this concept of selling solar panels which can float on water bodies saving space on land.

Advantages of Floating Solar Systems

The advantages of solar panels on water are

1) They require less cooling and are more efficient

2) They save expensive real estate as they are built on industrial water bodies like waste water treatment plants, cooling facilities in factories and power plants etc.

3) The help in keeping the water safe from algae growth, evaporation by covering the surface of the water body

4) Helps in lowering the temperature of the water

5) CPV Systems can be easily be cooled. The structures according to Synergy will be lower cost as they can withstand high winds. Being built on hydro reservoirs, they can use existing grid systems as well.

Disadvantages of Solar Panels on Water

1) Increased Transmission costs as underwater cable has to be built to transmit the power to land

2) More Maintenance costs than usual

3) Specialized installation will lead to higher system costs and increased LCOE

Summary

Water Solar Panels are an interesting concept however their costs are currently much higher than normal solar panels on land. The benefits of floating solar panels do not overcome the disadvantages of higher initial systems costs and transmission cost of power. However the niche is an interesting one and the start ups have done well to pick a less crowded sector. Like Envision Solar which made solar carports a big growth story in solar panels, these companies can look to make floating solar panels a big growth area as well.

Article courtesy of GreenWorldInvestor

California: Strongest Renewable Standard Bill Sent to the Governor

California’s pioneering 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) bill, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, passed the California Assembly yesterday, sending a measure to Governor Brown’s desk - which he is expected to sign. The new standard will increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 33% by 2020.

Replacing Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive order, Simitian’s bill codifies the 33% RPS, sending a stronger message to investors about Californian’s commitment to clean tech investment. Between 2005 and 2009, California clean tech firms received $9 billion in venture capital funds. By the second quarter of 2010 alone, the state received $980 million in funds - the most in the world.

Speaking to this stunning trajectory, Simitian noted that “Senate Bill 2X sends a signal to renewable energy providers that California wants them here. He predicts that “they will respond, as they have in the past, with billions of dollars in investments that will provide jobs and tax revenues.”

This landmark legislation, which was attempted in each of the past two sessions, is a message that will hopefully reverberate nationally. While Congress continually stalls on clean energy, California is leading the way towards building a diverse, clean and resilient energy portfolio.

Source: Got2BeGreen

Google Invests $168 Million in 392MW Mojave Desert Solar Thermal Plant

 

Google is announcing a $168 million investment in Brightsource Energy's Ivanpah solar power plant in the Mojave desert in California. The solar farm will have a capacity of 392 MW. According to Google, that's the equivalent of "taking more than 90,000 cars off the road over the lifetime of the plant, projected to be more than 25 years."

Google has Invested $250 Million in Clean Energy So Far
 

The solar farm will use heliostat mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy onto a tower where the heat will generate steam that makes a turbine spin. "Power towers are very efficient because all those mirrors focus a tremendous amount of solar energy onto a small area to produce steam at high pressure and temperature (up to 1000 degrees F)."

The Ivanpah Power Tower will be approximately 450 feet tall and will use 173,000 heliostats, each with two mirrors. Construction began last fall and should end up 2013.

Part of Google's motivation is to help the solar power sector reach maturity faster (the more you build, the faster you reach economies of scale)

Google: We need smart capital to transform our energy sector and build a clean energy future. This is our largest investment to date, and we've now invested over $250 million in the clean energy sector. We're excited about Ivanpah because our investment will help deploy a compelling solar energy technology that provides reliable clean energy, with the potential to significantly reduce costs on future projects.

Article by Michael Graham Richard, TreeHugger

Solar Carports – How this Fast Growing Solar Product Works, Solar Carport Structures and Costs, Solar Panel Carport Suppliers, Largest Solar Carports, Charging Electric Vehicles

Solar Carports are a relatively new Solar Energy Product compared to other Solar Products like Solar Heaters and Solar Cooking.Solar Carports are fast catching on as their dual use of protecting,shading a car as well as providing electricity to nearby offices and buildings.It makes use of real estate that would go waste so it provides a lot of value add besides helping in protecting the environment as well.

How Solar Carports Work

Solar Carports work mostly using the same principles like a normal residential solar installation.Solar Panels are installed on the roof of the carport and then connected electrically to the power grid using an inverter.The designing,installation and power connection of the solar carport is done by most of the normal Solar EPC Contractors that work on residential and commercial rooftops.

Solar Carports Costs

If you put up Solar Panels on an existing Carport rather than buying a new structure than the cost of the Solar Carport should not be more than that of putting Solar Panels on the Roof.The Cost of Putting a Solar Panel is around $4-5/watt for small commercial installations and somewhat higher for residential installations.On the other hand buying a Solar Carport Structure with Solar Panels would be higher.Note you would get subsidies for Solar Carports just the same as for Rooftop Solar Installations and probably subsidies for Charging Stations for EVs as well.

Solar Carport Structures

Some companies also sell carports that includes the steel structure which house the vehicle.The whole carport is sold as a single piece instead of putting solar panels on the roof of an existing carport.This structures have the advantage of being customized for generating electricity.Note Solar Carports can be of different designs – a single pole with solar panels forming the roof of the solar carport or a steel structure which is customized for putting up solar panels on top

Solar Carports as Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles

Solar Carports are being increasingly being used as Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles making the Carports totally green.Note Electric Vehicles are being massively subsidized and supported by government around the world.Charging stations for Lithium,NiMH batteries are essential infrastructure for EVs and Hybrid Vehicles.These Solar Carports are ideal for use as Charging Stations as they generate Green Electricity and house Cars as well.Solar Carports and Electric Vehicles are kind of made for each other and make the Electric Car Concept totally Green. Cities such as Los Angeles are increasingly adopting this model .

To see entire article click here 

Article by GreenWorldInvestor

Solar Power Research An Energy Crisis Fix?

It’s the Holy Grail at clean energy research labs all over the world and something which could address long term energy issues domestically and beyond: more efficient photovoltaic solar. We’ve told you about scientists studying full-spectrum cells, using textured substrates, trying self-regenerating nanomaterials – we’ve even reported on an anti-reflective film inspired by a coating found in moth eyes. Now a Stanford team is claiming a breakthrough in making cheaper, more efficient panels by adding a single layer of organic molecules to solar cells.

The researchers studied this technique on a fairly new type of solar cell that uses tiny particles of semiconductors called quantum dots. Quantum dot solar cells are cheaper to produce than traditional silicon cells, but they haven’t caught on due to their relative inefficiency.

For Stacey Bent, a chemical engineering professor at Stanford, this represented something of a challenge. She knew that solar cells made of a single material have a maximum efficiency of about 31 percent, a limitation of the fixed energy level they can absorb, and that quantum dot solar cells didn’t share this limitation. “Quantum dots can be tuned to absorb a certain wavelength of light just by changing their size,” the Stanford report on her research says. “And they can be used to build more complex solar cells that have more than one size of quantum dot, allowing them to absorb multiple wavelengths of light.”

So Bent and her team coated a titanium dioxide semiconductor in their quantum dot solar cell with a very thin single layer of organic molecules. They found that just that single layer, less than a nanometer thick, was enough to triple the efficiency of the solar cells.

Even with this breakthrough, there’s still work to do: Bent said the cadmium sulfide quantum dots she’s been using aren’t ideal for solar cells, so her group plans to try other molecules for the organic layer, while also tinkering with the solar cell increase light absorption.

Her theory is, said Stanford, that once the sun’s energy creates an electron and a hole, the thin organic layer helps keep them apart, preventing them from recombining and being wasted. The group has yet to optimize the solar cells, and they have currently achieved an efficiency of, at most, 0.4 percent. But the group can tune several aspects of the cell, and once they do it is said, the threefold increase caused by the organic layer would be even more significant.
Article by Peter Danko, Earth Techling

African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power

Thanks to this solar panel, Sara Ruto no longer takes a three-hour taxi ride to a town with electricity to recharge her cellphone. 

KIPTUSURI, Kenya — For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market.  

Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from Kenya’s electric grid.

Every week, Ms. Ruto walked two miles to hire a motorcycle taxi for the three-hour ride to Mogotio, the nearest town with electricity. There, she dropped off her cellphone at a store that recharges phones for 30 cents. Yet the service was in such demand that she had to leave it behind for three full days before returning.

That wearying routine ended in February when the family sold some animals to buy a small Chinese-made solar power system for about $80. Now balanced precariously atop their tin roof, a lone solar panel provides enough electricity to charge the phone and run four bright overhead lights with switches.

“My main motivation was the phone, but this has changed so many other things,” Ms. Ruto said on a recent evening as she relaxed on a bench in the mud-walled shack she shares with her husband and six children.

As small-scale renewable energy becomes cheaper, more reliable and more efficient, it is providing the first drops of modern power to people who live far from slow-growing electricity grids and fuel pipelines in developing countries. Although dwarfed by the big renewable energy projects that many industrialized countries are embracing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, these tiny systems are playing an epic, transformative role.

Since Ms. Ruto hooked up the system, her teenagers’ grades have improved because they have light for studying. The toddlers no longer risk burns from the smoky kerosene lamp. And each month, she saves $15 in kerosene and battery costs — and the $20 she used to spend on travel.

In fact, neighbors now pay her 20 cents to charge their phones, although that business may soon evaporate: 63 families in Kiptusuri have recently installed their own solar power systems.

“You leapfrog over the need for fixed lines,” said Adam Kendall, head of the sub-Saharan Africa power practice for McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm. “Renewable energy becomes more and more important in less and less developed markets.”

The United Nations estimates that 1.5 billion people across the globe still live without electricity, including 85 percent of Kenyans, and that three billion still cook and heat with primitive fuels like wood or charcoal.

There is no reliable data on the spread of off-grid renewable energy on a small scale, in part because the projects are often installed by individuals or tiny nongovernmental organizations.

But Dana Younger, senior renewable energy adviser at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group’s private lending arm, said there was no question that the trend was accelerating. “It’s a phenomenon that’s sweeping the world; a huge number of these systems are being installed,” Mr. Younger said.

With the advent of cheap solar panels and high-efficiency LED lights, which can light a room with just 4 watts of power instead of 60, these small solar systems now deliver useful electricity at a price that even the poor can afford, he noted. “You’re seeing herders in Inner Mongolia with solar cells on top of their yurts,” Mr. Younger said.

In Africa, nascent markets for the systems have sprung up in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi and Ghana as well as in Kenya, said Francis Hillman, an energy entrepreneur who recently shifted his Eritrea-based business, Phaesun Asmara, from large solar projects financed by nongovernmental organizations to a greater emphasis on tiny rooftop systems.

In addition to these small solar projects, renewable energy technologies designed for the poor include simple subterranean biogas chambers that make fuel and electricity from the manure of a few cows, and “mini” hydroelectric dams that can harness the power of a local river for an entire village.

Yet while these off-grid systems have proved their worth, the lack of an effective distribution network or a reliable way of financing the start-up costs has prevented them from becoming more widespread.

“The big problem for us now is there is no business model yet,” said John Maina, executive coordinator of Sustainable Community Development Services, or Scode, a nongovernmental organization based in Nakuru, Kenya, that is devoted to bringing power to rural areas.

Just a few years ago, Mr. Maina said, “solar lights” were merely basic lanterns, dim and unreliable.

“Finally, these products exist, people are asking for them and are willing to pay,” he said. “But we can’t get supply.” He said small African organizations like his do not have the purchasing power or connections to place bulk orders themselves from distant manufacturers, forcing them to scramble for items each time a shipment happens to come into the country. 

Part of the problem is that the new systems buck the traditional mold, in which power is generated by a very small number of huge government-owned companies that gradually extend the grid into rural areas. Investors are reluctant to pour money into products that serve a dispersed market of poor rural consumers because they see the risk as too high.  

“There are many small islands of success, but they need to go to scale,” said Minoru Takada, chief of the United Nations Development Program’s sustainable energy program. “Off-grid is the answer for the poor. But people who control funding need to see this as a viable option.”

Even United Nations programs and United States government funds that promote climate-friendly energy in developing countries hew to large projects like giant wind farms or industrial-scale solar plants that feed into the grid. A $300 million solar project is much easier to finance and monitor than 10 million home-scale solar systems in mud huts spread across a continent.

As a result, money does not flow to the poorest areas. Of the $162 billion invested in renewable energy last year, according to the United Nations, experts estimate that $44 billion was spent in China, India and Brazil collectively, and $7.5 billion in the many poorer countries.

Only 6 to 7 percent of solar panels are manufactured to produce electricity that does not feed into the grid; that includes systems like Ms. Ruto’s and solar panels that light American parking lots and football stadiums.

Still, some new models are emerging. Husk Power Systems, a young company supported by a mix of private investment and nonprofit funds, has built 60 village power plants in rural India that make electricity from rice husks for 250 hamlets since 2007.

In Nepal and Indonesia, the United Nations Development Program has helped finance the construction of very small hydroelectric plants that have brought electricity to remote mountain communities. Morocco provides subsidized solar home systems at a cost of $100 each to remote rural areas where expanding the national grid is not cost-effective.

What has most surprised some experts in the field is the recent emergence of a true market in Africa for home-scale renewable energy and for appliances that consume less energy. As the cost of reliable equipment decreases, families have proved ever more willing to buy it by selling a goat or borrowing money from a relative overseas, for example.

The explosion of cellphone use in rural Africa has been an enormous motivating factor. Because rural regions of many African countries lack banks, the cellphone has been embraced as a tool for commercial transactions as well as personal communications, adding an incentive to electrify for the sake of recharging.

M-Pesa, Kenya’s largest mobile phone money transfer service, handles an annual cash flow equivalent to more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, most in tiny transactions that rarely exceed $20.

The cheap renewable energy systems also allow the rural poor to save money on candles, charcoal, batteries, wood and kerosene. “So there is an ability to pay and a willingness to pay,” said Mr. Younger of the International Finance Corporation.

In another Kenyan village, Lochorai, Alice Wangui, 45, and Agnes Mwaforo, 35, formerly subsistence farmers, now operate a booming business selling and installing energy-efficient wood-burning cooking stoves made of clay and metal for a cost of $5. Wearing matching bright orange tops and skirts, they walk down rutted dirt paths with cellphones ever at their ears, edging past goats and dogs to visit customers and to calm those on the waiting list.

Hunched over her new stove as she stirred a stew of potatoes and beans, Naomi Muriuki, 58, volunteered that the appliance had more than halved her use of firewood. Wood has become harder to find and expensive to buy as the government tries to limit deforestation, she added.

In Tumsifu, a slightly more prosperous village of dairy farmers, Virginia Wairimu, 35, is benefiting from an underground tank in which the manure from her three cows is converted to biogas, which is then pumped through a rubber tube to a gas burner.

“I can just get up and make breakfast," Ms. Wairimu said. The system was financed with a $400 loan from a demonstration project that has since expired.

In Kiptusuri, the Firefly LED system purchased by Ms. Ruto is this year’s must-have item. The smallest one, which costs $12, consists of a solar panel that can be placed in a window or on a roof and is connected to a desk lamp and a phone charger. Slightly larger units can run radios and black-and-white television sets.

Of course, such systems cannot compare with a grid connection in the industrialized world. A week of rain can mean no lights. And items like refrigerators need more, and more consistent, power than a panel provides.

Still, in Kenya, even grid-based electricity is intermittent and expensive: families must pay more than $350 just to have their homes hooked up.

“With this system, you get a real light for what you spend on kerosene in a few months,” said Mr. Maina, of Sustainable Community Development Services. “When you can light your home and charge your phone, that is very valuable.” 

Article by Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYTimes.com