Solar grid parity 101—and why you should care. This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Solar grid parity is considered the tipping point for solar power, when installing solar power will cost less than buying electricity from the grid. It’s also a tipping point for the electricity system, when millions of Americans can choose energy production and self-reliance over dependence on their electric utility.
But this simple concept conceals a great deal of complexity. And given the stakes of solar grid parity, it’s worth exploring the details. The cost of solar For starters, what’s the right metric for the cost of solar? The installed cost for residential solar ($6.40 in 2011), or commercial solar ($5.20), or utility-scale solar ($3.75)? Enter “levelized cost,” or the cost of a solar PV array averaged over a number of years of production. But people usually borrow money, and pay interest, to install solar power.
Click for a larger version. BRITISH TEAM DEVELOPS THIN SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAICS. The way that solar technology is advancing these days can only be described as truly exciting. The latest report: a team of British researchers from Durham University have developed light absorbing materials for use in the production of super-thin layer photovoltaics. These thin cells could be installed on homes or even moving cars, and could be significantly less expensive than their thicker counterparts. The research team is being led by Ken Durose, from the Durham Centre for Renewable Energy. Why do we need thin layer photovoltaics? The more common thicker photovoltaics contain iridium and other rare and expensive materials.
Thus, by creating thinner PVs, the cost of these panels will be reduced. Ideally, if the project pans out, these panels will be installed on homes to fulfill their power requirements and give back any excess power to the grid. +‘Thin-layer’ solar cells may bring cheaper ‘green’ power @ Durham University + Ascent super-thin solar technology. AquaSun Floating Solar Panels To Be Deployed In France. Solar panels take up a lot of space, but Israeli company Solaris Synergy (working with French EDF Group) have found a solution: placing floating solar panels on inland bodies of water. The project, called AquaSun, would not only see the panels placed on lakes and reservoirs, but the panles would use the water as a cooling system. AquaSun’s panels are made from silicon cells, which may be cheap but are also prone to inefficiency caused by overheating.
However by installing them on bodies of water, this mitigates the problem. The floating panels, which would generate 200kw of clean energy, would also be adaptable to a region’s energy requirements with panels being added and removed when needed. Now we know what you’re thinking: what effect would the solar panels on the ecosystems within lakes and other bodies of water? A prototype has been designed and is set to be presented at the 4th International Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference in Israel. . + Solaris Synergy via Gizmag.
Solar goes Hyper in the U.S. As the U.S. government continues to heap billions in subsidies to the world's wealthiest coal and oil companies, the solar industry has been struggling to make it in the United States. This is sad for many reasons, not the least of which is that we're missing out on one of the biggest growth industries in the world. Currently there are 16 gigawatts of installed solar power globally. That number will grow to about 1,800 gigawatts in the next 20 years, making it one of the best job creators. U.S. engineers invented the solar panel, and the U.S. should be dominating that market. Instead, foreign manufacturers (particularly in China) have taken our IP and run with it, as we become increasingly dependent on foreign oil and dirty coal operations to meet our power needs. Fortunately HyperSolar, a new U.S. company, offers a ray of sunny hope on the clean energy frontier.
The company does not manufacture solar panels. Innovations like this make several recent reports ring true. Scientists Develop Affordable Solar Panels That Work In The Dark. It's about damn time, don't you think? Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced Wednesday that they have been able to confirm a new high-efficiency solar cell design that utilizes nearly the entire solar spectrum.
Translation: They figured out a way to make solar panels generate electricity in the dark. CleanTechnica says , In earlier trials, the researchers used different alloys that achieved full spectrum responses but involved very high production costs. The advantage of gallium arsenide nitride is that it is very similar to a conventional semiconductor, gallium arsenide, and it can be produced with a commonly used fabrication method involving chemical vapor deposition. The Lawrence Berkeley breakthrough represents just one path to increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of solar cells.
In the meantime, you could just turn any metal surface into solar panels with photovoltaic spray paint . [Photo: Norby /Flickr] NextGen Announces Cheap Solar Paint on the Horizon. NextGen Solar has announced that their new breed of cheap solar paint is closer than ever now that the company has raised half of the $1 million it needs to move out of the lab and into the real world. The company’s solar paint is expected to provide up to 40% efficiency at a third of the cost of traditional photovoltaic panels. That’s partially because the paint captures more wavelengths of light than traditional cells.
The material, which forms small connected solar cells as it dries, can be applied to nearly any surface–windows, walls, roofs, and more. Plenty of organizations are working on solar paint and spray-on solar cells — the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the University of Texas, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, to name a few. However NextGen‘s secret weapon is Len Batterson, a tech investor who has backed successful startups for 27 years. That’s a big “if”, of course — the solar paint has yet to prove itself in a commercial setting. . + NextGen. New Black Silicon Solar Cells are Cheap and Absorb More Sun.
While the reflective and shiny solar panels that researchers have been making thus far look pretty, they’re no match for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) recently discovered black silicon solar cell. The scientists at NREL discovered that etching thousands of tiny holes into a silicon wafer causes it to be almost black and thus able to absorb almost all of the sun’s rays, and more absorbent solar cells mean more efficient panels. We recently reported on researchers that are using off the shelf dyes to help solar cells absorb a wider range of light but this experiment goes even further. No color can stand up to black when it comes to absorbing . Black doesn’t bounce anything back – it hoards all photons for itself. The researchers got the idea from a team in Munich that had carefully placed a thin layer of gold and some fancy chemicals on their silicon to turn it black. Via Physorg. ‘Thin-layer’ solar cells may bring cheaper ‘green’ power.
(23 August 2007) Scientists are harnessing the sun’s rays to create cheaper green energy. The experts at Durham University are developing light-absorbing materials for use in the production of thin-layer solar photovoltaic (PV) cells which are used to convert light energy into electricity. The four-year project involves experiments on a range of different materials that would be less expensive and more sustainable to use in the manufacturing of solar panels.
Thicker silicon-based cells and compounds containing indium, a rare and expensive metal, are more commonly used to make solar panels today. The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) SUPERGEN Initiative, focuses on developing thin-layer PV cells using materials such as copper indium diselenide and cadmium telluride. Right now the project is entering a new phase for the development of cheaper and more sustainable variants of these materials. BREAKING: Solar Power Breakthrough Could Render Photovoltaic Cells Obsolete. Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a discovery about the behavior of light that could change solar technology forever. Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics and William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics, discovered that light, when traveling at the right intensity through a material such as glass that does not conduct electricity, can create magnetic fields that are 100 million times stronger than previously thought possible.
In these conditions, the resulting magnetic field is strong enough to rival a strong electric effect. The result is an “optical battery, which could lead to “a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation”, according to Rand. Rand revealed the research in a paper published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Via PhysOrg. Australian Scientists Develop World’s Most Efficient Solar Cell. The race for the world’s most efficient solar power cell is forever played out in fractions of percentages. The latest victory comes from scientists at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who have concocted a multi-cell combination that converts 43% of sunlight into electricity, besting the previous record of 42.7%! So how did the team break the record? By using a special silicon cell optimized to harness light at the red and near-infrared end of the light spectrum. When the silicon cell was combined with four other cells made from gallium, indium, phosphorous and arsenic, the scientists were able to reach the magic 43% mark.
The same UNSW scientific team has had success before — last year, they broke the record for the world’s most efficient silicon solar cell, achieving 25% efficiency. There are still some kinks to work out before the UNSW multi-cell combo is ready for everyday use. Via Discovery News. Prank call proves billionaire David Koch owns Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP.
Help.