GE to study impact of high solar energy penetration on the grid. With energy experts forecasting substantial increases in solar power in the coming decades, GE researchers are working with Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electric utility, to understand how large amounts of solar can best be integrated into today’s grid.
APS, along with four partners, including GE, recently was awarded a $3.3 million High Penetration Solar Deployment grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The comprehensive first-of-its-kind study, which was approved earlier this month by the Arizona Corporation Commission, will take place in Flagstaff, Arizona. The team will help identify methods and technologies to optimize grid reliability and efficiency with the high concentration of distributed solar generation. Specifically, O’Brien said that her team wants to understand: What are the current and new technologies that are needed to accommodate higher penetrations of solar?
According to the U.S. CPV Intelligence Brief 1 – 14 February 2012. Soitec secures South African’s largest CPV project Companies mentioned: Soitec, South Africa's Department of Energy, Solar Junction, IQE, Opel Technologies, Alpha-Omega Power Technologies, Solapoint, Semprius, and Siemens CPV Intelligence Brief 1 – 14 February 2012 Soitec secures South African’s largest CPV project Euronext-listed energy semiconductor company, Soitec, has secured financing from Investec, to build the company's planned 50-megawatt peak solar power plant in Touwsrivier, Western Cape, South Africa.
Investec has committed to finance the project and raise the equity to construct the plant, which will be equipped with Soitec's fifth-generation Concentrix CPV systems. All financial arrangements are expected to be finalized by the end of the second quarter of 2012. California could hit solar grid parity by 2015. As fossil fuels continue to rise, the cost of implementing solar technology is dropping.
That’s good news for the state of California, which aims to provide 33 % of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Guernsey report: No renewable energy until 2020s. What is behind India’s love affair with thin film? There are at least three good reasons why thin film is doing well in the Indian market.
The question for the beleaguered sector is how long these factors will continue to hold sway. In what could be thin film’s most challenging year to date it was good to see at least one manufacturer has been reporting good news. US cadmium telluride (CdTe) panel maker Abound Solar inked a deal with Solar Integration Systems India Private Limited to build a 1 MW plant in Kadiri, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with support from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).
This was not the Loveland, Colorado, company’s first foray in India. Government clarifies solar feed-in tariff rate as industry uncertainty escalates - 18 Jan 2012. The government has confirmed the current feed-in tariff rate for solar installations with less than 4kW capacity will not fall below the proposed 21p per kWh for all systems completed between the December 12 last year and March 31 this year. understands that Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) officials had signalled to industry representatives that the feed-in tariff rate for installations completed after the December 12 date proposed as the cut-off point for the previous rate of 43p per kWh would not be cut below the 21p per kWh rate set out in the government's consultation exercise.
The reassurance was significant as it meant solar firms could assume that regardless of the outcome of the current legal battle over whether the government's plan to effectively cut incentives before the end of the consultation period is illegal, the feed-in tariff rate for the current period would not fall below 21p.
Which thin film firms will come on top in 2012? Analysts are predicting a bloodbath in the thin film market as smaller companies struggle to compete with low-cost crystalline PV.
A world with just two thin-film PV companies? It may have sounded unlikely a couple of years ago given the enthusiasm and vibrancy of the nascent thin-film market. But it now seems increasingly likely if the sombre assessments of analysts consulted by PV Insider are anything to go by. With traditional PV prices going through the floor, thin film, which formerly had an advantage because of cost, is essentially redundant, and only the largest and richest companies in the sector are likely to be able to achieve the economies of scale needed to survive, experts warn. And right now there are probably only two companies that are large and rich enough to make it through thin film’s perfect storm. What is behind India’s love affair with thin film?
BBC - First UK solar power park comes to Lincolnshire. The UK's first solar park is being built near Louth.
Look North's Caroline Bilton paid a visit to Germany to see how solar power is spear heading the country's push for renewable energy. On an airfield just outside Leipzig in the former East Germany you will find relics of the communist era. Old hangers, control towers and derelict barracks, all a reminder of what once was. But you will also find one of Germany's largest solar parks: Waldpolenz. The eerie looking buildings look out over a runway filled with thousands of two metre high solar panels, like a field of plasma televisions. It is the size of 200 football pitches and when it was built in 2008 it was the world's largest producing 40 mega watts (mw) of power, enough to power 10,000 homes. But in just three years its quickly been dwarfed by others. Waldpolenz is an example of what can be achieved. Last year its solar plants produced more than 13,000mw covering the annual need of 4.3 million homes.
"There is definitely enough sun. Updated: High Court Judge rules solar consultation legally flawed - 21 Dec 2011. Obama administration approves giant renewables projects - 22 Dec 2011. 'Sunbelievable' Solar Paint Could Power Home Appliances, Scientists Say. Green homeowners may soon be able to say goodbye to unwieldy solar panels thanks to a new paint that generates electricity by harnessing energy from "power-producing nanoparticles, researchers have announced.
The paint, dubbed "Sunbelievable" by developers at the University of Notre Dame, looks no different from any other paint used to coat home exteriors and other surfaces. But when hit by light, the semiconducting particles within Sunbelievable produce small amounts of electricity that researchers hope they can magnify in great enough amounts to power home appliances, Science Daily reported. Sun-Believable Solar Paint. A Transformative One-Step Approach for Designing Nanocrystalline Solar Cells - ACS Nano. Radiation Laboratory and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States ACS Nano, 2012, 6 (1), pp 865–872 DOI: 10.1021/nn204381g Publication Date (Web): December 6, 2011 Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society † Author Status Coop Student, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Solar - A PV Management Magazine - News: PV companies lost more than 30 billion dollars in 2011. Thursday 19th January 2012 The year 2011 saw the industry’s stock-listed solar companies lose more than 30 billion dollars.
Solar - A PV Management Magazine - News: Abound Solar and Solarsis commission CdTe plant in India. Wednesday 18th January 2012 Abound Solar and Solar Integration Systems (Solarsis), a solar system integration company in India, have installed a 1MW solar photovoltaic plant in Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh, India.
The commissioning officially took place on January 14, 2012 and comes less than a year after the two companies announced a partnership targeting the fast-growing Indian solar market. Curtain falls on US loan guarantee scheme with $5bn solar blow out - 03 Oct 2011. Solar - A PV Management Magazine - News: Paint-on solar cells. Scientists say they have developed a solar paint which can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If the efficiency can be improved, they may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future Imagine if the next coat of paint you put on the outside of your home generates electricity from light- electricity that can be used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside. Solar - A PV Management Magazine - News: PV in China to reach US levels.
Falling module and balance of system (BOS) prices have significantly improved photovoltaic (PV) project internal rates of return (IRR) and led to an explosion in project development activities in China. According to the recently released Solarbuzz China Deal Tracker report, the non-residential PV project pipeline in China grew to 16 GW at the end of October. Solarbuzz has identified 1,104 non-residential projects in China that are installed, being installed, or in development. Projects in the pipeline are located in 29 Chinese provinces. Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia are the leading provinces in megawatt terms, followed by Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Tibet and Anhui. These 10 provinces represent 86% of the total pipeline. According to the report, 195 projects, with a total capacity of over 1.8 GW, will be installed within 2011. “Projects entitled to the Golden Sun and Solar Rooftop programs will enjoy the highest IRRs in Q4’11 and 1H’12,” added Lian.
Figure 1. Solar UK - News: EnergyLink seeks brighter side of FiT changes. Wednesday 9th November 2011 Proposed cuts to feed-in tariffs for Solar panels due to come into effect from December 12th, should not stop homeowners from making what remains a shrewd and eco-friendly investment, according to a leading energy efficiency company. The UK Government this week announced proposals to cut the Feed in Tariff level – the amount paid to households with Solar panels for the photovoltaic energy they generate – by around 50%. For small-scale domestic systems under 4kWp, this equates to a reduction from 43.3p per kWh to 21p per kWh. SME / Solar system is UK's largest THEBUSINESSDESK.