Year in Review: Solar industry puts Oregon at center of escalating trade dispute with China View full sizeMotoya Nakamura/The OregonianREC Solar employees install solar panels at Gladstone High School. Plunging solar-panel prices and declining European subsidies are squeezing companies including SolarWorld, a German business that employs 1,000 in Hillsboro. Storms hit Oregon's fast-growing solar sector in 2011 as the state emerged at the center of an escalating international trade dispute rocking the renewable energy industry. State economic development officials had high hopes that solar manufacturing would succeed the semiconductor industry as a big employer, given that the two sectors use similar raw materials and worker skills. But by year's end the picture appeared decidedly cloudy. The U.S. subsidiary of SolarWorld AG, a German company employing 1,000 in Hillsboro to make solar cells and panels, filed a trade complaint Oct. 19 against China. The companies contend China aims to drive manufacturers out of business and corner the U.S. market. The U.S. -- Richard Read
NRG Installs Privately Funded Electric Car Charging Network in Oily Houston The U.S. electric car industry is getting a jolt: NRG Energy, Inc. is bringing the nation’s first privately funded electric vehicle charging network to Houston. The New Jersey-based company announced this morning the launch of eVgo, its electric car charging infrastructure and at-home chargers. Though other companies have plans for charging networks in D.C., Phoenix, and other cities, NRG’s is the first that’s entirely privately funded, according to the company. The charging network is an effort to break what NRG CEO David Crane calls the "chicken and egg cycle around electric vehicles." To let drivers stop worrying which will come first, the electric car or the electric car infrastructure, NRG is taking the first step and investing $10 million into Houston's public system. The chargers, made by energy- and defense-company Aerovironment, will also be available in home garages for monthly fees and a three-year contract.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Top 10 Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S. Triple Pundit.com June 14th, 2011 Credit: Digon3/WikiMedia By Boyd Cohen, Ph.D., CO2 IMPACT Cities are now home to a majority of the world’s population and are on the front line in the battle against climate change. I felt that it was time to do some analysis on U.S. The Top 10 Metropolitan Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S. are: 10.) My recent rankings of low-carbon politicians was in part a tribute to the recently retired former mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley. 9.) (San Jose’s Green Vision Progress) 7.) 7.) 6.) 5.) 4.) 3.) 2.) 1.) Here are the breakdowns of the ratings on each category for the top 10 cities. In a previous post I highlighted some of the politically elected leaders, conservative and liberal, who have been taking bold measures to transition their countries and communities towards a low-carbon future. Just last week, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) announced the launch of its CDP for Cities Program. [Source: Triple Pundit] (+4 rating) Loading ... You might also enjoy:
Wallace Energy Systems & Renewables Facility :: Oregon State University, College of Engineering In 2007/2008, OSU, in collaboration with Columbia Power Technologies (CPT) and the U.S. Navy, evaluated 18 different direct-drive technologies, and down-selected to five promising designs. OSU and CPT built each of those prototypes at the 200W peak level and tested them on OSU's new wave energy linear test bed.
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]
Magenn Power Inc. Photovoltaic Research Center This graphic shows color-coded simulation results from advanced computational models used to characterize the properties of materials used in organic photovoltaic solar cells in efforts to better understand the physics involved and to improve the technology. The new Network for Photovoltaic Technology research center led by Purdue University and funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, aims to develop such computational capabilities for broad range of PV technologies for higher efficiency and reduced manufacture cost. (B. Download image WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will lead a new research center to improve photovoltaic solar cells as part of a national effort to bring alternative energy technologies to the marketplace. The work is funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, a university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies. "We want to do the same thing for photovoltaics," Lundstrom said.