Solar happenings

[dpeilow]

Solar Roadways get prototype funding from DOT — Autoblog Green

Now they just need to include induction loops...

 

[dpeilow]

Spectrolab achieves 41.6% PV efficiency

 

[vfx]

More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price

For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray.

40%?!? Really?

That must be for old technology sitting on the shelves. No 41.6 efficiency panels there.

With 40% off and 30% from the feds and Solar companies doing loan programs, why am I still not hooked up?

 

[johnr]

^ Yup, that's right. When the silison shortage occurred a couple years back the solar companies invested in supply contracts and equipment to boost production. All would have been well except the global economy slumped leading to lower than expected demand. Also several new Chinese manufacturers have recently entered the market, increasing competition. Now the manufacturers are faced with an oversupply which has led to a rapid fall in prices.

With 40% off and 30% from the feds and Solar companies doing loan programs, why am I still not hooked up?

^ Beats me ... why not get hooked up - now is the time! :biggrin:

 

[shark2k]

We finally got our solar system up and running on August 27 and have made a total of 220 kWh since. It's fun watching the monitor and seeing how much energy we are generating at a given point in time. Though, it did take a little over a month to get them turned on because of PSE&G taking forever to come out and put the Net Metering Meter in, so we missed the last full month of summer and would have a lot more energy created. But we are happy that we at least finally got them up and running. Now we are just looking forward to getting our first electric bill after having them working and seeing how much we saved .

-Shark2k

 

[graham]

Congrats, Shark2k! Long time coming!

I know you will love having it.

 

[vfx]

And I thought Oil was political...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/business/energy-environment/25solar.html?_r=2&ref=business

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

Jennifer Schwab: Made in Japan, Made in China, Made in Korea -- Is Solar the Car Industry's Act Two?

It seems that the Chinese government is subsidizing its leading producers of photovoltaic solar panels so they can sell here for less than American-made panels.

How can we stop the Chinese government from helping its solar industry lower prices? Do we really want to? Ultimately, isn’t this good for American consumers because it will make solar panels more affordable? Isn’t it good for the environment because it will enable more homeowners to install solar systems?

The answer is yes -- and no.

 

[Serge]

More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price


40%?!? Really?

Phenomenon was partly covered in this thread. To keep that one on topic, the nice graph moves here:

Numerically, the price (of panels) per Watt in $s is:
Sep 08: 4.85
Sep 09: 4.39, which is a 9.5% drop. Not sure how they came to that 40% figure.

 

[TEG]

Google plans new mirror for cheaper solar power by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

 

[flabby]

News from NanoSolar

News from Nano Solar:

This week we announced the following news:


- Completion and inauguration of our solar panel factory

- Commencement of serial production in our cell and panel factories

- Launch of our Nanosolar Utility Panel product

Please see our new website for details: http://www.nanosola r.com

Contractors and builders interested in beta testing and/or installing a Nanosolar home product, please register here: http://www.nanosola r.com/homes

Thank you! -- The Nanosolar Team

 

[vfx]

Dow has new Solar shingles.
On Rooftops, A Newly Attractive Form of Solar Power | BNET Energy Blog | BNET

 

[TEG]

The pic VFX posted is of Dow's 'competition'.

...And there should be some stimulating competition within the solar shingle market. Another company, SRS Energy, has a curved shingle it calls the Solé Power Tile. I’m used to seeing Spanish-style tiles in red hues, but there is something uniquely attractive about them solar-panel blue. Here’s one view (much more at Inhabitat)...

 

[johnr]

PDF document from the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) listing large scale solar projects nationwide.

http://www.seia.org/galleries/pdf/Major Solar Projects.pdf

As of Sept. 24, 2009...

Total Output From Projects in Operation: 459 MW
Total Output From Projects Under Development: 11,945 MW

Largest Project in Operation: 80 MW
Largest Project Under Development: 1,200 MW

Total Number of Projects in Operation: 16 Projects
Total Number of Projects Under Development: 72 Projects

Average Size of Each Project in Operation: 28.7 MW
Average Size of Each Project Under Development: 165.9 MW​

Even if only a small percentage of the projects under development succeed, the growth rate is mind-boggling!

 

[AntronX]

Even if only a small percentage of the projects under development succeed, the growth rate is mind-boggling!

Yes! Utility scale solar is finally taken seriously. I am mapping all of those solar plants listed in Google Earth. So far I have 16 locations (3,701 MW) mapped and their proposed land area. It's amazing to zoom out and see how relatively little land they use. I will post places file here later.

 

[Serge]

Sharp Develops Solar Cell with Conversion Efficiency of 35.8%

Sharp Develops Solar Cell with World's Highest Conversion Efficiency of 35.8%

Sharp Corporation has achieved the world's highest solar cell conversion efficiency (for non-concentrator solar cells) of 35.8% using a triple-junction compound solar cell.

Unlike silicon-based solar cells, the most common type of solar cell in use today, the compound solar cell utilizes photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements such as indium and gallium.

Due to their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells are used mainly on space satellites. Since 2000, Sharp has been advancing research and development on a triple-junction compound solar cell that achieves high conversion efficiency by stacking three photo-absorption layers.

Solar panel efficiencies are starting to approach those of industrial power plants, except you can put these on your roof and fuel is "free." Very exciting ...

 

[doug]

Solar panel efficiencies are starting to approach those of industrial power plants, except you can put these on your roof and fuel is "free." Very exciting ...

A nice thought. Of course that isn't a useful efficiency comparison precisely because the "fuel" is free. For terrestrial applications, what really matters is the lifetime cost per kWh produced. That's what drives the market. (If solar ever got as cheap as coal, things would really get exciting.)
A more detailed comparison would include the energy used and pollutants emitted to manufacture and dispose of the panels. Silicon is popular because it's cheap and non toxic (though the processing of it can use toxic materials).

Of course for space applications energy efficiency (per unit mass, volume, and area) is key, and cost (compared to the total cost of the mission) and toxicity (not much survives reentry) are less of an issue.

From the article:

Conventionally, Ge (germanium) is used as the bottom layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, in terms of performance, although Ge generates a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. The key to solving this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, the process to make high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity was difficult.

The issue they're talking about is that Germanium (and Silicon for that matter, also a group IV semiconductor) has an indirect band gap. That means for photon-electron interaction, you also need phonons (quantized lattice vibrations). (This is why it's so hard to make efficient silicon LEDs.) Where as GaAs (and III-V materials based on it like InGaAs) have a direct band gap. This means less energy has to be lost to phonons, making the device more efficient.

Sharp has now succeeded in forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its proprietary technology for forming layers.

I wonder what that "proprietary technology" is. InGaAs is a very important material in photonics since you can tune the bandgap by adjusting how much Indium is replacing Gallium in the III-V crystal. Typically it has to be grown via MBE.

By the way, GaAs (and InGaAs) is quite toxic. Particularly because of the Arsenic. Whenever I need to cleave a sample, I do it inside a clean room, in a fume hood, with a mask and goggles on. Cleaving always sends a some free particles up in the air. The danger is ingestion. Goggles are important because if some gets in your eyes it eventually ends up down your throat.

 

[TEG]

...Due to their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells are used mainly on space satellites. Since 2000, Sharp has been advancing research and development on a triple-junction compound solar cell that achieves high conversion efficiency by stacking three photo-absorption layers...

My understanding is that the "triple-junction" panels are much more expensive (per kW) than the typical ~18% efficient silicon or thin film panels. If you have the roof space it is likely much more cost effective to use more of the lower efficiency panels.

 

[Serge]

Numerically, the price (of panels) per Watt in $s is:
Sep 08: 4.85
Sep 09: 4.39, which is a 9.5% drop. Not sure how they came to that 40% figure.

A comprehensive study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that average installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems declined by more than 30% from 1998 to 2008.

An interesting observation:

Installed costs were also found to vary widely across states. Among systems completed in 2008 and less than 10 kW in size, average costs range from a low of $7.30/W in Arizona, followed by California, which had average installed costs of $8.20/W, to a high of $9.90/W in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The study also found that the new construction market offers cost advantages for residential PV systems. Among small residential PV systems in California completed in 2008, those systems installed in residential new construction cost $0.80/W less than comparably-sized systems installed in rooftop retrofit applications.

 

[vfx]

Thought this was the most beautiful piece of Solar engineering to date

P4PEnergy's TenSol Projects

Was at the parking lot and photos do not do it justice.

 

[shark2k]

VFX: Do they have charging stations at that parking lot to allow EV owners to take advantage of the clean energy if they need to charge their car? Dell's HQ's in Texas partnered with Envision to put 512 solar panels over their parking lot, which gives enough shade for 56 cars and produces a nice amount of power also. Charging stations are also supposedly going to be going up so that people with EV's can charge with clean energy.

You can read a little more here and watch a video also: Dell and Envision Solar refashion parking lot into clean energy farm, EV recharge station (video)

I personally think it is a good idea because parking lots (like someone mentioned in the comments section) are really wasted space. On top of that, it is nice to get into a car that was sitting in shade as opposed to direct sunlight.

Edit: I just realized "512" solar panels, that is a common computer number, 128, 256, 512, 1024. They probably did that on purpose, those geeks lol.

Edit2: Just checked out Envisions website and according to their information they said they utilized 516 BP Solar photovoltaic modules and it is a 110.62 kW system that produces approximately 131,000 kilowatt hours annualy.

http://envisionsolar.com/project-portfolio/parksolar/

-Shark2k