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African Development Bank sets up $500m facility for sub-Saharan small scale renewables

The African Development Bank launched a financing facility for small scale renewables in sub-Saharan Africa at the Africa Energy Forum held in Lisbon this month.

The lender said the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) is its “first blended finance facility in the energy sector dedicated to increasing access to energy through renewable energy technologies”.
 
Utility-scale PV to power green city complex in Kenya

The utility-scale solar project is one of a raft making progress in Kenya, said by IRENA to be home to 93MW in installed PV capacity last year.

Initiatives recently making headlines include Globeleq's 40MW scheme, Voltalia’s 55MW plant and the 30MW rooftop installation Rendeavour will build atop an industrial park.

The African state, heavily reliant on geothermal and hydro, is now turning to off-grid solar as it strives to reach full electrification by 2022.
 
Another indication of how far ahead China is in technology

The weekend read: Atomic layer deposition storms market for PERC

A manufacturing technique capable of depositing atomically thin layers of aluminum oxide is reshaping the market for industrial equipment to produce state of the art photovoltaic cells. Manufacturers across China are switching from plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to atomic layer deposition (ALD) as the new method of choice to deposit aluminum oxide passivation layers for PERC solar cells.
 
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World's Largest Solar Power Plant Switched On

This is a headline you may well read more than once in the coming years.

As of today, the Noor Abu Dhabi project with a total capacity of 1,177MW is the largest operational single site solar project in the world

Records in the solar industry have a habit of falling fast. With a 2GW project put out to tender by EWEC earlier this year, this one might not be moving very far at all.

A framework agreement is in place for 2.6GW of solar power in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. With financial stability, growing demand for electricity, lots of space and even more sunshine, the Arabian Gulf may well hold onto this record for a while
 
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I wonder if this directly displaces production from crude or diesel?
A framework agreement is in place for 2.6GW of solar power in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Don't hold your breath. The Saudis have been "planning" massive solar farms for about 8 years. Somehow 2-3 years magically never comes.

Every solar panel in the Saudi dessert does definitely negate production from oil. We can't have that!
 
I wonder if this directly displaces production from crude or diesel?

Don't hold your breath. The Saudis have been "planning" massive solar farms for about 8 years. Somehow 2-3 years magically never comes.

Every solar panel in the Saudi dessert does definitely negate production from oil. We can't have that!
The petroleum producing countries interest in PV or other clean energy production has nothing to do with, and will not lead to, carbon emissions reduction. They simply want to export the production rather than consume it locally for greater profit.
 
I wonder if this directly displaces production from crude or diesel?

Don't hold your breath. The Saudis have been "planning" massive solar farms for about 8 years. Somehow 2-3 years magically never comes.

Every solar panel in the Saudi dessert does definitely negate production from oil. We can't have that!
Since this plant is switched on... I would say that it is a reality.
I think the oil rich kingdoms are wisely choosing to sell their oil on the market rather than just burn it at home. Even they realize that solar is cheaper than oil.
 
The Mecca(Saudi) plant isn't turned on, they simply have an mou in place and are still twiddling their thumbs.

SA burns nearly a million barrels of oil a day in summer to run air conditioning. You think they want that 1M barrels back in the mix just to save a few dollars? That's not how they operate.

As I've been saying for 12 years....wake me up when any of these Saudi solar projects actually break ground.

Failure of ‘World’s Biggest Solar Project’ in Saudi Arabia Is No Surprise
 
Vietnam solar.....

Vietnam overtakes Australia for commissioned utility scale solar following June FIT rush

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Experiments show dramatic increase in solar cell output

, researchers have demonstrated a method for getting high-energy photons striking silicon to kick out two electrons instead of one, opening the door for a new kind of solar cell with greater efficiency than was thought possible.

The key to splitting the energy of one photon into two electrons lies in a class of materials that possess “excited states” called excitons,

What that work showed, Van Voorhis says, is that the key to these energy transfers lies in the very surface of the material, not in its bulk. “So it was clear that the surface chemistry on silicon was going to be important

The researchers have measured one special property of hafnium oxynitride that helps it transfer the excitonic energy. “We know that hafnium oxynitride generates additional charge at the interface, which reduces losses by a process called electric field passivation. If we can establish better control over this phenomenon, efficiencies may climb even higher.” Einzinger says. So far, no other material they’ve tested can match its properties.
 
I have this recurring thought (vision ?) of practically every glass in the world containing PV.

Including my crystal ball, naturally.
My 6 year old granddaughter was here for lunch yesterday. She asked about our solar panels. I explained we get our electricity from them instead of fossil fuels (digression to explain about fossil fuels).
The future is here now. It's just not evenly distributed.
 
Experiments show dramatic increase in solar cell output

, researchers have demonstrated a method for getting high-energy photons striking silicon to kick out two electrons instead of one, opening the door for a new kind of solar cell with greater efficiency than was thought possible.

The key to splitting the energy of one photon into two electrons lies in a class of materials that possess “excited states” called excitons,

What that work showed, Van Voorhis says, is that the key to these energy transfers lies in the very surface of the material, not in its bulk. “So it was clear that the surface chemistry on silicon was going to be important

The researchers have measured one special property of hafnium oxynitride that helps it transfer the excitonic energy. “We know that hafnium oxynitride generates additional charge at the interface, which reduces losses by a process called electric field passivation. If we can establish better control over this phenomenon, efficiencies may climb even higher.” Einzinger says. So far, no other material they’ve tested can match its properties.

Thankfully it doesn't seem to require a lot of hafnium:

The key was in a thin intermediate layer. “It turns out this tiny, tiny strip of material at the interface between these two systems [the silicon solar cell and the tetracene layer with its excitonic properties] ended up defining everything. It’s why other researchers couldn’t get this process to work, and why we finally did.” It was Einzinger “who finally cracked that nut,” he says, by using a layer of a material called hafnium oxynitride.

The layer is only a few atoms thick, or just 8 angstroms (ten-billionths of a meter), but it acted as a “nice bridge” for the excited states, Baldo says. That finally made it possible for the single high-energy photons to trigger the release of two electrons inside the silicon cell. That produces a doubling of the amount of energy produced by a given amount of sunlight in the blue and green part of the spectrum. Overall, that could produce an increase in the power produced by the solar cell — from a theoretical maximum of 29.1 percent, up to a maximum of about 35 percent.​

Now if you could double this up with a perovskite layer, and manufacture the whole thing cheaply....
 
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BP solar firm blazes ahead in search for UK's shiniest grass

BP solar firm blazes ahead in search for UK's shiniest grass

BP’s solar subsidiary is on the hunt for Britain’s shiniest grass to help make the most of new double-sided solar panels that can harness light reflected off the ground.

Lightsource BP hopes the “bi-facial” solar panels will boost the amount of renewable energy generated at its solar farms and could make them more economic in gloomier parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland.
 
‘Large scale solar offers grid parity in Sweden’

“Ground-mounted solar parks from 10 MW and upwards can now hit grid parity in Sweden,” Eneo chief executive Harald Överholm told pv magazine. “The kilowatt-hour prices we can offer under long PPAs [power purchase agreements] are attractive to commercial and industrial customers – [they offer] parity today and a long-term lock-in effect that promises more savings going forward.”
 
Device could bring both solar power and clean water to millions

Device could bring both solar power and clean water to millions

A device that can produce electricity from sunlight while simultaneously purifying water has been produced by researchers, an invention they say could solve two problems in one stroke.

On the top is a horizontal commercial silicon solar cell and beneath this are several tiers through which saline, brackish or contaminated surface water is run. Waste heat from the solar cell warms the saline water passing immediately beneath it – the water evaporates, passes through a membrane and condenses to yield clean water, releasing heat in the process that warms the saline water in the tier below that – the process is then repeated for the next tier. The purified water flows out of the device and is collected.

With solar farms often located in arid regions, the device could provide clean water where it is needed most. What is more, the team say it could be used in a backyard or on an industrial scale.

Simultaneous production of fresh water and electricity via multistage solar photovoltaic membrane distillation