El Niño Buffers U.S. Wind Power Dreams

Tim Maverick for Wall Street Daily:  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) made it official last week. The current El Niño is classified as a strong event. An El Niño falls into the “strong” category if weekly sea surface temperatures depart from the average by more than two degrees Celsius. In fact, this El Niño has nudged ahead of the 1997 El Niño as the strongest in the modern era! Meteorologists believe this occurrence is actually the most potent since 1948. And it’s expected to persist through winter and into spring. Every El Niño’s effects are different. At the moment, this one is having a surprisingly negative effect on the wind power industryin the United States. You see, this occurrence of El Niño has produced the weakest winds across the United States in 40 years. Forecasters say this situation will continue and may even worsen through the spring of 2016.  Cont'd...

SPI 2015: Tax credit sunset preoccupies a fast-maturing industry

By Herman K. Trabish  for UtilityDIVE:  Solar photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity is expected to reach 7.7 GW in 2015, up 24% from 2014, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. From July 2015 to December 2016, the report forecasts the U.S. solar PV marketwill add 18 GW, which is more than the cumulative capacity built by the industry up to the middle of 2014. But there are some headwinds for the sector. In a sign it has reached a level of maturity achieved recently by the wind industry, solar advocates now face an uphill political battle for the industry's most vital federal incentive The mandated term of solar's vital 30% federal investment tax credit (ITC), in place continuously since 2008, will end on December 31, 2016. Beyond that deadline, the tax credit provided at the end of a project’s first year of operation will fall to 10% for commercial investments in solar and to zero for residential solar investments. SEIA is mounting a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign to secure a five-year extension that will get the industry to 2020, when it hopes the Clean Power Plan can take over to help boost growth.  Cont'd...

Solar Surges in the Middle East and North Africa

Driving Need for Latest in Efficient Technology

Solar Power International 2015 Tradeshow Report

AltEnergyMag.com has once again partnered with SPI 2015 to bring all the industry news and exciting new products to help our readers make sense of this key industry event. Here we have compiled a list of some product releases from this years show.

Solar Power International 2015 News Report

News and Product announcements for SPI 15. You are welcome to add your company news here too.

Hawaii's Oldest Country Club Gets a New Source of Power

The one-piece FR510 requires no assembly, and its universal design allowed HEC to install two different models of PV modules, with the same simple and intuitive installation procedure.

Solar Power International 2015 underway in Anaheim, CA

This years show will place September 14 -17 in Anaheim, CA.  Over 15,000 + visitors are expected in attendance to learn about the latest technology innovations, financing models, business best practices and policy and incentive programs that are contributing to the growth of the solar industry. With over 600 exhibitors from 75 countries on display showcasing the entire system of solar technology and advances in solar cell and module technology, balance of system components, solar heating and cooling and energy storage. Check out Solar Power International Newspage for all the News and Announcements from this years show.  Also stay tuned for our SPI Tradeshow Report.  

California's First Commercial Solar Desalination Plant Offering Shares Through DPO

Derek Markham for CleanTechnica:  The company behind what will be California’s first commercial-scale solar desalination plant is issuing $10 million in preferred stock in the venture, through a state-registered direct public offering (DPO) in California. WaterFX Hydro I, Inc., doing business as HydroRevolutionâ„ , a California subsidiary of WaterFX™, is offering the shares to finance the construction of a fully solar-powered desalination plant in the Central Valley, which is expected to be able to produce up to 1.6 billion gallons (5000 acre-feet) of water per year, with virtually zero liquid discharge. The HydroRevolutionâ„ process is said to allow for a 90% recovery rate, with the remaining brine being treated further to isolate the salt and mineral byproducts for industrial applications. Instead of desalinating seawater, as many desalination operations do, this plant will pull water from shallow irrigation water (also called subsurface drainage water) which is produced as a consequence of agriculture, and which has a high salinity content that can be detrimental to freshwater ecosystems. This new plant is a scaled up and expanded version of the company’s demonstration desalination plant.   Cont'd... Full Press Release:

Solar Panels Bring Light To 'Devon Darkness' Ale

Energy monitoring helps match brewerys requirements to ideal solar system.

Five Myths About Solar Power - And The Real Facts

What we are witnessing is in reality a traditional consolidation phase in a new and fledging industry, with winners and losers, and with the surviving players facing a bright and profitable future.

Solar windows can power buildings

By Lucas Mearian for Computerworld:  Manhattan has approximately 47,000 buildings with around 10.7 million windows, according to a 2013estimate from The New York Times. Now imagine if just 1% -- or 100,700 -- of those windows could generate electricity through transparent photovoltaics. That's the idea behind solar power windows, and at least two companies are hoping to sell the technology to window manufacturers, saying once installed in a building the technology will pay for itself in about a year. "If you look at the glass that's manufactured worldwide today, 2% of it is used for solar panels; 80% of it is used in buildings. That's the opportunity," said Suvi Sharma, CEO of solar panel maker Solaria.  Cont'd...

Key Challenges Google's Project Sunroof May Face

Whether Googles Project Sunroof will be a hit or a miss, only time will tell. Nevertheless, the technology is brilliant and this move from Google could make this firm a leading one in the global solar industry.

Concentrator Photovoltaics: The Next Step Towards Better Solar Power

By Lauren J. Young for IEEE Spectrum:  Today’s concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technologies have shown promising potential for more efficient solar power. The latest systems are said to be capable of handling the power of a hundred suns. Yet prototypes have failed to compete with cheaper flat panel solar systems that dominate the market. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) is determined to push CPV to the next level. On 24 August, at the Clean Energy Summit, U.S. President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Ernest Monizannounced a program called MOSAIC that will invest $24 million into CPV solar technology development. Why can’t today’s CPV systems compete? The concentrators can only convert direct sunlight into energy, missing out on the large fraction of sunlight diffracted by clouds and the atmosphere. Manufacturing costs of concentrator apparatuses have also prevented CPV from reaching mass production.   Cont'd...

Float Zone Silicon Solar Panels - 60% less expensive and 25% more efficient

By conducting ion implantation with a particle accelerator, Rayton can produce 20 solar panels using 20x less silicon than what is typically used to create just one.

NASA Seeks Proposals for Extreme Environment Solar Arrays

NASA's space technology program is seeking proposals to develop solar array systems for space power in high radiation and low solar energy environments.  In the near future, NASA will need solar cells and arrays for multiple applications in robotic and human space exploration missions. Because these systems were traditionally developed for operation near Earth, there is a need to develop new solar array concepts as NASA considers missions that require exposure to more intense radiation environments and travel ever farther from the sun.  NASA hopes to solicit proposals for the development of promising technologies to increase solar cells that will work under low intensity, low temperature and high radiation environments. Proposals will be accepted from U.S. organizations, including NASA centers and other government agencies, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, industry and nonprofit organizations.

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