GE Stalls Solar Factory Construction
Add another solar factory to the list of closures and delays that have been plaguing the industry. Solar startups, including Solyndra and Abound Solar, a recipient of government funds that declared bankruptcy last week, have been failing left and right in the face of low solar panel prices. Now GE has reportedly stopped work on its planned 400-megawatt solar panel factory in Colorado. It says it needs to improve the power output of its technology if it’s to compete.
It was thought that a company like GE, with its deep pockets, might be able to scale up production to the point that its thin-film solar panels could compete with silicon. The reports throw this into doubt. It might be that both low cost and at least comparable efficiency levels are needed to compete.
U.S. small wind power market shrinks, manufacturing grows with exports
In the U.S., more than 19 MW of small wind energy systems were installed, with revenues totaling $115 million. More than 7,300 small wind turbines were installed in the U.S. in 2011.
While the U.S. small wind turbine market decreased 26 percent in 2011, exports drove a 13.4 percent increase in U.S. manufacturer sales, according to AWEA’s 2011 Small Wind Turbine Market Report, which was released in full this week. A fact sheet on the report’s results was released in the spring, and now the full report is available online.
In the U.S., more than 19 MW of small wind systems were installed, with revenues totaling $115 million. More than 7,300 small wind turbines were installed in the U.S. in 2011 for the sixth consecutive year (for comparison purposes, almost twice the number of utility-scale turbines installed). More than 150,000 total small wind turbines have been installed cumulatively in the last decade, and in 2011, cumulative installed U.S. capacity increased to 198 MW.
Four U.S. manufacturers reported annual sales greater than 1 MW, and 27 manufacturers with a U.S. presence reported sales of 60 turbine models. While domestic sales by U.S. manufacturers accounted for an 80 percent share of the U.S. market by capacity and 90 percent of turbines sold, 54 percent of U.S. manufacturers’ output went to foreign markets—a major increase from 2010.
Deal Reached on German Feed-in Tariff
The country has agreed to cap solar power installations at 52 GW.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government won agreement on cuts to solar-power subsidies and plans to store greenhouse gases underground, breaking a deadlock that threatened to hold up the country's energy transition.
Under the deal reached with Germany’s 16 states in a panel of arbitration, the government will maintain a solar “growth corridor” of 2,500-3,500 megawatts a year, Environment Minister Peter Altmaier told reporters in Berlin late yesterday. There will be a cap on subsidies at 52 gigawatts (GW), at which point a new formula will be found, he said.
A new category will subsidize mid-size roof systems of 10- 40 kilowatts at 18.5 euro cents ($0.23) per kilowatt/hour, higher than planned, the upper house of parliament, where the states are represented, said in a separate statement after the panel met. Otherwise, new installations will be subject to subsidy cuts from April 1 as envisaged, it said.
First Solar installs 10 millionth PV module
First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced its EPC team has installed its 10 millionth solar photovoltaic (PV) module in a utility-scale solar power project.
The installation took place at the 550 megawattAC (MW) Desert Sunlight Solar Farm solar project that the company is constructing for NextEra Energy Resources and GE Energy Financial Services. First Solar is the largest PV solar power plant construction firm, and was recently recognized by Engineering News-Record as the fifth largest construction firm in the power sector.
“Today’s milestone underscores First Solar’s leadership in delivering integrated PV solar power plants, and it’s only just the beginning”
The Desert Sunlight project is part of First Solar’s 2.7 gigawattAC (GW) utility-scale solar project pipeline in North America, which will support 7,000 supply chain and construction jobs over the next several years.
All-carbon solar cell harnesses infrared light
New type of photovoltaic device harnesses heat radiation that most solar cells ignore.
About 40 percent of the solar energy reaching Earth’s surface lies in the near-infrared region of the spectrum — energy that conventional silicon-based solar cells are unable to harness. But a new kind of all-carbon solar cell developed by MIT researchers could tap into that unused energy, opening up the possibility of combination solar cells — incorporating both traditional silicon-based cells and the new all-carbon cells — that could make use of almost the entire range of sunlight’s energy.
The new cell is made of two exotic forms of carbon: carbon nanotubes and C60, otherwise known as buckyballs. “This is the first all-carbon photovoltaic cell,” Strano says — a feat made possible by new developments in the large-scale production of purified carbon nanotubes. “It has only been within the last few years or so that it has been possible to hand someone a vial of just one type of carbon nanotube,” he says. In order for the new solar cells to work, the nanotubes have to be very pure, and of a uniform type: single-walled, and all of just one of nanotubes’ two possible symmetrical configurations.
On the Longest Day of the Year, Celebrate Solar Power!
The past few years have ushered in an unprecedented, unforeseen, and largely unheralded solar energy revolution. As recently as 2005, global installed solar power capacity stood at 4.5 gigawatts (GW). Today, the figure exceeds 65 GW, which is equivalent to the capacity of about 130 average-sized coal-fired power plants.
To put recent growth of solar power in perspective it helps to look at how it has played out in particular places. Take the U.S., for example. Solar is America's fastest growing industry, and already employs more than 100,000 men and women -- more than U.S. steel production and more than U.S. coal mining. In California, which leads the nation on solar power, the number of installed solar energy systems has increased from about 500 in 1999 to more than 50,000 in 2011. These days, when you fly into a place like Oakland, you can see your plane reflected in the rooftops below.
Controversial clean power line is finally live
It was a project that took five years to fight off critics and secure regulatory permits. But now the Sunrise Powerlink — a transmission line to ferry clean power like solar and wind from California’s desert to its southern coastal region — is done and live, according to its owner San Diego Gas & Electric on Monday.
The nearly $1.9 billion project erected giant towers and built both above ground and underground cables that now run over 110 miles from Imperial Valley to San Diego’s territory. The project required 28,000 flight hours from helicopters to complete nearly 75 percent of the towers along the way. The project uses both 500-kilovolt and 230-kilovolt lines, and it will initially be able to carry up to 800 MW of electricity (eventually the transmission rate should hit 1,000 MW).
US Navy Floats Underwater Solar-Cell Solution
A team of scientists from the US Naval Research Laboratory Electronics Science and Technology Division has developed a solar cell specifically designed for use underwater, which can efficiently absorb solar radiation up to a depth of nine meters (about 30 feet).
The breakthrough may prove important to the development of underwater autonomous systems — which provide situational awareness and long-term environment monitoring — a growing market.
As it now stands, the power options for these systems are cumbersome and expensive: cables connected to an onshore supply source, expensive batteries requiring frequent replacement to ensure a steady supply, or solar panels constructed on above-water platforms.
Photovoltaic cells have been previously tested for underwater use, but due to the lack of sunlight penetrating the water they only had limited success.
Solar-panel prices to rise due to anti-dumping tax
MUNICH--U.S. solar panel prices are set to rise in the short term due to last month's imposition by the Obama administration of 31% tariffs on some Chinese panels, two of China's largest solar companies said Tuesday.
The tariffs, however, are unlikely to significantly hit Chinese companies that have diverse global supply chains and production capacities outside China, said executives of Suntech Power Holdings Co., the world's largest manufacturer of photovoltaic solar panels, and JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd.
The comments come after the U.S. government last month imposed 31% tariffs on some solar panels produced in China alleging they had been dumped, or sold below cost.
"We will see some price increases in the short-term" for solar panels in the U.S., JinkoSolar's Marketing Director Isabelle Christensen said on the sidelines of the Intersolar industry exhibition in Munich.
National labs: Wind energy costs at or heading to all-time lows
Most studies predict the cost of wind energy will continue to fall through at least 2030, said national laboratory staffers in a new report .
The report, "The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy," released June 6, is a collaboration among workers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with assistance from European researchers. The crux of the report is that while future trends, drivers and constraints are difficult to predict, the cost of wind-generated electricity will probably continue to decrease in the coming decades.
Onshore wind's levelized cost of energy, or LCOE, fell by a factor of more than three between 1980 and 2000, the researchers said. "However, beginning in about 2003 and continuing through the latter half of the past decade, wind power capital costs increased — driven by rising commodity and raw materials prices, increased labor costs, improved manufacturer profitability, and turbine upscaling — thus pushing wind's LCOE upward in spite of continued performance improvements," they said.
Wind turbine manufacturers say U.S. market will grow in time
The wind energy market in the U.S. will stay alive with or without an extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC), say executives from eight of the largest wind turbine manufacturers with a U.S. presence. During a June 6 session focused on large wind turbines during WindPower 2012, executives from Gamesa, GE (NYSE: GE), Goldwind, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Nordex, Siemens (NYSE: SI), Suzlon and Vestas expressed that they view the U.S. wind market as a strong one.
The U.S., currently the No. 2 wind market in the world, installed 6,810 MW in 2011. This year is expected to be a record-breaking year for installations, as the expiration of the PTC requires developers to complete projects by year end. All eight executives agreed that 2012 will likely see anywhere from 9 to 12 GW of wind power installations.
Beyond 2012, the market is likely to slow, but the panelists said that won’t keep their companies from staying in the U.S.
The wind energy market could be down 80 percent next year, said Duncan Koerbel, interim CEO of Suzlon. “But Suzlon is in this for the longest of the long hauls. If you’re going to be in wind, you have to be in North America.”
Live from #WP12: Industry, officials voice support for extension of federal wind energy tax credit
Kicking off the American Wind Energy Association‘s convention center-sized pitch for an extension of the production tax credit, AWEA CEO Denise Bode said Congress needs to act now to prevent further damage to the industry.
“We are very concerned new wind projects are being shelved,” Bode said opening AWEA’s annual WINDPOWER conference in Atlanta on Monday. “The bleeding has to stop now.”
Bode said she remains optimistic that the production tax credit will be extended before its scheduled expiration at the end of this year, but that the “political logjam” continues to hold up the policy despite bipartisan support.
For more news and PR from this years show visit the AltEnergyMag.com AWEA WindPower Newspage.
Thin-Film Solar Panel Maker Konarka Files for Bankruptcy
Konarka Technologies Inc., the thin-film solar panel manufacturer backed by Chevron Corp. (CVX) (CVX) , Draper Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates Inc., filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts.
“Konarka has been unable to obtain additional financing, and given its current financial condition, it is unable to continue operations,” Howard Berke, chief executive officer of the Lowell, Massachusetts-based company, said yesterday in a statement.
Konarka listed $100,000 to $500,000 in assets and $10 million to $50 million in debt in its Chapter 7 filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Worcester, Massachusetts. Konarka NB Holdings LLC, in a separate filing, listed $1 million to $10 million in assets and as much as $50,000 in debt.
Sharp Hits Concentrator Solar Cell Efficiency Record, 43.5%
Sharp has developed solar cells that match the concentrator solar cell efficiency world record set by Solar Junction last year. The technology’s staggering 43.5% efficiency from a triple-junction compound solar cell is 1.2% higher than the efficiency of the cells holding the record before March of 2011 (when Solar Junction busted that record).
The conversion efficiency was actually confirmed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy in April 2012 (for some reason, these companies and researchers don’t let us know about the new records for months sometimes).
“Compound solar cells utilize photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements, such as indium and gallium,” Sharp writes. “The basic structure of this latest triple-junction compound solar cell uses Sharp’s proprietary technology that enables efficient stacking of the three photo-absorption layers, with InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) as the bottom layer.”
German solar energy industry reaches new milestone over the weekend
Germany’s Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) announced that over the weekend the country’s solar energy infrastructure met approximately 50% of the country’s energy demand. The IWR notes that more than 22 gigawatts of solar energy per hour was generated by the country’s various alternative energy systems and fed into the energy grid. This is comparable to the energy generated by 20 nuclear power plants operating at full capacity. This marks a new record for Germany and sets the bar higher for the global solar energy industry
Government officials claim that this milestone is proof of the viability of solar energy. The fact that the country was able to meet half of its energy needs through the use of solar power during the weekend is being considered a major accomplishment. The German solar energy industry continues to break records and show that alternative energy should be taken more seriously by developed countries.
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