New solar technology pushing through solar panel limits

Posted on May 19, 2011 by quest

Photovoltaic (PV) efficiency is a significant problem for today’s commercial solar panels, which can collect only a theoretical maximum of about 30 percent of available light. Now, a team that includes a University of Missouri engineer is developing a flexible solar film that can theoretically capture more than 90 percent of available light. Prototypes could be produced within the next five years.

Patrick Pinhero, an associate professor in the MU Chemical Engineering Department, says energy generated using traditional photovoltaic methods of solar collection is inefficient and neglects much of the available solar electromagnetic (sunlight) spectrum. The device the team is developing — essentially a thin, moldable sheet of small antennas called nantenna — is designed to harvest industrial waste heat and convert it into usable electricity. Their ambition is to extend this concept to direct solar facing nantenna devices capable of collecting energy broadly from the near infrared to the optical regions of the solar spectrum. Working with colleagues at Idaho National Laboratory, and Garret Moddel, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Pinhero and the team are now developing a way to extract electricity from the collected heat and sunlight using special high-speed electrical circuitry. This team also includes Dennis Slafer of MicroContinuum, Inc., in Cambridge, Mass., which is developing a manufacturing process that can inexpensively produce high volumes of the novel energy-harvesting film.

“Our overall goal is to collect and utilize as much solar energy as is theoretically possible and bring it to the commercial market in an inexpensive package that is accessible to everyone,” Pinhero said. “If successful, this product will put us orders of magnitudes ahead of the current solar energy technologies we have available to us today.”
The team, which is seeking funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and private investors, also envisions an energy-harvesting device for existing industrial infrastructure, including solar farms and factories that generate waste heat. Within five years, the research team believes they will have a product that complements conventional PV solar panels by capturing currently unused infrared energy. Because it’s a flexible film, Pinhero believes it could be incorporated into building materials and infrastructure.

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Intersolar Europe Tracks The Future of Solar Power

Posted on May 18, 2011 by quest

Technological developments in the area of photovoltaics are advancing daily. As a result, the cost of solar power is falling and new concepts are being developed for generating electricity in the future. Photovoltaics plays a major role at the world’s largest exhibition for the solar industry, Intersolar Europe in Munich. From June 8-10, 2011, around 2,000 companies will showcase the latest trends and developments in this field alone, with photovoltaics once again occupying a large part of the exhibition. Approximately 300 of these companies work in both photovoltaics and solar thermal technology. In an exhibition space covering 165,000 square meters, a total of 2,200 companies from around the world will present their products and services in the areas of photovoltaics, PV production technology and solar thermal technology.

Faced with the environmental challenges that go hand in hand with supplying energy to an increasing global population, numerous incentive programs across the globe have emerged for developing renewable energy – most recently in India and China for example. At the same time, the German feed-in tariff is falling. Therefore, researchers and industry are working against the clock to achieve grid parity – the point at which electricity from photovoltaic installations can be sold at a competitive price.

Intersolar Europe not only focuses on technology itself, but also shines the spotlight on innovative applications and system solutions, such as those involved in using unconventional surfaces for photovoltaic installations. Alternative surfaces for photovoltaic installations – such as carport roofing – are currently taking center stage in the industry. Solar carports are a worthwhile alternative to conventional surfaces because no additional ground sealing is required and they offer huge potential. The largest installation of this type is located in Italy and is already boasting an output of six megawatts. The industry is currently developing multiple new ideas so that, in the future, the power generated from the carports may be used directly or indirectly for parked electric vehicles.

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Solar Stocks Heating Up

Posted on May 18, 2011 by quest

With booming fuel prices and a consequently growing emphasis on renewable energy, solar power is gaining much more of a focus lately from both homeowners as well as big businesses looking to get in at near the ground floor. Also, quite a few governments are incentivizing the uptake of solar energy. Italy, for instance, which is one of Europe’s biggest solar markets, recently extended its solar incentives until August. The growing focus on Solar could cause widespread changes throughout the sector. One of these potential changes has already begun to take place as European oil giant Total SA agreed to buy up to 60% of SunPower Corporation for $1.38 billion.

The interest of Big Oil in solar companies could just be getting started and it would not be surprising to see much more M&A activities in the future.

The recent Japanese disasters, while tragic on many levels, may also have some upside for the solar sector. Negative sentiment surrounding nuclear energy could result in a greater assumption of renewable energies such as solar panels. Companies like Trina Solar Limited which already has a presence in Asia should be well positioned to take advantage of this shift, should it take place. A Trina Solar Limited report is accessible for free at stock trading firm; Shine’s Room which has a handpicked team of market professionals with over 100 years of combined investing experience. They are providing members comprehensive research on the Semiconductor – Specialized industry and are offering free analytical research on Trina Solar Limited and SunPower Corporation.

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Solar Impulse Makes International Flight

Posted on May 15, 2011 by quest

A solar energy plane made the world’s first international flight powered by the sun yesterday to show the potential for pollution-free air travel. The Solar Impulse took off from an airfield at Payerne in western Switzerland in the morning and landed at Brussels airport after a 13-hour flight. “The objective is to demonstrate what we can do with existing technology in terms of renewable energy and energy savings,” project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg said by telephone during the flight.

Borschberg believes such solar-harnessing technology can be used to power cars and homes. “It is symbolic to be able to go from one place to another using solar energy,” he said. The Solar Impulse project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros and has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.

The plane, which requires 12,000 solar cells, embarked on its first flight in April 2010 and completed a 26-hour flight, a record flying time for a solar powered aircraft, three months later. With an average flying speed of 70 km/h, Solar Impulse is not an immediate threat to commercial jets, which can easily cruise at more than 10 times the speed. A flight from Geneva from Brussels can take little more than an hour. Project leaders acknowledged it had been a major challenge to fit a slow-flying plane into the commercial air traffic system. Friday’s flight was Solar Impulse’s fifth. Previous flights did not leave Switzerland. A larger prototype is scheduled to fly around the world in 2013.

THE SOLAR CUP

Ninth annual Solar Cup rolls into the third day of competition with hundreds of students from 40 Southern California high school teams racing the solar-powered boats they have built and equipped over the past seven months in a program sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The annual event is being held at Lake Skinner, Temecula Valley and ends today Sunday at 4PM.

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Solar Energy An Alternative To Nuclear Energy

Posted on May 14, 2011 by quest

Nuclear energy is no longer an option; Nuclear energy was thought to be the solution to ending our reliance on fossil fuels, and consequently an effective way of combating our output of greenhouse gases, and climate change. However, since the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan this is no longer an option.   A clean, green alternative source of power is the free solar energy that is given out by the sun. The government is currently encouraging home owners to have solar panels installed in their homes through their FIT scheme.   This allows eligible homeowners to have solar panel installations installed in their homes free of charge, which turn free solar power into free electricity. Any free electricity the free solar panels do not use is simply fed into the National Grid, which the solar panel installers claim back the money for from through the utility companies.

The nuclear plant disaster in Japan may not be covered by the media anymore, but the fears for the state of the reactors are still ever present. The only way that we will be able to tell how much damage the disaster caused is with the passing of time. However, the political implications of the disaster are already becoming apparent. In Germany, hundreds of protesters took part in a demonstration against the use of nuclear power, and waved placards which read ‘Nuclear power no thanks’. Germany’s government have already shut down several nuclear power plants, and China has also reduced the number of nuclear plants they planned to build too.

Without nuclear plants it does pose a problem, in that where is the world going to get all of our energy from? At the beginning of the year people were expecting a ‘renaissance’ for nuclear power. It seemed that nuclear power was the only alternative to end our reliance on fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power provides the world with 15% of our energy, which was predicted to grow- however this now seems unlikely. Our energy needs are constantly increasing; and one source of energy that does not rely on fossil fuels, contributing to the problem of greenhouse gases, and which makes an alternative to nuclear power are renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Source

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SolarWorld Seeks Junior Einstein in Solar Technology

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quest

At an elegant, port-side venue in Valencia, Spain, in September, Christian Reimann received heady honors for a young scientist: the SolarWorld Junior Einstein Award, a cash prize and a standing ovation from a room full of leading scientists and industrialists working on solar photovoltaic technology.“The award was the pinnacle of my career so far,” said Reimann, now manager of a group researching silicon crystallization at the prestigious Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Building Element Technology in Erlangen, Germany. Reimann won the award for his work developing a process to reduce impurities in silicon melted for crystallization and thereby elevate the efficiency of resulting solar cells and lower the costs of solar power. The process later was patented.

Young scientists in fields related to solar photovoltaics – systems technology, nanotechnology, general energy technology, crystallography and engineering subjects – have about a month left to submit their research in this year’s sixth annual staging of the competition for a chance to win the award trophy, 5,000 euros and professional recognition. Their final scientific paper in English or German must have been evaluated between June 2010 and June 2011. The deadline for application submissions is June 15.

Ethan Good, SolarWorld’s U.S. head of research and development and a doctoral graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, hopes young scientists will enter the competition to spread recognition for photovoltaic research into the Americas, where the company has been the largest solar manufacturer for more than 35 years. “European researchers have made well-recognized discoveries in the scientific fields that underlie solar technology,” Good said. “It’s time for researchers in the Americas to compete for recognition of their own advances.”Award namesake Albert Einstein not only founded modern physics but also explained the photoelectric effect.