Solis Pitches Solar-Powered Wi-Fi
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Lenovo Announces Solar-Powered Desktop PC
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New technology cuts the price of solar energy
2007-07-13
Long flat mirrors capture the sunlight in Almería, Spain
© Fraunhofer ISE
Sunshine is guaranteed at Almería in southern Spain – an ideal location for generating solar thermal energy. A test installation was inaugurated there on July 9, 2007, that operates with a linear Fresnel reflector one hundred meters long. Research scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg have helped to develop the technology.
Not only are fossil energy sources dwindling, but burning them produces greenhouse gases. “That’s why we must look to regenerative energies in future,” states Professor Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg. “We anticipate that half the global energy requirement will be met from sustainable sources such as wind, water and solar power by 2050.”
The most important source of energy will always be the sun: The amount of solar energy that reaches Earth in a single hour is theoretically sufficient to supply the whole of humanity for a year. All we need to do is harness it – but even today, that still poses a tremendous technical challenge. In sunny countries, it is worthwhile building large-scale solar thermal power plants in whose solar fields thermo-oil is heated. A heat exchanger is used to create steam that drives a turbine to generate electricity. Up to now, engineers have used gigantic parabolic mirrors that focus the sunlight on a central absorber tube. Fresnel reflectors represent a low-cost alternative. Flat mirrors arrayed in long rows are so aligned that, with the aid of a small secondary mirror, they focus the sunlight on a linear tube running along the row of mirrors. Water is vaporized directly in this tube and heated up to 450 degrees Celsius at high pressure. “Linear Fresnel reflectors are cheaper than parabolic mirrors, take up less space and are less sensitive to the wind,” states Weber. In his opinion, this means the technology has a good chance of gaining wide-scale market acceptance.
The demonstration plant in Almería was designed by Weber’s team in collaboration with other prestigious research groups, including scientists from the DLR, under a contract to MAN Ferrostaal Power Industry GmbH. The plant’s inauguration marks the beginning of comprehensive practical tests. If the linear Fresnel reflectors pass muster, they can be used in the construction of commercial solar thermal power plants.
MAN Ferrostaal AG
With a workforce of 4300 and an annual turnover of 1.4 billion euros (2006), MAN Ferrostaal AG, Essen, is the MAN Group’s industrial service provider. MAN Ferrostaal’s “Projects” and “Services” divisions serve customers in over 60 countries around the world. MAN Ferrostaal is a subsidiary of MAN Aktiengesellschaft, Munich. The MAN Group is one of Europe’s leading vehicle, motor and machine construction companies, reporting an annual turnover of roughly 13 billion euros. MAN employs some 50,000 people worldwide.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the leading organization for applied research in Europe. Its research activities are conducted by 56 Fraunhofer Institutes at over 40 different locations throughout Germany. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft employs a staff of around 12,400, who work with an annual research budget totaling 1.25 billion euros. Roughly two thirds of this sum is generated through contract research on behalf of industry and publicly funded research projects. Branches in the USA and Asia serve to promote international cooperation.
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July 25, 2007
United Solar Ovonic Signs Up Distributor for $108 M of PV Products
Auburn Hills, Michigan [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
United Solar Ovonic LLC signed a three-year distributor agreement with Advanced Green Technologies, Inc. for $108 million of photovoltaic (PV) products.
"We are convinced that
our relationship with Advanced Green Technologies will further
successful installations of building integrated solar power systems."
-- Subhendu Guha, United Solar Ovonic, president and COO
"We are convinced that
our relationship with Advanced Green Technologies will further
successful installations of building integrated solar power systems and
demonstrate the use of Uni-Solar products for improved energy
self-reliance," said Subhendu Guha, President and Chief Operating
Officer of United Solar Ovonic.
Unlike traditional crystalline technology, which typically uses heavy glass panels, Uni-Solar products are flexible, durable, lightweight, and easy to install. Because of these characteristics, Uni-Solar triple-junction products offer the ideal solution for both grid-connected and off-grid solar electric systems.
Independent studies in Europe and elsewhere have shown that triple-junction products deliver more energy per rated power than the conventional crystalline products.
Advanced Green Technologies is a unit of Advanced Roofing, Inc., and offers sustainable building integrated solutions and renewable energy products for commercial and residential roofing applications using Uni-Solar products.
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PG&E Signs World's Largest Solar Power Deal
photo: green wombat
California
utility PG&E today will announce an agreement to buy 553 megawatts
of electricity from a solar power plant to be built by Israeli company
Solel in the Mojave Desert. That's enough energy to light about 400,000
homes. It's the largest deal of its kind, just edging out Southern
California Edison's (EIX) 2005 agreement to purchase 500 megawatts of
solar electricity from a power plant to be built by Stirling Energy Systems
in the Mojave. Solel's 6,000-acre Mojave Solar Park is set to begin
operating in 2011. The Solel station will be located near nine existing
solar power plants built in the 1980s by Israeli company Luz (photo
above) that continue to supply 354 megawatts of green energy to
Southern California. It's an appropriate locale. When Luz went bankrupt
in the early '90s after solar energy tax breaks evaporated and natural
gas prices fell, Solel picked up the company's parabolic trough
technology. (Luz, meanwhile, has been revived as BrightSource Energy,
which is negotiating a 500-megawatt deal with PG&E.) Solel will
use a more advanced version of the solar trough for its Mojave project,
which will contain 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing.
Just this week the company announced that it had upgraded the old Luz
plants - most of which are now operated by FPL Energy (FPL) - with
30,000 new solar receivers.
Solar trough power plants use parabolic mirrors to track the sun and heat tubes of liquid to produce steam that drives electricity-generating turbines. The efficiency of solar troughs is quite a bit lower than other utility-scale technologies under development, but it's tried and true and that's what apparently attracted PG&E (PCG), which emphasized it was "commercially-proven." The San Francisco-based utility has been hedging its bets, signing deals with companies developing a variety of solar technologies. BrightSource Energy, for instance, will deploy fields of mirrors to focus the sun's rays on a tower containing a water-filled boiler to create steam to drive a turbine. PG&E has also signed a deal with San Francisco solar startup GreenVolts to build a two-megawatt "plug-in" power plant that will use concentrating photovoltaic technology to produce electricity near urban areas.
PG&E's deal with Solel is another sign that California has become a proving ground for Big Solar technologies. Stirling Energy Systems uses a giant solar dish to concentrate the sun's rays on a Stirling heat engine. As hydrogen inside the engine expands it drives pistons that generate electricity. The Stirling dish is far more efficient than the solar trough but it has never been deployed on a large scale. Stirling Energy's deals with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) have options to produce up to 1.75 gigawatts of solar electricity. Add in the Solel 25-year contract and - assuming PG&E reaches a final deal with BrightSource Energy - California potentially could have nearly three gigawatts of utility-scale solar power online within the next five or six years.
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New Uni-Solar tech to be in Habitat home
United Solar Ovonic, a subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices Inc., a leader in thin-film amorphous photovoltaics production, will use its product to power a home in Traverse City, Mich.
"The system we are installing represents the state-of-the-art in solar technology, and it aligns with the Habitat for Humanity's commitment to energy-efficient, healthy and environmentally-friendly building processes," Subhendu Guha, president and chief operating officer of United Solar Ovonic, said in a statement. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase our soon to be released residential solar system on a Habitat for Humanity project."
The National Governors Association Summer Conference in Traverse City has brought together U.S. governors to build a Habitat for Humanity home. United Solar Ovonic supplied its Uni-Solar thin-film solar panels for the building the home. Allen Brothers Inc., based in Rochester Hills, Mich., participated in the design and delivery of the solar roofing system for the residential market.
"With these new investments, United Solar Ovonic is making Michigan a leader in cutting edge alternative energy technology, diversifying Michigan's economy and creating jobs," Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. "Beyond contributing to Michigan's economic transformation, the company is a good corporate citizen dedicated to supporting its community."
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Half Price Solar Power
off the grid power:
A new mechanism for focusing light on small areas of photovoltaic material could make solar power in residential and commercial applications cheaper than electricity from the grid in most markets in the next few years. Initial systems, which can be made at half the cost of conventional solar panels, are set to start shipping later this year, says Brad Hines, CTO and founder of Soliant Energy, a startup based in Pasadena, CA, that has developed the new modules.
Concentrating sunlight with mirrors or lenses on a small area cuts the costs of solar power in part by reducing the amount of expensive photovoltaic material needed. But while concentrated solar photovoltaic systems are attractive for large-scale, ground-based solar farms for utilities, conventional designs are difficult to mount on rooftops, where most residential and commercial customers have space for solar panels. The systems are typically large and heavy, and they’re mounted on posts so that they can move to track the sun, which makes them more vulnerable to gusts of wind than ordinary flat solar panels are.
Soliant has designed a solar concentrator that tracks the sun
throughout the day but is lighter and not pole-mounted. The system fits
in a rectangular frame and is mounted to the roof with the same
hardware that’s used for conventional flat solar panels. Yet the
devices will likely cost half as much as a conventional solar panel,
says Hines. A second-generation design, which concentrates light more
and uses better photovoltaics, could cost a quarter as much. He says
that a more advanced design should be ready by 2010.
from Technology Review
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Solar Energy: Nobel Scientist Creates World Record-Breaking Plastic Solar Cell
Nobel prize-winning scientist Alan Heeger and his buddies have figured out a way to print more-efficient plastic solar cells, boosting their efficiency to 6.5%, a world record for these photovoltaic polymers. Heeger and his colleagues perform this trick by using two layers of different types of plastic, and whenever one layer doesn’t turn light into electricity, the other one picks up the slack. Now the scientists are getting cocky, saying they can improve the tech even further.
They vow to “do significantly better than 6.5% in the near future.” Other scientists agree, saying that 10% efficiency is likely very soon. Others say phooey. University of Denver scientist Sean Shaheen calls efficiency estimates “notoriously unreliable,” accusing scientists of tweaking the solar spectrum to make their results look good. Others say that these dual-layer plastic solar cells will be trickier to manufacture than the single-layer plastic cells that are being prototyped today.
These guys have big plans for the technology, but before they bring this tandem cell to market, they’ll first use those single-layer plastic solar cells in portable battery chargers that they hope to put on the market next year. But those will have only 5% efficiency. The holy grail is to place plastic solar cells on roofs, which they say will require at least 7% efficiency to be cost effective. That’s where these tandem layer solar cells with upwards of 10% efficiency could prove to be a breakthrough.
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Paint that absorbs solar power
July 26th, 2007 by Edwin in Solar Powered Gear, Home Gadgets
There are some chores in life that must be done despite being a drag
to go through. Among them include mowing the lawn and painting the
fence, but then again that’s what children (when they’re old enough, of
course) are for, right? One of the bigger challenges would be painting
your home, and woe to you if you have a relatively huge house. Giving
your abode a fresh coat of paint on the outside every five years will
definitely keep the neighborhood looking spiffy, but how many of us
actually look forward to that “event”, preferring instead to lounge in
our armchairs while flipping channels on the TV? What happens if I tell
you that there is a new type of paint that covers your home with a
lovely coat of energy generating solar cells? That news ought to make
you jump right off your seat at roll up those sleeves almost
immediately.
This is no doubt one of the most interesting developments in solar panel technology to date, and researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology have already laid claim to developing a solar cell that can be painted on flexible plastic sheets. Findings of this new type of paint have already been presented in a paper for the Journal of Materials Chemistry, describing how the marriage of carbon nanotubes complex and carbon Buckyball molecule will be able to create snake-like molecular structures. Natural sunlight will excite the polymer backing, where it in turn releases electrons.
The Buckyball molecule will then capture the electrons and flow them towards a preferred direction when liked to a nanotube. This will definitely be one of the cheapest ways to include solar cells into any home or even surface should it be made available to everyone at an affordable price in the near future. It is hoped that homeowners will one day be able to print sheets of such solar cells in the comfort of their own home using inkjet printers. No idea how all the power gained will be routed to a central generator though if you slap such printed solar cells liberally all over your home. The idea of using renewable energy is always altruistic and such developments definitely bode well for our future generations.
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Some of our electrical power now sun-supplied
July 27, 2007 04:21 PM
Electricity that some of us used over the past month probably came from the "We
made power this morning," Bob Cable with Nevada Solar One exclaimed.
Even on a cloudy, monsoon day, Nevada Solar One can produce power.
Right now, the solar field south of Las Vegas covers about 212 acres. Solar
power costs more to produce per kilowatt hour than running a coal plant
or natural gas powered plant. Mostly it's technology and equipment
costs. Solar power has no environmental costs. No fossil fuels are
burned. There's no smoke or exhaust. Just clean, renewable energy from
the sun. "The sun is free and we love that and we just need
to get the equipment to gather that energy to come down in price,"
Cable said. The mirrors Solar One employs are similar to the
ones you have in your home. The whole contraption can move to follow
the sun. All the mirrors concentrate the sun's energy and they direct
it to the one pipe. Inside the pipe is a specialized oil. The mirrors
heat the oil to 735 degrees Fahrenheit. Down the way, a heat exchanger
makes steam which turns a turbine and makes electricity. "If
you see the sun, we can make power," Cable explains, "when it's hazy
out, we can still make power. If the sun is gone, we're no longer able
to make power." Most days the power output is about 66
megawatts by 8 am and remains so until roughly 7 pm. There are plans to
someday increase the field to 6,000 acres. That'll be enough power for
about 200,000 homes. Right now, Nevada Solar One can produce
enough power for about 1,400 homes. All of Solar One's power is sold to
Nevada Power, which is mandated to get a certain percentage of its
power from renewable sources. Nevada Solar One is not open
for tours yet. They get requests from all over the world. It is owned
by Spanish company and started producing power to sell on June 22.
sun. Nevada Solar One is now producing power. News 3 is the first local television station to get a tour of the operation. As Mitch Truswell shows us, there are already plans to expand.
Solel Solar Systems Ltd.
will sell 553 megawatts of electricity to California’s PG & E Corp.
(AMEX:PCG) (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) from a solar power plant
that the company will build in the Mojave Desert at an investment of
some $2 billion. PG & E's nine-square mile Mojave Solar Park is due
to begin operating in 2011. PG&E said that the power, enough for
400,000 homes, will go to customers in northern and central California.
The Mojave Solar Park project is now the world’s largest single solar commitment.
Solel Solar CEO Avraham Branmiller said, “We’re excited to supply 553 MW of clean energy to California.”
The companies refused to disclose the price at which electricity will be supplied, but it is clear that it will be competitive. It is estimated that Solel will sell power at about $0.10 per kilowatt-hour.
On this basis, sales over 25 years will amount to $3-3.5 billion. In that case, Solel will be left with $1-1.5 billion from sales of electricity over the period.
PG&E VP Energy Procurement, Fong Wan said, “The solar thermal project announced today is another major milestone in realizing our goal to supply 20% of our customers’ energy needs with clean renewable energy.”
The plant utilizes Solel Solar’s patented and commercially-proven solar thermal parabolic trough technology. Over the past 20 years, the technology has powered nine operating solar power plants in the Mojave Desert and is currently generating 354 MW of annual electricity. The project will rely on 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing to capture the desert sun’s heat.
Based in Beit Shemesh, Solel Solar and Grupo Sacyr Vallehermoso SA (IBEX:SYV) are building an $800 million 150 MW project in Spain. It is also upgraded a 100 MW project in California for FPL Energy.
“Business 2.0” says that the power station will be located near nine existing solar power plants built in the 1980s by Luz. When Luz went bankrupt in the early 1990s after solar energy tax breaks evaporated and natural gas prices fell, Solel Solar picked up the company's parabolic trough technology. Solel Solar will use a more advanced version of the solar trough for the Mojave Solar Park.
Luz has been revived as BrightSource Energy Inc., which is negotiating a 500-megawatt deal with PG&E.
“Business 2.0” that PG&E's deal with Solel Solar is another sign that California has become a proving ground for Big Solar technologies. Including the Solel Solar agreement and assuming PG&E reaches a final deal with BrightSource Energy, California potentially could have nearly three gigawatts of utility-scale solar power online within the next five or six years.
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Nunavut Weather Station Upgrades with Carmanah Solar Power Technology
A
remote weather station in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is using
solar technology to power its communications link with the rest of the
world. Located on Baffin Island, just outside the Arctic Circle, the
Pangnirtung Weather Station has installed a Carmanah solar power system
provided by New Brunswick-based Approach Navigation Systems Inc. (ANS
Inc.). Located outside the small community of Pangnirtung, the weather
station records data such as temperature, cloud cover and wind speed,
and then transmits this information to meteorologists at the Arctic
Weather Centre in Edmonton. Due to its remote location, the station
needed an onsite power source to run a small repeater site that could
help increase the relay signal. A stand-alone solar power system was the ideal solution.
Carmanah provides integrated, turnkey solar power systems specifically
designed for remote industrial applications; in fact, this technology
can even be approved for Class I, DIV. II hazardous locations. While providing a reliable source of power wherever it's
needed, a stand-alone solar power system can support a variety of
applications:
Thousands of Carmanah solar power systems have been deployed worldwide over the past 15 years. Field proven to endure the extremely harsh environments found at many remote locations, Carmanah solar power systems are shipped as complete, easy-to-assemble kits that can be installed quickly with minimal technical expertise.
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Rooftops key to Florida green energy goal
 |  |
| Rooftops key to Florida green energy goal A man views solar panels on a roof at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, June 18, 2007. A new initiative by Florida to get its utilities to generate 20 percent of their power from sun, wind and other renewable resources will mean wiring rooftops rather than building huge solar or wind farms. REUTERS/Kimberly White |
By Jim Loney
MIAMI (Reuters) - Despite its nickname, the Sunshine State,
Florida's heavy rains and pricey real estate mean it has never
been considered a good place to set up big solar energy plants.
So a new initiative by the fourth most-populous U.S. state
to get its utilities to generate 20 percent of their power from
sun, wind and other renewable resources will mean wiring
rooftops rather than building huge solar or wind farms.
Utilities say large solar power plants would simply not be
cost effective.
"The cloud cover in Florida limits the amount of power that
can be produced," said Mayco Villafana, a spokesman for Florida
Power & Light, the state's largest electricity company.
But Florida has plenty of sunshine to power rooftop solar panels and renewable energy advocates are urging the state to help residents create thousands of mini power plants in their homes.
Gov. Charlie Crist announced this week that he wants utilities to generate one-fifth of their electricity from renewables to combat global warming -- joining several other states that have adopted measures to reduce greenhouse gases in the absence of action by the federal government.
Crist's executive orders, which he was due to sign at a climate change summit in Miami on Friday, did not contain a target date for the 20 percent goal. State officials could not provide figures on the current share of renewable energy.
But Mike Sole, secretary of the state's Department of Environmental Protection, said on the sidelines of the conference that the target date is 13 years from now.
"We are proposing and have recommended to the governor that it be 2020," he said. "Now we have to work with the Public Service Commission (regulators) to get that implemented."
Crist's initiative calls on the state to permit people who generate power at their homes and businesses to lower utility bills by feeding excess electricity back into the grid.
SUNSHINE STATE
The American West's vast open spaces provide all the ingredients for alternative energy plants -- vast tracts of cheap desert land, steady winds and year-round sunshine. Florida's expensive real estate, unreliable wind and severe rainy season limit its prospects, according to experts.
FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, is the top U.S. wind power generator with 47 wind farms in 15 states. Yet it does not have one in Florida.
It has a major solar plant in California's Mojave Desert, but none in the Sunshine State, even though Florida has as much sunshine -- 5 to 6 kilowatt hours per meter squared per day -- as parts of California.
"We're not look at Arizona-style or Nevada-style solar fields as a primary target," said Sole. "We're looking at rooftops."
Photovoltaic systems that collect the sun's rays and turn them into energy can cost $30,000 or more for an average U.S. home, so solar advocates are pushing Florida to expand incentives to help residents with initial costs.
James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center, said a monthly charge of $1.50 on a utility bill could raise more than $200 million a year to invest in a panel installation program.
California, which has a "Million Solar roofs" program under way, puts more than $300 million yearly into installation of solar panels on rooftops.
"The utilities have to find a way to own the PV power plant on my roof so they can profit from it," Fenton said.
He said Florida has twice the sunshine of Germany, a global leader in solar power, and believes local utilities are ready to hop on the bandwagon.
"They like big power plants," he said. "So it's about switching over this mindset from a big power plant to a small one. But I think they are coming around."
Villafana said FPL generally supports Crist's initiative but is taking a wait-and-see attitude until state regulators explain how the plan would work.
Asked if FPL is interested in owning photovoltaic rooftop installations on private homes, he said: "We haven't even discussed that."
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A solar cell produced by Boeing Spectrolab under a subcontract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory is among this year’s most significant innovations, as judged by Research & Development (R&D) Magazine.
The NREL/ Boeing Spectrolab R&D 100 Award for 2007 recognizes the High-Efficiency Metamorphic Multi-junction (HEMM) Concentrator Solar Cell, the first solar cell to break the 40 percent conversion efficiency barrier – the solar equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile.
"This R&D 100 award is another important milestone in NREL’s 30 year history of developing clean energy technologies, many of which are now available to the consumers,” Director Dan Arvizu said. “Breaking the 40 percent barrier is a significant step in reducing the cost of solar energy, a goal set by the President in his Solar America Initiative."
"Once again, DOE's labs are at the cutting edge of innovation with new technology developments to enhance America's economic and national security," U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said. “My heartiest congratulations to the DOE researchers and scientists that have won R&D Magazine's prestigious awards this year."
The Boeing Spectrolab HEMM approach represents a powerful new technology for designing super-efficient multi-junction solar cells. The HEMM solar cell is a triple-junction device – a solar cell with three layers – that uses “mismatched” materials. Typically in a triple-junction cell the atoms are evenly spaced, which generally results in superior electrical performance. But, with the HEMM approach, the atoms are unevenly spaced, giving designers more materials to choose from to create even higher-efficiency solar cells.
“This lattice-mismatched design gives designers a greater freedom in multi-junction cell design for greater absorption and use of sunlight,” said Dr. Martha Symko-Davies, research senior supervisor. “This could lead to four, five, and six-junction cells that can convert more than 50 percent of the solar spectrum to electricity.”
The HEMM solar cell has a conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent at 240 suns. This means that when sunlight concentrated up to 240 times the normal intensity of the sun is focused onto the cell, 40.7 percent of that solar energy is converted into electrical energy. NREL researchers who worked on this project are Symko-Davies and Dr. Larry Kazmerski, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at NREL. The results of the cells efficiency were confirmed by NREL's Photovoltaic Cell and Module Performance Characterization section managed by Keith Emery. This brings to 40 the number of R&D 100 Awards earned by the Laboratory.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle. The Laboratory opened its doors on July 5, 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute. It was made a national laboratory in 1991.
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WILMINGTON, Del., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its strategy to be the leader in developing some of the key materials for more efficient solar panels, DuPont today announced that it will be managing the critical phase of prototype development and applications testing for the newly formed DuPont-University of Delaware Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) Consortium. The announcement follows the University of Delaware's demonstration of a viable design for a solar cell with a potential efficiency increase of 30 percent.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the consortium $12.2 million as part of a three-year, multi-phase program that could total up to $100 million. DuPont, the only company with more than eight key materials used in solar panels, will manage the consortium of proposed companies and scientific institutions dedicated to the optimization of the VHESC solar cells for efficiency and cost. The company has a 30-year history of science and innovation in the solar industry, developing new materials that make solar cells smaller and lighter, more efficient and cost effective. Solar panels convert light into electrical energy through the use of photovoltaic solar cells.
"DuPont is focused on providing innovative renewable energy technologies to the photovoltaic industry," said DuPont Senior Vice President and Chief Science and Technology Officer Uma Chowdhry. "We applaud the University of Delaware's milestone achievement in developing a lab-scale solar cell module with exceptional efficiency." We believe the science being developed under this consortium can be transformative if the successes of the program to date can be transitioned from the research laboratory to engineering and manufacturing prototypes. In our view, this is one of the most difficult steps in developing a new technology and we look forward to working with the University of Delaware and others in the next phase of research."
The DuPont-University of Delaware VHESC consortium initially will focus on the development of affordable portable battery chargers based on ultra-high efficiency solar cells, which allow readily deployable recharging of batteries. The proposed system offers significant improvements in solar cell efficiencies compared to existing battery chargers and record flat plate terrestrial solar cells that collect both the direct and diffuse radiation and are not mobile.
Today, American soldiers carry packs that weigh nearly 100 pounds, of which about 20 pounds are the three-day supply of batteries needed to power their gear. The DARPA program aims to dramatically improve battery life and provide the soldier with more power at reduced weight, thus improving mobility, survivability and the availability of advanced electronic technologies on the battlefield. With the higher efficiency of the VHESC technology, solar rechargers could be integrated into common battlefield devices such as night vision goggles, radios and GPS navigation systems.
DuPont offers the broadest portfolio in the photovoltaic solar market, with eight key materials used to make solar cells and modules. The company is manufacturing, or conducting research on, solar energy products at three sites in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, China and Japan.
By 2015, DuPont will grow our annual revenues by at least $2 billion from products that create energy efficiency and/or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions for our customers. Some of this growth will be achieved through solar panel technology. DuPont provides materials for conducting the electricity produced by the cell and for encapsulation of cell assemblies into environmentally stable panels for protection from moisture, UV rays and impact. DuPont is investing approximately $100 million to expand its product offerings in this rapidly growing market.
DuPont -- one of the first companies to publicly establish environmental goals 16 years ago -- has broadened its sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research and development investments. The goals are tied directly to business growth, specifically to the development of safer and environmentally improved new products for key global markets, including products that help increase energy efficiency.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.
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Solar booming in California Bay
New findings by the NorCal Solar Energy Association indicate tremendous growth in solar installations in California's Bay Area.
NorCal Solar Energy Association is a non-profit solar education group in Northern California.
The findings released on the growth of solar energy installations for 165 cities in all 10 Bay Area counties show 8,403 total solar energy installations, built at a cost of $787 million, are yielding 82.3 megawatts of electricity, renewableenergyaccess.com reported
The report includes all installations as of December 2006.
The average residential-sized system, yielding 3.6 kilowatts of electricity, costs $34,199 or approximately $9.49 per watt before rebates and tax credits. Approximately 11.5 watts of electricity generated by solar power is produced for every one of the 7.1 million residents living in the greater Bay Area.
"Comparative data is a powerful tool for the promotion of solar technology and this information will help consumers and cities alike to understand the average costs of solar systems," said Claudia Wentworth, president of NorCal, in a statement. "Our goal is to increase awareness and educate the public to drive demand for solar applications. Every solar installation decreases CO2 emissions, the use of fossil fuels, builds the solar industry and is evidence of a successful solar marketplace in California."
Copyright 2007 by UPI
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