Reuters, Tue Nov 4, 2008 3:13pm EST

By Braden Reddall and Nichola Groom - Analysis

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An anticipated Democratic U.S. election sweep is thrilling solar and wind power investors because that outcome is seen as a big step toward establishing federal requirements for alternative power generation.

Analysts said a national mandate for generating renewable power would be a relatively easy first step in any “green” agenda because dozens of states already have such policies, and the cost to a cash-strapped government would be negligible.

Read more…

Solyndra is making a few waves in the solar industry and proving that the world of solar is no longer flat…

press release

Solar Goes From Gardens to Gigabucks  -WIRED Science

By Alexis Madrigal

excerpt:

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FREMONT, California — In a nondescript Bay Area office park, a converted hard-drive factory with a shiny new façade began churning out unconventional solar tubes that big investors are betting will soon blanket commercial buildings across the world.
The highly-automated factory belongs to Solyndra, a three-year-old company that’s received $600 million in venture capital and $1.2 billion in orders for its new cells, which look like curtain rods.
Instead of the standard panels mounted on racks that have dominated solar for the last 20 years, Solyndra’s cylindrical solar cells collect sunlight more efficiently across a broader range of angles and catch light reflected off the roof itself.

Read more…

New research at MIT has opened the door to a 24 hour energy solution using the sun and solar energy. Plants store their energy in the evening and their is an abundance of energy during the day to allow for overnight storage. The amount of energy falling on the Earth in one hour is equivalent to all of the energy needs of the planet for an entire year.

New and efficient ways of splitting hydrogen and oxygen and storing the energy in a fuel cell in your basement would allow 24 hour, off-grid production of energy. Effectively making your home a powerPLANT…. nice. You plug in you electric car and charge it from the sun and/or the stored energy in the hydrogen fuel cell.

This has huge implications to move us toward energy independence and decentralized energy distribution.

Very exciting!

Peace,
Bruce

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“MIT researchers say they have discovered a way to use solar energy cheaply even after the sun goes down, which could make it a mainstream source of power within the next decade.”

“”The industry is trying to cut costs and improve efficiency all along the supply chain,” Hanis said. “The cost of solar should be on par with sort of traditional fossil sources in about eight years,” based on the rising costs of other forms of energy and the trends the association has seen in cost reductions in solar over the last decade, she said.”

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Click here for the video interview

Click here for the full article

Here is another article on the same subject from “Science Daily”:

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In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.

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Here is the full article

A snapshot showing the new, efficient oxygen catalyst in action

in Dan Nocera’s laboratory at MIT. (Credit: MIT/NSF)

This is a very interesting article that is addressing exactly the same issues we are facing here in the US with moving toward decentralized energy distribution. Note the bold text below. It is exactly what Rob, myself and others have been saying about decentralized renewable energy.

In-joy,
Bruce

excerpts from:

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Will Renewables Trump Nuclear in Ontario?
by Stephen Lacey, Staff Writer and Lily Riahi, Correspondent
Ontario, Canada [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] July 2, 2008

In Canada these days, it’s almost impossible to talk about renewable energy without talking about nuclear power. With the recent freezing of Ontario’s Renewable Energy Payment (REP) system and a proposal from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to procure 14,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power over the coming decades, many in the industry question whether politicians and regulators in the province are serious about developing renewable energy.

Now Ontario — considered Canada’s most progressive renewable energy market — has become a staging ground for a philosophical war over how to develop the future energy market. The battle cry from the renewable energy industry was sounded at the World Wind Energy Conference in Kingston, Ontario last week, as advocates and businesses called on the OPA and government officials to make distributed generation a priority over centralized generation.

To illustrate that nuclear does not have to play such a prominent role, OSEA has rolled out a Green Energy Act campaign to raise awareness about the possibility of Ontario meeting 100 percent of its electricity demand from renewable resources within the same time frame proposed in the recent IPSP. But only when renewables are made a priority over nuclear can the province achieve such an ambitious goal, say advocates of the Green Energy Act.

“The government priorities are a bit puzzling. You wonder why renewable energy acquisition is put on hold while at the same time big announcements are made about nuclear energy,” said CANREA’s Peters. “It’s a bit difficult to understand how the government can say that renewable energy is the cornerstone of a good policy, while at the same time make such big investments in nuclear.”

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Full Article

Spencer Ahrens, a 23-year-old mechanical engineer, was on MIT’s campus last week, holding a wooden plank, surrounded by onlookers.Slowly, he turned that wooden plank before a series of mirrors that had been placed inside an aluminum frame, until the wood caught fire.That was quite a moment, recalled Matthew Ritter, one of the onlookers.
“Let’s just say it was a small combustion for wood materials, but a giant explosion of solar energy,” he said.

Full Article:

MIT group makes low-cost dish to tap solar energy

Miriam Horn, co-author of Earth the Sequel, introduces a green energy future in Environmental Defense Fund’s video series, Unleash the Future.

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Unleash the Future with Solar Energy…

-Printed Nano thin film solar panels at 1/10th the cost and half the amount of space.

-Conrad Burke, CEO Innvalight

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“The Promise
Every hour, the sun delivers as much energy to the Earth as all of humanity uses in a year. The total energy from just 20 days of sunshine is equal to all the energy available in the total reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas.

If we converted only 10 percent of this solar energy into electricity, a square of land 100 miles on a side (about 0.26 percent of America’s total land area) could meet all of America’s electricity needs.”

-Environmental Defense Fund

Here is the full article

This is such a welcome trend to see educated, environmntally concious consumers, making their choices based upon their concern for our planet and each other. A recent rmarketing eport from Unity Marketing has clearly indentified the luxury market is responding to the green market and it is not a fad or trendy short lived part of the economy. With gas prices exploding and climate change being a real concern not just the treehuggers and fashion challenged granola-heads are voting with their consuming choices and pocket books. Here is an excerpt from the article:

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The Luxury Market Is Going Green — Luxury Brands Can’t Afford to Ignore It

Unity Marketing’s latest trend report uncovers strategies for targeting the affluent “Green” consumer

Stevens, PA June 6, 2008 — The typical ‘green’ consumer is no longer certain to be a fashion-challenged, granola-crunching wearer of Birkenstocks. Today, the consumer looking to go green is increasingly likely to be an affluent professional woman wearing an eco-friendly and animal-free Stella McCartney suit and satin shoes. And if you want her dollars and her loyalty, you need to pay attention to the priorities she finds important when making her selection of luxury goods and services.

Green luxury consumers look for social responsibility before making a purchase

According to Unity Marketing’s latest trend report on luxury, Green Marketing and the Luxury Consumer, luxury consumers are concerned about the environmental issues that hit closest to home, citing fuel and energy shortages and the use of renewable energy sources as top concerns. “With gas prices at $4 a gallon — and this might be the summer low — even the affluent find it hard to ignore the impact of filling your tank a couple of times a week,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience.

However, luxury consumers are also looking beyond themir pocketbooks to larger issues, like protecting the environment, global warming and avoiding water and air pollution. And the leaders on these issues are affluent women.

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There is a $230 billion marketplace that exists for products and services that meet the needs of consumers who buy based on their personal, social and environmental values. This marketplace is predicted to grow to $845 billion by 2015! Here is Colette Chandler, Green Marketing expert, talking about the effects of Green Marketing and how consumer trends are driving profit… GO GREEN!

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So going green and having some green now go together. It is great to see how the power of one person making green choices with their consuming can in deed change the world. I think another major shift is happening in the choices for the quality of the foods we eat. Qrganic, non-irradiated, Monsanto-free foods should be the norm. If the corporate strangle hold of our FDA drives their decisions… we can undernine the corporations by what we are willing to purchase…. one person… one purchase at a time… :~)
Peace,

Bruce

Unity Marketing article

Can Green Consumers & Industries

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Why Say Yes to Green?

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________________________________

An interview with Professor Bebo White regarding the SayYesToGreen.org initative…

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On monday (5/25/08) new patents were pulled by some folks at Apple. The patents are related to using solar energy to power portable devices. As usual Apple is about three steps ahead of everyone else…

As an Apple Authorized Reseller and Ecopreneur… I found this very exciting and amusing. The patent talks about integrating the solar panels behind the actual LCD screen of a portable device.

This would save the space taken by the panels on the device’s outer surface. The patent application showcases diagram where the solar cells are placed between the LCD Layer and the Flex PCB. The technology behind this all is quite interesting. It goes back to a 2001 patent that Motorola filed, exploring the use of photovoltaic cells behind the LED screen of the device, much like a calculator. If Apple pulled this off successfully, there would be no design modifications at all. It would be an instant success.

The filing said that information regarding the performance of a device’s solar cells could be displayed on the main screen next to info for battery power, text message alerts and time of day. Or this information could also appear on top of the solar cells themselves, which are likely to display some version of the Apple logo.
In any case, Apple’s new technology could herald the next generation of wireless mobility. Without the need to electrically charge devices–either via outlets or USB cables–users could at last start to break free from on-the-grid power connections.
Other mobile product manufacturers have looked at solar energy for some time, as consumers demand more battery power from portable devices One product is the 6.4-ounce Solio Mg, $200, from Better Energy Systems. Its three magnesium blades fan out to reveal solar panels, which can store enough power to charge most phones and PDAs twice; an hour of clear sun will give most cell phones 25 minutes of talk time or an iPod an hour of playing time. It takes ten hours of direct sun to fully juice the device.
Also, the world’s first solar bag–the Voltaic Systems’ Generator laptop bag–is covered in solar cells and can charge a laptop. It generates up to 14.7 watts after a day of direct sunlight, can carry a 17-inch Apple Powerbook and comes with adapters that allow other electronics, such as cell phones, to be charged.

Apple is getting brighter all the time… :~)

Peace,

Bruce

This is great news about how the solar industry is heating up. High-volume manufacturing of thin film PV, which requires less than 1% of expensive semiconductor material compared to traditional PV, is key to rapidly driving down the cost of PV and making it fully-competitive with fossil fuels

In-joy,

Bruce

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Masdar PV announced a multi-billion dollar investment in thin-film photovoltaic solar technology. The total investment of more than US $2 billion represents one of the largest investments ever made in solar and will fund a three-phased manufacturing and expansion strategy to produce the latest generation of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules.

– Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO, Masdar
Phase one involves an investment of US $600 million, which will fund the development of two manufacturing facilities. The first, in Erfurt, Germany will be operational by Q3 2009 and a second facility in Abu Dhabi will begin initial production by Q2 2010. The combined annual production capacity of these two sites will be 210 megawatts (MW) and the modules produced will be used in both Europe and the Middle East.

“Thin-film PV is a key part of our build-deploy-develop strategy to actively build a strong position in alternative energy. Abu Dhabi is a global energy leader, so it makes sense to engage these new energy technologies and become a leader in alternatives,” said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar.

“This marks a major milestone for Masdar and Abu Dhabi. It will not only establish Masdar as a major global PV player, but will be the first high-tech semiconductor nano-manufacturing facility of its kind in the entire region,” he added.

According to Deutsche Bank the current global PV market is worth US$15 billion and growing rapidly at 40 percent per year. Thin film PV is growing even faster, with an annual growth rate of 100 percent.

The plants will use the latest generation of equipment capable of high-volume processing of ultra-large glass substrates, which, at 5.7 m2, are eight times larger and five times more powerful than that of the current market leader.

High-volume manufacturing of thin film PV, which requires less than 1 percent of expensive semiconductor material compared to traditional PV, is key to rapidly driving down the cost of PV and making it fully-competitive with fossil fuels.

The technology for grid-parity solar power exists in most sunny markets today. It’s a matter of achieving the right scale to achieve lower costs. Masdar PV will combine scale plus a proven PV technology, advanced manufacturing capability, and advanced R&D to deliver lower costs.

Industry applauds move
PV industry experts have applauded the move. “This potentially represents a paradigm shift in solar, a real game-changer,” commented Dr. Winfried Hoffmann, President of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, the largest organization representing the PV industry. “The entry of such powerful energy leaders into solar is very exciting, and could change the dynamics of the entire industry” by not only adding capacity but also new, future big markets in and around the Middle East with a lot of sun and capital to deploy PV systems, he added.

In addition to low-cost manufacturing, thin film PV offers requires only one year to pay back the carbon cost of producing these panels, and maintenance costs are minimal. It is ideally suited for hot sunny climates, as well as for building-integrated solutions, known as BIPV.

The Masdar Initiative, Abu Dhabi’s response to the need for cleaner future energy solutions, is the region’s leader in the research, development and deployment of renewable energy and sustainability related technologies.

sources: RenewableEnergyWorld.com, ciol.com, examiner.com, PRNewswire

1366 TECHNOLOGIES, MIT SOLAR START-UP, RAISES FIRST $12M
MIT Professor Ely Sachs Aims to Beat Coal with Improved Silicon Solar Cell Manufacturing
Lexington, Mass. – March 27, 2008 – 1366 Technologies, a new MIT start-up aiming to make silicon solar cells competitive with coal, today announced it has secured $12.4 million in a first round of financing co-led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners.
MIT Professor, 1366 founder and CTO, Ely Sachs, noted that 1366 Technologies will be combining innovations in silicon cell architecture with manufacturing process improvements to bring multi-crystalline silicon solar cells to cost parity with coal-based electricity.
Sachs added, “The science is understood, the raw materials are abundant and the products work.  All that is left to do is innovate in manufacturing and scale up volume production, and that’s just what we intend to do.” The company has just taken space in Lexington to build its pilot solar cell manufacturing facility.

The name 1366 represents the 1366 watts of solar radiation hitting each square meter of the Earth on average.

1366 Technologies produces new manufacturing processes to lower the cost of silicon solar cells. Among others, they have developed proprietary new cell architecture for multi-crystalline solar cells. They are currently in the process of implementing this architecture in their pilot plant.

This architecture, developed at MIT, improves surface texture and metallization to enhance silicon solar cell efficiency by 25% (from 15 - 19%) while lowering costs.

The revolutionary, new Light-Capturing Ribbon increases the efficiency of a solar module by reflecting light back onto the surface of the cell. This grooved ribbon replaces the traditional wires used to interconnect solar cells.

Just as standard interconnect wires, the Light-Capturing Ribbon is soldered to the silver busbar on top of the silicon cell and to the solder pads on the back of the next cell.

The grooved surface of the Ribbon steers incoming light back to the glass/air interface at a grazing angle, that allows the light to undergo virtually total internal reflection, directing it back to the cell surface.

Up to 80% of the photocurrent from light that strikes the ribbon is recovered—far better than the 5% recovered by a standard interconnect wire.

The Light-Capturing Ribbon is a strip of very soft copper wire. The top of the ribbon is patterned with parallel triangular grooves with their sides at 30º to the horizontal.

The grooves are 43 µm high, spaced every 150 µm and have an optical-quality silver finish. The flat bottom of the wire is tinned with solder.

Imagine a PV module panel plant, producing 20 MWp annually, each panel priced at $3.50/Wp. A 2% efficiency boost would generate an additional $1.4M per year revenue. Since each panel is 2% more efficient, the costs of transporting and installing the modules—not to speak of related real estate costs—are also reduced by 2%.

Traditional wires are an engineering trade-off between minimizing resistive losses (requiring wider wires) and minimizing shading losses (requiring narrower wires).

Theoretical analysis has shown that the optimum interconnect design is one where its resistive loss equals the energy loss in the shaded areas.

Since 80% of the photocurrent from light that strikes the ribbon is recovered, we can now use wider interconnects, reducing Ohmic losses without sacrificing efficiency.

The Light-Capturing Ribbon offers enhanced performance, direct savings to the module manufacturer and lower cost for end consumers, easier transitions to larger and thinner cells, new design optimizations, and improved aesthetics.

The gains can be achieved through minor modifications of existing manufacturing processes and equipment.

Because the Light-Capturing Ribbon is compatible with the existing manufacturing process, you can achieve many of the potential benefits of processes such as metallization wrap through.

Whereas the latter moves the contact to the back with several additional process steps (including drilling many holes in the silicon matrix), using the grooved ribbon simply requires a straightforward change to the tabber-stringer machine.

The retooling is minimal and the grooved ribbon improves the module’s efficiency at minimal cost without compromising yield.

ituated near Boston, Massachusetts, 1366 is located in one of the most advanced technology capitals in the world. They are committed to producing value for customers by using innovative technology to develop and build the world’s most efficient multi-crystalline solar cells.

1366 Technologies will partner with solar companies and government agencies, licensing its technology to accelerate the ongoing global transition to solar. In addition, the company plans to build industrial, 100 megawatt plants around the world.

“Once the pilot plant has proven itself, we’ll work with governments and energy agencies worldwide to build a string of factories,” said Carmichael Roberts, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, who is joining 1366 Technologies board of directors as chairman.

1366 Technologies intends to partner with solar companies and government agencies, licensing its technology to accelerate the ongoing global transition to solar.

MIT Professor, 1366 founder and CTO, Ely Sachs, noted that 1366 Technologies will be combining innovations in silicon cell architecture with manufacturing process improvements to bring multi-crystalline silicon solar cells to cost parity with coal-based electricity.

Sachs added, “The science is understood, the raw materials are abundant and the products work. All that is left to do is innovate in manufacturing and scale up volume production, and that’s just what we intend to do.” The company has just taken space in Lexington to build its pilot solar cell manufacturing facility.

http://1366tech.com

This exciting new technolgy will make a great impact on the solar industry and help Citizenre get even more folks upgraed to solar!

Peace,

Bruce