(Rocky Mountain News) -Gargl Chakrabarty
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On Friday, the utility sought competitive bids for up to 600 megawatts of solar power projects with capacity for storage - power that would serve roughly 150,000 customers in the Front Range.

The price tag: about $3 billion.

If Xcel selects a single plant generating the entire power, it would be the world’s biggest solar project.

“We can do it,” said John Czingula, one of the biggest shareholders and founder of Solargenix Energy.

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Full Story

Xcel Energy Press Release

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DENVER – Xcel Energy will seek to acquire approximately 2,200 megawatts of electric generation supply for its Colorado customers between now and 2015, through an all-source request for proposal (RFP) issued today by the company. The RFP is part of the most recent 2007 Colorado Resource Plan (CRP) approved by state regulators in December.

Xcel Energy is seeking to add up to 700 megawatts of additional wind and solar generation through the RFP. In addition, the company will consider acquiring up to 600 megawatts from solar thermal generation with storage capability or natural gas backup.

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PRESS RELEASE

2:00 p.m. EST Nov. 5, 2008
NORTH EAST, Md., Nov 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Blue Square Energy, a developer and manufacturer of low-cost silicon solar cells, today announced that it has produced a 14.6 percent efficient solar cell with its patent-pending Bright Point technology. BSE’s efficiency result is one of the highest in the world on upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) silicon and has been verified independently by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“What we’ve been able to accomplish is a major milestone towards achieving our goal of creating low-cost solar energy for homes and businesses,” said Joseph Babin, CEO of BSE. “This proves that inexpensive silicon typically considered unsuited for the solar industry can be utilized to create solar energy that is price accessible for most Americans. Solar modules made with our Bright Point technology will soon be the best choice for those who care about our environment and their wallets — and want to save both.”

BSE’s Bright Point technology is unique because of its two part structure: a fine layer of high-grade silicon is placed on top of 4N UMG silicon, which differs significantly from the solar industry’s silicon norm by way of cost and availability. Bright Point technology is possible because of BSE’s proprietary engineering and scientific discoveries.

UMG silicon has drawn a great deal of industry attention as companies seek substitutes to traditional and rare solar grade silicon in the fabrication of their solar cells. However, most UMG technologies being developed focus on blending low percentages of inexpensive UMG silicon with expensive solar grade silicon. This results in a minimal cost reduction. Through Bright Point, Blue Square Energy uses 100 percent 4N UMG silicon, which results in a significant cost reduction relative to other UMG silicon solar cell products.

Creating low-cost solar cells is the first step in BSE’s goal of eventually manufacturing the world’s highest efficiency, lowest cost solar cell. This Bright Point II technology is currently in research and development.
About Blue Square Energy

Blue Square Energy is a developer and manufacturer of high-performance silicon solar cells headquartered in North East, Maryland. Its proprietary Bright Point solar cell technology utilizes upgraded metallurgical grade silicon to produce low-cost solar cells for use in homes and business. More information about Blue Square Energy can be found at http://www.BlueSquareEnergy.com.

From Physorg.com  11.3.08

Solar power game-changer: ‘Near perfect’ absorption of sunlight, from all angles

A new anti-reflective coating developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help to overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power. The nanoengineered coating boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky. Credit: Rensselaer/Shawn Lin

Read more…

PRESS RELEASE
TGI Solar Appoints Wolney Mendes to VP Business Development for Latin America

Last update: 10:32 a.m. EST Nov. 4, 2008
NEW YORK, NY, Nov 04, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — TGI Solar Power Group Inc. (PINKSHEETS: TSPG), a full turn key supplier of vertically integrated systems for a variety of applications from Solar Parks (solar to grid) to commercial markets announces the appointment of Wolney Mendes to VP Business Development for Latin America.

For nearly thirty years, Mr. Mendes has been involved with full life cycle project development, e-Commerce, internet and intranet applications, process redesign, architecture, CRM and ERP systems, access control and electronic security, hardware and firmware, He has built high-performing teams, designed and developed software solutions aligning technology projects for IBM, BASF, Eli Lilly, Philips, and The World Trade Center. As a consultant for the United Nations, Mr. Mendes created and implemented web-based, tax filing system for State Government of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Most recently he has been the Director of Technology for the Acme Group a specialized firm in electronic security.

Read full article…

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2008)

— The Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanoscience) is collaborating with the University of Hamburg in the development of composite materials based on semiconductor nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes as functional materials for efficient light emitting diodes and photovoltaic devices.

Semiconductor nanocrystals or also called quantum dots exhibit outstanding optical properties compared to organic dyes. Due to the quantum confinement their emission color can be continuously tuned from the ultraviolet to the near infrared range by changing the size and chemical composition. They exhibit a broad absorption spectrum, a narrow emission band and large absorption cross sections.

read more…

Panasonic eyes Sanyo; bets on solar power, hybrid cars

Reuters - Tue Nov 4, 2008 1:37pm EST

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp, the world’s top plasma TV maker, is betting on a green future of solar power and hybrid cars as it negotiates a price for rival Sanyo Electric Co that analysts say could be up to $8.7 billion.

A key driver for Panasonic is Sanyo’s auto batteries business that powers increasingly popular hybrid and electric vehicles, but it would also secure a foothold in the solar cell industry, another with strong growth potential amid concern about global climate change.

Read more…

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…

Luft calls for open fuel standard to break oil dependency, promote competition in fuel sector… video
Is an open fuel standard the answer to ending the United State’s dependency on foreign oil? Should the market be given the opportunity to choose which fuel to use? During today’s OnPoint, Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and co-founder of the Set America Free Coalition, explains why he believes an open fuel standard is the most viable option for our future transportation fuel policy. He discusses OPEC’s influence on current energy prices and analyzes the energy plan recently proposed by oilman T. Boone Pickens. Luft explains why he believes relying on natural gas to fuel our vehicles, as Pickens has suggested, would essentially create a new dependency issue for the U.S..
If you prefer to read, here is the transcript

Some very good points in this interview.

Peace,
Bruce

HERE COMES THE “NEGAWATT”!!!

When looking at the looming price of oil, topping $142 a barrel today (7/8/08) and forcasts of $12 - $15 per gallon by 2010 you can’t help but look for alternative and renewable sources of energy. What if it turned out that energy efficiency and conservation was the single biggest solution? Could the campaign for “Drill more, Pay less” be too little, too late for solving our energy crisis and peak oil?

This article by Amory B. Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute answers these questions with a litany of facts to clear the air and confusion about how to look at solving our energy needs and keep the environment from further going south.

Peace,

Bruce

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Using smarter technologies, more brains and less money to wring more work from less delivered energy–what energy experts call “end-use efficiency”–is the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest, fastest, most diverse, least visible, least understood and most neglected way to provide energy services.

How big is it? The 46% drop in U.S. energy intensity, a measure of energy consumption per dollar of real gross domestic product, during 1975-2005 represented, by 2005, the equivalent of a new energy “source.” This source was slightly larger than annual total European energy use, 2.1 times the size of U.S. oil consumption, 3.4 times bigger than U.S. net oil imports, six times domestic oil output or net oil imports from OPEC countries and 13 times net imports from Persian Gulf countries.

Three-fourths of U.S. electricity–69% of which is used in buildings, nearly all the rest in industry–can be saved for less than the price of just running a coal or nuclear plant. This “negawatt” potential is not just in smarter motors, lights, appliances, etc., but even more in their larger systems. For example, three-fifths of the world’s electricity runs motors, and half their shaft power runs pumps and fans. Designing friction out of pipes and ducts can save 10 times as much fuel at the power plant.” -Armory Lovins

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Here is the full article on Forbes.com

The Case for Efficiency
Amory B. Lovins 07.07.08

“We can save our bottom lines, and maybe our butts, by taking economics–and efficiency–seriously.” -Armory Lovins

Physicist Amory B. Lovins has been a leading practitioner of advanced energy efficiency in buildings, vehicles and industry for over three decades. He is co-founder, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit think-and-do tank that implements transformational energy and resource efficiency, chiefly in the private sector.

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