This Tuesday Barack Obama will inaugurate what will be the nation’s largest solar plant. The 25MW Florida plant, called the Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, sits on 180 acres and will provide enough power for 3000 homes and businesses. It will eclipse Nevada’s Nellis Solar Power Plant for the title of largest solar photovoltaic solar facility in the US, but won’t hold that title for long. First Solar is building a 48MW plant in Nevada and announced recently it will build a huge 2GW plant over in China. It’s a great start though and puts Florida and FPL Group on the solar map.
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Nation’s Largest Solar Plant Begins Producing Tuesday
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Flexible Solar Panels Get More Mobile
Srikant RajanJust how flexible can solar cells get??? Thin film solar cell panels are flexible enough to be molded on common building appliances and external structures.Howvwer new research promises to give even more “ flexibility ” by creating liquid solar cells. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Sumitomo Chemical Company, Japan are working on a method that makes it possible to create molecules in liquid forms that duplicate the solar cell and organic electroluminescence processes that create electricity. These liquid molecules can be spread on textiles in form of a thin organic layer and when the molecules dry they form a permanent covering. When light falls on this surface electricity is produced as in conventional solar cells. In other words you can “ wear ” your power source
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Mass Production Of Flexible Solar Cells
Srikant RajanKonarka , a solar cell startup based in Lowell has opened a commercial production facility for flexible solar cells with a capacity1 GW, the equivalent of a large nuclear reactor .The flexible solar cells reduce the cost of solar power by using organic polymers as opposed to expensive silicon.The processing of these polymers can be done by using low cost equipment such as ink-jet printers.Konarka’s products could be used in a variety of applications such as laptop recharge, external tents.A company is presently testing the viability of Konarka’s cells for use in umbrellas for outdoor tables at restaurants.
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Double Pack – Wind Energy Plus Solar Power
Srikant RajanItalian based Moncada Energy Group is planning a model of energy generation that would combine bot solar and wind power .Moncada plans to erect solar panels in its wind farm fields and hopes to draw power when the sun shines during the day and in the night when the wind intensity is higher as compared to day time.Salvatore Moncada , executive says “ The panels will be used for our solar farm and placed under the towers in our wind farms. This will allow both the panels and the wind turbines—55 meters tall, with 40-meter long blades—to use the same infrastructure in place to collect energy ”
This double harvest technique would add 400 MW to 105 MW of energy from wind farms , but the power output would vary as sometimes solar panels could be hampered by presence of turbine shadows.
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Balloon Type Solar Concentrator
Srikant RajanCool Earth Solar has a balloon up in air.No, it isn’t the kind of balloon you would like to play with it, but the kind that concentrates solar power to generate electricity.The company uses an inflatable thin-film balloon(Solar concentrator) that upon inflation focuses sunlight onto photovoltaic cell held at its focal point.Technically speaking this design should produce the maximum amount of power concentration as it focuses sunlight from all directions. A single cell in this concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator.So does this mean there would be no more rows and rows of solar panels in the field but just one balloon hovering in the air?
Well Cool Earth is constructing a prototype plant in Livermore to test out different solar designs and get some proof of this technology.This winter, Cool Earth will launch its first commercial-grade power plant. The plant will be relatively small— only 1.4 MW— but Cool Earth plans on launching a full-size plant (10 to 30 MW) by next summer.
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China Plans to Go Green
Srikant RajanThe dragon is looking for new sources of energy to fuel its furious flight.Chinese government has acknowledged the importance of clean energy and is investigating its abundant source of hydropower.Chinas hydro potential ranks the first in the world.The country’s hydropower installation reached 145,000 MW IN 2007 and is now targeting 190,000 MW for 2010. Other source that look promising for China are the global favorites, namely wind and solar energy.The nation’s total wind installation reached nearly 6,000 mw in capacity by 2007. The government has doubled the wind target for 2010 from 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW.Adds China Wind Energy Association Vice President Shi Pengfei “ The new target is still conservative. Actual installation may reach 20,000 mw by the time ”
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Solar Panel Glut in US
Srikant RajanA mad scramble for solar panels in the US could actually “ slow “ down in investment in solar manufacturing units.Experts believe that many US solar companies are laying of workers as US and foreign government incentives approach expiration. For instance PV Powered Inc., a solar-inverter has laid off an undisclosed number — in the single digits — because of the tax credit, which Congress could still vote to renew this year. Edwin Koot,solar analyst adds “ The industry simply is growing too fast compared to the demand side.There are too many companies on the market “
Such a scenario is hard to predict given the uncertainty in this latent industry. a glut of solar panels may also work to push down the costs and may provide the necessary impetus to achieve economies of scales.Given the rapid growth in the industry some hiccups such as PV Powered are bound to occur , but it is hard to extend a similar generalization to the entire solar industry.
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Ceramic Alternative for Solar Cells
Srikant RajanNo more looking around for silicon for expensive solar cells.Morgan Technical Ceramics , a specialist in engineering of ceramic components is engaging with PV manufacturers across the globe , supplying components for fabricating of both silicon and non-silicon based thin film solar PV cells.Non silicon based thin film Pv are manufactured by a a process similar to the manufacturing of architectural glass.This process involves fused silica rollers that are used to move the hot glass panels through the deposition process. In Thin Film Photovoltaic cells (TFPV) deposition equipment, precursor vapors and gases are transported from a source vessel through a deposition zone onto a heated glass substrate to deposit the PV layer. Morgan Technical Ceramics produces a number of components used in this part of the TFPV process.
The advantage of using silica for manufacturing of TFPV is its high thermal stability and low coefficient of thermal expansion which is advantageous in high temperature manufacturing process.The use of ceramics my make it possible to reduce the overall cost of manufacturing TFPVs thus , making them a viable alternative to conventional power sources.
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Pump the Wind Under The Ground
Srikant RajanYou had solar energy without the sun , how about wind energy when there is no wind ? A new Jersey company is trying to find a method for trapping wind based power in underground reservoirs.This process involves using excess power from the grid at times of low demand , such as in the night and using it to pump air into underground caverns.During periods of higher demand , this air is released and heated to run air expansion turbines.Michael Nakhamkin , pioneer of storage techniques says “ This technology significantly reduces fuel oil and natural gas consumption “. Nakhamkin adds , that this methods uses of fossil fuels results in low emissions compared to traditional turbine systems.
Now here is yet another add on to power grid after plug in hybrids.I am inclined to say that this process merely delays the carbon emissions , its impact on the reduction front is very low.
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Nuclear Waiver For a Green India ?
Srikant RajanIndia has received approval from 45 member Nuclear Supplier Group for civilian nuclear corporation , ending 34 years of nuclear isolation.This development places India in a unique position to leverage its business expertise , technical manpower with a host of cutting edge technologies to advance development of nuclear energy.This NSG waiver is expected to promote entry of private players in the power generation sector and entail an estimated investment of $40billion in the coming decade.
Politics apart , from a sustainability viewpoint this waiver has enormous implications.The development of nuclear energy is no doubt a significant fallout of this policy but access to latest technologies also presents India an opportunity to utilize the same in other domains such as medical appliances , solar energy.In essence it may ease in development of alternative power in India and thus reduce dependence on oil imports
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