Latest Updates: solar panel RSS

  • Double Pack – Wind Energy Plus Solar Power
    Srikant Rajan 04:14:23 am on October 7, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    Italian 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.

     

  • Balloon Type Solar Concentrator
    Srikant Rajan 05:33:36 pm on October 5, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    Cool 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.

     

  • Solar Powered Refrigerator
    Srikant Rajan 12:38:22 pm on October 3, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    After having a solar powered LCD television, now it is a solar powered refrigerator that is on the cards.A MIT spin-off  Promethean Power Systems has secured funds to develop a solar powered fridge for rural India by the year 2009.The device uses thermoelectric cooling effect as opposed to freon based cooling, which in turn allows for reduced dependence on diesel generators.The device uses power form a hybrid compressor for cooling effect in addition to 3-5 solar panels.

    Promethean estimates that the fridge costs 66 percent less to operate because of the ability to remotely monitor and diagnose problems, as well as the need for fewer fossil fuels.Additionally the design of the fridge allows it to run off the grid and can work for farmers living in rural India who have limited access to centralized grid based power.

     

  • Solar Panel Glut in US
    Srikant Rajan 06:53:20 pm on September 21, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    A 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.

     

  • Solar Power for Consumer Electronics
    Srikant Rajan 12:12:21 pm on July 11, 2008 | 2 | # |
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    Sharp Corporation has unveiled a new design of an LCD TV that is powered by solar energy. This new prototype 26 inch LCD is powered by a solar panel of size equal to the actual set. The panel used is designed using Sharps “ triple-junction thin-film solar cell module ”. Adds Sharp, “ Thin-film solar cells use significantly less refined silicon than crystalline solar cells, plus the energy used when fabricating the solar cells is lower because of fewer processing steps. And the fact they use no rare or scarce metals, or materials regulated under the RoHS Directive, means they are highly cost-effective and offer a high level of environmental performance “

    Sharp claims that as compared to conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) model, this LCD prototype consumes only a quarter of power. Additionally this model provides an alternative to people currently not covered by the conventional power grid , an estimated 1.6 billion people across the globe in geographically inaccessible areas. This is a welcome move which establishes the viability of solar power in consumer electronics. However there remains the challenge of lowering the cost so that it provides a decent value proposition for consumers worldwide.