Konarka , 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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Mass Production Of Flexible Solar Cells
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Solar Electricity For Some High !!
Srikant RajanConstellation Wines US (CWUS) , has begun the installation of one of the largest solar power energy system for its winery located at Monterey County, California.The capacity is anticipated to be 1 MW and will cover 170000 square feet of the main winery warehouse roof and would provide 50 % of the winery’s total energy requirement.Kelly McMahon, Director of Sales for Pacific Power Management, who is working with Constellation on this project says “ During the summer months, when the winery is not crushing grapes, the system will export enough electricity onto PG&E’s power lines to supply all of the electrical needs for about 25 percent of the roughly 1,695 households in Gonzales “
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Efficient Solar Power
Srikant RajanGermanium wafer based solar cells provide high efficiency .However raw germanium costs $680 per pound and further more their fabrication leads to lot of material being wasted since germanium is highly brittle.A new wafer slicing method may provide for means to reduce the wastage of material.The new method for slicing solar cell wafers christened as Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) – wastes less germanium and produces more wafers by cutting thin wafers with less waste and cracking . As compared to silicon based solar cells , germanium layered solar cells may used in conjunction with solar concentrators, can provide an efficiency of 40% (nealry double).Translated even a small reduction in fabrication costs of germanium based solar cells can lead to a significant value proposition.
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Solar Powered Refrigerator
Srikant RajanAfter 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.
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Solar Power Even Without Sun
Srikant RajanThe sun goes down in the night and with it goes the electricity being generated by a solar cell.Of course you can store some of the energy generated in a battery , but that is not cost economical.Now MIT has come come up with a process that may allow unlimited solar power.The essence of this new technology is similar to the process of photosynthesis.The electricity generated by a solar cell is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases , which are later recombined within a fuel cell to provide power when solar power is unavailable.
This process uses a catalyst that can work well at room temperature and is easy to fabricate.Additionally this process also also provides an attractive interlinking of two green energy generators( solar and fuel cells) .However there is still the challenge of integrating this into mainstream solar cells, which itself is in development phase.Researchers however add “ This is just the beginning. The scientific community is really going to run with this “. It is further anticipated that this technology could be close to commercialization within the coming decade.
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Rollback of Fedral Stay on Solar Power
Srikant RajanThe US government has lifted the temporary moratorium on building solar plants.Faced with a flood of proposals for building of solar plants on government land,the Bureau of Land Management US had previously enacted a two year ban on all projects ostensibly for studying the impact of such plants on the desert ecosystem.While earlier it seem that the govt was genuinely interested in analyzing the environmental impact of such plant ,this rollback seems to indicate otherwise.It now seems that the ban was just a means to arm itself with more manpower to study all the proposals it had in the pipeline.Worse, it also indicates that the exercise was meant as a PR stunt to convince environmentalists of its noble intentions.
There can and must not be any two ways for achieving energy sufficiency.It is imperative to promote clean energy technologies ,but not at the cost of creating another danger to the environment.It is true that solar power is an attractive large scale power generation technology . However a sudden spurt of numerous such plants would undoubtedly impact the ecosystem which should be throughly analyzed to minimize the hazards.
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Solar Power Goes From Large Deserts to Small Lands
Srikant Rajan
Image Courtesy:RawSolar
Following the recent stay on using large swatches of desert land for solar power,the industry is now finding other means to tap into solar power.RawSolar,an MIT based startup is planning to commercialize its solar concentrator that is easily scalable and can also be built on small swatches of land.RawSolar’s design goes back to the basic model of a solar concentrator,which is essentially a parabolic reflective surface to concentrate sunlight.This approach however requires expensive machining methods to achieve the precise shape of concentrator. RawSolar’s patented design,eliminates need for such expensive manufacturing methods without compromising on the performance.
Matt Ritter,cofounder of RawSolar is currently planning for a first round of funding and hopes to get ready with a pilot installation by year end.
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Federal Stay on Solar Power
Srikant RajanWith demand for energy showing no signs of abatement ,Mojave desert in California is emerging as an attractive destination to solar power developers.Nearly 8 startups have proposed plans to use the desert land for creating small to medium capacity solar power plants.The federal government has now placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact,which is expected to take 2 years.
This temporary freeze on solar proposals has predictably caused a widespread concern among solar developers.Lee Wallach of Solel, a solar power company based in California says "The problem is that this is a very young industry, and the majority of us that are involved are young, struggling, hungry companies.This is a setback."However as unpalatable as this ban is ,it is essential to analyze the environmental impact of such plants on the fragile ecosystem of desert and neighboring areas.Two years is not a long time period to wait and the demand for energy isn’t going to fall in the coming years.However companies such as BrightSource, which already have secured permits to build solar plants would benefit immensely from his temporary ban.
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Wind Power Gets a $240 Million Push
Srikant RajanDuke Energy,is one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, and delivers electricity to nearly 4 million US customers .Duke has acquired Vermont based acquired Catamount Energy Corporation , which has developed wind projects in US and United Kingdom.This acquisition has cost Duke $240 million and any assumed debt.
Duke is slowly but surely building up its renewable energy generating capacity.This acquisition comes after the recent agreement to purchase electrical power from a photovoltaic solar farm slated to be built in Davidson County.Duke has also plans to invest $100 million in to develop solar power in North Carolina.Now the plunge into the wind power segment further highlights that Duke’s plans to develop its renewable power offerings.
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Duke Energy Teams With SunEdison
Srikant RajanDuke Energy has entered into a partnership with North American based SunEdison.Under the terms of this agreement Duke Energy would purchase all the electrical power from the photovoltaic solar farm slated to be built in Davidson County, N.C., north of Charlotte by the year 2010.This solar farm is expected to provide customers of Duke Energy , excess of of 16MW of power for nearly 20 years.Keith Trent, group executive and chief strategy officer viewed the present agreements as an important step in achieving Duke Energy’s long term goals.Trent added that Duke Energy is also advancing its indigenous technology for distributed solar power generation and that renewable energy would play a dominant role in Duke’s energy portfolio in the coming years.
