Research and analysis of solar PV manufacturing costs and international trade flows shows that Chinese silicon solar PV manufacturers have only a slight cost advantage on their US counterparts, and that excludes transportation costs, the effect of inflation rate differentials, and other factors. Furthermore, the extraordinary rise in Chinese exports of silicon solar PV cells and panels to the US could only be sustained with the support of massive government subsidies, according to a US DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) presentation. The results provide additional evidence in support of SolarWorld America’s and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing’s (CASM) international trade petitions against Chinese silicon solar PV manufacturers and Chinese government subsidies, asserts SolarWorld America’s president Gordon Brinser. “This analysis from the renewable-energy research arm of the U.S. government corroborates our view that an export drive sponsored by ...

For a long time ‘clean’ and ‘green’ marked the forward trend in the energy industry. Then came the quest for ‘smart’ energy. And now ‘innovation’ is the buzzword. It’s easy to see why. As Americans, we believe our ability to innovate sets us apart in today’s international market. Sure China can manufacture computers and cell phones more quickly and cheaply, but we came up with Google and iPhones in the first place. The energy industry offers a lot of opportunity for US innovators, given our aging grid, quest for alternatives to fossil fuels, and our glimpse into the possibilities of a virtual, democratized grid that gives consumers more control over their energy use and production. But will energy innovation help the US job market? Or will the products be conceived here but be manufactured elsewhere? Siemens ...

 

The picture shows a test system consisting of 40 high concentrating photovoltaic (HCPV) modules. The latest prototypes of the modules achieved a major milestone with 33.9 percent solar module efficiency. (Press picture: Semprius)

Yep, it’s that time again—a new solar module efficiency record has been set and independently verified. The solar module company is Semprius. The new efficiency record is 33.9%. The modules are actually set to come to market this year. And the efficiency percentage “was externally certified after measurement under standard test conditions at the Instituto de Energia Solar (IES) at the University of Madrid (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid),” a news release notes. This is the first time that a photovoltaic module has converted over one-third of the solar energy hitting the module into usable electricity. The previous record was reportedly ...

Solar Cells on Windows

Astrowatt has developed a new manufacturing technique for solar cells that would enable them to attain the comparably high efficiency of traditional silicon wafer solar panels, but while using the silicon raw material much more efficiently. Thin-Film Solar Cells You’ve probably heard of thin-film solar cells by now. They are, literally, semiconductor ink that is printed using an inkjet printer on a substrate (surface) such as glass or plastic, and possibly encased in a protective solar panel. The ink used is usually an electricity-generating semiconductor material such as CIGS and cadmium telluride. This type of solar cell can be printed onto flexible surfaces, while traditional silicon wafer solar cells are brittle and, thus, require a rigid and strong surface to prevent breakage. But that’s not what Astrowatt’s innovation is about…. Astrowatt’s Efficient Solar-Cell Manufacturing The Astrowatt ...

Image courtesy Onyx Service and Solutions

Borrowing a design concept from the consumer electronics industry, ‘Plug n’ Play’ solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are making their way into the consumer mass market. Plug n’ Play solar PV systems offer homeowners the possibility of purchasing a complete, pre-packaged solar PV system that can be set up at low cost with relative ease. Perhaps the greatest advantage they offer is the ability to start drawing clean, renewable energy from the PV panels by simply plugging in an extension cord.

The first two versions of an “all-in-one” 330-Watt (W) “Plug-N-Play” solar home PV system designed by Colorado’s Onyx Service and Solutions were due to arrive at a demonstration site in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday, on schedule for press and prospective customers to get a first-hand look at them from ...

The Finnish physicist Matti Nurmia has patented a different type of CO2 sequestration with real commercial potential, using very little energy in the conversion process and creating byproducts with high commercial value. His firm, Cuyha Innovation Oy (Oy means company) converts acidic CO2 into harmless bicarbonates.

Nurmia’s process differs from carbonization, where CO2 is neutralized with carbonate minerals such as limestone, the way that companies like California’s Calera are making cement with sequestered CO2. But Cuyha is sequestering CO2 in Feldspars, a group of rock-forming minerals, by washing the flue emissions with water at a very high pressure.

The process creates salable byproducts (depending on which feldspar is employed) of lithium carbonate ($10 a kg) or alumina (worth about $300 a ton) or quartz sand.

Neutralizing 1 ton of carbon dioxide with anorthite produces about 1 ton of alumina plus ...

 

OK, I’m doing my top 10 list now. Following up on AWEA’s top 10 wind energy stories and SEIA’s top 10 solar energy stories, I decided I may as well give my own opinion on the top 10 clean energy stories and energy efficiency stories of 2011 (plus one bonus story). There will be some overlap, of course.

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1. 40% drop in cost of solar. This tremendous drop in the cost of solar was, to say the least, massively influential. It helped tons of people and businesses to go solar for less, increased work for numerous solar installers, and helped to put some companies out of business who were working on alternatives to traditional solar PV. The full ramifications are still unclear, but recent reports have shown that ...

 

With congested cities that continue to grow, more and more cities are looking towards public transportation as a way to move people around and get people not using cars.

However, despite the benefits of public transportation, many public transit buses still run on good old fossil fuel diesel. With carbon emissions reaching record highs, one wonders if public buses running completely on fossil fuels and wasting energy is efficient.

Enter Swedish automotive company Volvo, which has been getting into the clean tech game in a big way by developing hybrid buses.

Anders Kroon, technical official with Volvo, and his team began to work on the concept of buses that would be more sustainable. Call them hybrid buses. Hybrid buses use a combination of an internal combustion engine, along with an electric ...

Graphic credit The Washington Post

Manufacturing solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules in China has been a tremendous success, at least if you’re willing to put off profitability for job creation to help assure social stability. Sustainable over the long term? No, not likely, but in less than a decade, China’s manufacturers have captured 48% of the global marketof silicon PV cells, as the excellent graphic from the Washington Post shows.

During this period, global production of solar PV cells has expanded tenfold. Prices of solar grade polysilicon, the raw material from which solar PV cells are made, have dropped 94% in three years.

Most of China’s market share gain has come at the expense of the world’s other leading solar PV manufacturers, Germany, Taiwan and Japan, though US manufacturers are also being squeezed hard ...

Photo credit: Dennis Schroeder, NREL, Semprius

Tiny solar cells developed by Durham, NC-based Semprius were validated by the US Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) as achieving an energy conversion efficiency of greater than 41% at a concentration of 1,000 suns. That’s one of the highest efficiencies ever recorded at this level of concentrated sunlight, NREL announced Dec. 14.

With seed funding from the DOE and the help of experts at the NREL-based SunShot Incubator Program, Semprius now aims to manufacture and commercialize its technology utilizing its patented micro-transfer printing process, a low cost, massive parallel process that simultaneously transfers thousands of the preformed circuit elements from a source semiconductor to almost any other substrate.

Construction of Semprius’s manufacturing plant in Henderson, NC began earlier this year. North Carolina and local agencies ...