PowerPulse.net | Monday, January 23, 2012

Skyline Solar, a manufacturer of High Gain Solar CPV arrays for the commercial, industrial, government and utility markets, announced that the company has won a $1.85 million contract from the Department of Defense (DoD) and has since broken ground on the construction of Skyline Solar X14 CPV power plants at two domestic military sites.

Skyline Solar was awarded the contract in a competitive process under the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), a program intended to identify technologies that solve key DoD needs and have the highest potential for widespread deployment. The projects will allow Skyline Solar to demonstrate the Skyline X14 System’s performance in hot sunny climates, while also validating its field upgradability and rapid system deployment capability—key considerations in Skyline Solar being awarded the contract.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Spain’s ULMA Agrícola consortium and Tecnalia research center have developed a new type of photovoltaic solar panel for greenhouses that can generate electricity without an adverse effect on the crops grown within, while additionally providing cooling in summer. The system is designed to exploit the annual oscillation – the variation in the height of the sun’s path across the sky over the course of the year. In theory, no solar radiation is compromised over winter, but surplus radiation can be diverted to electricity-generation during summer.

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Solar power investment in America continues to defy stock market trends, with US solar power company Sungevity announcing a funding deal with Citigroup Inc. to provide for $50 million in residential solar leases that will allow the company to expand into new territory on the East Coast.

Sungevity has experienced rapid growth since 2010, reporting $120 million in residential solar installations. The company offers a zero-dollars-up-front leasing arrangement to homeowners wishing to install rooftop solar power systems. Last month, Sungevity partnered with home US improvement giant Lowes to allow customers in-store access to Sungevity’s iQuote satellite imaging system that can provide customers with instant quotes without need for onsite assessments from technicians.

“Citi’s new tax equity fund will support our rapid growth and momentum, including our recent expansion to the East Coast and our significant partnership with Lowe’s,” said Mac Irvin, Chief Financial Officer of Sungevity. “Citi is a valuable addition to our sources of project finance as we look to provide more customers with our easy, affordable solar lease option and spur the mass adoption of solar.”

The company says that since the solar lease program was introduced in 2010 solar installations have grown ten-fold. This encouraged Sungevity’s launch of its “Rooftop Revolution” in July aimed at new markets in five Northeast states, including New York, Maryland and New Jersey.

According to a company release, “Sungevity is now in a hyper-growth phase and will hire approximately 200 new employees by the end of 2011, doubling its current headcount.”

The Citigroup funding deal could be seen as a signal that renewable energy is a safe bet for the USA in uncertain financial times, with private-sector cash buttressing against unpredictable federal schemes for solar energy projects.
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Schneider Electric recently announced it had secured a contract with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) in Puerto Rico to install 2.89 megawatts of solar panels on renovated Coast Guard rooftops over a 13-month period.

The company says the rooftop solar rollout, part of its comprehensive $50 million energy savings performance contract (ESPC) with the Coast Guard, will see electricity production of more than 4 million kilowatt-hours per year.

Combined with new “cool roofs”, the solar power systems will slash the annual cooling load of the buildings by 3.9 billion British Thermal Units, resulting in an overall reduction of utility-purchased electricity by an estimated 40 percent.

The cool roof measures included insulation, reflectivity and improved drainage, with energy and operational savings offsetting the costs of implementation.  Other pilot projects carried out by Schneider Electric for the Coast Guard examined HVAC measures, lighting and water conservation.

“Reducing the Coast Guard’s energy consumption and developing renewable energy solutions in Puerto Rico not only helps the Coast Guard meet federal mandates, reduce green house gas emissions and stabilize energy costs, but it also can help create green collar jobs in Puerto Rico. This project will have a significant impact on the industry there,” said Capt. John Hickey, commanding officer of Coast Guard Shore Maintenance Command in Seattle.

Schneider Electric has a presence in more than 100 countries and currently employs over 110,000 people. In 2010, the company achieved sales of more than $26 billion. Schneider Electric says it has helped clients around the world save nearly $1 billion on energy costs in the last 20 years.

Schneider Electric is probably best known in Australia for its range of Xantrex solar inverters – a relatively common sight in Australian solar households. Solar inverters convert the direct current (DC) generated by solar panels into alternating current (AC) suitable for use in the home and for exporting to the mains grid.
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FARM DAMS USED TO FLOAT SOLAR PANELS
Farm dams can be put to work to host floating solar farms that not only create clean, renewable electricity, but also reduce water evaporation.

One of the criticisms of ground-mount solar farms is the amount of space they occupy. In rural areas, this could mean land suitable for agriculture sometimes being used to produce electricity instead of food.

One answer is better utilisation of rooftop real estate through roof mounted solar power systems on farm buildings. Another is to utilise farm dams.

We’ve written about floating solar farms in the past – an Australian company announced a deal in March with India energy giant Tata Power for the construction of floating solar farm in India by the end of this year. Another company, Israel-based Solaris Synergy, is currently developing what it calls the Floating Concentrating Photovoltaic (F-CPV) system.

Another system announced earlier this year was the “Floatovoltaics” concept by SPG solar, the second generation of floating solar farm solutions produced by the company. It not only provides clean electricity, but also reduces water evaporation up to 70% and the shading improves water quality by reducing algae growth. The water below the panels also helps cool the modules, which results in improved power output by around 1% says the company.

Forbes has an article on a winery in California’s Napa Valley that is using SPG’s Floatovoltaics system – and from the air it looks to be quite an impressive sight.

How such systems would stand up to Australian conditions where farm dams often run dry, leaving a boggy mess at the bottom, is not known – however, by reducing evaporation dramatically, perhaps this situation can be avoided in all but the most extreme droughts. SPG’s system also has a number of cables securing the array to the dam sides, which may prevent the racks from ever touching the base of the dam.

According to information from Australia’s National Program for Sustainable Irrigation, as much as 40% of water stored in a farm dam can be lost through evaporation, depending on the depth of the dam and its surface area

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The Stanford Solar Car Project has been working for two years on its latest all-solar vehicle, called Xenith, which later this year will travel across the Australian Outback powered by nothing but sunlight. The team says the stanford Xenith is the fastest solar car ever built.

The World Solar Challenge is held every two years and challenges teams to build ultra-efficient solar vehicles in a 3,000-kilometer (or 1,864-mile) race from Darwin to Adelaide. This year’s race will take place October 16-23.

Based on the notion that a 1,000-watt car would complete the journey in 50 hours, the solar cars are allowed a nominal 5 kilowatt-hours of stored energy.

The rules, however, change for each event, giving teams just a two year time span to conceptualize and build their vehicles. The idea is to constantly push the boundaries of what the vehicle can be, ranging in designs from ultraconceptual abstract ideas that may be less practical, and working toward real-world applications of energy efficiency that could be applied to future consumer products.

Those lucky enough to be currently enjoying the Northern Hemisphere summer will no doubt be heading for the beach for a good bronzing as often as possible. These days, of course, the digital device is an important part of the sun worshiper’s kit, and making sure they have enough battery power to go the distance can be a major concern. The Solar Bikini from New York designer Andrew Schneider is said to be capable of charging a smartphone or media player while the wearer lays back and soaks up the summer sun. Now available for custom order, each bikini sports 40 thin and flexible photovoltaic strips connected by conductive thread, which ends at a USB port.

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• Schneider told Gizmag that the idea for the Solar Bikini came to him while brainstorming ideas for sustainable products at the opening session of an Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. He jokingly said that he was going to make a bikini capable of chilling beer at the beach. Thinking more about the idea, he realized that with the help of modern photovoltaic technology and a Peltier junction, such a product might in fact be technically possible.

Sadly, the prototype that followed didn’t produce nearly enough juice to power a cooler, but Schneider found that it did work with an iPod. After a few refinements, the Solar Bikini is now being made available for a very limited number of custom orders via Solar Coterie.

The outer surface of the bikini is covered with 1 x 4-inch (25.4 x 101.6 mm) flexible photovoltaic cells from PowerFilm Solar, which are precision hand-stitched onto the base material using conductive thread. Photon bombardment sends the electrons down to a 5V DC terminator and onward to a female USB connector for device attachment. The output is said to be comparable to a laptop’s USB port, as is the time it takes to charge an MP3 player or mobile phone.

As no energy is actually stored in the bikini, the designer says that wearers can even go for a swim while sporting the high-tech bikini, although charging while going for a dip is not recommended. Once back from the water, the Solar Bikini needs to be completely dried before any device is attached, or it won’t function properly.

Of course, spending a good length of time under a blazing sun is not terribly good news for the skin, and a healthy combination of effective sunscreen and common sense is advised.

The cost of each Solar Bikini will vary according to the design, but it’s not going to be a cheap clean energy charging solution for your portable devices. Schneider told us that “you can expect anywhere from US$500 to US$1,500 and up.”

The designer says that he hasn’t given up on the idea of chilling beer using beachwear, and is currently building and testing prototypes for the iDrink – men’s solar shorts with sufficient surface area to push out the energy needed to power a small drinks chiller.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Solar Impulse is on standby for its first international flight this week. Brussels has been chosen as the destination for the first venture outside Swiss borders, which follows the solar powered aircraft’s maiden flight and first overnight flight last year and will mark another important step towards the goal of flying around the world in 2012.

“Now, here we are in the definitive phase: it’s no longer a question of tests, but the real thing,” said Solar Impulse Chairman and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard. “And the next flights will not be made in the “familiar cocoon” of Payerne aerodrome, but in the whole of Europe…”

The Solar-Impulse prototype aircraft (designated HB-SIA) will be piloted from Payerne to Europe’s 14th busiest airport in Brussels by CEO André Borschberg, who co-founded the project along with Piccard in order to show just how far renewable energies can take us.

“Flying an aircraft like Solar Impulse through European airspace to land at an international airport is an incredible challenge for all of us, and success depends on the support we receive from all the authorities concerned,” said André Borschberg.

Developed by a team of 70 people and 80 partners over seven years, HB-SIA is a very impressive feat of engineering and, as you might expect from a plane that flies on the power of the sun, quite a lesson on just how much you can achieve with only a small amount of energy.

Keeping weight to a minimum is obviously critical and despite the aircraft’s huge 63 meter (208 feet) wingspan, its carbon fiber frame and specially designed components weigh in at just 1600kg – which is a little like stretching your family car to be the width of an Airbus A340.

The wings carry almost all of the 11,628 solar cells on board, but even with more than 2000 square feet of photovoltaics, there’s not a great deal of energy available to drive the four electric motors.

The Solar Impulse website breaks down the equation like this:

“At midday, each square metre of land surface, in the form of light energy, receives the equivalent of 1000 watts, or 1.3 horsepower of light power. Over 24 hours, this averages out at just 250W/m². With 200m² of photovoltaic cells and a 12 % total efficiency of the propulsion chain, the plane’s motors achieve an average power of no more than 8 HP or 6kW – roughly the amount of power the Wright brothers had a available to them in 1903 when they made their first powered flight.”

Eight horsepower. My lawnmower has more grunt, but then again it doesn’t fly to heights of over 27,900 feet!

A second plane with better performance and a larger cockpit is under construction for the around the world trip.

After a stint in Brussels from 23 to 29 May, the aircraft will make its way to Paris for the 49th International Paris Air Show (20 to 26 June 2011) where it will be displayed both on the ground and in the air – flying demonstrations are planned each morning if the weather is favorable.

Solar Impulse at a glance:

• Wingspan: 63,40 m (208 ft)
• Length: 21,85 m (71.7 ft)
• Height: 6,40 m (20.9 ft)
• Weight: 1,600 Kg (3,527 lbs)
• Motor power: 4 x 10 HP electric engines
• Solar cells: 11,628 (10 748 on the wing, 880 on the horizontal stabilizer)
• Average flying speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)
• Take-off speed: 35 km/h (21.7 mph)
• Maximum altitude: 8 500 m (27,900 ft)

The first international flight can be followed online at the Solar Impulse site

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NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has told the state’s 120,000 solar households to have their panels checked, after an audit in northwestern Sydney found 18.5 per cent had major defects.

Mr O’Farrell today released the preliminary results of an audit of 658 panel systems in Sydney’s northwest, which found 122 had major problems, primarily relating to their wiring.

A further 418, or 63.5 per cent, were found to have minor defects.

Mr O’Farrell said while the risk was “relatively low” – with just two fuse-box fires reported across the state – he was providing a “clear warning” to solar panel owners to have systems checked by their installers, or a qualified expert.

He stressed that owners should not turn off their panel systems and check themselves.

“It is clearly a serious warning,” Mr O’Farrell told reporters in Sydney.

“The premier of the state is alerting 120,000 households to a survey, and audit undertaken of 658 homes, that found defects, major defects, minor defects, in solar installation across Baulkham Hills, Kellyville and Blacktown.

“But importantly, what the premier of the state is also doing is telling householders not to panic, not to rush out, turn off their systems, or tamper with their systems in any way, but to contact a qualified technician and expert, the company that installed it, to seek reassurance.”

The Fair Trading audit, sparked by a similar critical review in Port Macquarie, said the major defects largely concerned the DC breaker switch.

“Major defects relate primarily to incorrect wiring of the DC breaker,” the audit said.

“Other major defects included installing the DC breaker switch incorrectly, so that water could enter the breaker box which may cause it (to) fail, or wiring the switchboard incorrectly so that it … conducts electricity and can be an electrocution risk.”

The minor defects relate to cabling, and marking and signage, the audit said.

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Outdoing the likes of Ferrari and Audi, which have already installed solar panels onto the roofs of their manufacturing plants, Renault has partnered with Gestamp Solar to launch what it says is the largest solar energy project in the automotive industry. The project will see solar panels eventually covering a total area of 450,000 m2 (4,843,760 sq ft) at Renault plants in France, generating 60 MW and cutting the company’s CO2 emissions by 30,000 tons a year.

Installation of the solar panels on the roofs of the delivery and shipping centers at Renault’s Douai, Maubeuge, Flins, Batilly, Sandouville and Cléon sites will begin this month, with completion scheduled for February 2012. Renault says that upon completion, the solar panels will cover an area equivalent to 63 football fields and generate enough electricity to power a town of 15,000 – although that’s obviously not what it will be used for.

The solar roof project is part of Renault’s plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2013 and a further 10 percent by 2016. The company says it has already implemented a number of measures towards attaining these goals, including reducing energy consumption at its plants and diversifying the energy mix used to generate electricity with a particular focus on renewable energy sources

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha