tagged w/ Photovoltaics
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Breaking News Updates Washoe County School District posted this alert today (Wednesday, Feb 16, 2011) — Washoe County schools are on a two hour delay. Project is One of Many Where Schools Nationwide Have Turned to United Solar for Green Energy Solutions
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., — United Solar, a leading global manufacturer of lightweight, flexible, thin-film solar modules and a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq:ENER), announced the completion of a 1.05 megawatt solar power system on a total of 21 school rooftops across the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada.Breaking News Updates Washoe County School District posted this alert today... more
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Cheaper and lighter compared to its more expensive, cumbersome silicon cousin, plastic photovoltaics (PV) could herald a revolution in the solar power market, according to a UK solar panel expert.
:http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/01/21/plastic.solar.panel.revolution/index.htmlCheaper and lighter compared to its more expensive, cumbersome silicon cousin, plastic... more
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suzane
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To help meet the world's critical need for renewable energy, Applied Materials has developed an innovative fab2farm business model for solar deployment designed to bring cost-effective, utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation capability to local areas and stimulate economic development.
The fab2farm model represents a complete regional ecosystem, bringing together communities, utilities and solar panel manufacturers to drive down the cost of solar electricity, create green jobs, and spur local economic activity - while delivering a supply of clean energy for decades to come.
Key to the fab2farm model is a locally-sited solar panel factory built by a solar module manufacturer using Applied's revolutionary SunFab thin film production line. The SunFab line produces the world's largest and most powerful solar PV panels, which are optimally suited for utility-owned solar farms.
Since electricity generation is sited for distribution near load centers, a solar farm can be quickly deployed without the need for extensive, costly transmission lines. This utility-scale solar farm would not only generate cost-competitive, clean, renewable energy for the community, it can help the utility avoid up to 170,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.
"Applied's fab2farm model unlocks a low-risk, cost-effective opportunity to integrate solar PV electricity into a community's energy portfolio," said John Antone, vice president, Energy and Environmental Solutions, Applied Materials.To help meet the world's critical need for renewable energy, Applied Materials... more
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Thin-film solar is revolutionizing the renewables industry. How soon can you get in on the action?
Going solar used to mean spending a fortune to purchase massive, unwieldy panels that came with high production and labor costs, as well as low efficiency performance. But that era of renewable energy is coming to a close and being replaced by a lighter, cheaper, more flexible model, thanks to thin-film PV cells.
Solar companies now employ a roll-to-roll manufacturing process that uses non-silicon alternatives such as copper, indium, gallium and selenium to print up cells the way the Federal Reserve Bank prints money. An apt comparison, given that the thin-film niche is expected to corral around 20 percent (and growing) of the overall solar market, which itself is expected to swell to more than $50 billion by 2015.
What's the payoff? A revolutionized energy market, where thin-film solar cells can be placed on everything from your house and car to your person to literally empower your life.
"Thin-film technology has played a significant role in driving down the cost of solar across the industry," American Solar Energy Society Director of Communications Neal Lurie explained to AlterNet. "A couple of years ago, when much of the industry was facing shortages of polysilicon commonly used to produce photovoltaic solar panels, First Solar leapfrogged the industry by producing thin-film solar with a completely different technology, using cadmium telluride.
"While this thin-film approach was less efficient than the more traditional crystalline silicon, it could be produced at much lower costs, more than making up for the lower efficiency. This put downward price pressures across the entire industry, forcing manufacturers to develop efficiencies throughout the entire supply chain. The end result? Lower solar costs for consumers across the globe."
The globe responded in kind. In mid-August, the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of the Treasury kicked off a $2.3 billion campaign to give away tax credits to clean-energy equipment manufacturers. That alone could create more than 100,000 jobs in America, which has more or less outsourced the majority of its conventional manufacturing base to China and other cheap-labor titans.Thin-film solar is revolutionizing the renewables industry. How soon can you get in on... more
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A new class of economically viable solar power cells-cheap, flexible and easy to make-has come a step closer to reality as a result of recent work* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have deepened their understanding of the complex organic films at the heart of the devices.
Organic photovoltaics, which rely on organic molecules to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity, are a hot research area because in principle they have significant advantages over traditional rigid silicon cells. Organic photovoltaics start out as a kind of ink that can be applied to flexible surfaces to create solar cell modules that can be spread over large areas as easily as unrolling a carpet.
They'd be much cheaper to make and easier to adapt to a wide variety of power applications, but their market share will be limited until the technology improves. Even the best organic photovoltaics convert less than 6 percent of light into electricity and last only a few thousand hours. "The industry believes that if these cells can exceed 10 percent efficiency and 10,000 hours of life, technology adoption will really accelerate," says NIST's David Germack.
"But to improve them, there is critical need to identify what's happening in the material, and at this point, we're only at the beginning."
The NIST team has advanced that understanding with their latest effort, which provides a powerful new measurement strategy for organic photovoltaics that reveals ways to control how they form. In the most common class of organic photovoltaics, the "ink" is a blend of a polymer that absorbs sunlight, enabling it to give up its electrons, and ball-shaped carbon molecules called fullerenes that collect electrons.
When the ink is applied to a surface, the blend hardens into a film that contains a haphazard network of polymers intermixed with fullerene channels. In conventional devices, the polymer network should ideally all reach the bottom of the film while the fullerene channels should ideally all reach the top, so that electricity can flow in the correct direction out of the device.
However, if barriers of fullerenes form between the polymers and the bottom edge of the film, the cell's efficiency will be reduced.
By applying X-ray absorption measurements to the film interfaces, the team discovered that by changing the nature of the electrode surface, it will repulse fullerenes (like oil repulses water) while attracting the polymer. The electrical properties of the interface also change dramatically.
The resultant structure gives the light-generated photocurrent more opportunities to reach the proper electrodes and reduces the accumulation of fullerenes at the film bottom, both of which could improve the photovoltaic's efficiency or lifetime.A new class of economically viable solar power cells-cheap, flexible and easy to... more
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Skyline Solar has announced the launch of the company and its HGS architecture after achieving key product, financing and customer milestones. Skyline Solar's HGS architecture delivers the performance and durability of tracked silicon at the cost of thin-film technologies in sunny climates thereby accelerating the path to grid parity.
In conjunction with the formal launch of the company and its HGS architecture, Skyline Solar announced that it has reached several key corporate milestones:
Construction of the Company's First Demonstration Plant-Skyline Solar entered into a public-private partnership agreement with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to construct its initial demonstration plant in San Jose, Calif.
VTA is an independent special district that is responsible for bus, light rail and paratransit operations; congestion management; specific highway improvement projects; countywide transportation planning throughout Santa Clara County. The system was completed only eight months after the company received its Series A financing.
Pilot Manufacturing and Component Certification-after a year of under-sun reliability and system testing at the company's Mountain View headquarters, Skyline has submitted components of its HGS system for certification and has entered pilot manufacturing in the U.S. and Asia.
$24.6 million in Series A Venture Financing-Skyline Solar has received an equity investment from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and several other financial and strategic investors.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Funding-in the first quarter of 2009, the company signed a developmental contract with the DOE for $3 million. Skyline Solar was selected as one of six solar photovoltaic technology companies to receive funding under the DOE's Solar America Initiative. The company was cited as developing a technology that could "make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity."Skyline Solar has announced the launch of the company and its HGS architecture after... more
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CalRENEW-1, the first utility scale photovoltaic solar farm to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) under the state's Renewables Portfolio Standard program, has received all required environmental approvals and is now shovel ready, according to Bill Barnes, CEO of Cleantech America, Inc., the project developer.
The solar farm, which could begin generating zero emission, renewable power as early as the end of 2009 and no later than April 30, 2010, will deliver five megawatts (MW) of emissions-free, green electricity annually to PG&E under a long-term power purchase agreement.
To be located in the city of Mendota in California's Central Valley, CalRENEW-1 will provide air quality benefits to Fresno County while creating needed green jobs. Photovoltaic solar has been found to create more jobs per megawatt of capacity than any other energy technology, according to a University of California-Berkeley study. Job creation is particularly key in California's Central Valley, where the jobless rate, historically high, has recently soared to 41 percent, largely due to a three-year drought.
In an effort to stimulate green jobs growth, Cleantech America, Inc. is working with the City of Mendota to develop programs to re-train area residents to become solar installers. The firm has pledged $20,000 toward that effort.
"CalRENEW-1 is the exact type of shovel ready renewable energy project President Obama and the U.S. Department of Energy are encouraging to jump-start the American economy," Barnes noted. "Having passed the final environmental review, we are now ready to advance to project finance and construction."
CalRENEW-1 was deemed to have no significant environmental impact under the California Environmental Quality Act. That ruling had been anticipated, Barnes said, since photovoltaic solar is the ultimate source of environmentally clean renewable energy. Photovoltaic solar creates no emissions, uses minimal water, requires no hazardous materials use or storage, and has virtually no visual or noise impact.CalRENEW-1, the first utility scale photovoltaic solar farm to be approved by the... more
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The long-awaited drop in prices for solar photovoltaics (PV) appears to be close at hand. Soaring demand for PV and high prices for silicon have kept PV prices up for the past several years, but had two beneficial impacts:
Producers ramped up polysilicon production
PV companies pursued designs with less silicon.
The result is that Business Green reports:
The price of solar panels could fall by as much as 40 per cent by the end of the year as huge increases in polysilicon supplies lead to a sizable fall in production costs for solar panel manufacturers.
Analysts have been predicting this price drop for a while [– I had heard this prediction at a climate solutions summit in January 2008].
If this drop does materialize, it is quite a big deal and will help keep demand on its staggering growth rate with PV becoming one of the largest job-creating industries of the century, projected to grow from a $20 billion two years ago to a $74 billion industry by 2017The long-awaited drop in prices for solar photovoltaics (PV) appears to be close at... more
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President Obama in a televised State of the Union address to Congress last night told lawmakers—and the nation—that his three top priorities are energy, healthcare and education. First and foremost on his list: seeking renewable power sources and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
"We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before," he said, harking back to a time when former President Carter wore sweaters in the White House to promote conservation only to be followed by former Pres. Reagan, who had solar photovoltaic panels taken off the rooftop of the White House and eliminated most research and development funding into alternative energy sources.
Obama argued that kicking our foreign oil "addiction," as ex-Pres. Bush called it, and reining in the greenhouse gas emissions behind climate change, is the only way to ensure that the 21st century will be "another American century."
Although solar photovoltaics were invented in the U.S., the country now lags behind Germany and Japan in utilizing and manufacturing the alternative electricity source. And even when alternative energy sources are employed in this country, such as in GM's Chevy Volt—a plug-in hybrid designed to save energy, the environment and automakers —the batteries at the core of the car are made in other countries, like the lithium ion cells produced by LG Chem in South Korea.
The $787 billion stimulus package that Obama recently signed into law will pump $15 billion into development of alternative energy sources—both in the lab and the field—as well as into new transmission lines to carry, for example, wind energy from the Great Plains to the cities to the east, west and south, according to the president. He also called for a cap-and-trade program—in which the government sets an overall limit or cap on on pollution and power plants are able to sell and buy the right to emit up to a set level of carbone dioxide and other greenhouse gases—to make such alternative energy sources more profitable than conventional technology, such as burning fossil fuels (though the president also mentioned "clean coal.")President Obama in a televised State of the Union address to Congress last night told... more
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A solar panel lies on the roof of Pierre Guissou's home in Burkina Faso, feeding power to his water heater and allowing his family to take precious hot showers in a country where most homes lack electricity.
The 42-year-old electrician is among a growing number of residents in this west African country turning to the sun to heat their water, helping them save money on utility bills and the environment along the way.
"Everyone washes with hot water at home, which was reserved for the children before," said Guissou, who lives in the capital Ouagadougou.
"It saves money, protects the environment and there's no more anxiety about electricity bills at the end of the month," he said.
With the country's electricity grid reaching only 12 percent of all households, the sun provides a powerful alternative source of energy.
But solar power remains scarce here like elsewhere in most of sub-Sahara Africa. While the sun-bathed continent has a huge potential for producing solar power, it accounts for a tiny percentage of the world's solar energy output.
Price is often a deterrent. Solar-powered water heaters cost 600 to 1,520 euros (860 to 2,190 dollars) in Burkina Faso, a country of 15.2 million residents where the minimum guaranteed income is a mere 46 euros (65 dollars) a month.
But headway -- at least on the micro level -- is being made slowly but surely thanks to a tenacious Swiss non-government organisation, the Albert Schweitzer Ecological Centre (CEAS) which arrived here in 1973 after a severe drought.
"Most of the NGOs that came here at the time resorted to reforestation and soil restoration," said Charles Didace Konseibo, a Burkinabe CEAS manager.
"Cutting fresh wood to make firewood or charcoal is very common here. There was a need for a solar alternative for those using wood to keep new trees from being destroyed years later," he said.
So in 1982, CEAS set up a facility in Ouagadougou to train residents in solar energy equipment. Since then, local workers have passed on their knowledge to other Burkinabes.
Saidou Porgo, the craftsman who delivered Guissou's 200-litre (44 gallons) water heater in 2002, owes his expertise to a three-week CEAS training course.
-- 'Our only wealth here is the sun' --
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"Our only wealth here is the sun," said Porgo, a welder. "We have plenty of it and it never dies. It's in our interest to promote this source of energy, since life has become more expensive."
The centre taught him to build water heaters, dryers and pumps, among other things. Porgo said he sold about 50 dryers and water heaters, earning him about 22 million CFA francs (33,500 euros, 47,000 dollars) in 10 years.
And his clients are "less cranky" when bills come around at the end of the month thanks to the solar technology.
Boniface Willy, another CEAS trainee, has done even better. Since his course in 1993, he has sold hundreds of solar water heaters to hotels, health centers and private homes.
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This is the future. This is what we should be doing with money. Educating people and bringing them the tools necessary to sustain their own lives and build their own futures. That is freedom. And the solution is so simple. The sun, and the trees, and the wind, and the rain.
A solar panel lies on the roof of Pierre Guissou's home in Burkina Faso, feeding... more
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One of the limitations of solar photovoltaic systems is that, at the current state of the technology, no more than a quarter of the energy from the sun is converted to electric current. Most of the rest of the energy is lost as waste heat.
But Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems and now a technology entrepreneur and alternative-energy venture capitalist, says he’s found a solution that doubles or even triples the energy yield — a gargantuan leap in a field where engineers exult over the most incremental gains.
Mr. Khosla is funding a company called PVT Solar, of Berkeley, Calif., where engineers two years ago began trying to harness that wasted heat. In a sense, it was already being collected, either in the solar modules themselves, or underneath. (Solar arrays are often installed at an angle, to face the sun, thus creating a wedge-shaped space below for heat to collect.)
PVT’s founders decided the heat could be harnessed and pumped into the home for climate control, water heating and other uses. It is a sort of combined cycle for solar — a marriage of solar photovoltaic technology and solar thermal systems, which gather the sun’s energy in the form of heat.
Vinod Khosla, the former tech mogul and now energy venture capitalist, sees potential in PVT Solar. (Photo: Bloomberg)The company is currently testing electronic controllers that play traffic cop for the collected heat, pumping it automatically, using a small fan, to the basement hot-water heater, for example, or to individual rooms, or even to the swimming pool, as needs arise. If the heat is not needed in the building, the fan vents it to the outside.
Because solar panels perform better at cooler temperatures, removing heat from around the panels also has the effect of increasing their production on hot days — adding to the overall efficiency gains for the system.
And given that the system requires little or no additional infrastructure, it can be deployed with only a small amount of added cost.
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If taxpayers are to look now to support anything, shouldn't it be renewable energy that will pay them back in years to come with a sustainable planet for their children and granchildren with cheaper energy prices, more and better jobs, and cleaner safer choices? Joining phototvoltaics to thermal solar is a great way to do just that. So while we are getting all wrapped up in the 'financial crisis,' realize the other crisis this planet now faces that is even more urgent that is related to our economy and the ways in which we can make positive changes.
The solution comes up every morning.One of the limitations of solar photovoltaic systems is that, at the current state of... more
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Solar energy is touted by some as the solution to the world's energy woes. But the process of making the various components requires fossil fuels, both for power and for the components themselves, some of which are based on petroleum.
A new company, BioSolar, aims to kick petroleum to the curb, at least in the realm of building solar photovoltaics, cells of crystalline silicon that turn sunlight into electricity. Such photovoltaic cells rely on conventional plastic polymers to provide a protective backing, also known as backsheets. Those plastics are made from—you guessed it—petroleum.
"It's renewable and you don't use any petroleum," says electrical engineer David Lee, president and CEO of the California-based company about the new product. "The real merit is that we can actually reduce the cost of the backsheet compared to conventional petroleum-based backsheet." Lee claims their backsheets will cost 25 percent less than conventional backsheets, which cost between $0.70 and $1 per square foot.
Already, such backsheets are rising in price, thanks to the recent run-up in world oil costs, at a time when the solar industry is trying to bring down costs to make their technology more competitive with other forms of power generation, such as cheap, plentiful and extremely polluting coal.
BioSolar starts with used cotton rags and turns them into a film of cellulose, a natural fiber. They then blend this film with a type of nylon made from castor beans by Philadephia-based Arkema, Inc. to make the so-called BioBacksheet. Initial testing by the company at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows that this flexible plastic backsheet lasts as long or longer than conventional ones, and keeps out just as much moisture.
In addition to keeping away from petroleum plastics, BioSolar also claims not to be using any genetically modified crops in its product—a further boost to its green credibility. But nearly 90 percent of the U.S. cotton crop is so altered, either to resist insects, herbicides or both, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And cotton cultivation still requires tons of pesticides and fertilizers, both of which are derived, in part, from petroleum.
Regardless, if the cotton and castor-based backsheet proves cheaper than the petroleum version it may help remove a bit more fossil sunshine from the new solar energy. "Our goal is to replace all the petroleum plastic out of the solar cells with this bio-based one," Lee says.Solar energy is touted by some as the solution to the world's energy woes. But... more
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Within five years, this company's thin-film solar cells could compete with coal.
Before First Solar's manufacturing innovations, cadmium-telluride photovoltaic cells were the size of postage stamps; now the company makes them as big as window panes.
This is great news!
I can't wait to see large solar generation plants put into action.
It isn't the end solution to get off oil but it will help.Within five years, this company's thin-film solar cells could compete with coal.... more
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Nexus Properties has begun installing fields of solar glass panels on the rooftops of their two large parking garages flanking the Trenton AMTRAK/NJ Transit station -- a first for commuter parking garages in New Jersey.
The solarization of the two parking garages reinforces the state's smart growth strategies, said Joseph L Fiordaliso, Commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. "New Jersey ranks second to California in solar installation in the United States; we're in the top 10 worldwide," he proudly added. "We now have over 2,500 solar installations completed. What Nexus is doing and what we're doing as a state is very impressive and environmentally important."
Andrea Sussman, a managing member of Nexus, said the solar fields will be installed on the rooftops of Clinton Commons and Station Plaza Park and Ride. Each field will contain 662 individual solar panels that measure 2.5 feet by 5 feet. The combined solar fields are expected to reduce electric consumption at the garages by 467,500 kwh annually -- enough energy savings to heat and light 50 homes for a year, according to PSE and G.
On many days, the solar fields will generate surplus energy that will be routed to PSE and G's electronic grid, said Bill Harris, vice president of operations for Nexus. He said Nexus will also prepare several docking stations in each of the garages for electric vehicles.
"Parking patrons utilizing this form of renewable energy will have their cars recharged by the power of the sun while they take mass transit to and from their place of work," he said. "As electric vehicles gain in popularity, we'll be able to convert additional parking spaces to docking stations."
Nexus Properties has begun installing fields of solar glass panels on the rooftops of... more
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t’s called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, and with 2,292 individual color LEDs, comparable to a 24,000 sq. ft. monitor screen, it’s said to be the largest color LED display in the world. The wall is solar-powered too — photovoltaics are integrated into the wall’s glass curtain, and it harvests power during the day, to illuminate the display at night.
Designed by, Simone Giostra & Partners Architects, the GreenPix wall is part of the Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics.
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...sounds expensive and unnecessary.t’s called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, and with 2,292 individual color... more
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Rise and shine, sunshine. Wake up to more good news about solar energy via TouchArt
from Bill Brown, our friend up at nmglobalwarming.org and theclimatechange.org.
Bill Brown writes, "Greetings, All -- The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) just opened registration for North America's largest solar power event.
"The event will take place October 13-16 in California at the San Diego Convention Center and is expected to attract a record 12,000 professionals from more than 70 countries and 400 exhibitors from 14 countries."
See http://www.solarpowerconference.com/ for conference information.
Have a sunny earth day.
Charleen Touchette for TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com
(currently on the road in LA for Mixed Blood Radio Archive)
Last year's event sold out in advance, so organizers encourage early registration to guarantee participation. For more information, speaker and session updates, and to register visit: www.SolarPowerConference.com.
The Solar Electric Power Association bridges electric utilities and the solar industry to push solar forward more tangibly, one real business at a time. From national conferences to one-on-one counseling and peer matching services, SEPA's unique joint partnership offers members critical access to the key business relationships and unbiased, actionable intelligence needed to make solar practical and profitable in today's shifting energy landscape.
www.solarelectricpower.org
Solar Energy Industries Association is the national trade association of solar energy manufacturers, dealers, distributors, contractors, installers, architects, consultants and marketers. Established in 1974, SEIA works to expand the use of solar technologies in the global marketplace, strengthen research and development, remove market barriers, and improve education and outreach for solar. www.seia.org
California Center for Sustainable Energy fosters public policies and provide programs, services, information and forums that facilitate the adoption of clean, reliable, renewable, sustainable, and efficient energy technologies and practices. www.energycenter.org
William M. Brown
Sage West Consultants & The Climate Project
Energy Science, Law, Architecture
Arroyo Hondo & Taos, New Mexico
Email: nmglobalwarming@yahoo.com
Web: http://nmglobalwarming.org
Web: http://www.theclimateproject.org
Rise and shine, sunshine. Wake up to more good news about solar energy via TouchArt... more
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Boeing has announced a third multimillion-dollar contract award with Solar Systems for concentrator photovoltaic cell assemblies used to produce renewable energy. The cells will be used in the new 154-megawatt solar power station to be built in the state of Victoria, Australia, in addition to other power stations located throughout Australia and the United States. Contract details were not disclosed.
Under the terms of the new contract, Spectrolab Inc. of Sylmar, Calif., a wholly owned Boeing subsidiary, will provide solar cell assemblies capable of generating more than 350 megawatts of electricity. When combined with previous contracts awarded in April and August 2006, the Hawthorn, Victoria-based Solar Systems has ordered approximately 360 megawatts of renewable power from Spectrolab.
"Solar energy is in high demand, and our record-breaking conversion efficiency of over 40 percent is an industry best," said David Lillington, president of Spectrolab. "Our partnership with Solar Systems has resulted in the demonstration of affordable and reliable concentrating solar power systems. Renewable energy is a worldwide priority, and Spectrolab is well positioned to expand its global role in this rapidly expanding industry."
Spectrolab is one of the world's leading suppliers of photovoltaic solar cells, solar panels, searchlight and solar simulators and is currently celebrating 50 years of supplying solar array panels to the space industry.
Boeing has announced a third multimillion-dollar contract award with Solar Systems for... more
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Now the nation should follow with solar being cheaper and easier for us civilians to have. Kudos to the U.S. Air Force.Now the nation should follow with solar being cheaper and easier for us civilians to... more
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