In early December 2009, California Public Utilities Commission approved an ambitious project to beam solar energy from space to generate electricity starting in June 2016.
Under the terms of the contract between Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Solaren Corporation, PG&E will buy 850 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the first year of the term, and 1,700 GWh per year over the remaining years. The cost of the electricity is competitive with land-based renewable energy sources. (more…)
In 2007, Dow Chemical received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “building integrated” solar arrays for the residential and commercial markets. Which lead Dow to form the Solar Solutions business unit and invest more than $100 million in solar solutions.
This past October the company unveiled its product called Powerhouse Solar Shingles, which can be nailed to a roof like ordinary shingles by roofers without the help of specially trained solar installers or electricians. The solar shingles should cost 30% – 40% less than other solar-embedded building materials and 10% less than the combined costs of conventional roofing materials and rack-mounted solar panels, according to company officials.
The majority of solar technology today is built around silicon-based solar cells, Dow’s technology uses a much more cost-effective and durable PV material called CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide). The new thin-film technology is incorporated into the product by over-molding the cells with a proprietary Dow polymer formulation, resulting in a unique product design that has similar reveal, weight, and installation practices as an asphalt shingle.(more…)
The Ability of Light to Produce Electrons, and Thus Electricity, Has Been Known For Over 100 Years.
At the Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Sandia National Laboratories, scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used. (more…)
Started in 2005 Envision Solar, headquartered in San Diego, California, has a vision of a sustainable future and an end to energy poverty. Their mission is to invent, develop and build Solar Integrated Infrastructure & Building Systems (SIIBS), through cost effective design, fabrication and construction methodologies. Envision Solar has established a robust platform for building a worldwide presence in the solar and clean technology industries by offering numerous products and services in all major market sectors, including commercial, institutional and residential. (more…)
MIT researchers have a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Daniel G. Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power.
The researchers developed a new catalyst, consisting of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode. When the catalyst is placed in water and electricity runs through the electrode, oxygen gas is produced. When another catalyst is used to produce hydrogen gas, the oxygen and hydrogen can be combined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power a house or an electric car, day or night.
With Daniel Nocera’s and Matthew Kanan’s catalyst, homeowners could use their solar panels during the day to power their home, while also using the energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for storage. At night, the stored hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined using a fuel cell to generate power while the solar panels are inactive.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the process into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The team from Germany, Technische Universität Darmstadt has won the U.S. Energy Department’s Solar Decathlon for the second competition in a row, the previous competition was in 2007. In second place was Team Illinois, and third place went to Team California, whom promptly declared it party time and cranked up the California-themed music on their house’s entertainment center, as judges and spectators had one last look at the homes.
Twenty universities began constructing solar-powered homes October 1 on the National Mall, between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. The competition was judged in 10 categories including aesthetics, solar power generation, consumption of energy, and ability to maintain a “comfort zone” between hot and cold for the home’s inhabitants.
In 2007, Dow Chemical received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “building integrated” solar arrays for the residential and commercial markets. Which lead Dow to form the Solar Solutions business unit and invest more than $100 million in solar solutions.
The team from Germany, Technische Universität Darmstadt has won the U.S. Energy Department’s Solar Decathlon for the second competition in a row, the previous competition was in 2007. In second place was Team Illinois, and third place went to Team California, whom promptly declared it party time and cranked up the California-themed music on their house’s entertainment center, as judges and spectators had one last look at the homes.
