The Solar PowerFlower is a portable concentrated photovoltaic power generator intended for agricultural use.
It was designed by Jason Halpern, co-founder of PowerFlower Solar, who began developing the technology while still a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Spain has overtaken the US as the biggest solar electricity generator in the world.
The opening of the new La Florida solar plant at Alvarado, Badajoz, in the west of the country, takes Spain’s solar output to 432 megawatts, compared with the US output of 422 megawatts.
The La Florida plant produces 50 megawatts of power with a parabolic trough system covering 550,000 square metres.
Protermosolar, the association that represents Spain’s solar energy sector, says that within a year another 600 megawatts will have come on-stream and that by 2013 solar capacity will have reached 2,500 megawatts..
Spain is also one of the world’s leading producers of wind power, with windfarms producing around 20,000 megawatts of electricity, and the third largest producer of hydro-electricity, after China and the US.
Chih-hung Chang, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State University, is developing a new approach to solar energy which he believes may dramatically lower their cost while reducing waste and environmental impacts.
Currently, thin-film solar cells are made using methods such as sputtering, evaporation and electrodeposition. Those processes can be time-consuming, or require expensive vacuum systems or exotic chemicals that raise production costs.
An alternative approch is to use chemical bath deposition. This is a low-cost deposition technique that was developed more than a century ago. The problem is that changes in the growth solution over time make it difficult to control thickness. The depletion of reactants also limits the achievable thickness.
The technology developed at Oregon State University to deposit "nanostructure films" on various surfaces in a continuous flow microreactor makes the use of this process more commercially practical.
"We’ve now demonstrated that this system can produce thin-film solar absorbers on a glass substrate in a short time, and that’s quite significant," said Chih-hung Chang. "That’s the first time this has been done with this new technique."
Thin-film solar cells produced by applications such as this could ultimately be used in the creation of solar energy roofing systems. "If we could produce roofing products that cost-effectively produced solar energy at the same time, that would be a game changer," Chang said. "Thin film solar cells are one way that might work. All solar applications are ultimately a function of efficiency, cost and environmental safety, and these products might offer all of that."
Researchers at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal in Bordeaux have developed a biofuel cell which converts the chemical energy generated by photosynthesis into electrical energy.
Photosynthesis transforms carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen through a complex series of chemical reactions in the presence of visible light. The researchers have developed a biofuel cell made up of two enzyme-modified electrodes that uses the products of photosynthesis (glucose and oxygen) to produce electricity.
When the cell was inserted in a living plant, in this case a cactus. the scientists observed an increase in electrical current when a desk lamp shining on the cactus was switched on, and a reduction when it was switched off. The scientists were also able to make the first ever observation of the real-time course of glucose levels during photosynthesis.
The researchers showed that a biofuel cell inserted in a cactus leaf could generate power of 9 μW per cm2. Because this yield is proportional to light intensity, stronger illumination accelerates the production of glucose and oxygen, so more fuel is available to operate the cell.
In the future, this system could form the basis for a new, environmentally-friendly and renewable way to transform solar energy into electrical energy
Researchers at Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials have made a more efficient fibre-based solar cell by coating the solar cell’s fibres with the pokeberry dye. The researchers claim that the fibre-based solar cells generate twice as much power as current thin-film technology.
Fibre-based solar cells are constructed from millions of tiny plastic fibres that can collect sunlight at oblique angles; even when the sun is low in the sky.
Whereas a traditional flat cell loses energy when the sun’s rays deflect from its shiny surface, the fibre-based design creates more surface area and confines the sun’s rays to yield twice as many kilowatt hours per day as standard flat cells. The plastic fibres for the solar cells are assembled onto plastic sheets, using a technology similar to that of creating the tops of soft-drink cups and a polymer or dye absorber is then sprayed on.
The researchers have now found that pokeberry dye is an effective absorber. The advantage of this is that pokeberry is a common weed endemic to North and South America, east Asia and New Zealand - and, so, is very cheap. The berries yield a red dye which was used as an ink by soldiers during the American Civil War.
Sanyo has opened a "solar parking lot" in Tokyo where 100 electric hybrid bicycles can be recharged from sunlight-powered panels.
The system uses lithium-ion batteries to charge 100 of Sanyo’s "eneloop" bikes, with enough power left over to also illuminate the parking lot with LED lights at night.
The eneloop bikes are electric power assisted and are available for rent at 300 yen (about $3) an hour. They take about three and a half hours to fully charge.
Europe’s biggest space company, EADS Astrium, is seeking partners to fly a demonstration solar power mission in orbit. The satellite system would collect the Sun’s energy and transmit it to Earth via an infrared laser, to provide electricity.
This follows the announcement late last year that the Japanese Government has selected a group of companies to work on the development of a Space Solar Power Station which would comprise an array of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres in area located outside the Earth;s atmosphere and beaming energy to the ground using laser beams or microwaves. (See http://www.greenbizcafe.com/?p=717)
Robert Laine, Astrium’s chief technology officer, says that "We have reached a point where, in the next five years, we could build something which is in the order of 10-20 kW to transmit useful energy to the ground."
Space solar power is an attractive concept because it would be clean, inexhaustible and available 24 hours a day.and because there are no clouds, dust or the filtering effects of atmospheric gases, which means that the amount of energy falling on photovoltaic cells in orbit is considerably greater than if the same solar panels were on the Earth’s surface.
The company plans to transmit the power to Earth using infrared lasers which, if misdirected, would not risk "cooking" anyone in their path. The company has already transmittedtested infrared laser power transmission via laser in its labs.
The Indian government has approved the first phase of the proposed "Solar Mission" under which 20 gigawatts of solar capacity is to be installed by 2022 by which time it is hoped that India will have established itself as a global leader in solar power.
In the first phase, which has now been formally approved, 1,300 megawatts of solar capacity will be installed by March 2013. Of this, 1,000 megawatts is to be grid connected, 200 megawatts is to be off-grid and the remaining 100 megawatt is to be rooftop or other small-scale installations.
The 1,000 megawatts produced by the grid connected installation will be purchased by the National Thermal Power Corp. The government will provide low interest loans for the development of the 200 megawatts off-grid component. Power from the small-scale installations will be purchased by local distribution utilities.
The target for the second phase is to have between 3 and 10 gigawatts of additional capacity installed by 2017, depending on international financing and technology transfer arrangements.
If the first two phases are successful, the installed capacity will be increased to 20 gigawatts by 2022, by which time the government believes that solar power will be competitive with power from other sources. Parity with cheap coal-fired power should be achieved by 2030, if solar technology is developed and deployed as anticipated.
Nine European countries have agreed to work together to build an electricity "super-grid" which will allow them to integrate their renewable energy production and storage facilities.
The nine countries - Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland and the UK - are planning a network made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30 billion ($au47 billion).
The network would connect wind turbines off the coast of Scotland, solar panel arrays in Germany and wave power plants off Belgium and Denmark with hydro-electric dams in Norway.
More than 100 gigawatts of offshore wind projects are under development in Europe, mainly in the North Sea. Norway’s many hydro-electric dams could be used like a giant battery with surplus energy produced when winds are blowing being used to pump water uphill to be released through turbines and generate electricty when the wind and solar power being generated is inadequate.
The North Sea grid could link into grids stretching from the North African desserts across the Mediterranean, proposed for the even larger German-led plan for renewables, called the Desertec Industrial Initiative, which was launched last November. This aims to provide 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050 (or earlier).
The Desertec project plans to use concentrated solar power plants in Norh Africa and Southern Europe. In these plants, mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays on a fluid container and the super-heated liquid drives turbines to generate electricity.
The Japanese Government has selected a group of companies to work on the development of a Space Solar Power Station which would comprise an array of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres in area located outside the Earth;s atmosphere and beaming energy to the ground using laser beams or microwaves.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which has had a team of some 130 scientists working on the idea since 1998, has now nominated a group of companies, including Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp, to develop the project.
The aim is to launch a satellite to test transmission of energy by microwave "within several years". A large photovoltaic structure with a capacity of 10 megawatts would be launched for testing from around 2020. This would be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype and a full-scale 1 gigawatt system by 2030.
The photovoltaic arrays would capture solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down to the ground through clusters of lasers or microwaves. The energy would be collected by parabolic antennae, likely to be located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs
JAXA believes that the space solar system could provide electricity at about 8 yen ($au0.10) per kilowatt-hour which is one sixth of it current cost in Japan.
(Source AFP)
