CYPRESS, CA.—(eSolarEnergyNews)—Employee volunteers from Mitsubishi Electric’s Cypress, California headquarters and students from California State University Long Beach’s Disabled Student Services donated their time last week to install a solar electric system on the roof of a Long Beach home. GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles, a non-profit organization that works with volunteers to install solar electric systems for low-income families, led the installation.

Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc., a manufacturer of solar modules and other premier electronics, sponsored the installation of the bundled solar electric system, incorporating equipment donated by Mitsubishi Electric, Solectria Renewables and Orion Solar Racking. The system is expected to produce 97,604 kWh, which will provide the homeowner with substantial savings over the 30-year life of the system. The clean power generated by the system is expected to prevent more than 46 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the emissions that would come from burning more than 44,000 pounds of coal or consuming 4,600 gallons of gasoline.

“This is a shining example of corporate, public and charitable collaboration to contribute to our community,” said Gina Heng, vice president and general manager of Mitsubishi Electric’s Photovoltaic Division. “The installation was made possible through the generosity of Solectria Renewables and Orion Solar Racking, the leadership of GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles, and, of course, the CSLUB students and our employee volunteers.”

Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation offered financial support, with a grant to GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles, to provide hands-on training and education in renewable energy for the student volunteers. The foundation’s mission is to empower youth with disabilities to lead productive lives through increased employment.

“Our company-sponsored solar installation with GRID Alternatives offers a great opportunity to carry out our mission to help youth with disabilities maximize their potential and participation in society,” said Kevin Webb, director of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation. “We’re proud and humbled to offer these students the occasion to provide service to their community.”

Ms. Heng said she was impressed with the students’ high level of interest in solar technology. “The students, many of whom are engineering majors, are very knowledgeable about solar modules and systems. I’m confident that this real-world experience will contribute to their excitement about careers in sustainable energy.”

One of the students summed up the experience. “This volunteer project helped me to understand the impact of solar energy for homeowners, beyond its impact on the environment. Working on this installation with Mitsubishi Electric and GRID Alternatives has inspired me to explore career opportunities in renewable energy,” stated Will Reese. “It also made my fellow students and me feel good to help this family lower its energy bills for years to come.”

“I want to thank all the volunteers and companies that worked together to donate this solar electric system to our family,” said homeowner Lee Fukui. His wife Mauna Eichner, added, “The cost savings will help to stretch our monthly income. I’m also happy that we’re switching to clean energy.”

“Brazil, together with Mexico, will drive a significant part of the company’s growth,” Perez said at a press conference in Sao Paulo. “Renewable energy will be responsible for 60 percent of total new generation in Latin America in the coming years and we want to satisfy these countries’ growing demand.”

Brazil gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from solar power and has almost no domestic photovoltaic production. The government has set a goal of 3.5 gigawatts of solar capacity in operation by 2023, producing about 1.8 percent of the country’s energy.

In a joint venture announced today, Maryland Heights, Missouri-based SunEdison and Renova Energia will initially develop and operate four solar power plants with a total installed capacity of 106.9 megawatts in Bahia state by 2017. The goal is to invest around 5 billion reais ($ 1.9 billion) to build projects with 1 gigawatt of capacity in the next five years. About 65 percent will be financed by banks with the rest split equally between the two companies.

Power Auction

Renova was among the winners in Brazil’s first power auction for photovoltaic projects on Oct. 31 when the Sao Paulo- based company won contracts for the four plants. It will take about 500 million reais to develop the projects.

“We have been talking since 2012 about solar development in Brazil,” Renova’s President Mathias Becker said today at a press conference in Sao Paulo.

SunEdison will also invest $30 million in facilities to make photovoltaic modules and tracking systems in Brazil with a capacity of 140 megawatts a year. It’s expected to be in operation by 2016. The company’s first Latin American solar plant in Mexico can produce 400 megawatts a year.

“The company’s objective is to be competitive to sell energy in Brazil and the factory is the way we will do it,” Luis Pita, SunEdison’s general director for Brazil, said in an interview.

To spur domestic solar manufacturing capacity, Brazil’s BNDES development bank is offering low-cost financing. Initially, developers can use imported photovoltaic cells. From 2020 on, local content rules will require them to use components produced in Brazil.

SunEdison would join Tecnometal Equipamentos Ltda, which has a solar module plant in Campinas, Brazil and Brasil Solair, which is building a 10-megawatt site.

“SunEdison’s initiative can be an incentive to other companies to come to Brazil,” said Helena Chung, a Sao Paulo- based analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Earlier this month, SunEdison and its power plant holding company, TerraForm Power Inc., agreed to buy First Wind Holdings Inc. for $2.4 billion.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

Lead image: Dmitry V. Petrenko via Shutterstock

MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND—(eSolarEnergyNews)—Enphase Energy announced today its charitable partnership with SolarAid, a leading London-based international nonprofit that provides access to clean, affordable solar lights. SolarAid’s goal is to eliminate the toxic kerosene lantern from Africa by 2020, and Enphase’s donation will be contributing to this campaign by helping to build trust in solar technology and getting solar lights into the hands of 600 million people.

“Affordable solar lights increase people’s income by an average of 15 percent per month, enhance work and study time, improve health, cut carbon emissions and provide a platform for local economies to flourish,” said Andrew Webb, managing director, SolarAid. “With the help of supporters such as Enphase, we can reach off-grid communities and educate them in the use of solar, while developing a solid international network to lobby institutions and governments. Spreading solar lighting across Africa and lighting up millions of households is a dream we are achieving.”

“SolarAid’s mission of bringing clean and safe light to off-grid communities across Africa aligns with Enphase’s efforts to promote solar energy for a sustainable future,” said Olivier Jacques, managing director, EMEA, Enphase Energy. “We are honored to partner with SolarAid and directly participate in the transition to solar in Africa.”

Recently, Enphase and SolarAid participated in a fund raising activity at Solar Energy UK, the largest B2B event for the solar industry in Great Britain. Coin-collection points were situated across Enphase’s booth for three days, and Enphase matched a donation amount collected through visitors’ contributions. Enphase and SolarAid are looking forward to many more joint opportunities and activities along these lines in the future.

Founded in 2006 by Dr. Jeremy Leggett, SolarAid is an international charity creating business-based solutions for poverty and climate change and a leader in driving policy for off-grid lighting and solar technology advancements. In 2008, SolarAid created SunnyMoney, a fully-owned social enterprise to run on-the-ground operations. SunnyMoney has grown rapidly from a small trading arm to a viable business. Today, it is the largest seller of solar lights in Africa. By building a sustainable market for solar products, SolarAid and SunnyMoney aim to eliminate the use of kerosene lamps in Africa by 2020.

Enphase is not new to philanthropic initiatives. Its long-lasting charitable partnership with the US-based nonprofit GRID Alternatives makes solar power and solar job training available to underserved communities. Enphase has recently kicked off collaboration with the Brian D. Robertson Memorial Solar Schools Fund (BDR Fund) to install photovoltaic systems in over 25 schools across the US.

The partnership between Enphase Energy and SolarAid will continue in 2015.

Just in time for the fourth Renewable Energy Industry Day, the consulting firm Rödl Partner has published a study on financing renewable energy in international markets. The study explains how the underlying conditions in 17 international markets differ due to legal and economic circumstances.

For the study, Rödl Partner interviewed experts at its various subsidiaries on how they assess market entry opportunities, investment opportunities and framework conditions for renewable energies in their regions. The authors focused primarily on the following areas: political development goals, the degree of liberalisation of the market for renewable energy production, current consumer prices, the legal framework for investment decisions, the existence of funding systems, security of investment, financing conditions for investments, and the political and social acceptance of renewable energies. The study also includes a market assessment by the Unicredit Group.

Renewables at a disadvantage regionally, but on the rise globally

Although renewable energies are advancing globally, a very heterogeneous field has emerged in recent years due to different funding systems and legal requirements for renewable energies. While countries such as China and the United States continue to press forward with the expansion of renewable energies, financial and political support have waned drastically in some existing core markets. Examples of this are the retroactive cuts in feed-in tariffs in Italy and Spain as well as the EEG reform in Germany.

If one looks at global capacity growth, one can see that more renewable energy power plants were built in 2013 than conventional power plants for the first time. The main reason for this is that renewable energy is now often in the lead with low production costs, predictable operating costs and falling capital costs for new projects.

The energy turnaround is being implemented at different speeds in different countries

«Investments are being made in countries and energy areas where the legal and economic conditions are reliable and planning certainty can be provided. The more complex the funding systems are, the stronger the energy turnaround is being slowed down,» explains Anton Berger, Head of Energy at Rödl Partner.

Compared to 2012, the capacity of installed renewable power plants rose by 8% to a total of 1,550 GW. The amount of electricity from wind, solar, bioenergy, hydropower and geothermal sources increased by 5% to 5,050 TWh. This required investments of approximately € 185 billion in systems in 2013.

«The conditions for investors in the renewable energy sector are completely different in each country. Within individual countries, the conditions are often different depending on the type of energy source. One can find anything from feed-in tariffs to public tenders for subsidies for independent power producers (IPP). The clearer the conditions are, the better the chances of countries are to attract investors,» says Kai Imolauer, Associate Partner in the energy business area. «In countries such as Chile or the United States, new technologies can hold their own even without subsidies; they participate directly in the electricity trading venues.»

Tanja Peschel

SAN FRANCISCO, CA —(eSolarEnergyNews)— Solar Universe, the leader in solar franchising, announced the industry’s first-ever Black Friday sale on power. Instead of participating in the traditional hype of Black Friday, Solar Universe decided to lighten the meaning and call the event «Bright Friday.» The holiday deal includes a $1,000 gift card for new customers who visit BrightFridaySolar.com by Dec.1, and sign-up with Solar Universe by Jan. 5.

«Black Friday has historically been about waking up before the sun rises and waiting in long lines hoping to save your family money over the holidays. We want to give homeowners the option to take advantage of solar savings, and with our Bright Friday event, give them an extra $1,000 as a way to help pay off their holiday shopping,» said Joe Miller, executive vice president at Solar Universe. «Solar power lets homeowners save all year long and for many years to come with a cleaner choice of energy. And with our Bright Friday deal, it’s a gift that starts giving back immediately.»

The Bright Friday events signals that solar power has gone mainstream and is inspiring cost-conscious consumers to re-think their energy choices—particularly during one of the heaviest energy consumption seasons of the year. While holiday and bargain shoppers look for the hottest tech and energy-based gadgets for the loved ones on their list, the accessibility of solar power is giving consumers a choice to control their own electric bill. Today, solar is even more affordable, due to improved technology and reduced equipment costs as well as financial incentives. Consumers can get started with no upfront costs and then pay a low locked-in power rate for 20 years.

To learn more about the Solar Universe «Bright Friday» Promotion, please visit BrightFridaySolar.com.

About Solar Universe
Solar Universe (solaruniverse.com) is the smart energy choice and a certified partner of Sunrun, the largest dedicated residential solar company in the U.S. We make solar energy easy and handle everything from design to installation. We’ve developed a unique solar franchise network which brings energy savings to consumers and businesses through our network of locally owned and operated franchises. Solar Universe is changing the face of the solar industry by giving customers a local choice to produce their own more affordable power.

BAODING, CHINA —(eSolarEnergyNews)— Yingli Green Energy, the largest vertically integrated solar panel manufacturer in the world, known as «Yingli Solar», today announced that the Company will supply 72 megawatts of multi- and monocrystalline solar panels to Solarcentury Holdings Ltd. («Solarcentury»), a leading solar company in the United Kingdom («UK»).

In terms of the agreement between Yingli and Solarcentury, the Company will complete the delivery of approximately 168,000 solar panels by the end of this year. The panels will be installed in projects across the UK. These projects will produce approximately 65,000 MWh of clean solar electricity per year, enough to supply around 21,800 typical UK homes.

«We are pleased to once more join forces with our trusted partner, Yingli Green Energy, for these exciting projects. We have worked together for a number of years, and the trust built up over that time makes it easier to execute on projects at this scale. Solar is still the most popular form of renewable energy among the UK public, unsurprising since developing our solar capacity stands to benefit many people and businesses. Also, by diversifying our energy mix, we can help improve the UK’s energy security,» said Mr. Matthew Boulton, Chief Operating Officer, Solarcentury.

«It is our pleasure to partner with Solarcentury, one of the most innovative companies in the UK and a long-term friend of Yingli. As we continue to see a strong solar market in the UK with a steady growth potential throughout 2020, we look forward to cooperate with this long-standing solar company on more exciting projects in the future,» said Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Yingli Green Energy.

Hsin-Ying Chiu, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and graduate student Matt Bellus fabricated the new material using «layer-by-layer assembly» as a versatile bottom-up nanofabrication technique. Then, Jiaqi He, a visiting student from China, and Nardeep Kumar, a graduate student who now has moved to Intel Corp., investigated how electrons move between the two layers through ultrafast laser spectroscopy in KU’s Ultrafast Laser Lab, supervised by Hui Zhao, associate professor of physics and astronomy.

«To build artificial materials with synergistic functionality has been a long journey of discovery,» Chiu said. «A new class of materials, made of the layered materials, has attracted extensive attention ever since the rapid development of graphene technology. One of the most promising aspects of this research is the potential to devise next-generation materials via atomic layer-level control over its electronic structure.»

According to the researchers, the approach is to design synergistic materials by combining two single-atom thick sheets, for example, acting as a photovoltaic cell as well as a light-emitting diode, converting energy between electricity and radiation. However, combining layers of atomically thin material is a thorny task that has flummoxed researchers for years.

«A big challenge of this approach is that, most materials don’t connect together because of their different atomic arrangements at the interface — the arrangement of the atoms cannot follow the two different sets of rules at the same time,» Chiu said. «This is like playing with Legos of different sizes made by different manufacturers. As a consequence, new materials can only be made from materials with very similar atomic arrangements, which often have similar properties, too. Even then, arrangement of atoms at the interface is irregular, which often results in poor qualities.»

Layered materials such as those developed by the KU researchers provide a solution for this problem. Unlike conventional materials formed by atoms that are strongly bound in all directions, the new material features two layers where each atomic sheet is composed of atoms bound strongly with their neighbors — but the two atomic sheets are themselves only weakly linked to each other by the so-called van der Waals force, the same attractive phenomenon between molecules that allows geckos to stick to walls and ceilings.

«There exist about 100 different types of layered crystals — graphite is a well-known example,» Bellus said. «Because of the weak interlayer connection, one can choose any two types of atomic sheets and put one on top of the other without any problem. It’s like playing Legos with a flat bottom. There is no restriction. This approach can potentially product a large number of new materials with combined novel properties and transform the material science.»

Chiu and Bellus created the new carbon and tungsten disulfide material with the aim of developing novel materials for efficient solar cells. The single sheet of carbon atoms, known as graphene, excels at moving electrons around, while a single-layer of tungsten disulfide atoms is good at absorbing sunlight and converting it to electricity. By combining the two, this innovative material can potentially perform both tasks well.

The team used scotch tape to lift a single layer of tungsten disulfide atoms from a crystal and apply it to a silicon substrate. Next, they used the same procedure to remove a single layer of carbon atoms from a graphite crystal. With a microscope, they precisely laid the graphene on top of the tungsten disulfide layer. To remove any glue between the two atomic layers that are unintentionally introduced during the process, the material was heated at about 500 degrees Fahrenheit for a half-hour. This allowed the force between the two layers to squeeze out the glue, resulting in a sample of two atomically thin layers with a clean interface.

Doctoral students He and Kumar tested the new material in KU’s Ultrafast Laser Lab. The researchers used a laser pulse to excite the tungsten disulfide layer.

«We found that nearly 100 percent of the electrons that absorbed the energy from the laser pulse move from tungsten disulfide to graphene within one picosecond, or one-millionth of one-millionth second,» Zhao said. «This proves that the new material indeed combines the good properties of each component layer.»

The research groups led by Chiu and Zhao are trying to apply this Lego approach to other materials. For example, by combining two materials that absorb light of different colors, they can make materials that react to diverse parts of the solar spectrum.

The National Science Foundation funded this work.

An interdisciplinary research team has discovered that the pattern of information written on a Blu-ray disc — and it doesn’t matter if it’s Jackie Chan’s «Supercop» or the cartoon «Family Guy» — works very well for improving light absorption across the solar spectrum. And better yet, the researchers know why.

«We had a hunch that Blu-ray discs might work for improving solar cells, and, to our delight, we found the existing patterns are already very good,» said Jiaxing Huang, a materials chemist and an associate professor of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. «It’s as if electrical engineers and computer scientists developing the Blu-ray technology have been subconsciously doing our jobs, too.»

Blu-ray discs contain a higher density of data than DVDs or CDs, and it is this quasi-random pattern, perfected by engineers over decades for data storage, that, when transferred to the surface of solar cells, provides the right texture to improve the cells’ light absorption and performance.

Working with Cheng Sun, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick, Huang and his team tested a wide range of movies and television shows stored on Blu-ray discs, including action movies, dramas, documentaries, cartoons and black-and-white content, and found the video content did not matter. All worked equally well for enhancing light absorption in solar cells.

The findings will be published Nov. 25 in the journal Nature Communications.

In the field of solar cells, it is known that if texture is placed on the surface of a solar cell, light is scattered more effectively, increasing a cell’s efficiency. Scientists have long been searching for the most effective texture with a reasonable manufacturing cost.

The Northwestern researchers have demonstrated that a Blu-ray disc’s strings of binary code 0s and 1s, embedded as islands and pits to store video information, give solar cells the near-optimal surface texture to improve their absorption over the broad spectrum of sunlight.

In their study, the researchers first selected the Jackie Chan movie «Supercop.» They replicated the pattern on the active layer of a polymer solar cell and found the cell was more efficient than a control solar cell with a random pattern on its surface.

«We found a random pattern or texture does work better than no pattern, but a Blu-ray disc pattern is best of all,» Huang said. «Then I wondered, why did it work? If you don’t understand why, it’s not good science.»

Huang puzzled over the question of why for some time. One day, his wife, Shaorong Liu, a database engineer at IBM, suggested it likely had something to do with data compression. That was the insight Huang needed.

Huang and Sun then turned to McCormick colleague Dongning Guo, an expert in information theory, to investigate this idea. Guo is an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

The researchers looked closely at the data processing algorithms in the Blu-ray standard and noted the algorithms serve two major purposes:

• Achieving as high a degree of compression as possible by converting the video signals into a seemingly random sequence of 0s and 1s; and
• Increasing error tolerance by adding controlled redundancy into the data sequence, which also limits the number of consecutive 0s and 1s.

These two purposes, the researchers said, have resulted in a quasi-random array of islands and pits (0s and 1s) with feature sizes between 150 and 525 nanometers. And this range, it turns out, works quite well for light-trapping applications over the entire solar spectrum.

The overall broadband absorption enhancement of a Blu-ray patterned solar cell was measured to be 21.8 percent, the researchers report.

«In addition to improving polymer solar cells, our simulation suggests the Blu-ray patterns could be broadly applied for light trapping in other kinds of solar cells,» Sun said.

«It has been quite unexpected and truly thrilling to see new science coming out of the intersection of information theory, nanophotonics and materials science,» Huang said.

It’s been widely publicized that the cost of residential solar electric systems in the United States is falling faster than ever before. This downward pricing trend is projected to continue through 2016 and then stabilize, according to a September 2014 report compiled by researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. However, residents and business owners who are unable to install solar on their property and are considering buying into a community solar facility won’t get the best deal if they wait too long.

Throughout the 15 years prior to 2012, residential photovoltaic (PV) systems declined an average of 6 to 8 percent, the report reveals. Then from 2012 to last year, prices for solar systems under 10 kilowatts (kW) fell by 12 percent or $0.65 per watt.

“There is still considerable uncertainty as to how low PV system prices will drop in the next five to 10 years,” David Feldman, the study’s lead author and NREL financial analyst told the Denver Business Journal.

For residential and small commercial PV systems, the average reported price (taken from a subset of state markets) for the first half of 2014 is $4.50 per watt — compared to the annual average of $4.74 per watt last year.

Feldman noted that the reductions in solar electric systems are “within reach” of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot Initiative goal to make the price of solar cost-competitive with other sources of energy by the end of the decade. If successful, the national collaborative effort will reduce the cost of solar PV systems 75 percent from 2010 to 2020.

Having achieved 60 percent of its goal, SunShot supports a variety of innovative efforts to accelerate the deployment of solar across the United States. One of those efforts is to make community solar broadly accessible, allowing individuals and businesses that can’t install solar on their property to harness the sun’s energy.

Increasing Solar Energy Deployment

In October, SunShot awarded $700,000 to community solar developer Clean Energy Collective (CEC) to build a national online portal to help other parties develop their own successful community solar programs. Ultimately, the NCSP (National Community Solar Platform) will help drive down the cost of solar and facilitate the nationwide deployment and utilization of solar power.

With 16 shared solar projects online in Colorado alone — and more than 40 throughout the U.S. — CEC’s community-owned solar model is gaining traction. Two new facilities in Denver were interconnected in August, offering Xcel Energy customers the ability to own solar panels in a centralized array for $3.70 per watt. In Boulder, the cost to buy panels in CEC’s second community-owned solar array is now $3.55 per watt. Both cities offer solar panels for around $.85 per watt less than NREL’s average installed price for the first half of 2014 — without a single customer needing to replace a roof or cut down a tree.

Acting Now Generates the Greatest Payback

Although the price of solar PV systems is anticipated to decline over the next several years, those with an electric bill from Xcel Energy will miss out on the biggest bang for their buck if they wait to purchase community-owned solar panels. This is because the payments that Xcel issues to its ratepayers for producing their own solar power (called Renewable Energy Credits or RECs) are set to expire as the investor-owned utility reaches its state-mandate for renewable generation.

Initially considering a rooftop solar system, Becky Jakobsen of Aurora decided it was a better option to purchase nine PV panels in the Aurora/Arapahoe Community Solar Array. An environmental advocate, she stressed the importance of making sustainable choices today. The timely decision will save the Denver Metro resident around $12,500 over 20 years. “I just cannot get it across to people how important it is that we start acting now,” Jakobsen said.

The original article was posted on the CEC blog.