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14 декабря, 2021
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Category Archives: solar energy
SolarWorld Boosts Manufacturing in Oregon
San Francisco —
U.S. solar panel industry leader SolarWorld today announced plans to increase capacity from 380 MW to 530 MW, and to boost advanced cell manufacturing capacity at its Hillsboro, Oregon plant by 100 MW, adding 200 jobs at the location, which will grow to 900 employees. The Bonn-based company also manufactures in the German cities of Freiberg and Arnstadt. “The factory will remain the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The company views this expansion as a stepping-stone to 630 MW capacity in the near future,” SolarWorld said.
Mukesh Dulani, the U.S. president of SolarWorld Industries Americas Inc., who took his position earlier this year, said, “We will increase production in Oregon in 2015 and slowly ramp up. We can compete with any company, domestic or foreign, on a level playing field.”
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee attributed part of the survival and growth of SolarWorld to the action of federal investigation into Chinese dumping calling the announced expansion «a textbook case of how enforcing American trade laws can help create family-wage manufacturing trade jobs.»
SolarWorld has been a leader in the U.S. based solar industry in its battle against subsidized Chinese panel makers. Relief came in July through a U.S. Commerce Department tariff for a host of Chinese companies. At the time, the company “commended the U.S. Department of Commerce’s determination to impose preliminary anti-dumping import duties averaging about 42 percent on crystalline silicon solar panels made by the state-controlled Chinese solar industry from solar cells fabricated in third countries using Chinese inputs and about 36 percent on solar cells made in Taiwan.”
As a result of the tariffs, a widespread “Made in America” campaign has circulated through the U.S. solar market. In addition to price, the campaign focuses on higher quality from U.S. manufacturers that facilitates bankability in project finance. SolarWorld also is a founding member of the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing that supports U.S. made solar products; the group now counts 250 U.S. manufacturer members.
SolarWorld itself touts its panels as “Solar made in America, by Americans, since 1975.” SolarWorld indicates that it has purchased more than $1.4 billion in equipment, parts, services and supplies from 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico since 2008, and lists purchases by U.S. state on its website.
In June, the company announced commercial scale manufacturing volume of its 280-Watt, 60-cell mono-crystalline Sunmodule, and projected that, “Beginning in the second half of 2014, SolarWorld expects 280-Watt solar panels to represent the majority of production at its Hillsboro facility.” The Sunmodule raises yield in the standard 60-cell panel by 30 Watts, through the use of “advanced light-capture and energy-conversion technologies.” The company also stated the goal of reaching 300 Watts in a 60-cell configuration.
During the recent SPI 2014 solar show in Las Vegas, SolarWorld was awarded $4 million by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot program to enhance its silicon mono-crystallization technology with the aim of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.
Last Clean EC Panel Series of 2014 Season “The Grid Edge” Coming Up on Wednesday Nov 5
Grid Edge Analytics: Advances in Big Data, Intelligent Software and Analytics Behind the Meter
Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 7:00pm-9:00pm (Doors open at 6:30pm), The WNYC Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, 44 Charlton Street, NYC
FREE live stream hosted by Greentech Media starting at 7:05pm.
Tweet questions @CleanECNYC with hashtag #CleanNRGx. Follow us here.
The next generation of behind-the-meter analytics goes well beyond providing consumers with detailed data on their energy use. Utilities are now able to take advantage of customer segmentation and profiling information to increase the effectiveness of demand response and energy efficiency programs. By leveraging intelligent software, utilities also gain better visibility into their customers’ responses to price signals, leading to optimized rate structures.
The early energy management market was a battle of the best-in-class hardware (e.g., displays, sensors, and thermostats), placing a strong emphasis on smart meters as an enabling technology. More recently there has been an increase in strategic partnerships. Blue-chip companies from the automation, security, solar, and telecom industries have taken notice and begun to gain market share with new solutions. This panel will examine the changing data analytics landscape behind-the-meter and discuss how companies have shifted their focus toward energy management.
The discussion is a featured event of Solar One and NYC ACRE’s cleantech panel discussion series, Clean Energy Connections in partnership with Greentech Media. Follow our ongoing online discussion at tagboard.com/CleanNRGx
Event Schedule
6:30 – 7:00 – Registration Networking
7:00 – 8:30 – Panel Discussion
8:30 – 9:00 – Reception
Moderator:
Omar Saadeh – Senior Analyst at GTM Research
Panelists:
Christopher Cavanagh – Principal Program Manager at National Grid
Christopher Cavanagh is a Principal Program Manager in the Customer Strategy Environmental group at National Grid and is responsible for developing strategies to expand National Grid’s US natural gas distribution services. He was recently responsible for implementing a process for the development of new electric and gas technologies for customers to support National Grid’s goals. Mr. Cavanagh has twenty seven years experience in product development at National Grid and its predecessor companies. Mr. Cavanagh previously managed research programs in the areas of alternative fuel vehicles, advanced heating cooling and distributed generation, including fuel cells. Mr. Cavanagh was a senior engineer with the New York architect-engineering firm, Gibbs Hill. Mr. Cavanagh is a licensed professional engineer and a Member of the American Society of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning Engineers and is a mentor in the CleanTech Open program. Mr. Cavanagh is graduate of Brooklyn Tech HS and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Cooper Union, an MS from Polytechnic University and an MBA from Dowling College. Mr. Cavanagh resides in Hazlet, NJ where he recently served as Chairman of Open Space Advisory Council and the Planning Board and an environmental commissioner. Mr. Cavanagh is also helped develop a STEM program for NYC Middle School students considering Brooklyn Tech HS and is also the head state judge and Assistant Problem Captain in NJ for the structure problem in the annual international Odyssey if the Mind competitions for school age children and a regular judge at the NYC FIRST Robotics Competition.
Nicholas Payton – Associate Director of Product Marketing and Strategy at Opower
Nick Payton directs marketing and strategy for emerging products at Opower, a leading providerof customer engagement software to energy utility companies. These efforts focus on Opower’s behavioral demand response and thermostat management platforms. Nick previously led market development and regulatory affairs for demand response, wholesale markets, and evaluation of Opower programs. Prior to Opower, he has served as a strategy consultant at the Analysis Group, an aide on a political campaign for U.S. Senate, and an analyst at a politically active law firm and government relations group. Nick graduated magna cum laude with degrees in political science and economics from Boston College.
Jun Shimada – Founder / CEO at ThinkEco
As one of the founders, Jun leads ThinkEco’s technology innovation commercialization efforts, applying his experience to make the modlet super-smart and easy-to-use. Prior to ThinkEco, Jun was part of the original team at Vitae Pharmaceuticals as it received seed to Series B investments. At Vitae, he was the lead scientist behind its proprietary computational drug discovery platform. Jun received his BA, MA, and PhD from Harvard.
Get your ticket below!
Washington Gas Energy Systems and Cogenra Solar Complete Innovative Solar Project for Tucson Electric Power
TUCSON, AR MCLEAN, VA.—(eSolarEnergyNews)—Washington Gas Energy Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of WGL today announced the completion of a one megawatt (MW) Cogenra Solar array that will produce renewable energy for Tucson Electric Power (TEP). The array at the Solar Zone, located at the University of Arizona’s UA Tech Park, consists of ground-mounted Cogenra T14 systems using Cogenra’s Dense Cell Interconnect (DCI) technology, which recently set three world records for peak power output. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held to celebrate the completion of the solar array, the final project in the first phase of the UA Tech Park Solar Zone.
“We are proud to be leading adopters of innovative technologies like Cogenra’s, which bring immediate financial benefits to customers and make it easier to choose renewable energy,” said Sanjiv Mahan, chief operating officer of Washington Gas Energy Systems. “The range of technology at the Solar Zone exemplifies the range of opportunity for organizations to reduce their environmental impact, and we will continue to invest in renewable energy assets that help businesses and organizations reduce their bottom lines.”
The 1MW Solar Zone facility will be owned and operated by Washington Gas Energy Systems under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Tucson Electric Power (TEP). Two independent laboratories confirmed that Cogenra DCI technology set three world records for peak power output by boosting module power up to 15 percent compared to currently available modules. By eliminating the need for ribbons, solder-joints and inter-cell gaps, DCI technology efficiently connects cells on the module. DCI modules achieve a range of benefits, including increased power, better reliability and improved aesthetics, at a lower cost-per-watt. Cogenra recently received a prestigious $2M award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative to scale automated manufacturing lines for DCI in the United States.
“Tucson Electric Power and the University of Arizona continue to lead the way in bringing innovative solar technology to scale,” said Dr. Gilad Almogy, chief executive officer and founder of Cogenra Solar. “Together we are achieving the highest module power ever recorded, applying Cogenra’s DCI technology to the exact same PV cells used in the past. As we can apply this innovative approach to well-established PV supply chains, DCI is poised to transform the market economics of going solar.”
The installation will produce 1,986 megawatt-hours of solar energy per year, enough to serve the electrical needs of about 180 homes in Tucson. The output will help TEP to meet or exceed the mandates of Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard, which requires electric utilities to increase their use of renewable energy, each year, until it accounts for 15 percent of their power in 2025. This project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to recycling more than 704 tons of waste annually, instead of sending it to a landfill, or taking approximately 392 passenger cars off the road for one year.
«This system is an exciting opportunity for Tucson Electric Power to secure reliable clean electricity while working to meet the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard,” said Carmine Tilghman, TEP’s director of wholesale and renewable energy. “Providing cost-effective energy that is free of greenhouse gas emissions is a win-win for the utility and for our customers.”
The UA Tech Park’s Solar Zone is one of the largest multi-technology testing, evaluation and demonstration sites in the world. Phase 1.0 of the Solar Zone occupies 165 acres of land. With the completion of the Washington Gas Energy Systems project, the Solar Zone now generates 23 megawatts of power.
Washington Gas Energy Systems celebrated the completion of another solar array on Monday, October 27, with a ribbon cutting event in Sacramento, Calif. The 1.5 MW system, completed in partnership with Conergy, is located at Sutter’s Landing Park and will generate power for use by the City.
JinkoSolar to Supply 19 MW of Solar Modules for a PV Project in Chile
SHANGHAI, CHINA—(eSolarEnergyNews)— JinkoSolar, a global leader in the solar PV industry, today announced that it will supply 19 MW of solar modules for a PV project in Chile.
The project is located in Chile’s Atacama Desert region which has one of the highest irradiation levels in the world. The 19 MW solar power plant will consist of 61,000 JinkoSolar high-efficiency PID-free modules. The project is expected to generate approximately 50 million kWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the power consumption needs of about 30,000 local households, and reduce carbon emissions by over 30,000 tons annually.
«We are proud of what we have accomplished in Chile this year having become the one of the largest suppliers of PV modules with over 160 MW of contracts signed,» said Mr. Alberto Cuter, JinkoSolar’s Sales Director for Emerging Markets. «The increase in demand for renewable energy has turned Chile into one of the regions’ principal solar markets. This project sets a new milestone for JinkoSolar in the Latin American renewable energy market and demonstrates our commitment to clean energy development in Chile.»
Solar heating and cooling pilot plant inaugurated in Ljubljana
Here you can find a small selection of comprehensive market overvies from the solar thermal sector:
Market Overview: Vacuum Tube Collectors
Market Overview: Flat Plate Collectors
Market Overview: Solar Stations
Market Overview: Thermosiphonic Systems
New solar power material converts 90 percent of captured light into heat
By contrast, current solar absorber material functions at lower temperatures and needs to be overhauled almost every year for high temperature operations.
«We wanted to create a material that absorbs sunlight that doesn’t let any of it escape. We want the black hole of sunlight,» said Sungho Jin, a professor in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Jin, along with professor Zhaowei Liu of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering professor Renkun Chen, developed the Silicon boride-coated nanoshell material. They are all experts in functional materials engineering.
The novel material features a «multiscale» surface created by using particles of many sizes ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers. The multiscale structures can trap and absorb light which contributes to the material’s high efficiency when operated at higher temperatures.
Concentrating solar power (CSP) is an emerging alternative clean energy market that produces approximately 3.5 gigawatts worth of power at power plants around the globe — enough to power more than 2 million homes, with additional construction in progress to provide as much as 20 gigawatts of power in coming years. One of the technology’s attractions is that it can be used to retrofit existing power plants that use coal or fossil fuels because it uses the same process to generate electricity from steam.
Traditional power plants burn coal or fossil fuels to create heat that evaporates water into steam. The steam turns a giant turbine that generates electricity from spinning magnets and conductor wire coils. CSP power plants create the steam needed to turn the turbine by using sunlight to heat molten salt. The molten salt can also be stored in thermal storage tanks overnight where it can continue to generate steam and electricity, 24 hours a day if desired, a significant advantage over photovoltaic systems that stop producing energy with the sunset.
One of the most common types of CSP systems uses more than 100,000 reflective mirrors to aim sunlight at a tower that has been spray painted with a light absorbing black paint material. The material is designed to maximize sun light absorption and minimize the loss of light that would naturally emit from the surface in the form of infrared radiation.
The UC San Diego team’s combined expertise was used to develop, optimize and characterize a new material for this type of system over the past three years. Researchers included a group of UC San Diego graduate students in materials science and engineering, Justin Taekyoung Kim, Bryan VanSaders, and Jaeyun Moon, who recently joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The synthesized nanoshell material is spray-painted in Chen’s lab onto a metal substrate for thermal and mechanical testing. The material’s ability to absorb sunlight is measured in Liu’s optics laboratory using a unique set of instruments that takes spectral measurements from visible light to infrared.
Current CSP plants are shut down about once a year to chip off the degraded sunlight absorbing material and reapply a new coating, which means no power generation while a replacement coating is applied and cured. That is why DOE’s SunShot program challenged and supported UC San Diego research teams to come up with a material with a substantially longer life cycle, in addition to the higher operating temperature for enhanced energy conversion efficiency. The UC San Diego research team is aiming for many years of usage life, a feat they believe they are close to achieving.
Modeled after President Kennedy’s moon landing program that inspired widespread interest in science and space exploration, then-Energy Secretary Steven P. Chu launched the Sunshot Initiative in 2010 with the goal of making solar power cost competitive with other means of producing electricity by 2020.
Part 2: SPI 2014 Solar Event Marketing Hits and Misses
In part 2 of my annual solar event marketing hits and misses, we’ll explore some more specific hits and misses that I found on the Las Vegas SPI show floor.
First of all, although final numbers haven’t been released, SPI 2014 seemed to be very well attended. The floor looked crowded and exhibitors that I talked to said that booth traffic was much improved over Chicago’s show, especially on the first half of the first floor showroom.
More exhibitors came back to Vegas, as well. In fact, many attendees I talked to were surprised to realize that there was a huge back end of the first floor with even more booths, not to mention an entire second floor.
So the real hit for exhibitors that planned ahead was being on the first floor, preferably close to the middle aisle, and the miss was being in the back of first floor or on the second floor. (Of course, as we saw last week, location doesn’t necessarily guarantee booth traffic.)
Hopefully, this SPI exhibitor momentum will continue next year. If it does, I definitely recommend having a ceiling banner over your booth, like so:
There were so many exhibitors this year, it was difficult to spot the booth you were looking for. So, a ceiling banner not only helps people to know your brand, but also to find it among the myriad of exhibitors in a large hall.
Another healthy sign that SPI was back in form was booth size. Last year in Chicago, booth size (and the number of exhibitors) had shrunk with the dark years of consolidation. SunEdison and many other big solar brands reserved larger footprints this year, and they filled that space from top to bottom.
In the “Stand out and educate” event marketing department, SolarWorld demonstrated the strength of its solar panels by having a trick mountain bike rider hop up and down on a panel. It was fun, educational, and the stunt did draw a crowd.
QuickMount PV’s booth was also increased in size. Although located over to the side on the first floor, they still managed to draw a crowd with ongoing demonstrations of their latest no-rail mounting solutions. Honestly, there’s nothing like a smart mini-seminar/demo for your products. If you can also be entertaining with your presentation, all the better. (Some chairs and refreshments couldn’t hurt either.)
SMA really went all out with its Las Vegas theme this year and created a clever “Boxing Ring” where “fighters” compared its various inverter products, and on-camera sports announcers also made relevant commentary. While the booth certainly drew traffic, it seemed intermittent. I wonder if the lack of seating made people only pause from their SPI floor travels. Seating might have made them stay a while longer.
On the clothing side, I like the matching tie trend and branded lanyard for booth salesman, such as this Q-Cells blue tie. I saw other brands do this, as well.
Wiley took this matching clothing trend to a whole different level with their matching tie-dye psychedelic shirts. Rad, dudes!
They also gave out some jewelry to select customers that integrated their products.
I have to say that I do like it when you can creatively integrate your product into your booth design. Take these cool Lumos solar tables. It’s such a great opportunity to sit down with visitors and have a conversation about the panels and point to their BIPV-like features. Notice also the brand imprint on the edge.
Another trend I saw was the interactive kiosk/game. SolarEdge not only had an expert speaker series, they also created a fun slot machine game where you could enter your info and win some SolarEdge swag — and a chance to win a trip to Hawaii.
Schneider Electric also created a kiosk quiz game that tested your solar electrical knowledge on off-grid designs, backup storage, and telecom towers. Correct answers racked up points, and a leader board showed top winners who won either an iPad, headphones, or a GoPro camera. Below is an image of the leader board section.
The only miss with this was that the game kiosk had to be moved to the side of the booth due to an unforeseen exhibit floor column. As a result, fewer people probably saw the kiosk and played the game.
Finally, take a look at Ongrid Solar’s low-tech but interactive booth game. Installers were invited to write down their PV Selling Tips.
It not only draws in Ongrid’s target market of residential solar installers to contribute their expert thoughts, but since Ongrid offers a proposal software tool, participating also served to open up the relevant conversation about that product, as well.
Overall, I saw a lot more hits than misses at this year’s SPI. Event marketers are clearly getting more creative, more educational, and … UnThinking Solar.
Tor Valenza a.k.a. “Solar Fred” is the founder and CMO of UnThink Solar, and the author of Solar Fred’s Guide to Solar Guerrilla Marketing. For more solar marketing info, sign up for the UnThink Solar newsletter or follow @SolarFred on Twitter.
White Solar Modules The Next Thing in Building Integrated PV?
CSEM announces the world’s first white solar modules. This innovative technology is particularly attractive to the building industry where solar elements can blend into a building’s skin and become virtually hidden energy sources. Applications in the consumer goods sector are also expected.
Currently, the market lacks photovoltaic (PV) products specifically designed to be integrated into buildings. Most PV modules, built to maximize sunlight absorption, appear blue-black. This appearance, caused by the presence of cells and connections, is visually unaesthetic and this complicates the acceptance of PV by built-environment professionals.
For decades architects have been asking for a way to customize the color of solar elements to make them blend into a building’s skin. White is a particularly interesting color as it is widely used for its elegance, versatility, and fresh look. Despite of this demand, no one was ever able to realize a truly white solar module; naturally believing that it was impossible as most of the light is reflected, contrary to the requirements of all solar panels.
CSEM has developed a new technology to make white solar modules, with no visible cells and connections, a reality. It combines a solar cell technology able to convert infrared solar light into electricity and a selective scattering filter, which scatters the whole visible spectrum while transmitting infrared light. Any solar technology based on crystalline silicon can now be used to manufacture white — and colored —modules.
The technology can be applied on top of an existing module or integrated into a new module during assembly, on flat or curved surfaces. Besides its main application in BIPV, other fields such as consumer electronics (laptops), and the car industry are expected to show significant interest.