Solar Energy
Towers & Two-Axis Mirrors
Trough designs are compelling in their mechanical simplicity, yet to think so may overstate the cost of good two-axis systems. And when each two axis mirror is on a single post, minimal site preparation is necessary. Power towers also mean no need for plumbing in the solar field. Bright Source Energy, Inc, constructs solar fields made of reflecting mirrors bounce sunlight to a power tower filled with oil. The hot oil travels to the generator, where the heat causes the water to turn into steam. This hot air is then used to drive a turbine to produce electricity. BrightSource calls this technology Distributed Power Tower, or DPT. In the past 20 years the DPT technology has evolved to where the new plants heat the steam to a temperature of 550 degrees Celsius...
Ausra's Solar Thermal
Utility scale solar thermal power is something you still don't hear much about, but along with photovoltaic power, it is a big part of the reason solar power is possibly the only source of renewable energy that is not only absolutely clean and sustainable, but capable of exponential growth for decades to come. And Ausra, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has perhaps the most promising solar thermal design we've ever seen...
Photovoltaic Desalination
If photovoltaics show potential to totally replace coal as a clean source of electricity, how would they perform to provide fresh water from seawater? It can already take as little 2.0 kilowatt-hours of electricity, powering a reverse-osmosis system, to desalinate one cubic meter of seawater. If, in a reasonably developed country, the average per capita water usage for all requirements - residential, industrial and agricultural - is about 2,000 meters per year, then at 10.0 cents per kilowatt-hour and 2.0 kilowatt-hours per meter, desalinated seawater would cost $400 per person per year...
Windmills vs. Photovoltaics
We have attempted to estimate the contribution of photovoltaics to global energy production. Currently the installed base of photovoltaics worldwide has an output of about 5.0 gigawatts. Since the sun doesn't shine 24 hours per day, the actual yield is probably about one-third that amount, call it 2.0 gigawatt-years in 2005. While this installed base is probably set to double every two years...
Chinese Photovoltaics
We've been trying for some time to find a good prediction of how quickly worldwide photovoltaic manufacturing is going to increase. We know in 2005 the entire world production of photovoltaic cells was about 1.6 gigawatts. How much will we add in 2006? Where will we be by 2010? Because of the revolution in thin film photovoltaic technology, along with the predicted end to the bottleneck in polysilicon production...
Crystaline Photovoltaics
We may stand guilty of downplaying the future of crystaline photovoltaics. After all, exponential growth is necessary for alternative energy to take over the world, and after all, it is no simple matter to manufacture crystaline photovoltaics. But as amply documented in our post "The Coming Boom in Photovoltaics," the only thing thing that stops crystaline photovoltaics from experiencing exponential growth is the supply of polysilicon...
Thermal Electric Power
The costs for solar thermal electricity could come down to around $.07 per kilowatt-hour, which is definitely a competitive price. To get there the installed base in the world would need to more than quadruple, to around 4 gigawatts, so the expertise would be in place to basically start �cookie cutter� production of the stations. One of the most interesting things about solar thermal power is that the necessary additions to the balance of plant in order to store some of the accumulated heat is not significant. This means that the thermal energy generated during the day can be stored and used to continue generating power through the night. This is a significant advantage...
Miasole's Photovoltaics
Like Nanosolar, Miasole (pronounced mee-ah-so-LAY) relies on CIGS technology. CIGS, short for "copper indium gallium selenide," requires far less silicon, which is in short supply these days. As Miasole's website states, the CIGS photoactive material can be deposited on a "stainless steel foil only 50 microns thick. It can easily be used in PV modules or incorporated into building materials like membrane roofing."
Biofuel vs. Photovoltaics
In the previous post "Power the World with Photovoltaics," we demonstrate that the entire energy requirements of the human race could be fulfilled by a photovoltaic array 143,872 square miles in size. Insofar as this is only about one-quarter of one percent of the earth's surface, or 668 square feet per person, there is no shortage of areas for photovoltaic arrays. How many square miles of biofuel crops would we need to accomplish the same objective?
Power the World with Photovoltaics
Just how big a photovoltaic panel would you need to replace all current sources of energy? Read on. Based on reputable estimates, as of 2006, total world energy consumption has just topped 400 quadrillion BTU's. Check the Infoplease website for a good summary of world energy consumption by region and by decade, including forecasts. If it takes 3,413 BTUs to equal one kilowatt-hour (it does), and if you assume all energy consumption in the...
The True Cost of Photovoltaics
There is an excellent website on the business of photovoltaics, SolarBuzz (www.solarbuzz.com) which provides information on corporations, products, and people associated with the photovoltaic industry. On their home page they have a perpetually updated report on the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of photovoltaic electricity. Currently they show the price for photovoltaic electricity to be 21.7 cents...
The Coming Photovoltaic Boom
Why aren't the major solar customers for polysilicon - BP Solar, Energy Conversion, Evergreen Solar, Kyocera, Mitsubishi, Motech, Q-Cells, Sanyo, Sharp, Sunpower, Suntech, and Shell Solar - investing in their own polysilicon manufacturing? For $200 million these value-added photovoltaic manufacturers can build their own polysilicon plants to create 3,000 tons of polysilicon per year, which at $50 per kilogram would have a market value of $150 million. When one considers that a kilogram of polysilicon can then be turned into a photovoltaic panel with an output of about 125 watts, then at a price of $2.00 per watt (much lower than today's prices), another $750 million in revenue is possible per year per plant...
The Ultimate Renewable
Two things mitigate the high cost of photovoltaics: First of all, photovoltaics are being bought as fast as they can be made. They may not be competitive with electricity derived from natural gas or other conventional sources, but this fact seems to have no impact on world demand for photovoltaics. The market worldwide is growing at 30% per year with no end in sight. Current world output of photovoltaics stands at about 1 gigawatt per year, and the installed base of photovoltaics in the world is probably just under 10 gigawatts. A second factor which mitigates the cost of photovoltaics is the cost to operate and replace them is far more competitive than the cost to install them...
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Bickford Ranch: Sunny Future of Home Developments?
California's population is increasing by half a million per year,
so development is inevitable, and the only a question is where and how to develop. "Bickford Ranch" is a luxurious new community planned in California's
Sierra foothills, one that will sprawl across nearly four square
miles of grazing land...
First Solar: Production Line PVs
In our continuing search for the company that will provide breakthrough price reductions in photovoltaic cells, EcoWorld has discovered First Solar. If they live up to the rumors about them, First Solar Inc. may become the Ford Motor Company of photovoltaics...
Atlantis Energy Makes Solar Beautiful
When we think of home power, we think of roofs covered with black rectangular water heating or pv modules, propped up with struts at awkward angles. We think of windmills erupting off someone's front lawn, or diesel generators droning unmuffled through the night. In short, we think, "ugly!"...
BP Solar means Sun Power
If the whole world consumed 500 quadrillion BTUs of energy in 2000, and that's only a bit generous, than a sheet of photovoltaic cells 200 miles on a side would have produced 100% of the world's energy requirements in that year. ....
The Race!
Who will be the first to manufacture truly cost-competitive Photovoltaic cells. EcoWorld takes an insightful look at a very promising player in the solar energy field.
A Home Photovoltaic Program
The Sacramento Municipal Utility Distric, SMUD for short, is paving the way for utility sponsored home photovoltaic programs with its successful Pioneer Programs.
A Not So Modest Proposal
What if all the detached houses in California were fitted with photovoltaics...
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