Lower-Cost Solar Cells Can be Painted onto Rooftops

Nanoparticle ‘inks’ could soon be used to produce solar cells that can simply be sprayed onto a rooftop or other surfaces, and though this sounds like expensive technology, the chemical engineer who created it says it could reduce costs to one-tenth of their current price. Brian Korgel of the University of Texas at Austin says he believes that this reduction in price could thrust solar power into competition with fossil fuels.

From Science Daily:

For the past two years, Korgel and his team have been working on this low-cost, nanomaterials solution to photovoltaics – or solar cell – manufacturing. Korgel is collaborating with professors Al Bard and Paul Barbara, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Professor Ananth Dodabalapur of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. They recently showed proof-of-concept in a recent issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The inks could be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel. And the prospect of being able to paint the “inks” onto a rooftop or building is not far-fetched.

“You’d have to paint the light-absorbing material and a few other layers as well,” Korgel said. “This is one step in the direction towards paintable solar cells.”

Currently, Korgel and his team at Innovalight, a company he founded, have been able to develop solar-cell prototypes using copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) with efficiencies at one percent. If they can get to 10 percent, there’s great potential for commercialization.

That’s definitely promising considering the fact that America’s solar industry is lagging behind China’s due to the fact that we just can’t seem to compete with their prices. It will be interesting to see how far Korgel and his team can take this technology.

Link [Science Daily]

China Kicking America’s Ass in Race to Go Solar

Leave it to China to find a way to produce just about anything on the cheap, and do it really quickly. Despite the Obama administration’s dedication to getting America’s clean energy industry off the ground, China is leaving us in the dust and it’s looking unlikely that we’ll get a good chance to catch up.

In fact, the Chinese are preparing to build plants right here in the United States to assemble their products, to get around protectionist legislation.

From The New York Times:

The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that they would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers. But even in the solar industry, many worry that Western companies may have fragile prospects when competing with Chinese companies that have cheap loans, electricity and labor, paying recent college graduates in engineering $7,000 a year.

“I don’t see Europe or the United States becoming major producers of solar products — they’ll be consumers,” said Thomas M. Zarrella, the chief executive of GT Solar International, a company in Merrimack, N.H., that sells specialized factory equipment to solar panel makers around the world.

China’s commitment to solar energy isn’t likely to make a big dent in the fight against global warming, especially given the country’s own skyrocketing emissions, much of which are caused by the pollution that goes hand-in-hand with running ultra-low-cost factories.

America still has the world’s largest supplier of photovoltaic cells – First Solar in Tempe, Arizona – but China’s Suntech is not far behind. Suntech plans to build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States “to facilitate sales — ‘buy American’ and things like that”, according to the company’s president for global sales and marketing.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: OregonDOT

New Generation of Solar Cells Inspired by Plants

Scientists looking for the next big breakthrough in solar technology got their inspiration from a natural source: the process of photosynthesis in plants. New photovoltaic devices that mimic the way plants turn sunlight into energy have been developed at the University of Southampton, by a team led by Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis of the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy. This new way of harnessing solar energy delivers unprecedented amounts of electrical current from light.

From Science Daily:

In photosynthesis each molecule has evolved to deliver a function that complements the perpetual cycle of light to energy conversion. With the advent of nanoscience, scientists are now able to build devices of multiple nanoscale components, each one designed to deliver a specific functionality.

Professor Lagoudakis comments: “We looked at the ways that energy is funnelled in nature and through reverse engineering, using multiple nanoscale components, we designed and fabricated a hybrid photovoltaic device that can absorb light and efficiently convert it to electric current.

“These are early days but the possibilities for the application of this technology for environmentally-friendly energy production are very exciting.”

This exciting breakthrough comes on the heels of rather dark times for the solar industry. Last week, news broke that solar panels will see a significant drop in price by the end of this year because of a large increase in supply and decrease in demand. The solar market is expected to shrink to $29 billion. But, with advances like these and the push for clean energy around the world despite the global economic crisis, things will undoubtedly pick up again before too long.

Link [Science Daily]
Photo credit: Flickr user Criss!

Bring Back the White House Solar Panels!

Whatever happened to the White House solar panels, and Jimmy Carter’s solar thermal water heater? Some people want to point the finger at former President Bush, but the fact is, Reagan had them removed in 1986 and until recently nobody really knew where they ended up. The Huffington Post found filmmakers working on a documentary that tracked the panels to their current location.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter, in a forward-looking move, installed solar panels in the roof of the White House. This symbolic installation was taken down in 1986 during the Reagan presidency. In 1991, Unity College, an environmentally centered college in Maine acquired the panels and later installed them on their cafeteria.

In “A Road not Taken”, swiss artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller travel back in time and, following the route the panels took, interview those involved in the solar panel decisions, in the oil crisis of the time, and in the way that that moment presaged our own era. The documentary essay is still in work and will be about 70 minutes long.

It turns out that at some point Unity College donated one of the panels to Carter’s presidential library and auctioned off the rest [UPDATE: they were never auctioned off - see comments!]. The solar-powered water system still heats up the college’s cafeteria water.

In 2003, the National Parks Service quietly had new solar panels installed on the roof of a maintenance building on White House grounds. The Bush Administration also had two smaller solar thermal systems installed that same year. It has been reported that the 9 kW system on the maintenance building roof doesn’t produce much power because it’s too shaded by trees.

It seems like there’s plenty of sun in other areas on White House grounds, though – why not add more panels?  There have been a lot of calls for Obama to reinstall solar panels on the White House itself – there’s even a Facebook group in support of the idea.

Setting an example for the rest of the country is key.  Between that and a White House Victory Garden, our new president could show the whole nation the way forward. Bring back the White House solar panels!

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Jimmy Carter Library via Treehugger

‘Green For All’ Fights to Lift People Out of Poverty

In this tough economy, there has been a lot of talk about a green stimulus package and the promise of green jobs. But while politicians and pundits figure out how to best implement those goals, Green For All has been busy creating the blueprints for an inclusive green economy, strong enough to lift people out of poverty (see our profile of Green for All founder Van Jones).

From the Green For All website:

What’s the best way to give Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds a tangible stake in fighting for issues like global warming? Easy: Make it their livelihood. Every day, about 135 million people go to work in the U.S. Imagine what would happen if millions of those jobs—plus new ones created for people who are currently unemployed—were in fields like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building.

Solar RichmondBUILD at work:

Green For All is hosting a track of the upcoming Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference in D.C. from February 4th-6th. So if you’re in town, be sure to check out interesting panels like Prison Re-Entry & Green Jobs and Youth, Culture & Making Green Jobs Cool.

Solar Panels Decorate Graves in Spanish Cemetery

Graveyards take up a lot of space. Before the growing population became a pressing problem, people didn’t think too much about the efficiency of dedicating large swaths of perfectly good land to store skeletons for an indefinite length of time. By now we should know better – we’re wasting perfectly good land and if we keep on creating cemeteries at the rate we are today the whole world will end up covered in them. So, the idea to turn a sunny expanse of graves into a solar power plant is a fantastic first step toward common sense.

From TIME Magazine:

Santa Coloma is the first city in Spain to convert its municipal burial place into what is essentially a power plant. The installation consists of 462 solar panels spread over roughly 10,700 sq. ft. (1000 sq. m.), and has a capacity of 100 kilowatts, enough to meet the energy needs of 60 families.

The idea came from Esteve Serret, director of Conste, a company that manages Santa Coloma’s cemetery. Serret had long been interested in renewable energy, and one day, as he worked with his father in the graveyard, he realized they were standing in a potent site for it. “To produce solar energy you need a wide open space,” Serret says. “and in Santa Coloma, the biggest open space is the cemetery.” Indeed, the city’s 124,000 inhabitants are squeezed into a bare 1.54 sq. miles (4 sq. km.) of space — and much of that land is mountainous.

Serret had only to convince the cemetery’s owners: the municipal government. That turned out to be easy, especially because the $935,000 it would cost to install the panels would come from Conste and Endesa, a major power company. “Why not? we thought,” says Begoña Bellete, councilwoman for environmental affairs. “A city like ours has to commit itself to being on the frontlines of the fight against climate change. And this was a great opportunity because the financing would be private. All we had to do was provide the space.”

This is a fantastic start, and in Spain, other cities are already warming up to the idea. Neighboring Barcelona has inquired about the project. It’s hard to imagine this catching on in America, though, what with the complete and unapologetic sense of entitlement to the ideas of the past, whether they work in today’s world or not. Regardless, something’s got to give, soon.

Link [TIME Magazine]

Increase Solar Power Output by Keeping Panels Clean

It makes sense that dirt, grime, tree sap and other debris on solar panels would decrease their power output – anything that shields them from the sun will keep them from absorbing as many rays as they need to be super-efficient. So, a company called OCS Energy has created a solar panel cleaning system for 100kw or larger installations that attaches to the array of panels to wash the system on a weekly basis. It’s called ‘SolarWash’, and it’s “the first commercially available automated photovoltaic panel cleaning system.”

From Earth2Tech:

OCS says if the solar installation is experiencing a loss of energy of 5 percent or more due to dirt, then the system can pay back within 3 to 5 years. (Update: The company’s CEO Richard O’Connell tells us that the system costs $0.30 per watt DC to install, and that the company is in the process of bringing those costs down.) That energy loss estimate is actually a pretty conservative claim from a solar panel maintenance company. Many of the service-oriented companies in the solar panel maintenance market say dirt and grim can reduce a panel’s energy output by 15 to 25 percent.

I wonder how many solar panel owners actually think about cleaning their panels on a regular basis. An automated solution certainly seems like it would be more convenient than having to crawl up on your roof and do it yourself, or hire a company to come out. Seems like it’d be a huge help for commercial owners of large solar arrays, but time will tell whether they deem it worth the investment.

Watch a video of the system in action over at Earth2Tech!

Link [Earth2Tech]
Photo credit: The Guardian

How To Get Your Own Solar-Powered Bag

You’re in the middle of an important call and your phone dies. Or you’re on an airplane when your iPod runs out of batteries. If you’re like most gadget-carrying people, these scenarios are familiar and can leave you feeling helpless.

But never fear, the solar-powered bag is here! With flexible solar panels attached to small batteries, these bags allow you to charge your electronic devices where ever the sun shines. There are a few companies that make solar-panel bags like Eclipse and Voltaic Systems but the most stylish ones we’ve found are from Noon Solar.

From their website:

All of our collections at Noon Solar are inspired by the need to rethink the way things are made, and what they are made with. Each material used in our bag is specially chosen for its longevity and its ability to biodegrade. The other materials, such as the hardware and the solar panels can be reclaimed and reused for many generations of bags.

By integrating solar panels into our bags, we offer not only the convenience of portable power, but also a means for all of us to incorporate renewable energy into our daily lives.

[Photo by Joe Wigdahl]

Big Solar and Little Solar Engaged in Turf Wars

So it goes – in every industry, the little guys will battle the big guys. In this case, it’s the many small solar companies that are fighting power giant Southern California Edison, who plan to install 250 megawatts’ worth of solar panels on the roofs of warehouses. The pros of Edison’s plan are that it would lower the cost of photovoltaic power, expand the market and transform currently unused space exposed to plenty of sun throughout the day into mini power plants.

The lone con is a big one – solar companies, trade groups and consumer advocates are afraid that allowing a large utility company to own and operate such “massive green megawattage” will crowd out competitors.

From Green Wombat:

There’s no doubt the program will be a boon for solar module makers. For instance, thin-film solar cell company First Solar (FSLR) is supplying 33,000 panels for the program’s first project, a 600,000-square-foot roof array in the inland city of Fontana. However, Southern California Edison intends to contract for union labor to install the solar systems and tap its own capital and a rate hike to finance the project. That won’t leave many opportunities for solar installers and financiers like SunPower (SPWR), SunEdison and MMA Renewable Ventures (MMA).

“Even though this program is kind of taking bread out of our own mouth, the demand for solar will keep going up,” says Mark McLanahan, senior vice president of corporate development at MMA Renewable Ventures, a San Francisco firm that finances commercial solar arrays.

“What they have announced is extremely visionary,” McLanahan tells Green Wombat. “It’s game changing and opens up whole new realms of what solar can do. That’s exciting.” On the other hand, he says, “It’s certainly possible that a young, growing industry that is pretty fragmented could be hurt by this rather than helped.”

It seems that Edison’s program will be funded by a hefty rate hike. Some solar industry critics have suggested opening up the program to competitive bidding, not just for the procurement of solar panels. Of course, Edison’s not crazy about that idea, saying it would work against the economies of scale it says it can bring to the program.

Tough situation, and we’ll undoubtedly see a lot more of this sort of thing as our country starts making what could be a somewhat arduous transition to new energy sources.

Link [Green Wombat] via [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user clownfish

Next Generation Toyota Prius Will Have Solar Panels

Toyota will be installing solar panels on the roof of the next generation Prius, set to begin production next year and released in 2010.  The power generated by the solar panels will be used to power the air conditioning system, which was previously putting strain on the hybrid powertrain.   The panels will only be available on high-end Prius models.

There have also been rumors that the next generation Prius will have a lithium battery and may get over 100mpg.  The body has been redesigned to be slightly larger and more aerodynamic.

I can’t wait to see how high gas prices are going to continue to spur innovation in all industries.  We should be seeing some extremely cool cars in the next few years, and the best part is they’ll be getting greener and greener!  With so many interesting new designs and concepts in the works right now, the hardest part will be choosing between them all.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Popular Mechanics

U.S. Stops Solar Energy Projects Over ‘Environment Fears’

It sounds like a joke: the U.S. has decided to put off large-scale solar projects on public land so they can first study the effects that the solar panels will have on the environment. No word yet on whether they’ll do the same for coal mining, power plants and other major sources of environmental damage and disruption.

From The Telegraph:

The move has angered some solar energy proponents who argue it could hold up the industry at a vital juncture, given the pressing need to secure alternative energy sources at a time of soaring oil prices.

“This technology has been around for nearly three decades. If there is an environmental concern, that can be addressed without putting a halt to this technology and helping to impact our greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental degradation from coal-fired and natural gas plants,” said Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society.

Amazing, truly amazing. Granted, it’s just PUBLIC land. There will still be plenty of room for the growth of solar technology elsewhere – but that doesn’t change how incredibly stupid this is. Be cautious and think about the environmental repercussions of everything we do, absolutely. But we already know that our current energy production methods are far more damaging, and that we need a better way ASAP. Being conscious of solar panels displacing wildlife is good, but in the meantime, our current energy methods are hurtling us toward destruction of the entire planet at light speed.

Link [The Telegraph]

Photo credit: Worst President Ever