Two years ago, Indian policy makers said that by the year 2020 they would drastically increase the nation’s use of solar power from virtually nothing to 20,000 megawatts — enough electricity to power the equivalent of 20 million modern American homes. Many analysts said it could not be done. But, now the doubters are taking back their words.

India does not have a large solar manufacturing industry, but is trying to develop one and China is showing a new interest in India’s growing demand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/business/energy-environment/in-solar-power-india-begins-living-up-to-its-own-ambitions.html?_r=1

in Solar PV Solar Thermal Solar CSP CPV

Move over Texas. Everything’s big in CHINA. Construction will begin soon on a 1-gigawatt solar farm 165 miles west of Beijing. It won’t be - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/china-to-build-nuclear-scale-solar-plant/10623?tag=nl.e660

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Even when you have all the money of Google, you should spend it wisely. The search giant, which invests heavily in renewable energy initiatives, backed off of at least one of them yesterday.


Google said it is dropping development of “solar thermal” electricity because solar thermal cannot keep pace with the rapid price decline of another solar technology – photovoltaics. The solar thermal cut came as part of Google’s decision to axe its 4-year old Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, although other renewable programs remained intact.


“The installed cost of solar photovoltaic technology has declined dramatically over the past few years, making solar photovoltaic technology a compelling choice for consumers,” Google Fellow and senior vice president of operations Urs Hölzle said in a blog post.


Photovoltaics use solar cells embedded in panels to directly generate electricity. Solar thermal uses mirrors to focus sunlight on a fluid that heats up, creates steam and drives a turbine. It’s also known as “concentrating solar power” (CSP).


Google’s investments in solar thermal have included $168 million in a giant solar farm that Brightsource Energy Inc. is building Ivanpah, Calif., and a $10 million infusion in Burbank, Calif.-based eSolar.


Solar thermal makes a spectacular picture, especially the sort that reflects sunlight up to a tower (some solar thermal plants reflect the light onto pipes that run past parabolic mirrors). But several energy companies have started to back off the technology in favor of photovoltaics, such as at California’s huge Blythe installation. The chairman of Spanish utility giant Iberdrola recently blasted solar thermal as senseless.


Still, other companies are standing by it, noting that it makes sense under certain conditions. It is the centerpiece technology in the Desertec Industrial Initiative’s overarching long term scheme to provide 15 percent of Europe’s electricity from solar farms scattered across N. Africa and the Middle East.


Construction is set to begin on the first of Desertec’s solar thermal plants next year in Morocco, with a $297 million loan from the World Bank.


A third approach to solar, called concentrated photovoltaics (CPV), borrows from both PV and solar thermal, in that it magnifies sunlight onto solar cells.


In canning its solar thermal work, Google is reigning in what some critics have argued was a push too far afield of its core business of Internet search and advertising. As SmartPlanet’s Larry Dignan wrote when Google launched Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal in 2007, “Unless Google is putting ads on windmills it looks like a detour that could make shareholders squirm.”

Google has freely published results of its research in the solar thermal on the web.


Google’s now defunct Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE

in Solar PV Solar Thermal Solar CSP Solar Water Heating and Drying

250 MW California Valley Solar Ranch is on track -- so far. - http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/California-Valley-Solar-Ranch-NRG-Energy-and-Bechtel-Navigating-Compliance/

in Solar PV Solar Thermal Solar CSP

New Record-Breaking Dye-Sentized Solar Cell | Solar Energy News - http://www.esolarenergynews.com/2011/11/new-record-breaking-dye-sentized-solar.html?utm_source=feedburner

in Solar CSP

Semiconductor companies raced to dig up more silicon in the wake of cleantech subsidies. Then the global recession hit. Now, solar cell firms are reel - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/polysilicon-output-doubles-sending-solar-prices-plummeting/20319?tag=nl.e660

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Nanowires could be solution for high performance solar cells | News Bureau | University of Illinois - http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/1108nanowires_XiulingLi.html

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Vast amounts of solar energy radiate to the Earth constantly, but tapping that energy cost-effectively remains a challenge. - http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/energy-scale-part3-1026.html

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Microinverters — a new techie spin on the traditional solar inverter — are popping up with increasingly regularity and have been embraced - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/trend-watch-microinverters-invade-solar/9707?tag=nl.e660

in Solar PV Solar CSP

The ever-evolving gigawatt Blythe solar farm project in California is one more example of the paradigm shift underway within the U.S. utility-scale ma - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/the-changing-tech-of-utility-scale-solar-projects/9494?

in Solar PV Solar CSP

It’s an equal opportunity stock price decline, as even Chinese manufacturers like Suntech are reeling. Westinghouse Solar hits penny stock level - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/clouds-form-over-solar-share-prices/9481?tag=nl.e662

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Solar Power is the process of conversion of energy from the sun to electricity.

1. Nanotechnology powered Dye Sensitive Solar Cells

Developed by the researchers at the Ohio State University, this technique emphasizes on the use of an amalgamation of ruthenium and titanium/zinc oxide particles that absorbed photons from the sun rays effectively and, when connected with nanowires, had the ability to conduct electricity.

2. Use of Photonic Crystals in Photovoltaics

StarSolar, a startup based in Cambridge, with the help of physicists from MIT, developed what are known as photonic crystals. Usually high quantity of silicon is used to harness the power of the sun, however, lot of photons are wasted and not absorbed in the process. The researchers developed a specific pattern of microscopic spheres of glass and placed it within a photonic crystal, which was further applied to the back of the solar cell, which instrumented the redirection of the unabsorbed photons from the sunlight back to the silicon.

3. Heliotube

Another advancement in the field was studied and developed by “Solient Energy” in the form of Heliotube. These panels had solar connectors or mirrors attached to them so as to be able to adjust and redirect themselves according to the best direction from where maximum sunlight can be absorbed.

4. Use of Copper Indium Diselenide in solar cells

Shell solar, one of the leading manufacturer of Photovoltaics, is developing modules called Shell Solar ST40, which have copper indium diselenide fitted on a glass back. It’s a semiconductor, which when exposed to sunlight, converts light into electricity much competently.

5. Solar cells on flexible sheets

Researchers at New Jersey Institute of technology devised minutely thin solar cells made with the use of carbon nanotubes and carbon buckyballs, which could be painted on plastic sheets and be used instead of normal paints used in buildings.

6. Spherical Solar Cells

A technique developed by Japan’s Clean Venture 21, makes use of spherical solar cells instead of the conventional rectangular ones. It provides a significant edge since spherical cells are more effective in absorbing light for all at any direction/angle.

7. Reflective dishes

Researchers from Israel’s Ben Gurion University have replaced silicon with gallium arsenide in their solar cells, which harness the solar power even more adequately when used in reflective dishes. Although initial investment is high, the return on investment in terms of generation of electricity is higher when compared to conventional methods.

8. Use of Pokeberries

Pokeberries, which can be easily grown, yield a red colored dye which when coated on fiber based solar cells absorb more sunlight.

9. Gravel batteries

These batteries are used effectively to store solar energy when the sun is hidden.

10. Solar fuels

These use concentrated solar radiation to drive high-temperature endothermic reactions, thereby improving efficiency.

Source - http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/10-advancements-solar-energy-technology-watch/

in Solar PV Solar Thermal Solar CSP

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has provided scientists new information about solar flares indicating an increase in strength and longevity that is more than previously thought.

Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. They are the solar system’s largest explosive events and are seen as bright areas on the sun. Their energy can reach Earth’s atmosphere and affect operations of Earth-orbiting communication and navigation satellites.

Using SDO’s Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) instrument, scientists have observed that radiation from solar flares continue for up to five hours beyond the main phase. The new data also show the total energy from this extended phase of the solar flare’s peak sometimes has more energy than the initial event.

“Previous observations considered a few seconds or minutes to be the normal part of the flare process,” said Lika Guhathakurta, lead program scientist for NASA’s Living with a Star Program at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “This new data will increase our understanding of flare physics and the consequences in near-Earth space where many scientific and commercial satellites reside.”
On Nov. 3, 2010, SDO observed a solar flare. If scientists only had measured the effects of the flare as it initially happened, they would have underestimated the amount of energy shooting into Earth’s atmosphere by 70 percent. SDO’s new observations provide a much more accurate estimation of the total energy solar flares put into Earth’s environment.

“For decades, our standard for flares has been to watch the X-rays as they happen and see when they peak,” said Tom Woods, a space scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder and principal author on a paper in Wednesday’s online edition of Astrophysical Journal. “But we were seeing peaks that didn’t correspond to the X-rays.”

see more - http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/58340-solar-flares-emit-more-radiation-than-thought-and-ones-due-to-hit-tomorrow

in Solar PV Solar Thermal Solar CSP

http://www.solarpowerengineering.com/2011/07/gemasolar-solar-power-plant-reaches-24-hours-of-uninterrupted-production/

in Solar PV Solar CSP

Concentrating solar power: California approves 570 MW hybrid natural gas-solar thermal plant

The California Energy Commission approved the construction of a proposed 570-megawatt concentrated solar energy hybrid plant in Los Angeles County.

Concentrating solar power: California approves 570 MW hybrid natural gas-solar thermal plant
By a 4-0 vote, the Energy Commission adopted the presiding member's proposed decision (PMPD) for the Palmdale Hybrid Power Project. "The project will provide reliable and consistent power," said Commissioner Karen Douglas, who is the presiding member for the committee reviewing the Palmdale project.

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=12916

in Solar CSP

Brightsource Energy Adds Energy Storage to Solar Thermal Offering

BrightSource Energy, Inc., a solar thermal technology company, launched a new solar thermal power plant solution for utilities. Called SolarPLUS, the offering combines BrightSource's high-efficiency LPT power tower solar thermal technology with two-tank molten-salt storage.

http://energystoragetrends.blogspot.com/2011/08/brightsource-energy-adds-energy-storage.html

in Solar CSP

Concentrated solar power is a water hog

CSP focuses the heat of the sun onto a central tower to power turbines. Unforunately, it uses more water than any other form of energy generation. This is made worse by CSP plants invariably being located in deserts where water is already scarce. While it is possible to reduce their water usage, this also lowers the efficiency of the plant.

in Solar CSP

BrightSource Goes Even Bigger With CSP

The soon-to-IPO mega-startup BrightSource just filed a license application with the California Energy Commission (CEC) for the 500 megawatt Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System (HHSEGS).

Woolard told Greentech Media that BrightSource's next generation of plants will be much larger, thereby improving efficiency, lowering cost-per-watt, and lowering LCOE.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/brightsource-goes-even-bigger-with-csp/

in Solar CSP

SolarReserve ( http://www.solarreserve.com/aboutUs.html )of Santa Monica, Calif., can store heat from the sun in the form of molten salt. A field of mirrors that are aimed by a computer reflect the sun's light on a black box on top of a central tower. In the box is the molten salt, which the sun heats to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The salt can be run through a heat exchanger to make steam to power a conventional turbine and generator.

in Solar CSP

See the YouTube videos on Gemasolar -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhV2LT8KVgA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcWVIiDKVao&feature=related

in Solar CSP