Deals for 'new generation' renewable technologies – wind, solar, biomass - are entering the big time driving the market to new record highs, reports PwC in its annual global analysis of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in the renewable sector.

Some of the main points include:

• Total renewables deal value leaps 40% worldwide, driven by industry shake-out

• Reappraisal of nuclear post Fukushima gives extra boost to renewables' generation and prospects

Read More: http://press.pwc.com/GLOBAL/News-releases/renewables-ma-hits-new-record-highs/s/ce2bd04f-23cb-493e-b5c9-7813bb13423e

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India's clean tech sector is attracting US, Europe and Asia Pacific entrepreneurs
 
Lin is part of the stream of entrepreneurs from the US, Europe and Asia Pacific making a beeline to tap India's clean technology sector, especially the solar power industry. They have a captive market of nearly 100,000 villages in the country, which are yet to be connected to the national power grid, according to a World Bank report. "India is our next big play. If you have invested in Europe, your money is gone," said Lin, a former engineer at Apple Computer. His firm has raised seed…

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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

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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

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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/

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A short documentary that explains quite well the various ways in which Solar Power can be tapped..

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Research and Innovation in Low Cost , Green & Clean Technologies to provide food and feed to our communities and hungry people, upgrade to efficient and integrated production systems, entrepreneuships and community development, environmental protection and conservation, mitigation & adaptation to climate change. Algal Technology as a key-stone for integrated systems (water treatment, food production, CO2 capture and others) in urban and rural environments. Eolian & solar energy (chemical or photosynthetic, thermic and photovoltaic) to move production systems more efficiently.

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JOHANNESBURG — As South Africa prepares to kick off COP17 in Durban, a public-private battle illustrates the difficulties of coordinating the tw - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global-observer/south-african-business-balks-at-solar-rebates/661?tag=nl.e660

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Gemasolar, the concentrated solar power plant in Spain will supply power 24/7 - yes, even at night!
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/solar-plant-generates-power-day-and-night/9518

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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/

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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

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http://gizmodo.com/5792070/latest-solar-energy-breakthrough-threatens-the-entire-existence-of-solar-panels

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Some one has got to contact Vaigunth Ener Tek (P) ltd. They claim to have succeeded in developing a 10 - 50kWe CSP power plant. This would be the first of its kind and would be the first solar thermal energy project. http://www.v-enertek.com/SolarThermalEngine.aspx
Kindly invite them to join EAI and CleanTik

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100 kilo watt solar air-conditioning system launched at Gurgaon

Gurgaon, Jul 1 : India today achieved a major breakthrough in solar thermal cooling system technology by launching a 100 kilo watt solar air-conditioning system at the Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon adjoining the national capital.

Described as the world's most efficient solar thermal cooling system, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said it is 30 per cent more efficient than the currently available systems

http://energy-mira.blogspot.com/2011/07/100-kilo-watt-solar-air-conditioning.html

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A Large Solar Thermal Plant in Mojave Desert - A large solar energy project in the world is a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert being developed by BrightSource, with an eventual capacity of up to 900 megawatts. - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/worlds-largest-solar-project-planned-for-india.phpA

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Solar Thermal Power Growth to be Furious - With concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) capacity expected to double every 16 months over the next five years, worldwide installed CSP capacity will reach 6,400 megawatts in 2012—14 times the current capacity. (Apr 2008 data) - http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/solar-energy-forum/13373-solar-thermal-power-coming-boil.htm

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Vinod Khosla and Ausra (Solar Thermal) - (2008) In 2006, Vinod Khosla, a veteran venture capitalist best known as a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, discovered an obscure Australian company, Ausra, pursuing solar thermal. He persuaded the management of Ausra to move to Silicon Valley and helped it raise money.

Ausra recently signed a deal with PG&E, the big California utility company - http://www.tiogaenergy.com/silicon-valley-solar.php

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US Solar PV & Thermal Manufacturing & Shipments - Detailed data from DOE on the solar thermal and solar thermal components (parabolic dishes, panels etc) from US companies and shipments across US and shipments from US companies to the rest of the world. PDF file, very useful - http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/renewables/017406.pdf

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Solar thermal uses sunlight to create heat - Solar thermal plants use mirrors and/or lenses to focus the sun’s light onto a receiver which absorbs the energy as heat. The heat is used to create steam ... -

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Parabolic Dish Engine - The Parabolic Dish / Engine differs frm other solar tech in two ways: 1. It is the most efficient (29%); 2. Each reflecting unit contains a self-contained electricity generating system; the other technologies feature dumb reflectors that feed to a central system. It heats fluids to the highest temp of all. The dish tracks sun in two axes instead of one -

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