Solar Panels Now Cheaper Than Ever

For homeowners and businesses who want to achieve all of the benefits of solar energy but are worried about the costs related to purchasing and installing photovoltaic equipment, good news has arrived: solar panels are more cost effective now than ever.According to statistics compiled by the IHS Solar Polysilicon Price Index, the global price of silicon - a key component in PV panels that converts sunlight into a direct electrical current - in October fell to one of the lowest rates so far this year. In addition, Businessweek reported the average price of solar panels has decreased 75 percent since 2007.During October, the price for 9N silicon, one of the most pure silicon used in PV materials, decreased 9 percent. The price of 6N to 8N silicon, the lowest grade product that can actually be used in a PV power system, dropped 7 percent, Solar Novus Today reported.
According to IHS, silicon prices should stabilize or go up slightly during December this year and through January 2013. However, an oversupply of PV materials in a global marketplace means that the cost of obtaining solar-grade silicon is still likely to remain relatively low for the foreseeable future."Suppliers are trimming production, inventories in the channel are continuing to be depleted and most industry players are expecting a rebound in demand in 2013," said Glenn Gu of IHS, according to Solar Novus Today. "Because of this, spot market pricing for solar polysilicon will uptick slightly at the start of next year. Even so, spot prices will remain significantly lower than those on the contract market, causing solar polysilicon suppliers to continue to cut contract prices as they strive to catch up with the spot market."A decline in silicon prices means that it is more cost effective than ever to make solar panels, and those cost savings are passed on to the consumer: homeowners and businesses who elect to buy a solar electricity system.
Have Natural Daylight and Save Energy: Miralite has been designed, manufactured and patented in the United Kingdom to afford active natural daylight into buildings to allow artificial lighting to be turned off for up to 10.5 hours a day!Unlike passive skylights Miralite uses solar-tracking technology to follow the sun and with the clever use of pre-determined angled mirrors drive natural light into a building. The result is a bright, healthy, glare free light, just as nature intended.Miralite energy saving skylights are a solar powered green lighting solution for commercial buildings, schools, factories, public facilities, retail stores, etc; etc. In addition to significant energy and cost savings there are many more benefits from the installation of Miralite Solar tracking sky lighting.

Analysis: Georgia quietly approves solar power shift

Something remarkable happened last week during a brief meeting of a little-known state agency while most Georgians were focused on upcoming holiday shopping, turkey and college-football rivalries later in the week.Passage of a one-sentence resolution may have started in motion a series of events that could dramatically reshape the state's electricity-generation as well as much of its political landscape. And it was initiated by two of the least-likely politicians.What happened is the Georgia Public Service Commission voted 3-2 to endorse efforts by a start-up company to overturn a law, the Territorial Act, that has divided the state for four decades into geographic monopolies for 94 utilities run by cities, rural cooperatives and the giant Georgia Power Co.The upstart, Georgia Solar Utilities Inc., seeks its own monopoly as a generator of solar power with permission to sell to retail customers. Since it can't produce electricity when the sun isn't shining, it would always be dependent on other utilities for supplemental power as well as for transmission, billing and customer support.
The commission vote doesn't guarantee General Assembly agreement, but it does provide a push.Seasoned observers might bet against the legislature breaking up the monopolies. After all, they were granted for practical reasons that still have some basis.White light for laptop computers or interior lighting in cars.When companies began damning up rivers to harness hydroelectric energy early in the last century, governments stepped in to regulate. When competitors strung power lines down opposite sides of city streets and chopping down rivals' poles in the dead of night, governments became the referees.As the politicians began to sort out the winners and losers, they were persuaded by arguments that economies of scale dictated that larger companies would be more efficient than smaller ones when it came to damning rivers and building power plants, hence monopolies.
The commissioner who sponsored the resolution, Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, had been in the legislature in 1973 and voted in favor of the Territorial Act."I was there in 1973 when the act -- legislation was passed," he said. "Solar wasn't even in the dictionary, I don't think, at that time, much less photovoltaic.... It was something that wasn't anticipated at that time."He argued for removing obstacles to consumers who want access to more power generated from renewable sources.McDonald wasn't the only veteran policymaker whose vote demonstrated a change of position. Commissioner Doug Everett, a great-grandfather and conservative legislator in the 1990s, also supported McDonald's resolution."You know, everybody in here realizes I've always fought solar because I did not think the technology was there for cost effectiveness. But it's changed, technology has changed," he said.

White light for laptop computers or interior lighting in cars

Things snowballed from there, with scientists making more silicon dots (and, later, germanium dots) that emitted light in lots of bright, pretty colors, especially the highly desirable green and blue ranges. The bigger the dot, the redder the light, and the emitted light becomes shorter and shorter in wavelength — and higher in energy — as the dots shrink in size. This is called "tunability" because you can pretty much tailor the dots to emit whatever frequency of visible light you happen to need for a given application, simply by altering the size of the dots.The most obvious application is using quantum dots as an alternative to the organic dyes used to tag reactive agents in fluorescence-based biosensors. You know, the dyes start to glow when, say, a harmful toxin is present. But the number of colors available using organic dyes is limited, and they tend to degrade rapidly. Quantum dots offer a broader spectrum of colors and show very little degradation over time.
Last year, engineers at Ohio State University "invented a new kind of nano-particle that shines in different colors to tag molecules in biomedical tests." The secret ingredient? quantum dots! This breakthrough — described in the online edition of Nano Letters, in a paper by OSU's Jessica Winter and Gang Ruan — involved stuffing tiny plastic nanoparticles with even tinier quantum dots for use in biomedical tagging applications. It's easier to see biological molecules under a microscope if they fluoresce, and quantum dots glow more brightly than other fluorescent molecules used for this purpose.They also "twinkle", i.e., blink on and off, an effect that is less noticeable if there are many quantum dots congregated together. There are pros and cons to this behavior. Con: it "breaks up the trajectory of a moving particle or tagged molecule" that one is trying to track under the microscope. Pro: when the blinking stops, scientists know they've reached a critical threshold of aggregated quantum dots.
The continuous glowing makes it easier to track tagged molecules with no breaks, and they could also use the color changes to determine when said tagged molecules congregate. The nanopartices would be great for microfluidic devices, and could one day be combined with magnetic particles to enhance medical imaging for, say, cancer detection. In fact, earlier this year, Nature Nanotechnology published the results of a study showing no ill effects over a one-year period in four rhesus monkeys injected with such tiny luminescent crystals.You can also build quantum dot LEDs that emit white light for laptop computers or interior lighting in cars. As for electronics, the possibilities are endless: all-optical switches and logic gates, for instance, with a millionfold increase in speed and lower power requirements, or, further in the future, quantum dots could be used to make teensy transistors for nanoelectronics

Floating New Ideas to Build Wind and Solar Energy Projects

An all-of-the-above energy strategy may mean leveling the tax code. The wind and solar industries may potentially receive favorable tax treatment under a provision of the law that pertains to the fossil fuels or the tax structure could be totally reformed, wiping out all of those breaks in exchange for reduced corporate rates.An idea getting attention now is giving the renewables sector the right to access "master limited partnerships" -- just like oil, natural gas and coal can now do. Simply, that is a business structure that has limited liability while allowing investors to be taxed at their personal rate on dividends.Right now, the fossil fuels can set up those partnerships but the green fuels cannot. Such deals are able to attract capital because profits are only taxed once -- when the dividends are distributed, and not at the corporate level. Those investments are liquid and they can be traded, making them a valuable part of building long-term energy infrastructure projects.
Dan Reicher, former director of climate change and energy at Google, raised this issue during an EnergyBiz conference in Washington on Friday.BB is using LED bulbs in Head Office to ensure efficient use of energy.He said that those master limited partnerships could supply "hundreds of millions of dollars" to renewable energy projects by appealing to investors who seek an attractive dividend payment, which could be around 6 percent."Because master limited partnerships are so attractive to investors, they have been proven to bring new capital into American energy projects," says Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., who is sponsoring a bill to apply such business structures equally across all energy types. "This is especially important in the case of renewable energy generation, where it is harder for investors to see as quick a return compared to fossil fuel-based energy generation, for which much of the process and transportation infrastructure was built decades ago."
Why not? The argument against the move is that some lawmakers say that it would erode the tax base. That is, investments in wind and solar master limited partnerships would become tax havens, as opposed to legitimate mechanisms by which green energy development would occur.Reicher, now with Stanford University's Center for Energy Policy, disagrees with that objection. He says that investors would still be paying taxes on the dividends that they receive from the partnership. And if the tax code is properly enforced, it would lead to economically viable wind and solar generation deals that provide jobs and pay taxes.The idea has broad support: Not only are the environmental and green energy advocates behind it but so are some utilities. Specifically, David Crane, who is chief executive of NRG Energy, calls the proposal "phenomenal."

Solar panel rules considered outside St. James gate

Regulation of the appearance and placement of solar panels outside the gate likely will be discussed at the next Town of St. James planning board meeting.The property owners association already regulates solar panels within St. James Plantation—the gated area— with some rules about where they can be placed similar to ordinances enacted by Brunswick County, and other suggested guidelines for their appearance. But Thursday, planning board members discussed whether they wanted to see town ordinances regulating the panels as well, including for businesses inside town limits but outside St. James Plantation.
The POA's Architectural Control Committee (ACC) reviews and enforces POA rules regarding the appearance of homes, including the addition of solar panels. If the town's rules for solar panels are the same as the POA's, the POA will continue enforcing the rules through its ACC.The Town of St. James does not have building inspectors, relying instead on the county for that purpose, and typically responds to violations after a complaint.Board members have mentioned before that the town does not have the staff to seek out violations, instead of reacting to complaints, and members questioned the need to address solar panel regulations if the POA already does.
"Are we trying to be stricter than the POA? Are we trying to cover the POA on doing this?" asked Stephanie Macaluso. "What are we trying to do?""We've already gone down the solar road, and we already have solar in a lot of cases," said board member Bob Accordino. "I think for the most part the ACC guidelines are good depending on where the house is."But other board members pointed out that, while all residential areas inside town limits are also in St. James Plantation, there is commercial development inside the town limits but outside the gate.
"What is it that the group wants to see in solar and wind in our town?" asked town councilor and board liaison Bruce Maxwell. "What is it you folks want?""You're saying, 'What do we as a board want, inside and outside the gate?'" asked planning board member Betty Russell. "I think the question is do we want to regulate them?" asked board member John Sullivan. "Do we need to regulate them? If we choose not to, the POA can do whatever they want and it will fit in our guidelines."Accordino made a motion to consider adopting the ACC guidelines for solar panels, though he later amended it to state the town would use the ACC guidelines as a starting point, adjusting as needed, to also address areas outside the gate. The topic is expected to come up again at the next planning board meeting, scheduled for Thursday, December 13, at 3 p.m.

BB is using LED bulbs in Head Office to ensure efficient use of energy

Bangladesh is a low energy consuming country with per capita annual consumption of 220 KW hours supporting production of zero or low carbon emission energy generation. GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emission in Bangladesh is quite modest in comparison with most other developing and developed countries.The Government of Bangladesh is trying to make the demand side management (DSM) of energy through energy efficiency and conservation measures involving making efficient appliances and equipment.
It is estimated that nearly 400MW power can be saved by changing fluorescent bulbs to CFLs and another 400MW by making electric fans efficient. Besides, nearly 30% load reduction is possible by increasing energy efficiency of fridge and air-conditioners.The government is investing substantially in renewable energy, particularly solar power and biogas for rural households and enterprises. The current electricity generation from Solar Home Systems (SHSs) in the country amount to 65 MW. The target is to install 2.5 million SHSs by 2014 through IDCOL.Bangladesh plans to generate 5% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2015 and 10% by 2020.Tokelau now totally on solar power.The government needs to focus on off-grid areas (60% of rural areas) for power generation through renewable to address poverty elimination and achievement of all the MDGs.
The government has taken steps set up a wind turbine based 15 MW power plant.Bangladesh Bank has issued guidelines for Environmental Risk Management and Green Banking in 2011 aiming at ensuring environment friendly business practices by banks and financial institutions.Banks have been instructed to install solar power system while opening bank branches in rural areas.BB has taken in-house initiatives to promote green banking including installation of 8 kilowatt solar power system on its rooftop. BB is using LED bulbs in Head Office to ensure efficient use of energy. Environmentally harmful incineration of non re-issuable damaged bank notes is being phased out, restoring instead of shredding by BB.
Steps for measuring carbon footprint of BB's internal processes and operations are underway.BB has advised banks to facilitate clients to open L/Cs for installation of ETP in industrial units, finance solar energy, bio-gas and ETP projects.BB has introduced Taka 2.0 billion refinance line for financing solar energy, bio-gas and effluent treatment plant (ETP), at only 5% interest rate. BB has financed 18MW PV module manufacturing plant of Rahimafroz costs USD 4.5 million through BB green fund.

Tokelau now totally on solar power

The remote Pacific islands of Tokelau have become the first territory in the world to generate their electricity entirely from solar energy, in a project hailed as an environmental milestone.Before the solar power grid was completed, the New Zealand-administered grouping of three coral atolls, with a population of just 1,500, relied on diesel generators for electricity.Project coordinator Mike Bassett-Smith said the diesel was not only environmentally unfriendly, it also cost the islands, which lie about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, around NZ$1.0 million ($825,000) a year.Bassett-Smith, from New Zealand firm PowerSmart Solar, said the change would allow Tokelau to switch money from fuel purchases to social welfare projects.
"For Tokelau, this milestone is of huge importance for their continued well-being," he said in a statement received Wednesday."Many Pacific nations struggle to provide a high proportion of their people access to electricity, and even when they do, access to affordable electricity is a significant additional challenge."New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the US$7.0 million project had achieved a world first and Wellington was working with other Pacific nations such as Tonga and the Cook Islands to develop renewable energy."Completed on time and on budget, the project is an excellent example of how small Pacific nations can lead the way on renewable energy," he said.
MGLT's revolutionary thin-film solar panels capture a larger section of the light spectrum from the sun using relatively inexpensive materials like flexible substrates and various coatings. Perhaps this is one of several reasons why MGLT has a long and prosperous history of collaborating with the federal government. Earlier this month, MGLT received a $750,000 Phase II award from the United States Air Force as part of the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The goal of this two-year program is to develop ultra-high efficiency, thin-film solar cells that provide mobile electrical power for defense and commercial applications in space as well as on the ground. The work on this contract complements the work on high-efficiency solar cells previously funded by the Air Force and announced in November 2011.
Dr. Ashok K. Sood, President and CEO of Magnolia Solar Corporation, stated, "We are working to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic devices via novel materials combined with innovative device designs. Quantum dot structures with excellent structural and optical properties were demonstrated during the Phase I program and are intended to be incorporated into advanced photovoltaic devices during the Phase II effort. These structures have the potential to enable photovoltaic devices to reach new levels of performance for power output efficiency."

Saving solar energy technology and jobs

The Santa Clara solar-panel manufacturer Miasole is about to be sold overseas, and possibly dissolved. Its technology is an innovative threat to some existing manufacturers. In fact Miasole's thin-film manufacturing technique, which can reduce the amount of expensive materials needed by more than 90 percent from conventional solar cells, is a breakthrough technology that will be lost to the United States without immediate action.Miasole is a very real, productive company, with a 150 million-watt-per-year production facility in California, and more than 60 megawatts already deployed in commercial operation. Miasole is, or was, the third-largest thin-film solar energy producer in the world, and has achieved an industry-leading 16 percent efficient solar panels.
Miasole's planned rollout of thin and flexible solar cells could revolutionize installation and expand market opportunities, further reducing costs. These achievements are based on their patented production process, in which layers of the thin film are deposited onto a 3-foot-wide sheet of stainless steel foil as it passes around the periphery of large circular production machines.Arizonans Continue to Embrace Solar Energy.The U.S. Department of Energy has launched an "Apollo project" called Sunshot, which is built around science, policy and deployment efforts to achieve $1 per watt solar power by 2020. Miasole's technology is already on track to produce solar-cell modules that would achieve parity for solar power with current commercial power sources.Despite these successes, Miasole is having difficulty finding buyers for its product, due in large part to Chinese companies selling below cost. Thus, even after raising more than half a billion dollars of private investment, the company is shutting down and is set to be sold to a Chinese solar company at a fire-sale price of $30 million.
Forestalling this loss of U.S. technology requires, first, action to secure U.S. ownership of Miasole's patented production technology, and then to restart manufacturing by Miasole and other competitive U.S. solar companies.The sale of Miasole overseas can be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States - a federal interagency committee that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments. Particularly valuable U.S. companies can be assessed for their value as engines of growth and, we argue, of energy independence. The committee is chaired by the secretary of the Treasury, and includes the secretaries of Energy, Homeland Security and State, as well as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Members of California's congressional delegation should request a committee investigation now.To secure Miasole technology, the Department of Energy loan program could make a loan against the Miasole patents to hold them in the United States.

Create your holiday home with lights

When it comes to decorating with lights for the holidays, there are unlimited ways to add twinkle to the inside as well as the outside of your home. Some people favor an elegant, restrained sprinkling of lights around a door, while others go for a more exuberant display of illumination on virtually every surface.The American Lighting Association (ALA) offers some holiday lighting tips and ideas:Make your home's entrance a priority. The front door is more than just the entryway into your home; it's also a welcoming first impression for family and friends. Start by adding a few, easy-to-install landscape uplights to highlight trees and shrubs, or path lighting to illuminate a sidewalk or driveway."Tree lighting uses the heights of trees to spread the light out in a soft and subtle way to bathe the area in light," says Richard Lentz, owner of Dallas-based Lentz Landscape Lighting and its interiors division Lentz Services. Do-it-yourself tip: Go for low-voltage landscape lights, which are easy to install and consume less energy.
Add drama with color-changing lights. Newer LED lights can add custom color scenes that complement a specific holiday decorating mood. You can produce the exact ambiance you like at any moment during your party or gathering this season. Colors can be changed at the push of a button without changing the fixture, making these products useful year round.Use lighting to create a focal point. Lights can draw attention to virtually anything – a centerpiece, buffet, unusual decoration – which helps guests know where to focus their eyes.Add portable spotlights as highlights. These small, inexpensive fixtures typically work with a tabletop dimmer and can create pretty silhouettes, particularly under a Christmas tree, shining up through the branches.
Illuminate corners. When decorating with lights for the holidays, make your space feel larger by placing spotlights in room corners to illuminate dark spaces.Swap out lighting accents. Replacing a neutral lampshade with one that is red or gold will soften the light and create a pretty atmosphere when decorating with lights for the holidays. Replace a chandelier's crystal teardrops with gold, silver or red glass balls, or add a few shade charms, available at many craft stores, to add some sparkle and fun."One of the great things about this time of year, when there are a lot of festive gatherings, is that it's all right to break away from a few traditions and try some new things with lighting and decorating," says Bruce Hathaway, national sales manager for the Vermont-based lighting manufacturer Hubbardton Forge.