[amor de cosmos]

Federal cash still part of big solar gains
By Jeffrey Ryser

April 08, 2014 - The US Treasury Department's four and a half year old cash reimbursement program for renewable power generation passed a milestone in February, all the while helping to boost solar power generation in the US.

Treasury's 1603 program has now disbursed over $20 billion to almost 9,450 individual projects that have installed approximately 28,000 MW of mainly wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass projects.

The cash reimbursement program, which was established by a Democratic Party-controlled Congress in March 2009 and has been administered by the Treasury Department in conjunction with the Department of Energy, made its first disbursements in September 2009. The federal funds were seen as necessary as the financial panic of late 2008 led to the drying up of bank lending to the sector.

Under the 1603 program guidelines, developers of renewable projects that are eligible to receive production tax credits can elect instead to receive an investment tax credit or the 1603 cash grant that is equal to 30% of the cost of the construction of a renewable project. Initial projections were for an estimated $6 billion in taxpayer money to be paid out to developers to keep the building of renewable projects moving forward until the return of bank lending.

In the four and a half years, though, through February 1, 2014, the Treasury has reimbursed developers $20.32 billion under the 1603 program. That amount will continue to grow. The program is slated to run through the end of 2016, and big reimbursements are in the offing to the utility-scale solar projects that also received large government construction loans guaranteed by the DOE.

Moreover, developers, mainly of solar projects that began construction of their projects by January 2012 or filed a "placeholder application" by October 2012, are also eligible to receive 1603 cash through the end of 2016.

The 1603 program has, until now, significantly benefited the wind business, though the solar industry in the past year and a half has become the primary beneficiary.

http://www.platts.com/news-feature/2...ar-gains/index

US adds 2.2 GW of PV in 2013
10. April 2014 | Global PV markets, Industry & Suppliers, Markets & Trends, Top News | By: Edgar Meza

Distributed solar PV capacity in the United States grew by an estimated 1.9 GW last year, most of which was located in California.

The United States added 2,193 MW of solar PV capacity last year, with the state of California accounting for 75 percent of that figure, according to a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The country’s solar sector continued the trend of strong growth, boosted in part by falling technology costs and aggressive state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) as well as continued federal investment tax credits.

Arizona followed California as the state with the most newly added PV capacity, making up 10 percent of the nation’s total last year, according to the report.

The EIA’s figures did not include distributed capacity under 1 MW. Distributed solar PV capacity additions also grew in 2013, with industry reports estimating non-utility additions of 1.9 GW, most of which was likewise located in California.

The EIA also looked at the solar thermal industry, adding that after many years of little activity, the sector completed several large-scale solar thermal plants last year in Arizona and California totaling 766 MW of capacity, more than doubling the total solar thermal capacity in the United States.

While a few more projects are expected to be completed between 2014 and 2016, several other announced projects have since been cancelled or suspended due to a number of challenges, including environmental impacts on desert wildlife and water resources, cost-competitiveness and delays in transmission development.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...013_100014796/

Oxford PV appoints CTO to push commercialisation of Perovskite thin-film solar cells
By Mark Osborne - 09 April 2014, 17:17
In News, Thin Film, OPV/DSSC, Going Places

Perovskite thin-film solar cells could be closer to commercialisation than expected after Oxford Photovoltaics (Oxford PV) made a critical appointment of a veteran leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing technologist as its Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Chris Case.

Company co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oxford PV, Kevin Arthur said: “To be able to attract someone of Chris’s calibre underlines the significant progress Oxford PV has made in the last 12 months and how serious we are about becoming a world leader in bringing to market this pioneering solar technology. With Chris as part of our team we will be looking to accelerate commercialisation as well as broaden the markets we are looking at. ”

Having started a distinguished career in PV thin-film technology, Dr. Case is returning to the field after a short foray running his own consultancy firm for global high-tech materials firms such as French speciality gasses company, Air Liquide.

Perovskite thin-film solar cells have received increasing attention by several start-up companies as well as a lot of attention at research institutes and universities around the world as several recent efficiency breakthroughs in lab environments show conversion efficiencies inline with current conventional c-Si solar cells but potentially a fraction of the cost.

However, taking novel materials form R&D laboratories to robust long-life high-volume manufacturing at a true low-cost is something very different.

Oxford PV is developing Perovskite thin-film solar cells initially to meet the BIPV market and has already raised £7 million in equity and grant funding.

http://www.pv-tech.org/news/oxford_p...e_thin_film_so

Rooftop solar may be ‘sleeping giant’ of Australian politics
By Giles Parkinson on 10 April 2014

The Greens have launched a new campaign to make rooftop solar a key election issue in the Victorian state poll later this year, describing it as a potential “sleeping giant” in Australian politics.

The launch of the Fair Go for Solar Saver campaign intends to tap into three key issues that have so far been ignored by the mainstream parties – the right to connect, the right to install a decent sized system, and to add to it, and the right to obtain a fair tariff for rooftop solar exports back to the grid.

The Greens have been buoyed by the recent success of the Vote Solar campaign from the Australian Solar Council in last week’s Senate re-run in Western Australia. They say that parts of the significant swing to Scott Ludlam can be sourced to areas where rooftop solar is an issue.

The Greens have been the first party to try to tap into the issue of rooftop solar – which now sits on more than 2 million homes (1.2 million solar PV, 800,000 solar hot water) in Australia. Victoria has more than 200,000 of these solar PV homes, hosting more than 540MW of capacity, and within two years more than half of these homes will be receiving little or no money for the power they export to the grid. In some key electorates, in the north-west regional areas and even within the Melbourne mortgage belt, the level of “solar penetration” is nearly 20 per cent.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/roof...politics-94927

Solar plus storage should be centrepiece of booming western Sydney
By Craig Blanch on 10 April 2014

With expected reductions in costs associated with energy storage envisaged for the coming 12-18 months, it is time that the solar industry in NSW took action to showcase the potential of solar combined with storage for the residents of western Sydney.

Western Sydney, from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains, from Castle Hill to Campbelltown, is the fastest growing region of any capital city in Australia.

And with the impending fast tracking of Sydney’s second airport at Badgerys Creek, the construction of the North-West Rail Link, along with LandCom’s continual releases of land in western Sydney, the population of this area will increase significantly in a very short period. And this booming population will put a significant strain on the current electricity supply network.

What can be done to contain the cost of constructing this infrastructure demand and reduce costs for all electricity users?

We need to ensure solar combined with storage is implemented effectively on all new housing and encourage its take-up within the existing electricity market in western Sydney.

Instead of whinging and complaining about the removal of certificates and the winding back of feed in tariffs, the solar industry in NSW needs to focus on what they can do to energise the market and showcase what they can do for the residents of NSW as well as the taxpayer.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/sola...n-sydney-47499

April 9, 2014
Stanford scientists model a win-win situation: growing crops on photovoltaic farms
A new model for solar farms that "co-locates" crops and solar panels could result in a harvest of valuable biofuel plants along with solar energy.
By Ker Than

Growing agave and other carefully chosen plants amid photovoltaic panels could allow solar farms not only to collect sunlight for electricity but also to produce crops for biofuels, according to new computer models by Stanford scientists.

This co-location approach could prove especially useful in sunny, arid regions such as the southwestern United States where water is scarce, said Sujith Ravi, who is conducting postdoctoral research with professors David Lobell and Chris Field, both on faculty in environmental Earth system science and senior fellows at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. "Co-located solar-biofuel systems could be a novel strategy for generating two forms of energy from uncultivable lands: electricity from solar infrastructure and easily transportable liquid fuel from biofuel cultivation," said Ravi, the lead author of a new study published in a recent issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology that details the idea.

Photovoltaic (PV) solar farms run on sunlight, but water is required to remove dust and dirt from the panels to ensure they operate at maximum efficiency. Water is also used to dampen the ground to prevent the buildup and spread of dust. Crops planted beneath the solar panels would capture the runoff water used for cleaning the PV panels, thus helping to optimize the land. The plants' roots would also help anchor the soil and their foliage would help reduce the ability of wind to kick up dust.

http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2014/pr-...ps-040914.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0409143942.htm

2014-04-09 [
Florian Aigner | Press Release 35/2014 ]
Tiny Step Edges, Big Step for Surface Science
Experiments at the Vienna University of Technology can explain the behaviour of electrons at tiny step edges on titanium oxide surfaces. This is important for solar cell technology and novel, more effective catalysts.

It can be found in toothpaste, solar cells, and it is useful for chemical catalysts: titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an extremely versatile material. Alhough it is used for so many different applications, the behaviour of titanium oxide surfaces still surprises. Professor Ulrike Diebold and her team at the Vienna University of Technology managed to find out why oxygen atoms attach so well to tiny step edges at titanium oxide surfaces. Electrons accumulate precisely at these edges, allowing the oxygen atoms to connect more strongly. In solar cells, this effect should be avoided, but for catalysts this can be highly desirable.

Microscope Pictures of Titanium Oxide Surfaces

Titanium oxide is Ulrike Diebold’s favourite material. In her latest publication, she and her team studied the behaviour of titanium oxide surfaces using scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy.

Titanium oxide can be used for solar cells. In the so-called Graetzel cell, an inexpensive but inefficient type of solar cell, it plays the central role. “In a solar cell, we want electrons to move freely and not attach to a particular atom”, says Martin Setvin, first author of the publication, which has now appeared in the journal “Angewandte”.

The opposite is true for catalysts: For catalytic processes, it is often important that electrons attach to surface atoms. Only at places where such an additional electron is located can oxygen molecules attach to the titanium oxide surface and then take part in chemical reactions.



Better Solar Cells, More Efficient Catalysts

Important conclusions for technology can be drawn from this: for photovoltaics, such step edges should be avoided, for catalysts this newly discovered effect yields great opportunities. Surfaces could be microstructured to exhibit many such edges, making them extremely effective catalysts.

http://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news.../article/8732/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0409093949.htm

Engineers unveil round-the-world attempt solar aircraft
10 April 2014

The solar-powered aircraft designed for the first round-the-world flight attempt without any fuel was unveiled by engineers in Switzerland yesterday.

The team behind Solar Impulse 2 hope the 72m-wingspan single-seater aircraft will next year fly the approximately 35,000km (22,000 miles) route around the globe, broken into around 10 stages including a five consecutive day-and-night trip across the Pacific.

The flight attempt, spearheaded by engineer André Borschberg and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, will be the culmination of 12 years of design, engineering and testing that included the first 24-hour solar-powered flight in predecessor craft Solar Impulse 1.

‘With eight world records for Solar Impulse 1, the first solar aircraft capable of flying during the night, crossing two continents and flying over the United States, we have shown that clean technologies and renewable energies can accomplish the impossible,’ Piccard said in a statement.

Borschberg added: ‘Solar Impulse 2 will have virtually unlimited autonomy, and now we need to make sure the pilot is as sustainable as his aircraft. This is why the round-the-world flight will be as much a human as a technological feat.’

The 2.3 ton carbon-fibre aircraft uses over 17,000 solar cells to power four brushless motors and charge four batteries, which enable the craft to fly at speeds between 36kph (22mph) and 140kph (87mph) during both day and night.

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/aerospa...018376.article

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Energy storage needed in UK to offset cost of turning off wind turbines
10 April 2014

The UK needs to invest in energy storage technology in order to alleviate financial burdens brought upon on consumers when wind farm operators turn off their turbines.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) warns in a report published today that consumers will continue to pay increasing bills for constraint payments from the National Grid – essentially a payment to generators to turn off their wind turbines - unless the government works with energy companies and industry to develop a road map for the development, demonstration and deployment of energy storage technologies.

Recent figures from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) claim that £8.7m in constraint payments were made to wind farms in March, part of the £13,749,814 already paid out this year. In 2013, wind farms received £32,707,351.

Under existing market arrangements, if an energy company generating electricity is unable to supply its power to the grid because it is not required it is entitled to constraint payments.

In its new report Energy Storage: The missing link in the UK’s energy commitments, IMechE highlights energy storage technologies such as those based on Cryogenics (or so-called liquid air), flywheels, pumped heat and graphene super-capacitors as potential ways the UK can start making the best use of its renewable energy.

In a statement, Dr Tim Fox, head of Energy and Environment at IMechE said: ‘We know that energy bills are going to rise in future, but unless we invest in energy storage technology these constraint payments are set to become an unnecessary additional cost for the consumer.

’The issue of constraint payments has become a recurring concern of consumers, as they are effectively funding the non-supply of electricity from a range of generation technologies, and the fact that millions are currently handed out to wind farms has highlighted a potential challenge for the future.

‘At the moment constraint payments for renewable based electricity generation makes up a relatively small proportion of the total, but as the installed capacity of these technologies increases in the future the issue of such payments will likely become of growing public concern. Virtually any form of energy storage could help alleviate this problem, by allowing surplus generation from intermittent renewable sources to be stored by power providers until needed for use at a different time when demand exists.

‘But the need is not just for electricity generation, which only makes up around 26 per cent of UK energy demand, we also require storage for the bigger demands for heat and transport as they transition to renewable sources.

‘The intermittency challenge of renewable sources arises from the fact that the wind does not always blow, the sun does not always shine and the waves are not always in motion at times when consumers demand electricity. Equally, the converse is also true, in that consumer demand for power can be low when renewable energy sources are highly active.’

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/energy-...018374.article

UK must invest in energy storage, warns Institution of Mechanical Engineers
By Andy Colthorpe | 10 April 2014, 11:46



The report assesses the various energy storage technologies and their appropriateness to the UK sector. It covers technologies including compressed air energy storage (CAES), pumped storage hydroelectric (PSHE), cryogenic energy storage (CES), hydrogen storage and flywheels as well as various electrical battery types. These include flow batteries for longer term applications, lithium-based, nickel-based and several other types.

In addition to advocating for the formulation of a roadmap for storage technology development, which IMechE argues should be done by the UK government in cooperation with the energy industry, the report highlights three key findings.

1. At pre-launch events for the report, as well as in the report itself, the Institution's head of energy and environment, Dr Tim Fox stressed the importance of looking at energy storage not only in electricity, but also for transport and heat. According to the Institution, electricity only makes up around 26% of UK energy demand.
2. Secondly, IMechE argues that "government must recognise that energy storage cannot be incentivised by conventional market mechanisms" – according to the Institution, long-term environmental and energy security objectives will not be met unless mechanisms to deploy storage are put in place.
3. Finally and perhaps the biggest barrier if mainstream press coverage of energy issues in the UK is to be believed, the report argues strongly that while rapidly rising energy costs are a matter of deep concern, the UK "must reject its obsession with 'cheapness' in the sector. The Institution concludes that whatever the outcome and whichever technologies are deployed, energy costs are likely to continue to rise.

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/ne...ical_engineers