[amor de cosmos]

Solar batteries could be utilities' next headache
By Christoph Steitz and Stephen Jewkes
FRANKFURT/MILAN | Fri Mar 8, 2013 4:13am EST

(Reuters) - Renewable energy is constantly evolving and challenging traditional utilities but one growing sector could make home-generated power much easier to use and cut customers' dependence on energy companies dramatically - solar batteries.

A major conundrum with solar panels has always been how to keep the lights on when the sun isn't shining.

Solar batteries allow homes and businesses to store solar power to use in the hours of darkness and can also help to create "smart grids" that react to sudden power swings and free stored energy when needed.

The technology is still expensive and not widely used but with energy bills soaring for consumers, it could quickly gain market share and reduce dependence on utilities, which are already struggling with overcapacity and weak demand.

Italy has some of the highest power prices in Europe and is looking at how to cut costs to allow its businesses to compete.

Nicola Cosciani, head of energy storage at Italy's top industrial battery maker Fiamm, says heavy power users like cement and steel makers are looking at generating and storing their own solar power - and even selling excess power from their batteries on to the grid.

"Germany and Italy will be explosive markets for residential storage and big energy users are also starting to show an interest. This is a game changer," he told Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...92709O20130308

India: Domestic PV manufacturing capacity reaches 2 GW
13. March 2013 | Applications & Installations, Global PV markets, Industry & Suppliers, Markets & Trends | By: Becky Beetz

According to India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), domestic manufacturing capacity of photovoltaic cells and modules has grown to 2 GW. It also estimates India’s potential solar power per square kilometer to be 30 to 50 MW.

Since the launch of its Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2010, which aims to install 20 GW of solar power by 2022, India’s domestic manufacturing capacity of photovoltaic cells and modules has increased from around 200 MW to 2 GW, says MNRE.

While domestic content requirements, among other benefits for local manufacturers, have been stipulated under the first phase of the mission – and more stringent rules are being considered under the second – there have been complaints by some in India that imported photovoltaic goods, particularly from the U.S., are causing problems for India’s manufacturers.

In response, the government launched an anti-dumping investigation into solar cells from the U.S., China, Taiwan and Malaysia. It also, however, offers concessional customs duties to imports of finished solar products and equipment, in its bid to reduce solar power costs.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...-gw_100010548/

Bringing Solar Power To Affordable Family Housing In Chicago
March 13, 2013 Kathleen Zipp : 0 Comments

Kyocera Solar Inc. is supplying solar modules and its MyGen Pro installation systems to VGI Energy for affordable, multi-family housing units in urban Chicago. VGI’s retrofitted buildings throughout Chicago have been outfitted with 20-kW rooftop solar arrays, providing electricity from the clean, renewable energy of the sun and contributing to VGI’s goal of achieving zero-net-energy-capable buildings.

Since 2010, VGI has installed Kyocera solar modules on six Chicago buildings ranging in size from 18 to 70 units, providing more than 600 people with the opportunity to use renewable energy in their daily lives.

“Our housing developments aim to enhance the quality of life for each resident with programs that integrate independent lifestyles with a sense of community; utilizing solar energy to reduce the environmental footprint is a key component,” said Van Vincent, CEO, VGI Energy. “Our partnership with Kyocera plays a very strategic role in our commitment to bringing solar power to an underserved sector of the population: residents of low-income, urban areas.”

http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com...ng-in-chicago/

Catalysts that produce "green" fuel
12 March 2013 Sissa Medialab

The energy produced by solar panels, be it heat or electricity, has to be used right away. It is hard to store and preserve and also its transportation can be rather complicated. Creating solar cells capable of producing energy in an easily storable and transportable way, that is to say fuel, is therefore the future challenge of solar energy. For this reason the scientists at SISSA are working on a catalyst that imitates and improves what nature has been able to do for millions of years.

Plants turn solar energy into sugars, the true “green” fuel, through photosynthesis. In such process a key role is performed by catalysts, molecules that “cut and paste” other molecules, and that in this specific case oxidize water, that is to say separate the hydrogen from the oxygen. Hydrogen (already a fuel itself, yet very hard to handle) is used at a later stage in the synthesis processes that produce sugars from hydrogen and carbon atoms. But scientists are seeking to obtain artificially the same typology of process by using inorganic catalysts, which are faster and more resistant than natural ones (which are very slow: just think of how much time a tree needs to grow). Effective yet costly and limited materials already exist in nature.

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem...CultureCode=en