[amor de cosmos]

Canadian Solar commences construction on Canada's largest PV project
17. October 2013 | Markets & Trends, Investor news, Global PV markets, Applications & Installations | By: Ian Clover

The 100 MW Grand Renewable Solar Project in Ontario is being developed by Samsung Renewable Energy and is expected to be operational by 2015.

Canadian Solar’s subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions Inc., has this week begun construction on a 100 MW utility-scale solar power plant in Ontario, Canada.

The Grand Renewable Solar Project is the largest PV project in Canada, and has received the financial backing of Connor Clark & Lunn Infrastructure, and the development expertise of Samsung Renewable Energy Inc.

Canadian Solar were awarded the contract to provide full EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services in June – an agreement that is expected to generate revenues of $301.1 million (USD).

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...ect_100013061/

Scientists develop heat-resistant materials that could vastly improve solar cell efficiency

Scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter that could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The novel component is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light, which can than be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity – a technology known as thermophotovoltaics. Unlike earlier prototypes that fell apart at temperatures below 2200 degrees Fahrenheit (1200 degrees Celsius), the new thermal emitter remains stable at temperatures as high as 2500 F (1400 C).

"This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major advance for the field of thermophotovoltaics," said Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. Fan and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (Illinois) and North Carolina State University collaborated on the project. Their results are published in the October 16 edition of the journal Nature Communications.

A typical solar cell has a silicon semiconductor that absorbs sunlight directly and converts it into electrical energy. But silicon semiconductors only respond to infrared light. Higher-energy light waves, including most of the visible light spectrum, are wasted as heat, while lower-energy waves simply pass through the solar panel.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sdh101413.php

Solar panels can be used to provide heating and air conditioning

The use of solar panels to produce toilets hot water is standard practice, but researchers at the Madrid Universities Carlos III and Politécnica suggest that they may also be used to provide large offices with heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. Their proposal involves the incorporation of solar collectors into a gas-based cogeneration system with an absorption machine, which would reduce both energy expenditure and CO2 emissions.

SINC | October 15 2013 11:00

They may still be few, but a number of shopping centres and major stations, such as Atocha Train Station in Madrid, house trigeneration systems responsable for the production of electricity, cool air and heat. A gas engine generates electricity and, in winter, the residual heat produced is used directly for the heating circuit whilst in summer, this heat powers an absorption machine which cools the water used to provide air conditioning.

Now engineers from the Madrid Universities Carlos III (UC3M) and Politécnica (UPM) have designed a model which makes the best possible use of this system in order to allow maximum reductions in energy expediture and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the model’s ability to accommodate solar collectors is a feature new to the field. The system, the details of which appear in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering, has been designed for large office blocks.

http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/So...r-conditioning