All About Solar | Green Energy News

June 19, 2005 – Vol.10 No.13

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

With concerns about supplies of crude oil and natural gas, maybe more people should seriously consider investing in solar energy for their home or business as a precaution against energy supply disruptions. Really. After all, solar is one of a few energy technologies that, once purchased, can be completely self-sufficient.

Solar,too, is no longer considered a far-out, radical technology. To some it’s nearing mainstream and is drawing more and more attention in innovation, research and commercialization.

Here’s the latest news.

--- Solar installations are getting more creative and attractive.

At its North American headquarters in San Diego, California Kyocera Solar has built a Solar Grove, a cluster of solar trees in a parking lot that also provide a sunshade for the cars beneath.

With 25 Solar Trees (tm) 186 cars can be covered while 235 kilowatts of clean electricity is generated. The project was financially supported by the California Public Utilities Commission’s Self Generation Incentive Program which covered about 36 percents of the project’s cost. State and federal tax credits also helped out. Visit Kyocera Solar at http://www.kyocerasolar.com/

--- To generate sufficient power solar systems require large amounts of real estate. Solar systems are usually confined to roofs where there’s lots of surface area, and of course sunlight.

But what about the sidewalls of building? Isn’t there lots of sunlight hitting the sides of buildings?

HelioVolt of Austin, Texas believes it has developed a process where

photovoltaic coatings can be applied directly to conventional building materials rather than solar panels being attached as an add-on. Photovoltaic materials could be applied to steel cladding and siding, metal and polymer roofing and architectural glass and skylights, they say. (Just about any material used to enclose a building other than wood or masonry products could have solar photovoltaic generating properties.)

The process HelioVolt calls FASST (tm) (field assisted simultaneous synthesis and transfer) is a low-heat process that will apply Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) thin-film coatings to building materials.

The company has received $8 million from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) to further develop the technology. Visit HelioVolt at http://www.heliovolt.com/ NEA at http://www.nea.com/

--- Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) of Chicago is in the process of building an 82-kilowatt solar system atop a U.S. Social Security Administration building in the windy city.

When complete it will be the largest solar array in Chicago and one of the largest in the U.S. midwest.

The system will cover 7920 square feet of roof space and be built with Sanyo HIT solar cells. The Sanyo cells have a solar energy conversion efficiency of 18.5 percent - an industry high for mass produced cells.

Sanyo announced in March that it had developed a solar cell with a conversion rate of 21.6 percent. Since 2002 the company has also been operating the Solar Ark in Japan, the world’s largest solar generating structure. The Ark includes a solar museum.

ComEd, a division of the Exelon Corporation, serves 3.7 million customers in Northern Illinois. Visit ComEd at http://www.exeloncorp.com/ , Sanyo Solar http://www.sanyo.com/industrial/solar/

--- Reliant Energy of Houston, Texas has entered into a long-term agreement with PowerLight Corporation for the purchase of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates. Neither company has publicly stated the potential magnitude of the deal in terms of dollars or kilowatts.

According to the agreement Reliant will purchase the certificates that PowerLight acquires from New Jersey-based solar electricity generators. Reliant will retire the certificates over a period of five years to be compliant with the New Jersey Board of Public Utility’s Clean Energy Program and in accordance with the state’s renewable portfolio standard.

PowerLight specializes in large scale solar power projects.

Visit PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/ , Reliant Energy at http://www.reliant.com/corporate

--- Concentrating solar power - where mirrors reflect and focus sunlight onto a small number of solar cells - will get a boost with additional private sector funding.

Energy Innovations of California has secured $16.5 million in venture funding from MDV-Mohr Daviddow Ventures. The moneys will be used to further the development of the company’s Sunflower concentrating solar power product. A Sunflower is now being tested atop Energy Innovation’s headquarters, The first Sunflowers will be available to customers later this year.

Sunflower will be the first mass-produced, roof-top solar concentrating system. Visit Energy Innovations at http://www.energyinnovations.com/ .