[Valencia, Spain]

Q-Cells Party info!

Not ready to brave a Valencia beach excursion, I decided to head over to the Feria Valencia on Sunday to obtain my 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) Press badge and conference bag and to check out the venue. As it turned out, Press badges are not being distributed until Monday morning. However, I did have unprecedented access to the Conference auditoriums and Exhibition. This was not exclusive to me; anyone interested could have taken a good look around.

As I said last year in the “22nd EU PVSEC Closing Session”:

Peter Helm, the Executive Conference Director, discussed the selection of Valencia, Spain, for the 23rd EU PVSEC in 2008, and the issues with distance between venues will be resolved. This was my only complaint about the 22nd EU PVSEC. It was much easier to dash between the Conference, Visual Presentations, the Exhibition, and the Press room in Dresden even considering the bratwurst gap. Did I mention Valencia has a beach?

Although it was not running on Sunday, the Metro Valencia Line 4 Feria train stops almost at the front of the Feria Valencia. So the walk from the Metro to the Feria is much shorter than Milan was last year. In my opinion and although I am still walking challenged from my Hiatus incident, the walk from the Conference Venue to the Exposition Halls seems at least as long or longer than Milan. Adding to the journey, Auditorium Pavilion 5 is located down three levels in the Conference Venue, and the Exhibition Halls are located one level below the Foro Centro entrance. I heard exhibitors may not be so happy about this either. On the positive side, the Visual Presentation space is large and located at the entrance to Auditorium Pavilion 5 next to Conference Registration.

Please view the following Picasa slideshow with select pre-23rd EU PVSEC photos including a minor story snippet in the captions. Adjustment of the slide display time may be required to read the captions.

The 23rd EU PVSEC Q-Cells CELEBRATE WITH US! Party details are as follows:

Location: LAS ANIMAS PUERTO | EDIFICO DOCKS
Date: 2 September 2008 Time: 9 P.M.
Address: Paseo Neptuno | Playa Las Arenas

I suggest getting over to Q-Cells AG in Exhibition Hall 2 Stand A9 first thing on Monday to procure your ticket.

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We have been talking much about solar. Let us now try to shift from that and go with this story from Pennsylvania. See, in Vandergrift, that is where you would find the river Kiskiminetas. And from this river, officials of the area are looking at using this as a good source of electricity. How will they go about with that?

Reserachers have devised a new system that encompasses a grid of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) placed on the bottom of the river, the undulating movement of which will generate electricity. The electrical current generated would pass to substations along the river bank, ultimately charging a group of batteries. The city is looking to harness enough power from the river to cover 20-40% of its needs.

Very nice, right? If areas with bodies of moving water could do the same, the world would probably be greener. And come to think of it, the world is mostly made up of water. So if we all knew how to hone the power from such, just think how we all would be living in a better Earth.

Tags: hydro power, Kiskiminetas River, Pennsylvania, river, Vandergrift

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Solar powered pumps are very versatile gadgets as it can be utilized for various home and business operations. They can be used in garden water ponds as well as in fountains which are for aesthetic purposes. But such powers can also be used for nobler purposes like pumping water into far flung places. The fact is that solar powered pumps are now one of the more popular means for people to pump water.

Of course, other means such as windmills are also in use. However, there are many areas wherein solar powered pumps are actually replacing them. How do these pumps operate? Everything all depends of solar panels, the number of which that’s needed is dependent on how deep the well is. Of course, if the well is too deep, this means more power for the pump is needed, and consequently more number of solar panels.

Definitely there are zero running costs as solar powered pumps are solely run by the power from the sun. This is unlike the other conventional pumps which are needed to be powered by electricity and thereby making the operational expenses high.

And since the solar powered pumps only run via the power coming from the rays of the sun rather than the electricity from the local utility, these means that the use of such pumps make your home friendly to the environment. These special pumps do not in any way contribute to the already worsening environmental problem of global warming.

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Do you know why people prefer getting mail from the IRS more than from their utility company?  At least there’s a chance you’ll get a refund from the IRS.  Today, mail from the utility company will more than likely announce another price increase than ever before.

Across the country, residential electricity is getting more expensive every year.  If you live in a populated area, it’s likely your bills are going to go up too.  In California utilities are asking for double-digit increases.  My parents in Maryland saw their bills increase 50% last year alone.

Residential electricity prices will continue to rise in most places because they’ve been kept artificially low by local regulators.  As these rate caps are removed, like they will be in Pennsylvania in 2010, prices will jump.

For decades we’ve invested in natural gas power plants assuming the price for gas would be affordable.  However, that price has quintupled over the last decade.  It’s going up because we’re importing it from overseas and using it in record quantities.

Keith Johnson in the Wall Street Journal last week would have you believe that renewable energy—say from solar—is more expensive than traditional sources.  That may be true for utility companies burning coal, but it isn’t true for you.

Homeowners are cutting their electricity bills dramatically by going solar.  Let’s say you’re an average consumer of electricity in California, living in Fresno, paying $240 per month to Pacific Gas & Electric.  You can purchase solar electricity from SunRun for $120 per month, saving 50%.

Unlike your utility that increases your bill every year because they create electricity using scarce natural resources, solar electricity companies can fix your bill for years to come.  Imagine you could have had locked your price for gasoline in 1990 at half-off when everyone else was paying a $1.35 per gallon.  You can save with solar too.

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The sun isn’t the only thing that’s hot these days.

First Solar Inc., one of the more high-profile manufacturers of solar technology, is raising eyebrows on Wall Street. The clean technology company recently reported a 57% increase in quarterly earnings, exceeding projected revenues by nearly 20%. Second quarter revenues equaled $267 million, more than triple last year’s second quarter earnings of $77.2 million. Over this time the company’s operating profit more than quadrupled to 33.2%, as compared with last year’s margin of 7.5% for the same quarter. “Despite expectations being so high, they completely outdelivered again,” gushed technology investment analyst Mark Bachman of Pacific Crest Securities.

First Solar credits the launch of a new production facility in Malaysia for its current spate of success; the plant’s output is helping the company meet the high consumer demand that is currently inflating the price of silicon. As production levels begin to meet this demand, however, raw costs should decrease, creating the potential for yet greater profit margins.

At the moment First Solar is pursuing utility-scale initiatives in California and emerging markets in France and Italy; it is also one of the largest makers of thin-film photovoltaic cells, a cutting-edge technology that is significantly cheaper to manufacture than traditional solar panels, though not yet as efficient. Recent experimental efforts by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have raised thin-film conversion efficiency to 19.9%, as opposed to 20.3% for traditional multicrystalline silicon panels. First Solar’s cells convert sunlight at an efficiency rate of 10.7%, but that is increasing with the development of these new techniques and applications.

Sources: “First Solar Q2 net soars past view, shares rise”, Scientific American; “19.9%: New Thin Film Solar Efficiency Record”, Treehugger; “First Solar’s Earnings Warms Investors’ Hearts”, Earth2tech.

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Not only are the Saudis the kings of oil but they are also looking at the title “Kings of Solar.” Saudia Arabia is in the middle of the “Sun Belt” which encompasses the areas of northwest Africa all the way to eastern Central Asia. Europeans are aiming to become very chummy with the Saudis in order to tap into the tremendous amount of solar power that can be obtained there.

The Europeans have formed The “Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation”, or TREC. Their aim is to build a “transmission supergrid.” This supergrid will funnel the energy from solar thermal power plants and wind turbines through long distance power lines to supply energy to Europe. In the last few weeks the heads of Britain and France have publically backed the plan.

The problem is this is going to be a Very Expensive undertaking. They’ll have to get all their political ducks in a row as well as acquiring mega funding from investors. The plan also has detractors such as Arnulf Jaeger-Walden who is a well known European energy authority. He said that less than 0.4% of of the solar energy that falls on the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East would satisfy all of Europe’s energy needs.

But, then you have a representative of the Algerian government who runs a government backed energy company who claims “Our potential in thermal solar power is four times the world’s energy consumption, so you can have all the ambitions you want with that.”

It looks like solar power generation is and will become even more political, perhaps someday rivaling oil with world governments making claims and claiming stakes.

You can read more at CBC News Canada.

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On a recent day in the San Jose area, we took photos of our panel washing crews making rounds at SunRun homes. We think it’s interesting to see just how dirty solar panels can get - especially with recent forest fires depositing a lot of particulates on the surface of the panels. Panel washing is included as part of SunRun Solar Service, so we can make sure that our solar power systems are performing optimally all the time - and so we can save our customers the hassle of washing the panels themselves.

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SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Seattle-based Cooler Planet (www.coolerplanet.com) announced today its 10,000th solar customer consultation since launching the service last year — a significant feat given the total national market for photovoltaic solar installations was estimated as 26,000 in 2007.

The company provides free online assessment tools, educational resources, and consultation services to home and business owners considering solar installations. Cooler Planet (www.coolerplanet.com) also partners with a network of solar installers across the country and connects them with pre-screened customers from their area.

The company further announced today the launch of a completely redesigned version of its industry-leading solar website. Cooler Planet President Tom Staples commented, “We’ve been focused on developing the suite of tools, information, and services that home and business owners need in order to evaluate solar power. We’ve made great progress over the last year with help from our solar integrators and contractor partners. The new website supports our mission to deliver the highest-quality experience for our customers while furthering our expansion.”

Cooler Planet was founded by Tom Staples, president, and Danny Vo, vice president of technology and development. Leveraging their experience in the online advertising industry, the company has created a winning value proposition, connecting consumers and resources online — building strong relationships with installer partners, while also serving as a trusted resource for now more than 10,000 consumers looking for certified installers and information resources.

Staples continued, “Our service is similar to Zillow’s offering in the online real estate market — matching consumers with resources, information, and cool tools. Our solar contractor partners tell us that no one else offers the level of service, quality of customer referrals, and return on investment that Cooler Planet can provide, and our solar shoppers appreciate that the resources and online tools are completely free.”

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MUNICH, Germany & BARCELONA, Spain–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Linde Nippon Sanso today announced that it has been awarded the exclusive contract to supply high purity gases to Spain’s first thin film solar cell manufacturing plant set up by T-Solar S.A. in Ourense, Galicia (Spain).

Under this agreement, Linde Nippon Sanso will provide T-Solar with turnkey installation of the plant’s bulk and special gases supply systems and ongoing delivery of the gases essential to making thin film solar cells. These gases include large volumes of silane and hydrogen gas, used to deposit silicon light absorber layers on large area sheets of glass used in solar panels.

“As the search for renewable energy sources gains momentum globally, Linde Nippon Sanso’s collaboration with T-Solar is in line with our mission to enable solar energy to achieve grid parity and become more affordable for mass consumption,” said Andreas Guenther, President, Linde Nippon Sanso. “T-Solar’s choice of Linde Nippon Sanso as the exclusive supplier reiterates our strengths in advanced gas technologies for thin film manufacturing.”

The T-Solar plant, fully operational in mid-2008, is using a new technology that enables the production of giant solar panels – more than five times larger than those currently produced. This thin film manufacturing technology is expected to lower the cost of solar electricity toward grid parity, making solar energy competitive with conventional grid-supplied electricity.

“The first thin film manufacturing plant places Spain among the front-runners in the global solar energy market,” said Juan Laso, CEO, T-Solar. “It confirms T-Solar’s commitment to making photovoltaic technology a key contributor to a sustainable approach to power generation.

“We view Linde Nippon Sanso as a strategic long-term partner in our efforts to reduce the cost of thin-film solar cells as also minimise the environmental impact of manufacturing these – as we strive to bring the benefits of solar energy to the mass-market,” Laso added.

Solar panels have traditionally been made using silicon semiconductor wafers to absorb light. But standard wafer sizes limit panel size, and the amount of solar energy each panel can capture. Thin film solar production has adapted technology originally developed for the production of thin film, liquid crystal displays to create significantly larger panels that can deliver solar energy at a lower unit cost.

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So okay. It is not a hidden fact that we all do need to recycle. We should be able to help our planet greatly if we recycle. That would mean less garbage in our dumpsites and that would mean less products contaminating our groundwater.

Now in a study that has been recently disclosed, it does look like people are not as eco-friendly as we think they already are. Recycling is not something that their system has already accepted.

Like in Britain, people would rather wait for their officials to think of recycling schemes for them. The study did also find out that people were throwing away cans and boxes and food as clearly described here:

It says that each week Britons throw away enough cans to stretch from London to Sydney, as well as piles of boxes more than three times the length of the Great Wall of China, and enough plates of food to give every man, woman and child in Canada three square meals.

So okay. What can we all do about this?

Tags: Britain, recycling, study on recycling, study on recycling habits in Britain

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