THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for October, 2010

Renewable energy and energy efficiency will be focus of India’s $2.3 trillion energy investment plan over the next two decades. The plan is aimed at achieving consistently high economic growth rates without having any net adverse impact in the environment.

While the exact proportion of the investment for renewable energy is not known yet, the countries planners have clean energy sources like solar, wind and hydro power in focus as the foundations of the new green economy. India’s National Solar Mission is already underway. India plans to install 20,000 MW of solar PV and solar thermal power plants across the country by 2022. The proposals for the first 1000 MW projects to be completed by 2013 have already been approved.

Solar Energy

In addition to large-scale solar power plants, the government is also planning to promote small-scale solar power systems for commercial buildings and homes. Several state governments offer attractive subsidies to industries and homeowners to install solar panels and solar water heaters. The government is also planning to introduce the feed-in tariff scheme for homeowners in the near future which would allow them to earn from the solar power generated from their rooftop solar panels.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is the centerpiece of India’s renewable energy infrastructure. Although confined mainly to the coastal states, it makes up 70 percent of the installed clean energy generation capacity. It has been estimated that wind energy could meet almost 24 percent of India’s electricity demand by 2030. The wind energy resource assessment in India has been limited to the onshore sites and that too up to a limited mast height.

India’s Suzlon Energy has become the market leader in Asia and is the third largest wind energy company in the world. It powers 30 percent of the country’s wind energy installations. Suzlon, with a series of acquisitions, has transformed itself into an ened-to-end to service provider in the wind energy sector. It has successfully manufactured wind turbines of high generation capacities and towers with hub heights more than 80 meters which help in tapping more energy from the wind.

However, India is yet to estimate the offshore wind energy resource which could far exceed the onshore resources. So a bulk of the wind energy infrastructure expansion lies in the future for India.

Hydro Power

India is also planning to build several large and small-scale hydro electric power plants. While the large-scale plants are bound to face opposition on grounds of environmental degradation and eviction of human population, the small scale projects could prove to a real boon for the energy-starved country. Thousands of villages with no electricity or grid connections can benefit from these small scale projects which have far less environmental impact than the large scale dams.

Energy Efficiency

India has launched a national plan for improving energy efficiency. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is the nodal agency for planning energy efficiency projects. It also has the responsibility of providing energy consumption data of various home appliances to the consumer through the energy star ratings. It also runs schemes for providing energy efficient water pumps to thousands of Indian farmers. It was also successful in getting UN approval for the world’s largest CDM project which aims at replacing 400 million incandescent lamps with CFLs.

By Q2 2011, BEE plans to launch the Energy Efficiency Certificate trading scheme. The agency has identify over 700 industrial sectors which will be assigned energy efficiency targets which they would have comply with.The industries which fail to achieve their targets can buy the energy efficiency certificates from the industries which have complied.

While the coal power plants fulfill more than half of India’s power demand and the clean energy sources are not expected to significantly replace coal, but the government is also looking to reduce its dependence on coal by converting coal power plants to next generation gas-fired power plants which are much more efficient.

The Indian government has taken several important steps to encourage renewable energy. It has launched the ‘one dollar per tonne’ coal tax which is expected to generate $650 million annually and will form the clean energy fund to enable financing to clean energy projects. It has relaxed the minimum requirements for renewable energy power plants to qualify to feed power to the grid. All Indian states have been assigned a definite percentage pf power that they need to get from renewable energy-based power plants, any state unable to meet this requirement will have to buy the renewable energy certificates from clean energy power producers.

With comparison to this investment plan, India’s current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is just over $1 trillion and is expected to swell to $4.5 trillion by 2020.

Image: Amaresh S K (Flickr)/ Creative Commons

The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.

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Large majorities of Americans incorrectly believe that completely irrelevant behavior would reduce global warming. For example, an astounding 67% believe that reducing toxic waste, or banning aerosol spray cans (69%) would be effective.

When asked which one action would do the most to reduce global warming, switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources was the action most selected – but by only 36% of those polled. Not so much because the remaining 65% agree on something that might do it better, but more that a great variety of wacky notions compete for the job.

These odd solutions come from misunderstanding about the causes. Majorities of Americans incorrectly believe that the hole in the ozone layer, or toxic wastes, or aerosol spray cans, volcanic eruptions, acid rain, and (thanks, Rush Limbaugh) the sun are to blame for global warming.

But even stranger – considering that Rush indoctrinates 20 million of us about the sun being the cause, so in sense, these are actually “educated” Americans – but almost half of Americans (49%) incorrectly believe that the space program contributes to global warming, something that I don’t believe Rush takes a position on.

An additional 43 percent incorrectly believe that if we stopped punching holes in the ozone layer with rockets, it would reduce global warming.

More than half incorrectly believe that while they are generating energy; nuclear power plants actually contribute to global warming.

There is hope though, for those of us in the business of spreading knowledge about the solutions to climate change. The many government-sponsored communications you see everywhere about the need to switch from the old incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs seems to have really paid off. A solid majority (69%) believes that changing light bulbs will stop global warming. Clearly these kinds of post-secondary public education efforts have had an effect.

And the Americans polled would agree. While they themselves got their information from television, for the most part, and would search on the internet if they wanted to get more information, 75% say that schools should teach our children about the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to global warming and (68%) that the government should establish programs to teach Americans about the issue.

Image: Thomas Hawke
Susan Kraemer@Twitter

United States’ Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has increased the percentage of ethanol blending optional for cars and light-weight trucks made in or after 2007 to 15 percent (E15). This is the first increment in the ethanol blending standard in more than 30 years. Since 1979, automobiles had an option to use only 10 percent blended ethanol (E10) in gasoline.

The EPA noted that tests done by various government and private agencies show that there will not be any impact on the performance of the automobile engines as a result of the increase in blending limit. Even though the ruling will impact only 42 million automobiles or 20 percent of the auto fleet, there would be significant fuel saving and reduction in carbon emissions.

This landmark decision comes after an activist group, Growth Energy, filed a petition with the EPA in March 2009 calling it to issue the E15 ruling to all automobiles build after 2001. Green Energy backed its petition with solid numbers as well. According to the study done by Green Energy, a market-wide option to increase blending to E15 would:

• create 136,000 new jobs in the clean energy industry;
• reduce 20 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year;
• reduce quantity of oil imported every year by 4.38 billion barrels.

The EPA is likely to conduct engine tests in November to decide on the feasibility of expanding the E15 option to cars an trucks built between 2001 and 2006. If the agency gives its approval, the ruling would impact an additional 86 million automobiles accounting for more than half of the total passenger cars and light-duty trucks on the road today.

However, the latest ruling raises some sustainability issues as well. Most of the ethanol produced in the US comes from corn. According to a World Bank report, diversion of corn and other food grains for biofuel production pushed the global food grain prices by 75 percent triggering a global food crisis.

A coalition of agricultural interests said that the new ruling would divert even more corn to the fuel industry and if fully implemented almost 40 percent of the corn produce would be used for ethanol production. Kate McMahon of the Friends of the Earth noted the adverse impacts of biofuels on the environment.

Ethanol results in more greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, according to the EPA’s own scientific analysis, which was included in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) Regulatory Impact Analysis released in February 2010…The production of ethanol also has detrimental effects on human and environmental health.

Large-scale agricultural production of corn for ethanol often involves massive inputs of fertilizer, requires large quantities of water, contributes to soil erosion, and produces deadly run-off of pollution into freshwater sources — as illustrated by the Gulf of Mexico’s “Dead Zone.”

There is absolutely no doubt about the sustainability issues related with biofuel production. However, the carbon emissions from the automobile sector cannot be ignored as well. The corn ethanol industry has received $30 billion subsidies in the last 30 years, the US government should now focus on next-generation biofuels.

The EPA should also bring out guidelines regarding the sustainability and source of the biofuels entering the market. More concentrated steps should be taken to ensure that the technology of producing biofuels from waste is made commercially viable at the earliest.

Image: Sweeter Alternative (Flickr)/ Creative Commons

The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degre

A British business offering turnkey solutions for micro wind power is aiming to become one of the top five producers in the world by 2016. Its innovative new design will provide a fully installed wind turbine for as little as $7000, according to the company’s CEO.

Totempower is planning to produce 15,000 wind turbines each year by 2016 which will be “as easy to install as a (natural) gas boiler”. “There will be no huge excavations in your garden,” the company promises, and “any maintenance is a matter of minutes rather than hours”.

It almost sounds too good to be true .. is it?

At the heart of the company’s ambitions is the Passive Air Jet Vortex Generator (PAVOG), a patented technology researched at City University in London, UK.

PAVOG is a form of blade configuration which allows the turbine to operate at far lower wind speeds than conventional turbines, increasing efficiency by up to 20 per cent. This also means it can be sited at lower elevations and on free standing masts. Hence the company’s claims about installation and maintenance.

The free standing nature of the masts also means they can be developed using more environmentally friendly materials: no concrete foundations and a mast made from natural fibres instead of the traditional steel. The company believes these innovations alone will cut each turbine’s carbon footprint by a staggering 90%.

The domestic version of the turbine is expected to produce 2,000 kWh per year, while a larger version will produce 15,000 kWh per year. The company believes customers will see a return on their investment within six years, meaning the turbine will be able to survive without subsidies or tax credits.

The company has only recently been spun out of City University and is currently negotiating $3m investment for final prototyping and production work. For further details see the Totempower website.

Cogenra Solar has just been awarded a $1.5 million research grant from the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and CSI’s R&D incubator to finance a full scale 272 kW demonstration prototype of its solar hybrid co-generation of heat and electricity at the Sonoma Wine Company near Santa Rosa.

In addition, the CPUC  funds will enable Cogenra Solar to modify its units for potential integration with PG&E’s smart grid to provide distributed energy storage for use during peak demand.

The new hybrid solar-solar water heater start-up is backed by Vinod Khosla, and like his other solar hybrid start-up PVT Echo,  it addresses the same problem of reducing solar costs by producing both electricity and heat from one unit.

Its unique technology is intended for a mid-sized commercial market, neither for homeowners’ rooftops, nor for utility-scale solar production, but for commercial users like food processors, hotels, restaurants, laundromats and similar businesses. The arrays are taller than a person, but not than a building, and they rotate on their trackers to follow the sun.

Each unit focuses sunlight reflected up into a small but efficient solar array that faces down into the mirror.

A long narrow array of solar photovoltaic cells face downwards towards the reflected and highly focused sunshine bounced up by the mirrors. Above the solar array is the tube that carries the liquid being heated by the same intense focused sunlight. It removes the heat for use in solar hot water.

As with PVT’s Echo, the hybrid solar co-generation technology also solves a problem with solar PV: that it is somewhat less efficient when it is too hot. Solar electricity can be more efficient in Minnesota on a snowy day than in Arizona during a heat wave, because solar panels produce more power when they are not overheated.

The liquid is constantly removing the heat built up behind the solar panels, siphoning off heat so that the panels produce at their optimum. Nevertheless, the heat production versus the solar electricity production is about four to one: making these ideal for businesses like large industrial food processors, hotels, laundromats and restaurants: that need to make four times more hot water or heat than electricity.

These panels are intended for ground-mounting, making a vineyard a great place to showcase the units. The units are about 7 feet high, and will use some of their electricity to power their trackers. The glass mirrors are economical to produce, as instead of being one big curved mirror, these are made in units, about 8″ wide. This means they can simply be slotted in and easily replaced if broken.

Cogenra Solar was one eight other grant recipients awarded by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to support the development of improved photovoltaic production technologies and innovative business models.

The company plans to provide the industry’s first Heat & Power Purchase Agreement (HPPA) which, like the solar PPAs or leases offered by solar innovators Sungevity, SunRun and Solar City, have sky-rocketed solar adoption because they enable the provision of clean renewable power at below utility rates.

The CPUC hopes that the system could also provide tri-generation, making electricity, hot water, and cooling as well, greatly reducing California’s energy demand.

Importantly, they believe that these systems, if widely adopted by industrial and commercial customers, would be able to coordinate with the PG&E  smart grid and provide the state a significant quantity of distributed solar energy storage during the afternoons, to release that during California’s evenings, reducing California’s use of fossil energy.

I will visit them when they show this in Sonoma next month to get some more detail. Khosla’s PVT Solar seems a bit stalled over the last few years, and seems to have been bypassed by SunDrum Solar, which at least has a few actual customers for its similar heat-siphoning solar co-generation hybrid. So it will be interesting to see another very innovative approach to this useful and much needed work.

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Why Finnish Paper Mills Became Electric Utilities
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Why California Has Nearly Quadrupled Solar Installations Since Last Year

SusanKraemer@Twitter