 | | | | Quote: | $1 Dollar a Watt Solar.
For Nanosolar of San Jose, California - and perhaps the rest of us - December 18, 2007 was an historic day. It was the day the company shipped the world’s lowest-cost solar panel.
The company believes it can be the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at 99 cents per watt.
At that price solar energy becomes less expensive than coal, even when the cost of an entire system is considered. The US Department of Energy says a new coal plant costs about $2.10 per watt plus the cost of fuel and the cost of damaging emissions. There is no fuel cost with solar energy, nor any direct damage to the world.
The crew at Nanosolar must certainly be happy, but should the rest of us dance and cheer?
Be happy but the world is not yet powered by solar, nor will it be anytime soon. Those now pricey coal power plants operate 24/7. Solar power is still reliant on daylight.
Then again a lot of new coal-fired plants won’t have to be built, and for sunny, but windless, regions photovoltaic solar now becomes a viable choice for low cost renewable energy. Further, for windy areas, but with strong local opposition to wind energy, solar would be an option if land, rooftops or parking lots are available. Nobody protests against solar power plants.
So far nanotechnologies have produced cutting-edge energy products much as predicted.
Solar power is. . .
| ENN: $1 Dollar a Watt Solar. | | | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Quote:
Panels start solar power 'revolution'
The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.
The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company, Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European consumers are increasingly buying to generate power from their own roofs. Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal.
Yesterday Nanosolar said its order books were full until mid-2009 and that a second factory would soon open in Germany where demand for solar power has rocketed. Britain was unlikely to benefit from the technology for some years because other countries paid better money for renewable electricity, it added.
"Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in Germany," said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar's manager in Switzerland. "We aim to produce the panels for 99 cents [50p] a watt, which is comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal.
| RESPECT - THE UNITY COALITION (The Respect Supporters Blog): Solar energy 'revolution' brings green power closer by John Vidal Quote:
Just the yesterday I was reading discussion about the expense of solar power opposed to coal plants and how solar will never be as cheap as coal; and then I found out that Nanosolar, a Silicon Valley company funded by the founders of google, has announced that it has shipped it’s first solar panels. Why is this a big deal?
Our product is defining in more ways I can enumerate here but includes:
- the world’s first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product;
- the world’s first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability;
- the world’s lowest-cost solar panel - which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/Watt;
- the world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel - delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment;
- an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel - due to innovations in design we have included.
Breaking the $1 per watt barrier is important; that means that it is possible to build a solar system that is cheaper than a coal plant.
| Groundbreaking New Solar Panels | | | | |  Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Quote: Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels
* 12:43 19 December 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
Transparent electrodes created from atom-thick carbon sheets could make solar cells and LCDs without depleting precious mineral resources, say researchers in Germany.
Solar cells, LCDs, and some other devices, must have transparent electrodes in parts of their designs to let light in or out. These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but experts calculate that there is only 10 years' worth of indium left on the planet, with LCD panels consuming the majority of existing stocks.
| Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels - tech - 19 December 2007 - New Scientist Tech | |
Last edited by Michaelangelica; 01-02-2008 at 02:18 AM.
| | |  Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Thanks Michaelangelica,
This is good news for us all. | | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Quote:
In Germany, solar energy already provides 3 gigawatts of electricity, the equivalent of four large fossil fuel power stations. In 2003, the German government passed a law obliging energy companies to purchase solar energy from anyone who can produce it at nearly double the market price.
The result? Homeowners and business flocked to buy photo voltaic (PV) cells and Germany's 300,000 PV cells now account for nearly 60% of the world's solar panels.
This upsurge for demand for in solar technology has had the knock-on effect of stimulating research and development.
| Worldwide Sawdust:: Welcome to the Solar Century Quote: SunPower to Build 8 Megawatt Solar Power Plant in Spain
Naturener Expands SunPower Deployment to Approximately 30 Megawatts
January 04, 2008: 08:00 AM EST
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SunPower Corp. , a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems, today announced that its Spanish subsidiary will engineer, procure equipment for and construct an approximately 8 megawatt solar electric power plant in the Extremadura region of Spain.
| SunPower to Build 8 Megawatt Solar Power Plant in Spain New solar energy collector so efficient it works at night Quote: |
The key to it all is nanotechnology. With this new technology, millions of extremely small twists of metal are molded into banks of "microantennas", which can be placed on almost any material, including plastic sheets. These spiral shaped "microantennas" are about 1/25 the width of a human hair. They are so small that they resonate from the interaction with the sun's infrared rays. This resonation can be translated into energy. During the day, the Earth soaks up a lot of this infrared energy, which is then radiated out at night -- enabling these microantennas to collect power even after the sun has set.
| New solar energy collector so efficient it works at night - Neoseeker News Article | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Michaelangelica,
Thanks for posting this, this will be great once thay get it working. Quote: |
The solar infrared rays hitting the nanoantennas generate a current that has a frequency which oscillates ten thousand billion times a second -- which is far to great of an oscillation that standard electrical appliances can handle. But the teams working on it:
|  | | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Grrrrr.... All I wanted to know is on what substrate these were made... is it silicon? Is it some sort of thin film? What? What types of machines and chambers does it take to put these together? What are the materials? And they didn't say!  Quote:
Also, conventional solar panels are expensive to produce because the rely on high-grade silicon, which is becoming increasingly expensive. These new solar collectors can be manufactured for much less -- the research team aims "to make nanoantenna arrays as cheap as inexpensive carpet."
But! It's not all worked out yet.
|
Still pretty cool, though.  | | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
I came across this today and thought I'd share. Cheers.  Quote: |
While many people choose to install solar panels for environmental reasons, financial incentives such as tax credits, system rebates, low-interest loans and net metering programs can help tip the scales as you evaluate the costs involved. Some countries, such as Germany and Japan, have had attractive government incentives for some time now. In the U.S., the federal tax credit is capped at $2,000 but consumers can often offset the cost of installation with rebates from their local utility company or state tax credits – as well as the savings in energy costs which accrue over time.
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To find out more about current incentives in the U.S. at the federal, state and local level: DSIRE: DSIRE Home
For information on European incentives: Green Power Market Development Group
For international incentives in countries outside the U.S. and Europe Global Renewable Energy Policies and Measures | | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Looks like India will be the next to subsidise solar panels.
That is one big market! Quote: |
The new and renewable energy ministry announced that it will provide financial assistance of Rs 12 per kilowatt hour in case of solar photovoltaic and Rs 10 per kilowatt hour in case of solar thermal power fed to the electricity grid. This move will be a shot in the arm for the industry and should result in the immediate action in creation of capacities.
| A kicker for solar power Quote:
Saturday, January 12, 2008
It deserved to be front-page news, but barely got any ink at all outside the in dustry and business press. A Silicon Valley company, Nanosolar, began production last month of what it calls the "third wave" of photovoltaic technology, which turns sunlight into electricity.
. . .
The breakthrough here isn't in the basic technology, which has been around for about a decade, but rather in its production. What Nanosolar has done is to come up with a means of producing solar cells that is similar to printing a newspaper. Presses apply a layer of solar-absorbing nano (minute) particles to metal sheets at a rate of several hundred feet per minute. Popular Science magazine, describing the likely impact of the technology as "the new dawn of solar," declared it the "innovation of the year" in 2007.
. . .With support from the founders of Google and the Department of Energy, Nanosolar has built the country's largest manufacturing complex for solar panels in the country, with production of 430 megawatts of solar capacity annually. That's about half the capacity of the Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island.
| Solar power shines- PennLive.com Quote: Closing the gap on solar
Posted on January 12, 2008
About a third of the cost of a solar panel comes from silicon, and right now it’s only produced by seven companies–the Seven Silicon Sisters. But since the solar industry is so hot, as many as 50 new companies have started up, adding competition and increasing supply, which will put a downward pressure on prices. (One of the new companies, building a factory in China, thinks they can cut silicon prices nearly in half in seven years.)
| Closing the gap on solar : SmartPower Blog 
The Japanese were looking to open a plant at Lithgow NSW too? Quote: Nanoantennas, a new, more efficient method for solar power?
 | Nanoantennas, a new, more efficient method for solar power? | | | | | Re: The newest, latest and breaking news about solar energy.
Quote: Inexpensive Solar Cells Made More Efficient With New Sensitizers
ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2008) — Solar cell technology is marching ahead, though it still struggles with the two problems: efficiency and high production costs. In collaboration with Satoshi Uchida at the University of Tokyo, Michael Grätzel and his research group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have now developed new sensitizers that should help an inexpensive type of solar cell to be more efficient. The sensitizers are based on the dye indoline.
| Inexpensive Solar Cells Made More Efficient With New Sensitizers Quote: |
With the introduction of the Federal Government rebates a 1kW grid connectable solar system will cost you between $3,900 and $4,300 (after the rebate) to install.
| Solar Energy Solutions, Green Energy Solutions | | | | |
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