Solar ... In the news

spgsc531

http://www.dailytech.com/IBM+Tries+Its+Hand+at+Concentrated+Solar+With+5000x+Collector/article30391.htm

rogerblack

spgsc531 wrote: »

http://www.dailytech.com/IBM+Tries+Its+Hand+at+Concentrated+Solar+With+5000x+Collector/article30391.htm

Interesting, but largely irrelevant in the UK.
This is simply as a large fraction of the yearly insolation comes in the form of relatively diffuse light, whereas 5000* concentrators, will basically only produce power from the light that comes from the visible disk of the sun.
Any slight haze will significantly diminish the output.

Many of the claims made in the article are pretty dubious.
There are no really rare elements that go into conventional glass/silicon photovoltaic panels.
Conventional panels are at or below the $.10/kWh quoted. (In desert areas)
The '5000*sun' heat flow is not actually that extreme.
Sure - it's 5MW/m^2.
But, that's perhaps a factor of 2 or 3 over the heat flow from a much more delicate high-end CPU into the heatsink.

rogerblack

On a perhaps more distant though no less promising topic - http://engineering.ucsb.edu/news/699 - which is a report of a paper that discovers the mechanism of why LEDs become less efficient as the brightness goes up.
This is one of the major loss mechanisms, and is present in solar cells too - as you put in more energy per unit area - losses go up.
(Separate from thermal effects)
Nailing down this problem means efforts can now go into solving it systematically - allowing brighter, cheaper LEDs, and solar cells that work even better at high light concentrations.

spgsc531

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22300050

Martyn1981

Strange post this, but I just watched an episode of Our World by the BBC World News titled 'Electrifying Africa'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3csrmz5

Fascinating programme, looking into the use of geothermal, wind and solar in E. Africa, and particularly Kenya.

Kenya hopes to be generating 70% of its electricity from renewables in 10 years time, and is expanding geothermal at the moment.

Lovely little story about schoolkids benefiting from solar lighting, but not panels, just small little solar lamps, sold from a mobile supplier 'The Solar Roller'. These have dropped in price from $20 dollars 5 years ago to $7 today. Many of the buyers at the demonstration were teachers buying them for their students.

With 12 hours of darkness, kids are doing their homework by paraffin lamps, very polluting. One very modest lad said his reading was extended from 7pm to 10pm by the lamp, and gave this as the reason he just came 55th in his age out of all of Kenya.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Renewables on the rise in the EU, but it's slow going:-

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/eu-sees-renewables-increase_100011087/#axzz2RvQdG7QN

"In 2004, renewable energy covered just 7.9% of the European Union’s energy demand. By 2010, this had risen to 12.1% and 2011, to 13%, reports the EU statistical office, Eurostat.

As the authority states, the share of renewable energy in the gross final energy consumption is one of the key indicators of Europe’s 2020 strategy, which aims to generate 20% of its energy from renewables by 2020."

"Meanwhile, the lowest levels were observed in Malta (0.4%), Luxembourg (2.9%), the U.K. (3.8%), Belgium (4.1%) and the Netherlands (4.3%)."

Oh Dear! But at least we are ahead of those economic giants - Malta & Luxembourg ....... perhaps this scheme will help improve the UK stats a tiny bit:-

11MW PV plant for Truro:

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/uk--11-mw-pv-plant-gets-green-light_100011082/#axzz2RvQdG7QN

"The 60-acre site is part of an existing sheep and llama farm, and it will provide the farmer landowner with a regular source of income. When complete, the photovoltaic plant will feature a total of 45,000 ground-mounted panels and will provide energy to the local electricity grid equivalent to 3,125 average households."

Mart.

Martyn1981

"Energy and climate change minister Greg Barker, has warned that the UK solar industry must work hard to maintain the public support it currently enjoys."

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/barker_solar_must_not_become_bone_of_public_contention_2356

"The minister’s words had particular resonance with the conference delegates after a group of local campaigners picketed the entrance to the event, expressing their dismay at the number and scale of large-scale solar developments being planned in Cornwall."

“Solar power consistently rates as the renewable technology with the highest level of public support. DECC’s own public opinion tracker gives it an 82% approval rating."

Mart.

Martyn1981

Report: PV storage set to take off in UK from 2014

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/report_pv_storage_set_to_take_off_in_uk_from_2014

"From the beginning of next month Germany is introducing a tariff for PV storage, which is expected to reduce the cost of a PV system with storage to 10% less than one without.

And as solar subsidies such as feed-in tariffs begin to dwindle, IHS expects other countries such as the UK to adopt similar measures to boost the deployment of storage technology."

[Edit - Commercial 5 MW battery park to be developed in Germany

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/commercial-5-mw-battery-park-to-be-developed-in-germany_100011100/#axzz2RvQdG7QN

"Every megawatt of installed battery capacity compensates ten times the otherwise required conventional power plant capacity needed for a stable electricity supply," Triebel adds. In other words more space is created in the network for solar and wind power. ]

Mart

InVestor_2

I hope it will be available retro fitted to older systems. I use 3-6 kWh at night, would be great to have something cost effective to negate/minimize that.

Martyn1981

As expected, the FIT degression for domestic installs up to 4kWp will be 3.5%, taking the rate down to 14.90p for installs from the 1st of July 2013.

Note: Rate change is 1/7/13 not 1/8/13 as DECC have changed the review periods slightly.

News story:

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/ofgem_confirms_july_feed_in_tariff_rates_2356

OFGEM FIT tariff bands for all sizes of PV:

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/SUSTAINABILITY/ENVIRONMENT/FITS/TARIFF-TABLES/Documents1/FIT%20Tariff%20Table%201%20July%202013%20PV%20Only.pdf

Mart.