A group of Japanese firms are looking to construct a small smart-grid system in an undisclosed New Mexico town that will incorporate solar energy and battery-storage systems. It hopes to provide this smart grid to 1000 residents by the end of 2010.
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A leaked government plan for solar investments puts India's goal for installed solar capacity at 200GW by 2050, compared to India's current 150GW of total electricity capacity, solar or otherwise.
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Lockheed-Martin is planning on building an 8.5GW concentrating solar power plant in Arizona by 2014. The plant will rely on parabolic troughs collecting solar heat energy, which is used to create steam and turn generators. The plant will also include about 6 hours of thermal storage in the form of molten salts that can store heat energy at off peak times to increase peak production, even when the sun isn't brightly shining.
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China is putting additional funding into its solar energy sector to help if catch up to wind, nuclear, and hydroelectric systems. The goal is to have solar supplying 6% of the nation's power by 2020.
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The US has pledged almost a half a billion dollars to developing and deploying geothermal and solar energy technologies.
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Sanyo made some great progress in silicon solar cell technology with the development of their latest cell. It broke its own record for practical (100 cm2 or more) sized crystalline silicon solar cells by reaching the 23% mark. It also lowered the production cost and raw silicon usage of the system.
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Nestlé Purina and REC Solar Inc. are working together to install the largest privately owned solar-panel power system in Colorado. It can produce 100 kilowatts of power, about 1 percent of the plant’s electricity needs and the cost will be recouped within the first year.
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An economist at the Research Connections 2009 conference in Prague makes the case for a pan-European strategy of small-scale energy generation and smart energy grids to help address climate and economic problems.
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Story of Greensburg, Kansas, which was wiped out by a tornado two years ago and is taking advantage of the opportunity to rebuild the town as a model of sustainability.
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A California solar company is looking to reduce the cost of silicon solar cells by using tracking aluminum troughs. This saves money by reducing the amount of silicon needed and by using aluminum as opposed to mirrors for a reflecting surface.
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Utility company PG&E wants to put solar panels in orbit and wirelessly beam energy down to Earth by 2016.
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Syd Kitson, a former NFL lineman, has plans to turn a ranch into a sustainable community with energy efficient buildings, solar power, a smart grid, and electric cars. The photovoltaic power plant itself would be twice as large as the current largest photovoltaic plant.
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Reducing waste generation and improving process efficiencies in its semiconductor manufacturing operations has been a continual focus at IBM Burlington. Each year, many thousands of silicon wafers reach the end of their useful life or are rejected for a number of reasons before being shipped to a customer. Historically, the scrap silicon from wafer manufacturing operations was ground and sent to a landfill for disposal. IBM monitor wafers at the end of their life are now being sold to the manufacturers of solar panels as raw material for the production of photovoltaic cells.
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In May 2008, the German Solar Power Group GmbH and the Spanish Laer S.L. agreed upon the joint execution of a solar thermal power plant in central Spain. This will be the first commercial solar thermal power plant in Spain based on the Fresnel collector technology of the Solar Power Group.
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Experimental Solar Cells Spiked with Nanowires Show Promise as Efficient Thin-Film Solar Cells of Future
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A five-acre field near the Frito-Lay plant will have 54,000 square feet of mirrors to capture the sun's rays. Half are installed now. This heat will be converted into steam to heat the oil used to cook SunChips.
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BrightSource Energy will build 500 megawatts' worth of solar thermal power plants for Pacific Gas & Electric in California, and the contract contains an option for PG&E to order another 400 megawatts on top of that. The deal is the largest yet in the solar thermal world when the option is added.
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Nevada Solar One, the first concentrating solar power plant in Nevada went on line on Saturday, this 64 megawatt concentrating solar plant is the first modern utility-scale solar electric power plant in the United States. It is the largest solar electric power plant to be built globally in the past 14 years and the third largest solar power plant in the world.
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