I have no idea why people love time-lapse videos. Our eyes are certainly attracted to things that move quickly, and for some reason it’s fun to see people in hardhats and machines building a solar project from nothing, condensing days or weeks into minutes.
Below are two recent time-lapse solar videos that I saw on Twitter. Both are large
System-level monitoring, continued adoption of string inverters for large PV installs, and improvements by Chinese suppliers are among the trends gleaned from a survey of inverter buyers & sellers.
Originally posted at News - Cutting Edge
One dollar per watt: that's the mark the solar industry is hoping to hit in order to become cost-competitive with conventional energies. In a bid to reach this magic number in the next two years, various Asian manufacturers are striving to reduce costs by increasing volume production. An alternative direction that will benefit the industry in the long term is to target increased efficiencies primarily through new manufacturing processes, new higher-quality materials for metallization and changing the structure of the cell. Nanotechnology companies have developed these new materials and processes that enable manufacturers to both increase quality and lower-cost production, bringing the era of solar grid parity closer than ever before.
Energy efficiency in the U.S. is much light and little heat — literally. Government policy pays a great deal of attention to saving electricity, but focuses little on the thermal energy we waste.
“Policy is electricity-centric in the U.S. Unless you are making kilowatts, the most efficient investments are off the radar,” sa
The New England solar market is extremely strong. But even with these strong existing players, there is still room for more competition and new players enter every day. With that said, there are number of opportunities and risks that have the ability to impact industry growth and profits.
In December and January, I spent a lot of time talking with
Originally posted at Nanotech - The Circuits Blog
North America is at an inflection point in managing organic materials. Just as paper, metal and plastics were the darlings of the recycling industry a few decades ago, our society is defining a new relationship with organic materials — one that harnesses the full carbon, energy and nutrient potential of organics. In order to help shape that new relationship, industry leaders are cultivating North America's awareness and understanding of anaerobic digestion's features, benefits and potential role in society. This two-part article explores the ways the waste, energy and agricultural industries are integrating this technology into our culture.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a tradition of accelerating technological advancements, serving as early adopters and impacting the broader commercial market in such areas as aviation, computing and GPS. For the past several years, the DoD has been playing this same role in the renewable energy space.
Asia-Pacific markets together added 2.8-gigawatts (GW) of solar PV installations in 4Q11 on the way to a total of 6GW for the entire year, an eye-popping 165% growth, thanks in large part to a massive run-up in China's domestic sector, according to calculations from Solarbuzz.
Originally posted at News - Cutting Edge
During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power.
The U.S. geothermal power industry is poised for a bit more rapid growth now that the U.S. Department of Energy's geothermal development program is maturing with demonstration-stage pilots. This acceleration of growth also will be spurred on by an increasing number of municipalities and utilities that are turning to geothermal as an alternative energy option for either renewable mandate or investment reasons, industry executives say. While the U.S. geothermal power market is still somewhat tepid in comparison to the international market, U.S. technology exports will help U.S. companies weather the wait for a more rapid domestic market expansion.
Originally posted at News - Cutting Edge
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
When Frank Zammataro thinks about water pressure, he sees an opportunity to create electricity.
Zammataro, 53, is President and Co-Founder of Rentricity—a New York City energy company that has discovered a new way to tap into the excess pressure in water-treatment plants, reservoirs, and factories to help power our water infrastructure, which consumes four percent of America's electricity.
2011 was "a breakout year" for CIGS solar PV as suppliers continued to trim production costs, increase module conversion efficiencies, and widen adoption in commercial rooftops. But while CIGS (and thin-film brethren CdTe, thanks to First Solar's market leadership) continue to press on, the solar PV industry is still very much dominated by silicon, which has more standardized manufacturing on the one end and far more installed capacity on the installation side -- and all-important bankability thanks to both.
Originally posted at News - Cutting Edge