Energy
July 7, 2011
Petra Solar Inc is a US Company that has an innovative marketing model to install solar panels.Like floating solar panels and solar carports,Petra Solar has taken a new unique approach to increase the penetration of solar panels.It deploys solar panels on utility poles instead of ground mounted free standing solar panels or rooftop installations.The company mainly signs deals with electric utilities instead of regular distribtution channels through solar integrators or installers who then put solar panel of the roofs of houses.This reduces the marketing costs for the company has let it carve out a niche in the super competitive solar market which has recently seen the exit of many solar companies.Petra Solar is now expanding into the Middle Eastern markets after the USA.The company recently bought Jordan-based EnergyFlow Consulting LLC
July 7, 2011
Wave Energy is a niche renewable energy type which has been seeing slow development for the past many years.The immature nature of the technology means that most of the wave energy projects have been mostly been pilots.The same state of affairs exists in India as well with a few pilot projects being constructed.Though the government of Gujarat is constructing India's biggest tidal barrage off the coast of the Arabian sea,wave energy projects have been few and far between.Indian Wave Energy traces its history since 1984 when a Oscillating Water Column (OWC) type of device put into tuse at Vizinjham Fisheries Harbor near Trivandrum in Kerala.In 1993 the National Institute of Ocean Technology was established
July 7, 2011
Photovoltaic Inverter or Solar Inverters as they are better known as have become one of the fastest growing segment in power electronics. The ~$2.1 billion market in 2009 with 7 GW of installations has increased by more than 130% to around $5 billion in 2010 as the solar panel demand globally increased to around 17 GW.Note Solar Inverter Companies have done much better as competition is much lower and the annual price declines in solar inverters has been much lower at around 10% compared to the 50% decline in solar panel in the last 2-3 years.Photovoltaic inverters are not being manufactured by hundreds of suppliers around the world though the top 5 solar inverter manufacturers control almost 75-80% of the market.The reason is that solar inverters have a high technology barrier when it comes to making highly efficient and reliable solar inverters.Till now Chinese manufacturers have not been able to significantly penetrate this solar inverter market because of this.In comparision Chinese solar module producers have captured more than 50% of the global solar market through cutthroat price and cost cutting leading Western solar panel producers like Solarworld to try and get dumping duties imposed on them.SMA Solar is the world's biggest Photovoltaic Inverter manufacturer and is closely followed by US based Power One.
July 7, 2011
Solara Solar Panels are manufactured by German Solar Company Centrosolar which sells PV Systems and Solar Panels under the Solara Brand Name.Centrosolar is one of the biggest solar installers and EPC companies in Europe.The company sells both polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar modules since 2006.Solara Solar Panels are sold in a number of countries with distributors like ARRID Power,12V shop selling it in Australia and Barden,Bright Green Energy selling the panels in UK.Solar Solar Panels are Semi Flexibile Marine Solar Modules which are specifically manufactured for use on boats, life rafts, caravans. electric cars and many other mobile applications.
CentroSolar is a listed photovoltaic company on the DAX which makes mounting systems and solar panels. The company makes PV-systems, modules made of crystalline cells and thin film technology, building-integrated PV-installations, inverters, roof-mounted and roof-integrated mounting systems as well as low-iron solar glass with an anti-reflective coating.CENTROSOLAR has its own PV-module production facility in Wismar (Germany) and a solar glass production site in Furth (Germany)
July 7, 2011
Solar Thermal Energy has been losing out in the last couple of years to solar photovoltaic energy which is seeing a huge increase in demand amidst very low prices.Some of the major solar thermal energy projects in the globe have been converted into solar pv installations due to its lower costs.Some of the major solar thermal energy companies like Solar Millennium have sold their solar thermal portfolios to other companies while Stirling Power Systems has gone bankrupt.Tessera has sold its solar thermal plants which had gotten DOE Loan Guarantees in California to Solar Developers who have made these solar thermal plants into solar panel ones.However there are some companies like eSolar and Brightsource Energy which are powering ahead with their technologies and projects with backing from big industrial MNC conglomerates like GE and Areva.Their Power Tower Technologies are supposedly more efficient than the mainstream parabolic toughs that are used.
July 7, 2011
Natural Gas has got a lot of press these days as massive discoveries of natural gas reserves in shale gas formations has meant that the prices have gone down substanitally and new power plants and infrastructure is being developed to use natural gas as fuel.Even as crude oil and coal prices have gone through the roof,natural gas prices have dived.This is due to the new technology being commercialized which is allowing huge shale gas deposits to be used.This has led to forecasts that natural gas will become a more important part of the energy mix in the coming days.The falling prices of natural gas has also led to declining electricity prices in the USA where shale gas development is the most advanced.Natural Gas prices have gone down to as low as $3.5/mmbtu from $8 in 2008 and experts predict that it may go down to $2.5/mmbtu.Shale Gas has its own critics who say that the shale gas deposits are much lower than being said and they deplete much faster.Environmental concerns are also being raised about the fact that it leads to poisoning of the water supplies with France banning shale gas mining completely.Natural Gas is a byproduct of Oil Drilling and in the earlier days it used to be looked upon as an irritant and burned off.But now it is being used to generate power,in chemical and fertilizer plants and also being used in some parts of power vehicles as well.Natural Gas is also used for Heating in most western developed countries and for Cooking as well.With increasing availability it is replacing coal and oil in power plants and transport now.
July 7, 2011
Solar Cells are the basic building blocks of Soar Panels and it is unlikely that most people will have to buy them or even know about […]
July 7, 2011
Oil is one of the most important commodities in the world playing an important part in some of the biggest industries like chemicals,transport,power,petrochemicals etc.The high energy density and easy availability have made mankind almost completely dependent on oil for most of his needs.Almost all of the world's cars run on petrol /gasoline which is derived from crude oil.Despite new evidence that burning oil leads to massive pollution and greenhouse warming nothing had been done to prevent its usage growth.In fact each year billions of barrels of oil are burned to power cars,ships,trains etc.Some countries use oil to power electricity as well though that has been decreasing as oil prices have increased substantially in recent years.The massive oil dependency has been decried by politicians for a long time but little has been done to reduce it.Powerful oil lobbies run by massive industrial conglomerates like Exxon,Chevron,BP etc. have managed to kill legislation which would reduce the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.The BP Oil Spill after creating a massive hue and cry has faded from the public mind and its now business as usual for the Oil Industry.The only way Oil usage can be reduced it seems is when the world runs out of oil and the prices become too high for most people to use it.
July 7, 2011
Wave Energy is one of the niche renewable energy technologies which is still in its infancy stage.While other forms of alternative energy like solar,wind and biomass see hundreds of billions of dollars in investment each year,wave energy does not see even $1 billion in investment.This is because Wave Energy is still much behind in the technology curve in terms of costs and reliability.Also there are many varied approaches and technologies to harness the power of the ocean waves.However developed countries like UK are promoting this renewable energy since it has huge potential like solar and wind energy.Given the energy shortages that we are facing,we need to promote all forms of sustainable green energy and wave energy definitely has strong promise.Here we present the various pros and cons of wave energy
July 7, 2011
Photovoltaic Module demand has increased by more than 50% each year in the last decade as solar panel costs have gone down sharply by almost 80% in the last 4 years alone as scale and technology have improved.Photovoltaic Modules are a combination of solar cells which generate electricity when light strikes them.Photovoltaic is the name given to this process where electrons are released when photo or light transfer its energy to the solar cells.The following article covers a large amount of literature on Photovoltaic Modules from its costs to selling prices as well as the efficiency of the Photovoltaic Module which affects the Energy Output.There are hundreds of Photovoltaic Module Manufacturers but only a few major ones.There are reviews on the major Photovoltaic Module Suppliers and Market as well.
July 7, 2011
Japan was the largest solar market in the world till 2004,after which it was overtaken by Germany.The huge domestic market gave rise to Japanese companies like Sharp,Mitsubishi,Kyocera,Panasonic-Sanyo become top solar panel producers in the world.Mitsubishi the Japanese conglomerate with diversified global interests has a big presence in solar and wind energy as well.The company is known for its high quality panels and has a decent presence in USA and Japan.Mitsubishi is a part of the consortium which is looking to set up huge solar power plants in Thailand as well.But now with Japan reaffirming it commitment to renewable energy and on track to kill nuclear energy,Mitsubishi is turning its focus towards the domestic market.Mitsubishi is planning to set up a number of solar power plants in the country to take advantage of the Japan solar Feed in Tariffs which will be introduced soon
July 6, 2011
SunForce is a good marketer and distributor of solar and wind energy products,however it is not a manufacturer of these products.Buying Solar Panels from Sharp does not make too much sense as Sharp Solar Panels are expensive and on top of that you have to pay a margin to SunForce as well.SunForce Foldable and CIGs Thin Film 12V Solar Products also don't list a manufacturer nor do their solar inverters.SunForce does not look like the type of company who could make a technologically advanced products like a CIGs Solar Panels.You are better off buying charge controllers and solar panels directly from manufacturers rather than using SunForce.For some Solar Battery Kits SunForce might make sense as they have a good distribution.
July 6, 2011
Polycrystalline silicon or Polysilicon( poly-Si or "poly") is a material consisting of multiple small silicon crystals.The difference between Silicon Metal and Polysilicon is that Poly is highly pure form of silicon and is much costlier.Polycrystalline silicon can be as much as 99.9999% pure (also known as 4N pure,the 4 denotes the number of 9s after the decimal point).Polysilicon was primarily used by the semi industry till 5-6 years ago and the electronic industry used 9N pure polysilicon.The Solar Industry which has become the main user of polysilicon nowadays can do with 6N pure poly.
Polysilicon is refined to single crystal polysilicon before it can be used by the semiconductor industry.However solar cells can be made even from multicrystalline polysilicon.Monocrystalline solar cells on the other hand are made of single crystal polysilicon and have higher efficiency than those made from multicrystalline polysilicon.Polycrystalline cells can be recognized by a visible grain, a “metal flake effect”. Semiconductor grade (also solar grade) polycrystalline silicon is converted to "single crystal" silicon – meaning that the randomly associated crystallites of silicon in "polycrystalline silicon" are converted to a large "single" crystal.
July 6, 2011
Nuclear Power like other forms of Energy cannot be defined by a single cost as nuclear power plants differ in their technology and sources of fuel.No two power plants can have the same cost of electricity production similarly nuclear energy plants cannot have the same kilowatt hour cost.However nuclear energy is known for its very low costs of 2-3c/kilowatt hour which can only be currently be met by coal.But nuclear energy cost is based on older nuclear power plants which have already been depreciated.This cost is also controversial as the costs of nuclear waste storage is generally not included.USA and Japan which are the largest nuclear power producers have not constructed permanent nuclear waste storage sites despite accumulating thousands of tons of nuclear waste.Also these days extra safety measures are being taken due to the Fukushima disaster which means that the costs of nuclear energy is going up.
July 6, 2011
Fronius Solar Inverters are made by one of the oldest private companies in the solar inverter business.The firm is established by Günter Fronius in Pettenbach, Austria, and commences production of battery chargers and welding transformers.ronius International has production bases in Austria,Czech and Ukraine and the company generated almost 500 million euros of revenue in 2010.Fronius manufactures 3 major product lines under three divisions Battery Chargers,Welding Products and Solar Electronics.Solar Inverters come under the Solar Electronics division.Fronius has been involved in photovoltaics since 1992.In 1995 it started selling the "Sunrise" grid-connected solar inverter for generating electricity from solar energy and feeding it into the power grid.
July 6, 2011
3 Phase Solar Inverters are another name for Grid Tied Solar Inverters which allow the DC Power generated by Solar Panels to be connected through the Grid.Note most of the Solar Inverters manufactured earlier used to be off grid solar inverters and did not have any grid connections.However the Feed in Tariff Laws in Germany and other European countries has made 3 phase solar inverters a massive growth industry.All major solar inverter manufacturers make 3 phase solar inverters in a wide variety of power ratings and voltages.The difference between a 3 Phase Solar Inverter and a normal Solar Inverter is that the Three Phase Solar Inverter has to match the frequency and voltage of the Grid before it supplies power.Normal Solar Inverters on the other hand are not restrained by the voltage and frequency of the power grid.The grid tie inverter must synchronize its frequency with that of the grid (e.g. 50 or 60 Hz) using a local oscillator and limit the voltage to no higher than the grid voltage.
July 6, 2011
New Solar Panels and New Scientific Breakthroughs in Solar Technology it seems are reported every month.But Solar Energy is still not competitive with Fossil Fuel Energy despite its obvious advantages.The costs of Solar Energy are declining quickly but they remain still some way from being on par with the dirty forms of energy like Coal.The reason for all these new exciting technologies which are reported in newspaper not being able to bring a fundamental change in the energy scenario is that the costs are too high.Bringing a new solar panel technology from the lab to the factory takes a lot of time and effort.During this time the incumbent technology like crystalline solar technology keeps advancing due to the massive global R&D dollars that are spend and the rising scale.This had made many new startups in solar technology like Solyndra ,Spectrawatt and others bite the dust.You can read about the large number of solar failures in the first wave of thin film solar bankruptcies .
July 6, 2011
A solar array can be defined as solar panels arranged in a group to capture maximum amount of sun light to convert it into usable electricity. The idea of Solar Array came into being when it was conceived that the power produced by a solar panels singly was not sufficient for domestic or commercial purpose. Many such solar modules are linked together to form a Solar Array. Solar panels can be arranged differently to form different patterns to suit ones purpose. Depending upon what the need is, different structures can be build. Generally there are two traditional styles of solar energy panels used in residential and industrial areas -photovoltaic and photothermal energy. Most solar arrays to date have been a mixture of these two. Because it is relatively low-tech, solar arrays are a very cost effective approach for people who believe in DIY technology.
July 6, 2011
Solar Shingles are niche solar products meant for use on roofs of houses.There are not a lot of manufacturers of solar shingles as they are a new product and more difficult to install than standard silicon solar panels.Solar Shingles are manufactured by mainly American companies like Dow,Energy Conversion Devices.Their high costs and lack of easy availability has meant that solar shingles have not really caught the imagination of the customers.Also Solar Shingles do not get any added subsidy from the government vis a vis Solar Panels.Thus the higher prices of electricity generated from solar shingles means that they have become a poorer cousin of the mainstream Solar Panels.Also Solar Integrators are more accustomed to buying and installing solar panels which makes it even more difficult to push the sale of solar shingles.
July 6, 2011
Solar Tracker is a Device which follows the movement of the sun as it rotates from the east to the west every day.Solar Trackers are used to keep solar collectors/solar panels oriented directly towards the sun as it moves through the sky every day.Using Solar Trackers increases the amount of solar energy which is recieved by the solar energy collector and improves the energy output of the heat/electricity which is generated.Solar Trackers can increase the output of Solar Panels by 20-30% which improves the economics of the solar panel project.
Solar Trackers are mostly used in ground mounted solar farms of capacity more than 1 MW.Note it is difficult to use solar trackers on residential rooftop installations.Horizontal single axis trackers are typically used for large distributed generation projects and utility scale projects. The combination of energy improvement and lower product cost and lower installation complexity results in compelling economics in large deployments.However for solar ground plants where area is not a problem,solar trackers can be easily be used.Also commercial and utility solar projects have dedicated maintainance teams which can easily repair and monitor solar trackers.The 20-30% increase in output easily compensates for the higher costs associated with solar trackers.Note Solar Trackers are especially useful in case of places where the solar insolation is high and the efficiency of the solar panels being used are high.Sunpower which makes the highest efficiency solar panels uses Solar Trackers in most of its ground mounted plants and sells solar trackers under its own brand.These days solar trackers are becoming increasingly important and major solar panel manufacturers like First Solar and Trina Solar are selling solar trackers as well.The selection of tracker type is dependent on many factors including installation size, electric rates, government incentives, land constraints, latitude, and local weather.
July 6, 2011
Solar Frontier is a Japanese company which was earlier known as Showa Shell Solar .The company joined the rank of major solar companies once it started the new 900MW “Kunitomi” production plant in Miyazaki.Note only is the company started big in production,it is rapidly signing deals around the globe in India,Middle East and America..The Company has recently signed Two Deals with 2 Global Heavyweights GE and IBM.It has signed a distribution deal with GE to sells its Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) Panels in USA while GE would provides the Balance of Systems components like inverters etc.It next signed a deal with IBM to jointly develop Copper Zinc Tin Sulfure Selenium (CZTS) Thin Film Technology.Note IBM is one of the biggest Technology Innovators and Solar Frontier has a long Thin Film History.
July 6, 2011
What is a Solar Cell
A solar cell is an electrical device that converts light energy directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect.Note Solar Cells can be made of many materials like Silicon,Cadmium Tellerium,CIGS and even on Organic Substrates.However almost 90% of the Solar Cells produced in the world currently are made of crystalline silicon.The drastic fall in prices of silicon solar cells has seen an explosive growth in demand with solar cell supply increasing by almost 50% per year in the last decade.
July 6, 2011
Hydro Electric Energy is second largest source of electricity in the world accounting for roughly 20% of the worldwide demand of electricity with around 800 GW of capacity installed.Hydroelectricity power plants are the biggest power stations in the world dwarfing the biggest nuclear and coal power projects.The world’s biggest power plant is the Three Gorge Dam in China which at 22.5 GW is more than 50% larger than the 2nd biggest power station in the world.s.China is the by far the world leader in hydro power plant capacity with around 200 GW which it aims to double to around 400 GW by 2020The advantages of hydroelectricity energy are substantial enough to far outweigh any disadvantages.But like nuclear energy,hydro power has some tail risks which can lead to catastrophic damage.
July 6, 2011
Solar Thin Film Technology has been growing rapidly despite falling costs of the mainstream Photovoltaic Crystalline Silicon Technology.While the current solar supply glut has resulted in some of the thin film solar film companies going out of business,big thin film suppliers continue with their growth plan.Solar Thin Film Technology is supposed to be the 2nd Generation successor to the mainstream Crystalline Silicon (c-Si) Technology which accounts for around 85% of world production.While a number of Weaker Hands in Thin Film have downed shutters,Thin Film Producers continue to grow and expand.The massive growth potential of Solar Energy makes it possible for both of these PV technologies to flourish.Thin Film Technology unlike c-Si has a number of variants.Amorphous Silicon (a-Si),Copper Indium Gallium Sulphide (CIGs) and Cadmium Tellurium (Cd-Te) are the 3 main types of Thin Film Technology.There are a number of manufacturers of all of these 3 types of Technology.CIGs Technology is said to have the most potential in improving efficiency and competing with c-Si,however Cd-Te is currently the top dog as the world’s biggest solar producer First Solar currently uses this technology.a-Si Technology is not that hot with low efficiencies however Oerlikon and Sharp are pushing ahead with developing this technology.
July 6, 2011
Kaneka is a Japanese company which is present in a number of product categories like chemicals,functional and expandable plastic products, foodstuffs, life science products and synthetic fibers.However the main focus of the company is in Thin Film Solar Panels.Kaneka has been developing amorphous silicon thin film technology since 1980 and has advanced manufacturing into developing higher efficiency tandem microcrystalline silicon solar panels.The company also sells transperant see through solar panels.Note Thin Film Technology is facing existential threat from the rapid price reduction in the mainstream crystalline silicon technology which comprises about 85% of the global solar panel market.Kaneka sells its solar modules under the HYBRID brand name which refers to its hybrid tandem thin film silicon technology.Note other companies like Sanyo,Mitsubishi.Oerlikon have also developed this form of technology which gives higher efficiency solar panels as it captures a bigger part of the solar spectrum.
July 6, 2011
Solar Power in Australia has grown massively in 2010 and 2011 driven by state feed in tariffs also known as the solar bonus scheme or solar credits.This has resulted in the capacity limits being reached and most of the state solar subsidy schemes have been withdrawn (see the current state feed-in-tariff schemes below).However the Australian federal government is still offering the Renewable Energy Credit Scheme under which solar power generated is eligible to get solar credits which can be solar in the open market for cash.This will still drive the use of solar energy as the falling prices of chinese solar panels has made solar energy near electricity price parity in a number of places.Australia which gets a lot of sunshine is ideal for solar energy which promotes climate change mitigation as well besides reducing pollution.Australia has the highest average solar radiation of any continent in the world, which means solar industry has the greatest potential.
July 6, 2011
Solar Inverter Efficiency is increasing every year with increasing scale of operations,greater competition and rising R&D dollars being poured into solar inverter development.PV inverter Efficiency is vital to decrease the costs of solar power which is currently more than that of fossil fuels.While the cost of solar panels has come down drastically by almost 75% in the last 3 years,solar inverter costs have gone down by only 10% every year at most.The reason is that competition is lower in the PV inverter market because of the higher entry barriers of technology.While Western solar inverter manufacturers routinely get above 95% efficiency,the Asian low cost players have not been able to cross the technology hurdle of high efficiency.Note the Power Electronics in a solar system can make a huge difference to the power yields with even a 1% change resulting in thousands of dollars in difference in large scale solar farms.This is the reason that high efficiency solar inverters from the West command a big price premium over the less reliable lower quality PV inverters.You should be careful of any lesser known inverter brand they are offered as part of a home solar power system before installing them. While some of these inverters may have certification this does not mean they can perform as well as the good brands.Skimping of a few dollars here and there may make you penny wise and pound foolish.
July 6, 2011
Solar Panels are sold by hundreds of companies around the world ranging from small to very large and comes in various shapes and sizes as well.Besides this solar panels are also made of very different materials for example silicon solar panels and thin film solar panels.So comparing solar panels and choosing a solar panel is a very difficult process if you want the best solar panel according to your need.The most efficiency solar panels are needed in cases where the land area or rooftop area is at a premium.Note a typical 200-250 watt solar panel requires an area of 60x38 inches which means an area of around 2000 square inches.1 megawatt of solar panels would require an area of between 5-10 acres of land depending on the efficiency of the solar panels.However this can be reduced by using solar trackers which can increase the output of solar panels though they to increase the area requirement slightly.Also the area also depends on the location of the place since a place recieving high sunlight for example California would require lesser area for generating the same amount of electricity compared to London (upto 30% fewer solar panels).Note solar panels with higher efficiency have a higher price tag associated with them since they require higher cost to manufacture.The most efficiency solar panels which are used in spacecraft and have a efficiency of around 35-40% may cost upto 100 times more than the normal silicon solar panel.
July 6, 2011
Solar Panel Manufacturers in USA are facing a torrid time from the falling prices of Chinese solar panels.This has caused the bankruptcies of some big solar panel companies in recent times like Solyndra,Spectrawatt and Evergreen Solar.Only those solar panel companies with the lowest cost and good quality will manage to survive the price war in solar panels that is currently on.Most companies are running losses as the prices of solar panels have decreased by 40% in 6 months.This would cause any industry to see massive bankruptcies and this is the case with the solar panel industry as well.Note Solar Industry is a new one with rapid technology and cost changes which makes startups with bad business models go bust.This is a natural effect of capitalism and nothing to be afraid of .However you have to be careful of which solar panel manufacturer to buy from as your 25 year solar panel warranty will become useless if the solar panel manufacturer from which you brought the solar panel goes out of business.On the Bright Side the sharply declining costs of solar has made it the biggest advantage of using solar power.
July 6, 2011
Types of Solar Panels Explained (Amorphous,Polycrystalline,Monocrystalline with Efficiency) for Home
Types of Solar Panels have increased manifold with the surging global solar demand fueled by falling prices of solar panels/modules.Note Solar Panels prices would have fallen by around 75% in 3 years which is a record for any energy let alone solar energy.This has made Solar Electricity on par with Electricity prices in a number of places globally.The number of manufacturers of solar panels too has increased drastically particuarly in China and Asia.The range of technologies being used to made solar panels has also increased in tandem.However polyscrystalline silicon solar panels continues to be the king of solar panels accounting for a lion's share of solar panels produced globally (around 75% according to my estimates).Each Solar Panel Technology differs from others in terms of efficiency and price.They also differ in their electricity production capabilities depending on temperature.They also differ in weight and flexibility.The Sizes of Solar Panels are also quite different and different powered solar panels are required for different applications.For a small power need like charging a mobile phone only a 5-20 watt solar panel would do while for powering a solar house you would need a number of 200-300 watt solar panels.