UK Research Promises More Efficient Solar Panels With New Graphene Based Material

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A team of researchers working at the University of Exeter, UK has developed a new grapheme based material which they contend is primed to give rise to the most efficient solar panels ever developed. The research project is based at the university’s Center for Graphene Research is said to hold enormous promise for fields other than just solar photovoltaics. The material is said to the most transparent, flexible and lightweight ever developed with a capacity to conduct electricity.

However, since the development is only at the experimental stage, it may be a number of years it is possible for homeowners to go out and buy solar panels built out of GraphExeter, the whimsical name given to the material by its inventors. Other than photovoltaic cells, the team has indicated that there are other devices likely to be developed including miniature computers, MP3 players and cellular phones.

Most of the electronics developed today have Indium Tin oxide as the basic conductive material. Compared to ITO, GraphExeter is said to be a far more flexible material with a much higher conductivity coefficient. There are indications that the new material will prove effective in the development of better photovoltaic cells and even devices as diverse as water filters and other self cooling electronics.

The promise of Graphene as a genesis for better photovoltaic cells is nothing new. For a long time scientists have grappled with the practicalities of turning this thinnest of carbon based contractors into a material capable of generating and storing electric charge for practical purposes. The main impediment to this level of usefulness has largely owed to the material’s impracticable high sheet resistance.

The Exeter team worked in close collaboration with another set of researchers based in the University of Bath. The duo team was able to overcome some of the material impediments that stopped Graphene, in its pure form, from achieving any reasonable conversion efficiencies.

GrapheExeter is being reputed as the most efficient material on which thin film solar cells have ever been founded on owing first to its transparency. This enables it to have capacity to harvest light over a much wider range of the solar spectrum. As such, it has a proven efficacy for converting solar energy that is touted to be about 30% more than what any other photovoltaic material is capable of achieving.

As noted earlier, the task of fashioning an efficient photovoltaic cell from GraphExeter is still very much a work in progress. One of the ways the Exeter team is looking at is developing a sprayable version of the material. This would have enormous promise with the capacity to develop versatility of solar panels with some being on every day building materials such as roof tiles and brick-work.

American Solar Industry Epected to Create up to 2 Million Jobs in the Coming Decade

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The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy based at the University of Tennessee recently issued a report that asserts that the American solar industry will witness a level of growth to exceed all expectations over the course of the current decade. Even if the industry is poised to ride the current  of withdrawal of a number of incentives that were provided by governments towards the close of the past decade, the momentum of growth already inherent in the industry will not subside.

Entitled “Assessment of Incentives and Employment Impacts of Solar Industry Deployment” the report makes some illuminating predictions. Chief among these is the expectation that the industry will  be responsible for the creation of hundreds of thousands of needed jobs in the American economy. The solar sector is also seen as being crucial in reduction of costs in both residential and commercial electrical applications as it assumes mainstream status in the course of the decade. The rise of innovation in the US industrial circles will see American manufacturers of solar PV products achieve a positive trade balance as they take a commanding share of the global PV market.

Matt Murray is the director of the Baker Center and was very optimistic about the veracity of the claims revealed in the study. He asserts that in relation to other green alternatives, there was nothing standing in the way of establishing solar as a mainstream energy source for the American market. He insists that the prospects for higher than expected generation  of jobs is not mere conjecture. “The solar industry has historically produced more jobs per megawatt-hour than any other energy industry” he asserts. The report boldly predicts that by 2020, the solar sector alone will have been responsible for the creation of between 193, 000 to 2.3 million jobs in the United States’ economy as a whole.

The report asserts that it is now realistic to expect the industry to create between 200, 000 to 430,000 jobs directly in the economy by the end of the decade. There is strong evidence to expect this to be realized as over the last five years the industry has witnessed job growth figures of 77% year on year on average. The prospects have been even brighter over the last few years and over both 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, the job creation figures more than doubled over the records set in preceding years.

Some of the more significant findings detailed in the report have to do with the role of government incentives as a spur for growth in the energy sector. the researchers unearthed plenty of data that shows the performance of the solar industry compared with the growth path assumed by other sectors of the economy notably coal, oil and hydro electricity. The report identifies that these common energy sources took, on average, about thirty years to move from the experimental stage to rapid growth and finally to mainstream adoption. This trend is not much different from what has been followed in  the case of solar as of the present.

The report concludes by making the bold assertion that solar could end up providing up to 20 percent of America’s energy needs no too far into the current decade. Solar and wind energy and wind energy are seen as being crucial factors in spurring new growth and job prospects for the economy. The report notes that their infinite potential is not lost to the world of investors who are being turned off from investing in depleted fossil fuel deposits.

A Look at Some Important Solar PV Insurance Impediments and Possible Solutions

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According to a technical report published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there is plenty that needs to be done if insurance cover for solar energy systems is to be made more available and affordable for consumers. In particular, the report notes that the cover for certain solar products is thin if not altogether non existent. Another impendiment to the development of the sector comes from the fact that many insurers lack proper knowledge about solar PV systems.

The report identifies that insurance costs for solar systems can be unjustifiably high with premiums making up to 25% of a system’s annual expense. Depending on where a PV system is installed, the annual premiums can amount to anywhere between 0.25% to 0.5% of the total installed sytem costs. Developers in the industry reported that the costs incurred with respect to insurance can comprise between 5%-10% of the total costs associated with the installation. Considering that the components of such systems include equipment like solar panels, solar thermal kits and solar mounting equipmendt that are normaly fixed in place, this amount is unwarrantedly high.

The report recommends a number of challenges that must be addressed to reverse the situation. It calls for concerted effort from the federal government, insurance companies, national research laboratories, solar manufacturers and other stakeholders. The report identifies four issues as key in accelerating the development and uptake of solar PV isurance policies in the market

Integrate and publicize data on historical loss and claims
Insurance companies have been hesitant in offering cover for solar PV systems as they have very little data on which to assess the level of risk. The NREL report recommends that insurers share information on historical cases where claims were made. The report proposes the setting up of a nationwide database with all relevant data about loss and claims.

Business classification in the Renewable Energy Sector Should be Expanded
Professionals in the insurance industry interviewed for the purposes of the report idenctified insufficient business classification in the Green Sector as a key impediment to judging risk. the report casitagtes bot the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the Standard Industrial Classification codes for restricting many of the renewable energy industries into a narrow set of classifications.

Make module and component testing data and facilities more widely available
While there are plenty of laboratories and independent standards organizations that conduct regular testing for components as well as complete systems, the data is not integrated nor made widely available for insurers and other stakeholders. When the data from from testing solar PV equipment for durability and vulnerability to strreses associated with bad weather like hail, wind and extremes of temperature the whole industry will be the better for it. The report proposes that NREL be the body that cordinates with other natinal laboratories in ensuring that advanced testing facilities are made available for such parties as manufacturers of solar pv modules , solar inverters and system integrators.

Expand the Guidelines for Installers to Standards
Insurers who were interviewed for the research had one gripe with the way the industry lacked any modicum of federal standards for solar PV installers. This largely owes to the fact that the Department of Energy has only issued a set of guidelines to regulate how installers are assessed for competence. They expressed the belief that were the guidelines strengthened to enforceable standards, the insurers would be given the incentives they need to lower premiums. The report also concluded was there increased reliance on the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) could lead to higher quality as well as fewer accidents.

Solar Systems USA provides state-of-the-art solar PV equipment and accessories. Visit our online store to buy solar panels at the lowest prices possible on the web.

Leaf-like Folds Promise to Increase Solar Energy Efficiencies for Thin Film Solar Panels

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The world of technology is awash with many instances of imitating nature, from space shuttles to submarines. A new design of flexible solar panels promises to follow in this trend with scientists announcing that they were able to improve solar energy conversion efficiencies by adding microscopic folds on the surface of plastic thin film solar panels.

The technology is still experimental but if the findings are anything to go by, it won’t be too long before you can buy solar panels with this design. Although research into the use of cheap plastic materials in construction of solar cells is nothing new, the prototypes in the past have been too inefficient to allow for commercial production.

The findings have been published by a research team based at the Princeton University working on a bid to improve the efficiency of plastic flexible solar panels. These panels have the promise of being more flexible than existing designs as well as being tougher and more durable.

The published findings indicate that the scientists were able to increase the efficiency of these solar cells by a factor of up to 47%. This is an indication that the presumed target of 10-15% to allow for commercial production is no too far off in the horizon. This is even more significant considering that another team working on a separate project at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have also announced efficiencies approaching 10%.

The Princeton team’s findings were significant not just because of the increased efficiencies but in the manner the efficiencies were achieved. Traditional solar cells’ conversion efficiencies decrease significantly as one moves closer to the infrared sections of the solar light spectrum. By Folding the surface, the team found that efficiency could be increased by a factor of about 600 compared to traditional silicon solar cells.

The technology works on all plastic and polymer based solar cells and therefore has the advantage of application across the board. The lead author of the research paper, Jong Bok Kim, explained that the system by which the folds increase efficiency of the solar cells is not much unlike how water canals are used to effectively channel water through farmland.

The curves and folds help trap the light much longer on the surface of the solar panels, increasing the absorption rate. On a flat surface like that of traditional solar panels, light is either absorbed or reflected off the surface. By adding curves and folds, some of the light that bounced off the first instance of hitting can be re absorbed into the photovoltaic material.

But other than increasing the efficiency of the solar panels, adding the folds had other mechanical and structural benefits. Such panels were proven to be much more stronger and with a capacity to retain effectiveness of light absorption even after bending unlike panels with flat surfaces.

 

How to Determine the Requirements of a Solar Attic Ventilation System

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Ensuring that you have the correct type of solar attic ventilation system is a definite guarantee for lower power bills. This is in addition to ensuring that your house is not structurally weakened due to uncontrolled moisture. This is because in the summer, warm moist air rises up in the house and without proper ventilation; gets trapped in the attic. Consequently, your air conditioning system attempts to counter this rise by powering up and your energy bills spiral up as a result.

The exact requirements of a sufficient system will largely depend on the type of house in which the installation is being done. A residential solar attic ventilation system for instance differs significantly in terms of design and costs from what would be sufficient for a commercial solar attic ventilation system.  Solar Systems USA has a comprehensive list of both systems shipping at affordable prices as of the moment.

Solar attic fans are manufactured in two distinct varieties: those intended for installation on the roof and those more appropriate for installation on a house’s gable.  The roof top variety is more prevalent and for understandable reasons. The roof top offers much better exposure to sunlight on many houses. However, if there are trees of structures shading the sun most of the day or the roof does not face the south, it may be more appropriate to consider installing a solar attic gable fan.

Experts in HVAC systems advice that your solar attic ventilation system should have the capacity to move the air in your entire attic out entirely every six minutes.  This standard therefore serves to establish which system would be sufficient to effect such a capacity.  The power rating of solar attic fans are indicated using the unit cubic feet per minute (CFM) to indicate the amount of air they can move out of the house in a minute.

In order to determine what fan will prove powerful enough for your home, you need to determine the size of your attic. Get the volume in cubic feet by multiplying the width, length and height of the room. You then need to multiply this figure by ten to determine the volume of air that the system must move in an hour of continuous operation. This figure should then be divided by 60 in order to arrive at the specific CFM rating of a sufficiently powerful solar attic ventilation fan.

Even if your home already features an attic ridge vent, you will still benefit from installing a solar attic ventilation system. To begin with, combining the two will ensure that your attic structures are not compromised by mould and mildew. This in turn ensures that the house will remain structurally sound for much longer. Owing to the fact that renewable energy installations have such a premium attached to them, you will also enhance the value or equity of your home.

For most homeowners though, what really matter is the amount of savings they can make after putting up considerable investment in acquiring the equipment and having it installed. According to verifiable research data, up to 44% of a typical  American family energy costs are associated with heating and cooling the house. A solar attic fan system will help strike off a significant fraction of this cost without calling for any recurrent maintenance costs for a number of decades.

Solar Systems USA provides the best photovoltaic systems and related accessories at the lowest prices on the web. Our range of Attic Breeze solar attic fans are currently shipping at affordable prices from our online store.

India flips the switch on world's largest solar power plant

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Reblogged from Grist:

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The Indian state of Gujarat has built the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant, a field of solar panels the size of Lower Manhattan. After only 14 months of preparation, they’ve just switched it on, adding 600 megawatts of power to the grid. That’s enough to power a medium-sized city’s worth of homes. Thing is HUGE.

Read more… 134 more words

Check this out! This is a glimpse of the future for US residents. (I Hope!)

3 D Solar Solar Towers Promise a new Dimension in Solar Power Efficiencies

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The announcement by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology that they have developed a new design of solar photovoltaics stacked in tower configuration promises to reinvigorate the debate about efficiency versus costs when it comes to renewable energy. While the design has been proven as effective in raising solar power harvesting over traditional panels, the design is nonetheless expensive to implement compared to traditional panels.

The 3-D Tower Photovoltatic Prototypes. (Photo courtesy of MIT News Office)

Unlike the more commonplace configuration of solar photovoltaic cells in flat arrays, the new design stacks the cells in 3 dimensional configurations as towers. They have demonstrated that taking on such a design can increase efficiency by a factor of up to thirty over the same base area. This is because the designs allows sunlight to strike the cells at multiple angles for effective collection throughout the day and seasons.

While traditional PV designs are optimized to allow for maximum efficiency at midday when the sun is directly overhead, the towers provide for enough optimization to allow for collection of solar energy even when the sun is low on the horizon in the morning and evenings. The fact that the cubed towers extend efficiency by rising upward, the most effective part of the roof can be used to the maximum effect.

Before hitting on a workable idea, the MIT researchers experimented with a number of configurations and used a computer algorithm to identify which option was most efficient. The analytical algorithm was used to test effective configurations for a range of latitudes, seasons as well as weather conditions.

The optimal design was tested alongside two others on the roof of a laboratory in MIT over a number of weeks. The results validated the findings that the design was the correct one, outperforming the other configurations significantly in these tests.

Granted, the new designs are much more costly in designing and assembly. The researchers were however quick to point to some obvious advantages. To begin with, the configuration allows for generation of solar power over a much smaller footprint and allows for more power right throughout the day and not just in times of maximum insolation.

Trying to dispel the notion that the idea of costs will hamper the progress and adoption of their idea, the researches at MIT were upbeat about this not being the case. They pointed to the fact that the costs of silicon solar cells have been on a decline meaning that the part that needs lowering of costs is installation costs and not factory related costs.

Around the world, there has not been a lack of proposals for better ways of designing solar photovoltaics. While there has been significant progress in reducing the costs of assembly, there has been a lack of similarly concerted effort in designing more efficient appliances to collect solar energy with optimal effect.

A Wide Ranging Look at Various Technologies Emerging in the Manufacture of Thin Film Solar Panels

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Ensuring that you have the correct type of solar attic ventilation system is a definite guarantee for lower power bills. This is in addition to ensuring that your house is not structurally weakened due to uncontrolled moisture. This is because in the summer, warm moist air rises up in the house and without proper ventilation; gets trapped in the attic. Consequently, your air conditioning system attempts to counter this rise by powering up and your energy bills spiral up as a result.

The exact requirements of a sufficient system will largely depend on the type of house in which the installation is being done. A residential solar attic ventilation system for instance differs significantly in terms of design and costs from what would be sufficient for a commercial solar attic ventilation system.  Solar Systems USA has a comprehensive list of both systems shipping at affordable prices as of the moment.

Solar attic fans are manufactured in two distinct varieties: those intended for installation on the roof and those more appropriate for installation on a house’s gable.  The roof top variety is more prevalent and for understandable reasons. The roof top offers much better exposure to sunlight on many houses. In some cases though, where there are trees or structures shading the sun most of the day or the roof does not face the south, it may be more appropriate to consider installing the gable variety.

Experts in HVAC systems advice that your solar attic ventilation system should have the capacity to move the air in your entire attic out entirely every six minutes.  This standard therefore serves to establish which system would be sufficient to effect such a capacity.  The power rating of solar attic fans are indicated using the unit cubic feet per minute (CFM) to indicate the amount of air they can move out of the house in one minute.

In order to determine what fan will prove powerful enough for your home, you need to determine large your attic is in volume. Get the volume in cubic feet by multiplying the width, height and length of the room. You then need to multiply this figure by ten to determine the volume of air that the system must move in an hour of continuous operation. This figure should then be divided by 60 in order to arrive at the specific CFM rating of a sufficiently powerful solar attic ventilation fan.

Even if your home already features an attic ridge vent, you will still benefit from installing a solar attic ventilation system. To begin with, combining the two will ensure that your attic structures are not compromised by mould and mildew. This in turn ensures that the house will remain structurally sound for much longer. Owing to the fact that renewable energy installations have such a premium attached to them, you will also enhance the value or equity of your home.

For most homeowners though, what really matter is the amount of savings they can make after putting up considerable investment in acquiring the equipment and having it installed. According to verifiable research data, up to 44% of a typical  American family energy costs are associated with air conditioning and other HVAC applications. A solar attic fan system will help strike off a significant fraction of this cost without calling for any recurrent maintenance costs for a number of decades.

If you are looking for the best offers of affordably priced but quality solar panels and related photovoltaic equipment, be sure to check the Solar Systems USA website. We stock Attic Breeze solar attic fans to suit all manner of residential and commercial projects.

Polymer Solar Cells: Have they Got Potential to be the Ideal Alternative Energy Solution?

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Polymer solar cells are arguably the new frontier in the search for affordable alternative energy solutions. Made from organic polymers, they are assembled to form  a new brand of flexible solar panels but are yet to gain wide usage. As matters stand actually, they represent an experimental technology that is yet to be proven for large scale power generation.

Although the use of highly purified crystalline silicon is the technology that is most proven in the manufacture of solar cells,  there is widespread acceptance that the high  costs that attend their manufacture is an impediment. As such, many researchers are looking for more affordable alternatives that will push solar power to the next level. With amorphous silicon failing to live up to expectations, there is an expectation in industrial circles that maybe polymer solar cells will deliver on the promise.

In contrast to crystalline silicon alternatives, polymer solar cells are more lightweight as to be used for tiny autonomous sensors. Arguably, they are also easy to fabricate and can be customized for a range of applications at the molecular level. They can also be disposed of easily, posing lesser risk on the environment.

As with many other emerging thin film alternatives of solar cells, these polymer based cells have decidedly low inefficiencies. This refers to the  percentage of solar insolation that a cell can convert to usable electricity. It is felt that for an application to be considered effective for commercial application, it needs to attain or exceed 14% conversion efficiency. Polymer solar cells rarely exceed 7% efficiency even in laboratory trials.

There has however been some concerted effort in developing new cells that can break this barrier. In a study carried out jointly by the National Renewable energy Laboratory (NREL)  and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) , there was a marked improvement in efficiencies. Their prototype cells achieved certified conversion efficiency of up to 8.6%, a world record for polymer solar cells.

The researchers referred to the cells they used in the tests as tandem polymer cells with low-bandgap polymers. The study as published on February 12th issue of  Nature Photonics represent the very first time such efficiency levels had been independently verified.

Should this technology prove to be useful  in full scale development of solar modules, the advantages are evident. Because they are so thin and flexible, the costs that go into transportation, warehousing and installation of solar panels would  be driven way down. Added to the fact that they are less expensive to manufacture, the motivation for further research is pretty evident.

The research findings expressed in this report are a further development in addition to another one published in 2011 at Empa. Empa is the Swiss Federal laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. The Empa team has been researching on a new brand of polymer solar cells based on CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) technology.

In our bid to provide you with the most cost effectively priced solar panels available online,  Solar Systems USA has in stock the best products from all leading global manufacturers. Visit our online store for the best offers at below wholesale pricing!

New Research Report Indicates Global Solar PV Market Grew by 27.4 Gigawatts in 2011

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The latest release of the Marketbuzz® report by Solarbuzz NPD shows that the global solar PV market installations reached a record high of 27.4 gigawatts(GW). Even more significantly, this growth represents a 40% growth year on year. Below are some excerpts from the report and some highlights of notable observations.

Although this growth was attributed to increased demand from installers in a rush to take advantage of solar incentives that were bound to get a cut at the end of the year.The first half of 2011 was characterized by overproduction that was the main basis for declining prices throughout the year.

Solarbuzz also makes a note that 2011 is the year that saw increased production by Chinese producers for products like crystalline silicon wafers, cells and even modules to a point of dominating the market. Against expectations, the market share of thin film witnessed a market decline too in the year while demand in the Asian market grew rapidly.

In terms of annual returns for manufacturers, the year saw solar companies generate up to $93 billion. This represented a growth of 12% on the figures recorded for the previous year. The Marketbuzz report also indicated that the industry raised corporate equity and debt amounts well in excess of $8 billion.

In terms of individual country performance, there were few surprises. Germany continues to be the overwhelming leading solar products market although Italy and China are not too far behind. Remarkably, the five leading markets: Germany, Italy, China, USA and France represent just slightly less than three quarters of all global installations. China recorded the highest year on year growth, rising from seventh market size to third with a growth that was an amazing 470% of the 2010 levels.

The study shows that European economies are still the most dominant players in the sector, accounting for over 18.7 gigawatts of the capacity installed in 2011. This is currently 68% of the global demand and a comparative reduction taking into account that Europe accounted for 82% of the demand registered in 2010. The strongest growth in Europe was recorded in Italy and France while a year end surge in Germany saw demand for 2011 match the figures recorded in 2010 almost to a fault.

Solarbuzz goes on to make some projections about likely industry developments in the future. These include a fall in factory-gate prices for solar PV modules by between 43% to 53% over the course of the next five years. Over the course of 2012, it is expected that the factory-gate prices of crystalline silicon will be 29% lower than what was recorded through the course of 2011. Demand from North America and Asian markets is also projected to decrease the share taken by Europe to 53% of the global total.

Solar Systems USA is committed to bringing you the latest information and research findings on the dynamics of the solar market. On top of this, our pledge to provide you solar panels at the lowest prices possible online remains as true as ever.