Indian flag

Based in Bangalore, India, Simpa Networks has developed a new pricing model that aims to make household solar energy systems “radically affordable” to the 1.6 billion consumers around the world who currently have no access to electricity.

Simpa Networks is a venture-backed technology company aiming “to make modern energy simple, affordable, and accessible for everyone,” in the company’s own words.

Toward that end, it sells distributed energy solutions on a “progressive purchase” basis; customers make a small initial down payment for a high-quality solar photovoltaic system and then pre-pay for the service, topping up their systems in small user-defined increments using a mobile phone.

Powered by the Simpa Regulator — a tamper-proof, system-integrated microcontroller and user interface — and cloud-based software, the system ensures that once prepaid consumption is exhausted, the solar home system is temporarily disabled until another payment is made. Each payment, meanwhile, also counts towards the final purchase price. Once fully paid, the system produces clean energy, free and clear for the rest of the system’s expected 10-year useful life.

Now available for customers in Karnataka, India, Simpa Networks’ model is built upon proprietary risk mitigation technology, with investment opportunities for market rate and social investors, it says.

Solar Bridge

The new Blackfriars station in the UK – which is being built on a bridge spanning the River Thames – is on its way to becoming the world’s largest solar bridge as Solarcentury begins the installation of over 4,400 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.

The Victorian bridge, built in 1886, is the foundation for the new Blackfriars station, which is being upgraded by Network Rail to cater for more passengers and an improved train service. A new roof, added to the historic structure, will incorporate over 6,000m² of PV panels, creating the biggest solar array in London by mid 2012.

The solar panels will generate an estimated 900,000kWh of electricity every year, providing 50% of the station’s energy and reducing CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes per year. In addition to solar panels, other energy saving measures at the new station will include rain harvesting systems and sun pipes for natural lighting. continue reading..

Installing Solar Power Panels

Factories in China have been churning out solar panels so fast that prices have plunged. Just ask the folks at Solyndra, the bankrupt photovoltaic-cell maker that has gotten the Obama Administration into hot water over loan guarantees. Those Chinese manufacturers are now disrupting another corner of the solar industry: so-called solar thermal installations, which make electricity by bouncing sunlight off mirrors to boil water, creating steam that drives turbines.

At least four companies have abandoned plans for solar thermal plants in the U.S. in favor of electricity-producing solar cells, which have fallen in price by nearly half this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That means it may no longer make sense to complete many solar thermal projects, typically vast installations in deserts that take years to build. For solar thermal, “the future in the U.S. looks very challenging,” says Brett Prior, an analyst at energy consultancy GTM Research. continue reading..

Solar panels installed on the roof of a building

Everyone knows that electricity bills are getting higher and higher, and often we’re burning up precious fossil fuels to create this power. Now Solar Panels are becoming a viable solution even for the average consumer these days but tend to be expensive, delicate, require specialised installation and look pretty ugly up there on the roof,

Well at CEATAC, 3M demonstrated it’s new special film developed to coat ordinary, existing windows and convert them into solar panels. Made from an organic photovoltaic material the film not only generates energy from sunlight but also absorbs over 90% of infrared light, resulting in a cooling effect as well. continue reading..

Home Solar Panels on Roof

SOLAR panels sitting on the roofs of houses in the Bundaberg region and quietly feeding electricity back into the grid might seem like a good idea, but it is causing some concern for electrical suppliers.

Neil Lowry, Ergon Energy’s executive general manager of asset management, said one of the main problems was that the system was not deigned to accept electricity from its customers.

The electricity grid is much like a water pipe that delivers water to a house, but is not designed to take it away.

Mr Lowry said Ergon had teams in place to deal with the boom in solar electricity, and was watching the situation closely. continue reading..

Solyndra logo

Solyndra, the solar panel maker that collapsed despite a U.S. government loan of $535 million, wants to appoint a high-profile bankruptcy expert to run it after the departure of its chief executive.

Solyndra asked the bankruptcy court to let it hire Todd Neilson of Berkeley Research Group LLC as its chief restructuring officer, according to documents filed on Tuesday at the Delaware court.

Neilson, a former FBI agent, was bankruptcy trustee for former world boxing champion Mike Tyson, hip-hop record label Death Row Records and its controversial chief executive Marion “Suge” Knight Jr, his website shows.

He would essentially take up the role of chief executive after the previous CEO, Brian Harrison “left the company as scheduled on October 7,” the company said in the filing, giving no further details. continue reading..

General Electric Logo

GE looks set to take on First Solar by producing thin-film solar panels it claims will convert 14 per cent of sunlight into electricity, which would put them among the most efficient on the market.

The US conglomerate plans to open a new $300m factory in Colorado producing the panels next year which, it says, will produce enough panels per year to power 80,000 homes when commercial shipments begin in 2013.

GE has been ramping up its solar efforts and earlier this year unveiled a $600m investment to develop a thin film solar cell made from cadmium telluride, in conjunction with PrimeStar Solar, and signed more than 100MW of new commercial deals for solar thin-film products. continue reading..

The sun has yet to fully shine on the solar-power industry in Texas. The industry is still tiny, accounting for a fraction of 1 percent of the state’s electric power generation.

But industry professionals and advocates of renewable energy say that Texas potentially could become the No. 1 generator of solar power in the U.S. within several years, thanks to its size, wide-open spaces, sunshine and a large, fast-growing population that will need more electricity.

The Lone Star State will be in the solar spotlight this week, with 24,000 industry professionals flocking to the Solar Power International conference today through Thursday at the Dallas Convention Center. About 1,200 companies will hawk solar products and services in 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space.

“People all over the world are eyeing Texas because of its potential in solar [power],” said Bob Walters, vice president of marketing for Fort Worth-based Entech Solar, which is developing a solar-powered skylight for “green” buildings and large solar panels that will require less silicon.

With costs for solar panels plunging and big new power transmission lines being built in West Texas, “we’re getting ready to have a solar boom,” said Michael Osborne, an official with Austin Energy, a municipal electric utility that expects to buy power from a new 30-megawatt solar farm east of Austin by year’s end.

That facility would nearly double the state’s minuscule solar-generation capacity of 37 megawatts. But CPS Energy of San Antonio, also a municipal utility, is thinking much bigger. It has solicited proposals for 400 megawatts of new solar generation, more than 10 times the capacity of the entire state.

CPS is evaluating a short list of the most attractive offers from companies willing to build a solar farm, or multiple farms, in exchange for CPS agreeing to buy the power, spokesman John Moreno said.

CPS gets power from the largest operating solar generation facility in Texas, the 14-megawatt Blue Wing Solar Project on 113 acres in southeast San Antonio. Its 214,500 solar photovoltaic panels can produce more than 26,570 megawatt-hours of electricity each year — enough to power 1,800 households, CPS says.

The ambitious 400-megawatt solar expansion plan symbolizes “how quickly the industry is moving,” said Tom Kimbis, vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the chief industry trade group.

Read the rest of this story at http:// www. star-telegram .com/2011/10/16/3448893/texas-sun-may-soon-heat-up-solar.html

Zimbabwean Flag

Solar energy has many advantages one of them saving money. After the initial investment has been recovered, the energy from the sun is practically free.

Zimbabwe: We Need Solar Power
Load shedding has become the order of the day as the power company tries to juggle the meagre resource to suit the insatiable needs of an ever increasing consumer base. Industrial operations are regularly interrupted by frequent power cuts resulting in costly plant disruptions. Hospitals have also been hit hard by the wave of unsustainable power outages with some critically important surgeries having to be rescheduled due to non-availability of power.

At homes, consumers have to resort to the use of firewood and other inconvenient alternatives to meet their basic daily needs for lighting and heating. Unfortunately the unbridled use of firewood has its own accompanying negative impact of deforestation, which has seen the greater part of our natural heritage disappear under our watch.

On a grander scale, the country’s global investment rating continues to tumble as among other things its power supply is widely adjudged as unreliable. Such a rating has become a regular stumbling block in the country’s desperate bid to woo back investors so as to resuscitate the sanctions hit economy. It is in the wake of such uncomplimentary effects of an unreliable power supply structure on the country that calls for the removal of duty on solar power equipment by Zimbabwe Power Company chairman Richard Maasdorp should be viewed.

Mr Maasdorp’s proposal should be viewed as an immediate measure to rectify the scandalous power supply regime in the country. The removal of duty on solar power equipment will see households and companies cheaply acquiring and installing solar systems that will serve as an alternative power supply.

This will greatly reduce the current unsustainable pressure on the national grid.

In addition to the afore-mentioned proposal, the ZPC chairman also suggested that concomitant to the scrapping of duty on solar equipment, the country should also change its building by-laws to make it mandatory for medium and low density houses to be fitted with solar geysers. Geysers are renowned universally for draining too much electrical power hence their removal from the national grid will have positive ramifications on the overall power supply as more power will be subsequently released into the national grid for the benefit of other essential services like industrial operations.

Read the rest of this story at http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=14237

Solar Array

Drivers on the New Jersey turnpike will soon get a glimpse of their fossil fuel consumption being offset with renewable solar power. Not to be out-done by other states turning the barren expanses of landfills into solar power plants (i.e., New York and Massachusetts), New Jersey Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno recently announced plans to host a solar farm on a state-owned landfill.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s (NJMC) 1A Landfill Solar Project in Kearny will be the first project of its kind in New Jersey.

The 3-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) system will consist of 12,506 solar panels mounted on 13 acres atop a defunct landfill. The site will initially be owned and operated by SunDurance Energy, the Edison-based company that will construct the project.

Just prior to the project’s completion, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey’s oldest and largest publicly owned utility, will purchase the solar farm.

The $18 million solar project, expected to be online by the end of the year, highlights how this state is taking solar power seriously. New Jersey recently surpassed California as the country’s largest commercial solar market, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, and now accounts for 24 percent of all commercial arrays in the U.S.

“Projects such as this represent a fulfillment of Governor Christie’s campaign promise to increase the use of landfills and brownfields for solar projects that also foster job creation,” said Guadagno.

“Further, the Christie Administration’s draft Energy Master Plan lays out a clear and realistic path to a sustainable energy future that promotes economic growth and job creation, protects our environment, and maintains the 7th most aggressive renewable portfolio standard in the nation at 22.5 percent.”