At a time when many investors are sticking money in their mattresses, Californians are putting it on their roofs.Applications for state rebates to install solar panels hit their highest level ever in December, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise gloomy economy.
From LA Times
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Solyndra New Solar Photovoltaic System
Solyndra, Inc. today announced a new solar photovoltaic (PV) system for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra's PV system is designed to generate significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis from typical low-slope commercial rooftops with lower installation costs than conventional PV flat panel technologies. Commercial rooftops represent a vast, underutilized resource and huge opportunity for generating solar electricity. Since its founding in 2005, Solyndra has been developing technology and ramping manufacturing capacity to produce its proprietary CIGS-based thin film PV system. Solyndra is currently shipping its systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, to fulfill more than $1.2 billion of multi-year contracts with customers in Europe and the United States.
THE NEW SHAPE OF SOLAR
Solyndra's panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. This self-tracking design allows Solyndra's PV systems to capture significantly more sunlight than traditional flat-surfaced solar panels, which require costly tilted mounting devices to improve the capture of direct light, offer poor collection of diffuse light and fail to collect reflected light from rooftops or other installation surfaces.
Conventional flat PV panels must be mounted at an angle and spaced apart for optimum energy production. The sunlight striking the spaces between the panels is not collected and thus is wasted. Solyndra's panels perform optimally when mounted horizontally and packed closely together, thereby covering significantly more of the available roof area and producing more electricity per rooftop on an annual basis than a conventional panel installation.
COST-EFFECTIVE INSTALLATION
To meet rooftop wind loading requirements, conventional flat solar panels must be anchored to commercial roofs with either ballast or rooftop penetrations, which are inherently problematic. Together with the need for tilting, the resulting complex mounting systems require significant investment in labor, materials and engineering. Conversely, because wind blows through Solyndra panels, no rooftop anchoring is required. Further, the low weight of the Solyndra system enables the installation of PV on a broader range of rooftops.
For typical conventional PV installations, a solar panel is only half the cost of a complete installation; the other half includes additional expenses such as installation, cables, and inverters. The horizontal mounting and unique air-flow properties of Solyndra's solar panel design substantially simplify the installation process for Solyndra's PV systems. The ease of installation and simpler mounting hardware of Solyndra's system enables its customers to realize significant savings on installation costs.
"By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost," said Manfred Bachler, Chief Technical Officer at Phoenix Solar AG, one of the largest solar power integrators in Europe and a Solyndra customer. "For commercial rooftops, PV module installation time can now be measured in days, not weeks. For flat commercial rooftops this is game-changing technology."
According to Solyndra founder and CEO Chris Gronet, "Solyndra's system uniquely optimizes PV performance on commercial rooftops by converting more of the sunlight that strikes the total rooftop area into electricity while also providing for a lower installation cost and lower cost of electricity."
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Solar Stocks are Moving Higher
Solar Energy Stocks: All Fired Up
Is the group's recent run-up a solar flare or a sign of bigger things to come?
by David Bogoslaw From Businessweek.com
Solar energy stocks are hot once again, with shares of industry players jumping as much as 58% in the past month. Much of that bounce is due to nearly uniformly positive quarterly earnings reports from some solar outfits. Company executives were able to allay investors' fears about declining demand and lower prices for solar panels and related materials, concerns that were fueled by a sharp reduction of government subsidies in countries such as Spain.
"You've had a lessening of fear in the market of what would happen with Spanish traffic and the U.S. tax credit," says Pavel Molchanov, an analyst who covers solar companies for Raymond James & Co. (RJF). "The visibility hasn't improved, but investors are taking it more in stride and are feeling more confident that, even in the worst case, there will be ample demand in other more early-stage solar markets."
The U.S. investment tax credits for wind and solar power, which currently reimburse property developers 30% of what they spend on installations, would revert to 10% at yearend if no legislative action is taken. "To most developers, that 10% may as well be zero," says Mark Burger, a principal at the Oak Park (Ill.)-based renewable energy consulting firm Kestrel Development.
Stronger Demand Down Under
On earnings conference calls, the management of several solar companies assured shareholders that instead of a decline of more than 10% in the average selling price for solar modules in 2009 that investors had feared, prices would probably fall 5% to 10%. Top executives stressed that despite an expected drop in demand from Spain, which plans to cap the number of solar projects eligible for a form of subsidy known as feed-in tariffs starting next year, they are seeing demand strengthen in countries like France, Italy, and Australia.
Japan's plan to restore its solar subsidies beginning next year after a four-year absence is also contributing to investor optimism. Feed-in tariffs are the renewable energy payments federal governments make to regional or national electric utilities to encourage them to buy solar- or wind-generated electricity at above-market rates set by government.
Solar Installer
Is the group's recent run-up a solar flare or a sign of bigger things to come?
by David Bogoslaw From Businessweek.com
Solar energy stocks are hot once again, with shares of industry players jumping as much as 58% in the past month. Much of that bounce is due to nearly uniformly positive quarterly earnings reports from some solar outfits. Company executives were able to allay investors' fears about declining demand and lower prices for solar panels and related materials, concerns that were fueled by a sharp reduction of government subsidies in countries such as Spain.
"You've had a lessening of fear in the market of what would happen with Spanish traffic and the U.S. tax credit," says Pavel Molchanov, an analyst who covers solar companies for Raymond James & Co. (RJF). "The visibility hasn't improved, but investors are taking it more in stride and are feeling more confident that, even in the worst case, there will be ample demand in other more early-stage solar markets."
The U.S. investment tax credits for wind and solar power, which currently reimburse property developers 30% of what they spend on installations, would revert to 10% at yearend if no legislative action is taken. "To most developers, that 10% may as well be zero," says Mark Burger, a principal at the Oak Park (Ill.)-based renewable energy consulting firm Kestrel Development.
Stronger Demand Down Under
On earnings conference calls, the management of several solar companies assured shareholders that instead of a decline of more than 10% in the average selling price for solar modules in 2009 that investors had feared, prices would probably fall 5% to 10%. Top executives stressed that despite an expected drop in demand from Spain, which plans to cap the number of solar projects eligible for a form of subsidy known as feed-in tariffs starting next year, they are seeing demand strengthen in countries like France, Italy, and Australia.
Japan's plan to restore its solar subsidies beginning next year after a four-year absence is also contributing to investor optimism. Feed-in tariffs are the renewable energy payments federal governments make to regional or national electric utilities to encourage them to buy solar- or wind-generated electricity at above-market rates set by government.
Solar Installer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Solar Power to Produce 10% of Utility Power Sources
Electric utilities are warming to solar power in a shift that promises to turbocharge a technology that has been hindered by high prices and slow consumer adoption.
Pacific Gas and Electric in California announced last week it will buy 800 megawatts of solar-generated electricity from two companies, enough to light 239,000 homes. Within three years, PG&E will buy its solar energy from OptiSolar and SunPower, which plan to build the world's two largest solar farms in California as part of the deal.
It would nearly double the USA's entire solar-panel capacity. Driving the trend are solar's falling costs and state alternative-energy mandates.
Solar power has grown but still makes up well under 1% of U.S. power generation. More than 90% of solar panels have been installed on rooftops by maverick consumers and businesses. Utilities' embrace of solar energy will help push it to about 10% of power generation by 2025, predicts Ron Pernick, principal of research firm Clean Edge.
From USATODAY
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Energy Innovations Gets UL Approval
The Sunflower rooftop system from Energy Innovations became the first solar photovoltaic concentrator to receive Underwriters Laboratories certification Monday.
The product can therefore qualify for many state solar rebates and for installations on commercial rooftops. With that nod, Energy Innovations hopes to raise as much as $20 million for increased production and to support installations for 2009.
"The UL Mark is one of the most recognized symbols of safety in the world and to say we're thrilled to have our work validated by such an independent and reputable institution would be an understatement," said CEO Bill Gross, in a statement.
The Sunflower's Fresnel lens concentrates sunlight more than 1,000 times, enabling cheaper electricity than traditional photovoltaics, according to its maker. The self-powered, 200-watt system features trackers that shift with the sun's location, as well as a controller and communications system. The low-slung Sunflower is built to withstand winds, and it doesn't need to penetrate a rooftop for installation.
From News.com
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
New Solar Power System to Generate 3% of Power at Anheuser-Busch Fairfield Brewery
The Anheuser-Busch Breweries in Fairfield will generate 15 percent of its fuel needs from a Bio-Energy Recovery System (BERS) that is currently under construction. BERS technology turns nutrients in brewing wastewater into renewable biogas that is used to decrease the use of natural gas. In addition, the Fairfield brewery has entered into an agreement with SunEdison to host a solar power plant on the brewery's property. The solar energy system will generate the equivalent of approximately 3 percent of the brewery's electricity needs and also generate Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for businesses or individuals to purchase to offset their use of fossil fuel energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The 1.18 megawatt (DC) photovoltaic system will be constructed during the late summer.
Friday, July 25, 2008
California Leads in Solar Power Generation for Utilities
Southern California Edison is leading the way as utilities become the solar industry's largest customers, according to a report Wednesday by the Solar Electric Power Association, whose members include solar tech companies and more than 300 utilities.
The utility is ahead of its counterparts in both overall solar energy capacity per megawatt and per customer, the study found (PDF). Further north, Pacific Gas & Electric is in front in terms of overall solar capacity and megawatts per customer.
The nonprofit solar association compiled the rankings from data collected from 50 utilities this spring. It projected growth in U.S. solar electricity, particularly photovoltaics, to expand to 600 megawatts in 2012 from 150 megawatts last year.
Southern California Edison came out on top largely due to its interest in large, concentrating solar thermal projects, such as a 245 megawatt agreement with eSolar. And it's working to build 250 megawatts of solar panels across 65 million square feet of rooftops.
From news.com
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