Thailand Emerges as a Southeast Asian Solar Leader

Large solar developments continue to make progress in Thailand, a trend which would hopefully be resonated in the wider Southeast Asian energy market.

Bangchak Petroleum Public, one of the country’s biggest oil refiners, broke ground on Thursday for 44-megawatt solar farm in Ayutthaya province, in the outskirts of the capital.

Chinese solar giant Suntech Power Company obtained the deal to deliver 34.5 MW worth of crystalline silicon solar panels for the first phase of the power station, which will be built by Solartron Public Company. The facility is planned to be completed by October 2011 at a total cost of 5 billion Thai baht ($156 million).

The solar plant is expected to rake in yearly revenues of 700 million Thai baht by supplying power to Bangkok and surrounding areas with popular tourist destinations, the Nation reports.

At the groundbreaking, Bangchak also announced plans to invest about 23 billion Thai baht over the next five years in clean energy, of which 15 billion Thai baht will go to 11 solar power plants with a combined capacity of at least 120 MW.

Bangchak expects the slew of planned solar sites and the 44-MW farm to generate about 2 billion Thai baht a year in revenues. Suntech described the facility as the region’s largest photovoltaic solar facility to date.

But Bangchak’s solar farm probably will not hold that distinction for long as more companies plan to build solar farms with higher capacities.

The Asian Development Bank agreed in May to lend 2 billion Thai baht to the Natural Energy Development Company, a Thai company owned by Hongkong’s CLP Holdings, Mitsubishi Corporation and the Electricity Generating Public Company, for theconstruction of the 73-MW Lop Buri thin-film solar power plant’s first phase.

Malaysia’s Bernama reported that the second phase of the project will increase capacity to 84 MW. The solar plant requires a total investment of 9.2 billion Thai baht and is planned to go online next year.

Japan’s Sharp Corporation, another giant in the solar PV business, signed in June an agreement with NED, an independent Thai power producer, to build another 73-MW thin-film solar farm. Sharp said construction has started and the plant will be running by late 2011.

Like many countries, Thailand depends on imported energy though it receives abundant sun. By 2017, energy consumption in the country is predicted to reach 2.1 trillion baht. The government has set a target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2022.

The Thai national plan for solar energy also envisions at least a fifteen-fold increase in solar power capacity – from 36 MW in 2008 to 550 MW – by the same year.

A report from the Asian Development Bank in 2009 projected that energy demand in Asia and the Pacific will grow by an estimated 2.4 percent annually for the next 20 years, a cumulative 80 percent increase between 2005 and 2030.

Suntech (NYSE:

STP

) believes that solar technology will account largely for this rapidly growing demand for electricity.

Zhengrong Shi, Suntech chairman, said reliable access to electricity made the strong economic growth seen in China and Thailand possible, and relying on fossil fuels alone is not enough to fuel this progress and the demands of its rising populations.

“Now is the time to rediscover nature's cleanest and most abundant energy resource,'' Dr. Shi said.

Source:   EcoSeed

Navy Opens Solar Array on Guam

The Navy celebrated the completion of a $5 million solar array project that will convert sunlight to energy to generate 250 kilowatts of electricity with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The solar array is the third component in the Navy's $34.1 million initiative to conserve energy on Naval Base Guam. The other two components include:

The controls optimization of heating, ventilation and air condition systems; and

An energy-efficient lighting upgrade to buildings and streetlights throughout the base.

The combined benefit of all three projects will save the Navy about $1.6 million a year  (payback period = 3.1 years), said Lee Hooker, Guam's general manager for Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls Inc., which was awarded the contract for the conservation measures.

The first component of the contract was to build an automating system for 42 buildings and set up a control room to monitor energy use by those buildings. The monitoring system will allow technicians to locate inefficient energy use.

"It makes it much easier for someone to identify problems and track the energy use of individual buildings, rather than just looking at one big power bill," Hooker said.

The second component introduced induction streetlight fixtures that provide a clean, energy-efficient white light. The new streetlights are about 45-percent more energy efficient than their traditional counterparts, Hooker said.

About 1,704 solar panels are lined up at the bottom of a hill on the Navy base to collect sunlight. The panels can withstand winds of up to 140 mph, Hooker said. The major concern in the event of a storm is projectile damage, he noted.

The farm is surrounded by an extended chain-linked fence that leaves space for an additional 250 kilowatts of panels, if it becomes viable for the Navy to expand the array, Hooker said. The power from the solar arrays will connect directly into the power grid, easing the use of electricity on the base.

The completion of the initiative comes at the tail end of National Energy Awareness Month, which promotes clean energy use and new technologies to reduce the U.S. carbon footprint on the planet.

"As a nation, we are far too reliant upon fossil fuels and foreign oils," Lynch said. "This degrades America's strategic position on the world's stage, and this reliance impedes upon our national security."

Lynch said there are four elements that are essential components to the overall energy strategy that's in the best interest of the United State's national security:

Conserving energy;

Reducing dependency on a volatile energy supply;

Investing in alternative and renewable energy technologies; and

Educating all Americans on the importance of energy conservation

"It's expensive to invest in alternative and renewable energy initiatives," he said. "But many would say, at this point in world history, that we cannot afford to not invest in alternative and renewable options."

Spain Seeks a Problem to FIT Deficit

When Spain originally announced its FIT rates - its economy was booming ... and the idea of using its sunshine to produce electricity sounded like a good idea ... and hopefully would lead to the kind of success experienced by Germany in terms of new company growth, job creation, and much more.

They were right ... it did attract a lot of solar developers but now that the economy has turned south - paying this solar subsidy is becoming more and more difficult and looking for a solution is a priority of the government.  Here is the latest proposal being floated as reported below by Bloomberg.

Spain may limit the hours during which photovoltaic-power plants may earn subsidies as part of a plan to rein in electricity costs for consumers, according to a government official involved in talks with the owners.

It’s too early to say how much the cut might cost companies that generate the solar power using photovoltaic panels, said Antonio Hernandez, general director of energy policy at the Madrid-based Industry Ministry. He said the ministry aims to reach an agreement during the next few weeks of negotiations.

“We want to prevent electricity becoming more expensive as the sun shines more,” Hernandez said in a telephone interview this week. “One of the possibilities is that the number of hours that subsidies can be earned would have limits.”

Plant operators and trade groups have held talks with ministry officials for months and threatened to sue the government for as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) should it cut the subsidies. The aid, which is added to consumer bills, is guaranteed for 25 years under a 2007 law, plant operator T- Solar Global SA Chief Executive Officer Juan Laso has said.

Hernandez is searching for a formula to hold down power prices for industry and households as the government tries to revive an economy emerging from its worst recession in 60 years.

The revenue from consumers’ electricity bills doesn’t fully cover the cost of delivering power under the current system, leaving utilities to finance a so-called tariff deficit that’s forecast to total about 3 billion euros just for 2010.

Renewable energy has become the focus of power-rate negotiations as Hernandez tries to meet a legal obligation to eliminate the tariff deficit by 2013.

Spain’s power regulator forecasts that the subsidies to renewable energy-producers plus those to co-generation, which includes more energy-efficient uses of fossil fuels, will reach 6.8 billion euros this year, 15 percent more than forecast, Europa Press reported Oct. 19.

Introducing the i-Cool Solar Air Conditioning for Trucks

Here's a cool idea:  Solar-powered air conditioning system developed for use in trucks. 

The "i-Cool Solar" system (available in 2012) was the brainchild of companies Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, ICL Co. Ltd, and Nippon Fruehauf Co. Ltd, who together developed the system, which uses a series of Mitsubishi Chemical photovoltaic (PV) cells on a Nippon Fruehauf mount fixed to the container of the truck to power the air conditioner in the cabin while the truck is stationary.

The new system adds photovoltaic cells to ICL’s “i-Cool,” which was released in May this year. The i-Cool air conditioner stores electricity in the storage battery while the truck is moving and uses it when the truck’s engine is turned off. The addition of solar cells ensures the storage battery is kept fully charged.

When the truck is stationary, the i-Cool Solar system can save around 1.8 liters of light oil per hour, and when moving can save an average of about 1% of fuel per year, depending on weather and driving conditions. For a 10 ton truck this equates to approximately 1,500 liters of light oil saved each year.

The i-Cool Solar system PV cells are thin-film cells mounted on the tops of the wings that are lowered onto the container, an area that provides a relatively large solar collection area. The maximum output of the cells is 900 W and excess power is stored in the battery for use on overcast days.

Mitsubishi Chemical is the largest chemical manufacturing company in Japan, and their calculations estimate that if all the trucks in Japan (around 1.4 million) used the i-Cool Solar system the country’s carbon emissions would be reduced by 1.65 million tons.

The companies plan to run trials of the truck system to enable it to be marketed in 2012. They are also planning a smaller version for use in cars. Japanese company Kyocera is also producing thin-film solar panels for roof-mounting on the next version of the Toyota Prius hybrid car.

Source:  PhysOrg.com

US Dept. of Interior Approves 1 GW Blythe Solar Power Plant in California

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar authorized on Monday (Oct 25, 2010) the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Blythe solar power plant site. This was the last approval to be issued and concludes the entire approval process for the world's largest solar power plant facility. A total of four solar-thermal power plants are to be built at the Blythe location in California with an overall capacity of 1,000 MW. 

Based on this decision, the US Bureau of Land Management has granted Solar Millennium LLC, the American project development unit within the Solar Millennium Group, the right of way for public land at the Blythe location. It is the first approval by the US Department of the Interior for a parabolic trough power plant on US public land. 

With a potential power plant capacity of around 1,000 MW, the Blythe plant is entering nuclear power plant dimensions. The four power plants together will produce enough electricity for more than 300,000 American single family homes, thereby saving one million tons of carbon dioxide per year. The power purchase agreements between Solar Millennium LLC and the American utility Southern California Edison (SCE) for the two major 242-MW solar power plants, which are to be realized now, were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in July. The agreements regulate SCE's purchase of the electricity produced by the power plants. 

Solar Millennium LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Solar Trust of America LLC, the American joint venture between Solar Millennium (70 percent) and Ferrostaal (30 percent). Uwe T. Schmidt, CEO of Solar Trust of America, explains the significance of the solar power plants for the region's environment and economy: "This is an historical day, not only for our Company, but also for California and particularly the Blythe region. In addition to their contribution to meeting California's climate goals, the power plants planned there will also play a very significant role in reviving the local economy." Solar Millennium believes that 1,000 jobs will be created during the construction period of Blythe. When the 1,000 MW facility is fully operational it will create more than 220 permanent jobs.


Source:   CleanEdge

UK government decides against solar feed-in tariff cuts

The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced the coalition government's Comprehensive Spending review, revealing that there will be no immediate cuts to the country's solar feed-in tariff.

After much speculation that the coalition government would slash the feed-in tariff set by the country's Department of Energy and Climate Change, it was finally announced by the Chancellor that:

"The efficiency of feed-in tariffs will be improved at the next formal review, rebalancing them in favour of more cost-effective carbon abatement technologies. This will save £40 million in 2014-15. Support for lower value innovation and technology projects will also be reduced, saving £70 million a year on average over the Spending Review period."

Therefore feed-in tariffs will be refocused on the most cost-effective technologies in 2014-15. The changes will be implemented at the first scheduled review of tariffs unless higher-than-expected deployment requires an early review.

The Renewable Energy Association's (REA) PV specialist consultant, Ray Noble, said of the review, "This is excellent news for the UK solar industry. It's exactly what the market needs in order to fulfill its fantastic potential. The outcome of today's review could not have been better."

Source:  Solar Power Portal

Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant (72 MW) To Be Built in Rovigo, Italy

SunEdison, a division of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR), received final approval from the Italian government to develop and construct a 72 Megawatt (MW) photovoltaic solar power plant in Northeastern Italy, near the town of Rovigo. When completed, this is expected to be the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in Europe.

Power generation will begin in the second half of 2010 with final completion expected by year end. In the first full year of operation, the system will generate sufficient energy to power 17,150 homes and avoid 41,000 tons of CO2 –the equivalent of removing 8,000 cars from the road.

SunEdison will jointly develop the project with financing partner Banco Santander. Additional financial partners are expected to join the project for final ownership.

“SunEdison is focused on enabling the growth of global solar markets through strong capabilities in project finance, engineering, low-cost procurement and operations and maintenance services,” commented Carlos Domenech, President of SunEdison.

“Veneto (Venice) is taking decisive action to advance the use of clean, renewable energy sources,” said Renzo Marangon, government official of the Veneto region. “At the same time, this project is expected to create over 350 local construction jobs and build expertise in advanced energy technologies. We expect Rovigo to serve as a European model for large-scale, alternative-energy projects.”

“A critical element of our approach is working closely with the right partners,” added Pancho Perez, General Manager for Europe and MENA region at SunEdison, “including developers, suppliers and contractors. For the Rovigo project, we selected Isolux Corsan, a large-scale infrastructure construction company with a strong track record in utility-scale solar plants.”

“We are pleased to be selected by SunEdison to construct the largest PV solar plant in Europe. We are looking forward to extending this partnership beyond Italy,” said Luis Delso, President of Isolux Corsan.
At 72 megawatts, this solar-power plant will be the largest in Europe. 


Currently, the largest facility is a 60MW solar farm in Olmedilla, Spain, followed by a 50 MW in Strasskirchen, Germany , built by MEMC through a joint venture agreement.

J.R. Ewing Tips His Hat to Solar Power

Once upon a time in a TV land older than most people I know, there lived a prime time soap opera called Dallas. In this show lived a big-hat-wearing Texas oil tycoon named J.R. Ewing. Those of you who remember this egregious, womanizing, money-grubbing corporate captain of industry will get how amusing it is that the owner of Ewing Oil (then and now played by Larry Hagman) has come out of this oil well to promote solar power. The rest of you might want to search Wikipedia and then, perhaps,YouTube.

Hagman, who is probably more famous for playing Major Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, is now a spokesman for SolarWorld. And he has resurrected the J.R. Ewing character to help illustrate that point. SolarWorld is based in Germany but has manufacturing plants in California and Oregon. The 500-megawatt plant in Oregon is currently the largest solar cell manufacturing facility in North America.

As for Larry Hagman/J.R. Ewing, he lives in Ojai, California on a veritable plantation. There he grows vegetables and some 200 avocado trees, and has already installed a 94-kilowatt solar power system. If you’re wondering how the former (if fictional) oil tycoon changed his tune to one of solar energy, know that this photovoltaic system has reduced his annual electric bill from $37,000 to just $13, according to the LA Times.

Hagman is starring in a new ad campaign for SolarWorld in which he will play off Sarah Palin’slaughable Drill, Baby, Drill exclamation by encouraging homeowners to “Shine, baby, shine.”

Infrabel and Enfinity Take Solar Power to the Railroad

Renewable energy company Enfinity has partnered with rail operator Infrabel to put solar power on the roof of the high-speed rail tunnel along the E19 highway in Belgium.

The tunnel is primarily used by the high-speed train connecting Amsterdam and Paris via Brussels. The solar energy will be used by the trains and station servicing both conventional and high-speed trains, representing a unique application of solar power in Europe.

More than 16,000 monocrystalline solar panels, 245 watt-peak (Wp) per panel, will be installed on the roof of the high-speed rail tunnel stretching just over two miles long. The roof’s total surface area is 50,000 square meters (m²), roughly equivalent to eight football fields.

The installation began this summer on the tunnel’s northern side. Project completion is scheduled for December 2010. The total investment budget is $20.1 million. The installation should generate an estimated 3.3MW hours (MWh) of electricity per year.

Source:  Solar Novus Today

World Bank Mobilizing $5.6 Billion for CSP in North Africa

Morocco gets solar energy backing

The Clean Technology Fund Trust Fund Committee (CTF TFC) has endorsed the Investment Plan for Concentrated Solar Power in the Middle East and North Africa Region, which aims at mobilizing $5.6 billion (including $750 million from the CTF) to accelerate deployment of 1 GW of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) generation capacity, doubling the worldwide CSP installed capacity.

Morocco is the country with the largest proposed capacity in the MENA CSP CTF IP. The first plant to be developed under the CSP scale-up initiative is the 500 MW Ouarzazate plant in Morocco, which is the largest proposed CSP plant in the world.

Source:  Bikywmasr.com

SOLON introduces innovative solution for remote control and monitoring of solar power plants

 The SOLON SCADA system is a web-based monitoring, control, and reporting system, specially designed for use in the energy provider and large-scale power plant sectors. The SOLON SCADA system delivers real-time, 24-hour information on a power plant’s vital data – from the current output to the components and detailed analyses. Rapid detection of potential malfunctions in the power plant operation can help to minimize downtimes while maximizing yields. 

The SOLON SCADA system is the first system which, via a WEB 2.0 interface, makes it possible to not only remotely monitor but also control and provide maintenance for solar power plants. No additional software is required. Users with a computer connected to the Internet can access data on the system, weather, production, or even the status of servicing via the SOLON SCADA system; furthermore, it can also provide trend charts, target/actual analyses, and business case reports. It can be used as well to make comparisons between SOLON power plants at different sites. The modular design of the SOLON SCADA system allows it to be easily adapted to power plants of different sizes and types of technologies, or even implemented when expanding a power plant. 

The user-friendly, operator-oriented system complies with all current grid guidelines and can accommodate the integration of a wide variety of control interfaces. The industrial components used in the system are certified, exceptionally durable, and have proven themselves time and again in the field, proving that the system can be used worldwide for a variety of purposes and that it works reliably, even under extreme operating conditions. The SOLON SCADA system is now available. 


About SOLON SE: 

SOLON SE is one of the largest manufacturers of solar modules in Europe as well as a supplier of solar system technology for large-scale rooftop and greenfield installations. The SOLON Group has subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and the U.S. and employs some 900 people worldwide. SOLON’s core business is producing solar modules and photovoltaic systems along with planning and constructing large rooftop installations and turnkey solar power plants all over the world.

First Solar Plants Approved for Federal Lands

Two large projects have made it through the gauntlet of governmental project review and are ready to move forward, marking the first solar projects approved for federal land.  Two down, hundreds left to go.

Today, Secretary Salazar approved the 709-MW Imperial Valley concentrated solar project and the 45-MW Lucerne Valley solar PV project, both to be located in the California desert.  When completed, the two projects will be able to produce enough energy to power 226,000 - 566,000 homes and create 1,000 jobs.

The Imperial Valley project is being developed by Tessera Solar using Stirling Energy System's Suncatcher Dish-Engines.  It will cover 6,360 acres in Imperial County and already has a power purchase agreement with SDG&E.
The Lucerne project is being developed by Chevron Energy Solutions.  It will take up 422 acres with 40,500 solar panels in San Bernardino County.

Since much of the public lands were put aside for conservation purposes, the projects each went through extensive environmental reviews and the companies were required to come up with ways to mitigate environmental impact.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pointed out that these projects, though large, only make up one-hundredth of a percent of the 11 million acres of California desert managed by the government.

Source:   EcoGeek

KYOCERA Solar Module First in the World to Pass Major Testing of TUV Rheinland’s Independent Long-Term Sequential Test

Kyocera Corporation (President: Tetsuo Kuba) has recently announced that its main 210-watt solar module is the first in the world to have passed the major sub-tests of the new “Long-Term Sequential Test” performed by TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd. which independently evaluates solar module quality and reliability.

The Long-Term Sequential Test which is conducted by the third party certification organization, TUV Rheinland, evaluates solar modules with four sub-tests: Damp Heat, Thermal Cycling, Humidity Freeze, and Bypass Diode. These test the module’s overall performance and quality by putting it under harsher conditions than those standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Furthermore, while conventional testing dictates that a separate individual module be used per sub-test, the Long-Term Sequential Test carries out all four sub-tests on the same module, thereby evaluating it under conditions closer to those a product faces over its actual lifetime.

The company’s main 210-watt solar module (comprised of 54 multicrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells; mass-produced since 2008) has passed TUV Rheinland’s major sub-testing for Damp Heat and Thermal Cycling — and Kyocera’s module has proven to maintain a constant level of power output throughout. Furthermore, compared to conventional industry testing methodology, these two sub-tests evaluate modules over a longer time period. Currently, the company’s module is undergoing the remaining sub-tests — Humidity Freeze and Bypass Diode — with the full Long-Term Sequential Test planned to be completed by December 2010.

“With many years of experience in the solar energy business dating back to 1975, Kyocera was the first company in the industry to successfully mass-produce multicrystalline silicon solar cells. Evidence of the long-term quality and reliability of our modules can be found in a 43kW solar power generating system that we installed in 1984 on our research center which is still generating electricity at an extremely high level compared to its original power output. The results of TUV Rheinland’s new test further support Kyocera’s own data collected over the years from actual installations,” stated Tatsumi Maeda, vice president and general manager of Kyocera Corporation’s Solar Energy Group. “TUV Rheinland’s test results and data from our own long-standing installations prove the reliability of Kyocera modules, and provide our residential- and large-scale-use customers peace-of-mind in their solar investment.”

“Now that the market is promising up to 25 years of life for a PV module, end users are asking for more evidence to give them confidence in a solar investment,” says Mr. Stefan Kiehn, head of the PV testing facilities at TUV Rheinland Japan. “TUV Rheinland’s Long-Term Sequential Testing does not guarantee that the product will be as perfect in 25 years as when it was purchased, but it can help manufacturers to better understand how their modules may behave after being in use for a long time. Until now this was only possible through real outdoor lifetime testing.”

Kyocera provides products with outstanding reliability, assessing its product quality in-house and with third-party testing, in order to contribute to further development and expansion of solar energy use. As a manufacturer, Kyocera will continue to develop its solar cell technologies to create solutions for the energy and environmental problems our world is currently facing.

Source:  Renewable Energy Source

AMSC Launches Its SolarTie(TM) Grid Interconnection Solution for Photovoltaic Power Plants

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a global power technologies company, has recently announced at the Solar Power International 2010 exhibition the launch of its SolarTie Grid Interconnection Solution. The SolarTie solution combines two of AMSC’s proven and proprietary technologies – D-VAR^(R) STATCOM solutions and PowerModule(TM) power converter systems – that are today connecting over 15 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to the grid. This new offering is a utility-scale grid interconnection system designed specifically for megawatt-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants. By coupling best-in-class power converter capabilities with AMSC’s world-renowned dynamic reactive compensation technology, the SolarTie product represents the industry’s first fully optimized solution for utility-scale PV power plant developers. The addressable market for SolarTie solutions is expected by industry analysts to be approximately $2 billion by 2015.

With a base rating of 1.4 megawatts (MW) and a turn-on voltage of up to 1,000 volts (VDC), the SolarTie solution is one of the most robust power inverter systems on the market. In addition, SolarTie customers will benefit from:

• The services of AMSC’s highly skilled and experienced Network Planning and Applications Group;
• Solar inverters based on AMSC’s proven PowerModule(TM) platform;
• The ability to dynamically control real and reactive power at the Point of Interconnection;
• AMSC’s proprietary Smart Grid Interface (SGI) Controller, which directs SolarTie inverters and reactive power elements to provide efficient energy production and precise regulation at the Point Of Interconnection (POI); and
• Easy integration with STATCOMs and/or capacitor and reactor shunt banks for additional reactive support if installed as part of the system.

The market for utility-scale solutions is forecasted for impressive growth. Industry research firm IMS Research expects annual shipments of solar PV inverters to quadruple from approximately 8 GW at the end of 2009 to 32 GW in 2014. During this period, the utility-scale solar inverter market is expected to grow at a much faster pace than the commercial and residential solar inverter markets.

"AMSC’s SolarTie solution offers grid-management support, reactive compensation and grid interconnection, all of which are required by utility-scale PV plant developers," said Ash Sharma, Research Director at IMS Research. "As a result, AMSC’s product appears well positioned for this growing market."

Similar to wind farms, solar power plants often must meet requirements in a growing number of countries for dynamic reactive compensation. Employing the same technology as AMSC’s proven D-VAR system, which is connecting more than 70 wind farms worldwide to the grid, the SolarTie solution provides instantaneous detection, accurate response and immediate results, ensuring efficient energy production and precise grid management. For example, if a disturbance occurs (voltage sag or swell, passing clouds or other event) the SGI will command the PV plant’s SolarTie inverters to provide the needed reactive support to control the voltage at the POI. AMSC’s SolarTie solution provides sub-cycle (less than 16 milliseconds) detection and response to grid disturbances while many competing interconnection solutions have response times of 10 to 20 seconds.

"Over the course of the past decade, AMSC has established itself as a leader in the renewable energy market with a wide range of solutions," said AMSC President and Chief Operating Officer Dan McGahn. "In fact, our power technologies are now enabling nearly 10% of the world’s wind generated electricity. We are proud to utilize this tremendous experience base to field a highly optimized, high power grid interconnection solution for PV solar power plant developers. AMSC’s SolarTie solution sets a new standard for the industry by simplifying implementation, reducing project cost and enhancing plant reliability."

For more information about AMSC’s SolarTie solution, please visit AMSC at booth #4553 at Solar Power International or visit www.amsc.com/products/solartie.html.

AMSC offers an array of proprietary technologies and solutions spanning the electric power infrastructure – from generation to delivery to end use. The company is a leader in renewable energy, providing proven, megawatt-scale wind turbine designs and electrical control systems. The company also offers a host of Smart Grid technologies for power grid operators that enhance the reliability, efficiency and capacity of the grid, and seamlessly integrate renewable energy sources into the power infrastructure. These include superconductor power cable systems, grid-level surge protectors and power electronics-based voltage stabilization systems. AMSC’s technologies are protected by a broad and deep intellectual property portfolio consisting of hundreds of patents and licenses worldwide. More information is available at www.amsc.com.

Source:  Renewable Energy Sources

CIGS Modules Starting To Ship in Quantity

The ongoing saga of copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide photovoltaics provided one of the talking-point touchstones of this year’s Solar Power International show. Will solar historians look back to 2010 as the beginning of the Production Age of CIGS? That may be presumptuous and premature, since the thin-film PV’s slice of the overall solar shipment/deployment pie remains small. 

But a growing number of companies have signed large supply deals and have been shipping megawatts of modules every month for rooftop and ground-mount projects. Manufacturing capabilities and capacities have increased many-fold and will continue to do so, while the nascent commercialization of flexible CIGS panels points to the disruptive possibility of a building-integrated PV market insurgency. 


Using the time-honored method of issuing press releases in conjunction with a major tradeshow, a host of companies both familiar and surprising tapped into the CIGS newswire during SPI 2010. During the course of the week, I spoke with several key players from the sector who offered updates on their own companies’ progress in the market.

Korean megacorp Hyundai Heavy Industries will join forces with fellow multinational and current CIGS player (via its Avancis unit) and big-time glass supplier Saint-Gobain to build a 100MW fab in South Korea.

Showa Shell subsidiary Solar Frontier will be supplying GE with private-branded versions of its CIS modules, and in return the PV manufacturer will benefit from GE’s prodigious chops in the utility-scale power plant business.

Ascent Solar scored a certification coup, becoming the first flexible CIGS panelist to achieve the full IEC 61646 environmental testing stamp of approval.

Another large corporate entity participating in the CIGS sector, 3M, officially launched its Ultra Barrier film, arguably the key enabling material set for roll-to-roll processed, flex CIGS, CdTe, and organic PV thin-film modules.

The rap against flexible CIGS has been its lack of durability and the photoactive film stack’s extreme allergy to even trace amounts of moisture. 3M’s transparent compound protects the CIGS absorber layers from the wet stuff, and has been engineered for the long haul to weather the elements found in rooftop settings. 


Source:  PV-Tech.org   to read the full article click here

First Solar Announces Plans to Build Two New Plants

First Solar is planning to build two new four-line manufacturing plants that will boost the company’s annual manufacturing capacity by nearly 500 MW to help meet strong demand for its advanced thin-film photovoltaic modules.


The plants are expected to be built in the United States and Vietnam and completed in 2012. Each new plant will create approximately 600 green jobs and will be designed to accommodate additional production capacity. Negotiations and site assessments are ongoing in both countries and will be finalized and announced at a later date.


The new factories will further extend First Solar’s previously announced capacity additions, including eight lines at its Kulim, Malaysia facility, four lines in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, and two lines in Blanquefort, France. Earlier this year the company also completed an expansion of its Perrysburg, Ohio, manufacturing plant, which serves as First Solar’s primary hub for engineering, research and development, and employs more than 1,100 of First Solar’s 1,500+ U.S.-based associates. The new plants announced today, combined with these previously announced expansions, will nearly double production capacity from 1.4 GW in 2010 to more than 2.7 GW in 2012.


“These expansions provide proximity to growing U.S. demand while supporting our roadmap to drive down the cost of clean, sustainable solar electricity,” said First Solar CEO Rob Gillette. “Effective government policies provide long-term visibility and enable sustainable markets.”


In addition to the increase in manufacturing employment, First Solar expects to generate over 1,000 construction jobs through the installation of solar power plants from the company’s 2.2 GW North American project pipeline.


Souirce:  Solarbuzz

North Africa’s Sun King

For decades, Morocco, the only North African nation without large quantities of oil, combed the surrounding desert in search of fossil fuels. But roughly a year and a half ago, the country shifted gears and turned to a resource that exists in abundance across the region: the sun.

Now Europe—long dependent on Middle Eastern oil and Russian natural gas—has begun to look toward the heat of the Sahara for some of its long-term energy needs. By 2050, roughly 15 percent of European energy could be generated by wind and solar-thermal power in North Africa and parts of the Middle East, according to Dii, widely known as Desertec, a group of mostly European companies such as Siemens that are developing clean-energy technology in the region. Although the effort—projected to cost $510 billion—is still in its infancy, analysts say Morocco has far more aggressive investment plans than its regional rivals and is well positioned to become North Africa’s leading provider of renewable energy, especially solar-thermal.

Driving the early success has been sheer necessity. In 2008, when global oil prices hit record highs, Morocco—which imports the bulk of its power—saw energy costs nearly double, to roughly $9 billion annually. Soon after, King Mohamed VI issued a royal decree making the development of alternative energy one of his top priorities. He also put a legal framework in place to encourage European investment and has managed to limit instability in a region known for political tumult.

Another advantage for Morocco: geography. The sun over the Sahara is far stronger than it is in Europe. But what distinguishes the country from its desert-dwelling neighbors is its close proximity to Spain. The two countries are separated by less than 16km at some points, and they’re connected by an energy transmission line. Currently the line sends energy from Spain to Morocco, but it could work both ways, and analysts say the line’s existence gives Morocco an edge over its neighbors for access to the European market.

Getting a foothold in that market may take some time, however, due to a shortage of funding. By 2020, Morocco hopes to invest several billion dollars in solar-thermal power and use the technology to drastically increase its domestic energy production. But unlike, say, wind power, which is economically competitive with fossil fuels, solar-thermal often is not, despite subsidies from various international financial institutions. Analysts say the costs of solar-thermal will come down, eventually. “Morocco won’t be a major player in the green-energy market next year,” says Johann Scheidt of Esound Energy, a U.S. consulting firm. “But the pieces are there. This is coming.”

Source:  Newsweek Education Site