M.I.T. researchers develop portable solar desalination syst

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a portable water desalination system designed for emergency use and for far-flung areas where drinkable water is scarce.

Though designed initially for servicing emergency situations, the technology can also be used in remote areas where supplying energy and clean water can be logistically complex and expensive, the researchers said.

During emergencies such as rescue operations or disaster situations, access to both water and power is limited.

During emergencies such as rescue operations or disaster situations, access to both water and power is limited.

The team from the institute’s Field and Space Robotics Laboratory said the solar-powereddesalination system can be rapidly deployed.

Led by Steven Dubowsky, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering and the department of aeronautics and astronautics, the group built a small prototype that demonstrated the system’s capability to produce 80 gallons of water daily in a variety of weather conditions.

The team estimated that a larger version of the unit, which can cost about $8,000 to assemble, can provide about 1,000 gallons of water per day.

The system relies on reverse osmosis, a filtration method that removes molecules and ions such as salt from solutions by applying pressure to the fluid as it flows over a permeable membrane.

This process begins as photons, or particles of light from the sun, fall onto a solar photovoltaic panel and excite electrons in the PV cells. This activity generates electric power that pushes seawater through various pumps until it is sent — at extremely high pressure — into a vessel that has a permeable membrane made of polymer material.

As a result of the high pressure, the water that diffuses through the membrane has had minerals removed.

The project is part of a joint research collaboration between the M.I.T. and the King FahdUniversity of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. It is funded through the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy.

Source:   EcoSeed

How the Military's Green Energy Transition Can Make You Rich

By Jeff Siegel

It was all over the news last week...

With recycled — yet catchy — titles like "The Military is Going Green" and “For the U.S. Military, it's Easy Being Green,” the world learned that the military's dependence on fossil fuels has become a strategic nightmare.

Of course, for those who have been reading these pages for the past five years, this is hardly “news.”

We've been talking about this very issue since we first launched Energy and Capital and Green Chip Stocks.

I can remember speaking at an investment conference in 2006; my topic was the military's reliance on fossil fuels.

I have to admit that back then, it wasn't easy convincing folks that transitioning away from fossil fuels (where possible) was paramount if we wanted to prepare for a post-peak world.

But when I started quoting Pentagon reports and former Reagan White House advisors, the mood changed...

Now I realize that there are still those who don't believe alternative energy will soon be integrated on a much larger scale than it is today. And investors can ignore this reality at their own peril.

But one thing is certain: While it may take a few more years to see more solar shining in your neighborhood, the military's going full force on alternative energy — today.

The military has adopted alternative energy

From portable solar panels to energy-conserving lights, the U.S. military is fast-tracking the transition from fossil fuels to systems that lessen the military's vulnerability on the battle field.

As reported last week in the New York Times:

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the huge truck convoys that haul fuel to bases have been sitting ducks for enemy fighters — in the latest attack, oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan were set on fire in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, early Monday. In Iraq and Afghanistan, on Army study found, for every 24 fuel convoys that set out, one soldier or civilian engaged in fuel transport was killed. In the past three months, six Marines have been wounded guarding fuel runs in Afghanistan.

This is serious stuff, folks.

And fortunately, military leaders don't have to entertain special interest-funded debates about the merits and urgency of alternative energy integration — you know, like we're doing now in D.C. (well, in between fundraising events and mud-slinging)...

Yes, the military has already ordered the adoption of alternative energy. And the benefits of this move will not be trivialized.

We know that the U.S. Navy now has hybrid ships, and has integrated super-efficient LED lighting on some of its vessels.

Back in January, the Secretary of the Navy announced the Navy and Marine Corps would cut petroleum use in its 50,000 non-tactical commercial fleet in half by phasing in hybrid, flex fuel, and electric vehicles.

The Army is using rucksacks enhanced with portable solar power systems.

Earlier this year, we learned that BAE Systems (PK: BAESY) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) are developing an Army Ground Combat Vehicle that uses hybrid-electric drive technology.

Also earlier this year, the U.S. Army took delivery of a mobile trailer-mounted wind turbine and storage unit developed by a company called WindTamer Corporation (OTCBB: WNDT).

That system is currently being used as a demonstration unit for the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. This is the Army's largest technology developer and its primary source for research and development.

Next year, we know that the entire Air Force fleet will be certified to fly on biofuels. It was only about six months ago that the Air Force announced its first feasibility flight demonstration using a hydrocarbon synthetic jet fuel created from animal fats and plant oils.

Yes, my friends... This is happening right now.

No debates.

No second-guessing.

And no media blowhards using scare tactics to keep the couch potato zombies believing a transition to alternative energy is some kind of socialist plot designed to cripple the U.S. economy.

Whether you think alternative energy is the real deal or not, one thing is certain...

The military doesn't care about public opinion polls. It cares about results.

And that's the difference between complacency and progress.

Mandatory Solar for All Future New Jersey Schools?

In one of the best indications that solar energy is ready for prime time, the New Jersey State Legislature approved A1084 and referred it to committee.


A1084, which would mandate solar panels in the design and construction of all new public school facilities, is currently before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which is waiting on technical review by the Legislative Council to insure that such legislation does not violate previous state statutes.


Sponsored by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, (D-Mercer), Peter J. Barnes, III (D-Middlesex), and Albert Coutinho (D-Camden), the bill places the onus to insure the solar law before approving school construction on the New Jersey Commissioner of Education – a role filled by Bret Schundler until August 27, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dismissed him for a costly ($400 million) error on an education grant.


Gusciora says the mandate meshes nicely with $12.5 billion funded for schools in 2000 as a bond issue, of which $7.9 billion has been spent. In 2008, the Legislature expanded the program by $3.9 billion of additional borrowing – all funding which would help New Jersey maintain its No. 2 slot (after California) as the state with the most solar photovoltaic (PV) energy installed. New Jersey had 200 MW of installed capacity as of Oct. 1


The mandate will also help create jobs, Gusciora noted. Opponents like David W. Wolfe (R-Brick Township) say the law may not be applicable to all school districts given the persistent impact of the current recession on school districts nationwide. And groups like the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association indicate that they are willing to support the solar schools measure, but only as an “incentive-based approach rather than a mandate to meet our state’s school facilities’ needs.”


New Jersey’s school construction budget is one of the largest in the U.S., and spending some of the money on clean, renewable solar power seems like a smart bet even in a recessionary economy. Electricity prices are never going to go down, and may even rise sharply as government institutes some form of carbon emissions regulations (cap-and-trade, or tax-only) on pollutive, fossil-fuel electricity generation.


Source:   Clean Techies

Converting a Parking Lot to A Solar PV Installation

The following is a speeded up time-lapse photography of a 1 MW commercial PV installation in NJ.

US Solar Industry - Leading or Lagging?

This year's Solar Power International (SPI) conference, which was held last month in Los Angeles, demonstrated a decidedly global flavor. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Solar Electric Power Association, which co-hosted the show, a full 32% of exhibitors featured an international company, and industry professionals from 111 countries attended.

Even so, the industry remains intensely focused on the status and fate of the U.S. solar market, which has reached a turning point that will have significant global ramifications. Germany, the world's current solar champion, is predicted to enter a slower phase of growth due to cuts to its feed-in tariff (FIT), said Julie Blunden, executive vice president for public policy and corporate communications at SunPower Corp., at an SPI panel session.

To avoid lost momentum, other countries must ramp up their own solar installation markets. "The U.S. is certainly in a good position to help pick up some of the slack," Blunden said. "We have good, strong, steady growth here - in fact, it has been very strong this year." By the end of 2011, the U.S. could be larger than any other market except Germany, she added.

Blunden and the other solar executives who spoke at the session, titled "Leading or Lagging? A Comparison of the U.S. to the Rest of the World," acknowledged that the U.S. market is, in fact, lagging on the solar installation, technology research and product manufacturing fronts.

However, they stressed, the country can stop lagging and start leading - if it can capitalize on certain inherent strengths within the solar sector and further enhance its potential with the right policy framework.

Thin-film PV is one of the U.S.' important solar strengths, said Danielle Merfeld, director of the solar technology platform at GE's Global Research Center. Developers of thin-film PV technologies have historically received sizable support from the private-equity and venture-capital markets in the U.S. - resulting in numerous advancements and room for more future breakthroughs than what may be possible with crystalline silicon PV modules.

"Thin-film technologies certainly have what looks like more runway in terms of an opportunity to achieve more efficiency," Merfeld remarked.

In addition, new advanced coatings under development - as well as certain other adaptations to thin-film module design - could ultimately benefit all types of PV modules if they can be transitioned from "academic pursuits" to cost-effective real-life applications.

Being competitive in thin-film technology and other solar technologies will require government support, Merfeld noted, adding that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has taken steps in the right direction.

"The DOE has already announced a shift back to some primarily basic-component development along the lines of scientific advancement - whether it's thin films or power electronics - and less on market development," she said.

Government backing for scientific research into PV must also be provided in the form of installation-friendly policy, as the largest driver of solar innovation in the U.S. will be strong domestic demand for PV, according to Merfeld. "Whatever policy drivers are going to help [increase demand] are definitely going to flow to innovation in the U.S.," she explained.

One such policy driver that is widely regarded as necessary to the U.S.' solar success is a FIT, which has been tightly linked to Germany's solar success but has not yet become an element of the U.S.' national solar policy.

Marc van Gerven, Q-Cells' managing director and chief marketing and sales officer for North America, noted that U.S.-based solar players must not attribute Germany's boom to the mere existence of its FIT and the rates that were, until recently, given to solar producers.

"Grid-access priority, simplifying and standardizing the procedures, and not having hundreds of pages of contracts have really helped Germany," he said. "It's not just the actual rates that are being paid."

For example, unlike in the U.S., German law states that interconnection costs must be paid by the project developer or system owner, and the required grid upgrades are the responsibility of the grid operator. Germany also provides a fixed and guaranteed 20-year contract term under its FIT program - a benefit not afforded to solar producers in the U.S.

Balance-of-system (BOS) components may not be seen as important as module technology or FIT policy in determining whether the U.S.' solar market leads or lags. But according to Wendy Arienzo, CEO of Array Converter, BOS products represent a meaningful piece of the puzzle - and, thus far, a missed opportunity.

"We certainly don't have a leadership position in most components," she said. "The U.S. has not had steady and reliable demand that businesses can count on." Consequently, the U.S. has not yet been able to take advantage of the economies of scale that have helped other countries. Germany, for example, has dominated the inverter market.

Above all, the panelists emphasized that from laboratory work on revolutionary thin-film module structures to production of inverter components and other BOS products, all aspects of U.S. solar leadership require favorable policy to drive installation growth.

"Our [installation] pace has been a little bit more measured than what we've seen in Europe," Blunden said. However, she continued, the moderate pace may ultimately prove to be more sustainable, allowing the U.S. to avoid hitting the early asymptotes that many European countries are encountering.


Source:  Solar Industry

A Back of the Panel Boost for Solar Power

Chinese photovoltaic giant Suntech looks to electronics to help squeeze more power out of solar arrays.

Electronic power boost: This chip set is the heart of National Semiconductor’s power-optimization device for solar arrays. Attached behind every solar panel in an array, the electronics could correct for a drop in the array’s power output due to shading or debris, increasing the final output by 25 percent or more.
Credit: Courtesy of National Semiconductor

As manufacturers work to drive down the cost of solar power, refining solar cells and panels to make them more efficient is only half the story. Another option is to incorporate newer electronics into the panels that could boost the power output of photovoltaic systems and make them easier to design and install.

Suntech Power, the world's largest maker of crystalline-silicon solar modules, based in Wuxi, China, has announced partnerships with Santa Clara, California-based National Semiconductor and other solar electronics makers to develop "smart" panels that would give the most power possible even if other panels are underperforming due to damage or to sunlight being blocked by shade or debris. This kind of system is useful because in conventional photovoltaic systems, one panel's performance affects the output of the whole system. "We think smart module technology is a clear path for the future," says Andrew Beebe, Suntech's chief commercial officer.

Solar manufacturers are finding it difficult to eke out additional increases in how efficiently crystalline-silicon solar panels convert sunlight into electricity--so solar innovation has shifted to back-of-the-panel electronics. "Every incremental power advantage brings down cost per watt, and electronics are where the improvements are going to be," says Matthew Feinstein, a research associate at Lux Research.

National Semiconductor's power-optimizing device is already on the market. Tests on customer installations have shown that it can squeeze 25 percent more energy from a photovoltaic system, says Kevin Kayser, a marketing manager at the company. Independent tests by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Photon International have demonstrated power gains from arrays as high as 39 percent.

Solar modules operate at various current and voltage levels. Panels are traditionally strung together in a series, and their combined DC power is sent to a large inverter. The inverter does two things: it converts the power into grid-ready AC electricity, and its control circuit constantly searches for and sets the operating voltage and current levels for all the panels based on the total power output of the array. But if one panel's current drops because of shade or debris, the inverter lowers the current of all the other panels, bringing down the array's power output. "Ten percent shade on the array means a 50 percent power loss," Kayser says.

National Semiconductor's power optimizer does away with the central control circuit in the inverter, instead placing a separate control circuit behind each panel. This allows the optimizer to wring the most power from each panel. In addition, Kayser says, while some power-optimization products either increase both current and voltage or decrease current and voltage, theirs can increase and decrease both current and voltage, squeezing out even more power.

The device adds about 12 cents per watt to the installation cost of a photovoltaic system but pays for itself within two years for most installations. In addition, installers don't have to worry about, say, the shifting shadow of a chimney or the precise tilt angle of each panel. "It can simplify design time and reduce installation time so their profit margin goes up," Kayser says.

Suntech hasn't put all its eggs in one basket. The company is also looking at microinverters, another electronic technology expected to boost photovoltaic power. Microinverters adjust the voltage-current levels of each panel, and then go one step further: they convert the panel's DC power to AC.

The two approaches have their pros and cons. Microinverters make it simpler to wire panels together, so new photovoltaic systems are easier to install, and it's also easier to add panels to an array later. But it's easier to retrofit existing systems with power optimizers--and Kayser says they should also offer better overall system efficiency. That's because converting DC to AC at each panel, as microinverters do, requires stepping up each panel's low operating voltage of around 30 volts to the grid-standard 120 volts, leading to some power loss.

Suntech has teamed up with half a dozen companies that make microinverters and power optimizers. These include the startups Enphase Energy in Petaluma, California; Tigo Energy in Los Gatos, California; and Azuray Technologies in Portland, Oregon. Tigo makes a DC power optimizer that adjusts panel current levels and can increase power output by up to 20 percent. Enphase claims that its microinverters can help solar systems harvest up to 25 percent more energy. Azuray, meanwhile, is making both power optimizers and microinverters.

While both technologies have been around for two decades, they have only recently been implemented in low-cost, reliable products, says Eric Wesoff, a solar analyst at Greentech Media. "Panel manufacturers have finally been convinced that this is something that can last," he says. And as engineers max out other means of increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic arrays, they're more willing to try different electronics. At least 20 different solar-electronics startups showed off their products at the Solar Power International conference in Los Angeles this week.

Wesoff adds that Suntech is taking the smart, cautious approach by partnering with multiple microinverter and power-optimizer vendors. "Clearly they're not picking a winner or an architecture," he says.

Source:   Technology Review (published by MIT)

Germany Sets Higher Targets for Renewable Energy by 2050

Yesterday the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced a bold plan to slash the use of fossil fuels by 2050. The plan calls for renewable energy to supply 60% of the country’s energy needs by 2050.

As the environment minister Norbert Röttgen stated, it is “the most ambitious energy programme ever seen, not only inGermany”.

The plan will also extend the life of nuclear power plants by an average of twelve years. Nuclear plants built before 1980 will be able to operate eight years longer than planned, and plants built after 1980 will produce electricity up to 14 years longer. This will enable the country to close its last nuclear reactor sometime in the 2030’s.

Although it is an unpopular move locally, as Germans strongly oppose nuclear, this decision will enable nuclear to be a bridging technology between today’s electricity generation which relies heavily on coal and lignite (more than 40 percent) and the future.

This will also bring important sums of money to finance renewable energy projects as the operators of the nuclear power plants will pay large taxes.More will be needed as the Financial Times notes

The government reckons it will cost Germany an annual €20bn until 2050 to reduce emissions by four-fifths compared with 1990, and to raise the share of electricity from renewable sources from 16 per cent to 80 per cent.

Germany also plans to invest massively in energy efficiency and smart grids. It is planning to cut its greenhouse gases emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.

Not all European nations are acting the same on energy, climate change and cleantech policies.

Germany is the historical leader and is followed by the United Kingdom, Norway and Spain. Countries like Portugal and France are also acting importantly.

If Europe wants to have the slightest chance to have a word in the cleantech arms race it has to embrace as a whole the examples of the United Kingdom and Germany.

Source:CleanTechies