Tom Raftery's Library tagged photovoltaic →  View Popular, Search in Google

The Department of Energy is handing out more loan guarantees for solar projects. This morning the DOE said that it has offered a $967 million loan guarantee for the Agua Caliente Solar project, a 290 MW photovoltaic facility that will be built in Yuma County, Arizona, and which NRG Energy said it planned to buy from First Solar last month.

The Agua Caliente project will use panels from First Solar, is set for completion in 2014 and is supposed to create 400 construction jobs. Northern California utility PG&E plans to buy the electricity from the project. NRG plans to invest up to $800 million in equity in the project, and the deal between First Solar and NRG requires

nrg energy Department of Energy Agua Caliente Solar project photovoltaic solar

The Spanish plan centres on giving preferential access to the wholesale electricity market for power plants that run on domestic coal, and was announced by the government in February, after months of behind-the-scenes tussling with Brussels.

At the same time, the Spanish government wants to retroactively cut previously agreed tariffs for its €20bn photovoltaic solar energy sector by 30 per cent. As FTfm reports, such a move could be devastating for investors in highly-leveraged solar photovoltaic projects.

greennumbers tariffs subsidies coal spain spanish government photovoltaic solar energy

A consortium of solar industry trade groups released a report indicating that solar photovoltaics could provide up to 12 percent of Europe’s electricity and the combination of PV, concentrated solar power and solar thermal could deliver 15 percent of electricity in the U.S. by 2020.

solar greennumbers solar thermal solar concentrating photovoltaic Concentrated solar power

China will soon possess the world’s largest photovoltaic power plant, which will have the capacity to power up to 3 million Chinese homes with a whopping 2000MW of solar electricity. The $6 billion power plant will be constructed by US-based First Solar and construction is expected to commence next year.

china photovoltaic solar energy pv GreenNumbers greenmonktv first solar

A team of private investors have announced plans to develop a more conventional solar power plant that will be capable of generating 75MW of power, outshining the current world record holder in Spain, which generates about 60MW.

The solar photovoltaic plant, dubbed Teenaway Solar Reserve, is set to become the largest plant in its category when it is constructed on 400 acres of formerly-logged private property four miles north of Cle Elum, in Kittitas County, Washington

photovoltaic washington state solar photovoltaic Teenaway Solar Reserve greenmonktv

Despite the credit crisis, 2008 will be remembered in the solar industry as a year where federal incentives were enhanced and extended for eight years. This ends the boom and bust cycles that have plagued the industry for decades.

solar solar thermal pv photovoltaic greenmonktv

Webberville-area project would be among world's largest but also comes with cost questions

austin solar pv photovoltaic green choice greenmonktv

A new approach to converting heat into electricity using solar cells could make a technology called thermal photovoltaics (TPVs) more practical.

photovoltaic thermal photovoltaic

A US-based company has successfully tested a revolutionary solar panel that is expected to cut the costs of photovoltaic solar power generation by more than 50 per cent, and herald a new era of improved efficiency and lower production costs of solar energy globally.

solar panels Solar pv american building technologies photovoltaic

"We are very proud to become the world's first PV solar company to achieve 1GW of solar cell and module production capacity," said Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech's Chairman and CEO. "Since our inception, we have focused on rapidly building world-class manufacturing facilities that can meet the burgeoning global demand for green energy. This milestone is a credit to all Suntech employees that have tirelessly worked towards the common goal of making cost- effective solar energy systems available on a global scale."

china solar panels solar power Solar pv photovoltaic suntech

Two Chinese companies have proposed a massive, 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in China's northwest

photovoltaic solar energy china

Solfocus, whose technology focuses 500x the normal strength of sunlight onto tiny bits of ultra-efficient (ultra-expensive) solar material has just released a new solar unit that it promises has "the highest energy density and energy yield of any photovoltaic system available today."

solfocus solar concentrating photovoltaic photovoltaic solar solar power

Researchers have announced a solar energy breakthrough that could lead to its more widespread use with their achievement of the highest efficiency ever for one type of solar cells.

The photovoltaic cells, called dye-sensitized solar cells or Gräztel cells, could expand the use of solar energy for homes, businesses and beyond, the researchers say.

graztel graztel cells photovoltaic solar energy

Cool Earth Solar has one of those radical green-tech ideas that may actually make a real commercial impact.

In the next two weeks, the company plans to start testing a prototype solar plant built around rows of reflective balloons hung on poles. The solar balloons, which are eight feet in diameter, look something like a tube for sledding or laying around the pool, but each one can generate 1 kilowatt of electricity.

photovoltaic solar concentrating photovoltaic balloon

SolFocus, a maker of concentrator photovoltaic systems, has signed a $103 million (80 euro) deal with Empe Solar, a Spanish group that promotes solar energy use.

pv photovoltaic concentrator photovoltaic solar

The Sun Simba HCPV is a revolutionary new low cost High Concentrated Photovoltaic (HCPV) system based on the proprietary Light-guide Solar Optic (LSO).

hcpv lso photovoltaic morgan solar solar concentrator solar energy

If you need more proof that thin-film solar cells is where the action is going, take a look at the money flow.

SoloPower is raising almost $200 million to ramp up manufacturing of its thin-film solar cells, according to a report in VentureWire picked up by other media outlets.

SoloPower's hefty funding is the latest to pour into thin-film CIGS solar start-ups.

NanoSolar last month disclosed that it has raised $300 million, bringing its total funding to about half a billion dollars.

Another thin-film start-up, Ava Solar, raised $104 million in equity last week to make cells from cadmium telluride like high-flier First Solar. CIGS maker Miasole is said to be seeking to raise an additional $200 million as well.

solar cigs solar concentrator photovoltaic

Morgan Solar has completed patent applications for its concentrating-solar technology.

Now the company is ready to talk about some of the technical details behind its ambitious claims.

The Toronto-based company launched out of stealth mode last week with claims that it had created a new technology that could cut the price of concentrating solar by three quarters.

Like other concentrating-solar companies, Morgan Solar expects to reduce the amount of photovoltaic material needed to convert sunlight into electricity by magnifying and directing the light into small solar cells.

But while other concentrators use lens or reflectors to direct sunlight into solar cells, Morgan Solar has developed what it calls a "light-guide solar optic" made of acrylic that concentrates sunlight 750 times and redirects it to a tiny multilayered cell on the edge of the plastic.

solar concentrator solar energy photovoltaic morgan solar

Energy Innovations, says its solar concentrator photovoltaic product, the Sunflower, has been certified by the Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which the company claims is the first concentrator PV gear to achieve such a certification. Energy Innovations says as a result of the certification, the company will now raise more money to help start commercial installations of the Sunflower in 2009.

solar concentrator photovoltaic

The world must speed up the deployment of solar power as it has the potential to meet all the world's energy needs, the chairman of an industry gathering which wrapped up Friday in Spain said.

photovoltaic solar energy