Sometimes we get a little fired up about new developments in solar technology. This new solar energy system (pictured above) from SUNRGI is making us downright delirious. What is it exactly? Thought you'd never ask. This, my friend, is the latest in concentrated solar technology or Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics ™ - XPV™ as it is referred to by the company. If it lives up to its extraordinary claims of producing electricity for a meager ¢5Kwh, we may all be saying "Good-bye coal, helloooo sunshine".

It works by using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight to make it 1,600 times brighter than the sun. It's focussed onto a photovoltaic cell that converts more than 37 percent of the sunlight directly into electricity. Of course, there are other companies that make similar types of concentrated solar systems that can concentrate light by 500 times but where the SUNRGI excels is in the dissipation of the heat that gets created. Apparently it has some nanotechnolgical goop made by Spectrolab that helps conduct the heat away from the cell so it stays only 20 degrees above the outside temperature instead of 3,300 degrees which helps it reach that 1,600 times figure. Already tried and tested, co-founder Robert Black says it should be on the market in 12 to 15 months.

[Source: SUNRGI via GreentechMedia]

SEAT (a brand that belongs to Volkswagen) has announced the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Martorell (near Barcelona) factory in Spain. The company expects this move will save up to 11,700 tons of CO₂ from being released to the atmosphere. The panels have a power of 8.5 MW and are expected to produce 11.2 GWh per year.

The panels will be installed gradually. First, the corporate building and the vehicle storage yard will get them, but the plan is to extend them over the production lines, covering up to 206,000 m².

Not far away, in El Prat de Llobregat, is where Nissan installed solar panels as well. The Spanish government is currently giving subventions to big industries for such installations, where large surfaces are available.

[Source: SEAT (link is in Spanish)]

In an effort to both save some euros off the electricity bill and some CO2 from hitting the environment, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, will install 606 solar panels at its Barcelona (Spain) vehicle plant by the end of this summer. which will cover a surface of 3,000 square-metres and generate 308,000 kWh of electricity per year, which helps them reduce CO2 emissions by 110 tons.

Nissan is also installed a similar layout on its other plant in Spain, in Ávila this summer, 732 solar panels resulting in savings of 267 tons of CO2 emissions every year. But not only Spain is getting renewable energy to power the plants, Nissan is also using renewable energy at its Sunderland vehicle plant in the UK, where it has erected six wind turbines good for 5 percent of the plant's electricity which cuts CO2 emissions by 3,300 tons a year.

These interventions are being held under Nissan's Green Program 2010, which expectations are to lower CO2 emissions 7 percent from 2005 levels.

Related:

• Ford saves CO2 before delivering the car

[Source: Nissan]

President Bush outlined what he is calling the Advanced Energy Initiative in his State of the Union speech. Part of this initiative includes investment in solar technology. Specifically, the Department of Energy has chosen 13 Industry-Led solar projects. Click here for a list of the companies. The current total investment is $168 million and could increase to $357 million in three years, depending on the individual success of each project.

These projects should lead to an increase in the efficiency of solar cells and a decrease of the price that is necessary to produce the cells and their subsystems. This is good news for electric car fans, as it could be a boon to the industry allowing more people to add solar power to their homes or garages, making it feasible to charge their cars off the grid. If the cells come down in price, perhaps it will start making more sense to include them on future electric vehicles.

[Source: Seeking Alpha]

On the 13th February we posed the question "What is the best way to spend the DOE's money?", and asked you to vote for your favourite answer.

After receiving 290 votes, the results are in and it looks like Lithium Ion battery technology was the clear favourite with 29 percent of the votes. Two other ways areas that were popular for sinking vast amounts of government research grant funds into were algae biodiesel production and solar photovoltaics which were tied on 20 percent each. The rest of the field was further back.

Analysis: I think a renewable energy Smart Grid is the long-term answer, but this wont be made up of just a single technology. Plug-in electric vehicles connected to an intelligent electricity network which utilises a large degree of renewable energy production will require better battery technology and more solar photovoltaics. But EVs aren't appropriate in every situation - highly efficient biodiesel production will be needed as well for larger vehicles like freight trucks and container ships. But for a start, let's get those battery efficiencies up.

Be sure to vote in our next poll - Just how fuel efficient is your vehicle?

Related:

• State of Florida gives out grant to develop cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane
• Scientists lump all fuel-economy measures in theoretical Vanguard minivan; but is it that easy in the real world?
• Editorial: Why the carmakers seem to be dragging their feet on batteries

DayStar LightFoil flexible solar cells

Stephan DeLuca, the former COO, and now CEO, of solar cell manufacturer DayStar Technologies Inc. has just received a healthy $50,000 pay rise, plus access to a healthy vehicle. DeLuca, who, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, is allowed to replace his vehicle every two years has been given some green ground rules to follow when he goes shopping. His new vehicle must be a gasoline-electric hybrid, a fuel-efficient, low-emission diesel engine, or equally "environmentally friendly" automobile in keeping with his company's green image.

DayStar manufactures a range of photovoltaic cell products including their flexible, high specific power LightFoil which is aimed at airborne craft and mobile terrestrial applications. LightFoil's design consists of high efficiency Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) solar cells deposited on thin titanium foil less than the thickness of common household aluminum foil. The resulting product is flexible enough to be moulded to curved surfaces or cut into complex geometric shapes. This is clear contrast with traditional solar cells which are brittle and require rigid, heavy module packaging to protect the cells.

Another significant difference between CIGS Photovoltaic Foil and silicon based products is the relative amount of raw materials needed to produce each solar cell. On average, a CIGS cell requires 1/50th to 1/100th of the total raw materials needed for a typical silicon solar cell.

Analysis: Its great to see business link employee benefits to green technology like low-emissions vehicles as we also saw recently with BP's paid parking program. LightFoil is a pretty interesting product too - imagine covering your car in it!

Related:

• Free parking at BP, but only if you're driving green
• Companies push for green transport in the UK

[Source: Times Union]

British supermarket chain Tesco, the fourth-largest retail chain in the world, is teaming up with Los Angeles-based Solar Integrated Technologies to build what is claimed to be the world's biggest roof-top solar panel installation. Solar Integrated won the $13 million contract to install solar panels on the roof of Tesco USA's new distribution center in Riverside, California.

The 2 MW Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system will cover 500,000 square feet of the 640,000 square footage of roof space at the facility and is set to provide one fifth of the depot's power supply. This will effectively reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1,200 tons per annum. Solar Integrated Technologies has previously provided BIPV solutions for other large corporations including Frito-Lay (100 kW at one facility) and Cola-Cola (329kW at one facility).

This is not the first example of Tesco taking the lead in reducing their environmental impacts, just two weeks ago they pledged to set an environmentally friendly example to its millions of customers by spending more than 500 million pounds ($987 million), cutting prices on energy-efficient products and reducing pollution. Previously, Tesco reduced their energy consumption per square foot by 35 percent over the eight years to 2006.

Running a chain of petrol stations in addition to their supermarket chain, Tesco is also the United Kingdom's market leader in the sales of biofuels. Their sales of biofuel blends will see emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, cut by more than 70,000 tonnes per annum.

Tesco has embraced biofuels in their own distribution fleet, announcing last month that is now running run three-quarters of its fleet on a B50 biodiesel blend which is made from 50 percent biodiesel and 50 percent petroleum diesel. The Tesco fleet of 2,000 lorries will be the first major fleet in the U.K. to use B50. The reduction in the whole-of-life emissions through the move to B50 is equivalent to the removal of over 20,000 medium sized cars off the road.

Last year Google made headlines by announcing that they would install around 9,000 solar panels at their corporate campus as parking shades and on roofs to provide 1.6-megawatts of solar power - enough to cover 30 percent of Google's power needs.

Analysis: Corporate solar is a growth industry providing companies with an opportunity to reduce their often massive electricity bills while highlighting their green credentials. Expect to see more and more companies with a reputation for aggressively focusing on their bottom line to install BIPV systems which will have a positive impact on the grid as a whole.

As Michael Brylawski of the Rocky Mountain Institute said in part three of his feature interview, "(plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) PHEVs could form a synergy of sort with 'intermittent' renewables like wind and solar... PHEVs being plugged in at night, and quite possibly at the office during the day, could offer a strong alternative for buffering renewables." Increased renewable electricity generation goes hand in hand with the take-up of PHEVs providing a holistic alternative to simply generating enough electricity to meet peak demand and wasting the rest.

Related:

• Interview with Michael Brylawski of RMI
• Google to build solar car ports at headquarters
• Portugal wants 45% renewable electricity output and 10% of all fuels to be biofuels

[Source: Reuters]

I attended an energy symposium earlier this year and someone calculated that a solar cell would have to be larger than the state of Kansas to power America's electricity needs. Now there's a formula for determining how large a photovoltaic array should be to power an electric vehicle.

The sample situation comes in a post on EcoWorld and refers the reader to a pair of other pages for more involved calculations. From the example of someone commuting about 100 miles, it would cost $50,000 for the 500 square-foot array but you'd never buy gas again. Bottom line: the numbers seem to favor buying power from the local grid.

[Source: EcoWorld]

MIT researchers have developed a system that could potentially do away with vehicle alternators and even hybrid batteries.

The system is called "thermophotovoltaics". Briefly, a gasoline engine heats a light-emitting material which causes a photovoltaic (aka solar) cell to emit electricity. The electricity is then used to power the car's systems. While the idea has been around since the '60s, materials of that era were too weak. Now, new technologies have made light-emitting substances more sustainable. MIT is currently developing a prototype that, depending on the results, could lead to the replacement of the engine alternator. Also, thermophotovoltaics systems may be used in hybrid vehicles in lieu of heavy batteries.

[Source: Technology Review]