Tawanai

Technology Review magazine writes about a new cheaper type of solcar concentrator. Morgan Solar’s high-precision optic–part acrylic and part glass–is molded so that light is trapped and bounces toward its center. A secondary glass optic concentrates the light to 1,000 suns and directs it to a tiny, high-efficiency solar cell. The low-profile design promises to reduce the cost of manufacturing and transportation. Solar concentrators have emerged in recent years as a way to intensify the amount of sunlight hitting solar cells, which are the most expensive part of solar panels. To make solar power more affordable, engineers have sought to use less solar-cell material by concentrating sunlight onto much smaller spaces.

The acrylic component–called a Light-Guide Solar Optic (LSO)–is a new type of solar concentrator that could significantly lower the cost of generating electricity from the sun. Unlike existing designs, there’s no need for mirrors, complex optics, or chemicals to trap and manipulate the light. “It’s pure geometric optics,” says Morgan, director of business development at Toronto-based Morgan Solar.

But this approach has its own challenges. Most concentrators tend to be complex systems that use special lenses, curved mirrors, and other optical components with a “nonzero” focal length. This means that there must be enough distance–an air gap–between the solar cell and the optic to properly focus the light. As a result, concentrator-based systems are usually packaged within bulky enclosures, with enough depth to accommodate the focal length and protect all components during shipping. This means higher material and assembly costs and more expensive shipping.

Clean Technology, Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar

According to this article in Entrepreneur magazine, green sector is still red hot and brimming with opportunities for entrepreneurs.

A word of caution accompanies the praise:

Green fatigue is on the rise: Of those who recall seeing green advertising (and a solid majority do), 12.1 percent say they never believe the green claims therein; 65.3 percent say they sometimes do, according to a 2008 survey by Burst Media.

To spread the word without igniting skepticism, consider foregoing traditional advertising, says Steve French, managing partner at the NationalMarketing Institute.Of those people who want to learn about a company’s environmental activities, 54 percent of general U.S. consumers (and 60 percent of lifestyle of health and sustainability, or LOHAS,consumers) prefer to get information from a TV, radio or print news story, according to an NMI survey. “Focus on attracting media attention,” says French, “whether through hosting or participating in innovative green events or simply by building relationships with media sources.”

Clean Technology, Consumers, Green

This post has information about an event offered by OPEN Silicon Valley.

Even during these challenging times, innovation in clean-tech is happening at a rapid pace. New businesses and business models are challenging the traditional methods of energy generation, storage, transmission, trading, management, monitoring, and usage.
The new administration is considering investments in infrastructure, job creation initiatives specifically in the clean-tech Sector, and expanding incentives, rebates, as well as regulation. Climate change solutions need to deliver real results. Successful technologies not only have to be fashionable but they have to be relevant at scale.

During these changing times there are opportunities for entrepreneurs and professionals. Learn from leading experts about:

• Venture Insights: Valuations, Investment, Opportunities, and the Funding Gap
• Public Policy Trends and Update
• The Business of Clean-tech: Entrepreneurial Insights
• Clean-tech Ecosystem: The role of service providers (consultants, bankers, recruiters, and non- profits)

Register Today.

The event is expected to be sold out. Register early and save over on-site registration costs.
When:March 12, 2009, 6pm – 9pm
Where: Quadrus Conference Center, 2400 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA

Keynote:Saul Griffith, President & Chief Scientist, Makani Power
Saul is the President and Chief Scientist at Makani Power. He has multiple degrees in materials science and mechanical engineering and completed his Ph.D. in Programmable Assembly and Self Replicating machines at MIT. He is the co-founder of numerous companies including: Optiopia, Squid Labs, Potenco, Instructables.com, HowToons and Makani Power.

Clean Technology, Energy, Green, Investment

CNet reports about a deal with a solar startup (eSolar) and a traditional power plant operator (NRG) in US. eSolar is one of several energy technology start-ups pursuing concentrating solar power, where lenses and mirrors concentrate sunlight to make heat. The heat creates steam that turns a turbine.The projects will be the first solar power-generating facilities for NRG Energy.

Power plant operator NRG Energy on Monday announced a deal with start-up eSolar to build 11 solar power plants in the Southwest U.S.

The agreement will lead to 500 megawatts’ worth of solar energy production at peak capacity, enough to power 400,000 homes, according to the companies. The first plant is expected to be operating in 2011. The size of a traditional natural gas or coal power plant is roughly between 500 to 800 megawatts.

As part of the deal, NRG Energy will invest $10 million in eSolar, which counts Google.org as one of its investors. The money will give NRG Energy an equity stake in eSolar and rights to develop three projects that eSolar has already negotiated, including a 245-megawatt power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison.

The company’s technology uses an array of computer-controlled flat mirrors, called heliostats, on a supporting structure that concentrates the light onto a tower, where the steam is made. eSolar’s plants are designed to be constructed relatively quickly, according to the company.

Earlier this month, BrightSource Energy signed a deal to provide 1,300 megawatts’ worth of solar electricity to Southern California Edison over the next several years. BrightSource, too, uses a concentrating solar and tower design.

“eSolar’s breakthrough modular power plants use more software and less steel to allow solar energy to be competitive with fossil fuels for the first time ever,” said eSolar CEO Bill Gross in a statement. Gross is the founder of tech incubator Idealab.

eSolar’s power plants uses prefabricated material to create 46 megawatt facilities, which can be placed on one quarter of a square mile. NRG intends to build projects that use two of these modular components at a time.

Clean Technology, Energy, Solar

Via Technology Review.

Feeding heat from the sun into coal-fired power stations could turn out to be the cheapest way to simultaneously expand the use of solar energy and trim coal plants’ oversize carbon footprints.

At least that’s what the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit organization backed by the electricity industry, is hoping. Last week, the institute launched a nine-month, $640,000 study to pin down the scale of the opportunity and the engineering challenges involved with making these seemingly disparate technologies work together. The study will examine the potential use of solar-thermal technology at a pair of coal-fired power stations, in New Mexico and North Carolina.

Combining solar power with fossil fuels is not a wholly new idea: over half a dozen new and existing natural-gas power stations are being designed or adapted to incorporate solar-thermal technology, which involves capturing heat generated using fields of mirrors and heat-collection tubes.

Clean Technology

Continuation of the previous post, picture courtsey of Pakistaniat.com. As pointed out in a comment, the solar panels in Thar are provided by Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP).

Clean Technology, Consumers, Solar

All Things Pakistan has this interesting post about solar energy potential in Pakistan.

A practical example of the use of solar energy could be seen in some villages of Pakistan where each house has been provided with a solar panel that’s sufficient to run an electric fan and two energy saving bulbs. Prior to this arrangement, the whole village used to be plunged in pitch dark during night. One such example is the village with the name of Narian Khorian, some 50 kilometers away from Islamabad, where 100 solar panels have been installed by a local firm, free of cost, to promote the use of solar energy among the masses. Through these panels, the residents of 100 households are enjoying light and fan facilities. Had these panels not been installed, the people living in this area wouldn’t have even dreamt of getting this facility for decades as the provision of electricity from the national grid was a far cry due to the difficult terrain and high expenses involved.

A layman would normally be interested in knowing as to how electricity could be produced using energy from the sun. Simply put, it can be said that the basic item required to generate this electricity is a solar cell, approximately 2 inches x 1/2 inch in dimension. These cells may be available in other dimensions as well. Some 80 to 100 or even more such cells are pasted on a tampered glass sheet whose dimensions are generally 1.5 feet x 4 feet. The glass sheet with cells pasted on it and inter-connected, is called a solar panel. The light from the sun is used to generate electricity through these cells. It may be clarified that it’s the sun’s light and not its heat that produces electricity. The solar cells are called photovoltaics (PV); the word Photo meaning light and voltaics electricity. The life of a solar panel is approximately 20 to 25 years!

To give you an example of the use of solar energy, you must have noticed solar panels installed on poles along with the telephone booths on your left hand side while commuting on the Motorway. Each of these telephones is being powered by this panel. A battery is installed beneath each solar panel to store energy for keeping the telephone in operation during night when there’s no sun light. It’s a stand-alone system, entirely powered by solar energy. During emergency, the commuters make use of these telephones and call for help.

Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar

Pakistan’s dependence on imported energy products has risen by five percent in the last four fiscal years on its growing demand by power plants and transport sector.

The Pakistan Energy Year Book FY08, released by Hydro Carbon Development Institute, showed that the share of imported energy has risen to 35 percent in FY08 against 30 percent in FY04. This is mainly due to higher import of refined petroleum products, crude oil and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for meeting the local demands of various sectors. During last four fiscal years (FY04-08), the energy consumption grew by 8 percent according to Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), whereas energy supplies have risen by 5 percent with significant shift in energy supply mix from gas to oil.

According to the report, the energy consumption of the country stood at 39.4 million tonnes with gas and oil’s share in energy consumption at 40.3 percent and 29.3 percent, while that of, electricity, coal and LPG at 15.2 percent, 13.7 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

The oil contribution doubled during the last 4 years with consumption reaching 44.7 percent. In FY04, gas share in thermal power generation was 77.5 percent , whereas oil had a share of 21.9 percent. Owing to rising gas shortage and availability of alternative fuel like furnace oil (FO), gas supply to power plants declined annually by 3 percent during the said period. Besides these factors, phenomenal increase in CNG consumption (43 percent CAGR) during this period also confined gas supplies to power sector. In terms of fuel mix, gas remains the primary contributor to thermal power generation with consumption of 8.5 million tonnes (54.9 percent share).

The report said the country’s primary energy supplies posted 23.8 percent growth in FY08 and stood at 62.9 millon tonnes (tons of oil equivalents) versus 50.8 million tonnes in FY04. In FY04-FY08, the average growth of supplies stood at 5 percent with 3.8 percent growth posted in FY07, 9.31 percent growth in FY05 and 8.06 percent in FY04.

The indigenous gas remains the major contributor of the energy supplies in this period. However, its share in overall supplies has declined to 47.5 percent from 48.4 percent last year and stood at 29.9 million tonnes. Whereas, oil supply during the period surged by 5.6 percent to 19.2 million tonnes thus increasing oil’s share to 30.5 percent against 30 percent in FY04. Out of total supplies which include gas, oil, LPG, coal, hydro-and nuclear electricity, indigenous production contributed 68.5 percent in FY08 as compared to 70.6 percent share in FY07 and 72.3 percent in FY04. Therefore imports of petroleum products grew by a CAGR of 14 percent during last 4 years on the rising local demand.

Energy experts told the country’s reliance of imported energy will increase with the same pace on the constant surging demand of natural gas and furnace oil particularly for electricity generation. Also, the reliance of transport is shifting back to petrol and diesel on the shortage of natural gas in north part of the country during winter. The cash-starved refineries are operating under capacity, so the country has to be dependent on imported petroleum products in the future, they added.

The total refinery output fell by 6.1 percent in year-on-year terms during July-January as their production capacity shrank significantly with low stocks of crude oil due to piling up of circular debt. The sales of Furnace Oil and High Speed Diesel decreased by 9.5 percent and 4.8 percent YoY in 7MFY09. The Motor Spirit off take has improved by 4.4 percent YoY. On the other hand, the local production of energy products is growing with a stable rate, keeping its share constant at 18 percent in the local consumption. Oil and LPG production of the country fell by 5.9 percent and 9.3 percent YoY respectively to 68,184 bpd and 1,403 tpd, respectively. Gas production, on the other hand, increased by 1.2 percent YoY to 4,023mmcfd.

Via Daily Times.

Energy, Pakistan

Masdar has been in the news because of the ambitious work being done there to create a zero-emission zero-carbon footprint city. There are a number of top institutions working there, inclduing MIT and IBM. Time magazine ran a story on Masdar which is worth sharing.

Abu Dhabi is the last place you might expect to find the future of environmentalism. The wealthy capital of the United Arab Emirates is the world’s eighth biggest producer of petroleum. But the leaders of Abu Dhabi know–perhaps better than most–that the oil won’t last forever, so they have embarked on the Masdar Initiative, a multibillion-dollar push to establish the emirate as a center for clean-technology development and innovation. Those plans include Masdar City, designed by British architect Norman Foster, as well as a $250 million clean-tech investment fund and an energy-engineering school linked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If it all works, this desert emirate could become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy and a living model for the way technological innovation could defuse the threat of climate change. “This is really a very powerful image,” says Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It clearly shows that a country that has no immediate economic need to diversify its energy production is willing and able to do so.”

Abu Dhabi’s leadership is all the more necessary at a moment when once vibrant green businesses are flagging, thanks in part to the plummeting price of oil. In the U.S. and Europe, new wind- and solar-power installations are slowing, energy start-ups are starving for funds and some green companies are laying off workers. But it’s still full speed ahead in Abu Dhabi, where last month’s World Future Energy Summit (WFES) attracted more than 16,000 visitors and companies that ranged from General Motors to modest Chinese solar manufacturers. And with a new Administration in Washington struggling to keep its own ambitious green agenda on track, Abu Dhabi kept the momentum going at WFES by announcing that at least 7% of its electricity would come from renewable sources by 2020, up from nothing today. Nor, said Masdar officials, would the recession have a major impact on the emirate’s plans, announced last year, to invest $15 billion in clean energy–an amount equal to what President Barack Obama has suggested spending annually for the entire U.S. “We are looking beyond the current financial crisis,” says Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Masdar’s CEO. “But all our projects are still proceeding.”

Clean Technology, Energy, Environment, Renewable Energy, Solar

Interesting picture from Islamabd Metroblog.

Conservation, Electricity