Solar energy powerhouse born

A Melbourne-based company hopes to build one of the nation's largest solar electricity generating operations on thousands of Florida acres.
While National Solar Power Partners LLC has signed an agreement with Progress Energy, funding for the $1.6 billion project will include tax credits that polluting industries can buy to compensate for emissions.
The company proposes to build about 20 separate solar arrays. Each will be on 200 acres of leased or purchased land and will generate 20 megawatts of electricity.
"They prefer to have us in a distributed fashion so that we're spread out throughout their service area," CEO James Scrivener said.
Forty-year-old Scrivener is one of three founders of the 3-year-old Brevard company, all of whom graduated from Florida Tech.
Gadsden, Hardee, Osceola and Suwannee counties are being considered to host the project, which will employ 400 during construction and about 120 during operation. Some 4,000 acres will include 20 sites that generate an estimated 400 total megawatts of electricity, enough power for the needs of 32,000 homes. Scrivener said the first arrays could be working by the end of 2012.
Brevard did not have adequate sites for the project. However, the company could bring attention to Brevard as a center of solar energy innovation.
The sale of renewable energy certificates will generate 2 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour, in addition to approximately 5 cents per kilowatt hour for the sale of electricity.
"That allows us to be effectively competitive with fossil fuel energy generation," Scrivener said.
While the company has a business plan, James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center, said solar power technology might not yet be profitable.
"It's a good plan," said Fenton, who fears that producing electricity from the sun could cost more than National Solar can earn from its sales of electricity and tax credits. "The devil's in the details," he said.
Progress Energy spokesman Tim Leljedal said state law requires his company to buy electric power from the clean energy producers, but Progress only has to pay National Solar what amounts to a wholesale price, which is now about 4 cents per kilowatt hour.
The solar panels, which will be most efficient during midday, won't help Progress Energy handle peak energy demand, which comes in the evening during the summer and early morning in the winter, Leljedal said.

5 Reasons Home Solar Will Change Your Life

A recent survey conducted by Applied Materials found that 49% of respondents would be motivated to purchase a residential solar system if they had more information about how solar technology would work for them. Most people know by now that solar energy is cleaner and more sustainable than fossil fuels, but are skeptical that investing in a solar power system will benefit their lives.

It’s time to challenge that. Here are five ways residential solar will change your life.

1. Savings

Month-to-month expenses can make it easy to overlook long-term costs. Over the long term, solar energy is a proven and sound investment. With multiple solar rebate and incentive programs available from government and utility companies, solar panels now typically return the cost of installation in six to eight years (or much sooner). From that point on, you’ll be generating free, renewable energy for the life of your system (typically 25-30 years).
Solar leasing options also enable you to purchase solar systems for little or no money down. Homes with solar power systems immediately see at least a 30% reduction on their utility bills, unless, of course, their energy bills are eliminated altogether. Many home systems produce excess energy that is then sold back into the grid, earning homeowners extra income.

2. Insurance

People understand that auto, home and life insurance are prudent investments, that being prepared for emergency situations saves them money in the long run. Purchasing a system that will protect you from rising energy costs is just as prudent. The demand and cost of conventional energy worldwide is forecasted to rise by as much as 49% by 2035, according to United States Energy Information Administration (EIA). A solar energy system provides protection against rising energy costs.
A standalone solar energy system can also provide protection against blackouts caused by man-made and natural disasters. In many homes and businesses, access to continuous electrical power is essential. For those who rely on electricity to power medical devices, it can be a matter of life and death. Standalone solar panels can ensure that power is never completely cut off, among other amazing benefits.

3. Flexibility

Solar panels are a modular system. If you wish, you can start with a few solar panels add more to the system later. And the government assistance is incredible. People who spend at least $5,000 on a solar energy system can receive as much as 30% back in the form of a federal tax credit.
There are other solar products available as well. Solar heating systems can keep a swimming pool warm year round, in most cases with zero operating costs. Solar water heating systems can augment a home’s heating systems. A solar recharger left on a windowsill can recharge a cell phone – even on a cloudy day.

4. Leadership

A solar array is a visible display of personal commitment to responsible energy consumption and conservation that can inspire others to action. As an example of an energy solution, solar power systems can empower an entire community. And when an idea catches on, whole neighborhoods become solar havens.

5. Stewardship

Solar energy systems preserve natural resources, providing opportunities for individuals to make a personal contribution to the health of the planet. Converting to solar energy is an affordable, sensible, and responsible way to reign in personal energy consumption, and to join in a worldwide community intent on solutions.

South Africa Will Rely on Wind, Solar for Renewables, Business Day Reports

South Africa plans to rely on wind and solar power to meet its renewable energy targets, Business Day reported, citing documents inviting bids from companies to supply power to the country.
Of the 3,725 megawatts South Africa wants to source from renewable energy it expects 1,850 megawatts to come from wind power, 1,450 megawatts from photovoltaic solar plants and 200 megawatts from concentrated solar plants, Business Day reported, citing the documents. The country also expects to get 75 megawatts from small hydropower plants, 25 megawatts from landfill gas and 12.5 megawatts each from biomass and biogas.
In addition the government has allocated another 100 megawatts for small-scale projects, generating less than 5 megawatts each, using the technnologies, the Johannesburg-based newspaper said.

Online calculator estimates savings from home solar systems

Ever wonder just how much benefit can be gained by adding solar panels to a new or existing home? Well, now you can go online, fill in the requisite details such as the address and the size of the solar system you're contemplating, and get an answer.
The California Energy Commission has launched the Solar Advantage Value Estimator, or SAVE, officials said, to provide a long-term and cost-effective method for calculating the added value of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.
"This changes the perception of solar in the housing industry that benefits homeowners. Today's changing real estate market requires a credible method to determine a home's value with solar and this tool is an example of California's leadership to develop new methods to cultivate clean energy," said Energy Commissioner Carla Peterman.
Amy Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Energy Commission, added: "This is a tool for the homeowner. They may be looking to purchase a solar home or they may be selling one. This calculation will give you a monetary value to show potential buyers."
The SAVE calculator will offer an estimate of annual energy savings by using the address and solar system size by automatically combining it with specific climate zone data and local electric utility rates. The calculator is also designed to be used by real estate professionals, appraisers and builders to provide information to potential clients.
On the same Web page, visitors will find other calculators that may provide them with useful and related information. The Clean Power Estimator "calculates the potential costs and benefits of installing a PV system at your home or business."
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's PVWatts calculator "determines the energy production and cost savings of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world." Just launch the viewer and enter a ZIP code to begin.

Nautilus Solar closes financing on 9MW of PV projects in northeast US, California

    

• A previous installation in New Jersey by Nautilus Solar.

A subsidiary of US Bancorp and a partner of KeyCorp have helped Nautilus Solar Energy close its recent financing round for a 9MW portfolio of solar projects in California and the northeast US. The financial institutions offered Nautilus long-term tax equity and debt financing, which will go towards the development of a string of distributed generation projects under 15 to 20-year PPA’s.
Projects under the 9MW portfolio include rooftop, canopy and ground-mounted installations that will be installed at school districts and municipalities in New Jersey, Maryland and California with a savings tag of over US$17 million expected during the life of the PPA’s. Nautilus Solar additionally disclosed that it is in talks with lenders to finance a 10MW portfolio of distributed generation projects under the Ontario Power Authority’s FiT program.
Jim Rice, CEO of Nautilus Solar, remarked, "I'm proud that the Nautilus team has proven that we can develop, construct, aggregate and fund distributed solar projects. Our future plans focus on repeating this portfolio aggregation structure with more MWs, in more markets, including raising project level equity for the portfolios."

Solar water heaters best solution for technology for green homes

Solar hot water systems are the best solution for homes wanting a green heating technology to reduce carbon emissions, according to Ethical Consumer magazine.
In the magazine’s latest Buyers’ Guide, the publication compared biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and solar hot water heating.
The magazine found that while biomass boilers can provide the largest carbon savings, they are also among the most expensive renewable heat technologies, costing around £11,000. The Buyers’ Guide also questions the long-term sustainability of biomass feedstock.
Biomass boilers can also end up costing £40 a year more to run than a typical condensing gas boiler.
By comparison, solar hot water systems are the cheapest renewable technology to install at around £4800 for a typical system, saving a modest amount of carbon and up to £60 a year on energy bills against a typical condensing gas boiler.
“As the cheapest and easiest technology to install, if households are looking to buy a renewable-heating system in our view the best option would be to choose a solar hot water system,” says editor Rob Harrison.
“The launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive means that there's never been a better time for homeowners to think about installing renewable-heat technologies,” he adds. “Over time this initiative will in effect pay for whatever system you choose.”

Growing a healthy Australian renewables industry

Growing a healthy Australian renewables industry

The preview in today's Fairfax press of the ARENA funding body for renewables is a major win for climate action, because it creates an institution that will support the full potential of solar and wind.
For many years the solar and wind industries have allowed themselves to be given the run around by successive governments. Ministers would 'freeze out' renewables companies that advocated publicly, yet give the coal industry everything it wanted.
Guy Pearce, a former Liberal advisor, blew the whistle on this political corruption, whereby the fossil fuel industry had improper influence over both major parties and the public service.
This brutal energy politics will be in raw view today in Canberra, where the Government is holding an important round table with the solar industry. The round table is part of the Greens' plan to build the power of the renewables industry. It was negotiated as part of the flood levy deal. It will see 200 solar company representatives tell the Government what they need in order to grow a healthy Australian solar industry.
ARENA will have an independent structure and this should give it the ability to work constructively with the solar and wind and other renewable sectors.
The Greens have been able to bring about this coup partly because of their rising political power but also because technological progress is bringing the price of renewables down to the price of coal, around the world and in Australia.
Commentators in the media will want to focus purely on the politics of the ARENA deal, but soon enough it will become clear that there is an underlying technological inevitability at work. It is the failure of Minister Ferguson to accept that inevitability that led to his renewables programs being taken off him by Senator Christine Milne and the Greens.
The US department of energy - hardly a bunch of Greenpeace radicals! - is so confident that solar can be as cheap as coal, without subsidies, that it is funding the development of technologies that can achieve this by 2020.
Minister Ferguson still has the grim view of renewables that he has had for 20 years, telling an industry magazine this year, "I am very firmly of the view that a price on carbon is going to create a huge growth opportunity for gas. It is really the only form of alternative clean energy in Australia at the moment..."
President Obama won over the renewables industry when he chose Dr Stephen Chu, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, to be his energy secretary. Chu is channelling billions of dollars through the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL), to get solar power cheap within nine years, for all of the US, not just the sunny states of the south west.
According to Chu's NREL, solar PV and solar thermal baseload can be around $100/MWh. This is about the price of coal generation and when solar is that cheap, it will not need any subsidies to beat coal in the energy market.
Unfortunately, Martin Ferguson is so prejudiced against the Greens that he cannot accept they are right about solar. In fact, he is so blinded by ideology that he fails to even hear the solar industry. The best example of this blindness is in the choice of cost projection data used by Ferguson to design solar programs.
While Chu's NREL is predicting solar can get to the magic cost crossover point of about $100/MWh by 2020, Minister Ferguson chooses to instead use data put out by a US electricity industry think tank. This think tank, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is mostly funded by coal and nuclear firms.
The research director says that solar will not be a cost-effective alternative until after 2050!
Today the solar industry is meeting with the Government and that is a good thing. In fact, the reason the meeting is being held is that it was a condition the Greens demanded in return for passing PM Julia Gillard's flood levy package.
Solar PV and solar thermal companies feel betrayed by Ferguson for his lack of faith in their technologies. The background paper which frames the round table today uses the EPRI figures for solar cost performance. These predict that solar will cost something like $200-$600/MWh in 2020.
This negativity towards renewable energy pollutes the whole of energy policy in Australia. Take the Solar Flagships announced last month. The Moree Solar Farm and Kogan Creek Solar Thermal Project are fantastic initiatives, which should build solar plants as big as power stations. I have great confidence in the people who won the bids, but it is a risky adventure.
Our solar industry has built 1MWh plants and is now being told to build 250MWh plants. Why such a big jump? Isn't that an invitation to fail?
Industry and academic experts have told the Government repeatedly that they prefer a sensible pathway of growth, from a few small-medium plants of 1-10MWh in PV and 20-50MWh, across a range of technologies. Then a few in the large-medium scale of 30-50MWh PV and some 100MWh+ solar thermal. Then the industry will have the skills and confidence to build the large-scale plants of 250MWh+, like the advanced industries in other countries.
The electoral benefit of this approach is that the projects would be sited around the country, with many electorates benefiting from the emergence of the solar sector. This will build the momentum of the renewable energy revolution and protect it from the Greenhouse Mafia.

Sydney seeks green expertise

Published on Tue, 05/07/2011, 09:40:55

An independent expert panel will guide environmental programs in sustainability for the City of Sydney.
독립적인 전문가 집단은 시드니를 위한 지속가능한 환경 프로그램을 안내할 것이다.

Energy efficiency expert Allan Jones said Sydney is calling for tenders from expert consultancies and legal firms in areas of sustainability to join the panel.
에너지 효율 전문가 Allan Jones는  말했다 " 시드니는 그 집단에 가입하기 위해 전문적인 자문회사와 법률 회사로 부터 감시인을 요청하고 있습니다"

“We are also seeking expert legal and regulatory advice on public and public/private joint venture corporations for energy, water and waste,” Mr Jones said.
According to Mr Jones, much of what the City of Sydney is doing has never been attempted on such a scale in Australia before, so these projects need to be implemented "in the face of climate change".
Mr Jones는 말했다. "우리는 에너지, 물, 그리고 쓰레기를 위한 공적, 공적/사적 공동 투자 회사에 대한 법률적이고 규제력을 지닌 충고를 찾고 있습니다."
Mr Jones에 따르면 시드니시가 하고 시행하고 있는 많은 것들이 이전까지 호주에서 시행된적이 없는 규모입니다. 그래서 기후변화에 맞써 이러한 프로젝트들이 시행될 필요가 있습니다. 
Mr Jones said Sydney is becoming one of the world’s leading green cities.
Mr Jones는 시드니가 세계의 선두하는 그린 도시중의 하나가 되고 있다고 말했다.

He will not be on the panel as he is an employee of the City of Sydney.
그는 그는 시드니를 위해 일하고 있기 때문에 그 집단에 들어 갈수 없다.
The council will pay for the panel appointees, but they are currently unable to provide a figure.
의회가 그 집단의 임명자들을 위해 돈을 지불할 것이다. 하지만 그 금액을 현재 알려 지지 않고있다.

Sydney’s projects in development are a trigeneration energy network for low carbon electricity, a city-wide recycled water network, an automated waste collection network, renewable gasses from agriculture and farming waste, and installation of solar panels.
발전분야 에서의 시드니 프로젝트에는 전탄소 전기를 위한 trigeneration 에너지 네트워크, 도시 대순환 물 네트워크, 자동적인 쓰레기 수거 네트워크, 농업과 농장에서 발생하는 재생 가스, 태양전지의 설치가 있다.

The panel’s appointment in assisting Sydney’s energy, water and waste staff will last for three years
시드니의 에너지, 물, 그리고 쓰레기 문제를 도와주는 그 집단의 임무는 3년동안 지속될 것이다.

Hanwha strengthens solar business

Korea’s Hanwha Group will enter the business of producing poly-silicon, which is used to make solar wafers, as it looks to strengthen its profile in the global solar energy industry.
한국의 한화 그룹은 solar wafer을 만드는데 사용되는 폴리실리콘을 생산하는 사업에 뛰어들 것이다. 그리고 그것은 세계 태양 에너지 산업에 대한 그들의 관심을 강화는 것으로 보인다.

Hanwha Chemical, a key affiliate of the group, will begin building a manufacturing facility in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, early next year and expects the plant to be producing 10,000 tons of poly-silicon annually after completion in late 2013.
한화 그룹의 핵심 제휴사인 한화 화학은 내년초에 여수에 제조회사의 건설을 시작할 것이고  2013년말 완공후에 매년 10,000톤의 폴리실리콘 생산을 기대하고 있다.

Hanwha will invest 1 trillion won (about 922 million) to build the factor and expects to be reaping 500 billion won a year in revenue from poly-silicon production from 2014, company officials said.
한화그룹은 공장 건설에 약 1조원을 투자할 것이고 2014년 부터 폴리실리콘 생상으로 매년 5000억원의 수입을 거두어 들일 것으로 기대한다고 회사 관계자는 말했다.

``By advancing to the business of producing poly-silicon, Hanwha Group could achieve a complete, vertical integration of solar-related businesses, from poly-silicon to ingots, wafer, solar cells and modules. This will allow the group to attain strong global competitiveness in the field,’’ Hanwha said in a statement.

한화 그룹은 폴리실리콘 생산 사업에 진출함으로써 폴리실리콘, 주괴, 웨이퍼, 태양광 전지와 모듈등 태양에너지 관련 사업에 있어서 완전하고 수직적인 통합을 이룰수 있을 것이라고 말했다.

``Poly-silicon is a key material for producing solar cells. The ability to self-provide our demand for poly-silicon will give us a key advantage in stability and cost competitiveness and make us less vulnerable to market cycles.’’

폴리실리콘은 태양광전지 생산을 위한 핵심적인 물질이다. 폴리실리콘의 수요를 스스로 맞출수 있는 능력은 우리에게 안정성과 경쟁력이라는 이점을 줄 것이고 시장흐름의 위험에 대처할 수 있도록 할것이다.

Business overview Solar collector

Solar Keymark CERTIFICATION

KOREA CERTIFICATION

ONE PUMP SYSTEM

DIRECTOR FLOW SOLAR COLLECTOR

ALL-IN-ONE

PACKAGE

HYBRID COOLING-HEATING AND

 WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

SOLAR AIR CONDITIONER SYSTEM

Mobile system monitoring worldwide

VBus®Touch. It is a software especially

designed for the Apple iPhone and

iPod touch. It displays both live data

and a progression chart of the solar

system at any place in the world,

provided that the system is run by

a RESOL controller equipped with

a VBus® interface and a datalogger

connected to the Internet via LAN.

If the iPhone or the iPod touch are

in a portrait orientation, a hydronic

scheme and live data of the system

are displayed. As soon as the device

is turned into landscape orientation,

the integrated accelerometer switches

to the display of a progression

chart. By running a fi nger along the

progression chart, a time axis appears

that displays the different data

from any point in the progression

period. In portrait orientation, the

background color of the hydronic

scheme is automatically adjusted to

the current tank temperature.

From the Apple App Store, the software

can be installed on the individual

device without any expertise

required. Already included is the

access to two RESOL test systems,

so that the application can be viewed

and tried with real data without any

delay.Take a look at the animated

demo of the VBus®Touch software.

For all iPhone and iPod touch users, a new

way to visualize the data of a solar thermal

system has become available:

The brand-new VBus®Touch software is now

available free of charge in Apple’s download

portal App Store.

(VBus® is a trademark of RESOL GmbH)

(App Store, iPod touch and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc.)