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2009-04-15

Space Based Solar Power

Clipped from: YouTube - Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution

Clipped from: Space-based solar power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Space-based solar power (SBSP) (or historically space solar power (SSP)) is a theoretical design for the collection of solar power space, for use on Earth. SBSP differs from the usual method of solar power collection in that the solar panels used to collect the energy would reside on a satellite in orbit, often referred to as a solar power satellite (SPS), rather than on Earth's surface. In space, collection of the Sun's energy is unaffected by the day/night cycle, weather, seasons, or the filtering effect of Earth's atmospheric gases. Average solar energy per unit area outside Earth's atmosphere is on the order of ten times that available on Earth's surface.

Clipped from: YouTube - Space Based Solar Power

Clipped from: Major Utility Company Makes Agreement for Space Based Solar Power | Universe Today

April 15th, 2009

Major Utility Company Makes Agreement for Space Based Solar Power

One of the largest utility companies in the US has decided to look towards space to find more power. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in California announced a proposed agreement with startup company Solaren Corporation to provide 200 mega watts of space based solar power (SBSP) starting in 2016.

Solaren Corporation is a small, 8-year-old company based in California whose executives have experience working for Boeing and Lockheed Martin. According to PG&E’s website, Solaren says it plans to generate the power using solar panels in earth orbit, then convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station in California. From there, the energy will be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E’s power grid

Clipped from: FOXNews.com - California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space

Solaren would use solar panels on satellites in orbit to capture the sun's power, and then convert it into radio frequency energy that could beam down to a receiving station. The energy would then undergo a conversion to electricity and feed into PG&E's power grid.

Having solar panels in orbit could provide a clean, reliable source of solar power that avoids the interruptions of cloudy days and bad weather on Earth. That tempting prospect has led NASA and the U.S. Defense Department to investigate possibilities for space solar power, despite the hefty cost of launching solar panels into orbit.

Clipped from: Space Solar Power

Space Solar Power

Limitless clean energy from space

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2010-06-26

Europe Will Be Powered By Saharan Sun in Five Years

The super-sized solar projects being built in the Sahara desert will start generating and providing Europe with clean energy within the next five years, according to the European energy commissioner. This is much sooner, than the initial 10-year time frame given to the project.

Collected from: Europe Will Be Powered By Saharan Sun in Five Years

EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 yrs

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday.

The European Union is backing projects to turn the plentiful sunlight in the Sahara desert into electricity for power-hungry Europe, a scheme it hopes will help meet its target of deriving 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020.

"I think some models starting in the next 5 years will bring some hundreds of megawatts to the European market," Oettinger told Reuters after a meeting with energy ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Collected from: EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 yrs | Top News | Reuters

Collected from: YouTube - CNN: Just Imagine: Gerhard Knies

"In the coming decades, global developments will confront mankind with unprecedented challenges: climate change, a population growth far beyond Earth‘s present carrying capacity, the global striving for prosperity, and increasing demands for energy and water, are the core problems we are faced with. 200 years of global industrialization has resulted in an unparalleled standard of living and an increased life expectancy for part of the world’s population. However, all this has been and is still being achieved at a price: alarming environmental destruction as well as climate change which can no longer be ignored. These things will mean dramatic changes to life on Earth in the future."

Collected from: DESERTEC Foundation: RedPaper

Desertec solar energy project

Collected from: YouTube - Desertec solar energy project

Generating Electricity in the Sahara Desert

There are two main types of solar generation planned for North Africa. The first is standard photovoltaic solar panels (PV). Thanks to the number of sunshine hours, the clean dry air, and the latitude of the Sahara Desert, a solar panel installed there will generate up to 3x as much power than it would if it was installed in the UK.
The second (and more likely) is to use concentrated solar power (CSP) - an array of mirrors which focus the sun's rays onto a single point to make super-heated steam to turn a turbine (pictured above). See our article First European Solar Power Tower for information on how this technology is already being used in Southern Spain.

European Supergrid - HVDC Transmission

If renewable energy is to be used to power Europe, then a new low-loss electricity grid will need to be constructed. The UK national grid for example transmits high voltage ACwind energy from UK is to be used in Bulgaria, or if Saharan solar electricity is to be used in UK, more efficient transmission would be essential.
The plan is to create a Europe-wide supergrid of low loss high voltage DC (direct current) cables. HVDC cables have energy losses as low as 3% per 1000km, and their use will make it easier for countries which generate AC electricity at different frequencies to synchronise and pool green electricity. Current estimates put the cost of such a supergrid at around 45 Billion Euro.

Collected from: Solar Power for Europe from Sahara - Solar

Sources

Europe Will Be Powered By Saharan Sun in Five Years
http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/3200-europe-will-be-powered-by-saharan-sun-in-five-year?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EcoGeek+%28EcoGeek%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 yrs | Top News | Reuters
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE65K02F20100621?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
YouTube - CNN: Just Imagine: Gerhard Knies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXURvISjh2A&feature=player_embedded
DESERTEC Foundation: RedPaper
http://www.desertec.org/en/concept/redpaper/
YouTube - Desertec solar energy project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu7b8opIPMY&feature=related
Solar Power for Europe from Sahara - Solar
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Solar-Power-for-Europe-from-Sahara.htm

DESERTEC Foundation: Start
http://www.desertec.org/
DESERTEC-UK
http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/
Solar Energy From Sahara Will Be Imported To Europe In 5 Years | TheBlogIsMine Dot Com
http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/06/22/solar-energy-from-sahara-will-be-imported-to-europe-in-5-years/
Home: DESERTEC INDUSTRIES - Energy from deserts
http://www.dii-eumena.com/
Solar Thermal Power in North-Africa: How Much Land to Power the World? : TreeHugger
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/solar-thermal-power-photos-how-much-world-europe-germany.php
Using Deserts To Power The World - PSFK
http://www.psfk.com/2010/02/using-deserts-to-power-the-world.html
Europe to import Sahara's solar power
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-06/22/europe-sahara-solar-power?page=all

2009-04-26

Andasol 1 Solar Power -- Molten Salt Technology

Clipped from: How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American

How to Use Solar Energy at Night

Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night

Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?

The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.

Clipped from: Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home

Andasol 1, the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe, has initiated its test run. This solar-thermal power plant is an important reference for Solar Millennium's expertise in project development and technology. Andasol 1 will supply up to 200.000 people with climate-friendly electricity and save about 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with a modern coal power plant.

Clipped from: Andasol Projects

	nTechnology: „Solar-only“ Parabolic Trough Power Plant
	nInstalled Capacity: 3 x 49,9 MWel
	nStorage: Two-tank molten salt storage for 7 full load hours
	nProject Site: Plateau of Guadix, Province Granada, Spain
	nNet electricity production: 3 x 157 Mio. kWh/a
	nInvestmentbudget: approx. 260 Mio. € per plant

Clipped from: How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic

The molted salt technology is very simple in theory. The molted salt has 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium-nitrate. The salt melts at 430 Fahrenheit and is kept liquid at 550 Fahrenheit in an insulated cold storage tank. The molted salt is pumped to the top of the tower, where sunlight heats it in a receiver to 1050 degrees Fahrenheit. The 1050 F heated salt flows back down to a second insulated hot storage tank. Hot salt goes into a steam generator which produces very hot steam for a turbine.

Molted salt technology is almost 93% efficient compared to directly harvesting the sun energy. The other 7% lost during the heat transfer to water is not so significant if we compare to other technologies of storing the energy that comes from the sun.

Andasol 1 is the first solar-thermal power plant ever built, and the investments costs go up to $380 million (300 million euros).

Clipped from: YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

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2009-11-03

Space-Based Solar Power

clipped from www.popsci.com

Japan Wants to Power 300,000 Homes With Wireless Energy From Space

Japan's Wireless, Power-Generating, Solar Satellite
Inhabitat

Japan has serious plans to send a solar-panel-equipped satellite into space that could wirelessly beam a gigawatt-strong stream of power down to earth and power nearly 300,000 homes.

clipped from www.alternative-energy-news.info

A Step Closer to Solar Power in Space

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and IHI Corporation are undertaking an ambitious project of $ 21bn. They are aspiring to design and develop a Space-based solar farm that would generate 1GW of power. This will require an area of four square kilometer consisting of rows of solar panels. This space solar farm will be housed 36,000km above the surface of the earth.

clipped from www.youtube.com

clipped from www.bloomberg.com

Mitsubishi, IHI to Join $21 Bln Space Solar Project (Update1)

A research group representing 16 companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., will spend four years developing technology to send electricity without cables in the form of microwaves, according to a statement on the trade ministry’s Web site today.

clipped from global.mitsubishielectric.com

Mitsubishi Electric's space technology includes the manufacture and implementation of satellites, satellite components, and ground systems. Over the past four decades, we have completed more than 330 satellite projects for communications concerns, government agencies, and other large-scale clients that make us the leading company of space systems in Japan.

clipped from www.treehugger.com

While the project might sound like science-fiction now, it likely that the landscape will be more favorable in 30 years (strict carbon emissions caps will make clean energy more cost-competitive, for example).

Sources:

Large Scale Solar Power Projects

Some big established Japanese companies are putting new efforts in emerging solar power technologies: Mitsubishi Chemical sees opportunity to produce thin film solar cells and Sanyo recently opened an Advanced Development Center to concentrate on developing thin film technology.

Solar Energy Technology

Clipped from: Solar Energy Technologies Program: Thin Films

Thin films of special photovoltaic material can produce solar cells with relatively high conversion efficiencies, while using much less material than crystalline silicon cells. The key materials or technologies that we will discuss are amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper indium diselenide (CIS) and its alloys, and cadmium telluride (CdTe). We also will discuss thin films that use a multijunction design.
[...]
To learn more about PV materials, see:

Crystalline Silicon
Modules

Silicon Cells
Clipped from: Solar Energy Technologies Program: Crystalline Silicon

The solar cell is the basic building block of a photovoltaic system. Individual cells can vary in size from about 1 cm (1/2 inch) to about 10 cm (4 inches) across. This crystalline silicon cell was manufactured by Siemens Solar Industries.
Modules
Clipped from: Solar Energy Technologies Program: Photovoltaic Modules

This PV and wind system contains 8 - 120 watt PV modules that are used for power at a Colorado home

Thin Film Projects

Clipped from: Solar Thin Film Technology Attracts Big Players in Japan | Solar Feeds Solar Thin Film Technology Attracts Big Players in Japan

Thin film solar technology has attracted interest from venture capitalists because of its higher efficiency, lower use of limited silicon, and more easily automated production processes. Now, established Japanese players in the solar arena are getting in the thin film game, followed by companies in China and India, as reported in Renewable Energy World.

Mitsubishi
Clipped from: Mitsubishi Corporation
August 14, 2008
Large-scale Photovoltaic (PV) demonstration project in Brunei Darussalam

Clipped from: Mitsubishi Corporation Announces Large-scale Photovoltaic (PV) Demonstration Project in Brunei Darussalam - MarketWatch

Mitsubishi Corporation Announces Large-scale Photovoltaic (PV) Demonstration Project in Brunei Darussalam

In this demonstration project, a PV system with nominal capacity of 1.2 MW, currently the largest in South-East Asia, will be installed at Seria Power Station in Belait District. With the utilization of this PV system, EDPMO, the Department of Electrical Services and MC will jointly carry out verification tests and evaluations over a period of three (3) years after commissioning. This will be the first installment of a large-scale PV system in Brunei Darussalam.
Clipped from: Brunei Aspires To Be First In The World To Run Purely On Solar Energy - DigitalJournal.com: The Power of Citizen Journalism

SANYO
Clipped from: SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. Global
Clipped from: SANYO -SOLAR ARK-

The Solar Ark, a unique, ark-shaped, solar photovoltaic power generation facility, offers activities to cultivate a better appreciation of solar power generation, and thereby of both ecology and science. This 315m-wide, 37m-tall facility is located in Gifu Prefecture, in the geographical center of Japan, and can be seen from the JR Tokaido bullet train, which runs past on an adjacent railway track.
Stationed at the center of the Solar Ark is the Solar Lab, a museum of solar energy and one of the more unusual museums in the world. A unique, hands-on, outdoor light exhibition will be launched here in 2005, for the first time in Japan. In the future, expect a variety of interesting things to emanate from here.

Clipped from: SANYO to Establish 'Advanced Photovoltaics Development Center' | News Releases | SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. Global

SANYO to Establish 'Advanced Photovoltaics Development Center
In the Gifu Plant-where the Solar Ark stands as a monument and symbol for a clean energy society

Tokyo, December 5, 2007-SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO) announced today that it will establish a new 'Advanced Photovoltaics Development Center' within its Gifu Plant in Japan. The plant, located in Anpachi, Gifu prefecture, houses the Solar Ark, a large-scale solar power generation facility that stands as a monument to the world of SANYO's commitment and efforts to create a clean energy-based society.

2008-08-31

Solar Power Textile

Embedding solar cells in textile is a fascinating technological challenge with promising prospects like solar power from clothes, curtains, bags, shelters and more.

Solar Textiles

Clipped from: Solar Textiles: Coming Soon (We Hope) to Clothing Near You : TreeHugger

We think the piezoelectric backpack is a pretty cool concept for generating your own electricity just by walking around, not to mention various other solar bags, but a new development stands to revolutionize the way that we interact with solar power in our everyday lives: solar textiles.

Solar Power Clothing

Clipped from: Smart designed Solar power Clothing - Solar-Tie, University, Carolina, Textile, Apparel, Management, Department, Technology, Digital, Besides - talk2myShirt

A a team at North Carolina State University came up with a brilliant idea how to make use of digital textile printing to incorporate unusual components into a design by printing fabric that matches the pattern of the component.

As an example of how digital textile printing can be used to make the solar panels invisible is the solar jacket and the solar tie.

Clipped from: JTATM - North Carolina State University

APPLICATION OF DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING TECHNOLOGY TO INTEGRATE PHOTOVOLTAIC THIN FILM CELLS INTO WEARABLES

[...]
The solar panels were attached using ‘liquid stitch’ adhesive, which eliminated the concern of accounting for a fastener in the design of the digitally printed pattern. The dot of solder used to connect the circuitry to the solar panels was a close color match to the connection bus adhered to the solar panels and was not visually distracting.
[...]
The tie was tested by a user for performance in a typical business environment. The trial consisted of wear during five business days and storage in a closet. During the trials, there were no safety infringements with respect to electrical shock. A visual inspection of the insulated wire revealed no degradation of the insulation after the trials. The wires maintained their ability to conduct electricity without resistance.

Solar Textile

Clipped from: Research — SOEL

Research

Solar energy and energy efficiency

Clipped from: Solar textile — SOEL
Solar textile
We're developing processes to make fiber solar cells that can be woven into textile. [...]

We're developing processes to make fiber solar cells that can be woven into textile.

Textile Based Solar Cells

Clipped from: Toward textile-based solar cells: SPIE Newsroom: SPIE.org

A fiber-based organic photovoltaic may form the building block of cost- effective, energy-harvesting textiles.

The large yellow square represents an area of land that would need to be covered with 10% efficient solar cells to satisfy the national energy demand. In comparison, the arrow points to a small red square whose relative area represents the worldwide area of solar cells currently manufactured and installed. The area of the fabrics image represents the total square meters of textiles imported to the United States. The bottom right image shows the fiber-based organic solar cell, photographed near a penny for size comparison.

Clipped from: Max Shtein — Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

Max Shtein Assistant Professor

Current Nanomaterials Research Projects
[...]
Fiber-Based Organic Solar Cells
[...]

Pages

2009-04-15

California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space

2010-06-26

EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 yrs

Desertec solar energy project

Generating Electricity in the Sahara Desert

European Supergrid - HVDC Transmission

2009-04-26

How to Use Solar Energy at Night

Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night

Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

2009-11-03

2008-08-25

Solar Energy Technology

To learn more about PV materials, see:

Silicon Cells

Modules

Thin Film Projects

Mitsubishi

SANYO

2008-08-31

Solar Textiles

Solar Power Clothing

Solar Textile

Research

Solar energy and energy efficiency

Solar textile

Textile Based Solar Cells

Current Nanomaterials Research Projects