March 2014 – Solar Magazine

Coloured solar panels for building exterior introduced by Antec Solar

New thin film coloured panels are available for building integration

Colored PV

Antec Solar’s thin-film applications are accessible terracotta, green and blue.

Antec’s new product line is named ATFKrom and it is considered a premiere as it is made of the the first coloured photovoltaic modules for façade integration. This modules are built thanks to the company’s thin-film technology and are ready for use in colours like terracotta, green and blue.

New coloured solar panels

The new photovoltaic modules of the ATFKrom product line are supplied with an exclusive solar glass. The new patented solar glass is responsible for the persistent and aesthetically refined presence. The new basic photovoltaic technology is now close to being invisible. Antec Solar GmbH uses the exclusive Kromatix™ solar glass of SwissINSO, a company founded in Lausanne (Switzerland).

Tailor-made solutions for any facade
Norbert Kreft, CTO of Antec Solar GmbH believes that “It is the first time that a glass technology is available providing coloured solar panels which can be integrated in a way, that they act look like normal cladding. With this innovative solar glass architects, developers, installers and private investors will now receive a high-quality aesthetic solution, which so far did not exist – and that at a high efficiency.This enables us, to deliver tailored solutions for every facade and in virtually any PV technology ” The customers are free to choose the colour, the format, the form and needed amount of panels.

Coloured solar panels for building integration

Moreover, Antec Solar delivers with the product line ATCKrom coloured modules for building integration based on intermediate products found in nearly all PV technology. Taking into account the requirements, favorite appearance and requested design, the user can pick the right technology and achieve the desired energy output.

Europe goes green as solar energy costs the same as conventional power in Germany, Italy and Spain

Solar costs the same as conventional

European PV has reached a point where the green power costs the same as conventional power in countries like Germany, Italy and Spain. This is shown in a report that also says that the fact that stops other countries to be in the same position is the high installation costs.

Solar energy is as profitable as conventional power

The form Eclareon made an analysis made in the interest of international group of sustainable energy interests. The study shows that solar energy joined the energy market. This means that solar is no longer much more expensive than conventional light. On the contrary, clean energy has reached the point where solar energy is at the same price as Italy, Spain and Germany
Still, the report also shows future prospects in Spain are not so good as the poor regulations could constrain the progress.

Solar energy costs in Europe

“In countries such as Italy and Germany, both at grid parity and with proper regulation, PV systems (photovoltaic system) for self-consumption represent a viable, cost-effective, and sustainable power generation alternative,” are David Pérez’s word, partner at Eclareon in charge of the study.

Researchers analyzed a 30 kilowatt solar power system regarding the leveled cost of energy. This includes installation, maintenance, depreciation and investment.

Solar energy cost arround the world

Eclareon also analyzed the LCOE of solar power in Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Spain. The report says that LCOE is smaller in the past years, even if the drop was less big in well-developed countries such as Italy, Germany and Spain. Progress in Brazil, Chile and Mexico is still impeded by high installation costs.

The rise of solar in Germany is based on the fact that the country stopped its support for nuclear energy since the unfortunate events in Japan. Two years ago the country was producing a record of 22 gigawatts of power that is about 50 percent of the nation’s power quota.

“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity. Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over,” Norbert Allnoch told Reuters news agency.

Heliatek GmbH set new record regarding efficiency for 40% transparent cells

Organic PV efficiency record

An organic film producer, Heliatek, has reached a new milestone in regarding efficiency reaching 7.2% while tested. This progress could help cars and BIPV field.

The German producers report that they set a new record for transparent organic solar cells efficiency, reaching 7.2% at a 40% transparency.

Heliatek GmbH also set the record for non-transparent solar cells and is willing to reach a bigger conversion for transparent cells and thinks that this achievement means a lot for the building integrated PV field.

New efficiency record set by Heliatek

“The transparency of our products is at the core of our market approach.Our HeliaFilm is customized to meet our partners’ specific needs. We are a component supplier and this component is a film that can combine transparency and energy generation. This unique combination widens our market potential.” said Heliatek CEO Thibauld Le Seguillon.

The patented HeliaFilm can be used on dyed glass and is also good for the roofs of the cars for harvesting solar electricity and lead to a cleaner environment by lowering carbon emissions. As for the building integration, the new build transparent cells can generate solar power without interfering with the building design.

Efficiency record in global solar industry

Even if the efficiency is smaller than the one given by the non-transparent cells, this achievement is a premiere in the global PV industry as it is a world record. Semi-transparency means that only 60% of the light is for producing energy, so as far as 40% transparent cells are concerned, this record is a surge for the technology.

Producers announce that the equilibrium between light diffusion and electricity can be adapted, fact that allows more adjustments for the future use of the product.

The new-generation PV to be developed by First Solar and GE

First Solar, Inc. and GE's Power Conversion work for next-gen technology

PV comapnies to develop a more efficient way to produce a better utility-scale PV power plant design

First Solar, Inc. and GE’s Power Conversion business are willing to use a new technology to develop a more efficient way to produce a better utility-scale PV power plant design made out of First Solar’s this film CdTe modules and GE’s new ProSolar 1,500-volt inverter system. The latter is more efficient than the usual systems. The combined technologies bring a more efficient way to produce energy.

New-generation PV updated by First Solar

The next-generation solar technology was already adopted by First Solar and adapted for the 1,500-volt DC applications. If the inverter/transformer station is put together with this new development, a better working power plant design is created. This way the solar array grows and the number of inverters needed for each plant decreases. The inverters needed to convert the direct current or DC into alternating current or AC transport the energy to the grid. This type of system means a highly efficient way of obtaining energy from the economic and maintenance point of view.

Mahesh Morjaria, First Solar’s vice president of product management announced that “this is a significant step in establishing the next generation of utility-scale PV power plants. Partnering with an industry giant such as GE, we are able to take our power plant design to the next level and bring additional value to our customers.” Morjaria also believes that future generations of First Solar modules will have a better optimization thanks to the purchase of GE thin film PV technology.

New-generation solar inverters

“GE is known throughout the industry as an established leader in power generation technology. With our ProSolar inverters, we were able to draw from our experience developing and manufacturing technology for traditional power plants to create a highly efficient solution with industry-leading capabilities. The inverters’ design enables our customers to apply engineering design that significantly increases efficiency of energy production. Together with First Solar, we can help customers get the most out of their solar power systems,” is the opinion of Joe Mastrangelo, CEO of GE Power Conversion.

America Navy wants solar energy directly from space

Navy space solar panels

For many years the Pentagon has been the number 1 oil consumer in the world. The continuous rise of prices has determined the military to research other ways to get energy. These researches expanded till space.

A new technology that will give the military the possibility to collect solar energy in orbit and take it to earth is being developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Space solar energy will save the Pentagon a great deal of money, and could also simplify military arrangements. Fuel tankers wouldn’t need to reach remote or volatile areas, and missions couild be lnger.

Until now, NRL tried a couple of prototypes for the “sandwich” module, a design innovation that combines the electrical components in the two square panels. The top is made of a photovoltaic panel that takes in the light. In the middle there is an electronics system that transforms the energy to a radio frequency, and at the bottom there is an antenna that takes the power to a target on the ground.

The final project is to group the modules in space by robots and form a one kilometer satellite.

Another design, a “step” module, opens the sandwich design so it can receive more energy without the risk of overheating.

“Launching mass into space is very expensive,” said Paul Jaffe, a spacecraft engineer leading the Navy’s project.

It is said that space solar could produce a bigger quantity of energy than ground-based collectors because of the fact that the weather wouldn’t be an impediment.

“People might not associate radio waves with carrying energy, because they think of them for communications, like radio, TV, or cell phones. They don’t think about them as carrying usable amounts of power.” added Jaffe.

Researchers from the UK are working on solar panels that are more efficient during cloudy days

ould friendly solar cells were discovered

British researchers discovered cells that work in cloudy regions

British scientists from a famous Laboratory have been working on the next generation of solar panels that work better when it’s clouded.

The material they are using very thin and can have any color. It can also be printed in sheets on a 3D printer.

Even if the necessary procedures is only beginning to develop, scientists are being optimistic about it and say that very soon they will make the solar PV market and we will see them on coats or bags and we will be able to charge our phones or laptops with them.

Another big advantage of this type of solar PV panels is that they are easier to install on houses because they don’t require fortifying of the roofs and they would be invisible so they world’t bother homeowners.

The concept raised the curiosity of car manufacturers such as Fiat and Ford, which are interested if they could install such panels on the roofs of their cars and replace flat batteries.

The solar cells we know contain semi-conductors like crystalline silicon. So when the lights gets to them a part of the energy is taken in and kicks electrons loose in the silicon that can be lead into a current and withdrawn for external use. This new technology has small organic molecules as semi conductors that can be mixed in and printed in any shape with a 3D printer.

What’s more intriguing about this new type of material is the fact that as opposed to traditional panels that work better in direct sunlight, they function extremely well when the sunlight is not direct or strong.

Researchers tested the new organic photovoltaic material in desert conditions and it reached a 10% efficiency and in cloudy conditions it went up to 13%.

The main research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory Dr. Fernando Castro, believes that “Organic photovoltaics work much better in low and diffused light conditions. Even if it’s cloudy they still work. It’s not that they are going to produce more power but they are more efficient at generating power from the light that is available. So they would work better than normal soar cells do in cloud.”

The new material is going to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the old solar cells.

Next generation of Photovoltaics to boom this year

PV market is growing with a new wave of PV

New wave of PV to be used this year

The new generation of photovoltaics are said to enter the clean energy market in 2014 as analysts predict and since investments are coming back.

Analysts at IHS Technology believe that the new wave of PV technologies like n-type substrates and diamond wire will be more available this year since solar companies boost the capital expenditure.

Resilience and trust in global solar markets, combined with new spending cycles, will do much for solar’s transition from nowadays technologies to next-generation PV, as analysts say. They also announce that people will spend $3.4 billion in 2014 on PV this year.

“Innovative technologies will be atop the agendas of major solar manufacturers globally now that supply and demand has come to closer alignment,” reports IHS solar demand analyst, Jon Campos.

“While most experts thought that overcapacity issues would remain significantly longer, the fundamental assumptions made by IHS were that the industry would move toward market equilibrium behind increasing demand in the emerging markets, and that PV manufacturers would turn to advanced technologies to compete with traditional forms of energy production – assumptions that are now coming to fruition,” he added.

Diamond wire, n-type and CdTe are going up. A report IHS made this year says that solar producers that have made it through the past year and a half is are searching for more profitable ways to get slicing tools. Taking this into account, diamond wire is going to take the place of steel wire. Moreover, industry norms will also move in the monocrystalline market, where N-type cells will start to substitute p-type substrates because of the bigger tolerance to common impurities and high minority carrier diffusion lengths.

Switzerland will adopt PV self-consumption rules

Homeowners that want green electricity helped by the gorverment

Switzerland has new rules regarding small-PV systems

The new ruling will be adopted starting from the beginning of the next month. Residential PV customers can choose to reimburse 30% of the bills or a FIT.

Swiss homeowners that want to use green energy and decide to purchase solar panel systems can’t consume the resulted electricity right way, but they have to wait until Switzerland’s law will be amended, on the 1st of April.

At the moment, all Swiss photovoltaic systems that work have to turn over to the electricity grid all energy they produce. Even though owners are qualified to take in a feed-in tariff FIT, self-consumption is banned.

But the newly adopted rule accepted by the Swiss Federal Council also, says that the ones involved in using small-scale PV systems could enjoy the energy it generates. The remaining power will be delivered to other members of the community that need electric power, as the authorities announce.

The government of Switzerland wants to help homeowners even more and help them to make the installation process a little bit more affordable. This means they are giving them the right to choose between a 30% reimbursement of the installation price, or qualification to the FIT scheme.

Switzerland’s leading solar association, Swissolar, agrees with the new regulations and announced that they want to be a part of the process by making the FIT acceptance easier to reach.

In 2013, Swissolar disagreed with the Swiss government’s plan to lower the country’s fit rate by between 35-40%. That‘s because they didn’t want the huge tariffs to be an impediment for the solar sector’s development.

New storage solution developed

Solar energy storage is now more efficient and cost-effective

Bionic leaf for solar energy storage

Researchers from a well-known laboratory in the United States have found a new method of storing solar energy. The solution is called bionic leaf that can transform the energy from the sun into a fuel obtained in a similar way that plants convert light into energy. This leads to much more efficient way of obtaining energy.

The idea is based on an easy process. So the process of using photovoltaic cells to get electric power you cause a chemical reaction that can stock energy the form of hydrogen that can be used in a hydrogen fuel cell to produce electricity.

This method allows you to stock the energy on a long term and in any quantities. The biggest advantage is the fact that this new type of storage is not affected by the unstable nature of solar energy. The concept is simple, you just have to drop a photoelectrochemical cell in a bucket of water and let it go to work stripping out the hydrogen.

This means that there is more way of sustainable way of obtaining hydrogen than the standard that is used at the moment. And if big brands like Toyota and GM set to bring hydrogen fuel cell cars into the light, there is a competition to develop solar powered hydrogen production at scale.

The only thing about this cell is that you have to figure out the perfect combinations of materials that can bring a cost-effective energy.

The general cost of the process is more important than the cell efficiency since in the solar energy market the electricity consumption is very little. The researchers are also taking into account the fact that the performance of the photocathode

Solar energy can also be fun with color solar cells

Colorful solar cells

Researchers from the University of Michigan brought solar industry to a new level as they invented colorful transparent cells with decorations and shades.

The first see-trough colored cells can easily be used to harvest energy from the sun and beautifuly decorate the buildings where they are installed, and boost the solar energy installations.

An electrical engineering and computer science professor, mechanical engineering, and macromolecular science and engineering at U-M, Jay Guo says that “this offers a very different way of utilizing solar technology rather than concentrating it in a small area. Today, solar panels are black and the only place you can put them on a building is the rooftop. And the rooftop of a typical high-rise is so tiny. We think we can make solar panels more beautiful—any color a designer wants. And we can vastly deploy these panels, even indoors.”

Guo, the lead author of a paper about the work newly published, says that solar panels like this could be installed in a large variety of places, such as: side of building, bilboards or windows.

The new technology was demonstrated on an American flag model. “All the red stripes, the blue background and so on—they are all working solar cells,” Guo said. The model has a 2% efficiency. A normal-sized solar panel can produce sufficient energy for lightning and small devices.

The only drawback of this model is the fact that even if the researchers are struggling to improve the figures, the fact that colored panels reflect the light from the sun and not converting it into electricity will never change. So the beautifuly design has its costs. Still, as opposed to other colored cells, these ones don’t use microstructures that can harm the process as they are built to transmit certain light wavelengths