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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

Solar energy at night. Harvard physicists believe it’s possible

Harvard physicists found a way to make solar work at night

Federico Capasso and Steven Byrnes, Harvard physicists, believe a new type of renewable energy can be a solar cell-like device that could collect energy during the night. The idea that could change the solar industry is based on a principle: clean energy can be collected anytime a body transfers its hot energy to a cool body.

So, heated by the sun, our planet emits infrared radiations into the cool space. The solar cells we all know and appreciate can capture the energy from the sun during the day, but if connected to a emissive energy harvester, they could also do this at night.

“It’s not at all obvious, at first, how you would generate DC power by emitting infrared light in free space toward the cold. To generate power by emitting, not by absorbing light, that’s weird. It makes sense physically once you think about it, but it’s highly counter-intuitive,” as Capasso reports.

The two physicists discovered two types of models suitable. One could use modified cells to catch the infrared radiation. The process is named thermal EEH and it means the Earth would be a hot plate, and a cooler one would be above the ground. The accumulated energy would rapidly go into the air.

The idea is just in the concept phase tough. The scientist still don’t know if enough energy could be gathered from the process.

“It is possible to harvest energy from Earth’s thermal infrared emission into outer space. We calculate the thermodynamic limit for the amount of power available, and as a case study, we plot how this limit varies daily and seasonally in a location in Oklahoma,” said the team.

Expensive public illumination was put to an end on a street in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu

Nepal's capital city has solar street lamps

Nepal has solar street lamps

A central street from the Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu, has a new way of facing the dark: solar powered street lamps.

This big step for the Asian solar industry couldn’t have been possible without the collaboration between Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Durbarmarg Development Board (DDB). The chief of the Urban Development Committee from KMC announced that most of the construction is finished, meaning that poles with twin lights have already been installed.

KMC gave permission to DDB to put into action the project that will bring to the street of Durbarmarg not less than 30 solar street lamps, installed on both sides of the street.

“Right now we have planted the lamps just as dividers. We will also equip the foot lanes with additional lamps,” announced Rijal, chief at KMC.

To project is predicted to reach Rs 11.79 million and is possible due to a public-private partnership of KMC and the DDB. If this project reaches its goals, KMC is willing to bring a clean light to all main roads in the city.

“This is just a pilot project, and we are sure it will attract more local communities to solar powered lamps, considering the growing power crunch. This will be proposed in most of the four lanes within the Capital,” said Rijal.

The project was no easy to implement as in 2013 KMC asked for help from public and consumers committees for about 30% of the installation price but they got no support at all. Still, KMC got Rs 380 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The bank is going to supply with 600 light, and half of them will be under the jurisdiction of KMC.

Roxana Moraru

Solar power has reached Indian ATMs

ATMs in rural India to work on green energy

Solar ATMs installed in Indian rural areas

Telecom towers, bank branches, data centers and ATMs in power deficient rural India can now benefit from solar power energy. This applies to the pour in energy area of the Asian country.

Not only is the government showing its support, but companies are also helping with supplies for power back-up and solar power producers. This direction is getting popular as many companies are in need of green power.

Sunil Khanna, president and Managing Director, Emerson Network Powe r “We are providing solar inverters of smaller ratings to ATMs. More than ATMs, our concentration is bank branches. At present, the adoption of solar power in the banking sector is at a nascent stage, but it is aggressively picking up.”

Still, he said that it is not easy to keep a record of the ATMs using solar energy but he is optimistic about Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities adopting this movement and believes it is a domain that can be explored. Moreover, he says that banks can change the old-fashioned way of data centers with ones in a box , with many advantages and financial benefits.

Telecom companies are also using solar power for telecom towers. The Chairman at Omnigrid Micropower Co. Pvt. Ltd, Sushil Jiwarajka says that “at present, we are powering more than 20 telecom towers and by April1 2014, the number will go up to 40. From one micro solar power plant site, we are powering three towers of different companies.”

He also said that thay “are providing surplus power to banks, schools, petrol pumps and even households in the locality to make our project viable.”

A big boost for the trend has something to do with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) request for companies to introduce the use of clean energy for at least half of their towers in villages.

A new way of using solar energy is developing- solar skyscraper windows

Scientists discovered a way to capture solar energy from the sun

Semi-transparent cells to be used in skyscrapers for solar energy

Solar technology is taking a step forward and could make use of giant building’s windows and build them to be solar-power generating glass.

The newly developing type of solar cells merges semi-transparency with better productivity is going to transform the global Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) market.

As it’s founders announce, the transparent strengthened PV panels could be produced starting from 2015.

The researches were done by the Oxford University physicists and Oxford Photovoltaics co-founder Professor Henry Snaith. The revealed that the new inventions was possible with the help of the oxide mineral perovskite.

The new developed cells have proved their performance by achieving 15% in the past year, outdistancing all other newly developed green technologies that didn’t break the 14% barrier even if their discovery took years.

The most important answer the scientists got has something to do with the glow associated with the use of prerokative. So, they managed to create semi-transparent cells that allow owners to clearly view outside.

The licence to the technology belongs to Oxford Photovoltaics, awarded with the British Renewable Energy Association’s Innovation Award, the UK Business Angels’ Best Early Stage Investment in a Disruptive Technology Business Award and the Solar Award for Excellence: BIPV Innovation at the 2013 Solar UK Industry Awards.

The past December, professor Snaith was nominated by Nature magazine as being one of the ten people that mattered from science’s point of view.

“The pace of development, of this new solar technology, alongside ongoing research into storage solutions, means that photovoltaics will play an increasingly important role in meeting future energy demand globally,” the professor said.

Kevin Arthur, Oxford PV Chief Executive’s words are: “We’re making great progress towards commercialisation of this ground-breaking technology and expect to sign our first licensing deals early next year. This research also emphasises the importance of nurturing links between business and academic institutions. Our sponsorship of PhD students delivers extra capacity to push our work through faster and builds a pipeline of great talent for our company. All of this will help the UK become a world leader in the multi-trillion pound electricity generation industry. ”

New power station will be installed at Dwarka by Delhi Metro

Delhi metro to install PV at it’s stations

Delhi Metro, which became the country’s first public transportation system, is willing to install pv power plants on the roofs of its stations, in order to attempt preservation of the enviroment in New Delhi.

At Dwarka Sector 21 metro station will be the first 500 kwp solar power plant and it is predicted to become functional within six months.

This remains the largest roof top station with the aforementioned capacity in the Delhi-NCR region. This wiil be set after a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) has been signed between Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and a multinational company engaged in the installation and management of solar power worldwide, in the presence of DMRC’s officials.

The central financing shall be provided by the developer and DMRC will afterwards pay for the units generated by the plant. This power will be offered to the DMRC at the presented station.

Anuj Daval, Executive Director at Corporate Communications mentioned: “After the installation of this roof top plant, Delhi Metro will also explore the possibility of installing more such plants at its stations, depots, parking lots as well as residential complexes.”
For the preservation of the surrounding environment, Delhi Metro has already got involved with a number of measures of providing sustainable means of energy.

DMRC was confirmed in 2011 by the United Nations to be the no. 1 Rail and Metro Rail based organization in the world to get Carbon Credits for downsizing Green House Gas Emissions, this aided in lowering pollution levels in the city by by 6.3 lakh tons yearly discharges and so reducing global warming.

A military base from Arizona is going to have the biggest solar power plant of this kind

Solar power plant in a Arizona military base

solar power plant to be used in Arizona

35 percent of the electricity needs in Arizona’s military base will be fulfilled by the new installation. The U.S. Air Force is planning to use 25% more renewable electricity by 2025.

California’s SunEdison and MIC Solar Energy Holdings are the companies responsible for completing the 16.4 MW PV plant situated in the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base outside Tucson in Arizona.

The project represents the largest solar power plant in the U.S. Department of Defense installation and is said to diminish the Air Force’s utility costs by $500,000 per year in the upcoming 25 years.

“This project was very rewarding for our team because we are helping save our fellow taxpayers’ money. The Air Force, like other branches of the armed forces, is a perfect candidate for solar power because they have high electricity demands and often have large plots of underutilized land,” is the opinion of Bob Powell, SunEdison president of North America.”

SunEdison views the project as doable because of a public-private alliance between Davis-Monthan AFB, SunEdison, the North American Development Bank (NADB), MIC Solar Energy, Chevron Energy Solutions and local officials.

A subsidiary of Macquarie Infrastructure Company, MIC Solar Energy , specializes in framework contributions and took over the project. The SunEdison Renewable Operation Center (ROC), that supplies asset management, monitoring and reporting services, all day every day will administer plant operations with the help of a contract with MIC Solar Energy.

The plant is made to supply 35 percent of the base’s electricity needs and can provide the necessary electricity for 5,173 houses. As the biggest consumer of energy in the federal government, the Air Force is planning to bring up the use of green energy.

U.K. and Bulgaria, the two EU countries who adhered to WEEE PV Directive in time

Two E.U. countries submitted to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive

U.K and Bulgaria intro directives in their national lows

Just two E.U. countries submitted to the most recent Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) on PV modules and introduced them in their national laws until de 14th of February deadline.

Last Friday was the last chance for E.U. countries to comply with the most recent WEEE directives, a set of rules for the disposal of old solar PV modules and just the governments of the U.K. and Bulgaria brought the latest text into their national law.

This directive was primary introduced in August 2012 and was meant to incorporate rules and advices on the proper disposal of solar PV modules for the first time. 18 months was the changeover period in which the solar PV industry and every nation’s governments could make the necessary improvements to the standard removal and waste management, and the law that implies them.

The end of that period was on February 14, and even if the governments in key PV markets all over the E.U. didn’t officially transferred the guidelines into their own national versions of the European directive, WEEE will be a significant to the PV sector during 2014 and more, as the pan-European PV recycling and take-back organization, PV Cycle reports .

“Under WEEE, PV companies in the European Union will not only have to ensure the collection and recycling of their discarded end-of-life products, but are required to also guarantee the financial future of PV waste management,” announced PV Cycle’s managing director, Jan Clyncke.

Even if only Bulgaria and the U.K. subscribe to the necessary changes until now, other European countries showed their bids for compliance.