Europe – Page 4 – Solar Magazine

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. ”

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.

Chinese modules with Taiwanese cells are considered Chinese

European commission sets new rules for Chinese modules

Chinese modules with cells from Taiwan considered Chinese

The European Commission forced to set another set of rules regarding the provenance of the Chinese modules in order to block goods selling from third countries.

Industry allegations regarding the fact that a recent resolution about he sources of solar modules manufactured in China, using Taiwanese cells spared the panels from minimal module pricing and export cap neccesities were rejected by the European Commission. Karel De Gucht, EU Trade Commissioner arranged in July a minimum module cost for these modules made in China, along with an annual cao on the quantity of panels that could be exported to Europe, it is said to be 7 GW of the predicted 10 GW of solar EU imports from China.

PV magazine pointed out on Jan. 27 an industrial source who declared that a choice made by the EU inDecember by which it was clarified the rules of origin excused these panels made in China, with use of Taiwanese cells from the deal agreement and it became very improbable that the quantity of panels produced with Chinese cells to reach the 7 GW amount.

The European Commission’s press officer for EU Trade Policy, Helene Banner, announced that the set of rules of origin apply to “goods originating in China” but also to “goods consigned from China, irrespective of their origin.”

This means that modules that are put together in China and Taiwanese cells are part of the second statement, , since they are accredited from China, as the press officer explained.

The Commission wanted to spell out the rules of origin because they wanted to prevent avoid situations like Chinese manufacturers sending unfinished modules to third countries and after that to sell them as if they were produced in those countries, by that refrain from the measures. But if the origin of the goods is stated the products will be looked at as made in China.

Harvard comes with a new type of battery for cheaper Energy Storage

Hardvard researchers discovered a cheaper way to store energy

There is always a good news when someone announces that renewable energy could be cheaper.

The last institution that gave this news is Harvard University that says they invented a new “flow battery” that can find its utility in large-scales, such as within electricity grids, for storing intermittent renewable energy from green sources such as wind and solar. The research describing the new “metal free organic-inorganic aqueous flow battery”, was released in the journal Nature on 9 January.

The Harvard researchers report that for the creation of this battery they made use of a previously unnoticed group of organic compounds named quinones. They have many advantages and the main one is that they can help with the production of cheap batteries that are able to charge and discharge green energy quicker than available batteries can do it.

Those who made the investigation possible say that it can functions as good as the batteries that already exist and are made of way more expensive metals. The new invented battery doesn’t use a precious metal catalyst, but it has a metal free underlying chemistry that uses the naturally abundant quinones.

Quinones are water-soluble compounds that are able to store energy in plants and animals. They can be found in every green vegetable, and the molecule used by the researchers is almost identical to the one in rhubarb. Quinones are naturally abundant and water-soluble, large, inexpensive tanks could replace the traditional and more expensive solid-state batteries.

This is good news for the green world and a renewable energy expands it is crucial that inexpensive, large-scale renewable energy storage will develop.

UK wind farm subsidies are to be cut off by Europe

Europe will oblige UK to cut wind power subsidies

U.K will cut off wind energy subsidies

The European Commission is going to request the British country to put an end to wind farm subsidies.

Ministers have been told that the present degree of state support for renewable energy sources have to be eliminated until 2020. Moreover, solar energy is not escaping either, as taxpayer support will also be phased out.

The European Commission that supervises the European single market is ready to try and convince that onshore wind in UK and solar power industries are developed enough to function even if taxpayers do not contribute.

A Government source announced that European officials have privately ordered ministers that they have to lower public support for onshore wind and solar generators.

Even if Conservative ministers don’t always agree with the Commission’s sometimes criticize the EC for its intervention in domestic matters, they are understood to be keen to cooperate in the case of renewable energy subsidies. A Conservative minister’s words are: “It’s absurd that taxpayers are being made to subsidies wind technology.”

The operators of onshore wind turbines get subsidies that make the power they generate more expensive. Ministers begun to cut off those subsidies, reducing tariffs that are applied to household bills and withering guaranteed prices for onshore wind. But the EC is pressuring him Coalition to impose a less supportive system for onshore wind and solar power. This new regime will take care of the fact that there will be a competition between wind farm operators and that there will be a share of a reduced pool of public subsidies.

The Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, announced that onshore wind and solar farm developers would be obliged to compete to secure government subsidies. The commission will announce the results of a review of support for renewable energy this month.
Although UK is happy with this cut off, other EU states do not want to reduce public support for renewables.

The EU’s climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard , said “One of the things Europe has to do better is how we subsidies renewables. That is why the commission is reviewing state aid guidelines for energy, including renewables. My view is that if you have mature technologies, renewables or not, they should not have state aid. If they can manage themselves why have state aid?”