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Archive for Global

SLevy | June 20, 2012
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Getting to Market with Steve Bank

The Scientific Method for Getting Technology to Market

A Webinar with Steve Blank

Thursday, June 21st
Presentation: 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
Live Q&A Discussion: 2:00-2:30 pm EDT

CLICK TO REGISTER

Join us for an encore broadcast of The Scientific Method for Getting Technology to Market followed by a live Q&A discussion with entrepreneur, Steve Blank.

Great technologies don’t automatically attract users and thrive in the real world. Successful entrepreneur and professor Steve Blank will show how hypothesis-driven discovery and experimentation can turn your innovations into successful products with societal impact. Learn how to hone in on the true value of your technology through early and effective engagement with customers, and see why Silicon Valley startups, corporations like GE, and the National Science Foundation have adopted this methodology to advance their leading innovations.

Be sure to register to participate in the live event. If you attended Mr. Blank’s presentation during the 2012 Summit, then you can opt to join us at 2:00 pm for the live Q&A discussion only.

NOTE: In order to watch the rebroadcast from 1:00 – 2:00 pm, you will need to log into the webinar from a high-speed internet connection. If you experience buffering issues, then we will provide you with a direct link to the recording and a PDF of Mr. Blank’s slides.

This is the second in an intended series of rebroadcasts of practical seminars originally delivered at the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Each seminar focuses on a different core concept or skill that can help transition breakthrough technologies into successful commercial products.

Category: Business / Economics, Call to Action, financing, Global, jobs, National, Political, Solar, Technology, Tennessee, Training |
SLevy | May 30, 2012
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The Birth of the Net-Zero Energy Community

Sandia National Laboratories and Forest City Enterprises – Partnering for a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future

In Albuquerque, N.M., a smart grid-solar-energy storage project backed by a consortium of Japanese giants is testing out a key element of the  net-zero energy community: how to harness mass-market solar to balance the grid inside and outside the neighborhood’s borders. This project could take the claim of the first fully functioning microgrid in the country, said Manny Barrera, Mesa Del Sol’s director of engineering.

Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind, coupled with smart grid and microgrid technologies, energy storage, and energy efficiency are viable options to address the problem of system integration. However, integrating these systems require full understanding of operational challenges and establishing a return on investment.

To address these challenges, Sandia National Laboratories and Forest City Enterprises are collaborating to advance research and provide real-world test beds to Mesa del Sol project. As the centerpiece of the venture is the 78,000-square-foot Aperture Center which has been set up to run on its own solar power with its 440-kilowatt peak load covered by a 50-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system, an 80-kilowatt fuel cell, a 240-kilowatt natural gas powered generator and a 160-kilowatt-hour battery storage system.

The technology — and funding — comes via Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), which is investing about $10 million in the Mesa Del Sol project as well as U.S. private and government funding.

original article

Category: Business / Economics, Energy Storage, financing, Global, National, Renewable Energy, Solar, Technology |
SPartin | May 28, 2012
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Germany Sets Solar Power Record: 50% of Electricity Demand

(Reuters)

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour—equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity—through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.

The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.

They will be replaced by renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-mass.

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation’s midday electricity needs.

“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity,” Allnoch told Reuters. “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.”

The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world’s leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

Category: Business / Economics, Global, Solar |
SLevy | May 25, 2012
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Latest Generation Of Disruptive Solar Technologies

The grid shows that innovations in materials and cell designs will help stabilize module prices at $0.90/W, while the cost of goods sold will fall on account of improved cell efficiencies, cheaper processes and thinner wafers. Among other findings, the report predicts that direct solidification will provide cheaper wafers, and that direct solidification of molten silicon offers the best way toward kerfless wafering (which eliminates losses from sawing). This technology is a top target on the Disruptive PV Technology Grid, with a market size of up to $600 million. 1366 Technologies is the clear leader and is expected to be the first to reach commercialization by 2013, according to Lux Research.

Alternatives to cell efficiency will increase. Anti-reflective and light-trapping coatings are second-tier technologies, but they are among the top targets, with a market size of more than $600 million. These technologies provide cost-effective alternatives for efficiency gains. According to Lux Research, Natcore is the leader in this space with likely commercialization this year.

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Category: Business / Economics, Global, PV Tech Newscast, Renewable Energy, Solar |
SLevy | May 10, 2012
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Saudi Arabia targets 41GW of solar installations by 2032

This solar rooftop in Saudi Arabia, shown here during construction, is now complete and connected to the grid.


The world’s largest oil producer is now generating electricity from the sun. Saudi Arabia’s National Solar Systems (NSS) and Conergy, a German-based solar consortium, last week announced the completion of a solar park on the rooftop of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

“For the first time, clean power is flowing into the national grid. This is a historical event for us in Saudi Arabia,” explained Abdulhadi Al-Mureeh, the managing director of NSS.

Although it sits on about 20% of the world’s proven oil reserves, Saudi Arabia seeks to make solar power a significant component of its energy supply within the next decade. This includes plans for a series of solar-powered desalination facilities, incorporating locally developed nanotechnology.

The solar rooftop at KAUST is a modest start, generating 2 MW of power. However, the oil-rich kingdom sees a sunny future: “Saudi Arabia aspires to export as much solar energy in the future as it exports oil now,” Saudi Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ali Al-Naimi, declared in a recent interview.This is a wake up call for the United States that the oil rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is planning 41 GW of solar for their country. The proposed framework would cost tens of billions of dollars and see Saudi Arabia producing almost 25% of its electricity from solar power installations.

If the plans come to fruition, Saudi Arabia will become one of the world’s largest solar power producers. King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA-CARE), the government body directing alternative energy development, have announced the country’s ambitious long-term goals for solar power. The first round of bidding will be in the first quarter of 2013, where 1.1GW worth of PV project and 0.9GW of concentrated solar PV (“CSP”) will be up for sale. The second round of bidding will take place in the third/fourth quarter of 2014, when they will be offering 1.3GW worth of PV project and 1.2GW of CSP. The minimum project size for sale is expected to be 5MW. Project offers will be assessed on qualitative measures such as experience in the development of solar projects as well as suggested price per kWh of produced electricity.

Through the implementation of the program according to KA-CARE aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s energy mix to create jobs, generate green power and reduce the wasteful use of hydrocarbons.

Category: Business / Economics, Global, Solar |
SPartin | May 7, 2012
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The Simple Tool That Saves Women’s Lives

A woman at the Iridimi camp in Chad boils water in a solar cooker (photo courtesy of Jewish World Watch)

A cardboard box is saving the lives of thousands of people in Africa. It’s called a solar cooker, and it is pure ingenuity. Take two pieces of cardboard, add some tinfoil and sunlight—and anything can be cooked. You can even get water to boil.

With the help of thousands of Americans, solar cookers have found their way to camps in Chad that house refugees who fled the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. More than 250,000 live in these camps, each sheltering about 20,000 people.

The cookers have made a huge difference—and not just because they are a way to heat food. Without them, refugee women must go outside the camp to gather firewood. But to leave camp is to gamble with death. Women and children—especially girls—are “particularly vulnerable to attack and rape when they are out getting wood,” says Rachel Andres, director of the Solar Cooker Project at Jewish World Watch. The equation is simple, she says. A solar cooker keeps you in camp, and that helps keep you alive.

The numbers back this up. A recent survey at one refugee camp showed that journeys to collect firewood outside the camps dropped by 86% after the solar cookers were made available.

Full Article

Category: Fun, Global, Solar |
SPartin | April 25, 2012
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Tennessee Could Power the World’s 1.5 Billion Without Electricity

An estimated 1.5 Billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population, are without electric power.  Reliable electric power is key to economic development around the world.  Electricity is needed to power cell phones, medical equipment, schools, lighting, radio, and many other uses to increase human health and the quality of life.  The answer to reliable electric power for all people is a solar powered, inexpensive, air-droppable power source.

According to the Humanitarian Technology Challenge sponsored by the United Nations Foundation and the IEEE, what is needed is a low cost, high reliability, low maintenance, high scalability and flexibility, environmentally friendly solution to energy accessibility.  A household in a rural area without power only needs a modest 0.1 to 1 kW of power, and a rural hospital only needs 3 to 5 kW of power.  A solar powered air-droppable power source fits all of these requirements.

Our vision is a 5 kW solar array combined with a power box that will house all the power electronics and enough energy storage to continue supplying power at night or through the rainy season.    The power source is neatly packaged and air-dropped into location, where it can be set up in a few hours by the local population.  All they have to do is inflate the solar panel array, plug it into the power box, and then simply plug in their lights, cell phones, or anything they require day or night.

As the village requires more electricity, the modular design of the system allows for the flexibility of adding more panels or more energy storage in the future.  A system can accommodate energy storage levels from 1 kWh to 50 kWh.  The system could also be used as an energy source for a micro grid connecting to all of the houses and small businesses in the village.

This is an achievable goal with new technology in the next 5 years at a low price that would enable a village to buy their own systems.  Instead of relying on foreign aid money, the people of the village can pay as little as $2.00 a month to buy their own power source through micro loans.

We could build a factory for these systems here in Tennessee, and sell these systems to the people of less developed countries all over the world.  This would be a giant leap to helping our fellow humans.  We can bring jobs and money into our community, while making the world a better place for everyone.  We are our brother’s keeper.

For more information on the Humanitarian Technology Challenge, visit their website at: ieeehtc.org.

Category: Business / Economics, Energy Storage, Fun, Global, Solar, Technology, Tennessee |
SLevy | April 7, 2012
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Proposed Satellite Would Beam Solar Power to Earth

PASADENA, Calif. — An energy-hungry Earth is in need of transformational and sustainable energy solutions, experts say.
For decades, researchers have been appraising the use of power-beaming solar-power satellites. But the projected cost, complexity and energy economics of the notion seemingly short-circuited the idea.
Now, a unique new approach has entered the scene, dubbed SPS-ALPHA, short for Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array. Leader of the concept is John Mankins of Artemis InnovationManagement Solutions of Santa Maria, Calif.
Mankins provided a detailed overview of the power-beaming concept here during the 2012 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts meeting March 27-29. [Video: Beaming Power From Space]
The NIAC is under the wing of NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist, which is providing a technology and innovation focus for the space agency.
Huge platforms

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Category: Business / Economics, Global, National, Renewable Energy, Solar, Technology |
SLevy | March 21, 2012
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China’s Solar, DC-Powered Microgrid, Courtesy of Intel, Nextek, LBNL and People Power

Xiamen University

Solar panels generate direct current (DC) power, and computers, printers, telephones, lights, and pretty much every other typical office power load use DC power. Why waste energy converting all that power to alternating current (AC) and back again, just to satisfy a century-old convention for how we electrify buildings?
That’s the premise behind a fascinating project underway at China’s Xiamen University that’s using DC power to connect rooftop solar panels to lights, HVAC systems, data centers and plug-in vehicle chargers. Nextek Power Systems is providing the solar-to-building DC power technology, China-based Canadian Solar provides the solar panels, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup People Power will provide the cloud-based software platform to connect it to people in the building.

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Category: Business / Economics, Global, National, Renewable Energy, Solar, Technology |
SPartin | March 20, 2012
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World Solar Photovoltaic Market Grew to 27.4 Gigawatts in 2011, Up 40% Y/Y

Overall market growth in 2011 was boosted by strong second half demand ahead of further deep cuts in solar incentives. This followed a period of over-production in the first half that triggered the sustained price decline through the PV chain that came to characterize 2011. The dominance of Chinese manufacturers in crystalline silicon wafers, cells and modules grew, the share of thin film declined, and demand in Asian markets grew rapidly.

The PV industry generated $93 billion in global revenues in 2011, up 12% Y/Y, while the industry successfully raised more than $8 billion in corporate equity and debt.

Major PV Country Markets (GW):

Of the more than 100 countries worldwide covered in Marketbuzz, the top five PV markets were Germany, Italy, China, the United States, and France—74% of global demand in 2011. China soared 470% Y/Y, rising from to third place from seventh in 2010.

Over the next five years, factory-gate module prices are projected to drop between 43% and 53% from 2011 levels. Average c-Si factory-gate prices in 2012 will be at least 29% lower than the 2011 average.

Full Article

Category: Business / Economics, Global, Solar |
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