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December 30, 2004: Visiting the homestead of professor Wubbo Ockels. Last January, dr. Ockels (former astronaut and currently full professor at the Universities of Delft and Groningen, and well known as team chief of the successful NUNA solar racecar that won the World Solar Challenge 2001 and 2003 (www.alpha-centauri.nl) decided to install grid-tied PV panels on his home. The roof now carries 63 PV panels rated at 150 Wp each. These panels power 6 inverters (4 Fronius and 2 Philips). The direction is perfect: south. During my visit on the 29th of December it was a sunny day, and the panels were performing quite well: 3200 Watts (!). Dr. Ockels is a very satisfied man because his electricity utility bill has been reduced to zero, while the electricity used by his household is generated superclean, environmentally benign, quiet and emission-free.
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December 29, 2004: Subsidies in the UK for renewables. LONDON — Fifteen new solar photovoltaic (PV) energy projects across the UK will receive almost £1million in funding, bringing the total amount awarded to medium and large-scale projects since the Government established its scheme in 2002 to £17.4million.
Part of the Government's aim to see the UK generating 10 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable resources by 2010, the solar PV grant programme is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and managed by the Energy Saving Trust (EST).
Since the establishment of the scheme, 166 medium and large-scale projects from throughout the UK have been granted funding and on completion will generate 5391kWp of electricity.
London's National Maritime Museum will get an installation to generate renewable energy for the site. It will also incorporate it into an Eco-exhibition, where the use of solar power will be discussed and the photovoltaic system's monitoring equipment will form part of the exhibit.
Another investment will be on the remote Scottish island of Foula, Shetland's most westerly island, with a population of just 31. It is completely isolated from the national grid and must generate all its power locally. The grant will be used to build a hybrid system that will provide 100 per cent of the island's power requirements through the use of a photovoltaic array fitted to the community hall roof and a hydro electric plant.
December 15, 2004: Voltwerk en Michelin are busy constructing 10 MWp solar PV in Germany. The German solar energy specialist and the French tire concern have joined efforts to install about 10 MWp in solar energy. The panels will be divided over four projects. Two of these, Homburg (2.6 MWp) and Landau (1.4) will be completed before the end of this year. Next year the installations at Bad Kreuznach (4MW) and Bamberg (1.5 MW) will be completed. The systems comprise 60,000 panels covering 200,000 square meters. The yield will be sufficient to power 2,600 households. Investment is approximately 50 miljoen euro (Source: Solarbuzz.com).
December 9, 2004: The Dutch Minister for the Economy has expressed his opinion that PV panels should be placed in the Sahara. How can a Minister ever be so wrong? Should 40,000 Dutch and 100,0000 German citizens sell their homes and move with their PV panels to the Sahara ? What about 100,000 Japanese citizens and as many Americans?
December 3, 2004: Stagnation in the growth of the number of solar thermal installations installed in The Netherlands. Year after year the number of installed solar thermal installations on private roofs has grown - until the second quarter of 2004. According to figures published by Holland Solar (www.hollandsolar.nl) the number of newly installed solar thermal installations is down in the second quarter (for the first time since 1996). According to the Assistant-Secretary for the Environment, PV panels and solar thermal installatations do not need to be subsidized any more since they 'can hold up their own pants'. The numbers, though, prove that the government is utterly wrong in its assertion.
December 2, 2004: The biggest offshore wind turbine in the world is an Enercon E-112 being installed near Emden, Germany. This big one is a 4.5 MW machine, 108 meters hub height, blade length 53 meters. The manufacturer has calculated that this machine will produce 15.000.000 kWh yearly (equal to the yearly consumption of 4,286 average Dutch households). This is the fourth E-112 being installed.
November
29, 2004: According to Reuters, Russia's Federation Council (the
upper house of parliament) has ratified the Kyoto Protocol by a vote of 334
to 74. Now only President Vladimir Putin's signature is necessary to kickstart
global efforts to control climate change. 90 days after Russia's instrument
of ratification has been received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
the Protocol will become law.
| November 12, 2004: At the open day of the Polytechnical School Rijswijk I noted a model of a hydrogen based fuel cell. Hydrogen is supplied by a PV cell. See the Hydrogen Special page (or click on the image) |  |
October
31, 2004: Nice figures! A publication by the Netherlands Statistics
Office (CBS) reports 46,000 kWp solar photovoltaic panels and 75,850 solar thermal
installations on the roofs of Dutch homes and buildings at the end of 2003.
PV increased a staggering 50% in one year alone. Renewable sources account for
1.5% in the national energy mix. For the first time in years this amount has
not changed, indicating that much, much more has to be done to save the energy
situation (see October 26, 2003 message). The CBS document can be downloaded
from
http://www.cbs.nl/nl/publicaties/publicaties/bedrijfsleven/energie-water/index.htm
October 26, 2004: The International Energy Agency warns in its IEA World Energy Outlook 2004 that in a business-as-usual scenario towards 2030 huge problems will arise in the oil supply. The agency projects as well as an unprecedented 60% rise in CO2 emissions (www.iea.org).
October 22, 2004: Milestone? The State Duma, the Russian Lower House of Parliament, has voted 334-73 'yes' in favor of ratification of the Kyoto Protocols. Only a vote in the Upper houde and the signature of President Putin and 'Kyoto' has achieved international legal status. Milestone!
September 9, 2004: Adopt a winning solar cell! The preparations for the World Solar Challenge 2005 have already started. In 2001 and 2003 a Dutch became first with the Nuna solar car. The next time a second big Dutch team will hit the solar roads: the Solar Team Twente of Twente Technical University (with their SolUTion solar car). Companies as well as organizations and private persons are invited to sponsor one or more of the car's solar cells. Help this team to join the race!
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31 august, 2004: Men on the loft. The horrible weather last week made it impossible to work on the solar panels. Today we had an early morning shower and beyond that fair weather all day long. The solar company's engineers arrived, climbed onto the loft and disassembled the six original Sunpower panels (mounted in 2000). The disassembling had to be done because these panels were so-called AC panels (back-mounted OK4E inverters). The OK4E's were taken off and DC cables were installed. All inverters are from now inside my home, safe, protected and accessible. The OK4E inverters that still function are on line while the defect inverters have been replaced with Mastervolt Sunmaster 130S inverters. All panels are now back into business. Losses in August (electricity not produced): 5 kWh. |
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August 25, 2004: Pelamis is powering the grid! Pelamis is a sea wave generator that looks like an oversized string of sausages. Surf to http://www.oceanpd.com/
August 23, 2004: Second inverter down
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OK4E #13765 went down on August 2. Yesterday, production of OK4E #13211 suddently showed zero Watts. It is extremely embarrassing for the manufacturer, NKF that their nice and durable OK4E inverters apparently quit by the dozen. When I bought these inverters, the manufacturer promised at least 20 years of uninterrupted service and a MTBF of over 50,000 hours. I bought my PV system in 2000. Four years is 35040 hours (divide by two to get 17520 hours of daylight). Statistically spoken it is nearly unthinkable that two inverters with such specifications go down within the time span of one month (see message of August 2, below). The manufacturer is invited to prove that their high profile inverter is a good product and not a shoddy piece of scrap. As a consumer I feel extremely unhappy about this.! Everybody in Holland who has purchased solar panels equipped with OK4E's before 2002 should measure output of his precious panels. One mey be surprised. I took my production meter to one good acquaintance who owns four panels, flat roof mounted, [purchased 2000] and measured 2 out of 4 inverters down. This is 50% down. My system currently has 33.3% down. Both inverters have produced appoximately 325 kWh during their productive lifetime. If anybody has an Ok4E with more than 325 kWh, then let me know. I am eager to know the OK4E that has the most kWh produced ever (before quitting or still happily producing) ---> send an e-mail with screenshot attached! |
August 20,2004: Hydrogen Solar (www.hydrogensolar.com) is a company dealing with solutions to exploit solar energy directly for the production of hydrogen gas. The future hydrogen economy will require huge amounts of hydrogen gas. However, there are no such things as hydrogen fields and hydrogen wells. One has to manufacture this energy carrier. There are in principle two ways of making hydrogen gas:
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Release hydrogen from hydrocarbons. This process uses fossil fuels in the first place, and it has a conversion efficiency of 50%. After transport of the gas, it has to be combined with oxygen in a fuel cell in order to produce electricity to propel your car (also with a conversion efficiency of 50%, so the chain conversion efficiency is only 25%). With such a low chain conversion efficiency one is better off burning the hydrocarbons directly in a diesel engine (process efficiency 35%). Using hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen typically is not a renewable way of working. |
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Reduce plain water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. Catch both gases, transport and and use in fuel cells. Elektrolysis needs huge amounts of electricity. Nuclear fusion reactors might be usable here, but the nuclear option is not particularly safe, cheap and clean. |
Hydrogen Solar is developing a process along the second principle of hydrogen production. They use a combination of a solar cell and an electrolysis unit. In their laboratory a conversion efficiency (solar to hydrogen) has been reported of 8%. The company expects a commercial marketable product as soon as the 10% efficiency barrier has been left behind.
August 12, 2004: Read on Solar Access: John Kerry and John Edward, the Democrat candidates for the US Presidency, have proposed an Energy Platform towards a reliable supply of energy to the US. One goal is to ensure that 20 percent of US electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020: wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. Fourteen states in the US have enacted similar legislation and in most cases these policies have been major catalysts for new renewable energy projects and robust green tags markets.
Concerning green tags, Kerry and Edwards support a renewable energy credit trading market so more renewable energy is deployed at lower costs and production tax credits to drive these technologies into the marketplace. The campaign said this plan will help the U.S. regain the manufacturing leadership America has lost to foreign companies in the production of renewable energy technologies like solar panels and wind power. At the same time, the Energy Platform also proposes pretty multi-billion dollar handouts to the old boys of the US coal industry.
August 9, 2004: The Dutch grid manager Tennet declares Code 1(restriction for power stations to use surface water for coolant). Solar electricity (currently 50 MWp in The Netherlands) contributes at fullspeed without restrictions to the national grid. The more sun, the better! Oil prices? It may sound strange, but the higher the price of a barrel of oil, the faster a PV system pays off. A relative advantage.
August 4,2004: Are you travelling to California? You may like to visit the Sol Fest (www.solarliving.org/solfest2004.cfm) to be held on on August 21 and 22 augustus in Hopland, CA. Your visit will be one week before the Sol Fest? Then go on August 14th to the Southern California Renewable Energy Expo in Pomona (suburb of Los Angeles) (www.socalenergyexpo.com).
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August 3, 2004: I am enjoying my summer vacation which usually means that there are some hours available to tinker a little bit with solar gadgets. I bought a couple of monocrystalline solar cells from Conrad (item #12135-8B); 10x10 cm, these produce each max 2.6 amps at 0.5 V, that is 1.3 Watt). Nice yet delicate devices. I mounted them with double-adhesive tape on a MDF base. One of the mini solar panels powers the propeller of my solar airplane (left, National Geographics kit), and the other panel powers a DC mini-ventilator (bought at some store in a flash, removed the batteries, soldered a couple of wires and mounted the entire contraption on a MDF base). The gadgets work perfect. |
August 2, 2004: Do you own solar garden lamps? These lamps consist of a high-efficency lamp, a battery and a solar panel. At daytime the battery is charged during the sunshine hours; at night the lamp burns as long as the battery holds on. These lamps are a big advantage for the gardener since they are inexpensive and, most of all, no wires have to be dug in. A diasadvantage is that the batteries do not have sufficient capacity to produce sufficient power all year long, and that's very unfortunate when you come home in the dark. In digital cameras and PDAs a handy energy-saving device is built-in: the step-up converter, which is an electronic chip that converts low DC voltage to higher DV voltages. This device can be used with success the other way around in solar garden lamps to charge batteries all year long. The Solar Wide Industrial Company, one of the worlds biggest manufacturer of garden and exterior lamps has announced to start making new garden lamps equipped with these handy step-up converters. The Dutch company True Solar Autonomy (TSA) has provided the converter design. Solar Wide expects that such a lamp will burn all year through. No more exhausted batteries in your solar garden lamp, no more dark lamps in winter.
July 25, 2004: Inverter #13765 fails.
June 20, 2004: The Springerville PV plant near Tucson, AZ, is one of the biggest solar electricity installations in the world: a staggering 3.4 megawatt-peak (see the page records). The company operating the plant publishes momentary output on a website, http://greenwatts.com/pages/solaroutput.asp
June 17, 2004: Recall action. The Lighting Division of Royal Philips Electronics has announced that some early series of their PSI300 and PSI500 inverters may be fallible and will be recalled.
June 4, 2004: AWS submerged! The Archimedes Wave Swing, a device designed to extract energy from ocean waves, was successfully positioned on its (submerged) coordinates on May 24 in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal. See the story at www.waveswing.com/
June 3, 2004: Net metering for small PV systems from now in officlal law in The Netherlands. The Dutch Parliament voted in favor of a modification of the Electricity Bill of 1998. Net metering is now explicitely mentioned. The first 3,000 kWh solar energy (the Bill mentions 'renewable energy) sent back into the public grid will be subtracted from electricity import before the customer-with-PV receives his electricty bill..
June 2, 2004: The 2003 report on progress in the area of photovoltaics in in several countries in the world (Europe, Americas, Australia) can be found at www.iea-pvps.org/
May 12, 2004: UK private homeowners can expect between 40% and 60% govenment subsidy when they put solar panels on the roofs of their homes. see
http://www.est.org.uk/solar/
April 29, 2004: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the demonstration of the first modern silicon PV solar panel (10x10 mm, efficiency 6%) The inventors were G.L. Pearson, Daryl Chapin, and Calvin Fuller. This-little-panel-that-could is still working today!
April 24, 2004: Kennemerwind. One of the many ways to support the environment and to enjoy energy in a sensible way is to become member of a co-operative wind energy asssociation. A couple of these co-ops exist in The Netherlands. The underlying idea is quite simple: if for some reason (for instance one is living in a city) it is impossible to build a wind turbine in your own backyard, then you may join forces with others to build a collective wind turbine in some appropriate spot. I am member of the co-op Kennemerwind in Heerhugowaard, in the province of Noord Holland. You guess it: Heerhugowaard is in the center of a windy region. Today was the annual meeting of Kennemerwind, so we were explained the big numbers of produced kWhs, availability of our turbines, wind load, progress of plans to replace old turbines with bigger new ones, etcetera. Wind energy is the natural partner of solar energy: when the sun does not shine it is usually windy; if the wind is down, chances are high that the sun shines. A big advantage of wind is that it is available also at night and in winter. Wind energy is a matter of big loads. While solar people think of Watts and kilowatts, wind people think in kilowatts and megawatts.
Ater the meeting there was an excursion to a wind turbine: a big one (Bonus, 600 kW) located at Nieuwe Niedorp. The owner explained the technical aspects, and then we climbed all the way up to the 50 meter high nacelle. Quite some sports, but the view was perfect on top of the big fellow.
April 21, 2004: GIRASSOL, soon the biggest solar electrical power station in the world! I found on the Global Information Network a press release that in South-Portugal a very big PV project has been started near the village of Ameraleja in the Moura municipality, province of Alentejo. A whopping 64 MWp has been projected. BP Solar has started installing PV panels last February. At the conclusion of the project, 100 hectares of PV panels will provide electrical current to the national Portuguese grid. End of the project is foreseen in 2009. See http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/en/renewable/idae_site/deploy/prj097/prj097_1.html
April 5, 2004: Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS) back in the spotlight. On February 28, 2004 we intercepted a message about the Scottish Pelamis, a device designed to extract electricity from ocean waves. The story about AWS dates from 2002 when an attempt was aborted to install the device on the ocean floor off the coast of Portugal. For those interested: The AWS is an undersea device while Pelamis floats on the water. See www.waveswing.com
March 29, 2004: Official at the doorstep. The ministery of VROM (Environment) has announced official inspection of 2,400 out of 60,000 applicants of EPR subsidy 2003. Incredibly, the ministery has never checked among private persons where the money went they handed out! There is a Euro 76 million budget gap and this might explain why the officials have suddenly woken up.
March 3 2004: In a press release by the Californian company SunPower (http://www.sunpowercorp.com) the A-300 solar cell has been announced, a cell with a conversion efficiency of a whopping 21.5%. The A-300 is a standard 5x5 inch cell (see picture: back and front), which means that it holds the world record for cells of this size. The company has announced mass production. The first cells will reach the market in the second half of 2004. One cell produces 3 W. One square meter of PV panel may hold 64 of 5x5 inch cells. Therefore, one square meter of PV panel with A-300 cells will produce 180 Watts. Picture courtesy of Sunpower corporation. February 14, 2004: Trip to Wageningen with the PV-section of ODE Last week the solar roof topping the new sports center 'De Vlinder' in the city of Wageningen, the Netherlands was officially connected to the public electricity grid. The entire accomodation consists of two big sport facilities (structures with flat roofs), and in between a large public area. This public area is covered with a so-called 'shed roof'. In addition there is a pronounced 'solar chimney' built against a the red brick office building carrying the 'Pantarijn' logo. Roof-mounted on the two big halls are hundreds of Shell S-115L PV panels. The shed roof and the solar chimney incorporate Saint-Gobain SG-160 Wp PV panels. Total peak power of the installation is 281 kWp. The owner/managing company of the PV installation is the electricity utility, NUON. In the lower right picture a row is visible of red boxes: Sunny Boy string inverters. Lined up with these Sunny Boys is a row of grey boxes: Extendis Gridfit inverters. The manager of the complex allowed us to climb onto the roof of the office building to take pictures of the PV-array. We discovered an additional 24 solar thermal collectors that are being used to supplement the hot water supply of the sports complex. Some of these collectors are visible in the right upper picture. The complex incorporates a large number of environment-friendly and energy saving measures. A landmark in renewable building. The complex has been designed by Bear architects. The trip was organized by the PV-section of the Organisatie voor Duurzame Energie. The company Stroomwerk built the PV installation.
February 12, 2004 The Dutch Secretary of the Environment is broke! His 2003 bugdet had a reservation of €72 million for solar panels, solar thermal installations and the like, to be paid to private homeowners who bought this kind of renewable-energy equipment. Thanks to the solar stampede in the fall of 2003, his obligations to homeowners weighing on his 2003 budget have risen to a staggering €175 million. Where to find the missing €100 million? His 2004 budget is a poor man's €26 million. Who is going to pay?
January 27, 2004 The owner of this home (location: Zwartewaal, island of Voorne-Putten, province of Zuid Holland) has spent a lot of attention towards allocating renewable energy sources to power his home. In total there are 28 PV panels: on the roof, the loft and on the garage. A solar thermal collector supports the hot water supply. The long black chimney almost certainly supports a sizeable wood burner. His utility electricity bill will be considerably lower than yours [and even me].
January 25, 2004: The Vestia houring corporation installs more than 3000 m2 PV panels on its rental units. Vestia Den Haag Zuid-Oost has installed on three locations in The Hague some 3100 m2 [400 kWp] of PV panels. 500 dwellings in the Groothandelsmarkt, Roggekamp and the Medemblik-, Heiloo and Hoogkarspelstreetshave been equipped with the panels. The electricty generated by these panels supplies the lighting of the common areas in these housing complexes, reducing the lighting component in the monthly rent.DECEMBER 10, 2003 (source: KNMI) The city of Den Helder, Holland has received so far this year a record 2,160 hours of sunshine. The yearly average for Den Helder is 1,581 hours of sunshine (see the page 'Solar Map of Holland'). And record sunshine [also in my hometown, Leiden] inevitably means a record performance of the photovoltaic panels. See for this the page 'monthly production'.NOVEMBER 20, 2003 The Dutch electricity utility giant, NUON announces in its newsletter 'Natuurstroom', December 2003, issue #2) that the company has installed so far this year 14,000 solar panels on the roofs of Dutch homes (action 'Zoncentrale': set of 4 PV panels per home, together 440 Wp and producing 355 kWh per year). Let's calculate: 14.000:4 = 3500 sets, that is 3500 x 355 kWh = 1,2 GWh (gigawatthours) solar electricity for each year to come.OCTOBER 19-22, 2003 7thWorld Solar Challenge Race between Darwin and Adelaide, Australia. The race was between cars powered exclusively by solar energy. The winning team is the Dutch team with a car called 'Nuna-2'. In 2001 the previous Dutch team driving the 'Nuna-1' became winner. See http://www.wsc.org.au/OCTOBER 16, 2003 Out of money. The funds from which grants (subsidies) for PV are paid from have been depleted. Subsidy for PV and for other energy-friendly [and therefore environment-friendly] measures by private persons in Holland has ended, effective NOW. Although things like these happen more often in banana republics rather than in civilized societies, the Dutch government in its infinite wisdom has taken the bold step to abolish subsidy altogether. A breakthrough in environmental thinking. Sarcasts point out that the measure is fortunately offset by raising the tax on green energy.SEPTEMBER 22, 2003 Dutch Society of Solar Energy producers founded. A group of private citizens which have in common that they own a PV system, had tjeir first meeting. The Society will actively promote the interests of PV owners (today 26,000 private PV systems in The Netherlands!SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 The Dutch Government announces the end of subsidies for PV. In one stroke the entire PV program is being wiped out.JULY 8, 2003 Shell announces a new line of solar panels (SQ-panels) with 6% higher efficiency than (their) existing panels. The improvement in efficiency is reached by making better use of the surface of the panel.JULY 1, 2003 German 100,000 Solar Roofs program has ended. Because of gigantic success, it is being said in Germany, since currently 300 MWp solar capacity has been reached, much earlier than anticipated. New subsidies can be requested in Germany based on the rules of the CO2-reduction program.
JUNE 29, 2003 What can you do when a panel seems to be OK, the inverter seems to be OK, but together they refuse to work for you. Inverter down! Take a look at the page
JUNE 26, 2003 NASA's Helios solar plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii. According to NASA the plane was flying at 21 mph at 3,000 feet altitude when it broke down and splashed into the sea.
JUNE 23, 2003 Free solar panels, is that possible? Yes, thanks to extremely generous subsidies. The company Solar-NRG sells a set of 4 PV panels 150Wp manufactured by Aleo, together with a Philips PSI 500 string-inverter, for bruto € 3210. The EPR subsidy of € 3.50 per Watt-peak adds to a whopping € 2100 rebate. The Eneco subsidy of € 1,50 per Watt-peak provides a handsome extra € 900. The 10% EPA subsidy is the killer. Net: € 000,- ! This is only for homeowners living in the areas of Holland supplied by the electrical utility service ENECO. NUON customers pay a net sum of € 430.JUNE 1, 2003 Add one, subtract one, and the result is two. The new Dutch government has announced a 10% increase of ecotax in 2005. As a consequence, the electricity bill will go up. Also, effective January 1st, 2004 no more bonus will be supplied such as currently is handed out by several electrical utility companies to homeowners installing PV panels (bonus on top of the regular subsidy of € 3.50/Wp). This bonus is considerable. The companies ENECO and Westland Energie top the list with € 1.50/Wp installed. A standard installation of 440 to 500 Wp (see page on Solar Shopping on this site) gets a whopping € 660 to 750 bonus! (for private homeowners living in ENECO- and Westland Energie-territory; NUON hands out€ 0.60/Wp).
If you are a Dutch homeowner, because of the above, right now may be a very good moment to consider the installation of PV panels on their homes or adding some panels to an existing installation (that's what I am doing). On the one hand the price for utility company electricity will rise. On the other hand, subsidy will become less. Whether the EPR-subsidy (currently € 3,50/Wp) will remain to exist in 2004 and 2005 is a matter of confidence in the stability of subsidies by the government (everybody agrees: haha-there isn't). It's up to you.
MAY 30, 2003 Between June 27 and 29 the professional exhibition Intersolar 2003 is being held in Freiburg (Germany). See www.intersolar.de.
May 29, 2003 Finally a new government. Where is the Secretary for the Environment?
APRIL 30, 2003 (source: newspaper De Stem)
Ninety primary schools in the Dutch province of Zeeland have signed up for participation in the biggest so far PV-for-schools program in The Netherlands.The renewable energy project is called 'Sun at School'. Each school will receive documentation for lessons and a set of four PV panels. The collective output will be nearly 40,000 watt-peak. On a yearly basis the collective electricty production is estimated to be 30,000 kilowatt-hours. The launch date is May, 13, with the St. Bernardus school in the village of Clinge stealing the show.
The aim of 'Sun at School' is to demonstrate to the kids and their parents the viability and practical use of solar energy. A power and production display will be provided to allow pupils to read the stastistics of 'their' four PV panels any time of the day. Lessons and practical excercises will be provided for educational purposes. Weekly production will be published via a special 'Sun-at-School' website. The website will produce graphs and tables avaialble for the participating schools.
APRIL 25, 2003 Always wanted to cover the entire roof of your home full of PV panels in a financially sound and interesting way? Take alook at www.easysolar.nl (site in Dutch only)
MARCH 24, 2003 Chances are high that the proposed big PV test project of 6,000 PV panels on the Afsluitdijk, the 32 km dike separating the IIssel lake (former Zuyderzee) between Holland and Frisia from the North Sea, will become reality. The local Frisian government will very soon decide whether or not to give the go-ahead.
MARCH 9, 2003 Attempts in Holland to assemble a coalition government drag on. Curiously, the current administration has no Secretary for the Environment. This is a ridiculous situation in a rich, industrious and densely populated country, Please surf to www.milieuminister.nl (site in Dutch only) to support a call for a Secretary for the Environment
FEBRUARY 6, 2003 The Sanyo company of Japan has announced plans for a new manufacturing plant in Osaka, Japan with a capacity of 20 MWp PV of the HIT type (HIT = Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer). The efficiency of these panels will be a staggering 18,5%
Announcement: Sustain 2003, 13-15 May 2003 - the fourth edition of this professional exhibition in the RAI Exhibition Center in Amsterdam. The subjectover is everything under the sun dealing with renewable energy, among which of course photovoltaics. Last time there were 250 exhibitors. We will try to get a free ticket andwe will keep you informed. See also www.sustain2003.com
JANUARY 13, 2003 An alternative way to store energy. See www.beaconpower.com/bpc_main.html
JANUARY 1, 2003 A solar chimney of 1 kilometer high near Mildura in the desert of New South Wales (Australia). The Australian company Enviromission is planning to build an upscaled version of the prototype solar chimney of 200 meters high that was tested between 1982 and 1989 in Manzanares, Spain. The solar collector, basically the roof of a greenhouse, at the base of the chimney will have a diamter of 7 kilometers (!). The sun will heat the air inside the greenhoude area to 30 degrees Centigrade. this air will flow upward with a speed of 60 km/hr in the chimney and power 32 wind turbines installed horizontally inside the chimney. Output is calculated to be 200 MW of electricity. Completion is expected in 2005. See www.enviromission.com.au
DECEMBER 17, 2002 Higher efficiency of PV cells? The common PV cells available to you and me are single-wavelength band silicon cells that produce electricity with a conversion efficiency of 15% because they are capable of using only a narrow band of the available wavelengths of visible light. PV applications in space technology use sandwiches of indium gallium phosphide/gallium arsenide. Such PV cells can utilize light in two bands of visible light and hence offer a higher conversion efficiency: about 23 %. In space smaller panels with higher efficiency mean less and lighter, and thus more payload. That's what counts in the space race. Recent publications describe a new type of photovoltaic cell that include a top layer of indium gallium phosphide; a second of gallium arsenide; a third of two percent nitrogen with indium in gallium arsenide; and a fourth layer of germanium. These cells could use four wavelength bands within visible light for conversion into electricity. Expected efficiency a whopping 40%.
NOVEMBER 24, 2002. Mr. I Heerma of the council of the Province of Frisia has announced that a test installation will be built on the Afsluitdijk to determine the feasibility of a big solar power station. The dike is a real big one, protecting the IJsselmeer from the North Sea. The Afsluitdijk (afsluiten means 'to cut off') connects the provinces of North Holland and Frisia. Its length is a whopping 27 kilometers. The proposal is that - if the test is successful - a solar power station will be constructed that will finally supply 3,000 households with solar electricity. Let's calculate the magnitude of a 3,000 household PV power station. 3,000 Dutch households consume each 3,000 kWh yearly. Thus the power station should produce 9,000,000 kWh/year. One standard Shell RSM 105 panel of 104 Wp produces each year 80 kWh. If these panels would make up the bulk of the proposed power station, one would need 9.000.000 / 80 = 112,500 panels. The dimensions of one RSM 105 panel are 85 x 122 cm. Let's place 112,500 panels upright and next to each other and we end up with 112,500 x 0.85 m = 95.6 kilometers. As reported above the Afsluitdijk has a length of 27 kilometers. Thus, in the final stage the south-east face of the dike will be covered with a row of at least four panels high, all along the dike. Fantastic, isn't it! This solar power station will dwarf the ones currently existing, such as the Sanyo power system, the NUON Solar Roof s (see below) and the Tucson Electric Power's (TEP) Springerville Generating Station, AZ (see www.azsolarcenter.com).
OCTOBER 2002 Solar Decathlon in Washington, USA - This is the way Americans are dealing with PV! (http://www.eren.doe.gov/solar_decathlon/)
AUGUST 30 The Dutch government announces that in 2003 green electricity (wind, solar, biomass) will be subjected to exotax. This will increase the price of green electricity with 15%. Many fear that customers will return en masse to electricity generated with conventional means. The inconsistency of the policy of the new center-right Dutch Government towards renewable energy matters (for both utility companies and end consumers) seems appaling especially when energy matters typically depend on long-term policy. Many environmental organizations and consumer organizations protest the stupid decision.
AUGUST 28 Earn money with your PV panels. New customers which sign up with the new 'green' electricity utility company Echte Energie will get a discount of 7 Eurocents per kilowatthour of electricity generated by their PV panels and fed back into the public electricity grid.
NET METERING BY NUON - April 18, 2002 The utility company NUON which expresses its deep commitment towards renewable energy (with emphasis on wind and solar, see below in NUON Solar Roof) has announced payback contracts for NUON-Natuurstroom customers who own PV panels. For each kWh fed back ito the grid, these customers will receive Euro 0,20. This decision highlights a revolution in thinking of the big energy companies: for the first time in Dutch history, individual clients are recognized as producers of green energy. What has been happening for quite some time now has received official acknowledgement: the new era of decentralized energy production.
JUNE 28-30, 2002, Freiburg, Germany: Intersolar 2002 professional exhibition. See http://intersolar.de/
MAY 11, 2002 Join the 29th Dutch National Bicycling Day. See www.landelijkefietsdag.nl
APRIL 12, 2002: The Dutch parliament finally ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
APRIL 2002 - NUON solar roof: The big energy company NUON, one of the main sponsors of the Floriade exhibition in Hoofddorp, close to the flower city of Haarlem in The Netherlands, has covered the entire roof of the Floriade's biggest exhibition hall with PV panels. This has resulted in the biggest solar roof in the world. Some numbers: 19,383 PV panels, total panel surface: 26,110m2. Electrical performance: 2.3 MWp. Per jaar this gigantic solar generator is expected to produce 1.23 GWh electricity.
APRIL 2002 Solar Ark (from our Japanse agent) The Sanyo company has built for the occasion of her 50th anniversary a giant 600 kWp solar power station in front of het Gifu facility near Osaka. This structure, nicknamed the Solar Ark,will become part of a larger multi-megawatt solar power station. More information on the Solar Ark website by Sanyo (in Japanese). The picture below is courtesy of the Sanyo company. Dimensions: surface 3294.48m2, length:315m, height:37.1m, weight:3000 tons. Per year this giant will produce 530 MWh electricity.
JANUARY 16, 2002: BP and ChevronTexaco publish plans to construct a 22.5 Mw wind farm near the joint Nerefco oil refinery near Rotterdam.
JANUARY 14, 2002: North Sea wind energy: Shell and Nuon publish a plan to construct in their joint venture North Sea Wind a wind farm with a capacity of 99 Megawatt (36 wind turbines off the coast at Egmond, the 'Near Shore Windpark')
JANUARY 13, 2002 Exhibition on environmental issues, in Brussels, between March 22 and 24. In Palace #11 of Brussels-Expo the exhibition will address the following issues: mobility, healthy living, energy, waste prevention, waste treatment, nature and envronment, water treatment and purification, biological food. Admission Euro 8. See website
NOVEMBER 28, 2001 - Winners! A solar energy-powered race engine designed by students of the Delft poltechnic university wins the great race World Solar Challenge 2001 between Darwin and Adelaide, Australia (see www.alpha-centauri.nl/). Adelaide hosted between November 25 and December 2, 2001 the world concress of ISES, the international Oganization for Solar Energy.
YOUR OWN WIND TURBINE? Watch the TURBY designed by Core International, a smart new design for small wind turbines The design is a combined Savonius/Darrieus device. Savonius rotors: see http://www.ata.org.au/70byosav.htm, Darrieus rotors: see www.ifb.uni-stuttgart.de/~doerner/eDarrieus.html
GET YOUR SOLAR KICKS ON ROUTE 66... Solar-powered cars made it all the way along the 2,300 legendary miles of Route 66 from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, during the American Solar Challenge July 15-25, 2001. Route 66 is where many Americans developed their passion for cars and the open road. Race organizers were confident that the event both conjured nostalgia and showed how renewable energy can fuel the passion of a pasttime. Registration was open to universities, companies, clubs and individuals from around the world.
As many as 35 race cars left Chicago July 15 in the first-ever attempt to travel America's historic Route 66 without spending a penny on gasoline. In a year that has seen unpredictable energy and gasoline prices, these drivers were betting that sunshine would take them all the way to Los Angeles, a feat that has never been tried in the 75-year history of the highway - see www.formulasun.org/asc/
JULY 13 2001: BP announces a five-fold expansion of solar production in Spain BP today announced that it has agreed in principle to acquire Agere Systems' semiconductor plant in Madrid as a base for a five-fold expansion of its solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing in Spain. This expansion builds on the company's existing manufacturing and marketing operations in Madrid. The deal is expected to be complete within the next few months.
