CleanTechnica

You just can’t rest on your solar laurels these days.  Just a couple of months ago the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands announced a record-setting 17.0% efficiency for its multicrystalline silicon solar panels, which broke the previous record of 16.53% set by SunTech just a few months before that, and now both have been eclipsed by Kyocera, which has just announced an aperture area efficiency of 17.3.

Aperture area refers to the surface of the solar panel, and it’s a standard way of comparing efficiencies.  In crystalline silicon solar technology, small increments in efficiency can make a big difference in the cost-effectiveness in a solar installation.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is not the world record for ALL solar cells, but for solar cells using certain cheap and highly available materials, IBM has just set a new world record.

The world record is for solar cells composed of copper, tin, zinc, sulfur, selenium, or similar materials. The new record is about 40% better than the previous best for solar cells using such materials. The efficiency rate of IBM’s new technology is 9.6%. The previous best was 6.7%.

Read the rest of this entry »

The UK Climate Change Act, introduced in 2008, is now bearing fruit and thus providing the seeds for similar legislation in over a dozen other European countries.

Friends of the Earth and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been hosting a series of seminars in European embassies lately in order to explain the benefits of the UK Climate Change Act, which includes legally binding emission targets and carbon budgets which must be continued by successive governments.

They are looking to encourage similar or better legislation in other countries and it seems that a handful of countries are interested and tilling the soil for such legislation.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official. The EU trading system got carbon emissions down. It’s one thing when renewable energy writers on blogs like this say cap and trade has transformed Europe.

We regularly cover the huge wind and solar industries created there – the results of Europe’s early adoption of the Kyoto Accord and subsequent EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and Europe’s resulting 13% greenhouse gas reduction.  We have covered the indirect results before (like how the US now gets hand-me-down clean energy technology from Europe).

But now it’s official. Cap and trade in Europe is a success. Reuters said it.

A study has found that although there were many problems in the first phase, they were overcome and did not hamper the scheme’s ultimate objective of reducing emissions. Cap and trade was not a failure, despite the problems. Read the rest of this entry »

InfoSpi has become the latest in a growing list of companies that are transforming sewage treatment plants into gigantic energy recovery facilities.  The company has entered an agreement with IBS (Integral Bioenergies Systems) to build a demonstration plant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that will convert sewage sludge to biofuel.

The beauty of the sewage-to-biofuel movement is the virtually endless supply of locally sourced feedstock that is readily at  hand (so to speak).  It’s a stark contrast to destructive the logistics of mountaintop coal mining.  With New York City alone producing about a billion gallons of sewage every day, you’re looking at a nation awash in sustainable energy that can be harvested without blowing up huge chunks of our natural heritage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Exotic new thin film and spray-on solar products have been getting a lot of attention lately, but within “older” solar technology there is still room for innovation.  SBM Solar has come up with a lightweight, non-reflective solar panel based on monocrystalline silicon solar cells that could help expand the opportunities for solar installations, especially in marine and military solar applications where portability and lack of glare are significant advantages.

Lightweight solar panels can save energy in production, transportation and installion compared to heavier glass panels, but one concern has been durability.  SBM believes it has settled that question by achieving Underwriters Laboratories certification for performance (apparently the only monocrystalline solar panels to achieve that rating so far) along with a thumbs up from the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Read the rest of this entry »

Asian Development Bank has approved a loan of $135 million to facilitate the construction of an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant. Although the power plant will be using coal as the primary fuel it air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the plant will be lower than the conventional coal-fired power plants.

An Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant converts coal into gas through the process of gasification. Once the coal has been converted in synthetic natural gas or syngas, the resulting mixture of gases, mainly comprising of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is filtered to remove particulate matter. The filtered gas is then ignited using highly compressed air. The flue gases resulting from the combustion of the gas mixture is fed into a gas turbine which is connected to a generator which produced electricity. Read the rest of this entry »

Step over Siemens, Airvoice Group and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam are now planning what they say would be the “largest green energy project in the world” in India.

Airvoice Group is an Indian mobile phone and commodity export firm, and it seems to see where the money is going to be in the future — in clean energy. It recently formed a joint venture with public body Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam in order to invest $50 billion in a major clean energy project (perhaps the world’s largest) over the next 10 years. It wants to build 13 GW worth of wind and solar power capacity in a rural area of Karnataka in southwest India.

The majority of the planned capacity would be from solar photovoltaics — 10 GW. And the remaining 3 GW would be from wind farms.

Read the rest of this entry »

German engineering giant Siemens is looking to throw some money at solar and wind power in India now. It is going to invest $346 million in India’s renewable energy sector over the next three years.

Peter Löscher, Siemens’ chief executive, said the firm will increase its Indian workforce by about 50 per cent to 25,000 people and about a third of the investment will be for development of wind turbine technology. It is putting some into solar technology development there as well.

India is a major growth market, in general, and renewable energy is no exception.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clean energy is one of the top topics in the world these days, in presidential speeches, economic growth plans and projections, international competition and cooperation, and even in Hollywood. We have seen rapid growth in wind power, rooftop solar, innovative financing, and much more recently.

Here is my list of the Top 10 “Clean Energy” Topics (some aren’t what I would consider the cleanest) to keep an eye on.

Read the rest of this entry »