A tunnel in Belgium built to protect high-speed trains from falling trees is now covered in 16,000 solar panels (yes, you may remember Tina covering this project a bit as it got underway last October).
China is an attractive place for clean energy companies. It has some of the most supportive policies in the world, and many would say the most supportive. It’s clear that’s not just abstract talk when more and more North American and European companies decide to set up major manufacturing plants and research facilities there.
When you think of solar energy, you tend to think of decades-old, inefficient photovoltaic panels delivering electricity. You think of them in fixed positions on the ground in massive utility-scale arrays and on rooftops of businesses, government buildings, and homes. Think again, because SunScience has developed as the flagship of their product line a “hybrid” solar system called DG1 that integrates both concentrated and thermal solar power for a highly efficient energy footprint.
Well, I don’t think it will come as much surprise, but following up on a CleanTechnica post from last month on the merits of small-scale solar compared to large-scale solar, I thought I’d share parts of a new piece by Solar Energy Industries Association President & CEO Rhone Resch on why we need both (with a little commentary of my own)
Solar records are broken left and right. We can’t cover them all, of course, but try to cover the big ones. Recently, researchers ar Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, set a pretty big one. They increased the solar cell efficiency record of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (aka CIGS) from 17.6% to 18.7%, a pretty significant increase.
Just the other day, Cleantechnica reported that GE foresees the cost of solar power falling below that of fossil fuels and nuclear energy within the next five years, and the tech giant has wasted no time positioning itself to ride that transition. Its latest move is a foray into solar power installations at parking lots, and true to form the company pulled out all the stops for this one.
General Electric invented a combined cycle power plant that can be adjusted quickly and efficiently. A trait not found in traditional non-peaking power plants.
The group solar buying program, One Block Off the Grid, announced this week that it will begin offering leases for solar panel installations in addition to outright purchases.
Japan is expected to announce a requirement to have all new buildings include solar panels by 2030 at an upcoming G8 meeting in France on Thursday.
As you can see in the videos on the next page, the town of Wadebridge in Cornwall wants to be the first UK town to go completely renewable. The short-term target is to be 30% renewable-energy-powered by 2015, relying especially on solar.
