New Jersey regulators on Tuesday approved a proposal from utility Public Service Electric and Gas to expand its solar loan program by $143 million and 51 megawatts.
The program expansion means a total of $248 million in loans, translating into an estimated 81 megawatts worth of solar systems available to interested homeowners, businesses, and municipalities across the state.
Public Service Electric and Gas already has a program to install 200,000 solar panels from Petra Solar on N.J. utility poles and street lamps.
(Credit: Petra Solar)Since Public Service Electric and Gas' (PSE&G's) first loan program for installing photovoltaic panels was approved in April 2008, about $105 million in loans, totaling 30 megawatts worth of solar systems, have been applied for by its customers, according to company statistics. While its seen as an expansion, the next round of funding is technically a completely new program approved by the N.J. Board of Public Utilities (BUP) with specific regulations.
The Solar Loan II Program will run on a first-come, first-served basis for the next two years, or until 51 megawatts in solar systems have been installed.
The loans should cover half the cost of a solar system installation, according to BUP estimates. They will be offered as 10-year loans for residential homeowners, and 15-year loans for commercial or municipal customers, which can be repaid in cash or via earned Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC). One SREC is earned for every megawatt hour of solar energy created, according to PSE&G. The BUP also set preliminary monetary rates for SREC credits.
"Initially, the SREC floor price for residential systems is $450; for nonresidential systems up to 150 kw the price is $410; and for systems larger than 150 kw up to 500 kw it is $380. The floor prices offered for SRECs for new loan applications will be reduced by about 3 to 6 percent every 6 months," according to a statement from the BUP.
For the other half of installation costs, the BUP is recommending solar system owners apply for New Jersey Clean Energy Program rebates and federal tax credits.
"There's no question that providing a source of stable, secure capital--especially in our tough economy--has helped boost the number of solar energy systems in New Jersey," Ralph LaRossa, president and COO of PSE&G, said in a statement.
"We're pleased to do our part to make New Jersey a leader in solar energy installations, second only to California," he said.
LaRossa is justified in his assertion. While it can't compare to California, which has huge projects in the 550-megawatt range underway, New Jersey is a leading state for solar installations, as well as clean-tech projects in general.
The greater New York metropolitan area, which includes a large portion of N.J., was recently ranked No. 3 in the country for most clean-tech job activity in the U.S. by a recent report, with the solar sector leading the clean-tech job market overall. It was only lagging behind the greater metropolitan areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, respectively. New Jersey was also ranked 7th by another recent report listing U.S. states doing the most to wean its residents off foreign oil.
In addition to its solar loan program, PSE&G was approved in July for a partnership with Petra Solar to install over 200,000 photovoltaic panels on N.J. utility poles and street lights to tie into the state's electrical grid. It was also approved to install 5 megawatts worth of solar equipment in New Jersey urban enterprise zones, and an another 10 megawatts to be installed on the properties of interested third parties.
Solar incentives seem to be working to both increase the number of solar installations in the U.S. and bring down the initial cost, according to a report released Wednesday by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"Findings...show that, after a three-year plateau, costs decreased by 3.6 percent from 2007 to 2008, marking a pivotal year for the American solar industry," said the report (PDF).
Broken down into real 2008 dollars, the report estimated that the actual cost of installing photovoltaic solar systems--excluding tax credits or financial incentives--was $10.80 per watt in 1998 versus $7.50 per watt in 2008.
That initial cost to the installer dropped significantly once incentives and tax credits were factored in.
Last year, the average cost of installation was $2.80 per watt for residential photovoltaic, when incentives and tax credits are counted, and $4.00 per watt for commercial.
The report attributed rising fuel prices since 1998 and government incentives for alternative energy to the solar market boom. There has been a significant increase in photovoltaic installations in the U.S. since 2007. Of the 566 megawatts of solar added to the U.S. grid since 1998, an estimated 293 megawatts of photovoltaic were added in 2008 alone. That recent uptick was attributed in part to "more lucrative" federal investment tax credits adopted for commercial photovoltaic systems in 2006.
If that figure of 566 megawatts seems low given the plethora of solar installation announcements from private and public organizations over the past few years, keep in mind these figures are for grid-connected systems only.
The report data evaluated the cost outlay for 52,000 residential and commercial installations, about 71 percent of all the grid-connected photovoltaic systems that were installed in the U.S. between 1998 and 2009. The report data did not include cost outlay for those residential or commercial systems operating off the grid.
But the report did include outside data for comparison of markets.
It showed that the recent growing popularity of solar is not just a U.S. phenomenon. About 5,948 megawatts of photovoltaic were installed globally in 2008 compared to 2,826 megawatts in 2007. Spain was the largest photovoltaic market in terms of installation in 2008, followed by Germany and then the U.S., according to the report.
Undoubtedly, the global installation figure will increase even more dramatically in the coming years. China alone has announced plans for large-scale photovoltaic installations ranging from 500 megawatts in Baotou, Inner Mongolia to 2,000 megawatts in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. In the U.S., First Solar has been given rights to develop a 550-megawatt plant in California.
Israeli start-up Solar Edge has secured $23 million in funding to further develop its technology for increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.
GE Energy Financial Services was a principle contributor to this latest round of funding and made the announcement Wednesday.
In May, SolarEdge unveiled a boosting technology for photovoltaic panels that it said could increase a solar power system's output by as much as 25 percent.
The SolarEdge system is a junction box with an integrated circuit that is embedded into existing solar photovoltaic panels to minimize the amount of electricity loss, thereby maximizing the amount of power the total system can generate. The box is designed to be used on either large-scale or residential solar panel systems.
Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, said in a statement that he viewed the venture as opening the door to a more involved collaboration with joint product development and distribution between GE and SolarEdge.
Other investors that joined in the latest round of funding include Opus Capital, Walden International, Genesis Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, and JP Capital Asia.
It's the first time that GE Energy Financial Services has made an investment in an Israel-based company, GE said in a statement.
BioSolar has filed a patent application for a new type of backing for photovoltaic cells.
A backsheet is the bottom layer of a photovoltaic cell used by solar manufacturers to protect the cell from moisture, temperature fluctuations, and the elements.
BioSolar's BioBacksheet-A, a new addition to the company's line of backsheets, consists of a sheet of aluminum foil sandwiched between two layers of polymer made from renewable plant sources. The aluminum used in the sheets is also 100 percent recyclable.
The company announced that it was developing plant-based plastics for solar-cell components, which included the use of cotton and castor beans, in August 2008.
BioSolar's biomass backsheets for solar cells will work with existing industrial manufacturing machines.
(Credit: BioSolar)The BioBacksheet-A can meet the requirement of thin-film photovoltaics "to have a water vapor transmissions rate of nearly zero," according to BioSolar.
"BioSolar's goal is to reduce the costs of solar modules and make solar energy greener by replacing petroleum-based module components with bio-based materials made from renewable plant sources," David Lee, CEO of BioSolar, said in a statement.
The company is also trying to make it easy for interested solar manufacturers to make the switch from petroleum-based components. BioSolar's rolls of biomass backsheets can be used with existing industrial machines, according to the company.
Artist's rendering of Orange's solar concept tent.
(Credit: Orange)Telecom giant Orange unveiled a concept solar tent in conjunction with the opening of this year's Glastonbury music festival in the U.K.
Inspired by the new flexible photovoltaics in development, the tent--if produced for consumers--would be covered in a semi-photovoltaic fabric woven with both coated solar threads and conventional threads to form a solar shell that could be adjusted to face optimum sun throughout the day.
The solar energy would then be channeled into four main power uses: heating, lighting, communications, and recharging.
The goal of Kaleidoscope, the design firm working in conjunction with Orange, was to create a tent that would help attendees of Glastonbury, the U.K.'s famous open-field music festival, which is sponsored in part by Orange, to keep their bearings and to keep in touch with friends while on site.
Most interesting is the idea of a wireless charging pouch. Instead of plugging in, people would drop their phone or other portable device into a pouch inside the tent. A coil in the pouch would carry an electric current that generates a magnetic field to produce a charge, which would then serve to power the device's battery.
In addition, some of the captured solar energy would be channeled toward radiant floor heating--something that would be much appreciated by anyone sleeping on the commonly damp British ground.
Artist's rendering of solar tent emitting glow at night.
(Credit: Orange)And how many times have you been to a field festival only to spend an eternity trying to find your way back to your camp? The development team for the tent noticed that this wandering was a common problem at Glastonbury each year.
For that reason, the tent would be equipped with "Glo-cation" technology that would allow users to find their tents by sending an SMS message or using an automatic RFID tag similar to the ones used in London's Underground Oyster subway cards. The tent would then glow in response.
The tent would also serve to broadcast a Wi-Fi signal, though it's unclear whether it would have a Wi-Fi booster for a central area hub or act as an independent Wi-Fi router.
While this week England happens to be pretty bright and sunny, I'm not so sure a solar tent is the way to go in the land of perpetual, mild drizzling. But I could certainly see this being a favorite at Burning Man.
Correction at 7:20 a.m. PDT June 23: The energy production of the tiles has been fixed. The tiles can generate 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Solé Power Tile system developed for US Tile by SRS Energy integrates seamlessly with its terra-cotta counterparts.
(Credit: SRS Energy)Will a better aesthetic tempt more people into going solar? SRS Energy is betting on it.
The company has partnered with US Tile, a leading manufacturer of Spanish, slate, and shake roof tiles, to design solar panels with the exact same shapes as their clay counterparts.
The result is solar tiles that can be seamlessly integrated with the terra-cotta tiles on your roof. Instead of the solar panels being on your roof, your solar panels are the roof. Instead of consumers going solar as aftermarket adaptation, the Philadelphia-based company hopes that solar will become part of the architecture and building of residences and commercial properties.
BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) have been around for a while, but many of them fail to visually blend in with the existing architecture. SRS Energy is trying to improve that by partnering with roofing companies to replicate existing roof tile designs into thin-film solar panel counterparts.
The Solé Power Tile system was unveiled at American Institute of Architects 2009 National Convention and Design Exposition this past May at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. On June 15, SRS Energy unveiled one of the first commercial buildings to implement the Solé Power Tile system. The Swiss chalet-like building is Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company, a family-run ice cream parlor in Audubon, Penn., owned by SRS Energy's CEO Marty Low.
US Tile's Solé Power Tile system will begin to be installed in homes this November 2009 by contractors that have taken the company's Solé certification class, the first of which will be held this July, according to Abby Nessa Feinstein, director of marketing for SRS Energy.
The company plans to move into other U.S. and European markets in 2010.
The look of the tiles aside, what about solar efficiency? That's where consumers will have to think about what's most important to them. The Solé Power Tile system, which is warranted for 20 years to generate electricity at a rate of 80 percent of capacity, incorporates triple-junction amorphous solar cells produced by Uni-Solar.
Cell efficiency for the tiles is between 8 percent and 10 percent, according to Feinstein.
That puts it slightly below what others in thin-film photovoltaics have been getting. Global Solar, for example, has said its existing flexible CIGS cells convert about 10 percent of sunlight into electricity, and has plans to get to 13 percent to 14 percent soon. It's also obviously far behind the 20 percent efficiency achieved by efficient traditional silicon solar panels.
Feinstein says the SRS Energy system's overall efficiency makes up for the difference in sunlight to electricity conversion figures.
"If a homeowner bought 4kW of crystalline silicon panels and then 4KW of the Solé US Tiles, they will get 10 to 15 percent more output in terms of a KWh (kilowatt hour) on their electricity," said Feinstein.
"You have three layers of semiconductor material and so it is essentially less picky about the light it converts into electricity so whereas crystalline starts and stops converting between 10 (a.m.) and 4 p.m., our tech will wake up earlier and work later. It converts a larger spectrum of light into electricity. It has less sensitivity to heat, most start to degrade in performance as they get hotter. Our tiles get less hot because the modular is curved and with any curved tile you have air beneath keeping them cooler," she said.
SRS Energy's statistics say the average homeowner with Solé Power Tiles can get 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day.
Zwahlen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company sporting Solé Power Tiles.
(Credit: SRS Energy)
Solar company Konarka has developed a transparent solar cell that it hopes will be built onto electricity-generating windows.
The Lowell, Mass.-based company on Tuesday said it has reached an agreement with Arch Aluminum & Glass to use Konarka's plastic solar cells in building materials, including windows.
A transparent solar cell Konarka hopes will be fitted into power-generating windows.
(Credit: Konarka)Under its Arch Active Solar Glass development, the company has built prototypes of windows with the solar cells between two panes of glass. The photovoltaic cells can be tinted different colors.
"It is energy-efficient and transparent with superior vertical performance and a subtle red, blue or green aesthetic. With these features, BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics) will no longer need to be confined to spandrel or overhead applications," Arch CEO Leon Silverstein said in a statement.
Konarka makes organic solar cells made from flexible plastic. Last fall, it opened a factory in Massachusetts to manufacture the cells which come off assembly lines as spools fitted with wires to carry electricity.
The advantage of these flexible cells is that they can be used for a wide range of applications, such as power-generating military tents, portable chargers for electronics, and sensors.
But these organic photovoltaics aren't very efficient at converting sunlight to electricity and won't last as long as a rooftop solar panel, which is typically under warranty for 25 years. Konarka said late last year that it achieved 6 percent efficiency in its labs but that's not yet available in its products. A high-efficiency silicon solar cell, the most common cell material, can be over 20 percent.
Konarka's factory is turning out red solar cells but has started making the transparent cells in limited runs for prototypes and development, according to a representative.
Although Konarka has raised over $100 million and has signed a number of partnerships, there are many people who are skeptical that the company can be profitable.
"The real key will be to see if they can make building-integrated products that can stand the weather for 20-plus years," clean-tech venture capitalist Rob Day from @Ventures told Greentech Media in December last year.
Konarka also faces growing competition in the building-integrated photovoltaics field. Thin-film solar manufacturers, including Heliovot, also make flexible cells that can be fitted onto glass or building structures such as awnings but are more efficient. Nanosolar's cells made from CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide), for example, are in the 9 percent to 10 percent range.
This illustration offers a glimpse of what the planned city of Babcock Ranch might look like.
(Credit: Kitson & Partners)One of the world's biggest photovoltaic projects is planned for southwest Florida. Florida Power & Light will spend $350 million to build a 75-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant at a planned city, Babcock Ranch, near Fort Myers, the company announced Thursday.
Construction could begin late this year, subject to state regulatory approvals.
Eric Silagy, the ultility's chief development officer, said at a press conference that the company's photovoltaic project is larger than any previously announced.
"We are extremely excited to be building one of the world's largest solar photovoltaic projects, once the state legislative and regulatory authorities have taken the necessary actions for us to move forward," said Silagy.
A 60MW photovoltaic solar plant in Spain has been in operation since 2008, according to PV Resources. But the Babcock Ranch plant could be the largest if it reaches 75MW output--before somebody else does. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity.
The developers, Kitson & Partners, hope that Babcock Ranch will be the world's first city to get all its energy from renewable solar energy.
"The FPL solar plant will be inside Babcock Ranch. Along with solar panels on the roofs of buildings citywide, it will be a revolutionary leap forward in clean energy for an urban area," said Syd Kitson, CEO of Kitson & Partners, in a statement.
The Sierra Club's national clean-energy representative and the World Wildlife Fund support the project and hope that it will influence other U.S. cities.
Babcock Ranch will be wireless-enabled using an ultrahigh-capacity "digital pipeline" that will support the use of current and emerging technologies, plus clean-tech efforts, according to press materials.
(Credit:
Kitson & Partners)
"Electric vehicles, able to plug in for recharge at convenient community-wide recharging stations, will glide along avenues beneath the glow of solar-powered street lamps. Ingenious, revolutionary Smart Grid technologies will monitor and manage energy use while Smart Home technology will allow residents to operate their homes at maximum efficiency, thereby reducing energy costs," Kitson & Partners writes on the Babcock Ranch home page.
Florida Power & Light also hopes that the solar-powered city will generate so much power that it will be able to serve the grid with additional electricity. Kitson & Partners hopes that the Babcock Ranch will become a test bed for clean-tech companies. "Babcock Ranch will be a living laboratory for companies, workers and families ready to reap the rewards of innovation," said Kitson in a statement.
The city of Babcock Ranch will include 6 million square feet of retail, commercial, office, civic, and light industrial space. The entire project is expected to cost $2 billion. Projected prices for the planned 19,500 homes were not provided, but the homes should be "affordable for workers and families across the economic spectrum," according to Kitson & Partners.
Solar start-up SolFocus on Monday said it has signed an agreement in Greece to produce electricity from its concentrated solar arrays.
The installation will produce 1.6 megawatts, enough to power about a town of about 2,500 residents at any given moment. Renewable-energy developer Samaras Group will head the installation, which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2009.
SolFocus' 1100S system uses mirrors to convert 25 percent of sunlight into electricity.
(Credit: SolFocus)SolFocus, formed in 2006, is one of the leading companies in a race to validate concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology for utility use. It already has a handful of customers, including some in Spain.
Concentrated photovoltaic technology takes different forms, but the most common design uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto expensive, high-performance solar cells. Typically, they have mounting systems that track the sun over the course of the day.
By concentrating the light, these arrays squeeze more electricity out of solar cells. SolFocus' 1100S system, which will be used in the Greek power deal, concentrates the light 500 times, allowing it to convert 25 percent of sunlight into electricity.
Concentrated photovoltaic technology is best suited for specific geographies around the equator with the right light. Another technical barrier is dealing with the high degree of heat these systems create.
Analysts say concentrated photovoltaics are expected to be used by utilities for small or midsize power plants, between 10 megawatts and 100 megawatts, to deliver electricity at times of peak demand.
SolFocus, a maker of concentrator photovoltaic systems, has signed a $103 million (80 euro) deal with Empe Solar, a Spanish group that promotes solar energy use.
SolFocus panels, made of mostly aluminum and glass, are 95 percent recyclable.
(Credit: SolFocus)Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems typically use lenses and mirrors to concentrate light on solar cells to maximize the amount of electricity they can generate.
SolFocus plans to install over 10 megawatts of CPV systems across southern Spain for Empe Solar between now and 2010 as part of the deal.
SolFocus has already completed three utility-scale projects in Spain.
The 10-megawatt installation would collectively generate enough energy to supply a town of 40,000 residents, and eliminate 27,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year if used to replace traditional fossil fuel energy generators.
It's the largest deployment of concentrator photovoltaic solar energy systems in Europe so far, according to a joint statement from SolFocus and Empe Solar.
Sunny Spain is to be the recipient of $103 million worth of CPV systems between now and 2010.
(Credit: SolFocus)"Empe Solar seeks only the most innovative solutions to reduce electricity production costs for our customers. SolFocus has proven its technology's value in our region, and we are confident it will enable us to quickly achieve our cost targets for carbon-free energy," Empe Solar partners Eduardo Goicoechea and Sebastian Sagues said in a joint statement.
The other claim to fame SolFocus makes is that its CPV systems themselves, which primarily consist of aluminum and glass components, are kind to the environment since they are 95 percent recyclable.
But SolFocus is not the only company touting good news Monday for solar technology. Cool Earth Solar announced earlier it's rolling out its solar balloon prototypes over the next two weeks.
