Green Tech

Abu Dhabi's planned green community, Masdar City, will be testing General Electric's smart appliances in a handful of residences and coordinating them with its power grid, GE said Monday.

GE's Consumer & Industrial division announced in October 2008 that it was developing home appliances that could ease the strain on electrical grids by coordinating with a grid's off-peak hours to perform flexible functions.

A refrigerator equipped with a "smart" meter, for example, communicates with the local power utility. That refrigerator then waits to run its automatic defrost cycle until it has received a signal from the electrical grid that it's an off-peak period.

A smart meter on a refrigerator at GE's labs.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Masdar City is under construction in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It aims to be the first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city. It's also home to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The post-graduate research center, a collaborator with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began offering courses and research facilities in alternative energy and sustainable technology for graduate students in September.

The two-year pilot project with GE appliances will include refrigerators, stoves, and European-style washer/dryer machines that run on 220volt/50HZ platforms and will be installed in 10 residences.

The installation, to be completed in early 2010, will include a communication system between the appliances and Masdar City's utility grid that will allow the appliances to transmit real-time data and run nonessential functions during off-peak usage hours. Since Masdar City is not scheduled to be fully inhabited until 2013, the city's grid will simulate peak usage strains in order to test the system.

Previously, GE began testing its smart appliances in select homes in Louisville, Ky., in conjunction with the Louisville Gas and Electric Company.

Solyndra, a start-up making thin-film photovoltaic systems, has secured $600 million in funding.

It's additionally secured $1.2 billion in contracts from clients in the U.S. and Europe, the Fremont, Calif.-based company revealed Tuesday.

What start-up gets that kind of funding and client promise? Basically, one that's invented thin-film solar panels shaped like old-school fluorescent lightbulbs.

Solyndra's series of tubes offer a unique angle on solar power.

(Credit: Solyndra)

Since 2005, Solyndra has quietly been developing a proprietary CIGS-based thin film photovoltaic (PV) system and a staff of more than 500 employees.

CIGS is a material that includes a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide. It's now being used by quite a number of companies to make thin-film solar cells among other things.

Solyndra's cylindrical PV panels don't have to be spaced to leave room for rotation toward the sun as with flat solar panels. The panels are actually rows of cylindrical tubes which are installed horizontally and close to one another.

The tubes can "capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse, and reflected sunlight into electricity," according to Solyndra.

Solyndra panels consist of tubes that can absorb sunlight from all angles.

(Credit: Solyndar)

The company also says that because of this unique shape and mounting system, more productive solar surface area can be packed onto one roof than with conventionally shaped panels. Subsequently, its system is able to generate "significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis" compared with flat panels, according to the company.

Because Solyndra's tube panels are lighter and allow wind to pass through them easily, there is less construction needed in terms of rooftop anchoring or shoring up a roof for significant weight-bearing. Because of this, according to Solyndra, its system is significantly cheaper to install than flat-panel systems

While solar power may not be considered the complete solution to U.S. energy woes, many commercial, industrial, and public facilities are looking at using solar photovoltaic systems as a supplement to their facilities' energy diets. In April, for example, the landmark Staples Center in Los Angeles announced it will be covering its 24,196-foot roof with photovoltaic modules.

Thin-film solar cells, particularly CIGS panels, have been attracting a lot of attention and funding. SoloPower, NanoSolar, and Ava Solar are thin-film solar companies that have announced funding in the hundreds of millions over the last few months. Even IBM is getting into CIGS solar cells through a partnership with a Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer.

Solyndra's funding comes from a mix of venture capital and private equity investments totaling $600 million to date. Solyndra investors include Virgin Green Fund, the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar, Rockport Capital Partners, and Argonaut Capital, according to a company spokeswoman.

The company has already been expanding its current plant, Venture Beat reported early Tuesday morning.

Solyndra counts Solar Power, the company contracted to do the Staples Center, and Phoenix Solar, a large solar power integration company in Europe, among its satisfied customers.

"By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost. For commercial rooftops, PV module installation time can now be measured in days, not weeks. For flat commercial rooftops this is game-changing technology," Manfred Bachler, chief technical officer at Phoenix Solar, said in a statement.

Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based clean-technology initiative, said on Wednesday that it will invest $2 billion to manufacture thin-film solar cells.

The money will significantly boost global solar cell production, potentially bringing prices down. It's also a major bet on thin-film solar cells, which use less material than traditional silicon.

Solar cells are destined for planned Masdar City.

(Credit: Masdar)

Analysts expect thin-film cells, made from a variety of materials, to become a significant portion of solar cell manufacturing and ratchet up competition on incumbent suppliers.

The Masdar Initiative, which is building a "green city" in Abu Dhabi, said in a release that an initial $600 million will go to building a solar plant in Germany that will be online in the third quarter of next year.

Further investments will go to a solar plant in Abu Dhabi, set to be operating in 2010. The two plants, which will be run by an entity called Masdar PV, will be able to produce 210 megawatts annually, which will go to Europe and Abu Dhabi.

Masdar did not indicate which company will supply the solar manufacturing equipment. Forbes speculated that the likely supplier is Applied Materials.

The Masdar Initiative is investing billions in dollars to diversify Abu Dhabi's energy holdings away from oil. Its goal is to create a world-class research and development center in clean energy and to make one gigawatt of electricity from renewable sources by 2014.

Update May 30: Applied Materials on Friday confirmed that it is supplying 210 megawatts of solar cell manufacturing equipment to Masdar PV.

Spanish renewable energy firm Sener and Abu Dhabi's clean-energy initiative, Masdar, announced a joint venture on Wednesday to build several power plants fueled by the sun's heat.

The newly created firm, Torresol Energy, said it plans to build at least two large concentrating solar power plants a year with a goal of generating 320 megawatts over the next 5 years and 1,000 megawatts in 10 years. A large coal-fired power plant typically can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity.

In a solar tower, mirrors reflect light to generate heat at the tower top where steam is made to turn a turbine.

(Credit: Torresol Energy)

One of the designs that the venture intends to use is a solar receiver tower to be built in Abu Dhabi.

In a tower construction, several mirrors are mounted on the ground to reflect light to the top of a tower, where steam is created to turn an electricity turbine. A handful of other companies, including BrightSource Energy and eSolar, are pursuing a similar tower design.

The new company underscores the surge in investment on solar thermal technologies, which use the sun's heat, rather than photovoltaic panels, to generate electricity.

A number of solar thermal power plants are being proposed for the Southwest United States and Spain, where conditions are best.

Sener already operates three 50 megawatt plants that use parabolic troughs to reflect light and generate heat. They also incorporate molten salt storage to generate electricity when the sun is not shining.

The cleanest city in the entire world will take root next month in Abu Dhabi, a place best known for its oil.

At the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, a model of Masdar City is scheduled to be unveiled on Monday. The three-day conference is hosted by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co.'s Masdar Initiative, which is investing in a range of ventures, including clean-tech start-ups.

An artist's rendering of the overall plan of Masdar City. A model will be unveiled Monday.

(Credit: Masdar)

In February, Masdar (which means "the source" in Arabic) will break ground on the six-square-kilometer city that its backers say will be the first zero-pollution, zero-waste city. The city will be capable of housing 47,500 people, who are scheduled to start moving there in 2009. Construction is expected to take 10 years.

The vision of the city, designed by Foster and Partners, is to be a model for sustainable architecture.

A solar-photovoltaic power plant will deliver energy to buildings. Builders also envision using solar canopies that provide shade, as well as power.

A vision of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

(Credit: Foster and Partners)

The city will be placed to take advantage of the cool sea breezes, while a perimeter wall around the entire city will protect buildings from the hot desert air and noise from the nearby Abu Dhabi airport.

No cars will be allowed in the city. People will get around through an electric light-rail system that will be linked to the center of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

A desalination facility will be 80 percent more efficient than existing plants, and all wastewater will be purified and recycled to grow plants that could be used for biofuels.

Masdar City will be the home of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which backers hope will attract some of the best academics from the around the world. Also envisioned are research and development facilities from multinational companies and start-ups in the clean technology area.