Samsung Blue Earth - a solar powered, eco-friendly phone.

Kenyans continue to face constraints as only 5 percent of the rural population and 51 percent of the urban population have access to electricity. Using mobile phones in rural areas was never an option due to the lack of energy it needs to keep working.

But Safaricom, owned by UK’s Vodafone and Kenya’s Mobitelea Ventures have come up with a solution to curb this issue of lack of electricity. They have devised a solar-powered phone that uses the rays of the sun to recharge. The solar phone is priced at just 1,500 Kenyan shillings ($18), half the cost of cheap, conventional phones. It is environmental friendly and manufactured from recyclable waste. With most areas of Kenya receiving six hours of direct sunlight, the potential of this solar phone is extremely high.

Until now, communication in this marginalized region was a problem caused by constant bandit attacks and lack of resources. Staying in touch becomes difficult if one is not able to charge the phone. But communication is getting faster and more dependable thanks to the solar phone introduced by joint efforts of these two companies. Users do not have to rely on electricity to charge their phones nor do they have to travel long distances to find a shop or mall where they have to pay for the same service.

The proposed park will have a capacity of Mega Watt-peak and will span over 3000 hectares of land.

Oliver Dulic, the Serbian minister for Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning signed an agreement with the managing staff of Luxembourg-based Securum Equity Partners Europe. The ceremony was attended by Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic.

The Serbian Prime Minister stated that construction of the plant could take upto five years and around 3000 workers would be required to work on it in the construction phase.

The land will be free for use to Securum from Siberia. However, it will expect to collect around 750 euros from the taxation levied on the park.  It is expected that the construction will start early next year, as soon as the location is finalised.

Serbia was chosen as the location for the solar park because it receives 40%  more  solar radiation than any other part of southeast Europe. Added benefit was that it has a traditional industrial history and a skilled workforce.

According to the reports of the Shanghai Daily, one of the main reasons for affecting solar stocks might be strengthening of production by Chinese companies, but the governments in Germany and Italy, which are termed as the traditional markets, have reduced subsides for new installations.

The chief financial officer of Nasdaq-listed JA Solar Holdings CO, Cao Min said: Bad days for global solar industries will end in the second half of 2012 or the first half of next year.

He pointed out: “you can see that a number of small players have been phased out during the slump, and companies who survive are those with the best technology, costs and capital strength.”

Cao statements came up in a press meeting after JA Solar signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics to improve R&D capabilities.

Because of improved demand and tightened inventories, the prices on solar panels are supposed to stabilise again. The demand for solar panels in traditional markets has enormously improved. Solar installations in China are increasing gradually.

If such proposals will exist, then the world will become a better place to live-in. Clean Energy will solve ever-increasing environmental issues.

Image Credit: Creative Commons/Marku1988

Because of diminishing reliance on nuclear power, Japanese government is increasingly supporting more of solar industry, especially Chinese solar companies. Such a crucial step is being taken as a result of leaks at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant due to earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

To improvise dependence on solar power, the Chaorisolar Energy Science and Technology Co Ltd and the Sky Solar Holding Co Ltd have planned to install 100 megawatts project by investing around 7.5 billion yen ($93.9 million) in Japan. This cooperation is regarded as a strong turning point to improve Chaorisolar’s sales in spite of much negligence in large markets such as Europe.

The collaboration is seen with a new vibe because both of them are specialist in their fields. Chaorisolar is a Shanghai-based maker of photovoltaic products whereas Sky Solar builds solar farms. The project is supposed to generate gross profits equal to $10yuan ($1.60) a watt.

On an account of increasing interest in solar power, many companies such as Hareonsolar Technology Co Ltd, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd and Canadian Solar Inc, are planning to open a subsidiary in Japan. In fact, Suntech Power Holdings Co has ventured in Japan after acquiring MSK Corp, a maker of solar equipment.

Yutaka Yamamoto, Suntech Japan president said: “Today, we are a strong player in the Japanese solar industry with a 5% market share,” and also added: “The company commands at least 10 percent of the Japanese market in 2012.”

Japan had 1.2 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2011, but it increased by 40% in 2012. The Japanese government is also thinking about new feed-in-tariffs in July 2012.

The cheap, stable nanocrystal solar cells developed by scientists at USC are just about four nanometers in size, meaning more than 250,000,000,000 of them can fit on the head of a pin. They exist in the form of a liquid ink which can be painted on any clear surface plus can float on a liquid solution. Scientists compare the printing of these liquid solar cells to that of a newspaper.

Researchers Richard L. Brutchey, assistant professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and USC postdoctoral researcher David H. Webber, who contributed to this project said that a new surface coating made of semiconductor cadmium selenide has been developed for the nanocrystals. International journal for inorganic chemistry Dalton Transactions has published their research as the “hot article” of the month.

Liquid nanocrystal solar cells are cheaper to fabricate than single-crystal silicon wafer solar cells but they were not as efficient in converting sunlight to electricity. Organic ligand molecules were used to keep the nanocrystals stable and prevent them from sticking. However, these same molecules insulated the crystals making them bad conductors of electricity.

Brutchey and Webber’s new synthetic ligand stabilizes the nanocrystals plus helps it transmit current with the help of tiny bridges that connect the nanocrystals. The new technology now also allows for plastic printing of the solar cells instead of glass, as no melting would occur. This will result in developing of a flexible solar panel that can be adjusted anywhere.

Although, commercial use of the technology is still years away, the pioneering research has created a new pathway for solar cell technologies.

Image Credit © USC University of Southern California and USC Dornsife

After five months of hard work and investment of US$1.1 million, the new solar power station is all set to provide approximately 30 percent of Intel’s total electricity consumption in a year for the next 20 years.

The new solar power station has the capacity to produce electricity needed for 500 households in Vietnam. It comprises of 1,092 solar panels and 21 adapters having capability to provide around 321,000 kwh of electricity per year without using rechargeable batteries.

This is a big setup being built by Intel Corporation in Asia. The station is much bigger than other setups installed by Intel in Israel and Oregon (USA).

The general manager of the Intel Products Vietnam, Rich Howarth said that this new station will cut 221,200 kilos of Carbon dioxide emissions in the air per year, which is equivalent to emissions from 600 motorbikes.

The management head of Saigon High-Tech Park, Dr. Le Hoai Quoc, said that the new solar power station can be a successful model for the national campaign “Better and Cleaner Environment.”

The vice-president of Intel Corporation and Global Director of the company Corporate Affairs Group, Shelly Esque pointed out that this is the first step to invest in solar power worldwide by Intel Corporation.

Image Credit: Creative Commons /Chinneed

GeoEye, Inc. (Herndon) and Geostellar join hands to form a strong, strategic relationship to transform solar energy industry.  GeoEye is a company which provides geospatial information and insight while Geostellar is an innovative technology company.

According to the terms of agreement, GeoEye will supply important information such as high-quality Earth imagery, mapping data and digital surface models which will drastically trigger the services offered by Geostellar.

The partnership is beneficial for managing and storing massive data of Earth imagery and solar maps built in Washington D.C., Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey in a cataloged form. The process of storing imagery of roof slopes, shadows, weather patterns etc. was manual initially. Solar maps of every important metro in the United States will be developed with the help of image processing methods developed by GeoEye Analytics.
Joint efforts by Geostellar and GeoEye are expected to transform multi-million dollar industry.

On May 21, 2012 Japan will see it first annular solar eclipse in 25 years. To commemorate this occasion, Panasonic has launched “ECLIPSE LIVE FROM FUJIYAMA by SOLAR POWER” project to generate a live broadcast of the solar eclipse from from the top of Mt. Fuji at 3,776 meter-high, the spot closest to the sun in Japan.

Through this project, Panasonic aims to highlight their “Energy solution” business technologies and products to be used during the live broadcast that includes equipment completely powered by solar energy.  A climbing expedition will reach the summit of Mt. Fuji, shouldering the devices required for the broadcasting such as video cameras, filming equipment, and computers. They will draw electricity from HIT Solar Cells with power output supplied by high-capacity rechargeable batteries made by Panasonic.

Mt. Fuji is ideally located right through the middle of the central phase, the zone which allows for optimum viewing of the annular solar eclipse. The clear skies will broadcast the most beautiful annular solar eclipse from the point closest to the sun.  Atop the summit, the project members will work in freezing temperatures surviving on portable, domestic power supplies with power generated by HIT Solar Cells.

As the solar eclipse will be visible mainly over the Japanese islands, the remaining world can watch it live on http://panasonic.net/eclipselive/.  Mobile phone users can download the Free Ustream app to watch it on their phone. It is available on iTunes store and Google Play store.

Image Credit:  © Panasonic Corporation

This mega solar project will take up about 314 acres of land which is roughly the size of 27 baseball stadiums. This is the largest solar power project announced in Japan. The plant will feature 290,000 multi crystalline solar modules that are manufactured by Kyocera. This is the largest officially announced solar project in Japan.

The annual electricity generated by this plant will be able to provide energy for about 22,000 average households. This project will also help curb 25000 tons of CO2 per year. It will account for 40% of current solar electrical output in Japan.

The plant will cost around $310 million. The construction on this Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega-Solar Power Plant is expected to commence from July 2012.

Solar energy is highly beneficial in addressing fossil fuel consumption and global warming concerns. But it comes with its own set of drawbacks as harnessing and releasing it is sporadic and expensive. Its output also depends on the amount of sunlight at any given time of the day and the cloud cover. Considering all the issues underlined above, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems work best to trap the sun’s heat and drive steam turbines to generate utility scale power. In CSP, thousands of mirrors track the sun’s heat and collect it in a receiver. A heat transfer fluid then is then pumped through the receiver to collect the heat. The heated fluid is used to boil water, drive a steam turbine and generate energy.

Halotechnics is developing advanced molten salt heat transfer fluids that will allow CSP systems to collect heat at the highest temperatures possible for producing heat at night. Furthermore, CSPs will be more efficient and competitive as the cost of electricity will be considerably reduced. Some of the advantages of molten salt include lower cost compared to solar salt, available in abundance in commercial scale quantities, non-flammable, low hygroscopic behavior, very low vapor pressure at elevated temperatures and compatible with common steel alloys.

With the use of molten salt storage materials, if a CSP plant is able to produce heat at maximum efficiency during the night, the cost per kilowatt-hour of the electricity produced will be greatly reduced.

If Halotechnics is successful, then it would allow low-cost and effective thermal energy storage for concentrating solar and nuclear power applications. For the purpose, the company has received $3.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) and a $1 million subcontract from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).