Solar Industry

How hot is too hot? First Solar's star status gets another boost - asks what happens if Silicon shortage eases on thin film. What was not mentioned directly is a lot of the solar business is in Europe. This article mentions possible industry consolidation. INTERVIEW-Solar consolidation could happen this year-banker

My favorite Op-Ed writer is back, Thomas Friedman Op-Ed Columnist Dumb as We Wanna Be Great article! Talking about how Europe has built a solar industry and how the US percent of the market has fallen dramatically.

Good quote from the article:
While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

Solar Cost

Interesting letter - Solar is still mighty expensive. Makes some good points about how long it takes to payoff even with the subsidy (23 years) and how the warranty is not that long. Another hopeful article (sounds like a press release) Start-up: Affordable solar power possible in a year. The key is concentrating the solar energy using mirrors/reflectors.

My opinion is solar will come down through a combination of simple improvements which individually don't decrease the cost that much, but when taken together will.

EMF in Hybrids

Teaser article from the NY Times - Motoring: Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk

Keypoints:

• Cheap to buy a hand held meter
• Measurements by handheld meter are not consistent
• Some people are worried

Summation - TBD

Shielding is easy to do if there is an interest. The 50 and 60 Hz in the test I don't understand based on how the Dc to DC and inverter works (high frequency AC is used to create DC to change the voltage).

Solar City in Cairo Slum

NPR had a segment today that mentioned the solar water heating project in Cairo, Solar Cities. In Cairo Slum, the Poor spark Environmental Change

Home brewed Ethanol?

NY Times article - PROTOTYPE; Home Brew for the Car, Not the Beer Cup
They key is getting cheap sugar from Mexico. My guess is if this spreads, there will be tarrifs all of sudden on the cheap, inedible sugar.

Solar in Uganda

Time to go for solar energy - letter to the editor saying Uganda should go Solar. I would suggest using Solar heating, because it makes economic sense. Using solar for generating electricity at this time usually does not make sense for most applications. Of course it depends on the cost of existing power, are the lines already run (cost money), and the stability of existing supplies. It may make more sense because of a poor infrastructure to go with solar.

In Egypt, there is a group installing free Solar Water heaters in the slums of Cairo. Article from NPR In Cairo Slum, the Poor Spark Environmental Change. I believe that Solar Water Heating should spread more because of the cost of gas/fuel for heating water. All a solar water heating set up needs is black plastic and some pipes. My grandfather built one from scratch years ago for an above ground pool he had.

Iqbal Quadir at Drucker School

Prof. Quadir spoke at the Drucker School today. Excellent presentation and a lot to think about! His thesis is decentralization helps prosperity is thought provoking. It seems that most poor countries have the best of everything around the capitol. He is an advocate of using business as a tool for helping the poor, and has done a huge amount of positive work by providing cell phones in Bangledesh with grameenphone that now has 200 Million in profits and is about to go IPO. Amazing!

In a Science Fiction book I read, it mentioned how a person had gotten educated due to getting a solar powered computer that was hooked into the net. The book was EarthWeb. I prefer David's Sling. So with the success of Grameenphone, plus Moore's law, and iPhone - I wonder how long till distance learning can do something about educating people. Why the iPhone - because it's so easy to use and the size. So looking ahead 10 years I would not be surprised if an iPhone drops in price to $100 easy. There is already work on $100 Laptop, unfortunately usability is not as good and it does not seem to be doing that well.

New Tools for Going Solar

New tools emerge to help homeowners go solar from the SJ Mercury News.

Sun Run offers to install panels on houses at for less than the regular price. The company owns the panels and continues to own them, then simply charges a monthly fee to the homeowner to use the equipment. I am curious if there is a lease to buy option.

The Right Bio Fuel

Good OpEd from the NY Times Bring on the Right Biofuels by Roger Cohen


Key Points:

• Rising food prices are due to more than bio fuels. Reasons include:
• Oil Prices (used to make fertilizer and pesticides, fuel for tractors)
• US dollar crash
• Drought in Australia (not mentioned, but also a cause)
• Hoarding in some countries (not mentioned, but also a cause)
• Rising demand for meat because more people are no longer in poverty (meat requires a lot of grains to create, so rising demand for grains causing higher prices)
• Many more cars will be in China and India. One lecture I heard said a billion. The right Bio Fuel is the only possible answer for the next 15-20 years for fueling them.
• Sugar cane produces x 8 the fuel compared to corn, but there is a tarrif not allowing in ethanol from Brazil (54 cents per Gallon).
  
• Europe will require by 2020 that 10% of all fuel be bio fuel.
  

Fuel Saving Technology

10 Questions for NPR's Car Talk Guys on Fuel-Efficient Tech - Popular Mechanics gives a great overview of Fuel Saving technology and it's potential. An excellent read.

Eco-Home in Arcadia

An article in the local paper about an Eco Home led to a quest to find out more information. Wow!
An old open house invite has a huge amount of information. I am amazed by the amount of details that went into the design - which is how it should be! I am starting to know how little I really know about building a green house.

Some of the design features/considerations:

• Location of sunlight
• Using greenhouse for winter warming
• Usual green appliances
• Heat vent tower for circulation of hot air (uses natural ventilation)
  
• Thermal characteristics of building material (thermal mass and ventilation)
  
• Heating due to sunlight and impact on design
• Usual wind direction, wind walls
  
• Usual appliance considerations
• Reversible Ceiling fans
• Rain water storage/capture
• PV System
• Courtyard - I do want one that is part of the house so it's integral. There is a Spanish style house in Monrovia that the courtyard is part of the house. Excellent design.
  

Redwoods and Solar

It reminds me of the energizer bunny... Calif. lawmakers take trees' side in solar debate

Previous post with some history on the matter. Trees and Solar

Hybrid Sales

Hybrids are now 2.2% of all cars sold in 2007, with a 37% increase in sales. In other words 1 in 50 cars sold last year was a Hybrid. Prius has 51% market share. Hybrids in the tough auto market are moving quickly off the lot. California has more than 25% of all hybrid sales in the US.

The challenge I see is many of the hybrids out there are focused more on adding power, than fuel efficiency. And the premium needed for hybrids still does not justify the gas savings yet last time I did the calculations. From a technology viewpoint the Prius is a neat car. Toyota even published a book about the development of the Prius and I enjoyed reading it.

Link: Hybrid sales rise 38 percent in 2007, on track for big '08

Stripping Mountains for Coal in W. VA

Stripping Mountains to Power D.C. - Good article.

The graphic explaining the hilltop coal mining process is great. Great slide show.

There tension between jobs and the environment.

Economics, Environment & Electricity Production

Electricity industry wrangles over California's greenhouse gas law - The challenge is dirty electricity generation is a lot cheaper (and exists) than clean power generation. The challenge for the state is how to regulate this, and a Cap N Trade bill is being worked on, where pollution credits are auctioned and the Electricty provider in California is responsible for being in compliance with the CA green house law of 1996.

Green Marketing is a big Gray...

Great article from SF Chronicle - Green product seals are gray area

The article discusses how many of the seals used in marketing are meaningless.

My favorite part of the article was the examples of green claims that are questionable...

• Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars are labeled as "100% natural" - but there is no government standard for what the word "natural" means except for meat and poultry. The list of ingredients in these granola bars is practically identical to a rival brand of granola bars that don't call themselves "natural."
• Jennie-O Turkey Store ground turkey is billed as "all natural." The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that natural poultry can't have artificial ingredients or added color. However, it's legal for "natural" turkey to have been raised on a diet that included hormones, antibiotics or genetically modified corn.
• Gillette shaving gel has a "no CFCs" label. That's factually accurate but irrelevant, since CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons, which damage the ozone layer) have been banned in the United States for nearly 30 years.

It seems there is no definition of what Natural means. The term that was not used in the article is green wash.

Reducing Solar Costs

The Dell of Solar Energy - good article that explains why 50% of the cost of a solar installation is in the installation. The need to make every installation custom, the more than one trip needed, etc. Sounds like there is a lot of potential for reducing installation costs. Prewiring was just one example mentioned in the article. As the number of installations increases the learning curve and resulting cost reductions will help.

I would not be surprised if within 5 years, solar is 50% of the cost is it now due to lower solar cell and installation costs.

Real Cost of Power - Solar vs. Peak Power

Good article. OPEN FORUM The solar century Points out that peak power costs is much more than Solar (the example used 40 cents verses 25 cents). The problem is metering still has not caught up, where meter reading is not done in real time, but by meter readers that only give an average making it impossible to charge for peak power. In the future as Meter Reading becomes real time, this will change.

Concrete Companies and the Environment

A popular cement industry saying is Concrete is the second used substance by people after water. It also accounts for 5% of the green house gas releases.

A company that is zero waste and focusing on the environmental angle is Taiheiyo Cement. It seems in addition to Cement, other materials can be used in Concrete. This offers a lot of potential for disposing of waste items. For example ash from trash incinerators. Good paper to read - Waste Management Technologies in Japanese Cement Industry. New term, Ecofactuaring

Install Solar and Pay More!

Schools hope rate will solve solar snag - new rates will supposedly fix this SNAFU. The schools as large users also pay fees for infrastructure and peak usage, which did not take into account solar. New rates have been approved which should save the San Diego School district money. It's important to look carefully into all the details and just not assume solar will save money.

Solar Cookers Technology

A new solar cooker that can even cook dinner - looks like an improvement on the technology, but still is not as convenient as other cooking methods that take less time. I thought I did a post on solar cooking earlier. What I found was the only place that Solar Cooking has taken off is in Tibet (fuel is expensive, and can be used for fertilizer) and Darfur refugee camps (this way people don't need to go foraging for fuel, which is dangerous).

Biofuel Backlash

I doubt do to politics anything will happen in the US. Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing. The current game seems to blame the US (which has some responsibility in corn with our politically powerful subsidy), but there is also the question of why are Oil prices staying so high? The weak dollar, financial games, danger to oil supplies, limited supplies, and a cartel.

E-Waste in China, New Study

Recycling That Harms the Environment and People is about a new study of a village in China.

The truth is that most recyclers have no idea where their E-Waste is going to be recycled. They just resell it to the highest bidder. Following and auditing their downstream costs money, and most recyclers don't have the resources or interest for this.

Theoretically China does not allow the importation of E-Waste, but as one article noted a $100 bill on the side of a container gets past that issue. E-Waste such as PCB's are sold to brokers, such as in Hong Kong, that then resell it and somewhere along the line it gets across the border into China. The advantage of hand labor is then the chips on the PCB's can be removed. Automatic methods entail grinding up the PCB's, separating out the metals such as through electrostatic that allows recovery of the metals and plastics. Of course if one of the materials in PCB is outlawed in the US, this will make the recycling situation even more interesting. Some places also buy machinery for show and demonstrations, while still sending materials off shore for recycling for cost savings. And what is the worth of ISO 14001, not much since organizations that have lapsed may continue to claim they have it. Yes Dorothy, the industry is not the cleanest and most ethical around.

Applied Material's Solar Bet

Applied Materials is a huge manufacture of Semiconductor equipment. The stuff used to make all types of chips. Recently they have gone into the solar producing equipment business. The question is will they be successful? Applied Materials solar plans a risky bet-Barron's is just one story that questions this. The State of the Thin-Film Photovoltaic Industry that looks at the stock angle on this and First Solar.

Concentrated Solar Analysis

Analysis on Concentrated Solar - with the huge increase in the cost of coal plants, not to mention potential C02 regulations, concentrated solar is cost effective and will become more so. The author does not see PV becoming cost competitive till around 2020. He does see dramatic decreases in price for both technologies. Storage is a big issue that more R&D is needed on.

Paying Homeowners for Electricity Produced

Bill would alter economics of solar power. Right now if you a household produces too much power, they don't get paid by their utility per the article. The proposed bill would change this. No other states currently allow this. It would change the economics of a solar installation.

Solar Ready - What this means

Good article. Homes can be built ready for solar power

Key Points on houses that are not solar ready:

• There's often no place for the equipment to be installed (the inverter, wiring, for solar water heating the piping)
  
• It will be difficult and more expensive to put in the wiring and the piping
• The great financial benefit of including the solar system in the initial financing will be lost.
• If the house is not solar ready, solar usually won't be installed.
• Solar needs a south facing roof with no obstacles (chimney, etc.) within 30 degrees.

Since when a house is built making it solar ready is a minimum cost, it's surprising it's not required that new houses be built that are solar ready. For both water and electricity.

Solar Water Heaters in Barbados

Solar energy the way to go. With solar water heating, it's challenging to figure out the status around the world. I read articles and use some common sense. What Barbados has done is use income tax reductions as a way to push Solar Water Heating. This makes a lot of sense as a way to reduce imports and balance of trade.

After some searching, more information: Promotion of Solar Water Heating Systems.
Ministry of Finance, which enabled manufacturers to import materials duty-free, and provide consumers with partial or full tax deductions forthe cost of the heaters. Retail is $US2000. Saves $US 6.5 million per year in imported fuel and consumers $US 16 million.

Another Article: Solar: Guy with off grid house, Bamboula Haven Eco Study whatsis.

Key points:

• 2 Year payback.
• 70% of Government buildings use solar heating.
• 40% of homes use it.

Repay Solar Loans with Solar!

Finally, this sounds promising. PSE&G to help customers swing solar panels

I have been wondering since there is around a 15 to 20 year payback for solar installations, why Power Companies don't do a lease to buy program for solar. Paid for during the 15 or so years by the electricity generated. Since homeowners for the most part are not interested in a 15 year investment, but power companies are, I am surprised this has not happened yet. There is some movement for doing this for commercial installations.

CFL

Good overall article on CFL's - Confusion about fluorescent lighting

I am frustrated on trying to figure out the quality of the CFL bulbs, and it's not always true that you get what you pay for...

The article did not mention the subsidy in California that is making CFL's around a $1 in Southern California. From a monetary viewpoint, their is on excuse not to get them. Disposal is a headache and I will need to go see what Walmart is doing. The comment from Maine about cutting out the carpet after a CFL broke was overkill, because they did not know what to do at the time.

Solar Housing Tract in California near Sacremento

SMUD, home builder strike deal for 1487 solar-powered homes. Subsidy per house is $5,955 per home. I wonder what the payback time would be without the subsidy? My guess is this in addition to other subsidies from the State (there is no mention of those). Or what the total cost of each installation is.

My guess is each installation costs $20K before subsidies, and probably $5K to the homeowner after all the subsidies are added, reducing their electricity bill by 80%.

Electronic Recycling - The Reality

I was at my daughter's high school today for an open house. In one of the classes I saw a poster board about E-Recycling as I passed, so I went in to talk to the student. The student was talking about how they could use Electronic Recycling for raising money for schools. So I asked, since we are in California, which recycler they were using. And they mentioned a company for cell phones. I asked what they got paid for, and got the answer that showed a lack of understanding of the economics of Electronic Recycling.

There are a few non-profit Electronic Recyclers, but the largest ones are for profit. And they are willing to pay collectors and larger sources for display devices covered under SB20/SB 50. The majority of the money is in CRT's still (this is changing). Cell Phones have a higher per pound value and with the huge turnover our a source of funds, but with businesses changing over entire offices from CRT's to LCD's, and at 20 cents or so payments from Collectors, and with each CRT weighing 20 lbs or more, this is a great source of funds. With schools, many of them have smarted up and have applied to become collectors or are actually setting up their used electronics for bidding.

So what is the value of a CRT?

• Some people still use CRT's, so rumor has it some Electronic Recyclers don't go through the hassle of recycling, but just export container loads and make a few dollars. Recycling gets into lead glass issues which is a headache (it should be recycled into more CRT's, but how many CRT's are still being made?).
• The Copper Yoke is worth a few dollars.
• The Printed Circuit boards are worth a few pennies per lbs.
• The plastic case of a CRT can be sold. Crushed and bailed using a bailer.
• If a TV with a wood case, the wood needs to be disposed of. Some places can recycle it, but most don't.
  
• The leaded glass costs money to dispose of. It's supposed to go to glass to glass operation or a lead smelter.
  
• To take apart a CRT costs money.

A good article - One year later: a California electronics recycler looks at the experience of implementing SB20

Solar Thernal in Hawaii

Hawaii Bill Would Mandate Solar Thermal Technologies. Makes sense to me (of course I don't live there).

New PG&E Solar Plant

PG&E makes huge solar deal - SiliconValley.com uses Solar Thermal. Basically heats up water to steam that turns a turbine to generate electricity. Five plants to produce 900 Megawatts. This is one way to get around the silicon shortage.