From the category archives:

New technologies

SolGuard: Holistic solar system management software

SolGuard: Holistic Solar Power System management software May 14, 2012

SolGuard is a comprehensive solar PV system performance monitoring and management solution that is compatible with a wide range of components that are already widely available and used in systems throughout the world–brand name inverters, weather sensors, security systems, and more. The SolGuard software platform is a smart investment for both smaller, residential PV system [...]

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90kW solar catamaran completes journey around the world

May 9, 2012
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An ambitious project showcasing the potential of solar PV has just come to a close. Pulling into Monaco on 4 May 2012, MS Turanor PlanetSolar catamaran has become the first vehicle to complete an around-the-world trip relying only on the power of the sun. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin [...]

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The dark side of solar power: Super-black solar cell absorbs 99.7% of light

Thumbnail image for The dark side of solar power: Super-black solar cell absorbs 99.7% of light May 3, 2012

      A collaboration between Natcore Tech and the US Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has birthed the darkest silicon solar cells in the world. The cells absorb 99.7% of all light that occurs on its surface–only 0.3% of light is reflected. By comparison, most solar cells commercially available today absorb just 95% of incident [...]

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Solar Power and Electric Vehicles: Solar Power to Horesepower

April 30, 2012
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Clearly the global solar panel industry has grown at a rapid rate over the last few years with Germany leading the way. However, the next step of this rapidly evolving market is how to manage the surplus power that our solar panels are generating. It seems logical and sensible to consider that Electric Cars are [...]

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Quasi-mono Silicon Solar PV Panels?

April 27, 2012
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A new type of crystalline silicon solar cell has been developed which may change the nature of the solar PV market: quasi-mono silicon. The two most popular types for solar panels for residential and commercial solar installations are either monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon solar panels. Once produced on a mass scale, this new technology will [...]

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Largest wind turbine in the world installed off coast of Belgium

April 17, 2012
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    A wind turbine with a rated capacity of 6.15 megawatts (MW)–the largest in the world–has been installed off the Belgian coast. Altogether, 48 wind turbines of this size and type will be installed to compose the Thornton Bank wind farm, and the same technology is already slated to be used in future wind [...]

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Enecsys Micro Inverters in Australia

April 3, 2012
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Enecsys Micro Inverters are an innovative technology that offer a revolutionary approach to solar PV system design and installation. Instead of having a conventional, centralised solar inverter, Enecsys Micro Inverters are attached directly to the back of solar panels, thereby avoiding one of the most common issues in conventional solar arrays: efficiency loss in an entire [...]

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Desertec: Solar Power from the Sahara to Germany

February 24, 2012
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A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald analyses German’s plans to pipe solar power from the Sahara Desert across the Mediterranean, and into its electricity grid. The project, known as Desertec, is on the concept level simple, but on the technical, economic, and political levels, fraught with potential risks. Desertec is an interesting foil [...]

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Construction on Silex Solar Systems concentrating PV demo plant underway, PV production resumes

February 22, 2012
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Australia’s Silex Systems has announced both that construction on its Mildura, Victoria concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) demonstration plant, and also that subsidiary SilexSolar will resume production of solar panels at its Sydney plant. The first stage of the demo plant’s construction will be completed by the end of 2012 with an installed capacity of 2 megawatts [...]

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Dyesol Solar: Dye-and-nanotech Solar Photovoltaics

December 7, 2011
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Dyesol is positioning itself to revolutionise the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry by making available an innovative but still largely uncommercialised PV technology: the Dye Solar Cell (DSC). DSC is a 3rd generation solar PV technology that uses a ‘sandwich’ of materials to mimic the photosynthetic process of plants in order to create electricity from sunlight. [...]

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Solar Choice gets Australia’s first i-MiEV 100% Electric Vehicle

October 18, 2011
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    Solar Choice now has its own electric vehicle–the first of its kind ordered and purchased in Australia. The Mitsubishi i MiEV (“Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle”), will be parked and charging its batteries in the evening in Manly, NSW when it is not being used on official Solar Choice business. Those living in Sydney [...]

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Ford and SunPower: Solar Power and Electric Vehicles made affordable

August 18, 2011
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Automobile manufacturer Ford and the US solar panel producer SunPower have teamed up in a strategic partnership to encourage both renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs). The program, given the somewhat to-the-point moniker “Drive Green for Life”, aims to set up homes with solar panels on their roofs (or solar car ports) and Ford Focus [...]

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Solyndra Solar Tubes: Installations growing in Australia

August 12, 2011
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Solyndra solar tube technology has been widely praised as one of the most innovative approaches to solar electricity generation in the world. Solyndra modules utilise ordinarily lower-efficiency (compared to mono- and poly-crystalline silicon) thin-film CIGS photovoltaics technology in an ingenious configuration that enables higher module efficiencies, and simplifies and reduces the cost of array installation. [...]

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SolarEdge: module-level solar inverters for high-efficiency solar systems

July 22, 2011
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One of the trickiest parts of maximising efficiency in a solar installation is dealing with variations in power output among panels and strings of panels in the same system. SolarEdge is a leading company that has developed a unique solution to the problem of irregularity in solar panel array output. It uses a solar system architecture that utilises [...]

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Suntech Solar Panels: efficiency, dependability, and affordability

July 18, 2011

Suntech is the largest manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and produces some of the most efficient and affordable commercially available solar panels in the world. Suntech’s 350-person strong research and development (R&D) team spans three continents and allows the company to stay at the technological forefront of the solar power industry. Although Suntech’s head office [...]

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First international solar-powered flight

May 5, 2011
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The Swiss-engineered Solar Impulse is set to make its first international flight on 2 May 2011 (yesterday in Australia as of the time of this writing, but today in Switzerland!) This is the first international flight of its kind: one powered solely by solar power. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on [...]

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Photovoltaic and Solarthermal hybrid technology: MIT and Boston College

May 3, 2011
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Researchers at Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have produced a single technology that accomplishes what is currently only accomplished with two separate units: thermoelectric and photovoltaic solar electricity generation. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Print for later Tell a [...]

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Solar 2: New York City’s solar-powered education centre

April 26, 2011
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New York city will soon have its first-ever net-zero energy, carbon-neutral building, to replace its current environmental education centre, Solar 1. The new building is to be rather cleverly named Solar 2. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Print for later Tell a friend

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MIT produces glass-like solar photovoltaic cells

April 20, 2011
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A potentially major breakthrough for the future of solar photovoltaic power has been achieved at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): organic solar cells that are transparent for visible light, but which collect infrared radiation for electrical power production. This promising technology could offer savings on construction costs as well as operational costs (i.e. less [...]

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Major commercial solar power project planned for Queensland

April 14, 2011
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced plans for a massive commercial-scale solar power for Australia’s Sunshine State. 44MW of supplementary solar power will be added on to a preexisting coal-fired Kogan Creek electricity generation plant in Dalby, south-west Queensland. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share with Stumblers Tweet about it [...]

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Flexible Thin-film Solar photovoltaics

April 13, 2011

In a previous Solar Choice blog entry, Prateek Chourdia wrote about some emerging trends in the future of photovoltaic solar technology, including thin-film solar power. This entry will summarise some of the salient points regarding thin-film technologies, otherwise known as flexible photovoltaics, and discuss their possible future direction. Blog this! Digg this post Recommend on [...]

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