FOTOTHERM

( http://www.fototherm.com/ ) This week, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced a new financial assistance pilot for residential customers to install home battery storage systems through the statewide Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). Approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on July 16, 2020, the pilot will allow eligible customers to install the technology at no cost to them. PG&E stated that it will provide financial incentives for customers installing equipment for generating and storing energy for their homes. Typically, a customer who applies for SGIP receives the rebate once the project is complete, requiring customers to pay upfront. Under the new plan, eligible customers pay nothing for the systems. A home battery is connected to PG&E’s electric grid and charged from the grid or the customer’s rooftop solar system, if applicable. A home battery, or solar+storage installation, can extend the homes power for several hours to sev...

[...] The anti-climate policies that the GWPF ( Global Warming Policy Foundation )  has pushed for years have contributed to the droughts, storms and surging temperatures that have killed people and destroyed livelihoods. Yet now they pretend to be Africa’s saviours, seeking out new markets for the ever more desperate coal industry. And coal barons are not alone: European-produced petrol, so dirty and polluting that it can’t be sold there, is being  dumped on to the Nigerian market . [...]  African prosperity will not come by it being shackled to the outdated dirty energy infrastructure of the past. Rather than trudging behind in the 50-year-old footsteps of European countries, Africa needs to leapfrog to the clean, cheap and renewable technologies of the future. This is how Africa will catch up with its global neighbours.  Africa  is blessed with more sun, wind and geothermal energy than anywhere else on the planet, but that fact does not help the GWPF or ...

The work led by Matthew Escarra, associate professor of physics and engineering physics at Tulane, and Daniel Codd, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of San Diego, is the culmination of a U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E project that began in 2014 with $3.3 million in funding and involved years of prototype development at Tulane and field testing in San Diego. The research is detailed this month in the science journal  Cell Reports Physical Science . Researchers from San Diego State University, Boeing-Spectrolab and Otherlab were also part of the project. "Thermal energy consumption is a huge piece of the global energy economy -- much larger than electricity use. There has been a rising interest in solar combined heat and power systems to deliver both electricity and process heat for zero-net-energy and greenhouse-gas-free development," said Escarra. The hybrid converter utilizes an approach that more fully captures the whole spectrum of s...

The Polish PV market is booming. Poland even turned out to be a solar surprise in 2019 and ranked 5th among the EU countries with the largest PV capacities that were connected to the grid in 2019 The positive development continues. According to PSE data and as of 1/05/2020, the installed capacity from solar farms was 1832.7 MW. This means that 137.35 MW arrived in April and 4.58 MW was installed daily. This is an increase of 181.42 percent year on year. However, throughout April 2020, the increase in photovoltaic plant capacity was 8.1 percent compared to March 2020. PSE data includes all PV installations reported to distribution companies, connected to both medium and low voltage networks. Hybrid thermo-Pvt leading Company The amendment For the development of photovoltaics in Poland in 2019, the entry into force of the amendment to the Act on renewable energy sources, which introduced a number of significant changes in the support system for electricity generated from P...

[...]  Ubiquitous Energy, a California-based company, understands the homeowner’s desire to have a home filled with windows, and they want to help on a national scale. Enter the  solar, transparent window . [...] How do solar windows work? The current Ubiquitous Energy product is a 14 inch by 20-inch window. In the window industry, this is a significant threshold to be considered certified. This window size measures small for a typical commercial building window. But as Ubiquitous Energy’s small team grows, so will the windows and the overall production. “The bulk of energy potential is in infrared. If the solar panel didn’t absorb visible light, what we see as color, then you could make a transparent device, but still, make power. Not as much as silicon (what rooftop arrays use), so it’s a trade-off, but if you can do it, the idea is you can put it anywhere.” There’s still a lot to figure out how a solar window will power a home or commercial building. Curr...

A new study shows the ecological and economic feasibility of photovoltaic production in Europe. The required expansion of photovoltaic capacity in Europe means an attractive market volume. Arguments that photovoltaic products "Made in Europe" do not pay off economically are no facts set in stone. On the contrary: a joint study by VDMA Photovoltaic Equipment (Germany) and Fraunhofer ISE shows that the production of photovoltaic in Europe is ecologically and above all economically feasible without subsidies. The study focused on the case of a fully integrated PV production in Europe.  The hybrid thermo-photovoltaic leading Company [...] PV cheapest electricity source worldwide The costs per kWh of electricity generated with photovoltaics are already well below 4 € cent/kWh in tenders in Germany, and in sunny countries even in the1.5 $ cent/kWh range. This makes photovoltaics the cheapest way of generating electricity worldwide.  Source:  https://ww...

The Chinese manufacturer has debuted two models in the new bifacial, double-glass series to join the scramble for a slice of the 500 W-plus market and to stake its claim to have the 182mm, M10 wafer adopted as the industry standard. Chinese solar wafer and panel manufacturer  Longi Solar  today launched its latest ultra-high power product: the  Hi-MO5  PV module. The company has opted to base the product on the 182mm 2  M10 wafer which it aims to make the  industry standard . There are two models of the new bifacial panel, with Longi claiming power output of  540 W  from the 72-cell product and 495 W from the 66-cell offering. The manufacturer said the panels were made with its innovative ‘smart welding’ technique to secure interconnection between cells, improving efficiency 0.3% compared to standard multiple-busbar products and reducing cell tensile force 20%. The double-glass, framed Hi-MO5 is strong enough for any terrain and cl...

Image: RES Group (www.res-group.com) French rail network operator SNCF Voyageurs will be the off-taker of almost 40 MWp from solar parks that UK-based RES Group will build in France. Through its subsidiary SNCF Energie, the French firm has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with RES, which will see the latter build and operate the photovoltaic (PV) parks from 2021. The contract has a term of 15 to 20 years, RES said on Thursday. The UK group will install the solar farms in the Alpes de Haute-Provence and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur departments of southern France and will bring them online between 2021 and 2023. The combined output of the plants is expected to be around 60 GWh per year and their production should cover 2% of the required for SNCF Voyageurs’ entire rail train traffic power consumption. The UK group will install the solar farms in the Alpes de Haute-Provence and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur departments of southern France and will br...

Recent weeks have seen the news emerge this year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed. This is a big story within the renewable energy sector. For while the Olympic Games will now newly take place in 2021 from 23 July to 8 August and the Paralympic Games between 24 August and 5 September, Tokyo 2020 was to be  a celebration of an eco-friendly Games  and a fantastic insight into the current state of renewable energy as a whole. Going forward, the Games will still be called Tokyo 2020 instead of Tokyo 2021 (just as all following references to it in this article shall) but as we shall have to wait a year until the Games officially begin it’s useful to consider now what Tokyo 2020’s greatest achievements in renewable energy are set to be? And how are Tokyo 2020’s renewable energy goals set to compare to the last Games in Rio 2016, and Paris in 2024? Showcasing solar across Tokyo 2020 Many of the Olympic venues like the nation’s new Olympic Stadium that opened...

The Polish PV market is booming. Poland even turned out to be a solar surprise in 2019 and ranked 5th among the EU countries with the largest PV capacities that were connected to the grid in 2019 The positive development continues. According to PSE data and as of 1/05/2020, the installed capacity from solar farms was 1832.7 MW. This means that 137.35 MW arrived in April and 4.58 MW was installed daily. This is an increase of 181.42 percent year on year. However, throughout April 2020, the increase in photovoltaic plant capacity was 8.1 percent compared to March 2020. PSE data includes all PV installations reported to distribution companies, connected to both medium and low voltage networks. Act on renewable energy sources or the development of photovoltaics in Poland in 2019, the entry into force of the amendment to the Act on renewable energy sources, which introduced a number of significant changes in the support system for electricity generated from PV installations, pro...

SolarEdge   amplia il proprio   portafoglio di ottimizzatori di potenza residenziali e commerciali   inserendo nuovi prodotti in grado di garantire   flessibilità e redditività per i grandi impianti fotovoltaici  come per quelli  domestici. Solaredge  annuncia che è ora disponibile anche in Italia la  gamma potenziata di ottimizzatori di potenza residenziali e commerciali , in grado di massimizzare la flessibilità e redditività dell'installazione. Gli ottimizzatori di potenza collegati ai moduli fotovoltaici aumentano la produzione di energia prodotta inseguendo sempre il punto di massima potenza (MPPT) di ogni singolo modulo, di cui monitorano le prestazioni, permettendo di intervenire in maniera tempestiva in caso di eventuali problemi su singolo modulo. Per quanto riguarda i  grandi impianti fotovoltaici  l'azienda sta aumentando la propria presenza nel settore e ha recentemente introdotto dei nuovi ottimizzatori ...

Significant decline in air pollution and cool, sunny weather sees UK solar generate all-time high of 9.69GW on Monday Cool, sunny weather and the low air pollution levels caused by the coronavirus lockdown have helped drive a new all-time solar power record in the UK, with solar farms generating a peak of 9.69GW of electricity for the grid on Monday afternoon. The feat was recorded by  the University of Sheffield's live UK solar power generation tracker  at 12.30pm on Monday, surpassing the previous record achieved in May 2019 of 9.55GW. The result is thought to have been in part driven by clearer, less polluted skies. The UK is currently experiencing significantly lower levels of air pollution due to far fewer cars on the roads or polluting industrial activities taking place amid restrictions aimed at curbing spread of Covid-19, which has resulted in clearer weather conditions. Clearer air, combined with relatively cool temperatures and sunny weather, provides optim...

La pista ciclo-pedonale produce energia fotovoltaica Pedalare o camminare su pannelli fotovoltaici che producono energia green per la case e le attività vicine. Ci avevano pensato i francesi, ma ora è una startup trentina a realizzare l’idea. È Bicy Solar Street, che realizza piste ciclo-pedonali integrate con impianti fotovoltaici nella pavimentazione. Sta raccogliendo 110mila euro sulla piattaforma Crowdfundme. [...] Fonte: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/la-pista-ciclo-pedonale-produce-energia-fotovoltaica-ADaHTv