China Is Developing A Massive New 2GW Solar Plant

China has plans for the largest solar power plant to-date. It would cover 25 square miles and power 3 million homes.

Sandra Acaro at Gizmag.com reports:

"The Chinese government has announced its intention to construct a 2-gigawatt solar power plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. Mike Ahearn, CEO of the Arizona-based company which will construct the plant, describes the unprecedented project as “an encouraging first step forward toward the mass-scale deployment of solar power worldwide to help mitigate climate change concerns.” As outlined in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between First Solar and the Chinese government, the project will be developed in four phases over a nine-year period, with Phase 1 beginning 1 June 2010 and Phase 4 to be completed by 2019. Phase 1 will initiate a 30-megawatt demonstration project, while Phases 2, 3 and 4 will consolidate a further 100 megawatts, 870 megawatts and 1000 megawatts respectively.

The magnitude of the development is many times greater than any solar plant in operation or even contemplated, including projects such as the 290-megawatt Starwood Solar Iand the 500-megawatt solar thermal project in the Mojave Desert. If successful, the Ordos plant will cover a staggering 25-square miles, cost billions of dollars and power 3 million Chinese homes." See full article.

Startup eSolar Switches On Solar Thermal Plant

A new solar plant in California uses algorithims to power 4,000 homes.

Rick Merritt at EETimes.com reports:

"The 5 MW Sierra SunTower solar power plant in Lancaster, California, will produce electricity for Southern California Edison, powering more than 4,000 homes in the Antelope Valley area. The plant was built in less than a year. The startup uses algorithms that track the Sun's movements and move thousands of small mirrors to concentrate solar energy. To speed construction time it prefabricates its system in a factory and builds the generator on private land close to transmission systems, said Bill Gross a serial entrepreneur and chief executive of eSolar." See full article.

Colorful Glass Will Improve Solar Efficiency

Technical teams at MIT are working on ways to improve solar panel efficiency by as much as 1,000%. Colored glass may hold part of the answer.

Alternative Energy News.Info reports:

"Scholars at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to trap maximum sunlight into solar panels and improve its much needed efficiency and take care of the esthetically inclined consumers who don’t want to see the same glass panel lining every rooftop in the area. This can be achieved by colored dyes mixed glass which can direct sunlight to the edge of the glass in a cost effective and practical way. The MIT researchers are using “solar concentrators” — an improved version over the 70s era. These solar concentrators can grab the solar light and keep it too. The concentrator can send the light at a much longer distance than past models have achieved, shooting the energy straight into solar cells along the glass’s edge. The solar concentrator can produce 10 times more energy than what current systems can provide — and, it can achieve it at a fraction of the price. The MIT team is optimistic that the products could become commercially available within the next three years." See full article.

Solar-Powered Electric Car Plug in Station

For electric cars to become more dependable in U.S. transportation, people will need more places to plug in and recharge when they are at home or away from home. Many are looking at the development of plug in stations. Here is one model based on solar power.

Green Motorsport reports:

"The Electric Vehicle Solar Canopy has been developed to provide protection from the weather for the vehicle as well as generating electricity from the integrated solar roof. The rooftop fits perfectly into a standard parking space and consists of a semi transparent solar array, allowing around 20% daylight through between the PV Cells, and providing shade from the sun and protection from the rain. The green electricity can be used either to charge the batteries on electric cars or it can be used in the adjacent building.

"The Canopy is a modular design which contains 6 special solar laminates each rated at 260 watt peak (Wp), providing a total output from each parking Canopy of 1.5 kilowatts peak (kWp). In the UK this Canopy will generate around 1,100kWh/year. See full article.

Climate-saving Bacteria

Sometimes a look at "technology" means a closer looks at biology. In this case it means the properties of bacteria.

Science Daily reports:

"An international team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy"

"We found that the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules make green bacteria extremely efficient at harvesting light," said Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and one of the team's leaders. According to Bryant, green bacteria are a group of organisms that generally live in extremely low-light environments, such as in light-deprived regions of hot springs and at depths of 100 meters in the Black Sea. The bacteria contain structures called chlorosomes, which contain up to 250,000 chlorophylls. "The ability to capture light energy and rapidly deliver it to where it needs to go is essential to these bacteria, some of which see only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day." See full article

Solar Panels In Space

Here is some interesting techno-thinking:

The fact that greenhouse gases capture the sun's refected heat as it drifts back to space and warms Planet Earth has gotten people thinking about ways to intercept the sun as it enters the atmosphere. Sometimes this is to block its rays and sometimes its to beam the captured energy down in a more concetrated form.

Discovery Magazine reports:

"By 2016, the energy powering some California homes may come from solar panels orbiting the planet. California’s largest electric utility has announced plans to purchase energy from Solaren Corp., a startup company that hopes to launch the first commercial test of space solar power. Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station in Fresno…."" See Full Article