Good news for renewable energy....

Today’s post: Wednesday, 10-15-2008

1. 3600 likely large sites, mostly solar, in & around California can generate over 6 times all the current electrical generation capacity that exists now in California.

Since many of these sites can be solar thermal, the electricity can be provided from 16 to 17 hours a day.

And, by adding the much greater photovoltaic installations possible on homes, businesses, and other buildings--& on covered parking lots, that’s an enormous potential. And, by adding all of these in the other states in the South Western United States from California to West Texas and the Rocky Mountain states and North Western Mexico -- and adding wind power and transmission lines, this part of North America can come close to providing all the electricity needed by all of North America including the future increased electricity needed over the next several decades. (The link to the report is below.)

This data suggests that Al Gore’s 100 % renewable goal is achievable or very close to it. And, from just this part of North America.

2. The new Solar company, Solyndra, may make photovoltaic solar for covered parking lots and flat roofs of commercial buildings and business facilities faster to install, more efficient, and less expensive. (See their press release below.)

3. Rolls of LED’s make may make walls & ceilings & even window shades the light source for rooms at reasonable cost & with much less electricity use than incandescent or compact fluorescent light bulbs in lamps and ceiling fixtures. And, it sounds like it may cost a good bit less than LED bulbs in lamps and ceiling fixtures. (The AP story about this GE advance is referenced below.)

1. The 3600 site info comes from a study done by the engineering firm, Black & Veatch. (The heads up was in the Bottom Line column in the business section of the San Francisco Chronicle.)

See http://links.sfgate.com/ZEZW

or http://www.energy.ca.gov/reti/documents/2008-08-16_PHASE_1B_DRAFT_RESOURCE_REPORT.PDF .

2. Solyndra’s press release:

FREMONT, Calif., October 7, 2008 — Solyndra, Inc. today announced a new solar photovoltaic (PV) system for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra's PV system is designed to generate significantly more solar electricity on an annual basis from typical low-slope commercial rooftops with lower installation costs than conventional PV flat panel technologies. Commercial rooftops represent a vast, underutilized resource and huge opportunity for generating solar electricity. Since its founding in 2005, Solyndra has been developing technology and ramping manufacturing capacity to produce its proprietary CIGS-based thin film PV system. Solyndra is currently shipping its systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, to fulfill more than $1.2 billion of multi-year contracts with customers in Europe and the United States.

THE NEW SHAPE OF SOLAR

Solyndra's panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. This self-tracking design allows Solyndra's PV systems to capture significantly more sunlight than traditional flat-surfaced solar panels, which require costly tilted mounting devices to improve the capture of direct light, offer poor collection of diffuse light and fail to collect reflected light from rooftops or other installation surfaces.

Conventional flat PV panels must be mounted at an angle and spaced apart for optimum energy production. The sunlight striking the spaces between the panels is not collected and thus is wasted. Solyndra's panels perform optimally when mounted horizontally and packed closely together, thereby covering significantly more of the available roof area and producing more electricity per rooftop on an annual basis than a conventional panel installation.

COST-EFFECTIVE INSTALLATION

To meet rooftop wind loading requirements, conventional flat solar panels must be anchored to commercial roofs with either ballast or rooftop penetrations, which are inherently problematic. Together with the need for tilting, the resulting complex mounting systems require significant investment in labor, materials and engineering. Conversely, because wind blows through Solyndra panels, no rooftop anchoring is required. Further, the low weight of the Solyndra system enables the installation of PV on a broader range of rooftops.

For typical conventional PV installations, a solar panel is only half the cost of a complete installation; the other half includes additional expenses such as installation, cables, and inverters. The horizontal mounting and unique air-flow properties of Solyndra's solar panel design substantially simplify the installation process for Solyndra's PV systems. The ease of installation and simpler mounting hardware of Solyndra's system enables its customers to realize significant savings on installation costs.

"By eliminating the need for roof-penetrating mounts and wind ballasts, PV arrays with Solyndra panels can be installed with one-third the labor, in one-third of the time, at one-half the cost," said Manfred Bachler, Chief Technical Officer at Phoenix Solar AG, one of the largest solar power integrators in Europe and a Solyndra customer. "For commercial rooftops, PV module installation time can now be measured in days, not weeks. For flat commercial rooftops this is game-changing technology."

According to Solyndra founder and CEO Chris Gronet, "Solyndra's system uniquely optimizes PV performance on commercial rooftops by converting more of the sunlight that strikes the total rooftop area into electricity while also providing for a lower installation cost and lower cost of electricity."

ABOUT SOLYNDRA

Solyndra designs and manufactures photovoltaic systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, for the commercial rooftop market. Solyndra employs high volume manufacturing based on proven technologies and processes to meet the needs of the global solar market. Using proprietary cylindrical modules and thin-film technology, Solyndra systems are designed to provide the lowest installed cost per system and the highest solar electrical energy output for typical low slope commercial rooftops. Headquartered in Fremont, California, Solyndra operates a state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot fully-automated manufacturing complex. Learn more at www.solyndra.com.

3. The story on this was in: "Flexible OLEDs could be part of lighting's future" (AP) Posted on Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:20AM EDT

In NISKAYUNA, N.Y., an industrial building contains a machine that prints sheets of LED lights. “. The OLED printer was made by General Electric….”

Summary: these 3 reports show that we are indeed on our way to having a much more energy efficient economy that is all or very nearly all powered by renewable energy.

That’s good news indeed.