Tag Archive for: solarpanel

There are now more than 140 gigawatts of solar capacity installed in the US, enough to power 25 million homes.

Solar can now power one in five US homes

Solar accounted for 50% of all new electricity-generating capacity added in the US in 2022, according to a new report by the Solar Energy Industries Association. Federal policies like the Solar Investment Tax Credit lowered costs for solar panel installations, and increased demand across the private and public sectors. The result is that there are now more than 140 gigawatts of solar capacity installed in the US, enough to power 25 million homes.

California, Texas, and Florida were the top three states for new solar capacity for the third year in a row. California took back the top spot after Texas led the nation in 2021.

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Source: QUARTZ

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A solar panel the size of 18 football pitches is currently being built in the Falken tyre manufacturing facility in Thailand.

World’s largest rooftop solar panel to be built in Thailand

Falken is building the world’s most extensive solar panel installation on a single facility, covering an area of 100,000 square metres, which is equivalent to over 18 football pitches. This installation is being constructed at the Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) factory in Thailand, where Falken is a subsidiary.

The installation is composed of 40,000 solar panels with a combined output of 22MW and is set to be completed by January 2025. By then, the facility will be able to use 100% renewable energy, thanks to the investment in the new solar panel installation, as well as the adoption of a gas co-generation system and biomass electric power system initiatives at the Rayong Province facility. The gas co-generation system, which comprises two 6.6MW boilers powered by renewable energy sources, will replace energy supplied by local utility companies. Additionally, biomass obtained from the surplus branches and trunks after rubber trees are harvested, as part of SRI’s Sustainable Natural Rubber⁴ programme, will provide additional electrical power.

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Source: Energy

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Kelsi Thorud looks at the push to make sure solar panels stay green all the way through their life cycle.

New push to create solar panel recycling program in California

While there’s been a lot of talk about the adoption of solar, there hasn’t been as much focus on what happens when all those panels age out. Kelsi Thorud looks at the push to make sure they stay green all the way through their life cycle.

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Source: yahoo!life

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KFC installs a solar-powered drive-thru in Bakersfield, CA to protect workers from the sun, and to save the unit $400,000 over its lifespan.

KFC installs solar-powered drive-thru in California

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KFC has unveiled a solar-powered drive-thru at its Bakersfield, Calif. location, the chain announced Thursday. The franchised unit is run by the Stewart Restaurant Group.

“We needed a canopy over our drive-thru to protect our team members taking orders outside of the building,” said Justin Stewart, co-owner of the Stewart Restaurant Group, in a statement. “When we compared the costs of a typical canopy to the costs and value of Integrate Solar’s canopy, the decision to go solar was a no-brainer!”

The solar paneling — designed by Integrate Solar — is on the location’s drive-thru to protect workers from the sun, and is expected to save the unit $400,000 over its lifetime.

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Source: Nation’s Restaurant News

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Displayed on a pedestal on the campus of Unity College is a solar panel that Jimmy Carter installed on the White House on June 20, 1979.

As solar power booms in the US, a key part of its history lies at Unity College

Displayed on a pedestal on the campus of Unity College in Waldo County, there’s a glass-covered gray rectangle, about the size of a picnic table. Unity College natural resources professor Doug Fox says it’s an important part of history.

“This is a solar panel that Jimmy Carter installed on the White House,” Fox says. “Unity College has a couple of dozen of these and this is the one that we have on display here.”

Solar power is experiencing an unprecedented boom in the U.S. This relic of its origins, not far from what will be the largest solar project in Maine, illustrates how American solar energy has evolved by fits and starts, over decades.

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Source: Maine Public

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Several new polysilicon factories came online at the end of 2022, and material costs have dropped by more than a third since mid-November.

Big solar panel manufacturers boost production as costs fall

Several big solar-panel makers are ramping up production in a boon to clean energy. A key reason: the collapse of material costs that had been elevated for more than a year.

Three leading Chinese module manufacturers are bumping up January output forecasts, according to Shanghai Metals Market, which didn’t identify its sources. Promising near-term demand is another factor driving the output boost.

JA Solar Technology Co. has a more positive expectation for the solar market this quarter than previously, the company said in a WeChat message, though didn’t specify if it would raise production. Major competitors Longi Green Energy Technology Co. and Jinko Solar Co., didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association declined to comment.

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Source: Bloomberg

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One of the biggest advances we can expect to see over the next decades is how we store and use power from solar cells and other renewables.

Solar cells: essential for a brighter future

You wouldn’t recognise the precursor to the modern solar panel if you saw it, and who knows what they’ll look like in the future?

The precursor to the first solar panel wasn’t really a panel, and it didn’t even use the sun’s light. But the physical processes first observed by French scientist Antoine César Becquerel, in his laboratory in 1839 and then in bars of selenium by Willoughby Smith when checking telegraph cables to be submerged under the Atlantic Ocean, are essentially the same as what happens in solar cells everywhere today.

In a nutshell: light shines onto a semiconductor material, which then produces an electric current – no moving parts, no steam, no turbines.

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Source: COSMOS

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A 5.5-miles-long solar panel bike path sitting in the middle of an eight-lane highway connects Daejeon and Sejong city in South Korea.

Solar panel bike lane generates eco-friendly energy in South Korea

There is a five-and-a-half mile bike path sitting in the middle of an eight-lane highway, topped with a solar panel that lights up the streets below in South Korea.

But this is no regular bike path. What started as an idea to produce clean energy while simultaneously giving people a place to exercise, South Korea built this eco-friendly cycle lane that connects the cities of Daejeon to Sejong — the administrative capital of South Korea — in 2014.

The 13-foot-wide path set in the middle of a highway is unique in South Korea, where most bicycle paths are built adjacent to pedestrian roads. But what really makes the path stand out is its one-of-a-kind feature — a solar panel-lined roof.

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Source: ABC News

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First Solar, the largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S., said Tuesday that it will build a new panel factory in the US.

First Solar announces new US panel factory following the Inflation Reduction Act

First Solar announced Tuesday that it will build a new solar panel manufacturing facility in the U.S. on the heels of the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes domestic manufacturing.

The company will invest up to $1 billion in the new factory, which it plans to build in the Southeast of the U.S. The newly announced plant will be the panel maker’s fourth fully integrated U.S. factory.

First Solar also said Tuesday that it will spend $185 million upgrading and expanding its existing facilities in Ohio.

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Source: CNBC

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With a futuristic bee farm within the photovoltaic park, beekeeping increases crop output by increasing the degree of pollination.

Solar panel fields help increase honey production in photovoltaic beehives

A place where bees, crops, animals, and photovoltaic panels coexist and thrive may very well be feasible.

In fact, modern solar technology combined with traditional techniques has improved the bee population and honey production in the Spanish town of Carmona, according to an initial report by Endesa.

In the town, roughly two and a half million bees coexist with sheep and aromatic plants in the middle of a solar facility. Run by the Endesa energy company, the project is called Solar Apiary and is a brilliant example of agrivoltaics, the simultaneous utilization of land for both solar power and agriculture.

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Source: Interesting Engineering

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