Tag Archive for: solarpanels

ALVA Yachts is back with its latest solar electric catamaran, equipped with the solar and electric propulsion technology to reach a top speed of 16-17 mph at sea.

New 78-foot solar electric catamaran with ‘transatlantic range’

Luxury electric boatbuilder ALVA Yachts is back with its latest solar electric catamaran. The upcoming OCEAN ECO 78 will arrive as a mid-size marine vessel in ALVA’s current lineup and comes equipped with the solar and electric propulsion technology to reach a top speed of 14-15 knots (16-17 mph) at sea, plus plenty of battery capacity to go far – all backed by solar panels on its roof.

ALVA Yachts is a German company founded in 2020 by Mathias May and Holger Henn, evolving out of PICA yachts, which was originally founded back in 2013. In that time, ALVA’s predecessor launched over forty 20-30 foot sailing and electric powerboats.

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Source: electrek

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Solar panels' lifespan is 25-30 years and companies are looking to recycle the valuable, reusable materials and keep panels out of landfills.

As millions of solar panels age out, recyclers hope to cash in

In Odessa, Texas, workers at a startup called SolarCycle unload trucks carrying end-of-life photovoltaic panels freshly picked from commercial solar farms across the United States. They separate the panels from the aluminum frames and electrical boxes, then feed them into machines that detach their glass from the laminated materials that have helped generate electricity from sunlight for about a quarter of a century.

Next, the panels are ground, shredded, and subjected to a patented process that extracts the valuable materials — mostly silver, copper, and crystalline silicon. Those components will be sold, as will the lower-value aluminum and glass, which may even end up in the next generation of solar panels.

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Source: Grist

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Roadsides, reservoirs & farms are all finding space for solar systems. Germany is experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Solar panels could be installed in the spaces between railway tracks in world first

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

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Source: Euro News

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Almost one-third of homes have panels in Australia, the highest in the world, says SunWiz, and will soon outpace capacity from coal.

Solar to soon offer grid more capacity than coal in Australia

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Australia’s rooftops now boast 20 gigawatts of solar panels and will soon have the capacity to produce more electricity than the country’s entire coal industry, according to the industry consultancy SunWiz.

Almost one in three Australian households have solar photovoltaics – or solar panels – the highest penetration in the world. Queensland had the highest share of solar panels installed on dwellings deemed suitable for the technology with an 82% penetration, ahead of South Australia’s 78%, New South Wales’ 51% and Victoria’s 43%.

The take-up of solar PV has quickened. It took about 11 years for Australia to reach its first 10GW of capacity, while the second 10GW took just four years, according to SunWiz.

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Source: The Guardian

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The first US pilot that will site solar panels over irrigation canals is going to deploy long-duration iron flow battery storage.

US’s first solar panels over canals pilot will deploy iron flow batteries

Project Nexus is a $20 million pilot in California’s Turlock Irrigation District that launched in October of last year. The project team is exploring solar over canal design, deployment, and co-benefits using canal infrastructure and the electrical grid.

India already has solar panels over canals, but Project Nexus is the first of its kind in the US.

The Turlock Irrigation District was the first irrigation district formed in California in 1887. It provides irrigation water to 4,700 growers who farm around 150,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Source: electrek

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Solar panels can provide valuable habitat for wildlife – and potentially benefit both the land and farmers.

Win-win: how solar farms can double as havens for our wildlife

Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large areas of land to be converted to host solar infrastructure.

Solar farms are mostly built in rural areas. This has raised concerns about a potential decline in both agricultural production – as arable land is used for solar energy production – and wildlife habitat.

But there are ways to expand solar infrastructure so both nature and people win. We’ve already seen this in so called “agrivoltaics”, where land under and around solar panels is used to grow crops and graze livestock. But what about “conservoltaics”, combing conservation and solar energy?

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Source: The Conversation

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Scientists at Stanford University created a solar panel that works in the dark, and discovered how to modify the installed solar panels generate power at night.

Groundbreaking new solar panels can generate electricity in the dark

Solar power is a promising avenue for clean energy. Unfortunately, solar panels have one major weakness – they can’t generate electricity in the dark. However, this weakness could soon change as scientists at Stanford University have now created a solar panel that works in the dark.

The researchers published their findings on the new type of solar panel in the journal Applied Physics Letters back in April of 2022. While they discovered a way to make solar panels work in the dark, they also discovered that already erected solar panels could be modified to generate power at night, too, saving businesses and homes from having to upgrade to new panels.

The process used to make older solar panels work in the dark is called radiative cooling. When the sun sets, the Earth cools down, releasing heat into the air. This helps to create a temperature difference between the air and the surface of the panels. Then, researchers say that we can install thermoelectric generators onto the panels, allowing us to harness the power generated by radiative cooling.

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Source: BGR

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Los Angeles is the nation's leading city for installed solar capacity. Solar energy is the city's most abundant renewable power source.

All you need to know about solar panels in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is the nation’s leading city for installed solar capacity, with almost 650 megawatts of solar power in 2021, according to the Environment California Research & Policy Center’s Shining Cities 2022 report. If you live in Los Angeles, you can lower your home’s carbon footprint and save on energy costs by switching to solar.

According to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, solar energy is the city’s most abundant renewable power source. The LADWP has extensive plans to continue expanding solar energy across the city.

The average California energy bill tends to be higher than the national average, according to CNET’s corporate partner, SaveOnEnergy. Rising electricity costs are a primary reason why many Angelenos invest in solar panels for their homes. Based on data from the Energy Information Administration, California electricity rates in June 2022 were 25% higher than in June 2021.

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Source: CNET

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Solar panels over parking lots produce clean electricity without wasting space and provide shade in sunny, warm weather for drivers.

Why not cover ugly parking lots with solar panels?

A BACKLASH AGAINST industrial-size solar farms is brewing. At least 75 big solar projects were vetoed across the United States last year, compared to 19 in 2021. And between January 2021 and July 2022, planning permission for 23 new solar farms was rejected across England, Wales, and Scotland, when only four projects were refused between 2017 and 2020—representing the highest rejection rate in five years. Decarbonization, to some extent, risks getting bogged down by planning objections. People very often don’t want solar farms in their backyard.

France, though, appears to have a solution: transforming its parking lots into solar farms nationwide. The French Senate has approved a bill requiring new and existing lots with more than 80 spaces to be at least half covered with canopies of solar panels that sit over the parking spaces. Assuming the bill comes into effect later this year, parking lots with more than 400 spaces must be compliant by 2026; smaller ones with 80 to 400 spaces will be given until 2028.

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Source: WIRED

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The Athos III solar project (also known as Blythe Mesa Solar II) generates 224 MWAC/310 MWDC of solar energy, enough to power 94,000 homes.

Union-built 310-MW solar + storage project comes online in California

Intersect Power started the commercial operation of its Athos III solar project in Riverside County, California, on December 22, 2022. The Athos III solar project was built by union labor, with American-made solar panels, batteries and steel piles, and it is expected to meet the domestic content and prevailing wage requirements for tax credit incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The Athos III solar project (also known as Blythe Mesa Solar II) generates 224 MWAC/310 MWDC of solar energy, enough to power approximately 94,000 homes, and features 448 MWh of co-located storage.

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Source: Solar Power World

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