Low Cost High Concentration PV Systems for Utility Power Generation
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Nanosolar Is Leading the “Third Wave” of Solar Power Technology: the First
Nanosolar is leading the “Third Wave” of solar power technology: ▪ The First Wave started with the introduction of silicon-wafer based solar cells over three decades ago. While ground-breaking, it is visible until today that this technology came out of a market environment with little concern for cost, capital efficiency, and the product cost / performance ratio. Despite continued incremental improvements, silicon-wafer cells have a built-in disadvantage of fundamentally high materials cost and poor capital efficiency. Because silicon does not absorb light very strongly, silicon wafer cells have to be very thick. And because wafers are fragile, their intricate handling complicates processing all the way up to the panel product. ▪ The Second Wave came about a decade ago with the arrival of the first commercial "thin-film" solar cells. This established that new solar cells based on a stack of layers 100 times thinner than silicon wafers can make a solar cell that is just as good. However, the first thin-film approaches were handicapped by two issues: 1. The cell's semiconductor was deposited using slow and expensive high-vacuum based processes because it was not known how to employ much simpler and higher-yield printing processes (and how to develop the required semiconductor ink). 2. The thin films were deposited directly onto glass as a substrate, eliminating the opportunity of ▪ using a conductive substrate directly as electrode (and thus avoiding bottom-electrode deposition cost), ▪ achieving a low-cost top electrode of high performance, ▪ employing the yield and performance advantages of individual cell matching & sorting, ▪ employing high-yield continuous roll-to-roll processing, and ▪ developing high-power high-current panels with lower balance-of-system cost. -
Digital Twin Modeling of a Solar Car Based on the Hybrid Model Method with Data-Driven and Mechanistic
applied sciences Article Digital Twin Modeling of a Solar Car Based on the Hybrid Model Method with Data-Driven and Mechanistic Luchang Bai, Youtong Zhang *, Hongqian Wei , Junbo Dong and Wei Tian Laboratory of Low Emission Vehicle, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China; [email protected] (L.B.); [email protected] (H.W.); [email protected] (J.D.); [email protected] (W.T.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Featured Application: This technology is expected to be used in energy management of new energy vehicles. Abstract: Solar cars are energy-sensitive and affected by many factors. In order to achieve optimal energy management of solar cars, it is necessary to comprehensively characterize the energy flow of vehicular components. To model these components which are hard to formulate, this study stimulates a solar car with the digital twin (DT) technology to accurately characterize energy. Based on the hybrid modeling approach combining mechanistic and data-driven technologies, the DT model of a solar car is established with a designed cloud platform server based on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to realize data interaction between physical and virtual entities. The DT model is further modified by the offline optimization data of drive motors, and the energy consumption is evaluated with the DT system in the real-world experiment. Specifically, the energy consumption Citation: Bai, L.; Zhang, Y.; Wei, H.; error between the experiment and simulation is less than 5.17%, which suggests that the established Dong, J.; Tian, W. Digital Twin DT model can accurately stimulate energy consumption. Generally, this study lays the foundation Modeling of a Solar Car Based on the for subsequent performance optimization research. -
How Founders Use External Advice to Improve Their Firm's Chance of Succeeding
The dynamics of forming a technology based start-up: How founders use external advice to improve their firm's chance of succeeding by Nick Cravalho B.S. Mechanical Engineering University of California, Berkeley, 2000 Submitted to the System Design and Management Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology May 2007 2007 Nick Cravalho. All rights reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium not known or hereafter created. Signature of Author Nick Cravalho System Design and Management Program May 2007 Certified by Diane Burton Thesis Supervisor Sloan School of Management Certified by _ Patrick Hale Director OASSACHUSETTS INS System Design and Management Program OF TECHNOLOGY FEB 0 1 2008 BARKER LIBRARIES The dynamics of forming a technology based start-up: How founders use external advice to improve their firm's chance of succeeding by Nick Cravalho Submitted to the System Design and Management Program on May 11, 2007 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management Abstract External advice can be a valuable resource for founders of high technology startup companies. As with any resource, the pursuit and efficient use of the external advice resource is one of the greatest challenges for founders. This thesis examines how the founders of eleven US venture-backed high-tech companies leveraged external advice to their advantage. -
Solar Energy: a New Day Dawning?: Silicon Valley Sunrise Oliver Morton Oliver Morton Is Nature's Chief News and Features Editor
Solar energy: A new day dawning?: Silicon Valley sunrise Oliver Morton Oliver Morton is Nature's chief news and features editor. Abstract Sunlight is a ubiquitous form of energy, but not as yet an economic one. In the first of two features, Oliver Morton looks at how interest in photovoltaic research is heating up in California's Silicon Valley. In the second, Carina Dennis talks to Australian researchers hoping to harness the dawn Sun's heat. The Sun provides Earth with as much energy every hour as human civilization uses every year. If you are a solarenergy enthusiast, that says it all. No other energy supply could conceivably be as plentiful as the 120,000 terawatts the Sun provides ceaselessly and unbidden. If the tiniest fraction of that sunlight were to be captured by photovoltaic cells that turn it straight into electricity, there would be no need to emit any greenhouse gases from any power plant. Thanks to green thoughts like that, and to generous subsidies from governments in Japan and Germany, the solarcell market has been growing on average by a heady 31% a year for the past decade (see chart, below). One of the most bullish industry analysts, Michael Rogol, sees the industry increasing from about US$12 billion in 2005 to as much as $70 billion in 2010. Although not everyone predicts such impressive growth, a 20–25% annual rise is widely expected. The market for shares in solarenergy companies is correspondingly buoyant. And yet in the projections of energy supply made by policy analysts and climate wonks, solar remains so marginal as to be barely on the map at all. -
Solar Racking Installation for ATN Final Report Fall 2016
1 Solar Racking Installation for an Automated Public Transportation System Solar Engineering Team San Jose State University Mechanical Engineering Department August, 2016 Advisor: Dr. Burford Furman Ron Swenson Eric Hagstrom Eric Rosenfeld Author: 2 Abstract The Sustainable Mobility System for Silicon Valley (SMSSV), also known as the Spartan Superway, is a project to develop a grid-tied solar powered Automated Transit Network (ATN) system. The ATN system will be elevated allowing for traffic and infrastructure below. The ATN system is designed for the vehicles or pods to be hanging from the track, giving the system opportunities for a solar module system on the top of the ATN. Recent work has focused on analyzing the power requirements and designing the solar power system for a potential implementation of ATN in the city of San José. The System Advisor Model (SAM) software from the National Renewable Laboratory (NREL) estimates the POA (plane-of-array) energy available for the ATN network and how much can be used for other applications. Results show to power 88 vehicles over a 14km guideway 24 hours a day requires 19,600 monocrystalline solar panels with an area of 38,000m2. 24/7 and be zero net-metered (on average) over a calendar year. Extensive research determining the boundary condition required for our solar racking system is underway. A design for a racking system utilizing bolts was analyzed showing more 3 difficult maintenance & installation, however cheaper infrastructure. Another design for a semi- automated design was analyzed essentially showing cheaper maintenance & installation, however more expensive infrastructure. Four different designs for semi-automated locking mechanism were created. -
Designing a Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) System in Adjunct with a Silicon Photovoltaic Panel for a Solar Competition Car
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Repositorio Institucional Universidad EAFIT Designing a Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) system in adjunct with a silicon photovoltaic panel for a solar competition car Andrés Arias-Rosalesa, Jorge Barrera-Velásqueza, Gilberto Osorio-Gómez*a, Ricardo Mejía- Gutiérreza a Design Engineering Research Group (GRID), Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia * Corresponding author: [email protected], Other authors’ e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT Solar competition cars are a very interesting research laboratory for the development of new technologies heading to their further implementation in either commercial passenger vehicles or related applications. Besides, worldwide competitions allow the spreading of such ideas where the best and experienced teams bet on innovation and leading edge technologies, in order to develop more efficient vehicles. In these vehicles, some aspects generally make the difference such as aerodynamics, shape, weight, wheels and the main solar panels. Therefore, seeking to innovate in a competitive advantage, the first Colombian solar vehicle “Primavera”, competitor at the World Solar Challenge (WSC)-2013, has implemented the usage of a Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) system as a complementary solar energy module to the common silicon photovoltaic panel. By harvesting sunlight with concentrating optical devices, CPVs are capable of maximizing the allowable photovoltaic area. However, the entire CPV system weight must be less harmful than the benefit of the extra electric energy generated, which in adjunct with added manufacture and design complexity, has intervened in the fact that CPVs had never been implemented in a solar car in such a scale as the one described in this work. -
Solar PV Technology Development Report 2020
EUR 30504 EN This publication is a Technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication. For information on the methodology and quality underlying the data used in this publication for which the source is neither Eurostat nor other Commission services, users should contact the referenced source. The designations employed and the presentation of material on the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Contact information Name: Nigel TAYLOR Address: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy Email: [email protected] Name: Maria GETSIOU Address: European Commission DG Research and Innovation, Brussels, Belgium Email: [email protected] EU Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc JRC123157 EUR 30504 EN ISSN 2600-0466 PDF ISBN 978-92-76-27274-8 doi:10.2760/827685 ISSN 1831-9424 (online collection) ISSN 2600-0458 Print ISBN 978-92-76-27275-5 doi:10.2760/215293 ISSN 1018-5593 (print collection) Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020 © European Union, 2020 The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. -
Nanosolar & U.S. Department of Energy Solar America Initiative
Securing our Energy Independence and Sustaining our Environment March 2011 1 Our High-Speed Solar Cell and Panel Factories Can Be Built Cost Effectively Anywhere in the World We Do Not Need to Manufacture in Asia to Be Competitive: We can build in San Jose! San Jose, California, Global Headquarters & Solar Cell Production Factory, 200,000 sq ft Luckenwalde, Germany, Panel Assembly Factory, 500,000 sq ft 2 We Print Nanotechnology-enabled Ink on Rolls of Very Inexpensive Aluminum Foil Rapid processing using low cost equipment and the lowest cost metal substrate 3 Our Flexible Foil Cells Are Built in San Jose, CA . Rolls of printed foil processed and thin film layers added to complete electrical structure . Foil cut into individual, rectangular cells . Flexibility to tune cells’ power output for Utility, Commercial and Residential solar markets 4 We then Assemble these Cells into Utility-scale Panels . 84 cells welded together to form one solar panel . Cells sandwiched between two tempered glass plates . Glass plate edges sealed to protect against weather Specifically designed from the start to make Nanosolar utility-scale solar power plants competitive with fossil fuels 5 Nanosolar Power Plants Are Built in Municipal Areas Connection to Distribution Voltage Lowers Delivery Costs Nanosolar power plants can be constructed on landfills, brown fields and green fields, as well as on flat rooftops 6 Nanosolar CA Factory Expansion Can Create Thousands of Skilled Solar Jobs Each Year For every 100 MW of production: . Navigant: 1,000 downstream jobs in system integration, installation, and O&M . Deutsche Bank : 3,700 downstream jobs in system integration, installation, and O&M . -
TOWN of PETERBOROUGH Photovoltaic Project Proposal
Application to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission June 2013 TOWN OF PETERBOROUGH Photovoltaic Project Proposal 6/7/2013 Letter of Transmittal Borrego Solar, with its NH headquarters in Peterborough, NH, has teamed up with the Town of Peterborough to develop a 947kW ground mounted PV array to be located at the Peterborough Waste Water Treatment Facility (WWTF). The NH PUC has clearly stated that two of the most important selection criteria factors are the project’s likelihood to expand the production capacity of renewable energy facilities in NH (including REC qualification) and the capacity of the team to successfully complete the initiative. After reading our proposal we hope you will share our belief that our team is extremely qualified and has the experience and expertise to complete this project. This solar project will be a class I REC producing site, generating an estimated 1,150 REC’s in the first year. Borrego Solar has provided a detailed production estimate using the industry standard PVSyst software. Borrego Solar has essentially written the book on production estimating – see SolarPro article – Exhibit E. Our fleet of systems has historically produced at 103% of estimated production, and we will have a production guarantee in our PPA with the Town of Peterborough. That guarantee includes damages should the system under-perform, which ensures our commitment to hitting the annual production estimates. The Town of Peterborough has recently completed a state of the art WWTF at 58 Water Street. The new facility eliminates the need to have several acres of holding ponds. The waste from the ponds will be removed, and the ponds will be filled in. -
Cleaning up How Solar Is Tackling Its Costly Soiling Problem, P.14 PV TECH POWER PV TECH Vol
PV-Tech.org Volume 21 PV POWER PLANT TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS November 2019 cleaning up How solar is tackling its costly soiling problem, p.14 PV TECH TECH PV POWER Vol. 21. 2019 Vol. Market System Design & PLant Watch Integration Build Performance Solar’s big leap Benchmarking Standardising Backsheet forward in the PV module floating solar, durability in harsh Middle East, p.28 bankability, p.40 p.82 environments, p.63 regulars Published by ublished by Solar Media Ltd. 123 Buckingham Palace Road London, SW1W 9SH, UK Tel: +44 (0) 207 871 0122 www.pv-tech.org Publisher Introduction David Owen Editorial Editor in chief: Liam Stoker Managing editor: Welcome to the latest edition of PV Tech solar. Trade body SolarPower Europe offers Ben Willis Senior news editor: Power. As we head into a new decade, a glimpse at how entire swathes of the Mark Osborne it would be easier to look back over the solar ecosystem is going digital, taking in Reporters: Andy Colthorpe, Tom Kenning, José Rojo spectacular journey solar has walked new developments such as AI and machine Martin, Alice Grundy, Cecilia Keating throughout the 2010s. From nascent learning (p.72). These are no longer industry Design & production technology to a stalwart of power systems buzzwords, but real solutions posing tangible Design and production manager: the world over, the last 10 years will be benefits to the industry. Sarah-Jane Lee Production: remembered as the decade of solar’s New technologies have also helped solar Daniel Brown maturation. deploy where it hasn’t been able to before. -
Buffer Against Degradation Cheap, Efficient, and Stable Thin Photovoltaics That Use Abundant and Non-Toxic Materials Can Deliver Widespread
PUBLISHED: 27 MARCH 2017 | VOLUME: 2 | ARTICLE NUMBER: 17057 news & views THIN-FILM PHOTOVOLTAICS Buffer against degradation Cheap, efficient, and stable thin photovoltaics that use abundant and non-toxic materials can deliver widespread renewable energy. New results using Earth-abundant and potentially cheap ZnO/Sb2Se3 solar cells indicate promising levels of stability. Supratik Guha ollowing years of research and development, photovoltaic (PV) Ftechnologies today are becoming VOC increasingly competitive with conventional forms of electrical power generation. About 93% of solar cells manufactured Metal electrode layer today are silicon-based. Even though they are built on relatively expensive Absorber layer (such as Sb2Se3) silicon wafers, silicon solar cells enjoy dominance because they were able to Buer layer (such as ZnO) capitalize on the progress of established Conductive coating Transparent to sunlight silicon microelectronics technology, and (such as fluorine-doped SnO2) today they offer the best blend of cost and Glass substrate performance. However, silicon still has Sunlight limitations, chiefly the need for structurally high-quality silicon substrates and poor optical absorption requiring active device Figure 1 | Typical architecture of a thin-film solar cell. A thin-film solar cell is built around a thin-film material tens of micrometres thick. To absorber material, whose role is to efficiently absorb light and create electron–hole pairs. The absorber overcome this, there has been sustained layer is matched to a buffer layer, usually a semiconductor. This creates an electrical field that separates interest in developing micron-thick PV the electrons and holes spatially. The separated electrons and holes are then conducted away by electrical contacts, one of which is transparent to let the sunlight in. -
Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing: Industry Trends, Global Competition, Federal Support
U.S. Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing: Industry Trends, Global Competition, Federal Support Michaela D. Platzer Specialist in Industrial Organization and Business January 27, 2015 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R42509 U.S. Solar PV Manufacturing: Industry Trends, Global Competition, Federal Support Summary Every President since Richard Nixon has sought to increase U.S. energy supply diversity. Job creation and the development of a domestic renewable energy manufacturing base have joined national security and environmental concerns as reasons for promoting the manufacturing of solar power equipment in the United States. The federal government maintains a variety of tax credits and targeted research and development programs to encourage the solar manufacturing sector, and state-level mandates that utilities obtain specified percentages of their electricity from renewable sources have bolstered demand for large solar projects. The most widely used solar technology involves photovoltaic (PV) solar modules, which draw on semiconducting materials to convert sunlight into electricity. By year-end 2013, the total number of grid-connected PV systems nationwide reached more than 445,000. Domestic demand is met both by imports and by about 75 U.S. manufacturing facilities employing upwards of 30,000 U.S. workers in 2014. Production is clustered in a few states including California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Domestic PV manufacturers operate in a dynamic, volatile, and highly competitive global market now dominated by Chinese and Taiwanese companies. China alone accounted for nearly 70% of total solar module production in 2013. Some PV manufacturers have expanded their operations beyond China to places like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Mexico.