Yes you read that right : 50%
One of our favourite subjects — solar cells and more specifically solar cell innovation and breakthroughs — is covered in this week’s SQHQ spray readers.
I think I’ve mentioned, in a previous rant in these pages, one of the enduring memories I have of seeing the famous environmentalist/author/activist Professor David Suzuki in 2007 was his rhetorical question that kicked off the night: why wasn’t every house in Australia covered in solar panels? [Read more…]
The search engine giant Google — and more specifically Google solar power — is the subject of this week’s rant folks.
There comes a time when the most radical science drifts into the mainstream and becomes accepted as fact or a viable alternative to the present way of doing things. Sometimes this happens almost unnoticed, at least by the community at large, such as the move in thinking from the “steady state” theory of the existence of the universe (back in the day!) to that of the Big Bang. [Read more…]
How big can a solar farm get?
If you were thrown a curly question, say in a solar-powered themed pub quiz, about which country was proposing to build the world’s largest utility scale solar project, how would you answer?
China may well be your first choice. With the People’s Republic leading the world in driving down the cost of solar through cheaper solar panels and placing great emphasis on developing alternatives to its coal-based economy, you’d think this was a sure bet.
But no. [Read more…]
Coming soon to a field in Nyngan.
The start of construction of Australia’s largest utility scale solar project has demonstrated that the country is serious about large-scale solar. However it throws up an uncomfortable truth in the halls of power in Canberra and the cabinet rooms of their state counterparts.
News that construction had started on the country’s largest utility scale solar power project at Nyngan, in country NSW was a breakthrough not just for the local community, but for the country’s solar power sector. The US-based First Solar, which is one of the world’s leaders in supplying thin film solar panels, began the building of the mammoth (for Australia) solar power plant in January. [Read more…]
The balance has tipped in favour of solar in Saudi Arabia.
We’ve mentioned before about the huge movement overseas towards a renewable energy future and this includes the home of one-fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves — Saudi Arabia. For many, Saudi Arabia symbolises opulent oil wealth, a desert kingdom so awash in the black stuff that fortunes are measured in billions not millions.
All presided over by the astute al-Saud clan.
Which brings us neatly to this week’s rant. The latest Saudi Arabia solar power project is part of a massive $US100 billion investment in solar energy which will deliver an estimated 41 GW of renewable energy by 2032. According to this 21/1/2014 SMH article, Saudi company Abdul Latif Jameel has teamed up with Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Ventures in a three-year venture to build solar power plants worth $US130 million each in the desert kingdom and the Gulf region.
This prompts the question: have the oil sheikhs seen the renewable writing on the wall? Or is there one hell of a peak oil crisis on its way, perhaps a lot earlier than we think?
Oooh La La! What has a French actress got to do with solar panel manufacturing? Read on…
Here at the SQHQ we try to cover solar policy as often as we can in these pages. Let’s face it there’s nothing more enjoyable than covering the sorry policy efforts offered by the chair polishers in state and federal seats of power. With some exceptions (heads up ACT), policy that takes into account the advantages of solar energy in Australia might as well be made by a bunch of backward-looking, chest-thumping, narky neo trogs …. (or am I being too harsh here?). [Read more…]
T
he need to save the world from environmental degradation and climate change appears to have sunk in to the halls of power in the United States. Renewable energy sources such as solar power are now not just “flavour of the month” but perhaps “flavour of the year/decade”. Well, in some parts of the land of the free and brave anyway.
While the sheer financial and political clout exercised by fossil fuel advocates such as the infamous Koch Brothers cannot be discounted, there are influential progressive, pro-renewable energy elements hard at work. They are, it seems, swinging the nation’s attention back to the benefits of renewable energy sources such as solar power. [Read more…]
Those 3 x 100W Sunpower panels could power 75% of your trips.
Last week we discussed how remarkable innovation in the renewable energy sector will change the way energy is sourced in buildings such as office blocks and factories. We looked at how recent developments in photovoltaics allow office windows to be both transparent enough to let in sufficient light, as well as sensitive enough to act as efficient mini solar panels.
This week sees us delve into the traditional Holden vs Ford wars, though with a renewable energy twist. [Read more…]
Smart businesses will see their meters slow down in 2014
As solar fans look towards 2014 with a mixture of dread and anticipation, one thing seems certain; energy prices will continue to rise. Yes that’s right, expect your bills to go up despite Abbott’s promise to reduce them.
People who actually know how the National Electricity Market (NEM) works, understand what the climate-change denying knuckle draggers in government don’t. Even if they do ‘Axe The Tax™’ your electricity and gas prices are going in only one direction: up. Smart Australian business owners are not expecting their bills to drop anytime soon, no matter what promises Abbott spews forth.
Tonga got a few thousand of these for Christmas!
It’s the time of giving, of peace and understanding towards all nations (in theory anyway) but what do you give the country that has everything: sun, beaches, lovely people etc? Why solar power plants of course.
That is exactly the gift the Japanese government has given the beautiful island nation of Tonga according to press reports this week. According to the Tonga Power Limited, “… the Japanese Government through the Japanese International Cooperation Association (JICA) agreed to provide full grant funding for the Vaini solar project in Tongatapu.” [Read more…]
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