Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 11 June 2014

Council’s Lib Dems Delivering On Local Green Jobs

2nd June, 2014 - Liberal Democrat action and investment is helping to create green jobs and support local businesses across the Bath and North East Somerset area, it has been announced.

The Liberal Democrat administration on B&NES Council has developed the Energy@Home scheme as well as supporting community energy initiatives such as with Bath & West Community Energy and the ‘Green Skills Academy’, to make sure that residents and the local economy gain the maximum benefit from the developing green economy.

Councillor David Martin, the Council’s member champion for energy and climate change, requested an update report on the green jobs agenda. read more>>>

SWIC goes solar

June 2, 2014 - Southwestern Illinois College tap into solar energy.

The community college's Belleville campus is one of 15 across the state that is pursuing solar power.

SWIC has partnered with Microgrid Solar in St. Louis, which is installing the 540 panels for an estimated total of 137 kilowatts. About 115 kilowatts' worth of panels is being mounted on the roof of the varsity gymnasium and another 14 kilowatts on a "solar sun arbor," that will be behind the main complex and over the shipping and receiving parking area. read more>>>

Small Wind Turbine Generator for Clean Energy Power Production

Meralco pilot-testing solar microgrid system

June 2nd, 2014 - The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is testing an innovative solution to remedy distribution issues such as system loss through a so-called microgrid pilot project in Talim Island, Rizal province. Such a system could ease power demand from the main grid, especially during peak times, officials said.

Senior executive vice president and networks head Ricardo V. Buencamino told reporters that the pilot project utilizes solar power and that Meralco is looking for suitable storage systems.

Buencamino said Meralco has not yet found a technical partner for the project. read more>>>

Quantum mechanisms of organic devices for alternative solar panels are revealed

May 30, 2014 - Silicon panel-based technology requires a very costly, contaminating manufacturing process, while organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have been positioned as one of the most attractive alternatives as a source of solar energy.

This research has made a ground-breaking discovery because it is the first time that the quantum mechanisms that trigger the photovoltaic function of these devices have been deciphered. Angel Rubio, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, director of the Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group, and associate researcher of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), has participated in the research conducted in this field in collaboration with various centres in Germany, Italy and France. read more>>>

Wind Power For Dummies

First real-time movies of the light-to-current conversion in an organic solar cell

May 30, 2014 - Photovoltaic cells directly convert sun light into electricity and hence are key technological devices to meet one of the challenges that humankind has to face in this century: a sustainable and clean production of renewable energy. Organic solar cells, using polymeric materials to capture sun light, have particularly favorable properties. They are low-cost, light-weight and flexible, and their color can be adapted by varying the material composition. Such solar cells typically consist of nanostructured blends of conjugated polymers (long chains of carbon atoms), acting as light absorbers, and fullerenes (nanoscale carbon soccer balls), acting as electron acceptors. The primary and most elementary step in the light-to-current conversion process, the light-induced transfer of an electron from the polymer to the fullerene, occurs at such a staggering speed that it has previously proven difficult to follow it directly. read more>>>

Apprenticeships open doors in resource construction

31st May 2014 - WHEN the National Apprenticeships Program's (NAP) first female adult apprentice Nikki Green was a young child, she dreamed of working in animal care. She's now working in the "Jurassic Park" of the resource construction sector.

Ms Green started a mechanical fitting apprenticeship with Bechtel on the LNG projects in Gladstone in January and is on track to complete her qualification within 18 months while on adult wages.

"I love the job. I'm learning so much - things I never thought possible or thought I'd ever have a chance to do," Ms Green said. read more>>>

Ali Smart: Green jobs for the Ocean State

May 31, 2014 - Investment in green industry is a proven method for creating jobs and strengthening the economy. Climate change is a “glocal” issue (global and local), as is creating jobs and a strong economy for the 21st century.

Massachusetts passed the Green Jobs Act in 2008, spurring job creation and growth of its green economy — which in 2014 employs an estimated 88,874 people, and includes 5,557 clean energy firms. Meanwhile, Rhode Island, Massachusetts’ close geographic and historic neighbor, faces the highest unemployment rate in the country. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that including underemployed and discouraged workers, Rhode Island’s 2013 unemployment was as high as 15.5 percent. In 2012, Rhode Island was home to only 12,000 green jobs. read more>>>

Multijunction Solar Cells Break Efficiency Records by Harvesting the Full Spectrum of Light

06/02/14 - Engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new type of solar cell that uses multiple junctions instead of single subcells to gather the full spectrum of light. The panels are able to capture different wavelengths of sunlight, so they can achieve power conversion efficiencies of 44% as compared to the 29% of standard panels.

The solar cell project is headed by Professor John Rogers, who worked in collaboration with Semprius and Solar Junction. The team was able to use a printing technique to lay extremely small and thin layers of semiconductor elements on top of one another. The high-speed process yields quadruple junction, four terminal solar cells that can harvest a greater diversity of sunlight. Semprius incorporated the invention into their dual-stage optics, which are able to concentrate incident light more than one thousand times. Semiconductor materials were used for the top three layers, while germanium comprised the bottom. read more>>>

RenogyⓇ Foldable Solar Suitcase Battery Charger 100W

Novel laser system mimics sunlight to test solar cell efficiency

May 30, 2014 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laser-based instrument that generates artificial sunlight to help test solar cell properties and find ways to boost their efficiency.

The novel NIST system simulates sunlight well across a broad spectrum of visible to infrared light. More flexible than conventional solar simulators such as xenon arc-lamps or light-emitting diodes, the laser instrument can be focused down to a small beam spot -- with resolution approaching the theoretical limit -- and shaped to match any desired spectral profile. read more>>>

More sustainable thermosolar plants thanks to hybridization with biomethane

May 27, 2014 - The integration of biomethane in concentrating solar thermal power plants would facilitate the commercial introduction of concentrating solar power (CSP) technology in the energy market, reducing both financial and environmental costs. Researchers belong to the European consortium of the Hysol project, who is led by the ACS-Cobra company, with the participation of Universidad Politécnica de MadridUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) researchers. Currently, they are studying the integration process of biomethane. In order to conduct the validation of this process, this project is expected to build a pre-industrial plant located at the cluster of thermosolar innovation of Manchasol. read more>>>