NEWS: Tiny solar cells fix themselves

Researchers have demonstrated tiny solar cells just billionths of a metre across that can repair themselves, extending their useful lifetime.

The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work.

The cells simply assemble themselves from a mixture of the proteins, minute tubes of carbon and other materials.

The self-repairing mechanism, reported in Nature Chemistry, could lead to much longer-lasting solar cells.

The design and improvement of solar cells is one of the most vibrant areas of science, in part because sunlight is far and away the planet’s most abundant renewable energy source.

More than that, nature has already proven that sunlight can be captured and turned into other forms of energy not only with extraordinary efficiency but also with a self-repair mechanism that counteracts the ravages of sunlight.

“Sunlight, when it hits oxygen, is very damaging,” explained Michael Strano, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineer who led the research.

“It’s the reason why we age, and the reason why when we leave paper or plastic out in the sun, it fades.”

The destructive mixture of sunlight and oxygen, Professor Strano told BBC News, means that many of the best solar cells in the laboratory might not survive well when put into use.

“There’s a kind of a horse race among scientists around the world to make the highest efficiency cell, but very few people are asking what happens with that cell when you plug it in for a few hours or for a week or for months,” he said.

‘Jigsaw puzzle’

Now Professor Strano and his colleagues have made novel use of the photosynthetic reaction centre, one of the plant parts nature has developed for the task, in a bid to increase the lifetimes of solar cells.

The nanotubes are scaffolds on which the light-sensitive proteins can build

They also employed lipids, the molecules that pair up end-to-end form much of the walls of all living cells, and carbon nanotubes, tiny “straws” of pure carbon that are renowned for their electrical properties.

Lastly they added a surfactant – a molecule that, like soap on grease, breaks certain molecules apart and keeps them separate.

To the team’s surprise, this cocktail of disparate parts, when the surfactant was pumped out, assembled itself into a suite of working solar cells, each just a few nanometres – billionths of a metre – across.

The lipids paired up to form discs that attached to the nanotube on one side and to the reaction centres on the other.

Incoming light is gathered by the reaction centre, knocking free an electron that is channelled by the lipids and into the nanotube.

Inside what is known as a photoelectrochemical cell, those electrons can be scooped up and together constitute an electric current.

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that you throw into the air and it comes down completely assembled,” Professor Strano said.

This self-assembly leads naturally to a self-repair scheme.

Surfactant is added, along with a few proteins to replace those damaged by sunlight, and the recipe is complete.

When the surfactant is removed, the bits re-assemble into a pristine set of solar cells.

Professor Strano said that the efficiency of the cells as designed is just a tiny fraction of that provided by the current best solar cells.

While he said great gains are still to be had in efficiency as the experiment is refined, he added that the idea behind the research was as important for future work.

“What our paper is good for is starting to think about device lifetime and borrowing concepts from nature. Can we make cells that have an infinite lifetime?”

NEWS: SA increases feed in tariff

The Greens say long-term sustainability of the solar industry has been overlooked by the South Australian Government.

It has increased a bonus paid to the owners of solar panels.

SA Premier Mike Rann says the “feed-in” bonus will rise by 10 cents to 54 cents per kilowatt-hour.

It is paid for power sent to the electricity grid from solar panels.

Greens MP Mark Parnell wants a higher threshold on the total number of solar panels installed before the bonus closes off.

“It’s great that panel owners are going to get some more payment but the disappointing side of this announcement is the cap on the scheme means that within a year it may well come to an end,” he said.

“That means we’re going to continue to see the boom and bust cycle in solar energy.”

NEWS: NSW to review solar feed in tariff

The New South Wales Government will review its Solar Bonus Scheme after a faster than expected take up of the incentives to encourage renewable energy.

The scheme was established in January and the Energy Minister Paul Lynch says 30,000 households are now being paid to feed renewable energy into the electricity grid.

He says the first milestone of 50 megawatts has now been reached, triggering the review.

The government had anticipated that would not happen until 2012.

The Minister Paul Lynch says if changes are made, they will not be retrospective.

“Whether that tariff will be changed, whether a period a time will be changed we’ll see when the review is completed,” he said.

“We need to think about the aims of the scheme and whether we can get those aims done in a different way, or whether we leave it as it is.”

The New South Wales Greens say a review of the scheme should not be used as an excuse to cut it back.

Greens Upper House MP John Kaye says it was intended to run for seven years and it is appropriate that it should be reviewed.

“We’re concerned however that Treasury will use this review to axe the program,” he said.

“We know from the outset Treasury and the Treasurer were opposed these gross feed-in tariffs.

“They tried at every step to water them down. These are an important mechanism for building up a solar industry in New South Wales.

NEWS: Police chase solar panel thieves

Police are investigating the repeated theft of expensive solar panels from rest stops in Queensland’s Gulf country.

The panels are used to provide power and pump water in toilet facilities along the Gulf Developmental Road.

Georgetown officer Will Attwood says four panels valued at $8,000 have been stolen in the past few months.

He says he is worried that travellers may be stealing them to power caravans.

“These things are put in there for the use of everybody and there’s been lots of approaches to councils to have toilet stops put in,” he said.

“It’s just stupid that people come along and straightaway vandalise them.

“Certainly if I catch anybody, they’ll be charged with stealing and it’s a very, very serious offence.”

NEWS: Sanyo unveils largest rooftop system

Sanyo recently unveiled what is being touted as the largest commercially-funded rooftop solar panel installation in Australia. The 200-kilowatt solar system was recently installed on the rooftop of the Johnson & Johnson Medical headquarters in Sydney, Australia.

Government and company officials were on hand during the August 19th unveiling. The solar project incorporated Sanyo’s patented HIT technology – hybrid solar cells made of “thin mono crystal silicon surrounded by an ultra-thin amorphous silicon layer.”

The installation took part in two stages. The first stage, operational in June, comprised of 100 kW and the second stage of the installation, operational last week, comprised of the additional 100kW. The 952 solar panel installation will save the Johnson & Johnson Medical approximately 10 percent on electricity costs. The solar installation will produce enough energy to power 50 homes annually.

The project is part of Johnson & Johnson’s sustainability program, Project Leaf: linking environment and future. The company will replace one of its older chillers and will also install sensor-driven efficient lighting. All in all, the projects are expected to reduce the company’s energy usage by 20 percent annually.

The company will plant 37 trees to offset the environmental cost of the solar installation. Johnson & Johnson Medical is also expected to implement other sustainable initiatives including water conservation and waste management over the coming years as well.

NEWS: Self cleaning solar panels?

Self-cleaning solar panel technology for use in Lunar and Mars missions could help increase the efficiency of solar panels on earth and reduce maintenance costs for companies, according to research presented to the American Chemical Society (ACS).

NEWS: Solar power toothbrush to replace toothpaste?

Dr. Kunio Komiyama, a dentistry professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan, has invented a toothbrush that will not need toothpaste, but will clean teeth with solar power. He designed the first model 15 years ago and has been perfecting it since. His college friend, Dr. Gerry Uswak, is looking for recruits to test their latest model, the Soladey-J3X, and 120 teenagers will test to see how it compares to the traditional toothbrush and toothpaste.

The Soladey-J3X houses a solar panel at the base of the brush that transmits electrons to the head of the toothbrush with a lead wire. When the electrons reach the head, they react with acid in the mouth, creating a chemical reaction that breaks down plaque cells and kills other bacteria in the mouth. The toothbrush uses about the same amount of power as a traditional solar-powered calculator.

Komiyama and Uswak have tested the toothbrush on bacteria cultures that cause dental disease and Komiyama said that the toothbrush causes “complete destruction of bacterial cells.” The Soladey-J3X also won the first place prize at the annual FDI World Dental Conference in Dubai last month.

NEWS: Australia opens world’s first solar/diesel power plant

THE world’s first solar-diesel power station has opened in Western Australia’s Pilbara region at Marble Bar, known for its record high temperatures.

WA’s Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore opened Horizon Power’s Pippunyah Solar Diesel Power Station today.

The new $34 million station is powered by the biggest sun-tracking solar panel farm in Australia.

“Marble Bar is significant for many reasons; the three billion year-old rock on which it was based, the world record it held for the most consecutive days of maximum temperatures and, now, a world-first in power generation technology,” the minister said.

The power station will generate 1048 megawatt hours of solar energy a year and provide 65 per cent of daytime energy demand from solar power.

It is estimated it will save 1119 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year and save between 35 and 40 per cent of diesel consumption a year.

The station began powering Marble Bar in May but the testing period was only completed at the end of July.

Horizon Power managing director Rod Hayes said the traditional custodians of the 45,373 square kilometres east Pilbara region, the Njamal people, were consulted during the development of the new station.

“The group chose the name Pippunyah, which is the name of the river that runs below the power station,” he said.

The project is supported by the Federal Government through the renewable remote power generation program and is implemented by WA’s Office of Energy

NEWS: Government’s renewable energy scheme needs more light shone upon it

From: Courier Mail

WHO could complain about renewable energy?

Not the idea of renewable energy itself – that would be like objecting to recycling or saving the planet or motherhood – but rather the way it is being introduced here in Queensland and in Australia.

Queensland Parliament’s Environment and Resources Committee is currently holding an inquiry into “growing Queensland’s renewable energy sector” and recently called for public submissions.

Most of the 62 responses overwhelmingly acknowledged the good sense of more renewable energy in the mix, but several questioned existing and proposed government strategies for meeting the federally mandated target of 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity being supplied from renewable sources by 2020.

Last year it also produced the Queensland Renewable Energy Plan, which promises “a cleaner energy future for Queensland”. This 28-page document details a “bold vision” which aims to “stimulate up to $3.5 billion in new investment, create up to 3500 jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 million tonnes”.

In summary, the state has a bureaucracy and policy structure in place, all directed at increasing the renewable energy sector.

But how has it actually performed? It is early days, but already some worrying signs have emerged, most notably the recent revelations that an ambitious government-backed plan to convert Cloncurry into Queensland’s first fully solar-powered town has seemingly ground to a halt, reportedly because of “glare issues”.

Whatever the specific issues surrounding the Cloncurry project, the delay is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it was supposed to be a “ground-breaking” project, in the words of Premier Anna Bligh, that would lead the way for other such schemes in regional Queensland.

More significantly, however, it was one of the first recipients of funds from the Government’s renewable energy fund, which had earmarked up to $7 million for the project. The fact that the scheme is now struggling raises questions about how funding decisions are taken and potential projects assessed.

That returns us to the Environment and Resources Committee, which in its call for public submissions posed the following question for consideration: “What have the Queensland Government’s own investments in renewable energy projects for the generation of electricity achieved to date, and at what cost?”

Clean Energy Australasia, a private company that wants to generate geothermal power from underground hot rocks in the state’s west, answered by noting that “the process of Government-initiated grants and financial support mechanisms are non-transparent and not divulged voluntarily”. That lack of transparency, in turn, made it difficult to assess the effectiveness of Government spending to date.

Mining company Rio Tinto similarly noted it was “not aware if a review of the Queensland Government’s investment in renewable energy projects has been conducted”.

In short, we don’t know just how the Government has decided to hand out public money to companies and we don’t yet know, in any objective way, just how those projects are performing.

Again, it is still early days, but transparency and accountability will be essential if the Government wants to ensure the credibility of its expensive renewable energy plans.

And that is to say nothing of the actual worth of the Government’s renewable energy strategy, which has an emphasis on encouraging greater use of solar, particularly at the domestic level, through its solar hot water rebate scheme.

The Queensland Resources Council, in its submission to the inquiry, claimed an “expanded, public funded R&D effort” was required rather than schemes which produce a large quantity of non-peak power at very high costs.

NEWS: Renewable energy is the cash crop of the future for British farmers

When will the Australian Government realise that Solar is a viable and realistic alternative to fossil fuels? If the UK can do it it should be a no brainer for Australia.

From Telegraph UK: Visitors are stalking Britain’s rural communities in unsuitable footwear, offering farmers the deal of a lifetime. They’re not pushing a wonder fertilizer or trying to side-step their local farmers’ market in the hunt for a new superfood, but offering help to cash in on the new gold rush – solar power.

Since April, when the Government brought in new subsidies to promote the development of renewable energy, farmers have found they hold the key to a secure investment.

“The county is swarming with people in suits and shiny shoes looking for a few acres to shove a solar panel in,” says Stephen Frankel of Carhart Mill near Wadebridge in Cornwall.

It’s potentially great news for farmers who saw income drop nearly 7pc last year as commodity prices fell. Tom Hind, head of economics at the National Farmers Union (NFU), says that although farmers saw a pick up in income in 2007 and 2008 after a decade of falling trade, many farmers are “treading a fine line” in terms of survival. Many are reliant on money from the EU to turn a profit.

“Investment in renewables and developing new income streams from land and buildings is part of the defence against volatile commodity prices,” says Mr Hind.

Farmer Frankel has already installed a small 3kW solar system on the barn roof at his rare breeds pig and cattle farm, earning him £1,700 of income a year. But all the farmers contacted by The Sunday Telegraph for this article said they were inundated with calls and correspondence from investors wanting to engage them in solar projects.

So does this unprecedented solar push really offer a viable extra revenue stream to our rural economy? And what can history teach us about Government-backed energy initiatives for farmers?

The Government’s so-called feed-in-tariffs offer guaranteed cash back for the next 25 years on every unit of electricity generated by a solar panel, wind turbine or biomass energy technology such as anaerobic digestion.

What’s more, the tariff system is designed to offer an 8pc to 10pc rate of return on all scales of project, making it more attractive for investors than a bank account and more reliable than the stock market.

Since the feed-in-tariff scheme began, there have been 3,721 installations in the
UK, 98pc of which were solar panels, according to the latest figures from Ofgem, the energy regulator. While many of those are on homes, farmers could be among the biggest beneficiaries.

The average barn roof could generate as much as £20,000 of income a year if devoted to so-called photovoltaic solar panels, which generate electricity. Meanwhile, large field-based projects promise income of several million pounds a year, with the potential to secure and diversify farmers’ income.

The British scheme follows in the tracks of similar ones in Germany, Spain and Italy where thousands of farmers have set up solar and other renewable energy projects.

Madeleine Lewis of Farming Futures, a body backed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the NFU and Forum for the Future, the environmental group, says: “A year ago, farmers thought of solar as not very profitable and that’s obviously changed. They are now very keen to invest in renewables. They are using a lot of energy, prices are going up and that has hit their businesses hard. Renewables projects insulate them against rising prices and provide a new income. There’s a lot of buzz around it.”

With more sunlight hours than elsewhere in the country, Cornwall is set to be the heart of the UK’s new solar industry.

Nearly 40 farmers have already inquired about planning permission for solar projects in the county and more are likely to follow. Installations are also being planned in Herefordshire, Somerset and even the
North East of England, despite there being 20pc less sun than in England’s south-western foot.

The NFU believes that as many as 100 farmers will be setting up major solar projects by next year with many more already planning small-scale developments. Potentially as many as 1,000 wind projects could be in the pipeline by next year.

Jonathan Scurlock, the NFU’s chief adviser on renewable energy, says: “Farmers are extremely interested in diversifying and this is completely compatible with the traditional business of a farm.”

Just last week, Michael Eavis, the high-profile farmer and host of the Glastonbury music festival, started work on a £550,000 project using 1,100 panels on the roof of his cow barn. The project will be the biggest solar roof in the country, although that record isn’t expected to last long as the UK’s chicken, pig and dairy farmers all begin to view their barn roofs in a new light. In Herefordshire, a group of eight farmers is clubbing together through advisory company 7Y Energy, owned by 450 farmers, to buy solar panels for their barn roofs. Another group of 35 are undergoing surveys to see if their sites are suitable.

Julian Cotton of Pomona Farm in Hereford is typical of the first group. He is planning a 42kW system on top of a former hop kiln he uses partly as a cold store for the cherries, apples and other fruits he grows.

Cotton says: “The amount of sunlight here doesn’t vary from year to year much at all. We should have a guaranteed income over 25 years – index-linked – and that means we can reduce farm costs.”

The panels should cover all the farm’s electrical needs, saving about £800 a year, and leave three times more electricity to sell into the electrical grid.

He says: “Farming goes up and down. We are having an OK time at the moment, but not fantastic, so this will be a useful addition to the farm income.”

Yet he points out he will not be making any real profit for about 10 years, the time it will take to pay for his panels.

The NFU is encouraging farmers to mount panels on barn roofs or to use land around the edge of fields for solar panels rather than using fertile agricultural land for so-called ‘solar vineyards’.

Mr Scurlock suggests farmers could graze chickens, geese or even sheep underneath field-based panels to maintain agricultural use. However, these large projects are subject to more planning constraints and may face local opposition because of their visual impact.

Still, such projects are attractive to investors because of their massive scale. One of the most ambitious investors in solar energy in the UK is MO3 Power, which is already engaged with 15 farmers and wants to have 100 sites generating 500MW of energy within fives years, the equivalent of a small commercial power station. A typical site would cover 13 to 15 hectares, generating 5MW with the potential to give an annual income of £50,000 a year for farmers leasing their land for the solar farm.

Adam Oliver, operations director says: “There is no real capital commitment on the part of the farmer and no on-going cost on their part.” The implication is that once a farmer has agreed to the solar project he can sit back and reap a steady income.

R-Eco is a rival investment firm offering similar deals through its Silicon Vineyards project. It is working with some 30 farmers in the West Country who together will be operating 56mW of solar panels.

Benbole farm in St Kew in Cornwall is one of the most advanced schemes in the project. It has applied for planning permission for a 2mW array in a seven-acre field which it hopes will start construction this autumn. John Vidler, project co-ordinator at Benbole, says the array will provide electricity for 600 to 800 homes locally and about 10pc of the income will be set aside for a community fund. Mr Vidler says the environmental and community benefit adds a feel-good factor but: “There’s no doubt about it, the feed-in-tariff brings financial rewards for us. We are going to be making a lot of money out of it.”

Some farmers are suspicious of partnerships with developers or financiers because they fear the money men will take the lion’s share of any income.

Experts also warn that the returns for solar projects are being overestimated by investors keen to persuade farmers to sign up. At the same time, choosing good quality equipment for schemes more than 50kW in size, for which equipment does not have to pass micro-generation licensing laws, can be tricky.

Mr Frankel says: “I’m not for large-scale, externally-funded solar vineyards because I think that’s motivated by ‘money for old rope’.” But Mr Vidler says he is more comfortable using a developer such as R-Eco which has the experience and expertise to source and construct a solar array. Under the R-Eco scheme, he can choose the amount of investment he wants to make within a joint venture arrangement. Out of the £13m turn-over expected to be generated by the array, the farm could take between £5m and £9m depending on its investment, he says.

Yet hopes of new income sources for farmers have been dashed before. The creation of energy from animal slurry or crop residue has been a real disappointment for farmers. The previous government wanted to see as many as 1,000 small-scale anaerobic digestion plants over time.

But as many as 50 on-farm projects were cancelled earlier this year when farmers realised the feed-in-tariff for anaerobic digestion (AD), the most popular form of biomass power generation, was too low to make the projects viable.

AD plants, which use heat and bacteria to turn organic waste into energy, require considerable investment of around £1.5m for a small-scale 500kW plant. Larger plants are able to boost income by charging fees to local councils or businesses in return for taking in food or other organic waste and so can be profitable with little or no subsidy. But farm-based projects don’t have the facilities or environmental permits for this option.

Leonie Green, head of external affairs at the Renewable Energy Association, says the group is putting pressure on the government to increase the tariff for small farm projects. About 18m tonnes of slurry is produced in the UK every year and she says: “The potential for farmers is fantastic. It should be taking off everywhere because every farmer has organic agricultural waste outputs.”

Wind turbines have been a potential source of income for farmers for some time, but large -scale developments have struggled to gain planning permission in many areas.

“This is completely compatible with the traditional business of a farm”

- Jonathan Scurlock, the National Farmers Union’s chief adviser on renewable energy

Mr Scurlock at the NFU says things are now changing on that front. He says: “In the past wind was only of interest on a large commercial scale. Now with the feed-in-tariff, small wind projects look bankable, economically viable and within the capability of a farmer to borrow money.”

He says smaller turbines can cost £500,000 or even £50,000 and potential income is higher, if less predictable than solar.

Sarah Wells, an energy consultant at 7Y Energy says that, of its members taking up renewable energy projects in the wake of the feed-in-tariff, about a third are doing wind projects and two-thirds solar.

She says this is because wind projects are seen as higher risk: “You can’t predict the wind as easily as daylight hours. It can vary from one year to the next.”

Wind is also not appropriate for as many farmers as solar. Firstly it requires the right kind of weather, which can best be found in Scotland, the North West of England, Wales and the South West. With many of those locations in beautiful natural settings, gaining planning permission may still be a barrier.

For now, Britain’s farmers’ biggest ray of hope comes from solar.