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Sun Volt Solar

earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

XsunX thin film solar advances

15 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Technology

Thin Film Photovoltaics (TFPV) have the potential to dominate the PV market in years to come. TFPV is less expensive to manufacture due to reduced use or elimination of the raw material Silicon, the key ingredient in all wafer PV technology.  TFPV is also the key to building integrated PV (BIPV), peel and stick laminates and other low profile PV solutions.  Many commercial building architects and owners prefer low profile PV systems to the mounting of large PV arrays, which increase weight and wind loading and lower aesthetic appeal for some people.

The downside to TFPV is lower efficiencies, on the order of 7-9% for most commercially available modules.  This adds to the array area and adds expense and labor to a PV installation.

XsunX, Inc., manufacture of Thin Film Photovoltaics is working on boosting TFPV efficiencies to 19-20%.  Several development laboratories have seen efficiencies of 19% or greater in lab testing.  The difference between lab tests of specific PV modules made in tightly controlled conditions and mass manufactured modules is the purity of the substrate materials.  In conventional TFPV manufacturing, substrate is manufactured in a continuous roll process, making large quantities of low grade material.  These rolls are then cut up into 125 x 125 mm cells and installed in modules.  What XsunX is proposing is using a proven automated manufacturing process very similar to that used in the making of computer hard drives.  Smaller 125 x 125 mm solar cells will be manufactured individually instead of in large rolls.  Other parts of the process include a proprietary co-evaporation chamber which will speed the process and minimize contamination.

According to CEO Tom Djokovich, the cross industry system has the capability of making 600 million CIGS units per year, which equals 3 GW of solar cells.  With a 12% efficiency, the cost per watt will be about $0.80 wholesale.   Currently XsunX is developing the manufacturing machinery for this process as well as building their own thin film manufacturing plant.  They expect the first small production run in the end of 2010.

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15 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Technology | Comment (1)

Smart grid and renewable energy

05 Mar 10 | Conservation, Solar Electric

I have been reading up on the smart grid technology.  I find it interesting for several reasons.  Our energy conversion to electricity is very inefficient, around 32% for the entire electrical grid in the United States.   Because of this, we are using much more energy than we need to generate electricity.

The aims of the smart grid are:

  • Self-healing from power disturbance events
  • Enabling active participation by consumers in demand response
  • Operating resiliently against physical and cyber attack
  • Providing power quality for 21st century needs
  • Accommodating all generation and storage options
  • Enabling new products, services, and markets
  • Optimizing assets and operating efficiently

According the the US Department of Energy website.

Renewable energy critics often cite the very small percentages that renewables currently contribute to electrical generation in the US.  The other argument against installing photovoltaics is their low efficiency, between 14-16 percent in most commercially manufactured silicone modules.  Others argue that the cost is too high and the reliability is low.  All of those statements are true in the context of the artificially low prices we are paying for energy today.  If the real costs of energy were reflected in one’s electric bill, the cost per kWh would be in the $0.25 to $0.40 range.  Currently, unsubsidized photovoltaic electricity is $0.218 per kWh ($7.31 per watt installed, over 25 year life span).  Our current utility electric rates are about $0.15 per kWh.  If only the Federal income tax refund were taken (30% of the installed system cost), that brings the cost down to $0.152 per kWh.

Behind the meter solar generation is much more efficient than conventionally produced power.  A coal, oil or natural gas fired power plant dumps about half the energy consumed into the environment as waste heat.  Another 10 percent or so is consumed as resistive losses in transmission lines, then there is the energy required to produce the fuel, mining, pumping, transportation, etc.  That is what is required to use whatever fossil fuel the power plant is burning.  The amount of original energy from the sun needed to produce a unit of fossil fuel (e.g. gallon of oil, cubic foot of natural gas, ton of coal, etc)  is almost incalculable.  If we were to compare solar energy inputs, photovoltaic panels are far more efficient than any fossil fuel could ever be.

Photovoltaics also produce peak power during peak demand times, which can help reduce costs associated with Time Of Use (TOU) metering.  They are a distributed generation technology, which spreads the failure risk out over many points of generation, reducing transmission losses as well.  A battery backup couple with a solar and or wind system will keep power on indefinitely if properly sized.

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05 Mar 10 | Conservation, Solar Electric | Comments (5)

What happens to a solar system when it snows?

01 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Solar Hot Water, solar thermal

I have good customers, they ask good questions.  One such question asked of me lately has been “what happens to my solar system when it snows?”  Since I have both a solar thermal system and a photovoltaic system on my house, I can tell them.  Enough sunlight gets through the snow that the panels begin to heat up.  This, in turn, causes the snow to slide off.  Here is a picture of a ground mounted system after receiving over two feet of snow:

Ground mounted PV array after blizzard

Ground mounted PV array after blizzard

It helps that the panels are tilted to 40 degrees, roof mounted systems likely will not shed snow like this.  Still, on a roof mounted system, the snow will melt off, it might take a little longer.  The only system I would be careful of in this climate would be an evacuated tube collector.  Because the tubes have a vacuum, no heat is transfered to the glass envelope, which is really good for collecting heat, but not so good for melting accumulated snow off the collector.

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01 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Solar Hot Water, solar thermal | Comments (0)