Industry headlines

Carlo Gavazzi is extending its support for renewable energy installations with the introduction of grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Inverters. Complementing the company’s energy management range, the new Solar PV Series embodies state-of the art inverter technology. As well as best-of-breed efficiencies (better than 94.37 per cent EU), the inverters incorporate Carlo Gavazzi’s exclusive Smart MPPT technology and PV string control software to deliver up to 20 per cent more energy compared with alternative solutions. Click here for full story

Silicon solar cells are so, well, dead. Dollops of green goo made of living cells – from jellyfish to algae - are now being recruited to produce cheaper solar power. Zackary Chiragwandi at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues are developing a photovoltaic device based on green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Click here for full story

……… Farmer Eavis also revealed to eFestivals that work is nearly complete on the Worthy Farm's solar electricity system (the UK's largest private) with 1,500 square metres of solar panels, which will generate the same amount of power annually as used by around 30 homes. The completed solar panel system is due to be unveiled at the farm next month. Over a thousand solar panels sit atop the farm's huge barns which are home to the Worthy Farm herd while the Festival is on. On a sunny day the panels are expected to generate some 200kW of power enough to meet the power demands of the farm. Any power which isn't used by the farm will be exported to the National Grid. Click here for full story

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. Click here for full story

As solar photovoltaic panels go mainstream, Eric Gies looks at the environmental impact of making and disposing of them ….. Solar modules contain some of the same potentially dangerous materials as electronics, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium, and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas. So as solar moves from the fringe to the mainstream, insiders and watchdog groups are beginning to talk about producer responsibility and recycling in an attempt to sidestep the pitfalls of electronic waste and retain the industry's green credibility. Click here for full story

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is launching a range of Solar PV and Solar Thermal water heating solutions to "help customers cut their carbon emissions and reduce their energy bills". M&S is one of the first retailers to offer solar energy packages that enable customers to take advantage of Feed-in-Tariffs. Click here for full story

The gold rush sparked by the launch of the UK's renewable energy feed-in tariff stepped up a notch this week after German solar specialist Centrosolar launched a UK subsidiary and obtained product UK certification for its solar panels…… The company has recruited seven-year solar industry veteran Simon Gerrard, former head of domestic sales for Solarcentury, to run its British subsidiary. Click here for full story

Energy regulator Ofgem has now released the UK installation numbers for the period 1-31st August 2010, revealing a huge spike in figures. The details set out on the company’s website show that August was a record month in terms of solar photovoltaic installations. Back at the beginning of August, the Solar Power Portal announced the installation figures for the period April 1 to July 31, which outlined that PV had significantly overtaken any other renewable energy source in those four months, hitting a total of 11.266MW since the feed-in tariff was introduced. The total figure for solar PV installations for this period was 4,457, 4,429 of which were domestic, six commercial, and one community. Click here for full story

The Solar Trade Association has today (September 1) welcomed figures published by Ofgem which show a surge in the number of solar photovoltaic panels installed by homeowners in August. However, while the solar energy industry body welcomed the report it stressed that there was a need for further improvement to help the UK to catch up with the rest of Europe. Click here for full story

As many as half of Britain's homes could earn around £600 a year from roof top solar panels with some earning as much as £1000... Research carried out by British Gas suggests that over 12 million households have roofs that could benefit from solar panel installations which would produce enough electricity for up to half their household needs. Click here for full story

In a UK first, Southampton airport has installed solar-powered LED safety lights across its airfield. Nicknamed 'wig wags' due to their flashing patterns, the lights are being used to direct aircraft and vehicles at intersections between the runway and taxiways. Solar panels charge the batteries and ensure the system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Click here for full story

Global solar photovoltaics project developer, juwi Solar, is to extend its international business activities by entering new photovoltaics markets and creating 500 new jobs worldwide by 2012. As well as continuing to focus on experienced markets, the company has also outlined plans to set up a new branch based in the UK, creating 'green' jobs for UK residents. / Click here for full story

Did you know you could use solar energy in Alaska? Wagner & Co, a German manufacturer of multi award-winning, high quality and efficient thermal collectors, takes the first steps into the North American market. The US subsidiary, Wagner Solar Inc’s introduced the first US solar thermal collector of the EURO collector line and was rated among the top 5 performers of almost 300 tested flat plate collectors. Click here for full story

The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is launching a competition for £7 million for research into solar nanotechnology. The EPSRC will invest up to £5 million in the new solar nanotechnology research and development projects while the Technology Strategy Board will invest £2 million. Business-led consortia will focus on building the supply chain and achieving technology demonstration in a real life environment of solar energy under the competition. Click here for full story

With many governments now introducing feed-in tariffs – financial incentives for homeowners to install sources of renewable energy – some companies are even offering to install photovoltaic (PV) cells on house roofs for free. But although solar cells are destined to become a more common sight, are rooftops really the best place for them? .....There may, however, be another way to enable PV cells to make a greater contribution: stick them on our roads and drive on them. Click here for full story

Wind and solar power could become the world's main sources of energy, a Nobel-prize winning scientist suggests. The global photovoltaic energy production increased by a factor of about 90 and wind energy by a factor of about 10 over the last decade. Click here for full story

A pioneering "sun park" planned for land near Louth could be the first of its kind in the country. The Grimsby Telegraph can reveal plans have been submitted for Britain's first solar park at Fen Farm, Conisholme, on land next to the 20-turbine wind farm. Energy company Ecotricity – which has also submitted a separate application for a further five wind turbines – wants to make renewable energy using sunlight. The planned solar park will have a capacity of 1MW of electricity – enough to power about 500 homes. Click here for full story

A record 2,200 U.K. households have installed solar panels this month, the Financial Times reported, citing the energy regulator Ofgem. That compares with 1,700 last month and 1,400 in June, the newspaper said. Click here for full story

British Gas has become the latest energy giant to try to break into the booming market for domestic renewable energy technologies, unveiling a new service that will allow households to install solar panels at no up-front cost. Following the launch of the UK's feed-in tariff incentive scheme in April, many energy companies and specialist renewable energy firms have launched new financing and installation schemes designed to help households deploy rooftop solar panels. Click here for full story

The complexity of harvesting solar power from the Sahara desert and transporting it to Europe means it is not a practical solution for meeting 2020 targets, it has been claimed. German physicist Gerhard Knies said that a solution to the continent's energy needs could be the development of a large solar farm in the Sahara Desert and the laying cables under the Mediterranean to feed the power generated into the European energy grid, the Wall Street Journal reports. Click here for full story

An innovative business specialising in the design and manufacture of power electronics and electrical equipment has won over £6m in funding to look at charging electric cars via solar power. Turbo Power Systems (TPS), which employs 85 people at its power electronics division in Gateshead and has 30 staff at its electric motors site at Heathrow, has received a raft of research and development (R&D) investment. Click here for full story

The Prince of Wales has won permission to install solar panels on the roof of Clarence House in an attempt to make his 180-year-old London residence “carbon negative”. The installation of the 32 panels on the building’s south-east roof is expected to cost as much as £150,000, which will take 10 years to recoup in reduced energy bills. Experts have been called in to ensure that the roof of the Grade II listed building is not damaged during the installation. Click here for full story

France’s cuts to feed-in tariffs earned by ground-mounted solar photovoltaic installations may be duplicated elsewhere in Europe as solar- panel prices fall, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Rapidly declining costs associated with making solar PV panels are forcing governments to reduce the subsidies for clean energy shouldered by consumers when they pay for electricity from renewable sources, an analyst at London-based BNEF said. Click here for full story

Chinese solar panel companies will be faced with challenges at home from some European companies. Simon Currie, partner and global head of energy of UK law firm Norton Rose LLP, believes that the whole world is eyeing Chinese photovoltaic (PV) product manufacturers because the photovoltaic industry will play a decisive role in opening overseas markets, compared to wind farms. Click here for full story

Efforts to develop an energy-saving solar cell in Germany have so far yielded positive results. Researchers at Zentrum fur Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) had already broken a long-standing record for thin-film solar cell efficiency earlier this year. However, they achieved further gains in more recent tests, scoring an efficiency rating of 20.3 per cent. Dr Michael Powalla, head of the photovoltaics division at ZSW, said the cells were developed in a copper indium gallium diselenide laboratory coating plant. Click here for full story

Self-cleaning technology developed for lunar and Mars missions could be used to keep terrestrial solar panels dust free. Dust deposits can reduce the efficiency of electricity generating solar panels by as much as 80%. The self cleaning technology can repel dust when sensors detect concentrations on the panel's surface have reached a critical level. Click here for full story

A new solar farm has been officially opened in Sheffield by Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. It's one of dozens of renewable energy projects springing up around South Yorkshire. Solar panels, wind turbines, even water power are making an appearance as individuals and organisations try to save money and save the planet. Click here for full story

The tough environment being faced by many companies in the green energy field was highlighted again today when a British solar power company reported a huge downturn in profits for the first half of the year. A 40% slump in the global price of silicon wafers sent Oxford-based PV Crystalox Solar earnings spinning downwards to EUR12.4m (£10.2m) compared to EUR35.2m in the opening six months of 2009. Click here for full story

Solon SE has reached an agreement with the British project developer 35 Degrees Ltd, to build a 1.3 MWp solar power plant near Bissoe in Cornwall. Pending the necessary planning permits for the groundbreaking energy park, the power plant could be the first ground-mounted solar power plant ever built in the UK. Click here for full story

Teams from three continents have set off from the Place des Nations in Geneva with their electric cars on the longest and greenest race of all time, called the Zero Race. The cars will cross to Moscow and Shanghai and then travel by ship to Vancouver. From there they will continue along the west coast of North America all the way to Cancun, Mexico. In December, the vehicles will be shipped again to Portugal, and travel over southwest Europe to complete the final leg of the global journey. After 80 days, 30,000 kilometres through 16 countries and 150 city stopovers the race will be completed at the end of January 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland. Click here for full story

There's a new beast on the loose in the countryside. 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. Click here for full story

U.K. solar power installer jobs have increased by 75 percent this year as government incentives spurred demand for photovoltaic panels, Solar Century Holdings Ltd. said. The combined number of employees for Solar Century, which builds solar systems for homebuilders Persimmon Plc and Barratt Developments Plc, and 11 companies it works with to install panels has risen to 350 from 200 at the beginning of the year, the London-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. There will be “well over 500 jobs by 2011,” it said. Click here for full story

Every window in Britain could potentially be turned into a solar power generator thanks to new technology developed by scientists. The new solar cell technology for harnessing green energy could revolutionise the power industry - and could be available within about five years. Norwegian company EnSol AS has created the unique patented film which they hope could be released commercially by 2016. Click here for full story

Householders tempted by a rash of new "solar for free" offers could double their financial savings by paying for the panels themselves, experts have warned. The advice comes as installations of solar photovoltaic panels have exploded in the UK, with the number installed in four months in 2010 more than doubling on the whole of 2009 since a government financial incentive was launched in April. Click here for full story

The Greens are proposing that the federal government almost quadruple support for large-scale solar, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy by guaranteeing up to $5 billion of loans to new power stations. Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said the existing program for $1.75 billion of renewable energy grants was too small to spark the full use of Australia's potential resources of ''sun, wind, ocean, earth, and human ingenuity''. Click here for full story

UK company HomeSun is offering free solar panels to homes with south-facing roofs in return for receiving the Government’s feed-in-tariff. The company says it will provide and install 2.5 kWh- 4 kWh systems, which typically cost £11,000-15,000 for free on homes with optimally sited and sized roofs. Households will be able to benefit from the free electricity generated to lower their household energy bills, while HomeSun will receive the feed-in tariff over its 25 year guaranteed lifetime. Click here for full story

The U.K., known for rain and gray skies, enjoyed record installations of solar panels in July after the government guaranteed prices for electricity from renewable energy up to 10 times market rates. Click here for full story

Consumers are encouraged to install solar panels as the UK and Spain become the fastest-growing markets for photovoltaic technology in 2010. The United Kingdom will become the fastest-growing market for photovoltaic (PV) installations in 2010, according to a July 30 report from market intelligence group iSuppli. iSuppli estimates that the UK will install PV systems amounting to 96 megawatts (MW) throughout 2010, representing an increase of 1,500 percent from 2009 where the total installation of PV systems was 6 MW. Click here for full story

The Prince of Wales is to install new equipment such as solar panels in his home in order to illustrate the benefits of energy-saving technology to UK residents. Clarence House, which is the future monarch’s London home, will install 32 photovoltaic panels on the 19th century building which will generate 4,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Click here for full story

Two of the UK's leading renewable energy firms announced yesterday that they are to team up as part of a pioneering project that could serve to slash the carbon footprint of low-carbon technologies. In what is being hailed as a world first, wind energy provider Ecotricity confirmed it is working with Cardiff-based solar cell manufacturer G24 Innovations (G24i) to install a 120-metre tall wind turbine at the company's Wentloog plant. Click here for full story