COMMENT - Solar is the way forward. - MrK
(LUSAKA TIMES) Installation of six solar powered hammer mills completed in Solwezi
January 3, 2018
The installation of all the six solar powered hammer mills for Solwezi district under the Presidential empowerment initiative to local farmers has been complete.
The hammer mills were installed last month and are expected to be operational as soon as the Zambia Cooperative Federation trains operators.
Acting Solwezi District Commissioner Christopher Nyungila has confirmed the development to ZANIS in Solwezi today.
Mr Nyungila said the hammer mills have been strategically located in areas with high maize productivity and population.
He named the areas to benefit from the solar powered hammer mills as Kakombe, Kyafukuma, Mbonge, Sandang’ombe, St Francis and Zangamenu.
Mr Nyungila said the hammer mills will not only create employment for the local people but will also provide a readily market for farmers to sale their maize and also lower the cost of mealie meal.
Meanwhile, Mr Nyungila says government has topped up e-voucher cards for 3,550 farmers out of the 3,934 who have deposited their K400 contribution for the 2017/2018 farming season.
He said 4,380 farmers have been authorized to deposit the K400 contribution out of the targeted number of 5,780 farmers in the district.
Mr Nyungila said the redeeming of inputs has been relatively slow because most farmers are giving incorrect national registration card numbers and passwords thereby being rejected by the system.
He has since appealed to farmers to ensure they submit correct details to agro dealers and redeem their inputs.
Related Posts:
Government buys solar powered hammer mills to be set up in the 10 Provinces
Solar Powered Hammer Mills starts arriving in the country
128 solar powered hammer mills to North Western Province as part of the Presidential Empowerment Initiative
ZCF installs 500 solar powered hammer mills so far
Co-operatives should apply for solar hammer mills-Dora Siliya
Labels: MANUFACTURING, MEALIE MEAL, MECHANIZATION, SOLAR ENERGY
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Swiss firm in Zim solar joint venture
29/12/2013 00:00:00
by Business Reporter ENERGY, SWITZERLAND, SOLAR
LOCAL firm Oxygen Africa and Swiss-based Meeco Invest AG have announced a partnership deal to bring solar power boost to the country’s struggling energy sector.
Zimbabwe has been reeling under a decade-long power crisis that has seen supplies being rationed to both domestic and commercial users, hitting efforts to fire an economy battling to recover from a crippling recession.
The new joint-venture company, Oursun Energy, is fronted locally by top Harare lawyer Honour Mkushi, and Simbarashe Mhuriro will seek to develop new solar business in the country.
The new company will use the Meeco Group’s already established products to assist farmers in a country whose economy is agro-anchored.
“Oursun Energy will focus on supporting the agriculture, manufacturing, mining, telecom, and tourism industries with its world-class turnkey solutions provided by The Meeco Group for rural areas or telecommunication companies,” Oursun said in a statement.
“The core activities of Oursun Energy will be the construction of solar energy production facilities and the development of public-private partnership structures to build solar farms ranging from 10Mw to 100Mw,” Oursun said.
The company added: “Oxygen Africa will support the Joint Venture with its well-established network in the Zimbabwean industry as well as its good contacts to neighbouring countries whereas The Meeco Group will bring it its huge experience in the development and realization of renewable energy projects”.
Zimbabwe’s geographical situation is ideal for the implementation of solar energy and related applications such as energy storage, lighting or water pumping due to its level of radiation, one of the highest worldwide the group said.
“To partner with the Oxygen Group is a great opportunity for us to develop the production of solar energy in Zimbabwe, especially in off-grid regions. Both teams will work phenomenally together and we look forward to playing our part in driving renewable energy in Zimbabwe,” Mhuriro told New Zimbabwe.com.
Zimbabwe’s power deficit could benefit immensely from the harnessing of abundant solar energy to drive the country’s struggling industry.
Labels: ENERGY, SOLAR ENERGY, SWITZERLAND
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Econet branches into solar power
Lighting up Africa ... Econet Solar's Home Power Station
03/12/2011 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
ECONET Wireless subsidiary, Econet Solar has launched a solar power device which the company says will help light up most of rural Africa and other areas without access to reliable electricity supplies.
The company said the Home Power Station will provide lighting, and power to charge mobile phones, on a pre-paid basis, in the same way airtime is purchased for mobile phones.
Officials said the device removes the high upfront costs which have held back the development of solar energy in Africa as it will be available at a small cost with customers paying for the electricity generated as they use it.
Said Econet Wireless founder and executive chairman, Strive Masiyiwa: “Whilst there are already well-intentioned solar powered lighting systems on the market, the reality is that they are just too expensive for people to afford. We are launching the Home Power Station to change all that.
“The Home Power Station uses proven technology in a revolutionary way in order to make power available on a pre-paid basis, just like airtime on a cell phone.
“Forecasters expect that Africa will have 735 million cell phone users by the end of next year and we’ll be looking to leverage the proven ability of telecoms companies like Econet Wireless to roll-out this product quickly. People who are today living without access to reliable and sustainable power for lighting will have it on a pre-paid basis from next year."
Econet says the product will begin trials in the coming weeks and with commercial available expected in the first half of 2012.
In a statement, the company said it expects the product to help light up the “70 percent of Africa that does not already have access to electricity”.
“The product contains a SIM card – the same as those used in cell phone handsets – which enables the device to communicate with the cellular network and in turn makes it possible for the customer to pre-paid for energy usage, in the same way that they currently pay for airtime on their cell phone,” Econet Solar said.
“It has been designed to supply, on a pre-paid basis, affordable lighting for small homes and cell phone charging.”
Labels: ECONET, SOLAR ENERGY
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Apply for solar geysers if you want, ZESCO urges citizens
By The Post
Mon 04 July 2011, 04:01 CAT
ZESCO Limited’s public relations manager Andre Makulu says people who want solar geysers that the power utility is distributing should apply for them. In an interview on Friday at the ongoing 47th Zambia International Trade Fair in Ndola, Makulu said thousands of applications had been received from all over the country although only 100,000 geysers will be installed in the first phase.
He said the conditions for applying for the geyser are that one has to be a Zesco customer and must have an electric geyser because Zesco was conducting the exercise on an exchange basis where electric geysers were collected and solar geysers installed to save energy.
Labels: SOLAR ENERGY, ZESCO
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Catholic priest questions huge gap between rich and poor
By George Zulu in Monze
Tue 07 Sep. 2010, 14:00 CAT
A CATHOLIC priest Constantino Cheepa has observed that the disparity between the poor and the rich in Zambia is too huge and unacceptable.
During the thanksgiving mass held in chief Chona’s area on Sunday, Fr Cheepa said the disparity between the rich and the poor in the country was too wide, subsequently leading to high poverty levels.
He said as a Christian nation, Zambians needed to work together in order to address the high poverty levels.
Fr Cheepa said the need to address the current poverty levels in the country was evident going by the discontent and frustration among the people.
“It has become very clear that among us worshipers and non-worshipers some of you are ‘stinking’ rich. You have amassed a lot of wealth. It is again true that among us here there are people who are ‘stinking’ poor and this is unacceptable in this world,” Fr Cheepa said.
He said it was sad that Africa and Zambia in particular had not taken an initiative to address poverty by investing in rural development and the people.
Fr Cheepa said developing an area did not require one to become a member of parliament, councillor or businessman.
He said development could take place through concerted efforts but it was regrettable that many people were preoccupied with enriching themselves.
He said it was sad that some people would soon flock to the area promising people development and other things as the country headed to the polls.
However, he advised people to be wary of such individuals because they were “bad neighbours.”
“A good neighbour will always think about others and it is also true that a bad neighbour is a danger to development. The solar panel being put at this school today should be taken care of. You should not be like a neighbour who decides to buy many shoes without considering others then you should know that the money he is using is stolen money and that will bring discontent among the people and himself,” said Fr Cheepa.
Solar panels worth US $10,000 have been mounted at Chona Basic School with the help of a Canadian Non-Governmental Organisation, Global-Light Project in partnership with Matantala Rural Integrated Development Enterprise (M-RIDE).
Labels: CONSTANTINO CHEEPA, POVERTY, SOLAR ENERGY
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Sun answer to Zim’s energy challenges
ZIMBABWE, like many African countries, is facing electricity generation problems, forcing the Government and other stakeholders to focus on solar as an alternative energy source. The Zimbabwe Energy Group has started a nationwide project to increase usage of solar power in rural clinics, secondary schools, households and institutions to ease pressure on the national electricity supply grid.
At the centre of the project are portable solar-powered reading lights for rural pupils, portable solar lights for clinics, portable household lights, portable multi-purpose lights for farmers and solar-powered water pumps for domestic consumption and irrigation. Our Features Editor Isdore Guvamombe (IG) talks to ZimEnergy group chief executive Mr Wadson Muchemwa (WM) about the rural solar electrification.
IG: What is ZimEnergy Group?
WM: ZimEnergy Group has been established, with support from the Government, as a direct response to the triple inter-related power supply challenges in Zimbabwe and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of energy, poverty and environmental crises.
The image of a continent dark at night is familiar to visitors on the Internet and this darkness is reflected in our households, clinics, schools, urban as well as rural communities where Africans live. The majority of households in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity. Widespread use of wood fuel and kerosene not only means deforestation and indoor pollution, but it also feeds into worsening the impact of climate change and ill-health.
IG: Historically, rural areas in Zimbabwe have not had access to a lot of electricity. Life has been centred on firewood, paraffin and diesel. Is that what pushes your organisation?
WM: I was myself born at a rural home in Goromonzi in a round hut under candlelight but things must change for the better.
My mother delivered me under candlelight but those must be bygones for a modern mother. We cannot continue to live like that in a country, which has sunshine 365 days per year. Lack of lighting at household level reduces productivity of family members who are forced to retire to bed as soon as the sun sets.
Right now in many clinics, pregnant mothers have to bring their own candles at delivery time or else they deliver at home and in clinics with limited light.
This leads to high mortality and morbidity rates for the mothers and newborns.
In schools, lack of lighting and electricity means limited learning opportunities, especially in the current Internet age where access to computers has revolutionised access to information, knowledge, and skills-creation. Pupils need to read at home at night.
IG: How does Zimbabwe compare in rural lighting with other African countries and with rural Europe?
WM: Across African nations and regions, our carbon footprint may be comparably smaller to that in the richer world, but it is on the increase.
Science has now confirmed that the impact of climate change will be far worse, appear earlier and more widespread in the poor nations of Africa.
We are now experiencing more frequent and extended droughts, further exacerbating impacts on health, poverty and already strained environmental eco-systems.
ZimEnergy Group seeks to co-create integrated and systemic solutions within, but not limited to, the energy-environment-poverty triangle.
IG: What solutions?
WM: There are three major devices that should change the lives of people living outside the connections of the national electricity grid. We want to provide solar power to every rural school, clinic or growth point by 2015 and these three gadgets are central to that project.
IG: Which are these gadgets?
WM: The first one is the Nova S210 solar light and mobile phone charger. This rechargeable light is charged by a pocket-size solar panel and the same solar light can also be used to charge the most popular Nokia, Samsung and Motorola handsets.
Included in the box are 8 adaptors that can charge the three brands of handsets. The light itself works for 12 hours before it is recharged. This means half the night when it continuous use.
The second item is the Solata S380 Reading Lamp. Again this one is recharged by a pocket-size solar panel. Eight hours charge gives one up to 15 hours of lighting. This lamp can also be charged using standard Nokia charger.
This should improve the lives of thousands of rural school pupils. This is a substitute for the candle and costs less than US$15. It is very affordable.
The third one is the Kiran S11Portable Solar Light. This is a led light system that gives natural light for up to 8 hours.
You can use the standard Nokia phone charger.
Again it is good for students outside the national grid. It is handy and useful and it gives the rural pupil enough study time like the one in urban areas. At the end, the pass rate should increase in rural areas.
So, you see, Muchemwa is a leader who strongly believes in balancing, making modest profits and serving communities that are without energy, suffering from poverty and disease, and, bearing the harsh impact of climate change.
We want to empower our disadvantaged folk, while at the same time doing modest business.
These gadgets were manufactured in China but have a United States of America patent and we are the official distributors, with enough back up parts.
IG: Are these gadgets readily available and are you not going to be overwhelmed by demand?
WM: Well, we have a huge bay in Msasa at Harrow Business Park and we are already working on nationwide distribution centres.
We have containers coming every other week and we will try to meet demand. The idea is to do business while at the same time ensuring that the gadgets are affordable to the rural populace.
IG: What are the underlying values?
WM: ZimEenergy’s underlying principle is that we share one planet, and with that comes rights and obligations that should be shared responsibly to ensure not only the survival of the present generation, but that of successive generations.
With that core understanding, and together as business, government and civil society, we can shape and co-create a future that celebrates humankind’s imagination to sustain health, wealth and the wellbeing of all.
In that journey, every individual, family, community and nation counts. And that journey begins with each one of us, here and now. Hence we conduct our business with the highest degree of honesty, integrity, and transparency.
We are absolutely committed to the people in their communities and their environment.
We believe that our business can serve society responsibly, in turn enabling society to enable our business to innovate and grow. Our employees are our most valuable assets; we are committed to their empowerment in an environment of openness and mutual trust.
Africa is the land of sunshine. ZimEnergy Solar taps into this abundant resource, develops and provides a full range of integrated lighting and power solutions to urban and rural households, health clinics and hospitals, schools, offices (both government and private), or any other interested customer.
IG: I understand you have launched a national campaign on solar usage, what is it about?
WM: Yes, it is called Let There Be Light 2015 campaign. We are striving to work with Government, civil society and international development partners to provide light to every rural household, rural health clinic and rural school in Zimbabwe by 2015.
There is another one called Urban Light Connect. Here we provide fully integrated solutions to urban neighbourhoods, especially those that are not reached by national electricity grids, or those most disrupted by the recurrent power shortages.
The last one is called the Sadc Solar Mini Grid. Here it is ZimEnergy’s premier effort to provide, within the 15 member nation economic zone of Southern Africa, mini solar grids for entire communities, either off-grid or connected to existing electricity grids.
ZimEnergy Solar is in the process of establishing a solar panel manufacturing facility within the Sadc region to serve African markets.
IG: What other projects are you embarking on?
WM: We have the ZimEnergy Consult, the ZimEnergy Bank and the ZimEnergy Eco-Foundation.
IG: Can you explain each of them?
WM: ZimEnergy Consult provides advice to governments, businesses and other stakeholders on the energy-environment-poverty continuum. It conducts energy audits and analysis to inform policy, regulatory frameworks, strategy, and institutional reform as societies embrace the new renewable energy paradigm and creates and shares knowledge through industry-government-civil society and networks on renewable energy value chains.
It is also mandated to work with industries to help manage the complex global supply chains to and from the last mile in the least developed countries. ZimEnergy Consult also advises industries on corporate social responsibility that should inform a sustainable engagement within the energy-environment-poverty triangle.
IG: Okay, explain the ZimEnergy Bank.
WM: ZimEnergy Bank is the group's financial arm, designed to facilitate investment in a new but expanding industry, and help households, communities, businesses (especially small and medium enterprises) access affordable finance to go solar.
The bank is a source of investment, capital to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas that can be translated into solar and other energy- efficient, environment- friendly products and services. It is a co-investor in business start-ups involved in solar and other renewable sources of energy and provides innovative financial tools to SMEs in the energy sector.
We want the bank to build public-private partnerships with government, business and international development partners in solar and other renewable sources of energy, the Clean Development Mechanism that includes investing in low-carbon communities of the future and investing in innovative, eco-friendly designs, infrastructure, products and services in the transportation sector. We want the bank to assist in investing in energy efficiency initiatives (government, businesses, communities and residential properties).
IG: What is the ZimEnergy Eco-Foundation?
WM: This is the philanthropic arm of the ZimEnergy Group, promoting society’s responses to the inter-twined challenges of energy, environment and poverty in the least developed countries of Africa.
It seeks to work with community, national, continental, and international stakeholders to shape policy, institutional, regulatory, and legal contexts to spur innovation, entrepreneurship, and systemic change.
It mobilises knowledge, skills and financial resources for social enterprises and communities involved in responding to energy, poverty and environmental challenges, especially at the community level and conducts and shares research into local impacts of climate change and their mitigation.
The foundation creates networks of practice for organisations in the energy, poverty, environment continuum and assists in mapping Zimbabwe’s national carbon foot print, mapping Sadc’s regional carbon foot print and helping businesses, big and small, as well as government, civil society organisations, communities and households reduce their carbon foot print. The foundation is at the moment preparing Zimbabwe for the electric car.
IG: Electric car?
WM: Yes, in fact we are bringing the first solar powered car to Zimbabwe for the first time by end of this year, God willing.
At the moment the foundation is educating, training, mentoring, and coaching the next generation of eco-friendly managers and leaders and raising society’s awareness and response to global, regional, national and community environmental challenges: climate change; energy; water; bio-diversity and land use; chemicals, toxins and heavy metals; air pollution; waste management; ozone layer depletion; oceans and fisheries; and, deforestation.
IG: What is Zimbabwe’s future in energy supply?
WM: The future is in solar. Our country has sunshine 365 days a year. Our vision is the greening of Zimbabwe and Africa through sustainable renewable energy solutions; alleviating poverty through affordable and sustainable solar energy solutions; and, halting and reversing environmental damage at the local, national, African and global levels.
Our mission is to offer to our clients environmentally friendly, affordable and efficient solar energy products, and services to Zimbabwe, southern Africa and the rest of Africa. Every person must have light, safe light in urban, rural and other settlements that are not connected to national electricity grid.
Everyone must have light when there are power cuts or faults. Solar is never cut off, there is no solar blackout. Solar power is cheap and environmentally friendly.
isadore.guvamombe@zimpapers.co.zw
Labels: SOLAR ENERGY, WADSON MUCHEMWA
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Billion-dollar plan to spur business growth in Kenya
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta (centre) Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya (right) and assistant Finance minister Oburu Odinga (left) pose for a photo before leaving Treasury for Parliament where Mr Kenyatta presented the 2010/2011 Budget June 10, 2010. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI
By Mark Kapchanga (email the author)
Posted Monday, June 14 2010 at 00:00
Kenya will spend over Ksh406.5 billion ($5.42 billion) in projects that have over the past years inhibited business growth.
Kenya presents a 'job creation budget'
Latest statistics from the just concluded 2010/2011 budget presentation show that the government will spend the money for the enhancement of investment climate.
To usher in more inflows, Treasury said that it was determined to bring down production costs. Leading the pack is the radical proposal to cut power overheads incurred by firms, as Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said in his budget speech that that the country will be shifting its reliance on hydropower to alternative but cheaper energy sources.
The new development will see businesses use more of geothermal, wind as well as solar power it its operations. The shift is also likely to reduce pressure on hydropower, especially with the ballooning demand for energy.
Analysts say the diversification of power sources is likely to spur company margins as energy costs have eaten deeply into their revenues. Reports show that alternative energy sources account for only 6.4 per cent of Kenya’s total energy use.
“The government is aware that there are many private investors who are keen to invest in the energy sector and especially in alternative and cheaper sources. However, there are concerns that the procedures take too long. In this regard, Treasury commits to support the Ministry of Energy by removing all procedural and licensing impediments so that private investment in the energy sector can be fast-tracked,” Mr Kenyatta said.
Currently, the Energy Regulatory Commission is formulating a system that will see the electricity tariffs reviewed to ensure predictability of power costs.
In the 2010/2011 fiscal year budget, more than Ksh34.1 billion ($455 million) will be pumped into the sector with more than Ksh15.6 billion ($208 million) invested in expansion of the national grid system and Ksh11.6 billion ($154.7 million) for geothermal development and coal exploitation.
Geothermal power generation is likely to be expanded substantially this fiscal year as public-private sector partnerships help the country exploit an additional 500MW in the next four years. This will bring installed power capacity to a total of 800MW by 2014.
In an effort to open borders to foreign businesses and increase the county’s competitiveness, the minister proposed that radical reforms be introduced especially in the regulatory institutions “whose mindset appear to be aimed at preventing not facilitating business.”
This apparently referred to local authorities that have in the recent years come under sharp criticism over their archaic regulations, which have substantially affected business operations.
Nairobi City Council is a conspicuous example for its bureaucratic, corrupt and overlapping licensing procedures.
“This budget proposes measures to improve our regulatory framework supportive of private sector-led growth. One key action in this direction will be the enactment of the proposed Business Regulation Bill which is now ready for submission,” the Finance Minister said.
Once enacted, The Bill will bar regulatory bodies from introducing punitive charges and fees at will.
Labels: ENERGY, GREEN REVOLUTION, SOLAR ENERGY, SOLAR THERMAL
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Photovoltaics: The Future of Solar Power
12/3/2009 9:03:14 AM
By Bryan Welch
The fastest-growing energy technology in the world is solar, but it’s very unlike passive solar. Photovoltaic solar collectors capture solar energy in a supremely adaptable and portable form. Photovoltaic panels and films, made mostly of silicon, convert sunlight into electricity by allowing sunlight to stimulate electrons to a higher state of energy, then converting that energy into electrical current.
Basically, the photons in sunlight, hitting a collector, create free electrons that can be siphoned off as electrical current. Beginning in the early 2000s, worldwide production of photovoltaics had been doubling every two years up until 2008 when the rate of growth suddenly accelerated, more than doubling the number of photovoltaics in use in just one year.[1] At the end of 2008 it was estimated that photovoltaics were generating about 15,000 megawatts of energy, worldwide, enough to provide about 8 million average U.S. homes with all the electricity they need, and photovoltaic expansion was accelerating.
Most photovoltaic installations are small, designed mainly to supply a single building, or even a single device, like my electric fences. But solar power stations are proliferating. A single new photovoltaic power plant, Topaz Solar Farm, proposed to cover 9.5 square miles in central California near San Luis Obispo with a 550 megawatt capacity, is scheduled to begin generating electricity in 2011.[2] Before Topaz Solar Farm, the largest photovoltaic generator in the country, the DeSoto Energy Center in Florida, had a capacity of just 25 megawatts. The largest in the world was the 60-megawatt Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park in Spain.[3]
The manufacturing of photovoltaics is a big business, getting bigger rapidly. Industry sources estimated the size of the industry at about $30 billion in 2009, expected to be $70 billion by 2013.[4] Shi Zhengrong, one of the richest new billionaires in China, made his fortune manufacturing photovoltaics.[5]
Some property owners are installing free photovoltaics thanks to “power purchase agreements,” under which an investor buys the panels and installs them, free, in exchange for a contract to buy electricity from the owner of the panel at a very low cost for a couple of decades. The City of Berkeley, California, is evaluating that program, which offers homeowners free solar installations and then takes the money saved on electricity over the next 20 years through a special property tax. [6] About 75 percent of commercial photovoltaics are installed on some kind of power purchase agreement.[7]
And the technology is getting better. So-called “thin-film” photovoltaics are manufactured on a flexible surface that can be adhered directly to a metal roof. The electronics fit neatly under a cap that runs along the peak of the roof and the whole apparatus looks perfectly integrated and natural. Some power stations set up their collectors on swivels to track the sun. Others concentrate sunlight using mirrors.
The most intriguing new developments in photovoltaics are transparent collectors and concentrators. Both technologies promise to turn everyday objects into power-generating solar collectors. Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has developed transparent collectors that generate electricity from ultraviolet light, allowing light in the visible spectrum to pass right through – effectively a transparent solar collector. The implications are astonishing. Imagine transparent solar films that could be adhered to the roofs of cars or the windows of skyscrapers. Every outdoor surface is a potential source of electricity. Glass buildings could cool themselves. Electric vehicles, parked outside, could charge their own batteries.[8]
A U.S. company called Covalent Solar makes glass containing subtle dyes that concentrate and deflect solar energy to photovoltaics, possibly in the frame of a window, for instance. Windows and skylights can become solar collectors, seamlessly integrated into a building or vehicle.
And because the dyes used in the glass actually concentrate the energy, less surface area is necessary to generate a given amount of electricity.
And when we cover our cars and buildings with collectors, there’s less need of heavy, inefficient and poisonous battery storage.
Above photo: Transparent photovoltaics on a canopy at a BP station.
Photo by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Gretz, Warren
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] REN21: Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century. Renewables Global Status Report 2009 Update. REN21 Secretariat. Paris.
[2] California Public Utilities Commission. CPUC Takes Another Step Toward State’s Renewable Energy Goal with Approval of PG&E Renewable Contract. http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/NEWS_RELEASE/96710.htm. January 29, 2009. Sourced November 5, 2009.
[3] Pvresources.com. Large-Scale Photovoltaic Power Plants (Ranking 1-50). http://www.pvresources.com/en/top50pv.php. Sourced November 5, 2009.
[4] DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions. DuPont Expects Continued Revenue Growth in Global Photovoltaic Market. http://www2.dupont.com/Photovoltaics/en_US/news_events/article20090317.html. Sourced November 5, 2009.
[5] Thomas L. Friedman. China’s Sunshine Boys. New York Times. Dec. 6, 2006.
[6] City of Berkeley, California, Office of Energy and Sustainable Development. Berkeley FIRST Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology. http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=26580. Sourced Nov. 5, 2009.
[7] Greentech Media. Power-Purchase Agreements to Spike. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/power-purchase-agreements-to-spike-591/. Sourced November 5, 2009.
[8] Japan National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Converting ultraviolet light into electricity with transparent electronics. http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/museum/science/12/12.html. Sourced November 5, 2009.
Labels: ENERGY, SOLAR ENERGY
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Chinese Co. to boost Zim soloar energy
SinoGate
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:00 +0000
THE Shenzhen based company Trony Solar Corporation Ltd is expanding its business throughout Africa and is currently looking at building up investment volume in Zimbabwe.
Trony Solar Corporation was established in 1993, and has grown to one of the biggest solar manufacturers worldwide. Trony is currently China’s only thin film PV module producer holds 10 international patents and the exclusive rights to use 65 patents in China.
After Intel Capital, the global investment arm of Intel Corporation, invested US$ 20 million in Trony Solar Holdings to enhance its production capacity to 105 megawatts and strengthen its research and development capabilities, the company started to attract a lot of attention from main players within the worldwide solar industry.
With growing R&D capacities, advanced application of innovative technologies, and low-cost volume manufacturing from their 40.000 square meter production facility in Shenzhen, Trony now offers a diverse range of competitive products and solutions for various energy-related applications, such as solar farms in the utility industry.
Trony has reportedly invested in a the Zimbabwean company Solar Solutions Africa, an assembler of solar systems that as exhibiting solar panels and solar related products last week at the Harare Agricultural Show.
Mr. Bernard Gadzikwa, as spokesman of Solar Solutions Africa stated that the company has entered in a partnership with Trony and that they are planning to produce and manufacture solar panels in Zimbabwe, thus targeting to establish Zimbabwe as a regional hub for solar energy in Africa.
Currently several engineers have been sent to China to acquire more knowledge and learn more about solar technology from Trony at their production base in Shenzhen.
Mr. Gadzikwa stated that he was not at liberty to mention any details regarding the investment amount or the scope and dimensions of this new partnership, however disclosed that Solar Solutions Africa is currently working on load assessments in to determine energy requirements for the local Zimbabwean market, as well as also conducting first market investigations throughout the 19 member states of the COMESA region.
Labels: CHINESE, SHENZHEN, SOLAR ENERGY, TRONY SOLAR CORPORATION
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This is an excellent solar technology company that is doing a lot of business building photovoltaic solar panels. Still privately held, and based in Silicon Valley - San Jose, CA.
http://www.nanosolar.com/team.htmFrom their website:
Nanosolar is a global leader in solar power innovation. We are setting the standard for affordable green power with solar cell technology of distinctly superior cost efficiency, versatility, and availability.
Our mission is very simple: Delivering cost-efficient solar electricity.
Leveraging recent science in nanostructured materials, we have developed a critical mass of engineering advances that profoundly change the cost efficiency and production scalability of solar electricity cells and panels.
Our first product, the Nanosolar Utility Panel™ enables unprecedented system economics at utility scale.
Founded in 2002, we are building the world's largest solar cell factory in California and the world's largest panel-assembly factory in Germany.
Labels: BIOFUELS, SOLAR ENERGY
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Dr Kapoor urges alternative power generating ways
By Fridah Zinyama
Wednesday May 21, 2008 [04:00]
WORLD Bank country manager Dr Kapil Kapoor has said the energy shortage currently being experienced is not peculiar to Zambia alone. In an interview, Dr. Kapoor said there are many ways in which Zambia could deal with the energy problems it is experiencing. "The need to diverse the sector is becoming inevitable even as the country's economy continues to grow," he said.
Dr Kapoor said even countries like India, which are considered as developing economies, are experiencing power shortages of up to three to four hours a day.
He said there was, therefore, urgent need to find alternative ways of generating power in the country.
"Solar, windmill and renewable energy should be considered as ways in which the country can generate energy," he said.
Dr Kapoor said Zambians also need to cooperate with the government and the power utility firm by efficiently using the available power in the country.
He added that even as the country's economy was growing, long-term measures should be put in place to secure the future.
"I believe that Zambia can grow its economy in the order of seven to eight per cent, all things being equal," he said.
Dr Kapoor added that the World Bank would meet this week in order to come up with ways in which it could help Zambia to develop its much needed infrastructure.
"We want to help Zambia catch up on infrastructure development," said Dr Kapoor. "We are anxious to help Zambia develop economically and even become the bread basket of the region."
Labels: BIOFUELS, ENERGY, KAPIL KAPOOR, SOLAR ENERGY, World Bank
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Investors bask in solar power's sun
Silicon Valley startup Ausra says it can generate cheap, reliable electricity from the sun. Fortune's Marc Gunther looks at whether solar power'sday has finally come.
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
September 13 2007: 10:36 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- By now, you've probably heard that the solar energy business is booming. Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) and Tiffany's, Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500) and Google, Estee Lauder and Target (Charts, Fortune 500), Kohl's and Staples - all use or have announced plans to use solar photovoltaic panels on their rooftops to power their businesses.
But you may not have noticed the arrival - actually, the revival - of another solar technology, called solar thermal. Whereas solar photovoltaic panels are installed directly on buildings and convert sunlight into electricity, solar thermal power is more complicated: it uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and heat liquids, which are then used to drive turbines to make electricity.
John O'Donnell, an executive at startup Ausra, says his company's technology is cheaper than other solar power alternatives.
Unlike solar photovoltaic, solar thermal projects tend to be large-scale and in remote areas.
Solar thermal has as much potential as solar photovoltaics and maybe more because it can be deployed on a large scale - big enough to light up shopping malls or towns, not just a home or a building.
Cleaning up coal's bad rap
Like solar photovoltaics, solar thermal has been around for a long time. The problem is, until now, it's been too expensive and the electricity generation too intermittent (think lack of sunlight) to compete with coal or nuclear power plants.
Solar thermal's day, however, may finally have arrived, thanks to improved technology, federal tax credits and state requirements that utilities buy power from renewable sources. Federal climate change legislation - which, if enacted, would drive up the cost of electricity from fossil fuels - has also tilted the playing field in favor of low-carbon power sources like solar thermal and wind power.
Today entrepreneurs are racing to cash in. Three large-scale solar thermal plants have been announced in recent months in California, the latest coming from a Silicon Valley startup called Ausra.
Ausra announced this week that it has raised more than $40 million from venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers, and said it plans to build a 175-megawatt solar thermal power plant at an undisclosed location in central California.
Read more on the Green Biz
Begun five years ago as an Australian company called Solar Heat and Power, Ausra relocated to Palo Alto last year with the backing of well-respected technology investors Khosla (a co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Charts, Fortune 500)) and Ray Lane (the former president of Oracle (Charts, Fortune 500)), both of whom sit on the company's board.
"We are disruptively lower cost than existing solar technologies," says John O'Donnell, Ausra's executive vice president, and a longtime technology industry executive.
Ausra isn't the only company that's betting big on solar thermal.
A Spanish firm called Acciona Solar Power began operating a 64-megawatt solar thermal plant in the desert south of Las Vegas in June. Pacific Gas & Electric (Charts, Fortune 500) said in July that it will contract to buy 550 megawatts of solar thermal power to be produced in the Mojave Desert by an Israeli company called Solel Solar Systems.
And BrightSource Energy, a Oakland, Calif.-based privately held company, said last week that it plans to build a 400-megawatt solar thermal plant, also in the Mojave. Earlier, Stirling Energy Systems of Phoenix, Arizona, announced plans for two solar thermal plants in partnership with utilities in southern California.
Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley's most powerful venture capitalists and an Ausra investor (see "24 top innovators" ), boasted recently that the company's first solar thermal plant would be cheaper than any of the "clean coal" plants on the drawing board.
"I'll beat them any day of the week on price, and I'll build them more quickly. I'll challenge anybody with this," Khosla told the Toronto Sun.
Rupert Murdoch's climate crusade
Such braggadocio is often heard these days in Silicon Valley, where clean energy startups are as ubiquitous as dot-coms were in the late 1990s. But Ausra is a worth a look for a couple of reasons - the pedigree of its backers and the fact that it is part of a boomlet in the solar thermal business.
Ausra executives say the company's technology and manufacturing plans will reduce the capital costs of building solar thermal plans. Once its plants are running, and its borrowing costs come down, the company says it will sell electricity for much less than existing solar or wind installations.
"As soon as we can build solar power projects with the same cost of capital as building conventional coal or natural gas plants," O'Donnell says, "we'll deliver electricity at the same cost as coal."
If so, that by itself would be a significant breakthrough.
A second claim being made by Ausra is equally bold. The company says, rain or shine, its plants will be able to store heat for up to 20 hours, allowing it to sell electricity to the grid whenever demand is greatest.
These claims need to be regarded skeptically. But the fact that venture capitalists, utilities and startups are pouring significant money into solar thermal suggests that this technology isn't smoke and mirrors - to the contrary, it may be an opportunity to replace smoke with mirrors.
Labels: SOLAR ENERGY, SOLAR THERMAL
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