Home: Renewable Energy News: Wednesday 01 July, 2009

Renewable Energy News

WEDNESDAY 01 JULY, 2009 |

Sunpower Inks $124 Million Solar Power Deal

SunPower and Wells Fargo deal
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA) yesterday announced an agreement to the tune of AUD $124 million for funding the construction of SunPower commercial-scale solar systems.

Under the arrangement, SunPower will establish power purchase agreements with selected commercial customers and Wells Fargo will provide the financing for design, implementation, operation and maintenance of SunPower grid connected solar power systems.

In this increasingly common scenario, customers receive a solar power system at no cost, but buy the electricity generated from the system from the provider at prices around retail rates. This allows businesses and large organisations to lock in electricity charges while also playing a role in reducing their operational environmental footprint through greenhouse gas generation mitigation.

The first projects financed under the program include a 1.1-megawatt system for University of California and a 1-megawatt system for the Western Riverside County Regional Wastewater Authority.

SunPower has in excess of 500 large public and commercial solar power systems installed or under contract, representing more than 400 megawatts and the company was a pioneer in the use of solar power purchase agreements. Wells Fargo has provided more than USD $1.75 billion in financing for renewable energy projects since 2006.

In recent SunPower news for the home solar power market, the company recently unveiled its 300 watt solar panel. The SunPower 300 utilises 96 all back contact solar cells and offers a total panel conversion efficiency of 18.4%. The module delivers up to 50% more power per unit area than conventional solar panels and 100% more than thin film solar panels, making it ideal for rooftops with limited space.

Nanocapacitors - A Renewable Energy Storage Solution

Nanocapacitor
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power have always faced the challenge of energy storage due to the intermittent nature of the power source. Deep cycle batteries are most commonly used, but still relatively expensive, bulky and more suited to small to medium scale off grid situations.

Given the increasing harnessing of wind and solar power, much research is under way for more effective energy storage solutions to allow for the provision of baseload power on a large scale or in energy intensive applications such as electric cars. In the past we've covered interesting solutions including lithium-air, virus, cavern, molten salt and beltway batteries.

Capacitors have also shown a great deal of promise, but while offering high power and fast recharge, the necessary energy density remains an issue.

Researchers at the Maryland NanoCenter at the University of Maryland, College Park, say they have developed new electrostatic nanocapacitor systems for storing electrical energy derived from renewable sources that are up to 10 times more efficient than what is commercially available - without sacrificing the high power aspect.

Using new processes, millions of identical nanostructures are created with shapes tailored to transport energy as electrons rapidly to and from very large surface areas where they are stored. Efforts are under way to achieve comparable advances in energy density of lithium (Li) ion batteries but with much higher power density.

The researchers are also developing the technology for mass production as layers of these devices that could look like thin panels. Multiple energy storage panels could be stacked together inside a car battery system or solar panel.