The U.S. solar energy industry is celebrating today after a new report found installations grew by 109% last year to 1,855 megawatts of installed capacity – easily doubling the previous record of 887MW set in 2010.
Twin Creeks Technologies’ Hyperion system can produce silicon wafers less than one-tenth the thickness of conventional wafers and thinner than a human hair.
Predictions for the growth of solar PV have always proved problematic, and mostly wrong, in recent years as analysts and economic forecasters wrestle with the implications of assumed and actual falls in technology costs.
This week, Virginia reports on an Australian designed solar light making a difference in developing countries, a solar power enabled transportable office made from from a shipping container, an NRG and Bill Clinton initiative bringing solar to Haiti and the Seiko Astron, a solar powered watch with GPS.
Add solar panels, wireless connectivity and a few creature comforts to old shipping containers and you have a fully operational mobile office independent of mains grid power.
Travelling through the world’s 39 different time zones soon? Worried about all the time you’ll waste adjusting your watch? Concerned about getting time zones wrong? Seiko’s GPS-enabled solar powered Astron to the rescue.
Unexploded mines from various conflicts – some the deadly legacy from wars fought and finished decades ago – still maim and kill many people each year. The wind powered Mine Kafon could help reduce the toll.
A cheap Australian-designed solar light is changing lives in developing nations, including 80,000 refugees in Pakistan still struggling to rebuild after the country suffered devastating floods a year ago.
HyperHelios is a system that combines elements of Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV) with Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).
A deal between NRG Energy and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) – founded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton – is playing a part in helping to build a clean energy future for Haiti by installing solar power systems at several sites on the island.
