Solar PV on the rise

More on solar PV. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers produced a record 10,700 megawatts of PV cells globally in 2009—an impressive 51-percent increase from the year before. While growth in 2009 slowed from the remarkable 89-percent expansion in 2008, it continued the rapid rise of an industry that first reached 1,000 megawatts of production in 2004.

By the end of 2009, nearly 23,000 megawatts of PV had been installed worldwide. China produced 3,800 megawatts of PV in 2009, leading all countries for the second straight year.

Together China and third place Taiwan accounted for 49 percent of all PV manufacturing, a share that should keep climbing as companies there grow larger and more quickly than competitors based in countries where operating costs are higher.

Rounding out the top five producers in 2009 were Japan in second place, Germany in fourth, and the United States in fifth. These traditional industry leaders have lost significant market share with the recent ascent of China and Taiwan. Indeed, Japan, which dominated the global market in 2004, controls just 14 percent today.

On the installation side, Germany installed a record 3,800 megawatts of PV in 2009, more than half the 7,200 megawatts added worldwide. This brought Germany's overall PV generating capacity to 9,800 megawatts, nearly three times as much as the next closest country, Spain.

Organic solar cells have their uses

When it comes to solar technology, and solar PV in particular, you will most likely come across extreme opinions. Some who dismiss it as costly and inefficient, others who see hope in technology advances.

Yet it is true that solar cell tech is costly to mass-produce, especially at the scale we would require to replace fossil fuels. However,a great deal of international research is aimed at developing solar cells made up of organic (carbon-compound based) semiconductors. Although their performance is still considerably lower than that of cells based on crystalline silicon (around 5% efficiency as compared with 15% for silicon cells), they present numerous advantages. Unlike crystalline silicon, which has to be produced at very high temperatures, they can be manufactured cheaply with low energy cost and environmental impact.

To better understand the energy and environmental benefits and detriments of solar power, a research team from Rochester Institute of Technology has conducted one of the first life-cycle assessments of organic solar cells. The study found that the embodied energy -- or the total energy required to make a product -- is less for organic solar cells compared with conventional inorganic devices.

The study sought to calculate the total energy use and environmental impact of the material collection, fabrication, mass production and use of organic solar cells through a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of the technology.The team found that when compared to inorganic cells, the energy payback time for organic solar cells was lower.

Organic solar cells are not intended to compete with silicon, but rather to be used for specific applications, such as packaging, clothing, flexible screens, and recharging cell phones and laptops. In the longer term, they could make a significant contribution to the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy, if there is major investment in research into new, more efficient and stable materials. And that, the critics will say, is the crux of the issue - technology advances!

Clouded verdict

A new analysis of satellite data, collected over a decade, has identified the concentration, distribution, and composition of aerosol pollution over the Indian subcontinent. Using the multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) from NASA’s Terra spacecraft, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were able to document high levels of natural and human-caused pollution and reveal unexpected seasonal shifts in pollution.

Aerosol pollution across much of the country was two to five times higher than World Health Organization standards, with levels fluctuating during the seasons as monsoon rains wash away much of the smog and particulate matter, according to the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Black carbon particles, commonly called soot, are dark and light-absorbing and therefore warm the climate. Soot comes from combustion of fossil and biofuels, especially burning of diesel, coal and wood. Due to its warming effects, reduction of soot could help cool climate. However, soot absorption also affects cloud distributions and the verdict on how the clouds change is unclear. Because clouds mostly cool the climate, the possibility that soot absorption could increase cloud cover needs to be considered. And that means reducing BC may not be the silver bullet solution many thought.

Global model studies of soot effects on clouds do indeed find a variety of cloud responses, with increased clouds in some regions and decreased clouds in others. Most of the global model studies indicate that the net cloud response to absorbing particles is cooling. This suggests the need for caution when pursuing mitigation of soot in order to cool climate.

Sticker ups efficiency

A large transparent sticker applied to the front of a solar panel increases the power output by about 10% or so. These polymer films are imprinted with special kind of microstructures.

There are three main actions that are activated by these polymer films:
· Preventing light from reflecting off the solar panel surfaces.
· Trapping light to stay inside the semiconducting materials which absorb the light and then convert it into power.
· Redirecting the light that comes in so that the light will travel along the semiconductor material surface and not just pass through the material; this increases the likelihood of absorption of light more than before.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory results prove the fact that the films increase power output between 4-12.5% even when cloudy weather makes the light diffuse. Just adding the films increase cost of power generation by 1-10% but benefits far outweigh the cost, claims the lab. The question to be proved is the test of durability – which will be best answered by future.

Peak coal by 2050

A new study suggests that the world is nearing the peak of readily exploitable reserves of high-quality coal, contradicting prevailing estimates that the globe has enough coal to help meet energy needs for at least a century. Tad Patzek, chairman of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said the world could be approaching the peak of coal mining and he predicts that by 2050 the global coal supply will be half what it is today.

Coal plants supply 40 percent of the world’s electricity. So if the prediction is right, we will see a real shake-up of the economy!

This study aside, chemical engineers at Newcastle University in Australia, the electrical engineer David Rutledge at the California Institute of Technology, and a German nonprofit called Energy Watch Group all have estimated that coal production would most likely peak in the next couple of decades. The Global Energy Systems group at Uppsala University (www.fysast.uu.se/ges) has also published a peer-reviewed paper in Fuel about Global Coal Production Outlooks predicting Peak Coal around 2040.

Peak coal around 2050 means that carbon emissions from global coal production would decline by 50 percent by 2050. That’s significantly below most of the carbon emissions scenarios produced by the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Patzek’s paper notes of IPCC scenarios, as being “based on economic and policy considerations that appear to be unconstrained by geophysics.”

Meanwhile forecasts for coal use point upward! The London-based World Coal Institute, an industry group including the largest international coal producers, says "the use of coal will rise 60 percent over the next 20 years," and that "coal will last us for at least 119 years." And the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in its most recent international outlook, projects that coal consumption for electricity will grow more than 50 percent by 2035 unless policies are put in place to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is going to take some more time and more studies for the world to believe in a peak coal. The general idea is that there's more of it underground.

The vanishing hum

Widespread reports of a decline in the population of bees and other flower-visiting animals have aroused fear and speculation that pollination is also likely on the decline. A recent University of Toronto study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination, while also pointing to climate change as a possible contributor.

One of the longest-term studies of pollination ever done, the study reveals a progressive decline in pollination over the years, with particularly noteworthy pollination deficits early in the season. The study will be published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. What is particularly sobering is that it suggests that pollination is vulnerable even in a relatively pristine environment that is free of pesticides and human disturbance but still subject to climate change.

According to a previous study, England’s bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives dying out over the last 20 years.

Butterflies and other insects are also in decline due to habitat loss and climate change. It is estimated bees are responsible for one in three mouthfuls of food we take, and that insect pollinators contribute £440 million to the British economy through their role in fertilising crops. And that for a largely meat-eating nation.

Small pointers to what could become a big problem. After all, remember studying in school how important pollination is?

Water solutions a click away?

Helping solve water crisis may take quite some time but a quick way to join in the efforts is to simply lend your computer time when idle.

Scientists will tap idle processing power to develop water filtering technology, clean up polluted waterways, and find treatments for water-related diseases.
Those were among the projects announced by IBM, which sponsors a global network of linked personal computers called the Worldwide Community Grid.

In China, Tsinghua University researchers, with the help of Australian and Swiss scientists, will use 1.5 million computers on the Worldwide Community Grid to develop nanotechnology to create drinkable water from polluted sources, as well as from saltwater.

To do that, the scientists need to run millions of computer simulations as part of their “Computing for Clean Water” project.

Brazilian scientists, meanwhile, will plug into the grid to screen 13 million chemical compounds in their search for a cure for schistosomiasis, a water-borne tropical disease that kills between 11,000 and 200,000 people annually.

In the United States, the Worldwide Community Grid will be used to run complex simulations that assess how actions by farmers, power plant operators, real estate developers, and others affect the health of Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary.

Laudable effort even though one could say there are simpler ways to manage and conserve water! By simply becoming more conscious of this precious resource.