Government help is needed if America is to significantly shake its dependence on a fossil-fuel-based economy, a prominent solar-energy expert said.

You have to “prime the pump” to make other forms of energy into practical economic alternatives to fossil fuels, Donald Aitken told an audience at Virginia’s Sustainable Future Summit yesterday in Richmond.

Aitken is an affiliate faculty member at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the founder and former chairman of the department of environmental studies at San Jose State University.

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On a cold winter day, Bernie Stanley of Shockoe Solar puts the finishing touches on a solar panel array atop a veterinarian clinic in Glen Allen.

Stanley, as far as he knows, is the only solar panel installer in Central Virginia. But that could change if Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposal to give businesses and residents a tax credit for going solar is approved by the General Assembly.

As part of his Renew Virginia initiative, the governor wants to give a tax credit of up to $8,000 to individuals and $20,000 to businesses for installing photovoltaic systems. The amount would be determined by the size of the system, with a $1,000 credit awarded for each kilowatt the system produces. (For example, a four-kilowatt system would be eligible for $4,000 and would produce four kilowatts at any given time.)

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The U.S. Department of Energy is making $100 million available for advanced energy-related research projects, with a considerable focus on the production and storage of solar electricity.

The money, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is intended to accelerate innovations in the development of “green” technology, create new jobs and increase the nation’s ability to compete in the transformation of global energy systems.

Project funding will be overseen by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E.

Arun Majumdar, director of the agency, says in a message on the agency’s website: “The widespread use of fossil fuels has long driven the engine of economic growth, and yet our dependence on these fuels severely threatens our national and environmental security due to our growing foreign energy dependence as well as climate change.

“Business as usual is not an option, as the outcome will be devastating,” he adds. “This is true not only for the U.S., but also for all nations in this interconnected world. The nation that successfully grows its economy with more efficient energy use, a clean domestic energy supply, and a smart energy infrastructure will lead the global economy of the 21st century. In many cases, we are lagging behind. We as a nation need to change course with fierce urgency.”

There are three main focus areas for the agency’s $100 million.

The first is the development of new technologies to enable widespread deployment of cost-effective, grid-scale energy storage. The intent is to balance the short-duration variability in power production from renewable energy sources such as solar- and wind-generated electricity. The goal is not to incorporate only small amounts of solar and wind in the grid’s energy mix, but very large amounts.

“By investing in the development of grid-scale energy storage technology,”‘ the agency says, “this funding opportunity will allow the U.S. to assume global technology and manufacturing leadership in the emerging and potentially massive global market for stationary electricity storage infrastructure.”

A second focus of the agency is investment in potential fundamental advances in soft magnetics, high-voltage switches and high-density charge storage. A key purpose of this research is to develop new distributed micro-inverters for solar photovoltaic systems.

Inverters convert the direct current, or DC, produced by solar PV systems into the alternating current, or AC, used in home appliances and the electricity grid. Most solar-electric systems use a single inverter attached by wiring to an array of modules. A newer approach has a single “micro-inverter” on each module.

With a single inverter, shade on part of an array, or a single malfunctioning panel, can significantly reduce the system’s overall electricity production. Micro-inverters can reduce this problem, creating opportunities to install solar PV in places affected by partial shading. The funding seeks to enhance the performance of these devices.

Traditional single inverters also are included, with the goal of significantly reducing their cost while increasing their efficiency. Inverters, which have about half the typical warranted service life of a solar module, are an important factor in the overall cost of a solar installation.

The third focus area is improving the energy efficiency of buildings through the use of thermo-devices. The intent is that the funding will nurture development of new, more efficient ways to cool buildings.

Copyright © 2010 Sunpluggers.com

The story goes like this: Homeowner A calls Solar Contractor B. Gets an analysis, sleeps on it, applies for this or that rebate, tax credit or municipal loan and goes solar. In a sentence full of operatives, you might not notice that powerful and exclusive word hitting lead-off: homeowner. Solar power is very much about getting solar panels on to more and more rooftops, but it’s not only homeowners who can take solar energy and funnel it into a light bulb.

Most anyone can get “radically” sustainable with home solar power these days. If you live in any one of the 29 states with mandatory renewable electricity standards (RES), a number of avenues are already mapped for you on the road to home solar power.

Utilities need renewable energy and they need it now — a fact that’s pushed many to come up with innovative ways to get their customers to purchase renewable energy.

Options are out there for everyone. Check out yours below.

Homeowners

If you’ve got the cash, the rooftop is your oyster. Unfortunately for most of us, solar power is still quite an expensive investment despite falling costs. So the federal government, states, utilities, cities and counties have set incentives in place to promote the widespread use of home solar power. Financing options are abundant:

Solar Loans

Some are simple loans, similar to what you’d get buying a new car, and are available from states, utilities, solar installers and private firms. But in a constricted economy, that’s often not enough. Even if loans are available, $20,000 to $30,000 in debt is too daunting, so a good discount or diversion is a welcome addition to the equation.

Programs with No Up-Front Costs

Most radical of late is a program first conceived and implemented in Berkeley, California. Known locally as FIRST and nationally as PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), the idea is to offer municipal bonds for home solar power systems that leave the homeowner paying little or no up-front costs. Instead, those initial costs are carried by the city or county and paid back through a voluntary increase in property taxes. The real ingenious part is that the cost of the solar power system is tied to the property and not the owner, reducing risk for all parties involved and giving birth to a wave of solar rooftop opportunities. Berkeley’s pilot program sold out in under 10 minutes, and a host of other cities are adopting the idea led by the national PACE guidelines.

Group Buying for Cheaper Rates

Group buying is another burgeoning grassroots solar discount option. Around the country, neighbors and communities are getting together to save money on solar power. It’s the same principle that makes buying cereal from the grocery store out of a bin cheaper than out of a box; the more you buy at once, the lower cost per unit. Group buying in solar power enables homeowners and neighborhood organizations to bargain collectively for cheaper solar rates.

Savings can be very substantial and all parties benefit, from the money-saving homeowner to the installer who gets to install, say, 20 systems within a few square blocks. One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), SolarCity and a handful of other companies and nonprofits are leading the way in community solar power.

Solar Leasing Options

SolarCity also offers solar leasing options that essentially allow homeowners to “rent” solar panels, contribute to a better environment and save a decent percentage on their utility bills.

Renters

As new and improved as home solar financing options are, the truly radical and innovative steps toward distributed solar power involve the other side of residential power consumption: renters. Going solar is usually tough for renters. There’s no control over the property and usually no permanence to the living situation.

Yet renters occupy a high percentage of homes in many cities, especially college towns, where youth are at the front of the green movement but lack the means to take major steps, like installing solar power.

Cities like Santa Cruz, California, however, are working to motivate renters and landlords to go solar. It may sound like a tough job, considering that renters usually pay the electric bill and landlords are rarely present, but plans are in the works and we’ll see what blows out of that brainstorm.

Solar Shares & Renewable Energy Offsets

More readily available are options like solar shares or renewable energy offsets from the utility company. I myself am a renter and 100 percent of my household electricity is renewable, with no solar panels, wind turbines or geothermal heat pumps to speak of. And checking a box was all it took to make it happen.

Now, living in Portland, Oregon, the majority of that renewable power comes from wind out of the Columbia River Gorge, but solar power is increasingly available here, there and everywhere in the United States. Utility-scale solar power is not without its obstacles, but it is growing, and utilities are offering that power to customers at a typically reasonable monthly fee, usually less than $10 per month (based on personal experience).

Community Solar Arrays

In some cases, utilities build municipal solar arrays and sell “shares” of the resulting solar power to renters or homeowners without the means for their own solar system. Such community solar arrays are popping up in Sacramento, Tucson, and elsewhere. As of now, they’re more about serving the environment than saving money.

In fact, that’s what being a “solar renter” is all about, and perhaps what makes it the most radically sustainable part of the solar industry. These days, economics dominate the discussion about solar and renewable energy. The debate is very heated as to whether solar can ever be as cheap as coal or natural gas. Yet the truly pressing need is to curb climate change, and the more renters that buy shares of solar power, the more arrays utilities will build and the bigger dent we’ll make in solving climate change.

There are a plethora of ways to get radical about sustainability, from eating and volunteering locally to composting to recycling and everything in between, but know that it can be as easy as checking a box and spending a movie ticket’s worth of extra cash each month. Check your local listings.

Original source:  http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/going/going-radically-green-with-residential-solar-power/; photo from http://www.saic.com/feature/energy/solar.html

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — Elkem Solar, a Norwegian producer of solar-grade silicon, has combined basic and applied research to develop production methods that cut costs and consume less energy than conventional silicon production.

The Kristiansand-based company has now accomplished its three primary objectives. Silicon production costs have been significantly reduced compared to conventional production. Energy consumption has been cut dramatically. All the while, its efficient methods preserve the power output of silicon-based solar cells manufactured at its facilities, compared to silicon solar cells produced by traditional means.

Traditional production of silicon involves first gasifying the raw material, a costly and energy-intensive method. Elkem’s method is based on traditional metallurgy; the raw material is melted and then undergoes several processing stages to prepare 10-kg silicon blocks for sale to solar cell producers. This method makes production more cost-effective and energy-efficient and is suitable for large-quantity production.

“The market potential is vast, but the financial crisis has led to major reductions in the market price for our product,” says Dr Tronstad. “To be competitive it’s essential to drive production costs down.”

The Research Council of Norway. “Cutting Costs in Silicon Production.” ScienceDaily 15 April 2010. 16 April 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/04/100415085313.htm>.