Solar power lights up over 5,000 households in the Philippines’ Polilio islands

Thanks to collaboration between the Philippine government and the private sector, more than 5,000 homes in one of the country’s most remote regions are now being supplied with electricity through solar power. According to an InterAksyon report, a solar power project of the Department of Energy and the Quezon Electric Cooperative II, TeaM Energy Corporation has helped provide electricity to about 5,551 households in the Polilio...

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Sun to steam: Rice uses nanoparticles to generate heat

In a new twist to the quest to harness the power of the sun, Rice University scientists are using sun power to produce steam from icy cold water. The solar steam method, from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, uses light-capturing nanoparticles to convert the sunlight into heat. The inventors of solar steam see the first use of their new technology as being in the sanitation and water purification...

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Marubeni building large solar power project in Japan

Japan’s Marubeni is building a large-scale solar power plant with a generation capacity of 81.5 megawatts in the coastal industrial area of Oita City. It will be the largest power business at one single place in Japan. Once operational, the expected annual power generation from the plant will reach 87,000,000 kilowatt-hours, the annual electricity consumption of 30,000 houses. Marubeni is creating a new special purpose company for the project which will begin construction in November of this year.

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First Solar kicks off Dubai’s 1-gigawatt solar park

The starting phase of the planned 1-gigawatt Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai is underway with an initial 13-megawatt project to be begun by American thin-film solar company First Solar, Inc. The ambitious proposal is a 12 billion dirham ($3.261 billion) project that was launched early this year as part of Dubai’s Integrated Energy Strategy 2030. The project will use both photovoltaic and...

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Australian consortium develops technology for “home-grown electricity”

It won’t be too long before buildings have the ability to generate their own electricity from roofs, walls, windows and even benchtops that work similarly to solar panels. A consortium of Australian research institutions and industry partners is working to develop solar cell technology that can harness energy from the sun through walls, windows and steel roof sheeting, significantly improving the overall...

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Mecca planning to go solar

Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, is aiming to become the first city in Saudi Arabia to run on solar power. Mecca’s Mayor Osama al-Bar is seeking bids from developers to construct and run power plants that will generate 385 gigawatt-hours of power annually, including 100 megawatts of solar capacity, Bloomberg reported. By January 5 next year, the winning bid will be announced. Work is expected to start...

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I.B.M. sets a world record in solar P.V. energy efficiency

I.B.M. achieved a milestone in photovoltaic energy conversion using “earth-abundant materials,” for a record-breaking 11.1 percent efficiency. I.B.M.’s Material Sciences team, along with industry partners Solar Frontier, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and DelSolar, successfully tested a solar cell made of copper, zinc and tin (Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4). The cell, referred to as CZTS,...

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Funding to help expand solar development in New York State

New funding has been announced for the NY-Sun Initiative, a New York State program announced earlier this year, which will double the amount of customer-sited solar power installed annually in the state and quadruple that amount by 2013. Governor Andrew Cuomo said $107 million will be available for the solar power incentive program, to be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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CPS Energy, OCI Solar power to bring 400 MWs of solar to Texas

A deal signed between CPS Energy and OCI Solar Power will bring 400 megawatts of solar energy to San Antonio and put Texas in the top five solar producing states in America. The two companies inked a 25-year power purchase and economic development agreement which will see five solar plants as well as manufacturing facilities to produce solar panel components to be developed in San Antonio.

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SolarCity to start second phase of sustainable military homes project

American energy provider SolarCity, with Australian property and development group Lend Lease, will mount 18,000 photovoltaic panels on military roofs in California and Colorado Springs under the second phase of the SolarStrong project which aims put up PV panels across 120,000 military homes.

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