CBC News

The Honeywell wind turbine is designed for the roofs of homes and small commercial or agricultural operations. (WindTronics)The Honeywell Wind Turbine measures 1.8 meters across and weighs 84 kg. It can begin producing power at wind speeds of three km/h.

A Canadian-made turbine designed to fit on roofs and help power homes and small businesses will go on sale in December.

It is being manufactured at a new factory in Windsor, Ont.

Reg Adams, president of manufacturer WindTronics, told CBC News the turbines will appeal to commercial and agricultural operations, as well as homeowners who are environmentally conscious, or need emergency backup power.

“We are complete emergency home standby systems,” he said in an interview. “It’s like the replacement of a home standby generator. We can build a battery support, and if the power outage is because of a storm, it will have wind. If not, we have charged batteries.”

Each turbine comes with a computerized smart box and inverter that will allow the unit to feed directly into the ac power system of a home or business, or feed the energy back into the electricity grid.

‘The Honeywell turbine makes wind technology affordable and accessible.’—Reg Adams, WindTronics

The design is intended to maximize power output while minimizing noise and vibration. The unit differs from industrial wind turbines in that it looks more like a fan than windmill and generates power through the tips of the blades rather than turning a generator.

“The Honeywell turbine makes wind technology affordable and accessible to the vast majority of Canadian homeowners, who have great wind resources,” said Adams.

24 years to payback

When its installed in an area with high winds, the turbine can produce up to 2,700 kilowatt hours a year. Based on Ontario’s peak power rate of 9.9 cents per kWh, a turbine could save $272 in power costs each year.

However, at a cost of $6,500, with an additional $3,000 for installation, it would take 24 years for it to pay for itself.

Adams says the company is currently negotiating with the Ontario government to have the turbines included in the Feed-in Tariff Program, which pays a premium for green-power energy.

He said if the Ontario government agrees to pay 50 to 55 cents per kilowatt-hour, it will make the turbines far more appealing to everyday homeowners.

If Ontario residents were able to feed power back into the grid under such an arrangement, the turbine would earn about $1,500 per year and be paid for in 4½ years.

The turbines will be sold at Home Depot and other major retailers across Canada.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/10/27/con-turbine.html#ixzz14tV2BpbF

International Battery's new IBexus 24-volt Lithium-ion battery pack. (Photo: Business Wire)

Rechargeable Battery Pack is the Company’s First Standard System Offering

ALLENTOWN, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–International Battery (www.internationalbattery.com), a U.S. manufacturer, designer and developer of large-format Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable cells, batteries and energy storage systems (ESS), today announced the introduction of IBexus™ – a 24-Volt, 4.1 kWh Li-ion energy storage system well suited for storage of solar and other renewable energy sources.

“Our Renewable Source Control Center (RSCC) project will incorporate International Battery’s Li-ion battery technology with the idea of controlling and managing energy in a manner that reduces cost and helps alleviate the demand on the grid.”

The first of the IBexus product family, the new eight-cell 24V ESS has proven ideal as an evaluation module for several different projects with rechargeable energy storage requirements, ranging from sustainable home pilot projects to micro grid load shifting applications. The first commercialized stock keeping unit (SKU) of the IBexus – the IB 24V 008 ESS – is a 4.1 kilowatt hour system that contains eight 160Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate cells wired in series. The battery system comes standard with contactor, current shunt and thermal management controls. For easy communication, the system includes RS232, RS485, CANbus, Modbus or Ethernet communications, a PC graphical user interface (GUI) and data log functionality for communication with International Battery’s technical support resources. A comprehensive battery management system (BMS) maximizes cell performance, enhances safety and monitors/balances individual cells. A standard set of output parameters is included for quick delivery, although customized features and output can also be programmed. Other members of the IBexus product family will include 60 Ah cell capacity and 48V options.

“We are very excited to formally launch our new energy storage system to the marketplace,” said International Battery’s Vice President Business Development, John Battaglini. “The initial response to the product’s features and performance has been tremendous and we look forward to further developing additional products within the IBexus product line. Customers are finding that our large-format lithium battery systems are a great alternative to lead-acid batteries based on increased energy density, improved cycle life and robust performance across a wider temperature range.”

The IBexus battery system is currently being evaluated by Drexel University’s Department of Electric & Computer Engineering’s Center for Electrical Power Engineering (CEPOE) in Philadelphia. Students are analyzing demand response by evaluating a scaled down model of a residential grid-tied 1.5 kilowatt solar array and smart inverter that will compare real-time electric rates and regulate usage based on lowest market rates. “This is a running test to validate the features and benefits of Lithium-ion energy storage compared to lead acid batteries,” said Chika Nwankpa, professor and director at Drexel University. “Our Renewable Source Control Center (RSCC) project will incorporate International Battery’s Li-ion battery technology with the idea of controlling and managing energy in a manner that reduces cost and helps alleviate the demand on the grid.”

International Battery’s large-format prismatic rechargeable Li-ion batteries are the perfect choice for renewable applications requiring energy storage in a compact and modular scalable architecture. To this end, WINDFREE, a provider of sustainable and renewable energy systems in Chicago, is currently evaluating the new IBexus system for a variety of alternative applications. “Right now, we’re in the process of developing an off-grid system for a residential home near Lake Superior incorporating solar panels and liquid propane (LP) gas co-generators to run the home’s vital appliances and well pumps,” said Doug Snower, founder of WINDFREE. “We expect the evaluation of International Battery’s new 24-volt IBexus to validate the product’s performance to meet the requirements of our off-grid residential projects.” In addition to this project, WINDFREE will display the energy storage system at its demonstration center located in Wicker Park, Chicago. The center will help to educate and demonstrate how to save money on grid-tied and off-grid solutions including smart meters. “We’re pleased to showcase International Battery’s compact Li-ion battery for live renewable solution demonstrations to consumers. The IBexus system will be charged by windmills and solar panels mounted on our building. This will be our first demonstration of an AC/DC power system with an inverter and Li-ion battery pack.”

The IBexus unit features robust thermal and cycling performance as well as easy system expandability and comprehensive battery management. Moreover, these Li-ion cells offer quick charge times, small footprint, lighter weight, excellent cycle life and very low maintenance.

Made in the U.S., International Battery’s Li-ion batteries are easily scalable from kilowatt-hours to megawatt-hours and are ideal for Smart Grid, utility energy storage, diurnal energy storage, industrial, military, and land/sea transportation applications. Employing a unique environmentally friendly, water-based manufacturing process, International Battery’s ISO 9001:2008 certified Li-ion batteries meet a wide array of energy storage needs and offer several cell chemistries that are UN Transport certified for shipments globally.

The IBexus 24V module is available now. For more information and ordering, contact International Battery at (610) 366-3925 or contact sales@internationalbattery.com.

About International Battery

Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., International Battery (www.internationalbattery.com) is a U.S. manufacturer, designer, and developer of large-format Lithium-ion rechargeable cells and batteries for use in a wide range of transportation, industrial, electric utility, smart grid and military applications, employing a uniquely environmentally friendly manufacturing process.

In addition to historical information, this release may contain forward-looking statements. International Battery may, from time-to-time, make written or oral forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements encompass International Battery’s beliefs, expectations, hopes or intentions regarding future events. Words such as “expects,” “intends,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “should,” “likely” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements included in this release are made as of the date hereof and are based on information available to International Battery as of such date. International Battery assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Actual results may vary, and may vary materially, from those anticipated, estimated, projected or expected for a number of reasons.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6490718&lang=en

By MATTHEW L. WALD October 19, 2010, 8:29 am

A “direct wafer” from 1366 Technologies, left, made by casting it in its final form, and a traditional one, made by sawing slices off a block. The direct one costs 80 percent less, the company says.

A company that secured a Department of Energy grant to pursue a breakthrough idea in the manufacture of solar cells plans to announce on Tuesday that it has raised $20 million to commercialize its technique, which it says will reduce the price of solar panels by 40 percent.

The company, 1366 Technologies of Lexington, Mass., has found a simpler way to produce the basic building block of solar cells: silicon wafers. It uses molten silicon to cast the wafers in their final form, six inches on one side and 200 microns thick, or about eight-thousandths of an inch.

The current method is to cast the silicon in huge ingots or grow it in giant crystals and then saw off thin pieces, which wastes about half of the silicon.

“Early indications show this could be one of our great success stories,” said David Danielson, the program director for solar energy at the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy, a new office within the Energy Department that provides relatively small grants to develop high-risk but potentially high-payoff technologies. It promised 1366 a grant of $4 million for an 18-month program to develop the wafer technology; 1366 is reporting success after eight months.

The company is expected to announce that it has raised $20 million in new capital, some of it from a major customer for the wafers, Hanwha Chemical of South Korea. Other investors include Ventizz Capital Fund, a European company that specializes in clean energy investments. Two companies that had previously invested, North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, have also added funds.

The chairman of Hanwha, Ki-joon Hong, said in a statement that his company had “every confidence that 1366’s innovations will fundamentally change solar manufacturing.”

The silicon, the basic material of solar cells and computer chips, is derived from a very cheap material, sand. But to function in electronics it must be made extremely pure, which makes it expensive.

The new technique, going from molten silicon to final product, is a bit like frying pancakes as opposed to slicing salami, except, as Mr. Danielson put it, “when you cut a salami, it’s not like half the salami ends up as salami dust that you have to throw in the garbage.”

The trick is to get the wafer out of the mold without breaking it. Company officials will not say just how they do that. The president of 1366 Technologies, Frank van Mierlo, predicted that the development would make solar power cheaper than coal power, although the technique has not yet been commercialized.

If the wafers go to market, 1366 would be one of the early fruits of the ARPA-e program, which was authorized by Congress in 1997 and signed into law by President Bush but was not financed until the passage of the federal stimulus act, which gave the program $400 million over two years. In December, 1366 received $4 million.

The company’s name is a reference to the amount of solar energy, measured in watts, that falls on a square meter of the earth’s surface.

The cell has other refinements, including finer wires to conduct away the electrons, so the shadow cast on the energy-gathering area is smaller. And the company drills small holes into the cast wafer to give it a honeycomb appearance, which allows light to bounce around inside the crevices, producing better absorption and less reduction, Mr. van Mierlo said.

leaves_commons

Artificial Leaves

Mimicking the way planets harness energy from the sun, scientists at North Carolina State University have developed an adaptable, water-based solar cell. The leaves will provide free renewable energy pulled from radiant solar light.

Nowadays we’ve just about seen it all, from Doug Band and his work with the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) on modified rice seeds to Todd Reichert and his Snowbird. But a large majority of new research and development in the field of technology has gone into solar/green energy.

One of the biggest issues with solar energy is the fact that it lack’s the capacity to generate enough power for large communities. Despite the recent discovery of PETE (Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission), there will certainly continue to be a strong demand for personal solar power, similar to that of panels used to heat swimming pools.

Scientists around the world are still pursuing new methods to harness the power of the sun and turn it into electricity. In this pursuit, researchers at North Carolina State University may have found another solution. Lead author on the study and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC, Dr. Orlin Velev created artificial leaves with the thought of using solar cells to imitate nature more narrowly.

He successfully infused water-based gel with light sensitive molecules, and paired that with electrodes coated by materials (graphite or carbon nanotubes) to create these leaves. In doing so, the sun’s rays excite the molecules, yielding electricity. In nature, plant molecules are excited by the sun, which then starts the process of photosynthesis. And just to throw in a bonus, the gel permits the usage of actual chlorophyll to create the same reaction.

But the process has yet to be perfected, and therefore cannot provide actual sustainability. Dr. Velev claims that he’ll need to discover a way to mimic the self-regenerating mechanisms found in plans, and change the water-based gel to improve overall efficiency. He also goes on to state that they’re a long way from making this all practical.

Without practicality, these artificial leaves won’t be able to compete and survive in this time. But the idea is brilliant – “…this concept of biologically inspired “soft” devices for generating electricity may in the future provide an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies.” – Dr. Orlin Velev

Contributor – Jack Lundee

The future of solar energy is getting brighter and brighter with help from incredible advances currently underway in some of the nation’s leading laboratories.

In fact, a generation from now, solar energy technology is likely to reach levels of efficiency and flexibility that will make today’s products pale in comparison. For example, some researchers are using nanotechnology to experiment with materials that will allow almost any part of a building to contain photovoltaic materials capable of generating clean energy.

A handful of companies have even been working on orbiting solar energy arrays that could be capable of beaming the power they generate back to earth, reducing the need for land and other development hurdles.

With this in mind, a report from the International Business Times features some technological advances that will mark major milestones for the solar energy industry in their own right.

Specifically, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reportedly found a way to generate solar energy using chemicals comparable to those used by plants for photosynthesis – a method that could be far more efficient than current photovoltaic technology.

Chemical engineers from MIT in Cambridge, Mass. have used single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to make antenna-like structures that concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell. These antennas can capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays.

Caption: This fiber containing about 30 million carbon nanotubes absorbs energy from the sun as photons and then re-emits photons of lower energy, creating the fluorescence seen here. The red regions indicate highest energy intensity, and green and blue are lower intensity. Image by Geraldine Paulus.

The antennas were possible because new separation methods now allow sorting of SWNTs by their optical properties. This means that SWNTs can be used to make optically homogeneous materials that are larger than typical excitation wavelengths of interest.

The engineers, led by Michael Strano, isolated semiconducting SWNTs and dielectrophoretically spun them into largely homogeneous solid core-shell fibers that were about 10 ?m long and 5 ?m thick. The fibers each contained about 30 million SWNTs.

The engineers made light-concentrating antennas by forming a fiber with shells of successively larger-bandgap SWNTs radiating outward. These structures can boost the number of photons captured and funnel energy from light into a solar cell.

The engineers plan to test the SWNT antennas in a photovoltaic device and are working to reduce the energy loss from the current 13% to only 1%.

Research Paper: Exciton Antennae and Concentrators from Core-Shell and Corrugated Carbon Nanotube Filaments of Homogeneous Composition, Nature Materials, doi:10.1038/nmat2832

By Heather Clancy | September 10, 2010, 7:26am PDT

Prototype can continuously produce electricity for a week

updated 9/8/2010 11:08:34 AM E

Over time, most solar cells degrade due to prolonged exposure to the sun’s scathing rays and are rendered useless. But with a little inspiration from nature, researchers have now created a new solar material that regenerates its damaged energy-capturing packets on-demand.

A small prototype solar cell built from the self-healing material can continuously produce electricity for an entire week without losing any efficiency, the scientists report.

The team was inspired by plants in nature. The ingredients within a plant’s leaves that turn sunlight into energy aren’t actually immune to the sun’s damage. Instead, the molecules do their job (pump out sugar), get destroyed, and in less than an hour they regenerate. This process happens over and over again – enabling the leaves to produce energy at the same efficiency as they did on day one of their operation.

[Read also " Mobile Power Comes of Age ."]

“Nature has figured out how to work with solar energy,” said study lead researcher Michael Strano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “It makes a dynamic cell that can constantly repair itself.”

Today’s solar materials, which range from the rigid-silicon panels found on rooftops to the flexible, organic kind that can be coated like paint onto surfaces, all degrade over time when exposed to sun and oxygen. The result of this damage is that the material’s ability to turn sunlight into electricity decreases over time.

Strano and his team have built what they call a “dynamic” solar cell. The light-capturing material is a mixture of several chemicals, including a photosensitive protein, a fatty substance called a phospholipid and carbon nanotubes .

The team found that when they added soapy liquid to the mix, the components of the material break apart and form a soupy solution. In this form, the material can’t produce electricity. However, when put into a special bag with tiny holes that only let the soapy molecules – called surfactants – leak out, the “disordered mess” turns into “a very structured, very ordered material” – one that can turn sunlight into electricity.

This process of adding and removing the surfactant can be repeated over and over again, allowing the mixture to constantly regenerate its electricity-producing structure.

There’s still a lot to do before this technology could be used in homes and buildings to produce electricity. For one, the initial efficiency — a measure of how much of the sun’s light the panel can convert into electricity  – of the new system is much lower than today’s solar panels.

The researchers see this research as a “first step” in developing a solar cell capable of regeneration, Strano said.

Strano and his team detail their research online Sept. 5 in Nature Chemistry.

September 7, 2010 by Taylen Peterson

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has confirmed results for a record-breaking conversion efficiency in solar cell technology. Oerlikon Solar and Corning Incorporated have combined technologies to produce a tandem solar cell using thin-film silicon. Oerlikon’s proprietary Micromorph® solar cells and Corning’s specialty, advanced light-capturing glass combined to achieve 11.9-percent stabilized conversion efficiency in NREL tests.

That efficiency beats out the previous record of 11.7 percent in 2004. This is the latest advancement in Oerlikon’s ThinFab line of solar panels, which, according to the company, have also achieved a world record in production cost per watt at 50 euro cents per watt-peak (about $0.64 USD).

Micromorph technology is itself an advancement on amorphous silicon solar cells (a-Si cells). Put simply, a-Si cells consist of a thin layer of silicon deposited onto a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). Oerlikon’s Micromorph technology adds another layer in tandem with the first. This added microcrystalline absorber enables the solar cell to absorb a wider spectrum of light, edging into the red and near-infrared spectrum which conventional silicon solar cells cannot do. According to Germany-based Oerlikon this extra absorption increases cell conversion efficiency (the rate at which sunlight is converted into electricity), by 30 percent.

Corning Inc.’s proprietary glass, or glazing, technology ensures that a higher amount of light is available for absorption by the solar cells beneath it. It is in this way that the two companies continue to make advancements in thin-film silicon.

Low production costs have long been a point of pride for thin-film technologies. Last year, American firm First Solar broke the coveted $1.00/watt barrier (now residing at about $0.76/watt) for its cadmium telluride solar cells (CdTe). Yet low conversion efficiency has been the only factor preventing thin-film products from surpassing their crystalline silicon predecessors, which still dominate more than 90 percent of the global solar market.

However, with efficiencies nearing 12 percent and production costs approaching a half dollar, the gap continues to close between first- and second-generation technologies. Most crystalline silicon (c-Si) modules on the market produce at efficiencies between 15 and 20 percent, but cost well over $1.00 per watt to manufacture. a-Si products use much less silicon and are cheaper to produce than conventional panels. It’s for this reason — and based on advancements such as Oerlikon and Corning’s — that thin-film solar cells are expected to take over dominance of the solar market within the next decade, depending on a variety of technological and commercial factors.

Oerlikon Solar is presenting its record-breaking Micromorph technology this week at the 25th Annual European Photovoltaics Solar Energy Conference in Valencia, Spain.

The Differences Between Clean Energy, Renewable Energy, and Alternative Energy

To many people, the differences between “alternative energy,” “renewable energy,” and “clean energy,” might not be obvious. But each term is unique and has its own individual definition. These three terms are not all exactly the same.

Alternative Energy

When we speak of alternative energy, we refer to sources of usable energy that can replace conventional energy sources (usually, without undesirable side effects). The term “alternative energy” is typically used to refer to sources of energy other than nuclear energy or fossil fuels.

Throughout the course of history, “alternative energy” has referred to different things. There was a time when nuclear energy was considered an alternative to conventional energy, and was therefore called “alternative energy.” But times have changed.

These days, a form of “alternative energy” might also be renewable energy, or clean energy, or both. The terms are often interchangeable, but definitely not the same.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is any type of energy which comes from renewable natural resources, such as wind, rain, sunlight, geothermal heat, and tides. It is referred to as “renewable” because it doesn’t run out. You can always get more of it.

People have begun to turn to this type of energy due to the rising oil prices, and the prospect that we might one day deplete available sources of fossil fuels, as well as due to concerns about the adverse effects that our conventional energy sources have on the environment.

Of all the different types of renewable energy, wind power is one which is growing in its use. The number of users who have some form of wind power installed has increased, with the current worldwide capacity being about 100 GW.

Clean Energy

“Clean energy” is simply any form of energy which is created with clean, harmless, and non-polluting methods.

Most renewable energy sources are also clean energy sources. But not all.

One such example is geothermal power. It may be a renewable energy source, but some geothermal energy processes can be harmful to the environment. Therefore, this is not always a clean energy. However there are also other forms of geothermal energy which are harmless and clean.

Clean energy makes the less impact on the environment than our current conventional energy sources do. It creates an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide, and its use can reduce the speed of global warming – or global pollution.

As you can see, alternative energy, renewable energy, and clean energy are very similar. But it is important to know that there are differences.

There are many actions which can be taken, to help reduce the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Some of these steps can be taken in your own home. Many clean energy solutions can can be easily installed, and some kits are quite affordable.

Carbon emissions and other forms of pollution are not only created by heavy industrial factories. They are created in the common household as well. Energy efficiency has become an important aspect of our lives.

It’s important to start making changes now; if we want to save our planet for our children, for the flora and fauna of the Earth, and for the future of mankind. Clean energy, to be exact, can make a big difference.