A PV smart grid in Limburg

Posted on 16. Jun, 2010 by Heleen.

The share of renewable energy production is continuously increasing. A positive evolution, although it puts a lot of pressure to our electricity grids. Before the renewable energy era, power production was mainly a business of large centralized plants. Renewable energy production however occurs mostly decentralized, in small, local production units, such as solar panels. Since our electricity grid is developed for the conventional centralized energy production, it’s not suited for a large introduction of local renewable energy. Grid reinforcements could provide a solution. However, it’s probably better to move to a new grid design, towards a more intelligent grid or smart grid.

In this framework, the test project metaPV was launched in Limburg. The project is partially funded by the European Commission.

• GOAL: increase the hosting capacity for PV -which is currently limeted by the grid- by 50% without grid reinforcement
• OUTCOME: MetaPV will provide the scientific basis for transforming photovoltaics from a troublesome and variable source of power to active support for a more intelligent grid.
• WHERE: at two sites: a residential/urban area of 128 households with 4 kW each, and an industrial zone of 31 PV systems with 200 kW, both in the Belgian province of Limburg.
• WHO: consortium of 6 players from 4 EU countries. Project coordinator is the Belgian renewable energy expert company 3E.

A good step towards real action to solve this grid issue. In my previous post, I was complaining about a lack of action in Belgium. They proved me wrong…

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Solar Impulse

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by Heleen.

Gisteren vond in Zwitserland de eerste bemande testvlucht van de Solar Impulse plaats. De Solar Impulse is een vliegtuig dat zijn energie volledig haalt uit zonne-energie, dankzij de 12.000 PV-cellen die bevestigd zijn op de vleugels. Het toestel heeft een spanwijdte van 63,4 meter (vergelijkbaar met een Airbus A340), en een gewicht van 1600 kg (kleine auto).

Amateurbeelden van de vlucht:

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Solar cells produced from tabacco plants

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Heleen.

Researchers from the University of Berkley developed a new technique: they modified tobacco plants to grow synthetic photovoltaic cells which can then be extracted and sprayed onto any substrate to create solar cells. The process is explained in a Treehugger article:

How? The scientists tweaked a few genes within the tobacco mosaic virus to build tiny structures called chromophores. Once the plant is sprayed with the virus, the new chromophores will group into tightly coiled formations. Chromophores are structures that turn light into high powered electrons.

Trapped inside the tobacco plant, scientists will have to harvest the plant, chop it up and extract the structures. Dissolved in a liquid solution, chromophores can then be sprayed over a substrate coated to hold them in place.

The regular silicon solar cells have a much higher efficiency. However, the tabacco-based have several other advantages: they are biodegradable and no environmentally toxic chemicals are used. Next to this, the production is much cheaper (and probably also less energy-consuming) than the regular cells.

Since the environmental cost of regular solar cells has always been an issue, this could be a cleaner alternative. I think that a breakthrough can only take place if the efficiency loss (and thus the electricity production loss over the lifetime of the tobacco cell) is compensated by the lower cost of the tobacco cells. Otherwise, it will not go beyond the testing phase.

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Solar power from space

Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Heleen.

A few days ago, the Californian regulator approved an ambitious project to beam solar energy from space.

On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission gave its blessing to an agreement that would see the Pacific Gas and Electric Company buy 200 megawatts of power beamed down from solar-power satellites beginning in 2016.

A start-up company called Solaren is designing the satellites, which it says will use radio waves to beam energy down to a receiving station on Earth.

But space-based solar power must grapple with the high cost per kilogram of launching things into space, says Richard Schwartz of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. (…) A patent the company has won describes ways to reduce the system’s weight, including using inflatable mirrors to focus sunlight on solar cells, so a smaller number can collect the same amount of energy.

The least you can say is that they have ambition…

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Zonnig Vlaanderen

Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Heleen.

Zonne-energie is in Vlaanderen bezig aan een steile opmars, mee dankzij de massale subsidies. De subsidies zijn essentieel geweest voor deze doorbraak, al kan je de vraag stellen of de overheid niet wat meer de nadruk had moeten leggen op minder sexy maar ook minder dure oplossingen zoals energie-efficientie en isolatie.

Los van deze discussie, wat interessante zonne-energie-weetjes uit De Standaard:

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