There's a lot of hand-wringing these days about the mediocre American record on clean energy. No federal climate legislation. No federal mandates for clean electricity. And when Americans look to incentive-laden Europe or to the huge clean-tech investments being made in China and Korea, we feel like an aged, belching Geo Metro being passed on both sides by sleek bullet trains. President Obama calls it our "Sputnik moment," referring to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite into space, which kicked the U.S. space program into high gear and led to quick creation of the National ... Read More
Solar Energy Powers Cleanup of Superfund Site
March 3, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Last August, David Rosenfeld outlined on Miller-McCune.com how the tailing heaps and spoiled land leftover from mining in the American West might win a second act by serving as the home for land-hungry solar panels. ("Can Mining Provide a Renewable Energy Future?") As Tessera Solar's Janette Coates explained in his story, existing transmission lines, available water and roads capable of supporting wide loads provide ready-made infrastructure, while reclaiming large tracts of land — conveniently held by a single owner — that's already been disturbed reduces permitting costs. It also ... Read More
Inventor of Plastic Solar Cells Sees Bright Future
January 28, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
In 1974, future Nobel laureates Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa discovered a new type of plastic — conjugated conducting polymers. "This polymer was a completely new type that acted more like a metal than like other plastics as it was an excellent conductor of electricity," recalled Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci, who started working with the polymers as a doctoral student at the University of Vienna in the mid-1980s. "It became quite the rage and elicited great interest due to its unique behavior." Drawing on that breakthrough, Sariciftci would create the plastic solar ... Read More
Slashing Solar Subsidies, and Lighting Way for China
January 26, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Germany's famous solar subsidies — which I wrote about ("Germany's Fine Failure") a year and a half ago — have come under steady pressure from Berlin since Angela Merkel’s government shifted rightward in an election at the end of 2009. For the second year in a row, Germany has trimmed the public incentives that helped make this damp and overcast nation the largest solar panel market in the world. At first it sounds like a cruel idea, particularly since Merkel and her allies have also reversed the nation's historic phase-out of nuclear power. But in fact it's a sign of health. The ... Read More
Greener Battlefields Would Be Safer for Troops
October 28, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The experience of Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, who in 2006 became the commander of the coalition forces in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, exemplifies the changing strategy of fighting insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before coming to Iraq, Zilmer focused on the importance of space-related warfighting technologies and capabilities. In Iraq, his concerns were often a little more down to earth — his command's dependence on oil. Seventy percent of all convoys carried liquid fossil fuels, and attacks on convoys, the general learned, account for about half of all the casualties. Generators ... Read More
Solar Farming Spreads to Appalachia
October 13, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Nearly 40 years ago, it was a strip mine used by the Central Ohio Coal Company. Now, 500 acres of land adjacent to The Wilds conservation park is set to house a $250 million, 49.9-megawatt solar array. "We recognized the future when we established our state's aggressive renewable portfolio standard, invested in the energy industry and eliminated taxes for new energy facilities to create jobs and grow Ohio's advanced energy industry," said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, nodding to an executive order he signed in September. "Today," he announced on Oct. 5, "the future has recognized ... Read More
Busting Myths About Photovoltaics
September 15, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The European Union Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference I just attended stressed the need for public education about photovoltaics — the silicon-based solar cells that turn sunlight into usable electricity — to increase acceptance of the solar-power technology. Myths abound about photovoltaics that hinder their growth, and I'd like to burst some of those misconceptions right here: Myth: Because solar cells are only a few microns thick, they produce weaker electricity. Fact: All electrons are created equal. Hence, the movement of electrons that make up electricity are no different ... Read More
Solar on the Cheap: Thanks Purple Pokeberry!
September 13, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
“A valueless plant growing wild…” might be dictionary.com’s definition of purple pokeberries, but David Carroll, director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, says the omnipresent “weed” will soon play a role in improving solar power in places ranging from residential green building in the United States to areas in the developing world cut off from the power grid. Carroll says a red dye made from pokeberries can be used to coat a new type of solar cell that’s produced from millions of tiny plastic fibers. Unlike traditional solar ... Read More
Solar Power: America Hangs Its Head
September 10, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
At the world's most prestigious conference on photovoltaics, the 25th EU Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Valencia, Spain, I had the honor of being selected as one of the participants in its "PV Policy Debate 2010." The panel was moderated by BBC environmental analyst Roger Harrabin and included Giovanni Federigo De Santi, director of the European Commission’s Institute for Energy Joint Research Center; Heinz Ossenbrink, director of the center’s photovoltaics section; Marcello Raimondi, Councilor of Environment, Energy, and Networks for Italy’s Lombard region; Karin Feier, ... Read More
Europe Boasts of its Solar Power Strength
September 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The European Union's Joint Research Centre reports that photovoltaic modules installed globally in 2009 had a capacity to generate more than 7 gigawatts of electricity — the equivalent of about seven nuclear power plants. Out of these, almost 6 gigawatts were installed in Europe. This means that 75 percent of the world's photovoltaic systems went up in Europe alone during last year. The cumulative installed PV capacity in the world comes to 22 gigawatts, with 70 percent being European. The United States, though enjoying far more sunshine and being the birthplace of modern photovoltaics, ... Read More
