Extrac to http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energyenvironment/solar-energy/index.

html New York Times - Friday, November 23, 2012 Solar Energy

EPA/Waltraud Grubitzsch

Updated: Oct. 11, 2012

Through the centuries, scientists have found innovative ways to harness the power of the sun from magnifying glasses to steam engines. Converting more solar power into electricity is high on the political agenda in many countries, amid the push to find domestic energy sources that are less polluting than fossil fuels. Solar is growing quickly in the United States. Assisted by technological innovation and years of government subsidies, the cost of solar power and wind power has fallen sharply, so much so that the two industries say that they can sometimes deliver cleaner electricity at prices competitive with power made from fossil fuels. At the same time, solar and wind power companies are telling Congress that they cannot be truly competitive and keep creating jobs without a few more years of government support. The growth of solar power was helped by a federal stimulus package that extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry. A one-year extension of the 1603 tax-grant program is expected to create an additional 37,000 solar industry jobs in 2012, according to a report by EuPD Research. But the lobbying by the wind and solar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm for alternative-energy subsidies in Washington. Overall concerns about the deficit are making lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business in general. And taxpayer losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar modules that defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular. Solyndra was financed under a now-expired program, part of the 2009stimulus package, that provided government loan guarantees for clean-energy projects, some of which administration officials expected to be risky. But solar and wind companies argue that the tax breaks they are seeking are different. The tax credits can be taken only by businesses that are already up and running, so taxpayers are less likely to be stuck subsidizing a failing company, proponents say.

Without the new breaks, industry executives warn, they will be forced to scale back production and eliminate jobs in a still-weak economy. Glut of Solar Panels is a New Test for China China in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists around the world as visionaries. But now Chinas strategy is in disarray. Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five years, Chinas manufacturing capacity has soared even faster,creating enormous oversupply and a ferocious price war. The result is a looming financial disaster, not only for manufacturers but for state-owned banks that financed factories with approximately $18 billion in low-rate loans and for municipal and provincial governments that provided loan guarantees and sold manufacturers valuable land at deeply discounted prices. Chinas biggest solar panel makers are suffering losses of up to $1 for every $3 of sales in 2012, as panel prices have fallen by three-fourths since 2008. Even though the cost of solar power has fallen, it still remains triple the price of coal-generated power in China, requiring substantial subsidies through a tax imposed on industrial users of electricity to cover the higher cost of renewable energy. The outcome has left even the architects of Chinas renewable energy strategy feeling frustrated and eager to see many businesses shut down, so the most efficient companies may be salvageable financially. The government also wants to see the countrys more than 20 wind turbine manufacturers, many of which are losing money, consolidate to five or six. Chinese solar company executives blame their difficulties partly on the United Statess decisions in spring 2012 to impose antidumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on solar panel imports, and on the European Unions recent decision to start its own antidumping investigation of imports from China.

A Volley of Trade Cases The solar panel manufacturing industry in the United States and Europe has begun a volley of trade cases against imports, following the same track as the steel industry before it and for many of the same reasons. The U.S. Commerce Department issued a final ruling on Oct. 10, 2012, that would impose tariffs of 24 percent to 36 percent on solar panels imported from China. The department concluded, despite Chinas denials, that Chinese manufacturers had received government subsidies and had dumped solar panels on the U.S. market for less than it cost to manufacture and ship them. Solar panel manufacturers in the United States are now lobbying the Obama administration to broaden the tariffs to include solar panels made partly in China and partly in other locations, notably Taiwan. And the American industry is not ruling out further trade cases against other Asian solar panel exporters. In Brussels, the European Union has started a trade investigation into solar panel imports from China the worlds largest case ever involving allegations of dumping, covering imports worth $26.5 billion last year. And the European industry is seeking a second case against Chinese solar panel exports, accusing them of benefiting from government subsidies. The tariffs imposed by the U.S. cover about $3 billion a year in imported solar panels and were imposed after a quasi-judicial process at the Commerce Department. U.S. law does not allow the White House to intervene in the process of calculating duties. But the duties can be replaced with a negotiated settlement that also satisfies the domestic industry. How Solar Power Works

There are several ways to use the suns power to generate electricity. One of the most promising is called concentrating solar power. This involves using mirrors to reflect and focus the suns rays, providing heat, which in turn helps power a generator. Another is photovoltaic panels, such as the displays on the rooftops of homes and office buildings (some of these displays, especially in California, have experienced problems with theft). Solar energy is also used to heat water and pools and of course a properly designed house will optimize the light and heat qualities of as it floods through the windows. Making a solar panel, also known as a solar module, requires four main steps. The first is to use molten polysilicon to grow crystals or cast blocks of polycrystalline silicon. The second step is cutting and polishing the material into thin, smooth wafers. The next step involves chemically treating the wafer and adding electrical contacts to turn it into a solar cell. The last step involves connecting 60 or 72 solar cells together, covering them with glass, enclosing them in an aluminum frame and adding an electrical junction box. The Solyndra Scandal Even with government support, American companies have a hard time competing with foreign producers. In August 2011, three U.S. solar power companies Solyndra of California, Evergreen Solar of Massachusetts and SpectraWatt of New York all filed for bankruptcy. In the case of Solyndra, the company had received $527 million in loans from the federal government. On Sept. 13, 2011, a House subcommittee released documents suggesting that a final review of the $527 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra may have been rushed so that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could announce its approval at a groundbreaking. But at a subcommittee hearing, officials of the Energy Departments loan office and the White House budget office defended their decisions, which they said were carefully reviewed and not politically inspired. The collapse of the Solyndra deal turned what was once portrayed by some as a shining example of the promise of federal subsidies to stimulate economic growth through green jobs into a grim lesson in what others call the futility of federal meddling in the marketplace.

Extrac to http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019184844. htm

Dealing With Wind Variability On The Wind Farm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) As Texas electric grid operator prepares to add power lines for carrying future wind-generated energy, an electrical engineer at The University of Texas at Austin is developing improved methods for determining the extent to which power from a wind farm can displace a conventional power plant, and how best to regulate varying wind power.
The cost of wind energy has become competitive with that of energy from fossil fuels because of technology improvements, said Assistant Professor Surya Santoso. Unfortunately, elec tric power generated from wind energy is intermittent and variable. That means we need to have better measurements of wind power plants output as we integrate wind energy into existing power systems. We also need to develop a way of managing wind power so it can be more readily called upon when needed. Texas has outstripped California since 2006 as the leading national producer of wind power, with most of the states renewable energy goal by 2025 focused on wind power. To help meet this goal, the states Electric Reliability Council of Texas is expected to add about 1,500 megawatts of new wind generation this year alone. In late September, Texas also awarded four offshore tracts along the Gulf Coast for wind power projects with a generating capacity of 1,150 megawatts. Santoso is developing two strategies to manage and overcome the intermittent and variable behavior of wind power. With a two-year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, he and his students are developing computational methods to measure the actual capacity contribution of wind farms. This will allow system planners to calculate how much a wind farm can contribute to meeting expected power needs. Santosos lab is also using the funding to establish the technical requirements of e nergy storage systems that would serve as temporary batteries for releasing stored wind energy at optimal times. Having a proper energy storage system would allow you to harness free wind when its available, but release that energy at the time of your choosing with a desired power profile, Santoso said. He noted that a wind energy storage system would also increase wind farms overall capacity contribution and reduce the likelihood of overloading transmission power lines that must carry energy from different power sources.

Dr. Santoso holds a 500-watt turbine used for small household applications such as a water pump, refrigerator, or other such small electronic devices. Energy generated by this size of turbine is stored in a battery. A photo of the Siemens wind turbine at King Mountain Wind Ranch in McCamey, TX is in the background. These towers can measure up to 68 meters in height, with blades as long as 30 meters, generating 1 to 2 megawatts (million watts) of power. (Credit: Photo by Erin McCarley)

Liquid Crystals Stabilized

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2007) Dutch-sponsored researcher Ioan Paraschiv has stabilised new columnar discotic liquid crystals by making use of hydrogen bonds.
This stabilisation approach yielded well-ordered, column-shaped aggregates that can transport charges. Liquid crystals are materials that combine the properties of a liquid with those of crystalline solids. They show a middle phase, known as mesophase or liquid crystalline phase, in which the material has unique characteristics that can be used in liquid crystal display (LCD) screens and solar cells. One use of columnar discotic liquid crystals is charge transport in photovoltaic solar cells, where a high degree of order within the mesophase is required. Ioan Paraschiv investigated whether it is possible to stabilise columnar discotic liquid crystals using hydrogen bonds. For this, he prepared columnar discotic liquid crystals based on triphenylene core. He stabilised the ordering in the mesophase by realising a synergy between various bonding interactions. The mesophases of the newly-formed columnar discotic liquid crystals were found to be highly stable. Moreover, the material was still easy to process, due to its high solubility in organic solvents. This combination of stability and ease of processing is particularly important for the use of these materials in different applications. Ioan Paraschiv's research was funded by NWO.

Usage of hydrogen bonds for stabilisation of liquid crystals. (Image courtesy of Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research)