Solar energy news and discussion

[weatheriscool]

Solar has taken off in red states. Trump's funding freeze is causing panic

Source: The Guardian

Mon 17 Feb 2025 07.00 EST
Last modified on Mon 17 Feb 2025 07.03 EST

Mike Mullett strains to see through sheets of misty rain while driving through working-class neighborhoods of Columbus, a quaint town in southern Indiana. He’s trying to find the senior center, multi-family homes and rent-assisted properties – more than 530 in total – that he and many other locals hope will receive $4.42m in federal funding for solar electricity projects.

But now that money is at risk. On 20 January, Donald Trump paused billions of dollars of federal grant funding for clean energy and other projects around the country initiated by the Biden administration’s Green New Deal. “We’ve been slavishly working on a plan since April 2023 that would provide solar energy to hundreds of households in two low- and moderate-income Columbus neighborhoods,” says Mullett.

The project was expected to be rolled out in April, with previously approved funding thought to have been made available by 14 February. “Unless the Trump administration makes a 180-degree turn on funding, that expectation will obviously not be met.”

The funding is part of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s $7bn Solar for All program, which is meant to help low-income families save money on electricity costs. About $117m was set for solar projects and initiatives in Indiana.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ing-freeze

[weatheriscool]

Solar film you can stick anywhere to generate energy is nearly here
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
March 05, 2025

https://newatlas.com/energy/power-roll- ... re-update/

Since 2012, UK-based Power Roll has been working on a way to print low-cost solar film to generate clean energy from sunlight. It's now one crucial step closer to manufacturing its lightweight, apply-anywhere film, with a new design for its perovskite solar cells that should make make production cheap and scalable.

Power Roll has been focusing on embossing 'microgroove structures' into a plastic substrate, similar to a "hologram" on a credit card. A single square meter has 500,000 microgroove structures, and these are coated with conductive materials and photo-active ink. Layers of encapsulation film keep the printed rolls stable and enhance their durability.

This is all carried out using what's called roll-to-roll processing, where you coat or emboss an entire length of a material that is fed continuously from one roller on to another. It's inexpensive and efficient. In addition, Power Roll is going with abundant perovskite as a key material in its solar cells to absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

8.26% efficiency boost in eco-friendly solar cells achieved, advancing commercialization prospects
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-03-eff ... solar.html
by Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology

A research team has developed a technology that can significantly increase the efficiency of eco-friendly solar cells. The solar cells they developed showed increased power conversion efficiency of up to 8.26%, compared with conventional solar cells. This finding is expected to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation eco-friendly solar cells.

The research is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS2) nanocrystals have recently attracted attention as an eco-friendly solar cell material. Existing high-efficiency solar cells contain harmful heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, causing environmental pollution, but silver bismuth sulfide has the advantage of being non-toxic and abundant in raw materials. However, its limitation is that when it exceeds a certain thickness, electricity does not flow well, causing a sharp drop in efficiency.

To solve this problem, the research team developed a thin film with a special mixed structure to allow electricity to flow better. In other words, they mixed materials to create a layer that improves the flow of electricity. The team chemically treated silver bismuth sulfide nanocrystals to give different properties (donor and acceptor) to one layer, allowing electricity to move more efficiently inside.

As a result, when they made a 65 nm (nanometer) light-absorbing layer twice as thick as the conventional ones, its performance was maintained and the efficiency of the solar cell was improved by 8.26%. This is equivalent to charging a smartphone four to five times or keeping an LED light bulb on for over two hours longer.

[weatheriscool]

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[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

US to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on south-east Asia solar panels

Source: The Guardian

US trade officials are preparing to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on imports of solar panels from four south-east Asian countries, while the International Energy Agency has said lessons from the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had not been fully learned.

The US commerce department has announced the new tariffs, targeting companies in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, after an investigation begun a year ago when American manufacturers of solar panels accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with subsidised, cheap goods.

Products from Cambodia would face the highest tariffs, of 3,521%, because its companies did not cooperate with the US investigation, while products made in Malaysia by the Chinese manufacturer Jinko Solar face duties of just over 41%; rival Trina Solar’s products from Thailand will incur tariffs of 375%.

...

However, critics, including the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, have said tariffs would harm US solar producers because they would raise prices on the imported cells that are assembled into panels at American factories.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... rgy-summit

[weatheriscool]

New England grid demand hits record low as rooftop solar kicks in

Source: Reuters

April 22, 2025 4:52 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago

NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - Power grid use in the far northeast United States registered an all-time low over the weekend as mild weather and rooftop solar panels slashed demand on the regional electrical system, grid operator ISO New England said on Tuesday.

WHY IT MATTERS

The U.S. power grid is shifting as climate change, the rise of renewable electricity generation and the electrification of buildings and industries like transportation upend long-held supply and demand trends.

On April 20, power demand on the New England power grid dropped to 5,318 megawatts after three consecutive years of registering record lows, ISO New England, the grid operator, said in a statement. This record was more than 1,200 megawatts, or about 20%, lower than last year's.

After reaching a trough in the afternoon, power demand more than doubled on the grid throughout the day as the sun set, rooftop solar energy diminished, and homes and business drew more power from the grid. At its peak on the day, so-called behind-the-meter solar peaked at about 6,600 megawatts.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 025-04-22/

[Yuli Ban]

Meanwhile, in China, 60 GW of new solar capacity added in first quarter of 2025

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) announced over the weekend that installed solar capacity increased by 43.4 per cent through the first quarter of the year, with nearly 60GW of new capacity added.

The NEA published its national power industry statistics for the first three months of 2025 over the weekend, revealing that total installed power generation capacity for the country had reached 3.43 terawatts, a 14.6 per cent increase from the same time last year.

The country installed only 9GW worth of new thermal generation capacity, but 59.71GW of new solar capacity and 14.62GW of new wind capacity.

[Yuli Ban]

China's wind, solar capacity exceeds thermal power for first time

China's wind and solar power generation capacity surged to 1,482 gigawatts by the end of March, exceeding fossil fuel-based thermal power capacity for the first time in its history, the country's energy regulator said on Friday.
Though China is one of a small number of countries still commissioning new carbon-intensive coal-fired power, it has embarked on a rapid renewable power expansion programme, with new installations reaching record levels in recent years.

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[wjfox]

Miliband sets out proposals for solar canopies above car parks

07 May 2025

Supermarkets, offices and shopping centres could be required to install solar panels over their car parks under plans being considered by the Government.

The plan to create “solar carports” would generate energy to power homes, businesses and electric vehicles.

The call for evidence from Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will consider making solar panels mandatory for new car parks but also explore extending that to existing parking lots.

It will also examine the cost of installing the panels above parking spaces.

Officials believe that mandating the installation of solar panels in canopies over car parks would unlock “underutilised” space, create shaded parking spots and more charging points for electric vehicles.

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-c ... 46092.html

[funkervogt]

For those few of those who were on the KurzweilAI.net forum before it shut down, remember the constant predictions from some loud mouthed users about "100% solar energy by 2025"?

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

US rooftop solar companies say Republican House bill would be a major setback

Source: Reuters

May 15, 2025 5:51 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago

May 15 (Reuters) - Companies that put solar panels on U.S. homes say a Republican budget bill advanced in Congress this week would deal a massive blow to the industry by eliminating a generous subsidy for homeowners that had buttressed the industry's growth. The bill would scrap a 30% federal credit for taxpayers who put up rooftop systems, stifling an industry that has grown ten-fold over the last decade and which now employs more than 100,000 workers, industry players said.

"It certainly is a giant setback," said Charlie Hadlow, president of EnergySage, an online solar marketplace. "I have solar installers in our large network passing around the contact information for bankruptcy attorneys. That's not alarmist, that's happening." Many of the biggest residential solar markets are in states that voted for President Donald Trump, including Texas, Florida and Arizona, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group.

The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee voted this week to allow the 25D tax credit to expire at the end of this year, nine years earlier than planned, as part of a Republican effort to roll back subsidies from former President Joe Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

A spokesperson for Republicans on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bill still has several hurdles to clear before getting a broad package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions through Congress. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump wants to undo federal regulations and programs introduced by Biden that are aimed at expanding clean energy and combating climate change.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/ ... 025-05-15/

[weatheriscool]

Lightweight plastic mirrors drop cost of solar thermal energy by 40%
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
May 18, 2025

https://newatlas.com/energy/plastic-mir ... ost-unisa/
Researchers in Australia are working on a way to lower the cost of producing solar thermal energy by as much as 40% with the help of shatterproof rear-view mirrors originally designed for cars.

That could be huge for agriculture and industrial facilities which need large amounts of heat for large-scale processes at temperatures between 212 - 754 °F (100 - 400 °C). That addresses food production, drying crops, grain and pulse drying, sterilizing soil and treating wastewater on farms; industrial applications include producing chemicals, making paper, desalinating water, and dyeing textiles.

A quick refresher in case you're out of the loop: solar thermal energy and conventional solar energy (photovoltaic) systems both harvest sunlight, but they work in fundamentally different ways. Solar thermal setups capture the Sun's heat rather than its light, use reflectors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, and convert solar radiation directly into heat energy. This heat can be used directly for heating buildings, water, or the aforementioned industrial processes.

[wjfox]