Some of the largest players in the European markets are also searching for a viable approach to the market place so that the mistakes do not occur here like Spain and other countries had in the past.  Organizers of the India Solar Energy Summit held on Feb. 17-18 in New Delhi, India invited senior officials, PV manufacturers and solutions providers to contribute a unique awareness into developing government policies, new technologies, and investment strategies for this evolving sector.

Several interesting topics were discussed, including Development and Implementation of Large Scale projects, the role regulators play in Solar Energy Projects, and the development of commercial solar panels and incentives to fund them. Other sessions included the Growth of Solar in Europe, the Development of Solar Parks in Germany, and Policy Development in Indian States to promote solar.

Another interesting session was a discussion led by Mr. Narsimhan Santhanam-who is advising and consulting for numerous companies on their India strategy opportunities for SME along with the value of Solar PV and CSP. A panel discussed solar energy equity investments and there are several different private equity funds who have expressed their interest in working with Azure or Kiran energy to Panchabuta. Elaborate sessions on the entire PV value chain including manufacturing, supply chain and a cost reduction and efficiency increase are being planned.

“We believe we are hosting a very unique event in a market saturated with competitors. As one of the foremost companies facilitating business across Asia and Europe, Noppen focuses on creating the best networking opportunities possible for our clients. Top level attendees, pre-arranged meetings, quality speakers, experienced staff and a luxury environment all combined to make sure our clients got a return on their investment” said George Mohan, General Manager of Noppen India, speaking exclusively to Panchabuta.

This isn’t the first gearless wind turbine that Siemens has launched. They launched the SWT-3.0-113, 3-MW direct drive turbine in April of 2010. The new SWT-2.3-113 doesn’t require as many moving parts.” The first prototypes of our SWT-3.0-101 have been running for more than a year and fulfilling all expectations in terms of reliability and performance,” said Henrik Stiesdal, CTO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. “The design of the new SWT-2.3-113 is based on the same platform as the revolutionizing SWT-3.0-101 wind turbine we launched last year.

“The new SWT-2.3-113 benefits from experiences accumulated to date,” added Stiesdal. “With its proven lightweight design it’s a secure and profitable investment because gearless technology is low-maintenance, it maximizes our customers’ returns.”

Siemens is also introducing a new rotor blade called the Quantum. The Quantum is lighter, and has a innovative blade tip to decrease noise and minimize loads while retaining the earlier models super strength. It is 55 meters and contains a Siemens “flatback” to decrease root leakage and provide better support. The SWT is the quietest turbine around with a noise level of 105 decibels.

Siemens has approved and installed five gearless SWT-3.0-101 turbines in Norway and Denmark. Other direct drive wind turbines are expected to be underway in Denmark, Germany and the U.S. These new wind turbines with ratings of 3 MW and 2.3 MW are not the last, further turbines are already underway. “This year we’ll launch our 6-MW direct drive wind turbine, which will be particularly suitable for large offshore wind power plants,” Stiesdal stated.

In 2010, Siemen’s profits reached EUR 28 billion, making them the leading world supplier of eco-friendly technologies. At the same time, Siemens products helped reduce 270 million tons of carbon dioxide, making them a preferred manufacturer for not just commercial solar installers and wind farm developers, but for residential homeowners and utility companies.

Nice Côte d’Azur, the building’s owner, along with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, chose ValSolar to help them make necessary improvements on the buildings, such as waterproofing. After they install a photovoltaic production facility they will become Eco Valley’s first green energy producer. The facility will have 570kWp (kilowatts peak) of power which is equivalent to the yearly consumption of 260 homes or 630,000 kWh (kilowatt hours). The PAL is the region’s first Logistics Park to produce a solar project on that large a scale.

ValSolar is responsible for the installation, while the CCI provided the roof of the buildings which have a ten year guarantee that they will not leak and a twenty year maintenance agreement. This is ideal for local owners who can avoid the maintenance costs for their roofs and make them available to create local jobs for the area.

This solar program has inspired other in the region. Nice’s St-Isidore is just one of many initiatives that have been built by ValSolar in the Alpes-Maritimes. Some other large scale projects are currently underway in the towns of of Antibes (3000m²), Villeneuve Loubet (7 000m²), Vallauris (12 000m²), Cannes (8000m²), Mougins (5000m²), Carros (2000m²) and Saint André de la Roche (2000m²). This year, solar power plant installation and renovation projects in the region represent a total area of 45,000m of facilities that are fitted with commercial solar panels on the roofs.

The new solar projects will produce a total output of 4.2 MWp (megawatts peak) and position ValSolar as a major player on the solar market in the PACA region. They are currently a small company of just thirteen people, but plan to hire two more employees by the end of this year. The projects they have created will give “green” jobs to thousands of individuals.

How will they do it? Although Europe has embraced renewable energy more than most, they have failed to become more efficient. Currently, they are lacking in their goal to make more efficient appliances and insulation. This is of some concern because efficiency is one of the easiest ways to reduce carbon emissions. The new plan will focus mainly on producing more efficient products. The UK is the only country so far to reduce their energy usage by 5%. Germany and France’s energy use has either remained the same or increased, even though the Germans already have efficient housing, and the UK could greatly improve in this area.

Chris Huhne, the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, has said of the plan: “The 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap must be a first step towards Europe setting a clear, cost-effective and ambitious plan to de-carbonize its economy. We need a pathway that stimulates jobs and growth as well as reduces Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels from other countries. The roadmap shows that Europe’s current 20% target for 2020 isn’t enough or cost effective and shows that Europe’s already got the policies and the tools to cut emissions by 25% at home. This makes the case for going to 30% stronger and more urgent.”

If Europe is able to meet this goal, the Commission has confidence that the continent of Europe will have a low-carbon economy with the majority of the population living and working in low-energy and low-emission dwellings. Energy efficient heating and cooling systems will be the norm, and the majority of individuals will own and drive electric and hybrid cars. Intelligent communities will also see a significant decrease in air pollution and better public transportation. The plan will help the economy by providing nearly 1.5 million new jobs by 2020. Europe faces one problem, money. The roadmap claims that it will cost the EU government 270 billion euros per year for the next four decades to meet this goal. However, the average savings will be significantly greater than the investment, saving Europe over 320 billion euros each and every year, making it a win-win situation.

The plan has identified three possible sites in Arizona, that total nearly 14,000 acres that are considered “highly suitable” for solar energy development. They are:

• 3,878 acres, along U.S. 60 about 10 miles west of Vicksburg, in the Lake Havasu/La Paz area, known as “Brenda”
• 7,239 acres, around 25 miles northwest of Wickenburg, in the Hassayampa Lake (Yavapai County) area, known as “Bullard Wash”
• 2,618 acres, about 25 miles southwest of Buckeye, Gillespie (Lower Sonoran Desert, North Maricopa Mountains), in the “Gillespie” area

Nearly all of the land is managed by the Federal government, which amounts to about 13% of the total surface of the U.S. They are considered public (i.e., Bureau of Land Management, or BLM) land. The BLM is the Department of the Interior’s right arm, managing activities on 245 million surface acres (and 700 million acres of subsurface water and mineral rights), most of them in the Western U.S. Smart from the Start, is a good plan to be positive that renewable energy grows along intelligent and skillful pathways, rather than the haphazard method seen in the past. According to BLM renewable energy project manager (Arizona division) Eddie Arreola.

The three areas were chosen because their downsides (wildlife habitat, water resources, air quality, soil quality and American Indian tribal affiliations) do not exceed their upsides as part of the state’s future commitment to renewable energy, according to Professor Martin Pasqualetti, Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

The Arizona Corporation Commission the state’s public utility regulator has given Arizona utility companies (Arizona Public Service, the Salt River Project) until 2025 to derive at least 15% of their electricity from renewable sources.

The panels are much thinner than the traditional photovoltaic panels seen on roofs today. The silicon layer that collects sunlight is overlaid on glass and approximately two microns thick. Silicon gas is crystallized onto a plate of glass and ink-jet printers are used to lay the electrical circuits to convey electricity to the battery instead of the conventional wafer of silicon.” It can essentially be turned into a design feature of the building,” Renate Egan, the chief technology officer of CSG Solar, the company developing the panels, said.” We think it will be no more than three years before it’s economically viable on a large scale.”

Today, panels are made by the square meter, and the lack of large factories makes the panels very expensive. The glass panels are made for commercial solar installers to use on the exterior of the building but are not transparent.

“The reality is that if you want to allow in a lot of light, you are not capturing as many photons, and you are sacrificing some power generation,” Dr Egan said. “But most buildings still have large surfaces. The problem we have found in Australia is that feed-in tariff systems are aimed at small-scale systems, whereas this can take advantage of large commercial spaces.”

Although the Solar Institute funded the research for the Botany based company, the funding for production will come from the giant Chinese Solar Power Suntech.

The solar energy project would provide nearly 150,000 kilowatt hours of affordable renewable energy to the housing facility at a cost of $761,200. Funds totaling $380,600 would be given by the Department of Energy to help with the installation, which is expected to cost $380,600. In return for the 50% fund match the project must be implemented by April 1, 2012 with a maximum two-year extension if necessary.

Because of unexpected delays in implementing the housing project, staff has sought alternative options to use the grant money within the selected time frame rather than lose the funding altogether. The Corporate Yard seemed like a good candidate because it is the site where recently an Energy Block Grant enabled a commercial solar installer to install 748 photovoltaic energy modules atop the Water Division’s west reservoir which holds nearly six million gallons of water and is capable of producing nearly 150,000 kilowatt hours per year. That’s more than 50 percent of the total energy consumed at the Corporate Yard facility. The initial cost of this system was $520,000, which the Department of Energy fully funded.

Project planners are estimating that a second system will be able to produce an additional 225,000 kilowatt-hours per year, for a total annual production of around 375,000-kilowatt hours. The two renewable projects combined are worth about $1.3 million of which $900,000 is in federal grants. The project will provide nearly all of the power for the Corporate Yard’s main building, which measures around 25,000 sq. ft., as well as a large portion of the power to operate the city’s C-2 water well.

Officials are proposing to utilize funds to match the government’s funding from the City’s Water Utility Fund since the project will be installed at the Water facility and provide energy that will directly serve the water company. It was announced that The Redevelopment Agency’s Low-and-Moderate Set Aside Fund would provide money for the Costa Villas Senior Housing Project. Installation of a photovoltaic project would continue to serve the residents of the project.

Recently the sanitary district cut the ribbon on a new commercial solar panel energy system, which is expected to produce 822,000 kilowatt-hours of energy a year — enough to power around 46 dwellings. With the existing power plant and this new solar array, the district will receive all of its electrical needs entirely from green energy sources. General manager Jason Warner said officials decided to run an energy audit and an evaluation of the power usage around four years ago. The purpose of the audit was to look at how they could become more self-sufficient. “We wanted to look at our overall energy management and use of green energy, while also making sure our ratepayers were getting the best deal,” Warner said.

Deliberation ended with a partnership with Mill Valley-based commercial solar installer Solar Power Partners which developed, financed, owns and operates the solar facility on the district’s property. In return, the district agrees to lease the company the property they need for the solar array and also agrees to buy the system’s electricity at a fixed rate that is significantly less than the existing utility rates.” It’s really a win-win situation,” Warner said. “For everything we know about waste water, we haven’t done a solar project before. We don’t know what all the pitfalls are. This way, they take care of that side of it.”

Within 25 years the district is expected to save nearly $2 million dollars with the solar energy system. They are also installing a grease-receiving facility for restaurants that will be up and running in approximately six weeks. Restaurants produce a lot of grease that builds up in the plumbing systems. This is called “brown grease”. The receiving facility will take the gas associated with “brown grease”, nearly eliminating the district’s gas purchases. “There’s still plenty of energy in all that fat,” said Warner, adding that the district just completed a successful one-year grease-receiving pilot program with rented equipment.

Initiatives such as the grease receiver and the solar array have allowed the district’s rates to drop $15 about $178 per household. “Our rates are some of the lowest in the state,” Warner said. “So projects like this aren’t just helping out the environment, but also our ratepayers.”