In 2011, Bella Energy completed 298 kW of solar for the City of Louisville. The projects provide power to the City’s water and waste water treatment plants. Each array is a 99 kW ground-mount system located on variable terrain surrounding the water treatment centers.
Bella Energy provided a turnkey installation and financing partners for the project, allowing the City to realize greater savings v.s. a conventional purchase.
Completed in the summer of 2011, Bella Energy’s 140 kW project with the City of Lafayette provides power to 2 unique sites. The project was completed thanks to PPA financing arranged by Bella Energy, allowing the city to realize solar power without negatively impacting the budget. The City of Lafayette project consists of a ground mount array at City Hall and a roof mounted system atop the Rec. Center.
In the winter of 2010, Bella Energy completed 198 kW of solar energy systems for the Town of Superior. Designed to cover over 8% of the Town of Superior’s electric consumption, the project covered 2 different sites.
The ground mounted 99 kW arrays are located at the waste water and water treatment facilities. Annually the systems produce more than 280,000 kWh of clean energy and reduce the Town’s electric costs by more than $14,000. In addition, the town receives $22,800 per year in renewable energy credit payments from the local utility. In total the Town’s investment will produce a perpetually positive cash flow in excess of $500,000.
Global reports have stated that “India is the top target for being the new Germany for Solar”. Several countries are looking toward the Indian market for new opportunities for manufacturers and renewable energy solution providers. Commercial solar installers and service providers are debating about which overall strategy that they should adopt since India policies differ from state to state and state to centre. Opportunities off grid, in grid, and micro-grid sectors and government grants need to be considered, as well as the long term commitment of the nation itself. (more…)
Already one of the leading developers of commercial solar panels in the world, Siemens Energy has now launched an innovative wind turbine at the EWEA 2011 wind power exhibition conference in Brussels. The main feature of the SWT-2.3-113 wind turbine is a small permanent magnet generator. The generator features a simple design that doesn’t need excitation power, control systems or slip rings, resulting in high power production at sites with low wind speeds. The turbine has a capacity of 2.3MW, and diameter of 113 meters. It consists of Siemens B55 Quantum blades, and requires only half of the parts that a conventional geared wind turbine would need. The blade improves efficiency and performance. (more…)
The largest photovoltaic power plant in the Alpes-Maritimes was recently opened in Cote d’Azur by the Chamber of Commerce and ValSolar Industries, a commercial solar installer. The four solar buildings are fitted with 9,000m² of photovoltaic cells on the roof areas and cover a total surface area of 20,000m². The large construction site has just been completed in Nice St Isidore in the Eco Valley.
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. (more…)
Europe has not only embraced renewable energy sources; it has exceeded its 2012 renewable energy goals to reduce carbon emissions and are extremely close to meeting their 2020 goals, but they are still not content. The European Union plans on decimating nearly 80% of carbon emissions by 2050. The Union formally announced a plan to transform Europe into a “competitive low carbon economy” by 2050. This is actually their minimum aim, as they are going to try to eliminate 95% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Their plan involves a 20 percent decrease in green house gas, a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption, and a 20 percent increase in renewable energy projects that feature wind turbines and/or commercial solar panels by 2020. It’s an ambitious plan, but it looks as if Europe will easily be able to meet these goals. (more…)
At the beginning of 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar initiated the Draft Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to find pieces of public land in six Western states that could be used for environmentally friendly utility-scale commercial solar panel energy arrays. Chu and Salazar want to find solar sites that won’t impact native species, tribal affiliation or public recreation areas. They are operating under a banner dubbed “Smart from the Start,” and that’s how they want the results to be viewed as pre-assessed environmentally-safe development areas that allow commercial solar installers to apply for projects without fearing rejection later, after thousands of dollars and months of research. (more…)
Australian researchers are developing commercial solar panels that could totally transform skyscrapers and cityscapes around the globe. The new generation of solar panels will be thinner than a sheet of paper, about 1/20th as thick to be exact. The thin solar panels could then be placed on glass structures transforming them into solar power stations.” Ultimately, you have got structural building materials which can also generate electricity, so it offers very large potential,” the executive director of the Australian Solar Institute, Mark Twidell, said.” The other possibility is to create multiple layers of the material so you can capture extra elements of the light spectrum and generate more electricity than most current photovoltaic panels.”
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.” (more…)
On November 12, 2008 former Governor Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order No. S1408 which puts pressure on California to meet a renewable energy goal of 30% by 2020. This order increased the energy goal by 10% from the original 20%. As a result, public utility companies such as Cerritos have a responsibility to work towards this goal by advancing renewable energy projects whenever possible. In 2009 Congresswoman Linda Sanchez worked with Cerritos in gathering funds for the building and installation of a proposed commercial solar panel photovoltaic system to be incorporated into the Affordable Senior Housing Project in Costa Villas. (more…)
