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…)

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…)

Farms across America that were on the brink of financial devastation just a few short years ago are coming back to life with the addition of commercial solar panels and wind turbines. Those once-empty and withering fields are now producing a different kind of harvest – renewable energy. The output from solar arrays and wind turbines is putting dollars and cents into the pockets of farmers and producing clean energy that is fueling America without polluting the environment. (more…)

Commercial Solar Installation | The Boulders Apartments

The Boulders is an environmentally friendly apartment complex located in Boulder, CO. In the summer of 2010, Bella Energy helped install 99 kW of solar energy systems across 9 buildings. Combined these systems help lower the carbon footprint of their operations by over 225,000 pounds per year. Thanks to Bella Energy’s commercial solar installation, The Boulders powers much of their outdoor lighting and clubhouse facility with free, clean, renewable energy.

In addition to bolstering their environmental branding, the commercial solar pv system also provides significant financial savings to the property owners. This helps keeps costs low and prices attractive in the highly competitive Boulder rental industry. To learn more about how your company can save money and bolster your sustainable identity request your free solar energy consultation…

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Ask a Solar Expert: High Efficiency Solar Panels from Bella Energy on Vimeo.

Transcript of Ask a Solar Expert Video:

What are high efficiency solar panels?

In short, one would really only need to consider a high efficiency panel if they had a production goal, or a system size goal that could not be achieved with they space they have on their roof.

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