Hidden Joule

Sun Power Corporation has signed an agreement with a subsidiary of the Italian company Api Nova Energia to design and build a 2.2 MW solar plant in Tolentino, Italy. This is the first installation in a planned 7.1 MW development. SunPower has installed more than 400 MW of  solar power plant systems  across the globe, including more than 185 MW in Europe.

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Chip manufacturer Freescale Semiconductor has developed a highly efficient DC-DC convertor which can be used to reduce the number of solar (photovoltaic) cells needed to power a device. Most digital electronics (using transistor-transistor logic) need a voltage of between 2.2V and 5V to register a high signal (binary 1). Most solar cells produce a voltage on the order of a tenth of 1 Volt so to power a device, they must be connected in series to generate the voltage required. Freescale’s new chip will allow low current electronics to be powered by a single cell.

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Good news on the solar concentrator front. Southern California, US and New South Wales, Australia are to build new solar concentrator installations. The Califorian plant is due to be operational by 2013, while the Australian plant will be up and running by August this year.

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Graphic designers Büro North have revealed ‘The Veil’, their proposal for a functional and educational solar installation for Australian primary schools. An interesting concept, The Veil consists of a unidirectional solar panel which is rotated to face the sun and the underside has an LED display to show how much electricity is being generated.

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Construction of the world’s first gas-turbine solar thermal-power station in Israel at Kibbutz Samar is due to be completed in March by EDIG (also trading as AORA).

Designed to require less land while generating more usable power and heat at a lower cost than other solar-energy systems; its revolutionary hybrid approach enables the system to run on solar-radiation input and almost any alternative fuel, including biogas, biodiesel and natural gas, guaranteeing an uninterrupted green-power supply 24 hours a day.

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