A bright, clean and sunny future ahead!

The major competitive advantages of PV technology lie in its versatility, i.e. the wide range of sizes and sites, resulting into proximity to electricity demand, in the value of its production profile concentrated during peak-load hours, and in its enormous potential for further cost reduction.

PV technology has reduced its unit costs to roughly one third of where it stood 5 years ago, thanks to continuous technological progress, production efficiency and to its wide implementation. The trend of decreasing unit cost will continue also in the future, just like in comparable industries such as semiconductors and TV screens. Adding the important feature of integrated PV solutions in particular in building architecture, the potential of further growth is simply enormous.

With PV becoming a cost competitive solution for producing power, it will open up an increasing variety of new markets and contribute more and more significantly to cover our future energy needs. PV technology has all the potential to satisfy a double digit percentage of the electricity supply needs in all major regions of the world.

Going forward, a share of over 20% of the world electricity demand in 2050 appears feasible, and opens a bright, clean and sunny future to all of us.

Source: EPIA Solar Generation 6 (www.epia.org)

What are the benefits of shifting to solar?

There are so many benefits on going to renewable energies but solar is probably one of the most reliable ones as the Sun was at the creation of the life on Earth and will certainly be still there for many million years from now.
We can list some of the high level benefits as:

• Provide clean and sustainable electricity to the world.
• Regional development, by creation of local jobs. New employment levels in the sector – as many as 1.62 million jobs as early as 2015, rising to 3.62 million in 2020 and 4.64 million in 2030.
• Clean electricity that contributes to international targets to cut emissions and mitigate climate change.
• Avoiding up to 4,047 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year by 2050. The cumulative total of avoided CO2 emissions from 2020 to 2050 would be 65 billion tones. 

References from "Solar Generation 6" published by EPIA

How to make money in solar… or how to make solar energy really efficient?

We are living a period where solar energy has been considered a serious potential source of energy for the future and many people bumped into the niche with the intention to make big money. This industry started to grow too rapidly and became a heavy political topic in many areas of the World. Some have dealt with a proper organized planning but others have been trapped by rush, confusion and inadequate competency leading to catastrophic results. As the global market is moving on rapidly and technical research disclosing promising commercial products we are still groping and revolutionary changes are still expected for solar energy to become a trustful economical source of energy. I believe that in less than 20 years from now we will see back and think about the 2011 days as prehistory.

Feed in Tariffs and Subventions have been prepared and offered by some Governments to push forward the solar industry with the objective to increase production and reduce the cost of the different components. Some Countries are in good way to achieve their goals and subventions are being reduced up to none very soon (Germany setting a very good example). Making big money out of the grid connection subventions is no longer the right choice and is already frustrating many Investors (in some cases by clumsy government decisions).

The future is clear and logical:

• Solar PV to highly improve its efficiency and cost to drop under 0,50 $/watt
• Manage energy consumption in a way to reduce unnecessary waste
• Produce only the energy required by our needs (Grid connected or Off Grid)
• Solar PV integrated to the building from the drafting table (BIPV projects)
• Smart Grids development on urban areas

Chart showing the best research-cell efficiencies up to end 2010

A revolution towards new consumption habits

We live the "Titanic Syndrome" and blinded by the abundance in which we live, we refuse to accept the disaster that we will not be able to stop unless action is taken immediately by each one of us!

Among the most important is that of significantly reducing our energy consumption in all aspects of our daily lives. We need to start a revolution in our life! ...

In recent years we have witnessed significant progress in the performance of new technologies for the use of renewable energies. A wide choice is available to us and there will always be a solution for our needs. The use of these natural sources of energy requires that we learn to live a little bit differently while realizing the negative effects of abundant waste that has been the symbol of the past decades.

Link to a French site with some ideas

Energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries will be the leading technology by 2015

The global market for rechargeable batteries in electric vehicles (EV) is expected to reach new heights in the next 10 years, growing to $54 billion by 2010, up from $35 billion in 2010.

By 2015, lithium-ion batteries will be the leading technology occupying 55 percent of the market. Lead-acid will have 31 percent of the market, NiMH batteries will be 6 percent of the market and 1 percent will be NaS batteries.

Looking ahead to 2020, lithium-ion will only gain in its lead over the other battery technologies taking market share away from lead-acid batteries while NiMH and NaS will maintain roughly the same presence in the market.

Lithium-ion batteries will grow in demand with automotive applications. The main commercial driver will be the need for aggressive cost reductions while maintaining safety. The cost of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries is much higher than any other. However, we believe prices are expected to fall some 50 percent in order to achieve widespread market adoption.

However, significant cost reductions should be possible through volume production and material improvements. As a result, lithium-ion batteries could become less expensive than standard lead-acid equivalents by 2020.

Solar Energy components challenged for more efficiency and lower costs

The solar radiation that reaches the earth represents between 6,000 and 10,000 times as much energy as the entire planet now consumes. So in absolute terms, solar power could provide an inexhaustible source of energy. All we need to do is “tap” a tiny amount of it to cover all of our needs and those of future generations. In theory, photovoltaic systems could convert as much as 84% of the energy of photons — the “light packets” sent by the sun — into electricity, instead of the 15 to 20% they do now… so still plenty of work ahead!

Despite the sector's boom, solar energy will have to achieve economies of scale and undergo major restructuring to truly reach adulthood. Over the next ten years, the photovoltaic sector will invest considerable capital — no less than $700 billion — to attain a worldwide capacity of 200 GWp in 2020.

Challenging projects have been raised to stimulate creativity and we are living a great moment plenty of opportunities for new inventions and discoveries. One of theses Challenges is the Swiss solar plane “Solar Impulse” whose objective is to complete a roundtrip flight around the World by 2014. Its success relies in great portion on much more efficient solar cells and batteries than we have nowadays.  

Solar Energy projects in Latin America with some clouds

Several announcements have been made by different Latin American countries stating the beginning of new projects using the solar energy but if there is something in common among them is the lack of a clear and long term strategy for this renewable energy development.

Solar industry is still crawling and only basically known. The existing traditional source of energy is still plentiful available and not stressing for immediate changes which may drive to very complex modifications (mainly financial and administrative). Time for opportunity is now!

Another common link between the projects initiated is that they are all under test to verify their positive behaviour (power supplied, performance, maintenance, duration,…). Feed In Tariffs are not even established as connection to the Grid is merely starting on some areas. Most of the programs initiated and underway are based on experiences achieved in Europe where there is so much turbulence after subsidies have been drastically reduced. This is obviously generating more confusion and uncertainty to those countries wishing to develop a strategy on solar energy.

Some European companies are already starting to invest in South America bringing their “know-how” absolutely necessary to create a more favourable environment around solar projects required to impulse its development. Progressive appropriate training and induction is mandatory at the core of the Governments and decision makers in a way to create trust and have successful results in the benefit of all the parties involved.