An agreement to jointly fund a feasibility study for the establishment of a vertically integrated solar PV (photovoltaic) manufacturing complex at Wa’ad Al Shammal in Saudi Arabia has been signed. SunEdison, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Arabian Investment Company hope to move forward with a project to produce polysilicon through modules. …
Iowa Wind Energy Conference Around the Corner
The 7th Annual Iowa Wind Power Conference is just around the corner taking place at the FFA Enrichment Center on the Campus of Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa, March 11-12, 2014. Sponsored by the Iowa Wind Energy Association (IWEA), there is a strong line-up of speakers, informative sessions, exhibitors and new research displays. The general sessions planned …
Smithfield’s Renewable Energy Commitment Tangible
Smithfield Foods commitment to renewable energy is showing tangible results according to the company. During the past several years, the company has been monitoring scientific advancements that have removed barriers to efficiently and sustainably create renewable energy from agricultural waste, in particular the use of anaerobic digestion processes that covert decomposing organic matter, such as hog manure, into renewable energy. …
Ormat Completes Kenyan Oklaria III Geothermal Plant
Ormat Technologies has successfully completed construction and reached commercial operation of Plant 3 in the Olkaria III geothermal power plant complex located in Naivasha, Kenya. With Plant 3 online, the complex’s total generation capacity has increased to 110 MW. The power generated by the Olkaria III is sold under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Kenya Power and Lighting …
Princeton Power, EnStorage Awarded BIRD Grant
Princeton Power Systems and EnStorage have been awarded a $950,000 grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD). The grant will support the commercialization and deployment of an energy storage system based on EnStorage’s proprietary hydrogen bromide (HBr) flow battery and Princeton Power Systems’ inverters and site controller. The first system will be deployed to support a …
Solar Lights Up Students in Zambia
SolarAid and Yingli Green Energy have “lit up” Mayukwayukwa High School in Kaoma, Zambia by installing a solar PV system on the newly built UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) School. The project was successfully completed with partner contributions including Atama Solar Energy, Kingspan Energy and Solar Roof Systems. The High School is located in the Mayukwayukwa Settlement, one …
Despite Record Offshore Wind Projects, Industry Slows
Despite record offshore wind energy projects coming online in 2013, a recent report shows that new projects have slowed. Last year, 418 offshore turbines came online in Europe making a record 1,567 Megawatts (MW) of new capacity. This is one-third more than the capacity installed in 2012. This makes a new total of 6,562 MW of offshore wind power – …
First Magma-Enhanced Geothermal System Created
During the Icelandic Deep Drilling (IDDP) project that began in 2009, a borehole drilled at Krafla in northeast Iceland unexpectedly hit magma at 2100 meters with a temperature of 900-1000 Celsius. This borehole was the first of several wells being drilled in search of high-temperature geothermal resources. Fast forward four years later and the efforts of the IDDP project were …
Study Finds U.S. Solar Jobs Grew 20% in 2013
The Solar Foundation (TSF) has released its fourth annual National Solar Jobs Census, which found that the U.S. solar industry employed 142,698 Americans in 2013. This figure includes the addition of 23,682 solar jobs over the previous year, representing a 19.9 percent growth in employment since September 2012. Solar employment grew 10 times faster than the national average employment growth …
MIT Researchers Enhancing Solar Power
MIT researchers have developed a new approach to harvesting solar energy. The technique uses sunlight to heat high-temperature materials whose infrared radiation would be collected by a conventional photovoltaic cell. Researchers say this both improves efficiency as well as could make it easier to store the energy for later use. By adding the extra step, it makes it possible to …