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Solar Energy & Solar Power Facts

by Zach
written by Zach

Need some solar energy facts or solar power facts? This page is aimed at becoming the best go-to source on the web for solar facts… if it isn’t already. The solar facts below are succinct and organized by categories and subcategories. To help improve the page, please feel free to add any solar facts you are aware of in the comments below… or correct ours if we’ve got any wrong. If you do either of those things, just be sure to include a link to a reliable source — we want to be very careful here to check the facts before publishing them. Cool? Cool.

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Solar farm in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo Credit: Marika Krakowiak / Solar Love

 

Solar Energy Facts / Solar Power Facts Table Of Contents

The main categories below are:

— Solar Records

  • Solar Cell Efficiency Records
  • Solar Module Efficiency Records
  • Largest Solar Power Plants
  • Solar Market Leaders
  • Solar Vehicles

— Solar Policies

  • Feed-in Tariffs
  • Net Metering
  • Value of Solar Tariffs
  • Renewable Energy Standards (RES) / Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) / Renewable Obligation
  • PACE Financing
  • Solar Mandates
  • Rebates, Tax Credits, Grants, & Loans
  • Interconnection
  • Permitting
  • More Info, More Policies?

— How Solar PV Works

— Chime In!

Now, on to the solar energy and solar power facts!!

Solar Records

Solar Cell Efficiency Records

Solar Module Efficiency Records

Largest Solar Power Plants

PV

CSP

CPV

Solar Market Leaders

Global

US

Module Manufacturers & Developers

Solar Vehicles

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Current Solar Module Efficiency Nowhere Near Its Potential, Especially Thin-Film Solar & CPV (Chart)
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Current Solar Module Efficiency Nowhere Near Its Potential, Especially Thin-Film Solar & CPV (Chart)

by Zach
written by Zach

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Director Dan Arvizu recently gave a keynote speech during the 2013 International Renewable Energy Conference (part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week), which I was lucky enough to attend in January*. His speech covered a large variety of cleantech topics, and most of the points I’ve covered extensively over the years. However, a couple of his points stood out to me as rather interesting and relatively uncovered.

Some of them are the foci of the interviews I conducted with him after his presentation (see the posts linked on the bottom of this article). But I decided to leave a couple of the points out of our interviews since they’re pretty straightforward and the chart presenting them is available on the NREL website, and now right here:

solar-cell-efficiency-potential-achieved-570x513

The takeaway points from the chart are:

  1. The current efficiencies of all types of solar modules and solar cells are nowhere near their theoretical efficiency limits. (And that’s not to say the theoretical limits can’t also increase.)
  2. Thin-film solar (CdTe) is especially ripe for efficiency improvements (commentary on that below), as are concentrated photovoltaics (CPV).
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World’s Largest Solar Power Plant May Use First Solar &/Or Yingli Solar Modules… Or Not
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World’s Largest Solar Power Plant May Use First Solar &/Or Yingli Solar Modules… Or Not

by Zach
written by Zach

NextEra Energy’s 485 MW Blythe Solar Power Project, expected to be the world’s largest when it’s complete, just had revised plans submitted to the California Energy Commission.

As part of that, the plans indicated that the project may use solar modules from First Solar and/or Yingli Solar… or may not.

Image Credit: Blythe Solar Power Project

Image Credit: Blythe Solar Power Project

Blythe Solar Power Project Timeline

Before this revision, the most recent revision to the plans was submitted on June 28, 2012. As indicated when NextEra Energy bought the project from bankrupt Solar Trust of America (a subsidiary of Solar Millennium AG) in December 2011, the project is going to be a solar PV plant rather than the initially planned concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. “NextEra Blythe Solar files this revised PTA to convert the electrical generating technology from concentrating solar thermal collection (CSP) and steam turbine technology of the BSPP to PV solar technology,” the April 2013 filing states. NextEra Energy also downgraded it from a whopping 1 GW power plant to a still very large 485 MW power plant.

NextEra Energy also noted in the filing the phasing of the project. “NextEra Blythe Solar (Applicant) proposes to develop BSPP in four operational phases designed to generate a total of approximately 485 MW nominal of electricity. The first three units (phases) would consist of approximately 125 MW alternating current (AC) of nominal electricity each. The fourth unit would generate approximately 110 MW AC, as shown on the Preliminary Layout, Figure 2-1.”

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First Solar Crushes Thin-Film Efficiency Record, Acquires TetraSun (& Stock Surges)
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First Solar Crushes Thin-Film Efficiency Record, Acquires TetraSun (& Stock Surges)

by Zach
written by Zach

If I was a gambler, I’d put some of my money on First Solar (and, to be honest, I’m thinking about it). Some of its latest big announcements, which I’ll discuss in more detail below, include: crushing the world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) module conversion efficiency (bringing the record up from 14.4% to 16.1%); acquiring TetraSun (which will probably lead to some more world records); announcing an attractive full-year 2013 guidance and some positive summary financial targets through 2015.

World Record Efficiency

First Solar's R&D team in Perrysburg, Ohio. Photo Credit: Business Wire

First Solar’s R&D team in Perrysburg, Ohio.
Photo Credit: Business Wire

First, in a statement published yesterday, First Solar wrote: “First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced it set a new world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) module conversion efficiency, achieving a record 16.1 percent total area module efficiency in tests confirmed by the U.S. Departmentof Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The new record is a substantial increase over the prior record of 14.4 percent efficiency, which the Company set in January 2012. Separately, First Solar also set a record for CdTe open circuit voltage (VOC), a critical parameter for PV performance, reaching 903.2 millivolts (mV) in NREL-certified testing. This new record marks the first substantial increase in CdTe VOC in over a decade of international R&D. The new records come just six weeks after First Solar announced a new world record for CdTe solar cell efficiency of 18.7 percent.”

Yep, from the looks of it, First Solar is a record-breaking fiend. That might also explain why it’s the #1 solar developer and #2 solar module manufacturer in the world.

Going on: “Transferring its success in the R&D lab to its commercial modules, First Solar also launched a new evolution of its proven Series 3 thin-film PV module platform, the Series 3 BlackTM, which incorporates First Solar’s latest advances in conversion efficiency as well as additional features to enhance its performance in utility-scale power plants. The all-black module’s change in appearance results from the use of an advanced, all-black edge seal technology combined with an innovative encapsulation material that further enhances its field durability and demonstrates improvements in accelerated life testing results.”

Remind you of something? Perhaps SunPower’s new X-Series solar panels (which are quite black themselves and also hold a world record in efficiency).

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