The German Solar Industry Association (BSW) has announced that German solar power producers have increased electricity output this year by 60 percent over 2010 to 18 billion kWh. This is more than three percent of total power output volumes.

The solar sector has already produced enough electricity to power approximately 5.1 million households in Germany.

Gehrlicher Solar AG

BSW’s managing director Carsten Koernig stated that “solar energy has become an indispensable ingredient of a successful energy strategy shift”. The solar sector has already produced enough electricity to power approximately 5.1 million households. This accounts for about one-eighth of all households in Germany.

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Lithium ion batteries currently power everything from laptops to electric cars, and Russia and China are gearing up to dominate the industry by launching the world’s largest Li-ion battery plant. Planned for Novobirsk, Russia, the facility will be a joint venture between Chinese firm Thunder Sky and RUSNANO (a Russian state-run corporation) and it will be able to produce up to 500,000 batteries (of all sizes) per year.

The collaborative facility, named Liotech, will have an area exceeding 40,000 square feet – making it the largest lithium-ion battery factory in the world. It will be able to produce big automotive and bus batteries as well as batteries for smaller gadgets and emergency power supplies.

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This was supposed to be a big year for energy-related technology.

It was supposed to mark the ascendance of the electric car as the first full year of sales for GM’s Volt and Nissan’s Leaf, which represent the leading edge of electric vehicles planned by major automakers. But GM fell far short of its sales goals for the year, no doubt plagued by high costs due to expensive batteries. And the company ended the year under a cloud of smoke as the Volt’s battery pack caught on fire after safety testing.

It was the year by which advanced-biofuels companies were supposed to be producing 250 million gallons of fuels from grass and wood chips to meet a U.S. federal mandate. But the EPA had to waive the mandate, decreasing the goal to just 6.6 million gallons, because no large advanced-biofuels plants were up and running. The year ended with the demise of one of the first advanced-biofuels companies, Range Fuels, which shut down operations and was forced to auction off assets.

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A solar hot water collector that makes electricity, too

The company today announced it raised $14 million in series C funding to commercialize a product that will draw electricity from solar hot water collectors. It will also make small chips able to convert heat from car exhaust pipes and industrial machines into electricity.

GMZ Energy, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College in 2008, has created an improved material for converting the energy in heat into electric power. The process works in reverse so an electric current will produce heat.

Thermoelectric materials have been used for years in a few applications, such as heated seats in cars and portable coolers. Now a number of companies are trying to make them less expensive and more efficient at the heat-to-electric power conversion.

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China’s Solar Energy Plans Become Even More Ambitious

The People’s Republic of China has increased its target for installed solar power by 50%. It now aims to have 15GW of installed solar generating capacity, by 2015, Reuters reports.

The move comes just months after China doubled its solar goal from 5 GW to 10 GW earlier this year, following the partial meltdown of the Fukishama nuclear plant in Japan.

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A German and Chinese partnership dedicated to sustainable building and renewable energy broke ground this week on a new eco-park in Qingdao. Located off the coast of the Yellow Sea, the eco-park will be a new city quarter for living and working that will be powered largely by renewable energy. The region is known for a higher than average solar resource and the community will aim to use as much solar energy as possible. Germany-based gmp Architekten is responsible for the master plan, which is supported by the German Society for Sustainable Building (DGNB) and Transsolar Consultants.
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Cape Town wind power company Isivunguvungu Wind Energy Converter (I-WEC) looks set to become the first company in South Africa capable of producing locally made multi-megawatt turbines.

The 2.5MW machine will be manufactured under licence from German engineering consultancy Aerodyn Energiesysteme, with up to 70% of the turbine’s components sourced locally, the company said.

On Thursday, I-WEC installed a 40-ton mould, imported from China, for making 50-meter long blades at its facility beside Cape Town harbour.

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China continues to create headlines in the area of renewable energy, this time concerning the wind power generating capacity it might reach by 2050 – some 1,000 gigawatts. China is already the world’s largest generator of wind energy capacity.

The news comes from a study prepared by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which has broad control over the Chinese economy.

The total of 1,000GW would represent a dramatic increase from the 41 GW of wind power capacity it showed at the end of 2010.

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