Last year, Google invested more than $915 million in clean energy projects — solar, wind and transmission.
That’s a lot of money, even for Google, which had $38 billion in revenues in 2011. The investments don’t appear to be core to the company’s mission of organizing information, and they have attracted criticism, as well as some careless reporting, implying that the Internet giant is exiting the alternative energy business.
It’s abundantly clear that General Electric (GE) sees renewable energy and clean technology as a prime strategic business opportunity in the years ahead. From building the world’s largest wind turbines right on through to manufacturing solar-powered carports and electric vehicle charging stations, the multinational industrial engineering and financial services giant has its fingers in just about every renewable energy and clean tech pie you can think of.
Now, GE is expanding its thin-film solar panel manufacturing business, and in a big way. In April, GE announced its intention to build the US’ largest thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) panel, this despite the oversupply and precipitous, 40% price drop that has occurred over the past two years.
Not to be confused with Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP), Concentrating Photovoltaics (CPV) systems use mirrors or lenses to focus the sun’s light onto a small area of photovoltaic material. By focusing the sun’s light (usually by several hundred times, but potentially by up to 1000 times) in order to reduce the amount of expensive semiconductor material that is needed to produce a usable quantity of energy, and so reduce the overall costs of the system.
While CPV has had its supporters for many years, it has so far made little impact on the global photovoltaic market. Nonetheless, despite this relatively slow progress, a series of recent developments and the possibility of rapidly falling costs mean that the sector is once again attracting attention.
With the completion of a 4.4-megawatt ground-mounted solar power system, the Denver International Airport now has more than eight MW of solar power – more than any commercial airport in the U.S. It now receives over 6 percent of its electricity via solar power.
DIA hopes to continue its green initiatives and cost savings with the project. “We support alternative energy applications at DIA because these projects are good for the environment while positively impacting our bottom line; they are financially sustainable,” said Kim Day, aviation manager at DIA, in a press release. “This airport was built with a goal of being green, and with this additional solar array, Denver International Airport now has one of the largest solar installations in North America.”
Those solar panels on top of your roof aren’t just providing clean power; they are cooling your house, or your workplace, too, according to a team of researchers led by Jan Kleissl, a professor of environmental engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
In a study in an upcoming issue of the journal Solar Energy, Kleissl and his team published what they believe are the first peer-reviewed measurements of the cooling benefits provided by solar photovoltaic panels. Using thermal imaging, researchers determined that during the day, a building’s ceiling was 5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler under solar panels than under an exposed roof. At night, the panels help hold heat in, reducing heating costs in the winter.
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