Omnik Solar inverter

According to German publication Frankfurter Allegemeine Wirtschaft, Bosch has delayed plans to build its €520 million integrated solar module manufacturing plant in Penang, Malaysia. Construction was due to commence at the end of last year, with completion scheduled for 2013. Bosch has attributed this to the current market of overcapacity, falling module prices and government subsidy cuts.

In an interview with the publication, deputy chairman of the board of management, Siegfried Dais, said “If you invest too early, you run the danger of possibly settle for a less advantageous technology path.” He said that the company hopes to have a revised timetable by the end of the year.

To date, Bosch has invested around €2 billion in photovoltaics.

Last December, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia started accepting developers to participate in its new feed-in tariff program. By December 2, proposals, totalling 143.78MW, had already been submitted.

The market for residential solar installations has changed dramatically in only the past five years. As prices for solar systems drop and electricity rates continue to rise, the appeal of solar power has steadily grown for households around the country, particularly in areas with sizable solar incentives like California and New Jersey.

But, while the costs of rooftop solar installations have declined, they still remain in the tens of thousands of dollars and beyond the reach of many families. Indeed, a recent report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, found that the people were substantially more likely to purchase a solar installation if their household income ranged above $150,000 per year.

Moreover, it turns out that the numerous solar incentives that have proven so effective in promoting the growth of the solar industry have actually done little to change the demographics of families choosing to actually purchase their solar installations outright. For that, homeowners have instead turned to the newest form of solar financing known as solar leasing.

“What is so interesting about the southern California data is that the strong decrease in PV prices – from lower retail costs and stronger federal incentives – didn’t pick up a new demographic,” NREL’s Easan Drury, the lead author of the report, said in a statement. “But the new business model – leasing – did pick up a new customer demographic.”

Traditionally, homeowners have had to accept all the risks involved in adding a solar installation to their houses. They put up the money, potentially making use of a home equity loan or some other form of borrowing, and they are responsible for the system’s maintenance as soon as the solar installers complete their work.

For those without substantial resources to fall back on, this was often too much risk to justify. However, residential solar leasing offers an entirely new model to pay for solar energy. Rather than purchasing the system outright, homeowners can instead put down a small amount up-front, and sometimes nothing at all, and simply pay a fixed amount for the length of the lease.

Depending upon the size of the initial investment for the system and installation, this can mean the difference between eventually turning a substantial profit after five to 10 years and saving small amounts almost immediately.

Some have raised concerns about the standard solar leasing model, since it imposes fixed costs regardless of the output of the system, which can cause some frustration even if the solar company is responsible for maintenance. This has already led to the development of power purchase agreements, which function much like solar leases, but instead charge a fixed rate for the electricity that is actually produced.

USAToday reports that residential solar leasing has already had a notable impact on the market, accounting for one-third of all of California’s residential solar installations in 2010. However, NREL suggests that the model could prove even more important, expanding the likely income range for solar installations down to $100,000 per year. That amounts to another 13 million Americans, including many younger families who might not otherwise have the money to purchase a system on their own or the assets to leverage.

NREL previously conducted an analysis of the Connecticut Solar Lease Program, implemented in August 2008 through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. That study found that the solar leasing program actually emerged as the leading cost-saver when compared to purchasing a solar system up-front with ready cash and financing it through a home equity loan. Even with payments for the lease stretching five years beyond the home equity loan, and of course 20 past the up-front purchase, the savings of the program prove substantially more in many cases.

You know it as well as I do—the home solar trend is taking off, as concerns about climate change and rising electricity costs point to clean, renewable solar as a solution. And even though residential solar has never been more efficient or affordable, disturbing myths and misinformation still abound.

Here are seven persistent myths about solar energy—and what you can say to combat them.
1. Solar panels are unreliable because they don’t work at night.

No, solar panels can’t generate power in total darkness. But home solar systems frequently generate more energy during daylight hours than a home even needs, when demand is highest. This excess energy can be sent back to the grid, lessening the demand on the power utility for everyone else’s fossil-fueled electricity. Almost all states allow solar homeowners to either sell or get credit for surplus energy.

2. Solar panels are plain unattractive.

The fact that solar panels raise a home’s resale value, rather than lower it, is an indication that most people view residential PV systems as a positive. Even so, solar manufacturers are addressing such concerns with cool modular styles that blend almost seamlessly with your rooftop. Or, better yet, several brands have introduced solar shingles, a solar technology that actually doubles as your rooftop, protecting your home from the elements and generating green, renewable power at the same time.
3. Residential PV systems are hard to maintain.

Negatory. Home solar systems routinely outlive their 25-year warranties, and it takes an awful lot to overload them. With no moving parts, solar panels are extremely reliable, requiring little more than an occasional cleaning. Snow and ice simply slide off the panels almost as soon as the sun appears.
4. Solar panels add to global warming.

Any manufacturing process, including those for solar panels, requires energy, transportation, and waste disposal, but solar’s carbon footprint comes to a halt there, while other forms of energy continue to produce harmful carbon emissions year after year. Solar panels do not increase atmospheric temperature. Thermal power plants discharge exponentially more waste heat into the environment. Solar panels earn their emissions back by offsetting emissions from fossil-fuel power plants within a few years.
5. Solar panels are ineffective in cloudy areas.

The fact that Germany is the world’s largest solar market is proof that solar power can flourish in cold climates. Anyone who has ever gotten sunburned on a cloudy day can attest to the fact that clouds don’t block the sun’s energy. Additionally, the costs for conventional electricity are usually higher in cold-climate areas, making solar power a good option even under the cloudiest skies.
6. Solar panel installations will get cheaper farther down the road.

Currently, some homeowners can save up to 60 percent off the cost of a home solar system by taking advantage of rebate and incentive programs offered at the federal, state, and local level. Although the cost of installing a residential PV system is likely to decrease further in the coming years, in today’s political climate, the continuation of incentive programs is uncertain. With funding being slashed left and right, it’s well worth getting a solar assessment this year.
7. Electricity from fossil fuels is more cost-effective than solar.

It’s true that electricity from existing fossil-fuel power plants is currently cheaper than solar energy… in most areas (but not all). Many experts, however, predict financial parity for solar within the next few years. They’ve already reached it in Australia. The Energy Information Agency predicts that global energy demands will rise 53 percent from 2008 to 2035. Conventional energy costs will continue to rise as well, putting unprecedented strain on our electrical grid, and making solar a wise decision for anyone wanting to lock in low rates for the next 25+ years. In fact, if you look at the costs of electricity from a new coal or nuclear plant when it would come on-line, compared to projected costs of solar at that time, solar energy is already cheaper.

olar cells, also called photovoltaic (PV) cells by scientists, convert sunlight directly into electricity. PV gets its name from the process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage), which is called the PV effect. The PV effect was discovered in 1954, when scientists at Bell Telephone discovered that silicon (an element found in sand) created an electric charge when exposed to sunlight. Soon solar cells were being used to power space satellites and smaller items like calculators and watches. Today, thousands of people power their homes and businesses with individual solar PV systems. Utility companies are also using PV technology for large power stations.

Solar panels used to power homes and businesses are typically made from solar cells combined into modules that hold about 40 cells. A typical home will use about 10 to 20 solar panels to power the home. The panels are mounted at a fixed angle facing south, or they can be mounted on a tracking device that follows the sun, allowing them to capture the most sunlight. Many solar panels combined together to create one system is called a solar array. For large electric utility or industrial applications, hundreds of solar arrays are interconnected to form a large utility-scale PV system.
Photo of a large silicon solar array on a roof with a blue sky and trees in background.

A large silicon solar array installed on the roof of a commercial building.
Photo of a traditional-looking home with blue solar tiles integrated into the brown roof.

Thin-film solar tiles installed on the roof of a home in Ohio.
Photo of a long, blue solar array in a field of grass.

A large solar array in Germany.

Traditional solar cells are made from silicon, are usually flat-plate, and generally are the most efficient. Second-generation solar cells are called thin-film solar cells because they are made from amorphous silicon or nonsilicon materials such as cadmium telluride. Thin film solar cells use layers of semiconductor materials only a few micrometers thick. Because of their flexibility, thin film solar cells can double as rooftop shingles and tiles, building facades, or the glazing for skylights.

Third-generation solar cells are being made from variety of new materials besides silicon, including solar inks using conventional printing press technologies, solar dyes, and conductive plastics. Some new solar cells use plastic lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a very small piece of high efficiency PV material. The PV material is more expensive, but because so little is needed, these systems are becoming cost effective for use by utilities and industry. However, because the lenses must be pointed at the sun, the use of concentrating collectors is limited to the sunniest parts of the country.

Solar Frontier has defied the thin-film doom merchants by successfully bidding for the role of module supplier for enXco’s 100MWp  PV plant in California. The agreement refers to the supply of up to 150MWp of Solar Frontier’s CIS modules, and the project, when completed, will be the largest thin-film CI(G)S plant in the world.

Construction of the plant will take place in two phases. The first phase will see the installation of approximately 60MWp of modules by the end of 2012, with the second phase commencing soon afterwards, with completion scheduled for June 2013.

This deal’s significance lies in the fact that it marks the first major project win for Solar Frontier. The company shipped a 26MWp module order at the end of 2011 to the Catalina Solar Project in Kern County, California, but has otherwise been relatively inactive in terms of large-scale installation supplies. Further information on Solar Frontier’s technology and plans for 2012 is available here.

“This is a landmark moment not only for Solar Frontier but the CI(G)S industry as a whole,” said Gregory W. Ashley, chief operating officer of Solar Frontier Americas. “We have demonstrated successfully that the unique characteristics of CIS technology are compelling to major customers by delivering more kWh over the lifetime of a project for a lower cost. We see this project as a launch pad for ever greater CIS achievement in the United States and across the world. We are pleased to work with enXco, which has shown its commitment to the industry by continuing to develop and build utility scale solar projects.”

For the second consecutive year after autumn 2009, preliminary estimates of electricity demand in Italy last year shows a 0.6% growth on 2010. The total energy demand in 2011 amounted to 332.3 billion kWh. PV accounted for 2.8% out of 64.7% of domestic production. However, the net national production (289.2 billion kWh) is a decrease of 0.5% compared to 2010.

A decrease in energy consumption, by 3.3% in December, has been blamed on a mild winter. December generated 84.7% domestic and the remainder 15.3% was exported. In detail, the net national production (23.4 billion kWh) has down by 11.3% over the same month of 2010, increasing the sources of wind power production (+29.8%) and photovoltaic (+458.7%), down hydroelectric sources (-31.9) and thermoelectric power (-11.8%), geothermal energy production unchanged (0.0%). At the territorial level, the change in December 2011 was negative everywhere and few alterations: -5.6% in the North, Central and -4.2% to -4.5% in the South.

According to IMS Research, tier 2 PV module manufacturers in China have seen average utilization rates fall as low as 35% in the fourth quarter of 2011 as a result of overcapacity high inventory levels and weaker than expected demand in 2012. The market research firm noted that many tier 2 suppliers have reduced production significantly or suspended production entirely, resulting in the lowest-ever recorded utilization rates so far reported.

“During 2010 and early 2011, demand for Chinese tier 2 modules had benefited from OEM supply agreements for Chinese tier 1 and other suppliers,” commented Jessica Jin, PV market analyst at IMS Research. “As Chinese tier 1 and other suppliers are now more able to meet demand for their products with their own production capacities, demand for OEM products has declined. Combined with high inventory levels, this has resulted in the shipments of Chinese tier 2 suppliers declining each quarter in 2011, forcing suppliers to reduce production and resulting in record low utilization levels.”

IMS Research said that industry growth of 160% in 2010 led to rapid capacity additions but growth waned to 25% growth levels in 2011, creating significant overcapacity in the second tier sector.

However, factory utilization rates of Chinese tier 2 suppliers are projected to climb again in the second quarter as inventory levels decline and few adding new capacity this year. Like smaller players in the polysilicon sector shutting down production as costs are higher than selling prices; IMS noted that some tier 2 suppliers would exit the market.