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This sixteenth edition of Photovoltaics International marks four years of production of the quarterly journal. As always, our focus is on efficiency and quality improvement and cost reduction in manufacturing. As 2012 rolls along, companies are falling by the wayside due to supply and demand issues, ASP declines and drastic governmental subsidy cuts. A clear picture of 2012 is offered through papers from the likes of TÜV Rheinland, Fraunhofer ISE, SEMI PV Group and EPIA, amongst others.
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This digital interactive Lite sees Tom Cheyney follow Agua Caliente’s progress on becoming one of first truly utility-scale PV power farms, where 40–50MW (AC) will be commissioned by the end of the year. We also feature one of the world’s largest silicon thin-film PV power plants, Avenal; a report on warnings of the collapse of module prices from Solarbuzz and PI-Berlin presents tips on PV module testing. A print version of this edition will be distributed at Solar Power International 2011 in Dallas, Texas.
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Manufacturing the Solar Future 2012, the second in the Photovoltaics International PV Production Annual series, delivers the next installment of in-depth technical manufacturing information on PV production processes.
Comments
I may have misread your question, sorry if I did.There is no energy savings by using an alternative source. Most of the alternative sources are in fact MORE expensive. People choose to pay more for solar, wind, and other alternative sources a lot more in some cases. As alternative energies become more efficient and cost effective they replace fossil fuels more and more, but there is still a cost to the production of the PV cells and wind turbines lots of metal, and lots of composites including plastics, in relation to the power they produce. Energy savings comes from conservation and increasing efficiency. Right now, renewable energy accounts for about 7% of US energy consumption. Most of the 7% is hydro-electric and wood burning.
Actually it is wonderful and efficient! The city of Sevilie in Spain runs entirely on electric solar power. The reson for everyone not using solar power in the US was because of the Bush administration. Bush was big on oil and gas and didn’t favor alternative fuel. As a result, solar power was not granted its potential. Although its available now, people don’t understand its effectivness and benefits it provides.
That is all nice but there are other multi-junction cell manufacturers that can claim the same or better efficiency. They claim lower cost for cells, but in the end, the cell costs are not the major costs associated with HCPV in the field. The real question is what will the module efficiency be once it is mounted on a 2 axis tracker taking into account the shadows cast and resultant poor land use efficiency? How many watts per acre will they achieve? Not much better than others like Solfocus but substantially worse than other technologies coming in the near future.