Sharp Develops See-Through Solar Panels

         Sharp Electronics, a United States subsidiary of an Osaka-based Sharp Corporation and a company known for manufacturing a wide range of consumer and business products, has announced the development of see-through solar panels that offers many benefits over the standard solar panel. The semi-transparent solar panel is designed to be used in balcony railings or as windows in tall buildings, where it can generate energy while also letting light in. The glass, while see-through up close, creates a privacy screen from farther away, acts as a heat shield and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well.
        According to CNET, the solar panel "delivers a solar power conversion efficiency of about 6.8-percent with a maximum output of 95 watts." This is quite a bit lower than standard solar panels that typically may have conversion efficiencies of 15 to 20 percent, but then again, standard solar panels can't act as windows.
       Even with a lower efficiency level, the see-through solar panels are generating energy in parts of a building that would typically consist of ordinary glass or metal, so they're still increasing the potential renewable energy generation of a building by a significant amount.
      The panels are also constructed with laminated glass that has been infused with photovoltaic solar cells and are 4.5-feet wide by 3.2-feet tall and only 0.3 inches thick. They will go on sale in Japan on October 1, but so far, no pricing or plans for a release in the United States has been revealed as of yet.

Japan and Taiwan: Growing with Clean Energy

        Japan has continuously thrived towards solar energy and other renewable energy sources (as well as being a nation of energy storage), after an earthquake occurred in destroying Fukushima, a nuclear power plant, in March 2011. The government had put in place generous amounts of subsidies for alternative energy development. Both IHS and Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that Japan will be growing extensively towards solar energy than any other country, with the exception of China, in 2013.
        The natural disaster affecting the destruction of Fukushima has also triggered Taiwan to re-evaluate its nuclear power policy and has stirred protests against the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant, which is nearing its completion.
        Taiwan is also subsidizing clean energy and is planning to increase solar and wind energy development. Late last year, the government had raised the 2013 target for new solar energy by 30% to 130 megawatts. Not only this but Taiwan is actually home to major solar cell makers. By promoting more production of solar energy, this would help Taiwan's domestic solar manufacturers, who have been lately devastated by an oversupply of solar cells in the global market over the past two years. This, in turn, has caused prices to crash and forced many solar manufacturers to go out of business.
        However, one of the largest Taiwanese solar cell makers, Neo Solar Power, recently had announced a survival plan to merge with another Taiwanese solar cell maker, DelSolar. Neo Solar had claimed that the combined company will have "close to 2 gigawatts" of production capacity, which would be comparable to First Solar Inc.'s capacity of 1.9 gigawatts.

Miaoli, Taiwan

New Solar Gear Introduced

            Inverters are the components within powered devices like solar panels and batteries, which helps convert the power generated into usable power. There has been many research efforts involving solar panel inverters as some people may choose to move from a single large central inverter to smaller "microinverters" embedded on each solar panel. However, Empower Micro Systems, a chip startup that has been running for a year and a half now, has furthered this research and developed a low-voltage solar microinverter based on new chip designs, which has became more reliant, cost-effective, and efficient.

            Empower Micro Systems CCO Jon Bonanno has claimed that the company's inverter technology "is a quantum change in how solar is done." This newly developed chip component can be applied anywhere from a solar panel system to a rack or frame. Bonanno also notes that the inverter is 5x more reliable, 5% more efficient, and costs 20% less than traditionally used inverters. The overall solar system cost can be lowered because of the rising potential of a lower inverter cost, in addition to the dropping prices already of solar panels.
           Empower Micro Systems does not plan on manufacturing the inverter box itself but the company tries to respectfully adopt Intel's code in churning out the chips inside the inverter devices. Bonanno is confident of the power of the inverter technology, which is known as the "Universal Micro Power Inverter." He believes it can "replace all solar inversion options, hands down." The key technologies of the solar inverter includes how the system on a chip synchronizes and controls the power flow at a low-voltage rate as well as the design of the inverter box.
           Bonanno remarks that the company has already signed one agreement with a "top-three" module maker (and is in discussions with many module makers and product vendors) to bring this hardware into the market. This year, it is planned for the inverter to be certified and could be produced in pilot production by the third quarter of 2013.

Free Solar Panels for Honda customers?

       Tesla Motors has been getting ahead in the electric vehicle market because of their newly produced car, Model S. Many car manufacturers are concerned with the shift in the market; this actually includes Honda Motor Company Ltd, the Japanese car manufacturing company to be established in 1948. Honda has recently decided to have a partnership with Solarcity, an American provider of energy services, to offer cheap solar power to eligible customers. They promised that with this incentive, they will be guaranteeing a utility bill for solar power producing a lower rate than grid-supplied energy. This not only includes cheap solar energy but, it also means the eligible Honda and Acura customers would be obtaining a rooftop solar panel installation, covering all the costs including the cost of the panels itself.
       The agreement that has been established between Honda and Solarcity is a power purchase agreement, which is a popular tactic to finance solar installations. Power purchase agreements are designed as contracts between two parties, whereas typically the property owner pays for electricity at a reasonable price rate for a period of time but the installer has continual access to own, operate, and maintain the system for that time period. It's not unusual for this partnership to also offer insurance, maintenance, repair and monitoring during the specified time period.
       Honda customers are able to pay for their bills up front in two ways: either pre-pay for the solar electricity or pay at a monthly rate which is lower rate than their utility bill. Surprisingly, Honda and Solarcity had invested $65 million into a fund for this agreement, which covers dealerships and customers located within Solarcity's few state service areas. This includes other efficiency upgrades for customers such as weatherization, a practice of protecting establishments and its interior from all weather (sunlight, precipitation, wind) and modifying it to reduce energy consumption and optimize energy efficiency.
     Not a bad deal if they're planning to be ahead of the other car manufacturers to be on a head-on competition with Tesla Motors, right? What do you think?