Japan Growing in Renewable Energy Sources

A man watches waves break into anti-tsunami barriers after a storm in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture on September 16, 2013. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said on Monday it released what was believed to be untainted rainwater around the storage tank areas into the ocean in order to avoid flooding near the tanks due to heavy rains by Typhoon Man-yi

        According to new research released by NPD Solarbuzz, Japan has become one of only five countries to have achieved 10 gigawatts of cumulative solar capacity. While aiming to diversify its energy mix, Japan is developing its renewable energy sector, especially as it steers away from nuclear power following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. The development of solar power in Japan slowed in the mid-2000s, partly due to a 10-year energy plan that favored nuclear power.
       With a shifting of focus toward renewable energy, and after a new law approving feed-in tariffs for renewable energy was passed last year, the Japanese government is giving incentives for the use of solar energy. The policy requires utility companies in Japan to buy electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind at a premium price for the next 20 years.

Utah's $600 Million Solar Power Plant Coming Soon!

        A multimillion dollar power plant will be soon built in Central Utah. The solar farm will be nestled near the small town of Delta, but it won't be generating clean energy for Utah. Instead, it will be sending its energy to California, but it'll prove to be a big boom for rural Utah's economy. At the same time, the Provo-based company contracted to do the project is placing the solar panels next to one of the worst polluters in the Western United States. Josh Case is the CEO of Energy Capitol Group, and he said that's a good location. 

       "We think we have the ideal location," he said. "We're adjacent to the Intermountain Power Plant and the transmission infrastructure and we're developing a 300 megawatt solar plant. We're leasing 1,754 acres from SITLA." The vacant landscape will become a sea of 800,000 solar panels spanning nearly 2,000 acres. Because the land belongs to SITLA, school children will also benefit from the energy harvested from the sun.

China Wins Deal of One of World's Largest Solar Power Plant in the U.S.

        Trina Solar Unlimited, one of the world's leading PV companies founded in 1997, had announced today that it will supply 1.1 million photovoltaic panels for a 250-megawatt power plant to be built in the Nevada Desert. It will not only be one of the world's largest photovoltaic power stations but it will also be the largest in the U.S. to use Chinese-made solar panels.
        While Chinese companies have attained control of most of the U.S. residential market, utilities and developers of solar power plants have actually favored U.S. companies such as First Solar and SunPower. However, this favoritism is drastically changing. In November, another Chinese solar manufacturer Yingli, won a contract to provide panels for a 200-megawatt power plant under construction in the California desert outside of San Diego.
         As the Chinese market is advancing, Trina Solar and Yingli are emerging as China's top competitors in the power plant industry. Thus, Trina and Yingli have taken measures to ensure distance from other Chinese manufacturers, whom are faced extreme pressure to cut costs as they struggle with billions of dollars in debt, and emphasize the quality of their products.

Las Vegas Flips Power on 15,000 Solar Panels

Tom Perrigo, chief sustainability officer of the city of Las Vegas, "flips the switch" on their new three-megawatt solar panel installation on April 18, 2013

   
     With the action of Tom Perrigo "flipping the switch" on their newfound solar panel installation, city officials are celebrating for the installation would help provide energy to a nearby wastewater treatment plant. The ground-mounted panels have been tightly packed on 25-acres of city-owned land near Vegas Valley Drive and Nellis Boulevard. This site had previously been a vacant strip of land the city had used as a buffer for its wastewater treatment plant, which processes all of the city's wastewater on its way to Lake Mead.
      During the dedication ceremony, Mayor Carolyn Goodman had announced that the project was known to being part of the city's comprehensive sustainability plan, which includes renewable energy, energy efficiency, recycling and waste management. "It's all about sustainability for the city and our citizens to make sure that we're using every resource that we can to keep down the costs of energy," she said. "The council wants the financial resources we have available to go as far as they can."
      The $20 million project will generate 6 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to provide approximately 20% of the treatment plant's power. "Because the plant accounts for a third of the city's annual energy bill, the solar panels will provide a big savings," Tom Perrigo, the chief sustainability officer, said. "Our energy spend breaks down to about a third for wastewater treatment, a third for street lights and a third for city buildings," he said. "By providing solar here at this facility, we're able to make a big impact on the city's overall energy consumption."

Largest Solar Plant in Africa

    Recently, it has been announced that the largest solar plant in Africa has been ceremoniously brought online in Mauritania. The 15-megawatt plant will be expected to meet a full one-tenth of the nation's electricity demand and keep lights on in some 10,000 homes. Mauritania is currently crippled by its severe energy shortages and thus, its frail power grid is upheld by an unstable network of diesel generators. Therefore, with the help of the Sheikh Zayed Solar Power Plant, this brings good news to Mauritanians everywhere: the country's power demand is quickly growing and with the help of this fresh blast of solar power, it gives power to those in need during peak hours.
     If the name of the solar power plant is a bit unusual, it would possibly be because the construction was done by Masdar, Abu Dhabi's national clean energy company. If the name Masdar brings any recollection, it may because there is such a city as Masdar City, a futuristic town on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi which eventually is to be the world's first 100% carbon neutral city. However, Masdar is currently in the clean energy business worldwide and such as the solar power plant's creator, the Mauritania project is also.

   
    The solar power plant consists of some 30,000 thin-film micrograph panels which are stacked into the ground instead of cemented into a concrete foundation in an installation process that helps decrease the costs and necessary materials needed. "Energy access is a pathway to economic and social opportunity," Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said. "Electrification, through sustainable sources of energy, is critical in ensuring our people have access to basic services and is a step toward improving our infrastructure and long-term economic development."

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

150 MW California Solar Power Plant is Bought!

      The 150-megawatt Solar Generation 2 photovoltaic power plant, located in Imperial County (California), was recently bought by First Solar, Inc. The construction of this solar power plant is planned to start this year and is set to be completed next year. Once completed, the new photovoltaic solar power plant is to produce enough electricity to power more than 60,0000 homes while displacing more than 115,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. This solar power plant will estimably save around 93,000 metric tons of water per year.
      The San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) has agreed to purchase the electrical output under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Once this agreement is started, the photovoltaic solar plant is expected to provide over 800 construction jobs within Imperial County, which has been overcome with high unemployment.
       "We are very pleased to help SDG&E meet its clean energy goals and provide clean, reliable, renewable power to their customers," said Dana Diller, First Solar Vice President of U.S. Business Development. "We are also proud to once again bring the economic benefits of utility-scale solar development to Imperial County, where both county officials and the Imperial Irrigation District, with which this plant will interconnect, have been extremely supportive."
        The financial details of the new purchase is still unknown but it does include 40 megawatts of solar modules that the project had previously purchased from another supplier. First Solar, Inc., is actually planning to integrate those modules into construction and make up the difference with their own modules in order to complete the construction of the power plant. In addition, First Solar will be providing project development, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and grid integration services.