Alternative Energy / Solar Energy

• Middle East's Largest Solar Energy Project Secures $600 Million Financing

  Plans to build the largest solar power plant in the Middle East moved a step closer to reality after financing closed on the $600 million Shams 1 project in the United Arab Emirates. The 100MW concentrated solar project, some 120km southwest of Abu Dhabi, is being developed by the Shams Power Company, a joint venture between Masdar (60%), Total (20%) and Abengoa Solar (20%), who will jointly own and operate the facility. The project ranks as one of the largest solar project transactions in the world, and combines financing from 10 regional and international lenders including BNP Paribas, Société Générale,…

• Ten Predictions for Solar Energy in 2011

  Article moved. For Solar Energy related articles please visit: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/

• Why Gulf Oil Producing Countries Should Subsidize Solar

  Solar photovoltaic (PV) would be more economically viable than oil-fired electricity generation in oil-rich Gulf states, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) said today. BNEF's research makes the case it is more profitable for state treasuries to sell the oil on the international markets, while incentivising a switch to solar PV to meet some of their domestic electricity demand. "You have got to value [this oil] at the market value," argued Michael Leibreich, at a press conference at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today. "Then you find PV is extremely economically attractive." Power generators expect that policy support…

• SunPower Closes First Publicly Rated Bond Issue for a Solar Project

  US solar power firm SunPower Corporation has sold €195.2 million ($258.4 million) of bonds linked to a solar farm in Italy, which are understood to be the first such bonds of their kind. The proceeds will be used to refinance the final two 44MW phases of the company’s Montalto di Castro solar park, which is now complete. The 18-year fixed rate bonds were issued in two €97.6 million tranches, with the first rated Aa2 by Moody’s, and paying 5.715%, with the second tranche rated Baa3 and paying 4.839%. “This is the world's first publicly rated bond issue for a solar…

• Mexico's Incredible Solar Energy Potential

  Ideally a location for the generation of solar power should have a relatively high level of solar insolation (ability to generate a significant amount of solar energy), a fairly large amount of economic activity to result from solar energy being deployed, a reasonably low cost of energy installation, higher than average current prices for electricity, and the potential for electricity production through solar power that would offset large amounts of carbon emissions. In other words it better be sunny and near major cities or factories. In the US Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma…

• Solar Stocks to Soar?

  Solar stocks are too cheap, and a correction is on the cards next year, according to banking group Jefferies. “We have a view that this sector is oversold,” Bruce Huber, managing director and co-head of global clean-tech investment banking at Jefferies, told Environmental Finance. “We are in for what could be a fairly interesting four or five quarters’ run in the sector, because it needs to catch up.”  Bruce Huber: Solar stocks are oversold “The stocks by and large are too cheap,” agreed Jefferies senior equity analyst Jesse Pichel, speaking on the sidelines of the bank’s 10th Global Clean Technology…

• A Look at the Technology Behind Solar Powered Windows

  Windows let in light and with the light solar heat. There are many forms of passive design control of windows to maximize the light, collect the heat, and maximize or minimize the heat that enters through the window. Heat is energy and can be theoretically transformed into power and electricity. A new type of transparent solar film developed by the U.S. Department of Energy could turn windows into clean electricity generators. Harnessing the power of the sun means placing solar collection devices where they are most likely to be in direct contact with its rays. For many years, that ideal…

• Chinese Transform the Solar Industry at the Expense of Silicon Valley

  A few years ago, Silicon Valley start-ups like Solyndra, Nanosolar and MiaSolé dreamed of transforming the economics of solar power by reinventing the technology used to make solar panels and deeply cutting the cost of production. Founded by veterans of the Valley’s chip and hard-drive industries, these companies attracted billions of dollars in venture capital investment on the hope that their advanced “thin film” technology would make them the Intels and Apples of the global solar industry. But as the companies finally begin mass production — Solyndra just flipped the switch on a $733 million factory here last month —…

• The Coming Boom in U.S. Solar Farms

  How large can a Photo Voltaic (PV) solar farm be? It, of course, depends, on the available land space and the efficiency of the solar cells involved. Sarnia Solar Facility, deemed the world’s largest Photo Voltaic solar power station, has just opened in Canada. Located in Ontario, it has a capacity of 80MW, 20MW above Olmedilla PV Park in Spain, which so far has held the title as the largest of its kind in the world. Sarnia is expected to generate 120,00MWh per year, or enough power for 12,800 homes. For large-scale generation, Concentrated Solar Power plants like SEGS, have…

• The World’s Largest Solar Plant

  Unfortunately, I know Blythe, California too well. This natural blast furnace is in a God forsaken corner of the state where I hunted jack rabbits as a kid, the Indians survived on Gila monsters for protein, and it regularly reaches 130 degrees in the shade. It is also where Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper crossed the “bridge of no return” over the Colorado River in the cult flick Easy Rider. Blythe has unsurprisingly become ground zero for the global thermal solar movement, which I have been chronicling with great interest in these pages (click here for “The Solar Boom in…