After discussions last week in Shanghai, the vice president of trade and competitiveness for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)  John Smirnow says “it’s time for everyone to work together toward a fair resolution of these cases.”

Smirnow said what many groups across the countries involved have been saying since the allegations of unfair Chinese government subsidies began – that “disputes within one segment of the industry affect the entire solar supply chain” and “cause a ripple effect throughout the economies of the United States, Asia and Europe.”

Photo Credit: Jianan Yu, Reuters

Industry groups from the relevant countries have agreed to a joint policy position, the Shanghai Solar Declaration, to encourage negotiations outside of the World Trade Organisation dispute resolution process.

Since 2011, solar panel manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe have claimed that Chinese companies are not only benefitting from unfair subsidies, but also selling panels at below-cost prices as a way to quickly gain market share around the world.

Proponents of this argument point to the massive drop in solar panel prices and increase in China’s market share over a short period of less than five years.

As a result, to protect domestic PV panel producers, the U.S. has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese solar goods entering the country – and the EU is about to do the same.

But according to the New York Times, this Shanghai Solar Declaration might get rid of the tariffs, but it won’t make solar panels cheaper. Instead, Chinese companies would have to “charge more while limiting the total number of solar panels they could ship,” leading to a higher price for solar panels worldwide.

Officials from all countries appear to be tight-lipped, and any further developments will take months.

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At the size of an A3 sheet of paper (11.7 x 16.5 inches), the cell is 10 times the size of what they had previously made, thanks to a new solar cell printer worth $200,000.

It’s a project from the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) – a collaboration between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), The University of Melbourne, Monash University and industry partners.

“There are so many things we can do with cells this size,” said Dr Scott Watkins, one of the lead researchers on the program.

Dr Scott Watkins holding a sheet of flexible solar cells. Credit: CSIRO

“We can set them into advertising signage, powering lights and other interactive elements. We can even embed them into laptop cases to provide backup power for the machine inside.”

The printer basically prints photovoltaic ink onto super-thin materials like plastic or steel, creating flexible and lightweight solar panels. Just three years ago, the team was printing cells only about 4 inches wide, so this new technology represents a huge jump in their printing capabilities.

“Eventually we see these being laminated to windows that line skyscrapers. By printing directly to materials like steel, we’ll also be able to embed cells onto roofing materials,” said Dr David Jones, VICOSC project coordinator.

The cells produce 10-50 watts of power per square meter (over 10 square feet), and so far they have been able to last for over six months in an outdoor environment.

With some more work, the team at VICOSC predict that the cells will be able to function for several years, at a price of around $1 per watt.

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The installations totalled almost 10,000 solar panels and will generate 2.8 million kWh of electricity each year – saving over 1,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, which is about equivalent to taking 309 cars off the road.

“The stores in Massachusetts demonstrate our commitment to increasing the share of renewable energy that powers our stores and improving energy efficiency,” said David Ozment , senior director of energy at Walmart, at an event at Walmart’s store in Walpole, MA.

“We believe in helping our customers live better by providing every day low cost and more environmentally friendly alternatives, like renewables. It’s our goal to eventually be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy.”

Credit: Walmart

The system at the Walpole store is owned and operated by MA-based Greenskies Renewable Energy; Walmart has a power purchase agreement with Greenskies to buy the energy generated by the system.

“Governor Patrick’s leadership and our remarkable success in energy efficiency and solar energy have placed Massachusetts at the head of the clean energy revolution,” said Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Mark Sylvia .

“Investments from business leaders like Walmart have helped the Commonwealth meet our 250 megawatt solar goal four years early and earn the #1 national ranking in energy efficiency two years in a row.”

The United States’ EPA Green Power Partnership program ranked Walmart as the number one on-site green power generator/consumer in the U.S. in 2013. The retail giant gets about 4 percent of energy from renewable systems at Walmart sites; another 17 percent of all electricity consumed is renewable but supplied by the grid.

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The Index, compiled by the Ecotech Institute, found that over 8,000 of these jobs were in the solar industry. The job postings included positions for solar sales representatives, installers and project managers.

“The Clean Jobs Index shows that there is tremendous job growth in the cleantech sector and signs of positive momentum on the state level for environmental factors that can affect us all,” said Kyle Crider, Ecotech Institute’s Program Chair and Manager of Environmental Operations.

The Clean Jobs Index also provides data on other aspects of cleantech across all 50 states, including alternative fueling stations, LEED projects, total energy consumption, energy efficiency, green pricing, net metering and state incentives.

Credit: Clean Jobs Index

“When we see increases in LEED certification, we know businesses are making sustainable decisions; when we see an increase in alternative fueling stations, we know people are driving demand for greener forms of transportation,” Crider continued. “These are powerful indicators.”

According to the Index, 749,197 clean jobs were posted in the first quarter of 2013, and Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Vermont and West Virginia showed the fastest quarter-on-quarter growth for clean job postings.

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The  Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) report – “Enlisting the Sun: Powering the U.S. Military with Solar Energy” –  looks at the use of solar across the U.S. Navy, Army and Air Force both in the U.S. and abroad.

According to the SEIA, over 130 MW of solar PV systems power Navy, Army and Air Force bases in at least 31 states and the District of Columbia. These installations generate enough electricity to power 22,000 homes.

The U.S. Department of Defense is one of the world’s largest energy users, and solar is contributing greatly to the DOD’s goal of meeting 25 percent of its energy needs with renewable resources by 2025.

Credit: SEIA

“These aggressive renewable energy targets are a response to rising energy costs, potential energy supply disruptions and the need for more secure and clean energy generation and distribution,” says the report.

The Navy has installed the most solar, with 58 MW of capacity across 12 states and D.C.; the Air Force has 38 MW of installed capacity, and the Army has over 36 MW of installed solar.

“Solar clearly is making a big difference – both on the front lines and in military installations from North Carolina to Hawaii,” said Rhone Resch, SEIA president and CEO. “Many of the technologies being used by the military today have been adapted for use from consumer products.”

What’s more, the current solar capacity is just the beginning; solar PV makes up 58 percent of the Defense Department’s renewable energy additions from 2012 ot 2017. That’s about 1.1 GW of new projects in the pipeline.

“Solar energy is playing an increasingly important role in making the U.S. military’s energy supply more secure, more affordable and less reliant on foreign sources,” says the report.

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Located in Sonoma County, Sebastopol is the second city in the country to require all new homes and commercial buildings to have solar PV systems.

The building code will require all new homes and commercial buildings to have a solar system that generates 2 watts of PV energy per square foot of insulated area, or offset three quarters of the total yearly electricity use. If solar is not a practical option, buildings can use other alternatives or pay a fee.

Solar Panels on the Sebastopol Fire Department building. Credit: Solar Works

According to the Press Democrat, Sebastopol Mayor Michael Kyes had hoped to be the first city in the country to mandate solar – a hope that was dashed when Lancaster, in Los Angeles County, passed a similar regulation earlier this year.

“We were going to be number one,” Mayor Kyes said. “Now we’re number two.” The paper also reported that Mayor Kyes highlighted the fact that Sebastopol is “liberal” while Lancaster is a “Republican community,” showing that solar is accepted across the political spectrum.

The ordinance still has to get final approval from the council; it will go into effect 60 days after that occurs.

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The figure comes from the EPIA’s latest publication, “Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2013-2017,” which forecasts the global and European solar market outlook.

The report confirmed that 31 GW of new solar PV capacity was added globally in 2012, but only 55 percent of that capacity was in Europe, down from over 70 percent in 2011.

Solar PV was the top new source of electricity installed in Europe for the second year in a row, now making up 2.6 percent of electricity demand on the continent.

But the report said, as made clear by the increase in PV installations across Asia in recent years, “Europe’s leading role in driving the global PV market is coming to an end.” It was the first year in a decade that Europe’s installations fell year-on-year.

While Germany was the leading market for PV installations, with 7.6 GW, China came in second with 5 GW, followed by Italy (3.4 GW), the U.S. (3.3 GW) and Japan (2 GW).

“The results of 2012 signal a turning point that will have profound implications in the coming years,” said EPIA President Winfried Hoffmann.

“The global PV market is shifting from one driven mostly by Europe to one that also depends on countries around the world with varying degrees of solar potential and the political will to exploit it.”

The EPIA forecast that the annual PV market could reach 48 GW in 2017 under a “pessimistic” scenario; in a “policy driven” scenario, demand could reach 84

Credit: EPIA

GW. The difference is the extent to which governments will continue to support the technology through subsidies.

“Even in challenging times, the prospects going forward for solar PV – a clean, safe and infinitely renewable power source – remain solid, especially the medium- to long-term,” said Hoffman.

“The main questions are how and where continued PV growth will occur, and how committed policymakers are to making it happen.”

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The Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation awarded a $2.4 million grant to scientists from computer giant IBM Research, solar company Airlight Energy, technology university ETH Zurich and the Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB.

Over three years, the team will work on making an affordable High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system – a parabolic dish covered in mirrors that tracks the sun.

Credit: IBM Research

Sunlight will heat photovoltaic chips that are able to pass on the sun’s heat 10 times more efficiently than normal. The chips will still be able to function up to a solar concentration of 5,000 times.

“We plan to use triple-junction photovoltaic cells on a micro-channel cooled module which can directly convert more than 30 percent of collected solar radiation into electrical energy and allow for the efficient recovery of an additional 50 percent waste heat,” said Bruno Michel, manager, advanced thermal packaging at IBM Research.

The researchers say this innovative system will convert 80 percent of incoming sunlight to electricity, far more than today’s standard solar energy systems.

“The design of the system is elegantly simple,” said Andrea Pedretti, chief technology officer at Airlight Energy. “We replace expensive steel and glass with low cost concrete and simple pressurized metalized foils. The small high-tech components, in particular the microchannel coolers and the molds, can be manufactured in Switzerland with the remaining construction and assembly done in the region of the installation.”

“This leads to a win-win situation where the system is cost competitive and jobs are created in both regions.”

Because of the system’s high concentration, the researchers predict they will be able to generate energy at one third of the cost of current systems, bringing the levelized cost of energy to below 10 cents per kWh.

The system will also be able to desalinate water and provide air conditioning. You can learn more about the HCPVT project here.

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The founding members of TASC are SolarCity, Sungevity, Sunrun and Verengo. The Alliance aims to protect consumers choice to switch from utility power to distributed solar.

“Americans are choosing solar in record numbers to save money on electric bills,” said TASC member and Sunrun co-Founder Edward Fenster. “While this benefits the American consumer and the economy, monopoly utilities want to stop this progress to protect their own interests.”

A SolarCity installation at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. Photo: SolarCity

The first initiative from TASC is to protect net energy metering (NEM) programs, currently offered in 43 states. Net energy metering means that consumers are credited for any energy generated by their home solar installations that goes back to the grid.

The homeowners has a credit on their energy bill, and the utility has additional electricity it sells to other consumers. But according to TASC, “[m]onopoly utilities are trying to eliminate NEM to halt the consumer-driven popularity of rooftop solar.”

The group argues, with support of studies across multiple states, that net metering benefits not only solar homeowners but also provides a benefit to all ratepayers.

On the other hand, TASC says that utilities see solar as a threat to their business model, because distributed solar lowers demand for electricity from conventional power sources.

“Without consumer choice and empowerment, the utilities will continue to increase their rates and profits,” said TASC member and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive.

“If Americans are denied the right to choose how they produce and consume electricity, monopoly utilities will continue to choose their profits over the interests of consumers.”

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The database is a product of the University’s Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) and Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) and covers all types of energy-related legislation, including solar, other renewables and fossil fuels.

“If we look at where the country is going on advanced energy policy, overwhelmingly that transition is being led by states,” said Bill Ritter, Jr. , director of CNEE and former governor of Colorado. “To get the pulse of where the country is going we need to understand what the states are doing.”

This map shows that New York has the most solar energy-related bills. Credit: AEL Tracker

“AEL Tracker brings together information on energy-related legislation in all 50 states, in a form that is easily accessible not only to lawmakers at all levels of government, but to academics, analysts, environmentalists, funders, business leaders and the general public.”

AEL Tracker provides a simple way to look at over 2,100 energy-related bills across the 50 states. According to AEL Tracker, about 21 percent of pending bills promote clean energy development.

The University plans to use the tool to publish 2-3 analyses on energy trends each month.

“This online database provides information on critical state legislation that is available nowhere else,” said Graham Richard, CEO of AEE.

“We hope this unique database will increase awareness of advanced energy and the way state action can unleash its economic potential for the United States.”

You can use the tool at www.aeltracker.org.

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