Powering the Pope

The Pope is looking to the sky and a “higher power.”

That may not sound unusual, but the power is high because it comes from the sky. Confused yet? We’re referring to solar power, of course.  What did you think?

In a recent encyclical about the economy, the Pope had a friendly reminder for the people of the world; “the environment is God’s gift to everyone and must not be squandered.” The Pope voiced concerns about certain states hoarding non-renewable energy resources, “a grave obstacle to development in poor countries.”

The Pope has spoken about energy before, but this time he went on to say “it should be added that at present it is possible to achieve improved energy efficiency while at the same time encouraging research into alternative forms of energy.”

That’s not empty rhetoric. The Vatican has already installed solar panels on Nervi Hall and more recently, Paul VI Hall. The next step: to build Europe’s largest solar power plant, which will generate enough energy for all 40,000 Vatican City residents.

After becoming the first solar-powered nation in the world, the Vatican plans on eventually exporting excess solar energy to Italy. Additionally, the Vatican’s cafeteria will be hooked up to solar heating and cooling units. They’re even considering an electric Popemobile.

The project has a large price tag; $660 million to build the power plant. But as His Holiness might argue: God put the sun there for a reason.

Solar power

Photo by Randy Montoya

You know the expression “the sky’s the limit.” With solar power, that’s literally true – and Canada has a lot of sky. It’s surprising, then, that Canada has been somewhat slow to embrace solar as a viable energy source.

There are positive signs this is changing.

Take Calgary – according to the Environment Canada, the country’s sunniest major metropolitan centre, at 333 days of sun per year. Until August 2008, residents who wished to install solar panels had to apply for development permits. That doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, but the permits cost $3,000 and approval took weeks. The lethal combination of extra cost and significant delay effectively killed not a few prospective solar projects.

Ending the permit requirement for solar panels happened concurrently with Alberta’s provincial government passing a new law. Alberta’s electrical utilities are now required to compensate customers for the surplus power they produce (from solar or any other source). Suddenly, Albertans – and especially Calgarians – found it cheaper, less time-consuming, and more rewarding to install solar panels.

That’s no mere drop in the bucket, and representative of the shifting mood and increasing opportunities for solar across the country.

As of late 2008, the solar power industry was growing annually by 30 to 40 per cent. This is a timely trend; experts say new technologies on the verge of being ready for the market are about to make solar power lighter, cheaper and more efficient.

Until fairly recently, solar powered electricity, or photovoltaic, was prohibitively expensive. It only made economic sense in remote locations where transmission and construction costs made hooking up to the grid a pricey proposition. Solar heating (also called solar thermal) was cheaper and thus much more widespread.

What makes solar power so expensive? In short, the necessary raw materials, and inefficient technology.

First, the raw materials. Whether photovoltaic or thermal, solar panels are primarily made of silicon. Silicon is costly stuff – or, at least, it used to be. A couple of years ago, The Economist famously predicted solar technology would remain expensive until the price of silicon falls. And lo, it has.

New Energy Finance, a London-based energy analysis and research firm, predicted silicon prices would fall over 70 per cent by 2015. That’s on top of the 40 per cent it fell from 2006 to 2008. This has real impact on the price of solar power. In the US, a one-watt solar cell cost $50 in 1980. It’s currently just under $3.

That would be impressive enough, even if “conventional” electricity remained cheap in Canada – but it’s not. Costs are rising across the board, just as solar is getting cheap. “Grid parity” (where solar costs the same per kilowatt hour as conventional electricity) is a term often used in green energy circles, most often in the form of misty-eyed dreaming. Suddenly, it’s just over the horizon – five years in some European markets, say experts. It’ll take longer in Canada, but if current trends continue, it will come just the same.

Second, technology. Until very recently, generating electricity from solar panels was extraordinarily inefficient. In 1984, a particular new solar energy system achieved a sunlight-to-energy efficiency rate of 29.4 per cent. In other words, more than 70 per cent of the solar heat collected was simply waste. That record rate stood for 24 years – an amazing span of time in the tech world.

In January 2008, that record finally fell. New Mexico-based Sandia National Laboratories tested its new Serial #3 solar dish, and achieved a 31.25 per cent conversion rate. While Sandia happily admits it was an extraordinarily bright and sunny day, the real story was the new solar panel design.

While the device defies quick verbal description, here’s a capsule summary. 82 mirrors are set up to create a dish shape, which has the effect of focusing the light into an intense, hot, beam. Ever watch kids fry ants with a magnifying glass? Same concept.

Electricity is generated by focusing the beam onto a receiver and engine, which is filled with hydrogen. The design is efficiency itself, as the mirrors transmit 94 per cent of the available sunlight to the engine. As the gas heats and cools, the pressure drives pistons, which drives a generator.

You might be wondering if that’s truly a big deal – we’re talking about less than two percentage points here. Well, those add up in a hurry. In a 2.5 hour test, the Sandia facility generated 26.75 kilowatts of juice. Two percentage points’ difference means half a kilowatt – or about the total energy generated by a small solar cell unit.

Improvements aren’t just coming from improvements on existing designs, though. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have been developing a handful of techniques for nanotechnology solar cells. When tested, they delivered a higher-than-expected conversion rate. In the UK, a researcher is exploring ways to design hybrid solar cells – combining organic and inorganic conductors – which may allow for higher conversion rates.

What do these developments mean for Canada? After all, it’s a nation blessed with natural resources that already enjoys some of the world’s lowest energy costs. Canada has traditionally and continues to see solar as a contributor; part of the national energy puzzle, but not an overarching cure-all.

Currently, about 20 per cent of all Canadian energy use is residential. While installing solar cells can put a dent in energy bills, that’s about the limit. Under current costs replacing a typical furnace with a solar system would cost between $15,000 and $30,000. It would eventually pay for itself – eventually. Natural Resources Canada says a 100 per cent solar-powered home becomes a good investment after 30 to 40 years of continuous use.

That has created a vicious circle; Canadians have avoided solar because of high prices, and constant assurances that costs would and will eventually come down – so why pony up now for a system predicted to be soon obsolete?

It’s a reasonable concern. As such, Canada’s residential solar industry has concentrated on niches. First and foremost, water.

17 per cent of Canadian residential energy is consumed in the act of heating water. Nearly 10 per cent of Canadian homes have outdoor swimming pools. Heating an average-sized pool – even in the heat of summer – is actually more energy-intensive than heating a home in winter.

The solution? Solar panels, of course. It already heats about a tenth of the nation’s pools, and a modest $600 system makes a significant difference in energy consumption and bills. The reason is that solar heating is vastly more efficient than photovoltaic electricity.

It’s an exciting time for solar energy. The future’s so bright, it’s gotta wear shades.

Solar paint?

Soon, the only tool needed to combat climate change could be a paintbrush. 

No more need for costly solar panels. The Corus Group, a Dutch steel company, has developed a way to paint solar cells right onto steel at the time of manufacture. 

Photovoltaic cells are the things in solar panels which generate a current or voltage when exposed to visible light. In other words, they’re what make a solar panel convert the sun into energy. Photovoltaic paint is a whole new type of ‘sun screen.’

The company says its paint is made into a liquid paste containing a layer of dye and a layer of electrolytes. Four coats of paint would need to be applied in total— an undercoat, a layer of dye-sensitized solar cells, a layer of electrolyte or titanium dioxide as white paint pigment and finally a protective film.

The solar technology is much like a plant’s photosynthesis and this boundary-pushing invention could have production starting by 2012. 

It means that one day all building surfaces that come into contact with the sun have the potential to become a photovoltaic surface. What is really exciting is the potential for deployment on a mass scale. Made possible because the paint would cost less than a solar cell, providing clean solar electricity at a low cost.

There would also be the added advantage for cloudier climates since the painted steel would be more efficient at capturing low radiation light than conventional solar cells.

Someday all your buildings could be three sheets to the sun.

Molten salt

You know the expression, “ask ten people the same question, and get ten answers?” Here’s an exception: Ask a thousand people involved with solar energy this question, and you’ll get the same answer every single time.

Namely: “what’s the single biggest drawback to solar power?” That answer? Storage.

It’s definitely been solar’s Achilles heel, if you will. Solar-generated electricity is cheap, renewable, works on small and large scales, and the infrastructure is relatively cheap. But what do you do when it’s cloudy?

It goes without saying that electricity has to be available on demand. Previously, solar cells charged batteries (for the most part). That’s a decent solution, but batteries are expensive, bulky, and often inefficient.

A U.S. firm may just have invented the perfect solution, and it’s so high-tech you have to read the following sentence a few times to comprehend the complexity. Salt. Yes, you read that right. The world’s most common condiment may just be the future of electricity.

Okay, it’s more complicated than that – but not a whole lot more. Hamilton Sundstrand, a US aerospace company, couldn’t help but notice that when you heat salt to over 1,000 degrees, it melts and retains most of its heat energy.

The molten salt (actually a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate) is stored in a tank until dispatched into a steam generator. The steam drives a turbine, which generates electricity. The salt retains 99 per cent of its heat per 24 hours, which is far better than most materials.

Sometimes progress is funny: a company devoted to outer space looks at a clean energy source from the skies, and improves it with…salt from the earth.

Less sunny future for solar energy industry

The United States saw a jump in the use of solar energy by about 9 percent in 2008, but will those numbers continue to rise as the recession hits hard or will this economy be a “pane” for solar energy?

In the past two years, solar panel capacity rose an impressive 78% and solar heater installations increased about 50 percent in the United States, but reports indicate that the first quarter of 2009 has hit the solar industry hard. Sales have slumped and solar companies are feeling the pinch.  

Enter the U.S. government, which is trying to guarantee loans for solar and other renewable energy projects. President Obama has pledged to double renewable energy production in three years. But more than tax credits and laws are needed in the United States.

Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch says that electricity providers also need to be legislated to generate a certain percentage of renewable energy. 

In Canada, the government is also making solar workforce development a priority. Solar energy seems to be boosting the economy by providing jobs and it is estimated that the industry’s labour force will increase by more than 100% over the next three years. 

The government is working with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges on developing a national curriculum for designers and installers of solar energy systems as well as the Electricity Sector Council and the Canadian Solar Industries Association.

Governments must take action in order for solar to successfully shine through this economic slump.

Bright Calgary teen has a world to save and (solar) energy to burn

While the world groans from the weight of pressing environmental and social issues, Eden Full takes matters into her own hands. These are the hands of a Calgary teen whose energy and passion for the environment and humanity means more than learning and reading about it. It means more than talking about solutions or attending symposiums, and more than being just a small part of the solution, as so many of us do by recycling, donating to charities, eco-shopping and learning about energy conservation.

For 17-year-old Eden, it’s all about action; her passion is channeled into a full-time hobby and promising career as a solar power inventor and conductor of solutions for developing countries. “I’ve been interested in solar power since I was really young,” says the John G.Diefenbaker High student. Eden says she was attracted to solar energy particularly because of its low impact on the environment and wildlife. “Plus, solar panels look kind of cool on buildings and they have lots of applications,” she adds.

So what exactly has Eden been doing to harness the power of the sun? Try inventing a solar powered tracking system that harnesses energy from the wind to power the movement of solar panels. The goal? To bring this bountiful energy source to developing countries like Tanzania where the soil is surprisingly fertile but the farmers do not possess the refrigerating systems needed to store their crops before distribution to surrounding communities.

“What we can do is develop solar power systems that are cost effective enough to power, say, ten refrigerating systems, which would buy the farmers some time so they can distribute the food and store it for their own families before it spoils,” says Eden. So much for watching American Idol tonight then, right?

Eden has more pressing matters to attend to, like how to improve the ability of the panels to align with the shifting sun rays at different times of the day, and, of course, without using as much energy. Traditionally, solar powered devices require electricity for the motors that power the panels’ movements. “This is about creating the opportunity to use minimal energy while addressing basic needs,” Eden says.

Not surprisingly, the aspiring Princeton student believes the future for solar power is bright. But it also has its challenges. When it comes to materials engineering, there is a lot of work to do around improving the overall efficiency of solar panels, Eden adds, but we also have to come up with ways to effectively use the mechanics of the technology, to move the solar panels and to optimize their output at all times of day.

So how does a person Eden’s age acquire the finances and resources to accomplish such feats? “I get a lot of support from my parents and awards from other solar projects,” she explains, adding the biggest challenge is building a functional prototype that proves the system’s viability. Oh, and not to mention the $95,000 in scholarships including the $70,000 TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership which also means guaranteed employment with the Canadian banking giant. Although these scholarships are not monetary awards, meaning, they can’t be used to fund her research projects, any money Eden doesn’t have to spend on schooling is money she can put towards her research. Also, in May, she participated in the National Science Fair Competition in Winnipeg where she placed silver in the Environmental Innovation Senior category and bronze in the Engineering Senior category. And this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill, baking soda volcano competition either.

“For me, the most rewarding aspect of my work, at the end of the day, is being able to tell myself that I’m having fun with what I’m doing, but that I’m also helping a lot of people,” says Eden, who believes passion is a key ingredient to success. On her own time Eden’s passions include music, as she plays violin, bass guitar, acoustic guitar and piano, and caring for her love bird. Eden has also co-founded an environmental club at her school and works with other students to acquire research grants with the goal of developing solar panels for the school.

Finally, what advice does Eden have for others, especially those her age, who are concerned about environmental issues and want to make a real difference? “I think be innovative and persevering,” says Eden. “Do what you are passionate about, even if you don’t find a solution at first. You will encounter all sorts of bumps in the road, but keep going. You will find a solution.”

Energy in your backyard

Renewable energy is the talk of the town, but how do you go about transforming talk into action? Sometimes it’s difficult to create change on a mass scale, but the more individuals think, talk and act according to increased awareness about the environment, the closer we all get to a more sustainable future. If you’re thinking about doing your part, two energy resources you should learn more about are solar and wind.

Catch some rays

Solar power can be used to heat water in your home or business and generate electricity for lighting and appliances. In addition to saving you money on your energy bill, power produced from the sun can provide an energy source in remote locations and increase security from power outages.

Think solar energy is a bright idea? The Canadian Solar Industries Association (CSIA) works with individuals and organizations to develop and implement programs that encourage the widespread use of solar energy in Canada. They offer a searchable member directory that is your best source for a full range of solar products (including solar panels and heat pumps) and services in your region.

They also provide information to help you learn to design and install solar photovoltaic systems and hot water systems and sponsor Clean Energy Classrooms where you’ll find additional employment and career information.

Have some questions or just need more information to get started?

NRCan’s ecoENERGY Renewable Heat program offers incentives to business to install active energy-efficient solar air and/or water heating systems. And on the home front there are government programs to help you pay for retrofits and renovations. These programs run to March 31, 2011. First Look helps you estimate annual solar radiation in your area. And Off the Grid seminars help you learn how to reduce your energy bill without changing your lifestyle. 

Got wind?

Wind power is a clean, sustainable source of energy. It is compatible to use with your regular power supply and is an excellent source of energy for rural areas. Ideal for less sunny regions, wind can generate energy day and night and is an inexpensive source of alternative energy.

Want to join the winds of change? Canadian Wind Association (CanWEA) represents the wind energy community in Canada — organizations and individuals who are directly involved in the development and application of wind energy technology, products and services.

CanWEA provides information on small wind energy systems. Their Small Wind Purchase Guide (472KB PDF) gives homeowners, ranchers and farmers helpful tips on buying wind turbines, assessing a site, permitting, installing and maintaining equipment and connecting to the grid. They also provide an easy step-by-step planning exercise and a cost calculator. If you’re looking at the bigger picture and want to learn more about wind farms and wind energy CanWEA can provide you with what you need.  

Have some questions or just need more information to get started?

First Look helps you estimate annual wind speed in your area. NRCan’s Clean Energy Project Analysis Software helps you evaluate energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial visibility and risk for various types of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. The Wind Energy Institute of Canada is advancing the development of wind energy in Canada through research, testing, innovation and collaboration. They have initiated a testing program for small wind turbines that includes power performance and quality, acoustic noise emissions, duration and safety. And Mariah Power is taking a new approach with a vertical wind turbine that supplies low cost energy and easy maintenance for your home or small business.

Harnessing the solar generation power of unused rooftops

From need: more space to harness the power of the sun on a large scale, to innovation: transforming unused commercial rooftops into solar generation stations, capable of supplying hundreds and even thousands of homes with clean, renewable energy.

An idea so simple, it prompts one to ask “Why didn’t I think of it?”

Large-scale installation projects have been undertaken already across the United States. Southern California Edison recently completed the installation of 600,000 square feet of solar powered rooftops, generating approximately 250 million watts of electricity. This is equivalent to building several utility-scale solar power plants. 

The program will provide a new generation source to areas where customer demand is rising. The solar modules can be connected quickly to the nearest neighbourhood circuit while major new renewable energy transmission lines are being built. The output of solar panels generally matches peak customer demand which is typically low in the morning and evening, higher in the afternoon.

One of the challenges plaguing the industry has been the high cost of implementation. In February 2009, a solar panel maker in Arizona announced that it had managed to reduce its production costs from $3 to less than $1 a watt, reaching a new industry milestone. The company was able to increase its production capacity by 50 times, and pass on those savings to consumers.

With prices like that, solar power is very close to enabling clean, renewable electricity at competitive prices.

Let the sunshine in.

New building has sunny disposition

If you’re in Montreal this summer and in the vicinity of the new John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, take a cue from the old CBC-TV children’s show, The Friendly Giant, and “look up, ‘waaay up”. The top two floors of one facade of the school will be clad in solar panels in what the university heralds as a world-first integration of combined solar heat and power technology into a non-residential building.

Also the largest solar-electric installation in Quebec, the Solarwall will cover 300 square metres and generate enough power for the building during the heating season. In off-peak periods, it also is designed to feed power back into the grid, potentially generating revenue for the university.

“Construction of the . . . building provided our researchers with an opportunity to integrate state-of-the-art innovative solar technology, developed right here at Concordia, into a building which will set new standards for construction,” Chancellor and Vice-President Judith Woodsworth says.

The installation was designed by the Canadian Solar Buildings Research Network which is led by Dr. Andreas Athienitis, a professor in Concordia’s department of building, civil and environmental engineering.

It was underwritten by Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY division and the Quebec energy efficiency agency with three industrial suppliers: Conserval Engineering (Solar wall), Day4Energy (photovoltaic panels) and Sustainable Energy Technologies (electronic components which converting the solar electricity for building use.)

Construction is scheduled for completion this summer, just a few weeks before classes begin in September. Visitors will be able to consult a real-time lobby display of the building’s solar energy capture and energy use.

Dyeing for sunlight

According to researchers at MIT, solar power might benefit from a splash of colour.

As reported in a recent article in Nature, researchers have found that thin films coloured with organic dyes and affixed to glass are able to increase the efficiency of solar panels, maximizing their energy output.

These “solar concentrators” work by absorbing different wavelengths, which in turn allows the collector to absorb more of sunlight’s spectrum. (It also gives offers solar power the chic look of an ‘80s dance club.)

Because efficiency is one of the most important features of any new development in solar power, concentrating power on a unit’s collectors is essential. But, as the article points out, while mirrors used to concentrate sunlight are already being used, they are costly to manufacture and make the unit prone to overheating. Dyed films allow for the use of fewer moving parts and other logistical improvements.

Notably, light-sensitive dyes have actually already been tried, though the technology available in the 1970s was ultimately unviable.

With demand for alternative energy sources continuing to increase, technologies like MIT’s dyed solar panel films are making solar energy a more viable alternative power source. And if they should get a little prettier in the meantime? So much the better.