German government approves solar R&D subsidy
Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved plans on Wednesday to grant 100 million euros in support for the solar power industry (...) over the next three to four years.

Energias renováveis reduziram importações de combustíveis fósseis
O secretário de Estado da Energia [Carlos Zorrinho] sublinhou hoje que Portugal importa agora menos 500 milhões de euros por ano em combustíveis fósseis, rejeitando críticas de que as energias renováveis não têm contribuído para reduzir a dependência energética externa. (...) Carlos Zorrinho defendeu ainda que Portugal tem nas energias renováveis uma posição pioneira e que, à medida que o recurso a estas tecnologias se massificar, Portugal irá colher benefícios não só em termos de custos de energia, como nos níveis de exportação de tecnologia e no número de empregos criados.

Governo vai lançar novos concursos para potência solar
O ministro da Economia, José Vieira da Silva, disse ontem no parlamento que o programa solar térmico, que criou facilidades na aquisição de painéis solares, "foi um bom programa, porque aumentou significativamente a área instalada de painéis". Mas foi o secretário de Estado da Energia, Carlos Zorrinho, que assegurou que a breve prazo haverá mais concursos para reforçar a potência solar no país. "Vamos avançar muito rapidamente com a microgeração, vamos avançar com um concurso de minigeração e em pouco tempo com grandes centrais", disse Carlos Zorrinho na Assembleia da República.

OPEL Solar and Tecneira Launch Partnership with One Megawatt Solar Plant
Opel Solar announced it has signed an agreement with Tecneira, the renewable energy company of the ProCME Group [part of the Spanish ACS Group]. The companies also announced (...) a one megawatt HCPV installation eligible for the Portuguese feed-in tariff (“FIT”) [to be] located in Alqueva in the Moura Region of Southern Portugal, a prime location for solar development. (...) OPEL Solar will build the installation with its Mk-I HCPV solar panels mounted on dual axis trackers.

First Solar: the Greentech media analysis
First Solar (and others) developed a process for making solar cells with considerably less semiconductor material. (...) Still, for all the benefits of First Solar’s cells, they are inferior in many important ways to a polycrystalline cell. Their efficiency is lower -- which means you do not get as much solar energy off the constrained roof space. Secondly, while they save a lot on the semiconductor part of the manufacturing process they have to use more glass, more wires, etc., to generate the same amount of solar electricity. Each cell generates less electricity, as well, so inverters, connectors, and installations all cost more with thin film. Thin film also degrades over time. (...) Indeed, the main advantage of thin film is cost -- and that cost advantage has been driven by the cost of the semiconductor component. After all, ingot did cost $450 per kg at one point. (...) However, the price of ingot has fallen -– and spot prices are now $55 per kg, a lot less than $450. First Solar’s advantage is entirely dependent on the fact that they use much less semiconductor than wafers -- an advantage that disappears entirely as wafer prices fall (...) [and] the extra glass and other balance-of-system costs that First Solar panels have are now getting close to completely removing the advantage of low semiconductor material usage.

Activist fears solar plant influx
Brian Brown, a founding member of the Amargosa Conservancy, expressed fears over the cumulative impact of numerous solar power plants that might turn the Mojave Desert into an industrial park. (...) "If the load centers, where they need the electricity, are Las Vegas and Los Angeles (...) why don't you build it there instead of coming out to remote areas or undisturbed public land, scraping it clean, then piping electricity or wiring it and shipping it for 70 or 80 miles?" Brown asked. (...) "Imagine every Walmart parking lot covered with shade," he said. "On top of it you just put solar panels, and every mall parking lot and every piece of asphalt and everybody's home, you could put that over it and you generate electricity." (...) The result could be "thousands of miles of photovoltaic panels. Everyone would get to look at them and share the view instead of just the folks in just a few desert communities (...) A lot of people think the desert is pretty nice as a desert -- why don't we leave it like this?"

Solar Pixel Turns Building Facades into Artwork
Solar panels aren’t usually installed because they’re good-looking. But the Swiss design firm Drzach and Suchy thinks that solar power can be beautiful–literally. The pair have created “piksol”, a solar-powered pixel that lets architects and designers generate photovoltaic mosaics on building facades. [via Inhabitat and LandArt]