RPP Solar cria 1900 postos de trabalho em Abrantes
O Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP) assinou hoje um protocolo de cooperação na área da formação com a empresa RPP Solar, que vai criar 1900 postos de trabalho em Abrantes através de um Projecto Integrado de Energia Solar (PIES). (...) Instalada em Pego, Abrantes, num terreno com 82 hectares de área, esta nova fábrica de painéis fotovoltaicos, vocacionada para a exportação, visa “agregar” toda a cadeia de produção de energia solar, e implicará um investimento global de 1072 milhões de euros (ME) e a criação de 1.900 postos de trabalho, até 2013. (...) “[O]s contratos assinados permitem dizer que já temos tudo vendido e o produto vai ser todo escoado a partir de Abrantes numa lógica patriota e de aposta na exportação”, apontando para uma estimativa de “1700 camiões por ano, com 600 painéis cada, a carregarem painéis para toda a Europa”. (...) Com recrutamento de base local e regional, a RPP Solar vai receber 128 milhões de euros de incentivos, ao abrigo do Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN), sendo 58 milhões de incentivos financeiros e os restantes 70 milhões de incentivos fiscais. Com o arranque de produção anunciado para Julho, com 670 colaboradores a contratar, o projecto é composto por cinco fases, duas em 2010, outras duas no próximo ano e a última, e também a de maior capacidade instalada e com um investimento de 400 milhões de euros, no ano 2012, então já com 1900 trabalhadores.

Soccer-World-Solar power brings World Cup to Ghanaian bush
Deep in the Ghanaian bush, some 200 people danced and hollered on Sunday as solar power helped beam Ghana's World Cup victory over Serbia to the pineapple-growing village of Oboadaka for the first time. Not only were the villagers overjoyed by their team's success, but for many it was a first time watching live World Cup soccer on television.
"We have more than enough reason to celebrate. Its a double-victory for us in this village and we must enjoy it while it lasts," said 63-year-old David Danso, who was among the residents gathered around the giant wall projector powered by solar energy.

Circadian Solar Establishes New Test Facility at the University of Lisbon
Circadian Solar has established a new test facility for its CPV solar energy system at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. This takes advantage both of the high direct normal solar insolation (DNI) in this part of Portugal and of the expertise of the established solar energy research group at the University of Lisbon, led by Professor António Vallêra.

European Parliament exempts renewables from cadmium ban
The European Parliament has voted to exempt the solar industry and all other renewable technologies from a ban on the use of cadmium in the electronics industry. It is a victory for First Solar, the giant US company that is the biggest user of cadmium telluride in its thin-film panels, although the exclusion will be subject to a Commission review in 2014.

Comment: First Solar must have been worried. Apparently they were even considering moving into CIGS: [From Reuters] First Solar Inc, the world's largest thin-film solar panel producer, has set up a Silicon Valley lab for a thin-film technology [CIGS] with the potential for higher efficiency at a lower cost (...) First Solar acknowledged on Thursday it has a small research and development unit in Silicon Valley but declined to comment further.

Green machine: Cars could run on sunlight and CO2

Greenhouse-gas-pumping cars are, let's face it, never going to be green. But innovative sunlight-powered fuel production techniques could inch motor vehicles towards carbon neutrality.

Experimental solar-powered reactors have shown they can create the building blocks for synthetic liquid fuels. They've got a way to go, but these projects could take a big chunk out of net carbon dioxide emissions without the need for major changes to either vehicles or refuelling infrastructure.

A team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is developing a technique to create some of the ingredients for synthetic fuels from carbon-containing gases. Their cerium-oxide-based system can convert CO₂ into carbon monoxide, and can also turn water into hydrogen.

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Funchal com experiência-piloto na iluminação pública
A Câmara Municipal do Funchal vai avançar com uma experiência-piloto em matéria de iluminação pública, com recurso a energia solar. (...) O local onde o projecto será posto em prática está a ser analisado, mas o edil afiança que quer avançar com a experiência. (...) [A] Câmara irá também «avançar já com os leds, que é outro projecto que temos para os parques públicos».

Solar panels are a strong new source of polarized light pollution that creates ecological traps for many types of insect,
Solar power might be nature’s most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny black solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas, a Michigan State University scientist and colleagues warn.
Conventional solar cells share a problem with glass-clad buildings and other expanses of shiny dark surfaces – even vehicles. Reflected sunlight becomes polarized, or aligned in a single, often horizontal plane, which is how at least 300 species of insect recognize the surface of water bodies to lay their eggs.
Applying white grids or other methods to break up the polarized reflection of light, however, makes mayflies and other aquatic insects far less likely to deposit eggs on the panels thinking that they are water, the group discovered. (...) Robertson’s team estimates that adding white markings to solar cells might reduce their ability to collect solar energy by perhaps 1.8 percent, depending on the amount of space the strips cover.