Concurso para 150MW

DGEG - Direcção-Geral de Energia e Geologia
Anúncio do concurso público para atribuição de capacidade de 150 MVA de injecção de potência na rede eléctrica de serviço público para energia eléctrica produzida a partir de centrais solares fotovoltaicas, incluindo a tecnologia solar fotovoltaica de concentração, e ponto de recepção associado. Clique aqui para ver anúncio.

Decreto-Lei da Microprodução finalmente publicado

via Portal das Energias Renováveis

Foi finalmente publicado na segunda-feira, 25 de Outubro de 2010, em Diário da República Número 207 Série I, Suplemento o diploma que altera o DL 363/2007: Decreto-Lei n.º 118-A/2010 (clique aqui para aceder ao DL).

Após meses de espera, uma vez que a Microprodução se encontrava suspensa desde o início do ano, espera-se que este novo diploma, apesar de conter tarifas substancialmente mais baixas que o anterior, venha clarificar e dinamizar o processo de instalação de sistemas de energias renováveis de pequenas potências.

Novas centrais fotovoltaicas têm de adiantar 60 milhões ao Estado- Edição Impressa

Jornal de negócios online
Governo exige contrapartida de pelo menos 800 mil euros por cada lote de dois megawatts no concurso solar

O concurso para licenciamento de novas centrais fotovoltaicas irá disponibilizar no mercado português uma potência total de 150 megawatts (MW), mas o Governo quer receber, em contrapartida, pelo menos 60 milhões de euros do sector privado. A Direcção-Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG) repartiu em 75 lotes, de 2 megawatts (MW) cada, o processo de atribuição de potência de injecção à rede eléctrica a partir de instalações fotovoltaicas. E cada um desses lotes só será entregue mediante uma contrapartida financeira para o Estado de, no mínimo, 800 mil euros.

SunSil Drives Electronics Deeper Into the Solar Panel

Greentech Media
Sunsil of Denmark has upped the technology ante in the integration of PV solar modules and power conditioning electronics. (...) Microinverters and panel optimizers maximize output for each module; SunSil's design goes a step further and adds their "dynamic microcell controller" at the solar-cell level within the module and addresses this cell variation, as well as panel shading and panel soiling. Maximum Powerpoint Tracking is being done at the cell level and the panel puts out alternating current.
Sunsil takes a backside-contact, 17-percent-efficient solar cell, scribes it with a laser and breaks the cell into sub-cells. Each solar module uses 576 sub-cells, along with 48 DC-to-DC converters. (...) With production help from Dutch firm Eurotron, SunSil is building a 300-watt, 230-volt AC module (ACM) -- one that produces 20 percent to 40 percent more kilowatt-hours per year than a standard module.
Hansen claims inverter efficiency of better than 96 percent, using space-grade components. The end product is guaranteed for 25 years.

Solar Roadways to Prototype First Ever Solar Road Panel

from Inhabitat 
Ever drive on the highway and think about how much solar energy is wasted on the asphalt below? Apparently, so has Solar Roadways. The startup was awarded a $100,000 U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant to prototype its Solar Road Panel–an energy-generating panel made from solar cells and glass that is meant to replace petroleum-based asphalt on roads and in parking lots.
The panels, designed by Solar Roadways founder Scott Brusaw, contain embedded LED lights that might eventually act as a “smart” system, providing travel lines as well as timely warnings to drivers about roadblocks and wildlife up ahead. At the same time, embedded heating elements in the panels could prevent snow and ice from building up on the road.
Once a prototype is complete, Solar Roadways still has a long ways to go before its technology is commercialized. But if and when it is, Brusaw estimates that covering the entire U.S. interstate highway system with his 12′ by 12′ panels could fulfill the country’s energy needs (based on each panel producing 7.6 kilowatt hours of power each day).

Associações dizem que estão três mil empregos em risco nas energias renováveis

Jornal de Negócios

Em comunicado conjunto, a Associação Portuguesa da Indústria Solar (APISOLAR), a Associação Portuguesa de Empresas do Sector Fotovolaico (APESF) e a Associação Portuguesa de Energias Renováveis (APREN) criticam os "atrasos sucessivos" da publicação da lei que regula a actividade de microgeração por via renovável, "em particular baseada em energia solar". [As] associações representantes da área das energias renováveis denunciaram "a grave situação" do sector solar fotovoltaico, alertando que está em risco a manutenção de cerca de três mil postos de trabalho.

Why China holds 'rare' cards in the race to go green

From electric cars to wind turbines, environmentally-friendly technology around the world needs rare earth metals. But China - where over 90% of these minerals are mined - is saying it now wants to keep more for its own industry.

The leafy banks of the Birmingham and Worcester canal may be an unlikely place to discuss a looming industrial crisis but it was here that Professor Rex Harris of Birmingham University took me on his hydrogen-powered electric barge.

The super efficient motor, like most electric vehicle motors, uses rare earth magnets.

Rex gave me two matchbox sized neodymium-boron magnets, offering me £50 to push them together.

His money was safe, the magnetic field was too strong. Such power is vital to green technology, so much of which is based on the efficient generation, use and storage of electricity.

So we need to be sure of good supply of rare earth magnets.

"We worry about peak oil," he says, "we should worry about peak magnets as well."

Dangers of dependence

Rare earth metals are relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, but they are difficult to extract.

The green road always starts with black earth Jack Lifton, independent expert

Most came form the United States in the 1960s but tightening environmental regulations and a price war closed the last Californian mine, handing China a virtual monopoly.

American strategic metal consultant, Jack Lifton has been warning the US government of the dangers of dependence.

"Last year the Chinese announced their regular five year plan, looking ahead to 2010 to 2015.

"They said they would continue to reduce the export of these materials to the West and that they were considering stopping the export of certain of them."

The Chinese motives are pretty clear. They want Western users to do their manufacturing in China and they need supplies for their own ambitious wind energy programme.

They plan to build 120 GW of wind generated electricity by 2020, more than Britain's entire electricity production.

That alone demands a full year's supply of rare earth metals.

The former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once remarked "There is oil in the Middle East, there is rare earth in China."

Environmental concerns

Japan has already woken up to the implications of this by building up stockpiles.

Toyota, who make the rare earth guzzling Prius hybrid car, is considering opening its own mine in Vietnam.

The United States is worried about supplies for the military while the UK government has examined the risks for our own plans for more electric cars.

The search is now on for alternative sources of rare earths, with mines planned for California, Australia, Arctic Canada and even Greenland.

Baotou in China is on top of about 60% of the world's rare earth deposits

But they are delayed by environmental concerns stoked by the Chinese experience.

Their principal source is Baotou in Chinese Inner Mongolia where enormous open-cast mines scar the landscape whilst refineries leak vast quantities of polluted water into the landscape.

Independent expert, Jack Lifton says we can't demand zero impact. If we want green technology then we need to mine, he says. "The green road always starts with black earth."

Cleaner alternative

However, Professor Animesh Jha at Leeds University thinks he may have a cleaner alternative.

He has discovered that titanium dioxide ore could be an important source.

The purification of this chemical, commonly used in paints, leaves a residue of rare earths. He believes this could by-pass the Chinese and the environmental problems of mining.

"There are very nice deposits of titanium oxide all over the world... Norway, India, Brazil, US. They all have rare earths in them."

Combine Professor Jha's technique with the fruits of new mines and the careful recycling of rare earth metals currently in use in our laptops and mobile phones and we may be able to provide sufficient supplies in the future.

But new processes take time to perfect and new mines take years to come on-stream.

That still leaves a long gap when the green revolution will rely on the economic and political judgement of China's exporters.