But the quiet manufacturer behind a growing number of solar, smart grid and solar inverter companies is Flextronics, the same company that makes Blackberrys, the Redbox DVD rental kiosks and desktop computers for Lenovo, to name just a few of its customers.
In a bid to help the struggling solar companies, the grid operator unveiled a number of measures last week to ease pressures facing solar project operators in connecting power plants to the electric grid.
FORBES: China's Government To the Rescue As Solar Crisis Deepens
Interconnection with the grid remains a hurdle as well, despite utilities claiming that they want more solar on the grid.
The 60 new projects announced by Majumdar will tackle a wide range of subjects, including biofuel, solar energy and electric grid.
FORBES: Feds Fund Novel Green Tech For Electric Cars, Solar Heat Storage
It also involves the deployment of low concentrating solar technology at a new scale, providing an indication of more such projects and efficiency improvements to come as solar energy marches towards grid parity.
FORBES: U.S. Army Dedicates World's Largest Low-Concentration PV Facility
So every report that comes out, like this one about wind turbines, or others about the impending arrival of grid competitive solar PV, just has me shouting that yes, finally, we can cut off the subsidies.
FORBES: Grantham Inst. Report Shows That We Should Abandon Wind Power Subsidies
The fastest-growing technology is grid-connected solar electric power, which saw a 53% increase in installed capacity during 2009.
BBC: Renewables can fuel society, say world climate advisers
Meanwhile, in 2007 the U.S. added 314 megawatts of new solar energy systems to the grid, up by 125% from the previous year.
In the long run, the limiting factor will not be cost, but rather the challenge of integrating an intermittent solar resource into the power grid.
And yet, to realize the full potential of this plant and others like it, we've got to do more than just add extra solar megawatts to our electrical grid.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Explains the Smart Grid and Economic Recovery | The White House
There has been a rapid expansion of the Mozambican electricity grid, and the latest figures show that 36% of the population have electricity, either from the grid or from solar panels, in their homes, a high figure by sub-Saharan African standards.
By 2015, Clean Edge reports, solar-generated electricity will reach grid parity for residential customers in 11 states.
For example, how often and for how long owners would plug in to the electrical grid, or a solar supply.
Fortunately, many of the concepts and tools needed to mitigate the consequences of solar storm activity for the electrical grid exist today.
FORBES: Intelligence Community Warns Solar Storms Could Collapse Electric Grid
Other California policies support storage more indirectly, she pointed out, including the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), the renewable portfolio standard, and incentive programs for self-generation, smart grid systems, and solar systems.
We are also encouraged by recent announcements in Asia, most notably in China and Japan, that governments are strengthening their commitment to solar energy and raising the target for solar power contribution to the national grid capacity.
FORBES: Trina Sags, Drags Down Solar Sector, On Weak Q4 Margins
Masayoshi Son, a wireless tycoon, plans to build huge solar-power stations and a new grid to connect Japanese prefectures.
As wind turbines and solar panels add more energy to the grid in farther-flung places, ABB hopes to move the energy.
This allows BrightSource's plants to deliver energy even after dark, and gives utilities and grid operators more flexibility than solar power usually provides.
First problem: Most people have no way to store that electricity onsite, so if the grid goes dead, the solar panels do too.
FORBES: D.C. Park Reveals the Gap Between Microgrid Promise and Reality
The German government in 2000 ordered utilities to pay homeowners a fixed rate for 20 years for solar power sent back into the public grid.
Yet it's scarcely visible in the market for solar panel inverters, devices that turn the direct current power generated by solar panels into alternating current for the grid.
The logistical challenges involved in sustaining military operations in remote areas where wars are commonly waged has convinced the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy a growing number of cutting-edge solar-energy technologies in off-grid combat zones.
FORBES: Solar Power Brings NetCentric Warfare to Afghanistan
There would also be smaller turbines, possibly vertical ones, perched on our homes, steadily and reliably complementing our solar panels and contributing to a smart grid which in turn powered our food and factory production and transportation networks.
FORBES: Hurricanes Drive Home Appeal Of Alternative Energy Sources
It might not make sense to install solar panels on the roofs of suburban tract homes already connected to the power grid, but imagine remote bases in Afghanistan powered by lightweight, flexible solar panels built right into tent fabric, or unfurled as easily as extending an umbrella.
Two, they can substitute grid-based power with self-generated power, i.e. power produced onsite using solar panels, fuel cells or whatever that never flows through the grid.
FORBES: Danger: Grid Operator Threatens Economic Growth, Clean Energy
The solar mission in its first phase focused on areas already connected to the grid and had a pricing system that bundled four units of thermal electricity with one unit of solar-based power, which reduced the average per-unit cost of solar electricity.
Incorporate into the grid electricity from renewable resources like solar roofs and backyard windmills, allowing utilities to use local generation to meet renewable resource targets.
If you installed solar panels then that electricity was sold to the grid at about four times the normal price.
FORBES: Green Self-Sufficiency Isn't Actually Self-Sufficient
The London-based research company says solar is viable against fossil fuels on the electric grid in the most sunny regions such as the Middle East.
FORBES: The Cost of Solar Power Is Expected to Decline 50% Over the Next Decade
应用推荐