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New York Times - Friday, November 23, 2012
Solar Energy

EPA/Waltraud Grubitzsch

Updated: Oct. 11, 2012

Through the centuries, scientists have found innovative ways to harness the power of the sun from
magnifying glasses to steam engines. Converting more solar power into electricity is high on the political
agenda in many countries, amid the push to find domestic energy sources that are less polluting than fossil
fuels.
Solar is growing quickly in the United States.
Assisted by technological innovation and years of government subsidies, the cost of solar power and wind
power has fallen sharply, so much so that the two industries say that they can sometimes deliver cleaner
electricity at prices competitive with power made from fossil fuels.
At the same time, solar and wind power companies are telling Congress that they cannot be truly competitive
and keep creating jobs without a few more years of government support.
The growth of solar power was helped by a federal stimulus package that extended a tax credit and provided
other investment incentives for the industry. A one-year extension of the 1603 tax-grant program is expected
to create an additional 37,000 solar industry jobs in 2012, according to a report by EuPD Research.
But the lobbying by the wind and solar industries comes at a time when there is little enthusiasm for
alternative-energy subsidies in Washington.
Overall concerns about the deficit are making lawmakers more skeptical about any new tax breaks for business
in general. And taxpayer losses of more than half a billion dollars on Solyndra, a bankrupt maker of solar
modules that defaulted on a federal loan, has tarnished the image of renewable power in particular. Solyndra
was financed under a now-expired program, part of the 2009stimulus package, that provided government loan
guarantees for clean-energy projects, some of which administration officials expected to be risky.
But solar and wind companies argue that the tax breaks they are seeking are different. The tax credits can be
taken only by businesses that are already up and running, so taxpayers are less likely to be stuck subsidizing a
failing company, proponents say.

Without the new breaks, industry executives warn, they will be forced to scale back production and eliminate
jobs in a still-weak economy.
Glut of Solar Panels is a New Test for China
China in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind
turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists
around the world as visionaries.
But now Chinas strategy is in disarray. Though worldwide demand for solar panels and wind turbines has
grown rapidly over the last five years, Chinas manufacturing capacity has soared even faster,creating
enormous oversupply and a ferocious price war.
The result is a looming financial disaster, not only for manufacturers but for state-owned banks that financed
factories with approximately $18 billion in low-rate loans and for municipal and provincial governments that
provided loan guarantees and sold manufacturers valuable land at deeply discounted prices.
Chinas biggest solar panel makers are suffering losses of up to $1 for every $3 of sales in 2012, as panel prices
have fallen by three-fourths since 2008. Even though the cost of solar power has fallen, it still remains triple
the price of coal-generated power in China, requiring substantial subsidies through a tax imposed on industrial
users of electricity to cover the higher cost of renewable energy.
The outcome has left even the architects of Chinas renewable energy strategy feeling frustrated and eager to
see many businesses shut down, so the most efficient companies may be salvageable financially. The
government also wants to see the countrys more than 20 wind turbine manufacturers, many of which are
losing money, consolidate to five or six.
Chinese solar company executives blame their difficulties partly on the United Statess decisions in spring 2012
to impose antidumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on solar panel imports, and on the European Unions recent
decision to start its own antidumping investigation of imports from China.

A Volley of Trade Cases

The solar panel manufacturing industry in the United States and Europe has begun a volley of trade cases
against imports, following the same track as the steel industry before it and for many of the same reasons.
The U.S. Commerce Department issued a final ruling on Oct. 10, 2012, that would impose tariffs of 24 percent
to 36 percent on solar panels imported from China. The department concluded, despite Chinas denials, that
Chinese manufacturers had received government subsidies and had dumped solar panels on the U.S. market
for less than it cost to manufacture and ship them.
Solar panel manufacturers in the United States are now lobbying the Obama administration to broaden the
tariffs to include solar panels made partly in China and partly in other locations, notably Taiwan. And the
American industry is not ruling out further trade cases against other Asian solar panel exporters.
In Brussels, the European Union has started a trade investigation into solar panel imports from China the
worlds largest case ever involving allegations of dumping, covering imports worth $26.5 billion last year. And
the European industry is seeking a second case against Chinese solar panel exports, accusing them of
benefiting from government subsidies.
The tariffs imposed by the U.S. cover about $3 billion a year in imported solar panels and were imposed after a
quasi-judicial process at the Commerce Department. U.S. law does not allow the White House to intervene in
the process of calculating duties. But the duties can be replaced with a negotiated settlement that also satisfies
the domestic industry.

How Solar Power Works

There are several ways to use the suns power to generate electricity. One of the most promising is called
concentrating solar power. This involves using mirrors to reflect and focus the suns rays, providing heat, which
in turn helps power a generator. Another is photovoltaic panels, such as the displays on the rooftops of homes
and office buildings (some of these displays, especially in California, have experienced problems with theft).
Solar energy is also used to heat water and pools and of course a properly designed house will optimize the
light and heat qualities of as it floods through the windows.
Making a solar panel, also known as a solar module, requires four main steps. The first is to use molten
polysilicon to grow crystals or cast blocks of polycrystalline silicon. The second step is cutting and polishing the
material into thin, smooth wafers.
The next step involves chemically treating the wafer and adding electrical contacts to turn it into a solar cell.
The last step involves connecting 60 or 72 solar cells together, covering them with glass, enclosing them in an
aluminum frame and adding an electrical junction box.
The Solyndra Scandal
Even with government support, American companies have a hard time competing with foreign producers. In
August 2011, three U.S. solar power companies Solyndra of California, Evergreen Solar of Massachusetts and
SpectraWatt of New York all filed for bankruptcy. In the case of Solyndra, the company had received $527
million in loans from the federal government.
On Sept. 13, 2011, a House subcommittee released documents suggesting that a final review of the $527 million
in loan guarantees for Solyndra may have been rushed so that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could
announce its approval at a groundbreaking.
But at a subcommittee hearing, officials of the Energy Departments loan office and the White House budget
office defended their decisions, which they said were carefully reviewed and not politically inspired.
The collapse of the Solyndra deal turned what was once portrayed by some as a shining example of the promise
of federal subsidies to stimulate economic growth through green jobs into a grim lesson in what others call the
futility of federal meddling in the marketplace.

Extrac to
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019184844.htm

Dealing With Wind Variability On The Wind Farm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007) As Texas electric grid operator prepares
to add power lines for carrying future wind-generated energy, an electrical
engineer at The University of Texas at Austin is developing improved
methods for determining the extent to which power from a wind farm can
displace a conventional power plant, and how best to regulate varying
wind power.
The cost of wind energy has become competitive with that of energy from fossil fuels because of
technology improvements, said Assistant Professor Surya Santoso. Unfortunately, electric power
generated from wind energy is intermittent and variable. That means we need to have better
measurements of wind power plants output as we integrate wind energy into existing power
systems. We also need to develop a way of managing wind power so it can be more readily called
upon when needed.
Texas has outstripped California since 2006 as the leading national producer of wind power, with
most of the states renewable energy goal by 2025 focused on wind power. To help meet this goal,
the states Electric Reliability Council of Texas is expected to add about 1,500 megawatts of new
wind generation this year alone. In late September, Texas also awarded four offshore tracts along
the Gulf Coast for wind power projects with a generating capacity of 1,150 megawatts.
Santoso is developing two strategies to manage and overcome the intermittent and variable
behavior of wind power. With a two-year, $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, he
and his students are developing computational methods to measure the actual capacity contribution
of wind farms. This will allow system planners to calculate how much a wind farm can contribute to
meeting expected power needs.
Santosos lab is also using the funding to establish the technical requirements of energy storage
systems that would serve as temporary batteries for releasing stored wind energy at optimal times.
Having a proper energy storage system would allow you to harness free wind when its available,
but release that energy at the time of your choosing with a desired power profile, Santoso said. He
noted that a wind energy storage system would also increase wind farms overall capacity

contribution and reduce the likelihood of overloading transmission power lines that must carry
energy from different power sources.

Dr. Santoso holds a 500-watt turbine used for small household applications such as a water pump,
refrigerator, or other such small electronic devices. Energy generated by this size of turbine is
stored in a battery. A photo of the Siemens wind turbine at King Mountain Wind Ranch in McCamey,
TX is in the background. These towers can measure up to 68 meters in height, with blades as long
as 30 meters, generating 1 to 2 megawatts (million watts) of power. (Credit: Photo by Erin
McCarley)

Liquid Crystals Stabilized

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2007) Dutch-sponsored researcher Ioan
Paraschiv has stabilised new columnar discotic liquid crystals by making
use of hydrogen bonds.
This stabilisation approach yielded well-ordered, column-shaped aggregates that can transport
charges. Liquid crystals are materials that combine the properties of a liquid with those of crystalline
solids. They show a middle phase, known as mesophase or liquid crystalline phase, in which the
material has unique characteristics that can be used in liquid crystal display (LCD) screens and
solar cells.
One use of columnar discotic liquid crystals is charge transport in photovoltaic solar cells, where a
high degree of order within the mesophase is required.
Ioan Paraschiv investigated whether it is possible to stabilise columnar discotic liquid crystals using
hydrogen bonds. For this, he prepared columnar discotic liquid crystals based on triphenylene core.

He stabilised the ordering in the mesophase by realising a synergy between various bonding
interactions. The mesophases of the newly-formed columnar discotic liquid crystals were found to
be highly stable. Moreover, the material was still easy to process, due to its high solubility in organic
solvents.
This combination of stability and ease of processing is particularly important for the use of these
materials in different applications.
Ioan Paraschiv's research was funded by NWO.

Usage of hydrogen bonds for stabilisation of liquid crystals. (Image courtesy of Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research)