Victor Chavez Mr.

Thread Photovoltaic Cells April Article It looks like Photovoltaic energy production is being used as a partial alternative to oil and coal. In 2005 only 79 watts worth of solar panels were installed but in 2010 878 watts worth of photovoltaic panels were installed in the United States alone. And that number is expected to double by the end of the year 2011. The department of energy has even given a 90.6 million dollar grant in the form of a loan to help jumpstart it. In Alamosa Colorado they are now building one of the worlds biggest ever concentrated photovoltaic plant (CPV). These are much different than normal solar cell energy production instead of just using lenses and mirrors to concentrate enough heat to boil water and create steam to spin a turbine to create energy. CPV uses an array of lenses to focus sunlight onto small solar cells. The concentrated light improves the efficiency of the cells and decreases the solar cell materials required to produce that much electricity. Solar Millenium, a german company that is planning on creating many new Concentrated Photovoltaic Energy Plants in the United States now that new technology is available and it is looking to be very promising. The company recently secured a 2.1 billion dollar federal loan to build the first two phases of the Blythe Solar Power Project, 1,000-megawatt solar trough power plant which will be under construction in the Southern California desert to maximize output. At its peak it will be producing about as much energy as a large nuclear power plant. Although they will be using both types, CPV and Solar, CPV cells are proving to be less maintenance required because there are no mirrors to maintain. This allows for the construction of CPV facilities that are entirely stand alone structures, greatly increasing cost efficiency.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/16/prweb8439843.DTL http://blogs.forbes.com/toddwoody/2011/05/11/solar-millennium-to-build-photovoltaic-power-plantsin-the-u-s/ http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37561/?p1=A6