Solar tracker is s small thing that adjust your solar panels always in the right position for getting close to the sun. It sound like something we really need it, how can our solar energy for homes live without them! Hold on, I think that if the tracker is needed part it should bundled with solar energy for homes, but it’s not the case. So, we are in our own way!

In the big picture we can say that during spring/winter you solar energy for homes will have more power 40-50%, and Fall/Summer 30-40% depend of where you living. So, we will have average more annually power production 30-40%, not bad right. But just a minutes, there is no free lunch!

Without doubt we want the better solar energy for homes, and the solar tracker is not free, there is a cost. Many factors including the size of photovoltaic array, and the solar tracker systems (active or passive, active are Single-axis and Dual-axis while passive is just only single-axis it use heat from sunlight, I will bring more information next time) will giving us range of its cost. There is no magic formula and on top of that normally the rebate program will apply base on the installed watt not the production watt, so we will not the fully benefit from extra power that produced from solar. But do not confuse for that, all we have to do is to put all the produced power against all the cost together (with rebate program) then, we will know exactly $us/kWh.

Normally what we get in summary is 20-25% annually less cost. It not the same figure as more power produced, due to the rebate program. In principle the solar tracker will give more solar energy for homes, if you are grid on you can get fully benefit by resell extra power to local utility. But if you grid off, you have no opportunity to resell them, so you have to utilize them at your homes.

By : Pett Martin : love to talk about solar energy for homes

By Pett Martin : I love solar energy

The project called Desertec involves a consortium of about 20 firms—including many big German company such as Siemens , Deutsche Bank , and energy companies like RWE—the project will cost around €400 billion ( the fund come from Europe, so it Euro currency), this is what  Torsten Jeworrek  said ( He is a Munich Re board member).

He said the initiative aimed to “present concrete plans in two to three years’ time,” and start the flow of energy to Europe within a decade. Munich Re will lead the project, and the meeting in July will formally establish the group.

He believes that it will be the largest green-energy project in the world, could provide around 15 percent of Europe’s energy needs. But German firms can’t do it alone—The Desertec would require cooperation among a number of different governments and firms.

We ( I mean you .. yes you’re my investor..and me) quit familiar with solar energy, we put solar panels or solar cells mostly on the roof. But they not doing that, they will use the technology called concentrating solar power CSP. This is not Hi-Technology such array of photovoltaic but Low-Technology , we should proud that our DIY at home is the Hi-Tech thing!. So, it will use mirrors to harness rays from the sun to produce steam and drive turbines that make electricity. The power would then be delivered to Europe through high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables. This idea has existed for years, but the high cost of building the infrastructure has kept investors away.

According to the report from Greenpeace mention that the 1 sq km of land is enough to generate as much as 100-130 gigawatt hours (GWh) of solar electricity a year using solar thermal technology. This is the same as the power produced by a 50 MW conventional coal or gas-fired mid-load power plant. Over the total life cycle of a solar thermal power system( I don’t know exactly how long, should be 40 years), its output would be equivalent to the energy contained in more than 5 million barrels of oil. Sound interesting!

The solar fields and wind turbine will coverage from north Africa to the Middle East while Europe will installed only the wind turbine, of course it gonna be politic effects that will come from taking benefit from underdeveloped country to developed country, it may impact to local people/ some animal, bla bla bla. It is always like this, the big investment bring the dark side together with the brightness. But this is beyond my topic here!. So, the Desertec consortium will have to make sure that African countries involved receive ample compensation.

By Pett Martin: who always enjoy to talk about solar energy

India may be gearing to turn itself into the global leader in solar power generation, a sign that major developing nations could become renewable energy hubs to rival Germany and the United States.

Dubbed the National Solar Mission, the Indian plan outlines a target for 20,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2020, according to a draft copy obtained by Greenpeace and posted to the Web.

“This would be the most ambitious solar plan that any country has laid out so far,” said Siddharth Pathak, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace India.

India would generate 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2030 and 200,000 megawatts by mid-century under the plan.

The plan acknowledges the high cost of solar compared to other sources of energy, and coal in particular. But it says costs could be driven down to between 4 and 5 rupees per kilowatt hour by the period 2017-2020, making solar cost competitive with fossil fuels.

There would be one million rooftop systems with an average capacity of 3 kilowatts by 2020 to cut the use of diesel for daytime power while generation parks could be built in the “exclusion” zones around nuclear plants, where people are not allowed to live but solar facilities could be safely installed.

Key to the project would be building up local manufacturing capacity. The plan envisages training 100,000 specialists by 2020. It also foresees the need for processing facilities for raw materials, factories and technology parks for making components and equipment and generation parks to produce electricity.

India currently can make 700 megawatts of photovoltaic modules each year, according to the plan. The aim would be to make 20,000 megawatts of solar cells annually by 2017 and to establish expertise in solar thermal technologies.

Total costs would be 85,000 and 105,000 crores ($18.5 billion to $22.8 billion) over a 30-year period. To help finance the project, the plan foresees a significant tax on gasoline and diesel — fuels the government currently subsidizes.

The plan also foresees a feed-in tariff, solar power purchase obligations for Indian authorities, tax breaks for manufacturers, and exemptions on tariffs for imported equipment. A so-called Solar Energy Authority of India would be set up to manage the system.

But Greenpeace emphasized that help from rich-world countries would be essential for India to meet its goals.

“India needs international support,” said Mr. Pathak. “The industrialized world needs to come up with solid proposals on technology and finance to help developing countries deliver on ambitious plans like this one,” he said.

this is a interesting news catch my eye today…..

Demand for solar panels is expected to be robust in 2010 and beyond. With 2009 aggregate demand for solar panels expected to be flat compared to 2008, this has been a tough year so far for producers and marketers of solar panels, who had ramped up production all through 2008 based on increasing demand.

The economic turndown in late 2008 all but dried up funding for all projects, including solar, releasing a glut of supplies on the market, solar energy experts said during the recent Reuters Global Energy Summit. The effect was exacerbated early this year when Spain pulled back on the generous solar subsidies it had in place for years, making it one of the largest global producers of electricity from solar.

The resulting glut in supplies lowered the price of solar panels, hurting profit expectations for solar producers, many of which are highly leveraged.

Prospects for 2010, however, look good, said Steven Chan, Chief Strategy Officer of Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd.

With U.S. policy trending toward adoption of solar, along with an ease in the credit market, solar will have better days ahead, said Tom Werner, Chief Executive Officer of SunPower Corp.

Access to improved funding is not expected to kick in until later this year, meaning that solar companies still have a few rough months ahead of them, said Mark Morelli, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Conversion Devices Inc.

The utility industry is moving toward mass adoption of solar power despite a tough economic climate, according to a new report from The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA).