Solar Power Update for Feb. 24, 2009

Lots of solar news this week, but these five stories are what caught my interest.

On the generation of power front we have the second large generation deal for the California desert in a short time.  The story on Earth2 tech (http://earth2tech.com/2009/02/23/solar-thermal-heats-up-with-esolar-deal/) talks all about the eSolar deal.

Excerpt: “Yes, Virginia, there is a solar thermal market. NRG Energy and eSolar have signed an agreement to develop up to 500 megawatts of solar thermal projects in California and throughout the Southwest region of the U.S., the two said today, marking the industry’s second big deal this month.“

Our next story is about the falling price of solar power.  According to the story the price has fallen 3 cents per watt in the last month alone. The story is also here on Earth2tech (http://earth2tech.com/2009/02/23/solar-prices-drop-deeper-discounts-expected/).  If the prediction contained are true it sounds like a pretty rough time is in store for the solar power industry.

In the using different spaces section we have a couple of stories, the first being about how Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is thinking about buying a large parcel of land that had been intended for airport expansion to use as a solar thermal generation plant. The story is via Greenbang.com (http://www.greenbang.com/out-with-the-planes-in-with-the-solar-panels/) and the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-solar23-2009feb23,0,359744.story).

The other is an update to a story I first heard a while ago, using roadways to generate solar power. The idea is to create a very tough solar panel and use them to pave roads with.  I personally have a hard time getting my head around this, however if they can make it work it certainly makes sense from a space utilization perspective. The story is on Green Tech Gazette (http://www.greentechgazette.com/index.php/solar-energy/solar-roadways-see-daylight-with-stimulus-package/).

Excerpt: “About a year ago, I talked about Solar Roadways and how they were going to revolutionize not only the solar panel industry but the road construction industry as well. The idea behind having solar roadways is to replace a portion of our existing 25,000 square miles of existing pavement with tough and efficient photovoltaic panels.“

Lastly tonight we have a story from the University of Central Florida about its upgrade of a plug in hybrid van to rund completely on solar power.  The story is here on Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/ucflorida-has-a-solar-powered-cars.php)

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