Va regulators considering Dominion solar proposals

Virginia regulators are considering Dominion Virginia Power's proposed plans to increase the use of solar power.

The State Corporation Commission conducted a hearing Wednesday on the Richmond-based energy provider's solar-energy program, which aims to promote alternative power and energy conservation.

One proposal would permit Dominion to build and operate up to 30 megawatts of company-owned solar generation facilities at 30 to 50 locations at an estimated cost of $111 million.

The utility plans to lease commercial rooftops like big box stores, university athletic centers and industrial sites to install panels that would generate enough electricity to power about 6,000 homes during peak daylight hours. Dominion estimates the project would add around 20 cents to the monthly bill of a typical residential customer.

Another proposal, which is being considered through a separate application process, would allow it to purchase up to 3 megawatts of electricity from customer-owned solar installations.

In opening statements, lawyers for Dominion said the program would be good for customers and Virginia to help evaluate the viability of solar power.

"It's fundamentally important that Dominion understand, study and move forward with the demonstration program if solar-distributed generation is to be used as a bigger part of the Dominion system in the future," attorney Kristian Dahl told the commission.

Members of the public commended Dominion's efforts to promote solar power but called it a small step. Others raised concerns over the cost-effectiveness of solar generation.

"It is critical to move the commonwealth away from the carbon-intensive generation that it has relied upon for over a century and move it toward renewable generation," Rob Marmet, a senior energy policy analyst with the Piedmont Environmental Council, told the commission. "Make no mistake, this is a small program. But (it) will provide the commonwealth with a better understanding of electric and market factors that may impede or drive the solar industry in Virginia."

Allowing Dominion to build the solar power facilities and buy customer-generated electricity helps bring validity to the industry, said Andy Bindea, founder of Waynesboro-based Sigora Solar, which installs solar energy systems for residential and commercial customers. In the year and a half it has been in business, the company has completed nearly two dozen installations and sales of $1.3 million.

Representatives from the Virginia Attorney General's office said in open statements that it does not oppose the proposal for Dominion to build solar generation facilities because they would add new power generation, enhance Dominion's fuel diversity and provide environmental benefits.

However, the attorney general's office did raise concerns about the program's design and costs. Representatives said the office would prefer that Dominion focus more on buying solar power from customers first because there would be no cost to non-participating customers.

Europe Prepares to Investigate Chinese Dumping of Solar Panels

Defying Chinese threats of retaliation against European wines and industrial materials, the European Union is preparing to begin on Thursday morning a broad investigation into whether Chinese companies have been exporting solar panels for less than it costs to make them.

The case would be one of the largest trade actions in European history and could lead to steep tariffs on much of China’s $20 billion in annual exports of solar products to Europe, four people familiar with the dispute said Wednesday.

The anti-dumping case, which follows a series of bankruptcies and factory closings by European and U.S. solar panel manufacturers, would broaden what has already become one of the biggest sticking points in trade relations between China and the United States. The U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping tariffs in May of at least 31 percent on Chinese solar panels, in addition to preliminary anti-subsidy tariffs of 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent that were imposed in March.

The Chinese government has responded by accusing American producers of polysilicon, the main material used in solar panels, of engaging in unfair trade practices and has threatened steep tariffs on the producers.

Chinese polysilicon producers have asked the country’s Commerce Ministry to investigate whether their European rivals have sold subsidized material below cost in China. The official newspaper China Daily on Wednesday quoted an unidentified person at the Commerce Ministry as saying that if the European Union opened the solar panel trade case, the Chinese government might retaliate with trade restrictions aimed at European wines and polysilicon.

Chinese government officials declined to comment Wednesday evening, saying that they wanted to see first what the European Union would do.

The E.U. trade case differs from the American action in that the European case will most likely be limited to an anti-dumping complaint, without including an anti-subsidy charge, the people familiar with the dispute said. They insisted on anonymity, citing the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.

The Union also takes longer than the United States to investigate such cases. Preliminary tariffs could be imposed in Europe next May, and final tariffs would not be set until December of next year.

E.U. officials declined to comment on the solar panel issue. Regarding the possibility of Chinese retaliation, they repeated the Union’s standard position that foreign countries should impose trade restrictions only if they follow procedures that comply with the World Trade Organization’s rules.

The United States and the Union each follow elaborate, quasi-judicial procedures for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases, taking voluminous statements from affected companies before acting, and following detailed rules for setting any tariffs. China’s methods for assessing trade penalties are relatively mysterious, and have been the subject of periodic European and American criticism.

The Union is preparing to start the investigation in response to a complaint filed by a coalition of about 20 European companies led by SolarWorld, a German maker of solar panels. SolarWorld, which also has operations in Oregon, had previously set up a coalition of solar panel producers in the United States that used a legal filing to force the Commerce Department to file the cases there.

The sun may be setting on German solar research

Ralf Preu couldn't be busier. The director of the silicon solar cell technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) feels particularly good when his pilot system spits out one solar cell after the other. The shimmering blue solar cells are the result of a complex production process at a high-tech factory on the Fraunhofer Institute campus in Freiburg.

Preu and his 200 employees are busy further developing solar cell technology – now a global standard. Their goal is to increase the efficiency of silicon solar cells from 18 percent today to more than 20 percent in the future. Higher efficiency translates into lower costs for electricity generated from solar cells.

The Fraunhofer researchers still hold the world efficiency record for this type of solar cell. But to remain at the top, they need to continue researching. That means not only increasing the efficiency of solar cells but also reducing their material costs in production.

Ideally, the researchers like to test what they develop in their labs directly with industry partners. This strategy worked well during the solar boom, when numerous German manufacturers of solar cells and modules helped finance their research. The crisis, however, has made companies less willing to pick up the tab. On top of that, Chinese rivals are flooding the market with low-cost solar cells and modules, creating huge pressure on margins.

Today, many midsize and even large solar companies in Germany are struggling for survival. A number of them have already filed for bankruptcy. Researchers like Preu now face financial restraints as their industry partners reduce funding or pull out completely. The Fraunhofer solar cell expert alone has lost about one-fifth of his industry financing.

"We're now working closely with equipment and materials manufacturers and trying to compensate our losses through more publicly funded projects," says Preu.

The abrupt end to the solar boom has also been felt Harry Wirth who, together with 130 employees, is in charge of testing finished photovoltaic modules in a neighboring factory hall. The protective layers of solar cells must remained sealed for 30 years, withstanding heat, cold, moisture and particles. For more than a decade, Wirth received one industry contract after another to develop and test modules that could sustain these dangers.

Now customers are pulling the plug on projects on a weekly basis. That is particularly painful for Wirth who receives up to 75 percent of his research funds directly from industry. "We have lost many of our key customers through bankruptcy," says Wirth, who hopes to avoid reducing staff. Nevertheless, the researcher expects at least half his business will disappear in a few years. "We will need to learn how to cope with customers no longer ringing our doorbell," he says.

Fraunhofer ISE director Eicke Weber is worried about Germany possibly losing its global lead in solar research. Around 70 research institutes in the country are active in this area, and Fraunhofer ISE has emerged as one of the top centers internationally. The number of its researchers has increased from just 300 a decade ago to more than 1,200 today.

About half of Fraunhofer ISE's 73 million euro budget is financed by the solar industry. Experts have begun to ask whether the institute should consider accepting commissioned research from China, if Chinese solar cell and module manufacturers like Suntech become dominant market forces.

"We will not share our core expertise in developing lower-cost, efficient solar cells directly with Chinese companies that only operate in China," Weber says. Research financed by German taxpayers must create jobs and value in Germany, he maintains.

Cobblestone streets may be replaced

Cobblestone streets have been a fixture of Gastown since they were installed in Vancouver's oldest neighbourhood in a beautification scheme in 1974-75.

But maybe not for much longer. Over the years, many of the original cobblestones - which are actually concrete pavers or bricks - have cracked and been patched with asphalt.

Even when they were replaced by similar pavers or bricks, they're a different colour.

The city's engineering department has decided it's time to look at other options.

"Frankly, the treatment that is there is coming to the end of its life - it's pretty bumpy and up and down," said the city's chief engineer, Peter Judd.

"What I've committed to do with the Gastown Business Improvement area is look at options for complete replacement of those streets."

This doesn't mean the three cobblestone blocks of Water Street will be covered in regular asphalt, however.

"It is important, in my view, that we have a treatment on the street there that reflects the historic character," Judd said.

Heritage expert John Atkin doesn't have a problem with replacing the faux cobblestones, provided the replacement fits with the unique character of the area.

"Traditionally, level streets in Vancouver were never paved in stone," he explained.

"They were originally [wooden] plank roads, or they were the wooden block, old-style roads that we see on the east side of the city, [which] was never exposed, it was covered with asphalt.

"Stone and brick were always [used] on the hills. Many of the streets like Hamilton and Homer had granite blocks, because that gave horse hoofs something to grip into. So, to have brick streets down in Gastown is nice, but it's not historic."

Atkin thinks the problem with the present cobblestones is that they weren't designed for the volume or weight of traffic (11,000 to 13,000 vehicles use Water Street daily).

"You've got tour buses pounding the [bleep] out of the bricks, and you've got dump trucks and transit buses," he said.

Judd expects it will take about a year to do a report on how or if the cobblestones should be replaced. The city is also making another significant change in the area, replacing the much-maligned fluorescent bulbs in Gastown's street lights.

"Right now they're fluorescent, and the fluorescent doesn't do very well with the vibration of traffic, so it costs a fortune to maintain them. In fact, we don't maintain them, can't maintain them that well, so there's a lot of lights out."

A long road ahead for spintronics; Are we there yet?

The Saint has spent almost his entire career in the electronics sector, first as a practising engineer and later as a technical journalist.Electronics News’ Editor jokingly says your correspondent reported on John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain’s invention of the transistor in 1947 (at least the Saint hopes he’s joking). That’s not quite true, but the Saint can clearly remember such significant events such as the introduction ofIBM’s PC in 1981, the emergence of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in the late 80s and the first commercial use of the Internet in the mid 90s.

One thing that reporting on electronics technology over an extended period has taught the Saint is that technologies take an awful long time to go from inception to commercialisation. Consider the humble LED, for example. Dr Nick Holonyak – considered the father of the solid-state light emitting technology – first got practical red LEDs working in the early 60s. (Even though others had reported light emission on the application of a voltage to substances such as silicon carbide (SiC) as far back as the early years of the 20th Century.)

It took another three-and-a-half decades of pioneering work before Nichia pushed the technology far enough to make white LEDs that were bright enough to be seriously considered as an alternative to incandescent or fluorescent lighting. Working at the Japanese company, Shuji Nakamura used indium gallium nitride (InGaN) to produce a blue LED, the light from which caused an yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG)-based phosphor to emit white light suitable for mainstream illumination.

It’s hardly surprising that there is such a time lag between a successful lab experiment to product arriving on the shelves. It’s one thing to get a fragile prototype nursed into life in the confines of a cleanroom, quite another to ensure the same technology performs reliably over a long period while enduring the rough-and-tumble of an industrial, commercial or domestic environment. That’s without considering if the said technology can be manufactured, distributed and serviced for a price that makes the owners of the product a profit.

So, why then do reports of new technology always imply that it will be available tomorrow? Your correspondent suspects that this is down to pressure from company management on their marketing people to encourage investors and shareholders to believe the immediate future is rosy and they’re just about to reap a return on their investment. Or perhaps it’s just the marketing people getting excited about a quick sighting of a development in the lab and not really understanding just how much work it requires to reach commercialisation.

Against this backdrop, the Saint was pleased to see this week the University of Sydney’s Professor Simon Ringer taking a more realistic view regarding the technology of spintronics.

Spintronicsaims to use the “spin” of electrons as a method of storing the zeroes and ones of binary code. Electron spin can be defined as “up” or “down”, but because it’s a quantum variable, it’s possible for an electron to be in a state of superposition where it is spinning both up and down at the same time. By controlling the superposition it’s possible to conceive of processors, for example, that are vastly faster and more powerful than today’s devices.

“Spintronics is exciting because it’s one of the few technologies that’s based on an opportunity to exploit … a quantum variable,” saidDavid Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara in an interview with Physics World.

“In current [storage media] a physical piece of matter stores only one bit of information, either a one or a zero. But by using the spin of an electron as the indicator it’s possible in principle for that one particle to store almost an infinite amount of information. [In addition] spin is a quantum state, so it’s one pathway to building a [quantum computer].”