[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
DuPont bets on bright future for solar sales
Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:24pm EST
By Matt Daily and Ernest Scheyder
NEW YORK (Reuters) - To become one of the biggest suppliers to the solar sector, DuPont has had to think small.
Working at near-nanoscale level is how its researchers and scientists have quietly made the U.S. chemical giant the leading producer of non-silicon materials for the sector, and why it expects its revenue from the solar business to more than double in the next three years.
DuPont has developed films that form the backing for solar cells, silver pastes that line the front of the silicon, substrates upon which the newest photovoltaic products are built, and other essential items for the renewable energy business.
At its sprawling technology campus in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont scientists are working to increase the efficiency at which modules turn sunlight into electricity and extend the life spans of systems -- moves that will lower solar's cost and reduce the industry's reliance on government support.
"I think there is a lot that can be done in both," Marc Doyle, global business director for photovoltaic solutions, told Reuters.
DuPont scientists use electron microscopes to inspect their films and coatings that are only microns thin. That allows them to subtly adjust their materials and manufacturing processes to help the solar cells pull more energy from sunlight.
DuPont pulled in $400 million in sales of solar materials last year -- less than 2 percent of the company's total sales -- but it expects that figure to grow to $1 billion by 2012. It counts 18 of the world's top 20 solar manufacturers as its customers.
The global solar industry totaled about $35 billion in 2008, and DuPont expects it to double to $70 billion in 2013. Of that 2008 total, about $10 billion went for materials other than the polysilicon most cells used to turn sunlight into electricity.
CHIPPING AWAY AT COSTS
Solar manufacturers have seen prices for their modules drop by as much as 50 percent in the past 12 months amid a production glut, raising pressure on them to cut costs to protect profit margins for the young industry.
DuPont expects the solar market to resume its growth rate of more than 30 percent annually starting next year. Last week it said its DuPont Apollo unit had opened a thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, China.
The most efficient polysilicon solar cells turn nearly 20 percent of sunlight into electricity, while those using newer, thin-film technologies typically convert less than 15 percent.
But with companies and governments pouring money into research, the crystalline polysilicon-based systems' efficiencies have increased by about 0.25 percent annually over the last decade, while thin films have seen yearly improvements of 0.50 percent.
Those advances may seem small, but they are putting photovoltaic solar on track to reach "grid parity" in the next five to seven years, according to Steven Freilich, DuPont's director of materials science and engineering.
Grid parity comes when renewable power is cheaper than or the same price as traditional grid power.
That grid parity price, about $2 per watt on an installed basis, would make solar cheap enough to compete against traditional energy sources, such as coal or natural gas, without subsidies.
"We believe there are a lot of things for DuPont to do to help drive the industry toward grid parity," Freilich said.
DuPont, whose Tedlar film is used in 70 percent of solar modules, has also developed new techniques to deposit the silver paste into the thin lines on the front of the cells.
That paste makes up only about 5 percent of the cells' surface, but it is the second-most prevalent material in the product behind silicon. Reducing that coverage or improving the paste's performance can boost the power output from the cell.
"We believe we can get a 0.5 percent increase in efficiency through improvements in the silver paste," Freilich said.
DuPont has also developed films for solar technologies that are only beginning to reach the market, such as a mustard-colored polyimide film can be used as flexible substrate for amorphous silicon and CIGS-based solar cells, two newer materials that are expected to win growing market share in the coming years.
(Writing by Matt Daily; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
[Green Business]
Australia takes step to CO2 trade, aids Copenhagen
Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:29pm EST
By James Grubel and John Acher
CANBERRA/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Australia took a step toward carbon trading on Tuesday when the opposition promised to support a revised government scheme, aiding the outlook for a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next month.
Elsewhere, a group of leading scientists called for urgent action at the December 7-18 meeting to rein in climate change, saying the pace of warming was accelerating and that world sea levels could rise by at worst 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100.
Australia's opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said conservative senators would vote for a revised carbon trading scheme later this week, ending a long-running deadlock that could have forced a snap election.
"I am confident enough Senators will comply with the shadow cabinet and that the legislation will pass," Turnbull said. The revised plan by the center-left government raises compensation to big carbon emitters, coal firms and electricity generators.
Analysts say action by Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter and one of the world's highest per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases, might encourage other big industrial emitters such as the United States and Canada to do more.
But divisions over the scheme run deep in Australia's opposition. Some members are threatening to vote against it or try to have the Senate vote, expected on Thursday, delayed until February 2010.
The scheme is due to start in July 2011, cover 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluters and 75 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. It would be the most comprehensive carbon trade scheme outside the European Union in terms of the percentage of emissions covered.
GREENLAND THAWS
In a "Copenhagen Diagnosis" report, 26 leading scientists urged action to cap rising world greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 or 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, floods, disease and droughts.
"Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations," a joint statement said, pointing to factors including a retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer and melting of Greenland's ice sheet.
"Global sea-level rise may exceed one meter by 2100, with a rise of up to two meters considered an upper limit," it said.
Many of the authors were on the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in 2007 foresaw a sea level rise of 18-59 cms (7-24 inches) by 2100 but did not take account of a possible accelerating melt of Greenland and Antarctica.
In Strasbourg, European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said a U.S. promise on Monday to set a target for reining in its greenhouse gas emissions would help prospects for Copenhagen but said a deal would fail without cash to help developing nations.
"A positive stance from the United States would have spillover effects on other countries in terms of improving the prospects of success at Copenhagen," Dimas said. The United States is the number two emitter behind China.
A senior Obama administration official said on Monday that Washington would make clear in the "next several days" what it planned to offer at Copenhagen including a greenhouse gas emissions goal in line with proposals in the U.S. Congress.
The U.S. House passed a bill that sets a 17 percent reduction target for emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels. A Senate version is shooting for a 20 percent cut. Those work out at about 4 to 7 percent below 1990 levels respectively.
Most rich nations are promising deeper cuts -- the EU is promising a unilateral 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or 30 percent if other nations join in. But pledges fall short of demands by China and India of cuts of at least 40 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels, the benchmark year in U.N. treaties.
In Copenhagen, the government said it had nominated Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard, a leading organizer of the Copenhagen talks, to become the European Union's first climate commissioner.
Denmark expects about 65 world leaders to attend the end of the Copenhagen talks and agree a "politically binding agreement" even though most nations reckon that a legally binding treaty is now out of reach with disputes over emissions and aid.
[Green Business]
DuPont bets on bright future for solar sales
Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:24pm EST
By Matt Daily and Ernest Scheyder
NEW YORK (Reuters) - To become one of the biggest suppliers to the solar sector, DuPont has had to think small.
Working at near-nanoscale level is how its researchers and scientists have quietly made the U.S. chemical giant the leading producer of non-silicon materials for the sector, and why it expects its revenue from the solar business to more than double in the next three years.
DuPont has developed films that form the backing for solar cells, silver pastes that line the front of the silicon, substrates upon which the newest photovoltaic products are built, and other essential items for the renewable energy business.
At its sprawling technology campus in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont scientists are working to increase the efficiency at which modules turn sunlight into electricity and extend the life spans of systems -- moves that will lower solar's cost and reduce the industry's reliance on government support.
"I think there is a lot that can be done in both," Marc Doyle, global business director for photovoltaic solutions, told Reuters.
DuPont scientists use electron microscopes to inspect their films and coatings that are only microns thin. That allows them to subtly adjust their materials and manufacturing processes to help the solar cells pull more energy from sunlight.
DuPont pulled in $400 million in sales of solar materials last year -- less than 2 percent of the company's total sales -- but it expects that figure to grow to $1 billion by 2012. It counts 18 of the world's top 20 solar manufacturers as its customers.
The global solar industry totaled about $35 billion in 2008, and DuPont expects it to double to $70 billion in 2013. Of that 2008 total, about $10 billion went for materials other than the polysilicon most cells used to turn sunlight into electricity.
CHIPPING AWAY AT COSTS
Solar manufacturers have seen prices for their modules drop by as much as 50 percent in the past 12 months amid a production glut, raising pressure on them to cut costs to protect profit margins for the young industry.
DuPont expects the solar market to resume its growth rate of more than 30 percent annually starting next year. Last week it said its DuPont Apollo unit had opened a thin-film photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, China.
The most efficient polysilicon solar cells turn nearly 20 percent of sunlight into electricity, while those using newer, thin-film technologies typically convert less than 15 percent.
But with companies and governments pouring money into research, the crystalline polysilicon-based systems' efficiencies have increased by about 0.25 percent annually over the last decade, while thin films have seen yearly improvements of 0.50 percent.
Those advances may seem small, but they are putting photovoltaic solar on track to reach "grid parity" in the next five to seven years, according to Steven Freilich, DuPont's director of materials science and engineering.
Grid parity comes when renewable power is cheaper than or the same price as traditional grid power.
That grid parity price, about $2 per watt on an installed basis, would make solar cheap enough to compete against traditional energy sources, such as coal or natural gas, without subsidies.
"We believe there are a lot of things for DuPont to do to help drive the industry toward grid parity," Freilich said.
DuPont, whose Tedlar film is used in 70 percent of solar modules, has also developed new techniques to deposit the silver paste into the thin lines on the front of the cells.
That paste makes up only about 5 percent of the cells' surface, but it is the second-most prevalent material in the product behind silicon. Reducing that coverage or improving the paste's performance can boost the power output from the cell.
"We believe we can get a 0.5 percent increase in efficiency through improvements in the silver paste," Freilich said.
DuPont has also developed films for solar technologies that are only beginning to reach the market, such as a mustard-colored polyimide film can be used as flexible substrate for amorphous silicon and CIGS-based solar cells, two newer materials that are expected to win growing market share in the coming years.
(Writing by Matt Daily; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
[Green Business]
Australia takes step to CO2 trade, aids Copenhagen
Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:29pm EST
By James Grubel and John Acher
CANBERRA/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Australia took a step toward carbon trading on Tuesday when the opposition promised to support a revised government scheme, aiding the outlook for a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next month.
Elsewhere, a group of leading scientists called for urgent action at the December 7-18 meeting to rein in climate change, saying the pace of warming was accelerating and that world sea levels could rise by at worst 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100.
Australia's opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said conservative senators would vote for a revised carbon trading scheme later this week, ending a long-running deadlock that could have forced a snap election.
"I am confident enough Senators will comply with the shadow cabinet and that the legislation will pass," Turnbull said. The revised plan by the center-left government raises compensation to big carbon emitters, coal firms and electricity generators.
Analysts say action by Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter and one of the world's highest per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases, might encourage other big industrial emitters such as the United States and Canada to do more.
But divisions over the scheme run deep in Australia's opposition. Some members are threatening to vote against it or try to have the Senate vote, expected on Thursday, delayed until February 2010.
The scheme is due to start in July 2011, cover 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluters and 75 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. It would be the most comprehensive carbon trade scheme outside the European Union in terms of the percentage of emissions covered.
GREENLAND THAWS
In a "Copenhagen Diagnosis" report, 26 leading scientists urged action to cap rising world greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 or 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, floods, disease and droughts.
"Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations," a joint statement said, pointing to factors including a retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer and melting of Greenland's ice sheet.
"Global sea-level rise may exceed one meter by 2100, with a rise of up to two meters considered an upper limit," it said.
Many of the authors were on the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in 2007 foresaw a sea level rise of 18-59 cms (7-24 inches) by 2100 but did not take account of a possible accelerating melt of Greenland and Antarctica.
In Strasbourg, European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said a U.S. promise on Monday to set a target for reining in its greenhouse gas emissions would help prospects for Copenhagen but said a deal would fail without cash to help developing nations.
"A positive stance from the United States would have spillover effects on other countries in terms of improving the prospects of success at Copenhagen," Dimas said. The United States is the number two emitter behind China.
A senior Obama administration official said on Monday that Washington would make clear in the "next several days" what it planned to offer at Copenhagen including a greenhouse gas emissions goal in line with proposals in the U.S. Congress.
The U.S. House passed a bill that sets a 17 percent reduction target for emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels. A Senate version is shooting for a 20 percent cut. Those work out at about 4 to 7 percent below 1990 levels respectively.
Most rich nations are promising deeper cuts -- the EU is promising a unilateral 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or 30 percent if other nations join in. But pledges fall short of demands by China and India of cuts of at least 40 percent by 2020 below 1990 levels, the benchmark year in U.N. treaties.
In Copenhagen, the government said it had nominated Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard, a leading organizer of the Copenhagen talks, to become the European Union's first climate commissioner.
Denmark expects about 65 world leaders to attend the end of the Copenhagen talks and agree a "politically binding agreement" even though most nations reckon that a legally binding treaty is now out of reach with disputes over emissions and aid.
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