“For the last 15 years, SELF has always believed and said that energy is essential for life,” says Bob Freling, Executive Director, SELF. “Access to energy is foundational to achieving a broad range of basic human rights and all of the Millennium Development Goals. Without it, life is very, very difficult as I’m sure 1.5 billion people can attest to.”

Through its Whole Village development model, SELF works hand-in-hand with communities to create and implement innovative solar energy solutions to improve people’s health and education, ensure food and water security, and spur economic development. Recently, it made a commitment to the United Nation’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative to continue scaling up this model in Benin, West Africa by installing solar systems to power water systems, schools, health clinics, community centers, and street and household lighting systems. Mr. Freling is also co-chairing the initiative’s Working Group on Energy and Health, which will be examining ways to provide access to renewable energy sources for hospitals and health care clinics to support medical services.

“We proudly support the U.N. initiative and look forward to closely working with them to provide universal access to energy to those in need,” says Freling. “Our hope in launching this human rights campaign is to call attention to the critical role energy can play in helping people lift themselves out of poverty and create a better life.”

About SELF

The Solar Electric Light Fund is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit whose mission is to implement solar energy solutions in developing countries to assist rural communities with economic, education, health and agricultural development. Its “Whole Village” development model takes an innovative approach in using integrated solar systems to improve the lives of the 1.5 billion people living in energy poverty throughout the world. Since 1990, SELF has completed projects in more than 20 countries, pioneering unique applications of solar power for drip irrigation in Benin, health care in Haiti, telemedicine in the Amazon rainforest, online learning in South Africa, and microenterprise development in Nigeria. Connect with SELF on the web at www.SELF.org ; on Twitter @solarfund; and at www.Facebook.com/solarelectriclightfund .

SOURCE: Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)

Dear Solar Advocate,
I’d like to first off thank you for all your interest and support for the solar energy industry, especially here in South Carolina over the past few years. We have now reached a pivotal crossroads. The solar industry in SC will either achieve unprecedented growth or continue to take baby steps while we watch our neighbors in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic continue to put themselves leaps and bounds ahead with clean energy policies that have created tens of thousands of jobs in their states. The state senate finance committee is debating house bill 3346, which would increase the state income tax credit for solar investments. This will facilitate projects like never before in SC. With the added incentive, raised tax credit cap and equipment prices at an all-time low, residential and commercial projects alike will offer ROIs that have never been experienced before in SC.

The Solar Business Alliance has organized a Solar Lobby Day on February 7th to support this legislation. If you have interest in clean domestic energy in SC that will bring jobs to bricks and mortar businesses, construction companies and engineering firms alike, then please help us support this legislation. If you cannot support this effort in person, please find your district senator, http://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?chamber=S, on the state government webpage and drop them a note voicing your support for H3346. I cannot stress enough the importance for your support of this bill in our grassroots efforts to build an industry that will create jobs across all sectors.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information about the bill, the solar lobby day or for more information on how to support the industry.

Thank you again,
Paul

Rooftop solar panels are attracting a new demographic of customers who are choosing to lease rather than buy, and enjoying the low upfront costs and immediate savings.

The new third-party-lease business model lets homeowners save money the very first month, rather than breaking even a decade later after an initial investment of $10,000 or $20,000.

Analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the solar lease models are surging in southern California. And they’re being adopted in less affluent neighborhoods that had few customer-owned systems.

The NREL study, “The Transformation of Southern California’s Residential Photovoltaics Market through Third-Party Ownership,” is in the current edition of the journal Energy Policy.

The study indicated an attraction for third-party leasing in neighborhoods with less affluence than those most likely to go for the customer-owned option.

It found a positive correlation between customers outright buying solar energy systems and customers living in neighborhoods where the average household income was $150,000 or more.

But with third-party-leased photovoltaic (PV) panels, that positive correlation appeared in neighborhoods where the average household income was just $100,000 or more.

If what’s true in southern California proves true for the nation, it means that rooftop solar power could prove tempting for an additional 13 million Americans who live in households that earn between $100,000 and $150,000 per year.

“What is so interesting about the southern California data is that the strong decrease in PV prices – from lower retail costs and stronger federal incentives – didn’t pick up a new demographic. But the new business model – leasing – did pick up a new customer demographic,” NREL’s Easan Drury, the lead author of the report, said.

Repackaging the value of photovoltaics as a simple savings on the monthly bill is an attractive alternative to the pitch that it will pay for itself in a decade, he said. “If someone comes up to you and says you can make money next month and forever, that totally changes how people see the value of solar.”

Among Drury’s other findings:

Third-party leasing usually eliminates the need for home-equity-style financing and, thus, the need for significant equity in the home. Without the hurdle of financing, more people can adopt solar, Drury said.
Along with the lower income threshold, Drury found a surge in solar leasing in neighborhoods with younger families.
In the Los Angeles and Orange county markets, customer-owned PV was five times more prevalent than third-party owned in 2009. In 2010, the ratio had dropped to 2 to 1. And for the first quarter of 2011, the ratio was almost even.
Homeowners can put as little as $3,000 down and see an immediate drop in their electricity costs, albeit that first year the drop may be just a couple dollars a month.

The real benefits come over the next two decades, when the $40 or $50 per month they’re paying to lease the solar panels stays constant, while, presumably, the cost of electricity goes up. Third-party companies are touting potential customer savings of $10,000 to $15,000 over two decades.

23. January 2012 | By: NREL

With the World Future Energy Summit taking place in Abu Dhabi this week, US company First Solar has just revealed that it has set a new world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) solar module efficiency.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has confirmed the record, which saw First Solar achieve 14.4pc total area efficiency, bypassing the past record of 13.4pc, which was also set by the company.

First Solar’s chief technology officer Dave Eaglesham made the announcement this morning in Abu Dhabi.

The company manufactures advanced thin-film modules using semiconductor technology. Via its manufacturing process First Solar is able to transform a sheet of glass into a complete solar module in less than 2.5 hours.

Six months ago First Solar bypassed the world record for CdTe solar cell efficiency with a mark of 17.3pc. Eaglesham said today that the cell and module record were both set at the company’s Perrysburg, Ohio factory.

“These records also underscore the tremendous ongoing potential of CdTe compared to silicon-based technologies,” he said this morning.

First Solar employees pictured holding the company’s record-breaking 14.4pc efficient module, manufactured in Perrysburg, Ohio

But what exactly are cell and module efficiencies? Cell efficiency measures the proportion of light converted to energy in a single solar cell. Meanwhile, total area module efficiency measures light conversion across a production-size, multi-cell solar module.

Eaglesham said module efficiency provides a more realistic assessment of real-world performance than cell or aperture-area efficiency.

The World Future Energy Summit itself started yesterday in Abu Dhabi and will run until 19 January. It will cover issues such as advancing future energy, energy efficiency and clean technologies by engaging business, industry, academic and finance leaders at the summit.

Carmel Doyle | |

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/clean-tech/item/25370-new-world-record-for-solar/