FEUP lidera projeto europeu em energias renováveis

Retirado do site da Notícias UP:

"Quinta-feira, 6 de Junho, 2013

Marina Bertoncello / FEUP |

A Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP) lidera um projeto do 7º Programa Quadro da Comissão Europeia dedicado ao desenvolvimento e disseminação de tecnologias de geração de eletricidade usando fontes de energia renováveis. O projeto REnewable ELectricity COOPeration (REELCOOP)  terá em foco cinco áreas diferentes: eletricidade fotovoltaica, centrais solares de concentração, eletricidade solar térmica, biomassa e integração de eletricidade renovável na rede.

Investigadores vão conceber e testar três protótipos inovadores de sistemas de geração elétrica.

Tales of Scottish solar

Retirado do site SolarCurator:

"01 May 2013

History lesson and PV update from Edinburgh, Soitec goes public to finance South African project, Hawaii increases solar footprint

What do Scotland, South Africa, and Hawaii have in common? Certainly not the weather—at least in Caledonia’s case—but the answer is, of course, the increasing implementation of solar power in the respective regions. But a recently posted story from up Edinburgh way not only shares information about new projects coming online but also tells a historical tale, of a time way back in 2005 when a decent-sized (for then) PV system on a university campus was on the bleeding edge of photovoltaic science.

V3Solar puts a new spin on PV efficiency

Um novo conceito bastante interessante para o aproveitamento de energia fotovoltaica, tendo também sido relatado na imprensa nacional (link).

Retirado da revista Gizmag:

"For the vast majority of those looking to harvest energy from the sun to satisfy domestic or business electricity needs, the photovoltaic world is a static and flat one. Even many large scale solar farms feature row upon row of rigid panels, although there may at least be some movement as the panels follow the path of the sun as it moves across the sky. V3Solar's Spin Cell is a little different. It's claimed to be capable of generating over 20 times more electricity than a flat panel with the same area of PV cells thanks to a combination of concentrating lenses, dynamic spin, conical shape, and advanced electronics.

CPV Company Amonix Claims New Solar Module Efficiency Record

Retirado do site da empresa Amonix: 

"Seal Beach, CA – October 30, 2012 – Amonix Inc., the leading designer and manufacturer of concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems, announced that they have successfully converted more than one third of direct sunlight into electricity. In May of this year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed an outdoor operating efficiency rating of 33.5% for an Amonix module, breaking the previous 30.3% record also held by Amonix. Over several days of on-sun testing conducted by NREL, the module efficiency peaked at 34.2%. This is the highest efficiency ever reported under real-world, operating conditions for a solar PV module.

Three of the six Amonix 7700 CPV Solar Systems at the Southern Nevada Water Authority (source)

Cogenra Solar® - Solar Cogeneration

"According to "Residential Combined Heat and Power," a new study by Pike Research, the market for residential combined heat and power (resCHP) systems – defined as small, distributed energy generation systems that produce electricity for residences while also capturing heat that would otherwise be treated as waste – is still very small, but growing rapidly.

Cogenra is a CPV company at heart (...) but its technology captures the “waste” heat and uses it to produce hot water on its installations.  The company boasts Facebook as one of its first clients.  (...) the company is now looking to use the heat for solar cooling.

«Besides being more efficient than the traditional power grid and easier to build than conventional power stations, resCHP systems have the additional benefit of producing thermal energy that can be used as heat, converted to electricity, or converted to cooling when coupled with an adsorption chiller,» said research director Kerry-Ann Adamson."¹   

Cogenra Solar® presentation video (Youtube)