The Forge is Greensboro North Carolina’s first Makerspace.

From the Greensboro News Record.

“Pi Day (3/14) Career Exploration Jobs Event

9:25 a.m. – noon, March 14, The Forge, 115 W Lewis St.
Career Exploration event spotlighting math-intensive jobs. Employers will be in the workshop area focusing on aviation manufacturing, machining, and welding jobs and in the “soft space” we will have employers looking for talent in IT and code-related jobs.
Information: Employers may contact Joel@skilltv.net to reserve a table.”
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From The Forge.

“Amenities

• 24/7 hours of operation
• A/V system with projector
• Business class internet and WiFi
• Business class server network
• Community space with kitchenette
• Conference room
• Patio area with parabolic canopy
• Rapidly growing inventory of equipment
• RFID access control system
• Secure environment
• Three phase power

Facility Specs

• 3,700sqft
• 2 Bathrooms (ADA compliant)
  • 1 Shower
• 4 separate areas
  • Workshop
  • Collaborative
  • Conference room
  • Patio
• Garage door
• RFID access system
• CPI monitored security system
• 3-phase power”

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I have heard experts say that we are within 5 years of vast improvements in solar energy technology so they will become very cost effective and competitive with conventional energy sources.

Perhaps we are closer than that.

I continually hear about efforts from the Germans (no surprise) where they indicate their installations are already cost effective.

There are 2 primary components of a solar installation.

Solar cells, which make up solar panels, and inverters, which convert the DC electricity from the cells into usable AC electricity.

The increasingly more popular type of inverter is grid tie which sends the electricity into the power grid to offset usage and/or generate revenue.

From ARCTERN Ventures.

“Our Story

Two bright entrepreneurs + giant problem = big reward

In a market economy, solving a big problem generates a big reward. We aggressively seek out the most disruptive ideas to solve the biggest problems of the 21st century: climate change and resource scarcity. We are not afraid of early-stage cleantech investing, in fact, we believe the most attractive investment opportunities are early-stage. However, to do a deep dive on hundreds of ideas to select the most promising ventures requires extensive resources. By leveraging our unique relationship with MaRS, one of the largest innovation centres in the world, we are able to comprehensively review hundreds of early-stage cleantech ventures to select game-changing ideas with lowest risk, highest reward profile. We then work closely with the most promising of these ventures to develop and fund a highly focused plan that wrings out the risks and positions the company for market success.

We are entrepreneurs, not passive investors. We’ve lived it. We like to roll up our sleeves and get involved. As active board members, we passionately support the entrepreneurs in building management teams, developing strong commercial opportunity pipelines, and forging global partnerships.”

“9th January 2015

2015: Solar’s Rise, Oil’s Demise

Oil prices have dominated the energy news in the later half of 2014, particularly here in Canada where, in recent decades, we have unfortunately become more dependent on volatile and uncertain oil revenues. This story has overshadowed solar’s quiet but very successful struggle against fossil fuel based electricity generation.

We are at the beginning of a decades long overhaul of the global energy sector that will see solar come to dominate global electricity generation (and likely transport fuel through low cost production of hydrogen for fuel cells). This isn’t just my opinion, its a prediction by one of the most conservative energy agencies on this small planet, the International Energy Agency (IEA), which predicts solar will be the largest source of electricity globally by 2050. That’s up from less than a quarter of 1% today.

The price of solar dropped 12-19% in 2013/2014 and this years price drop will be a near repeat (NREL). Solar is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity price in 47 US states by 2016, according to Deutsche Bank. This is without any radical technology breakthroughs being commercialized! Just imagine the potential in a few years with some of the breakthrough innovations showing promise (including two of our portfolio companies, Morgan Solar and Sparq Systems). Presently, the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solar cells with more than double the efficiency (46%) of current commercial PV solar modules, however, there are surely cheaper, more efficient ideas that will emerge from the labs and garages around the world.

Solar and oil are on on very different trajectories: solar getting cheaper each month – driven by unlimited human ingenuity; and oil (extraction) getting more expensive – driven by the realities of finding and recovering a limited resource.

We’re making our bet on human ingenuity. Start shifting your assets to the renewable energy economy before they get stranded.”

 
“20th October 2014

SPARQ Systems Secures $11 million to Launch Next Generation Microinverter

San Francisco and Toronto, Oct. 20, 2014 – SPARQ Systems today announced $11 million in funding led by ArcTern Ventures, a Toronto-based cleantech venture capital firm, and Jones, Gable, and Co., a full service investment dealer based in Toronto. SPARQ Systems’ technology converts power produced from solar panels into electricity that can be used by the grid.

“This funding will launch our next generation uQuad microinverter, resetting the bar for residential solar systems,” said Dr. Praveen Jain, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of SPARQ and Canadian federal research chair in power electronics. “We saw an opportunity to take a completely different approach in microinverter design using ideas from the power electronics, aerospace, and telecom fields. The result is the next generation in microinverters.”

SPARQ System’s uQuad is the world’s first 4-in-1, 1,000-Watt residential microinverter that independently optimizes power from up to four solar modules. The uQuad is also the first commercially available ‘smart’ microinverter, with full reactive power control as well as film capacitors to ensure it lasts as long as the solar modules – 25 years or more.

“We spend a lot of time looking at groundbreaking solar technologies and in SPARQ we saw a truly unique advantage over traditional microinverters,” said Murray McCaig, Managing Partner at ArcTern Ventures. “The SPARQ team has done a superb job of translating innovative technology into a better product for solar system installers and home owners.””

 
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There is much discussion and information regarding the cost and cost recovery over time of installing and using solar panels.

One topic which is crucial in determining the true cost of ownership and cost revovery period is the annual degradation in electrical output of the solar panels.

There is a wide variance between what the industry standards and manufacturer claims are and the real world experiences.

Here is a good article on the subject.

From SRoeCo Solar.

“How much do solar panels decrease over time? The solar industry standard is a conservative estimate of 3% in the first year, and less than 1% per year after that. However, solar panel manufacturers are starting to realize that this is too conservative, and they are beginning to warranty their panels to more realistic degradation rates.

There are three points I want to make.

1. Use the solar panel’s warranty to compare output loss over time because that is the only output you are guaranteed.
2. Realistically expect less than a 3% decrease in output the first year, and about .5% decrease per year after that for most panels.
3. One solar panel from 1979 was tested in 2010 (after 30 years) and its output was better than the original factory specs.

First, the industry standard for solar output warranties is 90% output in year 10, and 80% output in year 25. This is the 2011 warranty for companies such as JA Solar, First Solar, Yingli Solar, Canadian Solar, Sanyo, and Sharp. Right now there is not enough data to know reliable degradation rates after 20-25 years, so you must rely on manufacturer warranties in order to compare expected solar output losses over time.

Now, most solar panels won’t degrade this much. This is just want the manufacturers will guarantee. So, some manufacturers are starting to update their warranties to set themselves apart from the competition. Here is a list of the best warranties available from major solar panel manufacturers.”

Read more:

http://sroeco.com/solar/solar-efficiency-losses-over-time

About SRoeCo Solar.

“SRoeCo Solar (pronounced “es-row-koh”) is an independent, solar information website that provides objective, verifiable, solar information and seeks to present it in an easily-understandable way. It is committed to simplifying the solar installation process by providing solar knowledge, calculators, and a sortable, searchable solar panel comparison table.

SRoeCo Solar simplifies solar to help the average person feel more comfortable making an informed decision to install solar panels. More solar is better.

Sorry… as an independent company, SRoeCo Solar:

• does not sell panels, inverters, or other solar equipment
• is not affiliated with any solar manufacturers, installers, or suppliers
• does not recommend specific solar manufacturers, installers or suppliers
• provides all solar companies an equal opportunity to succeed”

Read more:

http://sroeco.com/solar/about/

From REneweconomy December 2, 2014.

“New world record for solar cell efficiency set at 46%”

“A new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity has been established in Europe, after a multi-junction solar cell developed through a French-German collaboration achieved 46 per cent efficiency – up from 43.6%.

The record was achieved using a four-junction cell, developed by Soitec and CEA-Leti in France, together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Germany as one of a new generation of multi-junction solar cells, developed specifically for concentrator PV plants, and expected to have an efficiency potential as high as 50 per cent under concentrated sunlight.

Each of the cell’s four sub-cells converts precisely one quarter of the incoming photons into electricity, thanks to precise tuning of the composition and thicknesses of each layer inside the cell structure.

The new record of 46 per cent efficiency – the cooperation’s second world record in a year – has been confirmed by the Japanese Nationasilex CPV dishesl Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, one of the leading centres for independent verification of solar cell performance results under standard-testing conditions.”

Read more:

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/new-world-record-for-solar-cell-efficiency-set-at-46-73582