German companies combine leading-edge tech into off-grid solar solution.

[skids]

Thin film PV meets vanadium redox batteries:

http://pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/news_view.phtml?news_id=1455

The smallest modular unit is 1kW power and 20kWh energy. The desired energy is achieved by the amount of electrolyte in the tanks. The system shows several advantages over conventional batteries as instant information of state of charge, instantaneous availability of power, allowed to deep discharges, low self discharge, ease of use, longevity of electrolyte and major systems components.

[Ready4Change]

1. Anyone known anything about this vanadium storage system?

The thin film PV's exist and work. Less efficient than polycrystaline or moncrystaline PVs, but a lot cheaper, I think?

But I know nothing about this method of storing electricity via vanadium. Says it's cheaper and longer lived than lead acid batteries. (25 vs 5 years or so.) Any idea of environmental costs?

The USA needs to get on the ball regarding this stuff, or else we'll be buying it from everyone else.

[skids]

2. There's a vanadium test installation in Arizona.

The technology was developed in Australia, and I do not recall seeing a U.S. company offering it yet. Though the U.S. does have the lead in flywheels, which will be the leading competitor, thanks to Beacon Power.

Links on vanadium redox batteries I posted earlier here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x28245

[phantom power]

3. string-ribbon claims better performance than thin-film.

String Ribbon combines the best attributes of conventional crystalline silicon and emerging thin films. It achieves the reliability, stability, high efficiency, and market acceptance of crystalline silicon - without the inherent cost and waste of sawing. And it embodies the efficient material utilization and potential for continuous processing of thin films, but with a more manufacturable process.

http://www.evergreensolar.com/technology/index.html

(it's on their marketing page, so it must be true)

[skids]

4. By "leading edge"

...I was restricting myself to cells that are in mass production.

The labs have some very exciting stuff, no doubt. Maybe add the String Ribbon stuff here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x30896

(On a side note, there's a recent article on a move to aluminum mylar for concentrators, which seems to me to be a no-brainer:

http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_3061008

...now if only I could get a solar cell shaped like a donut then it wouldn't be so hard to generate an even flux with a bunch of AOL CD's :-))

[phantom power]

5. Mmmm, donuts....

String ribbon is in commercial production, although small volume compared to more established products. As it happens, they're building a good-sized factory in Germany, opening 2006. In theory, they should have a big edge in the realm of Si based PV. Nowadays, the business situation is more complicated, with non-Si solutions starting to appear.

[glitch]

6. Lol! Damn I wish I'd kept mine. nt

[skids]

7. Oh, I have a pretty big stack.

They are such fun to play around with:



http://abrij.org/~bri/hw/cdturb.html