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False Technology Start- Spheral Solar Power plant in Canada

Note: This is an article from 2004 used to illustrate that good ideas are not always successful.  This product did not make it.

Spheral Solar Power

SIMON TURNBULl, RECORD STAFF

ATS opened its Spheral Solar Power plant in Cambridge yesterday. Eventually, the Reuter Drive facility will employ more than 200.

New solar cell system unveiled in Cambridge Canada
BY ROSE SIMONE
RECORD STAFF
CAMBRIDGE


Twenty years after conceiving it, Jules Levine saw and touched the realization of his dream. "It is a wonderful thing to see. I could imagine it, but the reality is something else," Levine said as he touched a new type of solar cell he originated two decades ago. It was manufactured using glittering, state-of-the-art equipment in the Spheral Solar Power Inc. plant that opened yesterday and is nearly ready to start shipping products. 

The plant is a division of Cambridge-based ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., which purchased the technology originally developed at Texas Instruments. Levine is now 66 years old and living in Santa Clara, Calif., where he is a patent writer. But 20 years ago, he worked at Texas Instruments, where he originated a method for turning tiny spheres of cheap silicon into solar energy cells.

But at that time, the automation to make useful solar panels out of the spheres, each less than a millimetre in diameter, didn't exist. It involved hand labour. The process was too difficult and expensive to be practical. "In the early days, we were lucky to get a cell the size of your thumb," Levine said. Now, on its pilot line, the Spheral Solar plant has already produced the world's largest crystalline silicon solar cell with an energy-producing surface four times larger than conventional solar cells.

The new $100-million Spheral Solar plant will be ready to start shipping its first products at the end of this summer. About 115 people have been employed already, and Spheral Solar's president, Milfred Hammerbacher, anticipates that nearly 100 more, including many skilled machine operators, will be hired over the next nine months.
Eventually, the newly-built facility on Reuter Drive in Cambridge will employ 220 people. The opening ceremonies were attended by Jim Peterson, federal Minister of International Trade, and Donna Cansfield, Ontario's parliamentary assistant to the energy minister.

Politicians from all government levels were in awe as they toured the 193,000-square-foot plant. Large yellow robots, semiconductors, huge high-temperature vaults, precision automation machines and highly sensitive light testing equipment are used in the process of making the new solar cells. There are more than 40 patents involved in the technology. Klaus Woerner, president of ATS, received a standing ovation for being visionary enough to bring this technology to the marketplace. It will revolutionize solar energy, Woerner told the audience. Levine credits both Hammerbacher, the man he hired at Texas Instruments in the early days, and Woerner at ATS for making it happen. ATS stood by the technology in the early days when people couldn't see the potential," he said.

At first, Texas Instruments was going to contract ATS to develop a factory, but the company decided to sell the solar project in order to focus on core technologies. Ontario Hydro took it on, but didn't commercialize the technology. It was sold to ATS, which put its money and high-tech expertise into the project.Hammerbacher said numerous dedicated government officials were also involved in making it happen. Technologies Partnerships Canada provided $29.5 million, which is repayable,

to help get the plant up and running. The first Spheral Solar product in the field will actually be a 20-kilowatt solar array for the roof of a new Region of Waterloo Emergency Medical Services Fleet Centre. But the company will also soon start shipping its portable solar said. "There is very little off-the-shelf equipment in here. It is all custom-made, so there has been a lot of invention, development and prototyping over the last two years."

Hammerbacher said the official opening is only the beginning of his dream. He told the audience that he dreams of every new home being built with a solar roof producing more electricity to be given back to the electricity grid than is taken from it.  He said he dreams of flying into an airport, and seeing millions of square feet of industrial roof with the sparkle of solar energy producing electricity. "In my dream, the children in poor countries around the world will no longer drink contaminated water because they will have clean water purified by solar power systems," he added "In my dream, we will all breathe cleaner air," Hammerbacher said.
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Questions to Ask before Purchasing a Solar System

nrelAn informed consumer is a powerful consumer! Here is a list of questions you may want to ask your potential installer to help you make a wise investment in clean, renewable energy.
Courtesy of New York Solar Energy Society via American Solar Energy Society
October 18, 2016 

1. What year was the company established?
2. Will you give me a firm quote or an estimate?
3. How are contract changes addressed? Do I have the right to cancel?
4. Do I get a system performance guarantee?
5. How do financing options (lease, PPA, loan, cash) differ?
6. How much can I save using solar?
7. Please explain my utility policies and rate options
8. What if I sell?
9. Who designs the system and forecasts actual output?
10. Will it meet local building and fire codes?
11. How is rapid shutdown accomplished?
12. Who gets the permits?
13. Who knows if my roof is OK?
14. Do you recommend a single inverter or mini inverters or an optimizer?
15. Should I interconnect to the grid? Can I get power during a blackout?
16. Who is responsible for fixing any damage to my roof during installation?
17. How much money is due upfront?
18. Which rebates and incentives come to me? Federal? State? Other?
19. Can I add more panels/modules later?
20. What is my utility policy on systems additions vs. any grandfathering?
21. Should I wait for newer technology?
22. Can I apply for shared solar or community aggregated solar?
23. Are installers your employees?
24. How long will it take?
25. Do I need to be here?
26. What warranties are on different parts of the system and who’s responsible for each? Who do I call if there are
problems?
27. Will my home value change? Will my real estate taxes go up?
28. What if I move?
29. Are the panel/modules blue or black? Will neighbors be notified?
30. How long will they produce maximum power? Will they degrade much?
31. Can squirrels chew the wiring? Are leaves a problem?
32. May I see your state license number and is your insurance paid?
33. Will there be a master electrician on site?
34. Do you have customer references and examples?
35. What is the process for future roof replacement? Cost?
36. What are the performance variables like hot or cold weather?
37. What if a new building is built and shades my system?
38. Will you perform a whole house audit and let me know how to reduce all my energy demands?
39. Can you quote a canopy system, a ground mounted system or a tracking system?
40. If I have an electric vehicle, how much solar energy is needed to charge it?
41. What maintenance is required?

Utility Scale PV Systems

APS Flagstaff PV sAPS

APS recently issued two separate Requests for Proposals for solar and wind resources that will help expand their renewable energy portfolio to approximately 2,500 megawatts by 2021. The first RFP is seeking competitive proposals for up to 150 megawatts of APS-owned solar resources to be in service by Dec. 31, 2021. Projects must employ commercially proven technology and must be designed with the flexibility to add energy storage as a future option.
The second RFP is for up to 250 megawatts of wind resources to be in service as soon as possible, but no later than 2022.
According to the APS posting on www.arizonagoessolar.ord in November 2019 APS has 26 MWac APS owned and 840 MWac utility scale systems connected under power purchase agreements (PPA)owned by others.

 

 

SRP large batterySRP

As part of its commitment to reduce carbon emissions and invest in 1,000 megawatts of new utility-scale solar energy by 2025, Salt River Project has invested in two new solar energy + battery storage plants.

The Sonoran Energy Center will be the largest solar-charged battery project in the state and the addition of these two plants will make SRP one of the largest investors in energy storage in the nation.

Combined, these plants will generate enough solar energy to power approximately 100,000 homes and will store excess energy in state-of-the-art battery storage systems that will be available to customers during the peak energy usage period when demand is at its highest.

The solar plants will also contribute to the SRP goal of adding 1,000 megawatts of new utility-scale, solar energy to its system by the end of fiscal year 2025 as well as SRP’s 2035 goal to reduce the amount of carbon emissions per megawatt-hour by more than 60 percent and by 90 percent in 2050.

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