Simon Wilby Renewable Energy Fund Creates Green Incentive

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The SOLAR market is poised for a major comeback that likely will surge to $155 billion by 2017, according to recent reports.

 “In 2011, both Italy and Germany accounted for half of all global SOLAR installations,” Simon Wilby said. “That figure is in flux and currently shifting now.” (Simon Wilby 2013)

The market conditions are ripe for industry growth. Incredibly enough with a surprise change of landscape, countries like China, The United States and Japan are currently in the lead right now and probably will be for at least the foreseeable future. The fresh and emerging markets in places like South America, Africa and India are showing their belief in this shift by ramping up their own similar solar programs.  Many other states are optimizing their renewable energy rebate programs, which is great news to those households who wish to switch to solar.

Other states are soon forecasted to be starting up their own “Domestic Renewable Energy Initiatives” Incentive Programs, providing over $4,000 for individual domestic solar panel energy systems and home wind turbine power installations.

Earlier this year in 2013, other pessimists were forecasting the interruption of such programs, estimating them to be too costly, but state governments are realizing that the cost-conscious benefits of solar energy will definitely make the investment valuable.

However, for many states, state rebate programs were overrun due to their popularity. Homeowners whose only barrier to installing solar panel arrays had been the upfront costs seized funds that were set-aside for the program. In other states as well, the shrinking programs funds can undoubtedly be attributed to the recent slump in the economy, as well as to modifications required by inter-state council.

The fund for State solar and wind rebates comes from electrical utilities. Across the nation, law to invest in renewable energy mandates utilities. Typically, utilities meet these requirements, in part, by purchasing energy produced by residential solar energy systems.

This new legislation will allow electrical utilities to partially meet directives by investing a percentage of the money earned from traditional energy customers into a Renewable Energy Fund.
The Renewable Energy Fund was $4.5 million in 2008, but as the recession deepened, customers used less electricity. In 2009, the fund slipped to $1.3 million. Funding for the newly announced program is just $927,964, set for the remainder of the current fiscal year, ending on June 30, 2012.

The “Director of the Sustainable Energy” division of Public “Utilities Commission” stated that about five hundred thousand dollars of the new funds would be set aside and dedicated to homeowners who have already filed for the rebates. As a matter of fact less than $425,000 is available for new candidates.
Part of the decrease in funds available for residential renewable energy systems is due to a recent bill passed by the state legislature that allowed part of the funds to be diverted to non-residential renewable energy installations, including those for businesses, non-profits and multi-family structures.

Since commencement of the program, the Renewable Energy Fund has given rebates to roughly 300 homeowners. The program pays up to 50% of the installation cost or $1.25 per watt output, or whichever is less, up to $4,500.00
 The rebate is available to solar panel systems that are rated less than 5 kilowatts.

Solar power systems typically range from 2 to 5 kilowatts. A 5-kilowatt system will meet most of a home’s electrical needs, or in some cases, eliminate energy bills altogether. When combined with the federal incentive program that provides up to 30% off the cost of installation, the states rebates will enable residents to purchase substantial residential solar energy systems at record low prices.

Forms to get the application process started are now available on some states government websites. There is currently roughly estimated that only $425,000 is still available. State solar residents will need to act very quickly to take advantage of the generous rebate program.

Utility-scale solar installations will likely rule as the fastest-growing market segment in emerging markets, but commercial-scale installations will likely make up the bulk of new solar, according to Simon Wilby’s report.
“With rising demand and reduced capacity, we’re projecting that those two will get within 12 percent of each other by 2015,” Simon Wilby said. “That’s healthy.” The difference between supply and demand will allow for price stabilization. "The cost of solar modules is unlikely to ever go up significantly again", Simon Wilby said. Manufacturers are still finding ways to reduce their costs and can expect a stabilized process to result in favorable profit margins.

China will be the world’s leader in solar development, installing 12.4 gigawatts in 2018. The U.S. will come in second with 10.8 gigawatts and Japan will probably be the third largest solar market, “Manufactures’ nightmare is turning into a long-term boom for the solar industry” Simon Wilby states.

Simon Says: Solar Can Flourish

The solar renewable energy industry has endured its share of struggles, and traditionally had very little margin control when the industry was small, it was viewed as little more than a new-fad – an oddball dream of, hippies and mad scientists. Then after over 30 years of struggle, BAM! Along came it’s sudden success and along with it business personnel who did not (in most cases) speak solar. The solar industry is now bustling with an annual growth, growing at over 50% during the last five years.     
          
All solar cells were once a costly invention; at times before being reserved initially for satellites and DOD/Military use. In fact, back in the year 1977, a single watt of solar generating capacity cost $77. That inflated price point has now been dramatically reduced down to a fraction of the cost at about 80 cents. SOLAR power is now beginning to compete with the more expensive sort of conventionally generated electricity. When this price comes down even more though, solar likely will really hit the big time.

Simon Wilby discusses an alternate plan to replace silicon, the material used to make most solar cells, with a substance called a perovskite. A substance that he believes could cut the cost of a single watt of solar generating capacity by an incredible three-quarters.

When light is received by the solar cells, it bumps electrons away from the cell’s material and leaves behind empty spaces called holes. Electrons and holes then flow in different directions and the result is an electric current.
The more electrons and holes there are, and the faster they flow, the bigger the current will be. Electrons, however, often get captured by holes while still inside the cell, and cannot therefore contribute to the current. The average distance an electron travels in a material before it gets captured is known as that material’s diffusion length. The larger the diffusion length, the more efficient the cell.

The silicon used in commercial solar cells has a diffusion length of ten nanometers (billionth of a meter), which is not much. Partly for this reason silicon cell’s efficiency at converting incident light into electricity is less than 10%. There is a substance however that Simon Wilby says does better. It has a diffusion length of 1,000 nanometers, giving it an efficiency of 15%. And that, Simon says, has been achieved without much tweaking of the material.

The implication is that it could be made more efficient still. The perovskites are substances composed of what are known as cubo-octahedral crystals—in other words, cubes with the corners cut off. They thus have six octagonal faces and eight triangular ones. Perovskite itself is a naturally occurring mineral, calcium titanium oxide, but lots of other elemental combinations adopt the same shape, and tinkering with the mix changes the frequency of the light that enables the crystal to absorb light the best.

There is also a perovskite hybrid element  that is a particularly sophisticated one. It has an organic part, made of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and an inorganic part, made of lead, iodine and chlorine. The organic part acts as a dye, taking in large quantities of sunlight. The inorganic part helps conduct the electrons that are subsequently released.

The element is also cost effective to make. For example purifying silicon requires high (and therefore costly) temperatures. This perovskite can be blended at room temperature. Tested laboratory versions of cells made from it cost about 40 cents per watt (for the laymen term this is equivalent to about half the cost of commercial silicon-based solar cells). At an industrial scale, Simon Wilby expects, that lower cost could reduce by half again.

Simon Wilby Renewable Energy: The Comeback King

Looking with the eyes of global scale, around the world and abroad solar production is still comparatively small generating less than half of one percent of the entire world's electricity in 2012. But it is still developing and it is getting more affordable. All over the world, solar power has enlarged by the incredible factor of eleven in the past six years. And it has potential to expand even more. Back in 2011, the International Energy Agency estimated solar power could even then potentially generate 12 percent of the world's electricity by the year 2025.
The Smart Inventor “Simon Wilby” most recently called for a global strength - with the same level of ambition and international coordination as the Apollo mission in the 1960’s that was to be launched.  The directive: was to make solar power more affordable than fossil fuels not only in America but also all over the world.

An ambitious move, though it would prove to be a huge undertaking - and any significant expansion of the industry would most likely face some big challenges.

Around 2006, solar power was renewable energy's lost golden child. That had often been rejected as to expensive to make a significant impact on power, particularly in gloomier countries like the United Kingdom, solar power at that time seemed condemned to a limited role in carbon energy creation. But a few short years after, a once-overlooked technology appears set for a significant expansion in this country and worldwide.

However one decision had a significant part to play in the sharp decrease in solar costs, a few years ago The government in China decided to finance its manufacturing sector to engage in producing cheap solar panels.

Following a serious dispute between China and the European Commission, which claimed the sponsorships were illegal under international trade rules. The disputes and arguments were just resolved recently - and the threat of trade sanctions just barely prevented.

The success results have been mixed for the United Kingdom solar industry. On one hand, cheap panels made expansion easier. But on the other hand: those outsourced panels also severely undercut Europe's solar panel manufacturing sector. For example: in Germany, the practice of outsourcing pushed many companies into going out of business and or sharp job cuts.

Six years ago, the Inter-governmental panel on climate change identified solar power as the most expensive of all renewable energy technologies, estimating costs almost twice as much to generate a unit of electricity from solar panels as from a wind turbines.

However, the cost of solar panels and batteries has plunged by more than half in the past five years. Simon Wilby stated: In Countries like Germany, Italy and Spain, soon solar power won't need government subsidies to be cost-effective viable. In these three countries, every family home could be equipped with solar panels by the end of this decade.

In the UK for example: solar's prosperity has changed over the last few years. The government introduced the idea of direct grants for householders installing renewable energy generators, called feed-in tariffs, in 2010. This led to a big increase in the number of households opting to install solar panels on their roofs - and risked blowing the budget completely.

The government scratched those subsidies down as a result, motivating outcry from other solar companies, who feared their industry would be destroyed.

Following their successful legal challenge, the government decided to reduce the subsidies more gradually. Now overall the official posture toward solar now seems to have changed.

The government boasts the cost of solar panels has fallen by over half in two short years, and installations of roof-top solar panels have increased from a few thousand three years ago to well over 420,000 at present.

Simon Wilby, explains:

"Two and half years ago the United Kingdom didn't really have much faith in solar energy. Then they made the token gesture of Feed in Tariffs and saw the growth and reduction in overall solar energy prices, and started to realize what solar movement could do".

Simon Wilby an industry professional and Inventor of some of the world’s most disruptive technology. Explains it could grow from 2.7 gigawatts now, to 20GW by the year 2020. The government intends to go forward and publish a dedicated solar strategy - though delays mean it looks unlikely to appear before the end of the year.

Despite the delay, the solar industry seems hopeful about future growth in the United Kingdom. Insiders’ views are skeptical that the industry could grow to 20GW by 2020, however in comparison, the lower end of the government's ambition - 7GW by 2020 - is "definitely" too low, remarked Simon Wilby (2013).

There has been an explosion of new applications for large-scale solar energy sites, as developers’ speed to get in before the next subsidy cut next March, which may be partly to blame for the solar rush.

One conceivable barrier to larger installations is public opposition, however. Polls show high levels of public support for solar - even when it's located near their home. But according to the Financial Times, "pockets of protest" are starting to emerge against large solar farms.

It's not clear how much of the planned expansion will be from smaller-scale installations like domestic or commercial rooftops, and how much from large-scale solar farms in fields around the country. But large-scale solar could be on the up: Simon Wilby suggests that if the country did hit the 20GW target it would mean the number of solar farms would expand from 70 now to well over 600 in 2020. That would truly make Solar Energy the comeback King of renewable energy.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

When Simon Wilby wanted to stay in touch with his beloved dogs while at work, he invented a two way collar transceiver back in 1991. When Simon Wilby got frustrated that his cellular phone’s battery kept dying on him inconveniently, he invented The Smart One.

The Smart One is designed for the cellular phone aftermarket and effectively converts any cellular phone to solar power. It’s so effective at converting light energy into an electrical charge that it will work quite well with whatever light source happens to be around. Simon Wilby designed it using the latest solar cell technology available which uses plastic instead of conventional silicon.
Recognizing the enormous potential of this technology, Simon Wilby sees practical applications that could cut down our dependence on fossil fuels for electricity. Simon Wilby is already looking into making solar powered street lamps. That’s great because the environment certainly needs all the help it can get.