Offshore Wind Farms Could Power 37 Million Homes by 2020
Aberdeen, Scotland [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
Global offshore wind farm capacity could grow at a compound annual rate of 32% over the course of the next decade, according to a new report by energy consulting firm ODS-Petrodata.
The International Offshore Wind Market to 2020 report predicts that by the end of 2020 global offshore wind farm capacity will have soared to 55 gigawatts (GW). Current installed capacity is under 2 GW.
The UK currently leads the way for both installed capacity and projects under construction, but it may experience a lull in activity in 2013 and 2014. Germany will more than take up the slack, and will go on to become the industry's power house from 2014 onwards. China and the U.S. will also be very significant players in the longer term.
Transparent Solar Cells Made For Windows
SOURCE: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Offering a view of the garden and an adjacent field, it looks like any
other window. But this window offers an additional feature: it also
produces electricity. The facades of the house, too, harness solar energy
to supply the occupants with electrical power. This is what the domestic
power supply of the future could look like. The surface area used to
produce energy would increase greatly with transparent solar cells.
To translate the vision of see-through solar cells and transparent
electronics into reality, two different transparent coatings would be
required – one to conduct the electricity via electrons, the n-conductors,
and one in which electron holes enable the electricity to flow, the
p-conductors. To produce these coatings the engineers dope the base
material with a few other atoms. Depending on which atoms they use, they
obtain the differently conducting coatings. N-conducting transparent
materials are state of the art, but the p-conductors are problematic. Their
conductivity is too low and often their transparency is poor. Manufacturers
need a transparent base material which is amenable to both n- and p-doping.
At present, indium tin oxide is mainly used for the n-conductors, but this
is costly. Indium has become a rare commodity and its price has increased
tenfold since 2002. The search for substitute materials is therefore in
full swing. At the same time, various questions need to be answered, such
as which materials would be best suitable, what they should be doped with
to obtain good conductivity, and how good their transparency is. Research
scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM
working in cooperation with other Fraunhofer colleagues have developed
material physics models and methods which help in the search.
"If transparent p-conductors with adequate conductivity could be produced,
it would be possible to realize completely transparent electronics," says
Dr. Wolfgang Körner, research scientist at the IWM. Using electron
microscope images, the researchers initially determine the grain boundaries
which most frequently occur in the material – i.e. irregularities in the
ordered crystal structure. These defect structures are modeled atom by
atom. Special simulation methods calculate how the electrons are
distributed in the structures and thus in the solid body. From the data the
researchers extract how conductive and transparent the material is. "We
have found, for example, that phosphorus is suitable for p-doping zinc
oxide, but that nitrogen is more promising," says Körner.
Many Thanks to Mr. A. Nazar
Electrical & Control System Engineering
Fluor Corp.
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