Learn about Solar Energy and Solar Panel Installation...

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October 08, 2007

Google Tech Talks September 12, 2007 ABSTRACT Learn about Solar Energy and Solar Panel Installation from an Industry Expert · Overview -- how solar works, benefits, technologies, market trends ...
Google Tech Talks
September 12, 2007

ABSTRACT

Learn about Solar Energy and Solar Panel Installation from an Industry Expert

· Overview -- how solar works, benefits, technologies, market trends

· Process for installing system

· Key questions to ask & things to look for when considering solar

o Size

o Cost

o Incentives

o Return on investment

· Solar energy myths Credits: Speaker:Meredith McClintock

SolarWorld AG: Solar Power for the Vatican

Inauguration of the First Solar Power Plant for the Papal State










SolarWorld AG has completed the first solar power plant for the Vatican right next to St. Peter’s Cathedral. As from today some 2,394 solar modules will generate electricity on the roof of the Papal audience hall. Today’s audience of Pope Benedict XVI for more than 10,000 believers will already take place under the roof bedecked with solar modules. “This solar plant is designed to send out a visible signal for climate-friendly energy supply and the preservation of creation“, explains Dipl.-Ing. Frank H. Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG.

The solar power plant on the roof of the Paolo VI audience hall has a peak total output of 221.59 Kilowatt (KW), enough to generate some 300,000 Kilowatt hours of electricity. This is equivalent to the annual needs of more than 100 households. The generation of this volume of clean energy is designed to avoid the emission of 225,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide. The aesthetically sophisticated plant was blended into the historical ensemble of Vatican City with a great deal of technical and architectural effort. It is a gift from SolarWorld AG. The solar modules were manufactured at the SolarWorld facility in Freiberg/Saxony. The inverters were donated by SMA Solar Technology and the grid connection was planned by the Italian company Tecno Spot.

Since the beginning of his pontificate Pope Benedict XVI has promoted the causes of environmental and resource protection pointing to “the urgent need to discover alternative energy sources that are safe and accessible to all”. SolarWorld AG wants to support this endeavour with the highly symbolic solar plant in the Vatican. Frank H. Asbeck: „Our commitment to the international dissemination of solar power technology is dedicated to exactly the same objective”.

The original idea to build a solar plant in the Vatican already came about in 2002. The then Pope John Paul II had encouraged Asbeck who had presented him with a solar cell in the course of a general audience to continue in his efforts to promote the worldwide solar energy supply. The concrete contact for the implementation of the project in the Vatican came though the Catholic Community in the Bad Godesberg Rhine Quarter where community commitment and charitable work are promoted in an exemplary fashion.

SolarWorld AG is planning to support aid projects in the poorest countries of the world in at least the same order of magnitude as the solar plant in the Vatican. Through the project group Solar2World an aids orphanage, a hospital and several training centers in Africa have already been equipped with solar power systems. These activities will be further enhanced next year.

In addition to Frank Asbeck the speakers at today’s inauguration ceremony in the Accademia delle Scienze in the Vatican will include the President of the Governors’ Council of Vatican City, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the Italian Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Carlo Rubbia, as well as the President of Eurosolar, Hermann Scheer, who will award the European Solar Prize to the Vatican and to SolarWorld AG in recognition of this successful project.
For current photo material and TV footage please go to the SolarWorld AG website www.spectrafilm.de/solarworld/vatikan/vatikan.htm.

About SolarWorld AG: The SolarWorld AG group of companies (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a world leader in providing high quality solar power technology. The company is represented at all the stages of the solar value chain combining industrial activities ranging from the raw material of silicon to turn-key solar power plants. SolarWorld AG is represented in all solar growth markets of the world. The group which is exclusively involved in its core business of photovoltaic technology operates production facilities in Germany and the USA. These supply the SolarWorld AG sales offices in Germany, Spain, USA, South Africa and Singapore. In South Korea SolarWorld AG is currently building a solar module production facility so as to be able to satisfy the growing demand in Asia on the spot in the future. The central element of the business in addition to the sale of turn-key solar plants and solar modules to the specialist trade is the distribution of solar silicon wafers to the international solar cell industry. In addition to grid-coupled (on-grid) products the group also distributes grid-independent (off-grid) solar power solutions that make an important contribution to the sustainable economic development of threshold and developing countries. The group pools its ethical commitment to solar technology especially in developing countries under the umbrella of Solar2World.
SolarWorld AG employs 2,254 people worldwide. The company is quoted at the stock market including listings in the technology index TecDAX, the ÖkoDAX, the Dow Jones STOXX 600, the international MSCI Index as well as the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.

Contact:
SolarWorld AG Investor Relations / Marketing Communications,
Tel.-No.: 0228/55920-459 or -470; Fax-No.: 0228/55920-9470,
E-Mail: placement(at)solarworld.de
Internet: www.solarworld.de

“Solar Energy Is Produced Right at the Consumer’s Own Home”

The need for energy is growing world-wide. The finite supplies of fuels such as oil and gas are therefore becoming increasingly dear. Solar energy is a first-rate alternative not only for developing countries. German technology in this field is setting the pace. An interview with successful solar businessman Frank Asbeck.

Electricity, the “powerhouse” of the modern economy, has many sources. What are the advantages of solar electricity?

Photovoltaic, the conversion of radiant energy into direct energy, is the only kind of energy generation that can be comprehensively and stably produced right at the consumer’s own home. Solar electricity is emission-free, and so unlike coal and gas releases no climate killer. In contrast to atomic energy, solar energy is completely safe for man and environment. Because solar electricity can be generated everywhere in the world, import of energy carriers from conflict states falls away. Likewise, there is no need to go to war over the sun. In many regions of the world, photovoltaic offers the only option for the provision of basic supplies and for economic development.

The reputation of other kinds of renewable energy has recently suffered considerably in comparison with energy production from renewable raw materials such as maize. As an agricultural engineer, what is your view of agriculture as a source of energy?

As with everything else in life, the use of bio energy can be done rightly or wrongly. The production of palm oil or genetic soya on areas of former rain forest, for example, is totally unacceptable. I find it good that more and more producers of bio fuel have pledged not to use such palm oil imports. The big mineral oil firms, however, don’t usually care where they get the bio fuel for their mixtures: the main thing is that it’s cheap. In this, by the way, they are no different from the food companies.

“I was looked upon as a complete crank”

In the mid-1990s you already wanted to build in Bonn the biggest solar energy station in the world? How did the idea go down?

I was looked upon as a complete crank. Back then, almost nobody could even spell “photovoltaic” correctly. And almost nobody, least of all the credit institutions, wanted to believe that electricity could be generated from sand (that is, silicon) and sun.

In Germany, solar electricity is still subsidised by the state. When will it become competitively viable?

That’s primarily a question of geography. In Africa, electricity from a diesel generator costs double as much as solar energy. In Europe, it is still more expensive than electricity generated from fossil fuels. Through productivity growth, we have been lowering our costs every year. By 2015, in Germany too electricity from the roof will be cheaper than electricity out of socket.

What sort of productivity growth?

We’ve been lowering the costs at all levels of added value. That ranges from silicon production to the production of high-grade wafers and cells and the recycling of raw materials in our own recycling company.

Why is your business in particular so successful?

Because we have integrated all stages of the production process, from raw materials to the system on the roof. Our strong points are independence and sustainability. We have also profited along the entire chain of value generation from the results of our research and development work. Moreover, my co-workers have fun in their jobs and in the conviction that they are doing something meaningful. There is more potential for business success in that than in the orientation on mere economic figures.

A thousand square kilometres of usable roof space

Where do you see solar energy in 2020?

In Germany we have about a thousand square kilometres of the best usable roof space at our disposal. If we have developed about half of it by 2020, we could already cover more than a third of German domestic electric consumption. In Europe as a whole, more than ten percent of the total generation of electric power could be covered by solar energy. In America we already see strong growth here. I hope that solar energy will also enable sustainable economic development in the non-industrialised world, and am very engaged in this effort.

What is your attitude towards climate protection in your own life? After all, there is a Maserati parked in front of your door.

I heat my own house with geothermal energy and generate electricity with hydropower. The Maserati was a childhood dream. I admit my contradictions. Maybe they make me credible because they’re so obvious.

At the end of his twenties, Frank H. Asbeck (49) founded his own engineering office, and in 1998 the SolarWorld AG. As sole manager, he made his business (with headquarter in Bonn) into one of the three biggest apparatus construction firms for solar electricity in the world, with manufacturing sites in Europe, Africa, North America and South East Asia. Subsidiary companies cover all stages of production and value generation, from silicon, a basic material made of sand, to the finished solar power station. At the same time, his entrepreneurial engagement has a political tinge. In 1980, Asbeck was one of the founders of the particularly environmentally aware party “The Greens” (today The Alliance ‘90/The Greens). Seven years later, he withdrew from active politics. Since 2005, Asbeck has sponsored the SolarWorld Einstein Award for trail-blazing achievements in the area of regenerative energy. The first recipient of the award was Klaus Töpfer, General Director of the Environment Programme of the United Nations and former German Environment Minister.

The interview was conducted by Hermann Horstkotte.
He is an education and science journalist for, among others, Spiegel Online and is based in Bonn.

Translation: Jonathan Uhlaner
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e.V., Online-Redaktion