Rapidly increasing solar PV (photovoltaic) installation capacities together with growing demand for the renewable power sources have been significantly contributing towards the overall growth and development of solar panels market. Developed countries such as U.S. are expected to drive demand for solar panels with increasing number of new houses.
Transformation of the U.S. Energy Industry with California’s Residential Solar Panels
California is likely to witness new homes integrating solar panels, which is likely to be a major step towards positioning the state as leader in the clean energy. Solar panels are expected to be a needed feature in California’s new houses, after Building Standards Commission of the state gave final approval for housing rule that is first of a kind in U.S. With increasing number of residential solar panels, big utility companies are expected to witness growing competition, especially the ones who rely on creating big infrastructure for shipping electricity to the consumers. The new standard is likely to take effect in 2020 and moreover includes an exclusion for the houses, which are usually shaded from sun.
Residences in South Australia to Receive Solar Panels Slashing Household Power Bills
Under a recent scheme by Tesla of Elon Musk and SA government for building world’s biggest virtual power plant, thereby slashing the household power bills during the process, residences in SA are likely to witness supply and installation of solar panels and batteries for free. With rapidly increasing number of renewable energy, availability for cheaper power increases for South Australians. The state is planning to utilize people’s homes for generating energy to the South Australian grid along with having the participating households getting benefitted with the substantial savings in the overall energy bills. This huge project is mainly aimed towards connecting thousands of battery and solar panel systems for making one massive and synchronized virtual power plant.
Two New U.S. Data Centers to Be Powered with Solar Panels
Google is likely to purchase output of nearly 1.6Million solar panels for powering two new Southeastern US data center campuses, in northern Alabama and Tennessee. Google is of the point of view that solar power generated by the two new data centers is expected to match with the carbon-free sources in comparison to the status-quo provincial grid mix, which is nearly 48% carbon-free, on an hourly basis.
Australia’s State Government Scheme Offers Half-Priced Solar Panels
State Government of Australia recently announced that they would be installing rooftop solar panels and the households will be required to repay nearly half of the cost in a 4-year period. The exclusive Solar Homes Scheme is mainly aimed at owner-occupied homes that are valued at a price approximately less than $3Million along with combined household income of less than nearly $180,000. This initiative is anticipated to benefit thousands of households in saving upto nearly $890 every year on their power bills.
Researchers Develop All-New Waterproof Material for Coating Solar Panels
Recently researchers from Italy, Switzerland and Qatar have taken immense efforts in developing an innovative and all-new waterproof material for coating solar panels, mainly aimed at enhancing efficiency and stability of the solar cells as well as to tackle problems relate to water-induced degradation. The low-dimensional composite perovskite material holds thin surface layer, which repels water as well as protects against the moisture-induced degradation. The new material meant for solar panels has displayed nearly 20% effectiveness in the conversion of solar power to electricity, thereby maintaining efficiency for approximately 200hours. This high-end performance is mainly attributed towards top-water resistant layer.
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