California company to build solar manufacturing plant in Las Vegas

A California company said Saturday that it selected the Las Vegas area for a manufacturing plant that will make the same kind of solar power cells that satellites use in space.

Amonix Inc., a private company based in Seal Beach, Calif., announced plans to build a $20 million manufacturing plant in the Las Vegas area.

Reid estimated that Southern Nevada has 10,000 workers employed in green power or renewable energy businesses.

The plant will build photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity, unlike solar thermal systems that use heat from the sun to create steam for spinning generators.

Amonix equipment converts photons of sunlight directly into electrons of electricity, like standard photovoltaic systems installed on home roofs, Robertson said.

However, Amonix panels magnify and concentrate the photons by 500 times, unlike traditional photovoltaic systems.

As a result, Amonix panels need one-third of the land required for the same amount of power generation from a standard photovoltaic systems.

Standard and concentrated photovoltaic systems enjoy a big advantage over solar thermal systems, because photovoltaic systems need no water for operation. Solar thermal power plants "use enormous amounts of water to make the energy," Robertson said.

Amonix systems also are environmentally friendly, he said. Desert tortoises and squirrels can continue to use habitat underneath Amonix panels mounted on pedestals. Concentrated photovoltaic solar is the best technology for use in hot, dry climates like the desert Southwest, Robertson said.

The cost of concentrated solar photovoltaic power ranges from 12 to 15 cents a kilowatt hour, making it competitive with conventional natural gas fired plants, he said.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) today announced the completion of the Shelby Solar Project, a 1-megawatt solar power plant in Shelby, N.C. that is owned and operated by Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), a Duke Energy commercial business unit.

Construction on the 10-acre plant began in March, and it is now producing clean, renewable solar power for North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1 (NCMPA1), which serves Shelby. DEGS estimates that the plant will generate enough electricity to power approximately 140 homes annually.

The U.S. Departments of Energy and the Interior have picked a former nuclear site in Nevada to be transformed into a zone for testing “cutting-edge” solar energy technologies.

The research will take place on 25 square miles of land owned by the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, an area larger than the size of Manhattan, the Energy Department said today in a statement.

The area lies in the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, where the U.S. military used to detonate atomic weapons. The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will oversee the project, according to the statement.

President Barack Obama promoted a plan to extend tax credits for companies working in renewable energy industries, in a campaign speech for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Friday at UNLV.

The president cited makers of electric vehicles as an example of the kinds of companies that would benefit from this extension. He said that, with the help of the tax credit, use of electric cars will increase from 2 percent of automotive use to 40 percent over the next five years.

The president asserted that 90,000 jobs would be created if this funding is approved.
“I am absolutely confident,” Obama said, “that if we keep on moving forward, if we refuse to move backward…brighter days are going to come.”

The Bay Area is expected to soon become one of America's hottest markets for the first mass-produced electric cars, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt.
But in the rush to drive electric, one thing is missing -- places to charge up.
Concerned that the next generation of green drivers not be left stalled by the roadside, air officials have approved a $5 million plan to install 5,000 electric car chargers around the nine-county Bay Area in the next five years at homes, apartments, office buildings, parking garages and other locations from San Jose to Santa Rosa.

Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.

Low cost solar cells suitable for rooftop panels could reach a record-breaking 40 percent efficiency following an early stage breakthrough by a University of Sydney researcher and his German partners.