According to REC Solar, one of the leading European solar companies, the price falls of 60-80 % over the last 3-4 years will be continued over 2013, mostly as a result of lower manufactoring costs. It is interesting to note that the cost of polysilicon ‘raw material’ only constitutes a minor part of the overall cost of a solar panel.
[source]
Nearly hundred wind turbines distributed over two parks have already been installed offshore near the Dutch coast, generating 228 MW. This number is planned to increase twenty-fold in the coming decade, leading to 4.5 GW offshore. Three new parks worth 729 MW are under construction now. Permits for another nine parks have been granted but for locations far from the coast, see map. The temptation is to rethink these locations and to build the parks nearer to the coast, which would be substantially cheaper, but also would lead to visual ‘horizon polution’ and public protests. Additionally, the existing onshore wind base will be expanded to 6 GW before 2020.
[trouw.nl]
Students at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands say they have created the world’s first solar-panelled family 4-seater saloon. Range 600 km when fully charged. In parked position the solar cells keep charging the batteries. According to the creators this setup suffices for normal daily distances. The Dutch on average lives 14 km/10 miles from their workplace. Published july 17, 2013.
Brisbane company Linc Energy recently released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil.
[adelaidenow.com.au]
[telegraph.co.uk]
[source]
From Wikipedia: GlassPoint Solar is a private company founded in 2009 that designs and manufactures solar steam generators. Its enclosed solar thermal technology is applied to the global thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) market to increase the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field. In 2011, GlassPoint deployed the world’s first commercial solar EOR project on an oil field operated by Berry Petroleum in Kern County, Calif., USA In May, 2013, GlassPoint commissioned the Middle East’s first solar EOR project with Petroleum Development Oman, the national oil company of Oman. The 7 MW GlassPoint system produces a daily average of 50 tons of emissions-free steam. The company’s solar thermal technology uses lightweight mirrors, standard piping and a glasshouse structure. By bringing the solar collector system essentially indoors, GlassPoint claims its can produce emission-free steam for two to three times less than competing technologies, such as the power tower and linear fresnel.
[source]
Beautiful weather in Germany caused another absolute solar energy production record: 24 GW peak. That’s 40% of the 60 GW peak demand in the afternoon. Germany is clearly world leader in kwh produced.
[cleantechnica.com]
[cleantechnica.com] – July 12, 2013 update: “it was on a sunday”
DeepResource 