The Photovoltaic Power Station Project, which was started in 2014 by the Director of the Sustainable Energy Research Center and Vice President of CIU Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serkan Abbasoğlu, has been concluded.

A Project Which Sets a Universal Example

Covering an area of 14 thousand square meters on CIU premises, the project is not only the largest sustainable energy project in Northern Cyprus, but also what constitutes an example of universal scale. In Cyprus the Solar Power Panels are usually installed with a single type plan configuration, which is a universal practice. However, in the context of the present project, solar power panels were installed in 4 different mounting types, namely on a level roof, an inclined roof, in a field, and on carports.

350 thousand kilowatts for the Northern Cyprus Power Transmission Line

A total of 4,131 panels were set up, and 350 thousand kilowatts of the generated power would be transferred to the Northern Cypriot power transmission line thus contributing 200,000 TL annually to the Northern Cypriot economy.

Aim is the very first green campus on the island

Informing that the electricity generated by the Solar Power Station met 80% of electricity consumed during daytime at CIU, Vice President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serkan Abbasoğlu said “Through this project and other environmentally friendly practices, we are advancing towards the aim of becoming the very first green campus in Northern Cyprus. Environment will continue to occupy a central part in all our currently ongoing and future investments”.

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The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has signed a $15 million commitment with Nova-Lumos, providers of off-grid electricity, to finance solar electricity in Nigerian homes and small businesses.

The deal was announced by U.S. Secretary John Kerry at the Climate and Clean Energy Investment Forum, held Oct. 20-21 in Washington, D.C., according to a press release from the U.S. State Department.

The State Department described the Nova-Lumos project as “highly innovative.”

Nova-Lumos created what it calls a “home power station in a box,” according to a 2013 report in Haaretz. The technology includes a solar panel activated by text messaging that can supply enough electricity to charge a cell phone, operate a radio and illuminate a home.

The company was founded in Israel in 2012 by Nir Marom and Davidi Vortman, and is now based in the Netherlands. The $15 million deal is with Txtlight, the Nigerian Subsidiary of Lumos Netherlands BV, said Daniel Ben Yehuda, director of business development.

“We want to be the largest alternative electricity company in the world and supply home systems producing clean electricity,” Vortman told Haaretz in 2013. “Our model allows consumers to pay for the electricity used without purchasing the whole system in advance. This is a huge revolution.”

The Nova-Lumos project provides clean, off-grid power access designed to serve the nearly 90 million Nigerians who live without connection to the electric grid, according to the U.S. government. OPIC financing will support expansion of Nova-Lumos’s solar power service to homes and small businesses throughout Nigeria.

OPIC is the U.S. government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and, in doing so, tries to advance U.S. foreign policy.

“This marks the largest OPIC investment to the off-grid power sector in Africa, a key component of increasing energy access in a region where people are not grid-connected and the need for reliable power is especially acute,” the U.S. government said.

The Lumos offering “includes a home solar panel linked to an indoor storage-and-connection unit that allows customers to access significant amounts of power on demand, day or night,” ESIAfrica reports. “The affordable Lumos service allows customers to utilize a pay-as-you-go model in small amounts by text message.”

Lumos’ business model is highly scalable in large part due to the company’s partnerships with mobile operators, according to ESIAfrica. In Nigeria, Lumos partnered with South Africa-based MTN, the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria with more than 60 million subscribers.

“We are very excited about this major financing milestone in partnership with OPIC, which will enable us to accelerate our growth in Nigeria and improve the lives of millions,” said David Vortman, CEO and co-founder at Lumos.

“Lumos brings vision, innovation, and sound business sense to address the power access challenge in Africa,” said Elizabeth Littlefield, OPIC president and CEO.

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There were no fireworks on the sun to welcome in the New Year - and in fact, scientists say the end of the year was relatively quiet on the solar surface.

However, the sun has started 2015 with a mysterious event - a huge hole has appeared. Known as a coronal hole, the phenomenon occurred near the south pole - and is seen as a dark area covered all of its base.

The incredible image was  captured on Jan. 1, 2015 by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the coronal hole as a dark region in the south.

Coronal holes are regions of the corona where the magnetic field reaches out into space rather than looping back down onto the surface.

Particles moving along those magnetic fields can leave the sun rather than being trapped near the surface. Those trapped particles can heat up and glow, giving us the lovely AIA images. In the parts of the corona where the particles leave the sun, the glow is much dimmer and the coronal hole looks dark.

Coronal holes were first seen in images taken by astronauts on board NASA's Skylab space station in 1973 and 1974.

They can be seen for a long time, although the exact shape changes all the time. The polar coronal hole can remain visible for five years or longer. Each time a coronal hole rotates by the Earth we can measure the particles flowing out of the hole as a high-speed stream, another source of space weather.

Earlier this year, Ashley Dale, who is a member of an international task force, dubbed Solarmax, warned that solar 'super-storms' pose a 'catastrophic' and 'long-lasting' threat to life on Earth. A solar superstorm occurs when a CME of sufficient magnitude tears into the Earth's surrounding magnetic field and rips it apart.

Such an event could induce huge surges of electrical currents in the ground and in overhead transmission lines, causing widespread power outages and severely damaging critical electrical components.

Mr Dale, carrying out doctoral research in aerospace engineering at Bristol University, said it is only a 'matter of time' before an exceptionally violent solar storm is propelled towards Earth.

He says such a storm would wreak havoc with communication systems and power supplies, crippling vital services such as transport, sanitation and medicine.

Without power, people would struggle to fuel their cars at petrol stations, get money from cash dispensers or pay online,' he said.

'Water and sewage systems would be affected too, meaning that health epidemics in urbanised areas would quickly take a grip, with diseases we thought we had left behind centuries ago soon returning.'

Mr Dale says these types of events are not just a threat, but inevitable.

Nasa scientists have predicted that the Earth is in the path of a Carrington-level event every 150 years on average.

This means that we are currently five years overdue - and that the likelihood of one occurring in the next decade is as high as 12 per cent.

To watch the spectacular video and read more: click here

Credit: NASA

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The new 96 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic solar power project in South Africa's Northern Cape province is now online and will help the country meet its critical electricity needs. The Jasper plant, near Kimberly, is the largest on the continent and can produce 180 000 megawatt-hours of energy a year for South African residents, enough to power up 80 000 homes.

The project was completed two months ahead of schedule and is fully operational, SolarReserve, the developer, announced on 11 November. Jasper is located in a solar park near Kimberly that also includes the 75 MW Lesedi solar power project, which came online in May.

Also on the cards is the even-bigger 100 MW Redstone concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) tower. SolarReserve, along with partner ACWA Power, is bidding for the planned Redstone CSP project, which will use of SolarReserve's CSP technology with integrated energy storage.

As part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), a percentage of total project revenues from the Jasper project will be set aside for Enterprise Development and Socio-Economic Development for the benefit of the local communities.

"In addition to helping South Africa meet its critical electricity needs, the Jasper Project will bring long lasting economic benefits to the region," said SolarReserve's CEO Kevin Smith.

With more than 325 000 PV modules, the Jasper Project will deliver 180 000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity a year for South Africa residents - enough to power up to 80 000 households through a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom, the South African power utility company.

The project also marks Google's first renewable energy investment in Africa.

CSP uses thousands of mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a central point to generate heat, which in turn is used to generate electricity.

More than 10,000 tracking mirrors called heliostats reside in a 1,500 acre field where they reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a large heat exchanger, called a receiver, which sits atop a 550-foot tower.

The project was developed by a consortium consisting of SolarReserve, the Kensani Group, an experienced empowerment investment player in South Africa, and Intikon Energy, a South African developer of renewable energy projects.

Equity investment and ownership for the project was provided by a group of international and South African shareholders who jointly have experience in all aspects of development,funding and operations of solar energy projects, including the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Intikon Energy, Kensani Capital Investments, Google, the PEACE Humansrus Community Trust, and SolarReserve.

Culled from All Africa News

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