The first international collaboration in the U.S. to use solar energy to provide a significant portion of residential power needs

Kyocera Corporation, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan and a number of other companies, research institutes and local governments involved announced the start of operations of a state-of-the-art, international smart-grid demonstration project in Los Alamos, New Mexico (U.S.A.).

The project is a collaborative effort between NEDO, the New Mexico state government, the Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) — a national research center which is run under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Energy. It aims for the wider implementation of renewable energy and the promotion of energy conservation through the use of smart grid-related technologies. Specifically, technologies that can provide a significant portion of renewable power for the electric grid to meet a community’s residential need. Data collection and analysis is set to run until March 2014, at which time opportunities will then be provided for other companies and institutions to utilize the resources to conduct further academic research and product testing.

On September 17, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to mark the launch of the project which was attended by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, NEDO Chairman Kazuo Furukawa, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, LANL Director Dr. Charles McMillan, Kyocera Vice President Tatsumi Maeda and a number of other prominent public and private sector figures.

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Kyocera Corporation‘s solar modules installed in a French village to the east of Lyon recently marked a special anniversary — the modules, which were used for France‘s first grid-tied solar power generating system, have been producing clean energy for the last 20 years. Furthermore, recent laboratory testing of the pioneering system confirms that Kyocera‘s solar modules, which were installed in 1992, show only minimal degradation in performance. The 945-watt system, which is installed on a roof in the small village of Lhuis, showed only 8.3% degradation in performance from its original power output level. The performance of this system is a testament to the extraordinary long-term reliability and performance of Kyocera modules.

The recent test on the solar modules was carried out by the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) — which is connected with the State Solar Research Institute INES — and the certification laboratory CERTISOLIS. The inspectors removed a sampling of the solar modules from the installation and tested them under laboratory conditions in accordance with international standards. Kyocera cooperated with the study by providing the original technical specification sheets, as well as a reference module. The evaluation instruments were then matched to the customary methods used at the time of manufacturing. The results showed that the modules still perform at 91.7% of their original maximum power output.

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