No abstract

The UK has many estuaries with high tides, sorne higher than La Rance. As at Rance and other locations in France, many tide mills were built in the UK as long ago as the l2th Century. Early in the present Century, engineers from the UK, France and other countries studied the possibility of constructing major barrages to generate electricity. The Severn Estuary received close attention because of its great energy potential and ils location close to industry and a large population. However, when this scheme was actively promoted in the 1920s there was high national unemployment and the scheme was politically unpopular with the nearby coal industry who viewed it as being in competition with their power station market. This reaction also probably detelTed serious interest being given to other possible schemes in the UK at that time, and it was not until the sharply contrasting circumstances of the 1970s arrived that the country again seriously considered the energy potential of its tides. By that time the Rance scheme had been commissioned and was generally working weIl. However, a new factor had begun to emerge, namely concern about the environmental consequences of ail forms of development, including power stations. The effects of the Rance project were, of course, considered when it was being designed, though much of the basic scientific information needed to make predictions was not then available.

No abstract

We present performance and cost data on a distributed concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system that is commercially available in 2008 and will break the long pursued $2/W price barrier. This technology was developed from an existing product platform used originally for solar fiber optic lighting applications and includes a novel segmented plastic mirror that concentrates sunlight into a dense-array CPV module at 600 suns. The design's segmented plastic mirror and highprecision, low-cost tracking unit are presented as a flexible hardware platform evolved in response to market pressure over the past two years and suitable for multiple applications being developed in the concentrating solar field. To illustrate the economic benefits of this solar collection platform, the specific costs related to COGS and installation activities associated with a commercial CPV product available in 2008 are presented.

No abstract