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Saxony: Baroque Meets High Tech
Researchers, industry representatives, and politicians attended the 21st European Solar Energy conference at the Dresden Convention Center from September 4 - 8. The agenda focused on positive developments in the solar energy market over the last year and the strategy for growth over the coming decades.
Global solar power generation is expected to increase by 25 percent this year, attendees were told in the opening session. More juice at power outlets means more revenues for the industry, which has enjoyed a 40 percent annual growth rate in recent years, according to Dr. Winfried Hoffmann, president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), which hosted the conference. Industry experts see an equally sunny outlook for the coming decades. The EPIA predicts that 25% of electricity consumed worldwide will come from solar power by 2040. The industry will reduce costs but needs government support The achievement of this objective is dependent on a few key factors, however. Dr. Hoffmann told attendees that government subsidy programs, such as Germany’s Renewable Energies Act, will be critical if solar power is really going to provide a quarter of the world’s energy needs some day. Another key hurdle is price: Anton Miller, Chairman of the German company Q.Cells AG, said that significant cost reductions must be achieved in the next 4-10 years for solar energy to become competitive. Miller explained that the generating cost of solar energy in sunny countries (22-35 EuroCents per kilowatt hour) is already below retail price. Elsewhere, generation costs for solar power still exceed retail price. Frank Asbeck, the CEO of Germany’s largest solar power company, SolarWorld AG, told the Atlantic Times earlier this summer that his company will break the retail price barrier in 2012, as the cost of power from the roof sinks by 5 to 8 percent annually and the retail cost of electricity grows.
Emerging economies like China and developing countries figure prominently in the industry’s prospects for growth. Small solar power stations can function in remote areas without the need for a centralized electrical grid. Frank Haugwitz of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation reported to conference attendees about a project that brought solar power to 400,000 people in 721 Chinese villages from 2002-2004. Asbeck hopes that rural electrification in China will develop along the same path as telecommunications in Asia, where mobile communications leapfrogged landlines to bring phone and internet to the masses. His company offers a “First Aid Kid” for the developing world – a solar module and an adapter cord that costs less than $100 – which a remote village might use to power a water disinfection system, lights, a cell phone, and perhaps even the MIT’s $100 dollar laptop. The U.S. also offers a promising market for solar energy. Michael Eckhart, President of the American Council on Renewable Energy, told the conference attendees that the states are leading the call for alternative energies. A major breakthrough in this area is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative, which foresees an investment of $3.2 billion in solar power facilities. The German federal state of Saxony, where Dresden is located, has enjoyed more solar highlights this summer than just the conference. In July, Asbeck’s SolarWorld celebrated the roof-raising for its biggest investment to date, an €80 million ($101.16 million) facility in Freiberg where 200 employees process silicon, build solar modules, and ship them across Germany and the world. These jobs are important to Saxony, where unemployment is hovering around 20 percent, and Asbeck believes he can keep them there: “As long as we keep our wage costs between 10 percent of revenue […] I don’t need to go to the Czech Republic or anywhere else. That’s why I can also produce in the USA,” he told the Atlantic Times. SolarWorld is the third largest solar power company in the world, with over 1,300 employees and revenues just under €500 million. The Freiberg site is its main production facility. Links:
Scientists at a research facility just outside Dresden have announced that they are quick on the heels of American scientists in the magnet race. The Los Alamos National Laboratory announced at the end of August that it had begun building the outer core of a magnet capable of achieving 100 tesla, a new world record. Wasting no time, the researchers at Rossendorf announced that they would begin winding their 100 tesla magnet this week.
These researchers are not out to rack up tesla – magnets capable of 2,800 tesla have already been built in the U.S. The trick is building a super-powerful magnet that will not explode. The scientists who built that magnet had to take shelter in a bunker during the experiment. As Joachim Wosnitza of the Rossendorf Research Center told the Berliner Zeitung this week, he and his colleagues are not interested in those kinds of fireworks. “You don’t have to worry about cleaning up after the experiment, because there’s nothing left to clean up,” he said. If the magnet does not self-destruct, scientists can use it to test the behavior of materials under the influence of extremely strong magnetic fields. This can have far-reaching implications for the study of physics. For example, Wosnitza’s colleagues used a 71.4 tesla magnet to demonstrate that the electrical resistance of a metal does in fact change in response to strong magnetic fields, as had been theorized. Electro-magnets are coils made of efficient conductors, and all of the conductors that are suitable for building a magnet are also influenced by magnetic fields. This is why extremely powerful magnets explode, and it also necessitates some interesting precautions at the magnet lab. The magnets are housed behind steel-reinforced concrete walls that are 90 cm thick. Ports that open to equalize extreme pressure are built into the ceiling. The signal that triggers the magnetic pulse travels through a fiber-optic cable rather than a metal wire, which would be subject to magnetic attraction. The Rossendorf Research Center was founded in 1992 at the site of the former nuclear research center of East Germany. When it was created in 2004, the €24.5 (31 million) magnet laboratory was one of the largest scientific investments in the Free State of Saxony and the largest of three facilities created for research in the fundamental natural sciences in the new German states. Scientists from all over the world can use the magnets at no cost for their research. Links:
The German firm Solar World, the third largest producer of Solar energy technology in the world, has received a large contract from China for silicon wafers. Its subsidiary, Deutsche Solar AG in Freiberg, Saxony, will produce €350 million ($ 444 million) worth of silicon wafers for China until 2018. According to Solarworld, the China deal is one of its biggest export orders to date. CEO Frank Asbeck explained that China is one of the fastest growing markets for photovoltaic technology, which is promising for the recently established production site in Saxony. “At the same time, our long-term export business is helping to secure jobs in Germany,” said Asbeck as reported by dpa. The silicon wafers are an important component of photovoltaic cells, which turn the sun’s energy into electricity. In addition to processing raw materials like silicon for other solar power technology providers, Solar world produces complete solar energy systems. The Italian solar electricity provider Tecnospot also placed an order for over €10 million worth of solar energy systems. Asbeck declared, “Along with Spain and the US, we are growing Italy into one of our core export markets.”
On September 27, Saxony’s Economic Minister Thomas Jurk and several representatives of Saxony’s business and research institutions will embark on a four-day tour of South Carolina and Georgia, where they will work to strengthen economic ties between Saxony and the U.S. Jurk and his traveling companions from Saxony’s business world will meet with politicians and representatives of U.S. industry to promote opportunities for Saxon firms on the U.S. market and attract more U.S. investment in Saxony. In Spartanburg, South Carolina, Saxony will highlight its competencies in the automobile manufacturing industry. Automobile manufacturing has become an important part of that area’s economy since the region’s textile industry began moving overseas; BMW assembles Z4 and X5 sports cars at a facility in nearby Greer. The visiting firms that provide services to the auto industry include Dürr Systems GmbH, which produces painting and coating equipment and Hiersemann International Ltd, which designs process automation software. In Columbia, South Carolina, the visitors from Saxony will meet with the mayor, U.S. government officials, and business leaders to discuss the formation of a network of Saxon companies in the region. At the final stop in Atlanta, Minister Jurk will attend the German American Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala, where he will promote Saxony as a business location and travel destination. America is Saxony’s most important trading partner worldwide. As
Saxony’s post-unification economy proved to be the most dynamic
among the former Eastern states, exports from Saxony to the U.S. grew
by a factor of 20 between 1994 and 2005 to reach nearly € 2.5 million
($ 3.2 million). U.S. imports to Saxony in 2005 amounted to over $ 650
million. Over 11,000 workers in Saxony are employed at about 100 U.S.
firms. The largest of these is microchip maker AMD, which employs 2,700
people in Dresden.
Saxony boasts a long tradition as a centre of German industry, commerce and the arts. Baroque Dresden is one of the architectural jewels of Europe, and the Saxon capital has also been home to many modern artistic movements, notably serving as a hotbed of German Expressionism in the early 20th century.
Today Dresden and Leipzig, Saxony's other major cultural metropolis, are still churning out creative talent. Contemporary works by resident artists that have been snapped up by the acclaimed Miami-based Rubell Family Collection are now on display at the Katzen Arts Center, a sprawling sand-colored complex featuring performances and exhibitions at the American University in Washington, D.C. Two shows that opened earlier this month at the Katzen and run through October 29 highlight works by Saxon artists. "Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection", is a nationally touring exhibition making its only mid-Atlantic appearance at the Katzen. According to the museum's website, this show "focuses on a much discussed, often controversial development in contemporary art - grandly-scaled paintings that echo traditions of social realism, particularly as it was practiced in East Germany". "After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the seven artists represented - Tilo Baumgärtel, Tim Eitel, Martin Kobe, Neo Rauch, Christoph Ruckhäberle, David Schnell and Matthias Weischer - eschewed video, photography and installation art and chose to study figurative painting at the conservative Leipzig Art Academy," the Katzen adds. "They persisted, creating a 'school' that blends dream-elements of surrealism and a modernist spatial sense and matter-of-fact narrative."
A second exhibition, "Eberhard Havekost: 1996-2006 Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection" showcases the work of a Dresden artist who is one of Germany's most celebrated painters. Havekost, who lives and works in both Dresden and Berlin, rarely shows his pieces outside Europe or New York. The Rubell retrospective of his work at the Katzen thus provides a rare glimpse into his starkly mesmerizing oeuvre, consisting largely of images based on altered and manipulated photographs and video clips. The Katzen describes his work as enigmatically gripping and more than initially meets the eye: "Although his subjects are mostly bland urban details such as office windows, automobile windshields and the sides of buses, as well as contemporary figure groups and portrait heads - the precision and simplification of his technique create a sense of mystery, otherworldliness and anxiety." Links:
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