WCA January 2016

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46 Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016
From the Americas
Nearly three-quarters of a million British households are
now equipped with solar panels, compared with virtually
none five years ago. While solar energy still accounts for
only about four per cent of power generation in Britain,
despite an unpropitious climate for solar the country led the
European Union in new installations in 2014. Unquestionably
that showing is largely due to the programme of subsidies
– on which the government has been spending about
$1.9 billion a year – that is popular with homeowners but has
proved anathema to Mr Cameron’s supporters.
Environmentalists were prompt to denounce the cuts in
incentives, which according to analysts’ estimates enabled
participating Britons to reduce household energy bills by
as much as $1,000 a year. But in September Mr Cameron’s
new energy and climate change minister, Amber Rudd,
asserted that, “as costs continue to fall it becomes easier
for parts of the renewables industry to survive without
subsidies.”
What was immediately clear is that – as of the New Year –
the Missouri-based American company SunEdison, which
had figured prominently in Britain’s solar energy boomlet,
would no longer be offering the free installations that had
facilitated much solar conversion in the British Isles. Since
2010 the company and its customers had benefited from
an initiative to encourage the generation of low-carbon
electricity on a small scale. Through subsidised payments
known as feed-in tariffs, homeowners received around 12
pence per kilowatt hour for the electricity generated by their
systems.
While SunEdison would, it said, continue to “look after”
some 1,000 households which had signed on with the
company for 20-year terms, it will be shifting its focus
to the USA, Latin America, India and China. Betraying
some bitterness, SunEdison said in a statement: “[We are]
extremely disappointed that the draconian policy proposals
made by the government” will “essentially eliminate the
solar” market in Britain.
 James Basden, head of utilities at the Oliver Wyman
consulting firm in London, was less pessimistic. “I don’t
think it’s the end of solar in the UK by any means,” he
told Stanley Reed of the New York Times. “Removing
subsidies is going to mean there is going to have to be
a lot more innovation.” (“As British Solar Industry Loses
Subsidies, Big US Backer Pulls Back,” 9th October)
 For his part, Mr Reed drew this lesson from his
consultations with solar industry analysts: “Don’t bet
your company on a subsidised market.”
Technology
New fluorescent lighting phosphors
conserve on rare-earth elements, in short
supply in the United States
Today the phosphors in fluorescent lighting consume more
than 1,000 metric tons per year of rare-earth oxides including
europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), cerium (Ce), and lanthanum (La),
as well as even larger amounts of yttrium (Y) oxide.
This holds significance for the USA, which produces only a
very limited amount of rare earths and must rely on imports.
While LED lighting will likely replace fluorescent eventually,
low-cost linear fluorescent lighting is expected to remain a
dominant feature in American infrastructure for more than a
decade to come. Therefore, according to Anne M Stark of
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California,
because of its high rare-earth consumption the current
triphosphor blend based on a mixture of blue, green and red
emitters – in use for over 30 years – required to be replaced.
(“Better Fluorescent Lighting Through Physics,” 8th October)
Teamwork among Livermore, the lighting division of
General Electric Co, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
has reportedly succeeded in identifying a green phosphor
which reduces Tb content by 90 per cent and eliminates
La, and a red phosphor which eliminates both Eu and Y and
is rare earth-free. The phosphors reportedly hold promise
of meeting stringent requirements for long lamp life, high
efficiency, precise colour rendition, and low cost. The blue
phosphor reportedly has inherently low rare-earth content
and need not be replaced. Funded by the US Department
of Energy and its Critical Materials Institute research centre,
the work is now concentrated on improving the efficiency
of the new phosphors to the level of those in commercial
lighting. According to Steve Payne, the CMI leader on the
project, “The fundamental physics of these phosphors is
compelling.”
Of related interest . . .
 As described in the journal Science (1st October),
connecting ultrathin metal wires to nanotubes holds
promise for enhancing the speed of computer
processors – stalled for a decade – by enabling the
semiconductor industry to shrink transistors beyond
present limitations. A team of scientists at IBM’s
Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights,
New York, reported development of a new method of
transistor production that permits shrinking the width of
the wires without increasing electrical resistance.
Resistance and heat increase as wires become smaller,
thus curtailing the speed of the chips containing
the transistors and presenting a major challenge to
chip makers. The advance announced by the IBM
researchers would, they said, permit shrinkage of the
contact point between carbon nanotube and metal
wire to just 40 atoms in width, probably by early in the
next decade. Three years on, they projected further
contraction to just 28 atoms.
Steel
Chinese steel exports may have peaked
in 2015 but shipments are expected to
remain high
According to JPMorgan Chase & Co, Chinese steel exports
probably will have peaked last year as the doubling
of shipments over the previous two years provoked
protectionist sentiment around the world.