Solar Power System
July 12, 2010
DOE To Fund Solar Plants
As part of the Recovery Act, President Obama announced that the DOE is loaning out $2 billion to build solar energy plants. Abengoa Solar will be building one that, when completed in 2013, will power up 70,000 homes. The Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP) will also store part of the energy, a first for the US.
Abound Solar Manufacturing will get $400 million to build plants in Colorado and Indiana. Aside from the obvious clean energy benefit, the plants will create about 1,500 permanent jobs and 2,000 for construction.
Via White House
July 9, 2010
Sun Dog Solar Mobile Relief for Haiti
There has been so much bad news of late that it is nice to hear something good is headed to Haiti. Sun Dog Solar, located in Chatham, NY, has built a mobile relief station built out of an old shipping container. The 20 ft. box is wired to solar panels to bring free energy for cooking and boiling water to a village named Merger, right outside Port au prince.
The company will also be donating wheelchairs, shoes, clothing, tents, dry food and other necessities. They would also like to build solar ovens and panels for the country that could still use an assist. Contact Sun Dog Solar if you would like to help the cause.
Via WMAC
July 5, 2010
Eltek Valere Releases Solar Inverters
Eltek Valere, a company already involved in solar products, recently debuted their Theia HE-T line of isolated inverters. Available for both commercial and residential applications, they will work with crystalline and thin-film panels and maximize power. EV promisies 97% efficiency, so contact them for more information and price. Shown here is their Theia TX, a 3-phase central inverter with transformer.
(Thanks, David)
Via EV
June 30, 2010
Extech Goes Green With Solar Roof
Newark, New Jersey's Extech Building Materials is now home to a solar PV roof system. It consists of 1,465 Solyndra panels that produce about 313,400 kWh of electricity and eliminate more than 429,358 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. It is expected that it will handle about 80% of the 47,775 sq. ft. building's energy load. That is the energy equivalent of 45 homes per year.
(Thanks, Brian)
Via Extech Building Materials
June 21, 2010
Huge CSP to Be Built in Middle East
The Middle East's largest concentrated solar power plant is about to be built. When completed in 2012, it will consist of 6,300,000 sq. ft. of parabolic collectors, span 741 acres of desert and produce enough electricity to power 62,000 homes. Named Shams 1, Masdar is partnering with Total and Abengoa Solar to build the CSP that will displace 175,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees. The plant is part of Abu Dhabi's plan to reach 7% renewable energy generation by 2012.
Via Masdar
June 10, 2010
Idaho to Receive First Solar Plant
Idaho will soon have its first solar facility. Boise Mayor Dave Bieter announced that Sunergy World will construct a $45 million power plant this fall. To be located near the Boise Airport on a site that used to be a dump, the plant should produce 10 megawatts of power, enough energy for 1,200 homes per year.
Via Daily Tech
May 31, 2010
SEPA List of Top Utilities Integrating Solar
The Solar Electric Power Association has released its top utility companies that are integrating solar energy. Overall, the report shows that integration has expanded by about 66%. The states include California, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Colorado and New Jersey. Yeah, we did a double take after reading that last one, too.
Via SEPA
May 26, 2010
Anheuser-Busch to Install Solar System
Anheuser-Busch has announced that they will be installing a 300 panel solar energy system at their Newark, New Jersey brewery. The result will be that it will produce 5% of their energy that equals out to 535,000 kilowatt hours per year. Claiming that it wants to be the 'Best Beer Company in a Better World,' they already use Bio-Energy Recovery System (BERS) that turns nutrients in wastewater into fuel.
Via Anheuser-Busch
May 19, 2010
Shikoku to House Huge Solar Plant
Shikoku Electric Power has plans to build a solar power plant next year with Kyocera supplying 9,000 modules. When built, it will combine with an existing one to create an enormous solar installation in Shikoku, Japan. The output will be 2,200MWh of electricity, enough to offset 700 tons of CO2 per year.
Via Fareast Gizmos
April 7, 2010
Masdar First Zero Carbon City?
Masdar plans to be the first zero carbon city. It is being designed by British architects Foster and Partners and will cost Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, between $15 and 30 billion. A large solar farm will power the city and a circular field of mirrors send light towards a tower that will produce heat and power generators. Masdar will be using some electricity for air conditioning, desalinization and electronics, but the motto here is "Only use energy when you have exhausted design."
Via BBC
April 5, 2010
Sithe Global Forgoes Coal for Solar and Natural Gas
The Nevada Clean Energy Campaign has gone one step further in its goal. Sithe Global Energy has decided not to build a new coal-burning plant near Mesquite, Nevada. Instead, it will erect a 100-MW photovoltaic solar plant and a 700-MW natural gas plant. It seems that during the past few years, about 125 proposals for coal-burning plants have been scrapped and we think that is a good thing. Somehow we just don't get how coal can be made clean and good for the environment.
(Thanks, Tim)
Via Nevada CEC
April 1, 2010
West Sacramento Port 100% Solar
The Port of West Sacramento, located northeast of San Francisco, is powered by solar energy alone. They recently installed a 637kW system that should reduce their costs by more than $20,000 annually. It houses 3,536 solar panels covering 90,000 square feet atop two rice warehouses. The system produces enough energy to power 89 homes per year and will eliminate more than 34 million lbs of carbon-dioxide emissions over the next 25 years.
Via Central Valley Business Times
March 30, 2010
Chevron Tests 7 Solar Technologies
Chevron is conducting a test to determine what kind of solar technology gives the most bang for the buck. The 8 acre Project Brightfield, located in Bakersfield, California, is trying out 7 different types, with six of them thin-film and one a crystalline-silicon photovoltaic technology, like the one shown above. The 7,700 solar panels are not just there for scientific purposes. The 740kW power generated will go to local utilities and Chevron's oil production operation.
Via Chevron
use generic picture
March 22, 2010
UCLA Devises New Energy Policy
J.R. DeShazo, the director of the Luskin Center for Innovation, in conjunction with other UCLA colleagues, has come up with a new energy policy for LA. Included is a "feed-in tariff," that encourages residents to install solar systems. Already in place in Germany, Europe, Vermont and Florida, the system allows those that do to sell excess energy back at above market level.
To accomplish this, rates would be 2.7 cents more/kwh with 0.7 cents going to a lockbox that funds energy efficiency and the solar power feed-in. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa claims that 8,000 new jobs would be generated over the next 10 years once the program is initiated.
Via UCLA
Mailing List
Subscribe - RSS
