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30
Aug 10

Solar Power- A business of the future?

Solar Power- A business of the future?

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Solar Power- A business of the future?

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28
Jul 10

Stunning Solar Building to Generate More Power Than It Needs

The Masdar Headquarters building will produce more power than it needs (a positive energy building). In fact, the solar roof (one of the largest in the world) will be constructed first, and it will power the construction of the rest of the building. The 1.4 million square foot building was designed by Chicago architecture firm.

…Greetings ,,,,
This is excellent news ! I am very interested in seeing such developments taking place and proving their economic value.
Just to share some background info, I was involved in the subject of ’smart buildings’ since the early nineties.
As you are probably aware, one of the distinguishing characteristics of ’smart buildings’ is their ability to optimize energy consumption used in lighting, HVAC requirements, imbedded electronic systems, lifts, escalators, survelliance systems, voice and data networks, fire alarms, emergency lighting, and so on so forth.
If we add the new trends of the use of alternative energy sources, renewable energy sources, green technologies, .. then this gives you another reason for my interest in this news item.
The important question that I would like to raise and hopefully I get some answer for it
Is the use of such technologies at this mass scale feasible and justifiable ? or is it a pure technology show regardless of associated costs ?
Is there any feasibility study…

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Stunning Solar Building to Generate More Power Than It Needs

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8
Jul 10

Solar Power’s New Style - TIME

Mike Gering, CEO of the start-up Global Solar, picks his way along his factory floor, tracing the convoluted path that his thin-film solar panels follow from birth to shipping truck. The raw materials the workers carry are ultra-thin sheets of flexible plastic, which are then coated with a series of chemicals…

…’s CEO. “There are a whole series of things you didn’t see because no one has really done this at scale.” Since the industry is still small, for example, companies can’t always count on easy access to the raw materials they need, such as cadmium and selenium. “There’s no well-oiled machine, no infrastructure,” says Laia. “Our supply chain doesn’t exist.” It was that reality that led the solar arm of BP to pull out of the thin-film industry in 2002, claiming that the economics would never add up. But the numbers have changed, thanks largely to the enormous success of Phoenix’s First Solar. Though the company was launched in 1999, it has its origins in a solar start-up that had been around since the mid-1980s. First Solar spent years tinkering before moving to mass production. It was able to weather those early days of profitless experimentation because it had a rich, patient backer: Wal-Mart heir John Walton, who pumped $250 million into First Solar before his death in 2005. Walton’s investment has paid off…

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Solar Power’s New Style - TIME

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10
Jun 10

Vast Farms of Desert Solar Panels Could Power All of Europe

Vast farms of solar panels in the Sahara desert could provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe, according to EU scientists working on a plan to pool the region’s renewable energy. Harnessing the power of the desert sun is at the centre of ambitious scheme to build a €45bn European supergrid to share electricity across the continent.

…22.5tr) in energy systems over the next 30 years.Much of the cost would come in developing the public grid networks of connecting countries in the southern Mediterranean, which do not currently have the spare capacity to carry the electricity that the north African solar farms could generate. “Even if high voltage cables between North Africa and Italy would be built or the existing cable between Morocco and Spain would be used, the infrastructure of the transfer countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey also needs a major restructuring,” said Jaeger-Walden.Scientists working on the project admit that it would take many years and huge investment to generate enough solar energy from north Africa to power Europe but envisage that by 2050 it could produce 100 GW, more than the the combined electricity output from all sources in the UK, with an investment of around 450bn.Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, welcomed the proposals. “Assuming it’s cost-effective, a large scale renewable energy grid…

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Vast Farms of Desert Solar Panels Could Power All of Europe

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4
May 10

Solar Power From Outer Space Could Reduce Fossil Fuel Depend

Rising fuel costs have spurred some pretty wacky ideas. One that maybe isn’t so crazy is harvesting solar power from space

…I have been up on power sats since 1975 when the just formed L5 Society presented the concept at the Limits to Growth Conference near Huston.
In those days we were expecting to get around the high cost of lifting power sat parts to orbit by using materials from the moon. Didn’t work out partly because the price of oil went down for a few decades. Now that it is back up, people are starting to look again.
If you work through the numbers, you can make dollar a gallon liquid fuels with penny a kWh power. The cost of power is at least 5 times too high. Penny a kWh is physically possible if you can get the cost of lifting power sat parts into GEO down to $100 a kg.
Does such a low price violate physical laws? No. The cost in energy is only 15 kWh/kg, $1.50 for average consumer power in the US. If we had cable strong enough (and we might get it) a $100 billion moving cable space elevator written off over ten years would get the cost down to $10/kg.
The best price expected out of rockets is around $500/kg.
If you…

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Solar Power From Outer Space Could Reduce Fossil Fuel Depend

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16
Apr 10

Welcome to the Solar Century

Until a few years ago the suggestion that solar power might provide the answer to the intertwined problems of long term energy security and climate change would have been dismissed as a pipedream.

…s an area not much bigger than the UK. There seems little reason why one day huge areas of Saudi Arabian, Australian or Saharan desert couldn’t be filled with massive solar power plants.
So why won’t it happen tomorrow? Well for a start, whilst a few western European nations are implementing the German model, most western governments are simply failing to support fledgling renewable energy companies. For example, last year the UK government decided to plough millions into extending the life of its nuclear and fossil infrastructure and provided limited help for energy startups, let alone potential consumers of renewable energy.
There are also still a plethora of technical issues to overcome. Firstly, new research has shown that the small windmills and solar panels that are fitted to our rooftops often create more greenhouse emissions during manufacture than their use curtails. Secondly, how do we store the energy solar power creates for a rainy day? Hydrogen is notoriously dangerous to transport and there are…

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Welcome to the Solar Century

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7
Feb 10

How To Make A Solar Power Generator Using Parts from Local Stores

Using parts easily available from your local stores, you can make a solar power generator. Great for power failures and life outside the power grid. Here are some step-by-step instructions with photos as well.

…1-3 hours to top-off a weak one. It will run radios, fans, and small wattage lights all night, or give you about 5 hours of continuous use at 115 volt AC.Human Power GeneratorThe Human Power Generator is small, portable, and can be pedaled or cranked by hand to charge 12-volt batteries. The typical average continuous power that can be generated by pedaling the Human Power Generator is up to about 80 watts. The maximum power obtainable through hand cranking typically is about 50 watts. The pedals and optional hand-cranks are interchangeable.The MkIII Human Power Generator has a durable powder coated steel frame, large rubber feet, and vibration isolated generator. It is the tool for self-reliant electrical production.Portable Power PackThe Human Power Combo comes with the Mk III Human Power Generator and a stand-alone Portable Power Pack which includes: storage battery, 300 watt inverter (with 800 watt peak power), LED battery voltage readout, connection cables, and a 120-volt outlet….

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How To Make A Solar Power Generator Using Parts from Local Stores

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5
Feb 10

MIT Students Develop Solar Dish Hot Enough to Melt Steel

The MIT team believes that their lightweight, inexpensive device holds the promise of revolutionizing the power industry and providing solar power to even remote regions.

…’New solar dish from MIT concentrates sunlight intensely enough to melt steel.’ -
The solar industry is booming. With waves of investment and grants, the solar power industry is for the first time becoming a serious business. New power plants will soon be pumping power out to consumers, while other firms market to sell panels directly to the consumer, providing them with a more direct means of experiencing solar energy.
There are many forms of solar power technology. Today the most dominant is photo-voltaics , which comprise the traditional solar panels that come to mind when one thinks of solar power. However, there are other promising ways of capturing the sun’s energy that are merely less developed.
Among these is a parabolic collector. A parabolic collector consists of an array of mirrors focused on a singular point, which they heat to a high temperature. By placing water or another liquid at the collector, energy can be stored in the form of a phase transformation, and later harvested through a turbine…

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MIT Students Develop Solar Dish Hot Enough to Melt Steel

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2
Feb 10

Using a Wedding Registry to go Solar

Just how was a couple in their early thirties going to afford a solar system to power their 800 sq. ft.

…s vision for a solar life together was on display at their wedding reception in Chicago this past September. Photos from their wedding two months prior in Bulgaria mixed with PV system images were used to decorate the gift tables….

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Using a Wedding Registry to go Solar

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2
Feb 10

World’s Biggest Solar Farm Planned in California

A San Francisco company said Friday it plans to build the world’s largest solar power farm near Fresno, California. The 80-megawatt farm is to occupy as much as 640 acres (260 hectares) upon completion in 2011.

…Green Business

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A San Francisco company said Friday
it plans to build the world’s largest solar power farm near
Fresno, California.

The 80-megawatt farm is to occupy as much as 640 acres (260
hectares) and upon completion in 2011 will be 17 times the size
of the largest U.S. solar farm, said Cleantech America LLC, a
privately held 2-year-old company.

The farm will also be about seven times the size of the
world’s biggest plant and double the largest planned farm, both
in Germany.

Bill Barnes, CEO of Cleantech, said the scale of the Kings
River Conservation District Community Choice Solar Farm will
change renewable energy and make California the global leader
for huge solar projects and replace Germany as the solar energy
hub of the world.

“We’re pretty confident that solar farms on this scale are
going to have an industry-changing impact,” Barnes said by
telephone on Friday. “We think it’s the wave of the future.
This scale of project, I think, creates a tipping…

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World’s Biggest Solar Farm Planned in California

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