Posts filed under ‘Solar Electric’
Maui To Get Battery System For Stable Clean Energy
Massachusetts-based A123 Systems for the second time in a month announced plans to provide its advanced nanophosphate lithium ion batteries to help stabilize Maui’s power grid as fluctuating clean energy sources.
Solar Panels Made of Pokeweed Berries
A group at Wake Forest Universityi in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has developed inexpensive solar panels that use crushed pokeweed berries in place of silcon. Designed for locations that have no electricity at all, the panels produce 5-10 watts, enough to power lights and recharge devices.
U.S. Solar Power 2011
The story of American solar power has been one of stunning success by just about any metric. Just yesterday, it was reported that the industry had a whopper of a third quarter: 449 megawatts of new solar capacity was installed in just 3 months! That’s the best quarter ever for U.S. solar. It brought us to more than 1,000 MW already installed in 2011 – the scale of a couple of coal power plants – with strong growth expected to continue in this last part of the year.
More than 100,000 Americans work in the solar industry, double the number since 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in every state.
The U.S. was a net exporter of solar products in 2010 by $2 billion, even to China. Solar power in the U.S. now exceeds 3,100 megawatts, enough to power more than 630,000 American homes.
Here is a quick action you can do to keep it that way.
From a Chris Mentzel facebook posting
Japanese Government to Build Smart Grid on Maui
Hawaii and Japan signed off on a project Tuesday to build a smart grid on Maui to demonstrate how solar, wind and other renewable energy sources can be integrated into an electrical grid.
Breakthrough New Spherical Solar Cell
via Solar Revolution – Sphelar : Spherical Solar Cell : DigInfo – YouTube.
New Energy Projects Coming to Maui
The Hawaii Renewable Energy Development Venture is giving $4.3 million to five companies, who will match the grants for new energy projects, many on Maui.
The projects include a battery storage for solar generated electricity, a wind turbine system to provide energy for agriculture pumping systems, technology allowing electic utilities to better monitor the grid, biodiesel plant development and a Gas company project.
Maui County to Install 1,000 Solar Panels
Maui County will install at least 1,000 solar panels on the rooftops of county facilities on Maui and Lanai. In a 20-year purchase agreement, the county will pay nothing for the installation, but will have a contract to pay the companies that install the panels for the electricity generated—and save about $50,000 per year in the process.
GE Solar Panel Factory To Be Largest In U.S.
General Electric says it’s going to build the nation’s largest solar panel factory, part of a $600 million dollar bet on the future of solar power in the United States.
GE says its thin film solar panel has been certified as the most energy efficient of its kind by the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. The technology for the panel, called CdTe thin film, lends itself to low-cost, large-scale manufacturing.
MIT Scientists Create Artificial Solar Leaf That Can Power Homes
The idea of a cell that can reproduce the photosynthetic process came about over ten years ago, but initially required expensive and rare metals and materials that would price out the commercial consumer. But Nocera’s model uses inexpensive nickel and cobalt catalysts. These catalysts effectively and efficiently split hydrogen and oxygen at a production rate of about ten times that of one of Mother Nature’s leaves.
Using a simple mixture of sunlight and one gallon of water, the “leaf” which is the size of a playing card, is made of silicon, electronics and the aforementioned catalysts, which speed up the process. Rather than producing energy directly like a photovoltaic cell, the “leaf” splits the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which then produce electricity for personal and household use. The prototype can produce energy continuously for 45 hours without any fluctuations.
Nocera’s leaf could mean big things for household energy everywhere. Poor and developing countries could source affordable electricity for their homes in small and remote villages without the construction of power lines and the like. In light of the ever increasing oil prices, Nocera’s renewable energy “leaf” would function practically as a furnace, providing low-cost energy as a common household device. In fact, the “leaf” has been funded in part by the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E transformational energy program- via our tax dollars.
Nocera’s “leaf” is ready for commercial production and distribution. Hopefully one day soon, each home will find it as common as a hot water heater!
