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M II A II R II K Sep 28, 2009 1:44 PM

Solar Power Thread
 
Should you retrofit your home with solar power?

http://www.househunting.ca/eco/story...5-3cef9bcb1d7f

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465...r.jpg?size=hhl

Cost of system not cheap but it will pay for itself quickly.

The short answers are: Probably (for your hot water heater); definitely (for your pool -- I know, summer's a distant memory); and likely not (for your household electrical needs).

Your hot water heater is an energy hog, accounting for up to one-quarter of your household's energy consumption.

Add greenhouse gas emissions associated with conventional hot water heating -- between 600 and 760 kg a year, according to the Ontario Ministry of Energy -- and endlessly renewable, non-polluting sunshine seems a no-brainer.

"From April to September, solar power will cover 90 per cent of your heating," says Michael McGahern, whose company, Ottawa Solar Power, sells, installs and services solar hot water systems. "From June to September, it'll be 100 per cent."

Factor in cloudy days and cooler temperatures through the balance of the year and a solar power system will meet 50 to 60 per cent of your annual hot water needs.

A system for a family of four runs around $6,500, according to McGahern. With federal and provincial grants and rebates factored in, the system should have paid for itself in seven to eight years, he says. But if energy prices increase, as some predict they will, it should pay for itself more quickly than that.

A solar hot water system for a family of four needs a couple of glycol-filled collector panels installed, preferably on a south-facing roof.

Heavily insulated copper pipes carry the heated glycol from the panels down the outside of the house and into the basement, where a new hot water tank with a heat exchanger feeds your existing unit.

When the sun shines, your hot water's free; when it doesn't, your electrical or gas-fired tank kicks in.

For optimal operation, the panels need direct sun from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, says McGahern, although the storage tank does hold the heat for up to 24 hours. The water is hottest in late morning and early afternoon.

Installation involves a couple of technicians clambering over your roof and through your basement for about a day and a half. You'll also need a municipal building permit.

"The single best use of solar energy is heating your pool," says McGahern. "It can pay for itself within a year, a year and a half."

A system runs between $3,000 and $5,000 and, like conventional pool heating, extends the swimming season by two to four weeks at both ends. These systems typically work by pumping the pool water through solar panels. Like other systems, components are usually long lasting and low maintenance.

As to solar-generated residential electricity, McGahern says, "People putting in those systems are doing it from an environmental point of view, not an economic one."

A typical Canadian household consumes 20 to 30 kWh of electricity a day, while even an ultra-efficient home uses three to six.

According to the experts, a solar-based electricity generating system with its array of sun-tracking photovoltaic panels, energy inverters and batteries will cost $30,000 and up for every 3 kW it produces.

What's more, homeowners usually have a generator or stay hooked to the hydro grid for those back-to-back days of cloud cover.

McGahern faults Canadian governments for short-sightedness in not subsidizing solar technology as some European countries do.

"Through subsidies, they've spawned a multibillion-dollar industry which is feeding those countries. They developed a tremendous amount of knowledge which is going to benefit all of us 10 years from now."

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (www.cmhc.gc.ca) and Natural Resources Canada (www.canren.gc.ca) are good sources of information on most things solar.

Quallium, an Ottawa-based startup company, has installed solar electricity systems for clients hungering to go off-grid.

The systems are especially practical for cottages far from hydro lines, company owner Paul Fritz-Nemeth says.

He adds that a $5,000 to $10,000 system can provide backup for critical household circuits to run furnace pumps and other basic equipment during a power failure.

Not all solar panels are created equal, so it's best to ask about tolerance variations: A good 100-watt panel will generate 95 to 105 watts; take a pass on the one that bottoms out at 75 watts.

"The real problem is our habits," says Fritz-Nemeth. "Big-screen TVs consume a lot of power, especially when they're left plugged in all the time.

"People think the cost of solar systems depends on the size of their house. It really depends on what your habits are."

You Need A Thneed Sep 28, 2009 3:25 PM

A link to a competely solar powered house in Edmonton.

202_Cyclist Sep 28, 2009 3:33 PM

The US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon will be held in DC from Oct. 9-13, 15-18, 2009. Teams from universities in the US and abroad compete to design, build, and operate attractive solar-powered homes over one weekend. Here is the link for more information: http://www.solardecathlon.org/

M II A II R II K Sep 29, 2009 4:24 PM

When this becomes mainstream I'm sure they'll have a tax on them and encourage people to rent out the equipment if they can't own them.

Krases Sep 30, 2009 1:16 AM

My parent's want me to help design a house for them when they eventually move out of there current home. They want solar power and a rainwater collection tank.

M II A II R II K Oct 12, 2009 10:33 PM

Inflatable Solar Panels Zip Together To Power Most Anything
 
Inflatable Solar Panels Zip Together To Power Most Anything

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009...p-together.php

http://www.treehugger.com/04_solar_skin.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/03_solar_skin.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/09_solar_skin.jpg

This lightweight, inflatable solar panel concept brings renewable energy access to any building and without that pesky renovation.

Each eye-shaped piece has a white foam shell that measures 4 feet by 2.5 feet. Inside the foam housing is an inflatable polymer lined with thin-film solar cells printed on mylar. The pieces can then zip together for a variety of configurations.

In lieu of costly renovation for conventional panels, the configurable pieces would provide easy solar-power access to most any building . The foam housings can be strung with wire or structural tubing to meet the needs of any structure.

The pieces could also be used for completely off-grid temporary structures.

smurf Oct 13, 2009 2:20 AM

The sad reality is that until PV technology takes a huge leap forward, PV solar is basically useless. There simply isn't enough power from the sun that reaches the ground. It works on a small scale, but it'll never work on a large scale. The best options are the parabolic mirror arrays that concentrate the sunlight and even then you get a paltry 16MW for a 1600acre site.

M II A II R II K Oct 13, 2009 5:14 PM

Florida to Build First Solar Powered City in U.S.

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/04/10/...ed-city-in-us/

http://go635254.s3.amazonaws.com/cle...solarpanel.jpg

The eco-city, called Babcock Ranch, is a joint venture between a real estate developer, Kitson & Partners, and Florida Power & Light, and will be located near Fort Myers, Florida.

Babcock Ranch will include almost 20,000 houses and 6 million square feet of mixed retail, office, and light industrial space, and have city-wide wireless internet and electric car charging stations throughout.

The city will be fully powered by solar during the day, and produce an excess of electricity that will be exported to the grid. The CEO of Kitson said the project will serve as a model to other communities and be a “living laboratory for companies, workers and families ready to reap the rewards of innovation.”

Florida Power & Light expects to break ground on the $400 million solar PV plant this year, pending regulatory approval. Construction of Babcock Ranch is slated for the summer of 2010.

The project’s cost is estimated at $2 billion, and is expected to create 20,000 jobs.

Image: markus941 at Flickr under CC License

Nowhereman1280 Oct 13, 2009 7:05 PM

Can we get a similar thread for Wind Power Developments? I think it would be interesting to have one like the Boom Rundowns that keeps track of all the new wind farm developments across the country. They've built a ton of new wind farms in Wisconsin lately but I'd like to see whats going on in the rest of the country.

M II A II R II K Oct 15, 2009 8:27 PM

First black hole for light created on Earth
 
First black hole for light created on Earth

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-on-earth.html

http://www.newscientist.com/data/ima...7980-2_300.jpg

An electromagnetic "black hole" that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time.

The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.

A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Their idea was to mimic the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards.

Narimanov and Kildishev reasoned that it should be possible to build a device that makes light curve inwards towards its centre in a similar way. They calculated that this could be done by a cylindrical structure consisting of a central core surrounded by a shell of concentric rings.

There's no escape

The key to making light curve inwards is to make the shell's permittivity – which affects the electric component of an electromagnetic wave – increase smoothly from the outer to the inner surface. This is analogous to the curvature of space-time near a black hole. At the point where the shell meets the core, the permittivity of the ring must match that of the core, so that light is absorbed rather than reflected.

Now Tie Jun Cui and Qiang Cheng at the Southeast University in Nanjing, China, have turned Narimanov and Kildishev's theory into practice, and built a "black hole" for microwave frequencies. It is made of 60 annular strips of so-called "meta-materials", which have previously been used to make invisibility cloaks.

Each strip takes the form of a circuit board etched with intricate structures whose characteristics change progressively from one strip to the next, so that the permittivity varies smoothly. The outer 40 strips make up the shell and the inner 20 strips make up the absorber.

"When the incident electromagnetic wave hits the device, the wave will be trapped and guided in the shell region towards the core of the black hole, and will then be absorbed by the core," says Cui. "The wave will not come out from the black hole." In their device, the core converts the absorbed light into heat.

Quick work

Narimanov is impressed by Cui and Cheng's implementation of his design. "I am surprised that they have done it so quickly," he says.

Fabricating a device that captures optical wavelengths in the same way will not be easy, as visible light has a wavelength orders of magnitude smaller than that of microwave radiation. This will require the etched structures to be correspondingly smaller.

Cui is confident that they can do it. "I expect that our demonstration of the optical black hole will be available by the end of 2009," he says.

Such a device could be used to harvest solar energy in places where the light is too diffuse for mirrors to concentrate it onto a solar cell. An optical black hole would suck it all in and direct it at a solar cell sitting at the core. "If that works, you will no longer require these huge parabolic mirrors to collect light," says Narimanov.

M II A II R II K Oct 22, 2009 1:24 PM

'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

CONT'D IN LINK

You Need A Thneed Oct 22, 2009 8:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 4517929)
'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

CONT'D IN LINK

While cool, I don't know how this relates to solar power, really. Sure, it would work well with solar power as a method to store energy, but what is REALLY needed before solar power takes off is more efficient solar panels. It's expensive to get enough power for daytime needs, never mind to store up power for nighttime needs.

M II A II R II K Oct 23, 2009 7:55 PM

It Takes a Solar Village

http://www.physorg.com/news175186726.html

http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/ne...takesasola.jpg

October 19th, 2009 Joe Verrengia

Team Germany's winning "Cube House" featured silicon and thin-film solar panels on all visible sides of the house. The design's solar panel operates a toy on the front porch of the home. Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Rain didn't ruin the 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. University teams successfully operated 20 net-zero, grid-connected solar power homes for a week on the National Mall. Some used more power-generating solar panels; others relied on energy efficiency strategies. The winner was clean energy.


Rain usually spoils a solar power contest. But three days of showers — and thin-film photovoltaic technology — actually helped Team Germany win the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon.

Team Germany's Cube House was one of the most technologically advanced among the 20 clean energy prototype designs on the National Mall. Every exposed face of the building was covered with power-generating panels.

On the roof : a 11.1-kW photovoltaic (PV) system of 40 monocrystalline silicon panels. On the sides: 250 thin-film panels that look like glossy clapboards. The thin films used copper-indium-gallium-diselenide layers, or CIGS.

The combination system was expected to produce 200 percent of the energy needed by the house. The thin film panels, while less efficient than conventional silicon, were projected to perform better in cloudy weather than silicon.

Team Germany got its proof on the competition's fifth day when skies turned slate gray and a cold rain splattered the solar village. By late afternoon, as federal commuters started streaming home and electricity demand throughout the city began climbing, the Team Germany house was producing 12.68 kW and consuming 12.33 kW, for a net export of .35 kW.

Team Illinois' house finished a close second, emphasizing energy efficiency over power production.

"Team Germany built a gingerbread house packed with solar panels," said Richard King, DOE Solar Decathlon director. "In the rain, the thin-film panels were making electricity. It made the difference."

NREL Manages the Decathlon

NREL has managed the biannual Solar Decathlon for DOE since the contest's inception eight years ago. Selection of the 20 university teams from North America and Europe begins two years before the actual competition.

The Laboratory sent 30 people to run the week-long contest on the National Mall, including installation of the homes with trucks and cranes, connecting them to Washington's municipal power grid, running the judged contests and monitoring the home's continual performance.

M II A II R II K Oct 27, 2009 1:50 PM

Solar superpower: Should Europe run on Sahara sun?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

http://www.newscientist.com/data/ima...400-2_1500.jpg


26 October 2009 by Fred Pearce

EVERY two weeks, the sun pours more energy onto the surface of our planet than we use from all sources in an entire year. It is an inexhaustible powerhouse that has remained largely untapped for human energy needs. That may soon change in a big way. If a consortium of German companies has its way, construction of the biggest solar project ever devised could soon begin in the Sahara desert. When completed, it would harvest energy from the sun shining over Africa and transform it into clean, green electricity for delivery to European homes and businesses.

Prospects for the project, called Desertec, have blossomed over the past year, and this month 20 major German corporations are expected to announce the formation of a consortium that will provide the €400 billion needed to build a raft of solar thermal power plants in north Africa. They include energy utilities giants E.ON and RWE, the engineering firm Siemens, the finance house Deutsche Bank and the insurance company Munich Re.

The current plan, outlined by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a report to the federal government, envisages that the project will meet 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050, with a peak output of 100 gigawatts - roughly equivalent to 100 coal-fired power stations. Preliminary designs in the German report show electricity reaching Europe via 20 high-voltage direct-current power lines, which will keep transmission losses below 10 per cent (New Scientist, 14 March, p 42). Trans-Mediterranean links will cross from Morocco to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar; from Algeria to France via the Balearic islands; from Tunisia to Italy; from Libya to Greece; and from Egypt to Turkey via Cyprus.

Desertec would take its place in a wider European supergrid that conveys power generated from wind turbines in the North Sea, hydroelectric dams in Scandinavia, hot rocks in Iceland and biofuels in eastern Europe. Adding solar thermal capacity would help ensure a steady supply of green electricity.

But is this really the best use of such a colossal amount of money? Critics are lining up to point out the project's shortcomings. They say it could make Europe's energy supply a hostage to politically unstable countries; that Europe should not be exploiting Africa in this way; that it is a poor investment compared to covering Europe's roofs with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels; and that, while deserts have plenty of sun, they lack another less obvious but equally indispensable resource for a solar thermal power plant - water. Is Desertec really the model of future power generation, as its promoters would have us believe, or is it politically misconceived and a monumental waste of money?

Canned heat

Unlike PV panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, solar thermal electricity generation plants first trap solar energy in the form of heat, and use this heat to generate electricity just as a conventional power plant does. Solar thermal plants come in four main varieties. Three use mirrors that concentrate sunlight to heat oil, water or a molten salt, which is in turn used to generate steam that drives a turbine. The mirrors can take the form of parabolic troughs or an array of flat reflectors that redirect sunlight onto pipes suspended above them, heating the fluid that they contain. In the Mojave desert in California, an interlinked system of nine solar thermal plants which use trough mirrors has been generating up to 300 megawatts of electrical power for more than two decades.

Alternatively, a field of mirrors can focus sunlight onto a central ceramic heat absorber mounted on a tower. A prototype plant in Spain has 21,000 square metres of glass mirrors that heat the absorber to over 1000 °C and generate 1 megawatt. In the fourth type, a dish focuses heat on a Stirling engine which generates electricity by exploiting the expansion and contraction of a gas in a sealed piston chamber as it is heated and then allowed to cool (see diagram).

Solar thermal energy is now coming to the fore, as it proves itself to have several advantages over PV. Among these is its ability to produce electricity in power-station quantities, without the complex organisation that distributed generation entails. What's more, it can feed electricity into the grid at night as well as by day. This is done by storing the heated fluid in an insulated container and releasing it hours later when the energy is required. Storing energy from PV panels would require a new generation of high-capacity batteries - still a research project in its infancy for the scale needed. The clincher is cost. Building a power-station-scale solar thermal installation costs only a fraction of PV generators with the same output. As a result, an army of new solar thermal plants are being planned for the US, China, Australia and Israel.


CONT'D IN LINK

TexasPlaya Oct 28, 2009 5:29 AM

^^^Seems like one of those ideas that's better on paper than in practice.

Personally, I think this idea would be suited for space, among other reasons, "the project will meet 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050." If we would concentrate our energies (no pun intended) temporarily on space based solar power, we could solve a lot of energy woes without making the next energy leap (hydorgen, etc.). Average solar power per unit area (W/m^2) outside Earth's atmosphere during any given time period is about 136% that of Earth's surface during direct sunlight and is constant.

Although, going to the moon and mars would bring many benefits too.

M II A II R II K Oct 30, 2009 5:00 PM

China leads solar home revolution


Oct 29, 2009

By Ryan Rutkowski

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_B.../KJ29Cb02.html

Quote:

China is the world's largest market for solar water heating (SWH). Since the 1990s, China has blossomed with an increase in annual production to 114.1 million square meters in 2007 from 0.5 million square meters in 1991, accounting for two thirds of global output. According to "The China Greentech Report 2009", the country has the world's largest installed base of solar water heaters, at over 125 million square meters, with one in 10 families such devices.

M II A II R II K Oct 31, 2009 3:34 PM

Europe's Saharan solar dream edges closer to reality
 
Europe's Saharan solar dream edges closer to reality


30 Oct 2009

James Murray

http://www.businessgreen.com/busines...an-solar-dream

Quote:

Ambitious plans to generate up to 15 per cent of Europe's electricity using giant solar farms in North Africa and the Middle East moved a step forward today, with the announcement that the coalition of firms behind the proposals has formally launched a new joint venture to manage the project.

The Desertec Group of 12 companies, including Deutsche Bank, E.ON, Munich Re, RWE, Siemens, as well as a raft of solar energy firms, today signed a deal to create Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) GmbH, a limited liability company tasked with undertaking the groundwork for the project.


M II A II R II K Oct 31, 2009 3:40 PM

Prospects for solar: "It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995"
 
Prospects for solar: "It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995"


Oct 29, 2009

By George Musser

http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl...chi-2009-10-29

Quote:

I may be one of the few people in my town to have solar power right now, but if the news I’m hearing from the Solar Power International trade show this week is right, a wave of installations is about to sweep the country. I wasn’t able to attend the show -- this blog is just a sideline for me and I couldn’t justify a whole trip -- but I had a chance to talk with two conference attendees, Mike Caliel, CEO of IES, a big national energy contractor that has gotten heavily involved in renewables, and Harry Fleming, CEO of Acro Energy Technologies, one of the biggest solar installers in California.

M II A II R II K Nov 3, 2009 3:35 PM

Sahara Sun 'to help power Europe'


2 November 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8337735.stm

Quote:

A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to supply Europe with 15% of its energy needs by 2050.



http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ca1e0d0f57.jpg

Krases Nov 5, 2009 7:18 AM

http://www.lasvegassun.com/multimedia/energy-map/

For those interested in proposed solar sites around Las Vegas. I would post the article, but it is just an interactive image and not much else.

M II A II R II K Nov 8, 2009 3:08 PM

Solar power generation around the clock


November 5, 2009

by Lin Edwards

http://www.physorg.com/news176632405.html

Quote:

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours' worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing the plant to provide electricity 24 hours a day.

- The solar energy is stored using a massive circular array of up to 17,500 mirrors (heliostats), each measuring 24 by 28 feet and attached to a 12-foot pedestal. The heliostat field encircles a concrete Solar Power Tower 538 feet high, with a 100-foot high receiver on top, which holds 4.4 million gallons of molten salt. When the heliostats focus the sunlight onto the receiver the salt is heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.



http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/ne...larpowerge.jpg


http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/ne...lipboard-1.jpg

M II A II R II K Nov 8, 2009 3:09 PM

Video Link

M II A II R II K Nov 8, 2009 6:39 PM

Japan eyes solar station in space


Sun Nov 8, 6:20 am

by Karyn Poupee

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091108...olartechnology

Quote:

TOKYO (AFP) – It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.

- With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.

- But Japan's boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere.



http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20091108/c...H1Qpra2IdDsA--

M II A II R II K Nov 13, 2009 4:07 PM

New Nanowires May Contribute To Highly Efficient Solar Cells


Nov. 13, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1111122320.htm

Quote:

Danish nanophysicists have developed a new method for manufacturing the cornerstone of nanotechnology research -- nanowires. The discovery has great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.

- "We have changed the recipe for producing nanowires. This means that we can produce nanowires that contain two different semiconductors, namely gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide. It is a big breakthrough, because for first time on a nanoscale, we can combine the good characteristics of the two materials, thus gaining new possibilities for the electronics of the future," explains Peter Krogstrup.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2...1111122320.jpg

M II A II R II K Nov 20, 2009 1:17 AM

Hidden Solar Cells: 3-D System Based On Optical Fiber Could Provide New Options For Photovoltaics


Nov. 3, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1102172517.htm

Quote:

Converting sunlight to electricity might no longer mean large panels of photovoltaic cells atop flat surfaces like roofs.

- Using zinc oxide nanostructures grown on optical fibers and coated with dye-sensitized solar cell materials, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of three-dimensional photovoltaic system. The approach could allow PV systems to be hidden from view and located away from traditional locations such as rooftops.

- "Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "Optical fiber could conduct sunlight into a building's walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell."



http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2...1102172517.jpg

M II A II R II K Dec 3, 2009 9:12 PM

Chemists Describe Solar Energy Progress And Challenges, Including The 'Artificial Leaf'


Nov. 6, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1105132454.htm

Quote:

Scientists are making progress toward development of an "artificial leaf" that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis -- but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The gathering launched a new effort to initiate international cooperation and innovative thinking on the global energy challenge.

M II A II R II K Dec 18, 2009 7:27 PM

Hot Electrons Could Double Solar Power


December 18, 2009

By Kevin Bullis

Read More: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24240/?a=f

Quote:

For decades researchers have investigated a theoretical means to double the power output of solar cells--by making use of so-called "hot electrons." Now researchers at Boston College have provided new experimental evidence that the theory will work. They built solar cells that get a power boost from high-energy photons. This boost, the researchers say, is the result of extracting hot electrons.

- The results are a step toward solar cells that break conventional efficiency limits. Because of the way ordinary solar cells work, they can, in theory, convert at most about 35 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, wasting the rest as heat. Making use of hot electrons could result in efficiencies as high as 67 percent, says Matthew Beard, a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO, who was not involved in the current work. Doubling the efficiency of solar cells could cut the cost of solar power in half.

nomarandlee Dec 23, 2009 2:42 PM

Quote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091223...climatewarming

Taiwan unveils Asia's biggest solar plant: govt

Wed Dec 23, 3:20 am ET
TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan has unveiled what it calls Asia's biggest solar power plant as the island, which imports almost all its energy, seeks to tap into clean renewable resources, the government said Wednesday.

The two-hectare (4.9-acre) plant in south Taiwan's Kaohsiung county, an area that enjoys year-round sunshine, is equipped with 141 huge solar panels that can generate one megawatt in total, said the Atomic Energy Council.

One megawatt is enough to power 1,000 homes, according to an official at the council, which is also in charge of sustainable energy.

The facility, which started operating Tuesday, will help Taiwan cut its carbon emissions by up to 660-700 tonnes annually, officials said.

Taiwan estimates its solar energy industry will be worth up to 200 billion Taiwan dollars (6.25 billion US dollars) by 2020, said the council.

Taiwan's parliament in June passed a major renewable energy bill aimed at adding between 6,500 and 10,000 megawatts of installed energy from renewable sources over the next 20 years.

Currently, Taiwan produces only 2,278 megawatts, or 5.8 percent of installed capacity, from renewable sources, according to the state-run Taiwan Power Co.



..

M II A II R II K Dec 27, 2009 4:46 PM

Generating Solar Power After Dark


December 26, 2009

By TODD WOODY

Read More: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-for-playback/

Quote:

Solar farms that would serve two Western utilities are planning to use technology that will generate electricity after the sun goes down, a move that could be a potential game-changer for the industry.

The two farms being planned by SolarReserve of Santa Monica, Calif., would store the sun’s energy in molten salt, releasing the heat at night when it could be used to drive a turbine and generate electricity. Two utilities, NV Energy in Nevada and Pacific Gas and Electric, Northern California’s biggest utility, would buy the power.



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...larreserve.jpg

M II A II R II K Dec 31, 2009 4:05 PM

Hybrid Solar Panels Combine Photovoltaics with Thermoelectricity


December 30, 2009

By Larry Greenemeier

Read More: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...d-solar-panels

Quote:

Tar and shingles are hardly environmentally friendly materials, so the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hopes to soon help homeowners and businesses replace the roofs over their heads with something greener. To that end, the DOE awarded Weidlinger Associates, a New York City-based structural engineering firm, a $150,000 grant earlier this month (matched by a 10-percent commitment from the state) to develop durable hybrid solar roofing panels with integrated photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric materials that harvest the sun's energy to produce both electricity and hot water for buildings.

Weidlinger is working with Columbia University in New York City on the project, which the engineers and researchers hope will convert at least 12 percent of collected sunlight into electricity. This would be an improvement over the 5- to 10-percent conversion rate possible with relatively inexpensive thin-film plastic solar cells, although a far cry from the most complex (and expensive) solar cells, which have achieved a conversion rate as high as 41.6 percent.



http://www.scientificamerican.com/me...r-panels_1.jpg

--------------------------------------------------

Are Engines the Future of Solar Power?

M II A II R II K Jan 5, 2010 3:21 PM

Microscopic Solar Cells Could See More Sunlight


January 05, 2010

By Katherine Bourzac

Read More: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24295/?a=f

Quote:

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have shrunk silicon solar cells down to the micro scale, opening new possibilities for improved efficiency. Multi-crystalline silicon, currently the gold standard for solar-cell efficiency, is expensive and produces cells that are heavy and brittle. Sandia's microscopic silicon solar cells use 100 times less material while operating with the same efficiency.

- In addition to lower materials costs, the smaller scale of these cells means they could be incorporated into compact optical systems for cheaper light-tracking and concentration. Researchers might even suspend them in inks that could be printed onto plastic to make efficient, flexible silicon-solar modules.



http://www.technologyreview.com/file...solar_x220.jpg

M II A II R II K Jan 8, 2010 7:02 PM

Solar Industry Says End Fossil Fuel Subsidies And Expect A Solar Boom


12.29.09

by Daniel Kessler

Read More: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009...en-percent.php

Quote:

A report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) found that power from the sun could generate 15 percent of America's power in the next decade, but only if Washington levels the playing field on subsidies. The fossil fuel industry, led by oil and coal, received $72 billion in total federal subsidies from 2002 to 2008, but earlier this year President Obama called for those subsidies to end.

- Additionally, the amount of solar energy could jump from today's 1,500 MW to 350,000 MW by 2020. A new grid would be needed to distribute the additional energy, and a global deal among the G20 countries to phase out dirty energy subsidies would have to actually happen.

M II A II R II K Jan 10, 2010 6:44 PM

Video Link

M II A II R II K Jan 12, 2010 5:09 PM

Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'


12 January 2010

Read More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8452912.stm

Quote:

Researchers have demonstrated a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings.

- It uses the fact that oil- and water-based liquids do not mix, forming devices from components that align along the boundary between the two.

- In this approach, "blank" devices are etched with depressions to match precisely-shaped components. Simply dumped into a liquid, the components should settle down into the blank device like sand onto a riverbed, in just the right places.

M II A II R II K Jan 18, 2010 1:16 AM

2,400-Foot-Tall Solar Turbines To Power Arizona


01.07.2010

By Stuart Fox

Read More: http://www.popsci.com/technology/art...-power-arizona

Quote:

Today's solar power plants work either through photovoltaics or heated steam. If Enviromission gets its way, tomorrow's plants will combine wind and solar, with acre-sized mirrors and multi-thousand-foot-tall chimneys generating turbine-spinning gusts. The technology's called solar updraft, and a $750 million, 200-megawatt project may just bring Enviromission's future into the present.

The plants work by generating pressure differentials between warm and cool air at the surface. Four acres of solar panels sit around a 2,400-foot-tall chimney, and above turbine-laden tunnels. The panels heat the air closer to the chimney far faster than the air at the ends of the tunnels. The warmer, less dense air then serves as a partial vacuum, drawing in the colder, denser air at the edges through the tunnels fast enough to spin the turbines and generate electricity.



http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecac...draft-ed01.jpg

M II A II R II K Jan 29, 2010 5:13 PM

Scientists Grow Cheap Biodegradable Solar Using Tobacco


by Jerry James Stone, San Francisco, CA on 01.29.10

Read More: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010...th_tobacco.php

Quote:

Researchers at UC Berkeley have hacked tobacco plants to grow synthetic photovoltaic cells which can then be extracted and sprayed onto any substrate to create solar cells.

How? The scientists tweaked a few genes within the tobacco mosaic virus to build tiny structures called chromophores. Once the plant is sprayed with the virus, the new chromophores will group into tightly coiled formations. Chromophores are structures that turn light into high powered electrons.

Each formation is hundreds of nanometers long and about three nanometers away from its neighbor. That spacing is very important. Just one atom closer would impede any electrical current. Harvesting the electrons would be nearly impossible.

"Over billions of years, evolution has established exactly the right distances between chromophore to allow them to collect and use light from the sun with unparalleled efficiency," said Matt Francis. "We are trying to mimic these finely tuned systems using the tobacco mosaic virus."



http://www.treehugger.com/tobacco-solar.jpg

M II A II R II K Feb 15, 2010 5:45 PM

New twist on solar cell design


15 February 2010

Stuart Gary

http://www.abc.net.au/science/img/2007/abcScience.png

Read More: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articl...15/2818151.htm

Quote:

Scientists in the US have developed a new flexible and lightweight solar cell, which uses a fraction the amount of silicon used in conventional cells, while still achieving high light conversion rates.

Reporting in journal Nature Materials Professor Harry Atwater of the Caltech and colleagues believe their new design could be used in applications ranging from car sun roofs to devices in clothing.

The key is to the cells high efficiency is its use of small micrometre sized rods of silicon instead of traditional silicon wafers.

Incoming light bounces back and forth multiple times between the rods in the panel until it's absorbed.

Small alumina nano-particle reflectors are placed between the rods to ensure the light is guided as efficiently as possible.

The scientists claim up to 85% of usable sunlight is absorbed by the new panels, compared to approximately 17% efficiency with current commerically available solar cells.

Atwater says the silicon wire arrays offer a mechanically flexible alternative to conventional silicon wafer photovoltaics, and are much better at absorping in the near-infrared spectrum.

This allows overall sunlight absorption to exceed that of an equivalent volume of randomly textured silicon panels over a wide range of sunlight angles.



http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200712/r208168_796023.jpg

M II A II R II K Feb 27, 2010 10:06 PM

World’s biggest solar-powered boat unveiled


25 Feb 2010

Read More: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02...boat-unveiled/

Quote:

KIEL, Germany—A skipper hoping to become the first to sail round the world using solar power said his catamaran could carve a wake for pollution-free shipping as he unveiled the record-breaking yacht Thursday. “This is a unique feeling to see in front of me today a boat which I so often dreamed about,” said Raphael Domjan as the covers came off the $24 million boat, the world’s biggest solar-powered vessel.

PlanetSolar, a 100-by-50-foot white catamaran, has been designed to reach a top speed of around 15 knots, equivalent to 15 miles per hour, and can hold up to 50 passengers. It is topped by 5,380 square feet of black solar panels, with a bright white cockpit sticking up in the center.

Constructed at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in northern Germany, its state-of-the-art design also means it will be able to slice smoothly through the waves even in choppy waters.

Domjan will launch PlanetSolar in late March before starring at Hamburg port’s 821st anniversary celebrations in May and undergoing testing between June and September. The world tour will then start in April 2011.



http://www.grist.org/phpThumb/phpThu...boat.jpg&w=307

M II A II R II K Mar 3, 2010 6:43 PM

France builds world's biggest photovoltaic solar plant


March 2, 2010

Read More: http://www.physorg.com/news186770590.html

Quote:

French energy giant EDF is building the world's biggest photovoltaic solar power plant at an abandoned NATO air base and plans to have it open by 2012, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Jean-Marc Dall'Aglio, of EDF's green energy subsidiary EDF-EN, said the 415 hectare (1,025 acre) site in Toul-Rosieres, near the eastern city of Metz, would produce 143 megawatts, enough for a town of 62,000 people.

The current largest photovoltaic plant is at Olmedilla in Spain, producing 60 megawatts. Several much larger plants are under construction in the United States and Australia and might beat the French contender.

Toul-Rosieres will quadruple nuclear-dependent France's photovoltaic power output, but still leave it far behind sunny Spain and Germany, which generate 1,671 MW and 1,505 MW respectively.

Dall'Aglio said it was difficult to find sites large enough for the huge arrays of solar panels needed to generate a viable amount of power, insisting that EDF was always looking for more.

Asked why the latest one was to be sited in cloudy Lorraine rather than the sunny south, he said that the state had decided to increase the tariff paid to solar energy producers in gloomy regions to encourage investment.

"We're hunting all the time, everywhere. In Toul-Rosieres the advantage is that the site is available straight away," he said, adding that EDF would pay the government rent of around a million euros (1.35 million dollars) a year.

Some 150 people will be involved in building the plant, including the work of removing asbestos from around 100 abandoned military structures, and once it is open it will employ 15 permanent staff, he added.



http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/ne...ulrosieres.jpg

leftopolis Mar 28, 2010 1:34 AM

Fascinating thread--many new bookmarks for in depth perusal!

I actually have a solar question that I was hoping one of the other solar enthusiasts could point me to a website that could help me figure out the answer.

A little background:

The local school district has been covering all the high-school parking lots with a "roof" of solar panels--evidently they expect to get a substantial percentage of each school's power needs this way--with the added benefit of shading the cars from the hot summer sun.

On another thread, I read that the "Desertexpress" is expecting to start construction later this year. For those unfamiliar--it's a high-speed-rail that would go from Las Vegas to Victorville, CA and then on to Palmdale in order to essentially be fully connected with the new CA HSR in the works, connecting SoCal with NorCal--and thus, Las Vegas with all the big California cities.

It occurred to me that the 185 mile stretch through the desert, would benefit from just that type of solar panel "roof"--throughout the full length:
--It would provide power, something HSR needs alot of.
--It would provide shade for the tracks. It's my understanding they can warp/buckle in extreme temps, and that area can hit 120F in the summer!
--It would also provide shade for the train, which should at least slightly reduce air-conditioning needs on it, thus saving some power.
--I don't see a drawback, in the sense that the space is already being used for tracks, so why not use the space above the tracks and train in order to make it more efficient energy-wise and safer?

Finally, to my question:
I've determined that 185 miles x 10ft(random, easy figure to use), works out to 224 acres of solar panels! What I'm trying to figure out is, how much power would that produce potentially(given that the sun shines almost everyday of the year)?

If anybody can guide me to a site that will help me figure it out, I'd appreciate it. BTW, a metric site is OK, too--I can do math. Ultimately, I want to come up with a figure for the power produced and compare it to the expected power needs of the train itself. I'll be happy to report my findings here, if there's interest.

Thanks in advance.

M II A II R II K Mar 29, 2010 3:12 PM

Beautiful Solar Balloon Collects Energy From High in the Sky



by Kristi Bernick, 03/26/10

Read More: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/26/...gh-in-the-sky/

Quote:

Designer Seongyong Lee recently blew us away with her beautiful design for a Solar Balloon that can collect energy straight from the sky. Based on the idea that the most efficient way to collect solar energy is from high above the earth, the balloon features a new breed of colorful dye-sensitized solar cells and is easily able to clear blocking structures such as buildings or trees.

Seongyong Lee’s Solar Balloon is composed of a fluid interweaving of colorful dye solar cell panels combined with an unknown white material whose panels pivot downward. LED lights are attached along the joints where the white and colored dye-solar cell panels come together, highlighting the twisting curves around the balloon’s form. To optimize the gathering of energy from the sun, the dye-solar panels direct upward while the white panels face back down to earth.

The collected energy is stored in a charger located in the base of the balloon. Energy collected in this model only lights the LEDs, however if it were produced to actual scale, the excess energy stored could provide enough power for many purposes including the operation of street lights. One may easily confuse this floating Balloon with a UFO, since it will be lighting the night sky with a unique and colorful pattern. Solar Balloon has a 7 meter diameter and is 10 meters in height. When grounded, the balloon’s base is 7 meters in height making the grounded height of the balloon a total of 17 meters tall.



http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/...03/image11.jpg

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/...03/image31.jpg

Krases Apr 5, 2010 10:35 PM

(quoted from another thread)

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftopolis (Post 4781959)
That makes no sense at all--why would you compare solar with coal, just based on the cost of producing power? The cost of coal includes the resulting acceleration of rapid global climate change(from CO2), the health effects of the air pollution, and the destruction of the environment.

Personally, I totally support solar power. The people I often argue against though think that global warming is an evil liberal conspiracy. They also live and vote in my community, so the only way I can appeal to them is by citing the explicit economic costs instead of the implicit.


Quote:

Originally Posted by leftopolis (Post 4781959)
Put up photovoltaics in NV--then you can stop claiming the cannard that solar needs water. The even bigger fallacy of logic, is claiming a comparison with coal without mentioning the real costs.

Photovoltaics are more expensive than power towers.

The people I argue with don't use logic is the problem, but still cast their vote. I know just as well as anyone that global warming is a serious threat, but when I point to the costs of global warming, I get waved off as an "environmental elitist". So instead I take the most direct route straight to their wallets.

leftopolis Apr 6, 2010 10:58 AM

Krases:
Quote:

...The people I often argue against though think that global warming is an evil liberal conspiracy...
Interesting. I've never met anybody like that(with backwards beliefs ignoring decades of science)in my half-century of life. I have heard they exist, though! It sounds like your approach is the most workable, given the situation.

I don't have any other ideas to add, but I'm also a bit under the weather, so another post from me may be a little while. Thanks for the response.

***************************

ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2009)
Quote:

Cost Of Installed Solar Photovoltaic Systems Drops Significantly Over The Last Decade

A new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S. shows that the average cost of these systems declined significantly from 1998 to 2007, but remained relatively flat during the last two years of this period.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) who conducted the study say that the overall decline in the installed cost of solar PV systems is mostly the result of decreases in nonmodule costs, such as the cost of labor, marketing, overhead, inverters, and the balance of systems.

“This suggests that state and local PV deployment programs — which likely have a greater impact on nonmodule costs than on module prices — have been at least somewhat successful in spurring cost reductions,” states the report, which was written by Ryan Wiser, Galen Barbose, and Carla Peterman of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division.

Installations of solar PV systems have grown at a rapid rate in the U.S., and governments have offered various incentives to expand the solar market.
“A goal of government incentive programs is to help drive the cost of PV systems lower. One purpose of this study is to provide reliable information about the costs of installed systems over time,” says Wiser.
The study examined 37,000 grid-connected PV systems installed between 1998 and 2007 in 12 states. It found that average installed costs, in terms of real 2007 dollars per installed watt, declined from $10.50 per watt in 1998 to $7.60 per watt in 2007, equivalent to an average annual reduction of 30 cents per watt or 3.5 percent per year in real dollars.
The researchers found that the reduction in nonmodule costs was responsible for most of the overall decline in costs. According to the report, this trend, along with a reduction in the number of higher-cost “outlier” installations, suggests that state and local PV-deployment policies have achieved some success in fostering competition within the industry and in spurring improvements in the cost structure and efficiency of the delivery infrastructure for solar power.
~cont'd @ link~

M II A II R II K Apr 26, 2010 1:25 PM

Harnessing Sunlight to Convert Carbon Dioxide to Liquid Fuel


April 21, 2010

by John Messina

Read More: http://www.physorg.com/news191076348.html

Quote:

This eco-friendly system requires no agricultural land or fresh water and is capable of producing more than 20,000 gallons of renewable ethanol or hydrocarbons per acre annually. Bill Sims, president and CEO of Joule Biotechnologies stated: “There is no question that viable, renewable fuels are vitally important, both for economic and environmental reasons. And while many novel approaches have been explored, none has been able to clear the roadblocks caused by high production costs, environmental burden and lack of real scale”.

Bill Sims went on to say; “Joule was created for the very purpose of eliminating these roadblocks with the best equation of biotechnology, engineering, scalability and pricing to finally make renewable fuel a reality—all while helping the environment by reducing global CO2 emissions.”

By leveraging highly-engineered photosynthetic organisms to catalyze the conversion of sunlight and CO2, usable liquid fuels and chemicals can be manufactured. This “SolarConverter” system assist the process capturing the sunlight to product conversion and separation using minimal resources. This diverts from established processes of biomass derived biofuels such as algae and cellulose-based forms which are costly, involves many processing steps and substantial scale-up risk.



http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/ne...rnessingsu.jpg

Vanzetti Apr 30, 2010 2:10 PM

http://depletedcranium.com/what-is-a-megawatt/

Read it and weep. Your puny solar power is nothing compared to what actually powers humanity.

speedy1979 May 1, 2010 4:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanzetti (Post 4819518)
http://depletedcranium.com/what-is-a-megawatt/

Read it and weep. Your puny solar power is nothing compared to what actually powers humanity.

Everything that is big began with something that was puny. Solar may be puny now, but it won't be that way forever.

Vanzetti May 3, 2010 6:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedy1979 (Post 4820726)
Everything that is big began with something that was puny.

However, only few of things that are puny eventually become big.

M II A II R II K May 10, 2010 10:57 PM

With Flyovers, a Solar Map of New York


May 9th, 2010

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/sc...pping.html?hpw

Quote:

While most residents were sleeping, a twin-engine Shrike Commander flew serial missions over the city recently, cruising low like Superman and back and forth like a lawn mower. Equipped with a laser system, the plane collected highly precise images of the city, its rooftops, trees, wetlands and much of what lies in between. The early morning flyovers are expected to yield the most detailed three-dimensional picture of New York City to date, with an emphasis on structures, elevations, sun and shade, and nooks and crannies relevant to the city’s emergency response system and its environmental goals.

The data will be used, among other things, to create up-to-date maps of the areas most prone to flooding, the buildings best suited for the installation of solar power and the neighborhoods most in need of trees. An advisory panel of experts formed by the mayor has warned that the city must prepare for more rain and an increased risk of coastal flooding in the coming decades as a result of global climate change.

Rohit T. Aggarwala, the director of the city’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said the effort would result in a picture of New York’s physical space “in far more detail than what we had before.” The effort, which will cost about $450,000, is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s broader environmental agenda, known as PlaNYC. The current flood plain maps used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency date to the 1980s and were based on aerial photography and ground surveys. The maps are not as accurate or precise as they should be for the density of the city, Mr. Aggarwala said, and the new data could lead to zoning changes and stricter building codes, among other adjustments.



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scalziand Jun 11, 2010 3:41 AM

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18671

Quote:

Original Solar Cell Inventor Scores $1.07M Millennium Prize

Tiffany Kaiser

Scientist and professor of photonics and interfaces at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, Michael Graetzel, won the Millennium Technology Prize of $1.07 million for his dye-sensitized solar cells, also known as "Graetzel cells."

These new dye-sensitized solar cells are low in cost, and can work on a broad scale. Graetzel cells do not require a large setup to manufacture, they should be considerably less expensive than solid-state cell designs in bulk, they're mechanically robust and can be engineered into flexible sheets. They also require no protection from minor elements such as tree strikes or hail.
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/1...ndheldcell.png

M II A II R II K Jun 12, 2010 6:44 PM

"Most Solar Town in America" Will Use 85% Solar Energy


Jun 10, 2010

By Ariel Schwartz

Read More: http://www.fastcompany.com/1658585/s...own-in-america

Quote:

It has been just over a year since Skyline Solar unveiled its low-cost, high-efficiency High Gain Solar Arrays (HGS). And today, just a month after being fast-tracked through U.S. Commerce Department’s Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) green-tech patent application process, Skyline announced its latest high-profile project: an 80 kilowatt solar plant that will power 85% of Nipton, California. That's the highest percentage of solar electricity used in any town in the U.S.

There's just one catch: Nipton only has a population of 20 people. Visitors often pass through the tiny town on the way to Joshua Tree National Park or Mojave National Reserve, so the solar news isn't inconsequential. Energy independence has to start somewhere, so why not a sleepy town in the Mojave Desert?



Skyline Solar will power the town with low-cost technology that was just recently patented.

http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/skyline3.jpg


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