Clipmarks | BobbyDelray's 'solar' clips

Taos Solar Music Festival Promotes Renewable Energy with the Power of Music

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:14:32 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: The festival’s Solar Stage will be powered by photovoltaic panels while the main stage uses the wind energy from Kit Carson Electric

Clip Source: www.webwire.com

Proclaimed the Solar Capital of the World, Taos, New Mexico has been committed to going green for a long time, and this summer thousands of people from around the world will gather their umbrellas, sunscreen, family and friends, and make a musical pilgrimage to this high desert town for the 10th Annual Taos Solar Music Festival. Renowned for its brave and eclectic montage of musical acts, a solar and wind powered stage and educational Solar Village, the 2008 festival is scheduled for June 27-29th.

http://www.solarmusicfest.com.

They’re walking the walk and living green.

The festival’s Solar Stage will be powered by photovoltaic panels while the main stage uses the wind energy from Kit Carson Electric

Tags: music, solar, photovoltaic, wind

Venturi Eclectic Electric Vehicle (EV)

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:38:57 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.alternative-energy-news.info

[Video]

Venturi Eclectic EV

A look at the Venturi Eclectic solar powered car courtesy of Venturi

The Solar House, Part Two and Three

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:31:48 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: photovoltaicsolarpower.blogspot.com

In fact, because we now generate more solar energy than we can use, we welcome friends who own electric vehicles over to charge their car batteries for free.

Tags: solar house, array

Solar king and the Stalin of windpower

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:58:06 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: This article is long and detailed so follow the link for more information.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Hermann Scheer has been described both as the "solar king" and the "Stalin of windpower"

"Our dependence on fossil fuels amounts to global pyromania,

"And the only fire extinguisher we have at our disposal is renewable energy".

Scheer, chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy

what has become known as "Scheer's law", German households and businesses that generate renewable energy can sell it back to the grid at more than triple the normal market price.

"The key to it working is that consumers have guaranteed access to the grid at guaranteed prices,"

More than 300,000 individuals and small businesses have jumped at the opportunity in Germany, and the number is rising all the time. Scheer's family, whose house is powered by a windmill, is among them.

Scheer's law has created whole new industries - wind power, which employs 80,000 people in Germany, and photovoltaic (solar) power, which employs 40,000

"You give people energy independence and you get social commitment

Tags: hermann scheer

Space oddity: Key Earth compound found outside solar system

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:24:03 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

For the first time, a molecule containing carbon — the organic building block of life on Earth — has been found outside our solar system.

Scientists report in the journal Nature that methane — yes, that smelly gas — was detected in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet about 63 light years away. (That's roughly 3.7 quadrillion miles, give or take a trillion.) Atmospheric water was discovered also.

But don't get your hopes up that this is where your extraterrestrial relatives are hiding: The big ball of gas is orbiting too close to its sun to support earthly life. The scientists write, however, that "under the right circumstances" methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry — the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it.

Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab found the far-away molecules with the Hubble Space Telescope. Here's the news release.

The BBC and Space.com have more.

Tags: space

These greenhouses grow from friends of the earth

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:12:42 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.palmbeachpost.com

John Eriksen admits it. He's obsessed with energy consumption.

When he flips on the eight-bulb light fixture in the bathroom of his Okeechobee home, the hand-held tracking device in his grip shows his costs per kilowatt hour spike from 2 cents to 10 cents.

On the metal roof of his house, ultra-thin laminated strips of photovoltaic cells collect power from the sun. Eriksen gets a kick out of watching the watts stream in. And he gets a credit on his monthly Florida Power & Light Co. bill for the 10 kilowatts or so he generates daily, a little less than what he uses.

Eriksen expects rebates and incentives to cover $12,000 of the $17,000 to $18,000 costs of the solar system and other green elements he built into his 1,600-square-foot home. Since the solar power will shave roughly $30 to $35 a month from his power bill, he estimates the remainder will pay for itself in about a decade.

John Eriksen, behind his solar-powered Okeechobee home

Newark rooftops could be used to yield a fifth of city's electricity needs

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:57:34 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.delawareonline.com

Rooftop solar panels could provide Newark with more than a fifth of the city's total electricity, a University of Delaware researcher said Friday.

Researchers from UD's Center for the Energy and the Environment used mapping software and a solar energy assessment program to determine how much rooftop space was actually usable for solar panels.

They used aerial images to determine which houses would be best for panels, eliminating those with too much shading from trees, chimneys, nearby buildings or other obstructions.

Flat-roofed buildings are ideal for solar, Zhou said, and Newark has plenty, with UD's many buildings and the city's industrial sector. South-facing roofs are also best, to catch the sun's rays most often.

The team found that Newark has 5.8 million square feet of suitable, available rooftop real estate. Solar panels on that area could generate 77.9 gigawatts per hour of electricity, or 21 percent of the city's power usage in 2006, Zhou said.

Tags: solar, energy, newark

Photovoltaics

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:12:34 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www1.eere.energy.gov

The U.S. Department of Energy works to provide clean, reliable, affordable solar electricity for the nation through its research programs in photovoltaic (PV) energy systems. The following pages explain the "how's" and "why's" of PV. Whether you are a student, builder, consumer, engineer, or researcher, there is something here for you.

Our goal is to ensure that photovoltaic energy systems make an important contribution to the energy needs of our nation and the world. In these pages, you will learn about DOE's R&D in photovoltaic energy systems, and much more. You will also find out—

How PV works
Why PV is important
How and why PV is used
How DOE is supporting research of solar energy
How you, the consumer, can use PV and other solar energy technologies
How builders can incorporate solar into their building plans
How students, educators, and trainers can learn more about PV

Tags: photovoltaic, solar, energy

Biggest U.S. Solar Panel Farm Opens

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:03:10 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The biggest photovoltaic solar panel array in the United States opened this week at a U.S. Air force base in Nevada and the biggest array that sells power to an electric utility began operation in Colorado, companies involved said.

A 14-megawatt solar farm covering 140 acres opened at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday. It will generate 30,000 megawatt hours a year and will supply about a quarter of the electricity used at the air base. About 12,000 people live and work on

There are bigger solar farms in the United States, but they are concentrated solar thermal projects that use mirrors to heat water rather than to use panels to convert sunlight to electricity.

The Alamoso solar project in the southern part of central Colorado, near the border with New Mexico, will generate about 17,000 megawatt hours each year, enough no-emissions power to serve about 1,500 homes.

Start-Up Sells Solar Panels at Lower-Than-Usual Cost

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:55:38 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Nanosolar, a heavily financed Silicon Valley start-up whose backers include Google’s co-founders, plans to announce Tuesday that it has begun selling its innovative solar panels, which are made using a technique that is being held out as the future of solar power manufacturing.

The company, which has raised $150 million and built a 200,000-square-foot factory here, is developing a new manufacturing process that “prints” photovoltaic material on aluminum backing, a process the company says will reduce the manufacturing cost of the basic photovoltaic module by more than 80 percent.

Nanosolar, which recently hired a top manufacturing executive from I.B.M., said that it had orders for its first 18 months of manufacturing capacity. The photovoltaic panels will be made in Silicon Valley and in a second plant in Germany.

Nanosolar has focused on lowering the manufacturing cost

Nanosolar

claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to

sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt

Tags: nanosolar, alternative, solar, panels, power, energy, photvoltaic, prints

The Incredible Hybrid Solar Home--Enertia House

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:05:18 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: photovoltaicsolarpower.blogspot.com

This house heats and cools itself bringing benefits to the homeowner and the environment. The Enertia House can make more energy than it uses! The house won the grand prize from the History Channel and the National Inventors Hall of Fame (first out of 25,000 entries).

Enertia is energy made useful by a shift-in-Time.

Michael Sykes coined the term "Enertia®" for the useful energy that can be captured from thermal, rotational, or electrical inertia.

Using inertia, 80% of world energy needs can be met with a simple shift-in-Time. Summer thermal buildup can be shifted to fill Winter thermal needs.

Daytime solar gain to fill night-time needs.

Read about hybrid solar houses and designs.

Read about the Science behing the house.

Tags: photovoltaic, solar, energy, house, heating, cooling

New Planet, We are not alone (1)

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:52:36 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Does this incredible discovery mean we are no longer unique? Pictures are fascinating. Is their life out there?

Clip Source: news.aol.com

NASA scientists said they discovered a fifth planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system and say the discovery suggests there are many solar systems that are, just like our own, packed with planets.

The new planet is much bigger than Earth, but is a similar distance away from its sun, a star known as 55 Cancri, the astronomers said on Tuesday.

The giant planets that orbit 55 Cancri, as depicted in this artist's concept, are inhospitable to life. But astronomers say it's possible water could exist on a moon of the newly discovered planet.

Life could conceivably live on the surface of a moon that might be orbiting the new planet, but such a moon would be far too small to detect using current methods, the astronomers said.

"The star is very much like our own sun. It has about the same mass and is about the same age as our sun," Fischer told reporters.

Tags: nasa, scientists, fifth, planet, 55, cancri

Invest in the Wind?

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:24:02 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Interesting idea for sure.

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

German solar power company Conergy is seeking approval to build the largest windmill in Australia, taking a 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.8 billion) bet on the country's Parliament passing legislation supporting renewable energy.

Conergy (other-otc: CEYHF - news - people ) is expanding outside its traditional retail and wholesale solar business in Europe. The company reported a 70.6% growth in turnover to 418 million euros ($589 million) for the first half of this year, thanks to the strong overseas sales that exceeded sales in Germany for the first time. The company said its orders in hand surpassed the billion euro mark for the first time, rising to 1.2 billion Euros. About 62% of these orders are from Korea, the United States and other countries.

Tags: wind, investing, australia, power, conenergy, ceyhf, solar, energy

Penn State's ultra-efficient solar home heads to international competition

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:25:02 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: live.psu.edu

University Park, Pa. -- After almost two years in design, development and construction, Penn State's MorningStar, an ultra-efficient solar home, will travel this week to the prestigious international Solar Decathlon. Twenty universities are entered in the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored competition, each striving to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient, 100 percent solar-powered home possible. All the homes will be on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., forming a temporary "solar village" for judging Oct. 12-20

Tags: penn state, morningstar, solar house, international solar decathlon, u.s. department of energy

Save Some Money While You Save The Earth

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:01:53 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: solarlion.blogspot.com

Scott Eisensmith has heard all the stereotypes about having a so-called "green" house.

He would like to say his switch to solar was driven by eco-friendly motives but the truth is his decisions were driven by the financial benefits as well.

My gas bill is down to about $12, he says, pointing out it used to run more than $100 a month.

Eisensmith says, the electric company now sends him checks, not bills, in the mail.

Tags: solar, energy, house, utility bill, gas, electric