After looking at and rejecting solar panels for myself, I stumbled over a combo-effort called PVT. From the US sites the numbers look very good and overall it just sounds like a better idea all round.

Solar PVT or PV-T, means the getting best of both worlds thermal + photovoltaic together, in fact there are even synergies as the thermal action keeps the PV cooler which aids in its efficiency. Claims of twice the energy are touted.

However, I am kinda frustrated as there seems (to me) to be little offerings in the UK and so far I haven’t seem any solid pricing. Whats up out there ?

Maybe its too early, but I doubt it, maybe it’s more suited for things bigger than domestic homes.  Maybe, the chinese haven’t tooled up to make’n’ship them, maybe the claims I’ve seen are stretched, but the numbers do look very good and could swing the money justification for me, but looks a little too soon ?

Guess I’m no longer excited about this solar stuff again, boooo.

Here are the links to check out
http://solarwall.com/en/products/solarwall-pvt/solarduct-pvt.php
http://www.pvtsolar.com/home.html

Here’s a list of sites that show live data for PV systems.  You can also export raw data.

• Fat Spaniel live sites: Fat Spaniel does monitoring and reporting for renewables.
• SolRenView live sites:  Solectria makes inverters.

The Fat Spaniel sites are quite polished, but I see room for design improvements.  Specifically, I think one could integrate some information about averages into the various charts that provide a bit more context.  I’d also remove some of the distracting cartoony stuff that doesn’t add much info.

SolRenView is a lot less polished, but more or less does the job.  Plenty of room for improvement.

Both offer export capabilities.  It would be fun to pull data on say an hourly basis and generate a live map of PV output. Of course, it wouldn’t be at all comprehensive, but it would be a neat tool for raising awareness, complementary to e.g. The Open PV Project.

I would think people might like to be able to view their systems’ output on their phone.  I haven’t seen such an app yet.

I’m sure there are other public-accessible solar monitoring sites out there, but I can’t find them at the moment…

People listening to policymakers debate the nation’s energy future might think: Just erect a lot of wind turbines, and problem solved. Or install a bunch of solar panels, and let the sun do the work.  However, renewable energy alternatives present costs and challenges just like traditional energy sources — coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydropower.  (read World-Herald article)

While other countries are arguing about their energy resources, policies and capabilities, Germany breaks the solar capacity record.

Carsten Koernig, the Managing Director of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW), told Reuters that this late surge of photovoltaic installations “would take the forecast past last month’s increase to 2.5 GW from 2 GW.”

Image Credit: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com

Some years ago, the German government initiated a plan to promote solar cells through feed-in-tariffs and other incentives. These incentives and the lower prices have led to a boom in demand for photovaltaics which in spite of  the financial crisis and fear of looming changes in German laws, it continues to rise.

Germany, is the world’s leader in photovoltaic which turns sunlight into electricity; it now has more than a third of the world’s total capacity – 5.3 GW (gigawatt) of 15 GW. During 2009 alone close to 3 GW will be installed.

This is a world record for installed solar capacity in one country during one year.

The slumping prices have hurt some companies. Two of the two biggest – Q-Cells and Conergy — both posted third quarter losses but aim to return to profit in 2010.

Sources and further information: Reuters,  Solar investors will see stronger 2010, say analysts, Reduced subsidies to renewable energy in Germany

Planet Solar ha comenzado la construcción de un catamarán presupuestado en 13 millones de dólares, impulsado con energía solar y diseñado para dar la vuelta al mundo. La financiación ha sido proporcionada por la empresa suiza de energía limpia, Rivendell Holding AG.

Se espera que la navegación dure 120 días navegando a 10 nudos. En la cubierta están instalados 470 metros cuadrados de paneles solares que abastecerán a la nave de la energía necesaria para cubrir todas sus necesidades.

Como curiosidad, entre los participantes se encuentra el nieto de Julio Verne, Jean Verne.

Más información e imágenes en Wired.

In October we immersed our self deeply into wind, solar and alternative energy as well as green and sustainable building techniques at the Solar Decathlon, a solar house competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy at the Mall of Washington, D.C..
In addition we thoroughly enjoyed a daylong and enlightening Solar Symposium and workshop at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. during the Solar Decathlon entitled: “Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Building in Germany and the USA.” and met with German and American experts in the field of alternative energies.
We discussed many current issues in alternative energy and helped to celebrate the winner of the 2009 Solar Decathlon, the German group of students from ‘Technische Universität Darmstadt’ during the evening reception at the Goethe Institute in Washington, D.C.
Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Building in Germany and the USA

Returning from a business trip to Switzerland we took the route back via Washington, D.C. for pleasant and informative meetings with the new German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and other German political leaders.
With updated and broadened information, as well as deepened & strengthened business and political connections we returned to our office.

TransDomo,LLC
Klaus Westerwelle
8 Briarpark Drive
Greer, SC 29651
Phone: 864.908.0690
Email: info@transdomo.com
Transdomo
Westerwelle

So I’ve got two chapters left to type in The Newropean, Thursday and Friday.  I have enjoyed it more or less but know there are a few things that will have to be added, cleaned, deleted, changed to make the story fresher and more poignant.

I had a phonecall today with a company about 30 minutes away from here that manufactures part for solar panels. I’ve scheduled an interview with the company  http://jrt.live.avenit.de/en/profil here if you want to check it out.

Not one student came to my 8am class which didn’t really upset me because it allowed me to make photocopies for the university on Thursday and also have a coffee and enjoy the city slowly coming to life.

I’m headed to the gym (again) in a little more than an hour, then a private lesson and then an early night in bed because tomorrow I have an 8am-8pm day (with some breaks in there for sure, but I probably won’t go home between) which always kicks my ass!

How are you?

“Green power energy.If you are interested in learning exactly how to generate power and reduce your bill. Green power energy,I hear out..green power energy then this is the perfect resource for you!

With the ever increasing costs of living, there is no better time than right now to stop throwing money out the window and start generating our own electricity.

Over the last few years I have figured out how to significantly reduce the cost of solar panels making it more affordable for the average home owner just like you.

Now you can build a single panel or a complete array of panels to power your home for a fraction of retail cost.

Click here Green Power Energy

These Seattle Architects had the opportunity to climb up on the roof of the Ellis Residence to film the installation of the 20 panel, 4 kw photovoltaic system which will supply about 40% of the power to the residence. The system features 200 watt panels from Sanyo. The panels harness the rays of the sun to create DC electricity which is then inverted to usable AC power. Electricity generated by the panel but not used by at the residence, especially during the summer months, will be sent to the power grid to be used elsewhere. The installation was recently featured on a Bainbridge Island Television broadcast.

Duke Energy boss Jim Rogers is a big voice on energy and climate change for a couple of simple reasons. He runs a big utility, heavily invested in coal power, and he’s an outspoken proponent of climate-change legislation that spooks many of his peers. Associated Press Duke’s Jim Rogers: “We could find ourselves in 2050 where coal has a limited role, if any.” So his take on America’s energy future is usually interesting. No exception in this recent interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, where he makes the case for why nuclear power will likely beat coal in a country still heavily reliant on the black stuff.

Coal has all sorts of issues, he says, not just carbon emissions. Coal plants produce other particulate emissions, create fly-ash dumps, and promote harsh mining practices: Decarbonization of coal is just on top of that. If you asked me today based on current technologies–and assuming we have no advances in technology with respect to decarbonization of coal–I would say nuclear would trump coal because it produces zero greenhouse gases, it provides power 24/7, and, probably most importantly, it probably produces more jobs than even solar or wind on a per-megawatt basis.

Now, Mr. Rogers has been amping up his support for nuclear power since the summer, including a big op-ed in the WSJ. He’s often mentioned the jobs angle before, but rarely with such detail:

In an operation of a nuclear plant, there [are] .64 jobs per megawatt. The wind business–and we have a very large wind business–is .3 jobs per megawatt. In the solar business–and we’re installing solar panels–it’s about .1. But the difference in the jobs is quite different, because if you’re wiping off a solar panel, it’s sort of a minimum wage type of job, [with] much higher compensation for nuclear engineers and nuclear operators. If our goal is to rebuild the middle class, nuclear plays a key role there, particularly if coal is out of the equation.

Ever since last year’s presidential campaign, the energy debate has been largely a jobs debate—for better or for worse. With unemployment still creeping upward, will jobs—not joules—be the crucial element for America’s energy future?

[via WSJ]

Slashdot It!

As of 2009 there are approximately 6.799 billion human beings living here on this planet. Everyone one of us requires a minimum of water, food, and shelter,  just for basic survival, and our consumption of resources is tremendous. Projecting past the state of just surviving, what limited natural resources we utilize to support a lifestyle of normal living standards, will be depleted in the not far off future. Fifty thousand species become extinct every year, and there is a study that predicts that by 2048, all commercially fished species will be gone. Our worldwide forests have been reduced to half of what they were, and we can not stop industrial pollution. All we can hope to accomplish is to slow down this process. It will take an almost impossible amount of world team work to accomplish this, but in observing what world governments have accomplished, there is little reason to think that our governments are competent enough to succeed at this problem.  What will succeed is if each one of us, as individuals, places an importance on finding the solution within our own environment.

www.rv-visions

Thin-film solar PV maker First Solar (s FSLR) has been aggressively buying solar projects, hoping to drive down project costs while spurring demand for its solar modules during the economic downturn. But First Solar isn’t in the business of holding onto these projects over the long term. In the latest indication of its strategy to develop and sell off projects, First Solar announced today that it has sold its high-profile, 21-megawatt solar energy project in Blythe, Calif., to NRG Energy (s NRG), a merchant power producer.

The Blythe project, located on land about 200 miles east of Los Angeles that First Solar picked up through its acquisition of Ted Turner’s Turner Renewable Energy in 2007, will provide electricity to the utility Southern California Edison under a 20-year power purchase agreement. (This agreement still holds after the sale, according to the release.) Once online later this year, Blythe will be the largest utility-scale PV project in California, according to NRG. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

First Solar is developing 1,300 megawatts of PV solar projects under contracts with utilities in California and the Southwest (see this listing of projects we complied in August).  A big chunk of the projects come from First Solar’s $400 million deal in March with OptiSolar in which the latter sold its pipeline of solar plans that included a 550-megawatt deal with California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (s PCG).

Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar is now starting to unload some of the projects it’s developed, a trend Pacific Crest equity analyst Mark Bachman expects to continue. “They don’t want to be the electricity owner. They want to use their project development skills to build out and then find someone else who wants to own the electricity,” Bachman told us. The NRG agreement is First Solar’s second project sale this fall. In October the solar module maker announced it had sold a 20 MW solar project near Sarnia, Ontario, to Canadian energy company Enbridge (s ENB).

NRG, which owns 24,000 MW of power generation mostly in natural gas and coal plants in Texas and the Northeast, is a newcomer to the renewables industry. As of July this year, the company only had two clean energy projects in its portfolio — 120 MW and 75 MW wind plants in Texas.  But the Princeton, N.J.-based firm announced at an investor conference last week that it plans to spend $300 million-$500 million annually over the next 5-6 years in renewables, mostly in solar, biomass and wind projects, according to a Well Fargo Securities research note.

Image courtesy of First Solar.

Two stories this time, one French and one Forward.

“French” — A French couchsurfer named Mathieu spent the weekend with us and boy did he ever!  Let’s just say that it all culminated in dancing to Britney Spears at the Pink Party (wink, wink) at 3 am.  That had been preceded by live reggae music and dancing and beers, that preceded by homemade French Ratatouille with enough olive oil in it to drown an ant hill.  Friday night when he got here, we went to Walfisch and actually had the owner buy us a beer.  I couldn’t believe it, I’d been going there almost 7 years, mofo ain’t never buy me a beer before, but thanks!

“Forward” — I didn’t have to work today in the traditional sense, which is good because the weather was crappy and i got to spend the morning having coffee and getting my day in perspective and by 10.45am Mathieu and I were walking to the spot on the bridge where people hitchhike from.  That dude was at the last leg of a trip that had been going on for a few weeks and started in southern France and had gone onto Stockholm and back.  From there, I went to the gym, a whopping 45 minutes of cardio (usually do 30) and some weightlifting, came home and made lunch.  Here’s where the Forward comes in.  Throughout the day I had been in various forms of contact with people here in Freiburg and in California.  A guy who writes for publications on energy developments, which led me to a guy who is managing a project of some solar panels out by the autobahn and I even called a company in California about their recent sale of solar technology to a South African consortium.  That lady is now potentially sending my resume to the right person in South Africa who will be doing hiring/human resources for their projects throughout southern Africa.

That’s a pretty good step forward, I’d say.  Oops, I already did.

 I’ve been monkeying with energy statistics long enough to know that, as with any statistics, with enough ingenuity you can find some number somewhere to prove your point. My goal on this blog has not been to prove points but rather to learn and maybe to teach. Today I set out to learn a little about the future of electric vehicles.

It seems likely that a material portion of the automotive fleet in the U.S. will consist of electric vehicles in the next 20 to 30 years. I haven’t done a forecast of the electric vehicle market, but many others have (for example here and here).

Others have also shown that electric vehicles can be less polluting than internal combustion engine vehicles–even if the electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels–because electric motors are more efficient than gasoline engine in converting stored energy to motion.

So I was wondering whether renewable energy sources like solar and wind might ever power a significant amount of our driving. My highly superficial analysis suggests that’s plausible but far in the future.

Consider this: it is estimated that today’s electric vehicles will travel a mile on between .2 and .4 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Last year, according to the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. residential vehicles travelled some 2,922 billion miles. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), some 843 MW hours of solar energy and some 52,000 MW hours of wind energy were generated in the U.S. last year. Together that’s enough to power about 176 billion miles of driving, or just about six percent of the total. Little to none of that electricity was actually used to power electric vehicles, though. The EIA says that in 2007, the most recent year for which I could find figures, all electric vehicles consumed just 168 MW hours of electricity.

Today, wind and solar account for a relatively small share of the country’s supply of renewable energy; hydropower is the largest source, and there will be very little hydropower capacity added in coming years. The EIA expects that our supply of renewable energy will nearly double by 2030 compared to 2007 levels, with growth led by solar and biomass. If half of that increase is used to power electric vehicles, assuming their efficiency doesn’t improve (a conservative assumption), that will be enough to power them for nearly 500 billion miles, a substantial share of the total.

It seems plausible, therefore, that renewably generated electricity could power a significant portion of the country’s driving needs over the next decades. Whether strong demand for plug-in electric vehicles will develop remains uncertain, of course. And like any analysis of the country’s energy needs, this one suggests that energy will continue to come from a broad mix of sources for the foreseeable future.

I welcome your perspective on the electric vehicle future and the role of renewables in it.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia has had its email server hacked into. The initial prognosis is that these emails are genuine
and shed light on the climate change debate and the relevant funding issues. The full 160MB of files can be downloaded as a 61MB zip file here or as individual files from here. I appears that after all the sun has something to do with the temperature of the planet and climate scientists were aware of this as far back as 1996 (see below):

From: John D
To: n.nicholls@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Climatic warming in Tasmania
Date: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 20:04:00 +1100
Cc: Ed xxxx , NNU-NB@xxxxxxx.dk, xxxxxxx@uea.ac.uk, Mike Bxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.fi, rjf@xxxxxxx.au

John D

A rudimentary Internet search with terms ‘UEA hacked emails’ pulls up dozens of pages.
Climate skeptics such as former British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Lord Lawson are now pushing for an enquiry into the matter. This story has got legs and will run and run.

And what you may cry has this got to do with the EU? Quite a lot actually. The EU is but a stepping stone on the wy towards global government, and it’s only a matter of time
before the high priests of global warming stick us all with a global carbon tax.

Solar lighting advances are continuing to be made as renewable energy concepts are gaining speed. Solar lighting advances are also coming with much greater efficiency. They are multi layer cells that are capable of using more of the light spectrum which can produce more power with less cells. solar advances are likely to come from the copper-indium-diselenide approach. The panels collect the photons and through a complicated process involving the transfer of ions energy is created. 

Solar cells collect the energy and recharge internal batteries.The energy is then sent via wires to a battery bank. Solar battery banks use lead acid batteries to store the energy. A solar battery bank is what will keep your garden, landscape or house supplied with energy during nighttime hours and on cloudy days. Solar led lights can also used to supplement even more of the home’s energy and is better for the environment.

While solar lighting advances does reduce the use of fossil fuels, the manufacture of solar panels does require a lot of energy. However, panels can last 30 years or more so you get back more energy than is use to produce them. You have to consider energy conservation, for example solar street lights, as a first step that is not only free, but will likely save money. Conservation is probably the biggest piece of the energy puzzle out there. The truth is we are keep wasting energy like there is no tomorrow.

The main setbacks with solar lighting advances are the cost which are getting cheaper every year. So it is up to you to spread the word about the benefits of solar led lights and all of its practical applications. If you’re like most people and can’t afford to invest in wind or solar energy just yet, you can always conserve within your home by controlling how much power you consume.

Did you know solar water heaters have more than one factors that affect its efficiency, moreover there are certain methods by which you can make use of it during the night time. By latent heat storage method only my research had a unique system. If you are interested ask me!

On 5 November 2009, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype left its hangar at Dübendorf aerodrome near Zurich. It underwent some initial series of stationary tests involving first its four engines, and the electromagnetic interference.

On Thursday, 19 November, the solar airplane made his first “trip”. He taxied down the runway powered by its own engines and  going through a series of acceleration and breaking manoeuvres, checking that the calculated and simulated strains are not being exceeded.

Solar Impulse HB-SIA. Image Credit: http://news.cnet.com

The results of these initial tests have fully met the expectations of the Solar Impulse team. The next critical stage will involve taking the prototype up to its 35 km/h take-off speed and having it do its first few “flea hops”. The objective will be to record numerous unknown parameters as the aircraft will be operating in an unexplored flight domain.

“If this is satisfactory, we will dismantle it and transport it to Payerne air force base in western Switzerland, where we will do the real first flight of about two hours, in February,” said André Borschberg (BBC News).

The solar aircraft, with the wingspan of a Boeing 747-400 weight 1600Kg. Over 12,000 solar cells mounted onto the wing supply renewable energy to the four electric motors with a maximum power of 10 HP each. During the day they  also charge the lithium-polymer batteries (400 kg), which permit the HB-SIA to fly through the night.

Sources and further reading: Solar Impulse, BBC News

For those of you who have not seen the articles today please click below…

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Channel=News_Home&ArticleId=1518-24_2556862&IsColumnistStory=False

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Channel=News_Home&ArticleId=1518-25_2556847&IsColumnistStory=False

It al centres around Eskom’s proposed Tariff increases for the next 3 years of 45% each year which will drive up your electricity costs to SHOCKINGLY high levels.

People need to understand that they can make changes now – CFL’S, LED’s, SOLAR, ENERGY EFFICIENT FITTINGS – all will reduce your usage substantially.

Most people complain that these items are TOO expensive and lets face it, they are more expensive than the usual alternatives. BUT this is the completely wrong way of viewing these items. We need to stop thinking like consumers, we need to re-think the way we live.

We need to understand that these Items are ASSETS and not expenses. They generate a return on the investment you have spent. For instance a LED bulb will save you approximate 50% when compared with the usual incandescent bulb. You therefore save money and in the real world saving money is just as good as making more money!

We have to run our homes like businesses – think carefully about our purchases and the rewards will be dramatic.

Right now with the Eskom increases we are financing THEIR assets and footing the bill, paying more for nothing? We have not increased our usage, in fact I would guess in most instances we have reduced our usage – YET we still pay more. This is not how it is supposed to work.

What can we do about it – GO SOLAR, GO EFFICIENT – so a solar system may cost you R15k but you get a return on that investment, and each time Eskom increases their tariffs your return increases. Once you have recouped your initial outlay in savings all that hot water is free – YOU COULDN’T CARE LESS ABOUT WHAT ESKOM DOES IN THE FUTURE.

This is the case with all energy saving products – you generate a return on them and they are in fact assets to you and your household.

You need to take a long term approach and in 24 months you could be generating 80% of your own electricity and saving the rest.

Visit us online – WWW.URBAN-SOLAR.CO.ZA

Have a Solar Day!

info@urban-solar.co.za

1. The Earth receives more Solar Energy in one day than the entire human population has consumed in our entire history.
2. Most areas in South Africa average more than 2 500 hours of sunshine per year, and average solar-radiation levels range between 4.5 and 6.5kWh/m2 in one day.
3. The Sunshine recieved by the average South African is more than double that of a German home. Germany is the global leader in Solar energy production.
4. The entire United States of America could be powered by Solar Power Plant 160 km x 160 km large, a small price to pay for completely clean energy?
5. It is estimated that the entire world’s Coal Reserves for the next 200 years represents only 0.07% of our Solar Potential over the same time frame!
6. 1 Solar Water Heating System in South Africa will save: 1.6 Tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions; 2000 litres of water and 800 kilograms of coal over 1 year.
7. The Sun is also the main source of non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum) which began life as plants or animals millions of years ago.
8. The White House in Washington D.C. uses Solar Water Heating Systems.
9. All TV & Communication Satellites are powered by Solar Power
10. It takes 8 minutes & 17 seconds for sunlight to travel to Earth.

Have a Solar Day!

www.urban-solar.co.za

If you’ve ventured downtown in recent months, you are probably keenly aware of the changes made in downtown parking. With street closures and construction at nearly every turn, finding a convenient parking spot is almost as gratifying as hitting the lotto – almost. And, considering I don’t play the lotto, I’m much luckier in finding parking spots, but I digress…

A friend picked me up at work for lunch today. We decided to try a new local restaurant, so we braved the construction and street closures only to find ourselves battling the limited parking – and my recent nemesis: the “new & improved,” ever-so-difficult, and unnecessarily cumbersome parking meters.

I have wondered for some time now, whose idea these were and what in the WORLD they were thinking when they decided to replace the “old” meters with the new ones! Have you had the blessed opportunity to try them? Here’s a synopsis of the experience:

1.) Wrangle downtown traffic to parallel park into the last available spot in the metro area.

2.) Abandon vehicle & walk 1 – 5 parking spaces away (depending on the distance from the “new & improved” solar parking meter).

3.) Navigate the digital screen & insert either cash or credit card into the “new & improved” solar parking meter at double the hourly rate as the older, simpler “dinosaur” meters. ($1.00/hour).

4.) Receive paper ticket, indicating your allotted, pre-paid time to utilize the space.

5.) Return to your vehicle, 1-5 parking spaces away from the “new & improved” solar parking meter.

6.) Place paper ticket on your dashboard, in clear view for meter attendants, lest you receive a $15.00 fine for violating the “new & improved” solar parking meter system.

There are so many issues here, I’m at a loss for where to begin, but I’ll give it a whirl…

1.) Gone are the days of the “good samaritan” who deposits an extra coin in your expired meter.

2.) Good luck to the aged in our community who struggle with cell phones, computers, “self-checkouts” at Kroger and NOW the digital parking meters downtown.

3.) Two words: PAPER TICKETS. At first glance, the idea of a solar parking meter may seem like an environmentally-conscious endeavor for our fare Lexington. But… what about all those little paper tickets, with all that black ink printed on them? I’m guessing the tickets are NOT printed on recycled paper and the ink is NOT soy-based, so I’m going to make an educated guess that these “new & improved” solar parking meters are actually LESS environmentally-conscious than their older, simpler, “dinosaur” meters. If I’m wrong, PLEASE correct me – I’d REALLY LOVE to be wrong on this one!