30Nov

Cleantech 100 identifies top innovators in sustainability

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Recently the Cleantech Group, with the assistance of an advisory panel of corporate executives, sat down to decide upon the third annual Global Cleantech 100: the hundred “most promising and innovative” clean technology companies of 2011. The listed companies span a range of industries, and though solar energy firms, chemical recyclers, LED manufacturers and energy-monitoring software programmers certainly aren’t under-represented, many companies in the hundred are defined by a single product or idea. Gizmag scoured the Cleantech 100 to find what we thought were the ten most innovative companies.

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28Nov

Google’s Search for More Efficient and Low-cost Solar Thermal Power Plant Designs

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Google has abandoned its effort to come up with better flat mirrors and power plant designs for producing electricity from the sun’s heat, but it is releasing its research results so that others could perhaps use it to create commercially viable solutions.

It’s interesting to see what Google thought it could contribute to the field of solar thermal power plant engineering. The company’s research has focused on using smaller engines and light-weight mirrors with better controlling software — along with a tower outfitted with equipment to receive the concentrated sunlight and run a turbine and generator — to produce electricity. It ran into some technical challenges with engineering a suitable power tower before it decided to shelve the research project.

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26Nov

Google Drops ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ (RE

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Google Makes a Mistake

As you can see from the linked stories on the left of this article, Google is quite a big proponent of renewable energy. They have made all kinds of investments in wind, solar, geothermal, etc. Some are to generate clean energy for their own needs, others are more akin to financing deals to help big wind and solar farms get built. In any case, it is very commendable work and if more big corporations had the long-term vision of Google, the world would definitely be in better shape.

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26Nov

European consortia to build renewable energy farms in Arab deserts

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Europe’s ambitious project to capture solar and wind energy across Arab deserts to power homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa inched forward Thursday despite technical and political hurdles.

Two international consortiums led by German and French industrial giants joined forces in highly complex drives to deploy solar panels and wind turbines in arid regions, and sink cables across the Mediterranean.

The two groups, Desertec Industry Initiative and Medgrid, signed a cooperation deal in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU energy ministers’ meeting, linking projects aimed at meeting 15 percent of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.

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24Nov

Google Pulls Plug on Renewable Energy Project

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Google Pulls Plug on Renewable Energy Project

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Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.

The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called “spring cleaning” announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.

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24Nov

How Tariffs Could Impact Solar Industry

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Would tariffs placed on Chinese solar panels amount to “protectionism?” Are the companies most critical of the trade complaint “just crying foul?” And what’s more important to American companies, the race to grid parity or the desire to reclaim solar manufacturing from China?

With the creation of competing coalitions, the sides have been clearly labeled, and the opinions have become increasingly entrenched. But there remains a striking lack of clarity about what happens if and when tariffs are placed on solar panels and cells imported into the U.S., and how that could ultimately impact American businesses and American solar capacity.

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15Nov

How Much Can You Really Save with Solar?

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How Much Can You Really Save with Solar

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I just returned from the Solar Power International (SPI) show, an annual event for the solar industry, and there were a few things I kept hearing over and over.

One was: “It’s simple: People can live better with solar.” The second was: “The price of electricity will rise over the next decade.”

Over the last 40 years, Americans have been fortunate to have largely consistent electric rates. But as utility providers need to replace aging systems and fuel costs rise, experts predict that homeowners will soon need to pay more for electricity.

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14Nov

California Approves Solar Contract Despite High Cost

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Should consumers pay more for renewable energy in order to promote a certain technology? That’s an interesting question raised by California regulators on Thursday, when they approved what they acknowledged to be a pricey contract for Abengoa Solar to sell power to Pacific Gas & Electric.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-1 to approve the 25-year contract, which will allow Abengoa to build the 280-megawatt solar farm called Mojave Solar in southern California. The company already has secured construction permits from state and federal regulators, as well as a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to help pay up to 80 percent of the project’s cost.

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14Nov

Setting sun: solar panels feed-in tariff halved

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Householders who are in the process of having solar panels put on their roof have six weeks to complete the job or face seeing the predicted income they generate slashed after the government said it was cutting feed-in tariffs by 50%.

Despite pledging to be “the greenest government ever”, the Tory-led coalition last week shocked the renewables sector by announcing that only installations completed by 12 December would get the full payments they were promised. Hundreds of householders who had signed contracts to have panels fitted have now pulled out and others are expected to follow.

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12Nov

How to build your own solar powered cellphone

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10 concept cellphones designed to be powered by self generated electricity

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You have to make call, it’s urgent. And you see your cell phone battery has run out of charge. That’s very annoying. With no nearby cellphone charger you might feel like tearing hairs apart or kicking in your own rear badly. Don’t worry; many of us felt the same way several times in our life. But hold on. You can avoid the pity. With little effort you could build a solar powered mobile phone. The job is not much tricky and requires very few inexpensive resources. Once done you would only need to keep your mobile phone lying on open daylight and battery would start running again. With solar panel, installed on the back side of the phone, you won’t need to carry anything extra separately. So there is no chance of forgetting. Just carry the phone wherever you go. (more…)

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