3Feb

125 MW solar power plant to land in Arizona by end of 2013

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125 MW solar power plant to land in Arizona by end of 2013

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Maricopa County, Arizona is set to play host to a 125 MW photovoltaic solar power plant, according to an announcement on Tuesday from Fluor Corporation. The company has won the separate contracts to build and maintain the facility, which upon completion will fleetingly join the ranks of the the world’s largest photovoltaic solar farms. The project, known as Arlington Valley Solar Energy II (AVSE II) will be built on 1.8 square miles (4.7 sq. km) near to the Arlington Valley Combined Cycle Facility, a 577 MW natural gas plant also designed and built by Fluor.

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2Feb

Would the solar industry be better off without government support?

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Would the solar industry be better off without government support

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The UK’s only Green MP, Caroline Lucas, takes to the pages of The Guardian to launch a broadside against the UK Government’s investment policy in relation to solar energy.

The UK Government this week lost an appeal in the High Court against a lower court’s ruling that its retrospective attempt to change the solar feed-in tariff rates imposed by the previous Labour Government was “legally flawed”. The Cameron Government had tried to reduce the rates before the agreed consultation period had expired.

The court’s decision is considered to be a victory for the UK solar industry however the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is threatening to take the case to the Supreme Court. The future of solar investment therefore remains in an unhealthy limbo.

Intriguingly the Hon. Ms Lucas touches on a theme returned to often in these pages: certainty.

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1Feb

Solar car hits U.S. in round-the-world jaunt

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Solar car hits U.S. in round-the-world jaunt

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Last October, the SolarWorld GT solar-powered car set out from Darwin, Australia on a drive around the world. It has since driven 3,001 kilometers (1,865 miles) across Australia, logged 1,947 km (1,210 miles) crossing New Zealand and been shipped across the Pacific Ocean. This Friday, it will embark on the U.S. leg of its journey, as it sets out across America from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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1Feb

Nissan unveils energy-efficient Nichio Maru car carrier

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Nissan unveils energy-efficient Nichio Maru car carrier

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With large cargo freighters being a major source of CO2 emissions worldwide it’s been encouraging to see various efforts to make such vessels more efficient. In recent years we’ve seen the development of the world’s biggest container ship to cut CO2 emissions per container moved, air bubbles used to cut the friction between a ship’s hull and the ocean, and even plans to return to the use of sails to cut fuel use. Now Nissan has launched an energy efficient coastal car carrier called the Nichio Maru that employs solar panels, LED lighting, a low friction hull coating hull and an electronically controlled diesel engine to cut fuel consumption.

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1Feb

New Type of Inverter Could Drive Down the Cost of Solar Power

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New Type of Inverter Could Drive Down the Cost of Solar Power

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ArrayPower says that it has invented a “sequenced inverter” design that could cut the cost of solar power by 10%.

For those that don’t know what an inverter is, don’t worry, it is easy to understand and I will explain it: a typical inverter for a solar-powered home converts the DC (direct current) power that solar panels generate into 120- and 240-volt AC (alternating current) power, the same as what your power outlet provides. Small solar setups often generate DC at 12 volts, and that 12 volts of DC power is converted into 120 volts of AC power, which is suitable for most household appliances, portable devices chargers, etc.

The new inverter setup mentioned above involves equipping each solar panel with a small inverter, instead of connecting all solar panels to one large inverter.

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31Jan

Device Could Drive Down Solar’s Cost

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ArrayPower_x220

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As solar panel manufacturers try to harvest more of the sun’s energy for less, they face increasingly diminishing returns. At roughly $1 per watt, the cost of solar modules now represents less than a third of the total cost of commercial solar installations. To cut the total cost of solar power—currently $3.00 to $3.50 per watt—bigger gains will have to come from improvements in the power electronics, wiring, and mounting systems required for solar installations.

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31Jan

D-Hotel: Historic Belgian Windmill Transformed into a Modern Retreat

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D-Hotel Historic Belgian Windmill Transformed into a Modern Retreat

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Dutch firm Govaert and Vanhoutte Architects have transformed a beautiful windmill and adjacent farm building into the innovative D-hotel in Kortijk. An iconic symbol of the Netherlands, the windmill rises on a farm site around a series of buildings formerly used on the farm, which are met by modern glass block structures. The adaptive reuse project is decorated with themes focused around art, film and music, and it won the architects third place in Hotel Et Lodge magazine’s international competition.
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30Jan

CHIP House powered by solar energy, controlled with Xbox Kinect

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CHIP House powered by solar energy, controlled with Xbox Kinect

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The CHIP House – which stands for “Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype” – was started with the goal of creating a net-zero energy home (i.e. one that requires no external energy source), and it looks like the designers exceeded that target. The house actually generates three times as much energy as it uses thanks to solar panels and a host of energy saving measures.

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30Jan

Solar powered homes that will compete in Solar Decathlon Europe 2012

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Solar powered homes that will compete in Solar Decathlon Europe 2012

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Environmentally friendly homes can reduce inhabitants’ carbon footprints, save resources and lead the way for others to live the same way. Most of us, however, have been living in homes that are pretty standard, in that they don’t help us reduce our carbon footprints. The US Department of Energy has been trying to further green living in terms of homes and has been organizing the Solar Decathlon for a while now. The international competition is a biennial event that challenges 20 college teams to come up with conceptual homes that utilize solar energy. The teams get to work on site, detailing their prefabricated houses for 10 days in a bid to take home the Solar Decathlon title. 2012’s competition is set to begin and we’re eager to see who wins the coveted prize.

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27Jan

In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper than Fossil Fuels

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In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper than Fossil Fuels

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Advances are opening solar to the 1.3 billion people who don’t have access to grid electricity.

The falling cost of LED lighting, batteries, and solar panels, together with innovative business plans, are allowing millions of households in Africa and elsewhere to switch from crude kerosene lamps to cleaner and safer electric lighting. For many, this offers a means to charge their mobile phones, which are becoming ubiquitous in Africa, instead of having to rent a charger.

Technology advances are opening up a huge new market for solar power: the approximately 1.3 billion people around the world who don’t have access to grid electricity. Even though they are typically very poor, these people have to pay far more for lighting than people in rich countries because they use inefficient kerosene lamps. While in most parts of the world solar power typically costs far more than electricity from conventional power plants—especially when including battery costs—for some people, solar power makes economic sense because it costs half as much as lighting with kerosene.

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