Maldives President taking a lead with solar energy

Posted on September 30, 2010 by quest

You ever have one of those moments when you say to yourself? Oh now I get it. That was my reaction when I did some research on the Maldives. I have been fortunate to have traveled the globe and I just sort of thought of Maldives as a tropical paradise. For me what also comes up is Madagascar and the Cape Verde Islands although they aren’t anywhere near each other. It’s just idea of the Maldives just being so remote and exotic. And even though I didn’t hear the President of the Maldives, Mohammad Nasheed‘s voice when he made an impassioned plea at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen…I hear him now.

In a largely symbolic gesture to persuade world leaders to go green and demonstrate their commitment to renewable energy, President Mohammad Nasheed will install solar panels and green up the presidential residence. It’s hard to figure out why the White House rejected 350.org plea to reinstall solar panel at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, but if you see and hear President Nasheed speak you can understand the situation in the Maldives and recognize the real time effect of climate change.

The Maldives is a very small country of 1200 islands most of them uninhabited, which lie off the Indian sub-continent. The country is just 5 fleet above sea level. It has the distinction of being the lowest country on the planet. So you can easily see that rising sea levels from climate change will spell certain doom.

President Nasheed at the UN

So severe is the situation that in 2008 President Nasheed announced plans to look into purchasing new land in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia because of his concerns about global warming and the possibility of much of the islands being inundated with water from rising sea levels. The purchase of land will be made from a fund generated by tourism. Nasheed said, “We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades.”The solar panels are to be installed as part of 350.org’’s ”Global Work Party” on October 10.

Solar Wind can power the entire world

Posted on September 27, 2010 by quest

“Space the final frontier… these are the voyages of”- those words seem engraved in our time. The interesting thing though; think of all the cool gadgets that were being used in the sci fi tv series Star Trek that have come into reality. Dr Spock, Uhura and Captain Kirk were using wireless communicators like the iPhone, video and all. So the idea of using the solar wind to power the needs of the entire planet may not be just an artist dream. The solar wind is what blows the tails of comets back away from the bodies of comets as they go through the solar system.The solar wind is a stream of energized, charged particles, primarily electrons and protons, flowing outward from the Sun, through the solar system at incredible speeds and extreme temperatures.

Scientist say the solution to future energy issues may now be in harnessing of solar wind through satellites.
The conceptual satellite is named the Dyson-Harrop. According to the scientists, the energy yield from this method will meet the requirements of the entire world’s energy 100 billion times more than necessary

NASA – THE SOLAR WIND

The energy harnessed through the satellite will be beamed to the Earth. This receiver will also generate power for the satellite and its wire loop making it self sustaining. The energy absorbed by the satellite will be transmitted to the Earth via the means of an infrared laser. An infrared laser was chosen for a transmitter because Earth’s atmosphere is like a transparent material for infrared, therefore there is little or no chances of loss of energy when passing through the atmosphere. Some background at Times New World

A solar panel mission

Posted on September 10, 2010 by quest

Last week author and activist Bill McKibben was on David Letterman talking about the environmental challenges facing America. This week 350.org the grassroots organization he founded began their round trip from Maine to Washington DC. The trip is called ” Put Solar on The White House.” In 1979, President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House. In 1986, President Reagan removed them and they were never replaced. Years later, Unity College in Maine adopted the panels where they have lived ever since. Until now.

Bill McKibben and a group of Unity students are driving one of the original Carter panels from Maine down to Washington, DC. They’re asking President Obama to put solar back on the White House. Thus far, however, we have not gotten a firm response from the administration, even though other world leaders have pledged to join a Global Work Party on Oct. 10 (10-10-10). Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldive Islands, for instance, will be on the roof of his official residence bolting down panels donated by Berkeley, CA based solar company Sungevity.