Yingli Solar To Sponsor World Cup Brazil

Posted on June 8, 2011 by quest

“Yingli Green Energy” a leading solar energy company and one of the world’s largest vertically integrated photovoltaic (“PV”) manufacturers, which markets its products under the brand “Yingli Solar”, today announced the sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil on the occasion of the 2011 Intersolar show in Munich, Germany. During a joint press conference, both FIFA and Yingli Green Energy’s top management addressed journalists and guests from around the globe. A special attraction was the display of the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Winner’s Trophy and introductory speeches by Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy, and Mr. Thierry Weil, Marketing Director of FIFA.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th edition of world football’s flagship event and is scheduled to take place in June and July 2014 in Brazil. Yingli Green Energy is convinced that the FIFA World Cup™ is one of the best marketing platforms. This particular FIFA World Cup™ will ensure not only brand exposure into Brazil, one of the largest consumers of energy in South America, but all around the world. Brazil, with an estimated cumulative solar PV capacity of currently 20MW, has long been referred to as the “pais do future” – the country of the future. Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy, said: “After our 2010 FIFA World Cup™ sponsorship, we saw a tremendous increase in our brand awareness and inquiries for our products. We were also very happy to see how our products brought smiles to the children in need by supplying our solar solutions for FIFA’s Football for Hope program. Thus, we are thrilled to continue our sponsorship with FIFA by becoming an Official Sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and to be an important renewable energy partner to the world’s most-watched single-sport event. We are excited to once again join hands with FIFA, to build a greener FIFA World Cup™ and a more sustainable future with affordable clean energy provided by the sun.”

Mr. Thierry Weil, FIFA Marketing Director said, “We could not have organized the FIFA World Cup on the scale that we saw in 2010 without the support of sponsors such as Yingli Solar. Yingli Solar’s activities have had a wide geographical impact, from raising the awareness of the FIFA World Cup™ in their home market China, to providing solar expertise and products in rural parts of Africa as part of the “Football for Hope” program. We view our agreement as a strategic long-term cooperation and I am delighted to welcome Yingli Solar on board as a committed sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup™.”

GREEN INVESTING

Solar To Power UC Davis Eco Friendly Energy Campus

Posted on June 2, 2011 by quest

The largest planned Zero Net Energy development in the U.S. is readying for its debut this fall. Under construction on the University of California, Davis campus, UC Davis West Village is combining advanced energy efficient design features with a 4-megawatt (MW), high efficiency SunPower solar power system to achieve the largest planned Zero Net Energy development in the nation. UC Davis West Village is the product of an innovative public-private partnership between UC Davis and West Village Community Partnership, LLC, a joint venture led by San Francisco-based Carmel Partners with their partner Urban Villages of Denver.

“I applaud UC Davis, SunPower Corporation, Carmel Partners, and the CEC for their collaboration, dedication, and leadership in developing the largest zero net energy project in the United States,” said Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. “This is a demonstration of California’s excellence in sustainability, and should set an example for the rest of the nation.””West Village is a paradigm shift in creating both a great place to live and a model Zero Net Energy community,” said Nolan Zail, senior vice president for Carmel Partners. “Our guiding principles include environmental sustainability and quality of place. West Village will include housing, recreation and retail options, providing a convenient and eco-friendly lifestyle for students, faculty and staff.

“Using aggressive energy efficiency measures and on-site renewable energy generation to meet community energy demand, this holistic approach offers new solutions in the design and construction of large-scale sustainable communities,” Zail added. The first phase of the 130-acre project, to be completed this year, will include apartment housing for 2,000 students, an education center for Los Rios Community College, recreation and study facilities, a village square surrounded by neighborhood-serving retail, and 343 single family homes for sale to faculty and staff. Two initial student housing components of the community, The Ramble Apartments and Viridian, will welcome residents September 2011.

UC Davis West Village integrates sustainable design to enable those living in the community to reduce their reliance on automobiles, limit energy consumption and enjoy the benefits of the local climate. Building designs optimize solar orientation, utilize energy efficient appliances and incorporate materials from renewable sources. A 4-MW solar power system that is manufactured, designed and installed by SunPower Corp. will generate the equivalent of 100 percent of the community’s electricity demand. The system is comprised of both rooftop solar power installations as well as solar canopies installed in parking areas.

GREEN WEBINARS

New Vermont Law Cuts Red Tape For Solar Power

Posted on June 1, 2011 by quest

The state of Vermont signed a wide-ranging renewable energy bill into law Wednesday that will soon introduce what may be the nation’s most streamlined process for getting small-scale solar installations up and running. Among myriad other provisions, the law eliminates the sort of permitting and inspection snarls that have long delayed, complicated and, some argue, arbitrarily increased the cost of small-scale residential and commercial solar projects — a problem that the solar industry and clean energy supporters face in dozens of states and jurisdictions across the country. “There is a fiscal and environmental urgency for Vermont to move off fossil fuels and toward sustainable sources of power,” Gov. Peter Shumlin.

In a nutshell, the new provision essentially eliminates permitting altogether and reduces most administrative headaches to a 10-day process or less. For a small-scale solar customer — a homeowner, business, a non-profit, school, municipality or any other entity interested in a solar array system up to 5 kilowatts in size — the process will soon entail completing a registration form and a certificate of compliance with grid connection requirements. The local utility then has 10 days to raise any issues. After that, the path is clear. The new registration process will go into effect beginning January, 2012. “If adopted beyond Vermont, simple registration for small solar installations could help solar businesses grow,” said David Blittersdorf, the president and chief executive of Williston, Vt., based solar manufacturer and installer AllEarth Renewables, in an email Thursday morning. Blittersdorf’s company worked with industry groups in the state to help legislators develop the streamlined solar registration concept.

For years, the residential solar industry and homeowners alike have complained bitterly about local permitting bottlenecks.Within a single service area, a solar installer or service company might well encounter dozens of different local ordinances, building and electric codes, zoning laws and permitting costs and idiosyncrasies that make estimating the final price tag — or installation timeline — for a solar system a nearly impossible affair. A study released in January by SunRun, a solar leasing company based in California, estimated that local permitting and inspection costs add roughly 50 cents per-watt, or about $2,500 to the cost of an average residential installation. The U.S. Department of Energy has also been developing various initiatives in concert with industry partners to tackle these sorts of non-technical, bureaucratic and administrative barriers to solar power expansion.

Solar Impulse Makes International Flight

In Germany Solar Energy Up Nuclear Energy Down

Posted on May 31, 2011 by quest

Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. “We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power – or not to start using it – how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies,” Merkel said. Merkel’s government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany – the world’s fourth-largest economy and Europe’s biggest – by 2022. The government had no immediate estimate of the transition’s overall cost. The plan sets Germany apart from most of the other major industrialized nations. Among the other Group of Eight countries, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power, which was voted down in a referendum after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The decision represents a remarkable about-face for Merkel‘s center-right government, which only late last year pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the country’s reactors, with the last scheduled to go offline around 2036. But Merkel, who holds a Ph.D. in physics, said industrialized, technologically advanced Japan’s “helplessness” in the face of the Fukushima disaster made her rethink the technology’s risks.Phasing out nuclear power within a decade will be a challenge, but it will be feasible and ultimately give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, Merkel said.”As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs,” Merkel told reporters. The government said the renewable energy sector already employs about 370,000 people.

Germany’s seven oldest reactors, already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the March catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, will remain offline permanently, Merkel said. The plants accounted for about 40 percent of the country’s nuclear power capacity. At the time of the Japanese disaster, Germany got just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power

Chicago Skyscraper to Generate Solar Electricity

Sustainable Africa Show Lights Up Health and Solar

Posted on May 29, 2011 by quest

Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Cape Town, South Africa – Royal Philips Electronics, is once again traveling across Africa to raise awareness about how healthcare and lighting solutions can improve the quality of life across the continent. The Cape Town to Cairo road show 2011 (from 12th May to 11th July, 2011) is the second African road show undertaken by Philips. The road show will cover 12,000 kilometers in 62 days, visiting a total of twelve countries. “As many developed countries are struggling to stimulate economic growth, a strong middle class of 313 million, or 34% of the African population, is on the rise in what is still considered the world’s most impoverished continent,’’ said Dr. Gottfried Dutiné, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Markets and Innovation at Philips, in Cape Town today. “This group of mainly young, eager and mobile Africans is rapidly rivaling the middle classes of China and India. Philips sees this continent as a new growth market.”

“Even in the 21st century, we still allow eight million children and close to half a million mothers around the world to die each year from preventable complications related to pregnancy and child birth.”, said JJ van Dongen, General Manager, Philips Healthcare Africa & Country Manager Philips South Africa.“This makes the availability of and access to high quality, affordable care for all mothers and children an issue of high priority for policy makers and societies. Philips recognizes this need and through this road show wants to create dialogue and cooperation between governments, local healthcare workforces, non-governmental organizations, foundations, healthcare professional associations, and research institutions to help mothers, newborn babies and children obtain care.”

During the roadshow Philips will also introduce new solar powered lighting solutions aimed at providing a healthier and safer home environment. Today an estimated 560 million Africans live without electricity. Better lighting is likely to make home child birth safer and help reduce the very high infant mortality rate throughout the continent. This is part of Philips’ commitment to both develop sustainable solutions for Africa and to foster its partnership with the Dutch government on the ‘Sustainable Energy Solutions for Africa’ (SESA) project, which aims to provide 10 million people with affordable, sustainable energy services across 10 sub-Saharan African countries by 2015.

VISIT THE SOLAR WALL

Oregon Sustainability Center Solar and Ion Ready

Posted on May 25, 2011 by quest

SANYO North America Corporation and InSpec Group announce a new 679-kilowatt solar system to be designed and installed by InSpec for the Oregon Sustainability Center in Portland, Oregon. The project also includes a 30-kilowatt hour large-scale lithium-ion battery storage system, which will be connected in line with the rooftop PV system, capable of supplying DC electricity for applications such as LED lighting. InSpec will be managing the solar and smart energy system design and installation for the building which is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2013, and will employ SANYO solar modules and batteries.

“The Oregon Sustainability Center is proactive in their use of green building materials, and the choice of SANYO HIT modules makes sense, as they are perfect for these types of powerful rooftop system installations, where space is limited,” said Charles Hanasaki, president of the Solar and Smart Energy Division. “We value our partnership with InSpec because they share our vision of helping customers to achieve a reduction in energy consumption from non-renewable sources and improving efficiency of energy used.” Yasuyoshi Kawanishi, president of SANYO Solar of Oregon, LLC, added, “Living in Oregon, our engineers are inspired by sustainability, and it makes us proud that our work is becoming a part of Oregon, especially in a landmark building like the Oregon Sustainability Center.”

The Oregon Sustainability Center is planned to be a future home to Oregon’s leaders in sustainable business, government, and education. The structure is designed to be the greenest high-rise ever built, with locally-sourced building materials, its own energy generation and ways to collect and treat water on-site, qualifying it for Living Building Challenge certification, which requires meeting net-zero energy and water performance as well as toxin free, locally-sourced materials. The Oregon Sustainability Center will be a showcase for green building, green business and community development. The building will demonstrate sustainable practices and will offer ways to connect the community to state and local sustainability resources, including green job training opportunities.