SolarWorld Installs Solar Panels At Pearl Harbor

Posted on June 4, 2011 by quest

A combined 2.4 megawatts in arrays of high-performance SolarWorld solar panels cover the roof of five important buildings at the historic U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, now known as Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The $15 million project, funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, comprises an important stride in the U.S. military’s intensive base improvements to increase its energy independence using a renewable energy technology that requires no fuel, parts, maintenance, emissions or noise. The largest U.S. solar technology manufacturer for more than 35 years, SolarWorld supplied the solar panels from its factories in Hillsboro, Ore., and Camarillo, Calif., the latter of which has produced crystalline silicon photovoltaic technology since the late 1970s.

The solar systems, engineered, procured and installed by California-based DRI Energy under a contract with Hawaii-based Niking Corp., crown five buildings: Combined, the arrays are expected to produce 3.4 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power about 440 homes. Installation of the solar panels is complete, but final configuration of associated electrical systems as well as the systems’ commissioning are not expected until this coming fall.

Kevin Kilkelly, president of SolarWorld Americas, said the projects are a source of pride for the more than 1,300 U.S. manufacturing, sales and other employees of SolarWorld.“It’s gratifying for them to know that the high-quality products they have labored so long to perfect and produce now help power one of the best-known U.S. historical and military sites,” Kilkelly said. “In that light, these projects may be the best signs yet of the nation’s embrace of domestic solar technology.”

DRIVE ELECTRIC VEHICLES

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

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.

SOLAR GOLF CART

Solar Impulse Makes International Flight

Posted on May 15, 2011 by quest

A solar energy plane made the world’s first international flight powered by the sun yesterday to show the potential for pollution-free air travel. The Solar Impulse took off from an airfield at Payerne in western Switzerland in the morning and landed at Brussels airport after a 13-hour flight. “The objective is to demonstrate what we can do with existing technology in terms of renewable energy and energy savings,” project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg said by telephone during the flight.

Borschberg believes such solar-harnessing technology can be used to power cars and homes. “It is symbolic to be able to go from one place to another using solar energy,” he said. The Solar Impulse project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros and has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.

The plane, which requires 12,000 solar cells, embarked on its first flight in April 2010 and completed a 26-hour flight, a record flying time for a solar powered aircraft, three months later. With an average flying speed of 70 km/h, Solar Impulse is not an immediate threat to commercial jets, which can easily cruise at more than 10 times the speed. A flight from Geneva from Brussels can take little more than an hour. Project leaders acknowledged it had been a major challenge to fit a slow-flying plane into the commercial air traffic system. Friday’s flight was Solar Impulse’s fifth. Previous flights did not leave Switzerland. A larger prototype is scheduled to fly around the world in 2013.

THE SOLAR CUP

Ninth annual Solar Cup rolls into the third day of competition with hundreds of students from 40 Southern California high school teams racing the solar-powered boats they have built and equipped over the past seven months in a program sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The annual event is being held at Lake Skinner, Temecula Valley and ends today Sunday at 4PM.

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Solar Energy A Source For Brighter Earth Days

Posted on April 22, 2011 by quest

As we welcome the 41st Earth Day it is interesting to look around and take stock of where we are; as going green continues to go mainstream. It is almost impossible not to heed two events that are calling on all human beings around the world to bring about change to our environmental mentality.

The most recent has been the devastating Tsunami that hit Japan and that subsequently caused the explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. And of course the other was the catastrophic BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. At this point you might expect that the blame for the events should lay at the feet of big oil and nuclear power companies, after all they build them. And yet the responsibility for allowing toxic energy producers to continue, lies with each of us. Much of the early debates about the environment have centered around the idea of saving the birds, trees and environment, as if humans aren’t a part of it. But what new believers of environmental change are conveying is that what we are talking about is saving the earth so humans can live here.

Solar and other renewable energy sources such as wind and biomass offer a far, far less destructive method for providing the energy we need, and do so in a way that provide air we can breathe; water we can drink and an earth that’s healthy enough to sustain life for all living creatures. In that regards California and other states and cities are implementing attractive and innovative incentive programs to encourage renewable investments. The hope is that this will lead to even healthier and brighter Earth Days in the future.

EXPLORE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Solar Powered Plant To Make Boeing Dreamliners

Posted on April 22, 2011 by quest

Boeing and South Carolina Electric & Gas has announced an energy partnership that will enable Boeing South Carolina to operate as a 100 percent renewable energy site. “This is an important announcement for Boeing and we’re honored to share it with South Carolina Electric & Gas,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Our 787 Dreamliner is manufactured using fewer hazardous materials and designed to consume less fuel, and produce fewer emissions. It only makes sense that our business operations in South Carolina reflect the environmental progressiveness of the airplane we’ll build here.”

Renewable energy will be generated at the North Charleston site in part with thin-film solar laminate panels owned, installed and maintained by SCE&G on the new Boeing 787 Final Assembly building roof. This solar installation will provide up to 2.6 megawatts of electrical power for the site, enough to power approximately 250 homes. The installation will be the largest in the Southeast by production capacity, and the sixth largest in the U.S.

Under this arrangement, SCE&G will install the solar generation system and dedicate the power from the system to the Boeing site. SCE&G will then supplement the solar generated energy with power from its system resources, coupled with renewable energy certificates from its renewable generating facility, to meet all of Boeing’s energy requirements.