Alternative . Renewable . Energy

Solar energy facts

Want to know more about solar but have the attention span of a gnat? Here's a great place to start, with lots of short solar energy facts to fill your brain...

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Solar powered boat begins service in the UK

The boat's top speed is a whopping 5 miles per hour. Its top range is 82 miles. But it's still something special. Why? It is powered 100% by solar power.

Britain's biggest solar-powered boat debuted Tuesday on a lake in London's Hyde Park, opening what its developers hope is a door to the future of solar-powered transportation.

The Serpentine Solar Shuttle — powered entirely by the sun — cruises at 5 mph and carries 42 passengers.

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Africa's "solar revolution"

For most of us, the notion of going solar means a chance to use less unsustainably generated electricity. For millions around the world though, going solar would mean a chance to burn less wood.

In Africa, California-based Solar Cookers International (SCI), has launched Sunny Solutions, a program where 23 women are learning how to use, make, market and sell "cookits."

A cheaper version of factory-made solar cookers, which use parabolic mirrors, "cookits" are made from waxed cardboard cartons, laminated with reflective shiny foil and reinforced with a colored cloth binding.

They cost between 390 and 550 shillings Kenyan shillings (5.60 to 7.90 dollars, 4.40 to 6.20 euros) and over the course of two years can make significant improvements in the lives of impoverished rural families, promoters say.

In 24 months, cookits will save huge amounts of firewood, money and long hours spent buying or collecting it, purify thousands of gallons of drinking water and prepare hundreds of meals, according Solar Cookers International (SCI), the US group behind the innovation.

The program does double duty on both the fuel and economic opportunity fronts...

The California-based SCI, is championing the use of cookits as a pollution-free alternative to combustible fuel in eight countries around Africa to not only reduce deforestation but give rural women economic opportunities long-lacking in their communities.

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Solar revolution: low-cost solar concentrator

This is the kind of thing that gives me hope. Idealab's Bill Gross is turning his attention to developing low-cost, high-energy solar concentrators that will fit on your roof.

It's going to be profit driven efforts like this in the private sector that will be the driving force behind finding a viable alternative energy future.

[via AEman]

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Solar trees: From parking lot to solar energy source

What if you could take that huge parking lot at the mall, or your local sports stadium, and turn it into one big solar energy plant? It could happen, if Kyocera has its way.

Kyocera today announced that it will hold a public dedication for its first-ever Solar Grove(TM); an array of 25 "solar trees"(TM) that converts a 186-vehicle parking lot into a 235-kilowatt solar electric generating system -- on Friday, June 24, 2005 at its North American headquarters and Kearny Mesa plant, located at 8611 Balboa Avenue in San Diego.

The Solar Grove will serve as a symbol of Kyocera's goal to make the San Diego/Tijuana region an important hub in North America's solar energy industry. Its unique concept models the life process of natural trees by converting sunlight into energy without adding carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere -- while providing structures that are both shade-producing and aesthetically pleasing.

Add to that the added bonus that parking lots are a major source of the heat island effect, and the idea gets that much better.

[link via Chris at Grist for the Mill]

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Trends in solar energy

Interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle on trends in the solar energy market.

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History of solar power

A history of solar power starting in the 1860's.

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Sunshine mapping from space helps solar business decisions

Any business needs good information on which to base decisions, and the solar industry is no different. One key piece of data is how much sunlight a location actually gets.

There are two kinds of solar energy establishments: solar thermal plants which concentrate heat from the Sun, and photovoltaic plants that convert sunlight into electricity.

In both cases precise, long-term irradiance data is needed for choosing plant locations and estimates of likely energy yield for prospective investors. Then once a plant is built, managers need data updated in near real-time to check the facility is working optimally, and energy output tallies with available sunshine.

The ENVISOLAR project (Environmental Information Services for Solar Energy Industries) is starting to offer satellite data, which can be cheaper and often more accurate than the ground based data sources.

Measuring from below using in-situ data is technically demanding, expensive on an ongoing basis and limited in coverage – there are only around 200 solar-energy-measuring stations to cover all of Europe and Africa in the official networks affiliated to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Measuring from above using satellites provides a wide-area, objective and cost-effective solution. Research by MeteoSwiss has shown that satellites are even more accurate than ground measurements once the distance to the next ground station is greater than about 30 kilometres.

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Solar power too good to be true?

I'm always on the lookout for a good contrarian point of view on alternative energy issues. Here's a good review of a book published in January 2005 called The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World. The book sounds like it would be an interesting read. It goes beyond the politics and economics and looks at the science of solar power.

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How solar cells work

Here's a piece from howstuffworks on how a solar cell works.

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