Walmart Adding Thin-Film Solar Panels On 20-30 More Stores

From: http://www.treehugger.com/

photo: Walmart

In continued efforts to deploy more renewable energy at its stores, Walmart announced today that it will be installing solar panels at an additional 20-30 of its stores in California and Arizona, opting at most of the locations to install thin-film solar panels rather than traditional crystalline panels.

Rather than owning the panels outright, Walmart has contracted with SolarCity, which will design, install, maintain and actually own the solar power systems, with Walmart benefitting from the total estimated 22.5 million kWh of electricity produced. At each location the panels are expected to provide 20-30% of the total energy needs of the store.

Currently, Walmart has 31 solar power installations at locations in California and Hawaii.

In its press release, Walmart touted the benefits of thin-film panels over traditional ones:

Thin film solar panels look similar to the traditional crystalline panels, but require fewer raw materials to manufacture, resulting in a smaller environmental impact over its life cycle. The Walmart projects are using both copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride thin film. The company's large scale on-site installation of CIGS could help further the development of this technology and bring it to market quicker, while use of cadmium telluride thin film could help make the case for other businesses to adopt the technology for on-site commercial use.

Buying Power Not Panels Can Reduce Risks
One thing to note: Walmart has been expanding renewable energy usage at its stores for a while now, so the announcement itself, while good, isn't entirely groundbreaking. What is worth paying attention to as a green trend, applicable to homeowners as well as businesses, is that even with it's huge size Walmart chose to have a third-party operate the solar power system, thereby eliminating some of the financial and technical risk of adding solar power, while still benefitting both practically and from a public-image perspective from using renewable energy.

Coney Island Subway Complex Gets First-of-its Kind Solar Energy Installation

Written by Tina Casey

From: http://cleantechnica.com/

Coney Island, home of famous hot dogs, sideshows, and a heart-numbing roller coaster, has just added a pioneering solar energy installation to its roster of points-of-interest. The new solar array has been installed at the New York City Transit Complex, a maintenance and repair facility that services many of the city’s subway cars.

Though by nature investment in mass transit is a sustainability measure, the new installation underscores how much can be accomplished by retrofitting existing systems. In addition to reducing energy costs and cutting greenhouse gasses, the installation’s cutting-edge solar thermal technology enables it to function in cold weather without using toxic antifreeze chemicals.

Solar Thermal Technology and Anti-Freeze

Solar energy thermal installations use a heat-exchange mechanism to capture power from the sun and transfer it to water, as compared to photovoltaic systems that convert solar energy directly to electricity. Solar thermal installations are used to provide hot water for various uses. In warm climates an anti-freeze is not necessary, but it is essential in cold weather, and partly for that reason large-scale solar thermal arrays are still relatively rare. Because of its closed-loop pressurized design, which uses a vacuum to provide insulation, the Coney Island installation operates without any antifreeze at all, making it the first of its kind in the U.S.

New York City Subways and Energy Efficiency

The Coney Island installation consists of 48 panels, replacing an electric hot water tank. It will help provide hot water for cleaning subways cars as well as for wash-up facilities used by the employees. The $1.1 million array, combined with new high efficiency lighting system recently installed at other transit facilities, is expected to save about $170,000 per year in energy costs and cut the city’s mass transit greenhouse gas emissions by more than 3,000 tons. The New York Power Authority, which provided financing for the projects, has invested a total of $3 million on energy efficiency upgrades in recent years, including the solar installation and lighting upgrades, wireless remote-control power systems, a fuel cell, and a photovoltaic array.

Mass Transit and Greenhouse Gasses

There is no such thing as a no-brainer when it comes to broad new climate change initiatives, but more investment in mass transit sure comes close. Making the present system less reliant on fossil fuels is just part of the picture. Availability and affordability are also essential, and yet due to the economic crisis many U.S. transit systems are cutting operations while raising fares. Senator Chris Dodd’s new emergency funding bill for mass transit is desperately needed as a stopgap measure, but only a permanent, massive shift in public resources away from fossil fuel subsidies will accomplish the long term goal of making sustainable mass transit more available and affordable.

Image (altered): Coney Island rollercoaster by nitdoggx on flickr.com.

Solar Impulse Flying on Sunshine

By Jason Paur

From: http://www.wired.com/autopia/

We here at Autopia were excited looking at the incredible pictures of the Solar Impulse prototype during its maiden flight yesterday. But it was still hard to imagine an airplane with such a massive wingspan and four small electric motors powered by sunlight actually being piloted through the air.

Thankfully the Solar Impulse team has provided us with some video of the flight that shows the gracefully slow aircraft flying gently over the Swiss countryside. The video is a quick edit, nothing too fancy, but it includes all phases of the flight, including some air-to-air shots.

The first video includes footage from the ground during the takeoff and landing. The second video (after the jump) gives a comprehensive look at the preparation, takeoff, air-to-air views as well as the landing and celebration. There’s some bonus information for those of you with French skills.

We’ll be following this project closely and will be sure to keep the updates coming. More test flights are planned throughout the summer, and the team hopes to complete a 36-hour, day-night-day flight using the technique planned for the around-the-world flight later in the year.

Video: Solar Impulse

Dow sees huge market in solar shingles

By Matt Daily

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co said on Monday it would begin selling a new rooftop shingle next year that converts sunlight into electricity -- and could generate $5 billion in revenue by 2015 for the company.

The new solar shingles can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles, Dow said, and will be introduced in 2010 before a wider roll-out in 2011.

"We're looking at this one product that could generate $5 billion in revenue by 2015 and $10 billion by 2020," Jane Palmieri, managing director of Dow Solar Solutions, told Reuters in an interview.

The shingle will use thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a photovoltaic material that typically is more efficient at turning sunlight into electricity than traditional polysilicon cells.

Dow is using CIGS cells that operate at higher than 10 percent efficiency, below the efficiencies for the top polysilicon cells -- but would cost 10 to 15 percent less on a per watt basis.

Dow Solar Solutions said it expects "an enthusiastic response" from roofing contractors for the new shingles, since they require no specialized skills or knowledge of solar systems to install.

The new product is the latest advance in "Building Integrated Photovoltaic" (BIPV) systems, in which power-generating systems are built directly into the traditional materials used to construct buildings.

BIPV systems are currently limited mostly to roofing tiles, which operate at lower efficiencies than solar panels and have so far been too expensive to gain wide acceptance.

Dow's shingle will be about 30 to 40 percent cheaper than current BIPV systems.

The Dow shingles can be installed in about 10 hours, compared with 22 to 30 hours for traditional solar panels, reducing the installation costs that make up more than 50 percent of total system prices.

The product will be rolled out in North America through partnerships with home builders such as Lennar Corp and Pulte Homes Inc before marketing is expanded, Palmieri said.

Dow received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop its BIPV products.

The company also produces fluids used in concentrated solar systems, in which sunlight is used to generate heat that produces steam to power a turbine.

In addition, it supplies materials used to help manufacture photovoltaic panels and increase their efficiency.

Dow shares were up 4.4 percent at $24.67 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Matt Daily, editing by Dave Zimmerman and Gerald E. McCormick)

Italy to build solar-energy-producing statue of saint

Italy is planning to build a 200ft high, solar energy-producing statue of one of its most cherished saints.

By Nick Squires in Rome

The statue will be coated in a special photovoltaic paint which will enable it to trap the sun's heat and produce solar energy Photo: AP

The statue of Padre Pio, who was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II and has a huge worldwide following, will be built on a hill in southern Italy, close to the town where he is commemorated.

It will cost several million pounds, with the money to be raised from his followers around the world.

The statue will be coated in a special photovoltaic paint which will enable it to trap the sun's heat and produce solar energy, making it an "ecological" religious icon, according to the Ansa news agency.

The planning and construction of the project, near the town of San Giovanni Rotondo in the southern province of Puglia, will be put out to international tender in the next few weeks.

Padre Pio, whose real name was Francesco Forgione, was born into a poverty-stricken family in 1887 and died in 1968. He entered the Church as a teenager and became a Capuchin monk.

His followers believe that he performed many miracles during his lifetime and that his body bore stigmata – marks corresponding to Christ's Crucifixion wounds.

A survey by a Catholic magazine once found that more Italians pray to Padre Pio than to Jesus or the Virgin Mary.

Brazil’s First Network of Electric Charging Stations Will Be Solar-Powered

Written by Bryan Nelson

The first of many roadside electric charging stations in Brazil is set to be installed in the Barra de Tijuca neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, and it’ll be solar-powered.

The neighborhood was chosen because it has the highest number of electric motorcycles certainly in circulation. The battery charging point will serve a mainly symbolic purpose at first, “awakening environmental awareness by showing people that it is possible to use energy without harming the environment,” said spokesperson Edimar Machado.

Brazil has been a worldwide leader in reducing the impact of the transportation sector on the environment, with 90% of new cars sold in the country being flex-fuel– capable of running on ethanol or gasoline in any proportion. Now the hope is that they can also lead the world in infrastructure for electric vehicles. Once they become more financially viable, Machado hopes to have an electric charging station positioned every 30km across the country.

That could soon allow every electric motorcyclist the capability to travel the entire length of Brazil’s major roadways if they wanted, even if their battery length is only around 40km, like most of the bikes currently in circulation there. Machado also suggested that used batteries could be exchanged for already-charged ones at the stations for the same price as a full charge, in case roadsters can’t wait around for the standard 4 hours it takes to charge the batteries. That would make the time it takes to “fill up” your electric vehicle no longer than it would take to fill up a gas tank.

Even better, the charging stations will generate their electricity from solar energy. The charging point captures solar energy by means of an array of 28 photovoltaic panels that generate 184 volts of direct current, which is transformed into triphasic alternating current. Output is at 110 or 220 volts [1]. And on days when there isn’t much sunlight, or at night, the stations could still derive electricity from the grid system.

The Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association says the market for electric vehicles is already growing by about 50 percent a year, and with new charging stations located conveniently around town that number is expected to increase dramatically. They also project that electric vehicles will consume barely three to five percent of the country’s total energy in 2030, meaning as the system expands it shouldn’t be a significant strain on the country’s electricity. Meanwhile, car fuel consumption will be reduced by 10 percent.

Although that nationwide system of stations is still far from practical, the implementation of this first station is symbolic of what can be envisioned with the right political will and incentive.

Source: IPS News

Image Credit: Diego_3336 on Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Showing Off With a Solar Thermal Salute

By Todd Woody

eSolar The solar thermal power producer eSolar shows off.

A picture was worth 24,000 mirrors when eSolar, a company based in Pasadena, Calif., that specializes in solar thermal power, transformed a vast field of heliostats at its Southern California solar farm into a Fourth of July tableau of the American flag and the Statue of Liberty.

The Google-backed start-up, which is building solar farms for Southern California Edison, P.G.&E. and El Paso Electric, uses software and imaging technology to create a dynamic parabola from tens of thousands of closely packed mirrors, focusing the sun’s rays on water boilers that sit atop towers. The intense heat vaporizes the water to create steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine.

As the holiday weekend approached, eSolar’s software engineers got a bit creative.

“The programmers have very accurate software control over the field,” said eSolar’s chief executive, Bill Gross, in an e-mail message Friday evening.

The company’s five-megawatt Sierra demonstration power plant northeast of Los Angeles deploys 24,000 mirrors — each one capable of being individually moved by computer. “To celebrate Independence Day,” the company announced at its Web site late last week, “eSolar’s Sierra SunTower power plant has employed this high-precision technology to declare energy independence.”

The display, of course, was designed to show off eSolar’s technological prowess — and it’s not the first time the company has deployed the gimmick.

Mr. Gross, the founder of the tech-incubator Idealab, contends that eSolar can deliver electricity cheaper than natural gas by using sophisticated algorithms to control inexpensive and lightweight mirrors called heliostats.

“The bigger picture here is that we invested like crazy in Moore’s Law instead of more steel,” he said, referring to Intel’s co-founder, Gordon Moore, who famously remarked that computer processing power doubles about every two years.

“We have such precise control over the field that we can do anything with the mirrors we want,” Mr. Gross said, “and this is proof of it.”

Researchers Unveil Flexible Solar Cell Roof Shingles

by Jorge Chapa

By far one of the most wasted spaces of every residence is the roof - of course it is there to protect us from the elements, but surely it can be put to better use. Aiming to innovate upon conventional roof cladding, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently unveiled a new breed of flexible and moisture resistant solar panels that are designed to be rolled out en masse as energy-generating roof tiles!

Solar Panels are a great source of green energy, but unfortunately they’re not the prettiest of things - massive solar arrays tend to stick out like sore thumbs. Traditional photovoltaic panels, such as those incorporated into building facades, also tend to be costly, and producing them in a cheap and usable quantity has been a common problem.

Researchers at PNNL developed a film encapsulation process that was initially used for protecting flat panel displays over 15 years ago. However with the recent emphasis on energy generating technologies, they decided to take a second look at the materials and encapsulation process. It turns out that this encapsulation process can be used to protect components that are intended to be exposed to ultraviolet lights and natural elements, making it perfect for waterproofing thin-film solar panels.

PNNL hopes to produce a solar panel that can be installed on a residence and generate power for a few cents on the dollar. Research is currently being undertaken in conjunction with Vitex and Batelle, and hopefully we’ll see a marketable product soon.

+ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Newspaper Bags Providing Power to Cell Phones - Its Possible

Sustainable Urban Design

By:	Charlotte E. Henriksen, EnergyMap.dk
Published:	5/15/2009
Technology areas:	Renewable Energy
Technologies:	Photovoltaics

A newspaper bag with integrated solar panels providing power for a cell phone makes life just a little easier for the homeless. Meet Faktor 3 – the company behind the product – on EnergyMap.dk

Faktor 3 is a young design and development company focused mainly on integrating energy-efficient technology, such as solar cells, into industrial and urban design. The three factors of Faktor 3, are: Design, Technology and Sustainability.

For owner Barbara Bentzen sustainability has always been a key issue:

- Our society is extremely consumeristic; and I was really seeking some higher purpose for my craft. The whole idea of incorporating a renewable, free power source, such as solar power, into industrial design intrigued me.

Barbara Bentzen has been promoting the idea of eco-design for some years. She believes that integrating design with sustainability is the way forward:

- In Denmark we have a tradition of innovation, and we have the resources. We just have to remember to consider alternative methods every time we create a new design. We all want to make a difference, but at the moment it is difficult and expensive, so it is a lot easier to just continue as usual. This is a paradigm shift that requires both political and financial backing. It’s going to take time, but we have taken the first steps, says Barbara Bentzen.

Power to the homeless

The four-man team of Faktor 3 are working on a wide range of projects ranging from building materials, to office furniture and paving stones.

One project, which has just been launched, is a solar-powered bag for homeless vendors in the street paper organization “Hus Forbi”. The bag enables the paper vendors to charge their cell phones, which are vital for keeping in touch with friends, family and authorities.

The idea originated from a homeless man and is now a project sponsored by several Neighbourhood Councils, Agenda 21 Centres in Copenhagen and the Merkur Bank – in addition to being carried out as charity work by the project partners Miljøpunkt Bispebjerg, Hus Forbi and Faktor 3.

During the summer of 2009, all 500 of Hus Forbi’s street newspaper vendors will be supplied with a solar cell bag. A prototype of the bag will be presented at the International Street Paper conference taking place in Bergen, Norway, in May 2009.

- This is a great project, says Barbara Bentzen. Usually the homeless have to literally steal power for their cell phones wherever they can. The challenge has been to create a solution that is durable, has a fast charging time and at the lowest price possible; and I think we have succeeded, producing these bags at 1/3 of the usual price.

Faktor 3’s future challenges include designing office furniture with efficient indoor solar cells, solar powered waste collection and compression containers; and cost-efficient, easy-to-use solar lamps. The latter is a project in collaboration with the Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy aimed at providing lighting for African school children as an alternative to traditional, health hazardous, kerosene lamps.

Links

Faktor 3 on EnergyMap.dk

Spain Leads the World in New Solar Energy Development

Written by Bryan Nelson

According to a newly released draft of a report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Spain now leads the world in added photovoltaic capacity.

Although Germany is still the leading nation in total grid-connected solar photovoltaic capacity, this news now means Spain has surged into second place there. The report comes as an embarrassment for a floundering Japan, who used to lead the world, but now has fallen to third place in total capacity and forth place in added capacity.

Spain added 1.7 million kilowatts of capacity in 2008, followed by Germany at 1.5 million kilowatts. The United States lagged behind in a distant third place at 300,000 kilowatts, followed by Japan with only 240,000 kilowatts. The news is disappointing for Japan, but it should be equally as distressing for the United States, which continues to show only slow improvements year to year.

The big difference between the top two countries and the U.S. and Japan appears to be public policy. In Germany and Spain, power companies are required to make long term purchases of renewable energy at uniform prices. Although similar requirements exist in the U.S. and Japan, they are so small that they lead to policy failure, which in turn prompts legislators to be apprehensive when it comes to strengthening those policies.

Nevertheless, Spain has become a shining example of how more ambitious policies can lead to real improvements.

Image Credit: Schwarzerkater on Flickr under a Creative Commons License