Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon unveiled an ambitious plan Monday to install power-generating solar panels on the roofs of more than 50 county buildings.

Corroon noted the irony of talking solar power on a blustery winter day, but said he was excited about the prospect of not only saving on county energy costs, but establishing a system that would solidify rates in a future that could see volatile changes in power markets.

Of the 50 slated for inclusion in the plan, 20 of the facilities will make up the first phase of the project.

“This plan replaces 25 to 30 percent of Salt Lake County’s current energy needs,” Corroon said. “It’s enough to power a small city … and would stabilize our electricity rate for the next 20 to 25 years.”

The plan comes after the completion of a six-month solar initiative study conducted by GSBS Architects of Salt Lake. The firm evaluated the feasibility of installing rooftop solar panels and solar thermal (water heating) systems at 52 county facilities. Its findings indicate that solar panels could generate as much as 9.6 megawatts of power and net nearly $2 million in annual savings. In addition, solar thermal systems, which could be particularly effective at county swimming pools, could garner an additional $1 million in annual energy cost reductions.

STORY CONTINUES HERE

Some Jewish communities throughout the Southland celebrated the first night of Hanukkah with a twist Sunday, as one group cooked a giant potato latke in a solar-paneled oven and another lit candles atop a recycled menorah — all part of an effort to usher in an eco-friendly Festival of Lights.

“With the new president [of the United States] coming in, the whole thing is about the environment,” said Rabbi Marc Rubenstein outside Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach, where parishioners in the frontyard crowded around the solar oven that was harnessing the sun’s heat to cook a potato pancake, or latke, that measured about 3 feet across.

more here at LA Times

CHICAGO, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Aiming to mass-produce a lithium battery for vehicles, 14 U.S. companies with expertise in batteries and advanced materials have formed an alliance with a government laboratory, the lab said on Thursday.

The alliance, which includes battery industry giants such as 3M (nyse: MMM – news – people ) Co and Johnson Controls (nyse: JCI – news – people )-Saft, intends to secure $1 billion to $2 billion in U.S. government funding over the next five years to build a manufacturing facility with an ‘open foundry’ for the participants to pursue the goal of perfecting lithium-ion batteries for cars.

‘It’s a huge deal for the nation, and for the lab,’ said Mark Peters, who is in charge of transportation and battery research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, which will advise the group.

China, Japan and South Korea are the current leaders in lithium battery research, he said in a telephone interview.

article continues here at FORBES.COM

Illustration: Simon Danaher

After half a century of walking their dogs under the same old streetlamps, New Yorkers are ready for a new age of enlightenment. Gotham’s own Office for Visual Interaction won an international competition to design a replacement. Its inspiration: LED headlights. “We took the same idea and made it vertical,” OVI’s Enrique Peiniger says. The new lamppost’s 4-to 6-foot head boasts up to 100 LEDs with multiple lenses that can be configured to dial in specific lighting “footprints” of uniform brightness. For New York, the coverage patterns will be tailored for three distinct situations

full story continues here at WIRED

The company called RSi Solar has announced that they’ve created transparent, photovoltaic glass window. What is amazing is that these solar windows could generate 80 – 250 watts each, depending on the size.

Another important feature is that they reduce heat, which reduces cooling costs and they provide a 100 percent reduction in infrared an UV radiation .

In a recent study, RSi Solar said that this new design could result in energy savings greater than 50 percent. Currently, the company is working to improve quality by transforming these solar windows into a light panel. The windows use battery technology with a lifespan of 55 years and can be built up to 9×9 ft in size.

I think that it may be a bit of an exaggeration that the company said their technology could one day eliminate the need for electrical power plants – we’ll still have poor people and places with different energy needs. The windows will be installed in buildings from Hollywood and Las Vegas. I hope that in short time we’ll be able to see them on many buildings. The better course of action RSi Solar could take would be to use the electricity generated to also help making home made hydrogen, which is a far more better storage than batteries nowadays.

GREEN OPTIMISTIC

Image Gallery Solar hot-air collectors can warm your home’s interior – and blend seamlessly into its exterior. LEN CHURCHILL

Are you freezing in the winter to keep your fuel bill down? Or paying an arm and a leg to stay warm? Either way, it’s probably time to consider installing a solar hot-air system. There are several options, and these systems are a hot commodity right now — in recent months several suppliers have reported increased consumer interest.
Solar hot-air systems capture sunlight energy and use it to heat incoming air. Heated air is then transferred into your home, often with a small electric fan. The solar energy costs what it always has cost — nothing. Solar hot-air systems can help alleviate homeowners’ worries about rising fuel costs and provide years of inexpensive, maintenance-free comfort. They can heat homes, offices, workshops, garages and barns.

ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE AT MOTHER EARTH NEWS

James and Jay (Leno, that is) take some time to reflect on the Honda’s impact on their favorite hobby, that of driving classic cars on the weekends, and conclude that the FCX Clarity and hydrogen cars in general will someday be the saviors of the automotive world – just as the internal combustion engine was the savior of the horse (huh?). Sure, there may be a few issues to address before that can happen, not the least of which are hydrogen capture, transportation and storage… but that’s all going to be worked out in – you guessed it – the future, right? Watch the full video after the break.
Video:

from AUTO BLOG GREEN and Top Gear

Get Breaking News Alerts

never spam

‘);

Posted by Martin LaMonica

BlackLight Power, a company that claims to draw energy from a disputed form of hydrogen, said on Thursday that it has licensed its technology to a customer.

New Jersey-based BlackLight Power said a subsidiary of a small New Mexico utility, Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative, has licensed its technology and the rights to buy its heat-generating equipment.

The company’s claims have caused controversy because they challenge long-held notions in physics. It’s an example of how the surge in interest in energy technology has revived older technologies, like solar thermal, and inspired scientists to develop disruptive technologies.

It’s not easy for an outsider to assess the merits of the company’s technology, but it appears BlackLight Power is being taken seriously by some people.

BlackLight Power has raised $60 million in funding and the company is in discussions with utilities to use its equipment, according to CEO and founder Randell Mills said. It employs 25 people, about half of which are PhDs. Its process has been peer-reviewed, Mills said, and the company has created a prototype 5 kilowatt machine.

Mills said that the he has found a way to alter the state of stable hydrogen atoms in a new form, called hydrinos, and tap into the energy released during that change.

The company has developed a reactor that uses a solid fuel–a form of nickel called Raney nickel–that starts a chemical reaction that brings a hydrogen’s electron closer its nucleus, releasing energy, he explained.

ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE

]]> http://sunfarmer.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/blacklight-power-claims-novel-energy-source/feed/ 0 sunfarmer http://sunfarmer.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/energy-secretary-pick-has-vocally-supported-alternative-fuels/ http://sunfarmer.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/energy-secretary-pick-has-vocally-supported-alternative-fuels/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:28:00 +0000 sunfarmer http://sunfarmer.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/energy-secretary-pick-has-vocally-supported-alternative-fuels/ ]]>

WASHINGTON — Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for energy secretary, has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming.

Chu, a Chinese-American who currently is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, has in recent years campaigned to bring together a cross-section of scientific disciplines to find ways to counter climate change.

If action is not taken now to stop global warming, it may be too late, he argues.

Since 2004, Chu has been director of the Berkeley lab, the oldest of the Energy Department’s national laboratories, with its 4,000 employees and a budget of $650 million. The laboratory does only unclassified work and under Chu has been a center of research into biofuels and solar energy technologies. He is a former head of the physics department at Stanford University.

Chu, 60, brings additional diversity to the Obama cabinet.

ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE

Hyperion’s miniature nuclear modules could be easily transported and buried underground, with the ability to power up to 20,000 homes.

(PhysOrg.com) — Underground nuclear power plants no bigger than a hot tub may soon provide electricity for communities around the world. Measuring about 1.5 meters across, the mini reactors can each power about 20,000 homes. (Please see below for an update)

The small energy modules were originally designed by Otis “Pete” Peterson and other scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Now, the technology is being commercially developed by Hyperion Power Generation, which recently announced that it has taken its first orders and plans to start mass production within five years.

“Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,” said John Deal, CEO of Hyperion. “[The nuclear plants] will cost approximately $25 million each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home.”

Because of their small size, the mini power plants can be assembled relatively quickly and transported by truck, rail or ship to remote locations, even places that currently do not have electricity. The power plants provide an alternative to current nuclear plants, which are large, expensive, and take about 10 years to build. Also, large-scale power plants don´t fit the needs of small populations or areas without available land. Hyperion´s modules can be connected together to provide energy for larger populations, as well.

ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE

We’ve seen the Tango electric car before. A four-wheel two-seater that looks like it’s going to fall over if the wind blows too hard. And we’ve been skeptical of its acceleration claims…I mean, how can a car that looks like that go from zero to sixty in four seconds?

We are skeptics no more. The Tango just beat the Tesla Roadster in a one-on-one race. It’s actually the first EV on EV race I’ve ever seen. If the camera work had been a little better, maybe we would have felt the excitement more. But when that little guy took off the starting line my heart skipped a beat.

The Tango came in at 14.480 seconds while the Roadster’s quarter mile was 14.666. This may have been driver error more than anything. And it’s not clear whether the Roadster was fully charged and in optimal condition (since it can do quarter miles in just over 12 seconds) but just the fact that it was close is somewhat alarming.

Rethink everything you know about cars people, EVs change it all.

Check out the video below the fold.

Via AutoBlogGreen

MIT researchers invented new and improved thin film solar cells that present 50% more efficiency, while being much more cheap than classic solar cells. Their price is due to using less silicon than conventional solar cells.

The researchers used computer simulations and experimented in their labs on 2 micron thick silicon wafers. They used new materials for the front and back coatings.

The aim is to keep the light as long as possible inside the cell’s walls, to increase its efficiency (they say their innovation increased the energy per photon with about 50%), by increasing the probability of absorption and transformation to electricity.

This time the researchers used anti-reflective coatings on the front, to maximize the quantity of absorbed light, and diffraction gratings on the back, to reduce the back reflection. Normal solar cells use a layer of aluminum to reflect the light, but a great part of it is lost by going back to the origin medium.

All of these innovations are said to lower the thin film solar cells’ cost down to the grid’s, but it will take another estimated three years to reach the consumer market in a cost-efficient manner.

This article has more

AC power has long been the only game in town, ever since it became the standard over a hundred years ago. Supporters of DC, however, are pushing for a comeback on the grounds of sustainability and efficiency. Solar panels and fuel cells produce DC electricity; the inverters which turn it into grid-worthy AC inevitably lose some of that electricity in the process. Besides, many of the energy consuming devices we use – such as computers and LEDs – run on DC, too. That’s why you have a big box in between your laptop and the wall outlet. A DC power source would obviate the need for the box, and all the waste heat that it generates.

One group pushing for DC is called the EMerge Alliance. Their goal is to create standards that will give building designers the chance to put low voltage, DC power supplies in their buildings. They like the idea of designing buildings with, say, rooftop solar panels generating DC electricity that can be used directly to power the building’s LED lighting or its system of energy monitors. That kind of setup saves money on the solar installation (because it doesn’t require inverters and connects more smoothly to the grid), eases the installation of the lighting systems themselves, and makes the overall power consumption more efficient.

Via Greentech Media

Written by Jerry James Stone

According to Clean Break, General Electric has dumped all plans for revitalizing their century-old incandescent lightbulb. Instead, it plans to focus on light-emitting diodes (LED) and its organic counterpart — the OLED.

It was February of 2007 that GE announced a high efficiency incandescent (HEI) bulb that was comparable to that of compact fluorescents (CFL). The HEI bulb provided better light quality and without any nasty mercury. The bulb was expected to hit the market sometime in 2010.

But announcements of Australia, Canada, and even some U.S. states planning to ban the bulb made companies like GE and Philips question their longevity. Especially when these bans would start as early as 2012.

So in October of 2007, GE announced it would be closing plants and even cutting hundreds of jobs in order to restructure its light bulb business. Harvard business school professor Daniel Snow claims that GE’s HEI was the company’s “last gasp” of inspiration on the Edison bulb.

FULL STORY CONTINUES HERE

The New Thin Film Roof at Riedel Recycling

The solar power system was constructed by Riedel Recycling. The company uses the former coal mixing hall in Moers for the storage and preparation of building materials. Its 9,500 square meter south-facing roof is now fully fitted with solar modules.

“The installation was completed much more quickly than planned”, a fact that clearly pleases managing director Ludger Riedel.

The fitters required just three months despite pitches of 36.55 and 75 degrees, and heights of up to 30 metres, which were only accessible with inclined lifts and ladders.

“Thin-film modules are a good choice at our latitudes”, Riedel continues “because they also deliver good yields despite weaker solar radiation.”

STORY CONTINUES HERE

From the LA TIMES

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city’s energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry.

Appearing at a South Los Angeles manufacturing plant where solar panels are made, Villaraigosa said the initiative will help the Department of Water and Power wean itself off of fossil fuels — natural gas and coal — as part of the effort to address global warming.

ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE