Posted by GetSolar Staff in Friday, May 7th 2010 under: International Solar, Solar Technology Tags: Amorphous Silicon, Solar Technology, Thin Film Solar

A Spanish-German partnership has helped provide a glimpse into the future of the solar industry. It’s a future where roof-mounted [...]]]> European Firm Touts ‘Virtually Invisible’ Thin-Film Solar

Posted by GetSolar Staff in Friday, May 7th 2010 under: International Solar, Solar Technology Tags: Amorphous Silicon, Solar Technology, Thin Film Solar

A Spanish-German partnership has helped provide a glimpse into the future of the solar industry. It’s a future where roof-mounted frames are obsolete and homeowners associations can’t object to the look of solar because the panels are nearly invisible.

Seventeen European countries in 1985 established EUREKA, a public-private partnership aimed at supporting technology development across Europe. Headed up by Intemper Espanola, the partnership’s latest advance in solar technology involves thin-film solar made from amorphous silicon. The aim? Develop thin, flexible, durable solar panels that can be integrated directly into the building’s roof, rather than added on as a retrofit.

Francisco Ruiz, General Manager of Intemper Espanola, often thought about how to improve frame-mounted solar installations. The current project did not take form, however, until one of Intemper’s suppliers bought a German company specializing in waterproofing roofs.

The result is a six-millimeter-thick solar cell that can be used on all rooftops. Called Evalon Solar, the product is touted as the “all-in-one roof insulation, waterproofing and solar-panelling” system. It’s not clear whether the product is “virtually invisible” because it’s so thin or because it resembles an ordinary roofing material.

via European Firm Touts ‘Virtually Invisible’ Thin-Film Solar | GetSolar.com Blog.

A joint effort of scientists, sailors, and investors from around the world, Planet Solar has made a huge push for solar energy by developing the world’s largest solar powered boat. Today, the 60-ton smart yacht is nearing completion, and soon it will make a voyage around the world leaving nothing but waves in [...]]]>

A joint effort of scientists, sailors, and investors from around the world, Planet Solar has made a huge push for solar energy by developing the world’s largest solar powered boat. Today, the 60-ton smart yacht is nearing completion, and soon it will make a voyage around the world leaving nothing but waves in its wake.

The global shipping industry has been struggling to find ways that it can improve its efficiency and generate fewer carbon dioxide emissions, and despite breakthroughs in salt water and algae fuels, progress has been slow.

According to EarthJustice, “ships transport 90 percent of the world’s consumer goods, including computers, cars, shoes, clothes and toys…Ships burn tons of fuel per hour, generating 3 to 4 percent percent or more of human-generated global warming gases — more than commercial aviation.”

via World’s Largest Solar Powered Boat Will Make Ca….

When you leave your mobile phone charger plugged in when its not actually juicing up a handset, you waste electricity

– some estimates see the overall power suck from such scenarios [...]]]> AT&T is offering folks the chance to be a small part of a big difference as it announces the launch of the ZERO Charger for phones.

When you leave your mobile phone charger plugged in when its not actually juicing up a handset, you waste electricity

– some estimates see the overall power suck from such scenarios as enough to power 24,000 homes for a year.

That’s where AT&T ZERO charger comes in — it works by automatically sensing when a cell phone is not plugged in and cutting the power supply from the wall socket. Now you can save electricity and your conscience when you just grab your phone and go without taking the time to cut the power.

The new eco-friendly charger has a five-star efficiency rating, a “block and cable” design that will work with unspecified “future handsets” and packaging made from 100% recycled paper.

via AT&T Intros Eco-Friendly Phone Charger.

Bloom Energy finally emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its “Bloom Box” fuel cell during a 60 Minutes segment with Lesley Stahl yesterday click here for bonus videos. Capable of powering more than 100 homes while producing close to zero emissions, just one of these boxes could radically alter how people get their energy. [...]]]>

Bloom Energy finally emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its “Bloom Box” fuel cell during a 60 Minutes segment with Lesley Stahl yesterday click here for bonus videos. Capable of powering more than 100 homes while producing close to zero emissions, just one of these boxes could radically alter how people get their energy. But is it the godsend that some are saying it is?

Wireless and neatly compartmentalized, the Bloom Box could one day be a fixture in your backyard or basement, transmitting clean energy to your home as needed, Bloom CEO K.R. Sridhar says. Right now, it’s available on a large scale, with each box costing as much as $800,000. In the next five to 10 years, Bloom says it will release smaller boxes for individual households costing less than $3,000. If this happens, there is a chance that Bloom Boxes could supplant utilities and long-distance transmission lines — not to mention capital intensive wind farms and solar arrays.

via Bloom Energy: Is its ‘power plant in a box’ worth all the hype? | VentureBeat.

Construction has begun off Oregon on what would be the nation’s first commercial wave-energy farm, said Sean O’Neill, president of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, a Maryland-based trade association that promotes marine energy. It is planned to supply [...]]]> The search for clean, renewable energy is turning toward the ocean, but not without some waves of skepticism.

Construction has begun off Oregon on what would be the nation’s first commercial wave-energy farm, said Sean O’Neill, president of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, a Maryland-based trade association that promotes marine energy. It is planned to supply energy to about 400 homes.

“On a national perspective, it’s great news. They’re making tremendous progress,” he said.

Wave power draws from the energy of ocean surface waves, according to Phil Pellegrino, spokesman for New Jersey-based developer Ocean Power Technologies, which is developing the project.

A float on a buoy rises and falls with the waves, driving a plunger up and down, he explained. The plunger is connected to a hydraulic pump that converts the vertical movement into rotary motion, driving an electrical generator. Electricity produced is sent to shore over a submerged cable, he said.

The first buoy will measure 150 feet tall by 40 feet wide, weigh 200 tons and cost $4 million, Pellegrino said.

Nine more buoys are planned to deploy at a site in Reedsport, Ore., by 2012, at a total cost of $60 million, he said.

Some don’t believe wave energy can work, said Onno Husing, director of the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association.

“A lot of people who are very experienced with the ocean harbor a lot of doubt that anyone can in a cost-effective way put buoys in the water, harvest the energy, and not have them end up on the beach,” he said.

The world’s first commercial wave farm opened in 2008 off the coast of Portugal, at the Aguçadoura Wave Park, Husing said. It ran into financial difficulties last year and was suspended indefinitely, according to a statement from Pelamis Wave Power of Scotland, part owner of the project.

A wave-power device from another company, Finavera Renewables of Canada, sank off Oregon’s coast two years ago, Pellegrino said.

Other projects are under development in Spain, Scotland, Western Australia and off the coast of Cornwall, England, he said.

Capturing that power is a challenge. The size of waves can fluctuate widely.

“If they’re too big they overwhelm the equipment and can damage it,” Pellegrino said. “If they’re too small, it’s not going to be cost-effective.”

There’s also controversy about impact on the marine environment. Oregon fishers and crabbers worry the project will hurt their livelihoods.

via Oregon is first U.S. site for a wave-power farm – USATODAY.com.

SMIT—Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology—is in the running for a Pepsi Refresh grant of $50,000 to make their Solar Ivy product a commercial reality.

Started as a thesis project by Sam Cochran in 2005, the Solar Ivy concept proposes a flexible net of pholtovoltaic leaves that can be draped over a building to capture electricity. [...]]]>

SMIT—Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology—is in the running for a Pepsi Refresh grant of $50,000 to make their Solar Ivy product a commercial reality.

Started as a thesis project by Sam Cochran in 2005, the Solar Ivy concept proposes a flexible net of pholtovoltaic leaves that can be draped over a building to capture electricity. Though iterations of the project have popped up several times on the web in the past couple of years, SMIT is now prepared to go into commercial production, and they need this grant to do it. Watch Sam’s video below, go read about how they plan to use the money and, if you can get behind it, vote!

via SMIT’s Solar Ivy in the running for a Pepsi Refresh grant – Core77.

The green movement has just gotten a boost from one of the most famous designers in the world. Philippe Starck has teamed up with the Italian manufacturing group PRAMAC to develop the first designer wind turbine designs for home use. The turbines come in two designs, and will produce 400 watts [...]]]>

The green movement has just gotten a boost from one of the most famous designers in the world. Philippe Starck has teamed up with the Italian manufacturing group PRAMAC to develop the first designer wind turbine designs for home use. The turbines come in two designs, and will produce 400 watts of power and 1 kilowatt of power. They will cost $3,495.25 2,500 euros for the smaller “quadrangular” turbine and $4,893.35 3,500 euros for the 1 kilowatt “helicoidal” turbine.

These designs comes on the heels of the ultra-famous designer denouncing design and his works and announcing his retirement saying that ‘Design is Dead’, and that he felt that ‘Everything I designed was unnecessary… and I am ashamed of this fact. When he unveiled his new turbine designs in Milan his tune had changed when he said:

“We have to help people to produce energy, to be part of the fight. Energy should not be a punishment, we should create a desire among people to produce it.”

via Philippe Starck’s Revolutionair Wind Turbines | Styleture.com – notable designs and functional living spaces.

Nissan will receive a $1.4 billion loan to retrofit a U.S. plant for building electric cars, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday.

The Smyrna, Tenn., facility will be outfitted to produce 150,000 models of the Leaf, as well as the lithium-ion batteries it runs on. DOE projected that at full capacity, it will support 1,300 jobs.

The [...]]]>

Nissan will receive a $1.4 billion loan to retrofit a U.S. plant for building electric cars, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced yesterday.

The Smyrna, Tenn., facility will be outfitted to produce 150,000 models of the Leaf, as well as the lithium-ion batteries it runs on. DOE projected that at full capacity, it will support 1,300 jobs.

The loan came from DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which establishes $25 billion worth of loans to help carmakers produce vehicles that use less gasoline.

With the award, Nissan becomes the first foreign-owned automaker to win a major contract with the Obama administration.

Last fall, the program loaned Ford nearly $6 billion, and earlier this month, it loaned $465 million to California-based Tesla, a company that builds a premium electric car but wants to sell a cheaper version.

Nissan has taken a different strategy from other automakers in electric-drive by abandoning the gasoline engine entirely. Toyota, General Motors and Honda have opted for hybrid drivetrains that can use gasoline and thus have no range limit. Nissan’s Leaf is an all-electric hatchback that can travel up to 100 miles.

“It may speak to the professionalism of the administration, judging proposals based on merits and not just funneling the money to the car company that you and I and the rest of the American people own,” Steve Winkelman, transportation program director at the Center for Clean Air Policy, said in an e-mail.

via Plant for Nissan’s Leaf Gets a $1.4 Billion DOE Loan – NYTimes.com.

So say government and business leaders who’ll soon unveil ideas to urge economic development within the growing sector. The Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Working Group will make its economic development recommendations to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, [...]]]> A combination of new tax credits, government incentives and education and industry partnerships could help spark Oregon’s nascent electric vehicle cluster.

So say government and business leaders who’ll soon unveil ideas to urge economic development within the growing sector. The Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Working Group will make its economic development recommendations to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who wants to attract more electric vehicle investment to the state. The group believes Oregon can grow on the backs of electric vehicle manufacturers and ancillary suppliers, such as technology companies that could create software and dashboard equipment to help operate the cars.

Kulongoski, who leaves office in 2011, has long encouraged the state to tie climate change strategies to economic development. He convened the group to goad electric vehicle-making sectors.

“Oregon has a heck of a chance to be a leader in transportation electrification,” said Charlie Allcock, a group member and Portland General Electric’s economic development director. “It’s a good time to be looking at this because the market is maturing.”

The recommendations also come during a flurry of activity aimed at establishing Oregon as an electric carmaking hub. The group Environment Oregon released a report detailing how electric cars can lower global warming emissions, oil consumption and toxic air pollution. The group includes Mark Frohnmayer, founder of the Arcimoto electric car company and an alternative fuel committee member. Frohnmayer’s company has collected $1 million from angel investors as it develops three-wheeled vehicles to sell for less than $20,000.

The alternative fuel group had no estimates of their proposals’ costs. Most industry analysts believe electric vehicle sales will comprise 5 percent of all cars sold by 2020. Research and Markets, a Dublin, Ireland-based researcher, estimates the industry will generate $227 billion in worldwide revenue by 2015.

Among the Oregon group’s proposals:

• One Oregon university would host an automotive engineering program backed by such private industry partners as Daimler Trucks North America, Intel Corp. and Ziba Design. Organizers could work with Clemson University, which established the $200 million International Center for Automotive Research. A Clemson official has already reached out to Intel Capital’s Steve Saltzman, a group member, to work on a similar Oregon project.

• The state could also provide as-yet undetermined funding to the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute. The institute would use the funds to study ways to improve energy storage and lower electric vehicles’ usage costs per kilowatt hour. The institute typically receives funding through the Oregon Innovation Council, which received $16 million during the 2009 legislative session and $28 million during the 2007 legislative session.

• Electric vehicles would be folded into the state’s business energy tax credit program. Lawmakers are examining potential reforms to the program, which has lured several companies to the state but, critics say, has spawned abuses. Lawmakers had rejected, in the program’s 2007 expansion proposal, including provisions for electric vehicle-related manufacturing.

The state would establish a new “transportation electrification tax credit” for electric vehicles and infrastructure. The group gave no direction on how to shape the credit, but believes the option could increase electric vehicle usage and add more jobs in Oregon.

via Sustainable Business Oregon – Electric vehicle proponents urge Oregon to take the lead.