In South Africa the move towards universal access has improved since 1994, but the census showed that 5.2% of households still do not have access. And a deeper reading into the statistics shows that a further 21% do not have access to an acceptable level of toilets.
The Water Services Act states that, "everyone has a right of access to basic water supply and basic sanitation". After several court cases and departmental pronouncements, this basic sanitation has been defined as to either be in the form of a flush toilet or a ventilated toilet.
In its headline pronouncements about sanitation, government says that 13% of people do not have any access to any kind of toilet. And a further 2.1% are using the bucket system. This makes sanitation the one millenium development goal that the country is having a hard time meeting.
Last year we saw the municipal election turn into the saga of open toilets. As a result the department of human settlements, which runs sanitation, asked a task team to tour the country and find out more about the situation. When he presented this report, Tokyo Sexwale, its minister, was adamant that sanitation would take centre stage in future infrastructure rollouts.
"It's a critical basic need, the first line of dignity of any human being that we take for granted as we open taps in our houses and as you flush toilets," he said. The report found that the backlog sits at 2.5-million toilets.
Census 2011 showed that progress has been made to giving universal sanitation. About 57% of households have access to a flush toilet that is connected to the sewage system; 3% to a toilet with a septic tank; 2.5% to a chemical toilet; and 8.8% to a pit toilet with ventilation.
This is nearly 69% of the population, and the number stood at 58.6% when the last census was done in 2001.
But 19% have access to a pit toilet without ventilation. In the statistics this is seen as having been served. But these toilets are a huge problem. The ventilation pipe at the back allows for air to circulate, this helps break down the sludge inside the toilet, stops flies from picking up and spreading disease, and importantly removes the smell. Without this, most nongovernmental organisations say that people do not use the toilets.
A further 2.1% have to use the notorious bucket system, which government had promised to eradicate over a decade ago.
When sanitation was still under water affairs, one of the taglines for the service was, "It should never be forgotten that 'Sanitation is Dignity' and dignity is a basic human right."
The problem with these toilets, and flush toilets that block and also do not provide proper access, is evident throughout the country. And the statistics are constantly questioned. In the case of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, the number of people who have "access" to a toilet is relatively high. But access just means that people have a toilet that has been provided in their area. It does not take into account that the toilets can break or fill up or that one toilet can serve up to 50 people.
Gavin Silber, coordinator of the Khayelitsha-based Social Justice Coalition, said in a recent visit that what is deemed to be access and the reality are very different. "On paper they say they have reached their targets and given an acceptable level of service. But you come here and you can see that many of these toilets just don't work and you have dozens of people using one toilet. There is a big discrepancy," he said.
Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, which will be hosting the World Toilet Summit in Durban next month has said initiatives to tackle people's lack of access to proper sanitation were not enough.
"The reasons for such neglect are numerous. Part of it has to do with the fact that sanitation is considered a taboo subject; other reasons rest on demographic and population shifts; and others still rest on the fact that little investment has reached those who need it most due to mismanagement," he said.
A report published earlier this year for the Human Rights Commission, done after the open toilet saga by the department of performance monitoring and evaluation, found that service delivery was not fast enough. While 300 000 toilets were being delivered per annum, this rate would not achieve the target of universal access by 2014, it said.
The report laid heavy blame on the fragmentation of sanitation services – it now formally resides in human settlements, but there are parts in water affairs and other parts in education and local government. "The challenge of institutional fragmentation needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency," it said. And it recommended a single unit be established to oversee policy formulation, oversight and regulation. This should be based in water affairs, it said.
2012年4月15日星期日
Rift with China affecting Phl bid to use solar energy
President Aquino has thumbed down proposals to avail of the expensive but long-term benefits of solar energy following the Philippines’ recent conflict with China – which now produces cheaper solar panels – to address the power crisis in Mindanao.
“If we go solar, they (China) are the cheapest producer. They will have another entry into controlling our economy. I think, it is not the wisest decision at this point,” he told Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who is advocating the renewable energy source.
“You already know that we are in disagreement with China on one particular issue which actually hasn’t been resolved as of today. There have been other instances that they have not been very friendly,” Aquino pointed out, citing the West Philippine Sea issue.
He related that there is an ongoing debate between the US and China over the use of solar energy.
“As you know there is an ongoing fight between America and China with regard to subsidies allegedly being given by the Chinese government that make the production of solar panels, and the costs that much cheaper,” Aquino explained further.
He made the pronouncements during the April 13 Energy Summit held at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City, that was attended by key government officials like Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Mindanao Development Authority chairperson Lualhati Antonino.
Malacanang hinted earlier that shifting to renewable energy sources is already part of the Aquino government’s long-term plan to address the energy problem in the country, particularly in Mindanao.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that while the government looks at adopting renewable sources of power, it may come at a premium and may have an impact on consumers’ electricity bills.
Some of the government critics have been calling on the government to carry out short-term and immediate solutions to the Mindanao power crisis by resorting to renewable energy.
“That is part of the long-term plan: to include more and more projects that involve renewable energy. Remember the Department of Energy (DOE) is also advocating alternative and renewable sources of energy. So that is already part of the plan,” Valte said over state-run dzRB.
Valte also said the government is already accelerating the rehabilitation of hydropower plants in Mindanao, particularly the Agus and Pulangi plants.
Those plants were designed to work for 30 years but have been operating for about 59 years, way beyond their original life span, Valte said. The rehabilitation of Agus plant will take about 30 months, while the Pulangi plant will take one month, she said.
“If we go solar, they (China) are the cheapest producer. They will have another entry into controlling our economy. I think, it is not the wisest decision at this point,” he told Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who is advocating the renewable energy source.
“You already know that we are in disagreement with China on one particular issue which actually hasn’t been resolved as of today. There have been other instances that they have not been very friendly,” Aquino pointed out, citing the West Philippine Sea issue.
He related that there is an ongoing debate between the US and China over the use of solar energy.
“As you know there is an ongoing fight between America and China with regard to subsidies allegedly being given by the Chinese government that make the production of solar panels, and the costs that much cheaper,” Aquino explained further.
He made the pronouncements during the April 13 Energy Summit held at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City, that was attended by key government officials like Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Mindanao Development Authority chairperson Lualhati Antonino.
Malacanang hinted earlier that shifting to renewable energy sources is already part of the Aquino government’s long-term plan to address the energy problem in the country, particularly in Mindanao.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that while the government looks at adopting renewable sources of power, it may come at a premium and may have an impact on consumers’ electricity bills.
Some of the government critics have been calling on the government to carry out short-term and immediate solutions to the Mindanao power crisis by resorting to renewable energy.
“That is part of the long-term plan: to include more and more projects that involve renewable energy. Remember the Department of Energy (DOE) is also advocating alternative and renewable sources of energy. So that is already part of the plan,” Valte said over state-run dzRB.
Valte also said the government is already accelerating the rehabilitation of hydropower plants in Mindanao, particularly the Agus and Pulangi plants.
Those plants were designed to work for 30 years but have been operating for about 59 years, way beyond their original life span, Valte said. The rehabilitation of Agus plant will take about 30 months, while the Pulangi plant will take one month, she said.
2012年4月12日星期四
Why solar power can still eclipse natural gas
The cheapest natural gas price for a decade is a boon for North American homeowners. At less than $2 per million British thermal units, though, it looks toxic for its already troubled rival, the solar energy sector. But gas isn’t close to choking the life out of it just yet.
There’s certainly enough bad news to go round. Energy bigwigs at a conference this week identified the rock-bottom gas price as the biggest short-term obstacle to developing greener fuel sources. As if to underline the point, the benchmark gas price dipped to its lowest level since January, 2002, as they were talking. Meanwhile, solar plant developer BrightSource Energy pulled its initial public offering on Wednesday, citing poor market conditions. On top of last year’s controversial bankruptcy of Solyndra and the 85-per-cent drop in industry leader First Solar’s share price over the past 12 months, the sector looks far from healthy.
Still, greens shouldn’t lose heart. The price of generating electricity from the sun’s rays has been falling almost in tandem with gas prices. The wholesale price of panels halved last year, as have solar generation prices: a typical long-term contract in California, a sweet spot for the industry, has plummeted from about 17 cents per kilowatt hour in 2010 to as low as 8 cents, according to Green Tech Media. That brings some solar capacity within striking distance of natural gas at around 6 cents.
And solar power has a distinct advantage: Its costs can be locked in 25 years in advance. Gas offers no such guarantee. For an electric utility this is equivalent to a cautious homeowner opting for a safer fixed rate mortgage over a risky floating rate loan.
Moreover, the current bargain U.S. gas price can’t be relied on to last forever, even with hydraulic fracturing uncovering vast troves of the resource. America is also likely to start exporting gas in the next few years, which could tug the nation’s gas price back toward the global average – currently roughly five times higher.
This will be cold comfort for many solar panel makers who won’t survive the industry shakeout that slumping prices are causing. But the rationalized sector that emerges should be well placed to take on all newcomers.
There’s certainly enough bad news to go round. Energy bigwigs at a conference this week identified the rock-bottom gas price as the biggest short-term obstacle to developing greener fuel sources. As if to underline the point, the benchmark gas price dipped to its lowest level since January, 2002, as they were talking. Meanwhile, solar plant developer BrightSource Energy pulled its initial public offering on Wednesday, citing poor market conditions. On top of last year’s controversial bankruptcy of Solyndra and the 85-per-cent drop in industry leader First Solar’s share price over the past 12 months, the sector looks far from healthy.
Still, greens shouldn’t lose heart. The price of generating electricity from the sun’s rays has been falling almost in tandem with gas prices. The wholesale price of panels halved last year, as have solar generation prices: a typical long-term contract in California, a sweet spot for the industry, has plummeted from about 17 cents per kilowatt hour in 2010 to as low as 8 cents, according to Green Tech Media. That brings some solar capacity within striking distance of natural gas at around 6 cents.
And solar power has a distinct advantage: Its costs can be locked in 25 years in advance. Gas offers no such guarantee. For an electric utility this is equivalent to a cautious homeowner opting for a safer fixed rate mortgage over a risky floating rate loan.
Moreover, the current bargain U.S. gas price can’t be relied on to last forever, even with hydraulic fracturing uncovering vast troves of the resource. America is also likely to start exporting gas in the next few years, which could tug the nation’s gas price back toward the global average – currently roughly five times higher.
This will be cold comfort for many solar panel makers who won’t survive the industry shakeout that slumping prices are causing. But the rationalized sector that emerges should be well placed to take on all newcomers.
2012年4月11日星期三
New Solar Panels Triple City's Current Production
The completion of ten new solar panel projects across the five boroughs has effectively tripled the amount of solar power that the city creates, now up to 648 kilowatts, which is enough to power 143 households.
The ten new solar project sites have a total solar photovoltaic capacity of 428 kilowatts. In Brooklyn, the project sites include New Horizon Middle School (M.S. 442), in Carroll Gardens (which built a green roof in 2010), as well as a Department of Sanitation garage. Five other sites are in Queens, with one site in each of Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island.
“In clean tech, New York City is leading by example and the solar projects we’ve completed will generate clean, affordable energy while cutting our carbon emissions and energy costs – goals that are central to our administration’s sustainability agenda, PlaNYC,” said Mayor Bloomberg, in a statement.
David Bragdon, Director of the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, called the installation of the new solar panels “one example of this administration’s progress toward our PlaNYC goals to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage the development of renewable energy.”
In addition to the solar installations, federal grants helped fund other green measures, like the installation of high efficiency lighting on 12 sites throughout the city (cutting more than 917 metric tons of carbon emissions), as well as the adoption of clean vehicles, which the city says will save more than $163,000 annually.
The push for a greener future is also being felt in Windsor Terrace and Kensington, where residents recently voted to have 100 new trees planted across Dist. 39 as part of Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting initiative.
The ten new solar project sites have a total solar photovoltaic capacity of 428 kilowatts. In Brooklyn, the project sites include New Horizon Middle School (M.S. 442), in Carroll Gardens (which built a green roof in 2010), as well as a Department of Sanitation garage. Five other sites are in Queens, with one site in each of Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island.
“In clean tech, New York City is leading by example and the solar projects we’ve completed will generate clean, affordable energy while cutting our carbon emissions and energy costs – goals that are central to our administration’s sustainability agenda, PlaNYC,” said Mayor Bloomberg, in a statement.
David Bragdon, Director of the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, called the installation of the new solar panels “one example of this administration’s progress toward our PlaNYC goals to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage the development of renewable energy.”
In addition to the solar installations, federal grants helped fund other green measures, like the installation of high efficiency lighting on 12 sites throughout the city (cutting more than 917 metric tons of carbon emissions), as well as the adoption of clean vehicles, which the city says will save more than $163,000 annually.
The push for a greener future is also being felt in Windsor Terrace and Kensington, where residents recently voted to have 100 new trees planted across Dist. 39 as part of Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting initiative.
2012年4月10日星期二
Soltas Energy unveils 1,500 panel solar power system on roof
Concrete Block Insulating Systems had a $60,000-a-year electricity bill.
But it also had a 55,000-square-feet of roof space at its factory on Freight House Road that faces south and a partner, Soltas Energy, willing to help it turn that roof into a resource.
“It was a no-brainer,” Jeffrey S. Nickerson, president of the family-owned manufacturer, said Tuesday prior to the ceremonial ribbon cutting for the solar power plant that’s now installed on his roof. “We can reduce those costs and make ourselves more green at the same time.”
Soltas Energy, which is headquartered in New York City, installed 1,500 solar panels on the roof of Nickerson’s factory this winter. In total those panels are capable of generating 373 kilowatts of power, enough to supply 80 percent of the factory’s needs. That’s enough power for about 200 average suburban homes, said Richard A. Chase, a project manager for Soltas based at the company’s Lawrence offices.
Soltas owns and installed the panels and other equipment and sells the power back to Concrete Block Insulating Systems at a discount. Nickerson said Concrete Block Insulating Systems will save about $20,000 a year on its power bill between the discount and not having to pay power-company distribution charges on the power generated on its own roof. Concrete Block Insulating sells excess power to National Grid or buys power from National Grid when its needs exceed the rooftop panels' ability to supply.
Founded in 1972 by Nickerson’s uncle, David L. Nickerson, Concrete Block Insulating Systems grew by selling foam insulation for the inside of concrete-block walls after the 1970s energy crisis brought on insulation requirements. The company still makes those insulating blocks, Jeffrey Nickerson said, along with a host of other building products and insulated packaging for the biotechnology and seafood industries. Concrete Block Insulating Systems ships foam coolers to the scallop fishing fleet in New Bedford as one example.
The solar project cost $1.6 million, said D. Kirt Mayland, Soltas’ in-house counsel. Soltas received a 30-percent cash rebate from the federal government, a program that has since changed into a less-attractive tax credit. Soltas is also selling clean-energy credits from the project to utilities through a state program meant to encourage clean-energy development.
Soltas is a year-old company owned by international clean technology investment fund Barron Partners, Mayland said. Barron also owns a stake in solar-panel maker CNPV Solar Power, which is best known in Europe and Asia. The panels used in the project were made in China, Mayland said.
But the inverter, a device that takes the direct current from the panels and makes it into the alternating current used in the factory and in homes, was built by Selectra Renewables in Lawrence, where it has 130 employees. The brackets that hold the panels to the roof were also made by a Massachusetts company called PanelClaw in North Andover, Mayland said.
Soltas has several other projects around the state, including a much larger 2 megawatt ground-level installation in Orange and Athol. That project needs local approval. The company also has projects in Lawrence and Methuen, Mayland said.
“I think you will see a lot of solar projects in Massachusetts in the next few months,” he said.
Developers are worried that government incentives might go away. Also, the price of solar panels is falling. It was $3 or $4 per watt of generating capacity a few years ago. Now the panels cost $1 a watt.
“We are approaching grid parity,” Mayland said. “That’s the point where solar power costs the same as power generated from other sources.”
State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said projects like the solar panels at Concrete Block Insulating Systems help make the country more energy independent.
But it also had a 55,000-square-feet of roof space at its factory on Freight House Road that faces south and a partner, Soltas Energy, willing to help it turn that roof into a resource.
“It was a no-brainer,” Jeffrey S. Nickerson, president of the family-owned manufacturer, said Tuesday prior to the ceremonial ribbon cutting for the solar power plant that’s now installed on his roof. “We can reduce those costs and make ourselves more green at the same time.”
Soltas Energy, which is headquartered in New York City, installed 1,500 solar panels on the roof of Nickerson’s factory this winter. In total those panels are capable of generating 373 kilowatts of power, enough to supply 80 percent of the factory’s needs. That’s enough power for about 200 average suburban homes, said Richard A. Chase, a project manager for Soltas based at the company’s Lawrence offices.
Soltas owns and installed the panels and other equipment and sells the power back to Concrete Block Insulating Systems at a discount. Nickerson said Concrete Block Insulating Systems will save about $20,000 a year on its power bill between the discount and not having to pay power-company distribution charges on the power generated on its own roof. Concrete Block Insulating sells excess power to National Grid or buys power from National Grid when its needs exceed the rooftop panels' ability to supply.
Founded in 1972 by Nickerson’s uncle, David L. Nickerson, Concrete Block Insulating Systems grew by selling foam insulation for the inside of concrete-block walls after the 1970s energy crisis brought on insulation requirements. The company still makes those insulating blocks, Jeffrey Nickerson said, along with a host of other building products and insulated packaging for the biotechnology and seafood industries. Concrete Block Insulating Systems ships foam coolers to the scallop fishing fleet in New Bedford as one example.
The solar project cost $1.6 million, said D. Kirt Mayland, Soltas’ in-house counsel. Soltas received a 30-percent cash rebate from the federal government, a program that has since changed into a less-attractive tax credit. Soltas is also selling clean-energy credits from the project to utilities through a state program meant to encourage clean-energy development.
Soltas is a year-old company owned by international clean technology investment fund Barron Partners, Mayland said. Barron also owns a stake in solar-panel maker CNPV Solar Power, which is best known in Europe and Asia. The panels used in the project were made in China, Mayland said.
But the inverter, a device that takes the direct current from the panels and makes it into the alternating current used in the factory and in homes, was built by Selectra Renewables in Lawrence, where it has 130 employees. The brackets that hold the panels to the roof were also made by a Massachusetts company called PanelClaw in North Andover, Mayland said.
Soltas has several other projects around the state, including a much larger 2 megawatt ground-level installation in Orange and Athol. That project needs local approval. The company also has projects in Lawrence and Methuen, Mayland said.
“I think you will see a lot of solar projects in Massachusetts in the next few months,” he said.
Developers are worried that government incentives might go away. Also, the price of solar panels is falling. It was $3 or $4 per watt of generating capacity a few years ago. Now the panels cost $1 a watt.
“We are approaching grid parity,” Mayland said. “That’s the point where solar power costs the same as power generated from other sources.”
State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said projects like the solar panels at Concrete Block Insulating Systems help make the country more energy independent.
2012年4月8日星期日
Solar dishes with rare technology to be auctioned
People searching for 60 massive satellite-looking solar dishes and willing to move the entire facility and reassemble it without instructions are in luck.
An April 17 online auction thought to be one of the first of its kind will offer the bankrupt Maricopa Solar power plant in Peoria, which uses a rare solar-thermal technology.
Solar equipment frequently is auctioned from bankruptcies, but not this type, said auctioneer David Barkoff of Heritage Global Partners, which is handling the sale for the bankruptcy trustee.
"Power plants or power-generation equipment, yes, (we auction) lots of it," he said. "But I don't think a solar-thermal power plant has come online for sale ever."
The company that was running the power plant with a license to the technology from Stirling Energy, Maricopa Solar LLC, also declared bankruptcy and now is liquidating the power plant. But not the intellectual property to build and run it.
Stirling used a complex technology with mirrors focusing the sun's heat on an engine in the middle of each dish. The engines converted the heat energy into motion, and the motion was used to make electricity.
Stirling built six of its so-called SunCatchers in New Mexico at Sandia National Laboratories, and then the larger demonstration plant in Peoria. Stirling's plans to build tens of thousands of SunCatchers in California and Texas never were fulfilled.
Other companies use similar "dish-Stirling" technology, but they are far less popular than flat, black solar panels now common on rooftops. And Stirling's competitors' dishes are not identical to those in Peoria.
Maricopa Solar's assets were listed at between $50,000 and $100,000 in its petition for bankruptcy. Barkoff said that the opening bid would not be disclosed until the auction, and he declined to estimate what a buyer might pay for the equipment.
Bidders must pay $25,000 just to register for the sale, but that's only the beginning of the complications they will face if they buy the power plant.
The plant took about four months to build, but the buyer must sign a contract agreeing to remove all of the equipment no later than April 26, within nine days of the auction, according to the bankruptcy court order authorizing the sale.
Each of the solar dishes stands nearly 40 feet tall, meaning potential bidders need lots of vacant land, a crane and plenty of transportation to move the dishes.
The dishes are connected to the power grid, so the buyer must also coordinate with Salt River Project to safely de-energize the facility and take the equipment, separating it from SRP's transformers and other equipment.
The power plant also is connected to a small pipeline of flammable hydrogen gas compressed to 3,000 pounds per square inch, and the gas lines must be purged with nitrogen before removal, according to the 42-page decommissioning plan buyers will be required to follow.
And there's another catch: The plant's instruction manual will be sold separately.
On March 15, the bankruptcy trustee for Stirling Energy Systems filed an objection to the sale of any "confidential information" in the upcoming auction, stating that those assets belonged to Stirling, not the Maricopa Solar affiliate auctioning the power plant.
The bankruptcy judge approved the objection, apparently preventing the sale of any documents that would explain how the complex machines work, including operation and maintenance manuals, specifications for the power plant's weather stations, hydrogen stations, communications, computer hard drives and even the SunCatcher product descriptions.
Angela Abreu, a lawyer in New Jersey representing the Stirling trustee, confirmed that Stirling considers the intellectual property from the company to be assets owned by Stirling.
She said the company is working on a plan to sell those assets, but she would not say how or to whom.
Lothar Goernitz, the trustee for Maricopa Solar, said he would prefer that Stirling offer the intellectual property along with the solar equipment, which he is responsible for liquidating. But he said Stirling's bankruptcy trustee did not want to sell the information along with the equipment.
"If (a buyer) wants to use the intellectual property and copyrights and whatnot, yes, they are going to have to deal with Stirling Energy Systems," he said. "But I have not come to the conclusion that there is no way that someone will come and buy this, disassemble it and use it."
He said he has been contacted by a variety of interested buyers, including some from overseas that could use the power system in remote areas. He also said that because other companies use similar dish-Stirling technology, that a buyer might not need the manuals to use the plant or parts of it.
"If you had 20 of these dishes in Sudan ... this would be a much more proficient way of generating electricity," he said. "There are places in the world where this technology makes some sense. The obvious economic concern is how to disassemble it, relocate it and set it up that is cost productive."
Barkoff said 16 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements, which allows them to see details of the equipment.
Barkoff would not say how many have paid the $25,000 to become registered bidders, but he said he has had interest from educational institutions, technical colleges, utilities and scrap-metal dealers.
An April 17 online auction thought to be one of the first of its kind will offer the bankrupt Maricopa Solar power plant in Peoria, which uses a rare solar-thermal technology.
Solar equipment frequently is auctioned from bankruptcies, but not this type, said auctioneer David Barkoff of Heritage Global Partners, which is handling the sale for the bankruptcy trustee.
"Power plants or power-generation equipment, yes, (we auction) lots of it," he said. "But I don't think a solar-thermal power plant has come online for sale ever."
The company that was running the power plant with a license to the technology from Stirling Energy, Maricopa Solar LLC, also declared bankruptcy and now is liquidating the power plant. But not the intellectual property to build and run it.
Stirling used a complex technology with mirrors focusing the sun's heat on an engine in the middle of each dish. The engines converted the heat energy into motion, and the motion was used to make electricity.
Stirling built six of its so-called SunCatchers in New Mexico at Sandia National Laboratories, and then the larger demonstration plant in Peoria. Stirling's plans to build tens of thousands of SunCatchers in California and Texas never were fulfilled.
Other companies use similar "dish-Stirling" technology, but they are far less popular than flat, black solar panels now common on rooftops. And Stirling's competitors' dishes are not identical to those in Peoria.
Maricopa Solar's assets were listed at between $50,000 and $100,000 in its petition for bankruptcy. Barkoff said that the opening bid would not be disclosed until the auction, and he declined to estimate what a buyer might pay for the equipment.
Bidders must pay $25,000 just to register for the sale, but that's only the beginning of the complications they will face if they buy the power plant.
The plant took about four months to build, but the buyer must sign a contract agreeing to remove all of the equipment no later than April 26, within nine days of the auction, according to the bankruptcy court order authorizing the sale.
Each of the solar dishes stands nearly 40 feet tall, meaning potential bidders need lots of vacant land, a crane and plenty of transportation to move the dishes.
The dishes are connected to the power grid, so the buyer must also coordinate with Salt River Project to safely de-energize the facility and take the equipment, separating it from SRP's transformers and other equipment.
The power plant also is connected to a small pipeline of flammable hydrogen gas compressed to 3,000 pounds per square inch, and the gas lines must be purged with nitrogen before removal, according to the 42-page decommissioning plan buyers will be required to follow.
And there's another catch: The plant's instruction manual will be sold separately.
On March 15, the bankruptcy trustee for Stirling Energy Systems filed an objection to the sale of any "confidential information" in the upcoming auction, stating that those assets belonged to Stirling, not the Maricopa Solar affiliate auctioning the power plant.
The bankruptcy judge approved the objection, apparently preventing the sale of any documents that would explain how the complex machines work, including operation and maintenance manuals, specifications for the power plant's weather stations, hydrogen stations, communications, computer hard drives and even the SunCatcher product descriptions.
Angela Abreu, a lawyer in New Jersey representing the Stirling trustee, confirmed that Stirling considers the intellectual property from the company to be assets owned by Stirling.
She said the company is working on a plan to sell those assets, but she would not say how or to whom.
Lothar Goernitz, the trustee for Maricopa Solar, said he would prefer that Stirling offer the intellectual property along with the solar equipment, which he is responsible for liquidating. But he said Stirling's bankruptcy trustee did not want to sell the information along with the equipment.
"If (a buyer) wants to use the intellectual property and copyrights and whatnot, yes, they are going to have to deal with Stirling Energy Systems," he said. "But I have not come to the conclusion that there is no way that someone will come and buy this, disassemble it and use it."
He said he has been contacted by a variety of interested buyers, including some from overseas that could use the power system in remote areas. He also said that because other companies use similar dish-Stirling technology, that a buyer might not need the manuals to use the plant or parts of it.
"If you had 20 of these dishes in Sudan ... this would be a much more proficient way of generating electricity," he said. "There are places in the world where this technology makes some sense. The obvious economic concern is how to disassemble it, relocate it and set it up that is cost productive."
Barkoff said 16 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements, which allows them to see details of the equipment.
Barkoff would not say how many have paid the $25,000 to become registered bidders, but he said he has had interest from educational institutions, technical colleges, utilities and scrap-metal dealers.
2012年4月5日星期四
Solar power for air conditioners too in GPCB's new building
If you believe that solar energy is good enough only to cook rice in solar cooker or heat water as solar water heaters, you need to look further. Solar energy can also provide you the much-needed respite from heat by running air conditioners.
For the first time, all 40 air conditioners in the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB)'s new building will run on solar energy. The building will be inaugurated today.
GPCB's would the first 100 per cent solar building wherein electricity generated through sunlight will also power as many as 600 fans and 1,000 CFL tube lights besides the A/Cs. After investing Rs 1 crore in the power system, the GPCB claims that the investment made will be recovered in five years! The investment is inclusive of a 10-year operation and maintenance contract for the building. The solar panels set up atop the building over 2,000 sq meters space will generate 80 KW energy.
According to member-secretary, GPCB, Hardik Shah, the peak consumption of the building will be 72 hours, while non-peak consumption is estimated to be around 65 KW. The excess power will be supplied to the Torrent Power grid.
"We will be generating around 1,16,800 units per year against which our consumption would be 84,000 units. The remaining units will go the grid," Shah said. GPCB is likely to get anything between Rs 9 to Rs 15 per unit of solar energy sent to the grid. "This would be a net zero energy building," he added.
Besides using solar power, there will be green plantation along the periphery of the compound as well as proper garden and landscaping, which will be done by the forest department.
GPCB also aims to conserve water in this building. There are two separate recharge wells through which rain water will be harvested. "Approximately, 750 cubic metre of rain water is expected to be recharged into the underground aquifiers every monsoon season," Shah added.
The present building of the pollution watchdog will be used as a research centre, resource centre with a library as well as a training institute. National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has certified GPCB as a national laboratory.
For the first time, all 40 air conditioners in the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB)'s new building will run on solar energy. The building will be inaugurated today.
GPCB's would the first 100 per cent solar building wherein electricity generated through sunlight will also power as many as 600 fans and 1,000 CFL tube lights besides the A/Cs. After investing Rs 1 crore in the power system, the GPCB claims that the investment made will be recovered in five years! The investment is inclusive of a 10-year operation and maintenance contract for the building. The solar panels set up atop the building over 2,000 sq meters space will generate 80 KW energy.
According to member-secretary, GPCB, Hardik Shah, the peak consumption of the building will be 72 hours, while non-peak consumption is estimated to be around 65 KW. The excess power will be supplied to the Torrent Power grid.
"We will be generating around 1,16,800 units per year against which our consumption would be 84,000 units. The remaining units will go the grid," Shah said. GPCB is likely to get anything between Rs 9 to Rs 15 per unit of solar energy sent to the grid. "This would be a net zero energy building," he added.
Besides using solar power, there will be green plantation along the periphery of the compound as well as proper garden and landscaping, which will be done by the forest department.
GPCB also aims to conserve water in this building. There are two separate recharge wells through which rain water will be harvested. "Approximately, 750 cubic metre of rain water is expected to be recharged into the underground aquifiers every monsoon season," Shah added.
The present building of the pollution watchdog will be used as a research centre, resource centre with a library as well as a training institute. National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has certified GPCB as a national laboratory.
2012年4月4日星期三
A Competitor Emerges for Solar Panels
Of all the types of energy embraced by the green community, “combined heat and power” probably has the clunkiest name. But proponents hope that C.H.P. systems, which can be installed in homes, will one day compete with better-known technologies like solar panels.
The idea is to capture two forms of energy at once, namely heat and electrical power (which is why the technology is sometimes called cogeneration). Large systems exist on college campuses like the University of Warwick in England and also at hospitals, chemical factories and even airports. These systems use the heat left over from generating electricity to produce either hot water, which circulates through pipes to nearby buildings to provide heat, or steam, which can be used for industrial purposes.
Because the process of making electricity wastes a lot of energy, combining heat and power generation leads to greater efficiencies, said Jürgen Weiss, head of the climate practice at the Brattle Group, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“The idea of C.H.P. is to make electricity and not waste the heat that gets generated in the process, but rather to use it for something useful,” Mr. Weiss said. That means lower utility bills and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent years, engineers have started designing more residential-scale systems. These may be about the size of a refrigerator and can fit into a basement. In Britain, a system run by a Stirling engine may cost more than 6,000, or $9,500, including installation, and in Germany — where heating systems are generally more expensive — a C.H.P. system may run from 15,000 to 20,000, or $19,800 to $26,400, according to Delta Energy & Environment, a research company based in Edinburgh. Delta said it would often take homeowners 10 years to make back the cost, in the form of lower utility bills. Getting prices down will be critical, experts say.
The small systems work best in cold climates, where homes need plenty of heat. They are often fueled by natural gas and make a bit of noise, but the extra electricity they produce can be sold into the power grid. Big-name automakers like Honda Motor and Volkswagen have applied their technology to help develop small-scale systems, sometimes known as micro C.H.P.
Small systems are gaining traction in Japan after the nuclear disaster last year, which led officials to order that nearly all of the country’s reactors be taken offline. Orders have “increased dramatically” since that event and are likely to rise even more sharply in the future, according to a recent report by Pike Research, a research and consulting group in Boulder, Colorado. Honda has sold micro-C.H.P. systems in Japan since 2003 and said last year that about 108,000 households were using its units, called the Ecowill.
The home systems in Japan tend to be much smaller than those in Germany or the United States, according to Kerry-Ann Adamson, a research director for smart energy who is based in London for Pike.
Elsewhere in the world, the picture is mixed. In the United States, a basic obstacle is lack of knowledge, said Daniel Bullock, director of the Gulf Coast Clean Energy Application Center, a U.S. Department of Energy group based in a Houston suburb that promotes C.H.P. and related sources of energy.
“Most people don’t even know about C.H.P.,” Mr. Bullock said. As a result, he added, “People are willing to pay a lot more money for solar panels than what a C.H.P. system would cost.”
The low price of natural gas in the United States — a result of the plentiful supplies created by the hydraulic fracturing boom — may make the systems more appealing, Mr. Bullock said, though homeowners, lacking the negotiating power of large industrial users, may not reap the full benefit of the lower gas prices.
In Europe, Delta Energy & Environment forecasts that 40,000 to 70,000 units a year will be sold by 2015, but “an outcome with substantially lower sales is possible,” said Jon Slowe, a director for the company, adding that Britain and Germany are using incentives to push the hardest for micro-C.H.P. technology.
Germany has a target of getting 25 percent of its power from C.H.P. systems of all sizes by 2020. A draft proposal now under consideration would increase incentives for the systems, although Ulrich Fikar, a spokesman for the industry group Cogen Europe, said it was “not ambitious enough for micro-C.H.P.”
The idea is to capture two forms of energy at once, namely heat and electrical power (which is why the technology is sometimes called cogeneration). Large systems exist on college campuses like the University of Warwick in England and also at hospitals, chemical factories and even airports. These systems use the heat left over from generating electricity to produce either hot water, which circulates through pipes to nearby buildings to provide heat, or steam, which can be used for industrial purposes.
Because the process of making electricity wastes a lot of energy, combining heat and power generation leads to greater efficiencies, said Jürgen Weiss, head of the climate practice at the Brattle Group, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“The idea of C.H.P. is to make electricity and not waste the heat that gets generated in the process, but rather to use it for something useful,” Mr. Weiss said. That means lower utility bills and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent years, engineers have started designing more residential-scale systems. These may be about the size of a refrigerator and can fit into a basement. In Britain, a system run by a Stirling engine may cost more than 6,000, or $9,500, including installation, and in Germany — where heating systems are generally more expensive — a C.H.P. system may run from 15,000 to 20,000, or $19,800 to $26,400, according to Delta Energy & Environment, a research company based in Edinburgh. Delta said it would often take homeowners 10 years to make back the cost, in the form of lower utility bills. Getting prices down will be critical, experts say.
The small systems work best in cold climates, where homes need plenty of heat. They are often fueled by natural gas and make a bit of noise, but the extra electricity they produce can be sold into the power grid. Big-name automakers like Honda Motor and Volkswagen have applied their technology to help develop small-scale systems, sometimes known as micro C.H.P.
Small systems are gaining traction in Japan after the nuclear disaster last year, which led officials to order that nearly all of the country’s reactors be taken offline. Orders have “increased dramatically” since that event and are likely to rise even more sharply in the future, according to a recent report by Pike Research, a research and consulting group in Boulder, Colorado. Honda has sold micro-C.H.P. systems in Japan since 2003 and said last year that about 108,000 households were using its units, called the Ecowill.
The home systems in Japan tend to be much smaller than those in Germany or the United States, according to Kerry-Ann Adamson, a research director for smart energy who is based in London for Pike.
Elsewhere in the world, the picture is mixed. In the United States, a basic obstacle is lack of knowledge, said Daniel Bullock, director of the Gulf Coast Clean Energy Application Center, a U.S. Department of Energy group based in a Houston suburb that promotes C.H.P. and related sources of energy.
“Most people don’t even know about C.H.P.,” Mr. Bullock said. As a result, he added, “People are willing to pay a lot more money for solar panels than what a C.H.P. system would cost.”
The low price of natural gas in the United States — a result of the plentiful supplies created by the hydraulic fracturing boom — may make the systems more appealing, Mr. Bullock said, though homeowners, lacking the negotiating power of large industrial users, may not reap the full benefit of the lower gas prices.
In Europe, Delta Energy & Environment forecasts that 40,000 to 70,000 units a year will be sold by 2015, but “an outcome with substantially lower sales is possible,” said Jon Slowe, a director for the company, adding that Britain and Germany are using incentives to push the hardest for micro-C.H.P. technology.
Germany has a target of getting 25 percent of its power from C.H.P. systems of all sizes by 2020. A draft proposal now under consideration would increase incentives for the systems, although Ulrich Fikar, a spokesman for the industry group Cogen Europe, said it was “not ambitious enough for micro-C.H.P.”
2012年3月31日星期六
A Bright Future for Solar Panels
The future of solar panels is looking even brighter. New research by Cambridge University scientists has led to the development of a more efficient solar cell.
Currently, solar cells capture part of the sun's light. Much of the energy of the absorbed light is lost as heat, meaning a maximum of 34% of the sunlight is converted to electrical power. However, Cambridge scientists have made a breakthrough which could allow 44% of solar energy to be converted. More work needs to be done to realise the full benefits of the scientists' findings, but even using today's solar PV panels is providing huge savings for businesses and householders.
Boston Council in Lincolnshire recently installed solar panels on the roof of a leisure complex at a cost of GBP 105,167. The investment is expected to recover its costs within nine years and generate a profit of at least GBP 260,000 over the next 25 years. Boston Borough Council leader Peter Bedford said the energy-saving income generated may also be higher than anticipated - closer to 80 or 90 per cent rather than the 50 per cent allowed for, so the energy saving may be more.
He said: "Our investment in solar PV represents a good deal for the council, providing low-carbon clean energy and also making the facility less vulnerable to future energy price increases at a time of global insecurity."
Homeowners can make comparable savings by installing solar panels. Energy suppliers such as British Gas pay for any excess electricity generated as it's fed back to the National Grid. You can even earn money for every kilowatt hour of electricity you generate through the Government's Feed-in Tariff (also known as Clean Energy Cashback), even if you use it.
An average system is 3 kWp and will cost around GBP 10,000 (including VAT at 5%). Most domestic PV systems cost around GBP 3,000 to GBP 3,500 per kWp installed. A 3 kWp system can generate over 2,500 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. If your system is eligible for the Feed-In Tariff scheme it could generate savings and income of around GBP 670 per year.
Solar energy is going to become more efficient and even cheaper to install. According to Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, solar power is now cheaper than diesel 'anywhere as sunny as Spain'.(i) The economy of scale through increased global use will soon mean cheaper solar panels and electricity for everyone.
Currently, solar cells capture part of the sun's light. Much of the energy of the absorbed light is lost as heat, meaning a maximum of 34% of the sunlight is converted to electrical power. However, Cambridge scientists have made a breakthrough which could allow 44% of solar energy to be converted. More work needs to be done to realise the full benefits of the scientists' findings, but even using today's solar PV panels is providing huge savings for businesses and householders.
Boston Council in Lincolnshire recently installed solar panels on the roof of a leisure complex at a cost of GBP 105,167. The investment is expected to recover its costs within nine years and generate a profit of at least GBP 260,000 over the next 25 years. Boston Borough Council leader Peter Bedford said the energy-saving income generated may also be higher than anticipated - closer to 80 or 90 per cent rather than the 50 per cent allowed for, so the energy saving may be more.
He said: "Our investment in solar PV represents a good deal for the council, providing low-carbon clean energy and also making the facility less vulnerable to future energy price increases at a time of global insecurity."
Homeowners can make comparable savings by installing solar panels. Energy suppliers such as British Gas pay for any excess electricity generated as it's fed back to the National Grid. You can even earn money for every kilowatt hour of electricity you generate through the Government's Feed-in Tariff (also known as Clean Energy Cashback), even if you use it.
An average system is 3 kWp and will cost around GBP 10,000 (including VAT at 5%). Most domestic PV systems cost around GBP 3,000 to GBP 3,500 per kWp installed. A 3 kWp system can generate over 2,500 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. If your system is eligible for the Feed-In Tariff scheme it could generate savings and income of around GBP 670 per year.
Solar energy is going to become more efficient and even cheaper to install. According to Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, solar power is now cheaper than diesel 'anywhere as sunny as Spain'.(i) The economy of scale through increased global use will soon mean cheaper solar panels and electricity for everyone.
2012年3月30日星期五
Solar Energy Ideal Option for Many Jamaicans
With the increase in oil prices and ultimately electricity bills, for many Jamaicans, solar energy can prove to be an ideal source of power for homes and businesses.
To this end, the Government has been encouraging Jamaicans to use renewable energy, such as solar energy, as a means of reducing electricity cost.
Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Gerald Lindo, tells JIS News that there are two ways in which to install a solar system in homes or businesses and still reap the benefits.
“You can put the solar panels on your roof, have them connected to some batteries that feed into your local needs at your house or your small business, or you can have a grid-type system to (show) that you are connected to your solar panel and you are connected to the electricity grid as well,” Mr. Lindo explains.
He explains that when the solar panels are active and the sun is shining, energy or electricity is being produced from the solar panels.
“When there is cloud cover or it’s night, you switch back in a dynamic way to the grid, so you are drawing either from the panels or from the grid. That way the grid acts as your back up. The grid style system is a lot cheaper for people to implement generally, because batteries are very expensive and they tend to wear out over time. It is usually more economical, even though you are never truly independent of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS),” Mr. Lindo states.
The Senior Engineer points out that since the user will be tied to the grid, the consumer will be feeding electricity back into the grid and hence a licence will be needed by the consumer.
“We want people to use this. We did develop a standard offer contract in September of 2011 that was headed up by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which sets out the regulatory terms by which a person can generate solar energy and really any renewable energy source, but solar is the one we think people will desire the most,” Mr. Lindo tells JIS News.
“It allows for people who are generating electricity through renewable means to connect to the grid. Not only can they use the grid as a back-up, but in times when they are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell power to JPS and get some remuneration, and that again will help to defray the cost of putting the system on their roof,” he adds.
Mr. Lindo notes that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica is currently working on standards for the interconnections.
In the meantime, he says there are a number of ways in which persons can acquire solar energy equipment without having to bear all the cost at once.
“One of them is a loan through the National Housing Trust (NHT). The NHT has offered solar loans since 2006 for solar water heaters and in 2008 for photovoltaic panels. We applaud the NHT for what they are doing (but) we think there are ways they can adjust the loan to further optimise it and make it available for people, because the uptake of the loan has perhaps not been as aggressive as one would hope, but we’re working on it to make the loan even more attractive,” Mr. Lindo says.
He points out that the NHT has the lowest rates and the best terms in the marketplace and “we want more people accessing that, so that they can put some solar panels on their roof."
“We have been engaging the NHT since late last year regarding that, and we continue to do so,” Mr. Lindo says.
The NHT provides financing to contributors for installation and retrofitting of solar heating systems. The loan is available to contributors who can provide a title for a residential property or who has at least enough funds in their Contribution Account at the NHT equal to the cost of the system, plus $20,000. The loan can be obtained at an interest rate of 3 per cent over a maximum period of 5 years with a 5 per cent service charge.
The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) also has loans available which can assist in buying solar energy equipment. The funds that are available through the DBJ are provided by the World Bank.
“One of the flagship projects we have at the Ministry is the Energy Security and Efficiency Enhancement Project. It’s US$15 million and is devoted to improving the regulatory conditions for energy in the country and a good deal of that money was set aside for the DBJ to lend to businesses to do their energy projects,” Mr. Lindo says.
President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association, Roger Chang, says with these institutions available to provide financing, more Jamaicans can invest in solar energy equipment for their commercial and residential use.
To this end, the Government has been encouraging Jamaicans to use renewable energy, such as solar energy, as a means of reducing electricity cost.
Senior Energy Engineer in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining (STEM), Gerald Lindo, tells JIS News that there are two ways in which to install a solar system in homes or businesses and still reap the benefits.
“You can put the solar panels on your roof, have them connected to some batteries that feed into your local needs at your house or your small business, or you can have a grid-type system to (show) that you are connected to your solar panel and you are connected to the electricity grid as well,” Mr. Lindo explains.
He explains that when the solar panels are active and the sun is shining, energy or electricity is being produced from the solar panels.
“When there is cloud cover or it’s night, you switch back in a dynamic way to the grid, so you are drawing either from the panels or from the grid. That way the grid acts as your back up. The grid style system is a lot cheaper for people to implement generally, because batteries are very expensive and they tend to wear out over time. It is usually more economical, even though you are never truly independent of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS),” Mr. Lindo states.
The Senior Engineer points out that since the user will be tied to the grid, the consumer will be feeding electricity back into the grid and hence a licence will be needed by the consumer.
“We want people to use this. We did develop a standard offer contract in September of 2011 that was headed up by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR), which sets out the regulatory terms by which a person can generate solar energy and really any renewable energy source, but solar is the one we think people will desire the most,” Mr. Lindo tells JIS News.
“It allows for people who are generating electricity through renewable means to connect to the grid. Not only can they use the grid as a back-up, but in times when they are generating more electricity than they need, they can sell power to JPS and get some remuneration, and that again will help to defray the cost of putting the system on their roof,” he adds.
Mr. Lindo notes that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica is currently working on standards for the interconnections.
In the meantime, he says there are a number of ways in which persons can acquire solar energy equipment without having to bear all the cost at once.
“One of them is a loan through the National Housing Trust (NHT). The NHT has offered solar loans since 2006 for solar water heaters and in 2008 for photovoltaic panels. We applaud the NHT for what they are doing (but) we think there are ways they can adjust the loan to further optimise it and make it available for people, because the uptake of the loan has perhaps not been as aggressive as one would hope, but we’re working on it to make the loan even more attractive,” Mr. Lindo says.
He points out that the NHT has the lowest rates and the best terms in the marketplace and “we want more people accessing that, so that they can put some solar panels on their roof."
“We have been engaging the NHT since late last year regarding that, and we continue to do so,” Mr. Lindo says.
The NHT provides financing to contributors for installation and retrofitting of solar heating systems. The loan is available to contributors who can provide a title for a residential property or who has at least enough funds in their Contribution Account at the NHT equal to the cost of the system, plus $20,000. The loan can be obtained at an interest rate of 3 per cent over a maximum period of 5 years with a 5 per cent service charge.
The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) also has loans available which can assist in buying solar energy equipment. The funds that are available through the DBJ are provided by the World Bank.
“One of the flagship projects we have at the Ministry is the Energy Security and Efficiency Enhancement Project. It’s US$15 million and is devoted to improving the regulatory conditions for energy in the country and a good deal of that money was set aside for the DBJ to lend to businesses to do their energy projects,” Mr. Lindo says.
President of the Jamaica Solar Energy Association, Roger Chang, says with these institutions available to provide financing, more Jamaicans can invest in solar energy equipment for their commercial and residential use.
2012年3月29日星期四
Nalgonda village pioneers solar power revolution
At a time when the entire state has plunged into darkness due to unscheduled and prolonged power cuts, Nalgonda is gearing up to become a shining example of a power cut-free district. As a first step to achieve the distinction, Pagidipalli village in Bibinagar mandal in the district has successfully put behind power cut woes by installing solar panels.
Funded by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the pilot solar scheme was launched in Pagidipalli a year ago. As part of the initiative, 63 solar stand-alone streetlights and 360 8-watt light emitting diode (LED) bulbs have been installed in the village at a cost of Rs15 lakh.
Pagidipalli has 230 households with a population of 1,500, majority of whom are either farmers or those who work in the surrounding factories.
This automatic system can provide light for 12 hours in the night. BEE distributed LED lamps to the households at 50% subsidy. "We don't have much problem in using them. If we face any problem with solar panels, Nedcap which has supported the initiative helps us," Ch Chandrasekhar, a villager, told TOI. He says that there is 70% decrease in their electricity bill after they started relying on solar power and LED lamps.The village panchayat played an active role in convincing the people to use solar bulbs when there was some resistance to the proposal. "Not just villagers but the village panchayat has also benefited from this. We are saving Rs 1 lakh per year ever since we switched over to this programme," V Venkatesh, former sarpanch, told TOI. Buoyed by the success, officials are planning to implement a similar project in Miryalaguda at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
The municipality is willing to allocate Rs 2.5 crore. Officials are mulling offering subsidy for those who are willing to take solar power connections. "We will hold discussions with the stakeholders including the residents of the town before implementing the project," Neelakantham, in-charge joint collector, said.
Funded by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the pilot solar scheme was launched in Pagidipalli a year ago. As part of the initiative, 63 solar stand-alone streetlights and 360 8-watt light emitting diode (LED) bulbs have been installed in the village at a cost of Rs15 lakh.
Pagidipalli has 230 households with a population of 1,500, majority of whom are either farmers or those who work in the surrounding factories.
This automatic system can provide light for 12 hours in the night. BEE distributed LED lamps to the households at 50% subsidy. "We don't have much problem in using them. If we face any problem with solar panels, Nedcap which has supported the initiative helps us," Ch Chandrasekhar, a villager, told TOI. He says that there is 70% decrease in their electricity bill after they started relying on solar power and LED lamps.The village panchayat played an active role in convincing the people to use solar bulbs when there was some resistance to the proposal. "Not just villagers but the village panchayat has also benefited from this. We are saving Rs 1 lakh per year ever since we switched over to this programme," V Venkatesh, former sarpanch, told TOI. Buoyed by the success, officials are planning to implement a similar project in Miryalaguda at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
The municipality is willing to allocate Rs 2.5 crore. Officials are mulling offering subsidy for those who are willing to take solar power connections. "We will hold discussions with the stakeholders including the residents of the town before implementing the project," Neelakantham, in-charge joint collector, said.
2012年3月28日星期三
Solar panels will keep lights twirling
Ames-based PowerFilm has a new partnership with a company that makes lighting bars and other gear for emergency vehicles.
The agreement will allow Streamlight Inc. to add PowerFilm’s 14-watt flexible solar panels as an option for emergency responders and others looking for an auxiliary source of power for the lights, computers, radios and other electrical components that are now built into vehicles.
The Streamlight deal is the second vehicle partnership announced by PowerFilm. In January, the company said it would join with Textron Co. to make solar power an option for E-Z-GO golf cars and other electric vehicles.
In a statement announcing the Streamlight venture, PowerFilm President Tim Neugent said the company’s new solar panels provide enough supplemental power to the battery of an emergency vehicle “to ensure that the vehicle will start when needed and reduce the need to idle the vehicle, saving fuel and reducing emissions.”
Streamlight President Ray Sharrah said in an email that most solar panel makers “are targeting large commercial or residential installations using thousands of square feet of panel. PowerFilm’s focus on smaller products met our needs for vehicular mobile applications and their design proved itself in a year of field trials.” He said the Iowa company’s “solar technology is unequaled and provides us with amazing versatility.”
Streamlight will begin shipping PowerFilm products next month, Sharrah said.
The potential market is substantial, he said: “In the U.S. alone there are 18,000 law enforcement agencies. There are 25,000 vehicles in service in just state police and highway patrols. American auto manufacturers sell more than 50,000 new police cars a year. When we add this to industrial and utility vehicles and look internationally, it presents a considerable market need.”
The agreement will allow Streamlight Inc. to add PowerFilm’s 14-watt flexible solar panels as an option for emergency responders and others looking for an auxiliary source of power for the lights, computers, radios and other electrical components that are now built into vehicles.
The Streamlight deal is the second vehicle partnership announced by PowerFilm. In January, the company said it would join with Textron Co. to make solar power an option for E-Z-GO golf cars and other electric vehicles.
In a statement announcing the Streamlight venture, PowerFilm President Tim Neugent said the company’s new solar panels provide enough supplemental power to the battery of an emergency vehicle “to ensure that the vehicle will start when needed and reduce the need to idle the vehicle, saving fuel and reducing emissions.”
Streamlight President Ray Sharrah said in an email that most solar panel makers “are targeting large commercial or residential installations using thousands of square feet of panel. PowerFilm’s focus on smaller products met our needs for vehicular mobile applications and their design proved itself in a year of field trials.” He said the Iowa company’s “solar technology is unequaled and provides us with amazing versatility.”
Streamlight will begin shipping PowerFilm products next month, Sharrah said.
The potential market is substantial, he said: “In the U.S. alone there are 18,000 law enforcement agencies. There are 25,000 vehicles in service in just state police and highway patrols. American auto manufacturers sell more than 50,000 new police cars a year. When we add this to industrial and utility vehicles and look internationally, it presents a considerable market need.”
2012年3月27日星期二
Boonville hotel embracing solar panels
As the weather warms up, the Boonville area is getting a little greener. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding and it’s time to mow the grass again.
The Hotel Frederick, 501 High St., in Boonville, Mo., is getting a bit greener, too.
The downtown Boonville hotel has begun installation of solar panels designed to put less pressure on the environment and to take advantage of the bright Missouri sun.
Hotel Frederick owner Bill Haw, Jr. is also assisting in the development of the Telegram Building, a historic property located in Kansas City’s Stockyards District.
“This is our second project,” said Haw of the solar panel project at Hotel Frederick. “Our first project was in Kansas City, at the Telegram Building.”
The progress that has been made with the solar panels there inspired Haw to install them in Boonville, he said.
“Now’s a great time to do something that was good for the environment and worked for us financially,” said Haw.
The installers of the panels, Brightergy Energy Solutions, has been imperative in the process, he said.
“We had a fantastic experience on the first (installation),” said Haw. “Everything went very smooth.”
Brightergy, which is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in St. Louis and Boston, has been brightening up buildings all over, from the city of Florrissant, Mo. to Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
But then there’s the other important “green” — the kind you find in your wallet. The project needed to be financially sound before installing the solar panels, said Haw.
According to Haw, in 2011, there was funding available from both federal sources and locally from Ameren, and dipping into those coffers made the plan work out for the hotel.
Local law firm Conway and Blanck took advantage of these credits when they installed solar panels atop their office in August 2011 at their 213 Main St. location, near the hotel. Previous Boonville Daily News reports notes a $150 per month savings from the panels.
The solar power generated on the roof of the Hotel Frederick will feed directly into the building’s power, said Haw, rather than being stored in a battery. That means if the hotel is using a lot of power on a sunny day, electrical costs will be lower.
Better yet, said Haw, “when you’re not consuming (power), it runs the meter backwards,” which pumps electricity back into the grid. That electricity can earn the customer full retail credit for this electricity on their bill, according to the Missouri Easy Connection Act, passed in 2007.
With those savings, the system should pay for itself in about five years, he said.
Haw said the project has generated a fantastic amount of praise on Facebook, and may be a draw for the hotel, citing its green amenities. In years past, the hotel has moved towards an environmentally friendly experience, including aluminum recycling, bulk soaps and water conservation.
“This is part of something bigger that’s going on,” said Haw. “We’re excited too.”
The Hotel Frederick, 501 High St., in Boonville, Mo., is getting a bit greener, too.
The downtown Boonville hotel has begun installation of solar panels designed to put less pressure on the environment and to take advantage of the bright Missouri sun.
Hotel Frederick owner Bill Haw, Jr. is also assisting in the development of the Telegram Building, a historic property located in Kansas City’s Stockyards District.
“This is our second project,” said Haw of the solar panel project at Hotel Frederick. “Our first project was in Kansas City, at the Telegram Building.”
The progress that has been made with the solar panels there inspired Haw to install them in Boonville, he said.
“Now’s a great time to do something that was good for the environment and worked for us financially,” said Haw.
The installers of the panels, Brightergy Energy Solutions, has been imperative in the process, he said.
“We had a fantastic experience on the first (installation),” said Haw. “Everything went very smooth.”
Brightergy, which is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in St. Louis and Boston, has been brightening up buildings all over, from the city of Florrissant, Mo. to Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
But then there’s the other important “green” — the kind you find in your wallet. The project needed to be financially sound before installing the solar panels, said Haw.
According to Haw, in 2011, there was funding available from both federal sources and locally from Ameren, and dipping into those coffers made the plan work out for the hotel.
Local law firm Conway and Blanck took advantage of these credits when they installed solar panels atop their office in August 2011 at their 213 Main St. location, near the hotel. Previous Boonville Daily News reports notes a $150 per month savings from the panels.
The solar power generated on the roof of the Hotel Frederick will feed directly into the building’s power, said Haw, rather than being stored in a battery. That means if the hotel is using a lot of power on a sunny day, electrical costs will be lower.
Better yet, said Haw, “when you’re not consuming (power), it runs the meter backwards,” which pumps electricity back into the grid. That electricity can earn the customer full retail credit for this electricity on their bill, according to the Missouri Easy Connection Act, passed in 2007.
With those savings, the system should pay for itself in about five years, he said.
Haw said the project has generated a fantastic amount of praise on Facebook, and may be a draw for the hotel, citing its green amenities. In years past, the hotel has moved towards an environmentally friendly experience, including aluminum recycling, bulk soaps and water conservation.
“This is part of something bigger that’s going on,” said Haw. “We’re excited too.”
2012年3月26日星期一
Think solar power can't compete with big utilities? Think again
Most Americans think clean energy is futuristic — a good idea some day, but not practical now. But a new report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance suggests that within 10 years, 100 million Americans in the nation's largest cities could get cheaper electricity from rooftop solar — without subsidies — than that provided by their utility.
For example, one-quarter of San Diego residents could power their homes with cost-effective solar by next year. Even in Boston, solar could cost-effectively power one-third of homes by 2020.
The current electricity system is ill-equipped for this surge in local rooftop solar — or even for the 21st century. It's a relic of the last century, when utilities located dirty coal-powered plants far from population centers, connecting them via high-voltage transmission lines to customers hundreds or thousands of miles away.
An electricity system powered by local solar is fundamentally different. Wherever the sun shines, solar panels are right at the customer's location, on a rural farm or an urban rooftop. And because solar power is modular, it lends itself to construction at a local scale.
Solar also lends itself to local ownership instead of utility conglomerates. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that locally owned renewable energy projects — like rooftop solar — can offer twice the jobs and more than three times the local economic impact of absentee-owned projects, because revenue from local projects stays in the local economy. Having an economic stake in energy ownership also gives citizens a sense of political ownership. Researchers in Germany found a 45 percentage-point increase in support for more local wind power when wind turbines were locally owned instead of absentee-owned.
The rooftop revolution doesn't need more subsidies, but it does need new rules.
Subsidies for solar must change before exponential growth creates exponential resistance to rising costs. This requires us to move away from fixed, one-size-fits-all incentives like the federal solar tax credit toward more flexible and transparent incentives that can phase out as solar becomes competitive in different regions.
The solar tax credit should also be replaced because it is inefficient. Indeed, as much as half of taxpayers' money goes not to solar power plants, but to the middle men who funnel it to large corporations and wealthy households.
The tax credit's inefficiency also undermines solar's greatest asset: local ownership of energy generation. Local ownership of solar could be best achieved through community institutions — cooperatives, schools or cities — but federal tax incentives are for taxable entities, not these organizations. Instead, community institutions must rely on complex partnerships with large corporations to use tax credits, with as much as half the credit used to reduce the tax liability of the private partner instead of the cost of local solar.
Policy makers could replace the inequities and inefficiencies of the tax credit with a feed-in tariff: an energy policy that allows anyone to get a long-term contract for generating electricity from solar, at a price sufficient to earn a modest return on investment (without using the tax code). Used by leading solar nations like Germany, the feed-in tariff can adjust to solar market conditions, as well as offering different contract prices in less sunny regions or places with lower grid electricity prices.
The new rules for the electricity system are needed now, because otherwise billions of dollars will be spent on the last century's power plants and power lines just as a local solar revolution supplants them.
For example, one-quarter of San Diego residents could power their homes with cost-effective solar by next year. Even in Boston, solar could cost-effectively power one-third of homes by 2020.
The current electricity system is ill-equipped for this surge in local rooftop solar — or even for the 21st century. It's a relic of the last century, when utilities located dirty coal-powered plants far from population centers, connecting them via high-voltage transmission lines to customers hundreds or thousands of miles away.
An electricity system powered by local solar is fundamentally different. Wherever the sun shines, solar panels are right at the customer's location, on a rural farm or an urban rooftop. And because solar power is modular, it lends itself to construction at a local scale.
Solar also lends itself to local ownership instead of utility conglomerates. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that locally owned renewable energy projects — like rooftop solar — can offer twice the jobs and more than three times the local economic impact of absentee-owned projects, because revenue from local projects stays in the local economy. Having an economic stake in energy ownership also gives citizens a sense of political ownership. Researchers in Germany found a 45 percentage-point increase in support for more local wind power when wind turbines were locally owned instead of absentee-owned.
The rooftop revolution doesn't need more subsidies, but it does need new rules.
Subsidies for solar must change before exponential growth creates exponential resistance to rising costs. This requires us to move away from fixed, one-size-fits-all incentives like the federal solar tax credit toward more flexible and transparent incentives that can phase out as solar becomes competitive in different regions.
The solar tax credit should also be replaced because it is inefficient. Indeed, as much as half of taxpayers' money goes not to solar power plants, but to the middle men who funnel it to large corporations and wealthy households.
The tax credit's inefficiency also undermines solar's greatest asset: local ownership of energy generation. Local ownership of solar could be best achieved through community institutions — cooperatives, schools or cities — but federal tax incentives are for taxable entities, not these organizations. Instead, community institutions must rely on complex partnerships with large corporations to use tax credits, with as much as half the credit used to reduce the tax liability of the private partner instead of the cost of local solar.
Policy makers could replace the inequities and inefficiencies of the tax credit with a feed-in tariff: an energy policy that allows anyone to get a long-term contract for generating electricity from solar, at a price sufficient to earn a modest return on investment (without using the tax code). Used by leading solar nations like Germany, the feed-in tariff can adjust to solar market conditions, as well as offering different contract prices in less sunny regions or places with lower grid electricity prices.
The new rules for the electricity system are needed now, because otherwise billions of dollars will be spent on the last century's power plants and power lines just as a local solar revolution supplants them.
2012年3月25日星期日
Students invested in school’s solar energy
Ryan Markham, a middle school student intent on saving the environment, is impressed by solar power. On his way from lunch to class, he scans a flat display monitor, seeking real-time updates about the energy produced by panels on the school roof.
"I like saving the environment. I like that we are conserving energy," said Ryan, 13, an established recycler who is now mastering a new environmental arena.
At Norwell Middle School, renewable resources are a hot topic. Students are developing personal interest in energy technologies, a curiosity triggered by their growing awareness of a flank of solar panels installed on the left wing of the school last summer. The project, which was funded by a $150,000 grant from the Department of Energy Resources, is part of a statewide clean-energy initiative.
Now a series of demonstrations, experiments, and opportunities to interact with the solar project have created excitement at the school. In classrooms, students will soon be using solar cells to power fans and lightbulbs, and an after-school science group plans to power a toy solar car.
Students will also be building miniature wind turbines and solar houses, a hands-on means of learning about alternative energy sources and climate change. All of this is creating buzz at the school, where curious young people have been gathering in front of a central hallway monitor for updates on the solar project.
"I really like to check the monitor to find out how much energy is being created and what objects can be run with it. I look at it every day," said Ryan, pointing as the screen flashed the number of hypothetical hairdryers and laptop computers powered by the day’s solar energy intake.
The school is using a solar photovoltaic module, or PV system, that converts solar radiation into electricity, an output reliant on the position and strength of the shining sun.
They track energy production, weather conditions, and the position of the sun in the sky via a popular display system, one of several learning tools supplied by Broadway Renewable Strategies, the electrical company that installed the 53.76kW photovoltaic system.
"The students like to come out and look at the monitor to see where the sun is in the sky. It gives them that perspective about where it is rising and setting," said Chris Bailey, Green Team coordinator and a science teacher at the school.
The school is learning to tap the depth of possibilities offered by this solar project, according to Bailey. She said the project offers engaging material on alternate energy cultivation, but also astronomy and global climate.
"This project is a fabulous teaching tool for so many science topics. It is also creating enthusiasm and helping students to think about alternate energy sources," said Bailey.
She said the solar project is accessible for students; they really do love the flat panel monitor with its easy-to-read graphs and weather information.
Principal Derek Sulc recently stood in front of the monitor, noting its growing popularity. "This thing right here is creating a lot of interest," he said.
"If this project encourages students to be more interested in science or do something to help the environment, it had a benefit," Sulc added.
Jessica Foster, 13, said she enjoys tracking the solar project as part of the Green Team. "We are all working together to improve the environment," she said.
The entire school was involved in a January ceremony to celebrate the solar project, which culminated with students from all grades peppering invited experts with questions about solar energy.
"The kids actually wanted to stay and ask more questions. They were invested," said Lawrence M. Hurwitz, chief executive officer of Broadway Renewable Strategies.
The project, which will reduce the school’s energy costs by about 15 percent annually, offers a "great teachable moment" about how solar power works, according to Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
"I like saving the environment. I like that we are conserving energy," said Ryan, 13, an established recycler who is now mastering a new environmental arena.
At Norwell Middle School, renewable resources are a hot topic. Students are developing personal interest in energy technologies, a curiosity triggered by their growing awareness of a flank of solar panels installed on the left wing of the school last summer. The project, which was funded by a $150,000 grant from the Department of Energy Resources, is part of a statewide clean-energy initiative.
Now a series of demonstrations, experiments, and opportunities to interact with the solar project have created excitement at the school. In classrooms, students will soon be using solar cells to power fans and lightbulbs, and an after-school science group plans to power a toy solar car.
Students will also be building miniature wind turbines and solar houses, a hands-on means of learning about alternative energy sources and climate change. All of this is creating buzz at the school, where curious young people have been gathering in front of a central hallway monitor for updates on the solar project.
"I really like to check the monitor to find out how much energy is being created and what objects can be run with it. I look at it every day," said Ryan, pointing as the screen flashed the number of hypothetical hairdryers and laptop computers powered by the day’s solar energy intake.
The school is using a solar photovoltaic module, or PV system, that converts solar radiation into electricity, an output reliant on the position and strength of the shining sun.
They track energy production, weather conditions, and the position of the sun in the sky via a popular display system, one of several learning tools supplied by Broadway Renewable Strategies, the electrical company that installed the 53.76kW photovoltaic system.
"The students like to come out and look at the monitor to see where the sun is in the sky. It gives them that perspective about where it is rising and setting," said Chris Bailey, Green Team coordinator and a science teacher at the school.
The school is learning to tap the depth of possibilities offered by this solar project, according to Bailey. She said the project offers engaging material on alternate energy cultivation, but also astronomy and global climate.
"This project is a fabulous teaching tool for so many science topics. It is also creating enthusiasm and helping students to think about alternate energy sources," said Bailey.
She said the solar project is accessible for students; they really do love the flat panel monitor with its easy-to-read graphs and weather information.
Principal Derek Sulc recently stood in front of the monitor, noting its growing popularity. "This thing right here is creating a lot of interest," he said.
"If this project encourages students to be more interested in science or do something to help the environment, it had a benefit," Sulc added.
Jessica Foster, 13, said she enjoys tracking the solar project as part of the Green Team. "We are all working together to improve the environment," she said.
The entire school was involved in a January ceremony to celebrate the solar project, which culminated with students from all grades peppering invited experts with questions about solar energy.
"The kids actually wanted to stay and ask more questions. They were invested," said Lawrence M. Hurwitz, chief executive officer of Broadway Renewable Strategies.
The project, which will reduce the school’s energy costs by about 15 percent annually, offers a "great teachable moment" about how solar power works, according to Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
2012年3月22日星期四
Saskatchewan researchers hope to build better solar cell
Materials chemist Tim Kelly moved to Saskatoon to catch some rays.
Originally from Newfoundland, the young researcher is setting up labs at the University of Saskatchewan with the aim of building a better solar cell.
Rather than designing solar cells made out of silicon - like a typical commercially available solar panel - Kelly is joining researchers who are working to develop devices that capture the sun's energy using organic compounds and polymers.
"(Crystalline silicon) makes great solar cells," he said. "They're very efficient. But making devices out of those materials is extremely energy intensive and therefore, extremely expensive. You need very high purity silicon and it's the refining and purification process that adds a lot of expense to a photovoltaic device."
The problem with existing organic solar cells so far is their underwhelming efficiency.
Lab-built silicon cells are about 25 per cent efficient, whereas researchers around the world have struggled to nudge organic cells up to the 10 per cent efficiency mark.
Kelly, who receives federal funding as a Canada Research Chair in photovoltaics, is interested in using so-called nanomaterials - tiny particles smaller than some viruses - to capture and use more of the light hitting the solar cell.
Kelly plans to use silver and gold particles, which can absorb different wavelengths of light depending on their size. That would allow the solar cell to soak up a wider spectrum of light to convert into usable energy.
Kelly's lab is also working with U of S photochemistry Prof. Ron Steer, who last month garnered a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant, also for research on solar cells. The groups intend to design cells that convert infrared light - which we feel as heat - into visible light solar cells can absorb and convert into electricity. Half of the energy that comes to Earth from the sun arrives as infrared radiation.
The solar panels Kelly builds will be small experimental ones - just a few square millimetres in size - designed to test how well the technology works.
"I'm not powering my lab on these solar cells," he quips. Scaling them up into functional solar panels will be another engineering project.
When asked if he has an interest in commercializing any successful new solar technology from his lab, Kelly said he'll "have to see how that goes."
It was more than 50 years ago researchers discovered and developed the polymers capable of conducting electricity that are now finding a use in solar cells. It underlines the importance of funding pure science with no immediately known application, he says.
"It's an interesting thought on the need for fundamental science. Sixty years ago, nobody was thinking about these materials as interesting solar cell materials. I mean, they were just doing some interesting science and studying some polymers they thought were neat."
Originally from Newfoundland, the young researcher is setting up labs at the University of Saskatchewan with the aim of building a better solar cell.
Rather than designing solar cells made out of silicon - like a typical commercially available solar panel - Kelly is joining researchers who are working to develop devices that capture the sun's energy using organic compounds and polymers.
"(Crystalline silicon) makes great solar cells," he said. "They're very efficient. But making devices out of those materials is extremely energy intensive and therefore, extremely expensive. You need very high purity silicon and it's the refining and purification process that adds a lot of expense to a photovoltaic device."
The problem with existing organic solar cells so far is their underwhelming efficiency.
Lab-built silicon cells are about 25 per cent efficient, whereas researchers around the world have struggled to nudge organic cells up to the 10 per cent efficiency mark.
Kelly, who receives federal funding as a Canada Research Chair in photovoltaics, is interested in using so-called nanomaterials - tiny particles smaller than some viruses - to capture and use more of the light hitting the solar cell.
Kelly plans to use silver and gold particles, which can absorb different wavelengths of light depending on their size. That would allow the solar cell to soak up a wider spectrum of light to convert into usable energy.
Kelly's lab is also working with U of S photochemistry Prof. Ron Steer, who last month garnered a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant, also for research on solar cells. The groups intend to design cells that convert infrared light - which we feel as heat - into visible light solar cells can absorb and convert into electricity. Half of the energy that comes to Earth from the sun arrives as infrared radiation.
The solar panels Kelly builds will be small experimental ones - just a few square millimetres in size - designed to test how well the technology works.
"I'm not powering my lab on these solar cells," he quips. Scaling them up into functional solar panels will be another engineering project.
When asked if he has an interest in commercializing any successful new solar technology from his lab, Kelly said he'll "have to see how that goes."
It was more than 50 years ago researchers discovered and developed the polymers capable of conducting electricity that are now finding a use in solar cells. It underlines the importance of funding pure science with no immediately known application, he says.
"It's an interesting thought on the need for fundamental science. Sixty years ago, nobody was thinking about these materials as interesting solar cell materials. I mean, they were just doing some interesting science and studying some polymers they thought were neat."
2012年3月21日星期三
Solar panels help power revamped King's Cross station
An ambitious 1.3m project to fit a 240kW solar glazing system to the roof of King's Cross station is nearing completion, BusinessGreen has learned.
While the station's new roof captured imaginations when it opened last week, the process of installing solar cells along two new barrel-vaulted glass roofs soaring high above the platforms and concourses is in many ways just as impressive.
The solar PV cells are integrated into 1,392 glass laminate units that form part of the 2,300 square metre glass roofing structure.
Meanwhile, progress installing the system has had to be synchronised with a huge rolling scaffold that slowly moves along the concourse as commuters pass by.
A spokesman for Sundog Energy, which is providing the solar system, told BusinessGreen the installation was further slowed by stringent safety regulations designed to address the risks associated with working over a live line.
The safety rules are so tight that items such as pens have to go up in a dedicated lift connected to the installation area in order to prevent them falling from a height above the station. "If you forget something, it's an hour to go back and get it," the spokesman said.
However, despite the installation challenges, the system is due to be completed "by the summer", when it should start to produce around 175,000 kWh of electricity per year, saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The system forms part of a major overhaul of King's Cross station, including the restoration of the original 1851 facade of the building, the renovation of the ticket hall and the main train shed roof, and the creation of a new public square in front of the station.
However, King's Cross is still lagging behind Blackfriars when it comes to solar power. Blackfriars, which reopened earlier this year after extensive modernisation, boasts a 4,400-panel array running along the roof of a railway bridge spanning the Thames. The Blackfriars array is expected to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, about half of the station's demand, as well as reduce annual CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year.
Both projects are part of Network Rail's wide-ranging green building programme, which aims to support the company's goal of reducing carbon emissions 25 per cent per passenger kilometre by the end of the decade.
While the station's new roof captured imaginations when it opened last week, the process of installing solar cells along two new barrel-vaulted glass roofs soaring high above the platforms and concourses is in many ways just as impressive.
The solar PV cells are integrated into 1,392 glass laminate units that form part of the 2,300 square metre glass roofing structure.
Meanwhile, progress installing the system has had to be synchronised with a huge rolling scaffold that slowly moves along the concourse as commuters pass by.
A spokesman for Sundog Energy, which is providing the solar system, told BusinessGreen the installation was further slowed by stringent safety regulations designed to address the risks associated with working over a live line.
The safety rules are so tight that items such as pens have to go up in a dedicated lift connected to the installation area in order to prevent them falling from a height above the station. "If you forget something, it's an hour to go back and get it," the spokesman said.
However, despite the installation challenges, the system is due to be completed "by the summer", when it should start to produce around 175,000 kWh of electricity per year, saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The system forms part of a major overhaul of King's Cross station, including the restoration of the original 1851 facade of the building, the renovation of the ticket hall and the main train shed roof, and the creation of a new public square in front of the station.
However, King's Cross is still lagging behind Blackfriars when it comes to solar power. Blackfriars, which reopened earlier this year after extensive modernisation, boasts a 4,400-panel array running along the roof of a railway bridge spanning the Thames. The Blackfriars array is expected to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, about half of the station's demand, as well as reduce annual CO2 emissions by over 500 tonnes a year.
Both projects are part of Network Rail's wide-ranging green building programme, which aims to support the company's goal of reducing carbon emissions 25 per cent per passenger kilometre by the end of the decade.
2012年3月20日星期二
The solar panel made from a particle collider
If ever there was a story at the intersection of big theoretical science and applied engineering, this is it.
CERN, the international Swiss physics lab renowned for hunting the elusive Higgs boson, smashing subatomic particles, unravelling the mysteries of antimatter, toying with faster-than-light neutrinos and so forth, has something much more pedestrian to tell the world: It has developed and commercialized a solar panel, and installed a few hundred of them on the roof of the Geneva International Airport.
But this is no ordinary solar panel. CERN built it using technology first developed for its particle colliders - in case you’ve been sleeping these last few months, CERN has been busy operating its 17-mile underground circular particle accelerator and collider to try find the Higgs boson, a sub-sub atomic particle that would help confirm what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. We won’t digress onto that.
“The panels emerged from vacuum technologies that were developed for fundamental physics purposes, and it is highly gratifying to see them put to use for renewable energy,” says CERN scientist and the panel’s inventor Cristoforo Benvenuti, in a press release.
The thin film solar panel deploys a vacuum with ”getter” strips, which CERN describes as “a material which attracts residual gas molecules like bugs to flypaper.” CERN first used getter strips in the 1980s in its Large Electron-Positron Collider, a predecessor to the Large Hadron Collider which it uses today.
In the solar panels, the strips presumably attract photons that then transform into electricity via a photovoltaic process. But CERN won’t tell me. They fobbed off that question and others I posed, referring me to their commercial partner, a Spanish company called SRB.
My journalistic instincts tell me it’s going to take a while to receive meaningful responses, so I’m posting this now, before the news gets too stale. CERN announced it on March 9.
The panels’s vacuum chamber provides excellent insulation according to the CERN press release, which says that they have maintained internal temperatures of 80 degrees C when covered in snow.
The panels make use of thin film technology rather than conventional silicon solar cells. Most solar panels in the market today are based on silicon, although some, like those from First Solar and Solar Frontier, use thin film.
I tried to get CERN to tell me what thin film material they use, but see the account of the brush-off a few paragraphs above. First Solar uses cadmium-telluride, and Solar Frontier uses copper-indium-gallium- selenide (CIGS).
None of this sounds like the sort of thing the common man could afford. In an era when solar panel prices are plunging, I can’t imagine that a “getter” stripped, vacuum-chambered solar panel could come to Main Street without a sizable bank loan.
I applaud CERN for putting its heady technology to practical use. It’s not the first time something with everyday potential has emerged from the Swiss wonderama land. Tim Berners Lee conceived the World Wide Web while at CERN.
But until I get some more answers, this one feels a little like CERN is trying to show a practical side to offset its critics who complain that it spends tons of public money on big science machines and experiments.
CERN, the international Swiss physics lab renowned for hunting the elusive Higgs boson, smashing subatomic particles, unravelling the mysteries of antimatter, toying with faster-than-light neutrinos and so forth, has something much more pedestrian to tell the world: It has developed and commercialized a solar panel, and installed a few hundred of them on the roof of the Geneva International Airport.
But this is no ordinary solar panel. CERN built it using technology first developed for its particle colliders - in case you’ve been sleeping these last few months, CERN has been busy operating its 17-mile underground circular particle accelerator and collider to try find the Higgs boson, a sub-sub atomic particle that would help confirm what’s known as the Standard Model of particle physics. We won’t digress onto that.
“The panels emerged from vacuum technologies that were developed for fundamental physics purposes, and it is highly gratifying to see them put to use for renewable energy,” says CERN scientist and the panel’s inventor Cristoforo Benvenuti, in a press release.
The thin film solar panel deploys a vacuum with ”getter” strips, which CERN describes as “a material which attracts residual gas molecules like bugs to flypaper.” CERN first used getter strips in the 1980s in its Large Electron-Positron Collider, a predecessor to the Large Hadron Collider which it uses today.
In the solar panels, the strips presumably attract photons that then transform into electricity via a photovoltaic process. But CERN won’t tell me. They fobbed off that question and others I posed, referring me to their commercial partner, a Spanish company called SRB.
My journalistic instincts tell me it’s going to take a while to receive meaningful responses, so I’m posting this now, before the news gets too stale. CERN announced it on March 9.
The panels’s vacuum chamber provides excellent insulation according to the CERN press release, which says that they have maintained internal temperatures of 80 degrees C when covered in snow.
The panels make use of thin film technology rather than conventional silicon solar cells. Most solar panels in the market today are based on silicon, although some, like those from First Solar and Solar Frontier, use thin film.
I tried to get CERN to tell me what thin film material they use, but see the account of the brush-off a few paragraphs above. First Solar uses cadmium-telluride, and Solar Frontier uses copper-indium-gallium- selenide (CIGS).
None of this sounds like the sort of thing the common man could afford. In an era when solar panel prices are plunging, I can’t imagine that a “getter” stripped, vacuum-chambered solar panel could come to Main Street without a sizable bank loan.
I applaud CERN for putting its heady technology to practical use. It’s not the first time something with everyday potential has emerged from the Swiss wonderama land. Tim Berners Lee conceived the World Wide Web while at CERN.
But until I get some more answers, this one feels a little like CERN is trying to show a practical side to offset its critics who complain that it spends tons of public money on big science machines and experiments.
2012年3月19日星期一
Is Solar Power for Data Centers a Bad Idea?
Solar power has become the hot new accessory for major data centers. In the past several years, arrays of photovoltaic solar panels have been announced for data centers from Apple, Facebook, Cisco and Emerson Network Power.
But do these solar arrays make sense, given the current economics of solar energy and the volume of power required to support a modern data center? James Hamilton of Amazon Web Services, who often presents on data center economics at industry conferences, challenges the wisdom of solar in a new blog post.
“I love solar power, but in reflecting carefully on a couple of high profile data center deployments of solar power, I’m really developing serious reservations that this is the path to reducing data center environmental impact,” Hamilton writes. “I just can’t make the math work and find myself wondering if these large solar farms are really somewhere between a bad idea and pure marketing, where the environmental impact is purely optical.”
Solar power hasn’t been widely used in data centers because it takes a very large installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to produce even a fraction of the energy required by most data centers. Some arrays, like the one at Facebook’s Oregon facility, provide power for office space rather than the servers n the data center itself. Looking at solar output data at different geographies, Hamilton says the output of these arrays – even Apple’s proposed 20 megawatt facility in North Carolina – just doesn’t add up.
While praising Facebook for its efficiency, Hamilton says the array in Prineville is “very close to purely marketing expense.” So what are the economics of solar from a marketing perspective? It’s probably not an accident that the flurry of on-site solar arrays appeared after Facebook took a public relations beating from Greenpeace, which launched a high-profile “Unfriend Dirty Coal” campaign to protest the low volume of renewables in the power sourcing for the Facebook facility in Prineville.
But seeking to appease Greenpeace with solar panels seems a foolhardy undertaking, as evidenced by the environmental group’s reaction to Apple’s announcement of its 20-megawatt solar array. Rather than praise Apple for its commitment to on-site solar for its data center, Greenpeace used the release of the “new iPad” to bash the company for relying upon coal-sourced energy from the local utility.
“Apple could apply the innovative spirit so evident in its latest iPad to its iCloud by powering it with renewable energy like wind and solar,” said Greenpeace Senior Policy Analyst Gary Cook. “Or, it could continue to lag behind the rest of the industry by sticking with coal, a 19th-century technology that poisons communities and the climate.”
Like Hamilton, Cook argues that the solar array is inconsequential given the overall energy used by Apple. “While Apple has been more than happy to draw the media’s attention to how large the solar farm is, it has kept its lips stapled firmly shut when it comes to just how much coal will still be required to power the cloud,” Cook writes in Greenpeace’s response to the Apple solar announcement.
So if the economics don’t work, and Greenpeace isn’t impressed, what’s the future for solar in the data center? When it comes to renewables at data center scale, hydro power remains the best option.
But do these solar arrays make sense, given the current economics of solar energy and the volume of power required to support a modern data center? James Hamilton of Amazon Web Services, who often presents on data center economics at industry conferences, challenges the wisdom of solar in a new blog post.
“I love solar power, but in reflecting carefully on a couple of high profile data center deployments of solar power, I’m really developing serious reservations that this is the path to reducing data center environmental impact,” Hamilton writes. “I just can’t make the math work and find myself wondering if these large solar farms are really somewhere between a bad idea and pure marketing, where the environmental impact is purely optical.”
Solar power hasn’t been widely used in data centers because it takes a very large installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to produce even a fraction of the energy required by most data centers. Some arrays, like the one at Facebook’s Oregon facility, provide power for office space rather than the servers n the data center itself. Looking at solar output data at different geographies, Hamilton says the output of these arrays – even Apple’s proposed 20 megawatt facility in North Carolina – just doesn’t add up.
While praising Facebook for its efficiency, Hamilton says the array in Prineville is “very close to purely marketing expense.” So what are the economics of solar from a marketing perspective? It’s probably not an accident that the flurry of on-site solar arrays appeared after Facebook took a public relations beating from Greenpeace, which launched a high-profile “Unfriend Dirty Coal” campaign to protest the low volume of renewables in the power sourcing for the Facebook facility in Prineville.
But seeking to appease Greenpeace with solar panels seems a foolhardy undertaking, as evidenced by the environmental group’s reaction to Apple’s announcement of its 20-megawatt solar array. Rather than praise Apple for its commitment to on-site solar for its data center, Greenpeace used the release of the “new iPad” to bash the company for relying upon coal-sourced energy from the local utility.
“Apple could apply the innovative spirit so evident in its latest iPad to its iCloud by powering it with renewable energy like wind and solar,” said Greenpeace Senior Policy Analyst Gary Cook. “Or, it could continue to lag behind the rest of the industry by sticking with coal, a 19th-century technology that poisons communities and the climate.”
Like Hamilton, Cook argues that the solar array is inconsequential given the overall energy used by Apple. “While Apple has been more than happy to draw the media’s attention to how large the solar farm is, it has kept its lips stapled firmly shut when it comes to just how much coal will still be required to power the cloud,” Cook writes in Greenpeace’s response to the Apple solar announcement.
So if the economics don’t work, and Greenpeace isn’t impressed, what’s the future for solar in the data center? When it comes to renewables at data center scale, hydro power remains the best option.
2012年3月18日星期日
Israel demolishing solar panels, depriving Palestinian of electricity
Hundreds of Palestinians will be left without electricity should Israel’s order for the demolition of 8 solar panels in the West Bank go ahead, in what many say is an attempt to drive Palestinians out of the Israeli-controlled part of the territory.
“We are suspended between heaven and earth; the solar panels were a glimmer of hope for us,” Ali Mohamed Ihrizat, the village head of Imenizil, one of the places where the solar panels are scheduled to be demolished, told Agence France-Presse.
The panels were constructed by international charities, but the Israeli authorities say they were built without permission.
Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military, has explained the decision: “Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations.”
This is just the latest standoff in Area C – a festering flashpoint of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where the battles are fought not with guns and rockets, but permits and bulldozers.
Created under the Oslo Accords in 1995, it constitutes nearly two-thirds of the West Bank, and is administered by Israel. More than 300,000 Jews live there alongside 70,000 Palestinians.
Over the past decade Israel has freely given Area C’s Jewish residents permits to build entire new “settlements,” which Israel’s critics have branded a form of colonization by stealth. In turn, Israel has routinely rejected over 90 per cent of Palestinian applications for construction and demolished nearly 2,000 Palestinian buildings in the last decade.
While the Israeli settlements are hooked up to the Israeli water and electricity grid, the Palestinian settlements have to rely on wells and generators.
“The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a ‘silent transfer’ of the Palestinian population from Area C,” claims Peace Now, an Israeli think-tank sympathetic to Palestinians.
This is where the solar panels come in. Funded by European governments, NGOs have built dozens of these devices across Area C, serving an estimated 1,500 Palestinians. Each panel costs tens of thousands of dollars.
An unnamed UN source told the Guardian that the demolition is not random. “From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley,” the source said. “Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished. There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron.”
A legal challenge by activist group Rabbis for Human Rights has temporarily frozen the demolition orders, though there are no plans as yet to cancel them.
Noam Dotan, an Israeli who heads one of the NGOs that installed the panels, says the Israeli plan is immoral and self-defeating. He told AFP, “The panels are not a security threat. It’s a positive project. What do they want? Do they want the people to be more poor? To be more violent?”
“We are suspended between heaven and earth; the solar panels were a glimmer of hope for us,” Ali Mohamed Ihrizat, the village head of Imenizil, one of the places where the solar panels are scheduled to be demolished, told Agence France-Presse.
The panels were constructed by international charities, but the Israeli authorities say they were built without permission.
Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military, has explained the decision: “Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations.”
This is just the latest standoff in Area C – a festering flashpoint of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where the battles are fought not with guns and rockets, but permits and bulldozers.
Created under the Oslo Accords in 1995, it constitutes nearly two-thirds of the West Bank, and is administered by Israel. More than 300,000 Jews live there alongside 70,000 Palestinians.
Over the past decade Israel has freely given Area C’s Jewish residents permits to build entire new “settlements,” which Israel’s critics have branded a form of colonization by stealth. In turn, Israel has routinely rejected over 90 per cent of Palestinian applications for construction and demolished nearly 2,000 Palestinian buildings in the last decade.
While the Israeli settlements are hooked up to the Israeli water and electricity grid, the Palestinian settlements have to rely on wells and generators.
“The denial of permits for Palestinians on such a large scale raises the fear that there is a specific policy by the authorities to encourage a ‘silent transfer’ of the Palestinian population from Area C,” claims Peace Now, an Israeli think-tank sympathetic to Palestinians.
This is where the solar panels come in. Funded by European governments, NGOs have built dozens of these devices across Area C, serving an estimated 1,500 Palestinians. Each panel costs tens of thousands of dollars.
An unnamed UN source told the Guardian that the demolition is not random. “From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley,” the source said. “Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished. There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron.”
A legal challenge by activist group Rabbis for Human Rights has temporarily frozen the demolition orders, though there are no plans as yet to cancel them.
Noam Dotan, an Israeli who heads one of the NGOs that installed the panels, says the Israeli plan is immoral and self-defeating. He told AFP, “The panels are not a security threat. It’s a positive project. What do they want? Do they want the people to be more poor? To be more violent?”
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