Solar Industry

The solar industry potential has been predicted for a long time

2010-12-01T04:21:00.002-08:00

The solar industry potential has been predicted for a long time. With the changing attitude of people across the globe, there are many people having the go green attitude. Also, people are widely accepting the solar energy as best alternative energy source, making the green collar qualified people lead successful career path without being affect with the global economic conditions.

There has been a constant demand of solar based jobs and even the welders, roofers, electricians, architects, general contractors and many more building professionals can get themselves trading for the solar jobs and grab the opportunity rather than struggling in the current economic career crisis. For increasing the demand of the solar industry, the companies involved in these prestigious projects want personnel who can give marketing advice, valuable advertising ideas, internet marketing strategies, business advice and people who have thorough knowledge about digital marketing and other related aspects.

As the solar field is completely different from the regular energy field, there are several courses that an explain the solar related marketing strategy, business strategy, marketing plans, marketing ideas, internet advertising strategy so that such training can help an individual to understand the intricacies of this industry.

The honorable green jobs not only give an opportunity to the technicians as well as engineers, but are also beneficial to the finance and market professionals, giving them a great opportunity in the solar job market. If people get the awareness and start participating in related solar training and solar courses offered by the private sectors and government, people can easily qualify for the green energy related jobs. There are several related courses such as photovoltaic (pv course), solar installation courses, etc. So, it is very important that you know completely about all these courses before hand.

The pv training course is also available through which a person can understand the technicalities of the solar related job and perform efficiently. Even the key leaders across the globe prefer to make huge investments in the solar energy, such kind of renewable energy training and solar energy courses will help the workers in getting back their lost jobs and that too not just any other job but a good paying one. Along with good payment, one also helps in preserving the environment and that makes it the most sought after job in the industry. The biggest component of the renewable energy courses is personal satisfaction that you will get for a job with discipline and added bonus of making an attempt to do something good and green for the whole world.

If you want to know about the training and the green career courses available, you can also do online research and you will find plenty of them. With varied possibilities and growth of solar industry day by day, the opportunities are expanding and that is making way for lots of people who wish to enter in this green world.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.solarface.co.uk where you can find out how to get into the renewable energy sector with pv training

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Copper

Solar Industry and Make a Career in This Field

2010-12-01T04:21:00.001-08:00

What are the solar industry projections for the great solar boom

2010-12-01T04:19:00.000-08:00

What are the solar industry projections for the great solar boom in the climate-energy era? As the country begins climbing out of recession, it is going to require increasing public acceptance of solar energy to get the economic engine fired up.

Solar industry projections provide that the uneven supply and demand ratio characteristic of 2009 will be balanced out this year due to strong demand in the Asian and U.S. markets. These markets will help increase the global usage to 9.3 GW in 2010. This would translate into a market value of U.S. $39 billion.

Decreasing prices in equipment and materials should open up new markets allowing for the industry to reach a United States $77 billion value with 26.4 GW of capacity in 2015.

A huge role in the growth of the solar market will be the demand for technology in China. Currently, China is the largest single manufacturer of solar products in the world but not a huge buyer of them. China will have to deploy solar technology as they have a significant impact on global warming and the energy crisis. According to most solar industry projections, China will be the largest solar market in the world in 2015.

Supply and demand will only be restored to its equilibrium once the market experiences some company failures and lowered utility rates.

Ted Sullivan, senior analyst at Lux Research and author of the new report "Solar's Shakeout: Europe Loses Leadership as China Rises", cites that solar installations will rise at an annual rate of 23% between 2010 and 2015. Yet, revenue will only grow annually by 14% due to falling solar equipment prices.

With the projection of 26.5 GW of solar deployed in the United States in 5 years (currently just over 1 GW), there is plenty of room for expansion in the solar industry. As energy prices rise in the future, demand for solar will increase dramatically, creating jobs increasing revenue of strong companies.

An organization that provides the elements necessary to launch or increase sales and revenue for solar businesses. We offer the latest innovative solar products, solar financing, leads, marketing, and business support; all the key components to starting a solar company.

Get started in the solar industry.

Consultants standing by.

Rich Hessler Solar - Solar Industry.

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Maryland Solar Industry

2010-12-01T04:18:00.000-08:00

A great stepping stone for the Maryland solar industry would be to add solar energy systems to state buildings. Well, on March 24th, 2010, just that happened. The Maryland Department of General Services announced that they would be installing photovoltaic systems on 5 of their buildings. Engaged in a 20-year power purchase agreement with SunEdison to install, finance, own and operate the five solar systems, Maryland taxpayers would not be responsible for the upfront cost of the projects. Photovoltaic arrays would also be a great addition to the Maryland renewable energy portfolio.

Another good sign for the Maryland solar industry involves the Maryland Energy Administration updating a new incentive program for the installation of mid-sized solar electric systems. In an attempt to make clean energy retrofits accessible to local businesses, the two year program would use a total of up to $1.45 million to help subsidize the cost of commercial rooftop solar projects.

Maryland businesses would qualify for a rebate of $500 per kilowatt of solar electricity installed for systems between 20 and 100 kilowatts, or a grant of up to $50,000. The Maryland Energy Administration incentive program would also cover up to 15% of a solar thermal system, or up to $25,000 per grant. Business owners should be very attracted to this offer as the economy is prime for building your own photovoltaic business from the ground up. The Maryland solar industry will undoubtedly see growth from this move.

But in the end, one blemish to the Maryland solar industry must be noted. On March 26th, BP Solar regretfully laid off 320 of their 430 employees putting a halt to all production of photovoltaic panels in their Frederick, Maryland plant.

Unfortunately, because we are still in a recession, the Maryland solar industry along with other states' markets will still see setbacks like the one previously mentioned. This might be another sad event that needs to occur for the entire green economy to move forward. Some solar companies will have to fail before we see price drops and the huge boom the solar industry seems to be waiting impatiently for.

Rich Hessler Solar
Solar Financing and Solar Marketing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Hessler

Another Great Year For the US Solar Industry

2010-12-01T04:13:00.000-08:00

While solar energy investment overall may have been down worldwide in 2009, the U.S. solar energy market continues to grow at a good clip.

2009 saw an increase in PV capacity of 38% despite the fact that the recession was still in full swing. Combining the results of both concentrating solar power and photovoltaics, solar electric capacity in the United States grew 37 percent, thanks mainly to powerful demand in the utility-scale and residential sectors.

There's much to be optimistic about in the solar energy business, and here are some facts and figures from 2009 that show why.

Gird-Tied Showing Impressive Growth

Overall, there was a 38 percent growth in grid-tied photovoltaic installations, with grid-tied residential PV doubling to 156 megawatts (MW) from 78, but non-residential showed a slower growth rate, bring 2 percent less than 2008's growth figures. The utility sector showed the most impressive grid-tied growth, tripling from 22 to 66 MW.

There were mixed results for solar thermal, with solar pool heating growth down 10 percent from 2008 and solar water heating up 10 percent over the same period. The problems affecting the housing and construction industries were said to be responsible for the decline in solar pool heating growth.

The U.S. solar thermal market is falling behind the rest of the world in growth figures, despite the fact that it has grown significantly more than in prior years. However, in the future, the market's expected to show 50 percent growth per year, most of that growth taking place in California, which is the largest part of the U.S. market.

Concentrating Solar Power On The Up-swing

Thanks in part to a development pipeline of greater than ten thousand MW, total U.S. capacity of concentrating solar power hit 432 MW, with 3 new CSP plants coming online.

Utility companies are adding more solar to their energy mix and solar is the segment showing the fastest growth, with companies planning to increase the solar segment of their mix substantially over the coming years.

More Solar Means More Solar Jobs

With the solar industry showing an overall revenue increase of 36 percent, around seventeen thousand new jobs were added to the solar industry. The total number of workers now employed in the U.S. solar industry has reached forty-six thousand, with another thirty-three thousand being employed in related sectors.

Most solar energy companies report sizable increases in employees with more jobs expected to be added in the coming year. Increases in factory jobs mean increases in jobs out in the field, such as installers and designers. This is spurred on by increased demand for solar products in the U.S.

Despite the recent economic woes and the overall downturn in the economy, the U.S. solar industry continues to grow, even if that growth is not as rapid in some sectors as in others or as significant as in prior years. Could it be that the solar industry is indeed recession-proof? Well, not quite, but the fact that it can continue to grow even in a tough economy bodes extremely well for when the economy finally gets back on track.

Grab your FREE report and click here for more information about solar energy in 2009. Ray Boreham suggests you'll find a wealth of information and tips on solar and renewable energy at http://www.all-you-need-is-solar.com

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Online Solar Courses - PV Courses

2010-07-27T13:47:00.001-07:00

In the distant past, one's occupation was rarely questioned. Men typically followed in their father's footsteps, learning a specific skill over a life-long course. Today, men and women have every opportunity imaginable at their fingertips. Although many do follow their parents' footsteps, most venture on a different occupation path. With this freedom comes the ability and desire to change careers. With the recent recession (2008-2010+), many individuals have lost their jobs and become confused about where to take their lives next.

One emerging industry, renewable energy, specifically photovoltaics, has claimed many individuals seeking a new career in a blooming industry. With a large workforce and little training/knowledge of solar has come the emergence of solar courses. These courses provide information and skills for individuals interested in transitioning into the solar industry.

Solar courses are courses focusing on training hard-working professionals from various industries to understand how solar works, install solar systems, sell PV solar systems, and research solar technology. Solar courses are extremely rewarding. They inspire individuals to protect the earth through sustainable energy resources, help homeowners manage large electricity bills, and alleviate the demand for energy.

While taking a solar course, students learn what a solar panel is, how to set up a solar system, solar-lighting options, solar-thermal water heating (pools and hot water), and more. Throughout the course, students receive hands-on training to perform tasks required upon graduation. By the end of the solar course, students are qualified in installation, construction, design, business-management, sales, or marketing.

Photovoltaic Courses are being taken by both young individuals desiring a career in solar and seasoned professionals of other fields, wanting to change career paths to a new, blooming industry.

If you are interested in photovoltaics, taking a course is typically the easiest way into the industry. Do your research online or consult an individual in the field.

Solar is a blooming industry. With energy prices destined to increase as supplies continue to diminish, photovoltaics will only become more economically feasible and demanded.

An organization that provides the elements necessary to launch or increase sales and revenue for solar businesses. We offer the latest innovative solar products, solar financing, leads, marketing, and business support; all the key components to starting a solar company.

Find out more at solar services homepage

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Has the Solar Energy Industry Sold Out?

2010-07-27T13:46:00.003-07:00

What do I mean when I ask "Has the solar energy industry sold out?"? Remember when the only time you heard the word "solar" was if an eclipse was about to happen? And the only people who knew about solar as far as using it to generate electricity were the kind of people who were regarded as slightly unusual, eccentric, latter-day hippies, etc.?

Solar energy was for the pioneers, going boldly where nobody else dared - or, more likely back then, cared! - to go, and the people involved in this fledgling industry coveted their status as pioneers, outsiders, eccentrics, etc. They also coveted the industry, the technology and everything to do with it, only grudgingly allowing outsiders into their close-knit network.

Nowadays, you can barely pick up a newspaper or watch a news programme on TV without hearing some mention, however insignificant, of the term solar energy.

Sounds Like A Sell-out

Since solar energy has become such a popular topic, it would seem that the solar energy industry is no longer the sole possession of those pioneers, and has sold those people out, becoming more popular than they could ever have wanted or imagined. And the sad news for them is that the sell-out shows no signs of abating; on the contrary, there's every reason to think it will only get worse as solar energy really takes off as concerns over greenhouse gases and global warming intensify.

So, now, instead of having a few specialized customers here and there, the solar industry now has customers everywhere - and not just in the U.s., but worldwide. Here's how bad the sell-out is - did you know that one of the world's biggest users of solar energy is Germany? See how bad it is now; here's a country where the weather in summer is like winter in a lot of places, and yet they're one of the biggest movers and shakers in solar. These solar industry people will sell to anybody these days!

Not only that, but the cost of solar equipment is getting cheaper all the time, so much so that we'll probably see solar on more roofs than not before long. Can you say "Ultimate sell-out"?

U.S. Government Adds Fuel To The Fire

We can't lay all the blame at the feet of the solar energy industry for the sell-out that's taking place in the U.S., because the government is helping taking solar from the roofs of the few and helping put it on the roofs of the many.

And just what are they doing to contribute to this mass sell-out? No less than providing rebates and tax incentives to both homeowners and businesses up to about 30% of the cost of a new solar electric system, making it affordable to many more people.

And it's not just the Federal government who are helping to increase the size of the sell-out, but the State governments are getting in on the act as well. Yes, the number of people and organizations participating in this conspiracy, for want of a better word, is growing all the time. Most States are now offering rebates as well, meaning we'll see solar on even more roofs.

Is there no end to this sell-out?

Pick Up A Panel At Your Local Hardware Store

Apparently not. If you're interested in getting your own solar power system, you can even stop by your local hardware store and pick up a few solar panels and related equipment, complete with instructions on how to set everything up.

See what I mean about a sell-out?

Now you can shave with a solar shaver; charge your cell phone or MP3 player with a solar charger; listen to music or the news on your solar radio; and then there's always the old standby, the solar calculator.

So, has the solar energy industry sold out? I'd say there's proof incontrovertible that the solar industry has sold out, I'm sure you'll agree. Wait, don't tell me you're about to become another part of this sell-out? You see, there's no stopping it!

So, why even try? Join the growing flood of people and click here and do your part to sell out to solar energy and grab your FREE report while you're at it. Ray Boreham suggests you'll find a wealth of information and tips on solar and renewable energy at http://www.all-you-need-is-solar.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_Boreham

PV Training - Get Into the Solar Industry

2010-07-27T13:46:00.001-07:00

The solar powered technologies are fast catching up with the conventional sources and looking at their popularity rising by the day, small companies have worked tirelessly to produce compact solar stations that can be installed on the roof of a house or an office. It charges a battery by collecting sunlight through solar panels called Photo voltaic cells and then produces the necessary voltage to run the appliances in the building.

While the initial cost of these PV systems may be a bit on the higher side, but their contribution in the long run is worth its weight in gold. The major advantage of renewable and green energy sources is that by installing them, you could substantially decrease you electricity bills. As a result, more homes and companies are desirous of fitting PV systems for their usage.

PV systems come with a step by step guide to installation and working guide. They are even provided with simplified diagrams to explain the whole process in a lucid manner. In spite of all the efforts made by the production companies, PV system installations can be quite hard to understand for the common population. As a result, there is a sudden spurt of demand for personnel who can install, work on and fit PV systems in residential as well as business units.

Colleges and trade schools may not have such sort term courses on PV training, but if you are interested in learning about assembly of PV systems, then the internet is the place for you. Here, you can find many online PV courses that train you on the various aspects of installation and maintenance of the photo voltaic systems. Apart from this you will also get a brief over view of measurement tools and techniques used for calculating various PV parameters like incident photon intensity, energy transfer and losses, etc.

With the diminishing fuel reserves, energy prices are ascending towards unthinkable heights. In such a scenario, PV systems can be the answer to all out domestic energy needs. The basic working is based upon the photo voltaic effect that uses panels to capture photon or light packets and turns them into electrical voltage through an interconnection of various components. This voltage is what powers our appliances and for which we pay a hefty price to the electric companies. As PV systems get more and more efficient, we will be able to use them during rainy days as well as in the harsh winter conditions. This is the future of photo voltaic systems.

Today solar courses especially on PV systems are a craze due to the attractive employment opportunities it presents to the ones taking the course. With the knowledge of installing and designing solar power cells, you can approach many companies as a green power consultant. With most professions dwindling in this recession hit time, this green profession holds its head high as it provides many with a stable employment option. Not only are you working towards a cleaner and pollution free tomorrow, but you are in effect training to get into a field that will indefinitely power homes, factories, ports and vehicles of tomorrow for a long time to come.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.domesticgreenengineer.co.uk/blog/pv-training-and-photovoltaic-pv-courses/ where you can find information on pv training

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Copper

Solar Industry Projections

2010-07-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Lithium ion battery industry to boom with wind, solar power

2009-10-23T02:27:00.000-07:00

Lithium ion batteries used as energy storage for utilities will be a $1 billion industry by 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by Pike Research called "Energy Storage Technology Markets."

Much of the lithium ion battery development has been geared toward perfecting the batteries as power sources for electronics, and in recent years, cars. But the alternative energy industry is going to benefit from that research, too. Once that happens, there will be a surge in the sales of industrial-scale lithium ion batteries for power utilities, according to Pike research.

"Utilities will be the downstream beneficiaries of innovation and investment in lithium ion batteries for the transportation sector," Pike Research analyst David Link said in a statement.

The energy storage industry in general is poised to grow as more private and public organizations embrace wind and solar energy worldwide. Because wind and solar systems provide energy in bursts and their cycles are not usually in sync with local peak energy usage hours, power storage when using wind or solar will become an obvious necessity for utilities, according to Pike Research.

Out of eleven methods of energy storage, Pike Research found that lithium ion batteries for utility use will be the fastest growing segment of the storage industry.

Sodium Sulfur (NAS) batteries and kinetic storage systems like pumped hydro and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) were seen as the next likely leading utility energy storage solutions.

In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.

Execs tour to promote local solar industry

2009-10-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

Tucson business executives spoke with journalists in New York City and Washington, D.C., during a two-day tour to promote Tucson's role in the solar industry.

The marketing mission led last week by Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. resulted in interviews with a dozen international magazines, newspapers, radio and television stations, TREO said Wednesday.

The Tucson group included TREO President and CEO Joe Snell; Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Paul Bonavia; Olaf Koester, president and CEO of Solon Corp.; and Joe Simmons, co-director of the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy.

Solar Energy Industry is Facing a Big Challenge

2009-07-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, renewable energy was not getting people's attention. But for the past two years, non-renewable energy was not steadily supplied and the oil price keep rising up. Energy issues begin to constrain national economic development. In response to high oil prices, countries around the world launched a new energy strategy, which is to seek a new driving force for economic development. Therefore, renewable energy like bio-energy, solar energy, wind energy and other new energy products are being developed by all countries. Even though the renewable energy development has a bright future, it also has to face some challenges.

The shortage of silicon is restricting the development of solar energy industry.

As the best energy in all new energy industry, solar energy is being developed by all counties.
On August 18th, Australia Queensland governor was in one solar plant in Nevada. He said they will establish cooperation relationship with Nevada. Queensland will build a solar industry park to reduce Queensland's dependence on coal-fired power generation. Not long time ago, the Israeli electricity management department pronounce: From July, People who install the solar power electricity system can sell their surplus electricity to National Grid for approx us0.6/W

It will cost about us$8,800 to in stall a solar electricity system that has 10kilowatts's generating capacity. In this way, if people sell the electricity to National Grid, they will be able to pay off the system for less than 10 years. At the same time, Israeli public authority will offer solar security systems for solar power equipment to support private solar electricity system's installation.

Samsung Economic Research Institute predict that the money in the world solar power market will increase from 15 billion us dollar in 2005 to 36.1 billion us dollar in 2010.In South Korea, the 2007 domestic solar power generation capacity is about 44 megawatts. This year, it is expected to go up to 100 megawatts. It will increase to 4000 megawatts by 2010.

But in fact, all the solar energy companies are facing tough cost challenges. Along with the rapid development of industry, silicon price is rising up crazily. According to the data, it was US 300 dollar per kilogram on 2006.But in 2007, it comes up to us 400 dollar per kilogram. With the rapid expansion of domestic energy industry, the silicon price will keep going up. The cost of solar energy panel will also be greatly raised!

Experts say that one watt electricity from solar system's cost is about 0.6 us dollar .And the fuel generation cost is less than 0.2us dollar. Since the silicon price is so high, the solar power cost will be more than 0.6 us dollar. Somebody predicted that oil price will go up to 200 U.S. dollars per barrel, and oil power generation cost will be about 0.4 us dollar. Solar power cost is still higher than the cost of fuel power generation.

In conclusion, while we are developing our economy, we should pay attention to protect our environment! Governments should support the renewable energy industry's development by all means! So that we can live on a nice earth!

For more solar information, please visit solar panels

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Denver_K

Home Solar Power - Doping Silicon to Improve Energy Production - Part 10

2009-07-22T23:37:00.002-07:00

This article details the process of how solar electric cells are mixed with specific impurities to enhance their electric efficiencies. The silicon that is doped enhances the transfer of free electrons between the silicon wafers. It all relates to chemistry and physics in many ways.

In some detail, we will also describe how a solar PV cells use photons created and distributed by the sun to create solar generated electricity. For home solar power, this is the physical process, called the photoelectric effect, makes it possible to create passive solar energy simply from sunlight.

Doping Silicon Cells to Create Home Solar Arrays

Introducing impurities, called dopants, into the silicon making up the solar cell creates the one-way flow of electrons necessary to produce electricity more efficient. Two differently doped silicon wafers are layered together to create this flow. The next section details out the dopants that are often mixed with solar grade silicon to improve efficiencies.

Boron (p-type): Boron is an element containing three electrons within it's atomic structure, unlike silicon, which has four outer electrons. So wherever boron is introduced into the lattice, a hole is created due to the absence of an electron. This hole creates a net positive charge and is filled by a neighboring electron vibrating in to fill the hole there, and leaving a new hole. These positively charged holes move about. Boron doped silicon is also called p-type, because the freely moving charge is positive.

Phosphorus (n-type): Phosphorus atoms contain five electrons rotating around their nucleus. This is one more than silicon. Wherever a phosphorus atom is introduced into the lattice, it has a complete set of 4 electrons to share with its 4 silicon neighbors and a 5th electron with no bond to fill. The fifth external electron rotating around the core of the atom bumps free of the atom and moves throughout the silicon wafers or lattice structure. So the introduction of phosphorus provides an electron that moves within the crystal lattice. This type of doped silicon is called n-type because the freely moving charge is negative.

Solar Cells, Electricity and the P-N Junction: What?

The magical flow direction needed to provide current of positive charge in one direction and negative charge in the opposite is created where these two differently doped silicon wafers are "mashed together" as a diode. The surface where the where n-type silicon meets p-type silicon is called the p/n junction.

An interesting aspect to define, the two materials each containing an opposite charge when placed side-by-side create an electric field where electrons pass back and forth. This simple structure is called a diode; an important and necessary processing step as silicon atoms are manufactured into silicon grade solar cells often used in the creation of residential solar panel arrays.

At the p-n junction, the extra phosphorus electron breaks free and wanders until it falls into a hole near a boron atom. Since the phosphorus site was electrically neutral before it lost its negative electron, the net charge around it now becomes positive. Similarly, the boron site, which was electrically neutral, now has one more electron, which makes the net charge at the site negative.

This process continues all along the region between n-type and p-type silicon, with extra phosphorus electrons crossing over to fill boron holes. Creating two areas with opposite atomic charges, this process creates two charges within the silicon PV cell. The result is a flow of electrons from one side to the other and the production of an electric current. The electric field is produced within the silicon wafers at the p-n junction of the diode.

Understanding How Solar Energy Fits into the Mix

We are at the dawn of a solar revolution in the United States. Every aspect of the solar industry is experiencing explosive growth. Currently, there is huge demand and great expansion across the solar PV cell manufacturing industry. Specifically, the production of solar grade silicon. There is added demand for solar sales personal as well as huge demand for solar installation crews with appropriate certification. Opportunities abound everywhere.

The renting of a solar energy system for your home is a new, attractive twist to the idea of switching to renewable energy. With the adoption of a leasing or rental model for residential solar electric systems, an average homeowner can now go green at home as well as build a part-time, solar energy business.

At Solargies (Solar Energies), our objective is to spread the adoption of renewable solar energy as rapidly as possible. Daniel Stouffer is writer and promoter of green energy. Learn about Renting your own Solar Energy system at: => http://www.solargies.com/Solar_Rentals.htm

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Why Are Investors Turning to Solar?

2009-07-22T23:37:00.001-07:00

In the current world climate it can be hard being an investor. With financial markets in meltdown and the huge boom in property in slowdown, investors are wondering where the best place is to not only secure their money, but also to grow it too.

There is one particular investment that promises much right now; renewable solar energy. In particular the Solar market which captures UV light (known as photovoltaic) as opposed to direct sunlight has seen huge growth in the last 3-5 years. An easy example of this technology is the strip on your calculator, which uses UV light to power up. So just why are investors excited by this sector?

Energy production price versus Oil - firstly, solar has never been popular because it has been too expensive to produce compared to the price of oil. Russell Hasan from Altenews.com, in his "research report on Solar investment: the Dawn of Solar Power", states that the breakeven point with Oil is around the $50 a barrel level, which means in today's marketplace Solar is now becoming a really viable option. Governments historically have been slow to subsidise, but a number of markets are now starting to grow dramatically.

Feed-in tariff law - Before Solar started becoming more competitive, a number of developed nations took the lead in providing subsidies for the solar industry. The 3 global market leaders are Japan, Germany and the US, with Germany in particular bringing in a law in 2004 which interested investors greatly. The Act states that any excess renewable energy that is produced must be bought back by the utilities at a set rate per Kilowatt. Solar gets a preferential rate of 47-57c/Kilowatt compared with any other source, such as wind, depending on the type of installation. As a result, it means that the owner of the solar energy generating system can create an income stream whilst also helping the environment. Similar laws are in place in other EU countries such as France, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Solar is a growth industry - the Solar Energy industry is one of the best performing industries of today. According to Solar Buzz, a solar research group:

• Demand for solar has grown at 30% annually for the last 15 years
• Solar PV installations rose by approx. 62% in 2007 compared to the previous year
• Solar prices have fallen 4% on average annually over the last 15years

The reasons for growth as many and varied and will be covered at length in a further article.

High yielding - one of the main reasons investors have started looking at solar are the high yields on offer. It is difficult to predict from each installation how much income can be generated but banks who lend to buyers are generally looking for a minimum 8-10% yield before approval. Depending on the amount of sunlight, conservatively projected gross yields in the region of 10-15% are easily achievable.

High level of financing - because these investments are so secure, as discussed below, banks are prepared to lend to a high level, particularly in Germany. Anywhere in the region of 85%-90% LTV is being offered, which when compared to the average 50% LTV on property, makes interesting reading.

Immediate income - one of the great bonuses to Solar investing is the investor can generate income pretty much straight away. In the case that rooftop space is being sourced from them, a typical installation and finance approval period is in the region of 12 to16 weeks. Therefore, provided that rooftop space is available, a return on investment begins very quickly and reassures investors as to their decision. If this is compared to off-plan property for example, the build period can be as much as 2 to 3 years, which means it takes a lot longer for investors to start generating income and see whether the investment is working or not.

Security - in an age where investors are after security of their funds as much as growth rates, solar investments can be an extremely secure way to invest your money. In Germany, solar investments come with a 20 year government contract to buy back the excess you produce, and schemes along similar lines are popping up in France, Italy, Greece, Spain to name a few. Your installation can be registered independently of the property at the local land registry so if the property changes hands, the panelling system on the roof doesn't.

Many other traditional investments are not working - Historically, shares and property have been the main investment vehicles available, and right now it seems that these routes to profit are not working.

With a lack of equity in the marketplace and the subsequent rise in commodity prices, the financial markets have become an even more volatile place to invest money. There is no doubt that huge profits can be made, particularly in the commodity sector, but the risks are far higher. In the world of property investment, there has been a huge global demand, and therefore boom for all types of investment products, from holiday homes to City buy to lets, from apart-hotels to land sub-division projects. Again there is little doubt that some of these products will pay off, but with over-supply common in many areas, returns will be seen in the long-run provided investors have chosen the right location and price point in the first place.

In conclusion then, investors will be hearing much more about solar energy as an investment vehicle in the coming months and years. It is becoming cheaper to produce and has an attractive income stream, is government and bank backed which means it is secure, and it give investors peace of mind that they are contributing to the global need for energy independence from oil and long term security. Future articles will delve into this sector in more depth to provide investors with as much useful information as possible. From there we can all decide whether this is not only the next growth sector, but also if it is one of the answers to the human race's pressing energy concerns.

Chris Davidson
http://www.discoverandinvest.com

Chris Davidson has worked in a variety of investment industries including football and in particular real estate. Over the last 10 years he has renovated properties in London and sourced city, tourist and lands subdivision projects in over 20 countries worldwide for investment clients at E-Quity.com. Chris' skills in researching, client relations and packaging means he able to find the right opportunities that the market place desires.

Chris' interest in renewable energy began 2 years ago when sourcing property projects in Italy. Solar panels were used to boost the yield of the property due to government laws. With yields down and investors struggling to generate income from property in general, Chris plans to provide information on renewable energy, and in particular solar, with a focus on why this sector will be one of the most prominent for government, business,investors and the mass population alike.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_J_Davidson

Solar House Plans For Living Off Grid

2009-07-22T23:36:00.002-07:00

The world is committing crime. Every moment of every day, we consume oil. We shed blood, and kill Earth to burn oil as energy. Why? When the same energy is attainable free from the sun! The Technology within the solar industry is here and now. It's ready to take on the largest portion of household energy requirements. The only thing preventing you from capturing your own solar energy is the cost.

Consumers generally have two priorities when installing a solar panel system. First, that the system be economical and second, that the system produce as much solar energy as possible. Some consumers have a cost-is-no-option mentality. In that case, we integrate the best current technology in the solar industry to install a solar panel system producing maximum solar energy by today's standards.

As of May 2008, an efficient solar panel system for a 2000 sq. ft. home costs $13,000 - $15,000 after tax rebates and incentives.

The solar industry is totally unorganized. In a nutshell, here are the ropes that one must jump through in order to receive rebates. Each state has their own certified systems that our able to receive the State tax rebate. Uncertified systems must go through a slow certification process.

In other words, your brand of solar panels may not be rebate worthy in another State (as if it were another country) because that brand has not yet been certified. So, in each State, every solar panel must go through a very long process to become market ready, within that particular State.

A national certification will ease these issues, enable more solar panel installations, and hence drop the price of the technology. Striking the price range of more consumers is key for the solar outfitting of the United States.

U.S. Installation Requirements. Here is the next major obstacle. A Licensed, NABCEP Licensed Contractor must install a State certified solar panel system for you to qualify for the full tax incentives and rebates offered in your community. Unfortunately, there are only 60 new North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners licenses granted annually. That needs to change to meet installation demands.

One of the NABCEP Licensed contractors in our network will guarantee quality and assurance throughout the installation of your system. We will do whatever it takes to get a NABCEP certified installer out to your project to grant you the 30% tax rebate. We will send a certified installation team to your region within six months of your request.

Currently, solar panel installation/distribution companies can operate in California and achieve something remarkable. The phenomenon of selling solar panels at higher retail prices than any other state sells solar panels. But due to the state rebates, Californians pay thousands less for their solar panel systems.

This has caused a clot of solar businesses in the state of California, meanwhile the rest of the country is starving for licensed NABCEP solar contractors and solar panel system distributors to start the grass roots effect in the other 49 states. The demand exists.

How Do Solar Panel (Photovoltaic) Systems Work? A photovoltaic (PV) or solar cell is the basic building block of a Solar Panel (or solar electric) system. An individual PV cell is usually quite small, typically producing about 1 or 2 watts of power. To boost the power output of PV cells, we connect them together to form larger units called modules. Modules, in turn, can be connected to form even larger units called arrays or Solar Panel Systems. In this way, we can build systems able to meet any electric power need, no matter how small or large.

Almost all of today's solar cell modules do not concentrate sunlight but use only what the sun produces naturally, what researchers call "one sun isolation," which achieves an efficiency of 12 to 18 percent. However, by using an optical concentrator, sunlight intensity can be increased, squeezing more electricity out of a single solar cell.

Solar Panel Distribution. As a distributor for several major solar panel manufacturers, we are able to offer our clients the best possible solar panel system solution economically and technologically. We will give you system options based on your economical needs or technological needs for those who desire the best most efficient "cost-is-no-option" system for your home or business.

The solar industry has been unforgiving for many solar panel distribution/installation businesses for the past ten years. With constant technological advancements and a rapid price drop in the solar panel industry, businesses have been caught between a rock, and a hard place owning pallets of out-of-date, over priced, solar panels.

We have found the solution to that problem by collaborating with manufacturers that enable per-job distribution. Many of these manufacturers have research and development laboratories capable of producing new solar panels with higher wattage and module efficiency every few months.

It is crucial that the best possible solar panel system be installed in your home or business for either economic or technological reasons. Consumers generally have two priorities when installing a solar panel system. First, that the system be economical and second, that the system produce as much solar energy as possible. Some consumers have a cost-is-no-option mentality. In that case, we integrate the best current technology in the solar industry to install a solar panel system producing maximum solar energy by today's standards.

Shane Burke is the founder of Solar Panels and Installation. A site offering solar house plans for living off grid. Please visit Solar Panels and Installation

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shane_Burke

China Jumps Into The Solar Industry

2009-07-22T23:36:00.001-07:00

China is growing economically in leaps and bounds, which means it needs energy. Jumping into the solar power industry, it is both producing systems cheaply and using them.

The solar panel industry in China shows promise of huge expansion. China's solar panel industry has steadily shown 25 percent growth in the number of products exported over the past ten years, and this shows no sign of slowing down. Because of its low-cost manufacturing capabilities and the fact that demand for solar power within China itself is beginning to grow, the industry within China has great potential.

Both crystalline and amorphous solar panels are produced in China. The crystalline panels make up 90 percent of China’s total output. Amorphous panels are relatively new, but are growing in production because they cost less to make than the crystalline panels.

China has an enormous amount of manufacturing capability coming up in the next few years. This manufacturing is lower cost than other places for several reasons, including the fact that Chinese workers make an average of $200 per month, and all of the items necessary for making solar panels are now available domestically, with production of those growing as well. Additionally, the cost of doing business in China is much lower. They pay less administrative costs, research and development, peripheral costs, etc, than more developed countries. The machinery necessary for manufacturing solar panels is also being developed domestically, providing much less expensive equipment than could be gotten overseas. Because labor costs are so low, the Chinese assembly lines tend to be much more labor intensive with fewer machines.

The bottleneck in China’s solar panel production is the same as everywhere else– polysilicon. Although domestic production is growing it will not be enough to address future needs of the solar industry. Chinese producers use a combination of scrap and virgin polysilicon for solar cell production, which lowers cost. Low labor costs allow the viability of hand sorting of silicon wafers that are broken or recycled. Chinese firms are stockpiling polysilicon now to ensure lower costs as polysilicon prices keep increasing.

The Chinese government initiated programs extensively increase the amount of solar power used in the country, which will probably only benefit domestic suppliers and those foreign countries that are allied with them. The government intends to bring power to extreme rural areas, which are currently off the grid, with renewable energy systems. Areas of China such as Western China are ideal for solar power as it averages 9 to 11 hours of sun per day. Investment in the Chinese solar panel industry is a hot ticket.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - learn more about solar panels.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Chapo

Solar Rebates

2009-07-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

American’s love rebates. Whether rebates are offered on computers, software, cars or whatever, we snatch them up. If your considering going solar, you’ll be happy to hear rebates are available.

Solar Rebates

As most people know, a rebate is a give back by a company in exchange for the purchase of their product. Rebates usually come in the form of money if you send in a coupon, but can also come in the form of upgrades and add-ons.

The solar technology industry is so thick with rebate programs it is hard to see the forest for the trees. You can expect to find rebates being issued by the manufacturer of a product, the federal government, your state government and possibly even your country and town or city. In many locations, the local utility company may also give you a rebate on your bill for going solar. No other source or product line has as many rebates as the solar industry. Why? Because solar represents one of the cleanest and cheapest energy sources in our country. The powers that be want to promote it for monetary and environmental reasons, not to mention providing some relief to our overtaxed national electric grid system.

Buy down rebates are the most voluminous in the solar industry. With a buy down, a government agency will pay for a percentage of the solar platform you purchase. The specific amount of the buy down depends on factors such as what the platform is used for and the amount of electricity it produces. Trust me, your local solar vendor will be able to tell you in detail about the rebate since it is a good sales technique.

When investigating rebates for your solar purchase, it is important that you don’t stop at the first program. If a state has one rebate program, it will often have as many as eight others. You can often qualify for three of four, which can cut your initial costs by as much as fifty percent.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on solar power and renewable energy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Chapo

Homemade Solar Power - Understanding the Science of Solar Cells

2009-01-07T17:04:00.002-08:00

One of the main components of a homemade solar power system is the solar cells. In order for us to harness the power of the sun and convert it into usable electricity, we need to construct a solar array. To use solar power for homes, the solar array is usually installed on the roof to maximize exposure to sun light. How does a solar cell convert sun light to electric current? This article will provide some basic information on the science behind solar cell.

A solar cell is also known as Photovoltaic or PV for short. PV can be considered as a Direct Current (DC) generator where the main source of power is the sun. The key to generate potential electric energy is in its electron. When light photons of sufficient energy strike a solar cell, they knock the electrons free in the silicon crystal structure. The free electrons are forced through an external circuit such as a battery, inverter or direct DC load. After passing the load, the electrons will then return to the solar cell to start the process all over again. The voltage output from a single crystalline solar cell is about 0.5V with an amperage output that is directly proportional to the cell's surface area. In general, you will be able to generate approximately 7ampere of current for a 6 inch square multi-crystalline solar cell.

Typically, a homemade solar power module is made from 30 to 36 cells wired in series. The solar module setup will produce a 12 Volt nominal output or approximately 17 Volt at peak power. Depending on the power requirement of the house, the Photovoltaic can be wired in series or parallel with other solar modules to form a complete solar array.

Want to know how you can build your own Home Solar Panels to reduce your electricity bill for under $300? If you are good with hand tools, start a Do It Yourself (DIY) project to construct a residential solar array to harness free energy from the sun. What you will need is a step by step guide. Get a comprehensive Solar Power For Homes guide review at http://www.diysolarenergy.info/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_J._Maxwell

Solar Power is the Future

2009-01-07T17:04:00.001-08:00

Solar power is something you hear a lot of these days.

What is solar power?

Solar power refers to the converting of solar energy into electricity.

How can it be stored so that it can be used at night?

Sunlight shines on solar panels, that transform the light into DC electricity. The electricity is then converted to AC power. You use this in your home during the day or stored in a thermal storage system, to used at night.

The advantages of solar energy is the savings of money and energy.

Facts about Solar Energy

Solar energy is derived from the radiations from our sun. It is potentially the future primary source of power for mankind. There is an abundance of energy radiating from the sun and there is no shortage of it, therefore the cost of solar power in itself is virtually free. It is totally pollution free and Eco-friendly and helps the global warming problem because there are no greenhouse gasses. Solar power is truly a renewable source of energy that can be used for a many different electrical needs. Solar power can be used in just about any situation where electricity or heating is required.

Everyday Uses:

* Residential solar power systems
* Solar heating systems
* Solar hot water
* Solar lighting
* Solar power generators

Solar power technology is a cheap and reliable source of electricity.

Some Interesting Information:

The amount of sunlight which reaches the earth's surface in one hour is greater than what the total of the earth's population can use in one year. Approximately two billion people are without electricity at the moment in the world. Americans account for only 5% of the world's population, but amazingly they consume 26% of the earth's energy. Solar power technology is a cheap and reliable source of electricity. So I think we can safely say solar energy in one form or another is here to stay in our future.

Solar power technology is a cheap and reliable source of electricity. So I think we can safely say solar energy in one form or another is here to stay in our future. For more information http://www.squidoo.com/Creating-Electricity-In-Your-Backyard

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=C_Crates

How to Make a Solar Power Generator?

2009-01-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

The rising cost of electricity and gas has thrown light on utilization of solar power at homes and offices. The basic strategy to make a solar power generator is to use a battery to store solar energy. You can charge this battery when solar power is available and then use the stored charge to run your appliances.

You need to charge the battery for a few hours everyday if you are interested in continuous usage. These solar power generators are handy and you can take them wherever you go. Without waiting for electric power, you can operate your appliances because you have sun all the time.

To make a solar power generator, you need to invest in a few goods that are generally available in the nearby retail stores. Car spare parts supplier can also help you get the things that you want. Solar panel is an essential item that can convert solar power to electric power. Battery is required for storing electric power to be used by the appliances.

Car batteries will not help you because you need deep cycle battery. Dc voltmeter and DC inputs are required to supply power to your appliances. The current that you get from a battery is DC but if you want to run AC appliances, then buy an inverter. A simple how to make a solar power generator guide will help you to establish connections to utilize solar power.

Depending on the amount of money you have for solar power generator, you can get power for a single appliance to up to an entire office.

Many people save money on electricity by using solar energy. Power your house with solar energy and build your own solar power generator with less than 200$. Best and unique guide reviewed.

Best guide to start using solar energy and make your own solar power generator.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Peterson

Solar panels in German shades.

2008-10-02T21:47:00.001-07:00

Mar 04, 2007 (The Age - ABIX via COMTEX) -- Australia needs to encourage the use of solar power. Mark Twidell, of BP Solar, says the greatest benefit of solar power is that it can meet peak load demand, which is growing at a greater rate than base demand. Only about 25,000 Australian households have solar panels. Twidell says growth is being hindered by the low tariff paid for power fed into the electricity grid. He says Germany has much greater ...

Solar panels are hot for the stealing

2008-10-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

They turn the sun's rays into usable electricity, with proponents calling it an environmentally friendly alternative that saves money on utilities.

But the growing number of solar panels being installed on roofs of government buildings, private businesses and homes are becoming a hot commodity in a way many say they didn't expect.

East Bay law enforcement has been seeing a number of solar panel thefts. One industry expert said it was an uncommon crime, but there was a brief spree of thefts six weeks ago throughout the Bay Area.

"The solar panel thing is pretty new," said Contra Costa County Sherriff's Office spokesman Jimmy Lee of the thefts. "We're seeing an increasing number of cases." In July, a sheriff's deputy found a Pittsburg man with solar panels stolen from the Pleasanton school district over the summer.

In that case, 39 two-foot-by-four-foot solar panels worth about $800 each were stolen from Hearst Elementary school in mid-June shortly after the end of the school year, said school district spokeswoman Myla Grasso.

She said it's unknown when the theft happened or if the panels were taken at different times. Employees learned of it after finding parts left on the ground.

"We were surprised," Grasso said. She said the district has had wire and other theft from school sites, but had not expected someone would get on the roof and steal the panels.

The district has the panels at nine schools, most installed last year. The panels that were stolen had only been there a few months. They district is taking steps to make them more secure.

Lee said the suspect, Michael Grande, 28, of Pittsburg, is believed to have been selling the stolen panels on craigslist.com. On July 1 a deputy driving on First Avenue in Pacheco happened to see a transaction at a storage facility and thought it was suspicious. Nineteen panels were confiscated, but Grande was not taken into custody. Lee said after learning the panels were stolen, authorities are seeking a possession of stolen property charge against Grande, who by then had been arrested and was in custody on a separate matter.

Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, said about six weeks ago there was a spate of several thefts throughout the Bay Area, including San Jose, Santa Rosa and Sonoma.

"I wouldn't say it's pervasive, but it's something going on," she said.

Kateley said she believed the thieves knew how the panels worked because they would have to be sold for reuse, as there is no value in them as scrap.

She said someone who doesn't know how to properly disassemble it could permanently disable it. She also said in many cases the remaining panels were also rewired so that someone checking the performance would not notice the missing ones.

"You got to have skills," she said, adding that the industry is working on ways to make them more secure.

Kateley said there is a worldwide demand for panels, and some speculate an installer is using them on their jobs. Federal tax credits end at the end of 2008. She said, however, state rebates require serial numbers, and inspectors check to make sure the panels are new before they're approved to be connected. She said another possibility is that they're being used by marijuana growers.

Other thefts include St. Anselm's Episcopal Church in Lafayette, which was hit twice in the spring. Doug Merrill, a parishioner in charge of the project, said six of their 42 panels were taken at the end of April.

Some church members stayed at the church overnight, and they also left on flood lights. But the thieves were undeterred and returned in May to steal seven more panels.

"They have to go through some trouble," Merrill said of the thieves. He said the church's electrical bill has dropped from between $3,500 and $4,000 a year to about $300, but church officials never expected someone to steal them. "But it turns out this is a common problem."

Also in Lafayette a couple weeks ago, a resident on Deer Hill Road in Lafayette came home during the day to find three men on the roof of his house and five solar panels in a stolen U-Haul truck, said Lafayette Police Chief Michael Hubbard. The men ran, leaving the panels, truck and other items, and police have some leads.

"This was a new one for me," Hubbard said of such thefts.

Lee, of the sheriff's office, urged those who own such panels to document serial numbers, and for others to call police if they see something suspicious, such as people removing panels from a neighbor's house. He has heard of cases in Concord and Vallejo.

"It's simple mathematics," Lee said of the thefts. "There's money to be made."

Reach Eric Louie at 925-847-2123 or elouie@bayareanewsgroup.com.

c2008 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Solar Deck Lights - 4 Disadvantages to Using Solar Deck Lighting

2008-09-25T22:15:00.001-07:00

How do you make an enlightened choice regarding which type of lighting is best to use? How do you know if you would be better off using Solar Deck Lights or Electric Deck Lights?

A good way to start is to find out what are the advantages and disadvantages of using solar lighting for your deck or patio. If you search the available topics, I know you will be able to find an article that is similar to this one only identifying the advantages of solar deck lighting and not the disadvantages of them.

The Disadvantages of Solar Deck Lights...

1. Does not operate after dark- In order to use Solar Deck Lights after dark, your lights must have some sort of storage container to store the power that it collected from the sunlight of the day.
2. Cost- There is a rather large start up cost of using solar deck lighting
3. Solar Panels will not work on cloudy days or in bad weather.
4. Solar Panels can be damaged in storms or buy hail.

When it comes to using Solar Deck Lights, there are a number of advantages and a number of disadvantages. The secret to making an enlightened and informed decision on whether or not Solar Deck Lights are the right option for you, you must seriously weigh the pros and cons of using them and decide which ones are of the most important to you. See if your initial cost to install and purchase the lights and solar panels is worth the savings you will have using a free source of energy.

Whether you decide that the Solar Deck Lights are a good decision and you are going to buy them, or that they are not right for you, at least you know the information you have aided in your decision.

Looking for Solar Deck Lights - or Sun Powered Deck Lighting Then visit our website!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Sight

Solar Power Kits in a Wink With Less Than 200$ - Save 80% on Your Electricity Bills

2008-09-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Solar power is now easily available for everyone through the power of do-it-yourself (DIY) solar power kits. These DIY solar power kits are made available for everyone who avoids spending a great deal of money for ready-made solar power systems. Finished solar energy systems are usually costly and require a great fortune. The DIY solar power kits are the answer for people who desire an effective power source yet with minimum cost.

If you choose to pursue a DIY home solar power kit, it is important and recommended for you to consider grabbing a guide to help you in realizing an effective and reliable solar power system. Usually these kits provide the guide but you can also opt for other references for it may make your work easier.

Solar power as a renewable energy source is now widely used since is one of the most convenient, the cheapest and considered the most efficient when it comes to energy sources. In addition to its efficiency and cost-effective factors, using the solar energy source promotes conservation of energy and it will contribute in saving the environment since it is a clean way of producing energy.

As mentioned, tapping and maximizing solar energy is now possible with homemade DIY home solar power kits. You can now make your own solar energy system without worrying about spending too much money. You can now avail the luxury of electricity with minimum cost and you can live up to a greener and cleaner environment through conserving energy.Make your own home solar power system and make a difference.

Do you want to build your own solar power kit with less than 200$ with step-by-step instructions Best guides reviewed.

Save 80% on electricity bills starting from tomorrow.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Peterson

Solar Panel Pool Heating Systems

2008-08-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

We have done extensive research on Solar Panels and companies installing Solar Water Heating Systems Solar energy firms provide installation solutions for solar hot water that produce hot water from the suns natural resources by utilising a solar panel installed on the roof of your property. There is a lot of confusion in the market as to which are the best solar panel systems to buy for a swimming pool in the UK; that will operate throughout winter as well as the hot summer months.

Solar pool heating works from having solar collectors heat a fluid that is then pumped via a pressurised system into a heat exchanger. A swimming pool heater already goes through a heat exchanger. All a solar system does is have an extra heating exchanger on the feed before you current swimming pool heater. There fore what the solar system's providing is pre heated water going through your existing pool heating system. Because the water is going through at a higher temperature your boiler uses less energy heating the pool water up.

There are limited professional Solar Panel Heating companies at the moment providing reliable solar systems that work well in the uk climate. The UK Solar Panel market is untapped increasing high demand on reliable plumbing and heating engineers. Solar energy companies have got to invest in training heating engineers to install solar panels to meeting the building regulations which are stricter than the rest of Europe. If you are having a solar heating system or solar pool system installed by a company it is advised to choose a reputable established installer.

Lee Croucher researcher of new products in home improvement Solar Panel Pool Heating Systems market and become a expert in the solar panel field consulting companies how to install them efficiently. For good advice on Solar Panel Pool Heating

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Croucher

The Solar Energy Industry Grew 67% Last Year: Are You Making the Best Decision for Your Future?

2008-08-22T03:02:00.002-07:00

Are you considering using renewable energy resources to heat water or generate electricity?

Would you like to be independent from the grid?

Do you want to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions you and your family produce?

Great! You are not alone in your quest.

The demand for solar power energy is growing. Rapidly!
As the world's fastest growing energy source, statistics show 40% growth in 2002 and a whopping 67% in 2004.
Millions of people are making better choices for themselves, the environment and in turn the future of their children.

You can be one of them by installing a Solar Energy hot water or electric system. It will be one of the best choices you've ever made. You can even make a difference to the environment by purchasing solar energy products such as solar yard lights or solar pool covers. Imagine showing off your new solar fountain at your next dinner party or a few solar pool lights floating in your pool.

Find out more about Solar Energy from facts-about-solar-energy.com/

You'll discover ...

* what solar energy is
* how solar energy works
* advantages and disadvantages of solar power
* interesting facts about solar energy
* how much solar energy costs, and
* how to build solar energy systems

You can even get a FREE No Obligation quote from a professional in your area (USA only).

Simply complete the form by clicking HERE.

Visit http://facts-about-solar-energy.com/ today.

Please email any questions to info@facts-about-solar-energy.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anita_Van_Wyk

Solar Cells: the Foundation of Solar Energy

2008-08-22T03:02:00.001-07:00

Solar cells are the carriers of the power charge in the material that absorbs sunlight, in many kinds of solar power generators. Solar cells are also responsible for the separation of the generated solar charge carriers into the actual transfer contact. This contact will generate the transmission of electricity. There are no kinds of solar power or solar energy generating devices that can function without solar cells.

The change between solar cells or solar apparatuses using solar cells is called the “photovoltaic effect” in the scientific community. This is because solar cells are called “photovoltaic” cells in the scientific community as well. Many people have worked very hard to improve the technology of solar heat and power collecting devices. The research and development of the many different solar energy collecting apparatuses is skyrocketing by means of hard work and better resources than we have seen in a long time.

However, solar cells and the use of them is not something new. Historical fact shows that solar cells, or photovoltaic cells, are actually a very common in historical situations – especially in extremely remote areas.

The many uses of solar cells include satellites that orbit the Earth, and have even been used in things such as wristwatches and cellular phones and other photovoltaic devices. As the technology on the market increases with items such as i-pods, mp3 players, computers and laptops the size of your hand, solar cells play more and more of a role in our world overall. The best part is that we, that is, the technological industry, have begun to increasingly utilize the solar cell devices that will help protect and preserve our environment.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and sports. Her background includes home decor and gardening. For more of her articles on solar energy, please visit Solar Home.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Clarke

Solar Lights Not Only For Gardens

2008-08-22T03:02:00.000-07:00

Indoor Solar Lighting

Some good ideas for indoor solar lighting include using it inside your home, sheds, garage etc... Setting up a solar light is easy and maintenance and running costs are very low.
The solar panel which collects the sun's energy needs to be placed outside in order o receive maximum sunlight. Once the battery is charged, you can enjoy your solar light system all night long. You will have to find a solar panel that you can easily install on the top of your building or in the garden. Once the indoor light fixtures, solar charger and batteries are installed, lighting will be available at any time.

Outdoor Solar Lighting

Different types of outdoor lights use solar energy. You can find for example solar pool lights, solar garden lights, solar post lights, solar flag lights and other. If you are lucky enough to have a swimming pool or a pond in your garden, adding lighting using solar technology is very easy and safe. Everyone desires a well maintained and eye-catching garden and now by using solar energy you can illuminate your landscape the easy way. If you have a flag in your garden, you can only see it during the day. By adding a solar flag light your flag will be visible at all times. If your garden is too dark at night you can invest in some solar spot lights that will turn on automatically every night. You can also use solar path lights to delineate stairs and pathways.

Solar lights are not dim like in the past; thanks to ultra bright LEDs (Led Emitting Diodes) modern solar lights are powerful enough to provide decent lighting for almost all situations. Nowadays, outdoor solar lighting applications range from lighting gardens to lighting streets. Investing in solar lights can be a cost-effective and convenient option.

Armand Hadife is the owner of
http://www.outdoor-solar- lights.com
http://www.home-solar-systems.com
http://www.wind-power-generator.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Armand_Hadife

RenewableEnergyStocks.com(TM) Receives Registered US Trademark for "Online Energy Industry Information in the Field of Renewable and Alternative Energ

2008-02-15T03:16:00.000-08:00

www.RenewableEnergyStocks.com (TM), a leading investor and industry portal for the renewable and alternative energy sector has received US registration June 13, 2006, for the Trade Mark for RenewableEnergyStocks.com(TM); registration number 3103195. RenewableEnergyStocks.com(TM) is a content provider and aggregator with a blend of original articles, interviews, blogs and stock directory in combination with industry resources, news feeds, links and third party content partners.

The Trade Mark was issued for: Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Providing online energy industry information in the field of renewable and alternative energy, namely biogas, ethanol, biomass, flywheel, geothermal, microturbine, solar, solar photovoltaics, sustainable and electric transportation, wind power, wind energy, wave energy and energy efficiency"Years of building our industry positioning are now paying off as mainstream investors and industry are all looking at renewable and alternative energy sources as a high priority solution to oil as prices hover around $70 a barrel. Our Trade Mark enhances and strengthens our positioning on a long term basis," commented founder Dawn Van Zant.

About our Portals:

www.RenewableEnergyStocks.com (TM) (RES), www.EnvironmentStocks.com (ES) are portals within the InvestorIdeas.com(TM) content umbrella. Our sites do not make recommendations, but offer investors research, news, interviews, articles, blogs and links to public companies within the renewable energy, clean tech and fuel cell sectors.
For our list of Renewable Energy Stocks: http://www.renewableenergystocks.com/Companies/RenewableEnergy/Stock_List.asp

Featured Renewable Energy Portal Sponsors: (RES is compensated by: Alchemy Enterprises, Encore Clean Energy, Hydrogen Power International Inc., XsunX Inc., Smartcool Systems and Vitasti Inc. as disclosed in disclaimer)

The Ultimate Green Tech Investor Virtual Stock Trading Contest (June 19th - August 18th)

Register now for a chance to win a ZAP® www.zapworld.com electric car or electric scooter as well as gain a valuable education on green technology over the course of this summer's virtual trading competition.

Current sponsors and prizes include a ZAP® (NYSE: ZP) www.zapworld.com Electric Car, and Electric Scooter, plus prizes from MicrocapTrade www.MicrocapTrade.com , Energy Hedge Fund Center LLC www.energyhedgefunds.com and eco friendly children's products, Wild Heart Ranch www.WildHeartRanch.com

To Register: http://www.greentechinvestor.com/sign_up.aspx

List of Green Stocks: http://www.greentechinvestor.com/stock_list.aspx

Disclaimer: Portals are compensated by Featured advertising companies as disclosed in disclaimer below

Disclaimer: www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Our sites do not make recommendations, but offer information portals to research news, articles, stock lists and recent research. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. We attempt to research thoroughly, but we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of information presented. All Information relating to featured companies is sourced from public documents and/or the company and/or IR firm and is not the opinion of our web sites. These sites are currently compensated for by its "featured companies" http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp . InvestorIdeas.com(TM) and all portals within the content portfolio are owned by ECON Corporate Services, Inc. and all Registered Trade Marks are the property of ECON including InvestorIdeas.com(TM) and RenewableEnergyStocks.com(TM).

Creativity

2008-02-15T03:14:00.000-08:00

READERS WERE asked to consider how hypothetical Sun-dwellers might react to the total eclipse of the Earth, due to occur tomorrow.

Mike Gifford's spies tell him that Sun-dwellers have been paying exorbitant prices to rent a coveted seat on the Corona walls.

Flares are still in among the bright young things, our fashion correspondent James A. Kelly informs me, and popular opinion is that the Martians must have taken over and imposed a news black-out As the solar press saw it: "Great Scorch! Peekaboo Earthy!" (Michael Rubinstein). "All Earth-creatures have now left and the last one to go turned out the light" (F.E. Card) "Sun phone-lines were jammed today by irate viewers as all transmissions of EastEnders were blacked out." (Martin Brown). "Solar invasion fleet catches Earthlings on hop as Moon makes fleet's imminent arrival invisible" (Jane Reeves). "Just another manic Moonday!" (Peter Thomas).

R.J. Pickles envisages small Druid gatherings to celebrate the Earthstice and widespread alarm that the eclipse means that the Sun is going to come to an end. Mark Winters thinks that the footballer Sol Campbell is a solar sect's God and that his sudden disappearance would precipitate mass suicides by his forsaken followers. Clair Hubble reckons that solar cows and sheep would struggle to their feet, after years of lying down, and the event be declared a miracle. Bruce Birchall thinks Solileo Solilei would cite the existence of a Moon circling the planet Earth as evidence that the ancient astronomers had got it wrong - everything did not go round the Sun as they claimed. Olga Martin supposes the Sun to be twinned with Sun City, South Africa, and municipal receptions being held to celebrate cultural exchanges between the two. And Vari Mackay reckons that it's a triple-headed, fire-breathing dragon, waking up from hibernation and chasing the Earth across the sky.

F.E. Card, R.J. Pickles and Jane Reeves win a copy of Chambers Dictionary of Quotations apiece.

Would-be entrants to the World Creative Thinking Championship at the Mind Sports Olympiad at Olympia on Sunday 22 August can obtain entry forms (also for backgammon, bridge, chess, crosswords, draughts, go, Othello, Scrabble, etc) by calling 01707-659080 or e- mailing dlevy@intelligent group.com or writing to MSO, PO Box 13388, London NW3 5FB.

Howls of "another Poll Tax" have greeted the announcement of digital TV licences. Suggestions for other ill-conceived and unpopular taxes that a foolish government, determined to shoot itself in the foot, might yet levy, that would make Pitt's window tax seem positively enlightened, to: Creativity, Features, The Independent, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DL, or e-mail to Loki.Valhalla@btinternet.com by 19 August. Results and three more Chambers' prizes to be announced on 24 August. Next week: Happiness is...?

Solar Night Industries and Modern Energy Plan Featured on Green Options

2008-02-14T03:25:00.000-08:00

Solar Night Industries (PINKSHEETS: SLND), a renewable energy company formed to accelerate the adoption of Modern Energy Solutions, was featured recently in an article on Green Options. The full article can be viewed at http://sustainablog.org/2007/12/05/solar-night-industries-launches-modern-energy-plan-web-aSenior Editor for Green Options, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, explained the Modern Energy Plan, "Because renewable adoption is still in a relatively early phase, information is key to bringing these technologies into the mainstream. SNI created a simple, elegant option for providing that necessary information. Take a look at the sample plan they provide, and, if you're seriously considering renewables for your home or business, give the system a spin. I know other tools like these are on the horizon, and a healthy competitive environment will exist in this space shortly. At the same time, I think SNI's set a high bar for competitors." The sample plan can be accessed at: ( https://system.netsuite.com/c.474300/MEP_Sample_Residential.pdf ).

About Solar Night Industries, Inc.

Solar Night Industries, Inc. is a national Modern Energy Company that enables residential and commercial energy users to implement cost-effective, renewable energy solutions that help them reduce their dependence on traditional energy sources, reducing Co2 emissions. Solar Night Industries, Inc. is based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA). For more information, please visit http://www.SolarNightIndustries.com
Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made in reliance upon the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from the statements expressed or implied herein due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to: the development of Solar Night Industries' solar cell technology and solar solutions ability to secure additional financing, the successful marketing and distribution of Solar Night Industries' products market acceptance of Solar Night Industries' products and technology, competition and timing of projects and trends in the solar industry, as well as other factors. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made only as of the date of this press release, and Solar Night Industries undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Researchers investigate hydrogen production through solar energy

2008-02-14T03:24:00.000-08:00

With over 300 days of sunshine per year, Nevada could become a center for the generation of hydrogen through solar energy, according to researchers at the University of Nevada.

A team of researchers, headed by Professor Manoranjan Misra, is developing a small-scale hydrogen generation system that uses applied ultrasonic waves to create hydrogen from water.

"We are currently using simulated solar light in the lab," Misra said. "We are finding our system to be a good and robust way to facilitate the movement of electrons by the incident light to produce hydrogen from water."

Solar Roof Vent

2008-02-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

In today’s society, homeowners are struggling to make ends meet. With electric rates always on the increase, homeowners are hesitant to use any more electricity that is needed. They turn off air conditioners, and even their roof vents. Experts advise that by doing this, they are at risk for even costlier repair.

Solar power is an option that more and more homeowners are tuning to. It has come a long way in recent decades. New technology has brought forth new developments in the industry of solar power. One of these developments is solar roof vents.

A solar roof vent is very simply an attic fan that is runs on solar energy instead of electricity. A solar roof vent has a fan that is powered by the sun to remove heat and moisture from attics.

A solar roof vent can save the homeowner money in a number of different ways. First, more solar energy is stored than the solar roof vent uses because the roof is always in direct sunlight. Special collectors are placed on the roof on either side of the solar roof vent.

A solar roof vent is more efficient than an electric vent because it is working continuously. With electric, the temperature has to reach a certain degree before it starts. Over time, this can damage your home resulting in possibly thousands of dollars in repairs.

There is a charge for electricity every time it starts. It can add up to $30 a month on your electric bill. When you look at your yearly usage rate, you will find that your energy consumption is higher than what it should be.

Over time, using this an electric roof vent could damage the shingles on your roof. Whereas a solar roof vent works continuously to keep your attic cool and there are no charges at all.

Because it is continuously removing moisture from the attic, mold and mildew do not have a chance to grow. This creates fewer allergens in your home, thereby making it healthier.

Solar roof vents can be found in any hardware store or home improvement store. They can also be found on the Internet by doing a Google search. Although the prices vary from state to state, they are relatively inexpensive, averaging around $600 dollars.

A trained professional can install them in less than half an hour. Using a licensed contractor is recommended because there are a lot of things to take into consideration such as electrical lines inside the walls. It is not a do-it-yourself task. They are also insured if any mishaps occur.

With a solar roof vent, you are not only doing something to help yourself save money, you are also helping to keep the environment cleaner and safe.

More and more homeowners are recognizing the benefits of solar power. They want to save as much money as they can and are making the decision to install solar roof vents as part of an overall plan to save money.

Solar Panels

2008-02-05T00:52:00.000-08:00

Currently, the use of solar panels is on very small scale compared to the use of fossil fuels. This does not go for just solar energy, but also wind energy, geothermal, and tidal. The use of renewable electricity only makes up for a small percentage of a nations actual power output.

There are however, some countries who are able to make great use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity. In some areas such as Iceland, you can expect to see most of the yearly energy output coming from these alternative energy resources. Although Iceland can't make efficient use of solar panels, geothermal energy is in abundance.

Solar panels are becoming cheaper and more efficient as time goes by. We are beginning to see more large scale, industrialised developments of solar cell arrays and power stations. These increasingly efficient solar cells are the main reason why we are able to develop economically viable sites such as these.

The use of solar power on an individual household basis can be an extremely efficient method of not only providing a source of renewable energy cutting your carbon emissions, but can also be very efficient for reducing energy bills.

With fossil fuel reserves set to decrease while demand increases, the cost of these fuels is likely to rise to a point where we just cannot afford to go on. It is time to invest in more renewable energy technologies on a residential basis, in a bid to reduce our dependance on fossil fuel reserves, and become increasingly dependent on 100% renewable energy sources.

We are very likely to see the increasing use of solar panels on a residential basis, providing not only electricity to our power supplies, but also a source of heating or hot water, through adaptions of solar cells, such as solar hot water panels.

Other renewable energy production methods using; wind, geothermal, and tidal energy are likely to increase, but on a more industrial scale, rather than residential. This makes the use of solar panels or small home wind turbines for our homes the only sensible and economical electricity production method.

For the heating of our homes, we should also start to see the more widespread implementation of solar heating systems (as mentioned above), along with the increasing use of geothermal, ground source heating systems or hot water systems which can play a vital role in providing a source of cheap, renewable and clean heat.

Why Outdoor Solar Lighting Is The Best Option

2008-02-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

Outdoor solar lighting can help you achieve your goals and more. When it comes to outdoor lighting, not only do you want to brighten up your house and yard at night, but you also want maintain the safety of your family, the security of your house and your electricity bill. The solar option is the best low voltage outdoor lighting option.

Of course, the primary motivation to installing outdoor lighting is to improve visibility at night. A close second is security. Therefore, the first thing you need to consider is the level of brightness you want. Some outdoor solar lighting options may not be bright enough for your liking. As you search your options be sure to keep this in mind. If you are not too concerned about security, but just want something to light up the path or provide beauty, then you need not worry about brightness when looking for outdoor solar lighting. This low voltage outdoor lighting option will be ideal for your needs.

So why is outdoor solar lighting the best option? First of all, this low voltage outdoor lighting option is just that... low voltage. A huge concern with outdoor lighting is the danger of electrocution it presents. Even if the wiring is done professionally and up to code, there is still a risk of accident. Outdoor solar lighting is low voltage and doesn't present any danger. Though you should be careful regardless of the voltage level, especially if you have a pacemaker.

Another reason why outdoor solar lighting is a good option is because it doesn't use any electricity. Here's how it works. Small solar panels connected to the lights charge internal batteries during the day. Then at night, either by a sensor that triggers at dark or by a switch you control, the lights come on to illuminate its area. The batteries run down at night and then are recharged the next day. The batteries of outdoor solar lighting can even recharge during overcast days. What a way to take it easy on the environment and your wallet.

If you are looking for a low voltage outdoor lighting option then outdoor solar lighting is a good option that you should consider.

Solar Landscaping Lights - Free Information

2008-02-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Using lights in the garden have very obvious advantages. Some of it's benefits are

1) Lighting during nighttime
2) Security
3) Decorating purpose
4) Mood creation

However if you home garden is large the cost of installing and maintaining the electrical lighting system can be a costly affair. This is where solar landscaping lights come into picture.

As the name suggest solar lights operate on the electricity that gets converted by photoelectric process with the help of solar cells. When the sunlight falls directly ion the solar panels it converts them into electricity and this electricity gets saved into a battery for future use.

During early stages of the discovery of solar lights the standard lead-acid battery was used to store the electricity. But now, a nickel-cadmium battery for better and longer storing capacity has replaced this. Also instead of using a standard incandescent bulb, which burns out easily, a LED (light emitting diod) is used as a source of light.

If you are thinking of using these solar landscaping lights in your garden then it is necessary first to understand their requirements, because they do have some limitations of use.

Since these solar lights require direct sunlight you cannot obviously use them in areas where there is lot of shadows from tall trees. This will obviously reduce the performance of the solar lights because there won't be any direct sunlight, which can be converted into electricity.

To solve this problem special types of solar landscaping lights have been developed where the batter and the solar panel are away fro the LED connected using wires. In such cases you can install the battery and the solar cell that receives direct sunlight on the terrace or such a location where there won't be any shadows or other interference to direct sunlight. Wiring can be laid throughout the garden to connect all the lights and serve lighting to the entire garden.

Solar landscaping lights are becoming popular amongst homeowners because they claim to save electricity. Before installing them in you garden it is good idea to actually visit a live project where solar lighting has been executed and get a feel of the kid of mood they can create in the landscaping garden.

Renewable Energy Options for the Home - Part 2 (Solar Energy)

2008-01-31T04:26:00.000-08:00

The sun is a very powerful source of energy which powers natural cycles on earth like wind, water flow and plant growth.. Solar power is the technology of obtaining energy from the sun. There are three approaches to gain maximum benefit of solar energy in our buildings.

Passive Solar

Passive solar technologies convert sunlight into usable heat without the assistance of other energy sources. Passive solar architecture is a design approach which seeks to:

- maximise solar gains in the building (through orientation such as a south-facing site, layout, glazing etc)
- avoid the loss of heat from the building through high quality insulation
- ensure a high degree of comfort by using controlled ventilation and daylighting

Passive solar systems have little to no operating costs, often have low maintenance costs, and emit no greenhouse gases in operation. Passive solar principles can help reduce heating requirements of a home by up to 80%.

The Passive House Standard can be found at www.passive.de

Active Solar Heating

Active Solar technologies are employed to convert solar energy into usable heat, cause air movement for ventilation or cooking or store heat for future use. Unlike Passive Solar, Active Solar uses electrical or mechanical equipment such as pumps and fans to increase the usable heat. The most common use of active solar in Europe is Solar water heating. It is estimated that a correctly sized solar water heating system can provide for up to 60% of your water heating needs. Indeed, studies have shown that one square metre on your roof receives the equivalent of more than 100 litres of oil in free solar energy per year. Solar panels, generally located on a south-facing roof, transform solar radiation into heat which is stored in a large hot water cylinder for whenever you need it.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) System Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar power technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert energy from the sun into electricity. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from the sun’s rays, which can be used to recharge a battery or to power equipment. When more power is required than a single cell can deliver, cells are generally grouped together to form “PV modules”, or solar panels, that may in turn be arranged in arrays.

Solar arrays are increasingly incorporated into new domestic and industrial buildings as a principal or ancillary source of electrical power. In a typical installation, an array is incorporated into the building (roof or walls). In this way, Solar PV can be used to provide free solar electricity to houses. Recent developments in regulation mean that it will shortly be possible to connect solar PV systems to the grid, opening up a new era for solar PV in Ireland. Arrays can also be retro-fitted into existing buildings, normally by sitting them atop the existing roof. One new feature of note came in August 2006 when Currys, the major high-street retailer decided to stock PV modules at a cost of a thousand pounds sterling per module.

Solar Lighting

2008-01-31T04:25:00.000-08:00

Solar lights are extremely interesting because they are almost like mini-satellites. They generate and store their own power during the day and then release it at night. They are just like a satellite that stores solar energy while it is on the sunny side of the planet and then uses that energy when it's dark. Light sensors turn the lights on at disk and off at dawn.

Solar lights create a focused ambient to your garden, patio or garden. They come in various different type that can be used to beautify your yard and give it a warm, cozy feeling. They provide lighting effects for pathways, ponds, gardens and patios. Solar Lights create areas of interest all year long.

Solar lights are easily installed and do not require any external wiring. They are totally free-standing. All you do is fit the components together, press the spike into the ground or screw onto a wall mounting or place in a strategic place to give the affect you desire.

Solar lights charge during the day to generate a reserve life of 8 hours to light your home's outdoor area. They are constructed of various different materials,including copper, plastic or stainless steel. They are sold in individual pieces or sold in sets of varying numbers. Solar lghts add a touch of class to your space while providing cost efficient safety and accenting to the home.

Solar lights can add that final touch to that landscaping project you just completed. Solar lighting can be used to outline your entire property without having someone come in and lay wiring. They can be moved around until you get your desired affect

An Introduction To Solar Energy Panels

2008-01-30T02:25:00.001-08:00

Solar energy panels are photovoltaic (PV) devices to produce power from sunlight, the ultimate source of energy.

Solar energy is harnessed using photovoltaic cells. Groups of photovoltaic cells are known as solar modules. There are a range of products using single crystal solar cells producing 30 to 165 watts of power. The modules can be adapted to off-grid or on-grid power generation needs. The modules offer a 20- to 25-year warranty.

The modules based on crystalline silicon are one of the most efficient available on a commercial basis. The modules are formed by a series of cells wired together and are available in complete packages for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes.

The cost structure for various modules is $225 for 30 watt (16.8 Volts), $375 for 50 watts (17.3 volts), $487.50 for 65 watts (16.3 volts), $525 for 70 watts (16.7 volts), $750 for 100 watt (16.1 volts), $825 for 110 watt (16.7 volts), and $1,237.50 for 165 watt (32 volts).

Using solar energy bestows one with up to a thirty percent tax credit from the federal government. More than that, solar power does not release harmful emissions, whereas most other forms of power release effluents leading to global warming, acid rains, and smog. Backup batteries ensure the unlimited supply of power even in the absence of sunlight.

Solar energy panels can use the sun’s energy to heat water for sanitary use at home or for pools and hot tubs. PV panels, on the other hand, convert light into electricity. Most commonly, these panels are placed on the roof. The power generated by PV panels is transmitted to a battery for storage. Household power needs are drawn from this storage.

A Guide To Solar Energy And Its Applications

2008-01-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

Solar energy is in the news and it is something that sounds good since by using it you are able to save on paying expensive energy bills, though not everyone may be attuned to what is solar energy and who would thus need to learn about it in as simple terms as possible. The simplest answer to what is solar energy is that it is a means whereby rays from the sun are captured and either stored, or converted into energy and maybe even into heat.

Like Sitting In A Very Hot Car During Summer Months

You should think about solar energy in terms of sitting in a very hot car during the summer months, or imagine what it is like to touch the burning tar roads during the summer heat because these items get extremely heated and the thing that heats them is the power from the sun. Though not exactly solar power, it is something along these lines that solar power works on because the rays from the sun are captured and they are then converted into heat with the help of the very best of technology which is how your home gets heated, or is provided energy all through the day.

This is basically what is solar energy, and this is then followed by storage or conversion process and the solar power that has been captured is converted with the help of different types of solar panels, or it may be stored to be used later on. There are also a number of options available with regard to what is solar energy, and solar power may be used for different usages including heating of swimming pools for which there are special systems that have been designed. Even otherwise, you can use solar power on small scale as well and there are many systems available that you can purchase at an affordable price and then hook them in order to heat up your water, and you may also wish to use solar pond pumps that will help in keeping your pond clean without costing a lot of money.

In fact, because there are many useful answers to what is solar energy; it is not surprising that this knowledge has been used to capture the energy from the sun in many different ways. For example, you may want to install skylights in your entire home so that you don't need to use more lights than are necessary, and this is a simple and very effective means of making use of solar power in order to light up a home, and such form of solar power is known as passive solar energy.

Renewable Energy Options for the Home - Part 2 (Solar Energy)

2008-01-29T05:52:00.000-08:00

Solar Lighting

2008-01-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

Tips For Using Solar Home Energy

2008-01-05T02:37:00.000-08:00

Solar energy—this term basically does not cause a stirring in the mind as the explanation that comes at hand is indeed too simple. Everyone knows what is meant by solar energy, and that is, the energy that comes from the sun. In its most basic sense, solar energy and other solar home equipment are nonetheless environment-friendly and not risky at all. But then you need not become one fine environmentalist first before you will be able to come across with whatever advantageous benefit solar home energy has.

Why is the solar home energy said to be environment-friendly? What are its general benefits? Practically speaking, when solar home energy is used, the electrical bills tremendously go down as compared to the other type of home energy available for all people. Why would you pay for such expensive bills when all you need to do is to employ solar home energy?

Another major advantage of the solar home energy is the absence of the very complicated and dangerous wiring. Solar energy lights in the garden path or any other solar energy-powered items used in your home are ready to be installed less the wiring to be dealt with. In reality, these solar light bulbs are equipped with darkness sensors so they need not be turned on to give off light and they need not be turned off as well when they are no longer needed.

As a sort of simple explanation, the solar light bulbs will simply have to be purchased, taken out of the boxes, installed, and then presto! You just have to situate them where you want them to be and never worry about them ever again. A List of the Benefits of Solar home Energy Why is the solar home energy equally beneficial? Why is it more recommended for use? Here are some of its benefits which are truly worth the attention to be graced by anyone:

Solar home energy is environmentally friendly. As mentioned a while ago, solar home energy will not harm the environmental features. It is specifically clean and renewable as well. More so, it does not cause pollution just like what the rest of the traditional electrical forms do.

Solar home energy systems need the least maintenance. They are not fuel-powered so no need to buy the refills.

Solar home energy makes you save a lot of money. The energy that is derived from the sun can be accessed for free as you make use of solar lights, solar panels, and the likes. The federal government most of the time gives out financial incentives. You don’t get affected by the rise of the fuel rates since you are using solar home energy.

Making use of the solar home energy makes you entirely independent from the foreign and centralized energy sources. Power outages will not likely affect you in any manner.

Most of the solar energy items are very easy to install thus lessening the complicated work of the wiring systems.

What Is Solar Power And How Does It Work?

2008-01-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

If you asked the average person on the street what is solar power and how does it work you would more then likely get a lot of different answers to the question. Nowadays almost everyone has heard of solar power but not everyone really knows exactly what it is or how it really works. The only thing most people seem to know most about this energy source is that it turns sunlight into electricity.

When learning what is solar power and how it works you will hear about many different components that make up the system. All these separate components work together to produce electricity but the most important part of the energy system is the solar cell. These specially made cells are set up for maximum exposure to the sun in order to capture the suns solar rays. The amount of solar cells you will need to install is all dependent on how much power you intend to use and what your budget is.

After the cells the converter is the next most important piece of the system. The converter box is what actually transforms the light absorbed by the panels into usable electricity for your home. the converters also have the ability to hold an electrical charge, this means that you will have power even when there is no sunlight! The rest of the solar system is very simple wiring and other electrical components that allow the system to be hard wired into your homes electrical system.

Researching and learning what is solar power and how it works can help you decide if installing and using energy from the sun in your home is something you would be interested in.

Solar System Projects

2007-12-20T01:47:00.001-08:00

The sun-centered solar system, whose sharp and vivid images have been provided by various space missions, has created daunting challenges for students, teachers, educators, and researchers in drawing up major solar system projects.

The main missions that provided the latest information about the solar system are Mariner 10, Viking 1 and 2, Voyager 1 and 2, Magellan, Galileo, Hubble, Space Shuttle, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, Cassini, and Apollo.

It is inevitable that Man, with his legendary inquisitiveness and resourcefulness, will break free of all earthly boundaries. As more information concerning the solar system becomes available, there will be an increase in armchair astronauts as well as budding space enthusiasts. Teachers inspire young minds; they express relative size and distance between the planets through virtual and visual projects, classroom projects, art projects, and models.

The wide variations between distances of planets from the sun and the sheer enormity of the solar system are best impressed upon young minds with the help of a walk-in model of the solar system. The motion of planets and other celestial bodies in their orbits is due to the force of gravitation of the sun on them.

The USGS Astrogeology Research Programme features planetary imagery and research and helps portray Earth and Space Sciences in a fun way, including information about space weather, global space physics, and a real-time movie of current solar activity.

Projects on the solar system, our neighborhood in our home galaxy, have been dovetailed in different angles of the trajectory and according to the disposition of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, comets, and asteroids. Such visual tours of the solar system provide a scintillating view of the Milky Way, including the solar system.

Ausra Solar Heat and Power Information

2007-12-20T01:46:00.001-08:00

It's difficult to stand out in the competitive solar energy market, but Ausra, an Australian-American company, seems to be successful at setting itself apart from the competition.

The California-based Ausra got its name from an ancient Indo-European goddess of the dawn. It is a solar thermal technology company that produces electricity from sunlight with fewer issues compared to the traditional methods, and could even lower the expenses of generating utility-scale power.

In order to generate electricity, solar thermal power plants harness heat from the sun. Ausra utilizes quite inexpensive 40-foot-long flat plate mirrors known as Fresnel reflectors to focus the sun's rays directly on the water pipes and thus boiling the water to run the steam turbines, which will then generate electricity.

Generally, most solar power plants use structures with curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto tubes of oil. The heat from the oil is used to make steam, and then drive the turbine, which generates electricity.

Ausra Solar Heat and Power uses a system that can reduce the cost of electricity that is powered by solar energy, and that can compete with traditionally generated electricity. Its Fresnel lens reflectors are different from the curved mirrors of the conventional trough design, as the Fresnel lens appears to be flat.

Rather than first heating the oil to generate heat, Ausra heats water directly in order to generate steam. However, the system can be less effective at converting solar energy into electricity compared to the trough systems.

Ausra was founded by David Mills in 2002 as Solar Heat and Power in Australia. Mills started the technology at Sydney University in the early 1990's with Graham Morrison, who helped him develop it from 1995 until the year 2001.

In 2004, Ausra Solar Heat and Power then built a one-megawatt pilot project for the Macquarie Generation in New South Wales. The company then moved to the United States in February and is expecting to finish a second 38-megawatt capacity power plant in 2009. Another of the company's projects involved a 180-megawatt power plant in the United States and a 6.5-megawatt power plant in Portugal, which has begun its construction.

Moonopolies: the solar system's outer planets host a multitude of irregular satellites

2007-07-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

SATELLITE REVOLUTION Until recently, discoveries of irregular satellites were nearly as irregular as are the satellites themselves. For more than a century after researchers spotted the first small irregular satellite, Neptune's Triton in 1846, only a handful had been found. Then, in 1997, a windfall began.

At observatories around the world, exquisitely sensitive solid-state light detectors, known as charge-coupled devices (CCD), had superseded photographic film, enabling astronomers to record objects hundreds of times fainter than ever before. Moreover, using large--format cameras consisting of millions of CCD pixels, researchers could search for the faint objects over large patches of sky.

Those were just the right tools for finding irregular moons, Philip D. Nicholson of Cornell University realized in September 1997. Nicholson and Brett Gladman, now at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, were traveling to the medium-size Hale Telescope at Mount Palomar in California to search for objects in the Kuiper belt, the reservoir of comets that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. But while on the airplane en route to Mount Palomar, Nicholson calculated that Uranus would be in the same field of view. He and Gladman decided that during their two nights at the Hale telescope, they and their colleagues would devote any spare time to a search for outlying moons around that planet.

The team succeeded. Gladman and his collaborators discovered the first two irregulars known to orbit Uranus.

A flurry of discoveries followed. Since Gladman's finding, his team and another have spotted 70 more of the irregular satellites. Astronomers announced the latest find, an irregular satellite of Uranus, in an Oct. 9 circular of the International Astronomical Union.

The number of moons added to the roster since 1997 is "stunning," says Joseph A. Burns of Cornell.

Finding irregulars isn't just a matter of scouring the sky with a sensitive detector. In a single snapshot of the heavens, a tiny moon can look just like a galaxy billions of light--years distant. But there's one distinguishing feature: The motions of moons are discernible as each inches across the sky in synchrony with the planet it orbits. In contrast, distant galaxies appear to remain still.

Astronomers use two strategies to identify distant moons. One method, recently employed by Holman, J.J. Kavelaars of the National Research Council of Canada in Victoria, and Gladman uses a medium--size telescope to take a dozen or so precisely timed images of the same patch of sky during a single night.

In each image, they then shift all objects back to the position they would have had, if they truly were moons, at the time when the astronomers took their first exposure of the night. Finally, they combine the images.

In this so-called shift-and-add technique, the objects that are satellites end up in exactly the same position in each superimposed image, producing a bright, easy-to-spot point of light.

The other strategy, adopted by David C. Jewitt and Scott S. Sheppard of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, uses a large telescope capable of finding extremely faint bodies in individual images. The astronomers take three sequential images of a patch of sky. A computer scans the trio for any object that has changed position from one image to the next. Starting with that information on the object's location, the team can then track the candidate satellite with a smaller telescope to discern its orbit and motion.

Solar systems: Michael Auping on Jess

2007-07-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

FOR DECADES, Jess seldom left the run-down Victorian house in San Francisco's Inner Mission District that he shared for thirty years with the late poet Robert Duncan. He didn't like to be with a lot of people and once told me that it horrified him that he might at some point be the subject of someone's attention. Jess had fewer shows and probably fewer articles written about him than anyone of his generation whose work is similarly represented in many of the finest museums in the country. In addition to his innate shyness, the radical infrequency of his exhibitions had a lot to do with the fact that his works are so dense with meaning and material that each one took inordinate amounts of time to make. He used to talk about "indwelling," which for Jess could mean years pondering the formation of a single work.
Well, at a certain point, Jess, who died in January at age eighty, went so far inward that he became naturally magnetic; his authenticity such that he didn't need promotion. Over five decades, a family of writers, poets, curators, and collectors talked among themselves of Jess's importance, purchasing his works when they could and secreting his address and phone number, passing it carefully along only to those deemed protective of his indwelling sense. He was both ultimate outsider and legendary insider
Jess has often been explained as a West Coast Joseph Cornell, but that is too easy. Not even American Surrealist eccentricity could explain an imagery that was the result of one of the most interesting biographies of postwar American art. It was in 1948 that Jess had what he referred to simply as "the dream"--an intensely real, Technicolor vision of the earth being destroyed in the year 1975 through nuclear Armageddon. Certainly he wasn't the only one who thought this a possibility following the bombing of Hiroshima (which, as it happens, had occurred on August 6, 1945, the same date as this superstitious artist's twenty-second birthday). At the time of his dream, Jess was employed by General Electric Laboratories on their Hanford Project in Washington State, involved with plutonium production. He had previously been drafted into the army to work on the Manhattan Project, helping develop the weapon that would eventually level that Japanese city.

Six months after his dream, the radio chemist and Sunday painter quit his job at GE and went south to become an artist and find, as he put it, "an antidote to the scientific method." He enrolled at Cal Berkeley on the GI Bill, and when the evaluators saw the extent of his scientific background in his application and his desire now to study art, they asked him to undergo psychological testing. He eventually ended up at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was exposed to the teachings of Clyfford Still, Hassel Smith, David Park, Edward Corbett, and Ad Reinhardt, among others. He would learn about abstraction and various interpretations of the sublime from some of the best, but he would not follow the path of so many second- and third-generation abstract mannerists. Jess was an imagemaker and storyteller whose ambition was to redeem the high European tradition of mythic subject matter and symbolism. He would do so using images from the unlikely matrix of his neighborhood thrift stores and used bookshops.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The house that he and Duncan shared was a literary Merzbau of disparate imaginations, engaging an incredible range of visual and literary culture, from Gnostic texts and Greek poetry to collections of Harper's Bazaar, Life magazine, and Scientific American. Among his prized possessions were various editions of the Oz books, including a first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and its immediate sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904). Other treasures included an early edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and many books by Carroll's lesser-known friend George MacDonald, such as The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883). The third floor of the house seemed the spookiest, containing a library of science fiction and neglected romantic literature, including the books of Mary Butts. A great-granddaughter of Thomas Butts, the patron of William Blake, she wrote stories that interwove ancient myth and ritual with a deeply felt spirituality that invariably verged on the surreal and supernatural.

Jess was particularly taken by authors who could evoke a foggy landscape where everything--animate and inanimate--reverberates with spirit and conscience and where trails are never quite clearly marked but invariably lead to narrative surprises and apparitions. In the children's stories that Jess and Duncan loved and would discuss for hours over breakfast, no element could be taken as benign. Everything had mythic implications. As Duncan once said, "You can't take a piss in this house without getting hit with a myth." It is that offbeat, as opposed to Beat, literature that suggests an analogy for the peculiar way boundaries are blurred in Jess's art and Duncan's poetry, between high art and kitsch, past and present, real and fantastic.

India Unveils Plans to Expand Solar Energy Programs

2007-07-04T00:35:00.000-07:00

Indian minister of state for non-conventional energy sources Shri Vilas Muttemwar recently announced plans to expand government programs supporting the development and utilization of solar energy resources in 2005 and 2006.

Additionally, Muttemwar announced that the government has established a commission for additional sources of energy to plan and oversee the implementation of programs relating to solar energy and other renewable energy sources.

The minister noted that his ministry has been supporting research and development of solar energy technology for "more than two decades.""As a result of the research work supported by the ministry, an indigenous technology and manufacturing base has been established in the country," said Muttemwar. "A number of solar energy systems for lighting, water pumping, telecommunications, remote power generation, water heating, solar cooking, drying and other applications have been developed and commercialized in the country. Currently, the focus of research is on further reductions in the cost of solar energy products and improvements in their quality, reliability and life."

High-Efficiency Solar Cells Using Photonic-Bandgap Materials

2007-06-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Solar photovoltaic cells would be designed to exploit photonic-bandgap (PBG) materials to enhance their energy-conversion efficiencies, according to a proposal. Whereas the energy-conversion efficiencies of currently available solar cells are typically less than 30 percent, it has been estimated that the energy-conversion efficiencies of the proposed cells could be about 50 percent or possibly even greater.The primary source of inefficiency of a currently available solar cell is the mismatch between the narrow wavelength band associated with the semiconductor energy gap (the bandgap) and the broad wavelength band of solar radiation. This mismatch results in loss of power from both (1) long-wavelength photons, defined here as photons that do not have enough energy to excite electron-hole pairs across the bandgap, and (2) short-wavelength photons, defined here as photons that excite electron-hole pairs with energies much above the bandgap. It follows that a large increase in efficiency could be obtained if a large portion of the incident solar energy could be funneled into a narrow wavelength band corresponding to the bandgap. In the proposed approach, such funneling would be effected by use of PBG materials as intermediaries between the Sun and photovoltaic cells.
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The approach involves a thermophotovoltaic principle in addition to the use of PBG materials. The basic idea is to tailor the wavelength- and direction-dependent emissivity of one or more PBG material(s) such that as much as possible of the wavelength-mismatched portion of the incident broad-band solar power would be absorbed - the absorbed power would cause heating, and the resulting thermal radiation would be funneled into a narrow band corresponding to the bandgap of the semiconductor material of a solar cell. Recent experiments unrelated to the development of solar cells have shown that as much as half of the thermal power could be thus re-routed into the bandgap.

The figure depicts two of many conceivable configurations for implementing the proposal. In one configuration, the incident solar radiation would be intercepted by an absorber and absorbed energy would be re-radiated by an emitter. A filter behind the emitter would allow primarily bandgap-energy photons to pass through and would reflect most other photons back into the absorber, helping to keep the absorber hot. A mirror at the rear surface of the solar cell would reflect any remaining non-bandgap-energy photons back to the absorber. The filter would be made of a PBG material: the advantage to be gained by using a PBG filter instead of a traditional optical filter is that a PBG structure could be designed to modify the wavelength distribution of thermal radiation from a conventional black-body distribution to reduce or increase the spectral power densities at selected wavelengths.

In the other configuration, the functions of the absorber and filter would be combined in a single monolithic PBG absorber/emitter that could comprise, for example, thin absorbing layers alternating with thin non-absorbing, wavelength-selective layers. Optionally, the mirror behind the solar cell could also be made of a PBG material.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

This work was done by Jonathan Dowling and Hwang Lee of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Physical Sciences category.

New Report Assesses Chinese Solar Panel Industry

2007-06-19T00:33:00.001-07:00

Research and Markets recently announced the availability of a new report, titled "Solar Panels in China," which includes detailed information on 19 leading solar panel suppliers' manufacturing capabilities, product offerings and future plans.

According to Research and Markets, the country's solar panel industry has consistently registered 25-percent growth in exports for the past 10 years -- a growth rate expected to continue in 2005.

Research and Markets noted that, at $496 million, exports from January to October 2004 already increased 50 percent over the $329 million worth of exports for all of 2003.The severe shortage of solar cells...has limited China's production of solar panels," said Research and Markets. "Suppliers, nevertheless, have found ways to deal with the shortage that have enabled them to turn out an overwhelming 150 MW of solar panels in 2004 compared to a mere 13 MW in 2003."

Also included in the new report are the results of Research and Markets' latest supplier survey, forecasting price, product, production and R&D trends for the next 12 months; details of 40 top-selling solar panel products from China; and supplier rankings by production capacity, export capability, sales and other markers.

U.K. Announces Latest Solar Projects to Win Grants

2007-06-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently reported that British energy minister Malcolm Wicks announced late last month the latest successful solar energy schemes that will receive government funding through the Solar Photovoltaic Major Demonstration Program.

According to DTI, the projects include a 16th century Grade II Elizabethan farmhouse in Shropshire that has been awarded more than 30,000 pounds (about $55,115) for its conversion into a carbon neutral "eco-home," as well as an effort on London's Regent Street and the Eco Center in Glamorgan, Wales. Housing development and education center schemes have also been awarded funding.We are pleased that we were again able to offer grant funding to a wide variety of innovative projects," said Energy Saving Trust solar photovoltaic program manager David Weatherall. "The overall standard of applications was really high and it's encouraging to see the excellent work being carried out across the U.K. to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

What whacked the inner solar system?

2007-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

For the first 700 million years of their existence, the moon and Earth and the other rocky planers took a beating. Space debris hammered these bodies so fiercely that their surfaces were stripped away. Moon samples brought back by the Apollo missions in the early 1970s confirmed that this violent era ended about 3.85 billion years ago. But researchers haven't known the form of that early debris.The rocks came from the asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They ranged in diameter from about 100 meters to tens of kilometers, assert Robert G. Strom of the University of Arizona in Tucson and his colleagues in the Sept. 16 Science.

From the sizes of the craters, Strom's team determined the diameters of the projectiles that created them. The researchers then analyzed a compilation of recent asteroid surveys that provide the first detailed information on asteroids as small as 1 km in diameter. The scientists then compared the sizes of existing asteroids with the sizes of the projectiles that cratered the moon, Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury eons ago.

To the team's delight, the mix of sizes was identical to that of asteroids that now reside in the belt. The researchers conclude that an ancient population of belt asteroids did the damage the cratering record in the inner solar system changed dramatically after the initial violent era and indicates that most of the impactors since then have been near-Earth asteroids, less than 20 km across. These asteroids came from the main belt but were long ago nudged into Earth-crossing orbits.--R.C.

Spacecraft Solar Sails Containing Electrodynamic Tethers

2007-06-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

A report discusses a proposal to use large, lightweight solar sails embedded with electrodynamic tethers (essentially, networks of wires) to (1) propel robotic spacecraft to distant planets, then (2) exploit the planetary magnetic fields to capture the spacecraft into orbits around the planets. The purpose of the proposal is, of course, to make it possible to undertake long interplanetary missions without incurring the large cost and weight penalties of conventional rocket-type propulsion systems. Through transfer of momentum from reflected solar photons, a sail would generate thrust outward from the Sun. Upon arrival in the vicinity of a planet, the electrodynamic tethers would be put to use: Motion of the spacecraft across the planetary magnetic field would induce electric currents in the tether wires, giving rise to an electromagnetic drag force that would be exploited to brake the spacecraft for capture into orbit. The sail with embedded tethers would be made to spin to provide stability during capture. Depending upon the requirements of a particular application, it could be necessary to extend die tether to a diameter greater than that of die sail.This work was done by Les Johnson of Marshall Space Flight Center and Greg Matloff of New York City Technical (College, The City University of New York (CUNY). For further information, access the Technical Support Package

Controlling Attitude of a Solar-Sail Spacecraft Using Vanes

2007-06-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

A paper discusses a concept lor controlling die altitude and thrust vector of a three-axis stabilized Solar Sail spacecraft using only four single degree-of-freedom articulated spar-lip vanes. The vanes, at the corner's of the sail, would be turned to commanded angles about the diagonals of the square sail. Commands would be generated by an adaptive controller that would track a given trajectory while rejecting effects of such disturbance torques as those attributable to offsets between the center of pressure on the sail and the center of mass. The controller would include a standard proportional + derivative part, a leedfonvard part, and a dynamic component that would act like a generalized integrator. The controller would globally track reference signals, and in the presence of such controlactuator constraints as saturation and delay, the controller would utilize strategies to cancel or reduce their effects. The control scheme would be embodied in a robust, nonlinear algorithm that would allocate torques among the vanes, always finding a stable solution arbitrarily close to the global optimum solution of the control effort allocation problem. The solution would include an acceptably small angle, slow limit-cycle oscillation of the vanes, while providing overall thrust vector pointing stability and perfomiance.

Solar Power System offers remote gas flow monitoring

2007-06-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

Able to withstand harsh environments, SOLARPack(TM) combines solar power control and communication with intelligent battery charger that prevents hydrogen generation due to overcharging. Remote communications to SCADA host are provided using integrated spread spectrum radio technology. Designed for remote sites where environment is extreme, SOLARPack is suited for valve plunger automation with electronic flow measurement, and well head gas measurement with tubing and casing pressure.

Ottawa, ON, October 18, 2006 - Control Microsystems, global developer of advanced RTU/PLCs, SCADA management software, and intelligent sensors, today at ISA Expo 2006 announced the release of SOLARPack(TM), an integrated solar power control and communication system designed for harsh environments. SOLARPack combines solar power technology, with a unique, intelligent battery charger that prevents hydrogen generation due to overcharging. Designed for use at remote sites where the environment is extreme and power is hard to come by, SOLARPack is ideal for such applications as valve plunger automation with electronic flow measurement (EFM), and well head gas measurement with tubing and casing pressure SOLARPack brings solar power, intelligent battery charging, and reliable spread-spectrum communications to remote gas flow installations", stated Dale Symington, Senior Vice President Engineering, Control Microsystems. "The innovative design allows for quick, out-of-the-box installation. And the intelligent battery charger delivers a highly reliable energy source and ensures operation even in the harshest of environments."

Uninterrupted Power: Intelligent Battery Charger

SOLARPack employs a unique precision adaptive battery-charging algorithm that ensures autonomous flow computer operation with uninterrupted power during periods of little or no sunshine lasting up to one month. Temperature-compensated battery charging and radio load-shedding extend battery life beyond that of competitive options.

SOLARPack's unique battery charging algorithm is designed to manage solar battery charging n three stages to ensure optimal charging in varying conditions, providing complete charging while at the same time preventing overcharging. The first stage tests the battery to determine if it is safe to proceed; the second stage applies a temperature compensated charge voltage and is where the bulk of the battery charge is replenished. The third and final stage operates at a reduced or float voltage. This approach maximizes the life of the battery and delivers a highly reliable energy source.

Integrated Remote Communications

Remote communications to a SCADA host are provided using integrated spread spectrum radio technology. Supported radio platforms include FreeWave FGR09CSU 900 MHz Spread Spectrum, MDS TransNet 900 MHz Spread Spectrum Transceiver, and MaxStream XTend OEM RF 900 MHz Spread Spectrum Module. SOLARPack also can be integrated to a PC or optional SCADAPack Vision or Vision50 operator interface terminal.

Safe & Reliable Battery Operation

SOLARPack configurations include external or internal batteries and mounting options for walls or standard two inch pipes. Knock-outs are provided for conduit and cable fittings, and easy access, to the battery. The system easily interfaces with Control Microsystems' RealFLO 4202FGC and most third-party solar panels and batteries.

When charging any battery, hydrogen gas build-up in the enclosure is a concern. SOLARPack addresses this dangerous possibility by incorporating two NEMA 4 vent/drains into the internal battery enclosure to prevent pressure build-up and drain condensation. In addition, battery health checks are performed automatically before each charging cycle, preventing defective battery cells from being charged. An internal, battery terminal-mounted temperature sensor aids in the precise regulation of charge and float voltages.

Other built-in safety features include automatic self-resetting circuit breakers, sustained over-current protection, intelligent power output circuit breakers, and radio load-shedding.

Pricing & Delivery

Pricing for SOLARPack starts at $900 US. Now available for delivery.

About Control Microsystems

Control Microsystems is a global supplier of state-of-the-art automation products for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). Founded in 1980, the company has led the industry in developing and manufacturing innovative solutions such as the SCADAPack(TM) Series of RTU/PLCs that combine high performance communications with high speed processing, and ClearSCADA(TM), an advanced process management system featuring a unique, all-in-one design that reduces programming time and increases engineering productivity. The company's product line also includes intelligent sensors and gas production automation products engineered for remote installation in harsh, unattended environments. Conxol Microsystems' products are used around the world in municipal water and wastewater automation; in natural gas and crude oil production, gathering, and pipeline automation, and a wide variety of other industrial automation applications.

Sharp Expands Solar Cell Production Capacity to 600 MW Per Year, the World's Highest

2007-06-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Kyoto, Japan, Oct 30, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Sharp Corporation has increased annual production capacity for solar cells at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara Prefecture by 100 MW (megawatts) to meet burgeoning demand in Japan and abroad, and has constructed a system that will be able to enter full production by November 2006. As a result, solar cell production capacity at the Katsuragi Plant will reach 600 MW per year, the world's highest.

Despite concerns in the photovoltaic (PV) power generating market about a shortage of processed silicon (the raw material for solar cells), PV systems are increasingly being used in Japan for industrial applications and are being installed on new residential construction in collaboration with home builders. In Europe and the U.S.A., demand is expected to expand even further in the future, centered on industrial and commercial uses thanks to the introduction of subsidies and implementation of policies mandating power buy-back programs by utilities.

To more effectively utilize raw materials, Sharp is working to make solar cells even thinner and improve thin-film solar cells which use minimal amounts of silicon, as well as establish highly efficient production systems and expand and upgrade its production lines. For the future, Sharp has set a goal to further expand its solar energy business, which holds out tremendous potential as clean energy that does not generate substances that place a burden on the environment.

ITOCHU Announces Investment in Solar Energy Company NorSun

2007-06-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Japan, Dec 18, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - ITOCHU Corporation (TSE: 8001; ADR: ITOCY) has announced that it will invest JPY 1 billion (4% of outstanding shares after investment) in solar energy company NorSun AS (Oslo, Norway, CEO: Jon Hindar), which is planning to produce monocrystalline silicon wafers for solar cells.

NorSun was established in December 2005 by Dr Alf Bjorseth, who is a founder and former CEO of the Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC), the world's largest manufacturer of solar-grade silicon and multi crystalline wafers, to develop a broadly-based business in the solar industry.

NorSun is planning to set up a plant in Ardal in the beginning of 2008 for the production of monocrystalline silicon wafers, with plans to expand to a production capacity of 430MW by 2010.

ITOCHU set up a dedicated solar business team in June to accelerate this business activity. With its investment in NorSun, ITOCHU is placing NorSun as a core business agenda in this field, and will work towards further strengthening of relations including personnel exchange. ITOCHU will also strengthen collaboration with other capital investors in NorSun, such as major resource companies, funds and investment banks, and NorSun's customers, such as solar cell manufacturers.

Further, ITOCHU will implement development and commercialization of new technology together with NorSun and move ahead in setting up active business from up-stream through down-stream in the solar industry. ITOCHU aims to contribute to a better society with expanding business in this field, which is promising as one of the clean energies.

About Itochu Corporation

Itochu Corporation is one of Japan's leading trading companies and is engaged in a wide variety of businesses, including textiles, machinery, aerospace, information technology, multimedia, metals, energy, chemicals, forest products, food, retail, financial services and so forth. Itochu maintains over 130 offices around the world and owns over 640 subsidiaries and affiliates. Itochu's sales last year reached 9.5 trillion yen (US$90 billion). Itochu aims to build new profit-making strategies and adding new functions in order to become more global, and to foster businesses in new fields.

WorldWater & Power Corp to provide airport with solar power

2007-06-02T04:02:00.001-07:00

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

WorldWater & Power Corp (OTC BB: WWAT.OB) is to provide solar power for Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

The company said it has been awarded a 20-year solar electric power purchase contract by the Fresno City Council for the sale of solar electricity from a 2 MW solar electric power system to be located at the airport.

According to the company, the project represents the largest solar electric project at any airport in the United States.

((Comments on this story may be sent to aii.feedback@m2.com))

Google plans largest U.S. solar-powered corporate headquarters

2007-06-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest U.S. solar-powered corporate office complex, the company recently announced.

The firm is set to begin building a rooftop solar-powered generation system at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters capable of generating 1.6 MW of electricity, enough to power 1,000 California homes.

"This is the largest customer-owned solar electric system at a corporate site," said Noah Kaye, director of public affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry group based in Washington, D.C.

A Google executive said the company will rely on solar power to supply nearly a third of the electricity consumed by office workers at its roughly one-million-square-foot headquarters. This excludes power consumed by data centers that power many of Google's Web services worldwide, he said.

(REUTERS: 10/19)

The Importance of Renewable Energy Resources

2007-04-16T23:12:00.001-07:00

The modern lifestyle depends tremendously on the use and existence of fossil fuels. With levels of these fuels constantly decreasing, we should act now to become less dependant on fossil fuels and more dependent on renewable energy sources.

The decreasing levels of fossil fuels isn't the only reason why we should begin to use renewable energy. Pollution is becoming a huge problem in many countries around the world, especially the developing world. With carbon emissions at an all time high, air quality can be very low in some areas, this can lead to respiratory diseases and cancer.

The main reason to switch to cleaner energy production methods is the global warming aspect. The more carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere, the greater the effect becomes. We can't just stop using fossil fuels thinking that global warming will go away, but we can slow down and dilute the effects of global warming through the wide spread use of renewable energy resources.

There are many natural energy sources out there, but you have to decide which method is best for you, as all of these sources depend on your current environment.

The installation of a solar panel or a wind turbine to boost every homes power supply would be an amazing step forward. Some governments are in the process of supplying solar panels to hundreds of households to test this method of energy saving.

A technology set to be very important in the future is geothermal energy. With geothermal energy, you are able to extract heat from within the earth and transform it either into a hot water system, or if there is plenty of this energy, a geothermal power plant. Huge amounts of money have been flowed into research of this method, especially in recent years, in order to make the current technology more effective.

So there we have the reasons why we should turn to renewable energy resources which are more than likely to play a very vital and important role in our future society.

How Extracting Geothermal Heat Sources Can Save you Money

2007-04-16T23:11:00.002-07:00

An ever growing burden in today's society is the cost of the average utility bill. Over recent years, especially in the U.K, we have seen continuous price increases regarding gas and electricity bills.

The causes behind the rising prices are primarily political. In recent months, prices have dropped slightly as new pipelines from friendly nations have been connected to the U.K, but do you want to be at mercy from your government and other nations?

A very good way for you to save on your heating bill would be to install a geothermal heating system (or a solar power heating system.) The geothermal energy system works on the basis of the underground placement of pipes, a water pump and an energy efficient boiler.

Water is pumped through one end of the pipes (which are laid about 1 meter underground.) These pipes run for around 100 meters while they are absorbing natural heat from the earth around them.

By the time the water has reached the end of the piping system, it is significantly warmer than when it first started. All that needs to be done now is some extra heating, by the back up (energy efficient) boiler. This extra heating may not be required, depending on the geothermal activity beneath your feet, and the depth of the pipes.

Geothermal energy is very sustainable, the heat is always there. A proven example of this is that geothermal heating equipment is widely used in countries such as Iceland, Norway and Sweden. There is an awful lot of heat beneath all of that snow, and many people harness the energy our earth has to offer.

When you Should Choose Wind Turbines Over Solar Panels

2007-04-16T23:11:00.001-07:00

Many people today are unaware of why and when you should use renewable energy sources in today's world. The main reason for using natural energy is mainly down to the environment, and if you care to improve the quality of it. But with many viable energy sources out there, which one you choose can be a nightmare to decide upon.

Before you set off to purchase lets say, a couple of solar panels, you should take a look at the other technologies available to decide which is most appropriate for your environment. For example, solar panels may not be of much use near the poles, put a hefty, durable wind turbine would love to sit up there and spin round and round all day.

You don't have to be a genius to discover that solar panels work best near the equator and reduce in efficiency, the further away you travel from the equator. So, if you live nearer the poles than the equator, you should choose a wind turbine right? Wrong!!!!

Wind turbines could be placed anywhere on our globe (where the land can support them) and still generate hardly any power whatsoever. It all depends on the surrounding environment, for instance, if you build a home wind turbine in your backyard, you could be very disappointed, unless you were the only house in the most common wind direction. What we mean by this is, if there are many houses surrounding your house, they will block most of the winds power and your turbine will probably just spin round at a very slow speed (assuming its windy), and this doesn't generate the power you require.

However, if you live in the country and place a turbine in your backyard, you are more likely to generate a larger output of electricity. So the answer is buy one if you live in the countryside? Wrong again!!!

If there are large hills, forests or mountains nearby, these too can greatly reduce the winds power. Before purchasing a wind turbine you should definitely either do research yourself into the surrounding are, or hire a professional to do a survey. If your house is surrounded by other houses, dense tree plantations, hills, or mountains, (presuming they are blocking the path of the average wind direction), you should consider looking into solar cells or even a geothermal system to heat your home.

How We Can All Help to Save our Planet Through the Use of Natural Energy Resources

2007-04-16T23:10:00.001-07:00

With scientists predicting extreme changes to our global weather patterns over the next 50 to 100 years, it is time we took notice and began to take steps, in an attempt to reduce the effect of these extreme changes.

Our planet is very complex in geographical terms, and there are many aspects concerning our planet we do not understand yet. One of the most controversial claims of the late 20th century has been the theory of global warming.

Most scientists agree global warming is in existence as a result of the industrial revolution, yet a significant amount of sceptics are in existence. These sceptics believe global warming is a natural occurrence and the earth experiences different temperature gradients over millions of years. Either way, there is a significant amount of evidence which suggests our climate is set to get warmer.

If humans are the cause of this phenomenon (as over 90% of scientists believe). then we are more than likely too late in responding and will not be able to reverse the effects. We should now be thinking of ways to try and curve the effects of global warming.

The solution to global warming can only be effective if everyone joins in to fight it together. Scientists agree that if 100% of our energy could be natural energy, then we would have alot less to worry about. With coal, oil, gas and nuclear power stations dotted all over our earths land mass, we are from this ideology.

So what can an individual do for the environment? Well there are a number of methods where you are able to not only help the environment, but you are also able to save money in the long run and reduce your carbon footprint. Have an attempt at installing solar panels, wind turbines or even a geothermal power system to heat your water in your home.

So why not do some research on the available natural energy technologies available to you and see the most appropriate method of installation to your home.

Solar Panels - Power your Home for Free

2007-04-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

Solar power is generated when energy is extracted from the suns rays through the use of photovoltaic cells (commonly referred to as solar cells). These cells convert photos (from the suns rays) into electricity, and this process is known as the "photovoltaic effect."

Many people are beginning to invest in such technologies to avoid rising electricity prices and to help our environment. If every home could be fitted with solar panels, then the strain on power stations would decrease dramatically, which means we wouldn't be left as dependable on fossil fuels as we currently are.

There are many alternatives to solar power, so why should we invest our money into solar technologies, rather than lets say, home wind turbines, or a geothermal energy system? To answer this, we shall look at the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies above.

Solar Panels:

Advantages - widely available, relatively easy to install, very significant output, a solar panel will pay for itself in two to three years, lifetime of 20 to 30 years, modern cells can harness power on cloudy days, can bring power to remote locations.

Disadvantages - costly to begin with, older technologies won't work too well if cloudy.

Wind Turbines:

Advantages - fairly cheap for a home turbine, can be used in harsh conditions.

Disadvantages - totally dependent on the wind, small output, larger turbines can be noisy, wind farms are seen by many as eyesores, larger (more effective) turbines can be very expensive.

Geothermal Energy:

Advantages - can aid in the heating of hot water, save money on running your boiler, can supply effective underfloor heating, heat from the ground can be relied upon.

Disadvantages - have to lay hundreds of meters of piping underground, hard to fix a leak, expensive, longer time to heat water than a boiler.

So there we have the advantages and disadvantages of each. Assuming you do not live by a rapid stream or running river (which rules out hydroelectric power), then as you can see from the above text, solar power is your best option. Solar panels offer many more friendly factors and less disadvantages than other technologies.

A proven method is to have more than one of the above technologies installed around a home (all three would be a dream, but also leave a large hole in your wallet). So if you have the spare cash, are interrested in saving money on future electricity bills, care for the environment, and would like to be less dependent on fossil fuels, why not take a deeper look into the world of renewable energy resources.

How Do Solar Panels Work

2007-04-06T05:02:00.002-07:00

Solar panels are made up of a collection of semiconductor materials that absorb photons. The most common type of semiconductor material used is silicone, which is very plentiful on earth.

Photons from the sun strike the semi conductor material of the solar panel and are absorbed by electrons in the silicon semiconductor. For this to happen, the photons that strike the semiconductor material must be at an energy level of about 1.2. If the energy level is below this minimum, no electricity will be created. About 70% of the photons in sunlight are at, or above this level.

The photons with energy levels below the minimum will reduce the efficiency of the solar panel because they create heat instead of electricity. As the solar panel heats up it becomes less efficient. Currently most research is being conducted in European countries.

Currently solar power still costs more to produce than fossil fuel energy due mostly to costs associated with manufacturing and research. After the initial costs associated with purchasing and installing a solar electric system, future costs associated with operation are minimal. The lifespan of solar panels is about 20 years and researchers are developing new types of solar panels all the time.

Fossil fuel consumption cannot go on indefinitely because they will become depleted and the next step will be solar power.

As the costs of electricity obtained from fossil fuel rises the cost of solar power is dropping. In the near future solar power will be the most cost effective source for our electricity needs.

Solar panels generate a steady (DC) voltage and many devices are designed to operate with DC voltage. The typical home is wired for 120 volt AC operation so the DC voltage is converted to 120-volt AC voltage using a device called an inverter. It is then added to the power grid in your home.

This reduces the amount of power that you will use from the power company. When your solar panels generate more power than you need, the extra power is automatically diverted out of your home and into the utility companies power grid and you a credit for the electricity you provide to the utility. When you don't have enough for your own needs you can draw from the utility grid again. This is all done automatically.

Solar Energy History, What's Next?

2007-04-06T05:02:00.001-07:00

Solar energy history began when the suns rays touched the earth for the first time, four billion years ago. In the early 1900s people used the suns energy to heat water and in the early 1950s research began into solar cells for generating electricity.

In the 1970s solar energy history was changed when President Carter began promoting renewable energy. Through the eighties and early nineties research into solar cells brought about increased efficiencies and manufacturing increased. As a result of these changes solar cells became more affordable and the average homeowner had better access to this technology.

In the earliest stages photovoltaic power was not much more that a curiosity because it was so inefficient.

Today the solar energy future looks brighter than ever with manufacturers regularly doubling capacity and continuing to drive prices lower. Solar panels today are about 12% efficient, which is quadruple what it was a few years ago.

Today solar energy is used in two main forms, solar thermal which uses the suns energy to heat water or some other liquid such as glycol and solar electric which uses the suns rays to create electricity by utilizing photovoltaic cells.

Solar electric energy is a very promising technology in the world today. When compared with fossil fuel and other non-renewable energy sources, its advantages are very clear. There are no moving parts to break down, requires very little maintenance and does not cause pollution.

Solar technology has advanced to the point that homeowners can install their own solar energy systems and remain off grid for extended periods and not rely on electricity generated from a central power station. Not many years from now solar energy history will undoubtedly be changed again as new and more efficient technologies are developed.

How Does Solar Energy Work

2007-04-06T05:01:00.004-07:00

As the heading suggests this is a brief description of solar energy, and if you have ever asked how does solar energy work this is a good general introduction. This article will cover photovoltaic cells.

Solar power technology has advanced a great deal since its beginnings. A photovoltaic cell is a device that generates electricity by reacting to the suns light rays. To generate a useful amount of electricity, many of these cells are combined in a solar panel. These panels are also known as photovoltaic cells, solar cells and solar panels.

A solar panel typically generates 12 volts DC (Direct Current). These panels can be used individually or they can be wired together in what is called an array. The number of panels required is determined by the amount of electricity required and the available sunlight. There are many other factors that determine solar power effectiveness.

The amount of electricity generated by one solar panel will be determined by the intensity of the sunlight, cloud cover, weather conditions and so on.

In most situations, you will require some way to store the power that is generated. This is accomplished with batteries. Batteries will store the electricity until it is needed. In some areas homeowners can connect to the electrical grid and the electric company will use any extra electricity generated and you will be given a credit. Basically you are selling it to the electric company.

When using batteries to store power for future use the quantity of batteries required will be determined by the amount of energy storage necessary.

Interesting Facts About Solar Energy

2007-04-06T05:01:00.003-07:00

As most of us know, solar energy comes from the sun, which is located about 93 million miles from the earth.
What Can Solar Power Be Used For?

The suns energy can be used to heat our homes, heat water, generate electricity, power solar cars and operate communications equipment just to name a few of the endless potential uses for solar energy.

Without solar energy we would not exist. There would be no plants, no heat, no food and no people. Since everything relies on the suns energy it only makes sense that we utilize its potentially endless supply of energy to reduce, and maybe someday stop the decline of our natural resources.

Solar energy in England may have different limitations that solar power in Oklahoma because of the amount of sunshine. As research continues solar cell efficiency will also improve.
What Impact Does Solar Energy Have On The Environment?

Are there any environmental impacts related to the use of solar energy? Sure there are, but let's put things into perspective:

* The process of manufacturing solar components requires the use of fossil fuels but the end product emits no pollution. The alternative is to use fossil fuel day after day and never stop adding pollution to the environment.

* The manufacturing processes and materials used for manufacturing some photovoltaic cells can be harmful to the people working with them. At first this may seem like a reason not to look to solar energy but what about the people who mine coal, or the people who handle spent fuel from nuclear power plants, or what about the harmful emissions from power plants generating electricity. These emissions are destroying our planet.

* To generate 20 - 50 megawatts of solar electricity requires about 1 square kilometre of land. This land usage affects wildlife and is another negative aspect of solar energy. But currently we are cutting our forests down at an alarming rate. Many millions of people burn wood to heat their homes. What if we could eliminate just that? That alone would have a positive effect on the environment.

There is a lot of discussion about solar energy and the debate will continue. Lets not let the debate go on until we have used all of our natural resources and destroyed our planet.

Decide for yourself if solar energy is the best alternative for your future energy needs. Don't rely on information supplied by corporations who have a vested interest in our current energy supplies. If their business relies on selling us their product then they are perhaps not the best source for accurate information.

Many utility companies are researching solar energy and are finding ways to use it today. As consumers we have the power to apply pressure on utility companies because they want our money.

Solar Power How It Works

2007-04-06T05:01:00.001-07:00

Solar power is an area of interest to many people who are concerned about the environment we live in and the dwindling supply of resources available to us. When searching for alternatives to fossil fuels the topic that comes up most often is solar energy.

There are basically two categories that solar energy can be split into. Solar Thermal and Solar Electric
Solar Thermal Method And How It Works

The sun heats water and the water is then circulated throughout your home to maintain a desired space temperature.

Water or a glycol solution is circulated through heat exchangers that absorb heat from the sun and circulate this water throughout the space to be heated. The heat from the water is absorbed into the cooler space that requires heat and then returns to the heat exchanger to be heated again.

Another variation of this is to use the sun to heat water for domestic use. The domestic water can be heated directly by circulating it through the heat exchanger or can be heated indirectly by using a system similar to the home heating method.

A third example of solar thermal is to utilize the suns heat to directly heat air, which is then circulated through the space to be heated.
Solar Electric Method And How It Works

In the solar electric method energy from the sun is converted into electricity through the use of photovoltaic cells.

UThe materials that these cells are manufactured from react chemically to sunlight and create electricity. These photovoltaic cells are made up of many smaller cells and the electricity produced within each cell is combined to obtain a desired voltage.

The electricity can be stored in batteries for later use or used as it is produced.

Solar Energy Advantages Disadvantages

2007-04-06T05:00:00.003-07:00

There is virtually an unlimited supply of solar energy for us to use and it is renewable. This means that our reliance on fossil fuels can be reduced in direct proportion by the amount of solar energy that we use.

Solar energy is an excellent alternative energy source because there is no pollution generated while it is being utilized so therefore each time we use solar energy we reduce pollution.

There is no cost involved with using solar power other that the cost of manufacturing the components, purchasing and installation. After your initial investment there is no further cost associated with its use.

Solar energy is flexible and expandable. This means that you can expand a solar electric system to meet your needs.

As our use of solar energy increases, our demand on fossil fuels decreases. This will extend the time before our supply of fossil fuels expires.

There is no pollution associated with the use of solar power. No greenhouse gasses so therefore, no pollution.

A solar electric system installed in a home could potentially eliminate over 30 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime.

Using solar energy is a silent process. No noise pollution.

When heating appliances use fossil fuels there is always the risk of a cracked heat exchanger, which causes CO2 poisoning. This is not a problem with solar energy use.

Solar power is the best way to supply electricity to isolated places where the cost associated with installing power lines makes it impractical.
Solar Energy Disadvantages

Potentially large areas of land are required for large-scale solar energy projects.

Not many places in the world have enough constant and intense sunshine to make commercial use of solar energy practical.

If you live in a region where there is limited amounts of sunshine it may be difficult to maintain a constant supply of solar energy.

Solar Powered Houses

2007-04-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

Solar powered houses are quickly becoming a viable option for many people today. The attraction of getting virtually free electricity to power houses is not only attractive because of high energy costs but also, and probably more importantly, because of our declining energy reserves.

Solar powered houses don't seem to be as popular in North America as in other places in the world. This is probably due to our thriving economy more than anything. We don't feel the effect of high energy costs as much as some other countries in the world. Remote locations are also more likely to experiment with solar power out of necessity.

People tend not to consider a solar powered house as an option when living in or near cities because everything is so accessible. Some people are beginning to experiment with solar powered equipment around their houses. Things like solar powered motion lights and solar powered house signs are more of a novelty than a necessity, but people are beginning to realize the overall benefits and are taking the first steps to becoming less dependant on other sources of power.

Solar powered highway lights are more common now and farmers use solar power in remote locations on there property. Recreational activities such a camping, boating and hiking can now be done with lightweight solar collectors. Take your laptop with you.

One commonly asked question about solar powered houses is, what happens on cloudy days. In many places solar powered homes remain connected to the power company and when there is not enough electricity generated from the solar system, power is diverted from the power company.

Solar powered houses are no longer something to consider for future projects. They are becoming more common and more affordable for the average family.

Sharp Appoints New Solar Energy Solutions Group VP

2007-03-23T03:58:00.002-07:00

Sharp Electronics Corporation recently announced the appointment of Ron Kenedi as the new vice president of its Solar Energy Solutions Group.

According to Sharp, Kenedi, who previously served as Sharp's Solar Systems Division general manager as well as Photocomm/Kyocera Solar's vice president of sales and marketing, will be responsible for the engineering, marketing and sales of Sharp's solar energy products in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.

Local OR Civic Center to Acquire New Solar System

2007-03-23T03:58:00.001-07:00

The Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) recently announced that a new civic center located in Hillsboro, OR, will be the first municipal headquarters building in the state to meet all of its energy needs with renewable resources.

According to BEF, the civic center will utilize a 3,150-watt, 18-panel roof top solar array and purchase the balance of its power from Portland General Electric's (PGE) Clean Wind program.

BEF noted that PGE paid the greater part of the solar array's cost.

FPL, Carlyle/Riverstone Complete Notes Offering for Solar Assets

2007-03-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

FPL Energy, LLC recently joined with Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund II, LP in announcing that Kramer Junction Solar Funding, LLC has completed the issuance of $125 million of senior secured notes with a final maturity of 2014.

According to FPL, the financing is in connection with the acquisition of a majority interest in five 30-megawatt solar energy generation system (SEGS III-VII) assets by FPL, several of its affiliates and affiliates of Carlyle/Riverstone.

FPL noted that all of the power generated from SEGS projects will be sold to Southern California Edison (SCE) under long-term contract.

Cosmic rays from the solar system - Astronomy - Brief Article

2007-03-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

Dust grains in the outer solar system are the source of some of the cosmic rays that bombard Earth, planetary scientists report in the Oct. 30 Geophysical Research Letters. The grains are located in the Kuiper belt, which lies within the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune and consists of comets and other icy objects from the solar system's formation.

It's the composition of certain cosmic rays that suggests they originate in the solar system, says Nathan A. Schwadron of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. These so-called anomalous cosmic rays are energetic charged particles that strike Earth with only about one-hundredth the energy of cosmic rays from the far reaches of our galaxy or beyond. They consist of carbon, silicon, and iron ions. These ions are common in space between stars, but they would have difficulty penetrating the solar system because the solar wind would repel many of them.

When objects in the Kuiper belt collide, they generate debris ranging from dust grains a few micrometers in diameter to city-size objects, Schwadron notes. As the grains drift toward the inner solar system, they're buffeted by the solar wind. It shakes carbon, silicon, and iron atoms loose from the grains. The atoms become ionized by the sun's ultraviolet radiation and are then accelerated to enormous energies by the solar wind. Some of the ions ultimately bombard Earth, Schwadron and his colleagues calculate.

The discovery that anomalous cosmic rays can be generated from material in the Kuiper belt provides a new tool for gauging the composition and mass of this relic from the solar system's formation, Schwadron says.--R.C.

Worldwater to Build, Install Solar Power System in NJ

2007-03-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

Worldwater and Power Corporation recently announced the signing of a $928,928 contract for the construction and installation of a photovoltaic (PV) electric power system for a commercial building in Sewell, NJ.

According to Worldwater, excess power generated by the system during the summer will be delivered to the Atlantic City Electric Company's power grid. Supplemental power will be drawn from the grid when energy requirements exceed the PV system's capacity.

Worldwater noted that installation of the system is expected to begin once the contract is approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy Program CORE rebate.

Magnetek Solar Honored With Innovation Award

2007-03-23T03:53:00.001-07:00

agnetek, Inc. recently announced it has been awarded Frost & Sullivan's "Solar Power Systems Technology Innovation of the Year" award for 2005 for its Aurora solar power inverters.

According to Magnetek, the Aurora inverters, which were developed at the company's European design center near Florence, Italy, feature two independent Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) circuits, which help the unit optimize the amount of electricity harvested by solar panels under various light conditions.

WOW Energies Announces Launch of New Solar Technology

2007-03-23T03:52:00.003-07:00

Sugar Land, TX-based WOW Energies recently announced the launch of its new process for converting solar energy into electricity -- the cascading closed loop system (CCLC), which utilizes a closed loop hydrocarbon heat exchanger driving multiple turbo expanders.

According to the company, the use of CCLC in a concentrating solar power (CSP) system targets working fluid temperatures less than 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

"This is a dramatic moment for energy conservation and pollution reduction," said WOW Energies CEO Daniel Stinger. "A cost-effective and highly efficient technology using off-the-shelf components now exists to produce power from heat sources such as solar, geothermal, waste heat streams and flue gases. This allows us to meet tomorrow's environmental challenges today by conserving energy and reducing greenhouse gases."

WOW Energies noted that the new process employs parabolic sun collectors to harness solar energy to run its patented CCLC turbine system.

Uni-Solar Ovonic Breaks Ground on New PV Production Facility

2007-03-23T03:52:00.001-07:00

United Solar Ovonic, LLC (Uni-Solar Ovonic) recently announced the groundbreaking for its new solar module manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, MI.

According to Uni-Solar Ovonic, the facility will produce the company's 25-megawatt, thin-film, triple-junction solar modules, helping double its production capacity.

The company noted that the facility is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in May 2006, with a portion scheduled to open in October of this year to commence installation of new module manufacturing equipment.

SMUD to Construct New Homes With Solar Power Systems

2007-03-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) recently announced it has broken ground on 32 new Zero-Energy Homes that include two-kilowatt solar power roofs as a standard feature.

According to SMUD, the houses, located in the Treasure Homes' new Fallen Leaf @ Riverbend community in North Natomas, CA, also feature energy-efficient appliances, windows and lighting.

SMUD noted that the Zero-Energy Home, which it developed in collaboration with local builders, is capable of reducing annual energy bills by as much as 60 percent.

CA Community Colleges Complete Solar Power Installations

2007-03-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

California's Foothill-De Anza Community College District recently announced the completed installation of solar electric and energy-efficient cogeneration projects at Foothill and De Anza colleges.

According to Foothill-De Anza, the projects cost $5.1 million and total 780 kilowatts. Project costs were offset by $2 million in state rebates.

"We're proud to serve as a model for educational institutions statewide and across the nation in achieving energy sustainability, preserving the environment while reducing energy costs and thereby maximizing resources for students," said Foothill-De Anza chancellor Martha Kanter.

Foothill-De Anza noted that the new projects, coupled with earlier lighting, air conditioning and energy management improvements, will cut electricity purchases by nearly 50 percent and save approximately $800,000 per year. Chevron Energy Solutions designed, engineered and constructed the new projects.

Home Solar Power

2007-02-15T22:13:00.001-08:00

The simplest form of alternative energy is produced with a Home Solar Power system. Solar panels, photovoltaics, or PV- whatever term you use to describe it, there is no doubt that Home Solar Power is a great place to start with alternative energy. With no moving parts, solar cells and PV panels require very little maintenance. We have one small solar panel, the second one we ever owned, that still works fine after 13 years of operation and we have not touched it since installation. Home Solar Power is a great investment for the home owner who doesn’t like fixing stuff all the time. You can get more in depth information at our website. Sign up for our free newsletter.

Our second favorite feature of Home Solar Power is the modular nature of the installation itself. When we finished building our timber frame home some 14 years ago we did not have very much money left over in our budget. That October of 1994 we bought our first solar panel anyways. It produced about 2 watts of power (very small) and Jane remembers it was just enough to run a DC car radio when the sun was shining full. We could not afford a battery either so it only ran when the sun was shining. During the winter the radio would come on at about 9:30 in the morning and gradually fade with the setting sun at about 4:00 P.M. That was the only entertainment we had for years.

Gradually we have added more solar panels to our Home Solar Power system. We started with another small panel, about 15 watts, a small inverter, rechargeable batteries for flashlights, and a rechargeable Coleman lantern. Anything that could be recharged slowly worked fine on our small system. Right now we are in the process of upgrading our battery bank and every year we add a solar panel or two. The nice part about this arrangement is that you can start to enjoy Home Solar Power in your own home by spending very little money, and adding on as you can.

There is another hidden benefit to going slowly and taking the modular approach to Home Solar Power. Have any of you noticed the quality of computers we can buy today compared to just 5 years ago- and the corresponding lower prices today? Well, the same thing is happening in the solar panel marketplace. Technology is slowly catching up with demand for renewable energy products driving the quality up and prices down. We are slowly approaching $3 per watt of production power right now. When Jane and I started some 14 years ago the price per watt of production was closer to $10 per watt. Home Solar Power is getting more affordable!

The next step to take is choosing which Home Solar Power system to purchase. Choosing a solar panel manufacturer can be a tricky process. We try not to favor one manufacturer over another when recommending solar panels, inverters, batteries, or any other renewable energy product for that matter. We do suggest a few guidelines to follow in making your own decision though. Generally speaking the larger the solar module, the cheaper the cost per watt of production. Single crystal or multi-crystal solar panels are most common for stationary, or home solar power applications. Amorphous cells are nearly twice the physical size of crystal types but are much more durable and shade tolerant. They are nearly unbreakable. As with most decisions we have made in purchasing our solar panels the cost per watt of production remains the top priority for us. Want to learn more, including our solar installation guide and sign up for our free newsletter then go to http://www.off-grid-living.com/lifestyle/articles/home-solar-power.asp

There are many new technologies coming on the scene and we try and investigate each and every one. You need not wait to install your own Home Solar Power system though. (We will deal with installing your solar panels in another article) Suffice it to say- find a sunny location (no shade), install your solar panels, hook up a battery bank corresponding to your power usage and production capacity, and a small inverter, and you will be producing your own Home Solar Power in a matter of days.

The Watson Solar House Project-Economic Details to a Great Part of the Environmental Agenda

2007-02-15T22:12:00.002-08:00

Perhaps it is a bit of a financial hassle sometimes to use alternative fuels such as a purchasing a hybrid automobile, or the installation of equipment for other solar power sources. Therefore, research continues and progress increases towards improvements and solutions to poor environmental conditions. The use of solar energy in this effort is already apparent. The Watson Solar House Project is a great step of many more steps and scientific advancements to come – that is, if we want to protect and secure the future of our world.

The higher electric power prices rise – the sooner you may “break even” on your investment when you choose to purchase a Watson Solar design for your home. Despite the future financial investment one makes when he or she decides to install solar equipment to collect solar energy there is another, much more important element involved. The most important thing is that someone who chooses to use solar energy is already investing in the environment.

Unfortunately, there are several families and individuals who can not afford the initial costs of installation. It is the hope of many scientists, activists and researchers that this hurdle (though it is certainly a difficult one) might be overcome by further funding, creativity and discovery.

For example:

A Watson Solar Home Instillation costs nearly $19,550. Needless to say, not a piggy-bank proposition, but a Watson Solar Home not too expensive to be out of the reach of many people. Especially those who want to save money in the long – run should consider this possibility.

Considering the rise of electricity and fuel costs, there are absolutely incredible financial benefits to using solar energy as an alternative resource for energy, as well as newly developed alternatives to fuel. It is estimated that in the long run someone who chooses to use Solar Home equipment such as that of the Watson Solar House.

The Watson Solar House Project is primarily based on the use of solar panels. These solar panels have a twenty year warranty. After the next twenty years researchers and manufacturers believe that there will be solar panels and solar technology generating eighty percent production. How beautiful it is: the possibility of using what we already know about generating and developing solar power sources that everyone can use.

Building a Home to Incorporate Passive Solar Heating

2007-02-15T22:12:00.001-08:00

As global warming and fuel prices encroach upon our daily lives, renewable energy sources are gaining a lot of attention. Solar is one form of renewable energy you can incorporate into a new home without using panel systems.

Mention the phrase solar power and what do you think of? Panel systems comprised of a bunch of solar cells. Maybe they are in the backyard. Maybe on the roof. Regardless, they are bulky, expensive and not much to look at when it comes to the appearance of your home. Fortunately, there is another form of solar power you can take advantage of without using panel systems.

Passive solar is a concept that focuses on using the power in sunlight to heat a home. More importantly, the concept incorporates solar heating both during the day and night. If you are building a new home, you would be wise to give the concept some thought. A new home should last for a long time and passive solar heating can save you a ton of money in heating costs over that time. In many cases, it may eliminate the heating costs entirely.

Passive solar is a theory based on heat retention and heat movement. The classic example of solar heating is parking your car in the sun at a mall on a sunny day. What happens when you come out? The interior of the car is roasting hot. Why? The sun has beat down through the windows and heated up the surfaces in the car. With the windows up, the heat is retained and the surfaces can get painfully hot. This is heat retention.

What is the first thing you do when you want to get in the car? You roll down the windows. Why? The hot air will escape, which cools the car. The heat escapes because hot air always moves away from hot surfaces and towards cooler surfaces. This is known as heat movement.

You can use heat retention and movement to incorporate passive solar heating in your home. The idea is to let as much sun as possible through the south facing wall of your home, typically through large windows. To retain the heat, you want to maximize your thermal mass. This is done by placing absorbing materials and colors on the ground below the windows. During the day, these materials absorb the heat. They will give off some of it, but not as much as you might think since the air in the house is normally fairly warm.

Once the sun goes down, your thermal heat products will start to radiate heat. Why? Well, the cooling air temperature will act to suck the heat out of the materials much like opening your window in the hot car resulted in the hot air getting sucked out the windows. Ah, but how long will the thermal mass heat the home? Well, if you are building your home from scratch, you can incorporate enough of the proper material that it will radiate heat throughout the entire night.

Unique Solar Lights

2007-02-15T22:11:00.002-08:00

There are far more types of solar lights than what you see in your average stores. There are virtually hundreds of different types that can fulfill your every lighting need and even add a special touch to any outdoor project.

Typically what you see in most stores are pathway lights and perhaps some spot lights. There are actually many types of specialty solar lights. There are seasonal lights and forms, security lights, flowered lights and even lights that come in forms like dogs, frogs, turtles, birds, insects and even ones that float in a swimming pool.

If you are a dog aficionado, there is a yellow dog, black Labrador, a boxer and a British bulldog and they are holding a solar lantern. They actually look like a dog sitting out in your yard and they are holding a lantern in their mouths.

If you have an outdoor fountain, you may want to select a frog, turtle or snail that lights up after dark. What a wonderful way to show off your waterfall or water display.

Some other types of figurines that come with solar lights are an angelic harpist, an angel with a blinking light or even an owl or squirrel. Image the double takes you guest will give when they see a glow in a tree and it’s an owl or squirrel next to a solar light.

If you are into Gnomes, there is Gnome solar lights. They come in various different styles; shapes and either are spotlights or holding a solar light. These can be a real treat when you add them to you back yard.

There are lights that are in the forms of rocks that function as spot lights and they come in various colors. There are also stepping stone that can add a lot of intrigue to any pathway.

There are lights that are shaped like flowers. These can be added to your existing flower arrangement to either light it up or just to add a special glow to it. They are stunning additions to any setup.

There are also solar security and motion detector lights. These are especially handy for that area that need lighting but are far removed from your electrical sources.

In addition to all these types of lighting, there is solar lighting to line your driveway, your deck or any other things that you may want to add lighting too. There are even solar water fountains, bird feeders, grill lights and there is even solar powered mosquito repellers which establishes a 360 degree mosquito capture zone in your yard. What a marvelous addition to those areas where those pesky critters prevent you from enjoying your yard.

The Solar Wind Blowing through Your Consciousness

2007-02-15T22:11:00.001-08:00

If you follow Space Weather (on the Internet), you may be aware of the solar winds caused by active sunspots facing towards Earth. On Space Weather they mention how these may cause auroras in the night sky, but do not mention what affects these winds have on Human Consciousness.

Last night in bed, I noticed myself bathing in a stream of very high-vibration energy and remembered that Space Weather had predicted auroras. Subjectively, I feel I was noticing this strong magnetic energy coming direct from the Sun.

The energy seemed very pure and clean; the frequency was off the scale of my normal range of experiences with energy – I felt I was being downloaded with information. At present, I do not have the awareness to interpret this subtle Energy at these exceptionally high frequencies.

The flow of energy was so strong it woke me up; I lay there just feeling the energy, being aware of its nature and looking for the information it contained.

I raised my own vibration through Meditation, to see if I could match the Energy flow – a bit like a radio tuner searching the frequency bands to tune in to the signals contained within the light of electromagnetic radiation.

As I raised my vibration, I could feel the Angelic presence of a pure light. It reminded me of the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life. The Kabbalah refers to the planets of our solar system as the Archangels, all radiating their influence down on Earth and touching each individual's life.

Astrology aims to interpret these subtle energies and their influence and to use crystals to adjust the power of each heavenly body in our lives. By adjusting the various influences it aims to change one's destiny or path in life.

The power last night was such that I feel this was more to do with the Ascension process and the moving of Human Consciousness into the New Earth.

As more people awake to the raising of consciousness and breathe their awareness into these more subtle levels of their being, we are seeing the Quantum Field, which underlies our nature, awaking and becoming aware of its own nature: it forms the junction point between all matter, consciousness, and spirit.

The Quantum Field also forms the link to wholeness, between the plants, animals and their environment – so we see everything as a whole, in the Oneness of Life.

The flow of energy from the sun in this subtle form seems to be energizing the field of electromagnetic forces around the body – the Human Aura. As this field of Love grows, it creates the power to attract into your life what you desire. It brings healing and wholeness to your body, so you feel charged up and full of life.

The flow of consciousness into matter has been going on for millennia but it is only now in human history that this conscious awareness is reaching these more subtle levels. We are now starting to think within the light. This is the ultimate refinement of consciousness and what computer designers have been trying to do for years.

Worlds on Fire: Volcanoes on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Io

2007-02-10T04:39:00.001-08:00

WORLDS ON FIRE: Volcanoes on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Io CHARLES FRANKEL

From Kilauea on the island of Hawaii to Gula Mons on Venus, Worlds on Fire provides a fascinating tour of the solar system's major volcanoes. With the aid of the latest satellite and radar imagery, this highly readable guide details the geological features of the moon, Venus, and Mars that evidence their fiery histories. The book also examines current eruptions on Earth and Jupiter's moon Io. Geologist Frankel begins with a lesson in volcanology on Earth, including information on plate tectonics, magma chambers, and eruptions, before moving on to other planets. For each planet or moon featured, the book provides a chapter on geology and then a chapter offering a "tour" of the volcanoes there, illustrated in abundant, mostly black-and-white, photos. This book will appeal to volcano enthusiasts and students of planetary science. Cambridge, 2005, 384 p., b&w photos, hardcover, $40.00.

A taste of open source: this CIO says to drink the Kool-Aid, but as part of a balanced diet

2007-02-10T04:38:00.002-08:00

OPEN SOURCE IS LIKE solar energy. I'm absolutely, 100 percent in favor of it where and when it's viable. You should be, too. In cases where it isn't a good bet, I swallow my pride, compromise my values, and keep paying my electric bills.

Hear me out. Open source, which refers to free software that can be modified and redistributed at will for the benefit of all users, is virtually irresistible when compared with investing in expensive licenses for proprietary vendor software. Open source has been enormously successful in several areas, including operating systems (Linux) and web servers (Apache). Academia is hotly debating open source for its own community, and several well-documented initiatives are in full swing.

I have drunk the open-source Kool-Aid. That's to say, I have tasted it, and it is most refreshing. I am convinced that academia is in a strong position to build open-source tools ... especially in the areas most closely tied to faculty innovation, such as pedagogy, evaluation, research, collaboration, and the dissemination of ideas, just to name a few.

Certain learning management tools are an obvious example. They are the "crown jewels" for academic institutions, key to competitiveness, ripe for cost containment, and an area where substantial grassroots expertise and innovation are likely.
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Also, learning management innovations tend to attract federal and foundation research investment, which increases the likelihood of inter-institutional cooperation--at least, over the short to medium term.

Although open source is promising, I would warn against too much of a good thing. I suggest a balanced diet, in this case consisting of healthful doses of open-source and vendor-sourced software. The question isn't open source vs. vendor source. We need both. I suggest a "hybrid source" model.

IDEAS INTO REALITY

Open source alone falls short when academia fails, as it does in many cases, to make the sustained long-term investment required to build stable, scalable, robust tools evenly across the entire swath of the academic enterprise.

Academia is unlikely, for example, to lead the charge in integrating academic tools with administrative tools. Although robust databases, effective editors, and strong replication, backup, and other tools are often conceived in the academic world, they are brought to maturity in the private sector.

Unfortunately, open-source initiatives often break down when members of collaborating consortia pull out of an initiative, leaving a smaller number of institutions to carry a bigger slice of the funding pie. And though leading research universities are likely to invest in open-source innovation, they are just as unlikely to sustain those investments as tools stabilize.

DEVELOPMENT DRIVERS

So, am I saying academia should retreat and minimize its role in developing the software that drives it every day? No!

On the contrary, academia is and should continue driving innovation across the academic technology spectrum. After all, it is our faculty and students who identify the requirements and innovations needed--and academic technology must be responsive to them. I am suggesting that industry players like WebCT have a crucial role to play with us in defining and implementing innovative responses to academic needs.

Just as the electric company is best positioned to power my coffee maker, industry is often best positioned to "harden" and scale academic technology service components. Industry is, frankly, more proficient than academia is at integrating services, and defining--with academias input--robust interfaces, toolkits, and standards that make up an extensible, open-standards-based academic technology environment. This environment will make fertile ground for innovation.

Software companies will always want some source code to be proprietary. It's hard to fault their reasoning, especially in higher education, where faculty often convincingly argue for the intellectual property rights of the material they present in class. To be successful, proprietary software products must be packaged in open-standard interfaces and serve as true building blocks for faculty and student innovation. If they are, everyone will benefit.

Amplifying the value of their innovations over the longer term, vendors can "amortize" their investments over a far broader community, including thousands of community colleges, small liberal arts colleges, research universities, professional schools, and even K-12--not just the active participants in the consortium at hand. Having industrial partners who are likely to commercialize the tools academia conceives is a win-win situation.

By the same token, for-profits are compelled to honor open-source principles and activities. They're just too big to ignore. In 2004, WebCT Chief Technology Officer Chris Vento called for "a more synergistic and holistic" approach to open-source and commercial innovation. The strongest cooperative ventures seem to follow the "early and often" mantra by sharing in the vision and strategies from the start, and continually synchronizing collaborative efforts.

Imaging Dot Patterns for Measuring Gossamer Space Structures

2007-02-10T04:38:00.001-08:00

A paper describes a photogrammetric method for measuring the changing shape of a gossamer (membrane) structure deployed in outer space. Such a structure is typified by a solar sail comprising a transparent polymeric membrane aluminized on its Sun-facing side and coated black on the opposite side. Unlike some prior photogrammetric methods, this method does not require an artificial light source or the attachment of retroreflectors to the gossamer structure. In a basic version of the method, the membrane contains a fluorescent dye, and the front and back coats are removed in matching patterns of dots. The dye in the dots absorbs some sunlight and fluoresces at a longer wavelength in all directions, thereby enabling acquisition of high-contrast images from almost any viewing angle. The fluorescent dots are observed by one or more electronic camera(s) on the Sun side, the shade side, or both sides. Filters that pass the fluorescent light and suppress most of the solar spectrum are placed in front of the camera(s) to increase the contrast of the dots against the background. The dot image (s) in the camera (s) are digitized, then processed by use of commercially available photogrammetric software.

This work was done by A. A. Dorrington, P. M. Danehy, T. W. Jones, R. S. Pappa, and J. W. Connell o/Langley Research Center. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Physical Sciences category.

TURTLEnergy enters race to provide new energy options

2007-02-10T04:37:00.002-08:00

TURTLEnergy is the newest business unit within Turtle & Hughes, founded two years ago to service the unlimited market for renewable energy options.

"If you look at the geopolitical landscape, it's obvious that more and more institutions and businesses are going to begin generating their own electricity at the point of use," says John Millard, the founder of the new division. "Given threats like radical climate change, outmoded power grids, and the vulnerability to terrorism, the trend is going to be toward self-generation of power and away from total dependence on the utility companies."

The renewable energy market is in its formative stages, with various competitive and sometimes complementary technologies vying for customer attention. These include photovoltaics (PV-solar electricity), wind turbines and hydrogen fuel cells. This is where TURTLEnergy plans to provide a unique service.

"The potential customer, whether an industrial, commercial, institutional or municipal entity, needs advice and guidance in this new venture," Millard says. "Turtle & Hughes is in a unique position to coordinate the capabilities and strategies of both renewable energy manufacturing companies and the electrical contractors who will perform the installation of the system at the end-user's site. Since our company has a customer base of some 3,000 contractors, we can facilitate the optimum matches of end-user and installer."

The specialist staff of the new division consists of Millard, with a background in architectural design; Richard Lenskold, an electrical engineer with 30 years experience in the PV industry; and Steven Hoffman who is ana experienced manager of PV projects and who provides renewable energy system sales and installation support.

The game plan is for TURTLEnergy to act as a systems integrator, drawing upon the entire company's on-the-ground knowledge of their existing industrial and institutional customer's needs in terms of electrical power. This information can then be shared with appropriate contractor customers who can bid to install the integrated systems hardware. The objective is to coalesce the selling of products and the selling of systems.

One of the most. dynamic aspects of this market is its universality, encompassing everything from residential to multi-location industrial installations. Depending on the application, systems can range anywhere in size from the dimensions of a trash can to the size of a commercial aircraft.

"This whole market is in its nascent stage," Millard notes.

"And the numbers are staggering. At the end of last year, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities allocated $780 million for renewable energy related projects over the next four years. That's probably only 60% of the state's incentive money, so we're talking about $1.4 billion going to be spent in New Jersey alone by 2008."

And TURTLEnergy has begun to establish a track record. The division has been involved in the installation of a 50-kilowatt system and has been awarded a 500-kilowatt project at the Kearny Board of Education. One of the company's contractor customers is working on a $2.5 million project as well.

Annual and interannual behavior of solar ultraviolet irradiance revealed by broadband measurements

2007-02-10T04:37:00.001-08:00

Annual and Interannual Behavior of Solar Ultraviolet Irradiance Revealed by Broadband Measurements(para)

ABSTRACT

This research examines the behavior of ground-level solar UV radiation as measured by eight broadband meters in the continental United States during the period from late 1994 to late 1998. The goal is to define the variability that occurs in UV irradiance over time scales ranging from one to several years. The monthly integrated irradiances, from latitude 32N to 47N, contain large annual cycles and latitudinal gradients which depend on season. Seven of the eight sites show a maximum in July, a behavior related to proximity to the summer solstice, with modifications associated with the annual cycle in column ozone. A large interannual variability in monthly integrated irradiance appears over the 4 year period studied. A comparison of corresponding months during different years shows differences in irradiance of 20% or more in one-third of the cases analyzed. When the solar zenith angle (SZA) is held fixed in the range 60-65, a substantial annual cycle in UV irradiance remains where the maximum monthly mean irradiance is 1.4-1.9 times the minimum, depending on location. Furthermore, the annual cycle at fixed SZA is not in phase with the normal seasonal cycle. Maximum irradiances at fixed SZA tend to occur in the October to December period, while minima cluster in April through July. The annual cycle in ozone, with maximum column values in spring and minima in autumn, explains the general character of the fixed-SZA data, although changes in cloudiness are significant contributors to interannual variability.

Abbreviations: CUCF, Central UV Calibration Facility; DU, Dobson unit; SRF, spectral response function; SZA, solar zenith angle; USDA, United States Department of Agriculture; YES, Yankee Environmental Systems.
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INTRODUCTION

Solar UV radiation at or near the Earth's surface drives air chemistry in clean and polluted environments (1), in addition to being a contributor to a variety of negative biological effects (2-). The variation of ground-level LTV irradiance with local time, latitude and season arises primarily from the changing path length taken by sunlight through an absorbing and scattering atmosphere as solar elevation varies over time scales ranging from hours to 1 year. Finally, changing optical properties of the local atmosphere, including ozone abundance, clouds, haze and particulates lead to additional variations in UV irradiance at a fixed site. These localized effects can be major factors in determining the radiation doses received by local biota and the vigor of chemical processes in a particular geographic region, such as an urban area.

This research examines the behavior of ground-level solar UV radiation measured from several locations during a 4 year period of the 1990s. Although considerable attention has focused on systematic changes in UV radiation in association with long-term trends in the ozone layer (5), it is apparent that regional meteorological conditions can lead to a large variability over a variety of time scales (6,7). This work seeks to define the variability that takes place in UV irradiance over time periods ranging from months up to several years. The objectives are (1) to define the nature and magnitude of interannual variability; (2) to examine the dependence of UV irradiance on location; and (3) to define the magnitude and character of the annual cycle in UV irradiance when the solar zenith angle (SZA)t is held fixed. This final objective addresses the role of atmospheric composition in driving an annual cycle in UV irradiance at the ground, when the large influence of a changing solar elevation is absent.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Broadband meters. The data sets used in this research come from several broadband UV sensors operating in the continental United States as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) UV-B Monitoring Program (8). These meters have the advantages of mechanical simplicity and a high measurement frequency, and the resulting data set allows detailed studies of the temporal behavior in UV irradiance. The limitation is that the broadband information alone does not allow unambiguous attribution of observed variability to a specific cause, such as a change in ozone or in cloudiness.

and the integral extends from zero to infinity. Note that fiX) has the units of inverse wavelength. The structure of the meter determines f(a), while the convention adopted in the calibration fixes the value of Ro. For the UVB-1 meters, Ro is chosen such that the daily maximum irradiance at local noon in summer for a clear middle latitude location is typically near 4 W m-z.

Biases and uncertainties in measured irradiances. Possible biases and uncertainties in the broadband measurements may be divided into three areas: angular or cosine response, radiometric sensitivity or gain and the spectral response function (SRF). Any of these factors could vary in a single instrument over the time period between successive calibrations. There could also be instrument-to-instrument differences that influence the data set at a fixed location since a new detector is placed at each site as part of the yearly calibration process. The following paragraphs summarize the calibration procedure, followed by estimates of systematic biases and random errors in the measured irradiances.

Energy Innovations Selected as 2006 Technology Pioneer

2007-02-10T04:36:00.002-08:00

Energy Innovations, Inc. recently announced that the World Economic Forum has selected the company as one of its 36 Technology Pioneers for 2006.

According to Energy Innovations, Technology Pioneers are companies that have been identified by the forum as "developing and applying highly transformational and innovative technologies in the areas of energy, information technology, biotechnology and health."

Energy Innovations noted that it is currently developing a rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar concentrator system, dubbed the Sunflower, that is composed of an array of mirrors, rather than more expensive silicon-based PV cells, to track the sun throughout the day and year and concentrate its light onto a small panel of PV cells.

Energy Innovations expects the replacement of the silicon-based PV cells to lower the cost of solar electricity by half or more compared to current rates.

Universal Communication Systems, Inc. Releases a Detailed Information Statement on Millennium Electric TOU Inc.; Company to Enter Multi-Billion Dollar

2007-02-10T04:36:00.001-08:00

Universal Communication Systems, Inc (OTCBB:UCSY), company chairman Michael J Zwebner today announced that the company in response to the many inquiries and questions it has received as to its acquisition of Millennium Electric TOU Inc, is releasing this following information statement to detail to the public facts relating to the company and its past as well as its future plans and ongoing commercial activities.

In a statement made in Miami, Michael Zwebner said: "This is a very exciting acquisition for our company. It propels us into the state of the art high tech Solar Power Industry, which is currently witnessing huge annual growth in many international spectrums. More and more products and services are being developed to operate on solar power, and through our acquisition of this exciting company, we see ourselves now as becoming a leading pioneer in this industry. We are developing plans to create several independent operating subsidiaries to fully utilize the technology, and create independent revenues from the varying activities."

Millennium Electric TOU Inc., one of Israel's leading companies, is an enterprise focusing on practical applications of solar energy. Millennium is an expert in designing, developing, installing and providing solar energy related products and services. The sophisticated solar energy devices are economical, clean and an environment friendly source of energy/power with a wide variety of practical applications in many fields. Millennium's skills encompass planning, design, construction and installation services and applications not connected to the electric power grid. Millennium's fully computerized systems serve remote housing, villages, street lighting installations, computerized irrigation, communication and various military systems. The company's total system capabilities have been proven in large-scale projects performed for Israel's Ministries of Energy, Housing and Defense. The company's mission is to continue to design and establish solar systems for communities on a world wide basis, based on the MSS a unique patented system that utilized advanced photovoltaic and storage technology combined with flat -plate solar water collector to provide electricity & hot air/ water and air-conditioning for residential and industrial buildings. Being modular, the average basic system can provide from 1kw up to 100 Megawatt of useful power utilizing solar energy products and services, for a more economical, cleaner, and safer environment.

The following is an Achievement Summary: Details of work undertaken.

UNOSOM: United Nations Forces in Somalia - Security lighting and office building Solar System, Project value: $2.73 Million.

Israeli Ministry of Defense: Over 1,000 Security Lights installed along Israeli border, conforming to military specifications. Project Value: $1.3 million.

Ministry of Energy: Electrification of an animal ranch in Israel Desert - a 40kW system. Project value: $189,000.

Ministry of Transportation: Electrification of the Israel Cross Highway, (No. 6) with traffic probe reader. Project value: 500,000.

NY Electric Power Authority: A 30kWp system. Project value: $30,000.

Central Solar System: Installations in over 5 hotels and public buildings worldwide. Total Value: $50 million dollars.

Kalil Village, Western Galilee: Electrification of a 31 unit family village. Project value: $273,000.

Solar RPV Airplane: A solar prototype RPV plane used to replace satellite for communication and photography orbiting at a height of 100 ft. carrying a satellite payload. Total value: $100,000.

Millennium Electric TOU Inc., has a detailed web address, and the public are invited to visit and learn more about the company and its unique products and services. http://www.millennium-electric-inc.com

About Universal Communication Systems, Inc

UCSY is a holding company that incorporates the following subsidiaries. Please visit our new updated web site at http://www.ucsy.com

AirWater Corporation

For detailed information on the AirWater System and Machines, please visit our web address at: http://www.airwatercorp.com

Digital Way SA (Peru)

For information, visit the company's web site at: http://www.digitalway.com.pe

About CinemaElectric Inc.

For information on CinemaElectric Inc., please visit the web site at: http://www.cinemaelectric.com

Safe Harbor: Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements by

Universal Communication Systems, Inc.

This document includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, and factors affecting the integration of the businesses of Universal Communication Systems, Inc. More detailed information about these factors may be found in filings by Universal Communication Systems, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their most recent annual reports on Form 10-KSB and quarterly reports on Form 10-QSB. Universal Communication Systems, Inc. is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any such obligation to, update or alter their forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

DC Fuses provide protection for ac/dc applications

2007-02-10T04:35:00.002-08:00

UL listed to 600 Vac/dc, Limitron[R] DCM Fuses feature interrupting ratings of 100,000 A for ac applications and 50,000 A for dc. Developers of solar photovoltaic systems can utilize fuses to comply with NEC[R] 690.9(D) which requires that photovoltaic source circuits utilize overcurrent devices listed for dc circuits and have appropriate voltage and interrupting ratings. Additional applications include traction/mass transit auxiliary circuits and alternative energy sources.

ST. LOUIS, November 16, 2005 - The new series of Cooper Bussmann midget fuses is designed to meet a full range of ac or dc applications, from dc control circuits and traction/mass transit auxiliary circuits to alternative energy sources.

The Cooper Bussmann Limitron[R] DCM fuse is UL Listed up to 600Vac/dc and with interrupting ratings of 100,000A for ac applications and 50,000A for dc.

Developers of solar photovoltaic systems, which are used to convert solar energy into electricity for power generation, can utilize the new Cooper Bussmann DCM fuse to easily comply with NEC[R] 690.9(D) which requires that photovoltaic source circuits utilize overcurrent devices listed for dc circuits and having the appropriate voltage and interrupting ratings. Cooper Bussmann offers a whole product solution for photovoltaic applications, including the fuse, fuse holder, combiner box (sourced), disconnect and monitoring capability.

The DCM fuse also possesses additional advantages for other alternative applications, including a 600Vdc rating for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, and dc listing requirements for wind power, fuel cells and dc control circuits. Furthermore, its small size, listing for dc use and a variety of fuse holders makes it ideal for traction and mass transit auxiliary circuits.

State solar power rebate rekindled to work with fed's

2007-02-10T04:35:00.001-08:00

Illinois has restored power to its solar rebate program.

Until last summer, Illinois gave homeowners and businesses as much as $5,000 on a $10,000 solar system. Solar panels can supplement natural gas heat, which got more expensive last year.

But the program was temporarily halted as the state waited to learn more about how a new federal tax credit for solar energy would be structured for 2006. The state wanted the two programs to complement each other.

Now the state is starting its rebate program again, even though it doesn't have all the details about the federal credit, according to Hans Detweiler, deputy director of energy and recycling for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

"We might have to hold our breath for a long time" to wait for publication of the new tax credit rules, Detweiler said. "We've decided to go ahead with the best available information."

The new Illinois rebate program will combine with a 30 percent federal tax credit under the energy bill passed last year.

The new Illinois rebate program provides a flat rebate of 30 percent for any system, up to a maximum rebate of $10,000. The old rebate program applied a 50 percent rebate on the first $10,000 of costs, and 25 percent on the next $20,000, for a maximum of $10,000.

With a $8,500 system, the new Illinois rebate would be $2,550, and then the federal tax credit would be $1,785, for a total savings of 51 percent.

The state has $500,000 available for this year's rebates, Detweiler said. It is also funding applications it received last year, under last year's program.

"Obviously, this is tremendous for the Illinois solar industry and Illinois citizens who want to use solar energy to reduce energy costs and pollution," Brandon Leavitt, president of Solar Service in Niles, said in a letter to leaders of the Illinois Solar Energy Association. All his customers have used the state rebates, and he said the absence of the rebate program hurt business.

"I'm going to get real busy," said Scott Crider, project manager for Solara Systems in Bristol.

A solar system that provides only hot water installs for between $8,000 to $10,000. A system that provides hot water and home heating is between $16,000 and $20,000.

Analysys International Considers Effect of Poly Silicon Shortage

2007-02-10T04:34:00.000-08:00

Chinese third-party, Internet-based business information services provider Analysys International recently released its annual report, titled "Semiconductor -- China's Solar Energy Market Annual Report 2005-2006," which finds that the shortage of poly silicon in the Chinese market will serve to bottleneck the development of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry in the coming years.

"Overseas enterprises have established alliances and blocked the technology in this market," said Analysys International analyst Zhao Yuewang. "Chinese enterprises currently lack a technical strength of productivity of thousands of tons....[T]he enormous shortage of poly silicon in the solar PV energy industry by 2008 should not be neglected by intent players."

According to Analysys International, only productivity beyond 1,000 tons could prove economically effective and competitive due to the high capital and technical requirements of poly silicon projects.

A taste of open source: this CIO says to drink the Kool-Aid, but as part of a balanced diet

2007-01-04T04:15:00.000-08:00

Worlds on Fire: Volcanoes on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Io

2007-01-03T04:15:00.000-08:00

From Kilauea on the island of Hawaii to Gula Mons on Venus, Worlds on Fire provides a fascinating tour of the solar system's major volcanoes. With the aid of the latest satellite and radar imagery, this highly readable guide details the geological features of the moon, Venus, and Mars that evidence their fiery histories. The book also examines current eruptions on Earth and Jupiter's moon Io. Geologist Frankel begins with a lesson in volcanology on Earth, including information on plate tectonics, magma chambers, and eruptions, before moving on to other planets. For each planet or moon featured, the book provides a chapter on geology and then a chapter offering a "tour" of the volcanoes there, illustrated in abundant, mostly black-and-white, photos. This book will appeal to volcano enthusiasts and students of planetary science. Cambridge, 2005, 384 p., b&w photos, hardcover, $40.00.

Imaging Dot Patterns for Measuring Gossamer Space Structures

2007-01-02T04:14:00.000-08:00