Sanyo has built an ark for the solar century - an impressive 630 kW solar-collecting building that boasts over 5,000 solar panels and kicks off over 500,000 kWh of energy per year. Even more outstanding is the fact that most of the monocrystalline modules used on the Solar Ark were factory rejects headed to the scrap pile. Located next to Sanyo's semiconductor factory in Gifu, Japan, the Solar Ark stands as one of the best examples of building integrated PV design to date.
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Post tags: BIPV, Building Integrated Photovoltaics, Gifu Prefecture, Japanese Solar Building, photovoltaics, Sanyo Solar Ark, Solar Ark By Sanyo, Solar Building in Japan, Stunning Sanyo Solar Ark
Reference: green-energy-digest.blogspot.com
Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship company of the 9.4 billion Adani Group, on Sunday signed an agreement with US-based SunEdison Inc. to set up a joint venture that will build a solar photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Gujarat with an investment of around 4 billion. The announcement comes amid a trade battle between India and the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where a dispute settlement panel has been established to hear US complaints against India's domestic content requirements on procurement of solar cells and modules under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) programme. The new facility will be constructed in Mundra, Gujarat, over three-four years and will vertically integrate all aspects of solar panel production on site. The facility will create enough solar panels to fuel substantial growth in India, furthering India's goals for clean, renewable energy independence, the companies said in a joint statement. The statement did not say how the Adani Group, which has a consolidated debt of Rs.71,980 crore, will fund the deal. Adani's proposed joint venture announcement also comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has substantially revised an earlier solar energy target of achieving 20,000 megawatts (MW) capacity by 2022 to 100,000MW. In addition, the government has ambitious continue reading
Reference: energy-saving-technologies.blogspot.com
Barely two weeks into his presidency, Jimmy Carter called for a comprehensive, long-range energy policy that emphasized conservation. Too bad no one listened"One of our most urgent projects is to develop a national energy policy," said President Jimmy Carter in a televised Oval Office address on February 2, 1977. It was his Report to the American People on Energy. He had been president for just 13 days.Noting that America was "only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long-range energy policy," Carter championed a program that would "emphasize conservation.""The amount of energy being wasted which could be saved is greater than the total energy that we are importing from foreign countries," Carter said. "We will also stress development of our rich coal reserves in an environmentally sound way; we will emphasize research on solar energy and other renewable energy sources; and we will maintain strict safeguards on necessary atomic energy production."Just think for a moment where we might be today if Americans had answered Carter's call to action. But alas, for the ensuing three decades, at least when it came to energy -- our policy, our usage, our investments, our waste -- we were asleep at the wheel. And for a good lot of us, that wheel happened to be connected to a gas-guzzling SUV.And all the while, oil companies kept drilling for more of the stuff to which we became so addicted. Profits were huge. Thanks to our unchecked addiction, ExxonMobil posted a staggering, record-breaking net income of 40.61 billion in 2007. (That's more than the nominal GDP of over 100 countries, including Tunisia, Guatemala and Kenya.) Now, that addiction (and all the other addictions that oil fed so well) has led us directly to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- the greatest ecological catastrophe to befall the nation in its 233-year history. And it was man-made."Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced," said President Obama during his Oval Office address last night. "And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it's not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years."An addiction that led to an epidemic? Sounds positively Caligulan.Obama pointed out that "for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked, not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor."Democratic senators are planning to meet tomorrow to discuss the agenda that will cover the remaining time of the 111th Congress, which will come to a close on January 3, 2011. Will they show the political courage to vote for comprehensive legislation to address climate change?Worryingly, some of them have said they will hold their vote unless such legislation caters to some offshore drilling interests. In the meantime, anthropogenic climate change -- tied closely to America's fossil fuel usage (Obama noted that "we consume more than 20 percent of the world's oil") -- continues to take a devastating toll on the global environment.In 2004, a group of international researchers published a bleak study entitled "Extinction Risk from Climate Change" in the journal Nature. The authors predicted that millions of species will become extinct due to climate change by 2050 -- a quarter of animals and plants living on land alone. Up to 37% of the species in the biodiverse regions they studied could be wiped out, primarily because of the effects of all the carbon dioxide we're releasing into the atmosphere. These aren't just numbers. These are living creatures, and the vast majority of them have been around -- and doing perfectly fine, thank you very much -- long before Homo sapiens turned up. Now they are disappearing at a rapid clip, while humans reproduce at an unsustainable rate."Polar bears drowning as the sea ice they need to survive melts away," writes Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen in a recent email. "Sea turtles, pelicans and other wildlife coated in oil, poisoned in their homes as the result of America's addiction to oil...Last year, Big Oil spent millions of dollars lobbying against climate change legislation and for more drilling off our coasts.""I am happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party -- as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels," Obama said last night."Some have suggested raising efficiency standards in our buildings like we did in our cars and trucks. Some believe we should set standards to ensure that more of our electricity comes from wind and solar power. Others wonder why the energy industry only spends a fraction of what the high-tech industry does on research and development -- and want to rapidly boost our investments in such research and development. All of these approaches have merit and deserve a fair hearing in the months ahead. But the one approach I will not accept is inaction."Well, unless the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the wake-up call that environmentalists are hoping will end up being the disaster's silver lining, Obama may have no choice but to accept that last approach. Inaction is exactly what followed Carter's call for an environmentally sound, long-range energy policy over 33 years ago. "There is no way that I, or anyone else in the government, can solve our energy problems if you are not willing to help," Carter warned Americans in his address. But no one listened to him.We weren't willing to help back then. What about now? Are we addicted to oil, and if so, can we admit it and change our daily behavior? Will we consider more seriously the things we choose to do and buy and the size of our carbon footprint? If we wait another 33 years to do something, what will be left of our environment? What species can survive three more decades of humans sleeping at the wheel?GET INVOLVED * Sign a Defenders of Wildlife petition urging the U.S. Senate to support legislation to address climate change and oppose dirty oil drilling * Sign the Food ">Add your voice to the WE Campaign to affect bold action on climate changeRELATED POSTS * Polar Bear Habitat Melting Rapidly (June 10, 2010) * Protecting America's Serengeti (June 7, 2010) * Our Carbon Future (May 27, 2010) * Big Oil vs. Polar Bears (May 25, 2010) * More Oil Rigs or New Wind Farms? (May 4, 2010) * The Disaster of Drilling (April 26, 2010) * Obama: Offshore and Off Base (April 1, 2010) * How Much for That Polar Bear Rug? (February 2, 2010) * Protecting Polar Bears (December 3, 2009) * Slipping Away: The Polar Bear (November 17, 2009) * Oil and Water Don't Mix (October 7, 2009) * Closing Off the Arctic (July 23, 2009) * Gone in 75 Years: Polar Bears (June 29, 2009) * Polar Transcendentalism (May 11, 2009) * Salazar to Decide Polar Bear Fate Today (May 8, 2009) * Fate of Polar Bears in Salazar's Hands (April 22, 2009) * Selling the Arctic's Future to the Oil Industry (March 6, 2009) * Farewell to the Polar Bears (January 14, 2009) * Using Art to Tell the Sad Tale of Polar Bears (September 29, 2008)image: screenshot from President Carter's Report to the American People on Energy, February 2, 1977 (Jimmy Carter Presidential Library)
"MARYLAND ENERGY FACTS" Electrification in the United States has become a challenge to its citizens. The principal sources of electricity in the US are coal, oil and natural gas, which are classified as fossil fuels. Due to the fact that fossil fuels are non-renewable and they diminish with time, the cost of extracting them is persistently increasing. It's evident that electricity prices are steadily increasing (see article about BGE rate increasing). And in fact, Maryland is ranked 10th in the list of the states ranked by high electricity prices! While coal is Maryland's main source of electricity, the amount of coal that the state produces is far from meeting their electricity requirements. Coal generates 55% of the state's electricity. Maryland also acquires electricity from their single nuclear power plant referred to as the dual-unit Calvert Cliffs. Around 33% of the state's electricity is supplied from this plant. In order to meet their citizens' electricity needs, the state has been forced to import energy resources. Since the coal mined inthe AppalachianMountains is not sufficient, the available amount is supplemented by importing some coal from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Despite the imported coal, the state still has to depend on natural gas which they import from Norway, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago. Many issues have emerged about the use of fossil fuels. These fuels release carbon dioxide, which has precarious health & climate effects to humans. Regulations have been imposed to reduce the emission of this gas. Unfortunately, these regulations are costly and they have triggered the increasein energy costs. Lack of affordable energy has become a threat to Maryland's economy. The state has invited utilities, especially thosewho have invested in renewable energy sources to sell a precise percentage of electricity. By the year 2022, the state expects 20% of its retail electricity sales to be generated from renewable energy sources. Out of this percentage, 2% should be solar energy. The more of this solar is installed on consumer's roofs, the more savings on their monthly electricity bills! The post Maryland Energy Facts appeared first on MDGotSun.
According to newly released statistics from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, renewable energy sources produced 32 percent of Scotland's electricity in the first half of 2014 - beating both nuclear power, which used to be Scotland's main source of electricity, and fossil fuels.Scotland produced 10.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from renewable energy sources in the first half of 2013. Nuclear energy, which had previously been Scotland's main source of electricity, only generated 7.8TWh over the same period. Other fossil-fuel sources then followed, with 5.6TWh of electricity generated from coal and another 1.4TWh from gas-fired power stations.The energy policy of the Scottish government is that 100 percent of all electricity consumed in Scotland by 2020 should come from renewable energy sources. The majority of renewable energy in Scotland comes from wind and hydro. Onshore wind generated more than half of all renewable electricity output in Scotland in 2013. Hydro power contributed almost one third of renewable electricity output. Experts say that other renewable energy sources, such as biomass, have a substantial potential for growth in the future.Environmental campaigners and leaders in the green energy sector have hailed this as an historic event and urged increased commitment towards renewables in Scotland and the rest of the UK.Niall Stuart, chief executive of the industry body Scottish Renewables, said that "the renewables industry has come a long way in a short space of time" and that there is still "plenty of potential" for more. Besides fighting climate change, Stuart also said that renewables will decrease the country's reliance on imported energy while supporting communities across Scotland with more jobs and investment."The announcement that renewables have become Scotland's main source of electricity is historic news for our country and shows the investment made in the sector is helping to deliver more power than ever before to our homes and businesses," Stuart added. "This important milestone is good news for anyone who cares about Scotland's economy, our energy security and our efforts to tackle climate change."Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said that this "represents a major step on the way to Scotland becoming a 100 per cent renewable nation" and added that "last month, while nuclear reactors were forced to shut because of cracks, Scotland's renewables were quietly and cleanly helping to keep the lights on in homes across the country.""Put simply, renewables work and are helping to cut climate change emissions and create jobs in Scotland."
Wind power is becoming one of the largest renewable energy source in modern world. Current researches on wind turbine focuses on extracting maximum power from the wind. New wind turbines have been designed to meet the requirements.
For example, airborne wind turbine technology by Altaeros Energies is suitable for high altitude winds. Now Siemens, a German multinational conglomerate company along with DONG Energy is building the largest wind turbine having blades of length 75 metres.
The wind turbine is planned to be installed off the Britain coast from 2014. The blades are only slightly smaller than the Airbus A380 wingspan which is 79.8 metres. Each blade is is made from two pieces of carbon fibre.
The rotor diameter is 154 metres and has a swept area of 18,600 square metres. According to Siemens, it can generate upto 6MW that can supply power to 6,000 households.
It requires a special truck to transports these blades to their place of installation which is at distance from the factory.
These offshore wind turbines is capable of producing more energy than the onshore wind turbines. European countries are looking forward into offshore power generation to meet the future energy requirements.
Credits: Siemens, DONG Energy
Also read:- Flying Wind Turbine Technology- Paper Aircraft Propelled By Inversion- Fascinating Super fast airplanes
