September 30, 2009
From the New York Times: The main way for homes to harness solar power today is through bulky panels added to the rooftop or mounted on the ground. But companies are now offering alternatives to these fixed installatio
ns, in the less conspicuous form of shingles, tiles and other building materials that have photovoltaic cells sealed within them. Companies are creating solar tiles and shingles in colors and shapes that fit in, for example, with the terra cotta tile roofing popular in the Southwest, or with the gray shingles of coastal saltbox cottages. Read more
September 29, 2009
From the Associated Press: A pair of magnolia trees, dark red siding, ceiling fans, bamboo flooring and rustic wooden beams salvaged from a Georgia barn add to the inviting atmosphere of the little house in the middle of Florida State University’s brick-and-mortar campus. It may look like an out-of-place throwback, but the $575,000 Off-Grid, Zero Emissions Building – OGZEB – has a futuristic purpose. Its mission is to test potential solutions to the world’s energy and climate change problems by combining old tricks with cutting-edge technology, including a unique solar-hydrogen experiment. Read more
September 16, 2009
NYT columnist Thomas Friedman shines a light on how the U.S. is failing to capitalize on the worldwide market for solar panels.
Applied Materials is one of the most important U.S. companies you’ve probably never heard of. It makes the machines that make the microchips that go inside your computer. The chip business, though, is volatile, so in 2004 Mike Splinter, Applied Materials’s C.E.O., decided to add a new business line to take advantage of the company’s nanotechnology capabilities — making the machines that make solar panels. The other day, Splinter gave me a tour of the company’s Silicon Valley facility, culminating with a visit to its “war room,” where Applied maintains a real-time global interaction with all 14 solar panel factories it’s built around the world in the last two years. I could only laugh because crying would have been too embarrassing. Not a single one is in America.
Let’s see: five are in Germany, four are in China, one is in Spain, one is in India, one is in Italy, one is in Taiwan and one is even in Abu Dhabi. I suggested a new company motto for Applied Materials’s solar business: “Invented here, sold there.
Read more
September 15, 2009
The New York Times carried this report on Hawaii’s efforts to green its power supply. Like Alaska, Hawaii is hampered by high energy prices and having multiple electrical grid that serve widely dispersed populations.
HU, Hawaii — Two miles or so from this tiny town in the southernmost corner of the United States, across ranches where cattle herds graze beneath the distant Mauna Loa volcano, the giant turbines of a new wind farm cut through the air. Sixty miles to the northeast, near a spot where golden-red lava streams meet the sea in clouds of steam, a small power plant extracts heat from the volcanic rock beneath it to generate electricity.
These projects are just a slice of the energy experiment unfolding across Hawaii’s six main islands. With the most diverse array of alternative energy potential of any state in the nation, Hawaii has set out to become a living laboratory for the rest of the country, hoping it can slash its dependence on fossil fuels while keeping the lights on.
Read more
August 31, 2009
The Denali Education Center unveiled its new solar water heating system this week. The system includes 1,300 square feet of flat-panel thermal collectors and is expected to save up to $9,000 a year in energy costs. Congrats to REAP members ABS Alaskan Inc., which did the design and installation, and to Golden Valley Electric Association which owns the system. The Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner were among those carrying stories on the new system. The Denali Education Center also has information about the project on its website.
August 28, 2009
Kate Galbraith of the New York Times’ Green Blog Inc. reports on how prices for solar panels are dropping in a story entitled More Sun for Less. The biggest factor driving the lower prices is an increase in production of polysilicon, which goes into most types of panels and which had been in short supply.
To read the full story, go here
