![]() | SunRidge Farms Kicks off 30th Year by Going Solar(0) SunRidge Farms, a California-based company most broadly known due to its large offering of natural and organic foods, snacks, confections, and trail mixes, is praising its 30th anniversary this year while using finishing its new cell expansion. 2,500 U.S.A.-made photo voltaic energy sections now line the roofs on top of their chocolate-making facility and warehouses. “We founded our company around the persistence for respect the sanctity around the globe also to result in the kitchen connoisseur. Our acquisition of photo voltaic energy is an essential part of the commitment” mentioned Morty Cohen, Leader and Boss of SunRidge Farms. “We are excited because this expansion will let's continue delivering the top quality foods our clients love and deserve, inside a reduced atmosphere cost.” Adding 1,960 new photo voltaic energy sections brings their cell system from 99,000 Kilowatt several hours to 785,000 Kilowatt several hours of annual production. This enables the device to supply 35-forty percent in the company’s energy needs. Furthermore, the device can keep an thought 1.3-million pounds of CO2 from entering the earth’s atmosphere each year. That’s just like planting 1,800 acres of trees. The extended cell system is simply the latest living eco-friendly effort implemented by SunRidge Farms. Really, this year the business takes note of thirty years of eco-friendly practices, which follow: ~ Offering a motorbike-to-work program that pays employees $ 5 every day to bike both to and from work. ~ Using biodiesel delivery trucks and compounds due to its sales force. ~ Delivering staff getting a round-the-clock work and entertainment center with condition in the art equipment, ~ Establishing full spectrum lighting at the office workspaces, low current/low energy lighting inside the warehouses, and optimal, clean, strained air system due to its staff. ~ Establishing low-flow water-saving items and taking advantage of recycling programs throughout its facilities. “We are pleased to become operating on clean energy,” mentioned Mark Devencenzi, national sales director and company representative for SunRidge Farms. “We will be trying to find options to develop and improve our vision. Our new photo voltaic energy sections are advantageous SunRidge Farms has labored faithfully within the last a long time which is now licensed just like a Eco-friendly Business with the Monterey County Eco-friendly Business Program. The very first setting up of photo voltaic energy sections in 2007 was an extremely important component in achieving its eco-friendly business certificate in ABOUT SUNRIDGE FARMS Source: Solar Energy Directory |
![]() | Students build unique energy efficient house(0) By Make the most of Hayes, KABC7 Eyewitness News A ribbon-cutting happened Tuesday for just about any unique pv-powered house designed and built by students from two local schools. Anyone who evaluates the home’s roof, siding, entrance doors and residential home windows won’t go to a hint of eco-friendly. But individuals who designed and built it'll explain it is probably the greenest houses found – getting a regular monthly energy bill of zero. “And if you are inside a town where they take energy back, it may be positive. They would actually shell out for your energy,” mentioned Reed Finley, project manager for your La Institute of Architecture as well as the California Institute of Technology pv decathlon team, which built the home. It’s referred to as a Nick pv house. Nick means compact, hyper-insulated prototype. Click link above for complete article Source: Solar Energy Directory |
![]() | China’s State Grid and BYD Launch World’s Largest Battery Energy Storage Station(0) BYD along with the Condition Energy energy power grid Corporation of China (SGCC) have completely finished construction on which may be the world’s finest battery energy storage station. This massive utility-scale project, situated in Zhangbei, Hebei Province, combines 140 Mega-W of other energy generation (both wind & pv), 36 Mega-Watt-Several hrs (MWh) of the person's storage plus a wise energy transmission system. While there arenewable generation systems in the scale operating today, you will find no battery systems in the size. The Issue Energy energy power grid technique is showing a reliable solution for moving immeasureable renewable electricity securely for that energy energy power grid by getting an unmatched scale. Although BYD manufactures 1GW of pv energy sections yearly, their role during this project was mainly delivering energy storage batteries in arrays bigger when in comparison to some football area. “This Condition Energy energy power grid project demonstrates an answer and you will be the type of development for China’s new energy assets.” SGCC chose BYD’s Iron-Phosphate battery technology due to its superior service existence (over 20 years) additionally to used BYD’s “peak shaving & load leveling” charge and discharge techniques. BYD’s announcement September 30th, 2011, “China’s Finest and First Environtally-friendly Battery Storage Station,” was the first of countless MegaWatt-level cooperative projects with China’s Southern Energy Energy energy power grid (CSG). This new project while using the Condition Energy energy power grid has outpaced other energy energy power grid projects in Face though individually created by SGCC, goes for the nation's “Golden Sun” program. The first phase investment with 100MW of Wind, 40MW of Pv and 36MWh of Battery may be worth over $ 500M USD (~3.3 Billion RMB). “The large-scale implementation of uncontaminated and eco-friendly energy, for example wind and pv energy, is able to only be recognized once the technical difficulties in the new energy application within the utility system are resolved,” pointed out Xiu Binglin, Deputy Director within the National Energy Administration. “This Condition Energy energy power grid project demonstrates an answer and you will be the type of development for China’s new energy assets.” BYD’s battery energy storage system provides a solution for the realization of the person's storage within the wise energy energy power grid that enhances renewable energy efficiency by 5%-10%. He Extended, V . P . of BYD, pointed out, “BYD is honored to cooperate with China and SGCC to produce this massive energy storage station and to make a contribution in using renewable energy assets.” To discover more, visit BYD at internet.bebo.orgOrbydcompany and internet.byd.com Source: Solar Energy Directory |
| YMCA in Arizona Goes Solar(0) CentroSolar America and Scout Pv to build up Pv Projects for |
![]() | Solar Power Goes Viral(0) By John Rennie Catching a dreadful virus certainly isn’t on anyone’s holiday wish list, but in addition for pv energy it may be just what the physician bought. Utilizing a genetically modified virus, materials scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a way to boost the efficiency of just one type of thin-film pv cell by 30 %. For just about any very very long time, engineers have carried out around with with plenty of unique collection material for photo voltaic energy sections, including single-walled carbon nanotubes: small hollow cylinders basicallyouof billionths in the meter wide though jewel-like strength. These carbon nanotubes, however, are really useless. Area of the problem, researchers suspected, may be the approaches for making nanotubes yield blends with some other electronic properties—some carbon nanotubes are semiconductors, some are metallic. A genetically designed virus known to as M13 might come to terms with help arrange molecules—for example, to create batteries more effective. Within the June 2011 problem of Character Nanotechnology, Angela M. Belcher’s Biomolecular Materials Group at Durch introduced an intriguing solution. INNOVATION OUTBREAK Formerly, everyone else has proven the genetically designed virus known to as M13 might come to terms with help arrange molecules—for example, to create batteries more effective. Attempting to solve the nanotube challenge, people of Belcher’s lab changed M13 to make certain that products of proteins, or peptides, on its surface could bind to carbon nanotubes. By coping with the nanotubes, the infections stopped them from clumping, which permitted researchers to be sure the difference in electronic qualities alone affected the nanotubes’ function. Semiconducting ones elevated efficiency, whereas metallic ones degraded it. PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS Money For Hard Occasions Since the virus-nanotube complexes may be curable truly becoming an additive for that normal pv-cell fabrication process, integrating them into manufacturing must be easy. The scientists think that this viral technique might be modified to take advantage of some other type of photo voltaic energy sections. Dang, a PhD candidate within the lab, states that since posting the Character Nanotechnology paper for publication he's began a task to evolve herpes-nanotube approach to utilized in quantum us us us dot photo voltaic energy sections as well as the co-employees did exactly the same with organic dye cells. Additionally, based on Dang, several companies have formerly approached them about obtaining herpes-nanotube technology. Since the virus-nanotube complexes may be curable truly becoming an additive for that normal pv-cell fabrication proce, integrating them into manufacturing must be easy, based on him. AUTHOR BIO: This story was orginally released on ecomagination . Source: Solar Energy Directory |
![]() | Solar Leasing – Power for Pennies(0) Innovative leasing programs are opening new markets for solar panels and new opportunities for generating clean electricity – and at a much lower cost to consumers. Correspondent Patty Kim visits the Cincinnati Zoo to learn how a new financing model connects solar power investors and manufacturers with people who want to install solar arrays on their homes and businesses to lock in low prices for decades. Source: Solar Energy Directory |
![]() | Solar’s Unlikely Hero: Rush Limbaugh(0) by Dan Auld Will Rush Limbaugh save the solar industry? Looks that way for Toni Lynch in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And Spiro Basho in Hicksville, New York. Like lots of other solar installers, the financial tsunami of 2008 wiped out a lot of customers of both Lynch and Basho. And like a lot of other electrical contractors, through no fault of their own, they not only lost business, they lost their credit. “When you see people on TV talking about green jobs or any kind of jobs, here’s what they usually do not know: That small contractors need a bond,” said Lynch. “And a bond is really a line of credit. And a lot of contractors just don’t have the cash or the credit score to do that any more because of the crash of 2008.” So they lose work, especially government work where bonds are required. And most people do not know that, Lynch said. “I was bidding on a solar installation job, part of the stimulus program, and I knew I needed a bond,” Lynch said. “Seven companies turned me down. I had just about given up when I was driving around listening to Rush Limbaugh. The commercial talked about how contractors could not get bonds anymore, but this company could do it.” “I told my wife wouldn’t that be good if they were telling the truth. They were.” Sprio Basho had a similar experience in New York. This electrical contractor lost a lot of work in 2008, but he did what he had to to hold on. “I might have been listening to the same commercial because I had the same problem,” Basho said. “I had been in business a long time. Did good work. But all of a sudden the bonding disappeared. I thought my business was going to disappear too because we were counting on installing solar to stay alive.” And they did. Both of them. As a result, Basho’s company won a contract installing solar panels in a school district; and Lynch’s company was awarded a $ 1.8 million contract for several solar installations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. All because of Rush. And because of what happened at Robert Berman’s kitchen table when he was a teenager. “I listened to an insurance broker tell my dad he could not accept a bigger job because he did not qualify for a bond,” said Robert Berman, co-founder of Ox Bonding. “My dad was a building contractor who did great work and had great references, but that was not enough for that insurance company.That’s why I started a bonding company for small contractors: There are a lot of good companies out there that do good work, with good records, and their customers love them. So we write their bonds and make sure they get working capital too.” Berman is not running a non-profit agency. He knows his company takes a risk every time it provides working capital. Every time it writes a bond for a contractor. (For the non-initiated, a bond guarantees the contractor will finish the job and pay the subcontractors. If not, the job owner gets relief from the bonding company, which in turn can try to get its money back from the contractor.) “That’s why we look under the hood, check the books, call the customers, and really take a hard look if the company can do the job,” Berman said. “Our underwriters are experienced contractors, not just accountants. So they have a good idea of who is able to do what, and what the risk really is.” To reduce its risk even further, Ox Bonding controls the distribution of funds for the job. And if the contractor chooses, Ox Bonding can also issue working capital, pay the taxes, take care of payroll, negotiate with suppliers, and free up the contractors for what they really want to do: Build solar installations. “They are more of a partner than a bonding company,” said Bashos. “But without them, I would not have been able to survive.” Source: Solar Energy Directory |
![]() | Commercial ‘Green’ Solar Cells May Be Possible, Say Pitt Researchers(0) PITTSBURGH—Developing solar energy that is low-cost, lightweight, and energy efficient has proven to be one of the greatest challenges the science world faces today. Although current plastic solar cells are low in cost and easy to produce, they are not energy efficient and, therefore, not easily commercialized. With grant funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are predicting a way to produce solar cells that will offer more flexibility in generating green energy. Guangyoung Li, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt, explains that most plastic solar cells today are made from a blend of semiconducting polymers and other carbon-rich molecules. Although this material is usable and costs little, it does not assist with energy efficiency—though it could. Li’s solution is to use a method called Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) that studies the surface potential of cells through microscopy. Although KPFM is not a new idea, Li plans on using it in a dramatically different way. “The problem with traditional force microscopy is that the resolution is not good enough, so we can’t properly study the domains we need to examine,” says Li. “Throughout my research, I will work to develop an instrument that will be better able to detect the domains formed from different materials.” This instrument could help Li and others explain the conditions that plastic solar cells should have for better energy efficiency. Currently, plastic solar cells have achieved an energy efficiency rate of 8.6 percent. Li says if he can produce solar cells with a 10 percent or higher efficiency rate, they would have a broad impact on the energy market. “In the future, I can imagine this new, efficient material anywhere—on buildings, roofs, you name it,” said Li. “You could charge your laptop, cellphone, or iPod simply by having a charger on you and stepping into sunlight.” Li notes this research will not only help reduce energy consumption, but also will help train young scientists, including the undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented areas involved in the project. He also notes it is an “ideal platform” to teach the greater community, specifically K-12 students, teachers, industry leaders, and the general public. Source: Solar Energy Directory |
| HyperSolar Discovers Method to Make Renewable Natural Gas Using Solar Power(0) Company’s breakthrough technology uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to produce, clean, renewable natural gas SANTA BARBARA, CA – November 15, 2011 – HyperSolar, Inc. (OTCBB:HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to make renewable natural gas using solar power, today announced that it has filed a patent application for the production of renewable natural gas using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. This renewable natural gas is a clean, carbon neutral methane gas that can be used as a direct replacement for traditional natural gas to power the world, without drilling or fracking, while mitigating CO2 emissions. “The sun is our greatest source of energy and a method to use this energy to make clean, renewable fuel is a very significant discovery,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “We intend to focus all our energies and resources on commercializing this breakthrough technology.” Inspired by the photosynthetic processes that plants use to harness the power of the sun to create energy molecules, HyperSolar is developing a novel solar-powered nanoparticle system that mimics photosynthesis to separate hydrogen from water. The free hydrogen can then be reacted with carbon dioxide to produce methane, the primary component in natural gas. “With global consumption projected to surpass coal in 2035, natural gas will be the next great fuel,” continued Mr. Young. “From sunrise to sunset, our proprietary nanoparticles will work in a water based solution to produce clean and environmentally friendly renewable natural gas that can be collected for later use in power plants, industrial plants and vehicles – anywhere and anytime. With hundreds of billions of dollars already invested in natural gas infrastructure and trillions more dollars on the way, we believe natural gas as a primary fuel is a reality. However, the environmental risks associated with the extraction and usage of conventional natural gas is also a reality.” Using advanced nanotechnology, HyperSolar intends to eliminate the harmful aspects of extracting natural gas and preserve its existing delivery infrastructure and economy by fundamentally changing the source of natural gas from underground to above ground. The company intends to do this by creating natural gas above ground using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, in a renewable and sustainable manner. About HyperSolar, Inc. Safe Harbor Statement Source: Solar Energy Directory |
| Missouri: A New Day Dawning in Solar Energy Advancements(0) By Christopher Chung When you think of solar energy in the U.S., Missouri may not be the first place that comes to mind. But a new study by Professor Matt Croucher of Arizona State University has put Missouri among the top states for solar power generation. It’s a matter of resources – and resourcefulness. Missouri is in a great place for solar, with more than 200 sunny days on average per year and solar resources ranging from 4.5 to 5.0 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day. That number puts Missouri higher than Germany, the country that leads the world in solar energy production. Missouri also has the sixth lowest cost-per-watt for solar installation and better than average opportunities for job creation in the industry. But the thing that really tips the scales in the state’s favor is the fact that demand for solar power is high. Solar initiatives are more than just environmental obligations for the state of Missouri. They are also engines for economic growth. In the past few years Missouri has aggressively implemented programs requiring utility companies to increase their renewable energy portfolios. In 2008, the state’s citizens overwhelmingly approved a measure calling for 15 percent of Missouri’s electricity to originate from clean energy sources by 2021. The measure included a two percent solar carve-out (or 190,000 megawatt hours.) Missouri was one of only 16 states to adopt such a provision. In 2009, the state formed the Missouri Solar Energy Industry Association (MOSEIA) with the goal of increasing market growth for solar in the state. MOSEIA works to protect the regulatory language for enhancing Missouri’s solar initiatives and for passing subsequent legislation. Missouri also offers numerous government loans and incentives for solar energy. The state’s Linked Deposit Loan Program – along with Property Assessed Clean Energy loans for commercial developments – helps promote the creation and retention of solar energy jobs. Solar rebates and federal investment tax credits strengthen Missouri’s foothold as a solar energy state. Aside from legislation, Missouri also has one of the best business climates in the nation, making it an ideal location for solar start-ups. The state ranks third for low business costs and has the fifth best corporate income tax index in the U.S. A central location helps support Missouri’s thriving manufacturing industry, with 52 percent of all manufacturing establishments located within a single day’s drive. The state’s top ten transportation network is a terrific asset for industries – like solar – which depend on low-cost shipping to stay profitable. But workforce is continually cited as the state’s most important asset. And, with a work force of over 3 million, Missouri has the numbers to support solar production on a large scale. A recent report from the Brookings Institution ranked Missouri 6th for solar photovoltaic jobs in 2010 and 8th for degree of solar photovoltaic job specialization. The state also placed 8th for growth in solar thermal jobs from 2003-2010, a fact that is drawing attention from companies in the industry: • Milbank Manufacturing recently announced plans for new production lines in Kansas City, Mo. where renewable energy products – including solar components – will be made. The $ 2.7 million expansion is expected to create 57 new jobs. • Solutia, a world-leading provider of critical components for use in the solar energy market is headquartered in St. Louis. Solutia produces encapsulants for solar modules, heat transfer fluids for concentrated solar power plants and PV film coatings. • Dow Chemical is currently developing a solar park in conjunction with the city of Columbia. It will be the largest solar production site in the state of Missouri. The Columbia project will join a number of solar arrays across the state. Emerson Electric, headquartered in St. Louis, recently built a new data center powered by more than 550 solar panels. At peak output, the array meets about 16 percent of the center’s energy requirements. Kansas City Power & Light has announced plans to install rooftop solar technology at selected commercial buildings, government facilities and residences as part of its SmartGrid demonstration, made possible by a $ 24 million grant from the Department of Energy. Recently, the St. Louis Housing Authority, along with Sunwheel Energy Partners, began the final phase of a $ 10.4 million solar installation. Using more than 2,000 solar panels, the project will create enough electricity to power more than 70 homes for a year. The expected reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will be equivalent to removing 170 cars from the road. None of these projects would be possible, were it not for new energy research coming out of Missouri’s colleges and universities. At the University of Missouri – Columbia (MU), Professor Patrick Pinhero, Ph.D., recently developed a flexible solar sheet that captures 95 percent of available light – that’s nearly five times the efficiency of traditional panels. Pinhero is looking to commercialize his technology within the next five years. MU also collaborated with Missouri Science and Technology University (Missouri S&T) in Rolla to build a solar house which placed 11th in the recent Solar Decatholon in Washington D.C. The house joins three previous entries to make up S&T’s “Solar Village,” a community of solar-powered homes available for rent by students and faculty. The school recently won a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for research in solar energy and energy management, which will allow students to use hybrid solar thermal electric panels (STEPS) in their house design. These advances in research and production breed a certain optimism for Missouri’s solar industry, and companies are beginning to take notice. Solar is no longer a “someday” concept. It’s happening right now in Missouri. Christopher Chung is Chief Executive Officer of Missouri Partnership, a public private non-profit corporation working closely with the Missouri Department of Economic Development and regional and local economic development organizations around the state. For more information visit: www.missouripartnership.com Source: Solar Energy Directory |
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