NASA announced on Thursday to build a solar-energy facility that may meet part with the energy wants at its Wallops Island Flight Facility. The company says it’s proposing up to 80 acres of solar panels that could be able to creating 10 gigawatt-hours each year of electrical energy. As component of its alternative-energy problem at Wallops Island, in addition, it applications to put in two residential-scale wind turbines able to producing two.4 kilowatts, NASA said. 1 turbine could be constructed close to the NASA visitor middle and one near the entrance gate and security-guard station in the Eastern Shore facility. The venture would produce renewable electricity to help NASA meet or exceed requirements with the 2005 Federal power Policy Act as well as other executive orders. The challenge also could be anticipated to stabilize Wallops’ expanding utility expenses and give educational outreach concerning renewable power technologies.
French company Wysips is working on a new technologies unveiled their solar powered cell phone charger at CTIA Wireless 2011 a couple of days back. The solar panel is created out of a thin photovoltaic film. The concept is fairly intriguing because it entails laying an ultra skinny transparent photovoltaic film layer on top of the cellphone show screen. You location the clear charger on top of smartphone’s display, plus the transparent solar panel is less than 0.1 millimeters thick, it won’t interfere with any of your touchscreen features, or dim the LCD, or even muddle up glasses-free 3D screens. The film would capture energy not only from your sun, but any nearby light supply. Projected recharge times would be about 6 hours from immediate sunlight and a couple of hrs lengthier from leaching energy from indoor lights.
KB Home recently announced that if the buyer reaction is positive, KB Home could install solar power systems as a standard feature in 10 of its communities in the Southern California region.
Solar energy has long been an option in KB Homes in some parts of California and Colorado, though of course one that costs more. This time, KB is offering the feature at no additional cost; buy a KB home in Chula Vista (south of San Diego) and you are automatically a solar power aficionado.
The Los Angeles-based builder has announced a pilot program to offer photovoltaic solar systems as a standard feature on homes it is currently building in 10 Southern California communities. The solar systems would augment traditional power use, reduce utility bills and potentially qualify buyers for a federal tax credit.
KB Home, which is an industry leader in building energy-efficient homes in the U.S., has teamed up with SunPower Corp. for the purpose. The solar systems will be supplied by SunPower Corp and systems employing the most efficient solar technology available in the market.
The world’s largest solar-powered vessel, the MS TÛRANOR PlanetSolar, is expected to arrive in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa on 10th of April.
The Swiss-owned ship, whose name means ‘the power of the sun’, is derived from J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is pioneering the first solar expedition around the globe using only solar power.
The mission aims is to demonstrate that existing renewable energy technologies are reliable and effective.
The boat and four crew members left Monaco in September 2010 with a travel route crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal before finally returning to the Mediterranean. The ship is currently sailing its Pacific leg in French Polynesia and will dock at Queen Salote Wharf for up to four days in April. It is expected to arrive in Nuku’alofa on April the 10th.
Private-run electrical utility provider Tata Power Company Ltd has announced that Australian solar power Company, Sunengy Pty Limited has entered into a partnership with the Company for building India’s first floating solar power plant that will build a pilot plant for its low-cost, floating on water, solar technology in India by the end of this year. Construction of the pilot plant will begin by August 2011, Sunengy has plans to construct a larger floating solar farm in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales in mid 2012 before going into full commercial production.
The first of its kind project in India would use the low-cost technology of floating solar energy cells on water, the Liquid Solar Array (LSA) uses traditional Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) technology – a lens and a small area of solar cells that track sun light throughout the day, thereby supplementing electricity generation of large hydro-electric dams. Floating the LSA on water reduces the need for expensive supporting structures to protect it from high winds.
According to new studies Cell phone towers which run on diesel emits astonishing 5 mn tones of carbon in India and they should be run on solar energy instead.
As the number of mobile phone users is growing day by day, the telecom operators are going for more and more mobile towers for better network efficiency. The increase in the number of towers result in huge consumption of diesel(which is approximated to about two billion liters every year) which results in carbon emissions of about 5 million tones.
This study was presented by a periodical called Future Energy which is presented by Maharashtra Energy Development Agency.
India currently has about 250k cell phone towers, and each of these cell phone tower uses about 3-5kilowatts of power depending on the number of users.
On the whole two billion litres of fuel is consumed for the generation of power. These towers also use the fuel for cooling purpose and they are energy intensive as they use power non-stop. If all these towers are set to use solar power energy then it will not only save fossil fuel but also contribute to the ecosystem by not emitting carbon.
Electric auto purchasers said they’re purchasing solar panels to support their new, electricity-intensive driving habits.
The first in the most recent wave of plug-in electric cars rolled out last year in San Diego County, an all-electric car from Nissan, followed a month later by Chevy’s mostly electric Volt.
Whilst there’s no challenging information for Volt owners, forty % of Leaf owners have solar panels, according to the California Center for Sustainable Power, a San Diego non-profit. Owners achieved through the North County Times stated they made the decision on solar panels in the same time they made the decision on electrical automobiles, each to minimize their contributions to international warming and to offset the extra electricity they’d have to buy for their new automobiles.
“We wanted to go electrical mainly because it’s green and all that,” said Rosa Enriquez, a teacher together with the Vista Unified School District. “But we went solar also since our electrical costs had been so large hundreds and hundreds of bucks.”
For consumers like Enriquez, the “going green” aspect originates from the reduction in greenhouse-gas production that includes emissions-free solar power, which then is utilized to run an electrical automobile, by itself an improvement on gasoline-burners in terms of greenhouse effect.
“When a person goes solar and buys an electrical car, they essentially have their own gasoline station on their roof,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder of Sullivan solar energy in San Diego.
Solar panels are a package of interconnected assembly of the solar cells also known as the photovoltaic cells. They are also known as photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panels. The solar panels are used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to generate and supply electricity in commercial and residential applications. A photovoltaic array is installed containing several solar panels so as to amplify the amount of the power. This installation typically involves an array of solar panels, an inverter, batteries, and a interconnected wing.
The solar panel works by collecting solar radiation from the sun and actively converts that energy to electricity. Solar panels are comprised of several individual solar cells. These solar cells function similarly to large semiconductors and utilize a large-area p-n junction diode. When the solar power cells are exposed to sunlight, the p-n junction diodes convert the solar energy into usable electrical energy. The energy generated from photons striking the surface of the solar panel allows electrons to be knocked out of their orbits and released, and electric fields in the solar cells pull these free electrons in a directional current, from which metal contacts in the solar cell can generate electricity.
Due to the demand of solar power the price of solar panels has gone down quite a bit. At times solar energy was only used in rural areas but that is no longer true. Many urban and suburban areas have started using solar energy. Individuals those who want to help the environment and save some money on their power bills have started using solar panels. If you are one of those taking advantage of solar energy to reduce your power bill or just to be eco friendly, you have to make sure that your property will be able to use solar panels. The first thing to consider is does your property receive enough sunlight. Alsoinstalling solar panels is a bit costly, it can run upwards of 2k. It might be expensive but it can also save you a lot over time. Rural areas are perfect platforms for solar panels far outside any power grids. Once they are installed, you won’t have to give up any of the modern day convenience. And solar energy is completely silent unlike noisy generators.
Sun has the age of almost 5 billion years. Its mean distance from earth 149 ,600 ,000km.Its period of rotation is 25 days at the equator. It has a diameter of 1392000 KM ( 109× the earth’s diameter), and a mass of 1993× 127tons (333 000 x earth’s mass).Its radiation has energy of 380, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 kW and the earth receives 170, 000, 000, 000. 000 kW. Solar energy is fundamental to the creation and sustenance of life. There would be no life without the daily flows of the sun to the earth. Without solar energy the Earth’s Temperature would drop becoming so cold and dark that the conditions that nourish life and humanity would be absent. It was been estimated that 1,000 times more energy reaches the earth’s surface from the sun every single year than could be produced by burning all the fossil fuels mined and extracted during that same year solar energy i.e. radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since the ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, such as wind and wave power, and hydroelectricity account for most of the available renewable energy on earth. Only a fraction of the available solar energy is use.
