solar

 We've been highlighing our favorite solar innovations for a while. In fact one of our readers' all-time favorite posts is about a spray-on technology.

 Although that particular product isn't quite ready for general market release, there are some other impressive ones that are.

Some of the most efficient and amazing improvements are from the world of nanotechnology.

Photovoltaic laminates were invented in the 70's, so it's pretty well expected that there will be ongoing improvements in the ways that PVs are developed and produced. In particular, there's a fascinating thin film technology that comes from Nanosolar in California, where they make solar cells into an ink that they spread on foils. They coat the foils with the ink using a method like a printing press. This speeds up production faster than your traditional methods. It is solar cell production in great mass.

Silicon wafers are fragile, where thin film is ink. Both act as semi-conductors to create electricity.

Thin is the operative word, as these films are 100x thinner than the traditional silicon. It is also interesting that thin film nanotechnology reduces required silicon by 90%, which therein held much of the high cost. However, the heavy glass that protects thin film ink is somewhat pricey. Check out www.nanosolar.com for the pdf and overview on thin film nanotechnology photovoltaics.  You can also find a video posted on JetsonGreen a while back that highlights what they are up to!

What are some of your favorite new technologies in solar? 

My husband and I are planning to move to our ranch in East Texas. Our dream is to build a green self-sustainable home and utilize solar for electricity, rain water catchment for watering our garden, as well as using our own well for drinking water. However, one issue we are contending with is the high humidity factor in East Texas. We have discussed several options, 1. building a timber framed home with SIP panels, which utilizes far less wood than a traditional wood home, 2. a straw bale home, which is very well insulated, 3. as well as building separate attached buildings that enable you to cool/heat only as needed.

We've seen several TV shows on building green homes, but haven't seen one built particularly in a hot, humid type of environment. Please let us know if you have any suggestions.

Thank you!

There are many problems with solar systems permanently fixed to residences. For one the home may not be conducive to solar modules. Or you may have multiple residences. You also know if you have to sell your house you probably will never get back the investment it cost to build and istall your system. Finally theft is an issue if you have a solar system for your cabin or other residential retreat where you are gone for extended periods of time. For now complete solar systems are still rather expensive therefore it is important to get as much out of your system as possible. For some the answer will be a mobile solar system.

That is where GreenTow comes into play. GreenTow has the finest and most durable mobile solar systems on the market. The goal is to allow user more options of use in a complete package that can be taken with them. GreenTow has taken the finest componants one could currently buy for a standard solar system and put them into one streamline custom built trailer system.

If a mobile solar system is a better option for you and your green building goals. Visit www.Greentow.com and learn more.

Sincerely,

VP Perry Myers

Back in July when gas prices were over $4 and friends were actually thinking about turning in their trucks for hybrids, I felt really good. Vindicated, almost, that the premium I paid for my Prius was actually worth it. I wasn't happy about anybody suffering at the pump, but relieved that something was being done to level the playing field between oil and the other green alternatives like solar and wind. For so long low oil prices made the economics of green a hard sell,but when gas prices shot up and the shock of filling up for a hundred bucks knocked people for a loop, green was suddenly really cool. It didn't really matter that products like CFL bulbs and non-toxic detergents cost a bit more, they were green and being green was the only thing that was going to save us from ourselves in a time of desperate over-consumption. And then it happened. The economy is tanking gas prices are falling to eight year lows, and people are suddenly questioning the need to run out and buy a hybrid car or invest in a home or business solar system. "It's the economy, stupid," has never made so much sense to so many people. I'll go green again when I can afford it. Well, I'm here to tell you being green is everybody's business. From the solar installers to the guys who make the kitchen counter tops out of recycled glass and pottery, it's up to the green community to throttle up and serve notice that we can't wait for the thieves on Wall Street to fix things for us. Being green isn't just our business, it's the way we're going to save our communities around this country and the world. It's time to take the "D" out of GREED and replace with an N. NOW is the time for GREEN.

The Photovoltaic roof consists of a set of solar panels assembled to cover the surface of the roof of a house or a building. Don't confuse it with the pool solar heaters, they are used to hot water and not to generate electricity.

There are no moving parts, maintenance requirements are reduced to the minimum terms and consist, mostly in periodic checks of the accumulator battery.

The photovoltaic modules that make up the solar panels, transform the energy received from the sun into electricity used for domestic use in partial or total replacement of conventional supply.

This solar system is feasible even on complex already built but is considerably cheaper, obviously, if already part of the plan for a new building.

Of course, the main advantage of these systems is in the use of an inexhaustible energy source, free and clean. The energy produced by photovoltaic panels is included in the existing electrical system and connected to the supplier of electricity.

Therefore, a practical example is that when it produced more energy than required, the system can assign an energy surplus to the electricity distributor.

The market is increasing its penetration, the experts for the magazine "World Renewable Energy" have estimated a change of 1000 kW in 1990, 2000 in 1993, 7000 in 1996, 36,000 in 1999, 60 thousand in 2000, 800 thousand in 2010.

I know I blogged about InLight, Richmond's first "Art, Turned On" addition to First Friday and celebrating 1708 Art Gallery's 30th anniversary last week.

But for you geeks like myself out there, thought I'd expound more on the technical green building/solar information as well as the volunteers whom made the Solar Sidewalk possible.

('Cause. I'mma geek. This is better than Legos!)

Scott Kyle, the green building architect who created this piece, explains:

"A quick description of the system: Two Kyocera 65 Watt PV Modules, 24V Solar Lighting Control, & two 12V Concorde SunXtender Deep Cell Batteries.

This is what is showing up in my truck and on the roof with the guys from Cityspace Construction (Richmondcityspace.com), who volunteered time and materials to the cause.

Thanks also to Kenny, whose rooftop apartment we have to go through every time we have to access the roof.

Next, there is 24V DC wired from the roof to inside the window seat at the storefront of 1708 where there are two 25W LED Fiber Optic Illuminators (http://lightbeaminc.com/illuminators_25_watt.html).

These are state of the art illuminators with very high light output and very low current draw, ideal for photovoltaics. If we would have used halogen, which is standard for fiber optic illuminators we would have had to have added four more PV modules (yes there is a lesson here for homeowners and their appliances and lighting).

The fiber optic (plastic filaments) bundles are divided into four smaller bundles from each of the two illuminators where they are brought to each of the eight concrete panels in metal conduit that are then covered in sidewalk cement.

That's Stan Webb of Concrete Ideas handling the fiber optic cables. Stan's company manufactured the fiber optic concrete panels in their shop in Richmond. The PV modules are illuminated at dusk and stay on for a set period of time (currently 8 hrs - long enough for staggering club dwellers to see their way home by). The PV controller takes care of the battery charging and control of the on-off cycle. "

Thank you, Scott, for sharing your wonderful project with us!!!! Er, see ya at Green Drinks Thursday! : )

There is no photograph that can accurately freeze-frame/capture it, except to see/experience it.

Below is my video where I tease Scott (his wife has a degree in sculpture)... but it kind of gives you the "experience" of seeing this nice addition to Richmond at night...

A great addition to the Richmond arts scene- it is a good time to be in Richmond!

Here's a great tool I found that utilizes Google Maps to help you calculate the potential of your home for solar.

http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/using_google_maps_to_calculate

RoofRay uses modeling tools, past weather data, and Google Maps to help consumers estimate how much potential their home could have for solar.

What a great way to evaluate your home's possibilities before taking the financial plunge to invest in solar energy!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on solar cooking. I guess I just felt I hadn't made anything of note lately... when you solar cook, it IS convenient, but the novelty does wear off - I mean, how many people blog about what they make for dinner each day? (Suddenly a rush of web domains devoted to cooking overwhelms me! Never mind!)

For those of you on myspace, I have a whole album of solar cookin' successes (and failures), as well as posts in the green building group. But lately I've just been making... I don't know... normal stuff?

So today when I decided to "make something out of nothing" by looking through the icebox as I often do, I became a little more creative- and it occurred to me this dish could be photo-worthy. : )

In our family, we buy our meat from two families near us. That means we buy in bulk (I mean, when I buy lamb... I buy A lamb...) so our meat is usually frozen the day it's butchered. So I dug through the freezer and pulled out some beautiful pork chops from the Ault's, and defrosted them overnight. Then I found some grapes that the children were not devouring- they had been a little on the sour side. But if they were cooked? Dee-lish. So I threw in the chops, grapes, added cloves of garlic and a dash o' balsamic... and YUM! Tonight's dinner!

I also added a side o' potatoes. Solar cooked potatoes are frightfully easy and taste more earthy & delicious.

Feel free to try this at home! Cooking was never so easy- I'm off to play instead of hunkering over a hot oven: Let the sun do your work!

As they say here in the south:
"Myyyyyyyyyy it's hot!"

For weeks I've been ruminating over how to really cool an off grid house on those hot, dog day stretches of heat we get in Virginia. Despite the fact that our house kits are super insulated, passive solar and utilize the cross breeze, well, heck.

Until you've spent a summer in the south, well, until you've spent a stifling, still, searing summer languishing on the cool floor 'cause you were too hot to stand... listlessly spraying little bursts of misted water towards yourself out of an old hairspray bottle 'cause that was the closest you could get to cool, where even the fans blew hot... where the still farm fields were so heavy with heat it knocked the air outta you and even the grasshoppers wouldn't even leap, where the...

Oh, ahem. Did I digress? Ok, fine. It's frickin' hot here, 'K? : )

So you see why I aspire to a cooler solution.

Today, when I heard about Sun Utility Network's California Dream System- Solar Electric Cooling and Heating Sunstation, I was intrigued. Reading through, it makes sense! For our off grid house it could still work despite the electric piece as really, we wouldn't be aggressively cooling at night/when the sun was low.

I will post more information on this system as I get it/have an opportunity to speak with them; in the meantime enjoy their website- http://www.sunutility.com, and... I hope you all stay cool! : )