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Hey solarDwellers:

From Renewable Energy Access, check out their new "podcasts." I listen online, but you mobile audiophiles might prefer to download this to your mP3 player and have renewable energy news on the go.

Listen to their "Inside Renewable Energy" edition for 3/30 using this link, which covers recent energy news, an interview with Sharp Solar representative about the silicon shortage, and a "tech spotlight" about solar air conditioning.

Good listening for when you've got tired computer screen eyes.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, renewable, alternative, sustainable, WhatsNews

Hey solarDwellers:

I'm lovin' seeing cities standing up on the solar wave. I already talked about Ashland, Oregon doing "community solar" where city residents buy shares of municipal solar systems. Now the beautiful beach city of Pacifica is using solar to help provide electricity for it's buildings . . .

A massive solar energy project, which will be placed on the rooftop of the Calera Creek Wastewater Recycling Plant, is perhaps the most exciting project in the works. "The current plans are to have the system online in early April," said Holmes of the 350 kw photovoltaic power system that will help generate power for the sewer plant. "We are planning additional systems for the proposed City Hall, the Community Center and the fire stations." State grants to encourage the use of solar power have been received to help offset the cost of the new systems.

Maybe a bit overstated for them to call it massive, but, hey, I'm feeling their excitement for solar, which is the most important factor for solar . . . that "good feeling" people get once they make the solar choice. 350 kW is about enough for 140 houses, or those big, city buildings.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+energy, solar+power, sustainable, renewable, alternative+energy, WhatsNews, PsychologyMarketing

Just saw this article about how Xcel energy of Colorado is opening up the bidding process for a project to install an 8 Megawatt solar plant.

Not as big as the Nevada SolarOne 64 MW plant, but enough to power about 3200 homes. Why is the utility company doing this? . . .

Xcel said it's building the facility in order to comply with Amendment 37 mandates that the company have 18 megawatts of solar power on its system. Voters approved Amendment 37 in 2004. "This [photovoltaic] plant combined with Xcel Energy's Solar Rebate program will help bring us closer to meeting the state's Renewable Energy Standard," said the CEO of the Public Service Company of Colorado.

The trend is definitely toward cleaner energy from public utilities in many states. Traditionally, utilities have looked to buy wind to satisfy this requirement, because wind power has been and still is much cheaper than solar. But recently these solar projects suggest that solar is making financial sense as well, with a guaranteed 100% return on the initial investment over the life of the solar installation.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, sustainable, renewable, alternative+energy, EconomicsOfSolar, WhatsNews

Hey solarDwellers:

Good to see the economic and environmental advantages of renewable energy being brought into the reach of lower income levels. It doesn't only have to be for the well-off, especially solar hot water, which is less expensive.

Take a look at this article, which includes a local T.V. report(video) about how solar hot water is working in an affordable housing program in Colorado.

later,
--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+energy, solar+power, sustainable, renewable, alternative+energy, WhatsNews

Solar energy to Hydrogen, to Electricity. This is the process that'll be used in future solar power plants, as I believe.

Currently, Electricity is directly generated by combustion of coal or gas, but in the case of Solar Energy it can't be done so.
Because, you know, Sunlight is generally intermittent and is unavailable at night, so a storage medium is required, which can be hydrogen. But, hydrogen, as you know, is difficult to store and is still a research topic.

If Offshore Solar concept is used then, there is no use of Hydrogen, as energy can be stored in Rig's own towers {legs}. Read the previous post to know more.
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I have nothing to write more today,
as I have to delve into some nice big books to study integration and electromagnetic waves.









And also, today was Solar eclipse. I used a pin hole camera to view it at my home. Camera was made using old ivory paper sheet rolled up and another sheet to view the projection. See what I saw,



and the apparatus;

Hey solarDwellers:

A little while back I promised to post what percentage of California's electricity is generated by what source. So, from the California Energy Commission:
California Gross System Power(Electricity) for 2004

Natural Gas. . . . . . . . . . .40.8%
Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21.3%
Hydro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14.9%
Nuclear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12.8%
Renewables . . . . . . . . . . .10.2%
(Biom 2%,Geothermal 4.8%,Small hydro 1.6%,Solar .3%,Wind 1.5%)

Look at that! Under renewables, solar is sitting there at a miniscule .3% of the total! And you can see why our electricity bills will keep going up: 40% from Natural Gas, which has been notorious with supply problems and price spikes. It's almost embarrassing for the amount of solar resource California has(see below). Luckily, the goal is to grow that by increasing demand while lowering solar prices with the California Solar Initiative, the $3 billion, 10-year funding passed by the Energy Commission this past January! Also, California has passed a more aggressive "Renewable Portfolio Standard", which just means increasing the amount of electricity that is created by renewables:

Renewables currently generate 11% of the state’s electricity, and the Renewable Portfolio Standard established in 2002 requires power suppliers to procure at least 1% of their electricity from green power resources in a goal of achieving a 20% renewable mix by 2017. The state Energy Commission, Public Utilities Commission and Power Authority recently approved the Energy Action Plan to accelerate that 20% target date to 2010. (Taken from this website)

To put it in context, the goal of the "CSI" is to help develop 3,000 MW of electricity, which would bring solar up to about 2%(max) of total electricity in California, which doesn't sound like much. But that's about 6 times today's .3%, and more solar is more solar!

California Solar Potential
My eyes almost popped out when I saw the following stats from a report entitled "California Solar Resources" from the California Energy Commission, via an article on Global Energy Network Institute website:

*California has 17 million megawatts of solar potential! To put this in context, remember the 10-year goal is 3,000 MW for California, and today California has about only 400 MW of solar installed.

Too-good-to-be-true caveat . . .The report says that huge "potential" is unrealistic: you would have to basically construct every building/house with solar, and put up solar structures/carports and large utility sized concentrating solar plants on ALL the rest of California's developable land. It also would require solar to come WAY down in price(which really might not happen until the next 15-20 years)to build on such a scale. The point is, the potential is HUGE at the right price, and the real near-term potential is much BIGGER than today's 400 MW of solar, just .3% of our electricity.

For the nearer term, the report concludes a possible total still much larger than the 3,000 MW contemplated under the California Solar Initiative, if not 17 million MW:

If PV is developed in the nearer term only as residential and commercial rooftop systems, the technical potential is still in excess of 75,000 MW of capacity. While not treated in this white paper, the actual amount of PV to be developed in California will be largely determined by economics and the special benefits that PV systems may provide to communities.

Well, at least we know we can think big and that lack of sun is not the problem for California! Let's see if we can get to the 3,000 MW in ten years, and shoot much higher when the price of solar should be much lower by that point.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, electricity, California, utilities, Berkeley+solar, sustainable, renewable, alternative+energy, EconomicsOfSolar,

Hey solarDwellers:

Looks like the rebates for very large solar projects(above 30kW) are too popular. There was $300 million set aside for these rebates for 2006, but according to this press release from the CEC as reported by Solarbuzz, there is a "trigger point" of 50 MW, meaning that once the cumulative requests for solar rebates has surpassed 50MW, the rebate amount is automatically lowered from $2.80/watt to $2.50/watt. The reasoning is that since the rebate money is being requested at such a fast pace, the rebate level is higher than it needs to be to stimulate sufficient demand in the solar market.

Personally I agree, especially because along with the state rebate, we have for the first time the federal tax credit of 30% which is uncapped for commercial installations. You can lower the state rebate, which will let it last longer and be available for a larger number of installations. And still, when combined with the fed tax credit, it is economically very attractive for commercial-size installations.

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, sustainable, renewable, alternative+energy, whatsnews, EconomicsOfSolar,

The biosphere pitch: "Act like a plant. Go solar. . . "

The competitive-nature pitch: "Be extraordinary--go solar."

The investment pitch: "Solar: Alternative Energy Treasury bonds sitting on your roof."

The global-warming worrier pitch: "Changing the climate: one solar roof at a time"

The Napoleon Dynamite pitch: "Vote solar and all your dreams will come true"

The Evangelical Pitch: "Go solar. Because the end-time is near."

The guilt-trip pitch: "Don't be a loser. Go solar."

The anti-carbon pitch: "Coal is for dolts. Go solar."

Don't know if your crying of pain or laughter, but I can't take myself so seriously all the time. Have a good day . . .

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, PsychologyMarketing, marketing

Hey solarDwellers:

Happened to be listening to NPR this weekend, which I usually tune in to listen to "Car Talk" humor, not really caring about grinding or whizzing noises coming from under Peter in Pennsylvania's hood, but love the Car Talk show credits, like: "Assistant Director of Strategic Planning": Kent C. Detrees; "Audience Response Monitor": Luke Warm; "Adopted Son from Sweden" Bjorn A.Payne Diaz; "Child Development Expert": Dr. Benjamin Spark; and, finally, "Anger Management Consultant": Joanne Slowburn. Well, I missed the Car Talk brothers, and happened to tune in during the half-hour point/pause in Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, which I almost never listen to, and I don't know why because whenever I hear a few minutes, it's pretty funny also.

Well, I tell you all this because of something I heard during the "pause" when NPR mentions some sponsors. The first sponsor: Borrego Solar, a solar installation company based in San Diego and Berkeley, CA. That was kinda neat, like seeing "solar" on the front page in terms of advertising. Looks like solar is getting to that "tipping point" and becoming an energy/home solution that could be mentioned in the same breath as "double-pane windows" or "tankless water heaters."

So, after the break, Prairie Home Companion first mentions it's sponsor(not solar): The American Duct Tape Council, oh so middle America! Then, the scene is a wife asking her husband how two "energy" crystals she had given him as a gift to awaken the passion in their marriage had ended up in the trash. "Oh, those rocks must've fallen out of my pocket into the garbage can," mutters the husband sheepishly. "But those crystals are to give us "spiritual energy" and rekindle our marriage, honey! We have to have a REAL talk." "Yes???" asks the husband. "Honey, we're going to go on a marriage retreat." "Well, honey, I wouldn't like to think of our marriage in terms of "retreat", but, rather, boldly moving forward," refutes the husband. "No, honey. We're going on the NRA-sponsored marriage and counseling quail shooting retreat. We can work on conflict management skills and track and kill our prey at the same time!" continues the wife.

That's as far as I got as I was on to other things this Sunday, but, pretty funny. So, my suggestion is for Prairie Home Companion, where "the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average", to add "solar" to it's name, making their rooftops solar-powered, and quite a bit above average. Yes, the "Prairie Solar Home Companion." Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Right there in Middle America.

Coda: I just actually looked at their website, and what is the first banner ad I see? Toyota Prius. Prairie Home's going in the right direction, I guess. That ad assumes environmentalists are there listening, laughing at all those middle American-isms. Solar Home Companion wouldn't be such a stretch after all.

--your slightly above average solarDweller
P.S. The spell-checker suggested "thankless" instead of "tankless" water heater, and although we take them too much for granted, along with the natural gas or electricity it takes to heat the water, I'm sticking with, and suggest you install, the tankless version.
Categories: solar, solar+energy, solar+power, green, sustainable, renewable, renewable+energy, Keillor, marketing, PsychologyMarketing

Hey solarDwellers:

I just read this article about a meeting in Vegas next week for architects/construction people hosted by an org called the Construction Specifications Institute. Now that's the group you want to be talking about solar! Get that solar in at the planning stages, on big buildings with lots of tenants inside who need electricity. It's so much cheaper to include solar into the design of the building and to not have to put the wiring and support structures on top later. Or at least have the building "solar ready" with conduit/wiring and mounting foundations in place to make it easy to make the "solar decision" later on.

Unpredictability, like spikes in natural gas used in power plants, makes budgeting for electricity, well, unpleasant for organizations. Take a look at some quotes from the article, focusing on how tenants see solar as a way to "freeze" their electricity cost up front, making that energy cost more predictable.

"We are very clearly poised at a launching point," said Israni, pointing to rising cost for oil and natural gas, and the resulting rise in electricity bills.
Architects are getting hammered by their clients to address the energy issue," he said. "Either you are building in a system or you are designing the room so that you can add a PV system when that state comes online with a strong incentive plan."

Israni said that -- while the upfront cost of a photovoltaic system remains high -- owners benefit not necessarily from low costs but more from the predictability of the bills. Natural gas-fired power plants are plagued with volatile fuel costs. While the price per unit of electricity is high with a solar system based on construction costs, the fuel going forward is free.

Irsani pointed to a school district in California inquiring about such a system.

"We asked them at the very beginning, why do you want to consider this?" he recalled. "They said 'We need to have a reliable, and predictable cost of energy so we can plan for the future.' Customers are not necessarily concerned about cheaper."

--the solarDweller
Categories: solar, solar+power, solar+energy, , sustainable, renewable, green, alternative+energy, EconomicsOfSolar, , WhatsNews