Energy Department Aims To Slash Solar Costs 75%
Aiming to make the solar industry self-supporting without subsidies in a decade and more globally competitive, Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Friday launched an initiative to try to cut photovoltaic solar energy costs 75% by 2020. And he brought out SunPower(SPWRA) co-founder Dick Swanson to talk about efficiency gains made to date.
“In the 1960s President Kennedy launched the moonshot goal, to put a man on the moon within a decade. Today we’re launching what we call a SunShot race,” Chu said on a midday conference call with reporters.
“Right now the generation of solar electricity and installation requires help, requires subsidies,” he said. “But if we can get to, before the decade is out, one quarter of current costs … down to this so-called dollar-a-watt target (for all costs), it means you’re generating electricity at a level comparable to or less than other … forms of energy.”
Some Well Known Solar Power School Experiments
The importance of alternative energy needs to be taught to our next generation. For this our children need to be educated on green energy from an early age. They should be encouraged to take up courses in renewable energy. This will definitely help them to relate to today’s climatic changes and understand what solar, wind, biomass or geothermal energies can do. In support of this schools should also conduct workshops and some well known solar power school experiments are as follows.
One of the most famous solar energy experiments for school children is the solar houses. These are miniature houses that have solar cells attached in the roof. These small houses can be built with a piece of cardboard and the cells can help in heating water or lighting a solar light the usual way. This will give them a better idea of where to place photovoltaic cells along with its functionality.
Solar energy news recap : Clean Energy Authority
In preparation of today, either the most romantic or saddest day of the year, the world of solar energy kept it sexy last week, with news coming from all over the country, as if to say: I’m solar energy; will you be my Valentine?
A new survey last week found that solar is the most favored form of clean energy in the United States. A full 79 percent of respondents saw solar favorably. It was considered more favorable than wind power, which respondents viewed 75 percent favorably.
A Washington state utility, Inland Power and Light Co., also found favorable results for solar over wind. The utility tested a wind turbine and a photovoltaic array of similar sizes and costs and found that the photovoltaic array produced much more power than the wind turbine did.
FIT Content
TORONTO, April 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — SunEdison LLC, a leading worldwide solar energy services provider and a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE: WFR), announced today that it has received an official letter of confirmation from the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) that it has met the 60% domestic content requirements of the Ontario Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program for solar projects.
As a result, the company’s solar photovoltaic panels, manufactured in Ontario, will be accepted in FIT projects in the province. SunEdison’s parent company, MEMC, announced a partnership in December 2010 to produce the modules in Newmarket, Ontario.
To stimulate job creation in the province’s manufacturing sector, the Ontario FIT program rules require that companies wishing to participate in the program prove they are meeting the 60 percent domestic content requirements. The components included are solar PV modules, inverters, mounting systems, wiring and electrical hardware and construction and on-site labor.
New, Lower Rate Set for New Jersey Solar Rebate
New Jersey’s solar energy rebate program is somewhat fickle, to say the least. In recent months, the state’s Renewable Energy Incentive Program (REIP) has been switched off, then on, then back off again. Last we heard, the solar rebate was tentatively slated to return at the beginning of September — but no one knew at what level, and uncertainty abounded.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities last week moved to provide a bit of clarity. The NJ solar rebate, it seems, will return on September 1, 2010, at the following levels:
- Residential solar installations: $0.75 per watt of installed solar capacity, up to 7.5 kilowatts (kW); notably, home solar systems larger than 10 kW are not eligible for the rebate.
- Public and non-profit solar installations: $0.75 per watt up to 30 kW.
- Commercial solar installations are not eligible for solar rebates.
Plucking Energy From Sunshine
With the exception of certain types of extremophiles such as alvinella pompejana, which thrive near hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean, almost every living organism on Earth is solar powered. Through photosynthesis, plants capture the energy of sunlight which sustains almost all life on our planet. The energy of photosynthesis is partitioned among the individual organisms in the food chain.
This remarkable circumstance is deeply mirrored in our technological world. As with life on Earth, most of the energy consumed by modern technology ultimately traces its origin to sunlight. Only a small fraction of the energy that powers our machines is extracted from nuclear and geothermal sources.
Ancient Sunshine Fuels The Fire
The fossilized remains of plants and animals are fuel for the fires that electrify buildings and propel transportation systems. We literally pump or dig the stored energy of ancient sunshine from the ground. The wonderful convenience of harvesting ancient sunshine to power our technological world has, unfortunately, unleashed some rather frightening demons that manifest themselves as global warming, dependence on imported oil, and economic destabilization caused by diminishing supplies and rising prices.
ASU News > NSF shines light on ASU solar project
October 23, 2006
NSF shines light on ASU solar project
ASU scientists Rudy Diaz and Stuart Lindsay will lead a research group on a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for an innovative project designed to break through the current technological hurdles of solar energy.
Today’s solar panels, made up of thousands of individual solar cells, are extremely inefficient and costly to produce, limiting Sun Belt states such as Arizona from fully using their most abundant renewable energy resource.
Solar Energy for Better World
In this world we live in, we now face serious problems due to climate changes, global warming and energy crisis. From the unstable ecosystem, natural environment damage, the decreasing of volume of ozone layer to air pollution that makes people and the entire life on earth suffering.
We know that our bad activities have caused the increasing of average global temperatures around the world in the last 100 years, especially in the past 20 years. Industrials with their hazardous waste materials including liquid, gas and others truly become a time bomb threatening individual salvation as well as the survival of this earth. Therefore, through The Kyoto Protocol Treaty and UN Climate Change Conference, all countries are encouraged to take significant steps by tightening industry regulations and in the development of green energy and green home living in order to reduce global emission.
Many Different Energy Resources Can Be Used to Make Electricity
Many Different Energy Resources Can Be Used to Make Electricity
You probably know that most of the electricity you use is produced in a power plant and travels to your home and school through special wires. But do you know what energy sources are used to run power plants?
Energy resources can be divided into two categories: nonrenewable and renewable.
Nonrenewable Resources
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Tiny Green Bubble • Walmart Does Good for Solar Energy in Schools
Arghhh. Just when we thought we could point to Walmart and say “Evil!”
The grant will first be used to install solar panels in twenty schools located in Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Minneapolis or Seattle. Those solar panels will generate approximately 150,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and save the schools more than $15,000 in energy costs. That $15,000 in savings may mean that students can actually have books and after school activities (not that we’re bitter about the state of American public education). As an added bonus, more than 100 tons of greenhouse gasses will be prevented from entering the atmosphere.