Photo: Little Sun

Now, Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic artist known for his light-based installations, is joining the solar power revolution with the beautifully designed Little Sun, a collaboration with engineer Frederik Ottesen. They presented their solar solution last Friday at the World Economic Forum in Addis Baba, Ethiopia.

Little Sun is a LED light powered by solar energy captured with a 6 x 6 cm (2.4 x 2.4 inch) solar module. The designers say it requires four hours of charging to make it work for another five. It’s a nifty, pretty little number that can be used as a lantern, table lamp or even as a bicycle lamp.

Solutions like this bring hope to the 1.6 billion people who lack access to electricity. Little Sun will be launched in London during the arts festival that accompanies the Olympic Games in the summer. In the video below Olafur talks about his new art work for the masses.

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Technorati Tags: Little Sun, Olafur Eliasson, small solar, solar light

Photo: Siemens solar plant in Le Mées, France

Researchers at the Fraunhoger Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in Kaiserslautern, in conjunction with Siemens Energy Photovoltaics, have a developed a new software that improves the process both in terms of quality and speed. The software will be on display at the Intersolar Europe Trade Fair in Munich between June 13-15.

Current planning approaches use CAD programs, which are very time-consuming since every layout and variation has to be generated separately. Besides, to compare different concepts the planning process often has to be repeated.

There are many factors to consider in the planning stage. These include customer specifications, regulations and government subsidy programs, besides weather, climate, topography and location. Together they will determine the selection and placement of individual components such as PV arrays, inverters, wiring and acess roads.

“Our algorithms programmed exclusively for the Siemens PVplanet (PV Plant Engineering Toolbox) software provide engineers with several hundred different plant designs in a single operation. It takes less than a minute of computation time,“ said ITWM researcher Dr. Ingmar Schüle.

The user will only need to provide parameters such as the topography of the construction site and the module and inverter types that will be used. He or she can also change parameters such as orientation, spacing and inclination of solar arrays to study the impact of the quality of the planning result.

Even cost estimates and income calculations can be included. It performs a simulation of the weather in the region in question, the course of the sun throughout the year and the physical module performance including shading effects. With the results of this computation and an estimate of the investment and operating costs, the planning tool can come up with a figure for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Planners can also compare their results with similar configurations to test their parameters and make adjustments as required.

“The software assists the expert with decision-making and helps with the design of the best possible PV power plant for the site involved. Which one is ‘best‘ depends on a number of aspects, from the customer’s objectives to the site and environmental conditions, but also on the financing concept and the financial incentives for photovoltaics in the target region. All of these criteria are taken into account,” Schüle added.

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Technorati Tags: PV planning, PV plants, Siemens, solar power plants

Photo: New Energy Technologies

Pythagoras developed its technology with an award from General Electric. Previous experiments with the solar window by this company includes an installation on Organic Valley’s headquarters in Wisconsin.

Solar windows are an interesting and welcome development in solar power research as they have the potential to generate clean, alternative energy from existing space. As we have noted before, New Energy Technologies is working to develop a see-thru technology called SolarWindow.

In March the company announced it had developed in a joint effort with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory a virtually ‘invisible’ conductive wiring system to enable its SolarWindow to transport electricity.

The system is a kind of very fine grid pattern that can be applied on New Energy’s technology. It becomes virtually invisible, therefore the SolarWindow remains transparent while its performance is improved.

Source: Pythagoras/New Energy technologies

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Pythagoras’ presentation video:

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Photo: Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs

Westford Solar Park is connected to National Grid’s distribution system. The utility will be purchasing the clean electricity generated by the park through Massachusetts’ net-metering law. Cathartes can also sell renewable energy certificates that it can sell to utilities and other suppliers that need to fulfil a quota of renewable energy under the state’s law.

Boston.com has an in-depth article describing a visit to Westford Solar Park. The article notes that Massachusetts now is ahead of California as a leader in alternative energy, thanks to Governor Deval Patrick’s policies such as the Massachusetts Green Communities Act.

Video about Westford Solar Park:

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Installing solar power on the rooftop of a building may be financially daunting for many people. But if you get together with your neighbors, perhaps the dream of going solar may become attainable.

This is what the Mount Pleasant community in Washington DC did. Back in 2006 Anya Schoolman and Jeff Morley chose solar power as their path to a sustainable way of life. They realized that the cooperative model was the best route to take.

When people get together on solar power, they can get cheaper systems through bulk purchase. Besides, they can share expertise and learn together in the process. And so the Mt. Pleasant solar coop was born and its goal is to develop a model that can be tested in their community and then rolled out across any community in Washington DC.

So far, the project has spawned eight solar coops across the city. This is the main point of the project: to provide support and inspire other communities to embrace sustainable energy.

Watch the video and be inspired:

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Technorati Tags: Mt.PLeasant, solar community, Solar power

Photo: PlanetSolar

The solar array covers an area of 537 square meters and the panels feed six banks of lithium-ion batteries. On a fully sunny day, they could charge up the batteries by 50 percent. On a cloudy day, they would get only 10 percent of the batteries charged before it got dark.

“ For 8 years we have been working on achieving this world tour with solar energy. If everything goes according to plan, we should cross the last longitude line tomorrow and then reach Monaco, the departure point of our adventure. Friday May 4th, 2012, on this day early in the afternoon we shall succeed in this first journey around the world with solar energy for the first time in history”, Raphaël Domjan, the Swiss expedition leader, yesterday wrote on the fantastic blog that was used to document the adventure.

Congratulations to Raphaël and his crew. May the 4th be with you on this special day for solar power!

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Technorati Tags: Solar, Solar power, Turano solar boat

3M and Gossamer's Large Aperture Trough 73

3M and Gossamer’s collector is called Large Aperture Trough (LAT 73). It features a concentration factor of over 100x and an aperture size of 7.3m. It also features 3M’s high reflectivity Solar Mirror Film 1100. These panels are 50 percent lighter than glass and they offer 94.5 reflectivity.

It is a combination of optical performance and light weight that made possible the design of the large aperture collector. The system has been verified by the National renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which measured an optical accuracy of more than 99 percent. The companies add these collector’s specs are worldwide benchmarks for the industry and promise a cost reduction of 25 percent.

“The LAT technology is an exciting development for the CSP industry, as it demonstrates the possibilities in solar concentrating technology,” said Dr. Dan Chen, business development manager at 3M Renewable Energy Division.

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Presentation video about LAT 73:

Technorati Tags: 3M, CSP+, Gossamer, parabolic trough, parabolic trough concentrating plant

A graduate in industrial design from Paris L’ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique has created a sophisticated solar powered tent that is bound to please greenies and design aficionados alike.

Benjamin Charles is the brains behind the Leav camping solution. Campers are a great market for mobile, small solar power generation. Traditionally they’ve had to put up with with dirty, carbon-emitting kerosene.

Leav is equipped with both thermal and photovoltaic solar power, which means that besides electricity, campers using Leav can also get hot water for the kitchen and bathroom. True, Leav looks more like a mobile home than a traditional tent, but hey, they call it tent, so who am I to disagree?

Leav also features a dry toilet, which despite using little or no water, remains odor-free.

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(Via Treehugger)

Technorati Tags: camping, solar panels, solar tent

Screenshot: EnergySaver

EnergySaver recognizes energy consumption habits and establishes which appliances use the most energy. It also identifies phantom loads, which can account for 10 per cent of energy use in a house.

The application can be customized for several homes and includes pre-populated consumption data for several electric, natural gas and water appliances and fixed and tiered average rates information for all 50 U.S. states.

The overall objective of the application is, of course, saving energy, water and gas, which results in financial savings as well. The app is available from Apple Store and Google Play and it costs $2.99.

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NOMAD portable solar light. Photo: O-Sun

Like several other portable solar light developers, such as LuminAID, SolLight and Wakawaka, NOMAD’s primary audience is people in developing countries with no access to the grid.

According to Gizmag, NOMAD LED solar light comes with three lighting setting. Its performance is pretty impressive. At full output it works for six hours. If you set it to its dimmest option, it will give light for 35 hours. It features a silicon disk that protects it from damage when placed on the ground. It’s also easy to be affixed on walls or suspended above a desk.

It comes with a separate charger and a USB plug for cloudy days or use in interiors. O-Sun has also been careful with manufacturing materials and chose eco-friendly options such as ABS and recycled packaging to reduce the product’s carbon footprint.

The company will be channelling the product at a lower price in developing countries with support from NGOs, government and micro-credit organizations.

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Technorati Tags: portable solar, solar light, Solar power