Learn all about solar power from women experts at the free webinar tonight

Want to learn more about solar power?  Thinking about talking to an expert regarding the benefits and costs of installing solar panels?  How does a free webinar (web-based seminar) sound?

One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) is hosting “Solar for Women,” a free international forum tonight (July 29, 2010) at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.  You can still register now for the free webinar!

Join hundreds of other women who are wondering how to lower their monthly electricity bills with solar energy.  According to its newsletter, the information covered at tonight’s free solar webinar includes:

• Basic steps of going solar
• How to decide if solar is right for your home
• Average amount households save by going solar
• Solar rebates available from the government
• Newer, more attractive styles of solar panels

And much, much more!

Log on with other women tonight to learn about solar power

The free webinar will be led and moderated by an all-female panel of solar experts.  Women fielding questions from women about solar energy!

Register now for tonight’s free event sponsored by 1BOG.  Solar for Women is bound to be a success!

A solar panel opens this automatic gate (image from Amazing Gates)

You’ve probably seen them around town, or maybe you haven’t noticed.  Attached to parking lot lights, traffic signs, even automatic gate openers: they’re single-purpose solar panels.

Convenient and cost-effective, these solar panels that are dedicated to power a single device provide consistent, wire-free energy 24/7/365.

An attached solar panel absorbs sunlight during the day and converts the energy to power the device.  There is no need to bury wires or connect to the grid.

Single-purpose solar panels offer the ultimate in reliability and safety.  When the grid goes down, due to weather or other emergency situations, solar street lights will still come on.  You’ll still be able to open your solar powered gate.  Highway directional signs fitted with solar panels will still work.

Where I live, the sun shines 300 days of the year.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I’ve noticed that the High School’s billboard is topped with solar panels to provide illumination after dark.  There are many properties with gates that are solar powered.  And a number of the flashing lights on traffic signs are operated by the power of the sun – converted by the solar panel sitting right on top!

On a smaller scale, you can experience the convenience of single-purpose solar panels by installing solar garden lights or solar security lighting.  Easy installation and no maintenance makes solar lights a perfect solution for your home or apartment.  No wiring or digging trenches involved!

Where have you noticed single-purpose solar panels around your hometown?

Solar panels on the top of the world's tallest building

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE is the world’s tallest building.  Now, it may be one of the world’s greenest.  Developed by Emaar Properties, the building has recently tapped into solar power to meet hot water needs of residents and tenants.

You might think of Dubai as a region built on the fortunes of oil.  Certainly, one can chalk up a fair amount of the opulence of Dubai to fossil fuels.  But these days, even the Middle East area is looking to renewable energy for the future.

According to a recent press release, the Burj Khalifa is aiming to meet sustainable development initiatives of the UAE by using solar panels to heat 140,000 litres of water every day:

The solar powered water brings energy savings equivalent to 3,200 kilo watts per day and 690MWh of energy per annum.

What better place to draw on solar energy than the top of the world’s tallest building?

At the Burj Khalifa, solar hot water is generated by a solar heating system installed/operated by SOLE UAE Solar Systems.  There are 378 solar collector panels that collect and convert solar energy into heat for the entire building’s 140,000 liters of water in a mere 7 hours of solar radiation.  In addition to the solar hot water system, condensate from the air-conditioning equipment in Burj Khalifa is reclaimed to cool potable water from Dubai Electricity & Water Authority. The condensate is collected in an on-site irrigation tank and used for tower’s landscaping.

Solar panels adorn the top of the world's tallest building

Burj Khalifa, which anchors downtown Dubai, is a 500-acre mixed-use tower featuring luxurious residences, commercial suites and the Armani Hotel and Armani Residences. At the Top, the world’s highest observatory with an outdoor terrace, is one of Dubai’s most popular attractions.

SOLAR Charger Power Pak Powerful enough to charge all of your portable electronics using the POWER of the SUNProvides a source of POWER when away from outlets Solar Panels charge and maintain 1400 mAh of power! 60 minute charge provides up to 180 minutes of talk time or 72 hours of standby time. AC power adapter charging 2-5 hours. Computer charging 3-5 hours. Solar Charging 5-7 hours. Includes Plugs to CHARGE and POWER your Mobile Phone, PDA, MP3, MP4, Ipod, Iphone, Kindl (more…)

Welcome to alternative energy options, Larry Hagman!

Time to write a new ending for the popular 80s show, Dallas?  I’d say welcome to the 21st century!

In the past 20 years, Larry Hagman has gone from oil to solar power, both in fictional characters and real life.   While playing Texas oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on Dallas, he was the epitome of fossil fuel corporate life.  Yet, now, the former owner of Ewing Oil is promoting solar power!

For more than a decade, Larry Hagman played Texas oil tycoon J.R. Ewing.  Big hats, voluptuous women and booze added fuel to the high life fire.  Today, however, Hagman is a spokesperson for SolarWorld, which is based in Germany and has manufacturing plants in California and my home-state of Oregon.

Who could have written this storybook ending?

Well, perhaps Hagman has seen the great big light that rises every day in the sky!  His Ojai, California estate grows vegetables and avocado trees with help from a 94-kilowatt (kW) solar power system.  Transitioning to solar energy is more than a boon to the fictional oil tycoon.  Since switching to solar, Hagman’s annual electricity bill has shrunk from $37,000 to a mere $13, according to the LA Times.

These days, Hagman is starring in an ad campaign for SolarWorld in which he makes fun of Sarah Palin’s Drill, Baby, Drill exclamation by encouraging homeowners to “Shine, baby, shine.”

Running for office this year, Hagman?

Goschie Farms grows hops with solar energy

Oregon continues to grow a strong crop of solar power this year!

This week, a new 17.9 kilowatt (kW) solar electric system was completed at Goschie Farms in Silverton, Oregon.  The family-owned and operated hops farm stretches out over nearly 1000 acres (360 acres of hops and 600 acres devoted to vegetable crops, wine grapes, grass and specialty seeds).  Each season, the farm produces more than 500,000 pounds of hops, which are then sold to breweries throughout the nation.

Bet you didn’t know you could be drinking “solar-powered” beer soon!

Completing the solar installation was Tanner Creek Energy, based in Portland, Oregon.  The solar contractor specializes in both residential and commercial solar panel systems throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Bringing solar energy to the farm is but the latest step in Goschie Farms’ sustainability practices.  According to its blog:

Gayle Goschie is the heart and soul of the family’s hop growing operations that hold more than one hundred years of hop farming experience. She has continued to advance the accumulation of knowledge through hands-on research in areas such as low-trellis hop growing and organic hop farming. Gayle’s commitment to sustainable farming has led Goschie Farms to become the first “Certified Sustainable/Salmon Safe” hop farm in the USA. Four years ago she embarked upon a mission to grow hops organically when prevailing wisdom said it could not be done in Oregon.

Solar panels at Goschie Farms help reduce electricity costs in processing hops

A new roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system consisting of 78 solar panels has been installed on the south-side of the building that is used to harvest and process hops.  The PV panels will both defray the farm’s annual electricity costs and reduce its carbon footprint.

Now that’s something to raise a glass for!

Amazon.com

The Sunforce 50012 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer gives you another reason to love the sun–it can help keep your vehicle’s battery charged. It provides up to 1.8-Watts or 125mA of power to prevent the natural voltage drain of batteries over time. It includes both a lighter socket adapter and alligator clips to give you flexible connection options. The Sunforce 1.8-Watt Solar Battery Maintainer is compact and easy to install. Convenient Power That Helps Keep Yo (more…)

Rabobank EV charging station along Highway 101

Electric cars are coming to the American public this year, and California is going to be ready for the influx of new EVs!  Along Highway 101, in Salinas, Atascadero, Castroville, El Centro, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, solar electric car charging stations are being installed.

Rabobank and SolarCity (Tesla Motors‘ preferred solar partner) recently added solar panels to the EV charging stations along the plug-in electric vehicle corridor on Highway 101 in California, between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  With 200 kilowatts (kW) of solar electricity available for zero-emissions cars to tap into, the new stations will use 50% less grid-based electricity.

Executive VP of Rabobank, Marco Krapels, commented:

“We are committed to supporting solar energy in California, whether on our own branch buildings or with our customers.  Solar energy financing is a part of our effort to promote sustainability and to expand renewable energy financing in our banking business and in our customer relationships.”

Currently, the solar installations are under construction and will be completed by the end of summer.

Solar tracking technology from Envision Solar

New solar tracking technology from Envision Solar International has been installed as part of a solar parking array.  Heliotropic solar panels track the movements of the sun as it travels across the sky during the day.  Environ Solar’s Solar Tree® with EnvisionTrak™ has been directly incorporated into the structure of the parking lot canopy.

This is building integrated photovoltaics at its finest!

If you haven’t heard about Envision Solar, its time you found out about this amazing publicly traded company which specializes in solar shading structures.  According to Wikipedia:

Envision Solar is also the only solar energy company to provide a “Single Point of Contact,” which includes design, engineering, contract management, site maintenance, financing, construction, installation, entitlement/permit process guidance, feasibility studies, and system monitoring^.  Envision Solar with Kyocera Solar are commercializing a variety of photovoltaic carport systems—mainly the award-winning Solar Grove, a solar shade carport structure composed of Solar Trees.

Solar shading for parked cars

Envision Solar’s Solar Tree is more efficient than “ordinary” PV solar panels because it can absorb solar energy throughout daylight hours – not just while the sun is at its peak mid-day.  Using solar panels to both shade parking lots and generate clean solar electricity for lighting or even re-charging electric cars could soon be seen across the country and worldwide… particularly with the new solar tracking technology.

Bob Noble, the company’s CEO, stated:

“EnvisionTrak overcomes one of the biggest objections to fixed solar PV installations by maximizing the amount of energy that can be delivered during daylight hours.  By offering the first dual-axis tracking parking lot solar array, we can enable organizations to significantly increase the amount of clean energy that they produce for very little additional cost.”

Incorporating solar panels into parking structures is a relatively easy way to make use of vast amounts of unused space.  The logistics of doing so may be easier than installing rooftop solar panels, and more immediate, direct use of the solar electricity can be made at the parking lot or garage.

For more information on Envision Solar and its new solar tracking technology, call 1-866-746-0514.

Solar powered light bulb is a safer, greener option for off-grid communities

Did you know that nearly 25% of the global population (over 1.5 billion people) still burn fuel to light their living spaces?  By introducing the solar-powered light bulb, inventor Stephen Katsaros hopes to provide a safer, more environmentally-friendly means of illumination, particularly for communities in Third World countries living off the grid.

The “Nokero” is a solar light, powered by UV rays.  When exposed to sunlight during the day, the battery is charged up.  After nightfall, users can enjoy 2-4 hours of illumination.  According to the official website:

Nokero lights are made from impact-resistant plastic, four solar panels, a replaceable rechargeable battery and five light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It is about the size of a standard light bulb and can withstand tough outdoor conditions.

Kerosene lamps and candles can start life-threatening fires when they tip over.  In addition, the combined impact of fuel-based lighting emits 190 million tons of CO2 each year.  The cost of fuel for lighting is a significant portion of poor, rural-based families’ budget, as well.

A Nokero light bulb can pay for itself through savings in fuel (cost is approximately $6 per bulb when purchased in bulk).  Rugged, waterproof and durable, the bulbs last 2 years or more.

To learn more about the Nokero solar-powered light bulb, watch this video: