Buffett investment in California solar farm could boost industry
The agreement by investor Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings to buy a $2-billion photovoltaic farm in San Luis Obispo County could bring a ray of financial sunshine to the battered solar-energy industry. The scale of Buffett's foray into this sector of the renewable energy scene is considerably more modest than his $34-billion purchase of BNSF Railway, but it could provide the same kind of boost to the solar power business that the 2009 acquisition did to the railroad industry, experts said. "In a lot of ways, this is classic Warren Buffett," said Bruce Bullock, executive director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University. "He comes into an industry that is starving for capital investment. At the same time, this is something that also tells people it's time to take solar power seriously."
Nissan Leaf goes wireless - charged by electromagnetic induction from floor pad
THE sight of electric cars umbilically attached to their charging stations hasn't yet become commonplace. But already the technology is about to be superseded.
Nissan in Japan has given a glimpse of the very near future in the form of a wireless charging station for its Leaf electric car. Present electric vehicle charging technology requires the connection of a cable to the vehicle to recharge its battery via mains electricity. Now Nissan has developed a wireless charging pad that recharges the battery simply by parking the vehicle on top of a ground transmission unit. Much like the charging system on electric toothbrushes, the Nissan wireless charger works by electromagnetic induction. Electricity is drawn from the recharging coil in a housing mounted on a garage floor and into contacts inside the vehicle. Charging your EV is something you never have to think about. You simply drive into the garage at night, park squarely over the charging pad, and leave the car to charge itself. By morning the car is fully charged and you're on your way. The system is 90 per cent as efficient in power transmission as a cable system, meaning it will charge the car in about eight hours.
A dead-easy way to kill vampire power
Belkin this month released perhaps the simplest way to cut that standby power with its Conserve Power Switch. The small gadget is just a switch in a handy format that cuts the flow of power to anything that plugs into it. There's not much to this device, but that's its appeal. The Power Switch, which costs $6.99, plugs into a regular outlet and you plug a device into that. When you want to use your coffee machine, flick it on and a small green light turns on to indicate the plug is live. Could this simple act actually be worth it? Depending on what power source you intend to cut off, this little gadget or one like it can pay for itself in less than a year. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory calculates that the average coffee maker uses 12 watts when it's off. That means if you only turned it on for the few minutes that it's actually making coffee, you'd save about $12 a year based on the national average electricity price.
Inverter Strategies: An Overlooked Factor in the Solar Cost Equation
This new type of architecture has inherent cost and reliability advantages over microinverters: it uses fewer critical components than microinverters, its easy installation and connection to the grid allows for reduced installation and maintenance costs and its connection to the module at a cellular level means the performance and cost of the solar module can be optimized.
Tools for Clean Energy Project Financing
Making affordable financing options available to as many people as possible is the key to stimulating widespread adoption of residential solar. That's why Clean Power Finance offers affordable financing options for qualified installers and homeowners as well as our CPF Tools residential solar sales platform to simplify, streamline and speed up the permitting process.
North American Photovoltaic Market Set to Double Year over Year in Q4'11
Caught between strong utility-scale project demand, declining solar incentives in distributed generation applications, module over-supply, and significant policy uncertainty, the North American photovoltaic (PV) market is at a crossroads, according to the conclusions of the recently-released NPD Solarbuzz North America PV Markets Quarterly report.
Wind Power - Global Market Size, Turbine Market Share, Installation Prices, Regulations & Investment
Consolidation is on the cards as the US market is undergoing correction and the Chinese wind market is expected to stabilize during the forecast period. Companies have modest expectations of growth for 2011 as major markets have slowed down but are expected to pick up in the second half of year.
Home Automation Protocols, Networks and the Smart Grid
We have a long way to go before AV, lighting, HVAC, and appliances come together within a home automation network that will work with smart meters and the utilities' back office system to communicate both ways flawlessly, controlling how and when energy is wisely consumed. Strides are being made in each area and we will see more systems coming together for the perfect balance of energy consumption and energy savings.
Biomass Power in China
The roadmap for biomass is under study in China and may prove a gem for development of the sector. Biomass presently contributes nearly 5% of power generation to the total renewable. The technology has good growth prospects due to available potential in the country.
Goodbye Nuclear - Hello Solar
The prospect of a probable reduction in nuclear in France presents a fantastic opportunity for the photovoltaic industry. And never mind the Chinese competition - the French players have their card to play.
The Impact of Germany's Decision to Phase out Nuclear Energy
While startup costs and transition problems have yet to be resolved, Germany is betting on its future, and future generations using solar and wind power will not have to bury energy wastes with a half-life of tens of thousands of years.
InstaRack in Orange County
One of the Largest Rooftop Solar Installations in the City of Irvine
Vodacom deploys fuel cell system as backup power at cell site in South Africa
The South Africa Baviaanspoort site has yielded significant savings in terms of maintenance and repair costs and improved reliability over the duration that the ElectraGen™ ME has been installed.
Greater Consolidation for the Wind Energy Market with Fewer but Stronger Participants
The European wind energy market is just starting to recover from the economic downturn in 2009. As demand stabilises, steady growth is forecast. At the same time, the market is poised for greater consolidation that will result in the emergence of fewer but stronger participants. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.energy.frost.com), European Wind Energy Markets, finds that the market earned revenue of $19.18 billion in 2010 and estimates this to reach $42.48 billion in 2017. The application sectors covered in this research service are offshore and onshore wind energy. "Europe's wind energy market is primarily driven by the European Union's renewable energy agenda to meet 20 per cent of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2020," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Neelam Patil. "The high growth potential of offshore wind energy, coupled with the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are attracting investments in the European market."
25 battery breakthroughs for gadgets, electric cars & the grid
A lack of progress for battery technology is (arguably) the single biggest barrier for gadgets, electric vehicles and the power grid. But there continues to be innovation, like last week researchers at Northwestern University unveiled technology that can boost gadget battery life by ten and charge a battery in minutes instead of hours. And there’s hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs, universities and large companies working on battery breakthroughs. Here’s 25 you should know about:
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