A Daunting Expedition Through The Energy Harvesting Countryside - Part 1
I live in the middle of the woods out in the country in Ohio; far enough out where there is no cable service, no gas, no piped-in water, no sewers, cell phones don't work, the grid provides reasonable power most of the time, and the one analog-POTs telephone line works if there is not too much water in the crick.
Battery Backup: Power When it's Needed Most
Many homeowners want security and protection in case the grid goes down, and battery backup systems are a great solution to bring this peace of mind.
A Daunting Expedition Through The Energy Harvesting Countryside.- Part 2
In Part 1 we examined the energy bank, and the loads upon it. Next, we will explore some of the energy harvesting needs and capabilities.
New solar cell technology improves efficiency by 15%
Three months of experimental validation allowed us to refine the technique to the point we could pursue grant funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and submit a provisional patent application.
The Future of Distributed Wind Power
Over the past few years we've seen a real interest from schools, commercial sites, and homeowners. Local and federal governments are also seeing the benefit in on-site energy generation.
Engaging with Consumers
The platform uses unique social media, gamification and other features to drive engagement, uses automatic rebate submissions, vendor marketplaces and other features to make taking action easy, and has functionality to cover the full breadth of utility engagement programs (web portals, out-bound messaging, field staff ops., reporting, etc.).
Taking Global Risks by Storm
Unique, global risks—whether a disastrous tsunami, puzzling regulations or unpredictable foreign travel mishaps—are a formidable reality as the clean tech industry continues to expand. Awareness of these risks and working with partners that can offer proactive guidance and cost-effective risk transfer solutions can help ensure the industry's continued success.
Extended U.S. Tax Credit Blows Fresh Air Into Wind Projects
Wind-farm construction in the U.S. nearly ground to a halt after ending in a frenzy late last year. But the pace of turbine installation is set to pick up substantially later this year, largely thanks to the recently enacted extension of the federal production tax credit, say utility and wind-sector experts.
Frank Maisano, an energy specialist at Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm in Washington, D.C., with renewable-energy clients, says that, with so much uncertainty about extending the credit beyond 2012, many developers rushed to finish projects by year-end. The American Wind Energy Association says wind-turbine contractors brought on line a record 13,124 MW of wind capacity in 2012, including 8,380 MW in the last three months.
Tim Maag, vice president and general manager at Mortenson Construction, saw a big drop-off in wind-farm work for the first half of 2013. "Due to the fact that the extension took so long to get passed, most of our customers had put their construction plans on hold, which was expected," he says, adding that work in the third and fourth quarters will be "very robust." Says Maag, "We have responded to numerous RFPs and pricing requests since the beginning of the year."
The tax-credit extension approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in January as part of the "fiscal cliff" compromise provides a $22/MWH tax credit for the first 10 years of a wind farm's operation. For the first time, the latest extension applies to all projects under construction by Dec. 31, 2013, even if they are not completed until next year. Under the previous tax credit, a wind farm had to be completed and operational by the end of 2012 to qualify.
Firm Proposes 'Backbone' to Bring Offshore Wind Power to Market
Among the many roadblocks that have prevented offshore wind farms from proliferating off the Atlantic coast is how to get the electricity generated from the Outer Continental Shelf to the mainland.
A transmission “backbone” that would run under the ocean floor parallel to the coast is being proposed as a solution to that problem. The Atlantic Wind Connection, which counts Google Inc. among its corporate sponsors, seeks to connect up to 7,000 megawatts of offshore wind power to locations on land between northern New Jersey and southern Virginia.
The backbone transmission line would allow many individual wind turbines to connect to it and then deliver that electricity to land through a handful of connections.
The alternative would be aboveground individual lines from one or a handful of wind turbines, lines that typically operate at a lower capacity and present more environmental challenges.
Earlier this year, Atlantic Wind Connection announced that the first phase of the project would be constructed off the New Jersey coast because of the state’s commitment to developing the industry, not to mention the electricity potential off the state’s southern shores.
MIT startup makes transparent solar panel that will allow your smartphone to power itself
Transparent solar panels — think about it for a moment: Sheets of transparent glass or plastic film that also generate electricity. It’s almost the perfect solution for all our energy needs, generating free power from every available surface, window, and computer display.
The concept of transparent solar panels isn’t new, of course, but it now looks like they’re finally finding their way to market: Ubiquitous Energy, a startup that was spun off from MIT last year, is developing a technology and patent portfolio and hopes to bring affordable transparent solar panels to market soon.
At this point, you might be wondering how transparent solar cells actually work — after all, if it’s transparent, how can it absorb light energy? The simple answer is that light energy comes in many frequencies (colors), but as far as we humans are concerned, it is only the visible wavelengths — from blue, through green and yellow, to red — that really matter. The Sun, however, pumps out a huge amount of infrared light, and some ultraviolet light — both of which are invisible to the human eye, but which can also generate large amounts of electricity if captured by a solar cell.
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Can Perception Sell Renewable Energy?
Everyone in the sales side of renewable energy is confronted with a litany of financial measures and the same questions- “What is the IRR?” “How much is the CAPEX?” and “Where is the offtake (purchase) agreement?”; fairly universal questions between buyers and sellers in almost every industry! For the most part, the renewable energy industry suffers from a financial imbalance. Without incentives and/or compliance penalties, it’s somewhat difficult to justify the project on financial measures alone; this makes for a hard sale.
A discussion with Brian F. Keane, President of SmartPower (a renewable energy and energy efficiency company) touched on a model that was somewhat novel, at least in the renewable energy industry. Brian mentioned cars. Why do people buy a certain car knowing that once it’s off the lot it has depreciated at least in-half. A Lexus SUV LX 570 with a base sticker price of $81,530 does essentially the same thing as a Toyota Highlander with a msrp of $29,020.
Brian used another outlandish example for consumer behavior. In 1975, “the pet rock sold for $3.95 and estimates state Gary Dahl (advertising guru) sold over 5 million of his pet rocks in a six month period. With these totals Dahl earned over 15 million dollars during this period which would be estimated at $56 million today.” If interested, you can still purchase a pet rock at Amazon for $6.00 less shipping. Last Christmas a customer wrote “I bought this as a Gag for my brother. The package was in great shape, and the whole construct of the gift was great! Overall he said he loved this gift the best. Great holiday tradition carried on with such a simple and affordable gift.”
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Solar panel duty on Chinese imports 'could cost UK billions'
The UK could lose billions of pounds and thousands of jobs in the solar industry if the EU imposes tariffs on cheap imported panels from China, a report has claimed.
The European commission is investigating if solar panels coming into Europe from China are being sold below market value – known as "dumping" – and benefiting from unfair Chinese government subsidies.
The move by the commission, instigated last year, is the largest of its kind, with solar panels and key components worth more than £18bn exported from China to the EU in 2011.
It followed complaints from European solar manufacturers and could lead to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties being imposed on Chinese-made panels to stop the cheap imports harming Europe's domestic industry.
But a report published on Tuesday suggests imposing any level of tariff would hit the EU economy and jobs would be lost, as the move would push up photovoltaic panel prices and reduce the installation of the green electricity technology.
U.S. added 147 megawatts of geothermal energy in 2012
Geothermal power has a promising future, but so far it has lagged behind most of its other renewable energy cousins, especially wind and solar. So while wind power in the US has grown by 13.2 gigawatts in 2012, with 5.5 gigawatts of that just in December , geothermal's growth is more modest. According to the Geothermal Energy Association, the U.S. added 147.05 MW of gross geothermal power capacity in 2012, which is 5% more than in 2011.
That might not seem like much, but geothermal power has very desirable attributes that make it worth developing further; unlike wind and solar, it generates power 24/7 regardless of the weather. It's true that there are many ways to mitigate the intermittency of wind and solar, including possibly with grid-scale liquid-metal batteries, but having some nice clean baseload power in the mix will always be a good thing. Now the trick is to reduce costs, and to make sure we understand the geology properly to avoid problems.
The Future of Hydrogen Powered Cars
Over one and a half million hydrogen powered vehicles could be on UK roads by 2030 according to a joint Government-industry study.
HVDC (high voltage, direct current) and Grid Modernization
Unlike with AC transmission, there is no distance limitation when using HVDC cables for underground or submarine transmission. HVDC transmission is directly controllable firming up capacity by mitigating congestion on parallel paths.
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