Solar Vatican

The Vatican is going solar in a big way. The smallest country in the world recently announced that it intends to spend 660 million dollars to create what will effectively be Europe’s largest solar power plant. This massive 100 mw solar energy installation plan will provide enough energy to make the Vatican the first solar energy powered nation state in the world!

Solar energy by this solar plant will generate enough energy to power all of its 40,000 households. The solar energy plant installation will be located on a 740 acre site near Santa Maria di Galeria - the same place where the Vatican Radio’s transmission tower is located. The solar energy that it produces will be way above the needs of the entire Vatican, providing enough power to meet the needs of Vatican radio nine times over.
In his Environment energy posting Jorge Chapa also reported that ,these aren’t the only steps Vatican will be taking to reduce greenhouse emissions. It is contemplating using an electric pope mobile, the Vatican cafeteria will soon be decked with a solar heating system to provide heating and cooling, and even the Pope’s summer residence is being fitted out to get power from the methane generated by the horse stables. When looking for inspiration, the Pope clearly defers towards the heavens, but when looking for electricity, the sun is his choice.

Solar Balloon Creates 400 Times More Energy Than The Average Solar Cell

There are many new forms of alternative energy but maybe none as interesting as the Cool Earth Solar “Balloon.” The concept behind this design is that they create an “inflatable plastic thin-film balloon (solar concentrator) that, upon inflation, focuses sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell held at its focal point.

The design produces 400 times the electricity that a solar cell would create without the company’s concentrator.” Cool Earth has already began construction on a power plant in Livermore, CA that will utilize this new technology. The plant is modest in size, creating only 1.4 Megawatts but if this plant works as well as they expect it to, they plan on launching a full sized plant next summer. One great thing about this device is that it’s made up of a very common and cheap material. “Plastic thin film is abundant and cheap,” said Cool Earth Solar CEO Rob Lamkin. “It only costs two dollars for the plastic material necessary for our solar concentrator.”

It’s ideas like this that I think will stick. It’s cost efficient. It’s made of an easy to find material and it’s an environmentally sound concept.

Solar Powered Phone by Samsung

With the release of Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone by Samsung the world witnesses a new era of solar-powered mobile phone. Blue Earth phone. Blue Earth is a gorgeous green touch phone that has a full solar panel on its back which can generate enough power to charge the phone, but the gadget is still small enough to slip in your pocket!
As if releasing a Blue Earth solar powered phone wasn’t enough, Samsung is going beyond to achieve greenest phone on the market. The body of Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone is made out of recycled water bottles and has no toxic substances. Blue Earth is solar powered, so really, a charger?

Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone is set to be energy efficient, with a new user interface making it easy to activate the phone’s energy saving mode. Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone is also includes a pedometer, and CO2 emissions calculator. Samsung is aiming to pack Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone with entirely recycled paper.

With Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone Samsung is clearly throwing the gauntlet to all phone manufacturers, and we hope to see solar cells integrated throughout the rest of their line. Blue Earth Solar Powered Phone will be unveiled on February 16th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

SunCat Solar Batteries Powered by Sun shine

Designer and inventor extraordinaire Knut Karlsen recently unveiled SunCat, Solar Batteries Powered by Sun shine an inspired approach to portable power that can’t be beat for its elegant simplicity: a prototype battery capable of charging itself when exposed to sunshine. His slick set of SunCat C-cells are wrapped in flexible photovoltaic panels and will slowly recharge when left to bask in the sun - just like a cat.
Rechargeable batteries like SUNCAT are a boon to eco-enthusiasts who use portable electronics, however all too often they require additional peripherals in order to keep them charged. These devices generally take the form of a black box loaded with non-biodegradable plastics and heavy metals - not very earth-friendly.

Karlsen’s SunCat batteries circumvent chargers completely by integrating solar cells within the batteries themselves. To make these prototypes he attached 1.8V flexible photovoltaic cells onto 1.5V NiMH rechargeable batteries and connected them with a conductive silver pen and a few flat wires. The effect is similar to a trickle charger, which slowly charges a battery and can be left attached indefinitely without overcharging.

Karlsen plans to continue to tweak the batteries, adding capacitors to charge the batteries more efficiently and electronics to check when the batteries are full. We’re excited to see the results of his testing - finally, a justification for all those see-through gadgets with clear cases!

Solar Energy: Reshaping Future of Energy

Imagine Solar PV panels installed at the roof of your house in a matter of a year; thousands of pounds of CO2 offset and saving of and thousands of dollars saved at the same time. According to the experts there would be a challenging need of around 30 TW (Tera watts) by 2050 to maintain economic growth and ever increasing energy needs of expanding economies like China and India. A large Chunk of this 30 TW will have to come from non carbon source. To accommodate such an explosive growth a source of energy is there which is limitless yet zero carbon emission. For this reason scientists are looking towards the solution SUN. More energy reaches our planet in one hour through the sun than the energy consumed by the planet every year. According to Cal Tech Materials Chemists Nat Lewis no less than 600 TW of useable energy is available world wide.

Ground breaking research and development has been done not only to enhance and achieve maximum efficiency but to address another major issue which is the cost. In 1955 Hoffman Electronics-Semiconductor Division created a commercial solar cell with 2 % efficiency at a cost of $25/cell or $1785/watt. With the extensive research and development the efficiency increased to record breaking 42.8 the cost has gone down as well is becoming affordable. As of 2005, photovoltaic electricity generation costs ranged from 0.60$/kWh in the regions of high solar irradiation.

According to Frank von Hippel and Robert H. Williams the flow of solar Energy through the Earth’s natural system is about 10 thousand times greater than the flow of fossil fuel energy through man’s machines. The global economies with all its ever increasing demands of meeting energy needs, should shift towards solar economy is inevitable. With some economic constraints involved which can be easily removed by reshaping global policies? .I will continue the post to discuss the constraints and possible solutions.

Rainbow flux

Researches at PrizmaTech Labs have recently revealed an incredible breakthrough in solar technology that’s sure to brighten your day. The development utilizes specially calibrated ROYGBIV panels to collect solar energy over a broad spectrum of wavelengths, yielding an unheard-of energy efficiency rating that is 7 times greater than conventional panels. The fortuitous find employs rainbows as naturally occurring instances of refracted light, paving the pathway towards an exciting new source of renewable energy.

The development has spawned a new breed of crack solar-savvy meteorologists dubbed ‘Rainbow Chasers’, who are ready to mobilize at a moments notice to deploy the new arrays. For optimal efficiency, these polychromatic powerhouses can be set up at each end of a rainbow, although expandable photo-voltaic archways are in development that would take advantage of the entire length of a rainbow.

Such structures will figure prominently in the world’s first Rainbow Farm, currently in development and slated for a 2012 grand opening.

Much thinner!

The way that solar technology is moving ahead it’s truly exciting. NOW a team of British researchers from Durham University have developed light absorbing materials for use in the production of super-thin layer photovoltaic, thin enough of be called photovoltaic sheets instead of panels. These thin cells could be installed on homes or even moving cars, and should be significantly less expensive than their thicker counterparts.
The research team is being led by Ken Durose, from the Durham Center for Renewable Energy. Why do we need thin layer photovoltaic? The more common thicker photovoltaic contain iridium and other rare and expensive materials. Thus, by creating thinner PV's, the cost of these panels will be reduced. Ideally, if the project disparages out, these panels will be installed on homes to fulfill their power requirements and give back any excess power to the grid. Furthermore, if they are thin and light enough, they could be installed on moving vehicles.

Renewable energy

Utilization of natural resources such as sunlight, wind, water and biomass to fulfill our energy need in such an efficient manner that it dose not damage the delicate environmental balance is called renewable energy.
Simplest possible example can be that of biogas generation, Biogas is considered to be a source of renewable energy. This is because the production of biogas depends on the supply of grass, which usually grows back each year. By comparison, the natural gas used in most of our homes is not considered a form of renewable energy. Natural gas formed from the fossilized remains of plants and animals-a process that took millions of years. These resources do not “grow back” in a time scale that is meaningful for humans.
With our ever increasing human race and its limited resources it is important for us to work in a consistent manner to create a world that fulfills its energy needs through resources that are not destined to drain out like fossil fuel.

Renewable energy technologies are sometimes criticized for being unreliable or unsightly, yet the market is growing for many forms of renewable energy. Wind power has a worldwide installed capacity of 74,223 MW and is widely used in several European countries and the USA.The manufacturing output of the photovoltaic industry reached more than 2,000 MW per year in 2006, and PV power plants are particularly popular in Germany. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.
The majority of renewable energy technologies are directly or indirectly powered by the sun. The Earth-Atmosphere system is in equilibrium such that heat radiation into space is equal to incoming solar radiation, the resulting level of energy within the Earth-Atmosphere system can roughly be described as the Earth's "climate." The hydrosphere (water) absorbs a major fraction of the incoming radiation. Most radiation is absorbed at low latitudes around the equator, but this energy is dissipated around the globe in the form of winds and ocean currents. Wave motion may play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and the ocean through wind stress.Solar energy is also responsible for the distribution of precipitation which is tapped by hydroelectric projects, and for the growth of plants used to create biofuels.
Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, as the International Energy Agency explains:
"Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydro power, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources.Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how and where they are used. All in all it should be our utmost responsibility to work steadily to enhance the chances of producing the world which fulfil its energy needs through environment friendly renewable resources.