In The Solar Energy World, This Process Delivers More Energy Per Acre And It’s Priced Comparable To Coal Derived Energy.

A small solar company Amonix, based out of Seal Beach, California, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), combined talents to developed a solar power concentrator that generates electricity at prices competitive with natural gas. The Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Solar Power Generator, is the size of an IMAX screen but costs much less than comparable generators, partly because of the efficiency of its small solar cells. It delivers more “energy per acre” than anything yet available in the solar energy world.

NREL’s partnerships with industry, such as this one with Amonix, are key to reaching aggressive White House goals including lowering solar energy’s installed cost to $1 a watt. That would be a great step towards reducing our dependence on foreign oil and releasing Big Oil’s strangle hold on the whole wide world. (more…)

Bioreplication – Mother Nature’s Way Of Helping Us Help Her

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State University, working with Professor Carlo G. Pantano, graduate student Drew Patrick Pulsifer, and Professor Raúl José Martín-Palma of the Universidad Autónomia de Madrid, Spain, found that corneas of the blowfly was ideal for increasing power production for the next generation of solar cells. Blowflies have compound eyes that are roughly hemispherical, within each half sphere the surface is covered by macroscale hexagonal eyes with nanoscale features that allows the flies a 270° field of view. Mimicking this would allow solar cells to collect vast amounts of sunlight from a lot of different angles. This amounts to an extremely larger area and maximized efficiency while occupying the same footprint as a flat surfaced solar cell. (more…)

The Orville and Wilbur Wright of the Green 21st Century

Ten years ago, on March 21, 1999, after close to 20 days in the air, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones’ balloon “Rozière” landed in the Egyptian desert, so ending the first non-stop circumnavigation of the earth in a balloon. And giving inspirational birth to the dream of Solar Impulse. (more…)

Gettin’ Your Kicks On A Green Route 66

The U.S. highway system is broken. We’re barely keeping up with the costs of maintaining our roads and bridges. A gamble we lose at times, with tragic results. New materials and technologies have to be found to replace our current archaic system. Well, now hear this — (more…)

Want Some Green Energy With That New Roof?

In 2007, Dow Chemical received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop “building integrated” solar arrays for the residential and commercial markets. Which lead Dow to form the Solar Solutions business unit and invest more than $100 million in solar solutions.

This past October the company unveiled its product called Powerhouse Solar Shingles, which can be nailed to a roof like ordinary shingles by roofers without the help of specially trained solar installers or electricians. The solar shingles should cost 30% – 40% less than other solar-embedded building materials and 10% less than the combined costs of conventional roofing materials and rack-mounted solar panels, according to company officials.

The majority of solar technology today is built around silicon-based solar cells, Dow’s technology uses a much more cost-effective and durable PV material called CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide). The new thin-film technology is incorporated into the product by over-molding the cells with a proprietary Dow polymer formulation, resulting in a unique product design that has similar reveal, weight, and installation practices as an asphalt shingle. (more…)

At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, a team of scientists are working on an
ingenious way of solving the low efficiency problem of modern solar panels by growing
nanowires. Todays silicon based solar cells converts into electricity only 10 to 15
percent of the energy they absorb.

To put a nanowire into prospective for you:

1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter
800 nanometers = width of a human hair
100 nanometers = width of a nanowire
1/100th of a human hair = heigth of a nano wire (more…)

In one hour, the Earth receives more energy from the sun than the entire human race
uses in a year.

In 1904, Albert Einstein proved that light was composed of tiny packets of energy
called photons which could be converted to electricity.

Photo Voltaic cells first became essential during the 1950′s Space Race. The first
two Sputniks that went up, died in a little over a week because the transistors were
powered with flash light batteries. The U.S.’s solar powered satellites were an
instant success. Photo voltaic panels still power nearly all satellites and space (more…)