Life Alternate » Solar

Is China Solar Energy Helping the World

Wispa — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:11:53 +0000

The raging tiger Economy of China has seen the country take leaps and bounds in the last few decades. Many of these advancements are overlooked when Western Nations point the finger and shout Democracy. Freedoms are desirable and so are a lot of other aspects of life. China is becoming the a world leader in many ways and one in particular to LifeAlternate is renewable energy.

sunset china

Helped by its relatively low cost economy China has advanced in solar energy production and solar installations. Achievable Targets are being renewed. Having already aimed for a solar capacity of 5 GW the country is about to double this to 10 GW of solar energy production by the year 2015. Longer term targets could be seeing the country produce 50 GW by 2020.

There is an undeniable connection between production and cost. The more solar energy China installs the more the cost comes down. This is a great benefit to the rest of the world making the price very comparable with much more polluting form of energy production.

China’s rapid development requires a desperate need for energy. A large focus has been on the somewhat cheaper but extremely environmentally unfriendly coal power stations. We all agree this is the wrong direction but it has given China a little breathing space to shift the focus of energy production on to renewables.

If China gains more of the world production of solar photovoltaic panels that would bring down the cost. For the rest of the world cheaper solar energy can only be a good thing. The benefits of renewable energy are too important to get political about.

IKEA and The Solar Rooftop

Wispa — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:41:27 +0000

IKEA a name synonymous with a Scandinavian style of furniture is also taking steps into the green revolution. Not only do they sell green products like the LED Light bulb but IKEA are also making their stores more environmentally friendly.

IKEA is making their stores more efficient with solar energy. Already shoppers can choose their household furnishings in stores that are powered by Photovoltaic solar arrays mounted on the roofs of the stores. If your picking up your new European styles in Pittsburgh, Tempe or Brooklyn then you may be shopping with a store powered by renewable energy.

All across the country IKEA is installing or planning to install renewable energy California and Colorado. This even extends across the Canadian border to Toronto.

The new store under construction in Denver, Colorado will have 60,000 square feet of solar energy production on its roof. This will consist of around 2,200 Photovoltaic solar panels producing nearly 500 Kilowatts of energy. For those concerned with CO2 then this store will prevent the emission of of nearly 600 tons of carbon gases each year.

In IKEA’s home country, Sweden, the home furnishing company has made it a goal to have all its stores powered by renewable energy sources. This is to include wind generation which the company already has made progress.

A plan to build a wind power station in Dalarna, Sweden, will produce around 70GWh of renewable energy each year, this is approximately equivalent to the energy used by all the IKEA stores in Sweden.

Wind power already generates energy for it’s stores in France and Germany.

IKEA is one of the more environmentally conscious companies around has over 300 stores in 38 countries around the world.

Image: dailyenergy

Weird Sahara Breeder Project

Wispa — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:48:02 +0000

Renewable energy is still thought to be a bit on the weird side for some people but fortunately the number is small. Sometimes even for those a bit more knowledgeable of the wonders renewables come across idea that make them raise and eyebrow.

The Sahara Breeder is one such project dreamt up in the minds from Universities in Algeria and Japan How does a project that would provide 50% of the world energy by 2050 sound. The ambitious idea is to take place in the Sahara desert which has an abundance of sand.

Silica would be extracted from the sand and then manufactured in to solar panels. These solar panels in turn would be used to power more silicon extracting factories and more photovoltaic solar panel factories to build more solar power plants and so on and so on. Constantly increasing the capacity.

Eventually there will be enough solar energy being produced to power 50% of the worlds needs. That is provides the technology exists to make it happen. Turning sand in to silicon used to make the solar panels is not yet possible nor is the capacity to send large amounts of energy through cables around the world.

North Africa is ideal for solar projects with its abundant sunshine and the vastness of uninhabited areas and many countries are using this resource for themselves. There is also another ambitious project, Desertec, involving Europe and a wide range of renewable energy projects along North Africa and The Middle East.

Italy Increases Solar Energy Targets

Wispa — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:45:47 +0000

The people have recently turned they back on Nuclear Energy and have directed themselves into Solar Energy. A capacity of 8GW by 2020 has already been passed.

The Italians voted “NO” to Nuclear Energy in a recent referendum and have taken on solar energy in a big way. The Country had set an ambitious target of having 8GW of electricity generated by solar energy. Now the Italians can take pride in their achievement of already passing that barrier and have set a much larger goal for themselves.

The hope is to achieve 30GW, that is nearly 4 times the previous target. The country lacks any massive domestic electricity generation with the majority if its power being imported.

Italy has also just opened its largest photovoltaic production plant. The plant in Catania will initially produce 160 MW of panels per year with that rising to 480 MW.

The production plant is a joint venture between Enel Green Power, Sharp and STMicroelectronics and will produce panels for markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Concentrated Solar Power Still out of Focus

Wispa — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:49:23 +0000

Concentrated Solar Power, or Solar Thermal, is one of the more costlier renewable energies around and this have reflected in the low uptake of the technology.

Concentrated solar power

Solar energy is something most people know about but their ideas are mainly of solar photovoltaic. This is the direct conversion of sunlight in to electricity. Photovoltaic is not the only way to harness the energy from the sun.

Head outside in summer time and everybody is going to feel the rays of the sun or more exact the heat. Quite often this becomes too uncomfortable and we head for a more cooler air conditioned environment. This heat energy is what Concentrated Solar Power is all about. Capturing that heat and turning it into usable energy.

Storing the heat of the Sun has one quite significant advantage over photovoltaic and that is the stored heat energy can be used at night. This energy storage concept may be seen in the home with some storage radiators that turn low rate electricity in to stored heat in bricks that is radiated thought the house.

To be really efficient this has to be done on a massive scale and at much higher temperatures. The concentrating part is taking the suns energy over a large area using mirrors and focusing or concentrating it all together. This the heats salt which can function at these high temperatures and keeps the energy from leaking away.

For this to be usable as electricity the heat is more often turned in to steam and the on to an electricity generator much like an ordinary power station.

Engineering a Thermal Power Station is much more costly and difficult that photovoltaic. In fact photovoltaic is so easy that many people have them installed on their residences.

Molten Salt Solar Power Plant for California

Wispa — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:21:14 +0000

The state of California is the location of a new Solar Power plant that even produces power at night. The trickery here is in the form of Molten Salt used for heat storage.

Concentrated solar power

Renewable energies do have many problems that do have to be over come such as the wind might now blow to turn that wind turbine or the sun does not always shine to energise solar panels. One solution that would solve many problems with energy, not just for the cleaner renewable forms, is energy storage. While it may be easy just to turn a switch in our homes and light will appear it is not the same for producing that power.

We need an instant supply of energy and the generation of energy is variable. The solution is to insert a form of energy storage in between supply and demand. In other words a battery but on a much much larger scale.

The solar plant in California is a Solar Thermal Plant. These thermal power stations use mirrors, heliostats , to focus the heat of the sun into one tiny area. In effect concentration the light just like a magnifying lens. All this concentrated energy is used to heat, what is in effect, salt to extremely high temperatures.

The salt is so hot that it become molten and this is not something you would want near your skin. When this is stored the salt retains most of its heat and acts like a battery, a heat battery. To generate power the molten salt is used to heat water to drive an electric turbine.

The result here is electricity can be produced 24 hours a day from solar, that includes night time and days when cloud cover could block the rays of the sun. This has an advantage of photovoltaic solar arrays that only produce electricity during the daytime hours.

It should be clear that this is not something you can place on your roof, we are talking a full scale power plant here. But that should not distract anybody from using photovoltaic solar energy in their home. There is nothing better than having free energy that you have produced yourself.

The company behind the power plant is SolarReserve and they hope to begin construction in California in the latter part of 2011.

South Africa’s Solar in the Kalahari

Wispa — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:30:24 +0000

South Africa is generating some heat for Solar Energy Investors. The famous Kalahari Desert may become the home for a 5,000 Megawatt solar park.

The Solar park, which is still in the planning stages, would produce 5,000 Megawatts of electricity. This would be equivalent to over 10% of South Africa’s current power generating capacity. This indicates the huge scale of the development for the country.

The estimated cost would be 150 billion Rand or in US$ 20 million. South Africa currently relies mostly on coal fired power stations and like many counties in the African continent has a shortage of generating capacity.

It is thought that Solar Thermal Technologies will play an important part in the development. The African Continent certainly needs much more energy and by deciding to go the Solar direction, South Africa will not be contributing any more pollutants in to the atmosphere.

The Kalahari Desert covers 350,000 square miles and straddles parts of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Egypt Goes with Wind and Solar Energy

Wispa — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:28:06 +0000

The North African country of Egypt has long term plans for renewable energy. Using both Wind and Solar Energies the country hoped to make use of its ideal location in the African Continent.

The initial target of generating renewable energy will be 12 percent of it’s demands from wind energy alone. This ambitious project would see over 2,500 megawatts of wind generating turbines over the next five years.

In addition to wind power, Egypt has it`s eyes on solar energy. Up to 1 Megawatt is planned for solar energy production to be completed over a ten year period.

This month will see the inauguration of Egypt`s first Solar Thermal power station. Located in Koraimat, the plant will produce around 140 megawatts of energy.

Egypt and many other Countries in North Africa and the Middle East are ideally suited for Renewable Energy production with regular wind direction and one of the highest rates of sunshine in the world.

This puts these countries at an advantage for energy exports. Alongside the construction of renewable energy facilities will be the infrastructure for connecting Egypt to Europe as a likely customer.

Italian Solar Power Farm Biggest in Europe

Wispa — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:23:36 +0000

Italy has just recently opened the largest Solar farm in Europe. Rovigo is the location of a massive 70 megawatt Photovoltaic Solar farm which has been completed in less than a year.

The power generated by the farm will be equivalent of the power use of 17,000 homes. The company behind this is SunEdison, a US based company. The speed of bringing the solar power station on line has been helped by extreme efficiency in Governmental planning departments.

Overall, Italy has around 7 GigaWatts of photovoltaic solar power stations with 3 GigaWatts currently connected to the grid. This is a massive boost from just having over 1 GigaWatt capacity in 2009.

Like many countries, Italy has set itself a target for renewable energy productions. It was hoped that by the year 2020 there would be a total of 8 GigaWatt in generation capacity. It may seem like they have underestimated the length of time it would take to achieve the target.

Solar Powered Mobile Network on Mount Everest

Wispa — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:44:11 +0000

Not getting a signal on your Mobile Phone should soon be a thing of the past. This even applies for those hardy enough to venture into the high remote regions of the Himalayas.

Mount Everest is now covered by a mobile signal that will allow travelers to call home and let the folks know that it’s a little bit cold today. The 3G signals have been installed by Ncell which also provide Mobile phone services and internet access across the rest of Nepal.

The mobile base stations are Solar powered with enough battery backup power to last for a few days of cloud cover. This will be a welcome service for the 30,000 people who make the journey each year to the regions vast mountain range allowing them to keep in touch.

These are harsh regions of the world and the effects are not just limited to people. The batteries in our phones and computers, the Lithium Ion, do not perform well under extreme cold condition so remember to keep those calls short. In addition any respectful traveler will venture in to remote regions already equipped with their own personal Solar Charging Devices.