Life Alternate » Solar power

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.

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.

Cleaning Solar Panels

Wispa — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:02:29 +0000

Photovoltaic solar panels detest dirt and grim more than anything. As the wind blows across the world lots of particles are picked up and deposited elsewhere. Some of this may end up on your solar panels. The grains of sand act as barriers to the sunlight and block the much needed solar energy from reaching the cells and reducing the amount of electricity produced.

Rooftop Solar Panel

We can compare this somewhat to how amazed we are at the clarity of our TV display or computer screen after giving it a good clean. Or giving the car windows a good clean and everything seems a bit more crisper. The light has been getting reflected away by all that dirt – wherever it may have come from – and reducing the quality of the display or views. Solar arrays suffer just as much and can benefit from a good regular clean.

Luckily the surfaces of your panels are treated and with the help of some rain or a watering hose the most of the dirt may was away by itself. The will still need a regular light service to maximize their performance. At home this would be relatively easy to perform if your panels are easier to access. Sometimes it might take a bit more effort if the mountings are hard to reach.

All this is really trivial when we compare residential solar with the massive solar farms that are being developed across the world. The crave sun, sun and well more sun. This often means low rainfall and hot dry locations like deserts which are ideal places for millions of little particles of dirt and sand to become airborne by a slight blow of wind. No doubt much of this ends up on the solar panels and keeping them clean is a necessary task that needs to be done regularly to keep up the efficiency of the electrical output.

The answer may come from Outer Space.

Not from aliens but from a development by NASA for it’s planetary robots. On far distant planets calling up a man is a space suit to give the solar powered robots a clean is not going to be practical. So the scientists have come up with a novel idea and this is to electrocute the dirt. Running a small short electric charge over the solar panels that causes most of the dirt to be repelled from the panels keeping them clean.

The amount of energy used is small and easily produced by the solar panels and the cleaner arrays perform much better. Using this idea back on earth based solar farms would add to the cost of the solar plants but the benefit from the solar efficiency would more than pay for itself many times over. It would not guarantee 100% that the panels will be clean, small dust particles could be easily shifted but as the grains get bigger then it would still need a wiped by damp cloth.

For all of us with solar panels at home, whether they are mounted on our roofs or on a smaller scale as part of a solar battery charger, the story here is quite clear. Dirty panels do not perform at their best. Keep them clean and maximize their power output.

Solar Powered Billboard Advertizes itself

Wispa — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:12:51 +0000

Renewable energy steps into the field of advertising with the renewable energy powered billboard. A step by by Lamar Advertising Co. aims to refit up to 1,370 billboard with solar and wind generators.

The imitative which will take place in Florida, USA, will see the retrofitting of advertizing billboard with solar energy or wind powered generators that will combines produce around 1 MegaWatt of clean energy. This will help power the signs and any excess will be fed back in to the Floridian electrical grid. The cost of the venture is expected to be around US$12.5 million with the US Department of Energy offering US$2.5 million.

Using these existing structures around the country to generate renewable energy is not as efficient as a suitable placed wind farm or photovoltaic solar plant. The big advantage is that they already exist and replace the need for dedicate wind farms to sprout up spoiling the landscape more. Just like rooftops in homes and businesses can be solar generators and combined produce an enormous amount of energy, utilizing these existing structures helps reduce the demand even more.

For most of us we will not see a direct benefit, the advertisement will still be bombarded down at us as we drive along the roads and highways. For Lamar and other advertising companies their costs will be reduced and we can not fault them for that. For the nation and world it is a small but cumulative reduction do demand for energy and the positive effects.

Many people go green or off the grid for the passion of the ideal. A business, no matter how they wish to portray their causes are driven by cold hard cash. Whenever we see a Business, like here in the case of Lamar, taking up renewable energy then most likely they are saving money. This is something we can take up ourselves and reduce our costs and the plant may eventually thank us.

Solar Energy Security for Home Owners

Wispa — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:04:28 +0000

Solar Energy seems to be bucking the trend on the downturn of the economy. As the world jumped into recession in 2009 everybody was looking to tighten their belts and save money. A possible positive effect of this was solar energy. With homeowners faced with reduced incomes and rising prices many have turned to home solar energy installation as a means to cut costs.

Rooftop Solar Panel

On rooftops and in backyards across the USA solar installations have become more commonplace. In fact in 2009 the amount of clean energy produced by homeowners has doubled the amount produces in 2008. Whether this is just a natural increase in take up of the technology or a sudden shock caused by the economy the end results are ultimately beneficial in the long term.

In the political aspect energy security is beconing a big issue as countries scramble to find more imports of rare resources or ultimately look towareds renewable energy that can be produced on their own soil. Homeowners also have gained more energy security with less reliance on the ever increasing cost and ultimately scarcer utility supply and have made a noticeable saving in their monthly spending costs. Should the unstable economy affect the homeowner with job losses then they will be assured that at least they will have a free supply of clean energy.

Manufacturing improvements and the technological advances have brought down the cost of photovoltaic panels to a price where even in good economic conditions they are affordable by many owners. In these bad time of insecurity then the advantages they offer like a source of nearly continuous electrical energy that will cost you nothing to produce.

For those not convinced and there are probably many there are enticements available in to form of tax credits or government grants that can even bring down the cost of installation even more.

There is no doubt that the year 2010 will see another rise in the amount of energy produced by rooftop installations as awareness of the benefits become common talking points around your community as those already enlightened start to enjoy their cleaner free and secure energy supply.

Solar Powered Golf Carts

Wispa — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:42:23 +0000

Golfers spending time on the courses are always thinking Green, the Putting Green. Fortunately unknowingly they may also be driving around the links while being environmentally green in a Solar Powered Golf Cart.

Electric vehicles are going to be more common whizzing quietly down our streets in this decade. On the Golf course they have been in action for years. Commonly now both for environmental and cost reasons solar energy is making and impact.

The electric golf buggy still needs a power source and this was achieved by plugging-in to the grid. Some far away coal power station was churning out electricity and pollution as well as charging the course owners for the energy.

Fitting solar panels to golf carts is simple as nearly replacing the canopy as a kit fitted onto the existing buggy or a specifically designed solar cart if buying new. The result is massive saving on energy costs. Courses in Hong Kong have already retrofitted their fleet of golf buggies and are showing large reductions in charging costs. Anytime a buggy is exposed to sunlight they are powering themselves up for absolutely no cost.

Not only the golfer can enjoy these carts. The are commonplace in hotels and resorts. Heavy use of these carts will mean they are not totally charged by solar and will need additional charging. Sunny climates and moderate use could see the total elimination of the costs of charging the vehicles.

While 100% solar powered vehicles may not be commonplace on our roads already many cities are turning to electrical powered vehicles in a bit to reduce inner-city pollution.

Solar Powered Attic Fan

Wispa — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:37:37 +0000

Keeping your loft or attic cool and well ventilated is another task where Solar Energy cant step in with the Solar Powered Attic Fan.

As the outside weather and temperature varies over the day, a poorly ventilated attic can slowly build up problems with condensation witch in the long run may cause mould and rot in your lost space. To prevent this most homes come with good ventilation as standard, but as time goes on this may prove out not to be enough. To prevent long term problems caused by condensation installing an attic fan will help reduce any nasties that may show themselves.

Solar Powered Attic Fan

Normally you would need to source some electrical energy and this means wiring trailing across your attic but if your think solar power then you can forget about all that and still keep your attic healthy by using that free energy we all know comes from the sun.

Your solar powered attic fan will come as a complete unit and nothing extra is needed for it’s installation. A little bit of construction is required here, the fan needs a hole cut in the roof and properly mounted to keep the Weather out. As this involves actually working on your roof hiring a professional contractor is preferred and will probably work out much cheaper than the cost of renting the safety equipment yourselves. Those experts will take no more than a few hours to complete the work. This might also be an ideal time to think about your loft insulation and perhaps even installing photovoltaic solar panels and solar hot water system as both of these usually involve working up there on the roof.

Just the Attic Fan itself is a worth while investment, not only are you reducing the possibility of roof damage in the future which may cost many thousands of dollar to fix, but the operation of the fan is completely free. Energy saving does not need to be on the large scale, having lots of little solar powered and energy efficient gadgets around your home can all combine to large savings on utility bills. Some like the Attic fans can help safeguard your home from expensive problems in the future. The remote solar devices also eliminate the need for electrical installation which makes them more versatile in their use and location.

Adaptations of the Attic Fans can be used for all sorts of applications and modern electronics that allows temperature sensing combine to provide efficient control over our environment. These self contained solar powered devices can be found not just in your Attic but also controlling the heat in greenhouses and installed in yachts or recreation vehicles.

Desertec Solar Power Steps Closer

Wispa — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:49:13 +0000

Desertec an ambitious project to harness the solar energy of North Africa`s Sahara Desert has taken a step further to become a reality. A consortium of companies have formed the Desertec Industrial Imitative among the names are ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, Desertec Foundation, E.ON, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE, Schott Solar, and Siemens.

With its headquarters based in Munich, Germany, the projects aims to supply 15% of Europe’s electrical energy needs by the year 2050. Using mainly Concentrated Solar Power, which differs from Photovoltaic by using the suns energy to heat a fluid to super high temperatures. This then acts as a reservoir of energy to generate electricity by turbine generators. The advantage here is that at night or on the rare cloudy day energy can still be produced due to the stored heat.

The projects is not just limiting itself to Concentrated solar energy, areas which are suitable for wind generation and geothermal will also be incorporated in to the project.

The generated electricity will then be cabled across the Mediterranean sea to supply Europe. Countries in North Africa and the Middle east will also benefit from the projects, with a percentage of the power generated going to the host countries.

LDK Solar generates in china

Wispa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:22:00 +0000

As china’s solar initiative program gather speed, LDK Solar steps up to the plate as one of the first beneficiaries. LDK Solar, along with the Chinese city of Yancheng, is to build photovoltaic solar projects over the next five years which will have, in total, a generating capacity of 500 megawatts.

The exact specifications of the installations are unknown but are thought to include both large scale power plants like the recent solar energy installation in Germany and smaller photovoltaic systems mounted on rooftops.

Solar Array

China being on of the major emitters of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses has green goal to generate a large part their much needed demand for electricity by cleaner sources.

Other recent subscribers to china’s solar plan have been Suntech Power and ReneSola Ltd. In the months to come we should expect massive development to be commonplace and within a few years much more clean environmentally friendly electricity to be starting to come online.

Yancheng is located in the province of Jiangsu on the east coast of china. This location also geographically suitable for wind power generation. With a population of over 8 million the city is twinned with San Diego, USA.

The terms, including financing, design and specific location of each of the projects, will require a feasibility study as well as final approval from relevant state departments prior to initiation.