I would like to share a poignant story with you about how a people from a very small and humble village benefited from upgrading to solar power. And how the delays in getting their solar panels were met with patience, grace and wonder.
This story can give another perspective upon our own feelings about our delays in funding and launching of what I feel is the most important opportunity for the solar industry. And through our broader vision of the world, impact millions of lives.
This is “where the radiant light of the universe meets the inner light of wisdom, compassion and tolerance”.
The video is in two parts, so I put the second part first, just in case you don’t have time for both.
Part 2
Part 1
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
85% of our world is without electricity. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. And even if they had a book to study, they had no light to read by at night, or in their homes.
We are about to shift the world with our solutions!
From RenewableEnergyWorld.com
2.12.09
Washington, D.C., United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
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The House and Senate conferees have reached a deal on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The agreement was reached late last night and has cut the total value of the bill to US $789 billion. The bill will be a boon for the renewable energy industry. All of the provisions that were contained in the Senate version of the bill were retained. In addition, the grants in lieu of tax credits clause that the House version of the bill contained made the final package.
The renewable energy, transmission and energy efficiency measures of the bill are outlined below.
The new bill contains $20 billion for tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over the next 10 years including:
A three-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for electricity derived from wind (through 2012) and for electricity derived from biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, waste-to-energy and marine facilities (through 2013).
Grants of up to 30 percent of the cost of building a new renewable energy facility to address current renewable energy credit market concerns. The grant money was originally slated to go through DOE, but RenewableEnergyWorld.com is now hearing that the money will be distributed through the Treasury Department.
Establishment of a new manufacturing investment tax credit (ITC) for investment in advanced energy facilities, such as facilities that manufacture components for the production of renewable energy, advanced battery technology and other innovative next-generation green technologies.
Clean renewable energy bonds for state and local governments.
Extensions for tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors or insulation.
A tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles of up to $7,500 to spur the next generation of American cars.
In additon, $30 billion will go to smart power grid, advanced battery technology and energy efficiency measures including the Smart Grid Investment Program to modernize the electricity grid to make it more efficient and reliable, U.S. development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems through loans and grants.
### Full Article
Well folks, this is a huge boon for the renewable energy and green building industries! We are moving forward and good new abounds.
New U of T research looks to create organic solar cells by using special quantum effect
DailyTech/Jason Mick/1.18.09
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Imagine having cheap, printable solar cells at your fingertips, woven into your clothing,streaming power into your mobile electronics. Organic electronics, a field which includes organic solar cells and organic transistor circuits, has many advantages, the biggest of which is the ability to be printed easily, and the ability to flex without breaking.
The team looked at conjugated polymers, one of the most efficient organic materials available for solar power production. These long molecules can be also used in transistors and LEDs. They behave roughly like semiconductors, while retaining important organic characteristics. When exposed to light, they produce energy, which is transferred down their chain, eventually reaching other molecules and finally leaving the cell.
The findings are reported in the Jan. 16 edition of the journal Science. The work was sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
(Rocky Mountain News) -Gargl Chakrabarty
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On Friday, the utility sought competitive bids for up to 600 megawatts of solar power projects with capacity for storage - power that would serve roughly 150,000 customers in the Front Range.
The price tag: about $3 billion.
If Xcel selects a single plant generating the entire power, it would be the world’s biggest solar project.
“We can do it,” said John Czingula, one of the biggest shareholders and founder of Solargenix Energy.
DENVER – Xcel Energy will seek to acquire approximately 2,200 megawatts of electric generation supply for its Colorado customers between now and 2015, through an all-source request for proposal (RFP) issued today by the company. The RFP is part of the most recent 2007 Colorado Resource Plan (CRP) approved by state regulators in December.
Xcel Energy is seeking to add up to 700 megawatts of additional wind and solar generation through the RFP. In addition, the company will consider acquiring up to 600 megawatts from solar thermal generation with storage capability or natural gas backup.
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(1.8.09 - Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday said an economic stimulus package should include building a new electricity “smart grid.
“Smart grid” describes a more efficient, cost-saving method of moving electricity along major long-distance transmission lines to local distribution power lines and disparate end-users in homes, businesses and schools.
The estimated cost of creating a nationwide “smart grid” by investor-owned utilities in the United States is $50 billion over 10 to 20 years, said Ed Legge, an analyst with the Edison Electric Institute, a power industry lobbyist. Adding federally and locally owned utilities, the full cost would be about $65 billion.
Smart grid advocates say utilities and customers will realize cost savings in the long run, despite the high roll-out costs.
In a smart grid, computers and sensors, installed at power plants, substations and along power lines, would signal control centers that would better manage the flow of electricity. For instance, computers would detect transmission bottlenecks and direct power around them.
Power outages are now monitored as customers call local utilities to report them. Smart grid computers would discover outages automatically.
“Smart meters” would be installed to replace conventional electricity meters. These would facilitate communication between utilities and their customers, letting them curb power use when demand peaks and prices are high.
Cutting demand during peak hours would reduce the need for capital spending on more power plants, substations and power lines. Proponents say it also will cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
The meters combined with smart appliances would make it possible to control and regulate appliances remotely.
Proponents say “smart” technology also will help renewable power sources like solar panels and solar power plants and wind farms integrate into the overall transmission system.
Conventional power grids have difficulty with the intermittent nature of solar and wind power.
Smart grid technology is in various forms of planning and implementation depending on the utility or state jurisdiction.
Investor-owned utilities account for about 70 percent of U.S. electricity use. Several utility companies have begun replacing conventional electricity meters with “smart meters” that receive signals from the grid and send signals back to grid operators.
After year-long study of smart grid technologies in the Pacific Northwest, U.S. officials and IBM estimated customers saved 10 percent on monthly power bills and cut power use by 15 percent.
If those figures could be realized nationwide, it could save between $70 billion and $120 billion in spending on new power plants and transmission lines, the study found.
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There is a solar energy movement happening that must be shared.
It is in fact much more than solar energy but an empowering paradigm shift in education… allowing individuals to shine as they are. Regardless of poverty, illiteracy, race, language, nationality or gender. Talk about a level playing field. This program is doing such good works.
Please take a moment to review the video. It will inspire you to know that even in the poorest of villages, illiterate barefoot women are studying and becoming solar engineers and then empowering their village with their new skills. Amazing.
Peace,
Bruce
The Barefoot College, in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India, is empowering women to make a difference in their communities that would never have happened by themselves. The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It’s a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. It’s a place where NO degrees and certificates are given because in development there are no experts-only resource persons. It’s a place where people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, the courage to take risks, to innovate, to improvise and to constantly experiment. It’s a place where all are treated as equals and there is no hierarchy.
“So long as the process leads to the good and welfare of all; so long as problems of discrimination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities are addressed directly or indirectly; so long as the poor, the deprived and the dispossessed feel its a place they can talk, be heard with dignity and respect, be trained and be given the tools and the skills to improve their own lives the immediate relevance of the Barefoot College to the global poor will always be there.”
Here’s the video…
“The rural poor must satisfy basic minimum needs like drinking water health educational employment etc. to improve their quality of life. Billions of dollars are spent every year in the name of the poor to provide these services. Colleges, research institutes, and funding organizations employ urban-trained, paper-qualified professionals to provide these services at tremendous costs. But there will always be a vested interest to keep the rural poor because thousands of jobs are at stake and poverty is big business.
The belief of the Barefoot College is that development programs do NOT need urban-based professionals because para-professionals already exist in the villages whose wisdom, knowledge and skills are neither identified, mobilized nor applied just because they do not have an educational qualification.
This belief was put into practice 33 years ago in all the development program dealing with improving the quality of life.”
Here is the founder of Barefoot College, Bunker Roy…
Skoll Foundation Visit to Barefoot College Tilonia
2:00 p.m. EST Nov. 5, 2008
NORTH EAST, Md., Nov 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Blue Square Energy, a developer and manufacturer of low-cost silicon solar cells, today announced that it has produced a 14.6 percent efficient solar cell with its patent-pending Bright Point technology. BSE’s efficiency result is one of the highest in the world on upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) silicon and has been verified independently by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“What we’ve been able to accomplish is a major milestone towards achieving our goal of creating low-cost solar energy for homes and businesses,” said Joseph Babin, CEO of BSE. “This proves that inexpensive silicon typically considered unsuited for the solar industry can be utilized to create solar energy that is price accessible for most Americans. Solar modules made with our Bright Point technology will soon be the best choice for those who care about our environment and their wallets — and want to save both.”
BSE’s Bright Point technology is unique because of its two part structure: a fine layer of high-grade silicon is placed on top of 4N UMG silicon, which differs significantly from the solar industry’s silicon norm by way of cost and availability. Bright Point technology is possible because of BSE’s proprietary engineering and scientific discoveries.
UMG silicon has drawn a great deal of industry attention as companies seek substitutes to traditional and rare solar grade silicon in the fabrication of their solar cells. However, most UMG technologies being developed focus on blending low percentages of inexpensive UMG silicon with expensive solar grade silicon. This results in a minimal cost reduction. Through Bright Point, Blue Square Energy uses 100 percent 4N UMG silicon, which results in a significant cost reduction relative to other UMG silicon solar cell products.
Creating low-cost solar cells is the first step in BSE’s goal of eventually manufacturing the world’s highest efficiency, lowest cost solar cell. This Bright Point II technology is currently in research and development.
About Blue Square Energy
Blue Square Energy is a developer and manufacturer of high-performance silicon solar cells headquartered in North East, Maryland. Its proprietary Bright Point solar cell technology utilizes upgraded metallurgical grade silicon to produce low-cost solar cells for use in homes and business. More information about Blue Square Energy can be found at http://www.BlueSquareEnergy.com.
SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An anticipated Democratic U.S. election sweep is thrilling solar and wind power investors because that outcome is seen as a big step toward establishing federal requirements for alternative power generation.
Analysts said a national mandate for generating renewable power would be a relatively easy first step in any “green” agenda because dozens of states already have such policies, and the cost to a cash-strapped government would be negligible.
Solar Goes From Gardens to Gigabucks -WIRED Science
By Alexis Madrigal
excerpt:
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FREMONT, California — In a nondescript Bay Area office park, a converted hard-drive factory with a shiny new façade began churning out unconventional solar tubes that big investors are betting will soon blanket commercial buildings across the world.
The highly-automated factory belongs to Solyndra, a three-year-old company that’s received $600 million in venture capital and $1.2 billion in orders for its new cells, which look like curtain rods.
Instead of the standard panels mounted on racks that have dominated solar for the last 20 years, Solyndra’s cylindrical solar cells collect sunlight more efficiently across a broader range of angles and catch light reflected off the roof itself.
New research at MIT has opened the door to a 24 hour energy solution using the sun and solar energy. Plants store their energy in the evening and their is an abundance of energy during the day to allow for overnight storage. The amount of energy falling on the Earth in one hour is equivalent to all of the energy needs of the planet for an entire year.
New and efficient ways of splitting hydrogen and oxygen and storing the energy in a fuel cell in your basement would allow 24 hour, off-grid production of energy. Effectively making your home a powerPLANT…. nice. You plug in you electric car and charge it from the sun and/or the stored energy in the hydrogen fuel cell.
This has huge implications to move us toward energy independence and decentralized energy distribution.
Very exciting!
Peace,
Bruce
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“MIT researchers say they have discovered a way to use solar energy cheaply even after the sun goes down, which could make it a mainstream source of power within the next decade.”
“”The industry is trying to cut costs and improve efficiency all along the supply chain,” Hanis said. “The cost of solar should be on par with sort of traditional fossil sources in about eight years,” based on the rising costs of other forms of energy and the trends the association has seen in cost reductions in solar over the last decade, she said.”
Here is another article on the same subject from “Science Daily”:
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In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
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