Oberlin has one remarkable building, around ten years old, which is home to the Program of Environmental Studies. It’s called Adam Joseph Lewis Center (AJCL). Part of its energy comes from solar photovoltaic panels located on the building’s roof. Excess energy is sold to the local utility center. Further, the Lewis Center has a “living machine”, designed by John Todd, which processes waste water, making it available for irrigation and toilets.
Solar technology is fabulous, and at a glance, looks an ideal solution and alternative to fossil fuels. However, it may also have an environmental impact, which is worth considering. That’s why the life cycle of the solar installations on the Lewis Center was assessed, and what was discovered was that their eco benefits exceed their costs.
The Center also carefully monitors its environmental performance, including energy use and generation. It has 150 environmental sensors, and on its website lots of specific data is available to evaluate progress. Among the Lewis Center’s awards are having been named one of the 30 milestone buildings of the 20th century by the US Department of Energy, and one of the top 10 green projects by the American Institute of Architects. What’s also interesting is that during the design process, the community was invited to suggest ideas, students participated, and different buildings and projects were visited seeking for inspiration and ideas.
Read Post
The pilot was Markus Scherdel, one of the leaders of the project. He said that “Despite its immense size and feather weight, the aircraft’s controllability matches our expectations.” The wingspan is of more than 60 meters, but the weight is similar to that of a small car, around 1600 kg.
The plane is entirely powered by solar photovoltaic power, with 12,000 solar cells covering the wings.
Yesterday’s flight was 87 minutes long, and Scherdel took the plane to 5,5000 ft high. The average speed was 44 mph. The pilot recognized that this is quite slow, “at one point the ground speed had dropped to 12 knots per hour (22 km/h)”. One of the next goals is to test “the critical parameters of the plane”.
We hope this flight has shown the world that renewable energies can be trusted and are worthy of being investigated and developed. The best of lucks to the Solar Impulse team, hoping they continue to advance the application of solar power to aviation.
More @ Solar Impulse
The team is from Tianjin University, and their house has been called “Sunflower”, and it also uses solar energy, thanks to which it doesn’t need to be connected to the grid.
This year’s Solar Decathlon will be held in Spain, in June.
Among the Sunflower’s sustainable features are its energy efficient kitchen and its recycling toilet system. Part of its exterior is covered in solar panels. I’ll be posting more details when they become available.
VIA: Ecofriend
Since the late 80s, Raphaël Domjan has been trying to tour the world on a ship with low energy consumption. He tried different methods until he bumped into solar power and did not stop until he got the required funding and equipment. He was finally able to develop the PlanetSolar, which is the largest ship powered by solar energy. Next year he will set sail to make his long-awaited trip around the world alongside Frenchman Gerard d’Aboville.
The PlanetSolar is a catamaran with three hulls, which has 500 m2 of photovoltaic panels. They generate 103.4 kw of power. The good news is that the engine only needs 20 kw to achieve an average speed of eight knots.
The week before last, the ship was first shown in Kiel, Germany.
The PlanetSolar has two engines, it is 31 meters long by 15 wide and is capable of carrying 50 people. The approximate cost was 18 million euro.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition organized yearly by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, since 2002. Teams of college and university students can participate by designing and building solar powered houses. The goal is to help reduce the cost of such homes and advance solar technology.
The winner team of the 2009 version of the competition was the Technische Universitat Damstadt of Germany, which designed a two-story house almost entirely covered in solar PV panels. It generates twice the energy it needs. Construction costs were more than $650,000. The team got the highest score possible, 150, on the net metering contest, which evaluated the constructions’ ability to generate all the energy needed and more.
The houses were exhibited in October last year, on the National Mall in Washington DC.
The World Solar Challenge is a race that has been run every year since 1987. It was created by Swiss pioneer Hans Tholstrup, who crossed Australia from west to east in 1982 in a solar car he made with his own hands.
This is how Hans defines the race: “Propelled by the spirit of friendly competition, the World Solar Challenge rewards creative integration of technology and scientific knowledge in a wide range of disciplines, providing a common focus for young and brilliant minds.”
The challenge consists of the following: Construct a car fueled exclusively by solar power and drive it 3010 kilometers from Darwin to Adelaide, in Australia.
The three basic rules are:
-
The car should be fueled exclusively by solar power.
-
The size of the vehicle is limited. It may be a maximum of 5 meters long, 1.8 meters wide, and less than 1.6 meters tall. Since 2007, the surface of the solar panels has also been limited to 6m². The driver must be seated in an upright position.
-
It is driven exclusively from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The driver spends the night under the stars in the exact spot where the car stopped at 5:00 p.m.
If I told you a town that has no police force, no cell phones, no television, no Internet and no mayor is an example for other towns and cities, you probably wouldn’t believe me. But in fact it’s true. Gaviotas is a village in the eastern tropical desert region of Colombia, developed in the 60s, which has achieved energy self-sufficiency, and is considered a model for sustainable development.
Its founder, Paolo Lugari, a Colombian development expert, wanted to experiment with energy self-sufficiency and alternative agricultural methods in a tough environment. He thought this would be much more real than developing a similar project in a fertile place. He called the village “Gaviotas”, which is the Spanish word for sea gulls.
So why is this place so exemplary? Achieving energy self-sufficiency is not an easy thing to do, even less in a desert. Nowadays, almost every country and city in the world relies on limited and contaminating fossil fuels to get electricity, which to top it off, are generally imported. Gaviotas resorts to the sun, the wind, and pine trees’ resin to get energy. Further, huge amounts of land have been reforested, allowing for ecosystems to recover and strengthen.
Read Post
Last week, here in Sustentator, we summarized what the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act is doing to improve energy efficiency on a national scale. Today, we’ll look at the funds being destined to renewable energy research, development and deployment programs.
1) Community Renewable Energy Deployment
This project will on the whole receive $20.5 million. It includes five projects that will work to deploy renewable energy in different communities. To allow this, clean energy infrastructures will be developed, which will in turn create jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save consumers money. Among them is the project of the city of Montpelier, Vermont, where a cogeneration plant will be installed, and the University of California at Davis, that will develop a system to convert waste to energy.
2) Biomass
Through two main projects; Advanced biofuels research and fueling infrastructure and advanced biorefinery, the aim is to enhance the development of a clean and sustainable transportation sector. Among other things, selected projects will research algae-based and advanced biofuels. In so doing, dependence on foreign oil will decrease, while job creation will increase. Another important task which will be addressed is the development of compatible infrastructure. Further, biorefinery projects are expected to help foster a national biomass industry. The are of biomass energy will receive $644 million.
Read Post
It seems like a school project, or a game, too perfect to be real. Yet it does exist; Samso Island, in Denmark, uses nearly 100% renewable energy. In 1997, it won a competition launched by the Ministry of Energy of Denmark, in which participants had to design a plan to make a specific location energy independent, by using only renewable sources. Since then, the island has been investing and developing wind, biomass and solar energy.
The population being around 4,300, it is more feasible to achieve such a demanding goal there than in larger cities.
The main business sectors of the island are agriculture, followed by tourism. Thanks to the renewable energy projects, which brought about 57 million euros in investment, between 1998 and 2007, each year hundreds of jobs were created. In one year the equivalent to 20 years of employment.
Read Post
Grameen Shakti or Grameen Energy is part of the Grameen family of organizations, and its objective is to promote and develop renewable energies in rural areas of Bangladesh. It was born in 1996, and follows some of the guidelines of Grameen Bank.
Grameen Bank was born in the 80s, and has had enormous success in fostering small business initiatives among the poorest, thanks to microcredit (small loans) programs. The organization and its founder, Muhammad Yunus were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
In Bangladesh, the grid electricity is only available to 30% of the population. And in rural areas, the availability of power is even less. This greatly limits industrial and agricultural development.
That’s why Grameen Shakti considers access to electricity so important; it can help develop industry and agriculture, through increasing employment rates, more production, and more technology, among other advantages.
The microcredit system is used to lower costs for buyers and reach an economy of scale. There are different ways in which people can obtain accessible loans, recover their initial investment, and make their newly acquired technology productive.
Read Post
Haiti has not only lost more than 100,000 people, but its housing has crumbled down, its already weak energy infrastructure has been destroyed, there is a lack of water and food, as well as many wounded. International aid is being sent there, and with it sustainable tools are being deployed.
To start with, given that the power system has collapsed, there is obviously hardly any lighting. With this in mind, solar power is being used. Sol Inc., a Florida-based company, has donated $400,000 in solar lighting supplies, that are helping light up Haiti’s nights. This allows for aid workers and rescuers to work longer hours, and distribute food after sunset. Also, the lighting helps improve security, and permits hospitals to work at night.
On the other hand, being water a scarce yet vital need in post-quake Haiti, solar energy is being applied to get drinkable water. Water Missions International has sent 10 water filtration systems to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. These systems can either be powered with diesel or solar energy. They can purify lake, well and stream-water, and can generate around 10 gallons of water a minute, which is enough for 5,000 people a day.
Read Post
Microgeneration is the generation of zero or low carbon heat and power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs. It includes small scale wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, photovoltaic solar systems and ground source heat pumps. It is very common to find photovoltaic systems and wind turbines together. While the first one doesn’t produce at night, the second one does. These two systems complement each other.
Compared to the traditional system of huge power plants connected to the consumption points by long power lines, these microgenerators can generate power at the same place of consumption. This avoids losses in transport and transformation points.
The fact that microgeneration is a recent development means that there are few specialists that know how to install the technology required.
Read Post
Loading...