BuildingGreen.com features a story on the value that renewable energy can add to a home. Amy Levin, a realtor who completed a LEED platinum registered gut rehab in Washington, DC, had her home appraised at 10% higher value than comparable properties. Interested buyers made offers that exceeded her green investment costs, even though the house wasn’t listed. People wanted to rent her house, even though she built it for her own residence.

The solar panels on the roof heat the water (and they seem positioned to shade the air conditioner, another energy-saver). An article in Kiplinger.com summarizes “sunshine economics”: (more…)

There are a lot of cool gadgets out there, but there’s a fine line between what’s cool and what’s useful. This is a green list of gadgets that are useful, but boast the extra-cool factor of using renewable energy. No batteries required!

10. The Ship has Landed

The lightship is a solar-powered LED mounted on suction cups. Result: a portable, hands-free, solar light. It’s even weather proof and weighs a slim 8oz. For under $15, this is the best 8 hours of clean light I can think of, and I might just get one for my car/camping trips/travels.

9. High-tech pool toy? (more…)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States has announced that a new device developed by its scientists can convert 40.8 percent of light that hits it into electricity. This bests the previous record of 40.7 percent set by a different organization.

According to NREL spokesman George Douglas, the new device is both thinner and lighter than the previous model, which used a germanium wafer.

This solar cell, however, uses gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide to split light into 3 parts, each of which are then absorbed by the cell’s 3 layers.
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San Francisco-based 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) announced today that it is teaming up with Real Goods Solar for a 100-home solar campaign in the city. 1 Block Off the Grid is an initiative set on driving renewable energy adoption for residential use through the use of education, private finance, and community purchase programs.

Essentially, the organization uses the power of community as a bargaining chip to make solar more accessible to homeowners.

With this initial solar campaign, 1BOG was able to negotiate up to 48% off 2 kW solar systems from the market price for its participants. According to 1BOG Founder and Managing Partner Sylvia Ventura, 2 kW is the average size of a home-based solar system in San Francisco.
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Solar-powered clothing could be the next big trend for environmental enthusiasts. Researchers at North Carolina State University have designed a process called digital textile printing that makes it possible for solar panels to be fitted into jackets and ties.

The wearable solar panels act much like batteries when energized. With a consistency similar to paper, the panels shouldn’t weigh its wearers down too much.

However, the researchers did find problems with the neck tie: the solar panels make it extremely difficult to tie knots. They propose using a clip-on tie to remedy this problem.

The research team’s tie design contains a cell-phone pocket and 3.6V plug-in. And no, the solar clothing doesn’t create any dangerous electric shocks.
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The most efficient form of renewable energy may be right underneath us. Researchers at Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts announced today that they have discovered a method to use road surfaces for solar collection.

The key is using the plentiful heat absorbed by asphalt pavement. By experimenting with different asphalt compositions, the team discovered that heat absorption in pavement can be significantly increased with the addition of highly conductive aggregates such as quartzite. Heat exchangers could be placed a few centimeters under the pavement to collect and use solar energy.
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Solar air conditioning has so far been the holy grail of the solar energy world, but now SolCool seems ready to make the dream a reality. With air conditioning being the heaviest user of electricity in many parts of the world, the 600-watt maximum average usage level of SolCool units will significantly alleviate strains on the electric grid. And, SolCool units can run on wind, solar, generator, electric grid, or any combination of these.

SolCool has sought to create demand for its products by installing its direct current heat pump systems in critical care facilities, communication equipment rooms, schools and restaurants. Now it will begin larger-scale production of the units in Guangzhou, China, to serve anticipated growing demand worldwide.

“Clifford Sutton, Vice President of Sales and Marketing stated, ‘Over the next 45 days we will be shipping SolCool.net systems to various regional dealers in North America, the Pacific, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, West Africa, Australia and Asia.’ Mr. Sutton added, ‘Our production capacity can expand to approximately 3,000 units a month by the end of 2008 with three and five ton systems available in May 2009.’” Renewable Energy World, 8/13/08

Pacific Gas and Electric Now Under Contract to Deliver 24 Percent of Energy from Renewables by 2013

In a landmark announcement today, Optisolar and the Sunpower Corporation said they plan to build 2 solar plants that will produce a total of 800 MW of power. During peak hours, the plants will produce as much energy as a small nuclear reactor or a large coal plant.

According to Sunpower chairman Thomas H. Werner, the Sunpower plant alone will have as much photovoltaic capacity as was installed worldwide during the past year.

The solar power created from the plants will provide enough energy for 239,000 homes annually.

With the addition of the two proposed plants , PG&E is now under contract to produce 24% of future power deliveries from renewable resources (wind, biomass, geothermal, solar). This will exceed the 20% renewable energy requirement imposed by California.

Hopefully the saying “As goes California, so goes the nation” applies here, as many other states get more than enough sunshine to match California.

Posts Related to Solar Energy on Green Options:

• Nanoantenna Arrays Seen As Possible Solar Cell Replacement
• Solar Power From Outer Space Could Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependence
• Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US

The move to a greener economy and standard of living was always going to have to be led by business. No matter what way you look at it, governments don’t like making big sweeping changes, but businesses will, especially if it helps with their public image or bottom line.

Big retail chains across America are utilizing their giant flat rooftops for solar panels. Chains like Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Safeway and Whole Foods Market have all installed solar panels on the roofs of their stores.

But with Congress not planning (at least at the moment) to renew the investment tax credit (ITC), this solar drive could very well dry up very quickly.

At the moment, many retail chains are hurrying to beat the deadline, installing as many solar panels as is feasible. But so far, the majority of chains are lucky to have managed to get 10% of their stores outfitted with solar panels.

”It’s very clear that green energy is now front and center in the minds of the business sector,” said Daniel Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley. ”Not only will you see panels on the roofs of your local stores, but I suspect very soon retailers will have stickers in their windows saying, ‘This is a green energy store.”’

I think the majority of us would be more than happy to walk in to a store with such a sticker. Cheap advertising aside, for who really cares why they go green, just as long as they do, will these same retail chains that are making a dash for solar independence continue this trend after the government give up on them?

Traditional solar cells only use up to 20% of the visible light they collect, and more efficient solar cells are too expensive for mass production. Now researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho Laboratory have figured out a way to capture solar energy on the cheap: plastic sheets filled with billions of nanoantennas.

The nanoantennas are made up of small gold squares or spirals set in polyethylene. Researchers believe that under the right conditions, the simulated nanoantennas could harvest up to 92% of energy at infrared wavelengths.
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