Mapping Renewable Energy, Rooftop by Rooftop

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 1 day (www.time.com)

The sun shines on everyone — but not in equal measure. That reality has long slowed the spread of solar power. Depending on where you live in the country — or even where you live in your city — the same array of photovoltaic solar panels can produce enough electricity to power your house with watts to spare, or barely cut a nickel from your utility bill. It all comes down to the precise amount of sunlight that hits your roof

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Solar energy hits new efficiency record

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 weeks 2 days (www.nature.com)

The biggest problem with solar panels and solar cells, more than the expense of making them, has been that they just don't create as big of a return as fossil fuels.

Luminescent solar contractors (LSCs) look like glass panels with colored edges (although this might be artists' license). They are embedded with light-absorbing dyes to catch photons. When the photons are re-emitted, they bounce around inside the glass by total internal reflection (the same principal used in fiber optics) and eventually hit the solar cells mounted along the edges of the panel

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Carbon-free energy? Already in progress, says Nature.

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Here, Nature magazine gives an overview of the several different means of generating electricity without releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Increasing the efficiency of existing fossil fuel systems is also given its due.

Once again, we see why Nature is at the very top of science writing. Take a look at this:

"The fact that hydroelectric systems require no fuel means that they also require no fuel-extracting infrastructure and no fuel transport

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U.S. retailers chase a solar panel deadline

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 4 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

U.S. retailers might consider floor space to be the number one claim on their attention, but they're finally putting those big, flat roofs to work toward the bottom line. No, they're not doing cheery rooftop displays of their merchandise; they're installing solar panels. If they do so before December 31 of this year, they will receive a generous tax write-off.

So far, the big chains like Wal-Mart, Kohls, Whole Foods, and Safeway have outfitted about one in ten stores with rooftop solar panels, but we can expect more if Congress renews their offer for 2009 and beyond

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Nature examines thin-film and other solar cells

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

There are a few different varieties of solar cell on the market and in development, but they've all got their ups and down. Traditional solar cells are now an established technology, but they are very expensive to make and their efficiencies don't top 22%. Other, newer types of solar cells (with one exception) are even less efficient, but they are much less troublesome to mass-produce. Some types of solar cells can even be woven into cloth.

As always, I'm a fan of Natures whole-picture approach. The practical, hopeful and economic aspects of this project all get their treatment.

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Organic dye lets window panes harvest the Sun

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 months 3 weeks (technology.newscientist.com)

Harvesting sunlight before turning it into electricity could become easier thanks to an exotic organic dye developed in the US.

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Solar power: Organic dyes help harvest sunlight

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

Researchers claim that glass laced with specific dyes can channel photons into small solar cells, giving them as much power as if they covered a larger area without overheating. Researchers tried dye-enhanced solar devices years ago, but the research was full of problems. Either the dyes would break down in sunlight or the photons would be reabsorbed too quickly.

Marc Baldo of MIT claims that once the process is fine-tuned the efficiency of most of today's solar cells could be doubled. The research team believes that their work could be available commercially in as little as three years.

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The first zero-carbon city

sea-maid submitted, created time 8 months 2 days (environment.newscientist.com)

The care of the environment is always the one of the most important issues for modern society. Now, the news has come that one of the world's largest oil producers, the United Arab Emirates, has begun construction on the first zero-carbon city, powered entirely by renewable energy. From this article, we know that the country intend to take some usefull measures to improve the environment.

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a revolution in solar power--thin-film

sea-maid submitted, created time 8 months 1 week (www.sciam.com)

Thin-film photovoltaic cells, like those in the array seen here in Mainbernheim, Germany, can harvest as much energy from the sun with far less semiconductor material,the lowest cost and most reliable thin-film technology directly into building construction materials will be the beginning of a revolution in solar power, we will see the day when solar became an economically substantive part of our energy mix

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Giving Solar Power Lights to More People

Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Life may be about to get a bit brighter for some of the 1.6 billion people across the world with no access to electricity.

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A dark side of solar power

Solarthermal energy rears a practical head

Darkfrog submitted, created time 10 months 2 days (www.nytimes.com)

In contrast to solar panels, the ten solarthermal plants out in Nevada are more than exceeding their initial investment value. Together, they produce as much energy as three nuclear plants, but they each took only two years to build.

In solarthermal plants, large patches of desert are blanketed with mirrors that focus the sun's rays on a liquid, heating it into a gaseous phase. The gas then turns the power turbines. It's renewable, it's clean, it's not cheap but it's not expensive. Right now, the biggest problem seems to be that it's limited

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Researchers suggest fuels pulled from the air, but there are problems

Darkfrog submitted, created time 10 months 3 weeks (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com)

Drawing CO(2) from the air for fuel would be truly carbon-neutral. The catch here seems to be that the energy to do the drawing would have to come from somewhere. This particular lab suggests nuclear power, which is cleaner and safer than its public image would suggest but carries the attending problems of the time and money it takes to build facilities (and of bothering the Navajos again for their uranium, maybe after a few hundred years of not screwing them over). Other researchers at Columbia U. propose a solarthermal solution. Which seems more feasible to you guys?

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