Taiwan-based Greendix solar panel designer and manufacturer recently released images of the world’s first solar powered soccer ball . The traditional black pentagonal-shaped leather patches, which make a soccer ball instantly recognizable, have been replaced with solar cells of the same size and shape.
“The main goal of this project was to prove that solar panels can be integrated into any object that we interact with on a daily basis and to push the limits of what is possible with solar panels,” explained Joseph Lin fromGreendix.
The ball's solar panels power the built-in motion sensors and audio device, which could possibly enable visually impaired people to play soccer/football. The ball prototypes emit a tracking sound each time they get kicked.
“We hope this solar football will strike the imagination of designers everywhere as solar power can now be seamlessly integrated into any imaginable device. In the future, footballs could be integrated with other sensors or LEDs and get their power from the sun,” added Michael Yu at Sonelis Technologies. California-based Sonelis Technologies is handling the distribution for the Greendix produce line.
Chalk up another score for aluminum. The humble — as in, cheap and abundant — metal has been popping up all over the sustainable tech field, and in the latest development, an international research team has demonstrated that nanoscale LEGO-style array of aluminum studs can improve solar cell efficiency by up to 22 percent. If the labwork translates into commercial development, that will help drive the rapidly sinking cost of solar power down even farther.
That’s a significant breakthrough, because until now gold and silver have been the focus of attention in the solar cell efficiency field due to their vigorous interaction with light.
However, the research team, spearheaded by Imperial College in London, compared the results of theirLEGO-style aluminum array with identical arrays made of gold and silver. They found that the more expensive metals did not boost solar cell efficiency as much as aluminum, and in fact resulted in reduced efficiency.
How A LEGO-Like Array Builds Solar Cell Efficiency
The new research was recently published in the journal Nature under the mouthful “Loss mitigation in plasmonic solar cells: aluminium nanoparticles for broadband photocurrent enhancements in GaAs photodiodes.”
The idea behind the nanoscale LEGO studs is to force light to bend, enabling layers of energy-absorbing material to trap more solar energy.
That reduces the amount of absorbing material needed, which in turn helps to lower the cost of production.
The team tested their LEGO studs on thin film gallium arsenide solar cells. Writer Simon Levey of Imperial College describes it like this:
Dr Hylton and his colleagues attached rows of aluminium cylinders just 100 nanometres across to the top of the solar panel, where they interact with passing light, causing individual light rays to change course. More energy is extracted from the light as the rays become effectively trapped inside the solar panel and travel for longer distances through its absorbing layer.
As for the key factor that enables aluminum to vault over gold and silver, the precious metals tend to absorb light into themselves.
Aluminum, in contrast, simply bends and scatters light, passing it along to the solar cell. As an added advantage, its light weight and flexibility make it compatible with the new generation of flexible solar cells.
Aluminum And Sustainable Technology
Precious metals and rare earths get a lot of the headlines in solar cell tech, but aluminum has been steadily gaining under the radar.
This is the first example we’ve covered that involves integrating aluminum into a solar cell, but there are a growing number of examples of aluminum used in solar modules.
Aluminum is also making headway in the transportation field. Aside from contributing to lighter and thereby more fuel efficient vehicles, researchers are checking out its potential use in metal-air batteries.
Imagine a world in which everything you care about could be tracked. You'd never misplace your shoes, keys and bags, or lose track of your loved ones.
Thanks to a tiny, solar-powered GPS tracker that can attach to virtually anything, that future may be possible. Retrievor is a tiny disk that's around the size of a U.S. quarter, and as thick as four stacked quarters, according to the project's Indiegogo campaign.
As its name suggests, the device aims to help users find all kinds of things. After placing Retrievor in a bag or attaching it to a keychain, users can track the device using a web browser, or via an Android or iPhone app.
What's more, the GPS receiver can also be used to track pets, children and hikers, according toa video by its creators. It is accurate within 4 to 10 feet.
Retrievor regularly costs $299, but users must shell out an additional $1.79 monthly subscription fee because "using satellites orbiting the earth and GSM networks to keep track of your Retrievor is an expensive business," according to its Indiegogo page.
Retrievor is not the first device of its kind, but its creators claim the device is the smallest around.
So far, the campaign has raised just over $25,000 toward its $80,000 goal. Watch the video, above, for more.
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Electric vehicles have been around nearly as long as the automobile itself, and while the electric motor has certainly been perfected over the last century, the underlying battery technology used to power an EV still tends to relegate the genre to niche status.
But tomorrow’s EVs could eliminate big and bulky – not to mention costly – battery packs altogether, instead using their body panels as a source of power. Volvo has been working on the concept over the past three and a half years in conjunction with other participants as part of a European Union research project headed by London’s Imperial College.
Here, advanced nano-structured batteries and super capacitors are deftly incorporated into carbon fiber panels using an advanced resin; the panels are, in turn, formed to fit around a car’s frame. Just as with a conventional EV battery, the super capacitor-infused material can be fully charged via the power grid or refreshed while en route via regenerative braking.
Volvo says the electrified material charges faster than conventional batteries, and is strong and pliant enough to be fully integrated within a vehicle’s structure. It’s said to not only be lighter in weight than today’s batteries, but lighter than conventional structural materials as well; it’s also clamed to be both cost effective and eco-friendly to produce.
Volvo has reportedly developed an experimental S80 sedan that utilizes the technology to form the car’s trunk lid and plenum cover in the vehicle’s engine compartment. Leveraged more extensively, say additionally on a car’s roof, hood and doors, Volvo expects the material would realize a 15 percent weight reduction and power a midsize car for around 80 miles on a charge.
What’s more, use of the energy-storing panels doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to EVs. In a conventionally powered car the energy storing material can be used to both form the so-called “rally bar” (a strong structural component at the front of a car) and replace the standard 12-volt battery as a weight saving measure.
Now we’ve been around the proverbial block enough times to know that many such breakthroughs which show great promise never make it outside the laboratory for a variety of reasons, including cost and, we would have to wonder here, potential crashworthiness problems. There’s also the issue of recycling damaged or salvaged body parts to consider. However, if Volvo’s on the money with its “super capacitor” body panel technology, it could ultimately be a game changer, particularly if in fact proves to be a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to the comparatively massive power cells used to power today’s EVs.
A key argument developers have used in favor of large desert solar projects has been that such projects will bring jobs to remote, underemployed communities. That argument might just fall out of favor if a Bay Area startup has its way. Richmond-based Alion Energy is proposing to automate both construction and maintenance of large solar facilities, using robots instead of skilled workers to put solar panels in place and keep them clean.
The firm, profiled Monday in the New York Times, claims its solar-worker robots will be able to reduce both installation and maintenance costs for utility-scale solar facilities. That isn't just by eliminating the need for union-scale paychecks, but also by accelerating the pace of construction so that companies can start selling power sooner.
Large-scale solar developers routinely tout the number of jobs their projects will provide. First Solar's Desert Sunlight project in Riverside County, for instance, boasts 440 construction jobs over 26 months of planned construction. NextEra Energy Resources says its Blythe and McCoy solar projects would each provide about 600 jobs during their construction phases, and BrightSource Energy and Abengoa estimate their Palen Solar Electric Generating System will require about 2,000 construction workers.
According to Alion's website the company forecasts its robots will allow developers to cut their construction crews by 75 percent. That's quite likely an optimistic estimate. Still, such tech would very likely reduce local job benefits dramatically, with developers sending their trained robot wranglers from site to site rather than hiring local skilled labor.
Energy consultant Vishal Sapru from the business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan waxed enthusiastic about Alion's tech in an interview with the Times. "You reduce the number of days. You reduce the number of laborers. You reduce the number of inefficiencies that could arise in putting up these panels, and then it results in a huge cost savings."
Alion's prototype solar panel maintenance robot, nicknamed "Spot," rolls along a track attached to rows of panels. One attachment wets and squeegees panels to clean them, while another trims any vegetation that starts encroaching on the panels' access to sunlight. (ReWire assumes that identifying wildlife species of concern and alerting project biologists doesn't fall within Spot's job description, but who knows?)
There will certainly be a number of places where Alion's technology makes sense, as for example solar projects in converted "brownfields" where limiting worker exposure to residual toxic substances is a manifestly good idea.
In the meantime, it may be that Alion and companies like it merely deepen the rhetorical divide between utility-scale and rooftop solar, which already has a much higher jobs-to-kilowatts ration than utility-scale solar. At least, that is, until someone develops a robot that can seamlessly adjust to the near-unlimited kinds of roofs on which human workers install solar panels every single day without having to be reprogrammed.
The tiny Swiss town of Tenna has put itself on the eco-map by building an innovative solar-powered ski lift. The solar lift is one of the world's first of its kind, and utilizes a "cable car system" where the solar panels are integrated directly into the lift. Approximately 80 solar panels are incorporated into a 450-meter (492-yard) system that is suspended above the ski lift, which has the capacity to pull 800 skiers up the mountain per hour. To avoid running out of energy during bad weather and snow storms, the ski lift is also connected to the local power supply, so skiers will not be left hanging on in the dark!
The solar ski lift captures as much energy as possible by utilizing swiveling solar panels that follow the sun's rays, and automatically tilt to shake off snowfall that may be covering the cells. On a sunny day, the solar panels produce approximately two times as much electricity than what is required to operate the lift, with the excess energy going to the public grid. The lift is expected to produce 90,000 kilowatt hours of energy annually, and will make a considerable contribution to the local community's power grid during the off season.
"When the ski lift is switched off in spring it turns into a solar power plant," explains Edi Schaufelberger, president of the ski lift cooperative in a Swiss Info video interview. "It doesn't harm the landscape since the lift and pillars stay in place anyway. All the electricity is sold into the grid and is sold as solar electricity."
Numerous donations helped the town, population of 112, achieve this goal. A great effort, considering that the construction of the solar ski lift was about twice as expensive as that of a conventional ski lift.
A ski lift day pass at Tenna costs 25 Swiss Francs (US$27.40) or 100 Swiss Francs (US$109.40) for seven days.
The Dutch solar racing team Nuon has won gold once again, for the fifth time in seven tries, at the World Solar Challenge race in Australia. Nuon reached the finish line while the closest runner-up, the Japanese team Tokai, was still more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) behind. The Dutch solar race car, the Nuna7, took just over 33 hours to complete the 3,000 kilometer (1864 miles) trip from Darwin to Adelaide — powered by nothing but the Sun.
Both the Nuon and Tokai teams were notably slowed down towards the end of the race by cloudy skies and rain — leading to Tokai temporarily stalling out on the side of the road with an empty battery, while Nuon was able to continue on thanks to greater energy stores, via “extra solar collector panels the team used while the car was stationary,” a strategy which I guess should be noted is within race guidelines.
The Nuna7 traveled at an average speed of about 90.71 kilometers (56.364 miles) an hour during the race. While that’s pretty impressive on its own, the solar car’s claimed top speed is actually about 185 kilometers (115 miles) an hour. When you consider that it’s powered by nothing but the Sun, that is really quite impressive.
Speaking about the win with ABC, Nuon Team Coach Wobbo Ockles stated: “(It’s) the biggest pleasure you can get in your life.”
Of the 20 teams that entered the race competing in the main Challenger class, only 10 finished the race, with the other 10 teams pulling out before the reaching the end. Of the local Australian teams, the highest-place finish was the Arrow, which took 7th.
New study shows that from 1970 to 2009, Japan led the world in the number of patents related to photovoltaics (solar cells), with the United States second and China third. Over the last five years of that period, the number of solar patents worldwide increased by 13 percent per year, the study found.
The number of patents issued for renewable-energy technologies has risen sharply over the last decade, according to new research from MIT and the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). The study shows that investments in research and development, as well as in the growth of markets for these products, have helped to spur this dramatic growth in innovation.
"We were quite surprised," says Jessika Trancik, an assistant professor of engineering systems at MIT and a co-author of the new report, published in the journal PLoS ONE. Trancik—working with Luís Bettencourt of SFI and graduate student Jasleen Kaur from Indiana University—created a database of energy-related patents issued in more than 100 countries between 1970 and 2009, using keyword searches of the patents themselves, rather than the classifications assigned by patent offices. In all, the team examined more than 73,000 patents issued for energy-related technologies.
This database "gives you a view into innovation activity—who's doing it, and where," Trancik says. Further statistical analysis, she says, showed a clear correlation between this rise in patents and prior investments in R&D, along with growth in the markets for such renewable technologies.
The increase was most dramatic in patents related to renewable energy, chiefly solar energy and wind. Patents in fossil-fuel technologies showed a more modest increase, while those in nuclear technology were flat.
For example, between 2004 and 2009, the number of patents issued annually for solar energy increased by 13 percent per year, while those for wind energy increased 19 percent per year, on average; these growth rates approach or exceed the rates for technologies such as semiconductors and digital communications. Overall, renewable-energy patents in the United States increased from fewer than 200 per year in the period from 1975 to 2000 to more than 1,000 annually by 2009. By comparison, there were about 300 fossil-fuel-related patents in 2009, up from about 100 a year in earlier decades. The fraction of all patents accounted for by energy is also increasing.
While there was a large increase in research funding in these fields following the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, that was followed by a steep dropoff. But the effect of those investments is visible in the current patent boom, Trancik says. "Knowledge persists," she says. "A lot of work was done in the '70s and '80s, a lot of effort was put in, and we're still benefitting from that."
Study found a dramatic increase in the overall number of energy-related patents issued in the U.S., with increase in renewable energy patents far outpacing those in other energy sectors. A similar trend was seen globally.
Trancik says the team saw the cumulative effect of investment in research, by both governments and industry, and the effect of growth in the market for renewable-energy systems—which also benefitted from government subsidies, incentives and tax breaks.
The trends were similar in the United States and elsewhere, although there were regional differences, Trancik says. While China has sometimes been accused of taking advantage of technologies invented elsewhere, and innovating mainly in production processes, the new data paint a different picture: Patents filed in China for renewable-energy technology (which includes patents filed by foreign inventors or companies) have shown dramatic growth over the last few years. "China's really taking off," Trancik says, adding that "understanding the nature of the technological development represented requires a close look at patent content."
The cumulative, long-term effect of research investment is another significant finding from this study, she says. Investments tend to come in cycles, she says, "so this persistence of knowledge is significant—and comforting, in a way."
Both investment in basic research and investment in implementation of technologies play an important role, Trancik says. "The data really show the importance of this, of the two forms of investment working together," she says.
For example, in the case of well-established consumer technologies, such as computers, the transition to implementation by industry can be swift. But for other less-established or less-visible technologies, this process can take longer.
"Improving something that's not valued in the market … requires more investment," Trancik says. A lighter laptop, or one with a longer battery life, provides an obvious benefit to the consumer, "whereas a consumer wouldn't notice when turning on the lights whether there's more or less carbon emissions." That's where government regulations and investments can help jump-start new technology, she says.
Bettencourt adds that new technologies often require a long time to develop, and public investment is crucial at that early stage, allowing the technology to take off as markets kick in. "This has happened with many familiar technologies, such as cell phones, so we wanted to better understand if it may be about to happen to new energy technologies," he says.
Gregory F. Nemet, an associate professor of public affairs and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved in this research, says, "Understanding the determinants of innovation in energy technologies is an issue of great importance. … The approach here is novel in that the authors go beyond the technology case-study approach, which characterizes the overwhelming majority of work in this area. The data they use and the analysis they conduct allow the authors to overcome the idiosyncrasies of individual technologies, and arrive at general findings about the driving forces of innovation in energy."
The research was supported by the Army Research Office, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and the Solomon Buchsbaum Research Fund.
Dulas holds a training session for one of its stand-alone solar vaccine refrigerator system in Angola
Imagine life without a refrigerator. It's such an accepted norm for us, but for a large portion of the world the ability to keep anything fresh for days at a time is beyond reach.
The International Energy Agency and World Bank report that 1.2 billion people around the world live off-grid, where the only likely source of electricity is from diesel-powered generators that are dirty, unreliable and increasingly expensive to run.
It's all about educating people on how to use the solar power they have for things they truly need it for
CHRIS COONICK, DULAS
Dulas, a renewable energy technology company based in Machynlleth, Wales, has a solution. Its VC-150-2, VC-65-2 and VC-200-1 chest fridges - all powered by solar panels - are designed specifically to store vaccines and can work for five days without any kind of charge.
"They're all specifically manufactured for the safe storage of vaccines," says Catherine McLennan, a customer sales and marketing executive at Dulas.
McLennan says the fridges are used for many polio immunisation campaigns, mostly in Africa. "We provide a complete a complete stand-alone fridge system and they're expected to last as long as a domestic refrigerator, around 10 years, and they don't need any electricity from the grid."
Dulas, an ethically driven co-operative owned by its employees, supplies the fridges as a kit with solar panels, battery, charge controller and all cables and accessories.
Designed to work in up to 43 degrees Celsius ambient temperatures, the three solar fridges are found worldwide, usually as part of a vaccine drive by NGOs and humanitarian organisations such as Unicef, Goal, Save the Children and Merlin. Countries with life-saving projects featuring a solar fridge range from Peru and across sub-Saharan Africa to Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia and remote Pacific islands such as Vanuatu, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
The VC-65-2 and VC-150-2 also have freezer compartments, while the former also works as a blood bank.
"We make sure that we size every system according to the solar data in the area to ensure maximum efficiency," McLennan says. "Once you've set it up you do need a good day of sunshine, but if it's then stormy for five days the vaccines will remain cold enough."
Engineers at Dulas try to customise the solar arrays according to the sunshine in the destination country - a task that's harder than it sounds. Sunshine in the north and south of Vietnam, for example, varies as dramatically as in the deserts and mountains of Peru.
"The UN agencies usually tell us the nearest large town, then we use meteorological data from Nasa data systems to size the panels, battery and charger control and small components - we work from the solar panels backwards," says Chris Coonick, international technical engineer at Dulas, adding that the systems rely on their owners being careful.
"It's all about educating people on how to use the solar power they have for things they truly need it for," she says. "Just because the power is there it doesn't mean you should to use it for things that aren't important. We try to get people to prioritise and think about energy in a different way."
The company's current project is to provide a large 15kW solar system, including several solar refrigerators, to a hospital on the island of Likoma in Lake Malawi, which is being funded by the charity African Steps.
"At the moment they have a diesel generator and a gas turbine on the island, but they only have electricity every other day for three or four hours. It was all about whether diesel could be shipped to the island."
For now the island's hospital can't function 24 hours a day, but this month Dulas will replace that diesel generator and create a solar-based system that should last more than 25 years. The idea is to safeguard essential power for life-saving equipment.
"Solar power isn't the solution to everything," says Coonick, citing air conditioning as an example. "It's best for equipment that doesn't use a lot of power, and that you don't need that often - but when you do, it's vital."
How does paying $5000 dollars for a bamboo bike sound? :/ Hard to say, huh?… Well, for those interested, you’re in luck, the limited-edition bicycles — part of a collaboration between American fashion designer Marc Jacobs and Panda Bicycles in Colorado — are, for the time being, still available. And, to be fair, it’s worth noting that the model does come with a bike stand.
Hand-crafted, and limited to a single run of just 10 bicycles, they certainly are rather pretty bikes — especially for bamboo-based ones. They are composed almost entirely out of steel and bamboo, with some of the components coming from Velo Orange.
Here are the specs via the Marc Jacobs site:
Frame: Bamboo with steel lugs. Fork: Chromoly Steel, crown lugged, eyelets for rack/fenders Headset: Velo Orange Grand Cru 1 1/8th Threadless Handlebar: Velo Orange Left bank Grips: Brooks leather tape Stem: Velo Orange Threadless Stem, 25.4 +/- 17 deg: Brakes: Velo Orange Grand Cru Zeste Canti Brakes Brake Levers: Dia Compe Inverse Brake Levers Crankset: Velo Orange Grand Cru single ring Bottom Bracket: Velo Orange Grand Cru, English Thread Chain: KMC 3/32 single speed, silver Cog: Shimano MX single speed, 16 tooth 1/2 or 3/32 compatible Hubs: Front – Velo Orange Grand Cru High Flange Front Hub. Rear – Velo Orange Grand Cru High Flange Rear Freewheel Hub Rims: Velo Orange Diagonale 700c Spokes: DT Swiss Champions, silver Tires: Grand Bois Extra Leger blk sidewall Pedals: Velo Orange Road Pedal, Sealed Bearings Saddle: Brooks B17 Seatpost: Velo Orange Uno Front Rack: Velo Orange Porteur Rack Rear Rack: Velo Orange Constructeur Rack Fenders: Velo Orange Hammered 45mm fenders set Cables: Silver braided
The solar walkway developed by talented engineers at the George Washington University is capable of generating electricity from solar power right under your feet. The 'solar road', as we'd like to call it, is first of its kind in the world and available for demo at the Virginia Science & Technology campus. As you'd imagine, the road comprises of special solar panels developed by the engineering team as a part of the sustainable 'Solar Walk' project. These solar panels were made using PV flood panels manufactured by Onyx Solar - a Spanish company known all over the world for their expertise in design & manufacturing of photovoltaic materials.
The demo road is about 100 sq.ft rectangular path capable of bearing loads up to 400 kg. Take our word that it is skid & slip proof and you won't require special skills to walk on it. A total of 27 semi-transparent solar panels that make up this road are capable of generating 400 watts of energy - just enough to power about 450 LEDs that would light up the path at the night.
We believe solar roads would solve a very important problem - mounting the solar panels on roof tops and at places they are difficult to install. We hope the technology matures fast for mass adoption so that in future, our roads will power the streetlights and maybe our homes as well! We'd like to seek opinions of our engineers on the feasibility of solar roads and the commercial aspects of mass adoption. Read original article here
Although headline writers like to invoke “The Terminator” whenever a promising new robot comes along, there are many challenges to overcome in robotics before anything remotely like it is possible. For one, artificial intelligence will have to advance to a point where it can regularly churn out memorable Schwarzenegger-worthy catch phrases like “Hasta la vista, baby.” Another, perhaps less obvious issue is that we currently lack a sufficient power source to keep a robot like that going.
Given that today’s battery technology struggles to keep our phones powered for an entire day, it’s no surprise that many of the concept robots you see online have power cords coming out. It’s a problem for big robots because they require so much power. It’s also a problem for very small robots, since there is so little space to house a battery. However, a team at the University of Maryland has come up with a solution that begins to address the problem in their third-generation Robo Raven micro air vehicle.
Small robotic birds like the Robo Raven often last only minutes before dying, significantly limiting their utility for environmental monitoring or surveillance. To extend their robot’s flight time and allow it to be recharged in remote locations, the Maryland team — led by professors S.K. Gupta and Hugh Bruck — integrated flexible solar panels into the wings. That meant some design and fabrication changes from the original Robo Raven — which introduced a novel design concept that allows its wings to flap independently of each other — since the solar panels differ from the previous wing materials.
Currently, the panels produce only about a tenth of the 30 Watts the Robo Raven needs to fly, though they can effectively charge the batteries when stationary. The team’s next goal is to increase that output.
“We still need to make significant improvements in solar cell efficiency and battery energy density to replicate the endurance of real ravens in Robo Raven III,” Gupta said in a release. “But the good news is that Robo Raven III has already demonstrated we can fly with a solar cell and battery combination. Now that we’ve successfully taken this step, swapping new technologies that are more efficient should be relatively simple.”
In other words, like the Terminator, the Robo Raven will “be back.”
PUDUCHERRY: A Puducherry-based instrumentation firm has developed multi-purpose solar-powered portable houses that, apart from serving as small residences, can also serve as site offices, kiosks for vending food, beverages, vegetables and groceries, tourists information centres and security guard cabins.
Chemin Controls and Instrumentation Private Limited will formally launch the houses during the five-day renewable energy and sustainable living products and services' exhibition proposed by the Angiras Charitable Trust, a network of Indian alumni from the German University for Sustainable Solutions and the Renewable Energy Agency Puducherry (Reap) at Gandhi Thidal on October 9.
The five photovoltaic modules fitted on the roof of the 10 feet by 20 feet house will generate 1,250 KW power from solar energy. This will be sufficient to power three tube lights, two table fans and two computers. The power generated can be stored for 12 hours, and the cost of the solar-powered house will be about Rs 10 lakh. The house can be modified into a scientific laboratory, site offices and security guard cabins as per the requirement of the clients.
"The houses are built in portable dimensions using structural steel and modern insulated materials. They can be dismantled, transported and reassembled easily," Chemin Controls and Instrumentation Private Limited chairman cum managing director P Rangaraj told TOI.
He said the steep decline in the cost of generating power from solar energy encouraged the firm to launch solar-powered houses. "The unit rate of power from solar energy was almost double the government electricity tariff two years ago. Of late due to technological advancements, the cost has come down drastically. In the next two years, the unit rate of power from solar energy will be less than the government electricity tariff," he said.
In the absence of solar grid connection in Puducherry, the firm has no other option than to utilise rooftop standard solar system. "Puducherry does not have solar grid connection facility that supplies excess power beyond consumption to the utility grid and records the excess power supplied in the meters through reverse reading. Hence we opted for rooftop standard solar powersystem," Rangaraj said.
The major clients of the firm specialising on instrumentation, automation and control systems include Union defence ministry, Department of Space and Technology, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, National Thermal Power Corporation and Reliance Refineries among others. Read original article here
E-commerce giant eBay has switched on a data center in Utah that is primarily powered by thirty fuel cells — devices that turn fuel like natural gas into electricity through a chemical reaction. eBay’s new data center will use the local power grid only as backup power, and eBay says this architecture is not only an environmental step, but makes the data center more reliable and immune to grid blackouts.
In addition to eBay’s unprecedented use of fuel cells for a data center, the company has also invested in a project where clean power company Ormat will install technology at nearby natural gas pipelines (on the compressor stations) to capture the heat waste from these stations and turn it into electricity. eBay will use this electricity (5 MW of it) back at the data center, in a move which will help lower eBay’s overall carbon footprint.
This data center is the first of its kind in the world, and highlights how data center operators are looking to experiment with cleaner power sources as the growing number of data centers in the world suck up ever more energy resources. eBay’s use of the grid as a backup only, also shows how data centers want to see how they can become independent from the grid, which can experience black outs of of their control.
eBay has been talking about this unusual data center for awhile, including at ourStructure conference in San Francisco this Summer. But now the data center is finally live, so many transactions done on eBay and PayPal will be a little bit greener. The data center lit up this week is the second phase of the Topaz data center that eBay turned on in Utah a couple years ago.
Other tiny modular data centers can dock into the Utah site, and the facility is just getting the computing installed in it. Over the next few months and years eBay will add more hardware to the site and potentially add more fuel cells to power that hardware draw, too.
The fuel cells for the data center were provided by Valley startup Bloom Energy, and eBay’s Dean Nelson tells me in an interview that eBay and Bloom Energy have spent several months developing ways to make the fuel cell architecture resilient enough to run a data center 24/7. Unlike at a home or even office building, where if there’s a power failure it’s just a significant inconvenience, data centers need to stay up at all times to keep websites running, and any down time can lead to a lot of money lost.
Bloom Energy has sold fuel cells for data centers developed by Apple, Verizon,AT&T, NTT and others. The over-a-decade-old company has found a sizable market by helping Internet brands that run data centers reduce their overall carbon footprints and rethink power and the data center. Bloom is backed by investors including NEA, Kleiner Perkins, DAG Ventures, and GSV Capital. The company has raised over $1.1 billion.
eBay was originally hoping to use biogas — gas from organic waste — which is recycled and which is also carbon emissions free — but Nelson explained that sourcing biogas (from water waste treatment plants, landfills or animal farms) in the state was just too difficult (read what you need to know about data centers and biogas). Instead of biogas, eBay is using natural gas to power the fuel cells and is offsetting the associated carbon emissions with the waste heat recovery project, which will operate around 20 miles from the data center.
The new phase of eBay’s Utah data center is “four times denser and half the cost,” of the first phase, said Nelson. Before eBay adds more hardware to the facility, the fuel cells will provide enough power to also have power Topaz, too.
The market for storing electricity is drawing not only startups building new technologybut also new comers that want to build and install new projects. Meet Solar Grid Storage, a two-year-old, angel-funded startup which just completed a project that mixes batteries with solar panels and electric car charging stations in Maryland.
The Philadelphia-based company is one of a growing crop of storage project developers that has materialized in recent years to stake a claim in a young market that’s being shaped by public policies to promote clean energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Solar Grid’s CEO, Tom Leyden, compares his company to SunEdison and PowerLight, the two early players in designing and building solar power generation projects.
SunPower, the Silicon Valley-based solar panel maker, bought PowerLight in 2007. Leyden was actually an executive at PowerLight and later in SolarCity, before joining Solar Grid. SolarCity has been marketing solar panels with lithium-ion battery systems from Tesla Motors.
Solar Grid develops projects that pair an array of solar panels with energy storage equipment that could not only provide backup power but also sell energy delivery services to local utilities and grid operators. It buys all of the necessary components and hires others to create lithium-ion battery packs using cells from Panasonic or LG, the inverters and the rest of the gear. It then puts the equipment inside a steel container and ships it to a customer. The company’s intellectual property lies in the designs of its inverters and algorithms for managing the charging and discharging of batteries, Leyden said.
Solar Grid also works on lining up financing for its projects, a particularly difficult challenge given that the energy storage market is so young and many banks aren’t willing to put money into what they consider unproven technologies. In fact, two of the big obstacles for growing the energy storage market are being able to show that energy storage technologies will work as promised over time and that there is good money to be made. Wells Fargo is going as far as installing a battery system at one of its corporate buildings in Southern California to collect this type of data.
Leyden declined to divulge the sources of his project funding but called them “boutique investors.” Solar Grid’s energy storage projects for now promise to deliver returns in the range of 12 percent to 15 percent, almost twice as much as what solar projects deliver these days, he said. The premium returns are necessary to attract investors. The company focuses on projects between 250 KW to 10 MW.
Leyden is working on raising a $50 million fund to finance 50 MW of energy storage projects. The money would cover the equipment, installation, operation and maintenance of the storage equipment over 10 years, he said. The solar portion of a project would be financed separately.
Solar Grid could either develop and build energy storage projects for its customers who then own the equipment, or it could own the projects and provide the energy delivery services. Owning the projects and making sure they don’t cause too much financial burden over time requires more capital and is seen as risky in a market that is in its infancy. That’s especially true for large projects serving the utility market.
In the recently completed project in Maryland, Solar Grid provided financing along with PNC Bank and Konterra, a real estate developer. The project, which includes solar, batteries and electric car charging stations, are located at Konterra’s headquarters.
Many energy storage project developers are targeting the East Coast, including in Maryland, which is served by PJM, a grid operator that has acted quicker than its peers to set up a payment system for energy storage services. PJM and other grid operators in the country are complying with a 2011 mandate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to promote the use of energy storage to help run the electric grid smoothly, especially when an increasing amount of solar and wind electricity is flowing into the grid.
One of the ways energy storage operators make money is to send bursts of power into the grid to help the grid run at its needed frequency. Beacon Power and AES Energy are some of the energy storage companies that are selling those grid-stabilizing services within PJM, which covers parts or all of 13 states and the Washington, D.C.
California also is gearing up to be an important energy storage market. The state isworking on rules that will require its utilities to use energy storage services to stabilize a grid that will get a lot more solar and wind power in order to hit its goal to have 33 percent of the electricity supplies coming from renewable sources. California already is the largest solar energy market in the country thanks to that renewable energy mandate and incentives that encourage solar panel installations at homes and businesses.
