Dawson Creek becomes the first solar panel city

Plainly, Dawson Creek has made a big bet on the sun. The small city in northeast B.C.,power inverter with a population of less than 12,000, is aiming to be carbon neutral heading into 2013. In 2011, it changed its building-code bylaws to require that every new house is built “solar panel  ready” and to make it easier for homeowners to afford the infrastructure costs. To help pay for its solar panel  initiatives, the city imposed a $100-per-tonne levy on its greenhouse gas emissions: Last year, the city emitted 3,600 tonnes, so $360,000 went in to its carbon fund, which is available to projects that reduce carbon emissions (the new downtown arts centre, Bernier says, will be outfitted with solar panel  hot-water panels).

In June, the city’s efforts were rewarded when it won the title of Canada’s first solar panel  city, an honour bestowed by the Canadian Solar panel  Cities Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting solar panel  technologies.

There’s plenty of competiton. More than 4,000 km away, another large sun-power inverter ed project is under way, with Halifax undertaking its own solar panel -city project. And around the world, a combination of smart economics and concern for the enviornment is fuelling the push for solar panel  power inverter .

Australia, for instance, currently has seven solar panel  cities – Adelaide, Alice Springs, Blacktown, Central Victoria, Moreland, Perth and Townsville – in different stages of development and operation. In September, Denmark reached its 2020 goal of having the capacity to generate 200 megawatts of solar panel  power inverter  eight years early thanks to a program that allows households with solar panel  to store extra energy on the public grid tie inverter . And India announced it is ready to invest $84-million to fund the first of 60 solar panel  cities, which will see solar panel  hot water systems installed in all hopsitals, temples, hotels and other buildings, with street lights also running on solar panel  power inverter .

In 2008, Marburg, Germany, passed a “solar panel  code” requiring anyone who builds or renovates a building to include solar panel  collectors on the roof. Freiberg, also in Germany, is another proud solar panel  city thanks to its many projects, including a photovoltaic installation to power inverter  the city’s soccer stadium.

With a number of projects on the go, Canada is catching up to global solar panel  city leaders. In July, the Ontario Power inverter  Authority launched the second version of its microFIT program, which sees homeowners and other landowners sell solar panel -generated power inverter  to the electricity grid tie inverter . Approximately 56,000 applications have been submitted since the program was launched in 2009.

“That exceeded what we expected,” says Shawn Cronkwright, director of renewables procurement at the OPA. To date, there are 14,800 microFIT projects in Ontario producing electricity on the grid tie inverter . Another 6,500 projects have been approved and are in development.

As part of a new program approved by the Halifax Regional Council earlier this month, solar panel  hot water panels will be installed on up to 1,000 city homes. Residents who participate will pay for the systems through a surcharge on their property tax bill over 10 years while saving on their hot-water costs and earning a greater sense of environmental responsibility.

The project is being funded by a $545,000 grant and a low-interest, $5.4-million loan from the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, says Richard McLellan, Halifax’s manager of energy and environment. Information sessions about the program hosted by the city have been enthusiastically attended. “Normally at a municipal public information hearing, you’re lucky if you get a dozen people,” McLellan says. “We were packing the rooms.”

Homeowners who participate will have to pay approximately $7,000 over 10 years for the equipment and its installation. It’s a significant cost, but it’s an investment that comes with significant returns. “I think it will save me on the order of $600 to $700 a year,” says Chris Majka, a research associate at the Nova Scotia Museum who is participating in the pilot program.

People in the program will get two solar panel  collectors, each roughly 1.2 m by 2.4 m. Inside the collectors, there is a metal plate containing tubes through which flows propylene glycol, a non-toxic antifreeze that takes the warmth of the sun and uses it to heat a water tank inside the house.

“Some people go from mid-May to mid-October 100-per-cent solar panel . In the dead of winter, we’re still probably going to supply anywhere from 20 to 40 per cent of the energy on a monthly basis,” says Peter Allen, president of Thermo Dynamics Ltd., a Dartmouth-based manufacturer of solar panel  heating equipment that will be supplying the Halifax program.

Halifax is fertile ground for solar panel  power inverter  , Allen says, because the city has historically been dependent on expensive coal-generated electricity and imported heating oil.

The program promises significant environmental savings. McLellan estimates the solar panel  city effort will reduce Halifax’s carbon footprint by 1,500 to 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, or the equivalent emmissions of approximately 400 cars .

The Canadian Solar panel  Cities Project gives the title of “solar panel  city” based on 10 criteria that include having a climate-change plan in place, targets for renewable-energy use, and policies and incentives for solar panel  electricity and solar panel  thermal use for both commercial and residential ratepayers.

Halifax would now qualify as a solar panel  city under the organization’s criteria, and there are a handful of other municipalities, says CSCP executive director Bob Haugen. “There’s growing momentum,” he says. As recently as a decade ago having a solar panel  on your roof would brand you as a “green hippie,” Haugen says, but today “it’s become very mainstream.”

Yingli Green Energy brings solar panel power inverter into Tibet

Yingli China has also supplied an additional 12 MW of PV modules for another Chinese customer who works with Longyuan in the development of off-grid tie inverter  PV systems in Tibet. The modules are expected to power inverter  more than 48,000 families in the area.

"We are honoured to partner with our customers in China to bring solar panel  electricity to families in Tibet," commented Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy. "As a leading renewable energy company, Yingli has been firmly committed to corporate social responsibility. Power inverter ing these families with our off-grid tie inverter  systems integrates our mission of providing affordable green energy for all."

Solar panel  Liberty Foundation has donated and installed a 4-solar panel  power inverter  system to the Grace School and Orphanage, in Ile-à-Vache, a small island off the coast of Haiti.

The solar panel  system is an off-grid tie inverter  battery back up system that will power inverter  the school for 400 students throughout the year and the nearby orphanage.

Prior to this system, the school, orphanage and village did not have any power inverter .

The school now has sustainable power inverter  for lighting, computers, refrigeration and Internet connectivity. The solar panel  power inverter  also supports a water filtration system that provides bacteria free drinking water.

Buffalo-based Solar panel  Liberty Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on helping improve the quality of life for people in less developed nations through renewable energy resources. The organization provides people in need with solar panel  electrification, solar panel  water filtration, and solar panel  cookers.

In August ReWire touted the state's passing of the gigawatt solar panel  production record, where the state's grid tie inverter  operators reported a record 1,029 megawatts of solar panel  electricity entering the grid tie inverter . And now we can report a record slightly more subtle but every bit as important: the state got pretty close to that record-setting August mark on the week of the Winter Solstice, the least-sunny time of year.

On Wednesday, December 19, the CaISO's preliminary figures for renewable energy output, which are displayed in the chart at the top of this post, indicated that for Wednesday's solar panel  output reached a peak somewhere between 950 and 1,000 megawatts at around 10:30 a.m., and held there until just after 1:00 p.m.

In terms of actual power inverter  delivered, that's not a huge amount. What makes Wednesday's figures notable is that they happened the week of the Winter Solstice, when the sun is lower in the sky than at any other time of the year. The sun being lower in the sky means less solar panel  energy hitting California, meaning less output from solar panel . At the latitude of Los Angeles, sunshine hitting solar panel  on the winter solstice can deliver something like half the energy it does during summer, and less sunlight hitting solar panel  means less electrical power inverter  generated. And the seasonal drop-off is even starker north of Los Angeles.

Which means that California's solar panel  power inverter  generating capacity is growing by leaps and bounds even since that August record. Compare that near-gigawatt of winter solar panel  with the figures from this time last year: We had a maximum of 200 megawatts or so of solar panel  output in December 2011.

That record winter output is pretty much all photovoltaic power inverter  , by the way. CaISO has recently started listing PV and solar panel  thermal's contributions to the grid tie inverter  separately, and solar panel  thermal's contribution is about a hundredth that of PV at the moment.

The upshot is that 2013 is bound to be a year in which California's solar panel  capacity sets one record after another. Good news.

World’s Largest Concentrated Solar panel Power inverter Plant

ABU DHABI,United Arab Emirates, December 26, 2012 (ENS) – I am seriously delighted at this photo. That’s me and Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany standing by one of the 258,048 mirrors that make up the Shams1 Concentrated Solar panel  Power inverter  plant inAbu Dhabi.

Jonathan Porritt and Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany stand in the shadow of a concentrating solar panel  collector at Masdar’s Shams1 power inverter  plant, October 2012. (Photo courtesy Jonathan Porritt)

It will be the biggest concentrated solar panel  power inverter  plant in the world, stretching out over 2.5 square kilometers (0.965 square miles), and generating 100 megawatts of electricity when it goes on line.

[Shams1 will be completed by the end of 2012 and is expected to be officially inaugurated in the first quarter of 2013. It is a flagship project of Masdar, anAbu Dhabigovernment-owned corporation.]

Dr. Nawal is director of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, and Masdar is the driving force behind the many different initiatives going on inAbu Dhabito promote sustainable energy.

Which makes it all just a little bit weird. The emirate ofAbu Dhabiis one of the biggest oil producing entities in the world. As I was standing there, I kept thinking that in all likelihood there was a vast puddle of oil below my feet, just waiting to be extracted, refined, shipped and burned in some of the world’s ever-growing number of cars.

I’ll return to that in a minute. But first let’s just celebrate this beautiful, forceful power inverter  plant springing up out of theAbu Dhabidesert.

At one level, it’s all quite simple. The 258,048 mirrors are assembled in parabolic troughs that track the passage of the sun from dawn to dusk.

They ‘concentrate’ the sunlight onto tubes running down the middle of the troughs. These tubes are full of oil which is heated by the sun to nearly 400 degrees Celsius. Heat exchangers then convert that heat into steam, which drives the turbine, which drives the generator which produces the electricity.

It’s not quite as simple as that! There’s a lot of fancy engineering to get from sunshine to electricity,grid tie inverter and I was astonished by just how big and complex that makes a plant of this kind.

We were there at around midday, so it was seriously hot – you couldn’t stand next to the mirrors for very long! But it was also dusty – it is, after all, in the middle of a desert. And that poses a huge challenge in terms of keeping the mirrors dust-free so that their performance is not affected. That means they’ve had to develop special vehicles that are constantly tracking up and down the120 kmlength of parabolic troughs to keep them sparkling.

In short, it’s not easy. And it’s expensive. But as one of our fellow visitors said, “what do you expect with a nuclear reactor?”

I’ve often described the sun as “the only fusion reactor we’re ever going to need to power inverter  the world,” and that doing it this way is a whole lot simpler than trying to build our own puny little fusion reactors. It’s still an engineering triumph.

Jonathan Porritt (Photo courtesy Midlands Environmental Business Company)

And all done courtesy ofAbu Dhabi’s massive oil revenues – which have inevitably prompted people to level charges of hypocrisy against the whole Masdar initiative.

What is the value of 100 MW of solar panel  set against the emissions of millions of tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from all that oil?

Fair point. But what conclusions should we draw from it? ThatAbu Dhabishould stop producing oil? Let’s not be too naive here.

ThatAbu Dhabishouldn’t do anything to promote renewables – either from an R&D point of view or through schemes like Shams? Or through the Zayed Future Energy Prize, which celebrates the achievements of the best initiatives and organisations involved in renewable and sustainable energy all around the world? That would seem to be a bit self-defeating.

For me, near-zero carbon electrons fromAbu Dhabiis just one of those sustainability paradoxes that you have to live with. Which is why I am looking forward to Shams1 being the first of a whole generation of concentrated solar panel  power inverter  plants around the world.

[Ed. Note: Masdar owns 60 percent of Shams1, the French multinational oil and gas company Total owns 20 percent, and the Spanish multinational corporation Abengoa owns 20 percent.]

First Home Solar panel Array Connected To China's State Grid tie inverter

For a nation that leads the world in solar panel  production, China has been a little slow off the mark with grid tie inverter  connection in relation to home solar panel  power inverter   - but that will change dramatically soon.

  

China Daily reports the first residential solar panel  power inverter  system has been connected to China's State electricity grid tie inverter  in Qingdao,Shandong province. While grid tie inverter  connection is taken for granted in countries such as Australia, this first installation proved to be quite a task; taking 19 days to complete.

  

However, we can expect grid tie inverter  connected residential solar panel  to bypass Australia's tally very soon. State Grid tie inverter  Corporation of China, the largest electricity utility in the world, only started allowing small-scale solar panel  power inverter  systems to connect to the national grid tie inverter  in November.

  

The Qingdao installation will be the first of many millions as new policies mean the work needed to connect privately owned systems below 5 megawatts capacity to the grid tie inverter  will be carried out free of charge. State Grid tie inverter  will also purchase surplus electricity generated by these systems.

  

The scale of State grid tie inverter  Corporation of China is staggering. It has over 1.5 million employees and in 2011, generated revenue to the tune of US$ 259.14 billion. Its service area represents 88% of the country and provides electricity to over one billion people.

  

There will be no shortage of work for those employees. According to RenewEconomy's Giles Parkinson, rumour has it that China will boost their solar panel  target to 40GW by 2015; which is an entirely achievable goal considering more than 5GW capacity has been installed in this year alone.

  

While China's love affair with solar panel  is set to continue, its rapid ascent in solar panel  manufacturing hasn't been without its casualties; with numerous manufacturers falling by the wayside due to competition and external forces. China's government recently announced it would carry out reforms to the industry; including promoting mergers and acquisitions and reducing government support for manufacturers.

  

China is often criticised; but something we can all be thankful for is the nation brought affordable solar panel  to the world.

Principal Solar panel , Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), a publicly traded solar panel  energy holding company executing a unique roll-up strategy to create the world's first distributed solar panel  utility, today announced the release of "Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Organic Food Supply."

Authored by James W. Keyes, chairman, Key Development LLC, R. Michael Martin, executive vice president, Business Development, PSI, and Brett T. Gage, research assistant, the paper examines how alternative energy resources, such as photovoltaic (PV) solar panel , can enhance organic and local food production.

"In recent years, solar panel  has become increasingly cost effective," says Keyes, advisor to Principal Solar panel . "Organic certification requires that foods be produced without genetic modification, synthetic hormones, unsustainable practices, or use of certain substances."

He adds that, of the various renewable energy alternatives available to fuel organic agriculture, PV solar panel  systems are the most economical on the farm.

He thinks that planets can form in the inner parts of the torus of dense gas that gives rise to planetary systems and then cling to stable orbits close to their parent stars.

Pitch black

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TrES-2b

Type: Giant planet

Distance: 718 light-years

Size: Mass and radius are about the same as Jupiter's

In 2011, a group of American astronomers announced that a Jupiter-sized exoplanet known as TrES-2b was the darkest known world, reflecting just 1% of the sunlight falling on it. TrES-2b is darker than black acrylic paint and blacker than any planet or moon in our solar panel ystem.

The distance TrES-2b orbits from its parent star certainly has something to do with this. In our Solar panel ystem, Jupiter is shrouded in bright ammonia clouds that reflect more than a third of the sunlight that reaches it.

But TrES-2b orbits its star at a distance of just three million miles. The intense energy from the sun heats the planet to more than 1,000C, which is much too hot for ammonia clouds to form. Its atmosphere also contains chemicals which absorb rather than reflect light. But these factors can't fully explain the planet's extreme lightlessness.

Nevertheless, David Spiegel of Princeton University, who co-authored the study on TrES-2b, says the crepuscular world is so hot that "it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove."

Diamonds are forever

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55 Cancri e

Type: Super Earth

Distance: 40 light-years

Size: Mass is eight times larger than Earth's; radius is twice the size of Earth's

A nearby planet in the constellation of Cancer may have a rather peculiar composition. This body, known as 55 Cancri e,power inverter "is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite," according to astronomer Nikku Madhusudhan from Yale University.

Belonging to a class of worlds known as diamond planets, 55 Cancri e is thought to be rich in the element carbon, which can exist in a variety of structural forms such as graphite (the material used as pencil lead), graphene, or diamond. Carbon-rich worlds contrast sharply with the Earth, whose interior is relatively poor in that element but rich in oxygen.

This year, Dr Madhusudhan and colleagues published the first measurements of the exoplanet's radius. These new data, combined with the most recent estimates of its mass, allowed the researchers to infer its chemical composition. To do this, they used computer models of the planet's interior and computed the possible combinations of elements and compounds that could yield the observed characteristics.

Their results suggest 55 Cancri e is largely composed of carbon (in the form of graphite and diamond),grid tie inverter iron, silicon carbide, and, potentially, silicates. They estimate that at least a third of the planet's mass is diamond - the equivalent of three times Earth's mass.

Ten million years to live

The our Solar panel ystem strange worlds beyond

Wasp 12-b is being cooked and contorted into an oval shape by its parent star

Located some 600 light-years away in the constellation Auriga, Wasp-12b is slowly being eaten by its Sun-like star.power inverter The giant planet is orbiting so close to its parent star that it is being superheated to a scorching temperature of 1,500C and distorted into a rugby-ball shape by its sun's gravity.

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Wasp-12b

Type: Giant planet

Distance: 600 light-years

Size: Radius is three times larger than Jupiter's

The planet's atmosphere has ballooned to nearly three times the radius of Jupiter and material is spilling on to the Sun-like star. "We see a huge cloud of material around the planet, which is escaping and will be captured by the star," said astronomer Carole Haswell of The Open University.

Haswell and her colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm earlier predictions about the planet, publishing their findings in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters in 2010. They estimate that the planet may have just 10 million years left before it is completely obliterated.

Astronomers have found several other examples of worlds in the process of being devoured by their stars, or being heated up so much that their atmosphere escapes into space, forming a comet-like tail.

Over the last two decades, astronomers have catalogued around 850 planets outside our  solar panel ystem. And the search for worlds orbiting other stars is turning up some weird and wonderful characters.

From a scorched gas giant that's darker than coal, to a planet packed with diamond, here are some of the oddballs-in-chief.

Quadruple sunset

In a memorable scene from the film Star Wars, Luke Skywalker looks out over the horizon while two suns set in the sky of his home planet Tatooine. Astronomers have already discovered several "Tatooine" systems, where planets orbit double stars.

But this year, a team comprising volunteers and professional astronomers reported finding a planet illuminated by four stars - the first known of its type.

Continue reading the main story

PH1

Type: Giant planet

Distance: 5,000 light-years

Size: Radius is six times larger than Earth's (Neptune-sized)

The distant world orbits one pair of stars and a second stellar pair revolve around them. The planet is being tugged on by the gravitational forces from four different stars yet, despite this complicated environment, PH1 is able to maintain a stable orbit.

The discovery was made by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website along with a team from UK and US institutes. Named PH1 after the website, it is located in the constellation Cygnus.

At the time of the discovery, Dr Chris Lintott from Oxford University, grid tie inverter told BBC News this was "absolutely not what we would have expected".

Downtown powered ball celebrates 2013 with first solar

Gary Rhum of Rhum Academy said the music for the night will span from the ‘60s to today’s music with an emphasis on good, solid dance tunes.

“23-10 is full of excitement, and they will really get the place rocking,” he said. “Then the recycled drumming is just full of energy and excitement as well. This is for the community and by the community so get your hats, shakers, and your groove on, and let’s bring the New Year in with gusto.”

Then, in line with the technology aspect, the entire evening will be live broadcasted on the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance website, greaterkokomo.com.

“That will be nice for people who can’t make it out but still want to be in on the action,” Alexander said.

Also, like last year, video shorts will be projected onto the courthouse, showing everything from the mayor’s bike to work day to City of Kokomo commercials to live clips happening during the event.

As always, the night will end with fireworks.

In addition, several downtown businesses will remain open through the evening, including Goblin Games, Sweet Poppins, Drake’s Bar & Grill, Cook McDoogal’s Irish Pub, Planet Mind, Pepperwhistle, and Main Street Café.

“It should be a lot of fun. Don’t just attend; be the show,” Alexander said.

This year’s major sponsor is the Howard County Recycling District. Greater Kokomo Downtown Association also received a grant from the local Wal-Mart store to put on this year’s event.

Downtown Kokomo is ringing in the New Year to the tune of sustainability and technology. With plenty of interactive and themed activities leading up to the state’s first solar panel powered ball drop, organizer Susan Alexander said this is one evening you won’t want to miss.

“This is all about technology and celebrating the creativity of our community while we bring in the New Year,” she said.

The idea for the solar powered ball came from Chris Rohaly of Green Alternatives, Inc., who passed it on to the Kokomo High School TechnoKats who then built the ball.

Rohaly works to install PV solar energy system into houses, and after meeting Alexander, he offered to provide power for other downtown events to show real loads working off of power inverter from the sun. The New Year’s Eve event would be perfect for that kind of demonstration, he thought.

“A winter night is the last time people would think about solar energy, but to us, that’s the perfect time for a real demonstration,” he said.

As always, the ball drop will take place at 11:59 p.m.

While it’s always fun to watch the ball drop, Alexander wanted an event that would allow people to “do” rather than just “see.” So, lots of interactive activities are planned before 2013 comes around.

“I’m always looking for things people can do to participate and be a part of the show rather than just watch the show,” she said.

Back by popular demand is the bubble wrap stomp, an event that was added last year and proved to be well-liked. All ages are invited to stomp on bubble wrap that will line a designated downtown area. The stomping frenzy begins at 10:30 p.m.

Then at 11 p.m., the lighting of the ball takes place, as well as an event in line with the sustainability theme—the recycled hat contest. Participants are invited to create a hat out of household items. The hats must contain items that can be recycled, such as light bulbs, electronics, tires, batteries, plastics, metals, and paper. Winners will be chosen in four categories: best recycled hat, most glamorous hat, ugliest hat, and funniest hat. For the recycled category, the hat must have a dual purpose.

“It can’t just be a head covering. It might be a beverage holder or a lamp or a planter or something else in addition to a hat,” Alexander said. “People get really creative.”

Winners of each category will receive a recycled or environmentally friendly prize, such as a rain barrel or composter.

“Last year we had this lady whose hat went way up high and had an arm that went out and held a fake plastic fern,” she said. “It was very huge and very funny.”

Then at 11:45 p.m., attendees are invited to participate in the recycled drumming circle. Local artists and band members from area schools have been practicing for weeks with Rhum Academy of Music to put on the show that will consist of drumming on recycled objects,grid tie inverter such as trash cans and buckets. To participate, bring an object that can be used as a percussion instrument, such as an old spice holder filled with popcorn. The drumming will lead up to the ball drop.

Rhum Academy has organized the music and performances throughout the night. Hosting the entire event are local artists Nate and Jon from the group 23-10. After leading last year’s flash mob at the New Year’s Eve event, the group was invited back this year as the celebrity hosts.

Now, taps solar power Vidya Mandir

On the day when everyone was speculating if the end of the world would come, Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School went solar.

It joined the handful of schools in the city, and its immediate vicinity, which are employing this renewable resource.

On a hot December afternoon, the solar panels installed on the terraces of two buildings in the campus are generating solar energy to power inverter  fans, tube lights, and computers in close to 30 classrooms in the school.

R. V. Rajagopal, correspondent of the school, said they had used 27 units in close to two days. “There are 10 panels in the main building and 24 panels in the high and higher secondary building,” he said.

According to school authorities, it was gifted by the 1987 batch of students to celebrate 25 years of passing out, and installed by U-Solar, a company started by K.R. Harinarayan, who belongs to the batch. Mr. Rajapgopal,grid tie inverter said that for now, they would expand the capacity in a phased manner, as utilising solar energy for all energy needs of the school in one go was not possible. Depending on the provisions in Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy, Mr. Rajagopal said they would explore the possibility of channelling the excess power generated to the local grid.

K.R. Harinarayan, founder-CEO, U- Solar, said that it was an ideal set up for schools, as they functioned when the sun is out. “It is an eight-kilowatt battery-based system, and can power up to 30 classrooms. It can supply regular power, and can also be used as a back up option,” he said, adding, “This system is ideal for schools also because the school should be able to channel the excess power generated, during weekends and holidays, to the local grid in the future.”

B. Ravi, trustee, Navadisha Montessori School, where they have been employing wind-cum-solar energy for close to a year, strongly recommends tapping renewable sources of energy. “Once you install it, there is zero maintenance, and you also set a good example for your children,” he said, adding that if more institutions and homes came forward, the cost of the equipment would also come down.

Senthil Nathan, general manager, operations, E Hands Energy Private Limited, said that the trend of schools using wind and solar energy was more pronounced in other districts in Tamil Nadu due to the grim power situation. “Many city colleges are looking at solar panel and wind power,” he said.

The Solar Maximum aurora borealis and the coming

In fact, this approaching Solar Maximum has got professional aurora-chasing photographers like Antti Pietikainen in Finnish Lapland very, very excited indeed, and with good reason when you look at the image he captured way back in autumn 2011 (two years before Solar Maximum). Antti said:

Last year’s autumn Draconoids meteor shower peaked with full sky auroras. First two centimeters of snow, and I was at my cabin in forest. I set the camera straight up against the aspen on the cabin yard. I had a break from sauna and almost slipped at the porch when I saw the sky on fire. I could stay out only a couple of minutes because I was barefoot on the winter’s first snow.

If it was that good then, what will Solar Maximum bring as this winter and next unfold, we wonder?

The winter of 2011/12 produced some unforgettable auroras because of the increasing sunspot frequency and the power inverter of the solar flares, which cause coronal mass ejections or CMEs and subsequent auroras. Remember all that talk about the northern lights being visible in Yorkshire and Northumberland and possible disruption to our modern day way of life? That was all because the sun’s activity is growing towards Solar Maximum.

The coming winters look to be just as good if not better and while it’s lovely to see a low horizon aurora here in the U.K., there is nothing to compare with standing on a frozen lake in the Arctic and watching the lights swirl their hypnotic dance directly overhead.

We can’t wait, it is just too exciting!!!

Right now, there’s huge excitement among those of us who hunt for the aurora borealis, also called the northern lights. The lights are historically at their most frequent and spectacular when the sun reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity. This peak is known as Solar Maximum,grid tie inverter and NASA is predicting it for the autumn of 2013.

NASA’s prediction is based in part on the number of sunspots originating on our star’s surface and, as the name would suggest, Solar Maximum is when the frequency of sunspots peaks. Here is how the number of spot-less days has totted up over the last few winters:

Spotless Days

Current Stretch: 0 days

2012 total: 0 days (0%)

2011 total: 2 days (<1%)

2010 total: 51 days (14%)

2009 total: 260 days (71%)

Source: www.spaceweather.com (updated on 13 December 2012)

Back in the winter of 2012/13, we found a terribly useful page on NASA’s website, which provided sunspot frequency data back to the turn of the Millennium. From the data, we created the graph below showing that the next Solar Maximum would occur this winter.

We thought Solar Maximum might occur in winter 2013. Now NASA says the maximum probably won’t come until late in 2013. Image created by the Aurora Zone

Since we extrapolated the data, things have moved on, and NASA has revised its forecast. Initially, they suggested that Solar Maximum would occur in May 2013, but very recently NASA revised that prediction and now expect the maximum to occur in autumn 2013.

In the media, there was huge speculation that this Solar Maximum would be the strongest for 50 years but NASA is now predicting a weak maximum. In fact, it might be be the weakest maximum and smallest sunspot cycle since 1906, according to solar panel physicists. Nevertheless, the coming Solar Maximium means the northern lights will be at their best in the winters of 2013 and 2014, and we’ve already seen many a stunning sky above the auroral zone since the darker nights kicked in at the end of August 2012.

Aurora borealis, or northern lights, as captured by Antti Pietikainen in the autumn of 2011, two years before Solar Maximum.  See more from Antti Pietikainen here. Image via the Aurora Zone.  Used with permission.  View larger.

Principal Role of Concentrated Solar Thermal and Solar Releases White Paper Comparing Photovoltaic

"As energy independence and sustainability are becoming formidable issues in the public eye, solar presents itself as a primary solution and can increase its future market share simply by participating in the growth of capacity -- rather than serving as a replacement," says Dr. Borry. "PV and CST complement each other to meet new demands, and both will increase their share of the electric power inverter  market as the world adds new capacity outside of the traditional carbon combustion processes."

About Principal Solar

Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), is a publicly traded solar energy holding company executing a unique roll-up strategy to create the world's first distributed solar utility.PSI concentrates its resources on the acquisition, finance, development and management of solar power companies. The Principal Solar Institute, an educational organization created by Principal Solar, Inc., is dedicated to spreading solar knowledge to the critical stakeholders in the ongoing energy debate. Visit www.PrincipalSolar.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors in the solar energy generating industry (market risk, government regulation, operational risks, etc.) that could cause the Company's actual operating results to be materially different from any historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe these risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements that contain terms such as "believes," "belief," "expects," "expect," "intends," "intend," "anticipate," "anticipates," "plans," "plan," to be uncertain and forward-looking. The Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Principal Solar Releases White Paper Comparing Role of Concentrated Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Solar Technologies in Power Generation Marketplace

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Principal Solar, Inc (PSI; OTC Pink: PSWW), a publicly traded solar panel energy holding company executing a unique roll-up strategy to create the world's first distributed solar utility, today announced the release of "Technological Niches: Concentrated Solar Thermal vs. Photovoltaic Solar." Authored by Brett T. Gage, research associate PSI, and Rick Borry, Ph.D., chief technology officer, PSI, the paper compares concentrated solar thermal (CST) and photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies, exploring how each succeeds or fails in relation to the electric power generation marketplace.

"Solar electricity will be cost-competitive without subsidies within three years," says Michael Gorton, CEO, PSI. "This paper explains the strengths and weaknesses of CST and PV technology at a time when both are approaching grid tie inverter parity power prices in many applications, making this a timely and highly relevant topic."

The paper discusses the evolution of solar technology and demonstrates how CST and PV solar technology each serve different technological niches. As of 2012, PV has come to dominate all smaller-scale solar electricity applications, while retaining the majority market share even in commercial and utility-scale applications.

Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced $20 million in new funding that will help integrate concentrating solar power (CSP) systems with fossil fuel power plants. These hybrid systems leverage the infrastructure of fossil fuel plants such as turbine and transmission systems, helping to reduce the cost of solar-generated electricity and bring CSP plants online quicker. CSP retains a strong niche at the utility-scale and in combined heat and power applications, where no amount of PV cost-reduction is expected to overcome its inherent technology advantages.

Forget Year For Renewables Fracking: 2012 Was A Powerful

"The single-most reason for that is the tax support system which we all rely upon is expiring at year-end," explains Jim Spencer, the president and CEO of New York-based EverPower, which runs wind farms in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and California. "We really accelerated projects that might otherwise have been built next year."

The 2013 Windbreaker

The program — called a production tax credit — expires on Dec. 31. It allows companies that get their wind farms running before then to claim a 2.2-cent tax break for every kilowatt hour of energy produced. That might not sound like a lot, but it keeps their business costs down by about 30 percent.

So wind power is about to get 30 percent more expensive for the utilities at a time when natural gas is very cheap. That's bad news, Gramlich says.

"Utilities are looking at those prices. And they simply won't buy nearly as much wind power without that credit," he says.

The tax credit could still pass, likely as part of the huge bills all the "fiscal cliff" agreements will be stuffed into. A last-minute extension, however, won't help for 2013.

"It's really a black hole next year," says EverPower's Spencer. "We have absolutely no construction plans for next year."

So wind will slow down next year, but no matter what happens with natural gas, you can still expect growth in renewables, due to those state laws pushing alternative energy.

States are doing that because climate change scientists around the world agree that if we don't find a replacement for fossil fuels, our goose is cooked.

Natural gas may have reshaped the domestic energy market in 2012, lowering energy prices and marginalizing the coal industry, but America's shale boom hasn't undermined renewables.

In fact, while analysts were paying attention to fracking this year, a record number of  solar panel were being slapped on roofs — enough to produce 3.2 gigawatts of electricity.

That sounds like a lot, but solar is still providing just .05 percent of the country's total energy. Still, the solar industry keeps expanding. Roan Resh, who heads the Solar Energy Industries Association, said that's because solar panels are becoming cheaper to make and to install.

"Just to give you perspective," Resh said, "in Washington, D.C., where I live, when I installed solar on my house six years ago, the average install cost was about $14 a watt. Today it's about $4 a watt."

So if you're installing solar panels, business is good. But there's a flip side to that equation. Prices are low because of a global manufacturing glut. Solar manufacturers have the capacity to produce way more panels than consumers are asking for right now, and many panel producers are struggling.

The bulk of solar growth is happening at businesses; companies are installing panels on roofs so that they don't have to buy as much energy from the grid tie inverter  State and federal policies are making that an easy decision for companies. Businesses who install panels can qualify for grants and tax breaks, and laws in 38 states require a certain amount of electricity to be generated by solar, wind and other renewable sources.

A Good Year For Wind Power, Too

Wind was up this year, too. The federal Energy Information Administration says the industry could add 1.2 gigawatts of capacity this year. Wind only provides a small portion of domestic power inverter, about 3 percent.

Wind is on a strong streak with consumers as well, says Rob Gramlich, a vice president at the American Wind Energy Association. "Where we were serving the equivalent of 6 million homes at the end of 2008, we're serving 13 million today," he says.

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In three of the last five years, wind has been the fastest-growing energy sector. That was the case in 2012, but this year's totals leave a bit of a false impression. There's been a flurry of activity in December, and in fact more than half of new wind farms will likely come online this month.

Solar City breed of solar company IPO launches new

The initial reactions will be largely negative for the clean energy industry - company valuation goes from a pre-IPO target of $1 billion to an opening trading value of under $600 million. It will be pointed to as yet another clean energy failure, another reason why the "new" energy industry isn't ready.

What the discussion and likely broad negative reaction will miss is the really important story: SolarCity isn't just a solar panel company; while the company finances and installs solar panels, the real value it is building is its brand, its customer base, and the company's ability to acquire new energy customers.

SolarCity is a new kind of energy company, one that understands energy not as the sale of units and reliability, but as a dynamic and evolving service relationship. Regardless of IPO valuation, what SolarCity (and behind it SunRun, Sungevity and others) has proven by successfully becoming a publicly traded company is that the competition for the retail consumer's energy business has moved from concept to reality.

SolarCity was set to be the feel-good clean energy story of the year. A story about how to find the part of the market that would allow for the big splashy exit for exhausted clean energy investors. Then Tuesday evening word began to leak that the underwriters were reaching out to investors to see if there was interest for shares at $10,grid tie inverter  rather than the target $13 to $15, and not long after that the IPO was postponed. The issue was doubled in size and the offering price was cut to $8 per 

The stock debuted on Dec. 13 and soared to $11.79 a share on its first day and has since traded in a range well above its opening price.

All sorts of speculation for the lack of interest worked through mainstream media, investor chat rooms and twitter - 

General perception the solar industry is a wreck. This seemed to be the most common theme of the mainstream media. This was exactly wrong, SolarCity lives in the downstream end of the market, and benefits from low panel prices and excess panel supply (but this is a perfect example of the lack of energy sophistication, even among the investing and media elite).

Reliance on tax credits and the potential for disruption after 2016 when the tax credit for solar drops from 30% to 10% represented an unmanageable risk.

Chairman Elon Musk pledged in the days leading up to the IPO that he would buy as much as 10% of the offering equaled a red flag that something was wrong.

There are rumors of the Treasury reviewing 1603 grants in lieu of tax credit claims more closely and that some developers,power inverter including SolarCity may have claw-back concerns.

Inadequate tax equity exists in the market to make growth projection viable.

The upside for the asset portfolio is absorbed by the project investors, and not SolarCity.

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The potential impact of all of these concerns ranges, in my opinion, from simply wrong to mild concerns, and my best guess is that all of these played some role on the broader investor pool and when mixed with the uncertainty of a new business, it curbed interest.

"I tried to sell the land, but no one wanted to buy it," Mr. Bennett told The Times in an interview at the Watcha Road site last week.

Sunny incentives

As the owner of Bennett Electric in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Bennett has been involved in the installation of solar energy systems in Island homes over the past 20 years. Last year, while looking at the funding incentives available for solar projects, he said it occurred to him that CHC could put its unsold property to good use.

Mr. Bennett put together a proposal and took it to Edgartown National Bank vice president Mary Maida, who helped him arrange the financing to bring the project to fruition. It actually includes three components — the two projects on an acre each off Watcha Road and a third project on a one-acre site he leased at Whippoorwill Farm on Old County Road in Oak Bluffs from owner Andrew Woodruff.

Unlike the Cozy Hearth affordable housing proposal, Mr. Bennett said the abutters did not oppose the  solar panel project. "They were great; they came over and they liked the idea, and they were excited about having it," he said. And since its completion, a few have even told him they like the way it looks. "Some of the neighbors said, 'I look out over the field, and it glimmers like the water.'"

Mr. Bennett said construction on Watcha Road began in early March 2012 and was finished for the most part by July. Some students from the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School (MVPCS) in environmental science teacher Louis Hall's classes visited the site and helped install some of the panels last spring. All three solar facilities began production on November 20.

Mr. Bennett said the project specifications called for panels that would withstand winds of 120 miles per hour, and also took into consideration factors such as soil conditions and snow loading. They are spaced about 2 meters apart and the poles that support them go about five feet into the ground. The panels are expected to last for 30 years.

How the finances work

Each project cost about $1.1 million. Mr. Bennett said he started the permitting process in November 2011, in order to take advantage of a government incentive that offered a cash grant, which was due to be changed to a tax credit instead for projects started in 2012.

Mr. Bennett said he had to spend the money on the project upfront, but would be reimbursed for 30 percent of the cost of design and construction. There also was a depreciation incentive that allowed him to recover the cost of his equipment through accelerated depreciation schedules. The panels are expected to last for 30 years.

Massachusetts has also established substantial incentives. Developers earn solar renewable energy credits (SREC) for establishing solar-generation capacity. Also, the state's net metering laws allow certain renewable energy generating facilities to allocate the credits to customers for credit on their future energy bills.

The monetary savings for the energy produced come in the form of a credit from the utility company. Power produced by the solar arrays goes directly into the regional electric grid tie inverter  along with energy generated by oil, coal, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear plants.

Later, Mr. Bennett will get a credit from NSTAR roughly equal to the retail price of energy, that he can sell to his customers. They in turn can use the credits to offset their electric bills.

"When you're making power, you get renewable energy credits, which aren't the power itself, so you get paid in renewable energy credits and you sell the power inverter  so you kind of get double-duty," Mr. Bennett explained. "And that's what makes this doable."

The SREC are what make solar project advantageous for developers, he added. "Unless you can get somebody to pay you something for them, they're worthless," he said. "I could have a million of them in my account, and that doesn't mean anything. But I can assign my credits to anybody that has an NSTAR bill that is located in the southeastern Massachusetts district, which goes from Westport out to Provincetown, almost as far as Brockton."

Mr. Bennett's customers currently include the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School and 

Cozy home to solar energy projects Hearth property now

Martha's Vineyard YMCA, which receive a discounted rate as nonprofit organizations,power inverter and also the Edgartown National Bank and Tisbury Farm Market. They purchase utility credits Mr. Bennett receives from NSTAR for the solar energy his projects generate to offset their electricity costs from NSTAR.

Mr. Bennett offered a simplified explanation how the pricing works, using the Charter School in a hypothetical example.

"Let's say I had 1,000 credits in my account from what the solar array produced and I'm transferring 100 percent of those credits to the Charter School," Mr. Bennett said. "If they have a $1,000 bill from NSTAR, they would owe NSTAR zero.

And let's make believe I gave them a 10 percent discount. They would then pay me $900 for my transferring the credits to them and save $100 in doing so. Whatever the discount rate is, that's how it works."

A new lease on light

On a bright sunny day last Thursday, December 13, Mr. Bennett, Ms. Maida, YMCA financial development director Sarah Soushek, Tisbury Farm Market owner Elio Silva, and a Charter School delegation including students, Mr. Hall, and development director Paul Karasik, met at the Watcha Road site to celebrate the project's completion.

"By your committing to purchase the power inverter  made by this project, you made it possible," Mr. Bennett told everyone.

In an email in response to questions emailed from The Times, Mr. Karasik said the Charter School's decision to "go green" was made by MVPCS administration in March 2012 in response to a proposal from Mr. Bennett, who is the parent of a former student and has been the school's electrician since 1996. The Charter School hopes to save 10-15 percent on electricity costs, Mr. Karasik said. The term is unlimited and can be cancelled at any time.

"We believe that we are the first school in the state, public or private, to go fully green," he said in his email.

With the enticing incentives for solar projects, they have gained in popularity and number on Martha's Vineyard. Edgartown, Tisbury, and West Tisbury have all entered into agreements with the Cape and Vineyard Electrical Cooperative (CVEC) to build solar arrays on town land at no cost to the towns, and to run the facilities for 20 years in exchange for tax breaks and incentives from the state. In a divided vote, the West Tisbury selectmen voted on December 5 to enter into an agreement with CVEC to allow the cooperative to build a photovoltaic array at the town landfill off Old Stage Road.

Over the past year Vineyard Power switched its focus from wind energy to solar, with the creation of Vineyard Power Solar (VPS).

The solar subsidiary recently financed and leased space in the Cronig's Market parking lot in Vineyard Haven where three solar canopies have been installed.

In fields off Watcha Road in Edgartown, a site once envisioned as a neighborhood of 11 affordable homes called Cozy Hearth, rows and rows of solar panels now glimmer. Instead of the sounds of children at play, on sunny days there is a strong hum in the air as machines convert direct current produced from solar energy into alternating current that goes into the electrical grid.

The private solar energy project by Bill Bennett, an Island electrical contractor, includes two arrays with 1,250 solar panel apiece, on two one-acre parcels, capable of an annual production of 250,000 watts each.

Ten years ago Mr. Bennett, who owns Bennett Electric in Vineyard Haven, and some of his employees, friends, and family members pooled resources to purchase the Watcha Road site, which included three parcels totaling almost 11 acres. Their unique proposal to build 11 affordable houses there received approval from the Martha's Vineyard Commission, with many conditions, after a long public hearing process in which it encountered fierce opposition from abutters.

Subsequent review and additional conditions imposed by the Edgartown Zoning Board of Appeals ultimately rendered the project economically unfeasible. Although Mr. Bennett and the not-for-profit Cozy Hearth Corporation (CHC) won an appeal to have the ZBA's decision overturned in court, they gave up in 2009 after nearly three years of legal wrangling and the Edgartown ZBA's third appeal. At that time Mr. Bennett said the cost of carrying the mortgage was $6,000 a month, and that the CHC participants wanted out. He put the property on the market as three parcels in the fall of 2009.

China progress invests big in ecological

In east China's Jiangsu Province, the provincial government has allocated 2 billion yuan annually to control pollution near Taihu Lake over the past five years.

In addition to the government's investment, a total of 75 billion yuan has been raised by the public to support more than 3,000 related projects.

Private enterprises in Jiangsu, represented by Suntech power inverter, the world's largest producer of solar panels, and Trina Solar, a leading solar module company, have contributed to China's solar capacity in recent years.

According to a report released by the National Energy Association on Sept. 12, China will expand its installed solar power generation capacity to 21 gigawatts (GW) by 2015, which will require an investment of about 250 billion yuan.

In 2011, China's growth in renewable energy was 2.5 times that of Brazil and India combined. The country's asset financed investment of 44 billion US dollars in the sector represented 30 percent of global renewable investment, compared to Brazil's 5 percent and India's 7 percent, according to another report published by the Deutsche Bank Group in July.

The report forecast that China is likely to install 340 GW of renewable power in order to meet national targets through 2020. The investment in incremental wind and solar power, plus grid tie inverter investment, could total 527 billion US dollars, it said.

A viaduct built over a wetland in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to make way for wildlife has been described as a "green bridge" by local residents.

Built with an investment of 430 million yuan (68.8 million US dollars), the 5-km overpass opened to traffic in late 2010 and spans the largest inner city wetland in China -- the Longfeng Wetland Nature Reserve, located near the city of Daqing, known as China's first oil production base.

In the 1960s, roads were built directly on the wetland so people could reach the oil fields faster, which, however, threatened the local ecosystem.

Since the bridge has been constructed, birds have returned and plants are growing again. A total of 76 species of birds are currently living within the wetland area, including five species under first-level national protection.

Authorities highlighted the need to promote ecological progress and gave it a more prominent position by incorporating it into the country's overall development plan last month when the governing Communist Party of China (CPC) convened a national congress.

The country has pledged to support the development of energy-efficient and low-carbon industries, new energy sources and renewable energy sources, which requires huge investment.

Jin Lei, a partner at international accounting firm KPMG, said the Chinese market has great investment potential for green industries, as the country has included such industries in its Development Plan for National Strategic Emerging Industries during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015).

With a total investment of 2.1 billion yuan, Longhua New Energy Vehicle Industrial Park, the largest new energy vehicle project in Heilongjiang Province, was put into operation in July 2012 and has received a slew of orders from foreign companies so far.

According to a report issued by the Deutsche Bank Group in August, the annual production value output of China's electric vehicle industry could reach 159 billion yuan by 2020.

China has also vowed to launch major ecological restoration projects and prevent desertification, especially for the northwestern regions with fragile environments.

The government of Minqin County in northwest China's Gansu Province is battling desertification in the catchment of the Shiyang River, as overdevelopment has accelerated desert encroachment, leaving the basin among the country's worst ecologically-deteriorated regions.

In 2007, China put 4.79 billion yuan toward environmental conservation around the Shiyang River basin. Conservation efforts there have included capping water use and developing water-saving agricultural techniques.

"People are not only looking to increase their incomes, but have also demanded an improved environment and living standards," said Sun Wancang, a professor at Gansu Agricultural University.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang said last week China will invest 3.4 trillion yuan in environmental protection during the 12th Five-year Plan period.

Li vowed to expand domestic markets by encouraging the application of solar panel power generation technology and connecting more on-site solar power generation sites to the national power grid.

China has connected less than 10 percent of its annual solar cell output, indicating huge market potential, Li said, citing the solar sector as an example of how to tap local markets and explore ecological progress.

However, Chen Ying, secretary-general of the Research Center for Sustainable Development under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the promotion of ecological progress should come not only from the government, but also from enterprises and non-governmental organizations.