About 84 percent of South Africa`s electricity needs are currently met by dirty coal-based power plants. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) board has recently approved $250 million in funding for a 60 MW solar power project, which will displace 140,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. The South African government launched the Renewable [...]
Solar cells have been around since the 19th century but it is only in the past ten years that home solar power generation has become commercially feasible for almost everyone. History of Solar Power It was in 1839 that French physicist AE Bequerel first observed how to turn light into electric current, coining the “photovoltaic [...]
Many people are not aware of the benefits that come with modifying home and garden to harness solar energy. I’m going to go through three categories – PV-panels, water heaters and finally passive building designs. Let’s jump in. Passive Solar Building Designs This article naturally starts out with passive solar building designs. What we mean [...]
Q:What caused leading solar manufacturer Solyndra to fail last fall and what are the implications for U.S. alternative energy industries? Solyndra was a California-based maker of thin-film solar cells affixed to cylindrical panels that could deliver more energy than conventional flat photovoltaic panels. The company’s novel system mounted these flexible cells, made of copper, indium, [...]
Q: Renewable energy production in the solar and wind markets currently receives about $7 billion in government subsidies annually, but is still not competitive against fossil fuels on a large scale. To what extent should the U.S. continue to prop up these industries as they compete against dirty energy? Given the importance of abundant amounts [...]
Were you thinking I was going to tell you how to build something different? Like, say, an off-grid yet electricity-powered clothes dryer that runs off a bank of solar panels on the roof? Guess again. Clothes dryers use so much energy to dry your clothes that there isn’t even an Energy Star rating for them; [...]
