Tag Archives: solar

Energy Company Pays Customers for Solar Panels

Duke Energy, located in the USA, will start paying their customers to install solar panels, this is a reaction by the company to increased regulation. I wish Duke Energy would pay for a solar panel on my house.

“We’d love to have the panels — if we could afford it — and be completely green,” Durkin says. But given that his utility bill is only about $200 a month, he says “it made no sense.”

Then he heard that his local electric company, Duke Energy, wants to install solar panels on hundreds of customers’ roofs and vacant lots.

“If Duke could put them up and they’re going to get a better deal with it, then at least I’m helping the cause, and that’s what I wanted to do,” Durkin says.

For decades, Duke Energy has envisioned massive coal-fired and nuclear power plants as the best way to generate electricity for 4 million customers. But a new state law and the possibility of federal restrictions on greenhouse gases is pushing the 104-year-old utility to try new things.

DIY Alternative Energy, Build Your Own Solar Power

Ever wanted to build your own energy network? Well, now you can!
This guy made his own solar power unit.

So what is a solar panel anyway? It is basically a box that holds an array of solar cells. Solar cells are the things that do the actual work of turning sunlight into electricity. However, it takes a lot of cells to make a meaningful amount of power, and they are very fragile, so the individual cells are assembled into panels. The panels hold enough cells to make a useful amount of power and protect the cells from the elements. It doesn’t sound too complicated. I was convinced I could do it myself.

I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. I was shocked at how few I found. The fact that very few people were building their own panels led me to think it must be harder to do than I thought. The project got shelved for a while, but I never stopped thinking about it.

Coal Plant Goes Solar

In Australia a pilot project is underway that pairs solar power and traditional coal burning power generation. Adding solar power into the energy production greatly lessens the amount of coal needed to keep the plants generation at a stable level. Hybrid power plants are a great transition to a system based on renewable energy.

Mirrors, called fresnal reflectors capture the sun’s rays and heat water in the tube above. Steam lines deliver the solar energy to the adjacent coal power plant where existing coal turbines are used to produce an electric current.

The ideal situation for retrofitting a coal power plant with solar includes:

  • A large amount of land adjacent to the plant is neededfor solar collectors. Ausra’s fresnal reflector technology requires 2-2.5 acres of land per megawatt compared with 5 acres per megawatt for solar trough systems or 7 acres per megawatt for solar dish engine systems.
  • High quantities of solar radiation, such as the American Southwest or the Saharan Desert in Northern Africa, give the solar system a higher return on investment and increase the consistency of the solar energy output.
  • Coal power plants that are located in areas with a carbon tax or cap and trade system in place will have a higher return on investment from a solar retrofit.

    • Ikea to Sell Solar Panels

    Ikea is putting $75 million into selling solar panels. Hopefully the company that popularized cheap furniture can do the same for cheap solar power.

    Of course, that’s a very tall order. But IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad’s son Peter is an avowed green tech believer, and Stenebo’s Greentech will put about US$75 million into at many as ten companies in five different areas: solar technology, energy conservation, water saving products, alternative lighting, and new product materials. Scandinavian companies are Greentech’s first focus. Nearly all of these areas are ones we would welcome the IKEA low-cost approach to, although setting up solar roof panels with just the simplistic diagrams and little Allen keys that accompany IKEA’s usual do-it-yourself furniture seems something of a stretch. Then there’s the problem than many installations require building and other permits. But IKEA’s fabulous distribution network of 270 global superstores would mean green tech for the global masses, a welcome development.

    Michigan Wins Solar Car Race

    The 2008 North American Solar Challenge has ended in Calgary and the winners are from the University of Michigan, who have won it many many times in the past.

    “A tremendous amount of work went into getting to this point. A lot of us have been on the team for over two years,” said a beaming Brooke Bailey, 23, who drove the blue-and-gold car for the final leg.
    “The car has done everything we hoped for and we’re here. We made it.”
    The solar cars resemble flying saucers with tiny cockpits that drivers cram themselves into for six hours at a time, enduring no air conditioning and little ventilation.
    “When we were down in Texas the heat was pretty bad. We are pretty cramped, and by the end you’re ready to get out,” Bailey said.