Green Options » photovoltaic cells

Architectural Firm in Barcelona Drafts Solar Media Screen for Taipei’s New Music Center

Lucille Chi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:29:39 +0000

Taipei Pop Music Center has opened up an amazing architecture design competition for it’s new building. Nabito Architects has drafted and shared their vision of the new Taipei Pop Music Center composed of a “photovoltaic screen and a wall of LED panels”

The screen of the Pop Music Center may:

have a LED media wall reporting news, weather, event info and ads.
be powered entirely by the sun and set an example for green energy in the city of Taipei
include photovoltaic cell technology, with an LED wall
have controls set by a central computer, to show all events scheduled and more

Solar Blimp to Fly from NYC to Paris, Rests on Land or Water

Bryan Nelson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:59:48 +0000

A Spanish company called Turtle Airships is working on plans to build a luxurious solar-powered blimp which can take passengers from New York to Paris.

Perhaps the only thing cooler than being powered by lightweight photovoltaic cells, this airship is also designed to rest on land or water.

New, Dangerous Greenhouse Gas Tied to Global Warming

Meg Hamill — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:33:00 +0000

A recent study finds that one chemical’s emissions are four times more common in the atmosphere than previously thought, and thousands of times more effective at trapping heat than Carbon Dioxide.

What is this mystery gas?

Nitrogen trifluoride. Nitrogen trifluoride is one of several gases used during the manufacture of certain computer and television screens, and also in thin-film photovoltaic cells.

Oh my. Once again we run into the old dilemma: the manufacturing of the very thing meant to solve a crisis, is actually adding to the crisis.

Many industries used Nitrogen triflouride as a replacement for perfluorocarbons, another type of potent greenhouse gas. At the time it was thought that only about 2 percent of the nitrogen trifluoride used in manufacturing, escaped into the atmosphere.

Nitrogen trifluoride is about 17,000 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. However, emissions of the gas currently add up to only about 0.15 percent of the total human-produced global warming effect. It is estimated that the amount of this gas in the atmosphere is increasing by about 11 percent per year.

Carbon Dioxide is still, however, the main gas contributing to global warming.

Using new technology, a research team in California funded by Nasa, discovered that there are thousands more metric tons of the chemical in the atmosphere, than was previously thought.

Because the gas is used so frequently, and it’s dangers are not that well known, scientists have now recommended adding nitrogen trifluoride to the greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol.

Source: LiveScience

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Good News — Maybe — for Green-Collar Workers

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:50:06 +0000

There’s good news for the future of green-collar employment, but it comes with a caveat: maximizing job growth in green industries will require the right public policy support. That means law-makers need to approve measures such as a renewable portfolio standard, incentives for renewable energy, public education programs and adequate funding for research and development.

If such measures are put in place, the U.S. could see as many as one out of every four workers employed by a renewable-energy or energy-efficiency industry by 2030, according to a new report from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). That’s promising for both U.S. employees and for anyone concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels. But it will happen only, as the ASES report says, under “an aggressive deployment forecast scenario.”

That means we, as citizens and consumers, are going to have to apply strong and steady pressure on legislators — local, state and national — to do the right thing. And that, we all know, isn’t easy.

Still, if — as the saying goes — money walks, green-collar types might see Beltway support grow as green industries expand their economic muscle, which means more dollars for lobbying and campaign financing. And, in that regard, the future looks bright.

In the U.S., renewable-energy and energy-efficiency industries are already generating 8.5 million jobs and nearly $970 billion in annual revenues, according to the ASES report. “To put this in perspective,” the report states, “(t)otal sales for Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil and General Motors in 2006 were $905 billion.”

While companies on the energy-efficiency side — things like better windows, efficient appliances and insulation — are making more of the money right now, the renewables side is growing more rapidly.

The ASES predicts the hottest, fastest-growing industries will involve solar power, wind energy, ethanol and fuel-cell technologies. With the right level of public support, it says, we could see up to 40 million people employed — as everything from accountants and biochemists to engineers, mechanics and truck drivers — in the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency sectors by 2030, with annual green-industry revenues of $4.5 trillion.

Getting there, though, will require much more than a business-as-usual approach, the ASES report warns.

“This scenario requires appropriate, aggressive, sustained public policies at the federal and state level during next two decades,” it states. Getting decision-makers to come on board might take oil shortages, fossil-fuel price increases, growing security concerns or a greater awareness of the impact of climate change. The fear of suffering economically at a global level might also be a motivator.

“If we fail to invest in (renewable energy and energy efficiency), the United States runs the risk of losing ground to international … programs and industries,” the report concludes. “For the United States to be competitive in a carbon-constrained world, the (renewable energy and energy efficiency) industry will be a critical economic driver.”

Building the Solar Industry, Wafer by Wafer

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:14:17 +0000

The demand for solar energy is expanding rapidly, but one of the industry’s obstacles to even faster growth has always been the difficulty of getting enough silicon to make photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

This week, though, IBM announced a new potential source for much-needed silicon: waste silicon wafers used to make semiconductor chips for computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. By erasing the layers of intellectual property that previously prevented those chips from being sold for other uses, IBM can now sell its scrap silicon wafers directly to companies that manufacture solar panels.

IBM and other companies in the industry use silicon wafers to imprint the patterns on semiconductor chips. Once scrapped, these product silicon wafers have typically been crushed and sent to landfills, or melted down for resale. That’s because the proprietary information encoded on the wafers has prevented them from being resold.

Using a process developed by engineer Eric White, though, IBM has found a way to erase the intellectual property from wafers so they can be reused or resold. IBM has introduced the process to turn old product wafers into monitor wafers to help manage the chip-manufacturing process. Wafers of either kind that reach the end of their lives can now be marketed to solar cell makers rather than being trashed.

IBM says up to 3.3 percent of the new silicon wafers made in the industry each day are currently scrapped. While that might not sound like much, when you consider that, worldwide, semiconductor manufacturers create 250,000 new wafers per day, the numbers start adding up. Using stats from the Semiconductor Industry Association, IBM estimates that could mean annual waste of up to three million silicon wafers — enough, according to IBM, to cover an area of 22.5 acres, or to provide solar power to 6,000 homes.

IBM says the new reclamation process helped it save more than a half-million dollars at its Burlingont, Vermont, facility last year; it expects to save nearly $1.5 million this year. It says it’s also getting ready to use the process at its plant in East Fishkill, New York, and will provide working details to others in the semiconductor-making industry.

ReneSola, one of China’s fastest-growing solar energy companies, has already begun to use the reclaimed silicon wafers to make its solar panels. And the IBM process recently won the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable’s "2007 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award."

Pretty big props for something that starts out so small.

City Of San Diego Unveils 1 Megawatt Solar System!

Michael dEstries — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:33:15 +0000

The City of San Diego launched today a new 1.1 megawatt solar power installation at the Alvarado Water Treatment Plant. The system, which is only the start of a large photovoltaic expansion, will provide about 20% of the plant's power with expected savings of $40,000 a year.

With sunny skies one reason people love San Diego, the city is using this natural renewable resource to green several facilities over the coming years. Eventually, multiple installations will provide almost 5 megawatts of solar power and, according to The Sietch, "will become the largest municipal system in California, surpassing Google’s planned 1.6 megawatt solar system in Mountain View, California." How's that for ambitious?

Such goals are minor compared to San Diego's big picture for the year 2013. “Installing 5 megawatts of solar panels on City-operated property is a major step toward meeting the City’s target of providing 50 megawatts of renewable fueled power generation by 2013,” said Mayor Jerry Sanders.

The Alvarado installation has 6,128 photovoltaic solar panels which will reduce annual carbon emissions equal to 219 cars driving 12,500 miles. In addition to this new project, San Diego also currently generates 18 megawatts of renewable power from sources such as methane and hydropower.

Source: The Sietch