Green Options

The largest municipal solar project in California was approved by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. The installation will more than triple San Francisco’s municipal solar energy output.

Roof-mounted solar array in Atlantic City has peak capacity of 2.4 megawatts.

When I think of Atlantic City I think of blackjack tables, roulette wheels and boardwalks. Now I’ll have to add solar panels to that list.

The Atlantic City Convention Center can now lay claim to North America’s largest single roof-mounted solar array. The 13,400 modules on the roof of the convention center were manufactured by the Chinese company, Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL). The project, which provides approximately 2.4 MW at peak capacity, or, the equivalent energy needs of 280 American homes.

Here at Low Impact Living are big advocates for residential renewable energy. We’d like to see every home in the US being fed by solar, wind and/or geothermal power.  (And we hope that President Obama will be driving to make that vision a reality!)

But we also understand that very few of us Americans can afford $20,000+ for an installation of a solar PV system– especially these days!  [...]

A solar photovoltaic station tucked away high in a high Colorado mountain valley will finish 2008 as the nation’s most productive utility-scale solar PV facility, but the short-lived title won’t last long.

At 7,500 feet above sea level, Sun Edison’s 8.22-megawatt Alamosa facility was America’s most efficient solar plant in 2008. The 82-acre solar photovoltaic facility in the San Luis Valley of Colorado produced enough power for 1,652 homes, making it the largest plant of its kind in the country. And if you think 1,650 homes isn’t very many, you’ve never been to the sparsely-populated San Luis Valley.

The project, which just opened in December of 2007, will be surpassed in terms of total output by the recently-completed ten-megawatt El Dorado Energy Solar facility in southern Nevada.

Thin film solar technology has attracted interest from venture capitalists because of its higher efficiency, lower use of limited silicon, and more easily automated production processes. Now, established Japanese players in the solar arena are getting in the thin film game, followed by companies in China and India, as reported in Renewable Energy World.

• Mitsubishi Chemical already produces materials for the solar industry but sees opportunity to produce the cells

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BuildingGreen.com features a story on the value that renewable energy can add to a home. Amy Levin, a realtor who completed a LEED platinum registered gut rehab in Washington, DC, had her home appraised at 10% higher value than comparable properties. Interested buyers made offers that exceeded her green investment costs, even though the house wasn’t listed. People wanted to rent her house, even though she built it for her own residence.

The solar panels on the roof heat the water (and they seem positioned to shade the air conditioner, another energy-saver). An article in Kiplinger.com summarizes “sunshine economics”: