New York City goes green by launching a 100% wind and solar powered billboard this Holiday Season.

As alternative energy continues to be the hot topic in our flailing economy, New York City sets an environmental example by launching Times Square’s first 100 percent eco-powered billboard.

The billboard powered entirely by wind and sun, is the first such sign in New York City. It will be erected by Ricoh Company, Ltd., a Japanese company that strives to be outstanding in all areas of the environment, society, and the economy. Their first eco-signage project dates back to April 2003 in Osaka, Japan.

Powered By Wind Turbines and Solar Panels

The electricity for the billboard will be produced entirely by solar and wind power and stored in 16 batteries. No electricity will be purchased from local power companies.

Sixteen wind turbines and 65 solar panels will produce an average of 98 kwh of electricity per day (93 kwh from wind power and 5kwh from solar). To put the savings into perspective: the same amount of electricity required by an ordinary sign would result in as much as 18 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The batteries can hold four days worth of supply. However if there is insufficient wind or solar power, the sign may not light up, an eventuality that Ricoh readily accepts.

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A Norwegian company called Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will build the complex, which will be completed in different stages to incorporate wafer, cell, and module production. REC already operates the world’s current largest solar plant in Norway, which produces about 650 megawatts of energy annually.

A solar manufacturing plant would be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, and REC looked at 200 locations before settling on Singapore. A combination of tax incentives, grants, and a skilled workforce were some of the reasons REC liked it. Likewise, Singapore officials are thrilled about playing center stage in the world’s rush to clean technology. Ko Kheng Hwa of the Economic Development Board explained:

The project will be a ‘queen bee’ to attract a hive of solar activities to Singapore — big companies and young start-ups engaged in research and development, manufacturing and innovation, as well as the supplier ecosystem… This investment will be a tremendous boost to our national drive to develop the solar industry.

Once completed in 2010, the capacity of all the products the plant produces will generate up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy each year — that’s compared to the total global industry output of 2 GW in 2006. That large of an impact, combined with the 3,000 expected jobs, shines a new light on an emerging area of the world hungry for innovative and clean technology.

Accelerating Innovation
All Headline News
Manufacturing.net

Costco – the giant discount retailer – is installing its first solar array on the Kailua-Kona store in Hawaii. A 680-kilowatt solar electric system – big enough to power about 111 Hawaiian homes – will be installed by REC Solar of San Luis Obispo, CA. It’s expected to be completed in the next five or six weeks.

The Kailua-Kona store may save up to a one-third of its electricity costs by producing its own energy from the sun. Costco has more solar planned for other stores, mostly in Hawaii and in California.

A Safeway store in Dublin, CA has started generating electricity from its own solar panels, and the company plans to install systems on 23 of its stores – enough to power about 20 percent of a stores’ average energy use. That’s enough to avoid over 10 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) – a major contributor to global warming.

Efficiency is another part of Safeway’s plan: Since 2005, super-efficient refrigeration systems and LED lights have been installed that have allowed the company’s stores to do the same amount of work using less energy.

Companies may be scrambling to expand their green credentials, but they’re also moving forward because of ample incentives from the states. In Hawaii, commercial photovoltaic systems are eligible for credits of up to $500,000 and net metering laws are in place that allow companies to offset electric bills with surplus power put back on the electric grid. Additionally, the federal government offers a 30 percent tax credit.

Local, state, and national incentives for renewable energy will continue to drive business to do the right thing by making it economically sensible to do so. That, combined with a better brand reputation among consumers and investors, may drive even more companies to choose greener options.

GreenBiz.com
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Also on GO:

Google Flips The Switch On Largest Corporate Solar Installation In U.S.

Wal-Mart Launching Solar Power Pilot Program

The New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) is a 10-year, $400 million program of the California Energy Commission to encourage energy efficiency and solar power in new home construction. Specifically, the NSHP works with builders and developers to install 400 megawatts (MW) of solar energy on energy-efficient CA homes in the next ten years. The Partnership focuses on new single family homes, multi-family homes, and affordable housing construction.

The NSHP officially began on January 2 of this year, and it just crossed a milestone with its first approval of a new home community. The subdivision of Wisteria in Rocklin, California is made up of 60 homes, 35 of which will all have solar power systems that come standard, totaling 82 KW of renewable energy. Christopherson Homes is building the community.

Solar power may be exciting, but California energy policy puts greater emphasis on efficiency because it is the most cost effective way of cutting emissions. By combining efficiency with solar, the NSHP can help ensure that the projects are as affordable as possible.

The Partnership’s incentives encourage homes to be 35-50 percent above current efficiency standards.
The NSHP hopes that the Wisteria project will be the beginning of a self-sustaining market and that 50 percent of all new homes by 2017 will be super energy-efficient and solar powered.

Go Solar California!

Solar Buzz

A California-based startup company called Cleantech America LLC plans to build the solar farm. The company develops utility-scale solar plants and wants to commercialize photovoltaic (PV) solar technology in order to slow global warming and increase America’s energy independence.

The San Joaquin Valley Customer Choice Solar Farm (hopefully they’ll think of an acronym or something) is expected to be completed in 2011 and will cover 640 acres. That’s far larger than North America’s largest planned solar power plant in Nevada and double the size of the world’s largest solar project planned for Germany.

Cleantech’s CEO Bill Barnes told CNN that this project will make California the world’s clear leader in solar power, catapulting it ahead the current powerhouse, Germany:

“We’re pretty confident that solar farms on this scale are going to have an industry-changing impact. We think it’s the wave of the future. This scale of project, I think, creates a tipping point for renewable energy…the impact for it will be similar to the impact of the computer chip.”

The San Joaquin Valley is well-suited for a large solar project, according to Cleantech. Its good sun resources allow for power to be generated close to where it is needed and reduce the poor air quality that plagues the area. Producing power locally will also save on transmission costs that can drive up the price on out-of-state electricity.

According to the EPA, an 80 MW solar power plant would avoid up to 450 pounds of toxic mercury emissions and 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year – a major contributor to global warming. That’s the equivalent of keeping 20,000 vehicles off the road. The University of California at Berkeley found that the San Joaquin Valley could see considerable job creation if the growth of solar projects in the area continues; up to 1,040 installation and maintenance jobs and 1,600 solar manufacturing jobs may be created, mostly in the local vicinity.

Some significant hurdles remain. Namely, choosing one of five sites under consideration to locate the solar power project, connecting it to the transmission system, and contracting with a manufacturer to supply the PV panels. The California Energy Commission must certify the solar plant as a renewable energy source that doesn’t create pollution, and a number of local permits must be obtained.

Cleantech will partner with the California Construction Authority to build the plant and sell the energy to the Kings River Conservation District, a public agency that is the water management arm of the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority. The Power Authority was created in late 2006 to reduce the power now bought from investor-owned utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison.

Cleantech America
CNN
Fresno Bee

Oregon’s legislative session went out with a bang. Building on the renewagble energy standard passed earlier this summer that requires 25 percent of energy to come from renewables by 2025, this week Governor Ted Kulongoski signed key solar power policies that will continue to encourage solar manufacturing and solar energy systems in the state.

For starters, the tax credit for solar power projects jumped from 35 percent of project costs to 50 percent. A tax exemption passed for solar net metered systems, and a provision requiring public buildings to set aside 1.5 percent of their construction budget to fund onsite solar power technologies also made it through.

Jon Miller, executive director of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, explained why solar power is good for Oregon:

It's another example of how we're growing manufacturing in the northwest. We're now a powerhouse in the United States in solar manufacturing. Oregon's established and educated semiconductor workforce makes it a natural fit for the solar PV industry.

Solar business is booming in Oregon. Indeed, two manufacturers (Germany-based SolarWorld AG and California-based Solaicx) have already committed to the state, and overall the solar industry is growing more than 30 percent annually. Oregon ranks 5th in the U.S. for solar hot water systems and in the top 10 for photovoltaic (PV) systems. By 2009, Oregon is expected to be the largest producer of PV cells in the U.S.

Renewable Energy Access

Solaicx, a manufacturing company that produces high-efficiency silicon wafers for photovoltaic solar power, has announced a new facility planned for Portland, Oregon.

The 136,000-square-foot plant will produce silicon ingots, which are logs of pure silicon that get heated to high temperatures and sliced like lunch meat to make silicon wafers. The wafers are the semiconductor materials in solar panels. The process for producing and processing silicon wafers for solar power is difficult and expensive, but Solaicx claims it uses silicon more efficiently and thus creates a more cost-competitive product.

The plant will provide about 100 new green collar jobs and, by the time it reaches full capacity in 18 months, may produce enough material for 142 megawatts of solar panels.

Why Portland? The Oregon Department of Energy created a Solar Energy Working Group charged with developing and implementing a strategic plan to lure clean tech companies to Portland. Jeff Jones, Vice President of Manufacturing for Solaicx, said the state’s incentives were key in the company’s decision to locate there:

"We looked at the state of Oregon's generous financial incentives for renewable energy and Portland's deep base of skilled labor in silicon manufacturing, and decided that the port is an ideal place for our continued growth as a company. This welcoming atmosphere will allow us to meet our goals and rapidly ramp-up to full production by the end of 2008."

Although many manufacturing facilities are located in or are moving to China, precision manufacturing is expanding in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

CNET News
Oregon Energy Model
Solaicx

The 1,000 solar panels will adorn the football-sized roof of the Paul VI audience hall, one of the top energy guzzlers in the sovereign city state. The solar system will be able to provide all the heating, cooling, and lighting needs of the entire building year-round, and any extra electricity generated will be fed back into the Vatican’s grid.

Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican’s department of technical services and mastermind of the project, was inspired by the calls of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II to treat the planet with respect and their warnings that global warming will effect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

This isn’t the first time the Vatican has shown leadership on clean energy. In 1999, the entire lighting system of St. Peter’s Basilica was refurbished with energy-efficient lighting, which cut its energy consumption by about 40 percent.

Although Vatican City is not a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, the Catholic News Service reports that this solar project marks “a major move” to reduce its carbon-footprint and move away from its dependence on Italy’s power grid.

CathNews
Catholic News Service

OptiSolar Farms of Canada, a subsidiary of California-based Opticsolar, Inc. was awarded the 20-year contract. The Ontario Power Authority will purchase the solar energy for 42 cent per kilowatt hour, a premium price that contributed to OptiSolar choosing Ontario for the massive project over its home base of California.

The company wouldn’t talk about the cost of the project for proprietary reasons, but they claim to have developed a way of mass-producing solar cells to dramatically lower the cost of the technology. Solar still isn’t cheap: some estimates put the cost of the plant at around $300 million. But you’ve got to start somewhere, and Ontario’s provincial government wants to make solar – typically a low-maintenance technology - a common energy source. From the Toronto Star:

“Deborah Doncaster, executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, said the premium may seem high but is justified given the environmental benefits. She said it's often forgotten that solar-generated electricity tends to offset natural gas during peak periods when air conditioners are blasting and electricity rates are at their highest.”

This is a big solar step for Canada. The Sarnia project is 400 times larger than the country’s next biggest solar system. But even this project won’t be the world’s largest for long: Germany is planning a similar sized plant, and Australia announced funding for a proposed 154 MW solar plant to be online by 2013.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Toronto Star, via Slashdot

The $1.5 million United Nations-backed project aims to increase the number of homes using solar power in the Karnataka state of southern India. The number of homes using solar power has risen from 1,400 just four years ago to 18,000 today. Indian banks have also helped out by financing the solar systems, which can cost $300-$500 in an area where annual family income is $1,200. The UN’s involvement cut initial interest rate payments, but will be phased out over time.

A UN report to be released this week at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development shows that the solar power is cheaper and healthier than using the common kerosene lamp (no fumes to inhale or dim light to strain the eyes), and it doesn’t emit global warming pollution.

The solar systems allow for a few hours of power to run light bulbs, a radio, fan, or television. But that's enough to make a big difference, according to a UN statement:

“[The lighting] has been credited with better grades for schoolchildren, better productivity for cottage-based industries such as needlework artisans, and even better sales at fruit stands, where produce is no longer spoiled by fumes from kerosene lamps.”

Because of the project's success and its affordability, plans are in the works to expand the model to other developing nations. Efforts are underway in Tunisia, and future projects are planned for China, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Ghana, Morocco, and Algeria.

Reuters, via Environmental News Network
United Nations Environment Programm

The Air Force expects to save around $1 million each year from lower electric bills. The $100 million projected capital cost is being funded by private investors, with the Air Force paying none of the construction costs. The investors project a steady flow of revenue from the Air Force’s purchase of the electricity and substantial federal tax subsidies.

Despite the high costs of solar, Nellis Air Force Base sees a real value of relying on clean, renewable energy. Major Don Ohlemacher, operations flight chief and acting commander of the 99th civil engineer squadron at Nellis:

“It allows the Air Force to show its leadership in applying renewable energy and new technology to reduce our needs to use traditional forms of electric power.”

Others are also positive about solar power, but point out that there are other renewable energy technologies as well. Paula Mints, associate director and photovoltaic specialist with Navigant Consulting:

“The industry has some problems to solve. A lot of people are focusing on these large fields as a way to bring down the price of solar…They certainly have their place in the energy portfolio, but there are a lot of other technologies out there."

The plant will not have a battery to store the energy and will serve as a supplemental rather than a primary generating source.

Air Force Times
USA Today

The new design features many nano-towers - think of microscopic blades of grass - that capture more sunlight because they have a larger surface area than the traditional flat design of photovoltaic (PV) cells. These three-dimensional panels produce about 60 times more current that regular solar cells. Because of this leap in efficiency, the coatings on the PV cells can be made thinner, and the overall size, weight, and mechanical complexity of the systems are reduced. From the news release:

“The GTRI photovoltaic cells trap light between their tower structures, which are about 100 microns tall, 40 microns by 40 microns square, 10 microns apart — and built from arrays containing millions of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes. Conventional flat solar cells reflect a significant portion of the light that strikes them, reducing the amount of energy they absorb.

Because the tower structures can trap and absorb light received from many different angles, the new cells remain efficient even when the sun is not directly overhead.”

But although the new design can produce a current much more efficiently, photovoltaic cells have to generate a voltage too. So far there’s too much resistance within the solar cell to produce the type of electricity that’s needed. Researchers say that hurdle will be the next phase of development.

The United States Air Force funded part of the research, seeking a smaller, more efficient solar panel that could eventually be used to power satellites and spacecraft. Researchers at Georgia Tech believe solar power would see a large jump in residential and commercial use as well if this lightweight and more efficient design is proven effective.

Georgia Tech Research News
International Business Times via the Green Report

The first was HB 1281, which expands the state’s renewable energy standard by doubling the goal to 20 percent of all resources by 2020 for big utilities. It also includes a goal of 10 percent renewables by 2020 for small utilities and caps the implementation cost for customers of the big utilities to 2 percent of their monthly electric bill. Rural electric associations have a 3-to-1 credit to invest in solar energy.

The next bill, SB 100, makes it easier to build or expand transmission lines to move wind power from the rural areas where it’s generated to the populated urban areas where it’s needed. Utilities can recover the construction costs from customers before the power line is operational.

Governor Ritter explained the bills’ significance:

"These new laws will improve our economic security, our environmental security and our national security. They will breathe new economic life into rural Colorado. They will create new jobs, and they will say to the rest of the world, 'Colorado is open for business in what will be one of the most important industries of the 21st century.'"

According to the Denver Business Journal, the bills had the support of lawmakers, energy providers, and renewable energy advocates.

Denver Business Journal

1) GO member attacat asks about using biodegradable trash bags/bin liners:

The bin liners that are commonly used are made of synthetic polymers like polyethylene and polypropylene, and these are not considered biodegradable. Eventually, these plastics will break down, but only after being submitted to decades of heat and light.

Green Your Office proposes a new technology called d2w totally degradable plastics. Apparently, these refuse sacks will “degrade turning harmlessly into CO2 and water”. I may be missing something here, but isn’t CO2 one of the main gases that the greenhouse effect has been blamed on? Are biodegradable bin liners actually harmful to the environment as well?

Got an answer to this one? Is the amount of CO2 produced by these products negligible when compared to the impact of plastic?

2) GO member tamilee is likely not the only person with this question:

Where can I find home solar power systems and how they work explained in the simplest terms possible? I'm looking for a solar power for dummies website or book. I have been interested in solar power for decades but whenever I try to learn about it there is so much jargon used I just get lost.

There is a Complete Idiot's Guide to Solar Power to Your Home; the second edition will be released in May. Any thoughts on this book, or other recommendations?

As always, please answer these questions in forum where they were posted…

Now you can add “North America’s largest solar factory” to the state’s sunny solar outlook.

The German tech company SolarWorld AG is building a facility that will produce integrated solar silicon wafers (the primary component for the production of solar panels) and solar cells (the part that converts sunlight into electricity) in Hillsboro, OR.

SolarWorld will invest about $400 million to expand and develop the new facility over the next 2 years, which it acquired from the Japanese Komatsu Group. That company had already invested around $500 million in the facility but it never went into production because of weak demand in the chip industry. Oregon will support the investments by offering property and business energy tax credits.

A spokesman for the Oregon Department of Energy said the state is “absolutely committed to the long-term development of this [solar] industry.” Jon Miller, executive director of the Oregon Solar industry, noted that Oregon’s business-friendly climate for renewable energy industries made this significant development happen:

"This will provide Oregon with a very big economic boost and it highlights a vigorous effort by Oregon to attract businesses from the renewable energy industry. It's great news…to get another big renewable energy win for the Northwest."

SolarWorld currently has production facilities in nearby Vancouver, WA that employs about 100 people, all of whom will be offered jobs at the Hillsboro plant. The company employs 1,350 workers worldwide and expects the Hillsboro facility to employ up to another 1,000 people. The addition of this plant represents a significant expansion of their share of the U.S. solar energy market.

Photo courtesy of SolarWorld AG

Renewable Energy Access
The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Green Options also has a growing list of discussion forums with topics like “Alternative Energy” and – my favorite – the “Solar Power Fan Club.” You can post a question, comment, or recommendation and hook up with other folks who are exploring solar for the first time or perhaps are seasoned users. You can even start a new discussion thread if your topic doesn’t fit an established one.

You’ll see even more from Green Options in the near future; our online tools will provide practical assistance and information to help you get started on the road to solar. In the meantime, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency is a good, easy-to-navigate site that has financial assistance organized by type (utility rebates, state incentives, etc). The Solar Energy Industries Association is in 14 states and monitors state programs, stays up-to-date on legislation, and can help out homeowners who are having trouble with a local homeowners association or zoning board.

If you are thinking of going solar, or perhaps are already in the process, be assured that there are lots of other folks out there also learning and making the switch. We here at Green Options hope to make that journey a bit easier.

Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency
Solar Energy Industries Association

As I discussed in Solar Power Part 1, humans have been tinkering with solar energy for some time. So what makes the 21st century different, if at all?

To get a professional perspective, I spoke with Ron Rich, President of Atmosphere Recovery, Inc. His company owns a process that makes industrial furnaces run more efficiently, even recycling their CO2 emissions. In past lives, he’s been the head of the Minnesota Energy Agency and was the first solar systems engineer for Honeywell. He's quite the energy number cruncher and provided me with a good bird's eye view of the solar photovoltaic market. He believes that the 21^st century will be different from the 1940s, when there was a big solar push after WWII, and different from the 1970s, when there was a big solar push during the oil crisis.

He points out that although gas prices have come down from an average last year of $2.58, the interest in solar remains high because people are starting to see the impacts of global warming. Their concerns, as well as our over-reliance on fossil fuels and the wars that that dependence gets us in, are overriding the fact that gas prices have come down a few dimes and are predicted to average out to $2.51 per gallon in 2007. Rich is confident that this time, the U.S. is poised to launch itself into a clean energy economy with solar energy an important part of it.

For one thing, the cost of solar is coming down and will come down even further with mass production urged on by policies like the Million Solar Roofs plan in California. Check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency for a state-by-state guide to incentives and rebates, and this article in Mother Earth News for a good intro to calculating the payback time of a solar power system.

Rich also predicts that creative financing for could become more widespread and easier for homeowners. Options include building the cost of the PV system into the home’s mortgage, increased incentives, or solar easements. Solar systems could get more attractive too, like solar shingles or more subtle PV panels.

Solar is made from widely available materials, with more and more high tech improvements being made. In December 2006, solar power was in the news when a project reached an efficiency rate of 40.7 percent, the highest ever for sunlight-to-electricity performance. In a recent Green Options post, Philip Proefrock reported on a new model of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels that can produce more watts per square foot that the traditional model and uses 88% less PV material. And one company has even patented a technology using nanosilicon PV cells that can be sprayed onto windows in a thin film, allowing the windows themselves to produce electricity.

All signs seem to be pointing to a brighter path for solar; more financing options, better technology, and more supportive policies and incentives could make the early 21^st century the dawn of the solar age.

Believe it or not, humans have been trying to harness the sun’s incredible power to make electricity for years. Some visionaries, at the height of the industrial revolution, questioned what the world would do after using up all the fossil fuel supplies and began exploring solar power. Frank Shuman, a solar engineer in the early 20th century, declared that the sun is “the most rational source of power.”

Today, the most common type of solar power you probably see – whether on roofs or yard lights – use photovoltaic cells or “PVs” to convert sunlight into energy. PV cells are small, square semiconductors made in thin film layers, mostly from silicon. When the sun shines on the cell, a chemical reaction releases electrons, generating direct current (DC) electricity. The current is then fed through an inverter to make alternating current (AC). For a more detailed description, click here to see a short video from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Currently there are 475 megawatts of solar power installed in the United States, enough to power about 240,000 homes. The U.S. used to be the global leader in PV manufacturing, but has been surpassed by Japan and is barely ahead of China. However, no country has even begun to tap the sun’s potential: The amount of energy from sunlight that hits the earth every hour is more energy than humans can use in an entire year. But with the right government incentives like we're seeing in California, combined with entrepreneurs and a good business climate, many are predicting a sunny outlook for solar technologies.

Boston Museum of Science
DuPont
History of Solar Energy
Investors Business Daily
The Solar Depot
U.S. Department of Energy