We are not likely to be flying around the country in 747′s powered by solar energy any time in the next 5-10 years, but maybe in 20-30 something will break through.

Anyway this solar powered airplane is an interesting proof of concept that it is possible to build something to move a person through the air as opposed to being limited to solar powered cars that typically look like a teenagers soap box derby dream gone solar and electrical.

So now you have seen it and probably reached similar conclusions to those that I expressed above.  None of us will be marking up our custom printed calendars to wait in line to fly in one of these solar powered planes anytime soon, but the point is to awaken our imagination and keep thinking of new ways to apply the technology.  You never know, the Wright Brothers were bicycle mechanics originally!

I have written on this site and others that I suspect that Las Vegas may be uniquely suited to field and pave the way for the rest of the country in utilizing solar energy both at a personal level on the home, but also at a business or corporate level.

This video starts to talk a bit about selling energy from your home back to the grid when your solar energy system generates more electricity than you are using, say like during the middle of the day when you are away from home and at work.

YouTube – Solar Las Vegas: Center for Energy Research

Its I think important to notice that there seems to be a critical mass of acceptance and production that might march all of us towards acceptance. Today people are more interested in say diet supplements like hoodia or hydroxycut, but as the price of energy rapidly increases talking about solar energy and gathering together the solutions to make them part of our lives might accelerate in a big wave of acceptance.

The speaker here talks about the local political level that seems to be driving acceptance this time around.

This is very basic, but not a bad place to start.  The video starts off a little goofy, but it gets going not too far after the beginning of the video.

We all have to start some where and this video is not bad as a starting place.  Interesting note, Australia has some of the highest alternative energy use percentages of any country, but the reality is that Australia, just does not use a lot of devices or appliances that use electricity so their percentage usage levels are not really apples to oranges with other countries.  They are still in a bit of an amby baby level of energy usage, which is not a bad thing, just a different level compared to many more industrialized countries.

I came across an interesting article about a proposed field test in the United Arab Emirates. The test is actually a competition amongst 22 companies. The UAE is not prone to sitting back hitting golf balls into the Persian Gulf and entirely relying on oil revenues, it is working to build a capital city that is powered by renewable energy, and has zero wastes and carbon emissions.

Dr. Al Jaber said: “Few studies of this size and with this level of participation have been undertaken outside of the laboratory. Our involvement will generate a wealth of original data and strengthen ties with the leading names in the PV industry. It will also position Abu Dhabi as an ideal location for the testing and verification of PV, spanning all crystalline and mature ‘thin film’ technologies.”
The competition site may be a modest plot of land at Masdar City near Abu Dhabi International Airport, but the implications are profound for the companies taking part. The results will help determine how renewable power is ultimately realised for Masdar’s zero carbon, zero waste city, which will one day be home to as many as 50,000 residents and hundreds of renewable energy businesses.
The site houses 26 one-kilowatt at peak (1KWp) PV modules mounted on aluminum structures; the equipment has been designed and installed by a major PV system integrator. The long-term testing will be carried out in cooperation with TÜV Rheinland of Germany, a leading authority on PV system performance and certification.
The generated electricity is converted into alternating current and fed directly into the local grid, representing the first grid-connected solar power system in Abu Dhabi history.
Masdar is at the forefront of research into larger scale applications of solar power and recently signed a contract with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to explore solar tower ‘beam down’ technology, an advanced solar thermal process that offers lower electricity generation costs and higher efficiency.
Photovoltaics is solar power technology that uses solar cells, either made from silicon or ‘thin film’, to convert sunlight directly into electricity.  Masdar Puts Solar Power To The Test

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan is the hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi (UAE). He is the son of Sheikh Zayed Al Nahayan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates.

Here’s an interesting Solar Energy Comercial (in an Apple does 1984 kind of way).  Now, I do not always go in for these dark, the world is ending in the apocalypse types of settings, but in every exageration there is a grain of truth that can be gleamed to help us find just a wee bit more wisdom and in this case its related to solar energy.

Note, the first time I watched this video commercial, I thought that maybe they were dropping trash on people trying to make some statement about the environment.  Then the next time, I just couldn’t tell.  I thought I saw a TV and then a Danze fauctes or kitchen sink or something.

But I think I have ultimately decided that they are dropping a bunch of different types of batteries to symbolize the energy falling out of the sky.  Guess YouTube kind of spoils the effect a little. 

This slide show offers up a large number of examples of what the solar panels and the related equipment look like during the installation and after the installation of solar panels on homes or other related buildings.

I think the slide show gives a good example of the cosmetic end result that a home owner might expect from a solar panel installation along with the ability to envision the work that might be required to achieve the installation result.

YouTube – Solar Energy Installations

Me I get a little picky when it comes to my house, so I’d probably have to leave town for a week or two and take a carnival cruises or something so that I wouldn’t sweat the outcome and could just enjoy the result once I came back.

In case you missed it, Congress and the President served to strip the Energy bill of provisions that would have extended Solar Product tax credits past 2008.  Today, a homeowner can take a solar energy tax credit up to $2,000.  The original Senate bill would have extended that solar energy tax credit limit up to $4,000, but all bets are off now.

Under the twin pressures of a veto threat by Bush and a Republican filibuster led by Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, Senate Democrats on Thursday stripped from the bill provisions to extend and strengthen tax incentives for homeowners and businesses that install solar energy products, and other clean energy measures, offset with $21.8 billion in tax hikes, mostly on the oil industry. 

Senate passes energy bill minus renewable energy tax incentives : National-World : Albuquerque Tribune

While consumers and voters were shopping for Wii’s for the teens, Webkins for the kids, and a truck bed liner for mom or dad, the politicians decided to skip clean energy and shoot for cheap.

It is a stark contrast to the credits available in Europe that extend many years into the future.  It is in stark contrast even to many third world countries that are funding entire solar energy systems to bring power to homes that have never had electricity.  It is a distinct protective step backwards for the US.

Anyone that has been to visit any of the hotels in Las Vegas in the last 10 years knows that the corporate powers that rule the crown jewel of the desert never miss an opportunity to pull a profit on any segment of business.  Every cost driver there has been turned into a revenue stream.  The next revenue stream to be lit up in the city of games is Solar Power.

The Power is in the Windows

New technologies offer up the ability to apply thin plastic solar power gathering material on high rises.  Other nanotech solar products might even be sprayed on some day.  But for the technology to take off it needs to be purchased.

Vegas corporations have the money to invest in the technology, they have the real estate in terms of high rises and in terms of windows,

These new technologies offer a number of benefits in terms of results and in terms of cost savings (as compared to buying more traditional solar power photovoltaic solutions).

Upside

• Uses less polysilicon (Silicon like all natural resources, is in short supply.)
• The Film is cheaper to produce
• more durable
• more aesthetic
• The sheets can serve as insulation, facades, even a shade for the inside of the building against the heat of the sun in the summer.

Almost half the cost of production from traditional solar energy products comes from the materials required to produce them and this innovation and technology not only make it cheaper to produce, but it can be deployed on existing real estate with minimal costs of installation.

Downside

Currently they Generate less power per centimeter than traditional technologies.

Who will Field this Technology and Benefit First?

Vegas hotels are in the right spot at the right time with the right resources to benefit from this technology and from this investment.  They are also in the right place to broadcast and advertise the message to the world.

They could even run advertisements on the film and charge money for that, and I can guarantee you that Vegas rarely backs away from an opportunity to earn money from advertising.

Source – Thin-film solar sheets seek time in the sun

This week and I got started working with my Solio portable charger, a photovoltaic solar charger that also has a built in battery for transferring a charge to other electronic devices.  First off the design packaging is relatively simple, and there are no tricks or anything peculiar that is required to get at the actual device. 

The first thing I did was look at the quick start guide as I attempted to make heads or tails of what I was supposed to do with the device first.  Now the quick start guide shows the device connecting to a laptop computer at step one.  This does not seem to be necessary actually, but an option.  There are two ways to charge the device:

1. plug the device into your USB slot on your computer and charge it there, or
2. set the device out in direct some light and let it charge from the sun

There were no written instructions on the quick step guide and no other instructions elsewhere in the package, so I guessed and stuck it out in the sun, while I went to get a Jura capresso for my coffee snob wife.  That did seem to work just fine, and so I was off and running.  Once the device is charged up my next experience with it.

I was somewhat impressed with just how slim this device is, how light it is, and the hiking like clamp connected to the top of in case you want to hook it to a backpack or something.

The buttons an LED readouts work very well and remind me of some extremely rugged equipment that I used to use the military. 

  Today, I received a Solio portable hybrid Solar Power Charger.  It can charge many different mobile devices using either Solar Power or you can charge the Solo battery, and later on when your device (camera, cell phone or game device) needs a charge, you can charge it off the Solio.

I have just received this product today, and plan to test it out in a number of situations over the next several weeks.  I will primarily be testing this solar charger with my Treo 700 P (on Verizon’s service for what its worth).

My 700P is not very good at holding a charge itself, so having a back up charge available is definitely something that I am interested in.  Plus, I am interested in the solar charging capability for those situations when I am on the go, outdoors on the lake, or just wanting to use greener energy alternatives.

New Solar Gold Mine Review Section

In addition to everything else, I plan to cover my reviews in a section entirely dedicated to reviewing and testing solar related products, concepts and options.  I’ll offer up more on this later as I update the web layout for these reviews, but it will be easily accessible here on the front of the site.

My cell phone, cameras, and home will be the likely items tested with these products.  Although if I could get such a power source for my laptop that would be very cool.  I suspect with spinning hard drives, it probably isn’t terribly practical.  Maybe someday I’ll upgrade to one of those Dell memory hard drives that are all flash made by Samsung.