Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web
There are many forms of solar power technology. Today the most dominant is photo-voltaics, which comprise the traditional solar panels that come to mind when one thinks of solar power. However, there are other promising ways of capturing the sun’s energy that are merely less developed.Among these is a parabolic collector. A parabolic collector consists of an array of mirrors focused on a singular point, which they heat to a high temperature. By placing water or another liquid at the collector, energy can be stored in the form of a phase transformation, and later harvested through a turbine generator.
However, parabolic collectors are still a relatively new field of research. Their true potential remains relatively unknown. A glimpse of it was provided by a research team at MIT, which developed a new parabolic collector design, which will blow away current solar power designs in terms of efficiency.
The MIT team believes that their lightweight, inexpensive device holds the promise of revolutionizing the power industry and providing solar power to even remote regions.
Harvesting sunlight before turning it into electricity could become easier thanks to an exotic organic dye developed in the US.Coated onto an ordinary sheet of glass, the dye traps light inside the glass allowing it to be channelled to photovoltaic cells placed along the edges of the sheet.
The technique, say its inventors, could turn up to 20% of incident light into electricity at a fraction of the cost of conventional photovoltaic cells.
One way to reduce the cost of photovoltaic power is to focus light from a large area onto a small cell. In that way, a small cell can harvest light from a larger area. But the collecting optics must track the Sun’s path across the sky, requiring expensive machinery and control systems.
The dye-covered glass works differently. The dye molecules absorb sunlight over a wide range of visible wavelengths and then emit light at a longer wavelength.
Vancouver wins the Sustainable Olympics
Seems like everywhere we turn these days there’s green news on the Olympic front. We’ve written about the London 2012 Olympics stadium and Beijing’s Olympic Stadium. And now, even as the 2008 Summer Games have yet to start, the 2010 Winter Olympics are making headlines with the intent to become the green envy of eco-minded Olympic planning committees everywhere. The 2010 Winter Olympics Athletes’ Village will be built to a remarkably high level of sustainability and meet the LEED standards.
Solar Temples and Sustainable Religion
Spirituality seems to be taking a green course. The world’s largest solar kitchen has been installed by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and Academy for a Better World. And now a Hindu religious and cultural center in California has taken significant steps towards sustainability including running on solar power, reducing energy consumption and a plethora of planting trees. Currently under construction, this religious meeting place is being built as a place of love, peace and harmony, and protecting the environment is part of the vision.BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and Cultural Center is scheduled to open in the summer of 2008, under the aegis of the BAPS organization. Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) is a large socio-spiritual Hindu organization, with 3,300 centers and 55,000 volunteers worldwide. The organization attempts to address spiritual, moral and social challenges and issues faced by the world. And, the center is poised to set another wonderful example of sustainability by a religious organization.
