Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Solar Paint
The Swansea Solar Paint project is led by Dave Worsley, who, together with his team, were researching ways to make make steel last longer. By chance that they started to focus on the degradation of paints in steel surfaces, when they realized that their research could lead them to develop a new way of getting energy from the sun.
The idea is to coat every piece of steel cladding with a solar cell paint. As steel is passed through the rollers multiple coatings of of the solar cell system are applied to it. Based on the preliminary research, the materials that are being applied are suited to capturing low level solar radiation, which means that they should work just as well in areas where the sun doesn’t directly shine on them.
Invest in Algae
Earth2Tech has a roundup of biofuel startups that are working on turning algae into fuel. We can’t yet know what will happen; Some of these companies might become huge in the next few years, or they might be left in the dust by new developments (solar energy below $1/watt and advances in battery or hypercapacitor technology, for example). Only the future will tell, but in the meantime, they are worth keeping an eye on.
The companies are: GreenFuel Technologies, Solazyme, Blue Marble Energy, Inventure Chemical, Solena, Live Fuels, Solix Biofuels, Aurora Biofuels, Aquaflow Binomics, Petro Sun, Bionavitas, Mighty Algae Biofuels, Bodega Algae, Seambiotic and Cellena.
SoCal goes Solar
Edison International plans to launch a roof top photovoltaic solar project. The process requires no fuel or a transmission station to operate. The plans include an initial phase to be up and running by Summer, 2008.
In an exclusive interview with John Bryson, Chairman and CEO of Edison International by CNBC reporter, Dylan Ratigan explained a new direct method of delivering solar energy. The process is called Photovoltaic technology,which means it converts sun energy directly into power within the solar cell. The unique aspect of this project, as explained by John Bryon involves leasing about 2 ½ miles of rooftops in the hotter regions of Southern California.
The roof tops will be fitted with thin-film solar cells and have the ability to literally dump electricity into the surrounding community. The communities have been preselected to include areas where Southern California Edison has a growing customer base. The advantage of the photovoltaic technology is that it does not require a separate transmission station or added fuel costs. The thin-cell solar manufacturers has not been determined at this time.
According to Mr. Bryson, the Photovoltaic Roof Top Project is planning to be up and running in its initial phase by this Summer. The process when it begins can almost immediately begin to produce electricity to relieve the additional burden of air conditioning and the like during the hot season.
Investing in Forests
It is either a visionary piece of capitalism or throwing money into the wind. A venture capitalist today made a huge environmental bet – that one day the environment services that sustainable forests provide will be worth big money.
The Iwokrama reserve in Guyana is a 371,000 hectare chunk of tropical forest – roughly the size of Majorca – and is a successful experiment in sustainable forest management.
Hylton Murray-Philipson, director of the UK-based financiers Canopy Capital, has signed a deal with Iwokrama guaranteeing a “meaningful” contribution to their running costs for five years, a deal which may be renewed.
In return for these funds, Canopy Capital is given “ownership” of the forest’s ecosystems services and a claim on any profits that might one day be made from them.
Solar soon to be cheaper than coal
Researchers from MIT have improved commercial solar cells that will soon be significantly cheaper and more efficient than those available today. Ely Sachs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, predicts that by 2012 such solar cells will be comparable in price with coal, which is about $1 per watt.
Sachs and his colleagues have started a company called 1366 Technologies. With the help of a recent $12.4 million grant, the team is building a pilot-scale manufacturing plant to fabricate their first batch of solar cells. The cells currently have an efficiency of 19.5%, and cost about $1.65 per watt. That´s a 27% improvement in efficiency over similar commercial solar cells of today, which have about 15% efficiency and cost about $2.10 per watt.
Carbon Neutral Power
The company that generates the largest proportion of New Zealand’s electricity has been certified carbon neutral for more than a year.
Meridian Energy generates around a third of New Zealand’s total energy demand (approx 12,000 GWh) exclusively from wind and hydro sources. The company has a history of advocating a carbon credit marketplace.
Clothing goes Solar
A year ago Bonnie modelled a solar powered bikini for us, but it was just a prototype. Now, the Guardian tells us that flexible solar cells will be woven right into our clothing, to charge our iPods and phones.
Dave Pritchard at Fujitsu, told David Smith of the Guardian: ‘Within a year it will be possible to design clothing with solar cells on the back or arms, so you can recharge wearable devices.’ He said the clothing would be useful on the ski slopes, outdoor holidays and for the emergency services. It would also appeal to the environmentally conscious as a means of reducing power consumption.
Sustainable Add-ons
Old is New
Step right in ladies and gentlemen, and gaze at the marvels of modern technology! Allow us to show you the most amazing car of the century: The magnificent Detroit Electric, the car of summer luxury! This 100 year-old antique electric car will be available in early 2009 from ZAP and China Youngman Automotive Group, proving once and for all that there is no such thing as a new idea. The Detroit Electric is considered to be the most popular electric car in history — and was produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in 1907 (production ran from 1907 to 1939). This cute little EV could go fo 130 miles on one charge, and had a top speed of about 32km/h. Famous Detroit Electric owners included Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
So why is this relevant? Well, Zap, who is creating the Zap Alias, in partnership with the China Youngman Automotive Group, decided to resurrect the Detroit Electric as a promotional vehicle and are planning to produce a small number to market. The joint venture is also set to release an array of cars, buses and trucks under the Detroit Electric brand — all electrically powered, of course.
