March 12,2010 –
Q-Cells CEO Anton Milner has resigned from both his leading executive role and as board member, apparently as a "consequence" of the company’s performance in the wake of a lousy year for the solar industry.
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Photovoltaic Systems
Photovoltaic Systems and Home Solar Power News
New Green WeeHouse Set in New York
Posted in March 12th, 2010
A few months ago, Alchemy set this weeHouse in Dundee, New York, and it’s now complete. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home sits at the end of a private road on Seneca Lake. On the exterior, the prefab has corrugated steel siding, while on the interior, there’s bamboo flooring and wall wrap, doors and windows made with FSC-certified wood, and Energy Star appliances.
The home has a small footprint and was built with two factory-built modules, which have in-floor heating installed with dual-zone boiler and on-demand heaters.
If you’ve ever wanted to relax in the Finger Lakes area, or you live on the east coast and want to test out a weeHouse, the owners have this home for rent part-time. Homeowners have taken weeHouse coast-to-coast with the Oceanside Prefab for rent in Oregon and now this one in New York.
[+] You can also build your own green prefab weeHouse.
Photo credits: Alchemy Architects and the homeowners.
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Solar Power and Natural Gas Join Forces in Florida
Posted in March 12th, 2010
The Martin Next Generation Solar Center represents a breakthrough in solar-natural gas relations, or at least a way to make a brown fossil fuel plant a bit greener. Florida Power and Light (FPL), a utility already known for its advancements in wind, solar power and energy efficiency, is building the 75-megawatt concentrating solar thermal plant adjacent to an existing natural gas plant.
The Martin Solar Center will be the first hybrid facility to attach solar thermal power to a combined-cycle power plant, says FPL. It will also be the second-largest solar facility in the world and the the largest solar power plant of any kind outside of California.
The solar thermal arm will consist of 180,000 mirrors reflecting solar radiation onto a receiver. The receiver contains liquid that will be heated to create steam, directly displacing the fossil fuel energy otherwise needed during the day. The hybrid effort by FPL is an attempt to bring the cost of solar energy down by sharing plant infrastructure.
The solar thermal plant will produce 75 megawatts of solar electricity at peak output. So, during the day under that bright Florida sunshine, the solar system will create enough energy to power 11,000 homes, or 26,000 people. It is expected to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2.75 million tons over 30 years.
While environmentalists would like to see renewable energy create baseload power, the possibility of which is a definite point of contention within and without the green energy movement, hybrid power plants have been suggested as a way to bridge that gap while making solar power more competitive with its fossil-fueled rivals.
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Window-Mount Solar Lamps Meet Modern Design
Posted in March 11th, 2010
Welcome to the suction cup era of solar lighting. Just last month, we discovered the PowerPlus Spider Solar Light that uses a triad of suction cups to stick to a south-facing window, providing solar-powered LED lighting at night. Turns out that was only the diminutive preamble, as this week we find the Saint Clair Lamp, a much more modern and less portable design (not for camping trips) from French architect and designer, Stephane Maupin.
The Saint Clair was a winning entry for the VIA Project Assistance Grant that seeks out young design talent and connects them with manufacturers and producers. It looks something like a thin desk lamp with a go-go-gadget neck and a rectangular LED fixture for a head. The advantage of this spindly design — the lamp is just over three feet long — is that the light can be left hanging on a window after dark and still cast direct light on a sofa, table, piece of wall art or just into the room proper.
The Saint Clair lamp comes equipped with a set of photovoltaic solar cells that collect solar energy through the window during the day. At night, it can either remain on that or some other window in the house, or, when fully charged, stand just fine on a desk or table. It is super-sleek modern white with a 12-inch-round, flying-saucer-shaped base.
The lamp runs for 45 euros (about $62), which is a hefty handful of change — more than the $8 PowerPlus Spider lamp, but I suppose you’re paying for (much) higher quality design and, I expect, better materials and components.
Story & Photos Via designboom
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Survey: Saving Energy is Top Priority
Posted in March 11th, 2010
by Preston Koerner in LEED
The Fourth Annual Green Building Survey, published by Allen Matkins, CTG, and Green Building Insider, was just released. It’s quick and to the point with some interesting perspective on the attitude of design and construction professionals. That is, green construction and design remains a top priority, while LEED certification may not necessarily carry the same weight. The survey was conducted in February 2010 and received over 1,600 responses.
When asked whether it is worth the time and effort to build projects green? Or, to obtain LEED certification?
The survey found that 92.3% agree that it is worth the time and effort to build green, while only 61.7% feel it is worth the time and effort to obtain LEED certification. This response shows an increasing gap in sentiment between building green and obtaining certification for the same. The authors explain that the gap could be caused by current economic conditions, the proliferation of other green building standards, or greener minimum code standards.
When asked about the importance of various factors in building green projects:
The survey found that the top reason for building green was to save energy and other operating costs. The next best factor was to improve the environment, while factors such as achieving higher rents and improving tenant productivity were important, but not as important as other factors.
When asked about the likelihood of incorporating energy saving elements in future projects:
The survey found that 88% of respondents said they were more likely to incorporate energy saving elements going forward, representing a 14% increase of last year’s survey conducted by the same group.
And, for those respondents that had actually helped to build and certify a LEED-NC project to the Gold level, when asked about the cost premium to achieve LEED Gold certification:
The survey found that 51% of respondents believed the cost premium to be greater than 4%, while 30% of respondents believed the cost premium to be somewhere less than 3%. Also, respondents seem to agree that obtaining Gold certification for existing buildings would be more expensive than for new construction.
The Green Building Survey also includes some additional survey detail on carbon credits and offsets, green leases, and green development risks, which is good to know.
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Error reading source feed.
Posted in March 11th, 2010
Error reading source feed http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/CINQ3AEFGF.rss: The remote server returned an error: (502) Bad Gateway.
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