Across the pond in the London Borough of Hillingdon, this infill development of five ultra-green buildings continues to garner attention.  The project, Birchway Eco-Community, was built to Level 5 of the Code of Sustainable Homes (with 6 being the highest possible score) and provides 24 one- and two-bedroom affordable housing units.  These buildings were finished on site after being prefabricated and delivered with kitchens and bathrooms already installed. 

Designed by Acanthus LW Architects for Paradigm Housing, these homes were built with recycled steel and minimal construction waste. 

Green features include a sedum-covered green roof, photovoltaics, solar thermal, rainwater capture for toilet usage, high insulation, abundant natural light, passive ventilation, biomass boiler for heating and hot water, and heat recovery systems. 

It’s rare to find style, sustainability, and affordability in one package, but when you do, people tend to notice — even if they’re located halfway across the world.  

[+] Watch a video on Birchway Eco-Community. 

Photo credits: Paradigm Housing.

Last week, Big Solar exercised some of its growing clout by killing an anti-solar bill in the Arizona legislature. Here’s what happened:  state Republican senator Debbie Lasko introduced a bill that would have gutted Arizona’s renewable portfolio standard as we know it. Thankfully, a threat by Chinese solar giant Suntech Power Holdings to withdraw plans to put its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Arizona rallied enough pressure to remove the bill from the floor. It was of great relief to solar proponents in the state, but unfortunately, Lasko’s H.B. 2701 was not the only threat to Arizona’s fledgling solar industry.

Republican Representative Carl Seel has introduced a bill that makes Lesko’s look tame in comparison. His legislation would remove the right of the Arizona Corporate Commission – the state board that regulates utilities – to mandate renewable energy standards at all. Arizona passed their RES in 2006, requiring power providers to get 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2025, including a certain percentage from solar photovoltaics.

The Goldwater Institute, a very conservative thinktank named after infamous conservative Barry Goldwater, tried to sue the state, claiming that it was unconstitutional to force any such mandates or regulations on private utilities (unless, it seems, those regulations or incentives promote nuclear, coal or natural gas power plants). Goldwater Institute lost that lawsuit, but has responded by facilitating Representative Seel’s H.B. 2381 that would render the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision moot.

Furthermore, Arizona’s republican governor, who reportedly helped kill Lesko’s bill after industry pressure mounted, also killed a regional cap-and-trade program that Arizona pioneered to put a price on carbon-emitting energy sources.

The recent wave of attacks on solar power in Arizona is troubling for a state that has some of the best solar potential in the world. There are states where one could argue that solar power is not the best renewable option, like the windy Dakotas or the geothermal-laden Northwest, but Arizona is practically made of sunshine. Why any group or lawmaker would want to kill solar power in that state is beyond this writer.

But H.B. 2701 had 51 co-sponsors, and green-leaning governor Janet Napolitano is gone. While Suntech Power Holdings and the industry managed to kill Debbie Lesko’s anti-solar bill, a huge victory among recent attacks, and may very well succeed in killing Carl Seel’s anti-RPS bill, the fact that such contention exists in Arizona may scare off potential solar industry additions to the state. Several states are working to attract green tech industries and the market is highly competitive.

However the fate of Arizona’s solar industry is decided, it will likely be decided soon, as Suntech’s potential industry followers are unlikely to wait around for long while California, Oregon, Michigan, Colorado and other states wait with open arms and less uncertainty.

Photo Credit: Interesting Energy Facts & CleanMPG

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WNBC came to Solar One to tape Sarah showing a child, Brandon, how to build a solar car. Brandon, who is looking for a permanent home/adoption has been in and out of foster homes most of his life. He is interested in science so this was a perfect fit.

Solar One was happy to participate in this segment, and we wish Brandon a lot of luck in his search for a permanent home!

WHEN – Wednesday, March 10, between 6 and 6:30pm and again on Sunday, March 7, between 7 and 8am on NBC Channel 4.

The segment will also be available online beginning on Thursday, March 11.

The ins and outs of tomorrow’s energy grid will be tested on an unprecedented scale in Chicago. Local utility ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, will use $5 million in Recovery Act funding to institute the program, which will initially outfit 8,000 homes with advanced smart meters in order to test how well consumers manage their energy consumption when monitoring and programming are available. The project will also include outfitting 100 homes with distributed solar power systems, creating “mini-utilities” through which ComEd can glimpse the smart home of the future.

Eventually, the project will extend to cover 131,000 Chicago homes. The first $8,000 will test a small range of smart meters for comparative purposes. 3,100 customers will receive a basic energy use display meter, 1,500 will get a touch-screen version that allows for electricity monitoring and internet access, and 400 will also receive programmable thermostats that allow remote control of heating and cooling systems.

The program will also enact an unprecedented pricing program in which pilot participants will be offered a six-tiered pricing approach.

The 6 options are widely accessible. They are:

• Regular current flat rates
• Rising rates based on higher-than-average consumption
• Hourly rates based on day-ahead wholesale rates
• Rising rates based on peak demand
• Rebate for customers that reduce consumption during peak demand
• Time-of-use pricing in which costs differ between peak and non-peak loading periods

The goal is to teach homeowners how to be more efficient consumers of energy, as well as find out which smart grid products are most efficient at helping to make that happen. America’s electric grid is aging and, quite frankly, dumb. Half the battle in easing the pressure on our unkempt, deregulated grid is to reduce peak demand while increasing the use of distributed renewable energy. Moreover, a key ingredient in any smart grid is a smart consumer, a fact that ComEd and the feds’ joint venture in Chicago will hopefully illustrate in the real world  — and in real time.

Sources: CleanTechnica, Cooler Planet

Photo Credit: Anastasia Marie & Rockefeller Group Development

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Just a few days ago, the $41 million Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental & Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), a 55,000 square-foot building designed to LEED Platinum certification, was dedicated.  The facility was built to be a living laboratory and platform to showcase technological innovation.  Currently, the south facade of the laboratory wing includes a spot to test building envelope and window systems, and it’s currently testing this innovative integrated concentrating dynamic solar facade. 

The facade system provides electrical power, thermal energy, enhanced daylighting, and reduced solar gain, all at the same time.  It was designed by the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE), which is a research consortium co-hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.  

According to the Associated Press, a company called HeliOptix is licensed to market that system which is currently being tested at SyracuseCoE.  The 8′x8′ prototype installation has 64 concentrators. 

Here’s how it works.  There’s small concentrating PV technology housed within a weather-sealed window. Inside the window panes, several clear pyramid lenses track the sun and concentrate solar rays onto a high-efficiency PV cell.  Power not converted to electricity is captured for hot water or radiant heat for the facility, and some solar gain is minimized through absorption or reflection. 

You can see a video of the system tracking the sun’s rays at HeliOptix.  The integrated concentrated solar facade system is interesting … we’ll see how much success is achieved through prototype testing at SyracuseCoE and report back in the future. 

Photo credits: HeliOptix. 

By installing Sunovia’s LED Light Fixtures, which are sold under the brand name EvoLucia®, customers generally save more than 50% in energy and more than $500 in bulb replacement and maintenance costs during the life of the new EvoLucia LED fixture. The savings that the customer enjoys from converting to the new EvoLucia LED fixture more than covers the entire costs of the financing. All Fifth Third Bank loans are subject to credit review and approval.

Sunovia believes that the new financing program resolves the final sticking point (up-front costs) for customers who are contemplating switching to its EvoLucia line of LED lighting. The EvoLucia LED lights already increase visibility, save energy, reduce carbon emissions, last 5x longer, and provide a more evenly distributed cool white light than existing street lights; and now, there is no additional costs to customers who step into the future of lighting.

The specialized program provides financing packages of up to five years with no money down at prevailing market interest rates. A client will have the option to pay monthly, quarterly or annually to amortize their investment in a period of five years. At the end of the lease term, the client will own the lights outright with no additional lease buyout required. Typically, the reduced maintenance costs and energy savings more than cover the monthly lease payment, and all savings accumulated after the financing period go to the customer’s bottom line (for governmental installations, these are savings to taxpayers).

On average, the maintenance and energy savings enjoyed by customers who convert to EvoLucia LED light fixtures results in a payback period between 2 and 4 years. This means that the customers break even during year 2 to year 4, and all savings thereafter go to the bottom line.

“Our products dramatically reduce energy and maintenance costs. The primary complaint that we have received from potential customers has been the up-front cost associated with switching to LED lighting; and our new partnership with Fifth Third Bank eliminates those expenses. We have now slanted the ball field in our favor in all aspects of street lighting,” said Jim Perkins, Sunovia Energy’s VP of Sales and Finance. “The benefits of our Aimed Optics™ technology, when combined with these flexible terms, makes EvoLucia LED lighting an overwhelming solution for the global market.”

Fueled by TVA incentives and federal tax credits, participation in Generation Partners http://www.tva.gov/greenpowerswitch/partners/ has tripled since last spring from 69 to 194 installations — 181 are solar and 13 are wind.

The combined generating capacity of the Generation Partners portfolio has grown from 454 kilowatts to more than 1.49 megawatts. While the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, the combined energy from today’s Generation Partners installations is expected to make enough electricity over a year to equal the annual consumption of more than 120 average Tennessee Valley households.

“Surpassing 1 megawatt is a milestone for this program,” said Susan Curtis, TVA senior manager of Generation Partners. “It shows a growing desire of many residents to take a personal stake in clean renewable energy for our region. TVA and its distributors want to help.”

Though a small contributor to TVA’s 33,000-megawatt system, the power from Generation Partners, a pilot program launched in 2003, comes with clean-air savings. The 547,877 kilowatt-hours Generation Partners produced in fiscal 2009 represents 497 metric tons in avoided carbon dioxide emissions from fossil power plants.

USFloors Inc. of Dalton, Ga., recently became Generation Partners’ largest participant with the installation of a 144-kilowatt system. It has 672 solar photovoltaic panels covering 14,500 square feet on a warehouse rooftop that can be seen from Interstate 75. Already, the sustainable flooring company is planning to modify a second existing solar array of 31.5 kilowatts to more than 300 kilowatts.

“There is no question that both TVA and North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. have been crucial elements in making this come to fruition,” USFloors President Piet Dossche said. “Without them this would have been less attractive.”

Generation Partners offers homeowners and businesses financial incentives for qualifying solar, wind, biomass and small hydroelectric systems of less than 1 megawatt. TVA pays each new participant $1,000 to offset startup costs and agrees to buy 100 percent of the green power they produce. TVA will pay the retail rate, plus any fuel cost adjustment, plus a 12-cent premium per kilowatt-hour for solar and 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind, biomass and hydro.

“Many of the homeowners and businesses we serve support renewable energy technologies and want to invest in renewable energy systems, which is encouraged through this program,” said Steve Ward, energy services coordinator at North Georgia Electric Membership Corp., based in Dalton.

Federal renewable tax credits and the expanded Generation Partners pilot program are driving consumer interest in renewables, he said, noting North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. has two businesses and three homes now participating in Generation Partners and applications from four more.

“Based on the participation in the program we have had so far and the many inquiries about it, we do expect to see more renewable energy systems installed in 2010,” Ward said.

“The incentives make the project viable,” said Richard Grogan, president of Total Quality Instrumentation Inc., a renewable energy sales and installation company in Cookeville, Tenn., whose 44-kilowatt solar array pushed Generation Partners past 1 megawatt in capacity.

Total Quality’s system includes 220 solar panels atop the company’s 10,000 square-foot building and a 34-foot-tall wind turbine. Grogan said he was delighted with his first monthly bill from his TVA distributor, Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corp. It showed that renewables not only generated enough electricity to meet his company’s needs for the month, but also a $40 credit.

“We just started in environmental installations late last year,” Grogan said. “We have done four windmills and two solar systems. We have many systems in the works waiting on grants. Upon approval, our next install will be a 44-kilowatt system in Nashville on an airport hangar.”

“We are going like gangbusters,” said Jim Purcell, program manager at Nashville Electric Service. NES has 23 homes and 21 commercial buildings either in the process of installing solar panels for Generation Partners or already plugged in, including two public housing projects with 65-kilowatt solar arrays.

“I am fairly confident that the incentives that are out there from TVA are making these green companies work for us,” Purcell said, noting a growing number of Nashville-area installers. “Based on what I am seeing, the early returns are excellent.”

“As we move through our pilot stage and begin to aggressively build out our customer base, marketing takes on a front and center role at Soliant,” said Bailey. “Ben’s track record speaks for itself; his demonstrated ability to think strategically coupled with his results-oriented program creation and execution is a great fit for our needs.”

“Soliant presents one of those rare combinations of right company with the right product at just the right time,” said Jamison. “I’m thrilled with this opportunity to join Terry and the team and to help Soliant reach its full potential as a leading provider of high-efficiency, concentrated solar for commercial rooftops around the world.”

Jamison is a senior marketing and sales executive, who, over the past 30 years, has built an extensive record of success with a variety of companies in various stages of growth. Jamison is adept at identifying and developing successful marketing and product strategies in new and emerging technical markets that require deep understanding of specific technologies and business drivers.

Most recently Jamison was vice president of sales at Savant Systems, LLC, a leading provider of advanced consumer electronics systems for residential and commercial customers. In this role, Jamison spearheaded efforts to build co-marketing agreements with over 35 top manufacturers, and established an international dealer/distributor network of over 300 participants, increasing revenue by more than 250% in 2009.

Prior to Savant, Jamison was vice president of sales and marketing for Visionware, Inc., of Austin, Texas, where he successfully led the company to leadership within the consumer electronics industry with a series of high-profile new product initiatives.

Jamison held additional senior marketing and sales roles at Runco International, Inc., Solus Micro Technologies and NEC Technologies.

UBS Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are the joint bookrunning managers for the offering, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC is the lead manager and Pacific Crest Securities LLC and Raymond James & Associates, Inc. are the co-managers.

A copy of the prospectus supplement and base prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained by contacting: UBS Securities LLC, 299 Park Avenue, New York, New York, 10171, Attn: Prospectus Department (, ext. 3884) or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Eleven Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10010-3629 (800-221-1037).

A shelf registration statement relating to the offering was filed and declared effective on November 13, 2009 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.