Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
This sad stretch of eastern Germany, with its deserted coal mines and corroded factories, epitomizes post-industrial gloom. It is a place where even the clouds rarely seem to part.A solar cell is checked on the assembly line at Q-Cells in Thalheim, Germany. More than 40,000 people work in the photovoltaic industry in Germany, helping to revive once-blighted areas.
Yet the sun was shining here the other day — and nowhere more brightly than at Q-Cells, a German company that surpassed Sharp last year to become the world’s largest maker of photovoltaic solar cells. Q-Cells is the main tenant among a flowering cluster of solar start-ups here in an area known as Solar Valley.
Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely leader in the race to harness the sun’s energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems, which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world’s total installations. And it is the third-largest producer of solar cells and modules, after China and Japan.
American DJ has unveiled a revolutionary new kind of intelligent moving head powered by a mega-watt LED. The company’s new X-Move LED utilizes one super-size 20-watt white LED to create a brawny beam that’s powerful enough to project gobo patterns and colors across floors, walls and ceilings.Comparable to a 250W halogen lamp in output, the X-Move LED’s whopper LED beam shines through the fixture’s color and gobo wheels to create stunning images and patterns that look like they were produced by a traditional halogen or discharge effect. Yet, although the X-Move LED’s effects are indistinguishable from a conventional moving head to the eye, the unit offers the benefits and ease of LED technology, such as a long 50,000-hour rated lamp life and a low power draw. At a mere 44W, it consumes just a fraction of the energy of a traditional 250W effect! In addition to saving energy, this lets you hook up more units on a single electrical circuit.
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) today released a first-of-its kind report that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs by 2030. Entitled “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030”, the report identifies requirements to achieve this goal including reducing the cost of wind technologies, citing new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability.Most notably, the report identifies opportunities for 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 to be avoided by 2030, saving 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter if wind energy achieves 20 percent of the nation’s electricity mix
HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco has been a long time supporter of the green cause too. Famed son of Grace Kelly, and head of Monaco, that little tiny tax-free haven falling into the sea, his foundation has done some serious, ground breaking work on global warming; renewable energies; loss of biodiversity; improving access to water and fighting desertification. In recognition, he has now been named Europe’s “Champion of the Earth” by the United Nations Environmental Programme. On receiving the award, he said: “We can’t go on as business as usual. Those who haven’t realised that yet will be sorry in a few years”. He pledged to “carry out missions to raise the alarm and heighten awareness in the field. The world is facing an unprecedented threat. We must assume our responsibilities without delay and rise to the challenge that history has placed upon our path”.
One of the world’s largest oil producers has begun construction on the first zero-carbon city, powered entirely by renewable energy.Officials from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, touted plans for a $22 billion development known as the Masdar Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, US, on 5 May.
“This is going to create huge business and research opportunities to get beyond where we are today,” says Khaled Awad, of the government-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.
UAE is the third-largest oil exporting country in the world and sits on 10% of the planet’s known oil reserves. Awad, however, sees the city, which will house an alternative energy research institute, as an investment in alternative energies that will eventually replace oil.
As he pulled one of the sleek new automobiles down a side street Thursday and put the pedal to the metal, its lithium-ion battery-powered engine didn’t give off sparks. It just emitted a powerful hum, something like a much quieter version of a jet taking off.“Accelerate pretty good?” asked Snyder, head of client services for Tesla, who knew the answer.
“I call it a turbine sound,” he said of the sound. “Because it’s an electric motor it’s got 100 percent torque all the time. So it just pulls you like when you’re taking off in an airplane.”
After several years of development, the Roadster – with sleek lines like a Ferrari or Porsche and a sticker price of $109,000 – officially moves from the drawing boards to the market next week when Tesla’s first store opens. It’s near the University of California, Los Angeles, in the city’s toney Westwood neighborhood where Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Hollywood practically intersect.
“Because it’s Hollywood and glamorous, this is the flagship store,” Snyder said.
The next store is to open in a couple months near Tesla’s headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of San Carlos, where the car was developed with venture capital of more than $40 million from such investors as Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. More stores are planned for Chicago, New York and other cities by early next year.
Although a fully loaded model can set a buyer back as much as $124,000, that’s still cheap compared with a high-end Ferrari. And its 6,831-cell lithium-ion battery pack gives off no emissions.
The car goes from 0 to 60 mph in just under four seconds and tops out at 125 mph. It goes 225 miles on one charge and can be fully recharged in 3.5 hours, which Tesla officials say should allow most people to drive it to work and back and recharge it at night like a cell phone.
