Author Archives: Nicholas Brown


About Nicholas Brown

I have a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, geography, and much more. My website is: Kompulsa.

REC Solar Completes 1st Community Solar Project in Colorado

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community-solar-garden-rec-solar

Under the Community Solar Gardens Act, which was implemented last year in Colorado, REC Solar completed the first of four community solar projects. It is a 500 kW array of solar panels called the Boulder Cowdery Meadows Solar Array. This is the first community solar project completed under Xcel Energy’s Solar*Rewards Community program, which allows Xcel Energy’s customers to purchase electricity directly from “solar gardens” off site. Andy Noel, director of utility-scale EPC at REC Solar, said: … Read More

tenKsolar Announces Its RAIS® XT Performance Enhancement Is Available

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tenKsolar PV Solution. Image Credit: PR Newswire.

tenKsolar has announced that its RAIS® XT solar solution, which improves commercial solar panel system performance, is now available. The RAIS® XT addresses the issue of significant performance impeditions caused by shading, hot spots, and other issues due to the series connections of conventional solar panels. “We have worked to address every shortcoming of commercial-scale rooftop solar,” said tenK Founder and CTO Dallas Meyer. “Generating up to 44% more energy per roof than typical rooftop solar … Read More

Solar Mandate Approved By Sebastopol, California

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new SEIA report outlines military solar power

There are many ways to go solar, and they all haven’t yet been tried — people are continually coming up with new ideas. But there are now some options that are so good that cities are beginning to mandate solar power with all new homes. The latest such city (of which we know) is Sebastopol, California. But Sebastopol has taken it a step further. As did the Californian city of Lancaster, Sebastopol, city in Western … Read More

Elon Musk Quits Zuckerberg’s Immigration Advocacy Group

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Photo Credit: jdlasica / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Elon Musk has decided to leave the immigration reform advocacy group FWD.us after it funded advertisements for senators supporting oil drilling in Alaska and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from Canada. The FWD.us group was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and it is supposed to advocate for educational and immigration reform to increase the influx of highly skilled and educated workers into the US, citing the fact that the United States is a nation of … Read More

How Adding An Electric Car Cut Solar Payback Time In Half

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GM Volt.

Do you think that buying an electric vehicle could reduce the payback time of a solar power system by 50%? Let us explore that. This is the story of a family in Pennsylvania who installed a 9.43 kW solar panel array to offset their electricity usage. They found themselves saving considerably more money than they originally would have. The solar power system was installed in October 2011. It consists of 41 panels. Each of the … Read More

Odd Twist: US Solar Company Sells Solar Panels To China

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Solaria, an American solar panel manufacturer, is going to sell a good chunk of its solar panels to China, counter to the much more common scenario of China manufacturing solar panels (and other goods) for the US. Solaria is based in Fremont, California. Its panels, which are of the STS-AZ type, are being used in several large-scale (in the megawatts) solar power plants that are currently under construction in the Qinghai province of China and in … Read More

The Tesla Model S Has A Secret Menu!

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secret-menu

This article was originally published on Gas2. The Tesla Model S apparently has a hidden menu that may reflect upcoming features and apps. So, is there anything good hidden behind the screen? There is a new video that displays the secret menu mentioned above. It shows apps and features that may be included in the future, some of which include a lane-departure warning, blind-spot detection, and adaptive cruise control. When these options might arrive is anyone’s … Read More

Solar Power Installation On Sailboat “Groovy”

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Shade straddles two panels (only 1 panel working): 9.5 amps. Credit: Road Less Traveled

A sailboat named Groovy has been equipped with a solar power system that powers the boat’s refrigerator, freezer, laptops, a 22″ TV, a stereo, and more. And this isn’t the couple’s first solar-powered mobile home. “My husband and I have been traveling full-time by sailboat and RV for the past 6 years, and we have lived entirely off of solar power in our trailer and sailboat,” Emily Fagan wrote in a message in CleanTechnica‘s Solar Energy … Read More

Tesla Earns Profit In Q1 2013

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The latest good news from Tesla, via sister site Gas2: Tesla Motors has been operating for about 10 years without turning a profit, out of the sheer determination from its founder Elon Musk. But finally, Tesla has earned its first quarterly profit ever, and going forward the outlook for Tesla looks bright. Tesla managed to make a profit of $15 million on sales of $562 million in the first quarter of 2013, delivering an estimated … Read More