CleanTechnica

You don’t often see affordable housing and solar power being combined. There have been a couple of projects in San Francisco and San Diego in the past year. But Sunwheel Energy Partners just went way beyond that — it just finished a major solar installation on affordable housing units in San Francisco and it hired the residents to install the photovoltaics.

This great project was part of San Francisco’s larger GoSolarSF initiative (launched by San Francisco Mayor and contributing author on CleanTechnica Gavin Newsome).

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The flywheel is an old technology that dates back to Neolithic-era spindles and potter’s wheels.  Flywheels made a huge splash during the Industrial Revolution (anyone remember steam engines?) and now they’re ready to take center stage in the new wave of sustainable energy.

In sustainable energy, flywheels come into play as a means of storing intermittent power. Wind power and solar power are notoriously fickle in many parts of the world, and some means of smoothing out the bumps is required.  Vycon is one of several companies exploring the potential of flywheels, and it has come up with some interesting twists. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s yet another reason to ignore the fear-mongering of fossil fuel companies. Another nation has reduced greenhouse gas emissions, while not taking an economic hit. Canada’s top 10 industrial greenhouse gas emitters reduced their emissions by 9% in a year, while the economy grew in the meantime by 0.5%.

Syncrude Canada alone accounted for a startling 18% reduction, among the top ten, by simply investing in efficiency technologies to reduce the heat required to extract oil. The US Department of Energy this year demonstrated a similar technology to the oil industry here. Ormat co-produces electrical power on oil-fields by tapping into the waste heat fluids to produce a temporary man-made  “geothermal” power.

This is further indication of a historical trend showing that cutting greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t have to damage economies. While Canada did no worse than before while switching to more renewable energy –  some economies that adopt more renewable energy are actually thriving: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the solar industry’s corporate giants, First Solar, announced recently that it expects sales for fiscal year 2010 to reach between $2.7 billion and $2.9 billion. This is about $300 to $500 million more than Wall Street expectations.

Despite the current economic situation, and a major recent let-down in L.A., this company is growing steadily and reflects the increasing strength of solar technology in the market today.

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Solar energy innovator Konarka is out to prove that you can have your sustainable cake and eat it, too.  The Massachusetts-based company has launched a pilot project that will integrate its proprietary Power Plastic solar panels into the non-loadbearing exterior wall of a building, called a curtain wall. The new design makes solar energy a seamless part of the building rather than an afterthought.

The solar energy curtain wall project will be constructed in Tamarac, Florida, at an office building owned by Arch Aluminum & Glass Co., Inc. Arch and Konarka have teamed up to demonstrate that an active solar glass wall could enable the structure of a building to generate sustainable energy for its internal operations.  For now the partners appear to be focused on commercial and industrial applications, but if the curtain wall proves cost-effective it could also open the door for integrated solar panels in a wide range of residential and institutional structures.

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In another indication of its popularity; the New York legislature just voted an astounding 192-0 to offer municipal financing for clean energy improvements on homes and businesses through Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE programs, backed by Federal bonds.

Just in time to apply to the Department of Energy by tomorrow’s deadline. New York State will be joining with many other cities and states with a total of $80 million in requests for the popular and cost-effective green job stimulus funding. Read the rest of this entry »

This is it: solar fully powered aviation has happened.  Take a deep breath and say it quick and say it fast:

“The world’s first solar fully powered aeroplane has taken off and cruised for 350 meters before landing again.  Its payload was the pilot Markus Scherdel, making it the first ever manned solar powered flight ever.
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In a move sure to anger the Let’s-do-nothing-about-climate-change-till-China-and-India-do crowd, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India launched a secret Green Partnership to do something about climate change.

The secret arrangement was made while the President was on his failed Asian trip resulting in pre-Copenhagen announcements from China and India; of 40% cuts, and 20% cuts respectively, in carbon emissions. (His secret Red partnership with China is another story)

India and the US will launch partly publicly-funded joint R&D centers in both countries, to accelerate technologies in the renewable energy innovations needed to reduce carbon emissions in both greenhouse gas giants; India and the US.
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The city of Saginaw is bidding to become home to a branch of the San Jose-based solar company GlobalWatt. If the Saginaw City Council approves a brownfield redevelopment plan, the company could receive ten million dollars in tax credits.

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The simplest ideas are best at harnessing underwater wave energy. You don’t want lots of parts in the harsh marine environment (for machine parts) under the ocean. Here’s an idea from a diver from Finland who was almost hit in the head by a shipwreck door that inspired this invention: the WaveRoller.

Now the EU is funding the diver; Rauno Koivusaari, with $4.4 million for his company AW-Energy to build the first full scale demo of his invention.

Each one at full size weighs 20 tons and produces 300 KW.
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