“If you wanted to generate all the world’s electricity, you could do it with less than 1% of the area of the world’s desert.” Gerry Wolff, Coordinator of Desertec, says. But if Wolff is correct, why hasn’t it been done yet?

Seville, Spain hosts the first commercial operation of solar tower technology in the world. It’s the first commercial solar tower plant of its type, concentrating solar power (CSP), in the world. According to the report, it features over 1,000 freestanding heliostat mirrors that follow the arc of the sun. In a process referred to as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), the mirrors reflect solar rays to the tower, where water is boiled, and then steam is generated to drive a turbine, which in turn produces electricity. This electricity is sold to the national grid.

This is all possible because Spain’s government has provided subsidies and incentives in support for the solar industry. Without government support, it’s possible that the entire operation could not exist. That is because the upfront investment is huge, as most of the money goes into building the plant. The investor community tends to see solar plants as high risk.

But according to the video report, once economies of scale are achieved, solar power is one of the cheapest sources of energy. The report argues that it’s hard to detect the value of solar power because currently, conventional sources of electricity are subsidized, artificially making them appear to be cheap. GOOD reports that “concentrated solar power… will be a core element of the transition from dirty coal to clean energy.”

As Gus Schellekens of PricewaterhouseCoopers argues, “Solar has a huge role it can play, the fact that it’s an endless supply of energy…the one thing that’s needed to unlock much of that is the political leadership and will.”

WATCH video about this innovative solar power tower below:

VIDEO of James May (Top gear) visiting solar thermal plant in Spain:

1.5 billion people do not have direct access to electricity and rely on kerosene, candles or firewood for lighting. Lack of suitable home lighting is directly linked to illiteracy, poverty and heath problems. Too many children are burned or impacted by house fires linked to lighting. Lighting should be safe, clean and affordable to all.

The Unite-to-Light project started with a visit from Pastor Kofi Fosuhene and Osei Darkwa to Santa Barbara. They explained that many people in Africa, who rely on kerosene for reading, suffer health problems and financial hardship. Aware of the work done at UCSB’s Institute for Energy Efficiency on high-efficiency LED lights and high-efficiency solar cells, Fosuhene and Darkwa asked if the Institute could design an affordable reading light. Although many solar powered flashlights are available, they were interested in reading lights because of the problems related to children and education, a focus for both men.

With assistance from Engineers without Borders, John Bowers, David Schmidt, Norm Gardner and Jock Bovington set about to solve this problem. After going through several designs, the first samples were sent to Ghana and met with great enthusiasm. Unite to Light is now engaging with other organizations to supply solar-based lighting to the developing world.

Solar Reading Light at night.

Watch five minute video showing soot from a kerosene lamp.

More at www.unite-to-light.org

Even though the rest of us do not rely on kerosene, candles or firewood for lighting and have direct access to electricity, the opportunity to use free energy sources is priceless. Check out these solar reading lights HERE.

They come in two attractive colors : green and red. And are on %10 OFF sale today.

Posted by Ekaterina Kohlwes – Principal/Designer at Mindful Design Consulting.

What Mindful Design Consulting can do for you:

• Branding/Your Brand Recognition Strategy
• Human Behavior Pattern in Your Business
• Professional Space Planning
• 3d Renderings and Illustrations to See Your New Space in Action
• Color Selection Based on Psychological Responses
• New Business Concept Space Design
• Retail Design and Buying Pattern Consulting
• Custom Cabinet Drawings
• Materials and Finishes Selection Based on Human Sensibility
• Equipment Selection Serving Your Needs
• Furniture Selection for Your Style
• Construction Drawings
• Energy Efficient Lighting layout and Selection
• We partner with Licensed Architects, Engineers and Other Professional Consultants if Your Project Requires

Website:
http://www.mindfuldesignconsulting.com/
http://mindfuldesignconsulting.com/Blog

The U.S. Department of Energy aims to make electricity from the sun cheaper than that from burning coal or natural gas.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Silicon translates sunshine into electricity—and Earth receives enough sunshine in a daylight hour to supply all of humanity’s energy needs for a year. But despite being as common as sand, photovoltaic panels made from silicon—or any of a host of other semiconducting materials—are not cheap, especially when compared with the cost of electricity produced by burning coal or natural gas. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) aims to change that by bringing down the cost of solar electricity via a new program dubbed “SunShot,” an homage to President John Kennedy’s “moon shot” pledge in 1961.

The U.S. Department of Energy aims to make electricity from the sun as cheap as that from burning coal or natural gas – by 2017.
Image: Dennis Schroeder, NREL Staff Photographer.

“If you can get solar electricity down at [$1 per watt], and it scales without subsidies, gosh, I think that’s pretty good for the climate,” notes Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–e), the DoE’s high-risk research effort. “With SunShot, the goal is to reduce the cost of solar to [$1 per watt] in the next six years.”

As it stands, melting silicon or depositing thin layers of copper indium gallium selenide, then manufacturing photovoltaic modules and installing them on rooftops or in large arrays in the desert, can cost as much as $10 per watt. And whereas some technologies can deliver modules for roughly $1 per watt, installation at least doubles that.

“We are making solar for the masses…to get to [a] cost point that is viable,” said Bruce Sohn, president of Columbus, Ohio–based First Solar, the world’s largest thin-film photovoltaic manufacturer, which claims it can produce its modules for less than $1 per watt, on a panel at ARPA–e’s second annual summit on March 1. “We are looking to make something that can compete head to head with fossil fuels over the long term.”

As part of the new SunShot initiative, DoE committed some $27 million to fund novel methods for producing solar cells and their components—like 1366 Technology’s effort to grow pure silicon wafers directly rather than hewing them from long ingots of the material or Solexant’s effort to build thin-film solar cells from semiconducting materials that are neither toxic nor rare. The goal is to produce solar modules at roughly 50 cents per watt with attendant hardware and installation costing the same amount. To reach that target the photovoltaic cells will have to convert at least 20 percent of the sunlight that shines on it into electricity and cost only 25 cents per watt by 2017. “The future of the U.S. depends on three securities: national, economic and environmental. The foundation of all of this is innovations in energy technology,” Majumdar said in his own speech to the summit. “The future is still up for grabs. How do we win the future? Invent affordable clean technology. Make them locally, sell them globally.”

Of course, harvesting the sun’s power is not limited to photovoltaic panels. The DoE push also will incorporate efforts to create solar-thermal power plants that can store the heat of the sun for 12 to 17 hours by 2020, along with attempting to address some of the issues surrounding permitting, inspection and connection of solar systems to the electricity grid. “We want change, we want innovation, we want to overthrow the old energy order,” said former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a summit keynote address. “We want a new era of energy and a new era of American competitiveness.”

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses the 2011 APRA-E Technology and Innovation Summit on California’s role in clean energy.

Already, electricity from the sun costs roughly the same as that generated from burning fossil fuels in places like Hawaii, which remains the only state to rely on imported oil for the bulk of its power. And solar power represents the fastest-growing sector of electricity generation. U.S. solar production in 2010 increased by nearly one gigawatt (billion watts), although that represents roughly the amount of electricity one nuclear power plant can produce. But even at that pace of adoption—spurred by both federal and state government largesse—solar still produces less than 1 percent of all U.S. electricity. And in 2035, by which time the DoE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that solar will have grown fastest among all energy resources (increasing sevenfold), all renewables put together, solar included, will only provide 14 percent of U.S. electricity.

The EIA has often been wrong in such long-term forecasts, but competing with natural gas—newly cheap thanks to the vast resources tapped by fracking in the eastern U.S.’s Marcellus Shale Formation—may prove difficult, even with SunShot. “Natural gas has low capital cost, higher fuel cost but overall lowest costs,” noted EIA Administrator Richard Newell at the ARPA–e conference. “There are significantly higher costs for other power sources.”

Yet, even at a higher price, solar can offer benefits, which is why Duke Energy has invested $50 million putting solar arrays on the roofs of grocery stores and some of its other large customers. “Distributed solar can be thought of as a distributed resource, a multiple value resource,” Duke Chief Technology Officer David Mohler told ARPA–e attendees. “The proper comparison for that is not the cost of a bulk power system, it’s the cost and benefit of having an embedded resource.”

And flexible solar cells in sheets have already found novel applications powering the telecommunications and other electronic equipment of U.S. Marine units deployed in Afghanistan. Small-scale solar is also booming in places such as Kenya that do not have an electricity grid for charging cell phones or batteries that power lights at night. “We will need every energy resource we can lay our hands on,” said Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, an effort to develop the smart grid in the U.S. “There are two billion people in the world without access to electricity. Security means giving them energy.”

Of course, the DoE has already invested some $1 billion in solar energy research since the turn of the century, funding efforts to develop “black” silicon or cells employing quantum dots. “If renewables are cost-competitive with fossil fuels then it’s a very, very different world,” Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said at the ARPA–e summit.

Secretary for the US Department of Energy, Steven Chu, discusses the big picture of how the United States uses Energy and why innovation in clean technology is the key to Winning the Future.

Yet, despite inventing the technology in the 1950s and more than 30 years of government support, the U.S. share of the global market for photovoltaic modules is down from more than 40 percent in 1995 to just 6 percent in 2011. China’s Jiangsu Province alone—home to Suntech Power, the world’s largest maker of photovoltaic panels—has begun investing more than $152 million a year in solar technology since 2009.

“Just because we lost the lead doesn’t mean we can’t get it back,” Chu said. “We still have the opportunity to lead the world in clean energy…but time is running out.”

Article by By David Biello.
Source: scientificamerican.com.

Is the future of oral hygiene solar? Are we ever going to stop depending on toothpaste? Will we be using solar power instead of toothpaste one day? In Japan, the Shiken company is trying to give answers to these questions by field testing an unusual solar-powered toothbrush that doesn’t require toothpaste.

Soladey-J3X a solar-powered toothbrush.

The Soladey-J3X is a solar-powered toothbrush designed by Dr. Kunio Komiyama (dentistry professor at the University of Saskatchewan) and Dr. Gerry Uswak. The first model was designed 15 years ago (it was described in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology) and more work has been done since then in order to perfect it.

Now, Komiyama is back with a new model, the Soladey-J3X, which he says packs twice the chemical punch compared to the original.
It is a solar-powered toothbrush with a solar panel at its base that transmits electrons to the top of the toothbrush through a lead wire.

Soladey-J3X a solar-powered toothbrush.

These electrons react with acid in the mouth, creating a chemical reaction that breaks down plaque and kills hazardous bacteria. This means no toothpaste is required – helping you save more money in the long run (as well as water, since there is less rinsing to be required).

Image from www.kk-shiken.co.jp. Soladey-J3X a solar-powered toothbrush. Plaque removal mechanism.

Soladey-J3X a solar-powered toothbrush.

Researchers have already tested the toothbrush in cultures of nefarious bacteria that cause periodontal disease. The solar-powered brush caused complete destruction of bacterial cells.

How much power does the Soladey-J3X need to be effective? To get fully charged this toothbrush needs only as much sunlight as a solar-powered calculator.

The Soladey-J3X won the first place prize out of 170 entries at the annual FDI World Dental Conference in Dubai last month. This gives Komiyama confidence that there is scientific merit to the brush.

Learn more about this solar-powered toothbrush at the Shiken company’s website.

$740 million development started outside Dezhou, China. It has been called “The Biggest Solar Energy Production Base in the Whole World,” or Solar Valley.

Image from Himin Solar Energy. Dezhou Solar Valley in China.

The base will be a clean energy technology hub that China hopes will rival Silicon Valley in California. “This is an experiment. It is a big laboratory,” said Huang Ming – an oil industry engineer turned solar energy tycoon.

Image from Himin Solar Energy. Dezhou Solar Valley in China

The $740 million plan has attracted about 100 companies and factories, a research center and wide boulevards illuminated by solar-powered lights.

China’s Solar Valley in Dezhou (Promotional Video)

The main developer for the park’s plan is a company called Himin Solar Energy. It was started by Huang Ming who is often called the ‘Sun King’ of China. Although he says: “I prefer to be called solar madman.” The building that serves as headquarters for Himin Solar Energy is located at the Sun-Moon Mansion and is currently the largest solar powered office building in the world.

Image from Himin Solar Energy.
Sun-Moon Mansion – Himin Solar Energy’s headquarters. Night view.

Image from Himin Solar Energy.
Sun-Moon Mansion – Himin Solar Energy’s headquarters. Day view.

Image from Himin Solar Energy.
Sun-Moon Mansion – Himin Solar Energy’s headquarters. Day view.

An intriguing mix of raw capitalism and socialist planning is giving companies such as Huang’s Himin Solar Energy Group a shot at making a difference.
The city of Dezhou already requires that all new buildings be equipped with solar water heaters (the type made by Huang’s company). Last year they spent $10 million to install solar lighting along several miles of road.
Huang’s company is the world’s biggest producer of solar water heaters. It recently opened a low-carbon five-star hotel and is building Utopia Garden, a gigantic, eco-friendly luxury apartment complex – both with solar-heated pools.
“Renewable energy doesn’t mean people have to be uncomfortable,” Huang states.

Last year, China invested about $34 billion in solar panels, wind turbines and other alternative energy technologies, nearly twice as much as the United States, where green technologies spending unfortunately fell sharply.
Huang notes that, so far, solar energy is “a drop in the ocean” on the road to the major Environmental and Economical changes but he said that Dezhou offers a model for the future. “I like big plans,” he says.

Image from Himin Solar Energy. Huang Ming presents Dezhou Solar Valley.