Solar Power To Be Sold For Less Than Coal Clean Power Published on February 3rd, 2013 | by Nicholas Brown Update: Some sentences and links have been added to this post to provide better context and comparison. Update #2: I’ve published two articles on energy subsidies in response to comments on this post regarding that matter. They are: “Energy Subsidies — Clean Energy Subsidies vs Fossil Subsidies” and “Oil Subsidies & Natural Gas Subsidies — Subsidies For The Big Boys.” According to a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between El Paso Electric Company and First Solar, electricity will be sold from First Solar’s thin-film solar panels to El Paso Electric Company for 5.8 cents per kWh (a good 4-8 cents cheaper than new coal, which is in the 10-14 cents per kWh range). A First Solar installation of some of its CdTe panels. The name of the power plant is Macho Springs Solar Park. Clearly, even compared to the wholesale price of electricity from the cheapest energy options, this is quite competitive. Follow me on Twitter: @Kompulsa
Funny Looking Tower Generates 600% More Electrical Energy Than Traditional Wind Turbines The Sheerwind wind turbine promises to produce 6 times the electrical power than traditional wind turbines. This funny looking wind tower acts like a funnel, directing the wind from any angle, down through a tube to a ground based turbine generator. The funneling of the wind through a narrow passage effectively creates a “jet effect” increasing the velocity of the wind, while lowering the pressure. This is called the Venturi Effect. As such it can capture and generate electricity at a much lower wind speed than current wind power technologies. The idea is so simple, so elegant, and promises to produce so much more energy at lower cost and more efficiently, that it might just be the answer to many problems with current wind turbine technology. This technology is not really new in the science of fluid dynamics, however this is a new way to generate electricity, and if successful, promises to grow the wind energy in a more eco-friendly way than ever thought possible. via: Sheerwind Comments
dual rotor Tesla doubles the power output of the Powerwall without changing the price | Electrek Tesla Motors held its 2015 Annual Shareholders Meeting today at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. During his presentation, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, announced that Tesla will be doubling the power output of the Powerwall, Tesla’s residential energy storage system, to 7KW at peak usage and 5KW for steady usage. Musk confirmed that the price will remain the same, $3,000 for the 7KWh daily cycle version and $3,500 for the 10KWh weekly cycle version. Tesla offers 2 different versions of the Powerwall battery system. The 7KWh pack is built to be discharged daily in order to take advantage of a solar power installation or to manage usage, especially if you are paying your electric utility by time-of-use. It could also be combined with multiple packs in order to take a solar installation completely off-grid. Musk admitted that even though the demand for the Powerwall has been overwhelming with over 38,000 reservations in just one week, the overall reaction was mixed. Like this:
MIT Researchers are Printing Solar Cells on Sheets of Paper Published on August 20, 2011 by admin · No Comments Geek.com Solar power is a great alternative energy source, but it’s unfortunately a rather expensive one. However, researchers at MIT are working on a new and less-expensive way to make solar cells which involves printing them directly on to fabric or paper. We’re not talking about any fancy paper or fabrics. It’s a much easier method than the current one, which needs super high-temperature liquids at several hundred degrees Celsius to create the cells. The substrate of the current method is usually glass and requires a number of other components that are expensive and result in a heavy, rigid object – and that’s not even taking into account the installation costs. Read Entire Article HERE
Wind Turbine Output Boosted 30% by Breakthrough Design Clean Power Published on April 29th, 2009 | by Timothy B. Hurst Passive structure design of “Wind Energizer” by Leviathan Energy reportedly increases wind turbine efficiency 30% in field tests. Technological advancements in wind energy efficiency have generally come incrementally and usually made via a process of increasingly large wind turbine blades. But that pattern of incremental improvements may be a thing of the past if Leviathan Energy has anything to say about it. The principle theory at work is that by placing passive objects around a wind farm it will change the circulation around a large wind turbine. “This is a disruptive technology,” Leviathan Energy CEO Dr. Farb is a bit of a modern day renaissance man. The Wind Energizer is a donut-shaped structure made from steel and plastic, but the exact dimensions of it depend on site-specific data, like the tower height, length of the blades, prevailing wind direction and intensity, etc. Images courtesy of Leviathan Energy Timothy B.
offshore wind power Offshore wind power Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the use of wind farms constructed offshore, usually on the continental shelf, to harvest wind energy to generate electricity. Stronger wind speeds are available offshore compared to on land, so offshore wind power’s contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher,[1] and NIMBY opposition to construction is usually much weaker. However, offshore wind farms are relatively expensive.[2] At the end of 2014, 3,230 turbines at 84 offshore wind farms across 11 European countries had been installed and grid-connected, making a total capacity of 11,027 MW.[3] As of 2013 the 630 megawatt (MW) London Array is the largest offshore wind farm in the world, with the 504 (MW) Greater Gabbard wind farm the second largest, followed by the 367 MW Walney Wind Farm. All are off the coast of the UK. Definition[edit] Offshore wind power refers to the construction of wind farms in bodies of water to generate electricity from wind. History[edit] Farms[edit]
Update! 15 PowerPoint Slides That Shook the Earth : Greentech Media If you attend enough cleantech events or are pitched by enough startups, you start to see the same few PowerPoint slides over and over again. Here is a collection of the best or at least the most notorious and historically significant slides in our industry. This collection has been one of our most popular pieces and I'm taking the opportunity to update some of the charts and add some additional commentary. After publishing this list to an overwhelming response, we heard from the original architects of some of these iconic greentech slides and we made sure to give them their overdue credit. From the BP Statistical Review of World Energy -- here's a painful reminder of what we pay at the pump. Make sure to contrast that with the Price Trends in Solar Modules in this slide with data from IPCC and Paula Mints of Navigant. Lawrence Livemore's classic Energy Flowchart: A good slide provides a wealth of information in an intuitive, understandable way -- and this slide certainly does that.