Solar Power

Converting the sun's rays into usable energy is an integral step in decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels and lowering our greenhouse gas emissions. While solar panels have been used in buildings since the 50's, we're just starting to reach the tipping point for their widespread adoption. 

With subsidies that lower the costs of installations and feed-in-tariffs that pay for the electricity solar energy produces, going solar is more than an environmental decision; it makes sense economically.

The technology is actually simple, but everything surrounding it — not so much. It's going to be up to innovative entrepreneurs and policy makers to make solar power more economical, the grid smarter, homeowners and businesses more receptive, and coding and permits more uniform so that all the pieces fit nicely together.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “Solar Power”

• Housing+ for on-site renewable energy generation

  
  The Design blog — Authority: 649
  Designed by C. F. Møller Architects in cooperation with Moe & Brødsgaard, Cenergia, Phillips, Schüco, Erik Juul and Vogt landscape, the Housing+ is a passive housing that supports on-site renewable energy generation. Located around Aalborg waterfront in Denmark, the pilot-project features a long sloping ...
  2 hours ago

• Zero-energy 60 residence passive housing project to generate on-site renewable energy

  
  Green Diary — Authority: 444
  The future housing projects will seek to provide its inhabitants with on-site power generation so that they don’t have to rely on external power sources. One such Zero-energy concept project, dubbed as Housing+, featured a 60-residence colony designed by C.F. Moller Architects . Planned next to Aalborg Waterfront ...
  2 hours ago

• Bangladesh PM’s office goes solar to encourage green energy

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 726
  Dhaka, Nov 26 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has installed a solar power system at her office to encourage green energy expansion in her power-starved nation.The country’s single largest solar power system, with a peaking capacity of generating 21.6 kilowatts, is now operating on a trial basis, ...
  3 hours ago

• Why Rock Walls In New England Are a Historically Significant Treasure

  
  Go Solar Power For Homes — Authority: 447
  Depending on where you live, there are different types of CT fencing used for various reasons. For example, if you live in Arizona, mud based adobe style fencing structures are used more than wooden CT fences . In the Midwest simple classic white picket fencing is used a lot, and in the southern states, like ...
  6 hours ago

• SunnyBAG Business Pro Laptop Bag

  
  Keetsa Mattress Store - Keetsa! Blog - Eco-Friendly and Green News — Authority: 481
  Here is a bag that should come in handy for the gadget geeks out there. As you know, the need for power is often an issue, especially if you find yourself running low or out of battery power when mobile. While you can always plug them in, the availability and where to plug them in is usually a problem. Not with the ...
  8 hours ago

• Kids Can Learn About Solar Power

  
  Go Solar Power For Homes — Authority: 447
  Kids today can learn about so many different things. We have a way to teach them about solar power. This resource will be their future and will depend on how we take care of it today. Solar power can be anywhere the sun shines and you can feel and see the warmth. Solar power can heat water, heat homes, schools, ...
  10 hours ago

• Self-assembling spherical solar cells

  
  David Kirkpatrick — Authority: 144
  Via KurzweilAI.net — Pretty interesting solar concept. There is still a lot of innovation going on in the solar space. Origami Solar Cells Technology Review, Nov. 25, 2009 Research ers at the University of Illinois have developed self-assembling spherical solar cells capable of capturing more sunlight than ...
  13 hours ago

• SOLAR LIGHTS UP THE CENTURIES

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  The origins of solar energy can be traced as far back as the 7th century BC.  The ancient Egyptians used the sun’s heat to bake straw and mud into bricks which they used as building blocks.Ancient Greeks and Romans recognised the benefits of what we now call passive solar design – using architecture to maximise ...
  14 hours ago

• Can I Really Heat My Pool From Solar Panels?

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  Would you like to heat your pool with solar energy? Because, there’s good news!  Installing solar panels to heat your pool won’t cost you much. You can even construct them yourself for under 0 in materials and less than a weekend’s worth of your time. An added benefit is that, after the initial installation ...
  14 hours ago

• A Simple Solar Panel Project to Outdoor Lighting

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  At the mention of solar lighting, many people picture rooftop solar panels. Even if you only wish to save on lighting costs, there are far easier ways of doing this before getting involved with the advanced stages of solar energy. Have a look at the four most chosen methods to reduce lighting costsIlluminate Your ...
  14 hours ago

• Solar Power: Can You Take the Option To Go Off Grid?

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  If you fix solar panels on your home, can you go “off grid” and say goodbye to the electric company forever?  Not having to rely on an outside company for your electricity is an attractive notion. No more electric bills coming to your mailbox. No more frustration with the utility companies for any reason. Can ...
  14 hours ago

• Wind Turbine Energy

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  What is a wind turbine? A wind turbine is sometimes referred to as a windmill or wind generator. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are differences. The wind turbine is a machine that utilizes wind energy to make mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is then used as is or changed ...
  14 hours ago

• Are the Saving Really Beneficial With Solar Power?

  
  MyTownTalks — Authority: 506
  How To Build A Solar PanelIf you are considering installing a solar energy system to your home, the expense and the savings are big issues.. First, there is the initial expense of buying and installing the solar panels. But you will also save money in several ways, from the immediate reduction in energy costs, to [...]
  14 hours ago

• Save The Giant Rear Wings, Save The World [I Feel Gassy]

  
  Jalopnik — Authority: 735
  Conventional wisdom states all rear wings do on FWD cars is increase drag and reduce fuel economy. Chinese designer Leon Zhu wants to challenge that notion, using the vast empty space inside them to store a solar shade. Think of it as a giant version of the 2010 Toyota Priuss solar sunroof combined with those ...
  16 hours ago

• Its Finally Official - Indias National Solar Mission Aims for 20 Gigawatts Solar Power by 2022

  
  TreeHugger — Authority: 716
  photo: Ryan DSouza via flickr. Rumors and draft reports have been circulating about Indias National Solar Mission plan since early summer, but the program has finally been officially announced. Approved just in time for Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit with President Obama , the plan aims for 20 gigawatts on ...
  17 hours ago

• States Test Ways To Turn Consumers Into Producers

  
  PA Pundits - International — Authority: 491
  By Emily Vaughan Coming soon to a rooftop near you. Image Braemac Corp. Four states this year implemented feed-in tariffs, incentives that pay customers for the renewable energy they produce and “feed” back into electricity grids. Three did it for the first time, joining Washington state and California, ...
  18 hours ago

• Researchers Build Machine That Turns CO2 Into Fuel

  
  INHABITAT — Authority: 743
  Imagine a machine that could suck carbon dioxide right out of the air and magically transform it into a usable product. It may seem like wishful thinking, but that’s exactly what researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories hope to do. They’ve created a protoype of a device that can turn carbon dioxide ...
  18 hours ago

• Freeing the Grid — Building Local Solar Markets, One State At A Time

  
  CleanTechies Blog - CleanTechies.com — Authority: 433
  It’s that time of year again … no, not when turduckens appear on dinner tables nationwide and it becomes somehow acceptable to call the marshmallow a vegetable. It’s time for the 2009 edition of “ Freeing the Grid ,” an annual report card to states on their net metering and interconnection standards. ...
  20 hours ago

• Detroit puts the wheels on solar manufacturing

  
  Green Wombat — Authority: 416
  In Monday’s Los Angeles Times, I write about the migration of renewable energy firms from California and the Southwest to the nation’s industrial heartland to tap the down-and-out region’s manufacturing might: At a recent solar energy conference in Anaheim, economic development officials from Ohio talked up a ...
  1 day ago

• DIY Home Power

  
  Rec and Sports — Authority: 164
  Solar panels are a great way to interact more positively with your world. They use just a tiny fraction of the near-infinite energy that the sun gives us every day to power our lives. Supposedly you can generate enough energy to power your house and make money on your electric bill at the same time. You can even use ...
  1 day ago

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