Category Archives: AltDotEnergy
From The Earth to the Moon with Clean Energy
American ingenuity has raged this the past century like Genghis Khan through technological obstacles. What was science fiction just decades ago can now be held in the palm of a hand or the top of a pinhead. While perhaps the greatest leap for mankind took place at 3:17 p.m. Eastern time on July 20, 1969, [...]
The Prospects for Solar Thermal Worldwide
As concerns about climate change and energy security escalate, asgovernment incentives for harnessing solar energy expand, and as thesecosts decline while those of fossil fuels rise the harnessing of solarenergy is expanding on every front . One of the solar technologies thatis really beginning to take off is the use of solar thermal collectorsto convert [...]
Is Concentrated PV (CPV) More Efficient Than PV?
The scientific and political stage for the success of solar energyis set. Markets are huge. Management of growth is the key. Oncedemonstration plants run according to plans and expectations, just twoyears should show that CPV does indeed deliver. The past twelve monthsmay not have been the best time to be rolling out a newlycommercialized branch [...]
‘Broken’ Nanotubes are Better at Storing Electricity
University of San Diego researchers have discovered that carbon nanotubes don’t have to be perfect to do a better job. Prabhakar Bandaru, a professor in the UCSD Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has discovered that artificially introducing defects in carbon nanotubes would increase their energy storage capacity. In most of the cases, the recently-discovered [...]
In Spain, Solar Rooftops Make Sense
Spain is a powerhouse for solar energy production in Europe becauseit has excellent sun resources and because it has a feed-in tariff forrenewable energy production, as does Germany. With a feed-in tariff,project developers are ensured that electricity will be purchased at acertain rate over a fixed term (currently €0.34 per kWh), usually for20 or 25 [...]
Google Gets Closer To Cheap Renewable Energy
Google Inc is closing in on its goal of producing renewable energyat a price cheaper than coal, the company’s green energy czar BillWeihl, the engineer in charge of the project, said on Tuesday. “We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale,energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” saidLarry Page, Google Co-founder and President of [...]
Thin-Film Solar Cells on Flexible Steel Sheets
Normally conventional silicon solar panels, are bulky and rigid, but a startup in Toledo, Ohio, called Xunlight, has developed a way to make solar panels more flexible and larger. It has developed a roll-to-roll manufacturing technique that formsthin-film amorphous silicon solar cells on thin sheets of stainlesssteel. Each solar module is about one meter wide [...]
Intersolar – Munich 2009
We just got back from the Intersolar show on Friday and what anamazing experience it was to see the scale of solar energy industry.More than 1,400 manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and service providersfrom all over the world were exhibiting there in nine giant halls withover 100,000 square meters of exhibition space and an estimated 60,000visitors. Overall [...]
My New Venture – Solar Leasing in Spain
I admit it, I have dropped the ball lately as far as updating thissite and I would not be surprised if some of you are never going tocome back. I apologise, but I have been very busy starting a new venture whichis very close to my heart and I am extremely happy and excited to [...]