October 18, 2007
University of Maryland still leads the pack
U.S. Department of Energy
At the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has won the Market Viability contest, with the University of Maryland second and Penn State third. Market Viability, a new contest in the Solar Decathlon, measures livability, buildability, and flexibility in the homes built by the university teams.
The final contest in the Decathlon—Engineering—will be judged on October 19th, with award ceremonies to follow. The latest information we have is that the twenty contesting teams are being led by the University of Maryland, followed by the German Technische Universität Darmstadt and Pennsylvania State University.
For more information on the final stages of the Solar Decathlon, check the Decathlon’s website here.
October 17, 2007
U.S. Department of Energy
With a first-place finish in the communications contest and a second-place finish in the architecture contest, the University of Maryland has a razor-thin lead in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in Washington DC.
For more about the Solar Decathlon, click here.
October 16, 2007
U.S. Department of Energy
At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in Washington DC this week, the first of ten contests for the solar homes designed and built by university teams from the USA, Canada, Germany and Spain ended with a victory for the German Technische Universitat. Second and third places in the contest for architectural quality were taken, respectively, by the University of Maryland and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
University of Maryland still leads the pack of twenty contestants in the overall contest, with Georgia Tech and Darmstadt close behind.
See the complete article here.
See the photo gallery here.
October 16, 2007
from PR Newswire
ComEd and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) distributed more than $200,000 in grants this year to support the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) electric generation systems at 14 schools and two other education-focused non-profit community organizations in northern Illinois.
Read more about the awards and benefiting organizations here.
October 5, 2007
from RenewableEnergyAccess.com
The 12th annual ASES National Solar Tour starts this weekend, and the Solar Decathlon will turn the National Mall into a solar community from Oct 12 to Oct 20.
Starting this weekend, thousands of Americans will open their energy-efficient homes and businesses, complete with solar and wind installations, to the public. It’s all part of the American Solar Energy Society National Solar Tour, which you can read about here.
October 4, 2007
from EERE Network News
Florida Power and Light (FPL) has announced that it plans to build a 300-megawatt solar thermal power plant, which will be the state’s first commercial solar thermal power facility. The Utility will first build a 10-megawatt power plant using technology from Ausra, Inc., which employs flat arrays of Fresnel lenses to focus the sun’s heat. Most of today’s commercial solar thermal power plants use parabolic mirrors to focus the sun’s heat, a technology that’s presumably more expensive and harder to maintain than Fresnel lenses would be, but Ausra’s technology is as yet unproven commercially.
Read more about FPL’s plans and Ausra’s technology here.
October 3, 2007
from EERE Network News
Partially constructed solar homes designed and built by teams from 20 leading universities from across the world were expected to arrive early this morning on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where DOE’s third Solar Decathlon will be held from October 12th to 20th. The homes, which are powered and heated only with solar energy, will be judged in ten contests, including architecture, engineering, livability, lighting, cooking, comfort, water heating, appliances, and power generation for space heating and cooling.
Read the complete story here.
October 1, 2007
For the first time, a law permitting small generators of clean energy to benefit from the kind of ‘Feed-In Tariff’ that has made the solar market explode in Germany and Italy has been proposed in the U.S.
In Michigan, Assemblywoman Kathleen Law has submitted a bill that would allow homeowners, farmers and businesses to sell their renewable energy at a profit to the electricity grid. A similar bill introduced in Hawaii earlier in the year covered only solar installations.
The Michigan bill differentiates between types of renewable energy, allowing a higher rate to be earned for rooftop solar than for wind, hydro, biogas or geothermal; this is to encourage homeowners across the state to install solar panels on their homes.
One significant difference between feed-in laws and the net metering laws more common in the U.S. is that the former permit ordinary citizens to profit from their clean energy investment, while the latter simply reduce the net kilowatt usage, and therefore partially offset the electricity bill paid by the homeowner.
Before becoming law, the bill must pass both the House and Senate and must be signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm, who has made renewable energy a key element of her administration.
In the spring of 2007 Governor Granholm travelled to Germany. On her return she was quoted in the Detroit News as saying, “In Germany they created 170,000 jobs by changing the incentives for the use of wind and solar. We ought to be doing the same thing in Michigan.”
At Solar Nation, we find that many of those in authority who drag their feet on implementation of renewables have somehow missed the ‘jobs’ argument. Strange, since for elected officials, large-scale job creation can flesh out their re-election CV nicely. And there are few initiatives outside the renewable energy industry that hold the promise of such large numbers of good jobs; not only that, but most of the potential new jobs are in small-to-medium sized firms and start-ups, another category that lawmakers like to be seen to encourage.
Assemblywoman Law deserves our praise for introducing this bill, and our support as the bill progresses through the legislature. If you’re a Michigan solar citizen, we’ll let you know when you can help to give the bill an extra push!
Read more about the Michigan bill here.
September 18, 2007
From Reuters UK
Italy may soon become Europe’s next frontier for solar energy as new incentives prompt investors to bet on higher returns than in Germany, which has less sun but is currently the hub of a growing global market.
What’s the significance for the U.S? Both Germany and Italy have embraced the concept of the Feed-in Tariff, in which citizens installing solar arrays are guaranteed above-market prices from utilities for the solar power they generate and feed into the grid. Under the new Italian law, payback for such installations should occur within 8-12 years, somewhat faster than the German model. But both Germans and Italians are rushing to build solar, as the programs do what such incentive programs are supposed to do—encourage people with the ability to choose their power options to choose responsibly. In the U.S., we struggle with pallid net metering laws that have not, so far, caused Americans to replicate the rush to Solar that sun-kissed Italy and even cloudy Germany have witnessed.
Read the complete Reuters article here.
September 17, 2007
Solar-powered homes and buildings open across the country, September thru’ November
The American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour is in the final stages of preparation. The tour, now in its twelfth year, is the largest sustainable energy event in the U.S. It allows some 100,000 people across the nation to see how neighbors are using clean sources of energy to save on energy bills and protect the environment. Through a series of open-houses and informative tours participants learn about renewable energy options, energy efficient design, real-world costs, current rebates available, and other valuable insights.
Visit the American Solar Energy Society’ site here to find out about tours in your state.
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At the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has won the Market Viability contest, with the University of Maryland second and Penn State third. Market Viability, a new contest in the Solar Decathlon, measures livability, buildability, and flexibility in the homes built by the university teams.
