Solar Energy Articles
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Closing the last Energy Leak
The heat contained in wastewater is one of the last major untapped resources in the field of renewable energies, despite the fact that it may some day provide some 20% of the heating energy we need. This huge potential has been addressed by a Swiss engineering office, Rabtherm AG, which now supplies patented technology for generating energy from wastewater, used for heating or cooling buildings. ...
By RABTHERM AG
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How many negawatts do I need before I retire?
A candy shop owner on Cape Cod offers a new approach to build a retirement portfolio: put solar panels on your roof. “We looked at the stock market last year and it didn’t look too good so we decided to invest in electricity,” said Ray Hebert, owner of Stage Stop Candy in Dennisport, in an article on wickedlocal.com by Nicole Muller. Thanks to today’s generous state and federal subsidies, Hebert ...
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Comparative study on various unipolar PWM strategies for single phase five-level cascaded inverter
A single phase cascaded inverter consisting of two full bridges creates a five-level AC output voltage. Due to switch combination redundancies, there are certain degrees of freedom to generate the five-level AC output voltage. This paper presents the different types of unipolar pulse width modulation (PWM) strategies for the chosen inverter. The effectiveness of the developed strategies are ...
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Regenerative snubber for UPS inverter
An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) is used to provide electrical power to a load during an emergency situation in which the main utility power is not available. UPS topologies are well known. The inverter plays the most important role as an element in the UPS system. Usually, pulse width modulated inverters with voltage control and waveform shaping are used in UPS. This paper proposes an ...
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Buying Into Solar: Rewards, Challenges, and Options for Rate-based Investments
This article, originally published in Public Utilities Fortnightly's December 2009 issue, helps Investor-Owned Utilities understand the challenges associated with making rate-based investments in solar generation. In particular, the article addresses tax accounting rules that can place regulated IOUs at an economic disadvantage relative to independent power producers. The article describes the ...
By MetaVu, Inc.
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What does the US/China agreement mean for efficiency?
The energy efficiency market has a gawky quality. It is not exactly one market but a conglomeration of various industries as diverse as appliance manufacturers, energy auditors, smart meter software designers and cogeneration developers. They are unified only in their ability to save energy. All arms and legs as it may appear, the efficiency market seems ready to shoot to a new level of maturity. ...
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No place like home for energy savings
Apparently there is no place like home, even when it comes to fulfilling lofty wishes like fixing our energy supply. A recent White House task force on the middle class finds that our homes generate more than 20% of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions. If we make our houses more efficient, we can significantly cut emissions and reduce energy use by 40%, a move that could lower our bills by $21 ...
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Cost-effective nanopatterning for mass production
Customer: SUSS MicroTec S.A.S Challenge: Developing a faster method for printing nano-scale geometries. Solution: VTT and SUSS MicroTec S.A.S. have developed the most versatile nano imprinting stepper on the market. The stepper and new methods enable fast, low-cost production of flexible solar cells and nano-scale bioanalysis platforms (Lab on a Chip). The NPS300 Nano imPrinting Stepper was ...
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Three models of social change
Can we change fast enough? When thinking about the enormous need for social change as we attempt to move the world economy onto a sustainable path, I find it useful to look at various models of change. Three stand out. One is the catastrophic event model, which I call the Pearl Harbor model, where a dramatic event fundamentally changes how we think and behave. The second model is one where a ...
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What’s geothermal again?
Some green energy sources seem to have charisma; others struggle for public attention with little success. Solar energy is an “it” technology, as evidenced once again by the tremendous participation in the annual Solar Power International conference in Anaheim, California this week (Oct. 27-29). Twice as many companies (945) are displaying their wares in the Expo Hall this year, despite the still ...
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It’s the environment, stupid
If Harry Truman were running for president today, he’d probably ‘Give ‘em Green,’ rather than ‘Give ‘em Hell.’ Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan would be, ‘It’s the environment, stupid.’ And Herbert Hoover might be promising a solar panel on every roof, rather than a chicken in every pot – and the pot would sit on a smart-metered stove, powered by a plug-in hybrid, eligible for renewable energy ...
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Survival of the greenest: evolutionary economics and policies for energy innovation
This paper aims to explore the possible contribution of evolutionary economics to environmental policy-making, in particular with respect to innovations in energy technology. Evolutionary economics offers insights into the mechanisms that underlie innovations, structural changes and transitions, therefore making it of great value in framing policies aimed at stimulating environmental innovations ...
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U.S. headed for massive decline in carbon emissions*
For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The United States has ended ...
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Energy head tilters for this week
I’ve been writing about energy for 20 years. And during those years, I’ve heard many out-of-the box concepts and witnessed some surprising trends. But it seems that lately head-tilting news comes along more and more frequently, a sign I think of how quickly innovation is occurring in the electric power industry.Below are three ideas that caught my attention this week as I covered the industry. ...
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Could food shortages bring down civilization?
“In early 2008, Saudi Arabia announced that, after being self-sufficient in wheat for over 20 years, the non-replenishable aquifer it had been pumping for irrigation was largely depleted,” writes Lester R. Brown in his new book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (W.W. Norton & Company). “In response, officials said they would reduce their wheat harvest by one eighth each year ...
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Design and performance evaluation of a photovoltaic sun-tracking system driven by a three-freedom spherical motor
In this study, a PV sun tracking system with the ability to move on two axes is designed. Its performance over a fixed tilted system is evaluated for the climatic condition of Denizli, Turkey. From the obtained results, it is seen that the sun tracking system improves the energy and exergy efficiency of the PV panel.Keywords: PV panels, spherical motors, sun tracking, energy efficiency, exergy ...
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Can the world make the transition to a sustainable economy driven by solar energy?
Whatever other factors may be necessary, in the end a sustainable world economy is possible only if there is a perpetual source of energy to drive it. We explore the ability of the world economy to replace fossil and fissile energy sources with solar-flux-driven renewable energy sources using a natural capital accounting procedure known as ECCO, in the form of the world model GlobEcco. It is ...
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Solar-powered Stirling engines: a low-cost possibility for village power, pumping and cooling
Stirling engines are heat engines that operate on a closed thermodynamic regenerative cycle and are used as power systems, refrigerators or heat pumps. Recent developments in Stirling technology allow the use of low temperature heat sources including flat plate solar collectors. New concepts for low-cost, low ΔT Stirling engines that may be made by village craftsmen using locally available ...
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The economics of an active solar heating system
The American University of Armenia recently installed a shower system in the ground floor of its building. In this note we examine the economic viability of using an active solar system to heat the showers. Using conventional discounted cash flow analysis as well as two other economic assessments of the capital investment, we demonstrate that it is economically justifiable to invest in a solar ...
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Are you eligible for a manufacturing tax credit?
The United States has been generous with tax credits for energy production. But until now, it’s been somewhat miserly about giving breaks to those who make the equipment that makes the energy – or saves it.That’s changed with creation of the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Credit (MTC), part of the federal stimulus package. The 30% tax credit makes $2.3 billion available for new, expanded, or ...
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