2nd Green Revolution

Yesterday KUNC, National Public Radio’s Northern Colorado affiliate reported that the clean energy economy had created 17,000 green jobs. According to GreenBiz.com

Venture capital is flowing into Colorado for green startups that see promise in the smart grid, energy storage and other clean tech technologies. “In 2008, we had $458 million of venture capital investments in Colorado. It’s just astounding,” Colorado Climate Change Coordinator Alice Madden said, noting that such investments have helped create 1,700 clean tech businesses in Colorado that provide 17,000 jobs.

The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office recently commissioned a green jobs report along with the Green Jobs Working Group (GJWG) and the American Solar Energy Society. The findings calculated that Read the rest of this entry »

This post comes from a 2nd Green Revolution reader who forwarded us the idea. Originally from the Maine Solar Primer booklet 2nd Edition by Richard Komp with drawings by Caleb Crawford, the SunGrabber is a relatively easy way to capture some of the sun’s heat by attaching a home-made solar panel to an existing window. Also known as a “thermal siphon”, the idea in its simplest form works on the principal that hot air rises. The best way to understand the concept is to look at the drawing after the jump or at this URL at Build It Solar. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago Solar Roadways was the recipient of extra attention in the blogosphere. 2nd Green Revolution did its part and brought you news of this company as well. All of the attention resulted in a redesigned website with flash animation. The older version of the site (one of which can be seen here) lacked the “Wow” factor that is now a part of the new site.

While the revamped site contains a wealth of information on the benefits of solar roadways in an attractive, easy to access format, there does not seem to be much movement on the development and implementation side. Read the rest of this entry »

• The United States is likely to install just one-eighth as much new solar power this year as Germany.
• China is expected to surpass the United States this year as the leader in adding new wind energy capacity.
• General Electric, which has 10,000 wind turbines in the United States, says that to encourage growth in the wind industry, the nation should adopt a target of obtaining 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2012.
• Some note that even with the administration’s recent moves, it has spent less than one-fourth of the $80 billion clean energy component of the stimulus package. Administration officials boast that the $80 billion figure is by far the largest amount ever committed to renewable energy.
• Solyndra, a company that makes solar photovoltaic panels in Fremont Calif., received a $535 million loan guarantee to finance a manufacturing plant, creating 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

Source: New York Times

- 2nd Green Revolution

[image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Team Germany's Winning Solar House

I am remiss to post this so late but still wanted to wish a quick and belated congratulations to Team Germany for winning the 2009 Solar Decathlon that was held last month on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The annual contest challenged 20 student teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Full results and details are here, or click on the image below. The following synopses of the three top houses are from the Solar Decathlon website.

Overall Winners

First Place: Team Germany (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

The 2007 champions did it again! Team Germany focused on producing surplus energy by using the maximum overall building dimensions allowed, applying photovoltaics to every available surface, and pushing the envelope with new technologies. The team walked away with the Net Metering contest and performed well in several others, including Architecture, Lighting Design, Comfort Zone, and Hot Water. Demonstrating that they are true champions, members of Team Germany were extremely gracious in their victory and recognized the work of their peers.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia (OPC-DC)*  will present it’s Energy Efficiency Expo at the Walter E. Convention Center (801 Mount Vernon Place). Click on the link for a video overview of the expo as well as information on home energy and water savings measures and other eco-tips. Standard Solar, featured in another post, talks about District solar incentives. Also mentioned in the video is the fact that DC residents can get free home energy audits. Here are a few of the features at the Expo:

•Free Energy Audits
•Solar Energy Providers
•Hands-On Demonstrations
•Energy Saving Windows
•Energy Grant Programs
•Green Loan Programs
•Green Insulation Providers
•Energy Upgrade Success Stories
•Economic Stimulus Programs

The Expo looks like a good place to get information on products and practices that can save you some cash while going green.

- Justin Manger
Image Credit: OPC-DC

* “The Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia is an independent agency of the District of Columbia government. By law, it is the advocate for consumers of natural gas, electric and telephone services in the District. The Office’s mandate is to advocate the provision of quality utility service and equitable treatment at rates that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory to assist individual consumers in disputes with utility companies about billing or services; and to provide technical assistance and consumer education.”

Tuesday marked the beginning of what could be the turning point in modernization of the nation’s electricity grid. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), “President Barack Obama . . . announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, funding a broad range of technologies that will spur the nation’s transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system.” In the article, the DOE provided a map of the award winners (as a PDF). Included in the statement (from the DOE) were the following measures:

• Empowering Consumers to Save Energy and Cut Utility Bills — $1 billion
• Making Electricity Distribution and Transmission More Efficient — $400 million
• Integrating and Crosscutting Across Different “Smart” Components of a Smart Grid — $2 billion
• Building a Smart Grid Manufacturing Industry — $25 million Read the rest of this entry »

As reported today on KCFR, Colorado Public Radio’s all-news station, Germany’s SMA Solar Technology is planning on building the largest solar production facility in the United States. The manufacturing center will be located in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood.

According to the company’s website, SMA is the world leader in solar inverter technology with a total installed capacity of over three gigawatts. (For a brief description of inverter technology, click here). “SMA Solar Technology AG develops, produces and sells solar inverters and monitoring systems for photovoltaic applications. SMA is the world’s largest producer in this segment and is the only vendor that has a product range with the matching inverter type for any module type and any power class.”

SMA’s press release stated that the facility will be the “largest production facility Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the most innovative ideas sound preposterous when they are first proposed, but end up being revolutionary. Perhaps the solar roadway will follow suit. Or perhaps this is just another hair brained idea that will be a waste of resources. Solar Roadways is a company based in Sagle, Idaho that has designed a system of solar panels integrated into streets and roads that aims to capture solar energy and replace petroleum based asphalt, the current material used for a majority of roads. Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon I finally had a chance to visit the Solar Decathlon taking place on the National Mall. It was cloudy and cool in the capital today and by the time I got there after a half-day at work, the houses were all closed to the public. However, I did get to see some very interesting looking structures and got a sense of the excitement that these college students have for designing and building solar powered structures that are energy and heat efficient. And, perhaps the fact that it was cloudy was actually important in demonstrating the reality of solar power: it’s not a miracle solution and far from perfect. Cloudy days really show the limitations of the technology in its current state. But the hype and recent interest in solar power should still be used to bring it to mass market. Some decent solar power is generated even under cloudy skies and having a house with some kind of solar generation capacity is reasonable. Money can be saved and pollution decreased by being connected to the grid and using it when necessary while using your own, locally produced solar electricity on those days when the sun is shining. Like with the move to hybrid cars instead of all-electric or hydrogen cars, it’s not feasible to transition to a system of all solar, at least not right now. There need to be intermediate steps along the way and it’s really not realistic to relay so heavily on one main source of energy like we do today with oil for transportation and coal for electricity. These student built houses demonstrate the benefits of installing solar power while maintaining the current convenience and reliability of conventional grid power.

The event runs through next weekend, so take a trip to the National Mall if you can. Below are some of the structures that may be of interest:

- Justin Manger