Technology – Page 5 – Solar Magazine

First solar charged train

UNESCO heritage Himalayan Queen train from Kalka to Shimla in northern India has become the first train in the world to adopt solar PV panels.

200 W PV modules were fixed on the roof of each of its seven coaches. The generated energy is stored in 2×65 AH Sealed Maintenance Free Tubular 24 V batteries. The engineering marvel took almost a year of trial before being finalized.

The generated energy is used to operate the train. The load drives seven numbers of 6 W LED lights in each of the coaches, besides provision for charging mobile phones during the five-hour journey.

With the PV system and energy efficient lighting in place, a 3 KW alternator, flat belts, regulator rectifier unit, axle pulleys, alternator pulleys and flooded batteries were removed from the underframe of the coach. Thus, they were made more lightweight and speed was increased.

However “dynamic coach balancing”, which was of paramount importance, was a challenge that was successfully mastered by the engineers.

New York City’s first self-powered residential building

New York City can add a big green feather to its cap as it can soon boast of a self-powered residential building.

On 18th, Voltaic Solaire will unveil the first private building in New York City which will be powered by solar and wind energy only. Dubbed Delta, it is inspired by Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC goal of reducing New York’s carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

With such green steps, we can certainly hope for a clean NYC in the future.

Constructed using eco-friendly and recycled materials, the Delta also houses one grand triplex apartment, a studio residence, as well as a retail or restaurant storefront.

Inhabitat reports about Delta’s green features in details – “The Delta’s solar roof is mounted atop the building like a trellis, giving residents a shaded roof deck below.

A solar skin, solar awning, and panels combined yield a capacity of 10.3 KW. Additionally, the Delta’s solar thermal system creates 140,000 BTUs.

To harness wind power, the roof is outfitted with a vertical axis wind turbine that generates 600W of power.

Each of these components work together and send power back to the grid, making enough energy for the building to power itself and then some.”

A new and more efficient airborne wind-power system developed by NASA

Benjamin Franklin uncovered ground-breaking facts about the nature of electricity and lightening by flying a kite in 1752.

Two and half centuries hence, NASA is using the lowly kite yet again albeit this time the purpose of the experiment is to change the way the world approaches wind turbines and sustainable energy generation.

Wind-borne power systems may not yet be viewed with the same level of trust as land-based tower-like wind turbines but they may just prove to be just the viable and ingenious alternative that can bring wind energy to the masses.

Engineers at NASA are currently hard at work trying to develop the model which explores two facets of the technology. The first is a generator based on the ground which the kite is tethered to and is powered by the reeling motion of the kite as it is activated by the wind. The other part of the project focuses on generating electricity via a set of turbines built into the kite itself.

During the reeling phase, the wind-borne wind power system uses 10 percent lesser energy which makes the model almost 90 percent effective. The model generates more electricity when wind turbine blades are further from its hub and spin faster offer further advantage to the airborne system over the land-based systems. To allow the kites to maintain their orientation and speed, the system comes with a Microsoft Kinect-like pattern recognition software that also helps establish the situation of the kite. The kite is maintained in a figure-eight flying pattern by a flight-control system.

At the moment, NASA is working on a prototype in which the kite will have a wingspan of over 10 feet. The agency is also seeking permission to test the prototype airborne wind-power system at an altitude of 2,000 feet above sea level which is supposed to be the right elevation for such systems. If perfected, the technology would not only provide clean power to people on the planet but perhaps also to human settlers and exploration probes on Mars and other planets in the solar system.

Solar energy project in Arizona

Kyocera,a Japanese multinational company is going to shipp solar panels for the 127MW Arlington Valley Solar energy II power project.

Till the year 2013, the company will continue to manufacture PV panels at its San Diego plant.

It isn’t for sure if Kyocera will be the only one supplier of PVs because no details of the deal have been released as yet.

The Arlington solar energy project, located in Maricopa County, sits on an area of 1,160 acres and will supplement the energy needs of residents and businesses alike.

With Europe deeply involved in renewables, countries across the globe are gearing up to establish wind farms and solar parks to meet power requirements.

Kyocera has begun shipping 34MW of modules and will continue to provide more in future.Earlier, the corporation had announced that it wanted to increase multicrystalline PV production to 1,000MW every year by March 2013.

The solar project received funding to construct the $550 million plant. The energy power that’s generated from the project will be sold off to San Diego Gas & Electric.

Endesa Pavilion is adapted to maximum renewable energy potential

Solar House 2.0, is a rare structure that adopts to maximize the renewable energy potential of its location.

Made by the Institute of Advanced Architecture for Catalonia (Iaac), it has a modular facade covered with protrusions that support additional solar panels.

Protrusions are designed to creatively maximize the use of energy, also they absorb the sun’s energy independent of the seasons.

The building is capable of generating almost 100kWh of electricity and its average daily consumption stands at 20kWh.The roof alone features 150sq m of photo voltics.

During summers, the protrusions form a barrier when the sun tracks higher across the sky, whereas during winters it allows the sun’s rays to directly penetrate.

The house has been constructed from wood due to the fact that wood is an inexhaustible material that is soft and easy to work with and also it can be molded and adapted to provide warmth and insulation.This building looks more like a huge log cabin, suitable to belong to the Scandinavian woodland.

Homes can have access to solar power in Mid Atlantic

In the area of Mid Atlantic sun’s power is available in abundance and this was the reasons for switching over to solar power.

The government is willing to extend all possible support and policy makers are also devising methods to encourage large scale production of the same.

The capacity to generate solar energy has almost doubled in this region.Presently it stands at one gigawatt capacity, equivalent to power one million homes.

Along with the expansion of government tax breaks and extension of incentives, the factors that encourage the use of solar power include, better financing options and lower technology cost.

This power serves thirteen states of the Mid Atlantic, including Washington D.C. Both Virginia and D.C. are currently dependent on oil burning for electricity production, and this is one of the major pollutants that taint the quality of air.

Solar power will benefit the environment, the health of the people and also safer for the wildlife of the region.

Approval for the first stage of offshore connector on the East Coast

Alternate energy options are growing every day and the most popular form seems to be solar power.Also wind energy is catching up fast with latest developments.

Modern wind turbines and new ways to tap into off-shore wind energy and even high altitude wind power means that it is no longer undependable and can produce energy that is close to being a constant power source.

A group of researchers projected a stimulating plan that would take the wind energy and convert it into an alternate source of power.

The main step of this research would be to take all collectively all the wind farms off the East Coast and convert them into one colossal generating system.A local source of wind power is dependent always on the weather conditions prevailing in the region.

If the weather remains tranquil, the chances of rousing up things in the vicinity will be good.The researchers thought of spreading wind generators up and down the coast, which would always be producing power.

The grids in only some areas will be receiving wind power, while the rest will again be striving for some pother source of power generation. This project, which was proposed in the last few years, planned of connecting them all together, through a single conduction system, and supplying that into a restricted number of areas.

The East coast is also looking forward to an offshore wind construction area, though this dream is far from reality but it has already attracted a large number of enthusiastic investors.

Chinese solar panel dumping is now in

The verdict is now in. And it’s not good for Chinese solar manufacturers.

Although the official pronouncement has not been made, we’ve learned from sources close to the case that the Commerce Departments’s preliminary decision on SolarWorld’s solar dumping petition against China has been handed down in a case that had the potential to rock the U.S. solar market’s status as an emerging growth market.

China solar manufacturers have been accused of unfair trade practices in subsidizing solar panel manufacture and selling panels in the U.S. below their cost.

Cheaper Chinese solar panel pricing has been a boon for consumers and solar installers, but a competitive challenge for the few crystalline solar manufacturers in the U.S.

SolarWorld accuses Chinese firms of dumping. Others suggest that China has a legitimate cost advantage.On March 20 of this year, The Department of Commerce’s preliminary verdict on unfair subsidies for Chinese solar panels was handed down, along with what amounted to low tariffs for the Countervailing Duties (CVD).

The preliminary determination indicated the DOC’s intention to impose a duty of 4.73 percent on U.S. imports from Trina Solar, 2.9 percent from Suntech, and 3.59 percent from all other remaining Chinese manufacturers.

Tiny generator powered by viruses

Scientists invent tiny generator powered by viruses.

Scientists have discovered that harmless viruses have the ability to turn themselves into energy harvesting beings in a far more environmentally friendly manner.

The boffins invented a virus-based postage stamp-sized generator that’s able to power a small LCD by generating a quarter of the voltage produced by AAA batteries.

The viruses convert mechanical energy into electrical power, similar to the way PVs in solar panels transform sunlight into electricity.

scientists at the United States’ Department of Energy have found that bone is able to demonstrate piezoelectric properties which led them to find out new ways of developing piezoelectric materials.

They created a substance from a modified virus called M13 (bacteriophage) that attacks bacteria and is harmless to humans.When they used an electric field on a film of M13, proteins that coat the virus twisted in response owing to the effect of piezoelectricity.

Films with M13s were then stacked on top of each other as well as between gold-plated electrodes. These were connected to an LCD through wires.When the films were tapped, 6 nanoamperes of electricity and 400 millivolts of potential were generated. That was enough to produce the number ‘1’ on the LCD.

Now the development is still in progress.

Samsung decided to launch solar notebooks in Bangladesh

It is quite interesting that Samsung has decided to launch their new line of solar-powered notebooks in Bangladesh.

This decision came due to the fact that it’s is rich in solar energy and if they are thinking of the region as a potential market that will really respond well to this type of product, then maybe an expansion to the adjacent market in India might have been a better bet.

But also the lack of competition in the Bangladeshi markets along with the specific needs of the local community could influenced the decision.

All in all Samsung is going to unveil solar notebooks in June.The price will be around $415.

The idea of going solar from Samsung is particularly significant considering the reach and popularity of the company.

This solar trend will hopefully catch up with other product.