MetaFilter posts tagged with Solar

Solar Scorcher

caddis — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:56:29 -0800

Backyard Solar Death Ray. Melt pennies in seconds with a fresnel lens repurposed from an old large screen television. Grant Thompson has other fun and liability lawyer unapproved projects such as melting metal, making solid rocket fuel and making a compressed air rocket launcher. (via homunculus and his post on Monkeyfilter)

The Green Mafia

445supermag — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:32:06 -0800

“Uncle Vincenzo,” implored the businessman, Angelo Salvatore, using a term of affection for the alleged head of Sicily’s Gimbellina crime family, 79-year-old Vincenzo Funari. According to a transcript of their wiretapped conversation, Salvatore continued: “For the love of our sons, renewable energy is important. . . . It’s a business we can live on.” Italian police in Sicily have made five arrests, including a town mayor, following an investigation into work commissioned for two Iberdrola-owned wind farms near Messina. Italian law enforcement has recently uncovered deep links between the Cosa Nostra and wind and solar power companies, seizing around 30 percent of the wind farms built in Sicily and freezing more than $2 billion in various assets

More beholden to magnetism than gravity

IvoShandor — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:48:02 -0800

Fiery Looping Rain on the Sun (via badastronomy and NASA's SDO)

I did not have sexual relations with that solar panel

445supermag — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:18:17 -0800

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has refused to confirm that the reason for his resignation is a compromising photo recently published online. Posting on his personal Facebook page, he states: "I just want everyone to know that my decision not to serve a second term as Energy Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations... I’m not going to confirm or deny the charges..."

I love a sun-powered country, A land of deepening mines, of ragged nuclear plants, of biomass and hydropower

Mezentian — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:36:17 -0800

While developed countries are pondering whether they should sign up to The Kyoto 2 Protocol and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% by 2020, based on 2000 levels which may be of questionable impact, the tiny Pacific territory of Tokelau has ditched its primary source of electricity generation, costly diesel imports, in favour of 100% renewable solar power, becoming the first nation in the world to do so, at a time when the global energy systems of the 21C are struggling towards decarbonisation. Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu and several other Pacific Nations plan to achieve 100% electricity generation from renewable energy between by 2020. Energy sourcing, supply and security are vexing issues for most nations, especially against the backdrop of climate change. This week Australia's Government issued an Energy White Paper that acknowledged the need to shift to clean energy sources, (but that some say underestimates solar.) China issued its own White Paper in October discussing developing hydropower, solar power and wind power generation, nuclear power, biomass and other types of renewable energy. In Europe, economic powerhouse Germany is exported more electricity this year than ever before, despite beginning to phase out nuclear power. While Germany is getting out of nuclear, India is seeking new sources of uranium (from Canada and Australia) to solve its power woes (previously) despite reports India's nuclear regulations are not up to scratch. Japan is understandably nervous about relying on nuclear power into the future, and it is assessing greater gas-fired power from LNG imports, and geothermal for some added energy security. What the US election means for North America's energy output is unknown. The CEO of one coal company just decided to lay off 150+ workers on the news of Obama's re-election , fearing change and the "coal war" which aims to reduce coal-fired power in the US, while others feel "dirty" energy interests will keep renewables on the sidelines. Wind and solar companies feel good about the result. In other news, four teenage girls from Africa claim to have invented a urine-powered generator that will provide six hours of power from one litre of liquids (via The Guardian).

Inspiring and amazing urban farming geek, Eric Maundu

nickyskye — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:41:14 -0800

Eric Maundu - who comes from Kenya, now lives in West Oakland and is trained in industrial robotics- transforms unused spaces into productive, small aquaponic farms. He has taken the agricultural craft one step further and made his gardens smart. He explores new frontiers of computer-controlled gardening. More information about this story. His company, Kijani Grows. Via faircompanies.com.

How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps

Egg Shen — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:03:44 -0800

How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps.

"Now go outside -- It's sunny and you're beautiful."

Deathalicious — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:34:31 -0800

How to build a Solar Mobile Charger in 5 minutes. Full instructions here. Note that the charger is 5V, so it won't work for all phones.

Turn your house into a giant battery.

stoneweaver — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:17:50 -0800

"You could turn your home into a battery," said researcher Neelam Singh. Researchers at Rice University have created paints that act as rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. They can be painted onto virtually any surface, and can be charged with a solar cell. Full paper.

Electricity in Japan

thewalrus — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 20:38:48 -0800

In the year and a half since the earthquake and tsunami caused an industry-wide Japanese nuclear shutdown , Japanese consumers and businesses have been urged to conserve energy whenever possible. Although a few reactors are being brought back online temporarily, the Japanese government has pledged to move away from nuclear power sources. Yesterday the Japanese government announced what may be the world's highest solar photovolatic feed-in tariff at 53 cents per kWh generated. What to do with all that contaminated land near Fukushima? Build what may be the world's largest solar power plant, where it won't particularly matter if the solar panels and equipement are slightly irradiated.

Dance of the Celestial Orbs

pashdown — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:46:29 -0800

Stunning video of the transit of Venus by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Eclipse May 20, late afternoon in the Western US:

dfm500 — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:50:33 -0800

Where will you be on May 20th/21st? There will be an annular solar eclipse late afternoon that will be visible in the Western US: "On May 21, 2012, an annular solar eclipse begins over southeast China and passes over Japan. When the eclipse crosses the International Date Line, the local date becomes May 20. The eclipse then enters the California/Oregon border, passes in the late afternoon over Nevada, Utah, Arizona, a corner of Colorado, New Mexico, and ends at sunset in Texas." As a warning, please don't scorch your eyeballs! There are guidelines on safe viewing.

Islands in the steam

flabdablet — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:40:22 -0800

Solar Islands: A new concept for low-cost solar energy at very large scale.
A reduced-scale prototype is under construction.

Another shady operation

flabdablet — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:01:55 -0800

Cost to park: free. Cost to charge: free.
Metrolink unveils a 2MW solar car park.

The Sun on your desktop

vacapinta — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:51:11 -0800

Helioviewer.org "is an open-source project for the visualization of solar and heliospheric data. The project is funded by ESA and NASA."
See also the Wiki and the JHelioviewer application.
Go back in time to prominent events (June 7, 2011 for example), create layers from different observatories and even create your own movies.

full of ★☆★☆★

zamboni — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:09:33 -0800

OMG SPACE aims to illustrate the scale and the grandeur of our solar system, as well as illustrate through the use of infographics our work in the exploration of our solar system with various spacecraft. All the planets on this website are to scale, including the sun and dwarf planets. The distances between each object and the sun are also to scale, and both the planets and relative distances are to scale with each other. Infographics ☉ ☿ ♀ ♁ ☽ ♂ ♃ ♄ ♅ ♆ ♇

A (potentially) not so sunny day

modernnomad — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:48:55 -0800

Earth Faces 12% Chance of "Catastrophic Solar Megastorm" by 2020 The last gigantic solar storm, known as the Carrington Event, occurred more than 150 years ago and was the most powerful such event in recorded history. According to a recent paper, the earth faces a 12% chance of experiencing another Carrington-scale event within the next decade. Auroras may be beautiful, but the charged particles can wreak havoc on electrical systems. At the time of the Carrington Event, telegraph stations caught on fire, their networks experienced major outages and magnetic observatories recorded disturbances in the Earth’s field that were literally off the scale. In today’s electrically dependent modern world, a similar scale solar storm could have catastrophic consequences. Auroras damage electrical power grids and may contribute to the erosion of oil and gas pipelines. They can disrupt GPS satellites and disturb or even completely black out radio communication on Earth. During a geomagnetic storm in 1989, for instance, Canada’s Hydro-Quebec power grid collapsed within 90 seconds, leaving millions without power for up to nine hours. The potential collateral damage in the U.S. of a Carrington-type solar storm might be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in the first year alone, with full recovery taking an estimated four to 10 years, according to a 2008 report from the National Research Council.

Let there be

infini — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:06:19 -0800

Life Without Lights Energy Poverty Photography.

Dang, sun!

chronkite — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:07:41 -0800

Paul Nosa and his Solar Sewing Rover are coming to a town near you!

Even more recent events in Solar Power

thewalrus — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:51:56 -0800

Some interesting things have recently happened in the world of solar power: Evergreen and Solyndra have gone bankrupt, panel cost has gone sub $1.00/watt, and China has vastly increased production capacities. Before getting to the much-publicized Solyndra, let's see what happened to Evergreen. Evergreen built a hugely expensive facility in the Boston area. Certain parts of Evergreen's assets have already been auctioned off, including 7.8 megawatts of 200W to 215W panels which were purchased by SunElec, a wholesaler in Miami. These were sold off in a couple of days at 78 cents/watt, minimum quantity one pallet. What went wrong with Evergreen? They received tax breaks from the state of MA to set up a facility there. Unfortunately, economies of scale couldn't compete with vertically integrated solar firms in China. Their string ribbon panels maxed out at a wattage density of around 130 to 135W/square meter, while current generation budget panels from China are pushing 155 to 165W/square meter. In the past year, solar panel costs from China have dropped from $1.65/watt to sub $1.00/watt. This has driven prices down worldwide. It's now possible to buy low quantity (quantity, one!) solar panels made by Sovello for $1.04/watt from US distributors. The relative simplicity of assembling a solar panel of 60 or 72 156mm cells has lent itself to highly automated production in China. Basically, take a plastic solar module backsheet, place a series of aligned and tabbed solar cells on it, laminate with EVA, add aluminum frame and rear junction box, package the finished product. For the electronics manufacturing industry in China this has not been difficult to scale up to very large size plants. Making a solar panel is actually quite a bit less complicated than making a basic multi layer $80 ATX motherboard for a desktop PC. How quickly has China scaled up? Canadian Solar recently supplied the modules for the world's largest solar plant in southern Germany. The cost drops on solar PV mean that the Blythe Solar Power Project, which may cost as much as $6 billion, has recently changed plans from using concentrated (mirror-reflected, steam turbine) concentrated solar to PV. First Solar has put out a few press releases about supplying up to 1.0 gigawatts of CdTE thin-film modules for the Blythe project. And now for Solyndra. I was recently asked: "Tell us about why Solyndra was a terrible idea both technology and economically. I have my thoughts on the matter but would love more input from a other person in the field". Politics aside, here's my technical opinion (as a person that works with solar) why Solyndra in general was a bad idea: 1) The weird cylindrical tube manufacturing process was very expensive both in capital equipment costs, time, and labor. 2) The relatively low power density of the individual assembled modules meant that it was only economical for very large roofs. It had a density more comparable to amorphous Si panels on glass, not 155W/square meter polycrystalline Si 60 or 72 cell modules. 3) The power rating of each module was only with a white painted roof. If you look at photos of the larger examples of Solyndra installations the roof was always painted reflective white, and this was required for any large installation. This added to installation costs and also meant that any installed solyndra system would slowly start generating less power every year as the roof got dirty. There was no practical way to pressure wash a white roof once it was covered in wired-together modules. 4) Its lunch was eaten by $1.20 to $1.50/watt poly and monocrystalline Si modules from China that anybody could buy, while Solyndra continued to only sell its modules through specially approved dealers and at mounted costs of much higher than $2.00/watt for just the modules and feet. 5) It was only suitable to one type of roof. You can mount a 60 cell aluminum framed module in almost any way - on your house, on angle mounts on top of a home depot, on the bimini top of a sailboat, vertically on the wall on the side of a telecom equipment shelter, etc. Basically, Solyndra created a completely proprietary product that had a terribly expensive manufacturing process, and built a huge factory to scale up their technology at exactly the same time that various Chinese competitors were scaling up the mass production of 156mm polycrystalline and monocrystalline cells. Digitimes, a Taiwanese semiconductor industry trade journal reports that polycrystalline 156mm cells are now sub $0.55/watt, and monocrystalline cells are approaching the $0.60/watt figure. Three US firms are working on thin film technologies which have the possibility of approaching the magical $1.00/watt figure and even going below it. Ascent Solar, Global Solar and Solopower have built pilot lines which produce flexible CIS/CIGS solar modules that can be glued directly onto flat roofs. These come in rolls, with a single Global Solar module measuring 5.7 x 0.5 meters and with a wattage density of about 106W/square meter. Solopower has received a $197 million loan guarantee to build a fab in Oregon to produce their modules. They're not shipping in commercially viable quantities yet, but all three of these companies (which make a very similar product) are going to face stiff competition from the abovementioned $1.00/watt 300W solar modules from China. On the high end: Sunpower has produced a 327W panel now commercially available which has a density of 200.5W/square meter, far exceeding anything available from China. This is produced at a fab in Malaysia, in a joint venture with AU Optronics, a major manufacturer of flat panel LCD displays. If the race to the bottom on price isn't a viable business plan, some firms have decided to compete with better technology. The Sunpower modules are particularly interesting as the positive and negative contacts for each cell are entirely on the back sides of the cells, eliminating the vertical lines seen on common solar cells. Every few percent of added efficiency is helpful.

It's solar noon, do you know what time your clock says?

IvoShandor — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:47:33 -0800

Saturday August 27 Bill Nye dedicated a solar noon clock he designed. The clock is embedded in the facade of Rhodes Hall. At Solar Noon, when the Sun culminates, that is, reaches its highest point in the sky, the sun-shaped feature will light up. It is the marrying of mechanical and electrical engineering with astronomy. What could be better?

The bright future of solar powered factories

Bangaioh — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 07:24:25 -0800

Most of the talk about renewable energy is aimed at electricity production. However, most of the energy we need is heat, which solar panels and wind turbines cannot produce efficiently. To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy. Direct use of solar energy can be the solution, and it creates the possibility to produce renewable energy plants using only renewable energy plants, paving the way for a truly sustainable industrial civilization. Low-Tech and No-Tech Magazines previously: 1, 2, 3.

It's SOHOt

troll — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:42:59 -0800

On July 5th the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured video of a comet, known as a sungrazer, in route to collide with our star. SOHO is equipped with an occluding coronograph that blocks direct sunlight and reveals the corona, but also prevents direct study of the terminal impact of sungrazers. But on July 6th, with the help of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), astronomers were able to observe the comet (slyt) streaking in front of the surface of the sun for the first time in history. It likely disintegrated before impact due to extreme heat and radiation.

The Energy Landscape of 2041

adamvasco — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:15:24 -0800

Energy: the new thirty years' war; we are heading for a global succeed-or-perish contest among the energy big hitters – but who will be the winners and losers? Michael Klare; (via )

Solar powered 3D printer creates glass objects out of sand

Kattullus — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:30:45 -0800

Markus Kayser has designed and built The Solar Sinter, a solar powered 3D printer which creates glass objects out sand. Needless to say, the ability to create objects out of sand using solar power will be welcome in deserts. He took his machine into the Sahara desert to test it. Previously in the Sahara Kayser tested a similiar machine, The Sun Cutter, which uses a ball lens to create a kind of laser cutter.