Solar Panels

Google Wants to Help America Ditch Fossil Fuels, Go Renewable Despite rampant commercial success, having a stock price of over 700 dollars, the wildly successful top internet search engine, possibly the top free email service, a new cell phone OS, and a constant stream of new services that equate to internet market domination, Google has never seemed quite as evil as some big companies. The company has always preached a strongly altruistic philosophy. Its goal is to "to organize the... Read Full Story

One day last week at 3:00 am, my 9 month old decided that sleep was not in the cards. Nothing I tried worked. Determined not to be bothered by it, I let her play in her room while I surfed on my laptop. Somehow I ended up on Rush Limbaugh’s website, and started looking around. I had high expectations. I may not agree with much of his views, but I do respect him for having captured the imagination and attention of millions of listeners. I was looking for substance, things to learn, and... Read Full Story

In Part I of this blog on alternative energy sources for the DR, we examined the country's current energy mix and the government's overall targets for increasing the role of renewable sources in that mix.  Here in Part II, we look at the prospects for meeting or besting these goals.   Blowing in the Wind   As we noted in our prior blog on the "wind atlas" for the DR, a study co-sponsored by USAID and the US Government's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concluded that some 1,500... Read Full Story

There’s a lot of waste in the computer industry. IBM has developed a solution that takes scrap silicon disks and makes them into solar panels. Computer chips are made of silicon wafers that have to be perfect to be usable. Imperfect wafers are thrown away after sensitive data is removed. Now, with a new process by inventor Eric White, they can be reused and made into solar panels. Not only are the wafers being salvaged but the process for cleaning them is also improved. No more harsh acid... Read Full Story

Google Inc. plans to build a massive solar-electricity system to help power parts of its Mountain View, Calif., campus that it says will benefit both the environment and its bottom line. The system, to be built by EI Solutions, a unit of Energy Innovations Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., will use 9,212 solar panels and have a total capacity of 1.6 megawatts, or enough electricity to supply 1,000 average California homes. That will satisfy 30% of the campus’ peak electricity needs. The... Read Full Story

Ausra Solar Heat Information It’s difficult to stand out in the competitive solar energy market, but Ausra, an Australian-American company, seems to be successful at setting itself apart from the competition. The California-based Ausra got its name from an ancient Indo-European goddess of the dawn. It is a solar thermal technology company that produces electricity from sunlight with fewer issues compared to the traditional methods, and could even lower the expenses of generating utility-scale... Read Full Story

Solar power is the best way to get a return investment on your energy bill. The problem is costly systems. A good solar system can cost into the 10s of thousands of dollars, but with federal and state grants and tax credits an investor can save money on the cost of their system. It all depends on where you live. A simple search on google can help you find the grants in your area. Also the link included can tell you the sunshine and a rough cost of your system. Sunshine is not the same... Read Full Story