DIY Green Solar Energy

Virginia reports on an Australian designed solar light making a difference in developing countries, a solar power enabled transportable office made from from a shipping container, an NRG and Bill Clinton initiative bringing solar to Haiti and the Seiko Astron, a solar powered watch with GPS. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

Virginia reports on Mars Rover Opportunity’s solar panels covered in dust but still delivering power, Lucy Lawless; the actress who played Xena in Xena: Warrior Princess, arrested after participating in Greenpeace action, BP bails on Moree Solar Farm and a new solar farm for Mars Chocolate North America. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

A cutting edge Israeli company demonstrates the reality of solar power on a large scale. Yishai Fleisher, JewishPress.com Managing Editor, visits Arava Power in Kibbutz Ketura 50 km north of Eilat in Southern Israel. He interviews Yosef Abramowitz (President of Arava Power). Arava Power has built Israel’s first commercial solar field which is also the first solar power farm array in the Middle East. This solar field will soon be ramping up to a gigantic 40 megawatts of power which will meet a full third of the power needs of the city of Eilat. Eilat uses 120 megawatts at peak energy (all air conditioners on in every house and every hotel). Music by RebbeSoul: rebbesoul.com

tinyurl.com Are you interested in renewable energy? It may interest you to know that you can now get a complete solar energy system for a fraction of retail cost. How? You can build your own solar panels from home and most of the parts can be found from your local hardware store. These are the best plans to build a solar panel that I have found and I’m sure you will love it. Also, they have some easy to follow videos. tinyurl.com To a cleaner future.

Lecture Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012. One of the greatest challenges humanity faces is finding a way to provide the world’s population with clean energy. Since sunlight is our most abundant source of energy, solar cells, which absorb sunlight and create electricity, will become increasingly important over the next several decades. There have been great advances recently using silicon and thin films of semiconductors to make solar cells and solar electricity is just starting to become economically competitive. It is still important, however, to drop the costs further so that it will be possible to utilize even more solar energy. After providing an overview of the solar cell technologies that are currently commercially available, Professor McGehee will describe a relatively new approach that could make it possible to print solar cells in roll-to-roll coating machines similar to those used to make newspapers. Professor McGehee will show how solar cells can be made with organic semiconductors and explain how these cells work. Lecturer: Michael McGehee, Stanford University.

In the Pacific Islands, and particularly in Melanesia, access to modern energy services is limited. Several Pacific Island countries are trying to bridge the gap of access by tapping into renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydro. There is growing concern that this shift to exploitation of their indigenous energy sources will result in significant impacts on biodiversity as well as on the livelihoods of people. Using low carbon, clean and efficient power sources remains a challenge for many island communities primarily due to geographical isolation and high start-up costs. A component of IUCN’s energy programme in Oceania looks at upgrading existing solar power systems and installing new ones in schools and health clinics on the islands of Santo and Malo in Vanuatu. Solar power for lighting purposes is a cheaper and more reliable option for remote villages as compared to diesel power generators. The project in Vanuatu also looks at small scale hydro and wind power generation. More information can be found at www.iucn.org/oceania

Virginia reports on Senator Christine Milne’s criticism of Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s handling of Solar Flagships, a .3 million solar power system for Hervey Bay Hospital, a 189 megawatt wind farm for Victoria and Intel the USA’s biggest purchaser of green power. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

Virginia reports on Senator Christine Milne’s criticism of Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s handling of Solar Flagships, a .3 million solar power system for Hervey Bay Hospital, a 189 megawatt wind farm for Victoria and Intel the USA’s biggest purchaser of green power. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

Virginia reports on South Australian solar households to be paid more for the surplus electricity they generate, a solar powered flood monitoring system that helped kept Queenslanders safe during recent flooding, a proposed 200MW solar updraft tower for Western Australia and REC solar panels trump an extensive field test. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

Virginia reports on the final round of solar schools grant applications opening soon, solar reaching parity with fossil fuels in MENA nations, solar panel recycling to be a multi-billion dollar industry and two new solar farms that will continue producing electricity after dark. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au