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

American Yossi Abramowitz, Kibbutz Ketura member Ed Hoflind, and their US-based partner David Rosenblatt have built Ketura Sun, Israel’s first commercial solar energy field. On these twenty acres of land in the Negev desert, 18500 photo-voltaic plates convert the sun’s energy into electricity. Only 1% of Israel’s electricity currently comes from renewable energy sources, but entrepreneurs like Abramowitz hope to change that. With funding from Siemens, Ketura Sun began operating last June, and it now generates nearly five megawatts for the national grid at peak performance. Although it’s a fraction of Israeli’s daily peak usage of 11000 megawatts, the Arava Power Company plans to build 50 more solar fields in the next five years. This is expected to greatly alleviate Eilat’s dependence on diesel. Israel has a national goal to generate 10% of its electricity using renewable sources by 2020, which will be 2.76 gigawatts. There is also an interim goal of 1.6 gigawatts by 2014, and the government expects 460 megawatts from solar power. Arava has plans for 500 megawatts capacity, and competitors are expected to add a further 1000 megawatts. This puts the country largely on schedule for the 2014 and 2020 targets, although some say the government is not doing enough. However, solar energy is still more expensive than natural gas, and analysts say removing restrictions on solar energy fields could result in price increases for consumers. SOT Arava Power Company President Yossi …

This is a video regarding the recent solar energy we are all feeling! You can read the ascension update on our website at www.thefaeriesandangelsmagazine.com You can also read about the recent solar flares at www.spaceweather.com

This is a tour with details of an off-grid solar power installation I worked on a few years ago. I go over a system diagram, show the system itself, and then talk about the safety features including breakers/fuses, lightning arrestors, and bonding equipment to ground. This system includes 2100watts of solar panels, a 10kW diesel generator, two Outback FM-80 charge controllers, two Outback inverters, an Outback Mate, a Xantrex TMA-500 battery status monitor, and 6 4volt, 1104amphour Surrette/Rolls lead acid deep cycle batteries. Thanks to Ottawa Solar Power (ottawasolarpower.com) for allowing me to use this installation in this off-grid solar power video. For more on solar power, see rimstar.org – rimstar.org

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

LIKE/FAV FOR SOLAR POWER! Win this at: facebook.com Detailed project instructions below: We are going to modify a cheap cell phone to charge off of solar power. Here are the items you will need. 1. Cheap Throwaway Mobile phone 2. Basic small solar panel (available at electronics stores) 3. Standard blocking diode (also get at the electronics store) Attach the solar panel to the back of the phone with hot glue or epoxy. You can then burn a couple holes in the case with a soldering iron to run the wires through. Next, burn some grooves into the plastic phone molding so that we can store the wires without them stopping the phone from closing. Now the fun part! Solder the positive output of the solar panel to the diode, make sure you wire it to the back end of the diode, you can tell which side is which by looking at the diode itself. Diode’s have a single white line on the end which designates the front, so just wire the solar panel to the side without the white line! Next, wire the other side of the diode to the phone’s positive battery prong (this should be marked on the phone itself). When that is done take the negative end of the solar panel and wire it to the negative battery prong on the phone. Now pop in the battery and close up the phone! Your cheap emergency phone is now ready for action! Thanks to all of you for your support and thank you to Squarespace for helping to keep this show going! Check them out at: squarespace.com and use the code science9 for 2 weeks …

taking a old led liting and testing solar power out put form high out put led.

Virginia reports on South Australians being slugged hard on utility bills, construction of the Mildura Solar Farm, Victoria’s solar feed in tariff review announced and air conditioning’s impact on peak power loads. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

The Zap Xebra has an electric hum as it passes by. Riding on the inside is a lot louder, but a comfortable ride. Randy added 6 thirty watt solar panels which adds 180 watt charging capacity at full sun. He says the solar panels themselves won’t charge the car up if the batteries are very low, but they do help to maintain the charge during the day which extends the range by about 25%. On a full charge the car will go for about 20 miles – not much, but enough to get around Randy’s small town. They are planning on buying an all-electric Nissan Leaf for longer journeys. He bought the Zap Xebra new in California for 00. Adding the solor panels brought the cost in just under 000. With solar panels installed on their home, Randy and his wife have offset the cost of charging the Xebra. The car was built in China with the electronics asembled and installed in California. Randy points out that the car could easily be made in the United States, and he hopes his investment will help in a small way to spread that idea. Randy is certainly right in how people respond to the car. Everywhere we drove, people smiled and waved. Often we were stopped by inqusitive onlookers, and Randy was always happy to answer their questions. This seems like only the beginning of a green transportation evolution, but even this humble beginning left me with a good feeling as I rode around in a car that drew all its power from the sun and left no exhaust. Video Produced by Rasa at www.pelorian.com …

Goal Zero combines solar panels with heavy-duty rechargers, for a variety of portable (and not so portable) devices.