DIY Green Solar Energy

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

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.

Samsung NC215S www.netbooknews.com The Samsung NC215s is pretty much your typical Samsung netbook, except that it packs solar panels in the lid. Naturally, the best color to go with solar panels is black, and that’s the only color available. You’ll get a 10-inch 1024 x 600 matte display, a dual-core Atom N570 processor, 1GB of RAM, 250GB HDD, b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 10/100 LAN and Windows 7 Starter. It weighs 2.9 pounds / 1.3kg.

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

Beautiful orrery(solar system model) avaiable in : www.orrerystore.com .I've been experimenting with a small scale solar power system. Right now, I am just powering a battery charger for D, C, AAA, AA and 9volt batteries. So far its been very easy to work with. I will do some more experimenting with lighting and other 12 volt appliances and post the results.

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 …

Correction: NASA’s Spirit Rover has not been active since 2010. The video suggested the rover was still active. If you want to catch rays on Mars, you have to head to a site called Greeley Haven. That’s where NASA’s rover Opportunity will spend the Martian winter, in hopes of recharging its batteries. The electricity-generating solar panels on Opportunity are now covered in so much dust that NASA needs to maximize the space vehicle’s time in the sun between now and the southern winter solstice when days begin to lengthen. The sunny winter site is named after Ronald Greeley, one of the planetary geologists on the Mars rover team. Opportunity and its fellow rover Spirit both completed their primary missions in 2004 but are carrying on their exploration of the red planet. As Opportunity “winters” in Greeley Haven, it will be gathering data about wobbles in Mars’ rotation, in hopes of helping better understand more about the planet’s core.

In this episode, Virginia covers the SolarKindle, the power of buying solar in groups, electricity prices in Victoria jump again and what commercial enterprises can do to combat electricity cost increases resulting from Australia’s carbon tax and other price hikes. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au