Virginia reports on REC’s 5 millionth solar panel, Victoria’s Yarra Climate Action Now pursuing a community-owned solar farm and solar soon to be an even better deal for small businesses in Australia. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

The Italian government has recently funded a project in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip which includes the establishment of a solar-powered kindergarten. The solar panels installed on the roof of Umm al-Nasser kindergarten, trap energy from the sun which generates electricity enough to power the school’s lighting and electric-run machines the entire day. Naheda Khail, project coordinator at Vento di Terra in Gaza explained that solar energy is both cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. Umm al-Nasser kindergarten consists of eight classrooms and serves 150 children from the local Bedouin community. Ibrahim Sharayha, an engineer, said there are two energy converters on site to ensure continual electricity supply. “The school uses alternative power. It gives around 10 kilowatts of electricity. We have two convertors, each one produces 5 kilowatts. Near the school, there is mosque which also uses the same kind of alternative energy that gives it approximately 24 hours of electricity,” she said. Kindergarten headmistress Fatma Abu Rashed said that the school doesn’t need to rely on intermittent electricity due to the consistent supply from solar energy. This isn’t the first solar energy project in Gaza aided by the Italian government. 5 out of 15 intensive care units in Gaza’s Shifa hospital are powered by the sun. Years of Israeli-imposed blockades on Gaza along with internal Palestinian political strife meant fuel had to be smuggled from Egypt via underground border …

The Opening of New Zealand’s biggest solar power plant at SAFE Drury

www2.dupont.com Title: City of Science, City of Hope While our world holds many high hopes for solar energy, comprehensive city-sized applications remain few and far between. Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s stunning new sustainable development, is a living laboratory dedicated to proving the viability of green technologies at a citywide level. The city looked to Suntech to provide this photovoltaic technology. When it came to manufacturing the thousands of panels required for the landmark project, Suntech turned to DuPont to deliver a number of crucial components to ensure maximum efficiency and reliability. This collaboration is already yielding results—Masdar is currently consuming only 40% of the energy they are generating. NOURA AL DHAHERI PHD STUDENT, MASDAR INSTITUTE After having a son, I began to be more concerned about his future. The way we live now, burning the fossil fuel, we need to step up and do something about it. TITLE ABU DHABI MAIN TITLE CITY OF SCIENCE, CITY OF HOPE ALAN FROST DIRECTOR, MASDAR CITY Masdar, for me, is like no other project in the world. The idea of the city itself was to be carbon neutral. The architecture is based on all Arabic cities. The narrow streets are very important to keep out the sun during the day. At the moment, we’re testing a personal rapid transport—that’s a driverless electric vehicle and it’s powered from our solar farm. NOURA AL DHAHERI We’re kind of living in our laboratory, and we know that, but we are happy because this is what …

Virginia reports on Australia’s renewable energy target under threat, the mining industry still on the subsidy gravy train and the US EPA’s latest top 50 Green Power Partnership rankings. For further details of these stories and more, visit www.energymatters.com.au

www.intelligencesquared.com In the fourth installment of our iq2 Shorts series, Professor Michael Düren of DESERTEC argues that we can harness the African desert sun to power the world. The animation is adapted from our Switched On evening ‘Energy Game Changers’ from March 2012. Click on the following link to watch the four other carbon cutting energy solutions presented that evening bit.ly

Even as Indian power plants run short of coal, scientists at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy are experimenting with new ways of using the sun to generate energy. These are purely experimental right now – there are no plans to roll them out commercially at affordable rates yet. ibnlive.com

From towers to dishes to linear mirrors to troughs, concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies reflect and collect solar heat to generate electricity. A single CSP plant can generate enough power for about 90000 homes. This video explains what CSP is, how it works, and how systems like parabolic troughs produce renewable power. For more information on the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s CSP research, see the Solar Energy Technology Program’s Concentrating Solar Power Web page at www1.eere.energy.gov

It took Apple to make the mouse ubiquitous. The warning—first movers don’t always end up dominating a particular field—applies to another hot technology: solar power, Liam Denning reports on Markets Hub.

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