new belgium brewery: solar array

New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins Colorado has recently announced the largest privately owned solar array in Colorado has gone live at their plant. The 200 kW system will produce 16 percent of New Belgium’s peak electrical load and 3 percent of their total electrical energy use.
The array is part of the brewer’s commitment to Fort Collins’ FortZED initiative, a public/private partnership that aims to create the world’s largest “active zero energy district” through Smart Grid and renewable energy technology.

Boulder-based Namaste Solar began the installation in late August 2009. The New Belgium packaging hall now holds 870 panels, and engineers estimate it can power the bottle line for up to eight hours on a sunny day.
New Belgium became the country’s first brewery to subscribe to 100 percent wind powered electricity in 1998 and can produce up to 15 percent of its electrical needs by capturing methane from its process water treatment plant to fire a co-generation engine which produces heat and electricity on-site.

soji led solar lantern

Great green gift: modern solar light from Earth Tech Products.

team germany wins solar decathlon

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that ‘Team Germany’ from the Technische Universität Darmstadt has won the 2009 Solar Decathlon with their project surPLUShome. This is the second time in a row that a team from TU Darmstadt wins this international contest after already snatching the title in Solar Decathlon’s last edition in 2007.
After 9 days and 10 contests, Team Germany reached the highest overall scores, closely followed by Team Illinois and Team California. Dubbed “the big, black monolith,” surPLUShome is almost entirely covered with photovoltaic panels that managed to generate 19 kilowatts during one day of test runs—more than twice as much as some other Solar Decathlon contestants.
The Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. More about Team Germany's house here.

dow solar: photovoltaic roof shingles

Dow Solar Solutions has launched a new range of BIPV system that will be great for all those who don’t like to give up the appearance a conventional roofing shingle gives to their house for being ecofriendly. The company’s latest solar panels look just like regular roofing shingle and according to the company, they cost about 40% less than other solar panels that can be installed like roofing tiles. Dow received $20 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop its BIPV products.

In addition to being cheaper, these new solar shingles, dubbed Dow PowerHouse, are 10% more efficient and cost 15% less on a per-watt basis. The panels can be installed by regular roofers and can provide renewable energy without changing the look of your house. The new solar shingles can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles, Dow said, and will be introduced in 2010 before a wider roll-out in 2011. The shingle will use thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a photovoltaic material that typically is more efficient at turning sunlight into electricity than traditional polysilicon cells. Dow's shingle will be about 30 to 40 percent cheaper than current BIPV systems. The Dow shingles can be installed in about 10 hours, compared with 22 to 30 hours for traditional solar panels, reducing the installation costs that make up more than 50 percent of total system prices. The product will available in North America through Lennar Corp (LEN.N) and Pulte Homes Inc (PHM.N) before marketing is expanded.
via Reuters

solar decathlon: team germany

The sleek looking home by Team Germany, currently in third place at the Solar Decathlon at the National Mall in Washington DC, consists of four simple modules which make it easy to construct. a single multi-use room on the first floor and a loft upstairs. The house has a silicon skin of 40 rooftop solar panels and 250 thin-film CIGS panels on the exterior walls. The home is priced at $650,000 to $850,000 including the 11.1 kW solar photovoltaic system (producing 200% of the energy needed by the home).
The team has scored well in the categories of architecture (94 out of 100), market viability (91 out of 100), and communications (53.25 out of 75).

solar decathlon: 2009

For three weeks in October, the U.S. Department of Energy will again host the biennial Solar Decathlon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Solar Decathlon is a competition of 20 teams of college and university students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. There are 10 subjective and objective contests in these categories: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering.
The competition educates students and the public, promotes solar technologies, promotes innovatiove whole building design, and demonstrates the potential for net zero energy homes.
My favorite contenders so far are:
silo house cornell u

lumenhaus virginia tech

icon solar house u of minn

13 new solar plants in the west

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senator Harry Reid announce plans to fast-track commercial-scale solar power development on public lands.

Federal agencies will work with western leaders to designate tracts of U.S. public lands in the West as prime zones for utility-scale solar energy development.

Under the zoning portion of the initiative, 24 tracts of Bureau of Land Management land located in six western states, known as Solar Energy Study Areas, would be evaluated for their environmental and resource suitability for commercial-scale solar energy production. Those areas selected would be available for projects capable of producing 10 or more megawatts of electricity. The Solar Energy Study Areas (maps) located in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah encompass about 670,000 acres.

The goal is to produce a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity. The plan would streamline the entire development process; coordinate zoning and environmental studies, and; prioritize the processing of the projects. The new plan will tap resources made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama.

via RGB

solar powered gym boulder: movement climbing & fitness

Movement Climbing & Fitness here in Boulder Colorado is the world's first renewable energy powered gym.

Lighthouse Solar has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the inventors of the gym. The energy required to power the gym will be harnessed by a 100KW photovoltaic array and water is heated in a 90-sq-ft evacuated tube solar thermal system.

The solar systems are owned by Lighthouse Solar and the building owners purchase the energy the photovoltaic and solar thermal systems produce. Since the system is installed on the building, the gym owners pay a fixed power cost, which is 10% below the current grid electrical rate.

Designed by Jim Logan Architects, the facilities in the climbing gym are state-of-the-art. The building incorporates smart and energy-efficient lighting systems. A heat exchanger is integrated to utilize outside air to cool or warm the interior. The electrical consumption of the building is displayed on a monitor at the entrance of the building.

something that belong in my bike basket

Even though it is raining like mad everyday in Colorado, I could do with one of these handy dandy portable radios as an accessory for my bicycle. This Solar Powered AM/FM radio has ahand crank to supplement its solar capabilities. Crank it up for one minute and the radio will play back for thirty minutes. This extremely portable radio can be purchased here for $25.