THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for August, 2008

Written by Andrew Williams, courtesty of Gas2.o

A new report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Initiative predicts that a 30-50% reduction in fuel consumption is possible in the US over the next 25-30 years. Initially, this will be achieved through improved gasoline and diesel engines and transmissions, gasoline hybrids and reductions in vehicle weight and drag. In the longer term, the study concludes that plug-in hybrids and, later, hydrogen fuel cells may begin to have a significant impact on fuel use and emissions.

The report, ‘On the Road in 2035: Reducing Transportation’s Petroleum Consumption and GHG Emissions,’ summarizes the results of an MIT research project that assessed the technology of vehicles and fuels that could be developed and commercialized during the next 25 years.

The research team assessed the effect of new vehicle and fuel technologies on the performance, cost and lifecycle emissions of individual vehicles. It then assessed the effects on the total on-the-road fleet of introducing these technologies using “plausible assumptions about how rapidly they could be developed, manufactured and sold to buyers to replace existing vehicles and fuels or to add to the existing fleet.”

Other key findings include:

• Alternative fuels simpy seeking to replace petroleum are unlikely to lead to a significant change in GHG emissions. In fact, major near-term alternatives like the Candian oil-sands and coal will actually increase emissions;
• Although some biofuels may prove beneficial, the U.S. emphasis on corn-based ethanol is “not obviously justifiable,” since it has “high economic costs, questionable GHG advantages, and other unfavorable environmental impacts.”
• No single alternative fuel or technological development is likely to solve the problems of increased GHG emissions. Instead, progress must come from from a “comprehensive, coordinated effort to develop and market more efficient vehicles and benign fuels, and to find more sustainable ways to satisfy transportation demands.”

Other Posts on Fuel Economy:

• EcoDriving: The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Gift to the Masses
• GM Determined to Think Big With Better Fuel Economy
• Have Your Saturn Converted to an All-Electric Car
• Every Drop Counts: Nissan to Equip Cars With Fuel Efficient ECO Pedals
• Like GM, Ford Decides They’d Better Start Producing Smaller, More Fuel-Efficient Cars

Image Credit - futureatlas.com on Flickr via a Creative Commons License

This past week was an eventful one for thin-film solar companies Nanosolar and AVA Solar , which received a total of over $400 million in funding.

Nanosolar, which took in $300 million, has now raised nearly half a billion dollars of capital. The company plans to use the money to expand thin-film solar panel production at its San Jose and Berlin factories.

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In the department of “How has this not already happened?”, Haaretz reports that Israel’s first solar power station is now functioning. The 50 kW solar array is on a farm in the Negev, and will be hooked up to the national power grid in two weeks.

The reason for the long wait? Israel’s state solar incentives just kicked in on July 1st. They allow home and industrial customers to receive NIS 2.01 per kWh for electricity produced. Household power plants are limited to 15 kW, and business plants are limited to 50 kW.

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Story courtesy of the Environmental News Network

An investigation by the Associated Press (AP) has revealed that the drinking water of at least 41 million people in the United States is contaminated with pharmaceutical drugs.

It has long been known that drugs are not wholly absorbed or broken down by the human body. Significant amounts of any medication taken eventually pass out of the body, primarily through the urine.

While sewage is treated before being released back into the environment, and water from reservoirs or rivers is also treated before being funneled back into the drinking water supply, these treatments are not able to remove all traces of medications. And so far, the EPA has not regulated the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, meaning that there are no laws in existence today that protect consumers from this increasingly dangerous chemical contaminant of the water supply.

Here are some of the test results obtained by the AP:
   + Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
   + Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
   + A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
   + The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

Read the rest of the article here.
Here is a map showing cities across the US where the drinking water tested positive for pharmaceuticals.

Why spend lots of money heating your house when nature can do it for you? Upstate New York resident John Kosmer has taken passive solar to a new level in his home, which only costs $2.50 a day to heat. That’s less than $1,000 a year of heating expenses in an area of the country that gets mauled with snow multiple times a year.

Kosmer worked with Building With Integrity and Adirondack Alternative Energy to construct his passive solar house. Four-inch thick rigid polyurethane is installed on the exterior walls and under the roof, while pre-finished concrete siding covers the exterior of the home.

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