If you’re considering building solar pv panels onto your home, you probably have a ton of questions. Is solar right for me? Is it really worth the investment? Will solar really make a difference in the fight against global warming?

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Most of the renewable energy initiatives have huge capital investment and long gestation time than conventional modes. This effectively shunts away most of people to use these alternative methods.
Does providing govt subsidy is the only way to make people to use these technologies ?

Any comments...

in Biomass Power Production Solar PV Onshore Wind Regulations, Policies and Incentives

I don't know about solar car,can anybody tell about solar car and why don't we use solar car
but my Point of view design is a drawback because more people expectation are great design

in Solar PV Solar CSP

As discussed, on an average 100 watt energy can be generated from a meter square solar panel on a sunny day....
so what is the measurement for those incident solar radiations falling on that solar panel out of which we are able to harvest 100 watt.

so that we can conclude ---- units radiations did fall on the panel today that's why --- watt energy was harvested.

Because radiations/energy in a sunny day in New york will be different than that of in Sahara desert...

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he discovery of a new type of chlorophyll in the rocky stromatolites of Shark Bay in Western Australia has resulted in Min Chen being awarded the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.

Chlorophyll is the pigment found in plants that absorbs light into one of two types of photosystems which eventually allow the processing of sugars for energy.

It had previously been found to exist in four different forms named chlorophyll a, b, c and d. The new type of chlorophyll, dubbed chlorophyll f, has been shown to absorb much farther into the red end of the visible spectrum, and it has potential applications in the solar cells and crop plants.

in Solar PV Biomimicry

By Jeff Siegel | Monday, October 10th, 2011
Jeff Siegel

Any time you see the words “internal memo” in a news report, you know it can't be good.

You'd think these guys in Washington would know better by now...

If you're going to do something shady, don't use email as your method of communication. Even drug dealers know better than to use email, land lines, or traceable mobile phones.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not comparing common drug dealers to politicians.

After all, drug dealers know how to support job creation in a real free market.

Laws? What Laws?

So a series of emails that were probably never meant to be shared with the public have shown that an assistant Treasury secretary told the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget that the Solyndra deal could violate federal law because it put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers' interests.

This isn't new.

You think all those ethanol subsidies didn't put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers' interests?

You think all those agricultural subsidies don't put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers' interests?

You think all those “clean coal” subsidies don't put investors' interests ahead of taxpayers' interests?

Hell, just last month the DOE awarded $14 million to six carbon capture projects — $14 million at a time when they're supposedly getting tough on spending.

Meanwhile, the $4 billion welfare check for the oil & gas industry every year is still getting cut...

Interestingly, while the Obama administration's Solyndra scandal is making the rounds on all the cable news shows, we haven't heard much about another scandal coming out of the White House.

And this one is connected to a $13 billion project.

in Clean Coal Solar PV

Norway’s $2.4 billion solar pioneer Renewable Energy Corp would churn out photovoltaics in its home country, if only it could.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/solar-norwegian-would/9194?tag=nl.e660

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Is it possible to run trains using solar panels ? If it's possible means how much it would cost to build such train in India?

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All right, it is perhaps a bit too late to debate upon Solyndra's technology now that the company appears to be headed down the tube (pun deliberate). All the same, I got inquisitive while going through the description of their technology ( http://www.solyndra.com/technology-products/cylindrical-module/ ):

"Solyndra designs and manufactures proprietary cylindrical modules incorporating copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film technology. Our panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360-degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. In the industry sometimes panels are referred to as modules; at Solyndra, each panel is made up of individual modules."

See the picture here - http://www.solyndra.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tube-lightsources.png - to get a better idea...

I see an advantage with regard to the reflected light, but is this cylindrical shape really going to provide efficiency increases over flat thin film...for one, by making them cylindrical and requiring that there be gaps between the two cylinders, you are sacrificing that small area which in the case of flat thin film would have generated power...it is hence likely that some of the efficiencies owing to reflected light etc., could well get negated owing to structural inefficiencies such as the one I mentioned above...

Strangely, the web pages at Solyndra compare performances with crystalline silicon panels...I am not saying it is irrelevant, but they should also be doing it against flat thin films...

The other benefit touted by Solyndra about ease of installation might well be (I mean, might well had been :-)) an advantage...

in Solar PV

Any idea why Evergreen Solar is going down the tube? Are the reasons similar to those for Soyndra?

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