Solar Panels are Where it’s at

Several weeks ago we noticed that it appeared as though our neighbors down the street were having solar panels added to their home and I couldn’t help but find myself a little curious about them. For a while, I’d been doing a little research online about the benefits of having solar panels and the benefits were outstanding. I loved the fact that it could slash our electric bill to almost nothing, and if that wasn’t enough, the fact that we can power our home simply by harnessing the sun via the solar panels is amazing to me.

I decided that I’d go talk to the neighbors and see what their ideas were on the solar panels and after talking to them and realize they’d done even more in depth work than I had, I knew it was something would be great for our household. My husband and I have now begun the process of deciding where solar panels will be the most beneficial and then we’ll go from there. I’m excited about these new changes in our life that will not only save us money, but will also help the environment.

Satcon Equinox Delivers Best-In-Class Efficiency and the Industry’s Widest Thermal Operating Range

Satcon Equinox Delivers Best-In-Class Efficiency and the Industry’s Widest Thermal Operating Range
9/28/2010 10:19:20 AM

Satcon will introduce its next generation utility ready solar PV inverter solution, Satcon Equinox, at Solar Power International. With its unparalleled system wide intelligence, Edge MPPT performance optimization and industrial-grade engineering, Satcon’s Equinox solutions deliver a best in class efficiency of 98.5% and offer the highest levels of system wide performance, uptime and reliability.
Building upon Satcon’s industry leading PowerGate inverter family, the world’s most widely deployed large scale solutions, Equinox improves system wide energy harvest and solar plant yield, enabling the large scale solar industry’s lowest Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Equinox’s advanced utility ready features enable remote control of real and reactive power, ride through and power factor control. The solution provides for simplified grid interconnection and can be easily integrated into SCADA systems through standardized communication interfaces.

Solar Panels Sucking It Up

This is the time of the year when solar panels really start to suck up all the UV rays shining down on the hotter regions of the country. From Las Vegas to Los Angeles over to Phoenix, the afternoons are getting a bit toasty. Nighttime is still nice and brisk at least in Southern California but the days leave all sorts of room for solar panels to create energy. It is amazing how fast winter goes by over here. There was a couple of weeks of heavy rain over the past 4 months but apart from that the skies have been really blue. It is cold sometimes but never so much so where I need to bring out a winter hat. That is what living in Southern California is all about. And a reason solar panels are so paramount here.

I see a future of almost free electricity when everyone puts such panels on their home and business roofs. It is only a matter of time before the technology comes way down in price. When it does, the sunny west and southwest are from the air going to show off a host of different reflective bits of solar tech on the millions of roofs.

I Find Answers to Questions on Going Green Online

There are so many awesome ways that I have been figuring out how I can pitch and do my part on the fight against global warming by going green. You know how I like to find different ways at going green? I like to look up things online—where I have found that there are some truly amazing and impressive online sites that not only have tons of free tips on going green to offer to people like you and me who want to do our best to preserve our world, but that also have some solutions, like using solar panels on your home to get free energy. We only have one, beautiful and blue planet in which we live, and for me that means that I want to always strive to do my part with going green so that I can know that the world will be green and bright for generations to come. Thanks to the web and the many valuable resources I can easily find online for going green, I have been able to truly make many positive changes in my daily routine so I can do my part and feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

 

Finding Easy Going Green Tips Online

It seems that no matter whom you are, or where you live, you can really find out some awesome and different methods that you can incorporate into your daily regiment that will allow for you to enjoy going green and doing your part simply by making some small changes to the way that you live. I have always been mindful of global warming and the many affects that it can have on our future generation. But thanks to online tips and the many great going green websites that I have been able to easily find by surfing online, there are so many candid tips that I have learned over the years that have me feeling pretty good about doing my part. From little and simple things, like turning out lights I am not using during the day, to setting my sprinklers on timers, and even waiting to wash my clothing until the washer is full; or smaller things like saving water by using towels two times instead of one. Indeed, going green these days is far easier than I had at first thought it would be!

Largest Hydroelectric Power Plant On Planet Planned for Amazon

When Brazil is brought into the equation, the first things that pop into my mind are beautiful women, beautiful beaches and a friendly atmosphere. I now am equating Brazil to the forerunner on hydroelectric power after reading an article titled Brazil pushes ahead with Amazon power plan from the Financial Times. The country is planning to build the world’s largest hydroelectric power planet in the middle of the Amazon jungle. On the surface this seems like a great way to provide power to millions of people in this region of the world. The decision has created an outpouring of opposition from the likes of James Cameron and other celebrities worried about what this hydroelectric power plant could do to the unique environment of the Amazon.

Known as the Belo Monte hydroelectric power project the hope is to create 11,200 megawatts of power according to the Financial Times. This project has a long way to go, as the construction company heading it has yet to be selected. Concerns about this hydroelectric power plant project include the possibility of lower water levels in a section of the Amazon’s largest tributaries. Inherently this could affect everything from plants, animals, insects to the people who live around this region.

 I don’t know enough about this project to make any assumptions but it is ironic that an idea driven by free electricity created from the strong currents of the Amazon is possibly no better for the environment in the area then older means of energy. I expect to see this hydroelectric power debacle show up in the news more as big names like James Cameron jump in to raise awareness. With his finical backing pretty much anything is possible.

Going green in this example may not be the best for the environment. When we start harnessing nature as a means of energy, we have to make sure to keep the collateral damage minimal. Obviously, no large construction project in a dense jungle, forest, desert, ocean or arctic landscape can completely avoid jarring the surrounding environment but steps can be taken to lower this risk. We will see if Brazil rethinks their plan with an increased outcry. I have never heard anything like from places like American National Solar at http://www.americannationalsolar.com/ when solar panel projects are in the works. Maybe solar thermal energy is the best route for future energy creation. From what I have seen in the Southwest and California, solar energy is effective, easy to install and a powerful way to harness the environment naturally.

Brother Showing Me the Scope on Getting Free Electricity

Who does not like to get things for free that is reading this article right now? I knew it! None of you readers raised your hands, because like me, we all love getting things for free! My older brother Adam, who lives in Vermont, has figured out a cool and going green way of getting free electricity: he installed these really innovative thermal solar panels to his home about a year and a half ago. They charge up during the day and then power his home at night. Now he did order them online and had to have them installed, but the solar panels that he got literally have paid for themselves over the course of the past year and a half that he has owned them, because they have provided his home with free electricity during the evenings. I am now, after hearing about how much money my brother has been saving on his monthly utility bills, truly considering making the same addition to my home and saving some big bucks annually on my utilities!

Solar panels and going green is here to stay

 

Solar panels for saving energy are finally making it to the conversation for use on everyday homes. Down here in Arizona, the state is trying to entice business and big going green companies to build and have their headquarters and factories here. With all the sunshine we have here, you would think it would be a done deal, but there has to be incentives for the companies too. Arizona now has in place some nice tax breaks for going green companies and a big reduction in property taxes for renewable energy equipment companies. This is a great start and more companies are taking a look at Arizona and our contender, California, who leads the way in going green policies and companies. Little by little, you read about more people who want to buy products that save our environment. I am so happy to hear consumers have a choice now in environmentally friendly products, from green cars to building materials for homes that save energy and save the use of using natural materials of woods and stone with newer just as beautiful green decor products.

Free Electricity Making His Bank Account Greener

Not too long ago I was talking with someone who told me they were getting free electricity, but even better than that, they were also getting paid by the electric company for their electricity. I was dumbfounded to hear about this and then he explained to me exactly how he was doing his free electricity magic trick. He told me that his house in the country was ran by a combination of solar thermal energy and hydroelectric power. He continued to tell me that after the initial cost of setting up the house for these types of renewal energy that he produced enough free electricity and a surplus that he would sell back to the electric company. This meant that every month the money he invested in setting his house up for free electricity was being recovered by all the payments received. The cool thing was that the whole set up did not cost him too much so in a relatively short period of time he could start making a profit from his free electricity set up which is way too cool . He very jokingly said to me that he had no idea his pursuit of green free electricity technology would make his bank account even greener.

Technology Points to Algae as Next Big Fuel Source

Almost two years ago from today, I sat in one of the last courses of my college career. It was class on how technology effects society and the speaker of the day came to talk to us about future fuels to expect on the horizon. At that time all the rage was corn based bio-diesel. Manufactures had started producing cars that ran on the stuff, bio-diesel gas stations started popping up and hippies all over the country went from fast food joint to restaurant in search of grease to pour into their homemade bio-diesel Volkswagen engines. This speaker almost immediately, dead faced told us corn created bio-diesel is on the way out. He explained the amount of farming land, water it takes to grow corn and the strain it takes on corn as a source of food was all not worth the fueling benefits. He said technology was leading research to the world of algae.

 

Algae can grow in any environment because it doesn’t take much to create a little shelter to house it during the growth process, it is relatively cheap to cultivate and algae is the first stage of how oil comes to be after being crushed and changed within bed rock. The video above shows how this technology is being used today. These scientists pour liquefied algae oil into a diesel truck tank.  They are on the cutting edge of going green technology. The truck fires right up and burns clean.

I recently saw a GE commercial publicizing the advancements in algae they have been working on. Algae is a somewhat unknown fuel technology to the average person but it is going to catch on. People who are working on this environment friendly tech are no different then those spreading information on solar panels within American National Solar at http://www.americannationalsolar.com/.

Almost every week there seems to be new going green advancements. The video featured above only had 117 views when I found it.  Less then a couple of weeks old, viewers plainly see this diesel Ford truck had no issues running on the new fuel source. Out with the old and in with the new. Advancements in technology are really pushing what starts as a crude idea into a working science experiment faster then ever. This whole facet of the science and technology always fascinates me. These are the people who are going to make the day-to-day lives of billions different decades out from now.