Posts Tagged ‘solar panels’

Solar Panels on Toyota Motor Manufacturing Plant in the UK

Auto manufacturers are increasingly turning to renewable energy to cut costs and save energy.  This week, we heard that solar panels on the Toyota manufacturing plant in the UK are planned to be installed, allowing Toyota to use solar energy to build cars. Partnering with British Gas, Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK submitted a land use [...]

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Solar Railway Tunnel in Europe

A new solar railway tunnel in Europe will be sited in the City of Antwerp on the link between Paris and Amsterdam.  Using solar panels to generate electricity, the tunnel is expected to save millions and millions of tons of CO2 emissions. The solar railway tunnel will be powered by 50,000 solar panels, over a [...]

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Solar Technology Improves Solar Cell Efficiency

One of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption of solar power as an energy resource is solar cell efficiency.  That, plus the relatively high cost of solar, means that we currently generate less than 1% of all electricity from solar power. HyperSolar, based in Santa Barbara, California has developed a patent-pending solar technology to effectively [...]

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Sun Eagle Solar Powered Golf Cart

Golfing is a (usually) relaxing recreational pursuit, most often enjoyed on sunny days.  So why not draw on solar power for golf carts?  Solar Carts, LLC will start offering its Sun Eagle solar powered golf cart on June 1, 2011.  Actually, the product is a photovoltaic (PV) solar panel retrofit for existing golf carts – [...]

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Solmentum Completes 1000th Residential Solar Power Project

In the 2 years since it started business in California, Solmentum has completed its 1000 residential solar power project.  With this track record, it is in the top 5 largest residential solar companies in the state.  Its solar power installations benefit 1000 customers and have a combined capacity of 5 megawatts (MW). So what is [...]

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Buy Grape Solar Panels Online at Amazon.com

A few weeks ago, we told you about how you could buy Grape Solar solar panels at the major warehouse company, Costco. Now, this Oregon-based company is taking its product to a wider range of homeowners who want to go solar. Residential solar panels from Grape Solar are available online at Amazon.com.  The ease of [...]

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Floating Solar Panels

Since 2007, SPG Solar has been promoting its floating solar panels to government officials and commercial enterprises, such as wineries and industrial mine owners.  Floating solar panels, or “floatovoltaics” as they are cleverly called, can help increase the use of solar power where it might not otherwise be practical or possible. So what does this [...]

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Review of SunForce panels at CompUSA

This morning as I was online at our local news site, I happened to see an ad for some solar equipment I had seen just two days ago.  I was at CompUSA at our local mall to look at wireless cards when something near the front of the store caught my eye. There was the telltale shiny surface inside of a frame, and at once I knew what it had to be – solar panels! Solar panels at a computer store, of all places! I was excited to see what they were all about.

Upon closer inspection, though it would have been really neat to have a solar panel kit and extra panels for quick, easy power generation, the prices were sky high compared to what I knew they could be. I took about two or three glances at the nice boxes of solar power generator kits and spare panels, even went up to one of the boxes to read the information, but the prices were the biggest drawback. Let me describe this for you.

SunForce 50232 Folding Solar Panel – 30 Watt – $119.99

Compare this price with that at Sun Electronics, which has the cheapest prices on quality solar panels I’ve seen. You can’t even get a 30-watt panel at Sun Electronics. The minimum wattage is 42 watts, and that’s only a fraction of the price at $60.00.   Read more…

How my life is like that of a solar panel

Getting up early

A solar panel gets up bright and early in the morning. As soon as the sun starts to rise, so does its level of output. Its current is sluggish at first, but soon the electricity really starts to flow.

I’ve spent the past two days trying to train myself to get up early, just like my future study companion, the solar panel. The first day was really hard, waking up 2 hours earlier than usual. The second day is today, and I’m doing pretty well except for an upset stomach in the morning still. I tried doing some exercise to get my level of output up; I do feel more alert at this time than I did yesterday, though I still can’t exercise at my full level of output in the morning compared to later in the day.

High output on sunny days

Today looks to be a nice and sunny day. On dreary, overcast days, again I find myself to be much like the solar panel. My output really suffers. In contrast, today looks to be a high-output day. Solar panels all over the area should be enjoying the day, as will I.

Finding purpose in life

The sole purpose of a solar panel in life is to produce electricity. It is unambiguous what it is made to do. In contrast, it has taken me some time to figure out what I am made to do. I see that I have hands, feet, and a brain, so I figure I am designed to handle things, move about, and think. However, there are so many possible job functions to choose from where I can do those three things.

I have concluded that, at least for the next year or so, my purpose in life will be to use my innate skills to help solar panels achieve their purpose in life. It is a noble purpose, to help convert free sunlight into electricity that can be used to move things, drive things, power things. Read more…

The beautiful simplicity of solar panels

It might be hard to see, but I see an implicit beauty to solar panels.

A solar panel has just one purpose in life, and that is to generate electricity for as long as it can.  When it is manufactured, its purpose in life never has a chance to be ambiguous.  It is readily apparent what the solar panel is for – to take sunlight and convert it to electricity.

It doesn’t matter what the weather conditions are – neither rain nor sleet nor a little snow will stop the solar panel from making its electricity.  As long as a few photons can reach the panel from the sky, an output will be made, no matter how feeble.  The solar panel never tires of performing its duty, its one job function in the whole world.

When darkness falls, and almost all the people are asleep in their beds, the solar panel must also wait in anticipation for the arrival of a new day.  No output can be made in the depths of darkness.

When the solar panel grows old, its output may decline.  However, if kept in good repair, it will function for a long time.  Each and every day that the sun rises with certainty, the solar panel will output electricity with certainty, until it suffers a terminal malfunction.  On that last day of its life, it will produce its last bit of electricity, and then no more.

What happens to solar panels that have died?  Do they get recycled to ashes, and their ashes turned to dust from which new solar panels are made?  The cycle of life would then continue, powered by the energy the solar panel had helped to capture during its lifetime.  That would be fitting.