Tag Archive for: solarpanels

PV installations increased 30% on farms in the latest US Census of Agriculture. Some 116,758 farms had solar panels in 2022, compared with 90,142 in 2017.

Solar use on US farms jumps 30% in five years

Solar is in on the American farm, while the uptake for wind power is slowing.

Photovoltaic installations increased 30% on farms in the latest US Census of Agriculture released Tuesday. Some 116,758 farms had solar panels in 2022, compared with 90,142 in 2017. Wind turbine installation, meanwhile, grew by only 2.7% during the same period, to 14,511 farms.

The slight increase for wind follows a 56% jump in the previous census, which covered the five years to 2017.

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Source: Bloomberg

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Many hands have been trying to make space solar happen for many years, and now the US Space Force may be helicoptering in to lend a hand.

The US Space Force is catching space solar fever

The idea of beaming clean energy down to Earth from orbiting arrays of solar panels seemed pretty wacky when it first crossed the CleanTechnica radar. However, the technology building blocks are already at hand. It’s just a matter of scaling, systems integration, and adjustments for space-hardiness. That sounds simple enough, but many hands have been trying to make space solar happen for many years, and now the US Space Force may be helicoptering in to lend a hand.

The Space Solar Race Is For Real

Research teams from the US, China, and the UK are among those chasing the space solar rainbow. The attraction of space solar is the potential for 24/7 solar power at the multi-gigawatt scale, all year long. That has implications for military use as well as civilian life.

The US Department of Defense has already begun using solar arrays and energy storage to build more resilience and security into its facilities and operations. Access to solar energy from space would kick that effort into high gear.

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Source: Clean Technica

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If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options.

Everywhere else you can install solar panels

If you want to take advantage of solar energy but you can’t (or don’t want to) put solar panels on your roof, you do have other options. As solar panels become more advanced and the technology develops, gathering energy from the sun is growing ever easier and more unobtrusive than ever. Here are some great options for installing solar panels in places other than your roof.

Solar siding

If you have a south-facing wall on your home with about eight feet by eight feet of space, you can install solar panel siding. These solar cells will work best in unshaded areas, of course, but they can still collect energy even in they are in southeast or southwest facing areas. The advantage of this installation method is that you can choose the color of your panels to match your home’s exterior and blend in with the architecture. The disadvantage is that the solar panels won’t be at an optimal angle to absorb sunlight, as they will be perfectly vertical.

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Source: Life Hacker

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If successful, Sweetwater could be the first drinking water reservoir in the United States to host renewable energy of this kind.

San Diego could be first to float solar on drinking water

A south San Diego water district is thinking about powering itself with energy from the sun.

Leaders at Sweetwater Authority, which serves National City, western Chula Vista and Bonita, hired a contractor to study how floating solar panels on its namesake reservoir could reduce its budget. If successful, Sweetwater could be the first drinking water reservoir in the United States to host renewable energy of this kind.

Sweetwater’s board hired Noria Energy on June 28 to design a 3.75 megawatt solar array atop 10 acres of the reservoir. Noria has built floating solar arrays on top of a hydroelectric reservoir in Urra, Colombia and on wastewater treatment ponds in Healdsburg, California, both smaller than the solar panel array proposed at Sweetwater.

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Source: Voice of San Diego

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The Defense Department will install solar panels on the Pentagon, part of the Biden administration’s plan to promote clean energy.

The Pentagon will install rooftop solar panels as Biden pushes clean energy in federal buildings

The Defense Department will install solar panels on the Pentagon, part of the Biden administration’s plan to promote clean energy and “reestablish the federal government as a sustainability leader.”

The Pentagon is one of 31 government sites that are receiving $104 million in Energy Department grants that are expected to double the amount of carbon-free electricity at federal facilities and create 27 megawatts of clean-energy capacity while leveraging more than $361 million in private investment, the Energy Department said.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the projects Wednesday at the Pentagon.

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Source: KTLA

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Replacing water-intensive crops with water-efficient and drought-tolerant alternatives can allow farmers to continue working their fields in the face of water shortages and drought.

How farmers and ranchers are innovating in response to a shrinking Colorado River

The Colorado River has been a source of power, growth, and dispute in the southwestern United States since its waters were first diverted by European settlers in the early 1800s. Over the last two decades, increasing temperatures, urban growth, and a lengthy drought have contributed to rising tensions between the river’s stewards and those who hold rights to water withdrawals. The river’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, hit historic lows in 2021 and again in 2022, spurring a decision to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact of 1922 to prevent the reservoirs from reaching “dead pool”—the level at which their waters no longer flow downstream and their dams can no longer produce electricity.

The compact, or agreement, establishes water allotments for the seven “basin” states—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, California, Nevada, and Arizona—that rely on the river, as well as for 30 federally-recognized tribal nations and Mexico. In May of 2023, the most recent round of negotiations concluded with guidelines for water management through 2026. The resulting agreement saw the river’s Lower Basin states, Arizona, California, and Nevada, volunteer to cut their withdrawals by an aggregate 3 million acre-feet of water. These cuts promise to secure potable water for 40 million people, maintain electricity production in the two reservoirs, and send ripples through the region’s thirstiest industry, agriculture.

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Source: EESI

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Solar cells that combine traditional silicon with cutting-edge perovskites could push the efficiency of solar panels to new heights.

Super-efficient solar cells: 10 breakthrough technologies in 2024

WHO

Beyond Silicon, Caelux, First Solar, Hanwha Q Cells, Oxford PV, Swift Solar, Tandem PV

WHEN

3 to 5 years

In November 2023, a buzzy solar technology broke yet another world record for efficiency. The previous record had existed for only about five months—and it likely won’t be long before it too is obsolete. This astonishing acceleration in efficiency gains comes from a special breed of next-­generation solar technology: perovskite tandem solar cells. These cells layer the traditional silicon with materials that share a unique crystal structure.

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Source: Technology Review

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Urban mining recovers silver, copper, aluminium, glass and silicone -- all commodities that have a value on the open market.

‘Urban Mining’ offers green solution to old solar panels

As the world pivots from planet-warming fossil fuels to renewable energy, a new pollution problem is rearing its head: What to do with old or worn-out solar panels?

Thousands of photovoltaic slabs are being installed across the United States every day, particularly in the sunny west and south of the country, as states like California race to towards greener energy production.

But with an expected lifespan of around 30 years, the first wave of solar installations is now coming to the end of its usefulness, sparking a rush to recycle things that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

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Source: BARRON’S

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Amped Innovation developed a solar-powered fridge to be deployed in rural Africa, where millions of people have limited electricity.

These fridges are powered by solar panels and ice batteries

Until recently, a store selling groceries in a village in Zambia couldn’t sell cold drinks: It didn’t have access to electricity to power a fridge. But the store now has a solar panel on the roof connected to a solar fridge that’s stocked with drinks and ice. The business owner has nearly doubled overall sales.

The store was one of the first to get a new fridge designed by Amped Innovation, a Bay Area-based company that’s now scaling up production of the appliance. They wanted to help tackle a widespread problem—even though the energy grid is quickly growing in Africa, millions of people still aren’t connected or have to deal with frequent outages.

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Source: Fast Company

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Solar panel owners are still more likely to have higher incomes and live in wealthier states, but a few trends are changing things.

The income gap among households with solar panels is shrinking, study finds

Rooftop solar panels continue to be more popular among Americans with above-average incomes, but that trend is changing, according to a new report.

The median household income of a solar adopter in the US was about $117,000 in 2022, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found. By contrast, the median income for all households was $69,000, and $86,000 for all owner-occupied households.

While the typical household with solar panels was wealthier than the average household, that trend is changing just a bit. In 2010, the median income for a solar adopting household was $140,000.

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Source: CNET

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