Tag Archive for: solarpanels

Tom Steyer's Galvanize Climate Solutions will acquire residential properties and retrofit them with the goal of deep emissions reductions.

Billionaire Tom Steyer plans net zero apartment upgrades across US

An arm of billionaire Tom Steyer’s investment firm Galvanize Climate Solutions will begin buying and upgrading property across the US this summer and fall, aiming to cut the portfolio’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in three years without the use of offsets.

“This is a real estate strategy with a decarbonization goal,” said Joseph Sumberg, the head of Galvanize Real Estate, who joined Galvanize last October from Goldman Sachs. “Capitalism will look at this successful strategy, and replicate it, creating ripples through the built environment.”

While Sumberg and Galvanize — a firm co-founded by Steyer and Katie Hall that plans to invest billions of dollars — declined to provide a figure for the size of the investment, Sumberg said it will be sizable and will focus on markets including the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, California, Arizona and Texas.

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Source: Bloomberg

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Researchers in Australia say they have found a way to make nano-silicon from recycled solar panels in a way that is highly profitable.

Researchers in Australia find a new reason to recycle solar panels — money!

Recently, we reported on the efforts of SolarCycle, a California startup that is struggling to recycle solar panels and do it profitably. Figuring this out is going to be hugely important as the number of solar panels that are no longer productive increases dramatically over the next several decades.

In 2016, the International Renewable Energy Agency forecast that by the early 2030s, the global quantity of decommissioned PV panels will equal some 4% of the number of installed panels. By the 2050s, the volume of solar panel waste will rise to at least 5 million metric tons a year. China, the world’s biggest producer of solar energy, is expected to have retired a cumulative total of at least 13.5 million metric tons of panels by 2050 — the largest quantity among major solar-producing nations and nearly twice the volume retired in the US by that time.

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Source: Clean Technica

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Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to deploy 1,200 tiny homes to four cities throughout the state to help house the large homeless population.

Foldable tiny homes powered by solar help house homeless population

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced plans to deploy 1,200 tiny homes to four cities throughout the state to help house the large homeless population, which numbered at least 170,000 last year according to federal data. The state will spend about $30 million to build the homes which will go to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento.

One of the housing companies involved in the effort is Foldum-NetZero Energy Systems, which says their new semi-permanent tiny homes are equipped with beds, a kitchenette and full bathroom and can provide much needed housing for the homeless with more amenities than a tent or pallet shelter.

The units, which cost from $25,000 to $65,000, are self-powered with renewable clean energy from solar panels and a battery storage system and can operate off the grid. The tiny homes can also easily fold-up for transport.

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Source: Spectrum News 1

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Rep. Boylan drafted a bill that requires all new single-family homes in RI & new outdoor parking lots larger than 16,000sq ft to install solar

Rhode Island lawmaker wants to require solar on new homes and parking lots

A freshman lawmaker in Rhode Island has opened a provocative discussion: why not mandate solar panels on most new construction?

Rep. Jennifer Boylan, a Democrat who has solar panels on her home in Barrington, said she sees every instance in which a new building goes up without solar panels as “a missed opportunity.”

So she drafted a bill that would require all new single-family dwellings in the state to have a solar energy system large enough to meet at least 80% of the dwelling’s estimated annual average electricity use. The mandate would also apply to multifamily dwellings and commercial buildings up to 10 stories high.

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Source: Energy News

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New study finds that an optimal arrangement of solar panels on farms can cool the panels down by 10 degrees—crucial for their efficiency.

Solar panels handle heat better when they’re combined with crops

It’s an ironic fact that sun-harvesting solar panels function better when they’re not too hot. But luckily researchers have now discovered precisely how to cool them down. Building solar panels at a specific height above crops can reduce surface temperatures by up to 10 °C, compared to traditional panels constructed over bare ground, they’ve found.

The results, published in the journal Applied Energy, are the latest contribution to a growing body of research on agrivoltaics: a farming method that aims to maximize land use by pairing solar panels with cropland, thus minimizing competition between energy production and food. We already know that agrivoltaics can increase land-use efficiency, produce plenty of electricity on minimal land, and may also improve crop yields by shielding plants from heat and wind.

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Source: Anthropocene

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ALVA Yachts is back with its latest solar electric catamaran, equipped with the solar and electric propulsion technology to reach a top speed of 16-17 mph at sea.

New 78-foot solar electric catamaran with ‘transatlantic range’

Luxury electric boatbuilder ALVA Yachts is back with its latest solar electric catamaran. The upcoming OCEAN ECO 78 will arrive as a mid-size marine vessel in ALVA’s current lineup and comes equipped with the solar and electric propulsion technology to reach a top speed of 14-15 knots (16-17 mph) at sea, plus plenty of battery capacity to go far – all backed by solar panels on its roof.

ALVA Yachts is a German company founded in 2020 by Mathias May and Holger Henn, evolving out of PICA yachts, which was originally founded back in 2013. In that time, ALVA’s predecessor launched over forty 20-30 foot sailing and electric powerboats.

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Source: electrek

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Solar panels' lifespan is 25-30 years and companies are looking to recycle the valuable, reusable materials and keep panels out of landfills.

As millions of solar panels age out, recyclers hope to cash in

In Odessa, Texas, workers at a startup called SolarCycle unload trucks carrying end-of-life photovoltaic panels freshly picked from commercial solar farms across the United States. They separate the panels from the aluminum frames and electrical boxes, then feed them into machines that detach their glass from the laminated materials that have helped generate electricity from sunlight for about a quarter of a century.

Next, the panels are ground, shredded, and subjected to a patented process that extracts the valuable materials — mostly silver, copper, and crystalline silicon. Those components will be sold, as will the lower-value aluminum and glass, which may even end up in the next generation of solar panels.

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Source: Grist

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Roadsides, reservoirs & farms are all finding space for solar systems. Germany is experimenting with adding solar cells to railway sleepers.

Solar panels could be installed in the spaces between railway tracks in world first

Solar panels are being rolled out “like carpet” on railway tracks in Switzerland.

Swiss start-up Sun-Ways is installing panels near Buttes train station in the west of the country in May, pending sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport.

As the climate crisis demands that we speed up Europe’s energy transition, developers have been seeing new potential in unusual surfaces.

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Source: Euro News

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Almost one-third of homes have panels in Australia, the highest in the world, says SunWiz, and will soon outpace capacity from coal.

Solar to soon offer grid more capacity than coal in Australia

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Australia’s rooftops now boast 20 gigawatts of solar panels and will soon have the capacity to produce more electricity than the country’s entire coal industry, according to the industry consultancy SunWiz.

Almost one in three Australian households have solar photovoltaics – or solar panels – the highest penetration in the world. Queensland had the highest share of solar panels installed on dwellings deemed suitable for the technology with an 82% penetration, ahead of South Australia’s 78%, New South Wales’ 51% and Victoria’s 43%.

The take-up of solar PV has quickened. It took about 11 years for Australia to reach its first 10GW of capacity, while the second 10GW took just four years, according to SunWiz.

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Source: The Guardian

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The first US pilot that will site solar panels over irrigation canals is going to deploy long-duration iron flow battery storage.

US’s first solar panels over canals pilot will deploy iron flow batteries

Project Nexus is a $20 million pilot in California’s Turlock Irrigation District that launched in October of last year. The project team is exploring solar over canal design, deployment, and co-benefits using canal infrastructure and the electrical grid.

India already has solar panels over canals, but Project Nexus is the first of its kind in the US.

The Turlock Irrigation District was the first irrigation district formed in California in 1887. It provides irrigation water to 4,700 growers who farm around 150,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Source: electrek

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