| Burlingon-IBM turn semiconductor scrap into photovoltaics |
[Nov. 4th, 2007|01:39 pm] |
...first Ben & Jerry's, then Phish, now this!
Here's another cool story out of PhysOrg, about a Vermont IBM team who have pioneered a way to turn semiconductor waste in to solar grade silicon for PV panels (well, actually, that part is not brain science, the new trick was more about erasing IBM's intellectual property before it leaves their hands and ends up on someone's roof). And this is good news, because in the semiconductor world, 250,000 silicon wafers are used a day (and 3.3% of that get scrapped on the factory floor) and so there are about 3 million silicon wafers sitting around waiting to be made useful. They would look nice on my roof :p
...speaking of computers, have you heard the one about OLPC the one laptop per child group has been looking at that run on cow power? No, seriously, and not what you might think, from some cow-poo biofuel or biogas.. but actually hooking the Mumbai cows (for example) up to pulleys and generating electricity from the cows... I dunno, sounds cool, but a little too much like the Professor from Gilligan and not enough like a gizmo from a Brice Stirling book = ( |
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| Holy Shiholy Batman! |
[Aug. 11th, 2006|07:38 pm] |
SunEdison Acquires Team Solar; Serious Legion of Superheroes Shihizzle
Wow. this is a match made in heaven. I swear. SunEd + TeamSolar TL4Eva...
Together they have installed enough solar panels to power 15,000 homes (and that's energy pig homes, not back-to-the-earth one-LED-christmas-light-is-fine-for-my-
reading-light hippy homes).
And while they come from radically different places, this is going to be a symbiotic powerforce. Nobody is talking about how much it sold for, but the Sun bought the Team! And it looks like Baltimore's brilliant SunEdison krewe is poised for even greater stature in the energy biz (and West Coast presence) now that they've bought TS... And they were already pretty amazing, known to provide competitively priced solar energy at or below local utility rates with various financing schemes (sometimes they lease big box's rooftops, put solar there and then sell the juice to the stores, other times they lease the PV to the stores, and do the the installations and maintenance...) And SunEd's CEO Jigar Shah is a solid leader, building a team with some insanely impresisve playere (it's like he raided the halls from BP S0lar --duh, they're in Maryland-- to Bechtel).
And TeamSolar is no slouch ...born under the close tutelage of Sacramento's highly evolved SMUD, Angela and Rick Lavezzo's tiny company has grown to be California's largest solar installer. No job too small or too large.
Now we know what they did with some of that twenny six point one $M they just raised with Gold Man Sachs. But this is awesome, this is grassroots California meets business2.0 east coast new green stylee. With balance and harmony for all, I expect SunEd will spred....
[source Sun Edison, LLC press release |
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| plantronic's got the biggest one! |
[Jun. 2nd, 2006|07:00 am] |
OK on the minus-side they are turning people into Borg. But on the plus side at least they're getting greener! Last month Plantronics built the first actual (or maybe it was a knockoff) LEED building in China. Now back home in Santa Cruz; Their new 262 kilowatt system is four and a half times larger than the previous largest, a 57 kilowatt system installed by West Marine in 2003. Construction finished last week on the massive Plantronics project and the system will start capturing the sun's rays June 5. |
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| how to invert 32,000 solar panels.. |
[May. 5th, 2006|05:17 am] |
I've talked bout these guys before... they have some of the biggest inverters in the world. So if you happen to have 5,000 solar panels on your roof-- these are your guys!! And apparently it isn't as silly as it sounds, as now they just announced that
they just got another 3.2 MW of new orders from brand new clients! Nice. Way to go Satcon |
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| innovalight raises $7.5M venture cash |
[May. 3rd, 2006|08:57 pm] |
silicon "ink" sets to race page/brin nanosolar
Konrad Burke's Innovalight just got a big boost. The scientist/former venture capitalist who invented the innovalight system, and is now the company's CEO, just raised Seven and a half million dollars with the help of Harris & Harris Group, and the deep pockets of Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures. They're on a roll and it's just getting bigger, they were recently recognized as a 2006 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, in Davos Switzerland, and for good reason. See, what Innovalight does that no one else is doing is use a nanosilicon ink to paint ultra lightweight solar panels. They can produce these at a greatly reduced price and they even weigh less to ship. (here, it's a little old, but this is the most comprehensive primer I have about them). I look forward to seeing how NanoGoogleSolar is going to take this news... |
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| Prism Solar: getting all holographic on us! |
[Apr. 25th, 2006|03:53 pm] |
something new under the sun....
Well, we all know that there is a SoG-Si shortage worldwide now.. and that's why companies as diverse as DayStar and SunBall are getting so much attention. They either use nano-noSilicon, or use silicon in a new and unique way (like lenses that multiply the amount of sun you're getting). So up in Stone Ridge NY, Rick Lewandowski and a group of people from his company, called PrismSolar, have figured out another way to increase the bang-for-buck ratio. And it's with my 2nd favorite technology; holograms! Yes! They have figured out a way to increase the amount of sun hitting the Photovoltaics, so that they can reduce the mount of silicon needed by 85%. Oh. I almost forgot to tell you, it's see through, so that means that your windows and doors and other transparent surfaces are fair game!! |
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| happy earthday/week/month/year/decade/century/millenia/eternity |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|02:34 pm] |
even google is wishing u a happy earthday!
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| "who says you can't go back..." |
[Apr. 11th, 2006|08:18 pm] |
New Jersy to electrify the Meadowlands
The Meadowlands, known as a toxic dumping-ground with a great view of manhattan, great place to stash a body, and for great Bruce Sprinsteen concerts, is now going electric. That's right! New Jersy now plans on turning the Meadowlands into a 5 MegaWatt solar park!! |
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| July 8-13: join the mile-high sun club! |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|05:58 pm] |
...more PV than you can shake a stick at!
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| ...not bad for a days work... |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|06:36 pm] |
Evergreen enters $100M agreement!
 OK, you guys know that Evergreen is my favorite silicon-PV company. Well I just read over at CleanEdge that Evergreen has entered into a $100 million dollar, four-year supply contract with S.A.G. Solarstrom AG, of "Solar-Haven" Freiburg, Germany. S.A.G. builds and operates mega-huge solar power stations, and sells the generated energy to corporations and utility companies. S.A.G. plans to use Evergreen Solar's products to help satisfy the growing demand from those organizations. These products will be manufactured at Evergreen Solar's plant in Massachusetts and at EverQ's new 30- megawatt facility in Thalheim, Germany.
"This agreement with S.A.G. is in line with Evergreen Solar's plan to establish relationships with proven solar power leaders," said Richard M. Feldt, Evergreen Solar's president and CEO. "Like our EverQ partners, S.A.G. has built an outstanding reputation in the marketplace, particularly in Germany. In this environment of surging demand for solar power products, we believe this will be a strong, mutually beneficial relationship for our two companies. The agreement also provides us with an opportunity to jointly seek additional ways to lower total system costs to the end-user." Once again, Evergreen proves itself resilient and stealthy! Way to go! |
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