Solar Energy

Benefits galore! See why combining solar panels with metal roofing is a sustainable powerhouse. Boost efficiency and make an eco-friendly home choice today.

Greece is planning to combat its debt deficit by capitalising on one of its most valuable assets – solar energy! Greek Prime minister Loucas Papademos has set ‘Helios project’, a 10 GW solar energy plan, as a national priority, aiming to produce renewable solar energy and sell it under virtual-solar-power-deals to EU nations in need to off-set their high-pollution energy generation.

Solar Air Heating is another way to tapping the energy of the sun and turning it into useful and helpful energy. We all know of course that Solar energy is one of the forms of renewable green energy and Solar energy can be used for one of three distinct applications: generation of Electricity, heating of water and heating the air. Solar air heating is the process which uses solar thermal collectors to collect the sun rays and heat the air that comes into the buildings.

Renewable Green Energy is in every aspect of our daily life. The mobile technology could not have been an exception. There are certain renewable green energy facts that we should be aware or look for, when buying a new mobile device.First of all let us get in synch with what we understand about Renewable Green Energy.

We all know that the demand for Photovoltaic, PV, technology increases day by day thus the need for specialized and focused events. PV America 2012 offers this kind of education and specialization with the aim to create the momentum to use solar technology for the needs of the communities that are a good fit.

The International Multi Disciplinary Conference on Solar Energy 2012 (IMDCSE) will take place at Chennai, Tamilnadu in India from the 1st of February until the 3rd. The conferences theme deals with the growth of the Energy Sector and the consequences on the environment which make the need for implementing renewable energy options crucial.

According to the European Commission Directorate-General (DG) for Climate Action, the EU NER-300 funding scheme, a program for carbon capture and storage and for innovative renewable energy projects, a second call for proposal has just been announced and is now open for applications to the European Investment Bank. The program will accept applications until 3rd July 2013.

What exactly is an energy efficient home? Provided it meets with it’s owner’s energy demands, an energy efficient home is one that reduces energy waste by reducing unnecessary consumption of energy; consequently, energy efficient homes reduce their environmental impact by reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Over the last two decades many analysts have projected that nuclear power will be the main source of power generation in an effort to find more efficient and cleaner (in terms of CO2 emissions) sources of energy. However, the recent nuclear disaster in Japan forced many countries to change their plans and turn to renewable energy sources as the only way to meet their goals.

The RENERGY 2012 International Conference and Expo on Renewable Energy will be organized on March 12th until 13th (the Plenary will take place on the 11th) by TamilNadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) with an ambition to host around 500 participants.

Germany is making a shift from Nuclear to Renewable Green Power. It was announced that Germany will invest 200 billion Euros in renewable green energy sources, wind and solar. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced an ambitious program that aims in replacing Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors with renewable sources, solar and wind.

Chinese solar imports in the US energy market have increased by some 350% in the last 2 years, controlling half of the US energy market and benefiting from government subsidy-funds and loans, currency exchange opportunities and tax incentives.

The recent McKinsey report titled, Solar Power: Darkest before dawn, deals with the Solar Power industry and how this industry grew from a small industry centered in Germany to a $100 billion industry worldwide. At the same time it is noted that the cost of the PV cells has dropped and the installed global capacity has reached the 65GW level!

Solar power has been heralded as both a savior of the environment and international energy security, so the reduction in solar panel prices has generally been viewed positively. However, the crash in photovoltaic panel prices has had unintended consequences, with many builders and manufacturers ceasing construction of solar arrays in order to speculate on a further decrease in the cost of large scale solar installations.

In our previous article we have introduced the term and idea of Community Renewable Energy, CRE, when we introduced the concept of Renewable Green Energy Community, RGEC. It was mentioned that one of the characteristics of a RGEC is that it has a Community Renewable Energy infrastructure to cover the needs of the community to an as much great extend as possible.

Solar panel maintenance is relatively easy and low cost considering that solar panels do not incorporate any mechanical moving parts. However, maintaining your solar panels in tip top condition is of significant importance for maintaining a high performance of the photovoltaic cell. Herein you will learn how to clean solar panels easily and effectively!

When dealing with Solar Energy and related solar systems, whether Photovoltaic or Solar Thermal, one of the factors and attributes which will of concern would be their Energy Efficiency. Solar Energy efficiency, SEE, concerns the manufacturers as well as the end users, the home or business owners.

It was reported today that Areva, a French renewable energy firm, has been awarded the contract to build the largest CSP plant in Asia. This CSP plant will be build in India and it will be build for India’s Reliance Power. Areva will use their Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector, CLFR, technology for this 250 MW CSP plant.

There are many myths that surround solar panels and it is about time that one was busted forever! Many people believe that solar panels are far less effective during winter but this is far from the truth; winter is still a perfectly good time for transferring solar energy to be used in your home.

The more you search for information about Solar Panels for home the more questions will arise and for these questions you will need answers. We have covered the initial questions and some additional questions a home owner may have the moment (s)he decides to install a solar panel on the roof of his home.

Solar cells have come a long way in the past few years alone. Recent developments at MIT have allowed for paper thin solar cells to be applied with a stick on backing and added to everything from windows to business cards. Other developments have worked to increase the efficiency of solar cells.

With the price of oil going higher and higher and with our environment being polluted and with existing financial crisis prevailing in most of the developed countries, more and more people are turning to Solar Energy in search for a cheaper and greener energy source. Solar energy is a renewable green energy source that needs to be exploited further. Solar energy may be our solution for energy provided a cost effective and efficient enough solar energy system is found.

Photovoltaic (PV) technology involves the use of semiconductor devices to directly convert solar radiation into electricity. This technology uses solar panels made up of several solar cells having PV material. There are various semiconductor materials used to make a PV system.

A number of emissions trading scheme/ systems (ETS) exist worldwide for several pollutants. Most schemes entail market mechanisms used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. 

While some of these technologies haven’t been developed for residential purposes, some have already paved the way to accessible alternative sources of energy and this includes the solar panels.Solar panels may probably be considered as one of the most famous and preferred options of many homeowners who want to have an alternative source of energy at home.

US Solar photovoltaic (PV) market is healthy and booming, with Solar energy installations expected to grow further in 2012. According to the US Solar Market Insight report for 2011 and the GMT Research, US solar Photovoltaic (PV) installations have more than doubled, compared to previous year, reaching a peak capacity of 1.85 GW within the year with an estimated total value of around $8.4 billion.

Cyprus is an independent country and member of the EU family. Since Cyprus is a member of the European Union (EU), it is directly affected by the European energy policies, like the low carbon energy policies. These policies were put in place to counter climate change and were adopted in 2008.

Residential Solar power is increasingly becoming a preferred solution towards green living and utilizing renewable energy for homes. Whilst purchase and installation costs continue to remain at high levels, various national subsidy schemes, such as investment subsidy funds, electricity feed-in tariffs and tax incentives, aim at promoting such applications by reducing their investment costs.

Renewable Green Energy plays an increasing role in our life in many aspects and forms. The role of internet and computing is also increasing in our everyday life. Data centers are increasing in size and their demand for electricity, thus operating cost, is increasing exponentially.

Most of renewable energy technologies, or green energy as some others call it, are subsidized both in the US and the EU.Without subsidies renewable energy the price for the electricity produced via these technologies would not be competitive versus the electricity produced using fossil fuel.

Energy consumption of the data centers around the world will grow by almost 20% in 2012 compared to 2011, according to a study performed by the reliable research done by datacenter dynamics. This increase calls the use of renewable green energy sources that will come to balance the increase with the use of environment friendly sources.

A Solar Inverter, also known as PV Inverter, is an essential component of a Photovoltaic Solar System. Its purpose is to convert the low voltage DC power (variable Direct Current) output of PV solar panel into AC power (Alternate Current) that can then be used by commercial or residential electrical systems (a house in the electrical grid) or simply by an autonomous system (off the electrical grid).

Should everyone install renewable solar energy systems at home? Switching to solar panels will certainly limit your impact on the environment as you will use renewable solar energy in place of conventional energy to cover for your household energy needs. Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels can explore into free solar energy provided by the sun without having to emit harmful gas emissions into the atmosphere (such as CO2).

Whether you are interested in installing solar panels for your home or looking into a commercial solar photovoltaic power plant, before commencing on such an investment you need to identify what your project entails and assess its financial viability. Herein we provide some essential advice on making such an assessment of solar panels for your home.

Renewable Green Energy has many forms and uses and Hybrid Solar Lighting, HSL, is one of them. Hybrid Solar lighting is a new type of technology that uses the sunlight, energy from sun, to deliver natural light to buildings and thus reduce the waste of other energy sources that are used to deliver artificial lighting.

Solar photovoltaic panels are a proven and mature technology that has diffused successfully into green architecture; the use of solar panels in buildings constitutes a solution towards green energy, in line with contemporary architectural design and with economic and environmental viability.Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have seen a huge development in recent past years.

If you want hot water at your home or business we suggest that you install a solar water heater. Solar water heating is well known and widely used and spread in many countries of the world. Millions of homes in countries like Brazil, Australia, Cyprus, Israel, India, Greece, Turkey and Austria enjoy the benefits of solar water heating and have solar hot water to cover their everyday needs such as bathing, washing and cleaning.

The 2nd forum on Inverter and PV System Technology will take place on 23-24 January 2012 at Berlin Germany. It is the second international conference, following the success of the first one done in 2011, which will deal with the electrical components, and their interaction, of a Photovoltaic, PV, system, a renewable green energy system.

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a technological application that explores Renewable Green Energy (solar power) to generate electricity. CSP systems use mirrors to concentrate solar sunlight and collect thermal energy to heat a working fluid to high temperatures in the range of 250 C° up to 1000 C°.

What kinds of energies supply your appliances and gadgets? You probably have gas, electricity, and batteries all under one roof. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a simpler, more natural way to power up? That convenient source of life exists, right under – or rather, above – your nose!

The term Renewable Green energy community is an often misunderstood and/or misinterpreted term, which, for many of us, sounds like a buzzword of the future. While we are all familiar with renewable green energy and we all understand that this includes, solar, wind, biomass and hydro energy.

Christmas time is just around the corner and every street and every building will be full of Christmas lights. Now is also the time to think of the Renewable Green Energy and combine the Christmas spirit with the environmental spirit and use Solar LED Christmas lights.

Solar Panels have been improved a lot over the past years due to many reasons but mainly due to the increased demand and research money invested in this direction by the government and other leading academic institutions and renewable green energy companies.

Solar energy storage can help increase the mix of solar systems, CSP and PV, and wind energy systems in the generation of electrical power; solar energy companies with experience in both CSP and PV systems are expected to benefit most.

Renewable energy is energy from renewable, constantly replenished, sources that are freely available in nature, such as the sun (sunlight or solar-thermal), the wind, the tidal power, the rain and hydro-power, the geothermal potential of earth and fuels derived from renewable sources such as biomass and bio-fuels.

In our previous article “renewable energy sources: solar energy systems” we have reviewed that solar energy systems are classified into three system categories: Solar thermal, passive solar and solar photovoltaic systems. In this article we review the basic operation and advantages and disadvantages of Solar Photovoltaic Systems.

One of the issues and problems swimming pool owners have is the heating of their swimming pool throughout the year. There are many ways to heat and indoor or an outdoor swimming pool. One of the energy and environment friendly ways is the use of solar energy and solar water heaters to heat the water of swimming pool and bring it to a comfortable temperature.

Most of the people are aware of the Concentrated Solar Power, CSP, and Photovoltaic, PV terms and technologies. Concentrated Photovoltaic, CPV, technology is not so well known but it is certainly one with great potential of development and expansion. It is one of the newer players in the renewable energy scene.

As described in our recent article, ‘’Renewable Green Energy – Hybrid Solar Lighting’’, Hybrid solar lighting, HSL, is gaining more and more acceptance and it is considered to be another form or renewable green energy and another way of tapping the renewable solar energy.As the term denotes.

In our previous post we have introduced the Solar LED Christmas lights and have explained how this type of lights can be friendly to the environment by using solar energy, a form of renewable green energy. In this post we will provide the advantages of the Solar LED Xmas lights. The advantages can be summarized below.

The definition of zero-energy-home or zero energy building is often misunderstood as a building having zero energy consumption. A zero energy building simply refers to a building producing the same (or more) amount of energy than what it consumes within a single year.

CSP Today USA 2012 is the 6th Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Conference and Exhibition and will take place during 27-28 June, at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. With more than 80 speakers and 700 attendees, CSP Today USA is the biggest CSP industry event in North America.

When we talk about renewable energy sources (RES), we define them as replenishable energy sources freely available by nature, such as solar energy, wind energy, biomass/biofuel energy, water energy and geothermal energy. To exploit renewable energy sources and be able to use them as an alternative source to the finite energy resources.

By solar panel efficiency we refer to the rate at which a photovoltaic panel converts solar energy into electrical energy. In general, a typical efficiency level of PV panels ranges between 12-16%, though recent technological improvements suggest we will soon be talking of efficiencies in the range well above 20%!

In this article we will attempt to register some of the important Solar Energy facts about the United Kingdom’s solar energy industry. Solar energy is one of the renewable green energy sources, RES, and certainly one which is widely spread in our parts of the UK.

Solar panels use sunlight to produce direct electricity (DC). To be able to use solar electricity, in both on-grid and off-grid solar panel installations, we need to convert direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC); solar inverters are used to make this DC-AC conversion, thus transform solar electricity in a usable form.

Solar energy facts category is a collection of articles relating to solar energy with a focus on interesting facts about solar energy and green power. Sub categories include solar technologies such as solar panels, solar energy findings for 2012, information regarding solar panels cost, home solar panels and facts about solar energy systems.

Solar energy is one of the main sources of renewable green energy constantly replenished freely by nature. By “Solar energy” we define all forms of energy powered by the Sun. The sunlight and solar heat radiated to earth are being absorbed, dispersed and converted to other forms of energy.

Photovoltaic Solar panels cost has been diminishing drastically in the past years and is expected to continue its down slope for some time; the cost of solar panels is a variable that actually depends on the time, place and scale of your solar panel installation.

Solar energy systems are classified into three system categories: Solar thermal, passive solar and Solar Photovoltaic systems (see “renewable energy sources: solar energy systems”). In this article we review the operation of Solar Thermal technologies and identify the main Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar thermal systems.

This is the ultimate guide to solar energy pros and cons; to give you the best overview of the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy we have broken them down to easily understood sub sections based on the main solar energy systems and solar technologies.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels are undoubtedly what comes to peoples’ minds when they talk about solar energy. Considering that in an hour, the sun radiates solar energy enough to cover for human energy consumption for a year then going green with solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Which solar energy technology will prevail? Concentrated Solar Power or Photovoltaic? In review of the latest developments in renewable, solar energy technologies one can establish that the answer to this question is rather controversial.