All you need to go off-grid

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Solar

Solar pool heaters

Solar hot water heaters can be a cost-effective way to heat the swimming pool at your off-grid palace. This isn�t just a celebrity trend, though � you can buy ready-made kits to that are easy to install starting at around �700. Heating an average pool for the swimming season uses about the same amount of energy as most homes require per year. The costs go beyond just monthly heating bills when you consider greenhouse gas emissions involved � so a solar pool heater pays for itself quickly. Solar blankets (pool covers) are the cheapest way to reduce heat loss and save energy. …

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March 22, 2007 1 Comment

Bush sees the light

George Bush has been listening to the light gods � he�s given funding to a project harnessing energy from sunlight and interior light to wirelessly power everything from cellphones to signboards. With the Solar America Initiative, Bush has finally been forced to let solar energy compete with conventional electricity sources, and Konarka hopes to develop flexible plastic solar cell strips � material that could be embedded into the casings of laptop computers and even woven into power-producing clothing to energize digital media players or other electronics. …

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March 16, 2007 No Comments

Solar Hype

Solar expert Jeff Wolfe has exposed an apparently idealistic solar power company called Citizenre is in fact a multi-level marketing scheme.

The stated plan of the company is to build “the world’s largest” solar cell and module manufacturing plant and install 100,000 residential systems annually. Wolfe�s article generated hundreds of comments – some of them in defence of the company from old-style multi-level marketing sales agents who were concealing their true affiliation. In one case, a Citizenre marketing agent is a well-known renewable energy conman who has pulled similar tricks in the past, Wolfe revealed.…

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February 17, 2007 9 Comments

Now concentrate

solar cookers
Mirror, mirror on the floor…

Concentrating solar power (CSP) systems could be the energy of the future in off-grid locations, both small and large scale. Lenses or mirrors focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. In power stations the beam shines on a vessel that contains a gas or liquid that can be heated up to around 400C (750F) enough for conventional steam turbine. Small-scale off-grid CSP power stations don’t have to be hugely expensive either.

In fact, the basic idea of concentrated solar power is the same as in solar cooking and new methods of water pasteurization – already widely used in the third world – eliminating the need for biomass as a fuel.

But what makes the plants really efficient is their recycling of energy.…

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February 8, 2007 1 Comment