SAN FRANCISCO, CA and SAN ANSELMO, CA–(Marketwire - January 26, 2009) - San Domenico School, the oldest independent Catholic school in California, and Recurrent Energy, a distributed power company and a leading provider of onsite solar energy, today announced the dedication of a 412 kilowatt solar energy system, the largest school installation in Marin County. The installation consists of 2,358 photovoltaic panels, spread across several roof- and ground-mounted arrays, covering almost one full football field in total. A dedication ceremony for the system will be held on Friday, January 30, 2009 at San Domenico School in San Anselmo.

Recurrent Energy is financing, owning and operating the solar energy system, and worked with Sonoma, Calif.-based Solaris Solar for construction of the installation. The company is selling 100% of the electricity produced — which is expected to provide nearly 85 percent of San Domenico’s annual need — under a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). In return, San Domenico receives predictable and reduced energy costs, without the upfront capital costs and risks of solar power plant ownership.

“We are excited to be running our school on electricity generated at our school,” said Mathew Heersche, San Domenico’s head of school. “While the students have already been actively involved in making sustainable lifestyle choices at home and in the community, we look forward to continuing their education in eco-responsibility and, overall, in a sustainable environment.”

Recurrent Energy’s installation is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 860,000 pounds annually as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That is equivalent to removing 70 vehicles from the road, preserving 3 acres of forest from deforestation, or serving 60 U.S. households’ electricity needs. All renewable energy credits from this project are owned by Recurrent Energy and will be sold to a third party.

“We are grateful to San Domenico for hosting this solar energy system and for their tireless dedication throughout the installation,” said Recurrent Energy’s VP of Development, Sheldon Kimber. “Their commitment to this project has been inspiring and sets a high bar for schools across the country to follow suit.”

The dedication ceremony held at the San Domenico School’s campus in San Anselmo is expected to have more than six hundred students, faculty, parents and community members in attendance. The event is open to the San Domenico Community and press:

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TEMPE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Evolution Solar Corp. (Pink Sheets: EVSO), signs on to President Obama\’s New Energy Plan. The plan is designed to create millions of new Green Collar Jobs, aid the U.S. in its goal to reach energy independence, dramatically reduce carbon emissions, and stimulate the economy.

The largest investors in the U.S. and Europe urged Congress to support energy efficiency and clean energy in the Economic Stimulus Bill in a letter delivered yesterday morning to the House, Senate, and Obama administration. The group of 44 investors managing over $1.7 Trillion in assets urged congressional leaders to include significant funding for energy efficiency, clean energy, and clean transportation. The letter identifies the need to clean up the electric grid and make substantial investments to the power grid. The power grid would operate much more efficiently on a digital system that is fully automated. Implementing these efficiencies would dramatically reduce energy waste and green house gasses. These improvements would make it much easier to link solar and wind power to the electric grid. The signatories to this letter were many of the top Pension Funds, State Treasurers, and State and City Comptrollers.

Both the House and the Senate Finance Committee bills are similar in many ways. Both bills include a 3 year extension of the production tax credit for renewable energy at an estimated 1 year cost of $13.1 billion. Both bills would also remove caps on residential renewable energy investment tax credits, allowing home owners to claim a 30% credit on small wind energy investments and residential solar and geothermal equipment. The bills also include incentives for home owners to improve the energy efficiency of their existing homes. They would extend a tax credit for efficiency upgrades through 2010 and increase it from 10% of the cost to 30% for 2009 and 2010.

Evolution Solar Corp. (Pink Sheets: EVSO) moved up 12.32 % yesterday on the news of our President\’s New Energy For America Plan.

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ROSEVILLE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Solar Power, Inc. (“SPI”) (OTCBB:SOPW), a vertically integrated designer, manufacturer, and installer of photovoltaic (“PV”) energy systems, today announced the introduction of its latest product, a modular elevated solar shade structure system called Peaq™. The new product offers a striking design, innovative kit-build installation, and a price tag comparable to rooftop installations. Peaq elevated solar array systems provide commercial enterprises with a means to significantly extend the footprint available to them for PV solar arrays in order to meet both financial and energy generation goals.

Solar Power, Inc.’s Peaq has been designed to transform parking lots into appealing areas that not only generate clean solar energy, but also provide a variety of other benefits. Peaq’s unique design delivers shaded parking for vehicles, increased comfort for visitors, and facilitates infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. The Peaq system also includes highly efficient, under-canopy LED lighting. This feature provides exceptional night time security by delivering light at three times the normal parking lot lighting levels without creating “light pollution” in the night sky. By virtue of its shading feature, Peaq also helps to reduce the negative heat-islanding effect open areas of asphalt have on the environment. The Peaq system is sealed to provide a dry under-canopy area during inclement weather.

The price point for solar carports and shade structures has historically been much higher than that of rooftop systems. Solar Power, Inc.’s Peaq system, with its unique design attributes, is available for most applications at a price point approaching that of rooftop systems and at parity with electrical utility costs in many market areas. SPI will manufacture Peaq system components and pre-assemble subsystems at its factory in order to achieve the best possible price.

“Product innovation is a central part of our company’s mission,” said Steve Kircher, CEO for Solar Power, Inc. “Peaq is not only innovative; it is also an example of how we deliver adaptable products and services that increase global accessibility to clean energy from the sun. The Peaq product is consistent with that mission because it creates opportunities for greater use of parking lots to generate clean electricity.”

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It is science’s star experiment: an attempt to create an artificial sun on earth — and provide an answer to the world’s impending energy shortage. Scientists believe that this can’t be achieved for the next hundred years, but having your own sun for energy need is not an impossible dream! Maybe in future we [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Inventions, Solar Power

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Last summer I had talked about how hydrogen on demand technology may one day be paired up with the emerging ethanol infrastructure. At that time, Ohio State University researchers discovered that using cerium oxide, calcium and cobalt will split ethanol into hydrogen cheaply and efficiently.

Now, researchers at the U. S. DOE, Yeshiva University and the University of Delaware have discovered that using platinum and rhodium on a nanoscale network of tin oxide can easily and at room temperature split the carbon atoms from the hydrogen in the ethanol. This means that hydrogen on demand can be created inside or outside the vehicle and run through a fuel cell to provide power to the wheels.

One of the reasons to reform ethanol into hydrogen is that there is already a small infrastructure in place for manufacturing, distributing and dispensing this alternative fuel and the ethanol infrastructure will be scaling up in the months and years to come. Unlike ethanol alone, hydrogen is a zero emissions fuel and provides more energy density.

One of the problems of creating fuel cell cars has always been how to manufacture, store, distribute and dispense gaseous hydrogen on a large scale. Transporting compressed gas via truck, ship or pipeline comes with it a whole host of problems.

But, transporting a hydrogen-rich liquid compound and reforming onsite, in-home or in the vehicle itself would be much less of a roadblock, on the whole. As breakthroughs in ethanol to hydrogen conversions become more commonplace so will the idea spread that this is indeed a viable solution.

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California-based incubator unveils low-cost treatment for heavily polluted water using technology being demonstrated in Pakistan.

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The NFL has purchased renewable energy from TECO, the power company in Tampa, Florida. While it’s unclear exactly how much of the power used on game day will be green, a spokesman claims the switch will have the same impact as taking 20 cars off the road for a year.

“As you can imagine, the power demands of an NFL stadium and a large event like the NFL Experience are huge,” said Jack Groh, who helped green this year’s big game. “And one way to reduce the carbon footprint, the climate impact of that, is by using renewable power.”

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…What is it?
Now that the subsector of “smart grid” is getting more popular and thus getting talked about more and more, it seems a good time to point out a couple of quick things about the concept:
1.  “Grid automation” would be a better term for the category. Applying IT and communications to the electricity transmission [...]

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     Many advancements, like the ones made by Ohio State University (see Solar Energy Breakthough at OSU) indicate that in the not so far future solar energy has the potential to begin significantly supplementing our energy needs.  The current photovoltaic cell does offer us a glimpse at future solar possibilities. Unfortunately, due to its bulky size to output ratio and the expense to install and maintain, solar energy will not catch on until a more efficient and affordable option is made available.  As we continue to realize the need for energy independence, and devote our money and resources towards solutions (see also Obama: Our Renewable Energy Future), advancements will be made.  Judging by the current breakthroughs being seen these advancements will probably occur sooner rather than later.

      The 2010 Toyota Prius reportedly will come with a solar panel option that will extend the battery life, but what if more could be done.  With the new material the Ohio State Researchers developed about the conventional cells it will increase the output potential.  What if all day you could operate your vehicle and charge it’s batteries simply by using a fixed solar panel.  Also consider powering your entire house with one smaller solar cell and even being able to contribute excess energy back into the grid for others to use.

      Whether we as a global community will be energy dependent in ten years from now is unsure.  What is known, is that advancements are being made in both the solar cells and the batteries that are often used to store the solar energy.  It may be anywhere between five years or twenty before highly efficient solar collectors are produced. When they are, we will all benefit.

Related posts:

1. Solar Energy Breakthrough at OSU At Ohio State University, the future of solar technology is…
2. Solar Stirling Engine Solar energy is an obvious starting point for renewable…
3. Obama: Our Renewable Energy Future Barack Obama’s plan for America’s renewable energy future could…

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Adam Fuller has dedicated his life— and his life savings— to disproving the wind industry’s claim that vertical turbines are ineffective. Last week, I had a chance to talk to the Racine, Wisconsin inventor about his 12 foot diameter, 36 foot tall patent-pending wind turbine.

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