Just this Thursday six schools in the East Side Union High School District broke ground on a 3.7 MW solar project. They are going solar to reduce the energy costs of the school, and also due to the very favorable incentives around for solar power. Once these sites go online it will save the schools $1.5 million in the first year, $7.6 million after 5 years, and $36 million over the lifetime of the project. Not only that but this project would reduce carbon emission by 3,100 metric tons a year.

This serves the obvious benefit of reducing the schools costs in the future and allowing this cost to be applied elsewhere in the school. And at the same time this would show the students at these high schools renewable energy systems firsthand, and help generate more energy conscious youth. In a time when schools have been cutting many programs, it’s nice to see a solution like energy saving be part of the potential cure to school budgets.

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Sure solar power is expanding rapidly, as more and more homes and businesses are converting to solar power systems, but it’s not just the solar panels that are a good option to go green. Solar Water heating systems are becoming more and more widespread, as this is a great way to replace fossil fuel reliant home heating systems. Water heated by the sun can be used not only for hot water for the home, but can also be circulated through the home for space heating as well. Especially in rural areas systems like this are a great way to cut gas needs for homes, as these systems can run independently. After installation, this makes all hot water for the home, and space heating, completely free.

In China and Europe there kinds of installations have already increased greatly, with 27 million rooftops installed in china and 15% of all homes in Europe. This progress is just a small fraction of what is likely expected to grow right behind the pace of solar and wind systems. The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) has announced an ambitious 500 million square miles of solar thermal systems by 2020, and other countries like china are setting similar goals. The US sits at 10 million square miles of solar thermal systems, but that number is growing ever more rapidly

As this kind of renewable energy takes hold and spreads as well it will add another great to go green and promote renewable energy systems. If your interested in how to install these kind solar thermal systems, check out our classes at our main site: http://www.bootsontheroof.com/

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Green architecture is an emerging field that seeks to add to the sustainable building idea of the green revolution, which means energy efficient and often very modern looking. With all the earthquakes that have happened in recent years it’s no wonder that earthquake safe energy efficient buildings would be desired as well. OFIS Architectures new Trent Tower is one such example, which boasts not only solar collectors for power, but also a good degree of earthquake stability.

The outer skin of the towers is made of a green shading material to keep the sun out during the summers, and can also have plants that will grow over the mesh for additional cooling. During the winter a series of embedded pipes transmit heat into the building to provide heating. And finally the inner structure uses a system of concrete support poles and composite columns which are fairly earthquake ready. It’s nice to see more green architecture counter all the potential problems modern buildings face, aside from the purely energy based ones.

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Solar PV systems have had a steady increase even with all the recent economic uncertainty in the US last year. 2009 ended with an amazing 18% increase over 2008’s installed solar capacity, and at this current pace it should be easy to hit many of the 2020 goals set by utilities and our government as well. Amazing as well it was the Q4 of 2009 that added 63% of the new PV projects, which is providing a large boost into 2010 and the momentum to do even better. Of course it was CA that dominated the new Solar PV market in completing large-scale PV systems by adding 52% of the new systems installed in 2009 alone. Numbers from Emerging Energy Research

It’s great to see the US keeping pace with solar despite concern about the strength of the US economy. Clearly as solar keeps this rate of progress it’s no wonder that the renewable energy industry will be one of the factors that carries us out of our current economic slump. If you’re looking to get in on this rapid growth of solar installations as a business then check out our classes at our http://www.bootsontheroof.com/

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With all the talk of smart grids it begs the question how many of these ideas have been tested in neighborhoods. Well that’s just what Chicago electric service provider Exelon Corporation is going to do. They plan on retrofitting 100 Chicago area homes with solar panel systems, and also giving around 50 of them “smart grid”, net metering, battery backup, and a grid tied status. Using this set up it can be proven that excess power made by these homes hooked up to the grid can give back their unused power to the grid, essentially making each home a small utility that gets paid for the energy it contributes.

Once this kind of system is tested in trials like this any problems with the idea or implementation can be worked out, and show how these systems can help offset peak loading on the grids. This project will eventually be expanded to a 131,000 smart grid system that all the while will be growing and perfecting this kind of energy monitoring and usage. With more projects showing how great smart grid technologies are these kind of systems should expand rapidly in the coming years, and work alongside other renewable energy systems to further increase America’s energy efficiency and self sufficiency.

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For years there have been attempts at making the next big source of highly efficient energy production, many of which have not actually worked as well as hoped.  Well now there is a real innovation that poises to be a key highly efficient energy source. The Bloom box is essentially a micro fuel cell system that is remarkably efficient given its small size. A large number of well known companies have already been quietly testing these boxes for their own energy production at their main headquarters such as: Google, eBay, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Coca-Cola, and Cox Enterprises. And so far there have been a limited number of problems in operation, which have helped to iron out the kinks in the Bloom box design and effectiveness.

The real mystery is how its going to be implemented, and if it really saves money at its currently high cost of production. But Bloom CEO K.R. Sridhar says that the cost of production is about to go way down, as he is finding cheap alternatives to the typical constituents of such fuel cells. But there is little to know about the box, because for many of its real features, it’s still running with many of their design secrets hidden. Regardless of how it works exactly, at current specifications and government subsidies the Bloom box would produce electricity for the equivalent of 8-10 cents per kilowatt compared to the 11 cents of traditional coal power systems! But as soon as this green subsidy is taken off, the operating cost rises to 13-14 cents per kilowatt. Regardless this kind of system would function independently of the power grid, and is still quite viable without green subsidies. And as it gets even more refined the efficiency is sure to increase as well, making this invention a key contributor to the new energy revolution.

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Brightsource Energy has announced it will make a large solar collector power station in the Mojave desert, CA. This project will create lots of much needed jobs and generate enough power for 140,000 CA homes. To help this project along is a large amount of federal funding that shows yet again the focus of the Obama administration to renewable energy projects.

This kind of power plant works by using a field of flat mirrors that all direct sunlight onto a boiling tower, and the generated steam powers turbines that generate electricity. Similar style power plants have already been providing power to CA for some decades. And the best part is that the CA deserts are all ideal places for this kind of power plant, and soon many more of these could be providing power to CA homes and businesses

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There has been a lot of talk and effort to increase CA net metering to give more credit to homeowners that have the systems installed and who are producing excess power. The State Assembly overwhelmingly passed the bill last Thursday, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, and has also Passed in the Senate. All that remains is for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill, and he is expected to do so next week.

Under this new improved Net Metering program, utilities would extend credit to consumers that provide electricity to the stats grid. Previously the cap for this was a very low 2.5%, which hindered the appeal of solar installations as the amount that it worth to utilities was quite low. Under the new bill, the cap would be doubled to 5%, which will help accelerate the growth of solar even more, and make it an ever more appealing prospect for those still on the fence about residential solar systems.

This bill is yet another major victory for solar power and a big help for CA to go solar!

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                Like most states Georgia has implemented a Green Energy program, but under the previous program 90% of this was from biomass operations, with only 10% coming from solar. Fortunately this ratio is being altered to 50/50, which will help to “encourage more participation in the Green Energy program and further advance the development of solar photovoltaic systems in Georgia.”

                In order to qualify for the Public Service Commision’s program the projects must understandably be in Georgia. This program is not only adding much more effort into solar projects, but it also is increasing the amount of solar energy that utilities can buy from suppliers, and expect this number to increase as well. Currently the price is $5 per 100-kilowatt block for the half solar and half biomass energy plan, with no cap on the number of blocks customers can buy.

                Energy plans such as these are getting more popular, as the number of renewable energy sources increases, even those without residentially installed systems can show they promote green energy by only buying energy from green sources, which is rapidly becoming cheaper as well.

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States have been making solar pledges left and right in recent months, and so far these pledges are on track, as solar continues to grow exponentially across the nation. Next in line for large scale solar installations is Maryland, which hopes to add 100,000 new solar rooftop installations in the next 10 years. Estimates show that one in four homes in Maryland is ready for a solar panel installation. If all these houses would start collecting solar energy it would add up to 196,000 gigawatt-hours of solar energy per day, this would cover more energy than is produced by coal for Maryland. The benefit that residential solar installations have over large commercial ones is that the produced energy is better distributed across the energy grid, which is much easier on the system than the large load coming from power plants.

                To help this goal Maryland will implement 3 bills. First more funds for renewable energy projects would be allocated for residential solar installations, this added funding would help boost local job creation due to the reduced costs and further incentives for homeowners. Secondly, municipalities would be given the ability to loan homeowners money for solar installations, which in turn would lower the costs of energy all around once they are installed. And finally a kind of net metering plan would also go into effect, further increasing the affordability for homeowners to take advantage and help the state go solar.

                This kind of program is working so far for many states, and with all the measures being taken in Maryland, if looks like this will be a huge solar installing success as well in the years to come. If your interested how to get yourself trained for a job in solar pannel installations check out our classes at our main site.

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