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12 January:
• Green Renter - Citizen Journalism and Sustainability: Emerging Trends and Influence in the New York Context and Beyond, with Ben Jervey and Aaron Naparstek. (7:00 pm)

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Artist’s Talk Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison (Eco-Artists)

Artist Talk: Ecoartspace, Solar One and Ronald Feldman Gallery are pleased to present an Artist’s Talk with collaborative team and Eco Art pioneers, Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison. They will speak in New York City at the Ronald Feldman Gallery on Tuesday, January 13th at 6pm in conjunction with their new exhibition Global Warming (opening on January 10th).

SPACE IS LIMITED: TO RSVP contact Sarah Paulson at (212) 226-3232 sarah@feldmangallery.com
or amy@ecoartspace.org

Where:  Ronald Feldman Gallery | 31 Mercer Street (at Grand Street)

When: January 13th | 6pm

About the Artists: Among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the collaborative team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison (often referred to simply as “the Harrisons”) have worked for over thirty years with biologists, ecologists and urban planners to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.

The Harrison’s concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context. (From www.greenmuseum.org)

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Focus on Weatherization Is Shift on Energy Costs

“…Call it CSI: Thermal Police — energy experts armed with mostly low-tech tools but strong sleuthing skills, finding flaws that let the air inside a house go through a full exchange with the outdoors twice an hour, instead of once every two or three hours.

Correct those flaws, and heating and cooling costs are typically cut by 20 percent to 30 percent, a saving of more than $1,000 annually in some households. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions and the strain on the national electric and gas systems are reduced.

About 140,000 houses will be weatherized with public help this year, a total that President-elect Barack Obama has promised to raise to one million, to reduce energy consumption and cut energy costs for households and taxpayers, who often absorb those costs for the poor. This would represent a historic shift in emphasis for the federal and state governments, reducing poor people’s energy bills instead of helping to pay them. [NY Times | Full Article]

For more information about weatherization services or training in your community, contact the Community Environmental Center or Solar One!

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Ask Nature!

Imagine 3.8 billion years of design brilliance available for free, at the moment of creation, to any sustainability innovator in the world.  Imagine nature’s most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter “filter salt from water” and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels. Now imagine you can meet the people who have studied these organisms, and together you can create the next great bio-inspired solution.

That’s the idea behind AskNature, the online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. Think of it as your home habitat—whether you’re a biologist who wants to share what you know about an amazing organism, or a designer, architect, engineer, or chemist looking for planet-friendly solutions. AskNature is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born.

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New PV Manufacturing Facility Slated for Construction in Japan

The latest in a string of of solar panel producers to make recent headlines, the Kyoto-based Kyocera Corporation announced plans last month to begin construction on a new plant in Shiga Prefecture early in 2009. The new facility will allow Kyocera to more than double its output to 650 MW by its completion in Spring 2012. Given the current demand for photovoltaics, this welcome development comes on the heels of Sanyo’s recent announcement of its new 70 MW manufacturing facility in Oregon and expansion plans at existing facilities that will boost its overall output from 260 MW to over 600 MW by the end of 2010.

Together, these announcements signal a promising new direction for the solar industry; by creating the necessary infrastructure to increase output, these plants will help make solar panels more affordable. This increase in the available supply of photovoltaics is part of a trend that should bring the cost of solar energy on par with cheaper fossil fuels, and it could happen more quickly than anticipated.

This isn’t just a matter of making more, however; the price of raw materials must also come down. A recent report (”Immature PV Supply Chain to Result in Major Polysilicon Price Volatility” - see abstract) issued by iSuppli, a firm that specializes in electronics industry analysis, predicts a “precipitous plunge” in polysilicon prices in 2009 - from as much as $500/kg last year to $200/kg. Though a less efficient conductor than monocrystalline silicon, polysilicon is cheaper and easier to manufacture, which makes it ideal for most solar panels currently on the market. Despite an expected 34% increase in demand, the supply of polysilicon is expected to double over the course of the next year, thus taking some of the strain off the market forces that continue to buoy panel prices. Nearly 90% of the polysilicon supply in 2007 was supplied by only seven companies. By 2009, more than sixty firms will have their hats in the ring. This is nothing but good news for energy-conscious consumers. The report also forecasts an increase in the production capacity of polysilicon-based panels to 17.8 GW by 2010 - nearly triple 2007’s output of 6.2 GW.

So waiting for affordable solar may not require the saintly patience that many imagine; if the growth of the industry is any indication, the alacrity of its arrival may catch us all by welcome surprise.

Sources: “Sanyo ups solar module production capacity in Mexico”, EE Times Asia; “Kyocera to build new solar cell manufacturing plant”, Emerging Energy News; “Kyocera Announces Construction of New Solar Cell Manufacturing Plant”, BusinessWire; “Polysilicon pricing to begin ‘precipitous plunge’ in 2009, says iSuppli report”, PV-tech.org, “SEMI Bolsters Photovoltaic Information Offerings for Members”, Semiconductor International; “Crystalline silicon”, Wikipedia.

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The Manhattan National Wildlife Habitat

Check out a newly formed wildlife habitat on the island of Manhattan! The Manhattan National Wildlife Habitat, known as Decentral Park, is a critical national resource that provides habitat for a diverse array of flora and fauna. These are now being studied by citizen park rangers, including you. All citizens are empowered with the rights and responsibilities of official Deputy Park Rangers, and are invited to participate in gathering information about the ecosystems which make up this beautiful park through WHOOZ a habitat and animal mapping project by Jeffrey Warren and Natalie Jeremijenko for MIT.

WHOOZ is a project actively engaged in mapping animal populations in Manhattan, and anyone with a cellphone can participate in mapping. WHOOZ is particularly interested in BATS, INSECTS, PIGEONS, and PEOPLE Use these four keywords to submit sightings to WHOOZ.

This project needs your participation! Find out how to participate here

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So Watt! 2008 International Design Biennial

The 2008 International Design Biennial is hosting a show entitled: “So Watt!” a collection of projects that bring attention to issues of energy.

“In facing energy issues today, how can we find more economical ways to use electricity, when it is such an important part of the dwelling-place? Thanks to design, the way we use electricity becomes tangible and visible, and the exhibition makes it possible for each of us to find ways of using electricity responsibly, harmonising comfort and care of the environment.”

Shown above is Solar paper lantern by Damien 0’Sullivan, 2004. “This luminaire is made of 36 miniature solar panels, each connected to an electroluminescent diode. The circular layout of the panels and their optimal angle of inclination ensure that they will capture a maximum amount of sunlight in order to charge the lantern’s battery. The overall graphic design is a direct celebration of solar technology.” more…

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New EPA Ruling Could Mean New Direction

In a surprise move that has potentially seismic ramifications for the energy industry, the EPA issued a ruling last Friday that will essentially halt the development of any new coal-based power plants in the United States. The ruling was issued by the agency’s appeals panel as they denied a permit to Deseret Power, an energy conglomerate looking to build a 110 MW coal-burning power plant on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah. As a result, more than one hundred other plants in various stages of development and construction now face an uncertain future.

Claiming that they would no longer grant permits for projects that do not adequately consider the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, the appeals board overturned a permit recently granted by the agency’s Denver office and cited a 2007 Supreme Court decision giving the EPA federal authority to regulate CO2 emissions. The decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, ruled 5-4 in favor of 12 state plaintiffs that the agency had shirked its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act and was widely perceived as a critique of the current administration’s environmental policies.

Environmentalists have hailed the new move as a harbinger of a green-friendly administration-in-waiting, though many are surprised that it has come under the aegis of a lame duck and environmentally obstinate commander-in-chief. Ultimately, whether this decision signals a belated acknowledgement of accepted scientific fact or a raise-of-the-white-flag by defeated leadership is less significant than the implication that, however we choose to meet our future energy needs, clean and renewable sources should finally get their chance.

Sources: PSD Appeal No. 07-03, Environmental Appeals Board, United States Environmental Protection Agency;“EPA ruling over climate jeopardizes coal plants”, Reuters; “EPA Blocks Coal Plant, Could Change Power Landscape”, The Huffington Post (Nov. 14, 2008);“EPA Coal Decision Levels Playing Field for Wind, Solar”, Wired Science; “EPA Coal Decision Could Pave Way for Renewable Energy”, EcoGeek; “EPA ruling halts all new coal-fired power plants”, Scientific American; “Massachusetts, et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, et al.”, Supreme Court of the United States, #05-1120; “Supreme Court: Heat-Trapping Carbon Dioxide is Pollution”, National Resources Defense Council (press release); “Justices say EPA Has Power to Act on Harmful Gases”, The New York Times (April 3, 2007).

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Construction Begins on Major Wind Farm

First Wind, a Massachusetts-based renewable energy start-up, broke ground on Friday on a 97-turbine wind farm in Milford, Utah. The Milford Wind Corridor Project is expected to come on-line by the end of 2009 and will generate 203 MW of emissions-free energy upon its completion. The majority of the energy generated will supply communities in and around Los Angeles, under the auspices of a 20-year power purchase agreement announced last December; the L.A. Department of Water and Power will receive 185 MW under the first phase of this project, with 10 MW going to Burbank and 5 MW to Pasadena. This amount will be enough to power 39,000 homes and covers nearly 2% of the city’s 20% renewable energy goal for 2010.

Soon to be the largest wind farm in the state, the Milford Project will create about 275 jobs during construction and is also the first to be completed in conjunction with the federal Bureau of Land Management. Click here to read the project overview and here for a map of Utah’s wind potential.

Sources: “First Wind Begins Construction on Milford Wind Corridor Project”, First Wind (press release); “Bureau of Land Management approves Milford Wind Corridor”, Emerging Energy News;“BLM clears way for Milford wind corridor”, The Salt Lake Tribune;“Milford Wind Corridor Project Overview with Land Ownership”, Office of Governor, Utah; “BLM: Utah: Wind Energy”, “Utah Wind Power Potential”, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management; “California in Brief: Los Angeles - City Council approves wind-power deals”, Los Angeles Times (Dec. 20, 2007); “Utah wind farm to benefit L.A.”, Deseret Morning News (Dec. 21, 2007).

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Building Performance Training Program Update!

Solar One’s Building Performance Training Program is wrapping up an incredibly successful session with Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School next week. Working in tandem with technicians at the Community Environmental Center, Solar One’s parent organization, students are getting hands-on experience and training on how to assess the energy efficiency and overall building performance of single family homes here in New York City. Today we visited a residence in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn that qualified for a state-funded NYSERDA Residential Program. Students measured boiler efficiency, checked for moisture damage and practiced looking for air leaks using a blower-door test and other equipment. Their final recommendation was to increase insulation in the basement and attic cavities to make the building envelope tighter.

To learn more about our Green Jobs Training program, please click here. For more info about NYSERDA incentives and programs please contact our Energy $mart Communities Coordinator, Diana here.

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The New Shape of Solar?

Imagine if the earth were flat.

Not only would ships hurtle off its edges into the void; due to the limited angle-of-solar-incidence, days would most likely be shorter, darker and colder. Because less surface area would be directly exposed to the sun, less solar radiation would be absorbed by the earth.

The same principle applies to solar panels. The flat shape of the typical photovoltaic cell requires that, in order to maximize its efficiency, its position be adjusted to correspond to the shifting sun throughout the day. Solyndra, a California-based company that specializes in the design and manufacture of pV systems, is now applying this simple geometric principle to create cheaper and more efficient solar arrays.

Solyndra’s cells resemble the ubiquitous fluorescent lighting tubes found in many homes and apartments and consist of one smaller glass tube encased within another. The inner tube is coated with a compound known as CIGS (for copper, indium, gallium and selenide), which is used to make thin-film photovoltaics. The outer tube serves to keep moisture out and act as a solar concentrator, focusing photons onto the compound coating. Though thin-film systems are currently less efficient than traditional silicon-based systems, thin-film offers many advantages in that it is cheaper to produce, uses less material and can be deposited on a wider variety of surfaces. Many companies therefore are banking that thin-film solar will be the future of renewable energy. As Solyndra has discovered, its ability to be shaped into this tubular design makes the case for thin-film even stronger.

First of all, the tubular arrays can collect sunlight from any direction, even from below, so most cylindrical systems are placed on white-painted substrates in order to reflect light back up into the tube, as well as absorbing it directly from above. This allows these arrays to collect 20% more sunlight than standard flat systems, according to Solyndra’s estimates. In addition, the cylinders are easier to install and maintain, thereby reducing labor costs; traditional flat panels need to be carefully arranged so that they don’t shade each other, a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, and they also need to be tilted to follow the sun’s trajectory. This means that, not only can cylindrical arrays do away with automatic tracking systems that are expensive and can limit the system’s efficiency, but they are also less prone to damage caused by wind and exposure to other elements. This helps to alleviate one of the other drawbacks of flat-panel systems - maintenance and replacement costs associated with hurricanes and other storms.

Solyndra is currently targeting only commercial rooftops, but with improved efficiency and incentive policies, that will hopefully change; their systems are quite popular in Germany and Spain, both countries with progressive feed-in tariffs that help mitigate the start-up costs for solar installation. Their largest customer is Phoenix Solar, a German company that has contracts with Solyndra worth $1.2 billion. Among Phoenix Solar’s Solyndra-designed arrays are five prototype systems here in the U.S., including in California, Utah and Florida. If these tubes prove they can overcome the obstacles associated with traditional arrays, the iconic flat panel may soon be replaced by an altogether different shape.

Sources: “Cylindrical Solar Cells Give Whole New Meaning to Sunroof”, Scientific American;“Tubular Sunshine”, The Economist;“Solyndra, with over $600M in funding, finally shows its solar hand”, The New York Times; “Better Solar For Big Buildings”, MIT Technology Review; “Inside Secretive New Solar-Tech Factory”, Wired; “Measuring Solar Spectral and Angle-of-Incidence Effects on Photovoltaic Modules and Solar Irradiance Sensors”, Sandia National Laboratories; “”Effect of sun angle on climate”, Wikipedia; “Shading: Solar Incidence”, squ1.org/wiki/Solar_Incidence; “Earth-Sun relationships and insolation”, www.eoearth.org; www.solyndra.com; www.phoenixsolar.com.

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New Energy Technology Is All Rubbish

Imagine a technology that not only generates energy with minimal greenhouse gas emissions, but that can even remove existing emissions sources while also solving the problem of garbage disposal. If St. Lucie County in Florida proves correct, plasma incinerators may be one more option in our growing sustainability portfolio. Instead of dumping its trash in landfills, St. Lucie County hopes to blast it with streams of superheated gas (known as plasma) at temperatures of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, organic matter vaporizes into a form of gas that can be used to power turbines, generating waste steam that could be then be used to create more energy. Inorganic matter such as aluminum cans could be used as recycled material for construction and infrastructure, including filler for roadbeds.

Not only does St. Lucie County hope to provide power for 50,000 homes in the process, but, by keeping trash out of landfills, it would significantly curb methane emissions that would result from decomposition. In addition, the plasma process itself (also known as plasma arc gasification) apparently generates far fewer emissions than standard incineration, and the county administration expects that the resulting energy will be no more expensive than natural gas.

Though plasma plants have been around since the 1980s, St. Lucie’s will be the first intended specifically for waste disposal. Expected to go on-line in 2011, city planners anticipate that it will process 1,500 tons of garbage daily and will supply the local energy grid with 60 MW of electricity (though some sources claim that public outcry (see below) and other logistical difficulties have caused GeoPlasma - the plant’s owner and developer - to propose a scaled-back verison that will process only 200 tons per day).

The plan is not without controversy, however. Skeptics claim that the technology is unproven and may release unsafe amounts of dioxin and other cancer-causing particulates into the community. Others claim that the proposed benefits may be overblown; a study of a similar plasma arc waste disposal facility in Honolulu concluded that the technology actually increased waste disposal costs while providing little if any environmental benefit. Until such concerns are abated, our trash isn’t likely to go anywhere but into the ground.

Sources: “Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas”, Scientific American; “Doctors Say: Be Careful, St. Lucie County; make Geoplasma prove its claims about proposed arc incinerator”, www.tcpalm.com; “City to Brief Council on Plasma Arc Recommendations For Landfill Reduction”, City of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services (press release); “Can We Turn Garbage Into Energy? The Pros and Cons of Plasma Incineration”, www.slate.com; “Plasma arc waste disposal”, “Plasma (physics)”, www.wikipedia.com; “How Plasma Converters Work”, www.howstuffworks.com; “The Prophet of Garbage”; Popular Science; “Generating Power From Waste”, www.recyclingexpert.co.uk; www.geoplasma.com (Geoplasma homepage).

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Solar One Wins Holcim Gold 2008 Award

Solar One is extremely proud to announce that we have been awarded the prestigious Holcim Gold 2008 North America Award (pictured) for Solar 2, the net-zero energy use building that will be constructed on the Solar One blacktop starting in 2009. Along with the trophy, there is a $100K prize. Projects with a high expectation of completion are especially valued in the competition, and Solar 2 was praised as “bringing the eco-building vision into reality”.

The awards are given by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation to projects in  5 regions of the world. The top projects are automatically selected for the Holcim International Award, with the winner to be announced in Lucerne, Switzerland in May 2009. The winner of the International Gold Award is also awarded a cash prize of $650K.

Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins accepted the award Thursday night in Montreal, along with architect Colin Cathcart of Kiss+Cathcart and Nigel Nicholls of engineering firm Arup, thanking the Holcim Foundation for their support of the Solar 2 project. “We are excited to have received this prestigious international award,” said Chris Collins. “It recognizes the need for a building like Solar 2, particularly in NYC, where buildings account for 79% of CO₂ emissions.”

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Green Drinks at BIG!NYC This Saturday 4-7pm

Our sister organization Build It Green! NYC is hosting a special weekend edition of Green Drinks this Saturday October 25 from 4-7pm at their space in Astoria, Queens. There will be free sangria made “with love” by the elegant and redoubtable Forrest Gillespie, beer, and a live performance of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Mr. Gillespie and Dylan Latimer. If that doesn’t sound like a fun fall time, what possibly could?

3-17 26th Ave
Astoria, NY 11102
Map and directions can be found here.

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Green Innovator Launch!

Green Innovator Curriculum Launch!

The Green Innovator ^TM is a new sustainability education program and curriculum aimed at high school students, that explores the process of innovation through sustainable design and manufacturing. With a planet facing a myriad of environmental challenges, The Green Innovator ^TM aims to help teachers facilitate a new dialogue with students about the integral role of design and green manufacturing processes in our transition toward a more sustainable future. The curriculum will be on sale October 15th online! Click here to go to our order page! More info about this program can be found here.

Upcoming Free Teacher’s Workshops

Webinar at National Center for Manufacturing Education

The Green Innovator Program is collaborating with the National Center for Manufacturing Education to present an interactive webinar for teachers around the country.

When: October 15th, 2008 | 4pm

Where: Join this free online webinar from anywhere in the country! To login to the webinar click here!

Center for Architecture NYC Launch

The Center for Architecture hosts the NYC launch of The Green InnovatorTM Program thanks to a generous grant from the Motorola Foundation.

When: November 7th, 2008 | 9am
Where: Center for Architecture | 536 LaGuardia Place (Map)

Downloads: Event Flyer (PDF)
Press Release (.DOC)

Registration Required: To register please contact Christopher Kennedy - limited seats available. Email: kennedy [at] solar1 [dot] org

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Join Us Tonight For A Solar-Powered Public Screening of the Final Presidential Debate (Oct 15, 9PM)

The historic 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were held at county fairs before large outdoor audiences. Tonight Solar One is putting a contemporary twist on that format by holding an open public screening of the final presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain at our East River venue. The 90 minute debate will be projected onto a gigantic 30ft x 30ft screen before an audience of up to 700 people.

The event is free and all are welcome*

According to www.weather.com, the forecast is calling for clear skies and a comfortable temperature in the low 60s. So bundle up, bring a friend and cheer on your candidate in the company of others.

* Solar One is a nonpartisan organization. This event has been arranged for the purposes of public enjoyment and voter engagement, and has not been arranged in conjunction with the campaigns of either candidate.

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Finally!

Not-quite-lost among the hubbub of the passage of the $700B bailout/rescue package last week was the inclusion in the bill of an 8-year extension of the federal tax credits for renewable energy projects.  If you haven’t been following this saga all year, you may not know that this was the 9th time (!) that these incentives had been included in a bill this year.  The current set of incentives was set to expire at the end of the year, and their extension was seen as vital to the continued health and growth of the renewable energy industry (especially solar) in this country.  As a political hot potato, the incentives were defeated on their own as part of the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 and the Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008 and also when included as part of other bills like the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (in a situation where John McCain could have helped get the bill to a vote on the Senate floor, but opted not to vote at all - the legislation was then passed with the energy tax breaks stripped out of it) and an Iraq War funding bill (when Republicans wanted to include the funding without a corresponding offset in revenue that Democrats demanded).  Indeed, you could be forgiven for throwing up your hands after the 9th or 10th e-mail pleading with you to write or call your congressional representatives about the crucial piece of legislation that would finally put this madness behind us, or even for thinking that the incentives were destined to die on the vine.

The financial rescue package, however, offered one last chance to get the extension passed before the end of the year.  Regardless of your sentiments on the “pork” attached to the final bill, the inclusion of these incentives is a lot more palatable than some of the other special favors that found their way in.   The total package includes somewhere in vicinity of $17-$18 billion in tax credits for power generated by solar, wind and other renewable sources through 2016.  It looks like the coal industry managed to get a piece of the action as well, but in the spirit of compromise, we’ll overlook that little tidbit for now.  What’s important is that the incentives make renewables more readily able to compete on cost with traditional (i.e. dirty) sources of energy.  One important change to note was the removal of the cap of $2,000 of incentives for residential projects.  This means that the cost of residential solar projects just got reduced even further.  When you combine these federal incentives with the already existing incentives at the state and local levels, the economics of solar really start to make sense for more and more customers.   ASES has a more complete rundown on the provisions - which also include elements covering energy efficient buildings and plug-in hybrids - on their website.

For more information on solar check out our PV resource page.  And the Power Naturally site can answer many of your questions about the process of buying and installing solar panels.

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The Kids are Here!

Solar One’s Education program kicked off last week with a visit from The Geneva School’s second grade class! Learning about the sun, solar energy and Stuyvesant Cove Park - students left with their own sun dial watches and knowledge about energy conservation and renewable technology!

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Sanyo Announces New PV Manufacturing Plant in US

SANYO North America Corporation, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based SANYO Electric Co., announced plans on Monday to construct a new solar component plant in Salem, Oregon. The facility, set to open in October 2009, will produce silicon ingots and wafers, the major component in conventional solar cells, and will create over 200 new green jobs. Slated to cost $80 million in development and construction, the plant will more than triple the company’s overall US photovoltaic production from 30 MW to 100 MW once fully operational by April 2010; for comparison, the cumulative US output for PV production in 2007 was 201 MW, 31% greater than in 2006. As high demand for solar panels is currently outstripping supply, this greater production capacity should help to lower retail costs across the global market.

The announcement is yet more evidence that Oregon’s incentive programs for renewable business seem to be working. Thanks to the state’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC), which provides tax breaks of up to 50% on capital investments of up to $20 million for renewable energy projects, solar manufacturers are moving there in relative droves. SANYO joins three other companies that shifted their operations to Oregon last year alone - German-based SolarWorld, and Solaicx and Peak Sun Silicon, both of California. All in all, a study released this past spring by ECONorthwest projects that the two energy tax credit programs combined (the Residential Energy Tax Credit program being the other) would “create nearly 2,100 new jobs, boost economic output by $178 million and cut energy costs by $60 million” over the next fifteen years.

The factory will join SANYO’s Carson, CA manufacturing plant and expansion at other production facilities in Japan, Hungary and Mexico to boost the company’s expected PV output to 340 MW globally by the end of 2008 and 600 MW by 2010. Among its other solar ventures, in 1997 SANYO introduced its highly efficient HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells, which combine single crystalline cells with amorphous silicon to achieve an impressive 20% conversion efficiency rating. Also check out SANYO’s Solar Ark in Japan, the world’s largest solar-generating structure and a state-of-the-art science center.

Sources: press release (us.sanyo.com); Oregon Department of Energy; “Oregon Welcomes Yet Another Solar Maker, Sanyo”, earth2Tech;“Economic Impacts of Oregon Energy Tax Credit Programs in 2006″, ECONorthwest; “SB 819 Passes Out of House Committee by unanimous vote”, Pacific Northwest Energy and Sustainability Venture blog;“Sanyo to Build Solar Cell Plant in Oregon”, GoodCleanTech; “Sanyo chooses Oregon site for new solar PV ingot, wafer factory”, Photovoltaics International; “Solar Manufacturing Takes Flight in the United States”, US Department of Energy, EERE News; “Big Photovoltaic Price Drop Due to Large Silicon Supplies?”, FuturePundit; “PV Status Report 2007″, EU Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability; “Japan’s Sanyo to Build New US Plant”, AFP wire report.

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Your Second “Skin”?

Maybe you can take it with you, after all.

One day soon you may be able to wear solar like a patch of solidarity on your sleeve. It sounds like the setting of some utopian novel, an almost too-obvious sci-fi fantasy - flexible solar “skin” efficient enough to power everything from ubiquitous personal devices such as cell phones, laptops and mp3 players to larger hallmarks of technology such as hybrid cars and generators. A research team led by physicist Steven Novack at the Idaho National Laboratory has recently developed a technique that could allow for the practical application of small, flexible solar “stamps” comprised of infrared-converting nanoantennae no more than a few billionths of a meter in diameter.

What makes this technology so unique is that it utilizes a wavelength of light that up until recently had been considered too weak for solar technology. Most solar cells harness shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation such as visible and ultraviolet light because these wavelengths are powerful enough to knock individual electrons loose from atoms, thereby generating direct electrical current. Too weak for this process, infrared light is, however, strong enough to induce electrons to vibrate. If these electrons are arranged in flexible arrays such as in crystalline lattices built from highly conductive metals, these vibrations would be powerful enough to create an alternating current (though a high-frequency rectifier - not yet developed - would be required for conversion to direct current). More significantly, by utilizing clever design principles, such nanoantennae have been shown to convert over 90% of available infrared, more than double the conversion efficiency of typical solar cells.

Referring to this breakthrough as a “solar” technology might be misleading, however, since it relies on collecting heat that rebounds off the earth’s surface rather than sunlight itself. Since the earth continually emits this radiation, this distinction gives the process yet another advantage over conventional solar in that it would be able to generate energy under conditions averse to conventional solar panels such as nightfall or cloud cover, even potentially recycling the waste heat from engine exhaust and other sources. This potential raises a possible secondary benefit of this technology: it could be used to keep computers and other electronic devices from overheating.

The tiny structures are comprised of miniature gold spirals embedded in polyethylene plastic, which can then be “stamped by the billion” onto plastic sheets and applied to virtually any surface. Novack even envisions the development of double-sided sheets tuned to convert radiation of differing wavelengths, simultaneously tapping multiple regions of the sun’s energy spectrum.

Sources: “Feeling the Heat”, The Economist; “Nanoantennas envisioned as possible replacement for solar cells”, TG Daily; “Flexible nanoantenna arrays capture abundant solar energy”, eScience news; “Solar Skin: A Sheet of Tiny Antennas”, Solar Feeds; “Sheets of Tiny Antennae Harvest Sunlight and Heat”, Discovery News;“Solar Nantenna Electromagnetic Collectors”, Novack, et al. (technical paper presented at 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability).

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Urban Farmer Wins “Genius” Award

For an accomplished and lucky few, Christmas comes in September.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the winners of its annual “genius grants” this week. The selection is notable for its stimulating eclecticism; this year’s roster includes a plant evolutionary geneticist, an architectural preservationist, a Mesoamerican anthropologist, a traditional basketweaver, a medical historian and a stage lighting designer, in addition to the regular litany of artists, musicians and writers. Also new to this club of the talented, passionate and committed is Wisconsin urban farmer Will Allen.

Since 1993, Allen has been simultaneously developing groundbreaking, sustainable agricultural techniques while providing invaluable community service in the form of educational programs and affordable food for low-income urban populations in Milwaukee, Chicago and other locations in the upper midwestern United States. Co-founder of the Milwaukee-based non-profit Growing Power, Allen eschews the “back to the land” philosophy prevalent in the sustainable agriculture movement for the cultivation of small but efficient urban plots and a vertical business model that includes grassroots distribution networks. His approach also addresses issues of health awareness and diet with a focus on the prevention of obesity and diabetes, conditions known to afflict low-income communities in particular. (For an entirely unrelated but equally current story on the effects of obesity and fast-food diet on children’s health, click here.) Allen’s innovative farming techniques include “use of raised beds, aquaculture, vermiculture and heating greenhouses through composting”, all of which attempt to maximize yield in limited space - generally the only space available in urban locations - while keeping energy use and other costs at a mimimum.

The fellowships - awarded by the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation since 1981 - are accompanied by a $500,000 stipend with “no strings attached”. Nominees are selected by an independent panel and are unaware of their consideration until notified. One of this year’s grantees, John Ochsendorf of MIT’s architecture department, exclaimed, “I had to sit down… It changes everything. This is validation.” Notes MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton, “Generally there’s a pause and expressions of disbelief. I’ve had people drop the phone or say they need a minute because they feel weak.”

So when that phone rings next September, it may be best to answer sitting down. The holidays just might arrive a few months early…

Sources: “MacArthur Foundation awards 2008 ‘genius grants’”, Associated Press; “Urban Farmer’s Work Honored”, Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal; “Fast Food Hits Mediterranean; a Diet Succumbs”, New York Times; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation website (www.macfound.org); Growing Power website (www.growingpower.org); African American Environmentalist Association website (aaenvironment.blogspot.com)

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