Welcome to the ultimate Solar Panels Resource
Here you can find information about highly effective solar panels, articles and other interesting thoughts of how to convert more power from your solar panels and help the planet regenarete its diminishing fuel resources.
Solar shingles – are they in the near future?
For now the only way to use solar electricity in your home is to equip your house with solar panes. They are usually mounted on platforms on your roof with the ability to change position in order to gather the sun rays for as long as possible. And as for now we have to mount solar panels additionally to our home, maybe in the near future we'll be able to buy our houses already equipped with them. And not in the way they are now, but as a simple cover to the roof. You’re probably imagining some shiny mirror like roof already, but actually for the past year the National Institute of Standards and Technology has tested photovoltaic roofing products on roofs in Maryland that look just like ordinary tiles, slates, and probably the most popular shingles. All those roofing materials have photo-voltaic cells on them, but those cells are surrounded by inactive area so they cane be secured the normal old fashioned way – with hammer and a nail. For that period, that the tests were conducted, the results are rather encouraging – the solar power efficiency varied from 6 to about 16 percent. There still are some things to be smoothened - the major one being that those shingle based solar energy collectors are positioned in one place and not moving like the normal solar power panels, which can cause loss of sunlight. But with the quick development of this industry we're thinking that the solution for this problem, and any other you can think of, will be found very soon. There's one sure thing – when that happens those solar roof materials will change the house building for good... read more..
Tindo solar-powered bus makes its debut in Adelaide
We talk so much about solar powered cars that we sometimes loose ourselves in that subject, luckily there are people thinking about other type of solar powered transport – busses. Tindo is the first entirely solar powered bus. It is a proud achievement for the Adelaide city in Australia. The Tindo, which is the Kaurna name for Sun, is made by "Designline International", a New Zealand company and made its first official appearance on December 13th 2007.
"Tindo" has an operational range of 200 kilometers between charges under typical urban conditions, and as it doesn't have a combustion engine, it operates quietly and effectively with zero tail pipe emissions. It uses 11 Swiss-made Zebra sodieum/nickel batteries, giving the bus unprecedented energy storage and operational range. The batteries are not affected by external temperatures... read more..
Solar taxi trying to circle the globe
There is only one way that you didn't hear about the Louis Palmer's solar taxi – if you live in the US. He was all over the news when he was crossing Europe, the Middle East and India, so the people over there know him pretty well. The goal of the Swiss teacher was to demonstrate the capabilities of solar power and in order to do that he came up with the idea of creating a solar powered vehicle and then making a year long journey around the globe, starting from Lucerne, Switzerland last July. And if you wonder what the whole deal with the taxi is – the vehicle carries a taxi sign, because Palmer is offering rides to anyone who's interested. And trust me many people have accepted his offer for a quick ride. The vehicle has three wheels and two seats and is towing a trailer with extra solar panels bringing the total cell area up to 65 sq. ft. (I bet he needed those most when passing through England). This week he's tooling around Bali, Indonesia and is expected to make his way to the U.S. next year on his way home later in 2008. So don't worry too much if you haven't heard his name still, very soon he’ll be all over the US news, too. read more..
The Matra MS1 Solar Electric Hybrid bike
Here’s another of those still rarely seen transport vehicles - hybrid bikes - gain speed in their use as more and more companies start to produce them and the coolest thing is that they keep evolving making them better looking and with wider range capacity. That’s exactly the case here with this French hybrid bike. Dubbed a "Lightweight Hybrid Motorbike", it’s basically a high-tech moped. Its batteries offer a range of 25 to 100 km, contrary to those on the other bike reviewed where the batteries had a pretty short range traveled distance.
Another difference is that the MS1 has a quick mode for charging the batteries which take only 3 hours to reach back the 80%, that’s something that lacked on the other model. The power it has is 1KW which is not bad for a bike, top speed of 45km/h and not because of the 1KW power, but because the speed is electronically limited in order for it to comply with the European moped regulations. If you want to burn off some of the unnecessary calories, you can always use the 9-speed chain drive instead of the wheel motors.... read more..
LDK Solar Signs $224 M Supply Agreement with Solartech Energy
A five year supply contract was signed recently between the multicrystalline solar wafer manufacturer LDK Solar Co and the taiwan-based Solartech Energy Corp. For the five year period LDK Solar will deliver multicrystalline solar wafers to Solartech. The solar wafers are valued at approximately 224 million US dollars. "This agreement enables us to secure a significant amount of LDK Solar's high-quality wafers as we rapidly increase our production capacity. Solartech plans to double its capacity to 60 MW in November 2007 and to add 50 MW annually over the next two years to reach an annual production capacity of 160 MW in 2009," stated Charles C. Chang, President of Solartech... read more..
