SOLAR TODAY Blog

Albuquerque -- SCHOTT Solar PV, Inc., VE Group LLC and Affordable Solar Group LLC today unveiled New Mexico's largest solar array (1.1MW) on The Bell Group's headquarters' parking structure in Albuquerque, NM. The project uses over 5000 locally-made solar modules by SCHOTT Solar PV, Inc., a global leader in photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing, with US headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The installation covers 5 acres of parking area and will generate over 1,600,000 kWh of clean electricity annually -- enough to meet 80 percent of The Bell Group's electricity needs. This locally generated clean energy will avoid approximately 1,125 tons of CO2 emissions annually, while the solar structures provide shaded parking for employee and visitor vehicles under the hot New Mexico sun. The project involved a significant number of jobs in the Albuquerque region by utilizing local manufacturers, contractors and subcontractors from various trades.

The project implementation team consisted of Affordable Solar Group, Albuquerque-based solar equipment distributor and project developer; VE Group (Valley Electric), the prime contractor with offices in New Mexico and Colorado; and VE Group's local and regional subcontractors including Coupland-Moran Engineers, US Prefab, National Roofing and others who together carried the project from conception to completion. The Bell Group's facility management team provided support throughout all phases of the project.

SCHOTT Solar employs 340 people at its Albuquerque facility, Affordable Solar Group 35 employees in Albuquerque, and VE Group over 50 employees in New Mexico and Colorado, many of whom were employed by The Bell Group's solar project.

"As a business, we're always looking for ways to reduce our costs, and our new solar installation is lowering our electricity bills with clean, reliable energy generated by a local, high quality product," said Alan Bell, Managing Director of The Bell Group, an Albuquerque-based industrial distributor. "It also helps us to meet our responsibilities as a business committed to environmentally friendly practices and the local economy."

By Mike Koshmrl
SOLAR TODAY editorial intern

A bright idea: Bright Idea. The Bright Idea (I’m stopping), manufactured by Bright Automotive, is the first investment of General Motor’s new venture capital branch, GM Ventures, LLC. The new $100 million subsidiary of GM was set up in June to help the company identify and develop innovative, up-and-coming transportation technologies.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

The New York Times yesterday ran a story about the Chinese "straddling bus" project. The machine straddles two lanes of city traffic and carries hundreds of passengers above cars moving below.

At first glance this doesn't seem to make sense. How would a bus this wide and this long maneuver at intersections? And why not just build a light rail or streetcar system?

Well, it turns out it's not a bus at all. It's an elephantine electric trolley car, running on steel tracks set into the pavement and drawing power from overhead fixtures.

The main advantage over a conventional streetcar is that it doesn't block traffic when it stops at boarding stations. Clearance beneath is about 2 meters (6.5 feet) so passenger cars, cabs and small vans can pass beneath. Trucks and buses need to go around.

The straddling trolley is cheaper to build than an elevated rail or subway system, and makes sense on a broad boulevard (you need at least three lanes in each direction to let trucks pass).

Beijing is about to build about 10 miles of track for these beasts, and if it works out, there'll be a 120-mile circuit running soon.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

When I was a kid visiting New York with my parents, one of the many distractions was the sidewalk. Manhattan sidewalks seemed porous. On each block the concrete or blue-slate paving was punched through with dozens of steel grates and trap doors, all leading to subway ventilation shafts, coal chutes or freight elevators. The elevators could rise magically straight up through the sidewalk with a loudly clanging bell to warn pedestrians and pushcarts to move aside. Obviously the cellar of each storefront extended beneath the sidewalk.

Almost every sidewalk featured vault lights. These were solid disks or squares of glass, two two four inches across, set into the steel-reinforced concrete to let daylight into the space below the paving. A square foot of sidewalk might contain nine or a dozen glass inserts, and especially over subway stations they could stretch the entire length of the block. At night, electric lights in the space below made the whole sidewalk glow softly. I suppose this may have had an interesting effect on ladies' summer dresses, but I digress. The glass-steel-concrete sidewalks were tough enough to carry heavy traffic, including delivery trucks and city vehicles that occasionally backed across them.

Imagine now that underneath each of those tough glass prisms lurked a photovoltaic cell. The pavement would generate electricity.

That's exactly what Solar Roadways is about. Founder Scott Brusaw notes that the cost of asphalt paving material (a petroleum product) has soared more than 500% since 2007, to more than $1,000 per ton. At that level it makes great sense to seek alternatives. White concrete is a popular alternative, especially in urban heat islands where it can improve the albedo of an entire city landscape, but glass can work, too. With a grant from the Federal Highway Administration, Brusaw's team this year completed a prototype Solar Road paving panel measuring 12 feet square (13.4 square meters).

I don't buy the power calculations on the Solar Roadways website, but very roughly, let's say there's enough glass area on the panel to total 10 square meters. That would theoretically harvest 10 kilowatts of insolation. Converted at 18% efficiency, that's 1.8 kilowatts in full sun. Brusaw wants to sell the panel at $10,000, which would make the PV cost $5.55 per watt. If you subtract the cost of repaving asphalt, at about $2 per square foot, you get something like $5.40 per watt.

You could also put LED lamps under the glass prisms and use them to illuminate the road, or change the lane striping at will, or spell out warnings and directions to drivers. It also turns out that headlights can generate a little electricity.

Theoretically, if electric cars average 3.5 miles per kilowatt-hour, a mile of 12-foot Solar Road paving could drive 792 cars per hour, assuming you can get the current to them. A busy California freeway flowing at 65 mph carries about 1,500 vehicles per lane per hour, which means that the electric road might propel about half of its own traffic during daylight hours. Those EVs could pay a toll to pay for use of the road, in lieu of buying gasoline.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

Congress has dropped the ball for this year on climate legislation, but that doesn't mean the nation needs to drift deeper and deeper into fossil-fueled deficits. The Presidential Climate Action Project, a think tank chaired by former Sen. Gary Hart, regularly puts together a list of executive initiatives that can be undertaken without Congressional action. The 2010 program was posted this morning and it's a doozy. Here's the introduction:

The most important long-term challenge facing the United States today is its transition to a clean energy economy. It also is one of the nation's biggest challenges. Today, 84% of America's total energy use comes from fossil fuels. But it is a challenge filled with opportunity. Deliberate progress toward greater energy efficiencyand low-carbon renewable energy will make our industries more competitive, our economy more stable, our job creation more robust, and our nation more secure. If we expedite the transition, we will minimize our economy's impact on the environment and reduce the impacts of global climate change.

In 2009, the 111th Congress passed and President Obama signed the largest energy bill in American history, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It included more than $80 billion of federal investments in energyefficiency and renewable energy resources. It was an important first step.

Congress has failed, however, to take the essential next step: Implementing an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions and putting a price on carbon. While the most prominent climate and energy bills considered so far by the 111th Congress would be game-changers in our economy, they fall far short of reducing U.S. emissions to the levels recommended by leading climate scientists for industrial economies -- 25% to 40% below 1990 emissions by 2020.

As the international community attempts to deal with climate change and the other liabilities of fossil fuels, the global market for "green" technologies is becoming increasingly competitive. The New America Foundation estimates the United States ran an overall green trade deficit of nearly $9 billion in 2008 and a deficit of $6.4 billion in renewable energy technologies. The White House Council of Economic Advisors has calculated the number of jobs that might be created if the United States tries harder to win the race. It projects that U.S. jobs related to the environment could grow 52% from 2000 to 2016 compared to only 14% for other occupations.

In January 2007, the Wirth Chair at the University of Colorado Denver launched the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a foundation-funded program to identify changes in federal policies and programs that would mitigate climate change and help facilitate the transition to clean energy.

In an effort to stimulate discussion about climate change and clean energy during the presidential campaign, PCAP provided suggestions to all of the candidates. In 2008, the project met with leaders of President-elect Obama's transition team and presented a report with nearly 200 proposals for presidential and congressional action. PCAP's emphasis, however, was on policies the new President could implement without further action by Congress. PCAP commissioned the Center for Energy and Environmental Security at the University of Colorado's School of Law to identify the authorities past congresses had delegated to the Executive Branch. The Center reviewed 112
statutory delegations of authority and 370 executive orders related to the environment, going back to 1937. It concluded "there exists significant authority, without further action by Congress, for the President to take action by executive order to implement various aspects of climate change policy... A proactive administration
with an understanding of the serious implications of climate change can make a significant impact immediately upon taking office."

Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama Administration has used these authorities to implement a substantial body of actions related to climate change and clean energy. They range from the Environmental Protection Agency's certification of greenhouse gases as a danger to public health and safety, which triggered regulation under the Clean Air Act, to the toughest requirements yet imposed on vehicle fuel efficiency, to an executive order that will increase the efficiency and reduce the carbon emissions of the federal government.

But substantial potential remains for executive action -- and with the failure of the 111th Congress to pass legislation that puts a price on carbon, caps U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and establishes a national portfolio standard for renewable energy, proactive presidential leadership is more important than ever.

Consequently, PCAP plans to offer the Administration a fresh list of recommendations in January 2011, at the midpoint of President Obama's first term. In the near term, PCAP recommends that President Obama implement five ideas prior to the United Nations' 16th Conference of the Parties in Cancun:

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

The 15th running of the Hunt-Winston Solar Car Challenge, for high school teams, finished its eight-day, 866-mile run from Dallas to Boulder. Fastest car was Tushka Hashi III ("sun warrior"), built and driven by an 11-student team from Choctaw Central High School in Choctaw, Miss.

Tushka Hashi, competing in the Advanced division, covered 853 miles, at an average speed of 34.7 mph - 3% farther and 9.5% faster than the second-fastest car, the Open division entry Sundancer from Houston (Miss.) High School.

Winner of the Classic division was Sundancer II, also from Houston. The car finished third overall for distance but fourth overall on speed, behind the Advanced division car from St. Thomas Academy of Mendota Heights, Minn.

As an Advanced car, Tushka Hashi III was free to use advanced batteries and a university-designed body. The heaviest car in the race, it also had the most powerful PV array -- roughly 1.75 kW of Sunpower A-300 cells, feeding a lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity of about 5 kWh, and a 6-hp (4.5 kW) motor. Students built the body using a mold (for the top of the body only) donated by the Purdue University solar racing team. The team also won the Hunt Award for most impressive engineering.

As an Open division car, Sundancer was limited to lead-acid batteries and PV cells priced at no more than $10 per watt. Sundancer II, in the Classic division, was limited to PV cells rated 17% efficiency or less, and forbidden to use advanced brushless hubmotors. Both cars used lightweight PV modules made up of Schott EFG/SR-1 cells to produce about 1.3 kW. The Open division car was built by an all-male crew and the Classic car by an all-female crew.

According to race technical director Chris Jones, about 800 schools across the country made application to enter this year's race. "The 13 teams that finished represent the best of the best," he said.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

The QinetiQ Zephyr, a 110-lb remotely-piloted solar-powered airplane, landed today after a record-setting two-week flight.

The British-built UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was designed to loiter for days, weeks or months carrying surveillance or measuring equipment. The 330-hour flight concluded today will be recorded as an official record for heavier-than-air unrefueled endurance flight by the FIA.

This iteration of Zephyr, larger than the production version sold to the military, uses lithium-sulfur batteries to power two electric motors. It features a 22.5-meter (75-foot) wingspan accommodating about 33 square meters of PV cells. The record-setting flight circled over the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, climbing to 60,000 feet during daylight hours and gradually descending to 40,000 as the motors throttled back overnight. This is a power-management protocol also used by Solar Impulse, the manned solar-powered aircraft that made its first overnight endurance flight on July 7-8.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

Parked across the street from our office this morning is a bright yellow Can-Am Spyder. This machine is, in effect, a three-wheel motorcycle, with two steering wheels in front like a car. It's driven by a 100-hp one-liter V-twin engine and weighs about 700 lb.

The thing looks like a lot of fun to ride. Obviously, it doesn't handle like a motorcycle, and won't tip over. But you ride out in the wind. The closest analogies would be riding a snowmobile or jet-ski. And it's not especially frugal: thanks to the high-performance engine it gets 30 mpg at best.

Nonetheless, it may be a big step forward toward the commuter transport of the future.

Equipped with electric wheel-hub motors on all three wheels, and with a weatherproof shell, a machine with this configuration could make a 50-mile roundtrip commute for less than 10 kilowatt-hours of charging. Top speed would be about 80 mph, easily enough to accelerate and flow with freeway traffic. Registered as a motorcycle, it could use high-occupancy commuter lanes. You could park three or four of them in a single conventional parking space. Best of all, it could be safe: stable as today's small cars, with airbags for good crash protection. With battery technology adapted from Chevy's Volt project, a light commuter car like this might sell for less than $20,000 and operate for about two cents per mile. Well, three cents if you count tire and battery replacement.

In a typical American town, the EV Spyder could recharge from a 2-kw PV array.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

I wrote a snarky note last month tasking the folks at The New York Review of Books and St. Martin's Press with sins of energy illiteracy, and copied them. In response we got a blast of countersnark from Joe Rinaldi, veteran publicist at St. Martin's Press. Here's his note, in full:

You've recently criticized former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in relation to his new book, LIGHTS OUT! referencing some point about global warming.

You say "I have not read the book yet." What? What "journalist" admits they haven't read something before criticizing it or any aspect of the entity, in this case the former Secretary's book or press materials which apparently have you baffled, and likely you didn't "read" that either?

A rather ringing indictment of this blog site, sadly for you all...

I wrote back as follows, and it will serve as our review of Lights Out!:

Joe, if you'll reread the blog you'll see I critiqued you, not Spencer Abraham. Your publicity material used the term "carbon monoxide" in place of carbon dioxide.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

The 26-hour flight of the Solar Impulse made front-page news around the world, and was great press for progress in solar technology. In particular it proved that photovoltaic cell and battery efficiencies have reached the stage where a vehicle can store sufficient energy during 15 hours of daylight to sustain flight through a 9-hour night.

Part of that energy storage was in the form of altitude: during the long day, pilot André Borschberg climbed to 8,700 meters (28,500 feet), and during the course of the night descended to 1,500 meters (5,000 feet). That's 7.2 vertical kilometers (4.5 miles) of potential energy converted into flying speed.

At a cruise speed of 23 knots (42 kph), Solar Impulse isn't going anywhere very fast, though a transatlantic flight is the next big goal. The shortest Atlantic crossing, from Senegal to Brazil, has prevailing easterly trade winds. With a 25-knot tailwind, the plane could make that trip westbound in about 27 hours. That close to the equator, the plane would only get 12 hours of daylight for battery charging. The alternative is to ride the westerly winds eastbound along low-arctic route from Labrador to Greenland to Scotland, taking advantage of 20 hours or more of midsummer daylight. With a 25-knot tailwind, that might be a 40-hour flight, with just four or five hours of darkness in the middle.

Solar Impulse is essentially a motor-glider. It climbs using four 10-horsepower motors, so its maximum power draw is 30 kilowatts. A 400-kg lithium-ion battery pack stores about 88 kilowatt-hours, so in theory the motors could run at half power for just under six hours. Half power (15 kilowatts) is marginal to sustain level flight, hence the gradual loss of altitude at night. 200 square meters of monocrystalline silicon PV cells on the wing and horizontal stabilizer, at 22 percent efficiency, ought to generate 44 kw in full sun, so basking on the tarmac for two hours at midday would bring the batteries to full charge. Cruising at altitude during the six or seven hours of high sun, at least 30 watts is available to recharge the batteries after the initial climb.

Solar Impulse is not the first man-carrying solar aircraft capable of long-distance flight. That honor went to Paul MacCready's Solar Challenger, which in 1981 flew from Paris to Manston in England, 163 miles (262 km), piloted by Steve Ptacek. In 1990, Eric Raymond flew his 2.4 hp Sunseeker, powered by 1.8 kw of PV cells, across the United States in 100 hours, spread over 21 days. In 1999 he flew Sunseeker II across the Alps.

Solar Impulse is not the largest solar aircraft, nor the altitude champ: both those records are held by Helios, a MacCready-designed aircraft built under a NASA contract. With a wingspan of 247 feet (75 meters), Helios climbed to 96,863 feet (29,500 meters) in August 2001, remotely piloted by Greg Kendall. Helios was being prepared for a 24-hour flight in 2003 when it was destroyed in wind-shear turbulence.