broadband earth: Dec 23, 2007

Historic time: Solar panel offered for sale on eBay

To commemorate the sale of its first product, Nanosolar said it would keep one solar panel for historical purposes, donate a second to the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and auction a third on eBay.

As of Friday afternoon, $13,100 was the highest bid of 95 offers so far for "Nanosolar Utility Panel #2." The bidding started at 99 cents on Dec. 17. The sale ends Thursday. Proceeds will be donated to an unnamed charity.

The product description said the winning bidder must sign an agreement forbidding "any reverse engineering of the solar panel or its components," and says the panel will be held in escrow until June 1, 2009.

Because this is the first time it has been on eBay, Nanosolar has a zero feedback score right now.

- Matt Nauman, Mercury News

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_7786517

Introducing the Solar Tree

by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent

The streets of Europe could soon be lit by solar energy due to the fact that a solar tree prototype recently passed a key test phase.
The solar trees went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street — the Ringstrasse — in Vienna, Austria. They were able to provide enough light during the night-time even when the sun did not show for as much as four days in a row.

"The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting," Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management (Kulturelles Projektmanagement, Vienna) told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

She said that the City of Vienna was now in the process of deciding whether to install more solar trees.

"We hope that not only the city of Vienna but other cities will see the merits of using renewable energy for street lighting to cut emissions," Christina Werner said. "Someday soon solar trees could well be the main form of street lighting in Europe."

Putting solar powered LED light systems on trees would cut down on the carbon emissions and also slash the bills of local authorities, she said.

Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton.

The use of more energy-efficient lighting in the Austrian city of Graz, with a population of almost 300,000 saved the city 524,000 KWh of electricity and 67,200 euros [US $96,800] in 2005.

"Not just trees but other objects could be decorated with solar cells and so keep streets well lit at night time," she said.

The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one comprising 36 solar cells; they also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems.

A sensor was used to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise.

The tree's lights went on for the first time in Vienna on October 8, 2007 at 11:00 pm. They are now on display outside the La Scala opera house in Milan.

The tree was designed by Ross Lovegrove, a British designer, who said that they are not only efficient but also attractive and bring "nature into a gray city environment".

An Italian company specializing in designer lighting systems, Artemide, as well as the world's largest producer of photovoltaic (PV) cells, the German company Sharp Solar, joined forces to turn the design into reality.

The idea came from Peter Noever, the Director of the Austrian Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna (Österreichisches Museum fuer angewandte Kunst).

Sharp solar had a production volume of 434 megawatts in 2006 and a world market share of 17 percent. It produces PV cells in a factory in Katsuragi, Japan.

Most of Sharp's modules are used for solar energy systems on roofs, but the company believes that solar cells could soon be used in all areas of everyday life from clothes to satellites - including Christmas trees.

"Jane Burgermeister is a RenewableEnergyAccess.com European Correspondent based in Vienna, Austria."
"source:http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story;jsessionid=8592B297C0164E90CF06ABC2C064823D?id=50934"

BBC News - China's Grime Belt Air Pollution Extreme

BBC News Article on Environmental Issues

At $1 per Watt, the iTunes of Solar Energy Has Arrived

“A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That’s the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. Curious that this story is not on every front page.

Still, to commemorate the achievement, Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen (pictured) is reserving the first three commercially-viable panels. One is staying on display at company HQ; one has been donated to San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation. And the other is on sale at ebay.

Starting price? 99 cents.”

(via SolveClimate)

(Nanosolar)