Advances in solar power are happening so quickly that they could herald the end of the era of large coal-fired or nuclear power stations in Britain, according to senior executives at National Grid.
“From a consumer’s point of view, the solar on the rooftop is going to be the baseload,” Steve Holliday, the transmission network’s chief executive, said. “Centralised power stations will be increasingly used to provide peak demand.”
His finance chief went even further. Andrew Bonfield said that solar panel costs were falling so rapidly that energy from the Sun was expected to be one of the most cost-effective
This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire
Levittown, PA — (SBWIRE) — 09/16/2015 — There are many problems that arise with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, from the condenser to the air handler, to the ventilation systems themselves. Ivey Air, Inc., a company offering comprehensive HVAC services throughout Levittown and Bucks County, PA, would like to announce that they are also available to provide in-depth air balancing services for all of their clientele throughout the region.
Air balancing is the practice of ensuring that the cooling and/or heating provided from an HVAC system permeates the entirety of a property. Homes that are poorly balanced will have inconsistent temperatures throughout the property, and regularly experience complications with their HVAC system. Ivey Air uses state-of-the-art devices and technology in order to discern the quality of air balancing in any property. If there is any kind of issue with the property’s balance, they make it their duty to fix the problem quickly and cost-effectively.
Ivey Air also proudly provides indoor air quality services for their clientele throughout Bucks County and Levittown, PA. Because of new breakthroughs in insulation and ventilation, homes are more air-tight than ever. As allergens and debris build up in the air within a property, it’s extremely important to have great indoor air quality control in order to preserve the health of the building’s occupants, which can be put at risk by factors such as pets, smoking, plants and even cooking with poor ventilation. Ivey Air assists clientele with air filters as well as duct and vent cleaning. For more information on their air quality control services, they urge individuals to contact them immediately.
Ivey Air has worked hard since their founding in 1979, by Thomas E. Woods, to earn the trust and respect of their clientele. They are available to provide extensive A/C repairs in Bucks County, PA, and the surrounding regions on top of their exceptional air balancing services throughout the region. Reach Ivey Air by phone today at 215-695-4170 or by e-mail at info@iveyair.com. Those interested can also fill out a contact form on their website.
About Ivey Air Ivey Air is a Levittown, Pennsylvania-based heating, cooling and ventilation service, repair and installation business servicing both residential and commercial property owners in and around the Levittown, PA area. They provide improvement services for indoor air quality, including air duct and ventilation cleaning and air filtration systems.
For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/pennsylvania-air-balancing-services-now-available-from-ivey-air-inc-625515.htm
Credit the ice ages for making Indiana a good place to turn wind into electricity. All that glacial action scoured flat the northern half of the state and sculpted the perfect terrain for wind turbines.
A few million years later, the Environmental Protection Agency is about to use regulatory fiat to make the state even more attractive to industrial windmills.
New EPA rules coming down the pike will cut carbon emissions from coal and gas power plants for the first time and boost demand for clean power such as wind. One result: Indiana could see two or three times as many wind farms as it has now.
In its latest projection of U.S. wind energy needs, the federal Department of Energy says only five other states are in line to boost their wind power sectors as much as or more than Indiana.
Indiana has a good shot at tripling its wind power capacity in the next decade or so, from the current 1,744 megawatts to 5,000 or more, says Sean Brady, Midwest policy manager for the wind power advocacy group Wind on the Wires.
That would require erecting 2,000 wind turbines to join the 1,031 that now dot the state’s landscape north of Indianapolis. “Indiana has quite a large upside. It has a great opportunity for wind development,” Brady said.
If growth of that magnitude occurs, investment in the state’s wind farms would have to soar from $3.7 billion to more than $10 billion, making wind farms one of the most expensive industrial installations in state history.
Whether wind power actually has that kind of upside, however, depends on a few cards being played just so.
For one thing, not everyone in the public policy arena thinks that wind is the way to go. It is, after all, a variable power source that you can’t rely on to generate the juice when needed. (Indiana’s four-season winds are especially fickle, with a fivefold difference in breeziness between the least windy month, August, and the windiest, November. Regional power grid operator MISO tracks wind power use by the hour and posts it online.)
Wind power, in addition, is expensive to install ($2 million or more per turbine) and controlled to a great extent by foreign companies, which doesn’t bode well for winning a lot of public support.
Also, demand for wind energy depends on Congress renewing the federal tax credit that wind developers rely on to be price-competitive with other forms of energy. The credit expired at the end of last year and renewal isn’t a given.
And one last thing: The proposed EPA CO2 rules are fraught with sticky issues, gray areas and unknowns that could tip in favor of wind or against it, depending on how they’re finally written.
“So much is up in the air,” said Joan Soller, director of resource planning at Indianapolis Power & Light Co.
One particularly sticky issue: EPA’s proposed “clean power plan” rules don’t give a utility any credit, under the CO2-lowering mandates, for using green energy in its generation portfolio if it buys wind power from outside its home state.
If that proviso stands, Indiana’s wind industry could be hurt because it currently sells the bulk of its power to non-Indiana utilities. They would be newly motivated to drop their Indiana contracts and buy their green energy from wind farms in their own states.
Utilities and other interests are lobbying the EPA to drop the rule giving credit only to home-state-bought green energy. The final EPA rules are expected out this summer. States also will have a say in the matter, so they’ll have to be lobbied, too. (Some states also are fighting the CO2 rules in court.)
Whatever happens, Indiana likely won’t lose its standing as a big player in wind energy. It’s just too good a place to site wind farms.
The northern reaches of the state not only are prairie-flat, but they’re close to Chicago, Indianapolis and other big population centers that gobble megawatts of electricity. The state also overlaps the territories of two electrical system operators that distribute power from Canada to Louisiana and points east and west.
And, of course, it’s windy.
Wind farm developers in Indiana are already scouting out locations for new farms as the new EPA mandates march closer.
“We’re actively marketing sites to … gauge interest” from power users, said Ryan Brown, an executive vice president at EDP Renewables. “Expansion is definitely possible.”
Spanish-owned EDP already controls about 40 percent of the state’s wind turbines through its Meadow Lake wind farm in White County and its newly opened Headwaters farm in Randolph County.
Most of Indiana’s turbines were erected from 2008 to 2012. Growth has since slowed. Last year, Headwaters was the only major wind farm to open.
A proposed project in Benton County and another in and around Rush County are seen as leading contenders to be built next. Those projects would have about 70 turbines each.
In Indiana, “the easiest-to-develop projects have been developed,” and much of the best available ground for catching steady wind is taken, said Tristan Vance, director of the Indiana Office of Energy Development. “But I think we will see future projects here. We’ve been fairly open for wind development.”
Though the best sites for wind farms might indeed be snapped up, technological improvements have given the industry taller turbines with larger and lighter blades that capture more wind at higher altitudes than older, smaller turbines.
That should allow wind developers to continue to profit from Indiana’s wind at new sites with new turbines, said Brown of EDP.
At its Headwaters farm, EDP installed new turbines 312 feet tall from ground to gearhouse, with blades 180 feet long. Turbines at EDP’s older farm in White County along I-65 are 262 feet tall with blade lengths of 134 to 144 feet.
Because the bigger machines can catch more wind, they generate electricity about 40 percent of time, compared with about 33 percent of the time for the shorter turbines, Brown said.
(Turbines likely won’t get any taller. The Federal Aviation Administration requires special, harder-to-get approvals for turbines that exceed 500 feet from their base to the tip of an upright blade. The new turbines at Headwaters are just about at that 500-foot limit.)
With the bigger turbines, “Indiana is looking very attractive” for wind farm development down the road, said Michael Goggin, senior director of research for the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group for the wind industry. “At that height, (wind) is a very attractive resource in Indiana. It’s like being in the plains at that altitude.”
Any growth in wind farms also would put more money in the hands of farmland owners, who rent the land needed for the turbines. Average rents in Indiana now run about $5,000 a year per turbine, which amounts to about $5 million a year in statewide turbine rent payments.
For those who can get it, wind turbine rent “is pretty significant, especially if you have multiple turbines on a farm,” said Justin Schneider, senior policy adviser and counsel at Indiana Farm Bureau. “It can take off some of the risk of crop production if you have a bad year.”
Schneider said he thinks most Indiana farmland owners would be eager to rent their land for any new wind farm proposals that pop up.
Still, pushback to wind persists at policymaking levels. And that opposition could harden as wind energy use spreads and utilities are forced to spend billions of dollars nationally building transmission lines to handle the increased flow of power from new wind farms, said Tom Tanton, director of science and technology assessment at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute in Washington, D.C. The group has done studies suggesting federal subsidies to wind energy don’t make economic sense.
Tanton said wind farm developers are able to push “hidden costs” of wind energy onto utilities and ratepayers. Those costs include gas turbine plants required to back up wind power and balance its fluctuating energy flows caused by intermittent wind, he said.
Existing backup power sources can handle the fluctuations of wind energy now, since it supplies only about 4.5 percent of U.S. electrical use, Tanton said. But if wind energy boosts its share of the market much beyond that, a fleet of costly new backup gas turbine plants that can turn on and off with short notice will be required, he said.
IPL’s director of project development, Richard Benedict, said it’s tough for a utility to even calculate the true cost of electricity from wind energy because of the need for backup capacity.
Wind-generated electricity is so variable it almost doesn’t count as power in a conventional sense. IPL, for instance, has long-term contracts to buy 300 megawatts of electricity from wind farms in Indiana and out-of-state. But the Indianapolis utility can’t count those megawatts when calculating its official electrical capacity because they’re not reliably available, Benedict said.
“We (only) get it when the wind blows,” he said.
Still, the coming of the CO2 rules might force IPL to buy much more wind-generated electricity in the future. Under its pending rules, the EPA won’t allow IPL to claim CO2-lowering credits for the 66 percent of wind energy it now buys out-of-state, or for converting its coal-fired Martinsville plant to natural gas (because the conversion won’t happen by the deadline set in the rules).
If IPL can’t get credit for those green energy moves, it might have to turn to buying in-state wind energy in a big way.
IPL officials are trying to get their minds around the fact that they might have to buy as much as 1,000 megawatts of wind energy to meet the coming carbon-lowering standards. That move alone would create the demand for a 60 percent build-out, of about 600 turbines, in Indiana’s wind farms.
Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.
Wind power in Indiana
(2014 data)
Turbines: 1,031 on six wind farms.
Electrical capacity: 1,744 megawatts.
Electrical output: 3,495 thousand MWh (0.4% increase from 2013).
Share of U.S. wind energy produced: 3% (enough to power 321,000 houses).
Largest month for production: November (507 thousand MWh).
Smallest month for production: August (101 thousand MWh).
Largest Indiana wind farm: Fowler Ridge (355 turbines in Benton County, operated by BP Wind).
Annual land rent paid by wind farms: More than $5 million (typical rent is $5,000 per turbine).
Wind energy employment: About 1,500 jobs.
Investment in wind farms: $3.7 billion.
Proposed new wind farms: 200 megawatts (Wayne, Henry counties by EDP Renewables); 150 MW (Benton County) by Amazon and partners; 140 MW (Fayette, Rush, Henry counties) by NextEnergy Resources. If built, they would increase Indiana’s wind farm generating capacity by 28 percent.
It’s one of the fastest-growing industries in the country and frequently produces back-and-forth, myth-vs.-reality arguments between its strongest advocates and foes.
And while fossil fuels are not going away anytime soon, the idea that one day we will be using renewable energy as our primary power source doesn’t seem to be vanishing, either.
That’s one reason Andy Bell went to China.
Bell, the department chair of engineering for Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, spent a month overseas working on projects in what many consider the world’s epicenter of solar panel production.
He plans to implement what he saw and learned in China into his department’s curriculum because even if they don’t work with renewable energy, future engineers will need to be well versed in the topic.
“We’re looking at it from the standpoint that students need to know about it,” he said. “They may not work in the area, but they need to know about it.”
Bell spent from mid-October to Thanksgiving in Wuxi, China, about three hours from Shanghai, where many solar panels are built and manufactured.
He gave lectures, exchanged teaching techniques and ideas with a college there, and even worked on a project building a solar panel, he said.
Bell’s interest in renewable energy has been budding for awhile, with a trip to Costa Rica to study alternative energy forms under his belt and another one to the Dominican Republic scheduled for March.
“I’m very interested in how alternative energy can be used to help quality of life, especially for disadvantaged people,” Bell said.
Solar generating capacity in the United States grew more than fivefold from 2011 to 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
According to the Solar Foundation, an organization advancing solar power, job growth in the industry grew 20 percent in 2013, far outpacing growth in other industries.
Still, what can be produced using solar power in the U.S. amounts to less than 1 percent of the country’s generating capacity, and the Environmental Protection Agency projects that only 9 percent of the country’s power will come from renewable energy by 2030.
“The United States as a whole ought to do more to capitalize on the sunlight,” Bell said.
That’s what he thought as he looked at the solar farms he saw in China, or the multitude of electric vehicles being driven. Towns and homes relied heavily on alternative energies there, he said, especially solar.
“They’ve really tapped into solar,” he said.
He doesn’t know how exactly yet the ideas he brought back from China will be implemented, but he knows they will.
Because solar power and other green energy ideas are not going away.
And neither are future engineers who need to know about them.
NEW DELHI: Installing solar panels on the Pakistan border, using super-chilled LNG to build cold storage and warehousing facilities, and putting barcodes to stop illegal use of subsidised cooking gas — the Modi mantra is making its presence felt in the energy domain and forcing officials to sit up and think out of the box.
Officials say that during discussions about seemingly routine and uninspiring energy issues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes up with unusual ideas, which soon become tightly monitored instructions. The Cabinet Secretariat maintains a log of efforts made by departments responsible for implementing these ideas, sources said.
The PM’s vision is to harness cold temperatures at LNG terminals where gas in liquid form – at 160 degrees Celsius below freezing point – lands from cryogenic ships. At an LNG terminal, the super-cool liquid is gradually warmed up and gasified again in a process that can cool surrounding areas.
“There is reasonable potential of using this low temperature to generate liquid industrial gas such as nitrogen, oxygen and argon. Integrated cold-storages do exist adjacent to such terminals in China and Japan,” a source said.
The Prime Minister’s Office has shown keen interest in renewable energy, officials said. Modi recently advised the ministry of new and renewable energy to explore using barren land close to the country’s borders to generate solar energy. Solar projects need a lot of land, which is scarce and costly outside arid regions such as the Rajasthan desert and the uninhabited border regions, where electricity supply is a problem.
As per the PM’s direction, we’re soon going to put up two pilot projects of 5 MW each in Gujarat and Rajasthan on separate areas of 25 acres. Indo-Pak border is what we’ll begin with as a lot of land is barren and available in the Rann of Kutch,” a source at MNRE said.
The PM is keen on reducing the oil subsidy burden on both the exchequer and state oil firms. While the finance minister recently hinted at denying subsidised cooking gas to the rich and affluent, under the direction of the PM, oil companies are trying to recover every drop of LPG left in more than 15 crore cylinders after they are used.
Modi’s focus is also on reducing India’s petroleum import bill, which was over $155 billion last year, by raising domestic output with the use of new technology. As a result, state explorers Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India plan to revisit areas where success could not be achieved during earlier exploration campaigns. These areas include Upper Assam Belt, Naga Fold Thrust and the Himalayan region. Reviews using the latest Canadian technology have resulted in an oil and gas prospect in Jwalamukhi area of the Himalayan thrust fold belt, an industry source said.
Similar prospects were reported from Geleki, Cachar and Mizoram, the source said. Officials said the proposal to use the low temperature of LNG for refrigeration has enormous potential. India already has four operational terminals at Dahej, Hazira, Dhabol and Kochi, totaling over 22 million tonnes per annum capacity. Terminals are coming up in Gangavaram and Kakinada.
Ludwigsburg, 21th August 2014 – Current emission standards as well as changes in combustion and injection processes place high demands on commercial vehicles and therefore also on filtration technology. As an international filtration specialist, MANN-FILTER is a reliable partner to the commercial vehicle sector with its comprehensive product range in original equipment quality. In addition to air, oil, fuel and cabin filters, the company also supplies drying agent boxes, oil centrifuges and transmission oil filters to its customers. “We have taken these increased demands on board and are consequently designing our products to be even more efficient and reliable,” says Matthias Weller, technical expert at MANN-FILTER, describing trends in filtration technology at this year’s Automechanika.
MANN-FILTER once again features in the “Truck Competence” visitor’s guide at this year’s Automechanika. You can see this competence in the various developments for commercial vehicle applications on display at Stand A51 in Hall 3.
Reliable filtration for even the tiniest impurities On construction sites, forest tracks and mining sites, commercial vehicles are driven in extremely dusty environments every day. Polluted air can result in damage to the vehicle engine. These and many other challenges are met by air filters from MANN-FILTER , which feature nano-fibre technology to prevent the harmful effects caused by even the tiniest impurities. The carrier material of the nano-fibre media consists of cellulose coated with extremely thin layers of ultra-fine polymer fibres. The surface on which dust particles can be deposited is much larger as a result. Even the tiniest particles from the intake air, which are up to 500 times finer than a human hair, are almost completely filtered out.
Glue string technology – simple and efficient Manufacturers of commercial vehicles face many challenges, including their energy, CO2 and material footprint. Filtration experts achieve savings in these areas for example by using glue string technology in air filters. With this technology, the metal, plastic or paper casing of the filter element is replaced by a special string made from polyester fibre. This conserves resources, saves energy in production and makes the metal-free air filters fully incinerable. The special string is wound around the air filter bellows in a discontinuous pattern and stabilises the distances between the filter pleats evenly across the entire filter height. This has a positive effect, significantly reducing flow resistance and therefore reducing pressure loss. This in turn optimises filtration performance and contributes to fuel savings.
Service-friendly oil filters for fast, simple disassembly The product range offers filters in tested original equipment quality as well as service-friendly solutions for the trade and workshops. The MANN-FILTER “HU 1291 z” for commercial vehicles for example features a bayonet fitting. During opening, this bayonet connection ensures that the entire filter element can be released and lifted out of the socket in the housing without the effort usually required.
“The oil filter from MANN-FILTER works according to the open-and-remove principle,” explains Jörg Schömmel, Product Manager Oil Filters at MANN-FILTER. “For workshops, this means simple, clean and time-saving disassembly compared with other standard products.” Another advantage is the fact that the oil filter element is made from a mixture of cellulose and polyester fibre, making it extremely durable. MANN+HUMMEL already holds patents for the element in several countries.
Protection for driver and vehicle Product development at MANN+HUMMEL is not only focused on the vehicle, but also on the vehicle user. More and more filters from MANN-FILTER feature a waterproof, flame-retardant impregnation. These treated filters reduce the risk of fire from the air filter in the engine compartment, even after 100,000 kilometres. This means increased protection not only for the vehicle and the load, but also for the driver and other road users.
Over 90 per cent market coverage in Europe With market coverage of over 90 per cent in Europe, MANN-FILTER has filters for almost every truck and bus model in its product portfolio. Customers benefit from constant innovation, driven by 1,000 employees working in research and development worldwide.
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(approx. 4,800 characters including spaces) Press image: Ready to face the big challenge: The product range from MANN-FILTER for commercial vehicles Mechanic with filters from MANN-FILTER
About MANN+HUMMEL The MANN+HUMMEL Group is a leading global expert for filtration solutions and development partner and original equipment supplier to the international automotive and mechanical engineering industries. Employing 15,231 people at around 60 locations worldwide, the company achieved turnover of about 2.68 billion euros in 2013. The group’s product portfolio includes air filter systems, intake manifold systems, liquid filter systems, cabin filters and plastic sound components (known as ‘symposers’), as well as filter elements for vehicle servicing and repair. For general engineering, process engineering and industrial manufacturing sectors the company’s product range includes industrial filters, a series of products to reduce carbon emission levels in diesel engines, membrane filters for water filtration and filter systems.
More than 200,000 Kenyans living in marginalized areas far from the national electricity grid are set to benefit with cheap wind generated electricity in four years’ time.
This is courtesy of the wind for prosperity project initiated by the Danish government that will target 13 marginalized areas.
About 68 percent of Kenyans still do not have electricity connections blamed on low generation capacity.
The project will be financed in part by the 18 billion shillings funding from the Danish government.
The Kenyan government is working on a program to double electricity connection in three years to utilize the enhanced generation capacity.
The first installations to the wind power project are expected late this year with efforts currently underway to identify areas with huge potential for wind energy in the country.
Cemtrex, Inc. (CTEI) is a diversified technology company that provides solutions to meet today’s industrial challenges. The Company operates through three (3) business divisions consisting of: (1) electronic manufacturing services of printed circuit board assemblies, (2) instruments & emission monitors for industrial processes, and (3) industrial air filtration & environmental control systems.
Cemtrex through its wholly owned subsidiary ROB Cemtrex GmbH (www.robcemtrex.com) provides electronic manufacturing services, which includes printed circuit board assemblies and completely assembled electronic products. The Company sells a complete line of air filtration and environmental control products through its subsidiary Griffin Filters, LLC (www.griffinfilters.com) to a wide variety of industrial and manufacturing industries worldwide. The Company through its Monitoring Instruments and Products (MIP) (www.cemtrex.com) division manufactures sells, and services instruments, software and systems for monitoring emissions of Greenhouse gases, hazardous gases, particulate and other regulated pollutants used in emissions trading globally.
For further information, please contact:
KATIE FLETCHER | STAFF WRITER | BBI INTERNATIONAL
P: (701) 738-4920| F: (701) 746-5367 | Email
SOURCE Cemtrex, Inc.
/Web site: http://www.cemtrex.com
The Wall Street Journal news department was not involved in the creation of this content.
The Queensland state government has moved to take control of the assessment process for one of the biggest wind energy generation plants proposed in the state, the $380 million Mount Emerald Wind Farm project that that backers are hoping will be approved to be built on the Atherton Tablelands in far North Queensland.
Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney has used special call-in powers at the request of Mareeba Shire Council to take over evaluation of the proposal, a move backed by the local government that said it was too complex to weigh up on its own.
The fate of the Mount Emerald Wind Farm proposal is being closely watched by interests in the energy, infrastructure investment and environmental sectors because it could provide a clearer signal on the Newman government’s overall policy stance on other wind projects that have been attacked by federal Coalition members including Treasurer Joe Hockey, who described them as a blight on the landscape and utterly offensive.
Despite the political heat, private investment in so-called sustainable energy projects has continued to gather pace as investors, developers, industry and councils look for ways to offset rising conventional energy costs.
The Mount Emerald Wind Farm has been proposed by a partnership between North Queensland developer Port Bajool and energy power producer Ratch Australia, which aims to construct and operate a site at Arriga that is slated to utilise up to 75 turbines to generate enough electricity to power 75,000 homes each year.
Backers of Ratch include ASX listed infrastructure player Transfield Services and major Thai power generation company, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding.
Queensland’s planning minister is now trying to feel which way the electoral breeze is blowing.
“Wind farm developments attract keen public interest and it is important that development proposals balance community expectation with potential economic and environmental benefits,” Mr Seeney said.
He said given the complexity of the proposed development, independent assessments will be undertaken to evaluate economic, environmental and community impacts and benefits.
According to Mr Seeney, the government will use the information gained in the independent assessment and consider the application against the relevant planning instruments before making a recommendation on whether the project should proceed.
Affected parties have been told they will receive notice of Mr Seeney’s final decision, which is expected to be made later in 2014.
In the meantime, communities and proponents in Queensland are waiting to find out what a new state code to assess wind farm proposals will contain.
Mr Seeney said that once the new Wind Farm code is finalised, it would provide consistency to industry and certainty to councils and communities.
Despite the high profile attention, the size and scope of the proposed Mount Emerald Wind Farm is comparatively modest compared more ambitious proposed projects across Australia.
In February 2014 the South Australian government gave a planning approval to a 197-turbine plant set to be located between Ardrossan and Minlaton on the Yorke Peninsula valued at $1.5 billion.
In November 2012, Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings backed the construction of the largest proposed wind farm in Australia including 200 turbines, valued at $2 billion.
Easy-to-understand, accurate, and comprehensive, this is the guide for anyone interested in installing a solar electric system.
Power from the Sun provides a basic understanding of electricity, solar energy and the sun, and solar site assessment. It discusses the types of photovoltaics (PVs) and PV systems, advances in PVs, charge controllers, inverters, batteries, and generators, as well as the installation and maintenance of a PV system.
This book is written for the layperson and is designed to raise the solar electricity literacy of readers. It provides a great overview of the many options available and is designed to help homeowners make wise decisions during the design, purchase, and installation of solar electric systems—and save a lot of money.
Providing readers with the knowledge necessary to communicate effectively with PV installers, Power From the Sun is a great guide for homeowners, business owners, installers, architects, building department officials, utility company employees, and just about anyone else who wants to lower their energy bills or achieve greater energy independence.
Dan Chiras is president of Sustainable Systems Design, Inc., a residential renewable energy and green building consulting firm, and is director of The Evergreen Institute’s Center for Renewable Energy and Green Building, which offers workshops on residential renewable energy and green building. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author and has published twenty-five books, including The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy and Power from the Wind.
From friendly dolphins to giant pandas, from icebergs and glaciers to energy from the sun, from magnets to solids, liquids, and gases, Rookie Read-About Science is a natural addition to the primary-grade classroom with books that cover every part of the science curricula. Includes: animals, nature, scientific principles, the environment, weather, and much more!
Whether you’re trying to get off the grid, or you just like to experiment, Build Your Own Solar Panel has all the information you need to build your own photovoltaic panel to generate electricity from the sun. Now available for the first time in print, this revised and expanded edition has easy-to-follow directions, and over 150 detailed photos and illustrations. Lists of materials, tools, and suppliers of PV cells are included. Every-day tools are all that you need to complete these projects. Build Your Own Solar Panel will show you how to: Design and build PV panels, Customize panel output, Make tab and bus ribbon, Solder cell connections, Wire a photovoltaic panel, Purchase solar cells, Test and rate PV cells, Repair damaged solar cells, Work with broken cells, Encapsulate solar cells.
