Tag Archive for: solarpower

The Vatican has been seeking to drastically reduce its environmental impact by adopting more renewable energy sources

Pope launches project to get Vatican to run solely on solar power

Pope Francis appointed two special commissioners to start work on building an agrivoltaic system on a Vatican property outside of Rome that could supply the whole of Vatican City’s energy needs.

“There is a need to make a transition to a model of sustainable development that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, establishing the goal of climate neutrality,” he said in an apostolic letter issued “motu proprio,” on his own initiative.

The letter, titled “Brother Sun,” was dated June 21, the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. The Vatican published the letter June 26.

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Source: EARTHBEAT

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GoSun's solar charger can generate about 1,200 watts of energy, which is enough for most people’s daily commute to work.

Driving on sunshine: Car cover charges EVs with solar power

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Solar company GoSun has rolled out a foldable car cover that harnesses the power of the sun to add miles of range for EV drivers.

The solar cover, which can charge electric vehicles (EVs) with solar, is said to be able to provide about 30 miles of energy.

GoSun is currently known for its smaller-scale solar products, such as a solar-powered cooler that can keep drinks cold for longer. Now, the company plans to go bigger and charge EVs.

The EV solar charger folds up into a case on top of users’ car while driving, and then folds out over the car while parked.

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Source: NBC Los Angeles

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California plays an important role both as a buyer and a supplier of clean power. It has more solar power than any state besides Texas

A Western US energy market would boost clean energy. Will it happen?

Utilities, policymakers, and clean energy advocates across the U.S. West have long agreed that a region-wide electricity trading market would be a win-win. It would dramatically expand clean energy capacity — allowing California solar to shine in other places and wind from inland states to blow into power-hungry California — while also reducing power costs for utility customers.

But the idea has struggled to get off the ground after more than a decade of effort, as the stakeholders involved have failed to find a market structure that makes everybody happy.

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Source: Canary Media

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The US Department of Energy (DOE) is going to repurpose sites previously used in the nuclear weapons program into solar farms.

The US is putting enough solar to power 70,000 homes on old nuclear weapons sites

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is going to repurpose sites previously used in the nuclear weapons program into solar farms.

DOE is negotiating leases with two developers for solar farms within the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site, in Idaho Falls. The plan is to produce 400 megawatts (MW) of solar power – enough to power 70,000 homes.

These are the first projects as part of the DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, launched in July 2023, in which portions of federal land previously used in the US nuclear weapons program will be repurposed into clean energy sites. (Note that INL has never been part of the nuclear weapons program.)

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Source: electrek

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The world’s biggest solar plant has come online in China, capable of powering a small country with its annual capacity of more than 6B KWh.

World’s biggest solar farm goes online, big enough to power a country

The world’s biggest solar plant has come online in China, capable of powering a small country with its annual capacity of more than 6 billion kilowatt hours.

The facility in a desert region of the north-west province of Xinjiang covers 200,000 acres – roughly the same area as New York City.

The 5GW complex, which was connected to China’s grid on Monday, is powerful enough to meet the electricity demands of a country the size of Luxembourg or Papua New Guinea.

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Source: Independent

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Swiss researchers have developed a solar energy method using synthetic quartz to achieve temperatures above 1,000°C for industrial processes

Smelting steel without fossil fuels: Solar power shatters the 1,000°C barrier for industrial heating

Instead of burning fossil fuels to reach the temperatures needed to smelt steel and cook cement, scientists in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at temperatures over 1,000°C (1,832°F), demonstrating the method’s potential role in providing clean energy for carbon-intensive industries. A paper on the research was published on May 15 in the journal Device.

The Need for Decarbonization

“To tackle climate change, we need to decarbonize energy in general,” says corresponding author Emiliano Casati of ETH Zurich, Switzerland. “People tend to only think about electricity as energy, but in fact, about half of the energy is used in the form of heat.”

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Source: Sci Tech Daily

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Space-based solar panels are lighter and multi-junction that extracts more energy in the same amount of exposed surface area.

Space, the new frontier of photovoltaics

This isn’t science fiction: producing photovoltaic energy directly in space and then beaming it down for use on Earth is the focus of the European Space Agency’s SOLARIS project, which we’re also involved in. The first major goal: to place a one-megawatt power plant in orbit by 2030. The results of the project will also be useful for “terrestrial” photovoltaic applications.

Space-based solar power has been around for more than 60 years: in fact, in 1958, the U.S. satellite Vanguard 1 was the first spacecraft to use a sub-one-watt power panel to operate a radio transmitter. The satellite stopped working a few years later, but it’s still in orbit: not only did it pave the way for the use of solar energy in space, it’s also the oldest human-made object orbiting the Earth. In the meantime, technology has advanced: today the International Space Station is equipped with more than 400 square meters of panels, which provide it with more than 240,000 times the energy of that first small installation on Vanguard 1.

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Source: Enel Green Power

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247Solar’s innovative concentrated solar power system stores sunshine for continuous clean energy, day & night.

MIT spinoff unveils continuous solar power solution technology

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For the past two decades, solar and wind farms have become a familiar sight, revolutionizing how we generate electricity. However, complete decarbonization requires a broader arsenal of technologies. This is because renewable sources like solar and wind are intermittent, meaning they don’t produce power consistently. Additionally, they can’t provide the high temperatures crucial for many industrial processes.

Enter 247Solar, a company pioneering a novel approach to concentrated solar power (CSP) that addresses these limitations. Their high-temperature systems boast overnight thermal energy storage, enabling them to deliver round-the-clock clean power and industrial-grade heat.

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Source: Interesting Engineering

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Solar energy will play an increasingly important role in helping California achieve its clean electricity goal by 2045.

California is a solar superpower

California leads the country in a climate-related measure we can be proud of: solar power generation.

Why it matters: Solar and wind power — which produce a small-but-growing share of America’s overall energy supply — provide a bigger share of energy in some states than others.

By the numbers: California generated 68,816 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity from solar power in 2023, up 9% from 2022, per an analysis from the research nonprofit Climate Central.

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Source: Axios

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CA, TX and FL are leading the country in solar power generation, while TX, IA and OK are the leaders in wind energy, per a new analysis.

America’s solar and wind energy hotspots, mapped

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California, Texas and Florida are leading the country in terms of solar power generation, while Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma are the leaders in wind energy, per a new analysis.

Why it matters: Solar and wind power are producing a comparatively small but growing share of America’s overall energy supply — yet they make up a bigger slice of the energy pie in some states compared to others.

The big picture: Solar installations generated nearly 240,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity across the U.S. in 2023, per the analysis from Climate Central, a climate research nonprofit.

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Source: AXIOS

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