The Green Technocrat

Often times we (myself included) think of solar and wind power as the technologies leading the fight in the transition to generating our country’s electricity from clean, renewable resources.  This is certainly true, and as regular readers of this blog know, I fully support the development of both these technologies on a massive scale.  But [...]

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Spain has been the solar capitol of the world for the last few years thanks in part to generous government subsidies.  Currently, Spain’s feed-in tariffs guarantee that solar energy producers will receive triple the market price for solar energy, or around a whopping 33 eurocents per kilowatt hour!  Add in the bountiful sunshine and open [...]

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Last week Solyndra, a Fremont, California based maker of photovoltaic systems, announced that it had developed a new solar system for the commercial rooftop market.  What is interesting about these new panels is that they are cylindrical in shape, which allows them to capture sunlight from all angles.  When normal, flat panel, solar cells are [...]

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Last week researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that they had created a new solar cell, which has set a new world record for solar cell efficiency.  According to an article in ScienceDaily the device converts 40.8 percent of the light that hits it into electricity.  Here are some [...]

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Moncada Energy Group, an Italian producer of wind farm technology plans to add solar technology to it’s renewable energy repertoire in 2009 by placing solar panels in the same fields as it’s wind turbines.  The panels will be placed under the turbine towers and will use the existing infastructure to feed electricity into the grid.
Moncada [...]

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