Photovoltaics
Solar Evolution-
by John Perlin
Legislation
Financial Incentives
Downloads
Solar
e-Clips
solar energy news from California
June 26, 2001
|
Welcome to Solar e-Clips. A weekly summary of news and information about solar energy issues in California. Brought to you by The Rahus Institute and Californiasolarcenter.org ************************************************ Solar News from around the State...
Getting Serious About Earth-Friendly Energy - The growing concern about global warming--even President Bush concedes the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions--promises a shift to nonpolluting energy sources and new attitudes toward environmental investment in industry in the years ahead. Change will be more gradual than dramatic, perhaps a 20% rise in use of wind and solar power to generate electricity and the beginnings of commercial use of fuel cells to drive cars and trucks by 2010. Nonpolluting, renewable energy will still make up less than 7% of total U.S. energy consumption 10 years hence, predicts the Energy Department. But trends will be established in this decade... JAMES FLANIGAN in Los Angeles Times 6/24/01 Life After the Crisis - For six months, Californians have been riding an energy crisis that is like some movie monster--a weird, hard-to-comprehend creature that morphs and fragments day by day. Now, finally, the state is gaining a measure of control. The threat of near-constant rolling blackouts through the summer is fading, though not gone, and Washington has halfheartedly come to the rescue. What's still needed is a long-term plan, a way to turn this monstrous puzzle into a coherent whole. As Chairwoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) of the state Senate's Energy Committee said, "What do we want this beast to look like? We've got to have pieces that fit together." What California will have by the end of this year is a ragged mosaic of emergency edicts from Gov. Gray Davis, lots of hasty legislative action and a multibillion-dollar debt from turning the state into the chief power purchaser. Consumers already are paying higher electricity bills--much higher ones for those who don't conserve. There is constant action in the federal Bankruptcy Court and the acronymic stew of state and federal agencies.... LATimes Editorial 6/24/01 Color-coded outage grid has many seeing gray, red - In a summer of rolling blackouts, gray means good. On Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s newly released color-coded maps of "rotating outage blocks," gray signifies areas in Block 50, where about half of PG&E's 4.8 million customers remain free from the menace of rolling blackouts, company officials say. The rest are split into 14 rotating outage blocks. Most customers had no clue until now how far their outage blocks spread or where they could expect the next blackout to roll. The maps, which can be found at www.pge.com, show that Block 50 blankets most of Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, downtown Martinez, eastern Walnut Creek, large strips of Danville, Clayton, Orinda and Bay Point. People in those areas tap the same circuits as "essential" users that include hospitals, police, fire, jails and others.JOHN SIMERMAN Contra Costa Times 6/23/01 Maps: PG&E, SCE, SDG&E
City Council to Consider Solar Energy Incentives -In an effort to help homeowners conserve energy, the City Council is considering adopting incentives for builders to incorporate solar energy systems into new dwellings. Council members this week directed city planners to devise a proposal containing several such incentives. One proposal would ease restrictions requiring that roof-mounted solar equipment on multifamily units be screened so that it cannot be seen by neighbors. Planners say only four property owners in the city have installed solar panel systems this year in response to the energy crisis. LA Times 6/20/01. Solar power becomes affordable option - Building owners desperate to reduce soaring energy costs and avoid blackouts need only look to the sun for their energy needs as rebates and technology have made solar power not only more dependable, but affordable as well. Those interested need to act quickly because time and money are running out. Deadlines loom for applying for rebates from the state and local utility companies, and the pot of rebate money is emptying. The third reason to get moving on solar is that the businesses that manufacture the technology to convert the sun's heat into electricity are experiencing an unprecedented onslaught of interest from mainstream customers. In other words, customers need to get in line for solar power. "It's finally reached the point where it's cost competitive," said Bo Harmon, a spokesman for BP Solar, which is on the verge of opening a manufacturing plant in Fairfield to make Thin Film, a substance used to coat windows to produce energy from the sun's heat. Katherine Conrad in EastBay Business Times 6/18/01 California Energy
Commission adopts 5 year Renewable Energy Plan - The Plan was adopted
at a Calif Energy Commission business meeting on 6/13/01. The RE Plan
provides guidelines for a new program which will replace existing renewable
energy programs expiring at the end of 2001. The State legislature must
create a bill and adopt the RE Plan before it becomes state law, a process
that should be complete toward the end of summer. The REP can be downloaded
at the CEC
site. T.Allen/Rahus 6/14/01 Sunshine in the forecast - Given the Nasdaq collapse, you'd think that investors would pay more attention to an industry growing 30% a year. Sales of photovoltaic panels, which convert sun rays into electricity, are doing just that and are expected to do so for years to come. Yet solar power continues to be tarred as a technology for crackpots and free-love hippies. Perhaps the energy crisis in the western U.S., as well as some entrants with exciting new technologies, will change things. John C. Dvorak in Forbes Global 05/14/01 SUMMER Solar Events.... 6/27 San Diego Solar Exchange Workshop, 6/27 California PV Alliance workshop in San Francisco, 6/28-29 Designing & Installing Code Compliant PV Systems (Anaheim), 8/25-26 SolFest in Hopland, .... and more... Note regarding dead links: Most publications move stories into their archive after one or two weeks. Use the date provided here with individual stories to help find them after they have been moved. The articles originating from PowerMarketer are presented here in entirety, due to poor links for the full story. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE EDITOR TO CONTACT THE EDITOR: BACK ISSUES: ..........................
|
NASA
to test solar unmanned 'wing'.
- NASA is planning a series of test flights of an unmanned flying wing
that's designed to run on solar power and cruise for days at 100,000 feet,
more than three times higher than commercial jets. The first of as many
as three flights could come this weekend from a Navy airstrip on the Hawaiian
island of Kauai. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration developed
the Helios Prototype with AeroVironment Inc. in a bid to build a remotely
piloted aircraft that could replace space satellites for some applications.
NASA is planning a series of test flights of an unmanned flying wing that's
designed to run on solar power and cruise for days at 100,000 feet, more
than three times higher than commercial jets. The first of as many as
three flights could come this weekend from a Navy airstrip on the Hawaiian
island of Kauai. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration developed
the Helios Prototype with AeroVironment Inc. in a bid to build a remotely
piloted aircraft that could replace space satellites for some applications.
``The goal is extreme-duration, sustained high-altitude, long-endurance
flight for essentially Earth observing and telecommunications,'' said
John Hicks, who manages NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor
Technology project at the Dryden Flight Research Center. ``Basically,
it's to try to get it up for six months at a time.'' The plane has a 247-foot
wingspan, greater than that of a Boeing 747, yet is only 12 feet long.
It is too large to use the runways at the Pacific Missile Range Facility
on Kauai, so it will take off and land from the crushed coral apron alongside
the strip. The first flight may reach only 70,000 feet, as engineers assess
how well Helios performs. The second and third will attempt to reach 100,000
feet -- more than midway through the stratosphere to a height of 19 miles.
Each flight is expected to last about 14 hours. If successful, the plane
will set a record for sustained flight at that altitude. The Helios Prototype
last flew in 1999, when it completed a series of six flights in the Mojave
Desert using battery power. This time, it will soar on power generated
from the sun. The rectangular, translucent wing is covered with more than
60,000 solar cells. 
Power
crisis gives solar panels more exposure -State's rebate program makes
sun-powered energy more affordable - Energy crisis? Costly power bills?
Hal Yeager isn't sweating it. Earlier this month, the 41-year-old Pleasant
Hill resident anchored 24 solar panels to the roof of his three-bedroom
home. With Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s time-of-use metering system,
Yeager will pay a fixed rate of 141/2 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity
for the next 25 years or so, which is how long his $22,000 solar-powered
system is predicted to last. Faced with extra digits on their power bills,
more Californians are plugging in to Mother Nature for electricity, sending
solar-powered system sales surging. At Concord's Light Energy Systems,
business hasn't been this good since the Y2K scare. "We've already
installed twice as much generating capacity this year as we did during
all of last year," said Burke O'Neal, head of the store's photovoltaic
division. "We're growing as fast as we can to meet demand."
Katie Oyan in 
LADWP
GOES SOLAR, WELCOMES START OF SUMMER WITH CONSERVATION KICK-OFF TO HELP
L.A. RESIDENTS BEAT THE HEAT Residents and Businesses to Receive Largest
Energy Efficiency Incentives in L.A.History this Summer. The Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power showcased its largest current municipal
solar construction project located at the Los Angeles Convention Center
and kicked off the summer solstice with conservation and solar incentive
programs to help Los Angeles businesses and residents beat the heat during
the upcoming months. 
Home • Disclaimer • Email • Search • Advertising Information
Copyright © 2002The Rahus Institute