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...

Glendale Community College and Glendale Water & Power team up for science center. Solar energy will be powering more than just part of Glendale Community College's Cimmarusti Science Center. The alternative energy source will be used to power students' minds through a partnership between Glendale Water & Power and the college that will bring state-of-the-art energy and renewable energy programs to the school. College President John Davitt called the program "a milestone in the construction of our science center." The joint project -- called Energy, Education and Economic Partners for a Sustainable World -- emerged from talks between the two entities about a year ago. Alecia Foster in LA Times 2001.7.21

City of Burbank announces solar rebate program - Burbank Water and Power, the local municipal electric utility for the city of Burbank, has just started a solar rebate program. The $3/watt rebate is available to both residential and commercial customers. A summary of similar programs throughout the state can be viewed at californiasolarcenter.org . Sam Mahsoul of BWP points to the 4 kW PV system installed on a carport at BWP headquarters.

State overlooks renewable energy - California is on a power plant-building binge to work its way out of its electricity shortage. But almost all the new and proposed plants have at least one thing in common: They use natural gas to generate electricity. And natural gas prices haven't exactly been a model of stability in recent months, critics have observed. Bentham Paulos, for one, is concerned about that. "We get 40 percent of our power from natural gas, and it's going to be 50 to 55 percent, at a time when natural gas prices have almost tripled," said Paulos, of the Energy Foundation, which promotes energy efficiency and renewable power. TIM MORAN Modesto Bee 2001.7.23

New Inverter for fuel cell and solar industry - Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. (CDNX: STG - news) announced today that it is shipping its 5kW universal power inverter to the fuel cell and solar electric industry for initial evaluations. Sustainable Energy has also received requests for evaluation units from major European and NorthAmerican electrical and telecommunications companies. Yahoo Biz 2001.7.19

Solar-Sailing Spacecraft Fails Test - LOS ANGELES -- The test of a prototype spacecraft that sails on the sun's rays failed because it did not separate from the rocket used to launch it, officials said Saturday. The Cosmos 1 was launched from a Russian nuclear submarine Thursday, but remained attached to the third stage of the rocket originally designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile. The spacecraft and rocket likely burned up in the atmosphere upon re-entry or crashed on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, officials said. ANDREW BRIDGES in LA Times 2001.7.21

Solar car racers in burning heat - Mountains, Mojave Desert lie ahead. TULSA, Okla. (AP-CP) -- Marcos Trejo's training for the world's longest solar car race was fairly simple. He drove a month in the Texas heat without air conditioning. Heat tolerance paid off Wednesday for the 27 teams in the American Solar Challenge as they set out across Oklahoma, every centimetre of their cars absorbing a brutal sun that was expected to send the heat index as high as 43 degrees Celsius. "It gets a little warm," said Trejo as his Texas A and M team stopped at a Tulsa checkpoint to catch some rays to recharge its drained battery. The racers, American and Canadian university teams and one high school entry, started in Chicago on Sunday. They're headed to a finish line in Claremont, Calif. Their route -- Historic 66. CNEWS AP 2001.7.18
The final stretch from Barstow to Claremont, CA will be run on Wednesday 2001.7.25 . Current standings

SAN FRANCISCO Measure would back solar, wind projects - San Francisco voters may get a chance to decide in November whether to issue $100 million in revenue bonds to pay for solar and wind energy projects on city property. Supervisor Mark Leno, who is sponsoring the measure, said the money could finance production of at least 10 megawatts of renewable energy, most of it solar generated. A megawatt can power 10,000 homes. Solar panels would be placed atop city buildings, reservoirs and other city property in the sunniest parts of town. SF Chronicle 2001.7.19

Solar-powered flying wing aims for record altitude - The sky is black 100,000 feet above ground, and you can clearly see the curvature of the Earth. The air is so thin it is incapable of supporting life. It is also incapable of supporting sustained horizontal flight of an aircraft-until now... NASA NEWS RELEASE 2001.7.19
SunPower Corporation, located in Sunnyvale, CA, is the manufacturer of the high-efficiency silicon solar cells that are used to power the NASA/AeroVironment solar airplane. The array for the Helios airplane is rated at 35 kilowatts. It consists over 61,000 cells that are approximately 3 x 7 cm in size (22 cm2 each). The cells are over 19% efficient under the AM0 spectrum (the space spectrum is used because of the very thin atmosphere at the flight altitude). The cells are also very lightweight because they are only 160 microns thick, about half the thickness of a typical crystalline silicon solar cell. The all-back-contact cell has no gridlines on the front side and is a bifacial
design, which means it can accept light from both sides. The airplane has transparent wings, so it gets a power boost from light reflected off clouds and the earth below (the albedo effect). SunPower, founded about 10 years ago by researchers from Stanford, makes the some of the world's highest efficiency silicon solar cells. The 'one-sun' cells used to power the airplane are about 22% efficient under the AM1.5 (terrestrial) spectrum. Our concentrator solar cells are up to 27% efficient. Bill Mulligan SunPowerCorp 2001.7.17

U.N. Welcomes G-8 Task Force Report on Renewable Energy - The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on Tuesday welcomed the strong push for renewable energy at the Group of Eight (G-8) summit, said the U.N.agency in a statement. Applauding the report of the G-8 Renewable Energy Task Force, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said in the statement that the goal of delivering renewable energy to over 1 billion people is "visionary and courageous." It said that the report had sent a clear signal that there are two fundamental reasons for the environmental problems facing the world. "On the one side we have poverty in the developing countries," Toepfer observed. "On the other side, we have the consumption and production patterns of developed countries." According to UNEP, an estimated 100 million people globally are currently served by renewable energy, ranging from wind power to solar cells. The U.N. agency suggests that it may be possible, through concerted action by governments, the private sector, international funding institutions and other partners, to increase the number by 1 billion by 2010. Northernlights 2001.7.17 The G8 Renewable Energy Task Force Report can be found here

San Diego County Drops Solar Power Fees - A vote by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors Tuesday is making it easier and cheaper to install a solar power system in your home. The board voted to eliminate the $100 permit fee required for homeowners who want solar power. It has also promised to streamline the permitting process. The board is also asking San Diego County cities to drop their fees, as well. In some cities the fees are as high as $1,000. yahoo News 2001.7.17

VOLT Inc. acquires PV patents - VOLT INC (Pleasanton, CA). announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire from Photovoltaics.com all patents, website, completed prototypes, and continuing technology for the production of photovoltaic (PV) cells, which provide a method of producing electricity from light sources using thin film and adhesivetechnology. Yahoo Biznews 2001.7.18

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 THIS NEWSLETTER
----------------------------------------------------------------------

ABOUT THE EDITOR
Tor Allen is the President of The Rahus Institute, a non-profit organization. Tor has 10 years experience in the renewable energy field including: design, research, marketing, program and policy development, and installation work. He is currently the coordinator of the California PV Alliance, a collaborative group working to accelerate the market for photovoltaics in California.

TO CONTACT THE EDITOR:
Email at solareclips@californiasolarcenter.org or phone 925.370.7262 Your news items are welcome, please send with a link to the online article. thx.

BACK ISSUES:
archived issues are found at www.californiasolarcenter.org/solareclips.html

REDISTRIBUTION
Please do not redistribute or post copies of Solar e-Clips regularly. Encourage readers who receive Solar e-Clips from you to subscribe directly. Continuing sponsorship depends on accurate reader counts.

SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE
To subscribe or unscribe to Solar e-Clips, go here

..........................

Copyright 2001 The Rahus Institute. All rights reserved.
Republishing Solar e-Clips in print or on a web site, in whole or in part, or commercial distribution in any form requires advance permission of the editor.