Solar Power

There’s no question that the entertainment industry generates a lot of waste from printing scripts or even shooting on location. After Conan O’Brien walked away from the Tonight Show, NBC gutted his $50 million dollar set that he used for just seven months. Others in Hollywood are actually getting the message about being green which has changed a lot of productions like film Inception as well as tonight’s Emmy Awards.

When you think of the Emmy Awards, you think of the ceremony but not the work done behind the scenes. Blurbs have to be written for the presenters, the venue needs to scrubbed clean, and workers need to grab some lunch. All of that adds up to waste in the form of paper, disposable plates, plastic water bottles, and much more.

Saying “opportunity” is looking at it positively. The solar power industry is quickly moving from sidebar to mainstream as more businesses and consumers adopt it as a way to supply part or all of their energy needs. Not all is ideal in solar power land though, because many of the materials used to build solar panels are toxic when broken down during the recycling process in developing countries.

That sort of challenge isn’t new -- the electronics industry has earned criticism for a while now because consumer appliances, personal computers and smartphones are not easy to recycle without releasing toxins into the atmosphere and water supply.

The solar industry hasn’t had to deal with this challenge en masse yet because solar panels on average have a lifespan of 20 years or more. Since solar has just recently begun its transition to mainstream, the amount of waste is still a trickle in comparison.

An abundance of solar energy bombards the Earth every day and that’s a very good thing because it drives the basic functions of life that sustain our existence. Harnessing solar energy for our electrical needs is a natural fit because the process essentially only requires a capture device, which right now typically means solar panels. The problem? Those solar panels can’t continue to collect solar energy if a layer of dust is barricading sunlight from the photovoltaic cells.

It turns out that dust is a pretty universal problem, at least in the Milky Way galaxy, because NASA ran into a similar challenge with trying to use solar panels on Mars for powering rovers and other vehicles. In that instance no human intervention is possible and so scientists developed a self-cleaning technology that repelled dust with a small burst of electric current.

Access to renewable energy for individual consumers has been a pipe dream for most because installations typically range from $20,000 to $30,000. Even with tax credits, that kind of investment takes a while to offset. It’s an opportunity that Clarian wants to capitalize on with its Sunfish plug-in solar power system.

Basically Clarian’s idea is to sell a solar power system for about $800 that allows consumers to safely install their own renewable power source. Sunfish won’t supply all of the power you need, but it can certainly offset how much you buy from a traditional power company.

When it comes to back to school time, many parents seek out green items to arm their children for the upcoming year. Recycled notebooks, backpacks made from sustainable fibers, and reusable lunch containers have become hot items. Crayola is trying to green their crayon manufacturing process with solar energy and add recycled materials to a very small part of their packaged markers.

Any parent can tell you that kids go through a lot of crayons during childhood. Crayola makes about three billion of the wax sticks annually and hopes to have a lot of them made using solar power. Hidden behind their manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, the solar farm is made up of a 26,200 panel array and occupies 15 acres of land. The company expects that the 1.9 megawatt system will be able to generate 30 percent of the energy for the plant each year.

The British Defense Ministry and the Pentagon are working together to develop a solar plane that can stay airborne for months rather than days. It’s called the Zephyr, and it’s finishing a test flight this Friday that will have lasted 2 weeks. The military often drives technology innovation and in this case it seems that green tech is no exception.

Primarily the Zephyr is intended for long term surveillance because it has no need to land – that allows it keep a continuous stream of intelligence flowing while staying safe from attack at a high altitude. Thin silicon solar arrays are attached to the top of 74-foot wings to power the Zephyr’s lithium-sulfur batteries. Overall it ways less than most humans at 110lbs, so carrying much of an additional payload is out of scope at this point.

It may not be solving the impossible or ending the dependency on fossil fuel, but a plane, able to propel itself through the night on solar energy, is a monumental leap towards motorized sustainability. The question is, what exactly does it mean for solar energy and more specifically, what does it mean for solar-powered motors?

The Solar Impulse, sponsored by Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, is a solar-powered plane engineered to be both lightweight and aerodynamic. Its 12,000 solar cells are specially placed and designed to generate enough energy to power the plane not only during the day, but also at night. In other words, its got enough energy stored in the battery from the day's sunlight to make it through the high skies at night.

Independently, solar energy and clean coal have both been explored extensively with the hope of some day offering a viable, global alternative energy solution. What if turns out, however, that the solution wasn't in either one, but both, collectively?

Many passionately believe that clean coal is not the answer to decreasing carbon emissions or increasing the supply of energy. In fact, since Obama's decision to set aside $2.4 billion dollars "to lead the world in CCS technologies," disagreements (and for that matter, debates) have surfaced about its legitimacy as a true carbon-fighting, energy-producing solution.

Americans take a lot of things for granted such as energy access. We think nothing of picking up a few CFL light bulbs at a home improvement store and rarely worry about power outages. This scenario is a dream for the 1.6 billion people worldwide that live without access to power. Nokero hopes that their solar powered LED light bulb called the N100 can be a safe and eco-friendly option for those that rely on unsafe kerosene lamps.

Kerosene is popular in the developing world because it is highly portable and easier to use than wood or other fuels. These factors have contributed to the popularity of kerosene lamps and some scary environmental facts. These lamps produce almost 190 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is akin to the output of 38 million cars.

In 1941, clinging burrs inspired a Swiss engineer to create the fastener now known as Velcro. In recent years, scientists have developed more aerodynamic wind turbines based on whale fins, stronger adhesives based on gecko feet and even glow-in-the-dark aquarium fish using fluorescent jellyfish proteins. Nature is filled with simple, elegant innovations. This week, Swiss inventor Michael Graetzel won this year's Millenium Technology Prize of nearly 1 million dollars for his low-cost solar cells based on the process of photosynthesis. These cells may someday turn our windows into man-made leaves.