Ubiquitous Energy solar energy capturing windows installed at Michigan State University.
Courtesy of Ubiquitous Energy.
A material science start-up, Ubiquitous Energy, is raising tens of millions of dollars to turn windows into surfaces that capture solar energy. The California start-up announced on Tuesday it closed a $30 million funding round, including an investment from consumer window and door manufacturing giant Andersen Corporation, bringing its total funding raised to $70 million.
Oil and gas giant submits plans for up to 500MW of solar and battery storage to supply renewable power to industrial customers — including its own LNG operations — in WA Pilbara region.
Oil and gas giant Woodside has kicked off the new year by firming up plans to develop a massive solar and battery project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, to supply renewable electricity to local industrial customers, including its own Pluto LNG facility.
In a submission to the W.A. Environmental Protection Authority on Monday, the company proposed the Woodside Solar Facility to be built in 100MW phases to a total capacity of up to 500MW, ultimately comprising around 1,000,000 solar panels and including battery energy storage infrastructure of up to 400MWh.
Woodside confirmed in its proposal that the solar farm and battery would deliver solar power to customers on the Burrup Peninsula, including at the Maitland Industrial Park, and likely including the company’s own onshore Pluto gas processing plant.
New York state will spend $500 million building up ports and manufacturing infrastructure for offshore wind farms in a bid to become home base for the nascent industry.
The investments announced Wednesday by Governor Kathy Hochul will focus on building the supply chain for offshore turbines, which can provide clean power to a densely populated coast with little room for onshore wind farms or solar power plants.
“With this investment, New York will lead the nation on offshore wind production, creating green jobs for New Yorkers, and powering our clean energy future,” Hochul said in the statement.
Carbon-based organic micropollutants in water can be removed by treatment with high-intensity pulses of light in a procedure developed and demonstrated by researchers at KAUST.
This photodegradation process was already known to be feasible, but its use was limited by the long treatment times it required. Luca Fortunato, Thomas Anthopoulos and colleagues have demonstrated that this photodegradation treatment can be dramatically accelerated with high-intensity light pulses generated from a xenon flash lamp.
“An interesting aspect of this work is that we combined the expertise and technologies of two different fields,” says Fortunato. He explains that the collaboration between the two different research departments—KAUST’s Solar Center and Water Desalination and Reuse Center—allowed the team to adopt a pulsed light system that was previously used to process semiconductor materials for transistors and solar cells.
Solar roofing provider GAF Energy announced today its Timberline Solar product uses solar shingles that you can nail to a roof.
GAF Energy, a division of Standard Industries, has made a solar roof system that integrated easily into traditional roofing processes in materials thanks to what it calls the first “nailable” solar shingle, the Timberline Solar Energy Shingle, which will be assembled domestically at GAF Energy’s manufacturing and R&D facility in San Jose, California. The company showed off the tech at the CES 2022 trade event in Las Vegas.
The project will create local American jobs and hopefully create more demand for residential clean energy. One of the challenges to date has been the need to house solar tiles on platforms that have to be attached to roofs, making a solar roof installation more complicated than putting on a traditional roof.
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 21/12/2021. The power plant of technical service providers Faber Infrastructure and YESSS Elektro illuminates St. Pius Church and supplies two construction planning office containers with environment-friendly solar power. This is where the consulting engineers of the Ahr Valley Cooperation prepare their damage surveys for the residents affected by the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Ahr Valley – strictly on a cost-covering basis and not for profit.
See also: Economic losses from weather extremes amplify each other.
A new study finds that installing solar farms could become a two birds, one stone situation, as these areas can also double as thriving pollinator habitats if land owners allow meadows to grow around the solar panels.
The study, from researchers at Lancaster University in the UK that will be presented today at an Ecology Across Borders conference, shows that installing solar farms could be greatly beneficial to nature.
“Our findings provide the first quantitative evidence that solar parks could be used as a conservation tool to support and boost pollinator populations. If they are managed in a way that provides resources, solar parks could become [a] valuable bumble bee habitat,” said Hollie Blaydes, associate lecturer and doctorate student at the university. “In the UK, pollinator habitat has been established on some solar parks, but there is currently little understanding of the effectiveness of these interventions. Our findings provide solar park owners and managers with evidence to suggest that providing floral and nesting resources for bumble bees could be effective.”
BayWa r.e., in partnership with Grüne Energien, has received planning permission for the development of the Rag Lane Solar Farm project near Bristol, UK.
Construction of the 49.9 MW solar project in South Gloucestershire is planned to commence at the beginning of 2023, with grid connection expected in the second half of 2023. When complete, Rag Lane will deliver approximately 52 GWh/year of clean renewable electricity for distribution to the national grid, the equivalent to the annual electrical needs of approximately 15,000 family homes.
BayWa r.e. is committed to ensuring maximum benefit to the local community and environment in the development of Rag Lane. As part of the construction of the project, BayWa r.e. will provide biodiversity enhancements to the local area including the reinforcement and planting of 1.7 km of new hedgerows as a haven for wildlife, as well as ecological connectivity and improvements to the public footpath that runs across the site.
The company also anticipates that at least 20 local jobs will be created through the construction phase, with 2–3 long term jobs through the operational life of the project.
Bluetti says its first-generation sodium-ion battery excels in thermal stability, fast-charging capacity, low-temperature performance, and integration efficiency, despite slightly lower energy density than its lithium-ion counterparts. The solar generator and battery’s chemical components also feature more abundant materials than traditional lithium-ion batteries, lowering prices and alleviating concerns about resources scarcity.
The NA300 solar generator delivers a 3,000Wh capacity, considerably less than the 5,100Wh of the company’s EP500 Pro model. But the generator capacity shouldn’t be a big issue for consumers, as it supports up to two B480 battery modules (4,800Wh each), which brings the total capacity to 12,600Wh. The unit, recharged by solar panels, can serve a family’s electricity needs for several days or even a week during grid failures or natural disasters.
It is said that the sodium-ion solar generator seamlessly inherits all the style and appearance settings of its predecessor – EP500 Pro – especially four 20-amp traditional wall plugs, as well as a 30-amp L14-30 output port, driven by the built-in 3,000W pure sine wave inverter.
