It’s hard to argue the fact that reducing our dependence on fossil fuel will benefit everyone and that the economy will benefit as well by our conversion to solar or wind energy.

Now is a very exciting time for the solar industry and rebates make solar energy a no-brainer. It’s a revolution a long time in the making and seriously overdue. The financial return far exceeds what one would imagine and if we -as a country - take full advantage of the technology, we will have made a more sustainable future for generations to come.

While the number of solar panels being installed in homes across the world is increasing, so is the number of misconceptions regarding them. Listed below are some of the more common examples…don’t be fooled by them!

Click here to see the 7 reasons!

Of course, the panel doesn’t produce much electricity–just 1.5 volts of electricity in direct sunlight, or enough to power a digital watch. And while today’s panels only need indirect sunlight to function, the 60 year-old version requires direct sunlight. Still, the selenium-based panel is surprisingly similar to current models.

The half century-old device is the first example of a modern solar panel, but it isn’t the first piece of solar technology. That distinction goes to Charles Fritts, who built the first solar cell in 1883. Want to check out the panel for yourself? It’s currently on display at Antiques for Everyone, a British antique event.

Via UK Daily Mail

Read More: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/08/worlds-first-modern-solar-panel-still-works-after-60-years/

The events culminate in an open house Friday where the public can tour the home that will compete in Solar Decathlon Europe, an international competition designed to advance innovation and research in solar, sustainable and industrialized housing.

The Project: RE: FOCUS team will encourage the UF community to “Make a Change, Not a Footprint” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Plaza of the Americas with an expo featuring solar panels, renderings of the home, the home’s floor plan staked out to scale, and other information on the project.

On Thursday morning, Project RE:FOCUS will take over the 34th Street wall to inspire the Gainesville community members to make a small change in their lives to reduce their carbon footprint.

Friday’s open house will feature tours of the home, information about the project and presentations by College of Design, Construction and Planning Dean Christopher Silver, team leader and building construction professor Robert Ries and student team leader and doctoral student Dereck Winning.

“The Solar Decathlon gives students from across the university the opportunity to work together on a real-world project, and Friday will be the first opportunity for the team to present their work to the sponsors and the community,” Ries said.

The open house will take place at the UF Solar Energy Park, 2610 S.W. 23rd Terrace, from 3 to 6 p.m., with the presentations delivered at 3:15 p.m. Those who attend are encouraged to carpool to promote sustainability and due to limited parking.

The UF team, comprised of more than 125 students from four colleges and eight disciplines, will compete in Madrid this June in 10 categories that include solar power, innovation, sustainability and communication. The team’s entry fuses innovation with the design of the historic Florida Cracker House to further the field of solar energy and inspire solutions for sustainable living that fit market needs.

For updates on the house, visit http://www.floridasolardecathlon.org/

Writing Credits: Kathryn Watson

People from around the world are hearing about Gainesville’s solar feed-in tariff, energy efficiency programs and planned biomass power plant.

“When I describe the actions we’ve taken, people I see internationally are really impressed that an American city is as far ahead as we are,” she said by conference call Wednesday.

As further confirmation of Gainesville’s green standing, Hanrahan was invited by the White House to sit on a panel of mayors todayThursday -Anthony Clark 12/16/09 4:09 PM to highlight the work of their cities, she said. Others include mayors of Seattle; Des Moines, Iowa; Albuquerque, N.M.; Sonoma County, Calif.; and North Little Rock, Ark.

Hanrahan said there was some doubt about whether that event will happen because of some of the chaos of the overcrowded conference.

She was calling from a train station that was under a bomb threat, “so if the phone goes dead, I might be dead,” she said wryly.

The delegation includes 25 people in business, government and research who are meeting with their counterparts from around the world to drum up business for the state and create jobs by providing the energy-efficient technology that will be needed to meet the climate goals of the conference.

Enterprise Florida expects companies from around the world to visit Florida in the spring and hopes the contacts made at the conference end with deals for Florida companies, said Christelle Maffre, the organization’s European representative.

She said she expects an announcement later on a deal with a French energy provider.

Florida is well situated to take advantage of the burgeoning green technology field thanks to policy decisions by Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Legislature, said Howell Ferguson, chairman and CEO of Lykes Bros. Inc. in Tampa, but policy-makers will have to continue to support green technology to keep up, he said.

“This type of meeting indicates everybody is now moving fast,” he said.

The delegation might come up with legislative proposals, said Kathy Baughman McLeod, chairwoman of the delegation and director of public policy at Bryant Miller Olive, a Tallahassee law firm.

“We’re talking to lots of governments that have incentives and legislation to improve and promote renewable energy,” she said.

Hanrahan said a lot of people think of climate change in terms of the challenges and costs, but she sees a lot of benefits to conservation efforts improving quality of life, reducing costs and providing economic opportunities.

“Two years ago, we had one solar company in Gainesville doing installations and today we have five,” she said.

She pointed to the work of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce to promote the city’s “innovation economy” and the “cutting edge research” in biofuels and energy systems at the University of Florida.

The Green Jobs delegation also includes UF professor Tim Anderson, director of the Florida Energy Systems Consortium of Florida universities that coordinates research and education in energy.

No tax money was used to pay for the delegates’ travel, McLeod said. Hanrahan’s trip is being funded by Local Governments for Sustainability, of which she is a board member.

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Solar Energy Initiatives Inc.’s rooftop solar panels will have the capacity to produce 300 kilowatts to 400 kilowatts, said Gregory Bakeman, the company’s president. His company will sell the electricity to Gainesville Regional Utilities for 33 cents per kilowatt.

The utility’s program allows residents and small businesses to sell electricity. The feed-in tariff program, which was the first of its kind in the country, will add 4 megawatts worth of installation annually for the next 20 years. One megawatt-hour can power 250 homes.

The feed-in tariff program provides opportunities not only for local contractors, but also for manufacturers that have been hit by credit tightening. The 5 percent return on financing through the 20-year contract is a bright spot for investors,

“If more utilities did what Gainesville is doing, we’d be seeing a lot more activity,” Bakeman said. “Solar rebates are oversubscribed and the selling price for power makes economics challenging.”

JEA is waiting to see how Gainesville’s program works before deciding to pursue one here. The public-owned utility is revising its solar program so that customers who produce more electricity than they use to power their business or home will be reimbursed.

The Gainesville project, which will be finished in early 2010, is the latest of a string of contracts for Solar Energy Initiatives. It won a contract to build a $750 million, 300-megawatt solar park in West Texas and an $80 million project to build a 120-acre solar park in California.

Read More: Solar Energy to build Gainesville project - Jacksonville Business Journal:.

November 6, 2009

The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) announced Gainesville Regional Utilities as the winner of the SEPA Award for Solar Business Achievement in the area of Community Outreach and Public Awareness last week. GRU was recognized during SEPA’s Annual Membership Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

SEPA selected GRU and the other award nominees from the 700 SEPA member utilities and solar companies. SEPA Executive Director Julia Hamm applauded GRU’s tireless work in raising awareness of the solar feed-in-tariff program locally and among the utility and solar industries.

GRU’s Solar FIT program was the first of its kind in the US. Based on highly successful models in Europe, it offers GRU electric customers a chance to invest in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and sell electricity directly to the utility under a contract for 20 years at a fixed price.

“Gainesville Regional Utilities has moved itself to the forefront of photovoltaic development in the Southeast with its new feed-in-tariff program, which required both customer and solar industry involvement and ‘learning while doing’ as part of its development,” Hamm said.

GRU’s Solar FIT program will add 20 megawatts of solar electricity to GRU’s power supply within 5 years. GRU has received enough completed applications to reach the utility’s annual target of 4 megawatts through 2016.

• The Energy Office has recently ramped up staffing to deal with the thousands of solar rebate applications received to date.

• The initial $5 million Federal Stimulus Allocation from the State Energy Program (SEP) Funds has been received and expended.

• The $9.4 million from the Federal Stimulus Allocation from the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant was denied by the Department of Energy.

• On September 29, 2009, the Florida Energy & Climate Commission (FECC) reallocated $9.4 million from the SunSmart School Program to the Solar Rebate Program.

• Total funding for the Solar Rebate Program for fiscal year 2009-2010 . . . $14.4 million.

• Since July 1, 2008, a total of 4,780 solar rebate applications have been approved and are being processed for payment representing approximately $12.2 million.

• The remaining balance as of October 16, 2009, according to the Energy Office’s website is $2.2 million.

• The Energy Office is currently processing applications from May 2009.

• The Energy Office updates the website every Friday.

• The Energy Office has approximately 4,570 solar rebate applications remaining to be processed and continues to process them daily.

• The Energy Office receives on average approximately 40-50 solar rebate applications daily.

• The Energy Office finds approximately 30% of the solar rebate applications rejected for insufficient information (these are returned to the applicant for completion) or found to be ineligible for the program.

California’s abundant sunshine, relatively high utility rates and solar subsidies have already made the state one of the world’s top solar markets. The proposal seeks to expand the market by requiring California utilities to buy power from solar-panel generators of 1.5-3.0 megawatts in size, at set rates above what the utilities would pay for wholesale power from conventional sources.

Some solar companies said the bill’s pricing scheme would create a feed-in tariff of about 15 to 17 cents a kilowatt-hour, which they said wouldn’t be high enough to spur significant investment. But others said the program would create opportunities for lower-cost projects for which there isn’t currently a market.

Supporters of the legislation, including the California Solar Energy Industries Association, said the bill’s feed-in tariff will be high enough for schools, local governments, farms, warehouses and other low-cost property owners to take advantage of it.

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Roof Top of Akria Wood.