US Department of Energy Installing Solar Wall Posted Jan 12th 2009 By Steve The US Department of Energy’s just recently had a competition with the theme of a Solar Wall. Well an architecture from Chicago firm called Solomon Cordwell Buenz has won that competition with an amazing design. The Solar Wall will be 32,000 square feet and is set to cover the south elevation of the DOE’s Washington DC headquarters in a very elegant design. This is definitely an awesome design and took Sun Wall very literally. Once completed this energy system will generate 200 kW of energy. No information on when it is set to be built or how much it will cost but I think it might be a while and cost quiet a bit simply due to the design of the wall. ======================================================================================= IN Other Related News ... SOLAR DOWN FALL , BECAUSE of CHEMTRAILS ??? NOAA: Atmospheric "sunshade" would cut solar power March 12, 2009 | Add a comment Proposals to slow global warming through "geoengineering" often look like cheap and simple solutions. Why not dump scrap iron in the ocean to promote growth of carbon-eating algae? Why not inject sulfate particles in the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back to space? Environmentalists have long warned that geoengineering can have unpredictable and potentially negative results. Now a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) points out that sulfate aerosols in the upper atmosphere would not only reflect sunlight -- it would diffuse it, too. Concentrating solar plants don't do well in diffuse sun. NOAA scientists estimate that a sulfate sunshade effective in slowing solar gain would also reduce production of CSP electric plants by 20%. Here's the text of the NOAA release: Atmospheric ‘Sunshade' Could Reduce Solar Power Generation March 11, 2009 The concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new NOAA study. The findings appear in this week's issue of Environmental Science and Technology. "Injecting particles into the stratosphere could have unintended consequences for one alternative energy source expected to play a role in the transition away from fossil fuels," said author Daniel Murphy, a scientist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. The Earth is heating up as fossil-fuel burning produces carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas responsible for man-made climate change. To counteract the effect, some geoengineering proposals are designed to slow global warming by shading the Earth from sunlight. Among the ideas being explored is injecting small particles into the upper atmosphere to produce a climate cooling similar to that of large volcanic eruptions, such as Mt. Pinatubo's in 1991. Airborne sulfur hovering in the stratosphere cooled the Earth for about two years following that eruption. Murphy found that particles in the stratosphere reduce the amount and change the nature of the sunlight that strikes the Earth. Though a fraction of the incoming sunlight bounces back to space (the cooling effect), a much larger amount becomes diffuse, or scattered, light. On average, for every watt of sunlight the particles reflect away from the Earth, another three watts of direct sunlight are converted to diffuse sunlight. Large power-generating solar plants that concentrate sunlight for maximum efficiency depend solely on direct sunlight and cannot use diffuse light. Murphy verified his calculations using long-term NOAA observations of direct and diffuse sunlight before and after the 1991 eruption. After the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, peak power output of Solar Electric Generating Stations in California, the largest collective of solar power plants in the world, fell by up to 20 percent, even though the stratospheric particles from the eruption reduced total sunlight that year by less than 3 percent. "The sensitivity of concentrating solar systems to stratospheric particles may seem surprising," said Murphy. "But because these systems use only direct sunlight, increasing stratospheric particles has a disproportionately large effect on them." Nine solar electric generating stations operate in California and more are running or are under construction elsewhere in the world. In sunny locations such systems, which use curved mirrors or other concentrating devices, generate electricity at a lower cost than conventional photovoltaic, or solar, cells. Flat photovoltaic and hot water panels, commonly seen on household roofs, use both diffuse and direct sunlight. Their energy output would decline much less than that from concentrating systems. Even low-tech measures to balance a home's energy, such as south-facing windows for winter heat and overhangs for summer shade, would be less effective if direct sunlight is reduced. NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. |
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