All About Solar | Green Energy News

September 11, 2005 – Vol.10 No.25

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Maybe when New Orleans is rebuilt, the Crescent City will become the Sun City. Maybe some visionary can see the light and build a community of grid-free, all-solar homes that because of their low operating costs can help bring people out of poverty.

Habitat for Humanity, which has been mentioned as one group that can help rebuild New Orleans, understands the economic benefits of low-energy and solar homes.

That visionary could see and experience the benefits of all-solar homes in Washington, DC early in October.

Between October 7-16 the Department of Energy and partners will be holding the second Solar Decathlon on Washington’s Mall. There will be 18 solar homes in the solar village built and designed by student teams from universities in the U.S., Spain, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

The teams and houses will compete in 10 contests: Architecture, Dwelling, Documentation, Communications, Comfort Zone, Appliances, Hot Water, Lighting, Energy Balance and Getting Around. The homes must operate entirely on solar power and must be able to recharge an electric car.

All of the homes were built to be transported and will be shipped to the Mall in sections in the same manner as modular homes. A new solar New Orleans could be built this way too. Visit the Solar Decathlon at http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar_decathlon/

Officials in the state of New Jersey have proposed increasing its renewables portfolio standard (RPS to 20% by 2020 up from the current requirement of 4% by 2008. The proposal would further require that 2% of this amount come from solar electric systems.

And, a report from Research and Markets shows that China’s exports of solar panels have grown at a steady rate of 25 percent each year for the past 10 years. Exports of photovoltaic panels from the booming economy reached $496 million in 2004, up from $329 million in 2003.

In terms of manufactured capacity China produced 150 megawatts in 2004, up from 13 megawatts in 03. To purchase the report visit Research and Markets at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c24194