took off on the first leg (between San Francisco and Phoenix) of an aerial odyssey across America without a drop of fuel! Solar Impulse, piloted by Bertrand Piccard this morning, took off from Moffett Field into the Bay Area’s skies at 9:12 A.M. ET and headed south toward Arizona. “A flying laboratory for clean technologies, this prototype is the result of seven years of intense work in the fields of materials science, energy management and man-machine interface,” Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse’s co-founder and CEO, said before the flight. Borschberg and Piccard will be taking turns in the pilot’s seat for a month-long series of flights that will end up in New York around July 4th. Each leg of this odyssey will be streamed from this site and the project plans to collect thousands of names that will be added to a “Clean Generation” list of supporters carried in the cockpit.
All of Solar Impulse’s power comes from its 12,000 photovoltaic cells on the upper wing surface and store the electrical energy in its lithium polymer batteries under the wing when the sun isn’t shining. This carbon fiber aircraft has a long/wide wingspan and light design because the plane generates as much power as a motor scooter for its four 10-horsepower motors.
Just a quick refresher on Solar Impulse: Its pilot and co-founder Piccard is a record-setting, round-the-world balloonist who draws financial backing from Swiss business. In 2010 Solar Impulse took on the world’s first solar-powered 26-hour night flight in Switzerland. In 2011, it completed the first international solar flight from Switzerland, Belgium to France. In 2012, it completed the first solar-powered intercontinental flight from Europe to North Africa.
In the next few months Solar Impulse will be flying from Phoenix to Dallas-Fort Worth, then to St. Louis, Washington, and New York. For Borschberg and Piccard, this is simply a warm-up before their future ultimate goal and venture in circumnavigating the world with solar power. Allow me to share with you a short video clip: view of Solar Impulse’s HB-SIA and Piccard’s comments:
Allow me to leave you with what Solar Impulse represents, “We are a people-powered movement challenging conventional thinking to inspire innovation, hope and action among citizens and policymakers. Together, let’s promote this pioneering spirit!”
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and/or suggestions will be welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Solar PV cells convert sunlight into electricity and many solar PV stations have been built over the years. For a quick recap of “What Is Solar Cell” at Sun Is The Future, take a look at these links below:
What Is Solar Cell (7)Please allow me to share with you some of the top photovoltaic power stations that are larger than 25 MW in current net capacity. These stations have progressively increased in size over the past decade. At this very moment, October of 2012, the largest three individual photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the world are Agua Caliente Solar Project (Arizona of USA, 247 MW connected and to increase to 397 MW when completed), Charanka Solar Park (India, 214 MW connected and to increase to 500 MW when completed), Golmud Solar Park (China, 200 MW connected with annual production of 317 GWh and completed in October, 2011). But keep in mind that solar industry is very dynamic and therefore these order may be in flux. Here at Sun Is The Future, we will keep you informed of these fluctuations. Please see the chart below, as of October, 2012: *Note: I need to check on Agua Caliente’s maximum generating capacity because many sources indicated 290 MW whereas Wikipeida indicated 397 MW. I will get back to you on this after further investigation.
World's Top PV Power Stations As of Oct., 2012 (Source: Wikipedia)
Today I came across the wikipedia site for President Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” Initiative and found no mention of any solar energy projects…but remembering reading about various solar projects in early part of August this year under this initiative. Definitely, a point that needs to be corrected/updated. So, here is my contribution for the humanity in wikipedia world, the 11th item under Executive actions of “We Can’t Wait”, under Wikipedia:
11. President Obama has expedited seven solar and wind energy projects (August 7, 2012) in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. Together, these infrastructure projects will produce nearly 5,000 MW of clean energy, according to the White House. The five solar projects include the following installations:
*Quartzsite Solar Energy, a 100 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant under development in Arizona by Solar Reserve.
*Desert Harvest Solar Energy, a 150 MW PV plant under development by enXco in California.
*McCoy Solar Energy, a 750 MW PV plant under development by NextEra in California.
*Moapa Solar Energy Center, a multiple-technology solar plant under development by RES Americas and the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians in Nevada. The 200 MW project would employ 100 MW of PV technology and 100 MW of CSP technology.
*Silver State South, a 350 MW PV plant under development in Nevada by First Solar.[14]
Below, you will find a vido clip summarizing the spirit of “We Can’t Wait” Initiative:
President Obama, might you also consider helping us with implementation of effective Feed-In-Tariff for Renewable Energy ? It will do much in job creations, bring forth communities’ economic prosperity, reduction in pollution, decrease chance of warfare among nations, and solution for our energy problems.
~have a bright and sunny day~
gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Homepage: http://www.sunisthefuture.net
Happy July 4th!! (Creative Commons, shot from Anderson and Villanova, 07/04/2010)
Firstly, Happy July 4th!!!
If you are in favor of renewable/CLEAN energy, please sign the petition page showing support for FIT/CLEAN Program at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065 Thank you.
A thousand apologies for this delayed post. As a result of some family matters, my time had been very restricted this past month. But the upside of this is the fact that I had the opportunity to be exposed to people from various states and a chance to spread more of words on solar/renewable energy and the idea of Feed-In-Tariff. I also came across an article, Are Feed-In Tariffs Part of Colorado’s Solar Future?, by James Cartledge in ColoradoEnergyNews, indicated that solar industry groups from 13 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland-DC, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, have said it is high time for the entire country to make use of feed-in-tariffs to encourage homes and businesses to generate their own solar power.
In recent years, I’ve often heard some young people responding to any discussion of our national energy or national debt issues with a “I don’t care and why should we the youth care?” attitude. So, it is my pleasure to have come across and be able to share this next youtube clip, developed by a young lady from my home state of sunny Florida, Yelena of University of Florida, who understood that our youth now will be the ones who will be most affected by the energy policy implemented today. The real cost of energy include energy security, environmental pollution, and the impact of climate change. Our youth of today will be paying for these cost of energy tomorrow. The sooner more of our youths will come to appreciate Feed-In-Tariff(s) (aka Renewable Energy Dividend Policy), the better chance these youths will not have to pay as high of a price in the future. Yelena managed to have interviewed Ed Regan, the Assistant General Manager of Gainesville Regional Utility, who was responsible for the implementation of Feed-In-Tariff in Gainesville, FL and from Andrew Walmsley, Assistant Director of Agriculture Policy of Florida Farm Bureau. You will be able to see/hear Mr. Regan explaining how/why Feed-In-Tariff approach would be superior to the stand-alone Renewable Portfolio Standard and countries with Feed-In-Tariffs end up with more renewable energy at lower cost (reported by National Renewable Energy Lab). We will also hear from Tim Morgan, the President and CEO of TM Industries, Jennifer Morgan, owner of MGI Solar Electric Power, and Don Davis, President of Capital City Bank, explain how local communities would benefit tremendously and quickly from implementing Feed-In-Tariff.
Put it simply, Feed-In-Tariff is an incentive policy that requires the power company to buy renewable energy from any one who produces it. No matter how small the producer is, the power company has to buy the renewable energy from the producer. Different tariff rates are set for different renewable energy technologies, linked to the cost of resource development in each case. Typically, FITs include three key provisions:
guaranteed grid access
long-term contracts (often 15-25 years) for the electricity produced
purchase prices that are based on the cost of renewable energy generation and tend towards grid parity
The cost based prices therefore enable a diversity of projects (wind, solar, etc.) to be developed while investors can obtain a reasonable return on renewable energy investments.
Finally, we have affirmation from FARE (Florida Alliance For Renewable Energy), stating that Feed-In-Tariff, had proven to be the most effective incentive program for rate payer (meaning least costly) for rapid wide spread deployment of renewable energy toward the path for Energy Independence, Job Creations, and Economic Stimulation. I believe it is very apropos to give a big SHOUT-OUT for Feed-In-Tariff in our celebration of July 4th, to remind not only those 13 states, but throughout USA that we are ready to walk down the path for ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, JOB CREATIONS, and ECONOMIC STIMULATION…we want Feed-In-Tariff !
If you are in favor of renewable/CLEAN energy, please sign the petition page showing support for FIT/CLEAN Program at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065 Thank you.
So far I have written/seen solar powered car and solar powered plane in previous blogs of Sun Is The Future, but it was only recently that I have learned that the solar powered high-speed-train was/is actually on some one’s drawing board! It is without a shadow of doubt that solar energy is one of the greenest energy sources and the idea of taking advantage of the hugely available solar energy in the American Southwest by covering the tracks with solar arrays to provide the high-speed train with necessary power and to generate electricity for nearby communities as well…is simply marvelous!
Will the SolarBullet high-speed train soon be a reality for AZ and Southwest USA?
The SolarBullet Campaign (at http://solarbullet.org), chaired by Ted L. Hullar, aims to stimulate support and awareness among Arizonians to increase the chance of this project (building a sun-powered bullet train that could link Tucson and Phoenix in as little as 33 minutes, traveling at 220 mph) to come into fruition.
Graduate students in the Eller College and the College of Engineering are partnering on a consulting project for citizen’s group. A multifaceted team of graduate students at the University of Arizona will climb aboard a solar-powered train between Tucson and Phoenix this Spring, metaphysically speaking. The team will analyze the economic feasibility conditions for the SolarBullet high-speed train to make economic sense between these two cities;they will produce a tool, a spreadsheet model, that can be used by SolarBullet.org , to generate and compare feasibility of different scenarios. The team is composed of Kevin Do (material science engineering), Chengdong Cai (civil engineering), Kevin Pieters (planning), Matt Novak (material science engineering), Jeff Gerber (MBA), Allison Duffy (MBA), and Paul Portney (economist and energy expert and former dean of the Eller College of Management as faculty advisor).
Keep in mind that as the cost of solar cells (will be discussed in future posts) continue to drop, the chance of the feasibility of this project will increase. We hope that SolarBullet high speed train will soon become a reality in Arizona and Southwest of USA, where the sunshine is generous and in infinite supply. But also for clarification, the high-speed bullet train (not solar powered) that had been causing heated discussion in the state of Florida recently actually would cost a lot less than the SolarBullet high-speed train. But in either case, the potential businesses and jobs that these high-speed train projects would bring to the local communities would be tremendous. Any state that will be able to bring the world’s first SolarBullet high-speed train will undoubtedly create a great deal of sensations in that state.
My hat off to the Arizonians with this innovative public transportation concept for using the free, non-polluting green energy from our greatest natural resource, the SUN! For more information or to show your support for SolarBullet Campaign, please contact SolarBullet Campaign chair Ted L. Hullar at SolarBullet Campaign or http://solarbullet.org and for questions regarding the team project please contact Liz Warren-Pederson of Eller College of Management at news@eller.arizona.edu .
