Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 at its peak, at 130 miles per hour (or 210 kilometers per hour) wind two days before making its landfall on September 14, 2018. That was so close to the threshold (140-160 miles per hour) of the design of new solar farms. About a third of the 3,000 megawatts of solar capacity connected to Duke Energy Corp’s system went down initially, according to utility spokesman Randy Wheeless. As of this week, about nine projects in North Carolina remained offline. Four of these were due to damage to Duke Energy facilities and five were due to damage to the project themselves. Wheeless said facilities that suffered the most tended to be five megawatt projects connected to Due’s distribution system.
Duke had been trying to get developers to move toward larger solar projects to connect largely to its transmission system, the high-voltage wires that link Duke plants to the distribution system that delivered power to homes and businesses. With hundreds of solar projects connected to Duke’s grid in North Carolina, the number of damaged projects remained small. Senior vice president at Strata Solar, Brian O’Hara, said that the Chapel-Hill based solar developer with more than 140 projects in the state saw damage at only two facilities. O’Hara said, “Duke has done a commendable job responding quickly and getting our facilities back online shortly after we notified them that they were inspected and ready to reconnect….our teams have coordinated closely with Duke’s recovery team, and it has been professional, responsive and pretty seamless.” The chief operating officer for Durham-based Ecoplexus Inc., John Morrison, said his company also saw very little damage, with only two of the 16 sites operating in North Carolina suffering some broken modules, amounting to less than 0.34% of the the developer’s modules, “not enough to even exceed the insurance deductible.” Spokesman for the California-based Cypress Creek Renewables, Jeff McKay, also reporting no notable damage in its solar fleet. As for Duke itself, its only project that suffered damage was the 60-megawatt Monroe Solar project in Union County, with few panels being damaged by wind. Duke’s Fayetteville, Warswa and Camp Lejeuene solar projects were all undamaged and returned to service as soon as grid operations allowed. Most outages during and after the worst of the hurricane Florence were due to problems with Duke’s grid rather than problems at the projects themselves.
To see what solar had done for North Carolina, check out these videos below:
Video “The birth of a solar farm in Halifax, NC” below:
Video “What’s the future for solar energy in NC” below:
Video “Study shows North Carolina as number 2 for solar electric capacity installed through 2017“: below:
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
Total Solar Eclipse observed from USA on Aug. 21, 2017, with the help of NASA (presented at WindermereSun.com)
Total Solar Eclipse (presented at WindermereSun.com)
Map of the Total Solar Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017 (Attribution: Wolfgang Strickling, presented at WindermereSun.com)
Chart for Solar Eclipse (Attribution: Fred Espenak of NASA GSFC, presented at WindermereSun.com)
Diamond Ring of the Total Solar Eclipse, last bit of corona ring and last flash of the sun give us the “diamond ring” effect (presented at WindermereSun.com , with the help of NASA)
Diamond Ring of the Total Solar Eclipse, last bit of corona ring and last flash of the sun give us the “diamond ring” effect (presented at WindermereSun.com , with the help of NASA)
Did you drive or fly to one of the cities along the route for observing total solar eclipse? Did you avoid the crowd by watching live stream for the event, or were you simply oblivious of the Total Solar Eclipse event today? There were so many people trying to reserve for flights to one of the cities along the route of total solar eclipse above that a coach plane ticket between DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) to Nashville costed $6000 last week. Hotel rooms were quickly running out that all of the hotel rooms along this route were fully booked last week that the last single room was going for $6000 for 4 nights at Oregon State University area. This is the only reason that I am reporting the event from Florida rather than Oregon State University today. The next total solar eclipse in the USA will be on April 8, 2024, only 2422 days away. The next total solar eclipse outside of the USA will be on July 2, 2019, with the path of totality running through South American countries such as Chile and Argentina, according to NASA. If you missed today’s event, perhaps you’ll be interested in one of these two future events.
Historically, some of the total solar eclipses at:
October 22, 2134 B.C.: one of the earliest recorded solar eclipse appeared in Shu Ching, an ancient Chinese book of documents. The ancient Chinese believed that a solar eclipse was the result of a large dragon eating the Sun. It was the job of two royal astronomers Hsi and Ho to predict such events so that people could prepare bows and arrows to fend off the dragon. But Hsi and Ho shirked their duties and got drunk, so they were beheaded by the emperor.
May 28, 585 B.C.: A total solar eclipse brought about an unexpected ceasefire between two warring nations, the Lydians and the Medes, fighting for control of Anatolia (modern day Turkey) for five years, according to ancient Greek historian Herodotus. During the Battle of Halys, aka Battle of the Eclipse, the sky suddenly turned dark as the sun disappeared behind the moon. Interpreting this inexplicable phenomenon as a sign that the gods wanted the conflict to end, the soldiers put down their weapon and negotiated for a truce.
29-32 A.D.: Christian gospels say the sky darkened after the crucifixion of Jesus. It is possible that the event may have coincided with a solar eclipse. Historians have tried to pinpoint the death of Jesus, using astronomical records of solar eclipse in the years 29 C.E. or 32 C.E.
May 5, 840: Louis the Pious, the third son of Charlemagne, inherited a vast empire in what is modern day France after his father died in 814. His reign was marked by dynastic crisis and rivalry between his sons. Being a deeply religious man, Louis became terrified of punishment from God after witnessing a solar eclipse. According to the legend, he died of fright shortly afterward.
May 29, 1919: Sir Arthur Eddington tested Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity during a total solar eclipse. Einstein had theorized that massive objects caused distortions in space and time. Eddington confirmed that starlight bent around the sun by measuring the position of certain stars relative to the eclipse.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon completely covers the Sun’s disk, as seen in this 1999 solar eclipse. Solar prominences can be seen along the limb (in red) as well as extensive coronal filaments.(Photo Attribution: I, Luc Viatour, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Chart for Solar Eclipse (Attribution: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Map of Solar Eclipse (presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Map of the Solar Eclipse 2017 USA (created with Eclipse 2017 Android App, Geodata from OpenStreetMap (Attribution: Wolfganag Strickling, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
How many of you had “observing a Total Solar Eclipse” on your bucket list? It was in totality only within a band across the entire contiguous United States ( covering: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina). The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was during the June 8, 1918 eclipse.
Map of the Solar Eclipse 2017 USA (created with Eclipse 2017 Android App, Geodata from OpenStreetMap (Attribution: Wolfganag Strickling, Presented at: WindermereSun.com), covering: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth’s surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometers wide. This eclipse is the 22nd of the 77 members of Saros series 145, which also produced thesolar eclipse of August 11, 1999. Members of this series are increasing in duration. The longest eclipse in this series will occur on June 25, 2522 and last for 7 minutes and 12 seconds.
The total eclipse will have a magnitude of 1.0306 and will be visible from a narrow corridor through the United States. It will be first seen from land in the US shortly after 10:15 a.m. PDT at Oregon’s Pacific coast, and then it will progress eastward through Salem, OR, Casper, WY, Lincoln, NE, Kansas City, Nashville, TN, Columbia, SC, and finally Charleston, SC. Total Solar Eclipse will darken skies all the way from Oregon to South Carolina, along a stretch of land about 70 miles (113 kilometers) wide. People who descend upon this “path of totality” for the big event are in for an unforgettable experience. A partial eclipse will be seen for a greater time period, beginning shortly after 9:00 a.m. PDT along the Pacific Coast of Oregon.
The August 2017 eclipse will be the first with a path of totality crossing the US’s Pacific coast and Atlantic coast since 1918. Also, its path of totality makes landfall exclusively within the United States, making it the first such eclipse since the country’s independence in 1776. (The path of totality of the eclipse of June 13, 1257, was the last to make landfall exclusively on lands currently part of the US.
If you are interested in observing this event (total Solar Eclipse), below, in italics, is excerpt from “Eye Safety During Solar Eclipses” from NASA:
The Sun can be viewed safely with the naked eye only during the few brief seconds or minutes of a total solar eclipse. Partial eclipses, annular eclipses, and the partial phases of total eclipses are never safe to watch without taking special precautions. Even when 99% of the Sun’s surface is obscured during the partial phases of a total eclipse, the remaining photospheric crescent is intensely bright and cannot be viewed safely without eye protection [Chou, 1981; Marsh, 1982]. Do not attempt to observe the partial or annular phases of any eclipse with the naked eye. Failure to use appropriate filtration may result in permanent eye damage or blindness!
Generally, the same equipment, techniques and precautions used to observe the Sun outside of eclipse are required for annular eclipses and the partial phases of total eclipses [Reynolds & Sweetsir, 1995; Pasachoff & Covington, 1993; Pasachoff & Menzel, 1992; Sherrod, 1981]. The safest and most inexpensive of these methods is by projection, in which a pinhole or small opening is used to cast the image of the Sun on a screen placed a half-meter or more beyond the opening. Projected images of the Sun may even be seen on the ground in the small openings created by interlacing fingers, or in the dappled sunlight beneath a leafy tree. Binoculars can also be used to project a magnified image of the Sun on a white card, but you must avoid the temptation of using these instruments for direct viewing.
The Sun can be viewed directly only when using filters specifically designed for this purpose. Such filters usually have a thin layer of aluminum, chromium or silver deposited on their surfaces that attenuates ultraviolet, visible, and infrared energy. One of the most widely available filters for safe solar viewing is a number 14 welder’s glass, available through welding supply outlets. More recently, aluminized mylar has become a popular, inexpensive alternative. Mylar can easily be cut with scissors and adapted to any kind of box or viewing device. A number of sources for solar filters are listed below. No filter is safe to use with any optical device (i.e. – telescope, binoculars, etc.) unless it has been specifically designed for that purpose. Experienced amateur and professional astronomers may also use one or two layers of completely exposed and fully developed black-and-white film, provided the film contains a silver emulsion. Since all developed color films lack silver, they are always unsafe for use in solar viewing.
Unsafe filters include color film, some non-silver black and white film, medical x-ray films with images on them, smoked glass, photographic neutral density filters and polarizing filters. Solar filters designed to thread into eyepieces which are often sold with inexpensive telescopes are also dangerous. They should not be used for viewing the Sun at any time since they often crack from overheating. Do not experiment with other filters unless you are certain that they are safe. Damage to the eyes comes predominantly from invisible infrared wavelengths. The fact that the Sun appears dark in a filter or that you feel no discomfort does not guarantee that your eyes are safe. Avoid all unnecessary risks. Your local planetarium or amateur astronomy club is a good source for additional information.
In spite of these precautions, the total phase (and only the total phase) of an eclipse can and should be viewed without filters. It is crucial that you know when to take off and put back on your glasses; see Eye safety during a total solar eclipse
Two spectacular events signal the boundaries of totality: appearance of the diamond effect and Baily’s beads.
Diamond Ring of the Total Solar Eclipse, last bit of corona ring and last flash of the sun give us the “diamond ring” effect (presented at WindermereSun.com , with the help of NASA)
Diamond Ring: it is a product of the final moments of the pre-totality partial phases and their post-totality resurgence.
Baily’s Beads: Sir Edmund Halley is credited with observing the first Baily’s beads during the eclipse of April 22, 1715. They were also observed by Maclaurin from Edinburgh during the annular eclipse of March 1, 1737 and by Williams from Revolutionary War America on October 27, 1780 from just outside of the totality. But it was Francis Baily’s widely disseminated description of the phenomenon during the annular eclipse of May 15, 1836, that led to their bearing his name thereafter. It was explained by Baily that shortly before second contact of a total eclipse, the opposing horns of the slender crescent sun begin to converge on one another. At the same time, the tenuous solar atmosphere becomes visible against the darkening sky, shining out around the edge of the moon where the sun has already been covered. The combination of this “ring” of light and the single brilliant “diamond” of sunlight where the horns are converging creates a most striking appearance, the diamond ring. The effect lasts for a very short time. Soon the horns of the solar crescent close completely, and the diamond ring begins to break up, to be replaced by an array of brilliant beads of sunlight caused by the sun shining through valleys and depressions on the moon’s leading limb.
Total Eclipse Viewing Events (source: wkipedia), below:
Madras, Oregon – The city will sponsor a four-day Solarfest at two locations.
Prineville, Oregon – Symbiosis Gathering will be hosting a global eclipse gathering. Dubbed Oregon Eclipse, the event will feature music, workshops, and art.
Casper, Wyoming – The Astronomical League, an alliance of amateur astronomy clubs, will hold its annual Astrocon conference, and there will be other public events, called Wyoming Eclipse Festival 2017.
Nebraska
Alliance, Nebraska – Entertainment and educational seminars will be offered.
Carbondale, Illinois – The area is calling itself the Eclipse Crossroads of America since it will also be in totality during the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, and since Giant City State Park, just south of the city, will experience the longest period of totality during the eclipse (approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds).Southern Illinois Universitywill sponsor many eclipse related educational events, including the two day Crossroads Astronomy, Science and Technology Expo, and viewing at Saluki Stadium.
Carterville, Illinois – A three-day rock festival called Moonstock will be headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, who will perform during the eclipse.
Cookeville, Tennessee – Tennessee Technological University will be hosting a solar eclipse viewing party at Tucker Stadium, which is open to the public. The city of Cookeville will be hosting special events Saturday-Monday.
Nashville, Tennessee – The largest city in the path of totality is offering many special events, including the Music City Eclipse Science & Technology Festival at the Adventure Science Center.
Rosman, North Carolina – Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) will be hosting a viewing event. The event at PARI has garnered international attention and the visitors will include about amateur astronomers.
Georgia
Rabun County, Georgia – Multiple events occur across Rabun County, including the OutASight Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Party with astronomers from Georgia State University. Other events will be held at Tallulah Gorge State Park, Black Rock Mountain State Park, and other locations in the county.
In northwestern Europe, the eclipse will only be visible as a partial eclipse, in the evening or at sunset. Only Iceland, Ireland and Scotland will see the eclipse from beginning to end; in the rest of the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, sunset will occur before the end of the eclipse. In Germany, the beginning of the eclipse will be potentially visible just at sunset only in the extreme northwest of the country. In all regions east of the orange line in the map, the eclipse will be invisible.
Online Viewing Events
NASA – Live video streams of the event will be available on NASA’s website.
Below, is a re-post from our sister publication, Windermere Sun (of July 25, 2017):
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon completely covers the Sun’s disk, as seen in this 1999 solar eclipse. Solar prominences can be seen along the limb (in red) as well as extensive coronal filaments.(Photo Attribution: I, Luc Viatour, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
[mc4wp_form id=”12402″]
Chart for Solar Eclipse (Attribution: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Map of Solar Eclipse (presented at: WindermereSun.com)
Map of the Solar Eclipse 2017 USA (created with Eclipse 2017 Android App, Geodata from OpenStreetMap (Attribution: Wolfganag Strickling, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
How many of you have “observing a Total Solar Eclipse” on your bucket list? Did you know that a total solar eclipse will occur on Monday, August 21, 2017? It will be visible in totality only within a band across the entire contiguous United States ( covering: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina). The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was during the June 8, 1918 eclipse.
Map of the Solar Eclipse 2017 USA (created with Eclipse 2017 Android App, Geodata from OpenStreetMap (Attribution: Wolfganag Strickling, Presented at: WindermereSun.com), covering: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth’s surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometers wide. This eclipse is the 22nd of the 77 members of Saros series 145, which also produced thesolar eclipse of August 11, 1999. Members of this series are increasing in duration. The longest eclipse in this series will occur on June 25, 2522 and last for 7 minutes and 12 seconds.
The total eclipse will have a magnitude of 1.0306 and will be visible from a narrow corridor through the United States. It will be first seen from land in the US shortly after 10:15 a.m. PDT at Oregon’s Pacific coast, and then it will progress eastward through Salem, OR, Casper, WY, Lincoln, NE, Kansas City, Nashville, TN, Columbia, SC, and finally Charleston, SC. Total Solar Eclipse will darken skies all the way from Oregon to South Carolina, along a stretch of land about 70 miles (113 kilometers) wide. People who descend upon this “path of totality” for the big event are in for an unforgettable experience. A partial eclipse will be seen for a greater time period, beginning shortly after 9:00 a.m. PDT along the Pacific Coast of Oregon.
The August 2017 eclipse will be the first with a path of totality crossing the US’s Pacific coast and Atlantic coast since 1918. Also, its path of totality makes landfall exclusively within the United States, making it the first such eclipse since the country’s independence in 1776. (The path of totality of the eclipse of June 13, 1257, was the last to make landfall exclusively on lands currently part of the US.
If you are interested in observing this event (total Solar Eclipse), below, in italics, is excerpt from “Eye Safety During Solar Eclipses” from NASA:
The Sun can be viewed safely with the naked eye only during the few brief seconds or minutes of a total solar eclipse. Partial eclipses, annular eclipses, and the partial phases of total eclipses are never safe to watch without taking special precautions. Even when 99% of the Sun’s surface is obscured during the partial phases of a total eclipse, the remaining photospheric crescent is intensely bright and cannot be viewed safely without eye protection [Chou, 1981; Marsh, 1982]. Do not attempt to observe the partial or annular phases of any eclipse with the naked eye. Failure to use appropriate filtration may result in permanent eye damage or blindness!
Generally, the same equipment, techniques and precautions used to observe the Sun outside of eclipse are required for annular eclipses and the partial phases of total eclipses [Reynolds & Sweetsir, 1995; Pasachoff & Covington, 1993; Pasachoff & Menzel, 1992; Sherrod, 1981]. The safest and most inexpensive of these methods is by projection, in which a pinhole or small opening is used to cast the image of the Sun on a screen placed a half-meter or more beyond the opening. Projected images of the Sun may even be seen on the ground in the small openings created by interlacing fingers, or in the dappled sunlight beneath a leafy tree. Binoculars can also be used to project a magnified image of the Sun on a white card, but you must avoid the temptation of using these instruments for direct viewing.
The Sun can be viewed directly only when using filters specifically designed for this purpose. Such filters usually have a thin layer of aluminum, chromium or silver deposited on their surfaces that attenuates ultraviolet, visible, and infrared energy. One of the most widely available filters for safe solar viewing is a number 14 welder’s glass, available through welding supply outlets. More recently, aluminized mylar has become a popular, inexpensive alternative. Mylar can easily be cut with scissors and adapted to any kind of box or viewing device. A number of sources for solar filters are listed below. No filter is safe to use with any optical device (i.e. – telescope, binoculars, etc.) unless it has been specifically designed for that purpose. Experienced amateur and professional astronomers may also use one or two layers of completely exposed and fully developed black-and-white film, provided the film contains a silver emulsion. Since all developed color films lack silver, they are always unsafe for use in solar viewing.
Unsafe filters include color film, some non-silver black and white film, medical x-ray films with images on them, smoked glass, photographic neutral density filters and polarizing filters. Solar filters designed to thread into eyepieces which are often sold with inexpensive telescopes are also dangerous. They should not be used for viewing the Sun at any time since they often crack from overheating. Do not experiment with other filters unless you are certain that they are safe. Damage to the eyes comes predominantly from invisible infrared wavelengths. The fact that the Sun appears dark in a filter or that you feel no discomfort does not guarantee that your eyes are safe. Avoid all unnecessary risks. Your local planetarium or amateur astronomy club is a good source for additional information.
In spite of these precautions, the total phase (and only the total phase) of an eclipse can and should be viewed without filters. It is crucial that you know when to take off and put back on your glasses; see Eye safety during a total solar eclipse
Total Eclipse Viewing Events (source: wkipedia), below:
Madras, Oregon – The city will sponsor a four-day Solarfest at two locations.
Prineville, Oregon – Symbiosis Gathering will be hosting a global eclipse gathering. Dubbed Oregon Eclipse, the event will feature music, workshops, and art.
Casper, Wyoming – The Astronomical League, an alliance of amateur astronomy clubs, will hold its annual Astrocon conference, and there will be other public events, called Wyoming Eclipse Festival 2017.
Nebraska
Alliance, Nebraska – Entertainment and educational seminars will be offered.
Carbondale, Illinois – The area is calling itself the Eclipse Crossroads of America since it will also be in totality during the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, and since Giant City State Park, just south of the city, will experience the longest period of totality during the eclipse (approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds).Southern Illinois Universitywill sponsor many eclipse related educational events, including the two day Crossroads Astronomy, Science and Technology Expo, and viewing at Saluki Stadium.
Carterville, Illinois – A three-day rock festival called Moonstock will be headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, who will perform during the eclipse.
Cookeville, Tennessee – Tennessee Technological University will be hosting a solar eclipse viewing party at Tucker Stadium, which is open to the public. The city of Cookeville will be hosting special events Saturday-Monday.
Nashville, Tennessee – The largest city in the path of totality is offering many special events, including the Music City Eclipse Science & Technology Festival at the Adventure Science Center.
Rosman, North Carolina – Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) will be hosting a viewing event. The event at PARI has garnered international attention and the visitors will include about amateur astronomers.
Georgia
Rabun County, Georgia – Multiple events occur across Rabun County, including the OutASight Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Party with astronomers from Georgia State University. Other events will be held at Tallulah Gorge State Park, Black Rock Mountain State Park, and other locations in the county.
In northwestern Europe, the eclipse will only be visible as a partial eclipse, in the evening or at sunset. Only Iceland, Ireland and Scotland will see the eclipse from beginning to end; in the rest of the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, sunset will occur before the end of the eclipse. In Germany, the beginning of the eclipse will be potentially visible just at sunset only in the extreme northwest of the country. In all regions east of the orange line in the map, the eclipse will be invisible.
Online Viewing Events
NASA – Live video streams of the event will be available on NASA’s website.
During this 4-part series of posts (started on March 20, 2015) about the importance of collaborations and Chinese solar companies, another company worth noting is BYD Company, an acronym derived from the phrase “Build Your Dream“. BYD Co Ltd (simplified Chinese: 比亚迪股份有限公司;traditional Chinese: 比亞迪股份有限公司; pinyin: Bǐyàdí Gǔfēn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles and rechargeable batteries based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. It has two major subsidiaries, BYD Automobile and BYD Electronic. Hailed for its innovations, BYD has grown to become a major manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, most notably mobile phone batteries. BYD topped the 2010 Bloomberg BusinessweekTech 100 list, a list of large, fast-growing tech companies.
During the World Smart Energy Week 2015 (Feb. 25-27, 2015) in Tokyo, Japan, this has been presented about BYD, below (in italics):
BYD Co., Ltd is a leading-edge provider of green energy technologies that specializes in the IT, automotive, and new energy industries. Being the world’s biggest rechargeable battery manufacturer, BYD also has the largest global market share for cell-phone chargers and keypads. BYD branched out into the auto business in 2003, and has kept a robust yearly growth rate successively. In 2008, Warren Buffett invested $232 million to take a 9.89% stake in BYD. Today, BYD is the fastest-growing Chinese auto company and a global pioneer in the field of new energy vehicles including Dual Mode Electric Models and Pure Electric Models.
Based on its core Fe Battery technology, BYD has worked out a Green City Solution, which aims to electrify urban public transportation systems by transitioning from gasoline and diesel buses and taxis to pure electric ones. In March 2012, BYD and Daimler AG officially announced the entirely new EV brand Denza in China.
In 2014, BYD andStrata (Strata Solar of Chapel Hill, NC) worked together to implement BYD’s world leading battery technology into a series of Strata Solar’s utility farm projects in order to maximize production and efficiencies. Markus Wilhelm, Strata Solar’s CEO said “We have been very impressed with BYD’s focus on solar and storage technology. BYD’s renewable energy division is highly vertically integrated, which benefits from strong engineering competence, and research and production capabilities in panel manufacturing, racking, inverter technology, and comprehensive storage solutions. During our meetings with Chairman Wang and his staff we had the opportunity to confirm Strata’s alignment with BYD’s global vision and strategy for solar energy. Strata’s unique and rapidly growing utility scale solar business will provide BYD with a large and scalable platform for their current and new technology.”
Strata Solar completed nearly 200 MW’s of solar across 30 installations in 2013. Strata added 300 – 400 MW’s in 2014 and has a pipeline of 1.5 gigawatts in the making. Residents in North Carolina have benefited tremendously from such collaborations that they are expanding their reach (to be presented in our next post).
With its combined expertise in PV and storage, BYD is providing comprehensive on-and off-grid solutions in various markets as power storage becomes an important component of PV solution. The company has shipped about half of its storage solutions to solar and the other half to other renewable energy applications.BYD has also collaborated with the U.S. multinational energy company Chevron in a project in the Middle East. For residential PV market in the U.S., where residential users pay the highest prices for electricity in the morning and evening, utilizing the DESS (Distributed Energy Storage System) of BYD, homeowners can tap the stored electricity in the morning and then do the same in the evening after the PV system has provided new energy to the battery. And during the night, the battery can be charged using power provided from the grid at off-peak rates.
Other international collaborative efforts: turning to Taiwanese cell manufacturers or setting up production facility in the U.S. in coming up with a duty-free solution for the U.S. market;expansion of module production plant in South Africa;partnership in Europe via juwi Holding AG in Germany for solar panels; positioning itself for the Japanese large-scale ground-mounted PV market; teaming up with the Canberra-based utility AGL Energy in supplying panels to a 400 MW PV project in Australia. With its chain of R & D centers in Shanghai, Ningbo, and Shenzhen providing strong base and its four 100 MW module production lines in Shanghai, BYD’s competitiveness is assured going forward in energy storage, solar energy products, and transportation vehicles.
It is clear that in order for any company, solar or otherwise, to succeed, the name of the game is: Solving Problems and Collaborations. In our 21st century global economy, barriers such as tariff or anti-dumping tariff no longer works. Our future belongs to those who are able to solve problems and to collaborate with others from all parts of the world. The sooner we all realize this and free ourselves from the obsolete mode of thinking, the better we will be able to play the game of Building Our Economy and Going Green.
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, photographed, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any of your comments or suggestions will be welcomed via sunisthefuture@gmail.com“”.
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics: www.sunisthefuture.net
(Please click on red links below)
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Updates on our Solar-FIT For Sunshine State petition: 165 signatures strong. We need more! Please help us to spread more sunshine by signing this petition and sharing it with others. It is our shared responsibility to move toward the renewable energy age and Sunshine is the cleanest, healthiest, and least war-prone way to go!
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I was tickled pink upon seeing this video from the U.S. Department of Energy site. I trust that you will agree that there is hope for our future generations once you’ve seen this video, shared below (italicized text taken from U.S. Department of Energy site):
A group of fourth graders in Durham, North Carolina, are showing America the way to a clean energy future.
After learning all about solar and other energy sources, Aaron Sebens — a teacher at Central Park School for Children — and his fourth grade class came up with a bold idea: make their classroom solar-powered.
The video above documents the students’ journey from idea to reality — leading up to a celebratory party where Aaron and his students officially “flip-the-switch” on their solar-powered classroom. To fund the project, Aaron’s class launched a crowd-funding campaign that garnered support across America and around the world. The students originally hoped to raise $800 but significantly beat expectations — raising more than $5,000.
The promise of solar energy extends far beyond one classroom in Durham. Every day, as the director of the Energy Department’s Solar Program, I get to witness the impact this industry is having across America. As the students’ project shows, solar is taking off as a clean and affordable source of energy. Because of the investments we’ve made as a nation, the solar industry is now one of the fastest growing job markets in the country. The sector continues to grow at an unprecedented pace — accounting for nearly half of all new U.S. electricity capacity during the first three months of 2013.
It’s clear we’re making progress in advancing America’s clean energy future, but the students in the video remind us that we have to do more. At the Energy Department, we’re committed to driving innovations that make America’s abundant solar energy resources more affordable and accessible for Americans. Let’s continue working together to create opportunities for more businesses, communities and classrooms across the country to tap into this clean, renewable and inexhaustible energy source.
Interested in installing a small solar energy system on your home? Visit our Energy Saver page for tips and guidance. Stay up to date on the Energy Department’s efforts to make solar power cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade by visiting our solar page on Energy.gov.
~have a bright and sunny day~
Be sure to share these links with others so we can all take the step to transition into solar energy future!
gathered and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
any of your comments or suggestions will be welcomed publicly in the comment area below or privately at sunisthefuture@gmail.com (be sure to note in your email if you don’t want the email to be shared)
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Please help us to spread more sunshine by joining us at Solar-FIT For Sunshine State! Tell your state legislators to support Solar !
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Did you know that North Carolina Senate Finance Committee recently underhandedly passed a bill out of the Committee that would repeal the state’s successful renewable energy standard (Senate Bill 3)? Currently, only 13 states within USA have not yet adopted Renewable Energy Standard or Goal, according to Jan. 2012 report by North Carolina Center at North Carolina State University. On August 20, 2007, with the signing of Session Law 2007-397 (Senate Bill 3), North Carolina became the first state in the Southeast to adopt a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). Under this new law, investor-owned utilities in North Carolina will be required to meet up to 12.5% of their energy needs through renewable energy resources or energy efficiency measures and rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric suppliers are subject to a 10% REPS requirement by 2021. On February 29, 2008, the Commission issued an Order Adopting Final Rules implementing Senate Bill 3. It was the first state in the Southeast to adopt such a standard-Senate Bill 3 passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support. As a result of Senate Bill 3, clean energy companies have generated billions in revenue and created thousands of in-state jobs while reducing pollution and saving ratepayers money.
Today, solar/renewable energy is under assault. Organizations such as Heartland institute and the American Legislative Council, or ALEC, and Koch-backed Grover Norquist have been lobbying against renewable energy policy and pushing for “model legislation” to undo these standards. House Bill 298 or Senate Bill 365 , the “Affordable and Reliable Energy Act,” was introduced by the known ALEC member Representative Mike Hager and aims to fully repeal the energy standard. House Bill 298 is designed to stymie the growth of solar development in our country. I think it is done in such an underhanded way (instead of counting votes by show of hands, North Carolina Senators Bill Rabon & Bob Rucho had senators shout out their votes…wait a minute….even when “No” sounded louder and yet the motion still carried/passed….) , caught on video, below:
Senate Bill 3 has made North Carolina an emerging market for solar, wind, and methane gas production, created jobs and will ultimately save utility ratepayers money. Senator Josh Stein D- Wake commented that clean energy investors will avoid North Carolina if the Senate Bill 3 is tinkered with. North Carolina now has over 1,100 clean energy companies that have contributed $3.7 billion in annual gross revenue, leading to net gain of 21,162 jobs in five years. Furthermore, the renewable energy standard has lowered residential bills and allowing these savings more than doubled within a decade, with expected savings of up to $173 million to ratepayers. North Carolina is expected to move from fifth to fourth in the nation in solar energy development this year. “It’s an extraordinary success story that there’s an industry that hardly existed several years ago,” said Michael Shore, CEO of FLS Energy in Asheville.
Voters of North Carolina, Be Wary! Your rights and democratic process are being eroded. Your economic future is being stolen from right under your nose. If you don’t do something now and/or in the near future, there won’t be much of a future left. Do not let your Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs be stolen from you! Voters everywhere, Be Wary! Without constant vigilance, there won’t be much of an economic prosperity or future for North Carolina or for any of the states within United States of America.
I’d like to end with my usual “~have a bright and sunny day~”, but I fear that there won’t be much more bright and sunny days if voters of North Carolina and elsewhere do not wake up and protect your/our democratic process from becoming eroded.
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Dear Friends & Visitors/Viewers/Readers from 149 countries,
(Please click on red links below)
I understand many of you are very concerned about our family and friends living at the Eastern Seaboard, heavily influenced by the Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. For Hurricane Sandy is the largest Atlantic hurricane in diameter on record, a late-season tropical cyclone that affected Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, reaching the area south of the Great Lakes region of the United States and Eastern Canada. It is the 18th named and tropical cyclone and 10th hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, developed from an elongated tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, 2012. It became a tropical depression, quickly strengthened, and was upgraded to a tropical storm six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually strengthened. Sandy’s impact on the United States stretched from North Carolina to New England with tropical storm force winds stretching far inland and significant mountain snows in West Virginia. The cyclone brought a significant storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, 2012, with numerous streets and tunnels flooded in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city. Hurricane Sandy is now officially listed as the largest hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic Basin, according to the National Hurricane Center, having reached 1,000 miles in diameter. Below is a news coverage on Oct. 27, 2012.
Hurricane Sandy at East River Manhatten (by David Shankbone, wikimedia)
Flooding in Marblehead, MA caused by Hurricane Sandy (by The Birkes, wikimedia)
Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012 (wikimedia, NASA)
Let’s take a look at some of the recommendations by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for Hurricane Sandy and other tropical storms, FEMA site for Hurricane preparations:
President Barack Obama receiving update to Hurricane Sandy (by Pete Souza, wikimedia)
NJ National Guard prepares for Hurricane Sandy (by Sgt. Mark C. Olsen, wikimedia)
1. Before the hurricane: 1. Determine where you would go and how you would get there, if you were ordered to evacuate 2. Cover your home’s windows, either with permanent storm shutters or marine plywood at least 5/8 of an inch thick. 3. Be sure trees and shrubs around your home are well-trimmed 4. Clear clogged rain gutters. 5. Secure all outdoor furniture, decorations, trash cans and anything else that could blow away. 6. Install a generator for emergencies (never never use the generator inside the house, too dangerous).
Empty supermarket shelves before Hurricane Sandy at Montgomery, NY (by Daniel Case, wikimedia)
2. During the hurricane: 1. Listen to the radio or TV for information. 2. Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors. 3. Turn off propane tanks. 4. Avoid using the phone except for serious emergencies. 5. Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purpose such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other larger containers with water. 6. Stay indoors during the hurricane and away from windows and glass doors. 7. Do not drive into low-lying areas or over roads and bridges that are already under water.
3. If evacuating: Be sure to bring checkbooks, driver’s license, credit card information, birth certificates, social security cards and don’t forget your pets.
Recent Updates:
1. weather.com recorded a record number of webpage page views, totalling nearly 300 million. According to a press release from the Weather Company, their properties recorded nearly half of a billion page views on Monday alone, close to doubling a previous record of 249 million. Nearly 10 million people reportedly tuned in to live streams on weather.com or Youtube as well.
2. Monday night, Oct. 29, 2012, as health care workers worked through the night to evacuate New York University’s Langone Medical Center after heavy flooding from Hurricane Sandy caused the hospital to lose power (backup power generators are outdated). Because the hospital’s respirators for infants do not have backup batteries, each of the 20 infants from intensive care unit required extra attention from nurses at the hospital. At least four babies had to be carried to a waiting ambulance down nine flights of stairs while nurses “breathed” for the infant by manually squeezing a bag to drive oxygen into the lungs.
3. A nameless cabbie frantically ferried people after the construction crane at One57 collapsed in Manhattan yesterday (Monday, Oct. 29, 2012),to emergency crew at hospitals who tirelessly evacuated patients through the night, stories of bravery and kindness are slowly beginning to filter through.
A construction crane on One57 partially collapsed in Manhatten (wikimedia, shot by Jordan Balderas, Oct. 29, 2012)
4. Roughly 17,062 flights have been canceled through Wednesday. Highest volumes of canceled flights for Tuesday & Wednesday are: Philadelphia International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, La Guardia Airport, JFK International Airport, Ronald Reagan National Airport, Logan International Airport, Dulles International Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport.
5. In Pennsylvania, Dauphin County Commission Chairman Jeff Haste cautioned local residents to be wary of people offering to do repair work, be wary of crooked contractors, charities.
6. A New York City hedge fund analyst, tweeting under the pseudonym @comfortablysmug, drew ire in the wake of the havoc wrought by Hurricane Sandy after he published a series of misleading tweets Monday night that suggested, among other false assertions, that the New York Stock Exchange’s trading rooom floor was udner water.
7. New York University School of Medicine, founded in 1841, (hosts of some of the top scholars in medicine, and Lagone Medical Center is home to much of the school’s research) was forced to evacuate Monday (Oct. 29, 2012) night after a power failure due to Hurricane Sandy, and a significant amount of research also could be washed away. In one case, scientists were rolling a big freezer, the size of a big refrigerator, to an area of the hospital with emergency power.
8. 50-foot section of the Atlantic City’s iconic boardwalk was wiped out by strong waves, NBC reports. But the New Jersey city’s 12 waterfront casinos came through Sandy relatively unscathed and some tell the news service that could even open today.
9. Con Edison‘s latest power estimate: @ConEdison:@willholmes-Restoration to customers in areas by overhead power could take at least a week and Underground could take 4 days.
Power outage at Manhatten due to Hurricane Sandy (by Hybirdd, wikimedia)
10.This afternoon, the climate activist group 350.org said it had asked its nationwide network of supporters to not only donate to the Red Cross in the aftermath of this week’s devastating storm, but also to “urge the fossil fuel industry to divert the millions of dollars they are spending to influence the election towards vital recovery efforts.” The group posted a petition on its website and claimed that “thousands” had already signed it. Scientists say pollution arising from the burning of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal significantly contributes to global warming, which in turn can increase the intensity of storms like Hurricane Sandy. If you are interested in supporting 350.org members in 189 countries, please go to 350.org
11.Power outages and flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy disrupted telecommunications services on Tuesday resulting in spotty coverage for cellphones, home telephones, and internet services.
12.NYC Village Halloween Parade postponed (rather than canceled) for the first time in its 39 year history.
13. To get New York City subway system back to 90 percent capacity could take weeks or months.
Time Square subway station shutdown during Hurricane Sandy (by Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Aaron Donovan, wikimedia)
14. Southeastern Michigan residents felt the effects of Hurricane Sandy on Mon. and Tues. 110,000 DTE Energy customers lost power, with outages still affecting 80,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
15. Mandatory evacuation to continue through Day 3 in Ocean City, NJ.
16. As of 1:09 PM EDT today, it is noted in HuffPost that Sandy Power outages hit more than 8.1 million homes and businesses.
17. Former VP Al Gore’s blog post warned today, “the storm that ravaged the East Coast Monday is “a disturbing sign of things to come. We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. Dirty energy makes dirty weather.”
Time Square Connect The Dots Action "End Climate Silence" before Hurricane Sandy (by 350.0rg)
Time Square Connect The Dots Action "End Climate Silence' before Hurricane Sandy (by 350.org)
“Scientists tell us that by continually dumping 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every single day, we are altering the environment in which all storms develop. As the oceans and atmosphere continue to warm, storms are becoming more energetic and powerful. Hurricane Sandy, and the Nashville flood, were reminders of just that,” Al Gore reminded us.
Here, at Sun Is The Future, we are calling for more Solar Power, we are calling for more Distributed Solar Power! We need more distributed Solar Power every where ! Not only is Solar Power the cleanest power that would help to reduce the dumping of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every day, reduce the climate crisis, it is also more likely to allow us to have distributed power that would enable us to respond during crisis, enabling us to still have power individually rather than massively be without power. Write to your state legislators and show your concern and support for policies that would encourage installations of Solar and Renewable Energy! Time to Act!
gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
