If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
As you recall our May 30, 2012 post in http://sunisthefuture.net about the Solar Tree, the brilliance behind this combination of art and function may be able to branch out to touch many many more earthlings in the years to come.
After my research on the subject of Solar Tree post in http://sunisthefuture.net , I am naturally drawn to any thing that is connected to any mention of solar tree…and came across this Solar Dream/Solar Tree Foundation/Solar Tree Project:San Francisco Bay area….
It all started with a dream….A solar Dream….and a magical enchantment found in the trees…. a simple e-mail communication between a school teacher and an artist…on opposite coasts of the US…and the SEED of The Solar Tree Project found a home… and germinated……nurtured by the hopes and dreams of children of North School…the support of administration, teachers..and parents …..it grew…and grew…into a project with intentions to erect Solar trees all over the GLOBE!
The students of the Solar Tree Club at San Francisco Bay area school and students of Ms. Ping and Ms. Bautista’s Enrichment Program will collaborate with famous artist, and sculptor Mr. Rein Triefeldt, to erect the first ever… Solar Kinetic Sculpture Tree. This Solar Kinetic Sculpture Tree will be erected on our school campus as the product of ongoing learning about alternative energy and conservation in class. It will stand as the first major public work of art in San Francisco Bay area community and the birth mother of many other art trees all over the world. The Solar Tree sculpture will stand as a hopeful reminder to our community of the childrens’ hopes and dreams for a world that understands the importance of global collaboration and a commitment to a sustainable Earth.
Our dream is to see The Solar Tree Project…grow trees all over the globe. Connections for future solar tree artwork in Miami Florida, China and Japan are in the works. (Solar Tree Foundation at solartree.org )
The initial spark of this dream had generated a great deal of energy and enthusiasm for students in San Fran Bay area school.
They even formed Solar Tree Club
Cheering On Solar Tree Project
Solar Tree Sculpture
Using Legos & Kinex Toys
Students Building Solar Tree From The Ground Up
At the moment, this project is in need of sponsorship and additional cooperative effort from others in order to branch out. So if any of you students, teachers, potential sponsors, or any one who may be interested in becoming involved with this project, please feel free to contact Ms. Angela Ping via angpingong@me.com
Here at Sun Is The Future of http://sunisthefuture.net , we’d like to be the catalyst for as many successful solar projects on planet earth as possible. Perhaps then, we can spread more sunshine across our planet earth.
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
Did you ever read that Dr. Seuss’ story of the Lorax when you were a kid? “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for they have no tongues.”–Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)
I suspect when the young Aidan Dwyer (of New York) first read this book, Dr. Seuss‘ words must have made a great deal of impression upon his curious mind. For he subsequently designed/invented (when he reached age thirteen) the solar tree, a decorative means of producing solar energy using multiple solar panels which form the shape of a tree via assistance of poles. This design of solar tree can also double as street lights, producing 50% more power than a flat solar power layout during winter and 20% more power during other seasons.
Such ingenious concept was further evolved, now also found around streets of Austria
Solar Tree in Gleisdorf, Austria (Wikimedia Commons)
, or through the lens of the industrial designers Ross Lovegrove and founder of Artemide Ernesto Gismondi, utilizing the synergy between solar and LED technology, into something that is low in maintenance and yet high in performance and may be totally off-grid and even feed back any excess electricity back into the grid. Some believes that such an evolved design of solar tree represents more than just a light, but also a humanitarian statement about how to harness the power for free and then give it back to the society. Manufactured by Italian lighting brand Artemide and designed by Ross Lovegrove, the Solar Tree (it was previously located outside of the MAK Museum in Vienna) opened to Londoners on May 24, 2012 at St. John’s Square will remain there until late September. It is seen in the video clip below:
This (Lovegrove’s) Solar Tree installation has an array of LED lit solar pads held up by 20 green stems. The Solar Tree contains embedded artificial intelligence that automatically switches the LED lights on after dark and is smart enough to decipher the appropriate light intensity with consideration of the natural light conditions and the battery’s energy level. Lovegrove’s Solar Tree is designed to work with both on and off grid applications;when connected to a grid, the Tree is able to feed back any excess electricity back into the grid. When connected to an off-grid application, the Tree is able to provide lighting for up to three days before its battery runs flat.
Let’s hope the challenges that we face during this time of transition into the renewable energy era will continue to provide us with inspirations for our perceptions of nature, function, and beauty.
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
With the continued rising fuel costs, infrastructure costs, environmental costs, and security costs, I would like to give the world a shout and applause for Germany for setting a new solar power record:
In addition to seeing the German government deciding to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine plants by 2022, now we are seeing German solar power plants producing a world record of 22 gigawatts of electricity (equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday). Norbert Allnoch, Director of the Institute of Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, announced that the 22 gigawatts of solar power fed into the naional grid on Saturday met nearly 50% of the nation’s midday electricity needs. “Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity. Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over. This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power. It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants, and nuclear plants.” Allnoch said to Reuters.
This has demonstrated that such record-breaking amount of solar power, in one of the world’s leading industrial nations (yet largely a land-locked and one of the cloudiest countries in Europe) is able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday (May 25, 2012) and nearly half on Saturday (May 26, 2012) when factories and offices are closed. It is no small feat and deserves our attention. German government mandated support for renewables has helped Germany to become a world leader in renewable energy and Germany gets about 20% of its overall annual electricity from those sources. About half of the world’s installed solar power generation capacity comes from Germany (a country of approximately 357,021 sq km and 82 million inhabitants) and about 4% of its annual electricity needs from the sun alone. All of us earthlings should cheer on the Germans for having the aim and being the most likely to achieve their goal in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 level by 2020.
Once again, the take away lesson of such great success from such a small country is the German Energy Policy. Please listen carefully and learn about their historical energy policy leading to Feed-In-Tariffs (originated from USA, but more effectively implemented in Germany) in the clip below, thank you:
For better understanding of Feed-In-Tariffs (FITs), please view/read the April 17, 2012 posts and click on various colored links within this post of http://sunisthefuture.net
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
Dear Readers, Friends, and Fellow Solar Enthusiasts,
(Please click onred linksbelow)
It is my greatest pleasure to inform you that the first 100% Solar business loan (for micro Solar Lighting Kits in Tanzania) at Kiva and also the biggest loan ($49525)at Kiva EVER (thusfar) became fully funded within ten days after its listing! A great round of applause for all of you (1034 lenders from all corners of the planet earth)who have participated: thank you to my friends and readers at Kiva, Facebook, Twitter, Sunisthefuture, etc. This has given us great hope for potential future solar entrepreneurs throughout the planet earth. This has clearly demonstrated to us that individuals, regardless how much each and/or any of us has in asset, we can combine our effort cooperatively across the globe to light up our planet using Sun’s Energy. We will look forward to helping more solar entrepreneurs to stand on his/her/their own two feet in spreading the sunshine across our planet earth. At this point, I’d like to share a celebratory tune by the Beatles to thank you–Here Comes The Sun, with all of you….
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
There has been much discussions regarding the anti-dumping duties for Chinese solar modules. My post of May 21, 2012, simply stated the basic facts and definitions to help readers to improve understanding of what anti-dumping duties mean. What I would like to invite you all to think about now is to ask your/ourselves if the human society is capable of learning from history and prescribing the necessary preventive medicine for undesirable events (such as war) from occurring.
If I were a humanoid from the future, studying modern human history, based on all observable events and historical records, I would have arrived at some very definitive patterns and precursors for “modern human war“:
credit over-extension—>economic recession—>tariffs—>retaliatory tariffs—>trade war—>decreased international trade—>increased unemployment—>economic depression—>WAR (repeat each generation, about 60 year cycle or Kondratiev wave/cycle or however long it’d take human memory to fade)
This was the pattern observed that led to WW II and its sequential pattern starts to show up again. The difference is that we now have much more information, gathered data, and intelligent decision makers…so do you think we will be able to avert the threat of seemingly inevitable war ?
Certainly, the tariffs have increased trade tensions between U.S. and China, as Beijing considers whether to retaliate by slapping its own duties on U.S.-made polysilicon raw material for solar cells. Last Friday, Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against import duties on U.S. products including solar panels that China claims are unfairly priced or subsidized.
Instead of simply repeating the pattern of tariffs leading to retaliatory tariffs–>trade war–>decreased international trade–>–>–>WAR, JA Solar Holdings Co., a Shanghai-based business is currently leading the pack by having already purchased manufacturing equipment at auction in CA, and searching in Western states (U.S.) for potential plant locations. This would definitely help to avoid the anti-dumping duties. At the moment, Jonathan Pickering, the company’s president for America, told the Oregonian that managers are expected to reach a decision within few months. Pickering also indicated that JA Solar is attracted by the growing market size of U.S. market, plus the fact that a U.S. factory would enable the company to meet domestic content requirements imposed by military, universities, schools, and hospitals. Even though Pickering did not feel that duties would be the sole driving force for the company’s factory decision, he agrees that the duties would drive up prices, cutting solar panel sales, throwing U.S. installers out of work, and slowing the market growth. Below is a clip of JA Solar:
The manufacturing equipment bought by JA Solar (enough to outfit a small factory with about 75 megawatts of production), originally belonged to Calisolar Inc. Calisolar fired 80 Sunnyvale, CA workers in September and backed out of a $275 million government loan guarantee and reinvented itself in Mississippi, where local governments is providing $94 million in incentives. Renamed Silicor Materials Inc., the company is building a plant to supply raw materials to China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co.
It is hopeful that all solar companies within both China and U.S. will find ways of cooperating with one another, optimizing their respective local incentives and subsidies while fulfilling the needs of international trade. After all, the most sunny disposition is keeping one’s eyes on increasing the profit, creating jobs, providing the clean and renewable energy without completing the pattern/cycle of war. Let’s also pass along the sun, pass along the energy, and embrace the dream of gathering the love and hope of all people to harness the sun, with its warmth and light.
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
This past week, U.S. imposed tariffs at a range of 31 to 250 percent on Chinese-made solar products to aid domestic (U.S.) manufacturers beset by foreign competition, but many critics believe that this decision may end up raising prices and hurting the U.S. renewable energy industry. I personally have several issues or question with regard to this range of tariffs, to be addressed in this post.
FACTS
The purpose of imposing this range of tariffs, otherwise known as the preliminary anti-dumping duties, is because the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled that Chinese manufacturers sold solar panels in the U.S. at prices below the cost of production. This decision is meant to provide a boost to the U.S. solar manufacturing industry. In the preliminary determination, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) set duties at 31.14 % for Trina, 31.18 % for 59 Chinese solar manufacturers (including Yingli Green Energy, LDK Solar, Canadian Solar, Hanwha Solar One, JA Solar Holding, and Jinko Solar) that chose to participate in the investigation, 31.22 % for Suntech, and 250 % for those Chinese solar manufacturers that chose not to participate at this investigation. The tariffs will be retroactive and be applied to panels that were shipped from as far back as about the middle of February, 2012. A final determination may still be made, so the tariff rates may be adjusted in the future. But the tariff rates resulting from this ruling were much higher than many had anticipated. This was the second of two duties/tariffs set by the DOC that stemmed from a trade complaint filed by SolarWorld’s American subsidiary. DOC’s final determinations are expected to be made for both tariffs in late July of 2012 and its announcement may reach the public as late as September of 2012.
Previously, in March, the DOC announced a preliminary determination that set relatively modest countervailing duties that essentially measure the level of subsidies and benefits coming from the Chinese government to Chinese crystalline silicon panel manufacturers: 2.9% for Suntech, 4.73% for Trina, 3.59% to all others. But now, added by the second duty/tariff mentioned in the paragraph above, Chinese solar panels will be much more expensive. The ruling could add about $0.30 per watt to the price of a panel. So, Chinese companies are expected to set up workarounds like tolling (tolling is expected to add only about $0.06 to $0.08 per watt) in which they send panels through another country, or even set up remote manufacturing facilities outside their country.
Below, I have a video clip from Suntech Power, to help better understand how Suntech PV cells and modules are made, below:
UNDERSTANDING
If you are as ignorant as I was about the international trade policy, this will help to clarify the situation: To search for better understanding of the DNA of history of U.S. Tariffs, I obtained help from Wikipedia, and found that tariffs were the largest source of U.S. federal revenue until the Federal income tax began after 1913. The history of U.S. tariffs went as far back as Tariff of 1790, established under the guidance of Alexander Hamilton;he calculated that the U.S. required sufficient revenue in order to maintain $3 million per year in operating cost and repayment for the $75 million foreign and domestic debt. Therefore, Hamilton proposed an increase in the average tariff rate of 5% to between 7 and 10%, with addition of numerous items, and the passage of an excise tax. Congress refused to pass the excise tax, but James Madison successfully steered the tariff increases through the legislature. In light of our current national debt rate and the relationship between President and Congress, one is amazed at how often history repeats itself. I am no longer surprised at the dramatic increase of tariffs (be it solar or otherwise) if I simply remember how much our current national debt rate is. But one does need to ask if similar rate of increase in tariff is also occurring in other industries.
Secondly, with the help from Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, essentially, in international trade ( if company a comes from country A and company b comes from country B), it is all right for company a to sell at below the cost of production in country A (which often happens when there is an over supply of certain products, as what would happen during sales and clearances) , but it is not all right for company a to sell at below the cost of production in country B (henceforth the existence of tariffs) in order to protect merchants/manufacturers of similar products from country B. So, the existence of tariffs would benefit the local manufacturers but not necessarily local consumers.
CONCERNS/QUESTIONS/SUGEESTIONS
I have several concerns/issues/questions regarding this decision/tariff range:
The range from about 31% to 250% seems rather wide. The high end (250%) reserved for Chinese solar manufacturers that did not participate in this investigation: will this unusually high tariff rate result in preventing other Chinese manufacturers from ever considering any future sells to U.S. while providing special protection for Chinese manufacturers that have already participated in the current investigation with U.S. ?
The fact that this tariff will be retroactive as far back as February of 2012: will this decrease the desirability/amount of future international trades with U.S. from other nations ?
How are these rates determined ? I had a tough time obtaining the information regarding how these rates were set due to its proprietary information status. Is it possible for the decision for these rates to be more transparent and be available to public?
Assuming we are all cooperative human beings trying to optimize our earthly resources, will it be possible for the Chinese manufacturers to work out deals with the US manufacturers by transporting the solar cells (which takes up most of the manufacturing cost of any solar module) to U.S. to be assembled into its modular forms in U.S. plants so to help reduce the tariffs. In so doing, this will also help to reduce the transporting cost of the frames and various other components of the solar modules. U.S., in this scenario, will benefit from increased local jobs for assembling solar panels in U.S.
In light of our globalized economy and existence of tolling (mentioned above under FACTS), it is questionable how much revenue will truly be generated from this tariff.
Will this tariff increase the cost for American consumers and reduce the competitiveness of U.S. solar industry rather than simply boosting U.S. solar manufacturing industry in the future ?
I hope U.S. Department of Commerce will carefully weigh all of these issues before final determination later this year. Much remains to be seen. I welcome any of your questions/discussions/comments/concerns/suggestions here at Sun Is The Future (of http://sunisthefuture.net) via sunisthefuture@gmail.com
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
Last I checked, you come from 144 countries on this planet earth. Some of you have wanted to make donations to Sun Is The Future (http://sunisthefuture.net). But at the moment, since its non-profit status had not yet been officially established, I would recommend that any one who wants to take part in contributing to the earthly transition/movement toward solar energy to become a lender at Kiva (it can start from as little as $25. If you are a new Kiva lender, you can take advantage of the free trial use of free $25 to join Kiva and Sunisthefuture Team at Kiva) by specifically gearing toward the largest Solar Loan EVER at Kiva: Loan 426323 from Tanzania by Martin. But keep in mind that this is not for charity but for lending to small entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Martin needs our help to complete funding this loan. Let’s give him a hand!
Many of you may have been aware of the posts I’ve written not only about solar energy, but also about Kiva, the microfinance online institution (www.kiva.org) intended to help small entrepreneurs from all over our globe to succeed in establishing small businesses. Therefore, it is my greatest pleasure to be given the opportunity in being a catalytic component in the marriage between the two (Kiva & Solar Energy). I’ve become a member of Kiva for a while and even started the Sunisthefuture Team at Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefuture), but this is the first month that the biggest solar business loan ($49,525) EVER at Kiva appeared. In Tanzania, 5 out of 6 people have no access to electricity. People often rely on potentially harmful fuels to light their homes. Martin works with Barefoot Power in Tanzania to help low income families to break their dependency on harmful, expensive, and inefficient light sources by offering them safer, cheaper, cleaner, options through solar lighting kits. This is a loan from Tanzania for Martin to buy stock of micro-solar lighting kits from Barefoot Power. I invite you all to take a look at what this Kiva loan 426323 of Martin is about:
Martin works for Watu na Nuru, a Barefoot Power distributor in Tanzania. This is his story, below, in his own words:
I have been working in Tanzania with my wife for two years now, and we have been using our previous experiences to help in the development of education and business. We have left two grown-up children to their own careers in the UK. One of the first things that struck me was the limited use of solar power for a country with such a huge amount of sunshine. This was particularly noticeable coming from the UK! When we saw that people were using homemade kerosene lamps at night we felt there had to be an opportunity to make solar lights more widely available. A large part of my work for the Anglican Church was starting a wholesale business to import and distribute solar lights to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses who want to sell them in villages. Over 80% of Tanzanians have no access to mains electricity and they use dangerous, unhealthy and costly kerosene lamps as their main source of lighting, so there is a huge market for affordable, quality micro-solar kits. Watu na Nuru, which means “Light for the People” in Swahili, is the name of a growing collection of businesses established with the support of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, with the aim of making high-quality, affordable solar lighting kits available to rural communities.
Watu na Nuru needs to have sufficient quantities of the right products at the best time of year (when farmers bring in their harvest). We need funds to ensure product is available when people are ready to buy it. When we are not selling product we provide training and technical support to retailers. We have developed a partnership with Barefoot Power Australia, who make what we believe are the best micro-solar systems on the market. My greatest challenge in this role is to get the right quantity of stock and spares to support the growing business. Your loan will support our stock so that more village entrepreneurs can sell these lighting solutions. My favourite part of this job is seeing a first order of product heading off for a distant part of the country to one of our small retailers just starting a new business.
If you should be interested in helping Martin in lighting Tanzania or helping various entrepreneurs throughout our planet earth (including USA) to become self-sufficient while spreading solar energy use, please feel free to use the free trial $25 at Kiva (remember Kiva is not a charity organization, so you will get the $25 back and can relend it to other entrepreneurs. remember Martin’s loan is 426323) by visiting:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
I’ve been hearing various reports about 3D solar cells and question as to whether a 12-year old is truly responsible for its discovery. After much digging, this is what I’ve come to conclude and ready to share with all of you:
Back in 2008, according to one of the reports of KATU.com by a reporter named Susan Harding, a 12-year-old student of Meadow Park Middle School of Beaverton, Oregon, William Yuan,
William Yuan, 12 Year Old Optimal 3D Solar Cell Designer/Creator/Genius
had invented something that could revolutionize solar energy. It all started with Legos. William Yuan, despite his tender age, had already studied nuclear fusion and nanotechnology by the time he reached seventh grade. After he learned nanotechnology to make robots take off, this seventh grader got an idea inspired by the sun. Encouraged by his Meadow Park Middle School science teacher, William Yuan started his quest in search of a different/new kind of solar cell. For two years, he researched other scientists’ work and came up with his own unique design that would work for visible and UV light. Noted: he based his research on some ground-breaking, graduate level work on 3D solar cells done at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. He also received help from professional mentors at Portland State University’s Center for Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy, Applied Materials Inc., and the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He fully documented all of his sources and never implied that he invented 3D solar cell. Various graduate level research had focused on one or another design criteria, but William Yuan combined several ideas and made them more efficient and powerful. “Regular solar cells are only 2D and only allow light interaction once,” he said. If he is correct with all calculations, his particular 3D solar cell design would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. His next step is to get a manufacturer and market it. In the meantime, William Yuan had received a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Fellows Award (scholarships for extraordinary young people, 18 and under) for his research. Let’s take a look at this 12 year old optimal 3D solar cell designer/creator, William Yuan, below:
Below, is a quote from the Davidson Institute For Talent Development, describing William Yuan’s 3D solar cell design:
“In his project, ‘A Highly-Efficient 3-Dimensional Nanotube Solar Cell for Visible and UV Light,’ William invented a novel solar panel that enables light absorption from visible to ultraviolet light. He designed carbon nanotubes to overcome the barriers of electron movement, doubling the light-electricity conversion efficiency. William also developed a model for solar towers and a computer program to simulate and optimize the tower parameters. His optimized design provides 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than the cutting-edge, three dimensional solar cell.”
I have only three comments:
1. Moms and Dads out there, get your kids start playing with Legos as early as possible!
2. Big Thumb Up to all inspiring teachers and mentors out there !
3. For those of you who think depopulation as the solution to our earthly problems, think again!
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
The video clip/link from May 2, 2012, by John Wadsworth was very succinct in his explanation of what Venus Transit represents, its harmony/order/symmetry, so I want to make sure that you did not miss this clip.
John explained why this will be such a rare and extraordinary event that will occur on June 5, 2012, otherwise known as the Venus Transit (Transit of Venus across the face of the sun). It only occurs in 120 year interval and when it does occur, it’d occur twice in an eight year period. It occurred in June of 2004, this year in June 2012, and will not occur again until 2132. So, I imagine most of us who are/will be able to observe this event in 2012 will never see it again in our life time. John continues on to present the reason why Venus Transit is associated with symbol of peace/harmony/love/order/proportionality: Venus returns, after an eight-year cycle, to the same point/place in the sky or relationship to the sun as eight years prior. During the eight-year cycle, Venus makes ten conjunctions with the sun (five when Venus is on the other side of the sun and five when Venus is on this side of the sun) . During Venus Transit, when she is actually passing in front of the sun, we see the Venus because she is in alignment with the sun on this side of the earth. If the ten conjunctions are plotted in terms of where Venus is in the zodiac and how far Venus is from the earth, one sees a perfect five-pointed star/pentagram. Rather, two pentagrams (with five-pointed star made by the superior conjunction or other side of the sun and a five-pointed star made by the inferior conjunction on this side of the sun). Henceforth, the relationship between Venus and pentagram. Furthermore, if the movement of Venus is plotted out based on its distance from the earth and its position in the zodiac during the eight-year cycle, one sees the result of a perfect five-petal rose. What is even more remarkable is that Venus creates this five-petal rose by drawing hearts;whenever she/Venus comes into the conjunction where it is close to the earth, it makes these retrograde loops which helps to form the five-petal rose. Therefore, one sees the HEART-ROSE- PENTAGRAM as the symbols for Venus. The fact that this poetic dance of symmetry and order is only revealed to us due to the existence of computer generated matrix and yet Venus had already been historically associated with these symbols of heart, rose, and pentagram…simply remarkable ! Furthermore, there is the synchronicity of Venus with the Golden Ratio or Golden Mean (the only way to divide a line so that the whole and parts are related to each other in the same way) otherwise known as Phi or 1.61803398874989484…. (with never recurring number to infinity….). Phi is intricately related to number 5 because pentagram is the only completely Golden Shape. The pentagram is the only figure made up entirely of golden ratios-all of its sides are “golden” to the other. Golden mean is also related closely to the Fibonacci numbers (where one adds the total to the previous number in the sequence in order to obtain the next number in the sequence). As the Fibonacci series continues/increases, it approximates/approaches the Golden Mean. Therefore, the Golden Mean and Fibonacci sequence are both Venusian phenomenon. Fibonacci sequence describes the way that nature grows, seen in plant growth, spiral of shells, or spiral of galaxies…perfectly in line with the Venusian phenomenon of Golden Mean. So this is the beautiful dance of proportion between Venus year and Earth year or between Venus day and Earth day, all summed up by the ratio of Golden Mean. Nature and our universe are in perfect harmony! It is amazing that this Golden ratio also appeared in ancient architectures and arts, bringing us in our relationship with nature. Perhaps Venus is a gift to us, teaching us how to be in harmony with our nature. Let’s value this rare opportunity of gift of harmony/order/love/symmetry on this June 5th/6th of 2012. I wish you all peace, love, and harmony…I wish you all find moments to look for Fibonacci sequence and Golden Mean…for glimpse of the beauty and order of Nature….
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065Thank you very much.
I’ve received comments/emails from both ends of the spectrum, from optimism to pessimism, regarding our relation to Iran during 2012.
In addition to the possible solution that came to me through inspiration of The Aurora clip in my April 27, 2012 post, I’d like to share a piece of wonderful information hopefully will jolt us all to opt for the optimistic end during this year. I am referring to a very special and rare event that will take place on June 5th/6th of 2012, the Transit of Venus. It is among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena, occurring in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eights years apart ( a transit of Venus took place on June 8, 2004 and the next will be on June 5th/6th, 2012) separated by long gaps as much as 121.5 years and as little as 105.5 years apart. Such periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities (property of two orbiting objects in rational proportion). The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1881. After 2012, the next transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125. A transit of Venus across the sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, becoming visible against (obscuring a small portion of ) the solar disk. During transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun.
Transit of Venus and the angle between the orbital planes of Venus and Earth
Transit of Venus in wikimedia of creative commons
The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours. The transit of 2004 lasted six hours. A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon. While the diameter of Venus is almost four times that of the Moon, Venus appears smaller, and travels more slowly across the face of the Sun, because it is much farther away from the Earth.
Allow me to present the musical version/Waltz from “Sleeping Beauty” of the Millenium Philharmonic Orchestra version of this transit, I trust you will enjoy, below:
A transit of Venus can be safely observed by taking the same precautions used when observing the partial phases of a solar eclipse (seen in the above video clip). Staring at the brilliant disk of the sun with unprotected eye can quickly cause serious and often permanent eye damage. So be careful on June 5th/6th of 2012.
We also have the opportunity here of participating with the energy of the Venus while this transit is taking place, with the qualities of harmony, love, peace, order, and proportion in our consciousness. The presentation of its periodicity and conjunctions in such harmony, order, and proportion may be seen and explained in the video of this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF_qr3yN3xo
I believe the year 2012 may possess the fantastically rare opportunity for such tremendous peace and harmony from the transit of Venus…that as long as we choose to see and seize it…there may still be Peace in Mideast and Peace on Earth….
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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