Research with Liverpool Uni
Evo Creative Energy Homes
HSBC HQ Goes Solar
Giant trees 'to clear excess CO2'
Greener power to the people:
Sharp to Launch High Efficiency Solar Cells
Latest News
Research with Liverpool Uni
31 August 2008
EvoEnergy installed a Solar PV test rig for the Liverpool University Electrical Power Research Department. It's the highest solar PV installation in Liverpool and overlooks the famous Metrapolitan Cathedral. Evo is helping the Liverpool Uni team to undertake a number of research projects in renewable energy, power electronics and power system control.
HSBC HQ Goes Solar
05 June 2008
As part of its $90 million Global Environmental Efficiency Program launched last year, HSBC Canary Wharf office tower has become the tallest corporate headquarter building in Europe to feature solar panels. Covering 17,000 square meters of the roof of the building, it is also the largest installation of photovoltaic panels on a corporate office in London, the company announced. The company says it expects the array to generate more than 1.5 million kwh of electricity over the building lease or enough energy to power 20 UK homes per year. HSBC also announced that it has decreased its energy consumption at its headquarters by seven percent, or 20 percent per full-time employee since 2004. HSBC expects to save another three percent of its total energy consumption at its global headquarters over the next two years through energy efficient measures including improving the efficiency of the buildings air conditioning system.
Greener power to the people:
05 June 2008
British householders can produce their own energy, but official policy has led to Britain lagging behind the rest of Europe. Geoffrey Lean reports Ministers could avoid building nuclear reactors by encouraging families to fit solar panels and other renewable energy equipment to their homes, a startling official report concludes. The government-backed report, to be published tomorrow, says that, with changed policies, the number of British homes producing their own clean energy could multiply to one million about one in every three within 12 years. These would produce enough power to replace five large nuclear power stations, tellingly at about the same time as the first of the much-touted new generation of reactors is likely to come on stream. And, it adds, by 2030, such "microgeneration" would save the same amount of emissions of carbon dioxide the main cause of global warming as taking all Britain's lorries and buses off the road. ]
Stick-on Solar Panels
02 June 2008
A construction company has developed solar panels that use peel-and-stick technology to attach to roofs. Lumeta's Power-Ply 380 is a solar panel sticker! The product's adhesive back allows it to be installed about twice as fast as conventional rack-mounted solar panels. Coming from Lumeta, a subsidiary of DRI, a $90 million a year construction company headquartered in Irvine, the product is another sign that energy generation is being incorporated into conventional building practices. "Solar needs to become part of the building envelop and this is a step towards that ," said Stephen Torres, COO of Lumeta. "The whole idea was to create a new product that integrates better with the roof system."
Evo Creative Energy Homes
22 June 2008
EVO has installed the solar PV on the University of Nottingham's Creative Energy Homes. The project is a showcase of innovative state-of-the-art energy efficient homes of the future. Six homes constructed on the University Park will be designed and constructed to various degrees of innovation and flexibility to allow the testing of different aspects of modern methods of construction (mmc) including layout and form, cladding materials, roof structures, foundations, glazing materials, thermal performance, building services systems, sustainable/ renewable energy technologies, lighting systems, acoustics and water supply.
Giant trees 'to clear excess CO2'
05 June 2008
The scientist who coined the term "global warming" in the 1970s has proposed a radical solution to the problem of climate change. Wallace Broecker advocated millions of "carbon scrubbers" - giant artificial trees to pull CO2 from the air. Dr Broecker told the Hay literary festival in Powys: "We've got an extremely serious problem. He added: "It's a race against time and we are just sort of crawling along at a slow pace." He said some 20 million of the scrubbing devices would be required to capture all the CO2 currently produced in the US. But he told the festival: "Okay, you say that's enormous, but we make 55 million cars a year, so if we really wanted to we could. Over 30 or 40 years we could easily make that number." After addressing the festival, Dr Broecker told the BBC News website that 60 million of the devices would be needed worldwide at an estimated cost of £3bn a year. The towers would be about 50ft high and 8ft in diameter, and use a special type of plastic to absorb the CO2. The gas would then be either liquefied under pressure and pumped underground or turned into a mineral.
Sharp to Launch High Efficiency Solar Cells
05 June 2008
okyo, June 4, 2008 (Jiji Press) - Sharp Corp. <6753> said Wednesday that it is set to launch residential polycrystalline solar cell panels with what the firm claims to be the industry's highest solar-to-electric conversion rate. The new product, Sunvista, will be released on June 18, coming in five models. The solar panels can cut losses in power collection as they have three main electrodes compared with two in conventional products. The electrodes are thinner so that the surface of the panels to absorb light are expanded, while low-reflection glass is used for the panels. As a result, the most efficient model boasts a conversion rate of 14.4 pct, better than 13.7 pct for a Kyocera Corp. <6971> product, which represents the highest rate at present. The conversion rates for the four other models range from 10.1 pct to 13.9 pct. The panels are likely to retail at between 46,410 yen and 99,330 yen per unit. Sharp aims to produce 17,000 units per month.