Pielke:  at last – clear thinking on carbon …….what matters is our greedy, wasteful power companies.

NEXT WEEK (13th November)  a major report will announce that the UK government’s carbon reduction targets are unachievable and illusory. The report, from the prestigious Institution of Mechanical Engineers implies that the official targets would require the  building of 30 Nuclear power stations in Britain by 2015 (an impossibility), and IMEchE has called for a huge rise in off-grid energy production as the only sensible way to take a big chunk out of UK  carbon emissions.
>>Keep reading “Scrap carbon targets – they’re unachievable….”

Nearly two thirds of US states could be self-sufficient in electricity production if they exploited all the renewable energy available to them, says a new report.

The study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an environmental lobby group dedicated to creating sustainable communities, examines the potential of seven different forms of renewable energy state by state.

It looked at the possible contribution of roof-top solar, geothermal, combined heat and power, enhanced geo thermal, small scale hydro, off and onshore wind, in each  state.
>>Keep reading “States’ resources beat Fed grid”

Shi Zhengrong:the Sun-KingVisiting the high technology zone in China’s eastern city of Wuxi near Shanghai, guests are impressed by the massive 6,900-sq-m solar energy panel outside the new headquarters of Suntech Power.

Visitinthe high technology zone in China’s eastern city of Wuxi near Shanghai, guests are impressed by the massive 6,900-sq-m solar energy panel outside the new headquarters of Suntech Power.
The facility’s one-megawatt solar facade is the world’s largest grid-connected, building-integrated solar system, according to Suntech, the world’s largest solar module manufacturer.
Suntech has benefited from the Chinese government’s subsidies for solar photovoltaic rooftop installations and construction of solar energy plants – known as the “Golden Sun” program.
Suntech reported $321 million in revenues for the second quarter this year, up from $315.7 million in the first quarter, according to the company’s second-quarter statement.
Suntech, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, also helped Shi Zhengrong, its founder, chairman and CEO, to become one of the country’s wealthiest people.
His picture was on the cover of the US newsmagazine Time just six years after the photovoltaic and renewable energy expert graduated from the University of New South Wales and began his new career in the country of his birth.
The Suntech story has encouraged more companies to join the solar power energy field, including Sunvim, a Zhejiang-based textile maker known for one of the country’s popular towel brands.
The government has put in place two significant subsidies for solar photovoltaic installations.
Through the “Golden Sun” program, the National Energy Administration and ministries of Finance, Science and Technology are offering to subsidize half of the construction and connection costs of on-grid solar power plants and 70 percent of the cost of off-grid installations from now until 2011. The program’s goal is to produce 500 megawatts of solar power.
An earlier plan established subsidies for rooftop demonstration projects. In addition, many local governments have solar subsidy programs of their own.
Not surprisingly, these initiatives have spurred more companies to enter the solar sector.
According to domestic statistics, more than 50 solar companies from 20 provinces – including Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang – are constructing or expanding polysilicon production lines. The overall construction capacity has reached a potential 100,000 tons.
Zhejiang Yuhui Solar Energy Chairman Li Xianshou expressed his concerns about the oversupply situation.
“There was huge production capacity last year, but how much is qualified? Many enterprises will face the possibility of being push out,” Li said.
Still, the first half of 2008 was a profitable time for many polysilicon producers.
“During that time, the polysilicon supply fell short of demand, and sometimes buyers couldn’t get orders even if they delivered full payments first,” said a sales manager at a polysilicon company based in Zhejiang.
The sales manager said his company’s supplies would empty overnight during busy times.
In Zhejiang, the traditional textile manufacturing hub of Jiaxing, is turning itself into a polysilicon manufacturing hub.
“It requires 100 million yuan ($14.65 million) for a startup in the solar photovoltaic industry,” said Shen Fuxin, general secretary of the Zhejiang Solar Energy Industry Association.
“But many companies were still scrambling to come on board, as the industry’s average profit return could reach 20 percent or 30 percent,” Shen said.
However, the solar manufacturing industry has been hit hard since the end of last year due to a freeze in credit resulting from the global financial crisis, as well as an oversupply of solar panels that have sharply reduced prices.
The government’s new guidelines to curb the solar industry’s oversupply might push newcomers or small players out of the market, but apparently won’t affect the major players, sources said.
Yingli Energy Group, one of China’s leading solar cell manufacturers, is reporting increased sales this year.
“We saw shipments increase quickly since the middle of this year,” said a sales manager from Yingli who declined to be named.
He said the government’s crackdown on oversupply will negatively affect small companies, but added that large companies will continue to win market share because of brand reputation.Visiting the high technology zone in China’s eastern city of Wuxi near Shanghai, guests are impressed by the massive 6,900-sq-m solar energy panel outside the new headquarters of Suntech Power.

The facility’s one-megawatt solar facade is the world’s largest grid-connected, building-integrated solar system, according to Suntech, the world’s largest solar module manufacturer.
>>Keep reading “China curbs solar boom”

Some time back, I did a review of LaMar’s Simple Solar Homestead, a great (and inexpensive) ebook created by LaMar, the great thing about LaMar, is he is actually LIVING this lifestyle, not just spouting theory.

>>Keep reading “LaMar’s Simple Solar Homesteading videos”

750 Germans cant be wrong A tiny village in Germany ends its dependence on the grid this month.   Juhnde in central Germany has attracted the attention of renewable energy advocates because it makes all the electricity and heat for its residents from a combination of manure, silage and wood chips.
>>Keep reading “German village goes off-grid ready”

Dobreski or is it Vrcakovski? Off-Grid.Net readers have finally helped us unmask the culprits behind the  Magniwork magnetic generator scam.

The fraudsters have been swindling gullible buyers with a $50 DIY guide to building a magnetic power generator which claims to produce free energy. Physicists and energy experts have dismissed the product as nonsense.

The brains behind the operation is a shady East European scientist and entrepreneur known as Igor Dobreski. His main accomplice and web-master is a slightly more engaging but still dishonest character called Vojdan Vrcakovski.
>>Keep reading “Magniwork scammers unmasked”

Humble off-gridder capitivates US An event  last month co-hosted by  TED and Andrew Natsios in Georgetown, DC introduced  America to the amazing story of “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind,” William Kamkwamba.
William is from Malawi and he was just 14 when he built a windmill to provide his parents’ house with enough electricity to read and listen to radio.
>>Keep reading “The Boy who Harnessed the Wind”

The provision of off-grid charging services such as solar mobile phones or external solar chargers could bring mobile operators a market opportunity of $2.3 billion in emerging markets, according to research commissioned by the GSMA’s Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme.

The provision of off-grid charging …
>>Keep reading “Phone charging big bucks”

Stirling D Allan: “This is Fraud” Internet fraudsters are raking in  thousands of dollars a day with an elaborate scam selling magnetic perpetual motion machines that are claimed to produce infinite free energy.

Since spring this year an operation called Magniwork has been selling a $50 DIY guide to building a perpetual motion device at home. On their web-site the fraudsters claim the materials are available in any local hardware store for less than $100. One estimate puts sales of the guide as high as 5,000 copies a month, making the scam worth up to $3m a year.

The claims for Magniwork are advanced via an extensive Google advertising campaign, and a network of blogs, web-sites and reviews endorsing the product.
>>Keep reading “Magniwork Energy internet scam”