MakeHeat

“ Central Waters Brewing is the first brewery in the state to use solar energy. Company President Paul Graham says they rebooted the facility with solar thermal panels a year and a half ago at a $105,000 price tag. With grants and tax incentives, he says they paid about 45 percent of that, out of pocket.

Graham figures the system will be paid off in six years. Depending on cost fluctuations of natural gas, he estimates $1.6 million in savings during the life of the system.

The Amherst brewer says there is intrinsic value as well, “We’re very green minded people. We’ve done this essentially because we feel it’s right.”

The solar power provides heat for the building, water used in plant operations, and brewing which is a high energy process. …’

Listen to the story here: Harnessing the power of the sun…for beer.

While not heat related, this is a prime example of cutting down your energy bill one room at a time, and doing it without taking out a loan.

My Solar Power Set Up – Part 1 BASIC SYSTEM – DIY Cheap, Free Power.

-Ed. note:  What I believe would make a big difference would be a DIY system that you could plug into the grid. While a small system like this would not “spin your meter backward”, it would give you the best of both worlds: an inexpensive DIY system that would at least slow down your electric bill, and the convenience of not having to rewire your whole house.  Current regulations mandate that you have an electrician vet out your system, which means there’s a lot more research, phone calls to local authorities, etc. before you can just do a plug and play system.

“Research conducted by scientists at the University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) has enabled a new solar heating system to be developed using nanotechnology which heats water to five times the temperature of a conventional system. Reportedly, the project has emerged from one of the enterprises of the URFJ’s business incubator. …”

Read more at: Renewable Energy Magazine

“… The vacuum between the tubes prevents heat loss during cold weather. Other solar heaters need antifreeze to keep working in winter. The Solar Quest system of tubes keeps working even at temperatures of minus 40 degrees F without any chemicals added to the purer water.

Another advantage of the new system is it integrates the function of hot water storage and solar energy collection into one unit. Evacuated tube collectors produce hotter water. The heated water keeps circulating through the tubes by a passive convection current. This eliminates the need and cost for a pump to circulate water between a storage tank and a heat collector. The storage tank is stainless steel with a polyurethane coating to insulate it from the outside weather. …”

World solar power: Turkish technology reaches Stroudsburg |PoconoRecord.com.

From April – worth checking to see if you can still get rebates:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/cash-caulkers-rebate-money.html

A new company called Clarian has announced that it will have a plug ‘n’ play home solar kit ready by next spring. The “Sunfish” is essentially a sun visor that you can hang over a sunny, south-facing window.

The device uses the company’s 250 W micro-inverter to feed energy directly into your home through any standard outlet. You plug it into the wall, and in another convenient location you plug in a circuit monitor that uses software to sync the inverter to the monitor, reducing the amount of electricity you pull from the grid.

Forbes.com

Also, from grinzo.com:
“…Oh yeah — cost per unit of energy produced. A quick look at the Clarian web site finds this page with some specs on the panels involved. Said page says:

There will be two sizes of module, 200W and 1,000W.
Expected prices are $799 for the 200W unit…
“… The 200W unit produces 30kWh of energy per month, while the larger model is good for 150kWh/month.
The units will have a “payback in 3-4 years or less”. …”

Success greets the research team of National Research Council’s National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) and the University of Alberta. The plastic solar cells have now an operating life of 8 months instead of mere hours. And they are low-cost, environmentally efficient, unsealed plastic dollar cells – a green energy source. Developing economically viable plastic [...]
Posted in: Industry, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power

The San Jose Credit Union has partnered with the San Jose Solar America City program to offer a program to city employees in which they can join together to negotiate betters costs for solar electric and solar thermal installations on their homes no matter where they live.

Via Renewable Energy News

“Ben Franklin’s saying, “Out of adversity comes opportunity” seems to characterize the energy sector in US Northeast. Electricity rates are among the nation’s highest. Population density leaves scant room for new power plants and transmission lines. And the region has little indigenous generation fuel.

So what’s the good news?

“This is why a very large and well spent push for energy efficiency and energy conservation has taken place in the Northeast,” says Ron Tabroff member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and former chairman of its Power & Energy Society, Boston Chapter. …”
via RenewableEnergyWorld

We may be getting close to negotiations between the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians. While we wait for those talks to begin, we can at least partner on other, less politically volatile things, right?