Have a Solar Powered GREEN Christmas!

It’s high time for a new Christmas tradition, one in which we’ll joyously deck the roofs with panels of solar or sing Solar Night (Alaskans, get ready!). Could solar-powered LED lighting have saved Grandma from those reindeer? Perhaps not. But it is no less important that we, the solar hosts, proclaim: Even at Christmas time, the sun is king.

As of yet, there is no solar-integrated Xbox 360, nor Grand Solar Auto to play on it, but that should have no effect on our ability to integrate solar power into this year’s celebrations. After all, home solar is the end-all-be-all of gifts that keep on giving! Solar Claus is coming to town and his bag of goodies is growing like Pinocchio’s nose on Fox News. Fortunately, there’s no red or blue in town this holiday season. This year, it’s all green and yellow and the faint electric shimmer of crystalline silicon.

5 Solar Gifts that Fit Under the Tree
There are hundreds of solar gifts available this Christmas. Every year, the gifts increase and the prices decrease. DIY’ers, outdoorsy types, fashionistas, gadgeteers, readers and businesspeople all have a perfect solar gift waiting for them somewhere, and you won’t need a pot of gold to afford it. A click of the mouse will get any one of these five gifts or a multitude of others.

1. Solar Radio. Solar-powered radios are incredibly handy. They’re excellent for camping, spectator sports, long walks, fishing, power failures and other emergencies. The most popular models are wind-up as well, so you are your own backup generator! Price: $30 to $100
2. Solar Robot Kit. Here’s one for the little scientists among us. Red5’s 6 in 1 Solar Robot Kit is a great solar power exercise for beginners. With only 37 parts, no screws and easy instructions, the whole family will enjoy creating any one of these six forms the little robot can take: moving plane, robotic dog, boat, car, windmill and desktop plane. You get all that for only $20, although it may have to ship from the UK.
3. Hybrid Solar Cooker. Open this one early so you can get those potatoes boiling. Solar cookers are available from a range of sellers and are excellent gifts for the solar purist. This Hybrid Solar Cooker is a favorite because it’s reliable in a cloudy pinch and has an excellent portable design. Here’s a solar gift that can make a friend smile on Christmas morning and be feeding that same friend by Christmas night. Price: $299
4. Solar Bag or Backpack. Nowadays, you can carry solar power with you. To the subway, to the park, to class, to work or to nowhere. Whichever direction they go, your solar gift recipient will become their own power producer. And their cell phone, MP3 player, e-book or laptop will never die. There are solar purses, solar messenger bags, solar backpacks and even solar laptop bags. Price: $200 to $500
5. Solar Bluetooth Speakers. These solar speakers are light, portable and can be connected wirelessly to most cell phones, including the iPhone. The solar panel is integrated to maintain a sleek design and comes with a connector cable so they can be used with non-Bluetooth devices (i.e. iPods and other MP3 players). Price: $79.99 each

Not found in our five highlighted solar gifts are such classics as handheld solar chargers, solar flashlights or lanterns, portable solar kits and any number of other solar gifts. The sky is the limit in solar gifting potential, and the sky is limitless.

Now to expand our limits here on earth, we move into other gifting realms. For it is easy to celebrate a Green Christmas with or without adding solar power to the mix, although that is our most favorite way to do it.

Hooking Up Your Solar Christmas Display
Christmas isn’t all about giving and receiving. It’s also about showing off your holiday spirit. This usually entails hundreds of tiny light bulbs strung all over the house, brightly decorated Christmas trees, wreaths, snowmen and rosy-cheeked, round-bellied lawn ornaments.

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to all this brightness: the insane amount of electricity consumed by the festivities. And yet, there is a bright side as well. We call it solar power, which itself has awesome potential. Take as an example a tunnel at the Toki no Sumika Resort in Japan. It boasts a winter display of 3.2 million lights running through the tunnel. It’s enough to make an eco-conscious tourist’s jaw drop in awe, and then, moments later, their stomach cringe at the thought of grandiose power wasting. But hold your cringes because the entire mesmerizing 3.2-million light display is solar-powered.

And you can bring that solar power home to your Christmas lighting display as well. Solar-powered string or net lights are now widely available and affordable. They install just like any other string of lights, except for the solar panel, which should be positioned in a place to capture maximum sunlight during the day. The resulting solar electricity is stored, and at night, when integrated sensors detect darkness, the lights kick on. Solar Christmas lights are sold at a wide variety of outlets. Find them online through retailers like Amazon, Solar Illuminations, Solar Santa and even on store shelves.

In addition to solar string lights, you can find solar wreaths, solar garlands, solar tree lights and lanterns, and even some solar lawn ornaments like the penguins and bears available from Solar Santa. If you’d like Santa and his reindeer well-lit and frozen on your front lawn this year, it’s going to take a bit more power than today’s integrated solar lighting can handle. You can always manage a true Solar Santa, however, with some solar power panels on your roof. An always-handy solar generator might do the trick as well.

Extravagant, garish lighting displays are a fundamental part of our Christmas experience. Lucky for us, and our January electric bill, there is nothing the sun does better than create light. Light, which, thanks to solar power, the sun can now give at night as well.

Here’s to a very Green Christmas!

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NY Passes Clean Energy Loan Programs

New York has joined more than a dozen other states in approving a fast-spreading new method of financing renewable-energy and energy-efficiency improvements.

New York Governor David A. Paterson recently announced the passage of the municipal clean energy loan program legislation. The Senate and Assembly passed the bill, which empowers communities to launch Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loan programs.

The legislation allows municipalities to leverage federal funds in order to provide loans to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy systems.

By enabling homeowners to pay for clean-energy projects through increased property taxes, the financing model allows them to avoid the high up-front costs often associated with these projects. Typically, the municipality, which can borrow at low rates, covers the up-front costs, and then a homeowner provides reimbursement through taxes

"Through my ‘45 by 15' clean energy initiative, New York has significantly expanded energy efficiency incentive programs that are helping residents and businesses reduce their energy costs," Governor Paterson said. "Now, thanks to the leadership of President Obama and Congressman Israel, the federal government is offering programs that encourage the use of PACE loan programs. But to strengthen New York's ability to tap this federal funding, we needed to pass this legislation, which will authorize municipalities to administer PACE loan programs."

The Governor Paterson's "45 by 15" initiative, a goal of meeting 45% of the state's electricity needs through improved energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2015. It is estimated that the expanded use of clean energy technologies will create some 50,000 new jobs in New York.

"By passing the municipal sustainable energy loan program bill during the extraordinary session, we are putting New York municipalities in a position to compete for $454 million in federal stimulus funds," Congressman Israel said. "PACE programs will save home and business owners money, create new sustainable green jobs, bring clean energy companies to the State to compete for our business, and help wrench New York out of this painful recession."

“To ensure New York’s ability to tap into this federal funding, we needed to pass this legislation, which authorizes municipalities to administer” the programs, Mr. Paterson said.

Since the financing mechanism is through property taxes, the system allows homeowners to pass on the cost of energy improvements to future owners, if the house is sold.

Without the legislation, “each municipality (county, town, city, village) would have to get their own special enabling legislation passed in Albany allowing them to set up such a program,” said Carol Murphy, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, in an e-mail message.

“The passage of this law means that all municipalities now have the ability to enact such a program once they also pass a local law,” Ms. Murphy added. But she emphasized that New York also needed to fix a law that provides incentives to businesses, schools and nonprofit groups to put in solar systems that meet only a fraction of their energy needs.

According to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, 16 states — including New York — now allow these programs, which originated in California and Colorado last year.

New York has had a somewhat similar mechanism, perhaps modeled on a widely praised efficiency initiative from the town of Babylon, in place since August, according to the database. But Ms. Murphy of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York said the new law was far more inclusive. For example, she said, the August version applied only to towns, but the new law includes towns, cities, villages and counties.

Solar Energy Stocks Jump After EPA Gas Ruling

Shares of solar energy stocks climbed Monday as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health and as an analyst turned bullish on several solar names, saying he expects strong demand to continue into the first half of 2010.

The so-called "endangerment finding" announced by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is necessary for the administration to move ahead with new light-duty vehicle emission standards and is the precursor to wide-ranging regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.


SACE STATEMENT IN REACTION TO EPA DETERMINATION ON GLOBAL WARMING

New Ruling through U.S. Clean Air Act Demonstrates US is Ready to Lead on Climate

Knoxville, Tn. – Today Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, issued a statement in reaction to yesterday’s determination by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that global warming pollution does threaten public health and safety. Administrator Jackson indicated the agency would begin taking action under its Clean Air Act authority. This decision was announced just as the first day of international climate talks ended in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“This announcement strengthens the Obama administration in their efforts to regulate carbon in the United States and reinforces our commitment to clean energy in preparation for the international agreement in Copenhagen. While I agree with President Obama and Administrator Jackson that a legislative solution to the problem of climate change is preferable, I believe that if Congress fails to pass comprehensive climate legislation then the EPA should fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. This ruling provides at least one route for the necessary and serious measures that are needed to reduce global warming pollution in this country.”

Underground Renewable Solar Energy?

A research team at Georgia Tech makes a game-changing breakthrough for the solar industry -- fiber optic solar cells that can work indoors (or even underground).

November has been a breakthrough month for the solar industry. On the heels of an announcement by an Australian research team that broke the 43 percent efficiency barrier in solar PV technology, another team at the Georgia Institute of Technology headed by Dr. Zhong Wang pioneered a new kind of solar cell that uses fiber optics to generate electricity.

This is one of the biggest breakthroughs in the industry, promising an eventual "liberation" from the traditional solar panel and the potential to produce electricity without having to max out your south-facing roofs with heavy and expensive rigid solar cells.

The researchers call it "3D" solar because protons are allowed to move in multiple directions via a bundle of transparent fiber optic cables coated with zinc oxide. The tips of the cable bundle would be exposed to direct sunlight, and as the photons collected moved through the cables, they generate electricity. Then each photon bounces back, allowing the cable to collect additional energy missed in the first pass.

The polymer cables are tiny (just slightly thicker than human hair) but they provide a low-cost method of producing electricity on demand. A single 10 centimeter cable can produce 0.5 volts, and a 10 watt light bulb could be powered by a 10-cm long bundle (equivalent to handful of human hair — 10,000 cables).

What the cables lack in efficiency (3-8 percent) they make up for in ease of production, low temperatures and no silicon. And because the cables are protected from outdoor weather, they could be made from cheap plastic. A great use, in my book, for petroleum.

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New York to Finance Homeowners Renewable Energy Projects

New York has joined more than a dozen other states in approving a fast-spreading new method of financing renewable-energy and energy-efficiency improvements.

This week, the legislature passed a bill enabling homeowners and businesses to finance improvements through higher property taxes — thus avoiding hefty up-front payments. It was signed by Gov. David Paterson on Thursday.

By enabling homeowners to pay for clean-energy projects through increased property taxes, the financing model allows them to avoid the high up-front costs often associated with these projects. Typically, the municipality, which can borrow at low rates, covers the up-front costs, and then a homeowner provides reimbursement through taxes. In a report released last month by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s office, the federal government said that it would also help to finance the up-front costs. New York clearly wanted its municipalities to have access that new pool of funds.

“To ensure New York’s ability to tap into this federal funding, we needed to pass this legislation, which authorizes municipalities to administer” the programs, Mr. Paterson said today in a statement.

Since the financing mechanism is through property taxes, the system allows homeowners to pass on the cost of energy improvements to future owners, if the house is sold.

Without the legislation, “each municipality (county, town, city, village) would have to get their own special enabling legislation passed in Albany allowing them to set up such a program,” said Carol Murphy, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, in an e-mail message.

“The passage of this law means that all municipalities now have the ability to enact such a program once they also pass a local law,” Ms. Murphy added. But she emphasized that New York also needed to fix a law that provides incentives to businesses, schools and nonprofit groups to put in solar systems that meet only a fraction of their energy needs.

According to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, 16 states — including New York — now allow these programs, which originated in California and Colorado last year.

New York has had a somewhat similar mechanism, perhaps modeled on a widely praised efficiency initiative from the town of Babylon, in place since August, according to the database. But Ms. Murphy of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York said the new law was far more inclusive. For example, she said, the August version applied only to towns, but the new law includes towns, cities, villages and counties.

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Workers to receive green jobs training

The Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board has won a $98,364 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to focus on training opportunities for workers in the solar and weatherization fields.

The "green capacity building" grant aims to expand Milwaukee Builds, a program designed to train low-income and unemployed people.

The initiative of the Workforce Investment Board should be a stepladder to lift people out of poverty, said Don Sykes, chief executive of the workforce investment board.

"The model will put people back to work and provide the necessary basic skills as a first step in their career path," Sykes said.

A total of $5.8 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being allocated to boost training capacity for 62 Labor Department grant recipients across the country, with a focus on underserved communities, the federal agency said.

Training is envisioned for solar installers and weatherization-related construction and contracting jobs designed to make homes more energy-efficient.

The grant is the latest of several green jobs initiatives that are being funded by the federal stimulus package in Wisconsin. They include:

• A $3.2 million grant to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association to train technical college instructors and others on solar panel installation - an initiative aimed at having those instructors train more solar installers as the demand for green energy sources grows.

• The Wind Energy Education Collaborative, a joint effort of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College. The two schools were awarded $330,184 in May to help train workers for jobs in the wind-power industry. The project seeks to increase the number of people in southeastern Wisconsin able to find jobs in the growing wind industry and to serve as a training model for other colleges and universities, said David Yu, associate dean in UWM's College of Engineering & Applied Science.

Meanwhile, student interest in green fields is expanding, says the University of Wisconsin Extension.

Nearly twice as many students have enrolled in an online degree program in sustainable management as university officials expected, the University of Wisconsin-Extension said Thursday.

The sustainable management degree attracted 166 student enrollments, compared with projections that 90 would enroll.

Enrollment for spring offerings is projected to expand again, to 275.

"With green jobs a centerpiece of the economic recovery plan, we predicted there would be a high demand for the sustainable management degree," said UW-Extension Dean David Schejbal. "Wisconsin is the first major university system to offer undergraduate students this online option for a degree."

Statistics released by the university show 75% of the students hail from Wisconsin, but the online offering attracted students from eight other states as well as China and Germany.

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Colorado's Green Ski Resorts

Worms that eat coffee grounds. Old motor oil that heats workshops. Patio furniture made of recycled milk jugs.

Colorado ski resorts are going beyond standard recycling in an effort to green up their industry — and lure skiers and snowboarders concerned about the impact their sport is having on the mountains they love.

Sometimes it's hard to reconcile our ski-loving, traveling side with the side that cringes at the environmental effect of all those people on the snowy slopes and the travel we do to get there. On one hand, you're gliding past pristine, snow-frosted pines, sucking crisp mountain air into your lungs and bursting with love for the outdoors. Then you sit down for an hour at an on-mountain restaurant and watch heaps of napkins, disposable silverware and plastic cups get tossed in the garbage can.

Happily, resorts today seem more and more interested in reducing waste, pushing alternative transportation, using renewable energy, recycling and teaming up for environmental partnerships. Sure, there's a long way to go. But the effort is gaining speed, kind of like a downhill skier on a steep run.

In the past five years, Vail ski resort has doubled the amount of trash it recycles. Today, 70 percent of everything that comes off the mountain is recycled, says Luke Cartin, the environmental manager for Vail Resorts Eagle County.

"We fill the equivalent of three city buses every week with bottles, cans and glass," Cartin says.

It's not the only example. Used engine oil is re-used to heat workshops, antifreeze is recycled and a plan to reuse vegetable oil for electricity is in the works. The resort is even gearing up a composting program. "And I have worms in my office that eat coffee grounds," Cartin says.

But some things aren't yet recycled — like restaurant food waste and general trash from waste bins at the base area.

Vail is making a push to reduce energy use by 10 percent in two years. Cartin has been prowling the resort, taking infrared photos of buildings on the mountain to see where heat escapes and to repair those leaks. Crews installed solar panels on the roof of a mountain restaurant, and crews have changed out 3,500 light bulbs to compact flourescents. They're also looking at obvious ways to make the place more efficient, like consolidating food storage during off months.

"If we shut down Two Elk (the on-mountain restaurant) for the summer and leave the ice machine on, that's not a good thing," he says.

Gas consumption has dropped 16 percent in the past two years at Vail ski resort. "That's just by changing the way we do things, being more aware, not leaving trucks idling or out driving around for the sake of driving around," he says.

Aerators have been added to faucets to save water. Low-flow toilets and urinals have been installed. In the last five years, the resort has reduced its consumption of treated water by 27 percent.

On the slopes, crews are teaming with the U.S. Forest Service to study how stands of pine trees killed by a pine beetle explosion are regenerating. They're also looking at how to use the dead wood left behind. One answer? Replace natural gas firepits with pits that burn wood.

And at the on-mountain Nature Discovery Center, operated by the Gore Range Natural Science School, kids and adults learn about the environment through free guided snowshoe hikes, exhibits and interpretive programs.

Bat boxes have been put up around the mountain to encourage a population of mosquito-eating flying mammals, and the famous back ski bowls are closed in spring for elk calving.

"It's really, truly being responsible," Cartin says. "You have to be able to lay your head on your pillow every night. It's intrinsic to why people come out here — for the natural beauty. When people come out here, they feel that tie back to nature, so we want to lessen our impact on those surroundings."

Vail is not alone.

More than a third of Colorado resorts already offset 100 percent of their energy use through the purchase of renewable energy credits. Leading the way are Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte and Wolf Creek, which offset all their energy use. Resorts including Powderhorn, Steamboat, Telluride, Winter Park, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass offset part of their operational energy use.

Here's what other Colorado resorts are doing to green up operations:

Arapahoe Basin:Kitchen oil and grease are recycled, along with cardboard, bottles and paper. The new deck at Black Mountain Lodge is being built with recycled products. Employees are encouraged to compost food scraps. Worms are harvested, and the vermacompost (worm manure) is given away to staff for their gardens. The resort uses an airless snowmaking system that uses less electricity. It has expanded shuttle bus service and discounted lift ticket rates to carpoolers.

Aspen/Snowmass: Aspen's executive director of sustainability, Auden Schendler, recently published a book about how corporations can go greener. The ski area recently funded the ski industry's largest solar array and is exploring hydro and wind energy sources.

Copper Mountain:The resort's environmentally friendly buses are nearly 60 percent more efficient than standard buses. The resort has reduced snowmobile fuel consumption by 40 percent in two years and installed solar panels in its transportation center. Recycling is a priority, and carpooling incentives like parking and season pass giveaways are available. Copper has partnered with the National Forest Foundation to fund local conservation projects.

Crested Butte:Besides resortwide recycling and green building, the resort donates a percentage of property sales and business sales to preserving open space in the Gunnison Valley.

Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort:The resort uses bio-fuels in vehicle fleets and machines and operates a resortwide recycling program and an employee carpool program. Guests who carpool get free close-in parking.

Silverton: This no-frills ski area has been built of recycled products either donated or bought used. The base lodge was donated by the town of Silverton, and the only lift was purchased used from Mammoth Resort in California. The equipment facility is an old school bus.

Steamboat: Three chairlifts use a combination of alternative energies including solar and wind power. Besides recycling glass, cardboard, aluminum, plastic, tin, and paper, the resort recycles coffee grounds. New patio furniture is made from recycled milk jugs. Disposable products used at the resort are made from renewable resources and are biodegradable. In a joint project with the U.S. Forest Service and the Boy Scouts of America, more than 800 spruce seedlings were planted at the ski area's kids area. Low-flush toilets and auto shut-off faucets have been added.

Telluride: The resort uses biodiesel in some on-mountain machinery. Restaurants use natural sugar cane to-go containers, and food receipts are printed only when guests specifically ask for them. The maintenance department now uses bulk chemicals and is phasing out aerosol cans. It uses cloth rags for cleaning instead of paper towels. A waste oil heater burns all food and beverage fryer oils and some maintenance shop oils. Old rental shop skis are used for trail sign posts.

Winter Park: Besides recycling, the resort uses biodegradable products such as plates and cups in food service areas.

Wolf Creek: Wind power and solar power are used to power small outlying buildings. The resort recycles just about everything, including kitchen oil, and is working to get ski boot manufactures to recycle old plastic ski boots. The resort has introduced a free online carpool service designed to match up visitors coming from anywhere in the country to the resort.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994

Who's green?

The Ski Area Citizens' Coalition ranks ski resorts from best to worst, according to what they are doing to save the environment. Among the greenest, according to the coalition, are the Colorado resorts of Aspen, Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands and Telluride. Among the least green? Copper Mountain and Breckenridge ski resorts.

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California School District Announces Solar Installation

The Irvine School District in Orange County, California recently announced its intention to partner with Beltsville, Maryland-based SunEdison, a design/build solar firm, to install solar panels on 21 schools across the district.

In what is being described as the biggest solar photovoltaic installation project in California schools, Irvine school officials say the distributed solar network will save the district up to $17 million in energy costs over the next two decades by reducing the amount of electricity purchased from Southern California Edison (SCE).

The installations will be created by leasing some of the district’s property to SunEdison, who will design, build and maintain the systems at its own expense and sell the electricity back to the school district, presumably at a rate less than that offered by SCE, and under a power purchase agreement, or PPA, that allows the district to predict energy costs for the full term of the contract, which hasn’t been specified but likely runs for at least 20 years.

Such PPAs allow solar firms to take advantage of federal and state tax credits that schools can’t access because of their non-profit status. This creates a win-win situation for solar firms and schools, and also furthers the agenda of solar energy as a significant player in America’s energy mix.

The project will begin at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, and expand to an additional 20 campuses and school district locations. The systems will also be connected to a display terminal allowing students, teachers and staff to view electricity production and other data, though whether as cumulative totals or in real time is not mentioned.

In September, SunEdison installed a 440-kilowatt, roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system at glass-maker Owens Corning’s Kearney, New Jersey facility – a project completed just one day before SunEdison was awarded the first energy stimulus grant in the solar industry via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.

In November, SunEdison and Proctor & Gamble, or P&G, announced the activation of a 1.1- megawatt solar PV system at P&G’s paper products manufacturing megawatt plant in Oxnard, California.

SunEdison, reportedly the first solar firm in the U.S. to offer a PPA as a financial tool for otherwise unaffordable solar energy installations, currently manages more than 82.5-megawatts of solar power in the U.S., and 6.2-megawatts in Europe.

More recently, SunEdison is reportedly in negotiations with St. Peters, Missouri-based MEMC, a solar chip technology expert working in the semiconductor and solar industries, which will allow MEMC to acquire SunEdison for $200 million, 70 percent in cash and 30 percent in MEMC stock. The move, according to MEMC, integrates the two firms vertically across the solar energy marketplace, combining the best of both worlds.

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Cost of Installing and Owning Solar Panels Set to Fall

A new research has indicated that the cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected.

According to BBC News, the independent EU Energy Institute has said that tests show that 90 percent of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years, which brings down the lifetime cost.

The institute said that the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes.

At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 - without a subsidy.

Incentive programmes for solar panels in Germany, Italy and Spain have created manufacturing volume that’s bringing down costs.

Solar panel prices dropped 30 percent last year alone due to an increase in output and a drop in orders because of the recession.

But, Heinz Ossenbrink, who works at the institute, said that China had underpinned its solar industry with a big solar domestic programme, which would keep prices falling.

There are large-scale solar plans in the US and India too.

Panels had been expected to last for 20 years and price calculations were based on this.

But, according to Dr Ossenbrink, the institute’s laboratory has been subjecting the cells to the sort of accelerated ageing through extremes of heat, cold and humidity that has long been a benchmark for the car industry.

It has shown that more than 90 percent of the panels on the market 10 years ago are capable of still performing well after 30 years of life, albeit with a slight drop in performance.

Dr Ossenbrink said that 40-year panels will be on the market soon.

“Basically everything (in the industry) is bound to grow still further. Growing further means less cost. Less cost means grid parity,” said Dr Ossenbrink.

“We have been surprised in the past five years at the drop in prices. It’s due to good incentive programmes first in Germany then Spain and Italy. That created a kind of a boom that was helping industry to reduce costs and get into profitability. And when an industry is in profit it drives on its own,” he added.

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Solar Crematorium - No Electric or Gas Cremation!

A crematorium running on solar energy is being built near Goraj Ashram in the city, a first of its kind initiative in the country of India.

The trust which runs the ashram has been aggressively trying to implement the use of solar energy for various requirements at the hospital, school and other facilities set up by it. Earlier, solar power was used for cooking, power and other requirements at the school.

The crematorium has been built as a chamber with special scheffler reflector developed specifically for this concept. The reflectors are designed to heat a two meter long crematorium chamber to above 700 degrees centigrade. "The facility was made operational on an experimental basis recently. It will be commissioned within two months and shall be free of cost for everyone using it," said trustee Uday Dalal. As an alternative to this, biogas will be used for cremation at the crematorium when sunlight is not there.

The traditional system of cremating people on woodpile consumes over 300 kilogram of wood. Many trees are felled to meet the requirement. The old method the woodpile was then to some extent replaced with electric and gas fired chambers.

"The crematorium is the brain child of the chairman of the trust, Dr Vikram Patel and expert on solar energy Deepak Gadhia. In fact, the concept of solar crematorium is unique and first of its kind initiative in India, developed with the aim of conserving environment," said Dr Rajesh Kantharia, associated with the trust.

Built with an investment of 75 lakh, the solar crematorium does not need electricity or gas. It makes it an energy and cost efficient method of cremation.

The trust has already got an inquiry from the Valsad municipality that wants to establish such a crematorium there. Dalal said that they have started contacting villages near Goraj to create awareness and acceptability of such crematoriums.

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