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September 2006 | Home · Event Calendar · Getting Here · Contact Us | ||||
Upcoming EventsBuilding Commissioning Tubular Skylighting Family Solar Energy Day Commercial Solar Tour (Morning) Commercial Solar Tour (Afternoon) Solar Conference Solar Homes Tour View a complete calendar of upcoming events. News BitsMillennium Technology Award University of California Santa Barbara Professor Shuji Nakamura was awarded the $1.2 million Millennium Technology Prize recently for revolutionary inventions in light and laser technology. Nakamura developed patents for the blue light-emitting diode (LED) used in traffic signals, mobile phones, lighting and for putting information onto DVDs. LED lights have long lives and consume far less energy than incandescent bulbs. His invention of a blue laser can be used to purify water, benefiting developing countries. Nakamura said his original goal was to give engineers and designers a greater palette of LED colors to work with. Since red and yellow already existed, creating blue gave them the three primary colors, which can be combined. Nakamura plans to give a portion of the prize money for university research and to Light Up the World, a charity dedicated to providing solid-state lighting to poor areas throughout the world. He will receive the award at a ceremony in Helsinki in September. Government wants to Abolish the Ordinary Light Bulb The U.S. government is pushing to rid the world of a notorious energy-waster—the ordinary light bulb. An incandescent light bulb turns only five percent of the electricity it consumes into light, while the other 95 percent is wasted as heat. Fluorescent lamps put out 25 percent of its energy as light. By comparison, the Department of Energy is encouraging academic and private industry researchers to replace those wasteful bulbs with “solid state lighting,” devices that attain 50 percent efficiency—10 times better than the ordinary bulb and two times better than fluorescents. Solid state lighting consists of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), such as those found in cell phones, digital clocks and traffic signals. However, solid state lighting is far from being as efficient as it can be. The average LED produces 25 lumens; not much more than an incandescent bulb produces. The goal is to reach 75 lumens by the end of 2007 and 200 lumens by 2025.
Tech TipCompact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) offer many benefits over standard lamps. In essence, you can change the world by changing some lamps! Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb illuminated our lives well over the past 127 years, but (with due apologies) that carbon wire filament essentially acts as very small but intense heater that just happens to emit light. The surface of the protective glass for these bulbs is approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit! Also, it is not well known that an English Chemist named Humphry Davy “invented” the first electric light in 1809, but that Mr. Edison made it commercially viable with his improvements in 1879. Eclipsing Edison’s accomplishment was his development of electrical lighting systems that made this incandescent light practical, safe and economical. GE further improved this lamp in 1909 by switching to tungsten filaments—a metal with a very high melting point, which is necessary to handle the 2,300 degrees Celsius temperatures generated! By comparison to incandescent lamps, CFLs are much cooler (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface), much more efficient as a result (about one-quarter the electrical use), and last about seven to ten times longer. This means lower electricity bills, but also fewer lamp replacements. Despite concerns based on earlier CFL products, over the last few years they have gotten smaller (often no larger than the standard A19 incandescent lamp), come to full brightness very quickly, don’t flicker, and are available in multiple color temperatures (warm white color like incandescent bulbs to full-spectrum/daylight colors). For example, a typical 60 watt incandescent bulb puts out 820 lumens of light and lasts 1,500 hours; while an equivalent (spiral-shaped) CFL only uses 13 watts while putting out 900 lumens and lasts about 10,000 hours, i.e., 80 more lumens with 47 fewer watts while lasting 8,500 hours longer. If every one of the 100 million American households replaced just one of their 60 watt incandescents with an equivalent CFL like this, the electricity saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. In 2005, U.S. consumers bought two billion light bulbs, yet only five percent of those purchased are CFLs. We can change this poor ratio. In fact, Wal-Mart wants to do just that by selling every one of its regular customers (one million in total) one CFL each over the next year. So go to your favorite store and purchase one today!
QuotablesIn the Engineering for Green Buildings column in July’s HPAC Magazine, Arthur Schwartz, Deputy Executive Director of the National Society of Professional Engineers noted that the new code of ethics now requires P.E.’s to "strive to adhere to the principles of sustainable development. This is a breakthrough. No longer can engineers claim that their employer’s or client’s wishes take precedence over their obligation to society to develop designs, products, and systems that are sustainable.”
-- Arthur Schwartz in
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| New Compound Could be Key to the Future of Hydrogen-based CarsStrides Being Made in Hydrogen StorageIn looking for fossil fuel alternatives for automobiles, recent strides in research may have solved the hydrogen storage puzzle. A team of researchers at Seoul National University’s school of Physics and Astronomy has developed a new compound that can store hydrogen and could be key to making hydrogen vehicles less expensive and safer. Professor Ihm Ji-soon and his team have developed a material consisting of titanium attached to polyacetylene, an organic polymer formed by a series of acetylene molecules linked together. Several titanium atoms bind at regular intervals along the polyacetylene molecules and form highly stable bonds. This method has the largest capacity for hydrogen binding, and exceeds the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal of 25 percent set for 2010. Join us for SDREO's Solar Energy ConferenceKeeping Up with Technology You can keep up with all the changes by attending SDREO’s Solar Energy Conference on Wednesday, September 27, 2006. Even if you’re new to solar energy, this conference can get you up to speed. The Solar Conference is a free, all-day event with three tracks of workshops, including: Technology, Markets and Financing, and Policy and Legislation. Courses are being taught by professionals from within the industry as well as our experienced SDREO staff. Program Spotlight: Rebuilding After the Cedar Fire using Energy-Efficient Measures and Photovoltaics
Ingrid decided to go ahead and give it another try, and was encouraged when she heard about the program to rebuild utilizing energy efficient measures and photovoltaics. "Thanks to the Rebuild a Greener San Diego Program, it has been possible for me to fulfill my vision of adopting clean, renewable, sustainable and efficient energy technologies and practices in recreating Blue Sky Ranch," Ingrid said. "I feel terrific being part of the solution rather than part of the problem."
Hydrogen Storage (cont.)This method binds hydrogen without any energy input, and the hydrogen can be extracted using relatively small amounts of energy, said Ph.D. student and research team member Lee Hoon-kyung. The process can be controlled with precision, allowing researchers to cause the material to release the hydrogen at the required moment without affecting the structure of the material. Finding fossil fuel alternatives to power cars has been a challenge. For some researchers, hydrogen-based technology is the only plausible solution. However, storing hydrogen is the most difficult part of developing hydrogen-based technology for use on cars. Currently there are two commonly used methods of hydrogen storage in vehicles; pressurized containers and liquefaction. Pressurization has drawbacks in terms of safety because of the pressure required, and liquefaction is a problem because it converts gases to liquid, which reduces volume and decreases the amount of energy released. A huge drawback to both pressurization and liquefaction is that the processes used to compress or liquefy hydrogen requires a large amount of energy to the extent that the energy gained by using hydrogen fuel is cancelled out by the losses made in the preparation process. This scientific breakthrough is only one step in the direction of making hydrogen fuel cell cars a common reality. The raw materials and the energy cost is a problem that must be addressed, and production cost of a fuel cell is several times higher than the cost of a complete conventional car, making hydrogen fuel cell cars too expensive for the general public. The next step is to find the answers to these problems. - TOP - Solar Energy Conference (cont.)The conference will be held at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, in San Diego and breakfast, lunch and a cocktail reception will be provided. The conference is part of SDREO’s 2nd Annual Solar Energy Week. Events will be held from September 24 through September 30, including a commercial solar tour, a solar homes tour, and Family Solar Day. Join PUC Commissioner Dian Grueneich for breakfast and hear her speak about the future of solar energy and how the PUC is promoting it. She is an expert on energy and environmental issues, and as an environmentalist, she realizes the importance of forging broad-based agreements that will endure. Following your day of education, enjoy some solar wine and mingle with your colleagues at the cocktail reception! Space is limited so REGISTER ONLINE or call 1-866-SDENERGY. Or for more information on Solar Energy Week, go to http://www.sdenergy.org/ContentPage.asp?ContentID=291&SectionID=287. See Energy Policies, Regulations & Legislative Updates for more information on CSI & SGIP. - TOP - After the Cedar Fire (cont.)So, with the help of the energy efficiency portion of the Rebuild a Greener San Diego program, and special pricing offered by Kyocera Solar, Inc., her rebuilding is well under way and is 20 percent more energy efficient than Title 24 Standards. At the same time, by incorporating five 5kW Kyocera Solar MyGen Photovoltaic Systems, Ingrid has been able to offset nearly 95 percent of her property’s load, which includes irrigating hundreds of trees and several gardens as well as the domestic water for the structures. This program is now closed. However, if you have questions about Solar Energy, call (858) 244-1177. - TOP -
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Let’s face it; technology is moving quickly and we in the solar energy business need to keep up with all the changes, especially now that demand for solar technology in California will rise since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law the California Solar Initiative (
In October 2003, the Cedar Fire destroyed more than 2500 structures in East County San Diego. On Ingrid Coffin's property in Lakeside, three of four houses where her extended family lived were lost to the fire, as well as three of her well pumps and almost half of the vegetable and fruit trees on her property at Blue Sky Ranch. Following the wildfires, she was not sure if she had the will to rebuild.
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Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction
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