Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Solar technology summary; Gov't project in Massachusetts



Hey solarDwellers:

First, I Came across an article at Renewable Energy Access(a "go-to" website for renewable energy info), with the news that a good-size 310kW solar installation has been approved for local power in Brockton, Mass. It's big enough to provide the power for all of city hall and then some. It's going to be installed on an EPA-designated "brownfield" site, which, from the EPA website is: "an abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial property where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by actual or suspected environmental contamination." The idea is to "refurbish" such abandoned properties, many times in the inner city, to be more fully developed. My only question before redeveloping there is "how clean did they get it?" This is why putting a a big solar array there sounds even better to me. Poetic even. Replace environmental "mistakes"(abuses) with clean energy. Some of the environmental benefits from the article:
Using electricity generated by Brockton's Brightfield will avoid the emission of about 595,300 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. That is the equivalent of taking 45 cars off the road, or the amount of carbon dioxide that would be absorbed by planting 89 acres of trees. Brockton's project also avoids emissions of other greenhouse gases -- about 1,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 370 pounds of nitrogen oxide per year.

Coincidentally, after reading the article, I checked out the website of the solar company that will supervise the project: Global Solar. It was a nice coincidence, because if you check this web-page out, you get a nice summary of different solar technologies with pros and cons. Check it out! Global Solar works with "CIGS"(Copper Indium diSelenide or(CuInSe2), which is a "flexible" thin-film solar technology that uses other semi-conductor materials besides silicon. It's benefit is the flexibility and ability to absorb a larger part of the light spectrum.

--the solarDweller
Categories: , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments: