News & Articles on Solar Energy
While I have primarily worked with wind energy, I have long been a proponent of renewable energy in the broadest sense. This includes solar energy. My work in Canada, especially Ontario, stressed inclusion of solar energy because it had been previously overlooked. At one time Ontario was one of the leading jurisdictions in North America developing solar photovoltaics due in part to the programs I and others pushed. The political winds changed and these policies were abandoned and with it Ontario’s progress toward a renewable energy future.
Ecovision’s Stuttgart School Solar PV Funds
By
Paul Gipe
Ecovision, a developer of solar investment funds in Freiburg, created an investment vehicle to install solar PV systems on the roof tops of several schools in Stuttgart.
Rate of Return Calculation of Solar PV Using @IRATE Function
By
Paul Gipe
My thanks to Simon Boone of Generation Solar Renewable Energy Systems for calling my attention to a simple spreadsheet function for calculating the rate of return.
Links to Real Time Solar Generation
By
Paul Gipe
The following are links to web pages that log real time performance of solar PV systems.
Solar Radiation & Yields on Tilted Surface
By
Paul Gipe
The following table gives the typical yields (kWh/kW/year) that can be expected at various locations mostly in North America.
Freiburg’s Solar Siedlung (Settlement)
By
Paul Gipe
Craig Morris, author of Energy Switch, recently gave me a whirlwind tour of the Solar Siedlung in Freiburg, Germany. The …
The Aachen Solar Tariff Model
By
Paul Gipe
In the early 1990s the city of Aachen (Aix-en-Chapelle) Germany set the world of solar energy on its ear. Until that time development of solar PV depended entirely on direct and substantial subsidies.
Germany Installed 1,150 MW of Photovoltaics in 2006 Says Magazine
By
Paul Gipe
Photon magazine is reporting that 1,150 MW of solar photovoltaics were installed in Germany in 2006. If confirmed this another world record for the German solar industry and the first time that annual installations in any one country exceeded the gigawatt level.
Solar for Energy Hogs: The California Example by Steven Letendre, Prometheus Institute
By
Steven Letendre
Today, the important link between solar use in the home and energy conservation and efficiency is being lost. While many well-intentioned system integrators preach the virtues of energy efficiency, grid connected solar by its very nature does not necessitate a rigorous assessment of the trade offs between a larger system and investments in energy efficiency.
