'Superflares' erupt on some Sun-like stars (Much larger than our SUN)
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Superflares (white area) arise from starspots (dark areas) much larger than those seen on our Sun.Hiroyuki Maehara (Kwasan and Hida Observatories, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University) Some middle-aged stars burn and rave like newborns, producing flares thousands of times as energetic as those we see on the Sun, according to the first large survey of these events.Solar flares occur when magnetic-field loops threading through sunspots get twisted and break, releasing massive amounts of radiation and accelerating charged particles into space. The largest ever measured on the Sun took place on 1 September 1859, and was observed as a...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
U.S. slams Chinese solar panels with new tariffs
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
The U.S. Commerce Department announced stiff tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels Thursday, a move critics said could raise costs for consumers and further inflame trade tensions with Beijing. The preliminary ruling came as a result of a finding that Chinese solar cell manufacturers are "dumping" their products on the American market below production costs. U.S. manufacturer Solyndra became the highest-profile victim of plunging panel prices last year, forced to file for bankruptcy despite receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees. The tariffs are two-tiered. The first includes a group of 61 exporters, with Yingli Green Energy and Trina Solar among...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Enterprise Closes First Green Refinance Plus Loan (HUD Solar Subsidies!)
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. today announced the closing of the first loan under the Green Refinance Plus program, a partnership between Fannie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) introduced last year to incentivize energy and resource efficiency improvements in affordable housing.
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Emergency Solar Power Setup SHTF
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
This is my 45 watt solar panel setup. I purchased this kit from Harbor freight for about 0. I use it for lighting in my home, as well different power tools around the house. This is a great source of power in the event of power failures (which happens often).
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Taxpayers Subsidize Forbes 'Green' Billionaires' Schemes
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
The three top U.S. tycoons on Forbes’s “Green” billionaires list have received billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for their clean technology companies, after they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for political campaigns and lobbying. Two of the moguls, Elon Musk and Vinod Khosla (in photo), are technology pioneers based in California with net worths of $2 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. The third, Christy Walton, is the widow of the late John Walton who was an heir to the Walmart fortune. Forbes says she is “the world’s richest woman” is worth $24.8 billion. Significant percentages of Musk’s...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
New Planet Found in Our Solar System?
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Odd orbits of remote objects hint at unseen world, new calculations suggest. An as yet undiscovered planet might be orbiting at the dark fringes of the solar system, according to new research.Too far out to be easily spotted by telescopes, the potential unseen planet appears to be making its presence felt by disturbing the orbits of so-called Kuiper belt objects, said Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Kuiper belt objects are small icy bodies—including some dwarf planets—that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Once considered the ninth planet in our system, the...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Sun vs. Super Moon
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Explanation: The Super Moon wins, by just a little, when its apparent size is compared to the Sun in this ingenious composite picture. To make it, the Full Moon on May 6 was photographed with the same camera and telescope used to image the Sun (with a dense solar filter!) on the following day. Of course, on May 6 the Moon was at perigee, the closest point to Earth in its eliptical orbit, making it the largest Full Moon of 2012. Two weeks later, on May 20, the Moon will be near apogee, the most distant point in its orbit,...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
First Solar Restructuring Leads To Loss Of $449M
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
NEW YORK (AP) — A shakeout that is rattling the solar panel industry has sent First Solar, once among the industry's biggest and strongest companies, to a big quarterly loss. First Solar Inc. said Thursday that it lost $449 million in the first quarter, The company also announced that its Chief Commercial Officer, James Hughes, would become CEO, replacing interim chief and company founder Mike Ahearn. First Solar said the loss amounted to $5.20 per share..... In the year-ago quarter, the company earned $115 million, or $1.33 per share, on revenue of $567 million. First Solar, along with other makers...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Solar panel demand down nearly 90% following subsidy cut
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Solar panel installations have fallen by almost 90% in the weeks since the government halved cut the subsidy available, according to Department of Energy and Climate Change figures. The new data lends support to the charge of some in the solar industry that the government cut the subsidy too far and too fast, endangering thousands of jobs. Ministers have defended their actions, saying the scheme they inherited from the previous government was poorly set up and was too costly for the energy customers who ultimately foot the bill.
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
New Jersey Cemetery Using Thousands Of Solar Panels To Power Mausoleum
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Cemeteries and solar panels are two things that aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence. But one New Jersey cemetery finds it necessary to make that connection. Nearly 100,000 people are buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, New Jersey. But each year more and more people are choosing this bright, airy mausoleum as their final resting place. “The lighting and the music is beautiful,” Jeannie Harper of Towaco told CBS 2′s Elise Finch. “It’s a change from outside” “I feel hopefulness and the sense of eternal life when I come in here,” Susan Allender of West...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
U.S. Department Of Labor Gives Aid To Laid-Off SolarWorld Workers
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
The U.S. Department of Labor has determined that all manufacturing employees laid off from SolarWorld Industries America Inc. as a result of the company's shutdown of its solar module production plant in Camarillo, Calif., in September are eligible for federal trade-adjustment assistance, including grants for education to retrain them for new work.
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Solar firm's use of state aid questioned
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
After being fired in 2009 as the top executive of Willard & Kelsey Solar Group, a Perrysburg start-up that has received millions in state loans, William Mitchell made a decision that he wasn't going to go away quietly. Before the company's chief executive officer left his job, he copied company records onto his computer's external hard drive -- months of financial transactions, banking records, and detailed expense reports showing the firm spent thousands on travel and entertainment, including trips to Detroit Tigers games and Pittsburgh Steelers events. Emails from Mr. Mitchell also show that he took a keen interest in...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Solar industry faces subsidy cuts in Europe (but zots are still delivered without gov't subsidy)
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Hanover, Germany — Shiny black solar panels are as common a sight as baroque church spires in this industrial hub, thanks to government subsidies that have helped make Germany a world leader in solar technology. Now, sudden subsidy cuts here and elsewhere in Europe have thrown the industry into crisis just short of its ultimate goal: a price to generate solar energy that is no higher than fossil-fuel counterparts. Across Europe, governments are slashing public spending to cut their deficits, and green-energy subsidies are a target, too, even as solar power accelerates in the United States, helped by sympathetic federal...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Buffett-backed Chinese carmaker hit by slowdown and solar woes
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
(Reuters) - BYD Co Ltd , a Chinese carmaker backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, posted a 90 percent slide in quarterly profit as it was hit by a slowdown in the world's largest car market and losses in its solar business. China's once-sizzling auto industry has succumbed to softening economic growth, further exasperated by new vehicle offerings in the fiercely competitive market. BYD, which attracted investment from Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway because of its battery technology, has started selling pure electric cars and buses in China. BYD, which debuted its new generation of plug-in sedans at the Beijing auto show...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Has someone else heard about this solar company thing?
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
The Solar thing just got a little more interesting.......REALLY! The Tonopah Solar company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's DOE. The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ 45 permanent workers. That's costing us just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG). The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to Nancy's husband. Just move along folks.....nuthin goin on here. EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR MONEY IS BEING STOLEN SO FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY.
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Solyndra Building for Sale!
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
The 411,618 square foot Solyndra building in Fremont, California has been put on the market: The office area of the grand compound are "LEED Gold Standards," according to a website set up to sell the building. It's "Expandable to 739,232 square feet." Solyndra, the green energy firm that received $528 million in a Department of Energy loan, filed for bankruptcy in September. As Bloomberg reported, "Solyndra, heralded by President Barack Obama as proof that 'the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith,' filed for bankruptcy in September, days before the FBI raided its headquarters in Fremont, California....
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Taxpayers Reward Executives for Failure as Green Jobs are Slashed
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
First Solar , the beneficiary of at least $3 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees, paid its former CEO $32 million over two years as he stewarded its stock price from $143 to below $100. Today it sells for less than $21-per-share, hitting a 52-week low last week, and yesterday the company announced it would slash global payroll by 2,000 workers in Malaysia, Europe and the U.S. The Arizona Republic reported Thursday that Rob Gillette, who was terminated as CEO in October, received $16.55 million during the first three months of employment in 2009 (October to December), and...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
DOE-backed solar company lays off 2000
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
First Solar, a solar energy company that received a $1.46 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, announced today that it will layoff 2,000 workers in the United States and world-wide. The company will "indefinitely idle" four production lines in Malaysia and shutter a plant in Germany. "These actions, combined with other personnel reductions in Europe and the U.S., will reduce First Solar's global workforce by approximately 2,000 positions, about 30 percent of the total," First Solar announced today. "After a thorough analysis, it is clear the European market has deteriorated to the extent that our operations there are...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
New paper ....... demonstrates that planets do not cause solar cycles [truncated ]
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
Planetary effects are too small by several orders of magnitude to be a main cause of the solar cycle.Argiris Diamantis writes in with this tip: Professor Cornelis de Jager from the Netherlands has put a new publication on his website. It is a study of Dirk K. Callebaut, Cornelis de Jager and Silvia Duhau. They conclude that planetary effects are too small by several orders of magnitude to be a main cause of the solar cycle. A planetary explanation of the solar cycle is hardly possible.The paper is titled:The influence of planetary attractions on the solar tachocline Dirk K. Callebaut...
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
Solar Power (vanity)
Posted by admin / Under Solar Systems (company)
With the price of solar panels dropping I have to wonder if I should investigate since I live in sunny eastern North Carolina.
Published on Monday 21st of May 2012 05:22:12 AM
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