.: solar power

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Apple Has Big Plans for Solar, Biogas

If you were expecting the Apple logo, fuggetaboutit... it's a registered trademark.

According to Renewableenergyworld.com, Apple Computer has big plans for their $1 billion facility in Maiden, NC. This site serves as the company's largest data center, providing storage for their iCloud, iTunes, and Siri voice functions on the iPhone 4S. All 500,000 square feet of this facility is LEED Platinum certified. No other data storage center can boast this level of energy efficiency certification.

In addition to the energy efficiency of the site, Apple is heavily invested in clean, alternative energy to provide the majority of the data center's energy needs. To begin with, 100 acres of land surrounding the building will be the largest solar array to be owned by the end-user. The 20 MW installation will provide 42 million kWh of power annually.

Apple is also building a 5 MW fuel cell facility that will provide 24 X 7 baseline power, making it the largest non-utility fuel cell complex in the United States. The fuel cell complex will run on 100% biogas. Annual output of the fuel cell portion of the energy mix will be 40 million kWh, for a total 82 million kWh of clean renewable energy.

You can read James Montgomery's original story on Renewable Energy World.com by clicking here.

You can read or download Apple's Facilities Report 2012 Environmental Update by clicking here.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

No Room on the Roof? How About a Community Solar Garden?

There is a growing trend among those frustrated homeowners who don't have adequate roof space or their roof is facing the wrong direction to take advantage of solar power. It's called a community solar garden.

Home Power Magazine published an article in their June - July 2011 issue that discusses this interesting option. In those states where the laws are favorable, people in the same community can form their own LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) and build a solar array that can provide energy for sale back to the local power company. Members receive credit towards their utility bill in proportion to their investment.

One thing that is very attractive is there is no need to modify any wiring or metering in any of the members' homes. When a member decides to move and sell his or her house, the membership can be sold simultaneously. The new buyer may be able to roll that investment into the mortgage as a part of the value of the home.

You can read the entire article at Home Power Magazine's web site: http://www.mygenerationenergy.com/2011/06/home-power-magazine-community-energy-solar-gardens-a-growing-trend/

About this blog

This blog serves as a resource for current articles, ideas, products, websites, and blogs about alternative energy and other "green issues."

I am a 21-year veteran of the U. S. Navy Submarine Service, serving as an Electronic Technician, Electronic Material Officer, and Master Training Specialist.

I teach Tidewater Community College's new Alternative Energy course. I have been interested in alternatives to fossil fuels for many years. I love teaching about this exciting new growth field.

Commitment to using alternative energy will benefit the environment and free US foreign policy from being concerned with the availability of oil from other countries.

Contact me at brucebremer@cox.net.

Go green energy,

Bruce Bremer, MBA

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Alternative Energy Quotes

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.

THOMAS A. EDISON

The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

ECCLESIASTES 1:6

You can drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on every continental shelf and atop every hill in America for that matter, and you still won't reverse the fact that our oil production is in permanent decline. We're just sopping up what's left, digging ourselves into a deeper hole.

CONGRESSMAN ROSCOE BARTLETT (R-MD) “A tank of gas, a world of trouble,” Chicago Tribune

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

RALPH NADER

To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.

BARACK OBAMA

But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.

Nikola Tesla

We've embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil. Embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide range of fuels or ignore reality and slowly—but surely—be left behind.

MIKE BOWLIN chairman and CEO of ARCO (now BP)

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world.

ALAN ZAREMBO, L.A. Times

But for all the talk, clean-burning coal will likely remain an oxymoron for years to come. The utility industry, which uses coal to generate 52% of its electricity, faces formidable political, economic and technological obstacles to getting "clean." … Coal contains dozens of noxious chemicals, including lead, arsenic and other heavy metals; sulfur dioxide, which creates acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which create smog; tiny soot particles, which can invade and collect in human lungs; mercury, a toxic metal that accumulates in animals, fish and the humans who eat them; and carbon dioxide, which many scientists believe is artificially warming Earth's atmosphere by trapping more heat from the sun.

JOHN J. FIALKA Wall Street Journal

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

ARTHUR C. CLARKE