Eco Trees

It is only natural and intuitive to relate the production of the most common baverage on the planet, tea, to a free-pollution and "green" environment. This is the idea behind the ethical business principles of Traditional Medicinals(R) practice, an organic medicinal tea company with nearly 35 years of environmental stewardship.

According to co-founder Drake Sandler, the company's long term goal has been energy independence (MarketWatch). Moreover, the day-to-day operations of the Traditional Medicinals subdue to their philosophy of caring about the earth and its natural resources, allways trying to minimize the environmental impact.

In this "green" spirit, Traditional Medicinals partnered up with Akeena Solar, a top designer and installer of solar powered systems, and completed the construction of the largest solar powered tea factory world wide. The ambitious project consisted in setting up 1,450 solar panels with the capacity of generating 430,000 kilowatt hours/year of clean energy for the 70,000 square foot factory and headquarters.

Nevertheless, the company's deep respect for earth and for a clean environment doesn't limit itself only to the renewable energy. It is praiseworthy the effort put into the company's 8.5 acre of self-sustained facility with its own water source and purification system, a clever waste water disposal system and a fleet of hybrid vehicles. This is what I would call "a small green world" on earth.

Did you know?

"Tea" is the common name of the shrub Camellia sinensis, which has been cultivated from antiquity in China. The word olso refers to the leaves, leaf buds and internodes of the above-mentioned plant, widely spread in asian contries.
The four basic types of true tea are black tea, oolang tea, green tea and white tea.

San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom, launched a challenge to the largest 1,500 business from the town to go on solar energy until next year and invites them to join him as members of the Mayor's Solar founders' Circle (SFC).

Those who become members will receive energy efficiency audits from the San Francisco Department of the Environment and solar assessments. Authorities from San Francisco have already launched a program of financial incentives over 10 years to ease the cost of solar energy.

Gavin Newsom has estimated that these companies would have the potential to install 170 megawatts solar energy on their roofs, 30 times more than the capacity currently installed in city and has enough to power more than 42,000 houses.

Another great American city, New York, announced in April a plan to install solar panels on the roofs of public buildings.

U.S. telecommunications company, AT & T announced that it will install a solar system of 1 megawatt at AT & T headquarters in San Ramon, California. For this initiative the company works with companies like SunPower, Pacific Gas and Electric, Morgan Stanley and CH2M HILL, informs Environmental Leader.

The new system will generate maximum power of up to 25% and 5.5% of the facility’s annual electricity consumption. The 3700 solar panels manufactured and installed by SunPower company will generate annually more than 1.6 million kilowatts per hour of electricity.

The project will be ready at the end of this year and will benefit from a reduction of 2.1 million dollars at the installation and material incentives from the company PG & E, following the entry in the California Solar Initiative.

In may, AT&T announced that it will add to it's auto fleet up to 105 vehicles powered with alternative fuels. This project will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 124 metric tons.

Besides the "traditional" solar systems, which transform solar energy into electricity, there are solar towers, constructions that besides the electricity production allow the cereals cultivation, producing food.

The operating principle of a solar tower is quite simple: to the tower bottom there is a will, which is heated directly by the sun. The heat allows the cereals growth, the hot air goes then up, in the concrete portion of the tower, which put in motion wind mills which produce electricity.

The only problem of the solar towers represents the feasibility only for very large buildings, so this type of solar system was implemented on a large scale. However, there is in plan the construction of such structures in Namibia, a country that enjoys space and over 300 sunny days per year. For beginning, the towers will have approximately 1.5 km in height and 280 meters in diameter.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (NREL) have announced a new world record, obtaining a value of 40.8% for solar cell efficiency. This was possible with a photovoltaic device that transforms 40.8% percent of the light that hits it into electricity.

The new solar cell was designed, manufactured and measured at the NREL headquarters and represents a natural candidate for space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto solar cells.

The new solar cell differs significantly from the previous record holder by it's composition that makes the sun to be absorbed more easily, thus becoming more efficient. The properties of the new semiconductor material have a greater potential to convert the sun light into electricity.

The previous record was a percentage of 31.25% net efficiency.

With a coverage of 242,000 square feet and composed of 10,417 solar modules, Toyota’s single-roof solar installation has become the largest in North America. The solar power system was installed on rooftop at the North America Parts Center manufacturing plant in California. With a total capacity of 2.3 megawatts, the installation will help generate 60% of the energy needs of the entire unit.

The system was designed and built by SunPower, using high-efficiency panels with the capacity of delivering 50% more “green” power per unit than conventional panels.

Toyota’s project is an important and a long step forward in the field of green energy. The solar single-roof not only does it provide clean energy, but would also avoid carbon dioxide emissions by 6.4 million pounds annually.Although the initial costs are really high, we can proudly say that we can take a deep breath!

A bicycle that works with solar energy was invented as a new transportation. The solar bicycle works as an ordinary bike with pedals, but this bicycle has a canopy lined with solar cells overhead. Once the user pedal on a sunny weather, the rays charge up a battery that powers a small electric motor positioned on the back wheel.

Bicycle was invented by designer Miroslav Miljevic. 'I designed the bicycle as an eco-friendly piece of technology to help commuters.' he said. The inventor says that the bicycle's engine can be fully charged in a sunny day and at night it can be can be charged up by plugging it into the electricity mains.

"It's an electric bike, except that the engine charged by the sun's energy" said the inventor. "To save energy, the motor can be turned off or on so the cyclist could just use it when they're peddling up a steep hill."

The solar bicycle is currently in the concept stage, but Miljevic hopes to develop a mass production of this bicycle, when he will find a producer.

The solar cells efficiency grow, and a number of projects based on solar panels rises everywhere in the world. In the following are some of the most interesting, including solar buildings and giant solar "plants". We hope that the their successors to be more larger and more efficient.

1. Dunster Castle, Somerset, UK

Approximately 15-20% of the energy used by Dunster Castle is generated by solar panels on its roof. Although the investment of 55,000 pounds which ended a few weeks ago is not very efficient in financial terms, but electric bills of the castle will be approximately 550 pounds less each year. This castle is the only building of 'Grade 1' which uses this technology.


2. Strizki House, New Jersey, United States

Today, many houses have solar panels on the roofs. What's different about the house from East Amwell belonging to the civil engineer Mike Strizki, is that this is a hybrid house (hydrogen and solar energy) - the first of this kind from the United States. Combined use of solar panels and fuel cells based on hydrogen stored in tanks, produces 100% of the energy it needs the whole house during the year. But the system, whose installation cost 500,000 dollars, is too expensive to be implemented on a large scale.

3. Telefonica building, Madrid, Spain

The Spanish telecommunications company, Telefonica, buy a new building that will contain 16,000 solar panels covering the entire surface of the roof. With a power estimated at up to 3 MW, the building is one of the largest buildings powered by solar energy. The company hopes to reduce about 15% of heating bills, and about 34% of air-conditioning bills.

4. Dana Building, Michigan, United States

Dana building, owned by the University of Michigan, is covered with solar panels that generating about 30 kilowatts-hour of energy. The project was at the beginning a research effort intended to compare two types of solar panels. The building also uses the methods of passive solar power, such as making the building more responsive to sunlight through its many windows.

5. Four 'Times Square', New York, United States

Four Times Square in the heart of the Manhatan incorporate solar panels in the building itself. The building, relatively new (completed in 2000), which has 48 floors has photo-voltaic panels integrated into external walls. On the south and the east side of the building are photo-voltaic panels with thin film.

6. U.S Capitol Building, Washington

In 2005, Capitol Building from Washington was renovated with 144 solar panels generating about 20,000 kilowatts-hour of energy per year - enough to supplies Capitol Dome and the street lighting every night.

7. Pocking solar park, Bavaria, Germany

One of the world's biggest columns of solar panels, Pocking solar park, produce 10 megawatts of electricity - enough to send electricity to 3300 homes. The allocated space is a former military bases, where solar panels covers about 16 km of land, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 10,000 tonnes per year.

8. Beneixama solar plant, Beneixama, Spain

Beneixama, photo-voltaic plant, with 100,000 solar panels covering about 500,000 square meters of land, is another world's largest solar park. The plant, which generates 20 megawatts power, was completed in the second half of 2007.

9. Nevada Solar One, Nevada, U.S.

Since June 2007, Nevada Solar One produces 64 MW of electricity, supplying up to 40,000 houses from the Las Vegas area, in the hot days. Instead the solar panels, Nevada Solar One uses a parable of curved mirrors. In the center of the mirrors is mounted a tube filled with oil which is heated by the sun. Then the oil flows into a reservoir where the water is turned into steam, which operate a turbine that generates electricity.

10. Girassol solar plant, Moura, Portugal

This plant will be the world's second largest solar plant and will be finished in the near future. With an improvement in the second phase of design, it will generate 62 MW to maximum capacity with nearly 350,000 of solar panels. Located in one of the most sunny and less developed regions economically from Portugal, "the plant will supply electricity to more than 20,000 houses.

And one extra:

11. Victorian Solar Park, Victoria, Australia

Although it is still in the stage of the project, Victorian solar park will generate more than the double energy that generates Girassol. Australian company Solar Systems plans a solar plant with "heliostat" panels advanced, producing up to 154 MW of electricity at maximum capacity. Solar panels, developed initially to supply electricity to satellites, can increase the power of the sun by 500 times, according to company Solar Systems. The project of 420 million dollars will produce electricity for more than 45,000 houses when it will be finished in 2013.

A former NASA scientist has carried solar energy through radio waves over a distance of almost 150 km.

The need of energy for humanity can be assured by satellites which capture solar energy, to send later on Earth, believes the former NASA scientist John C. Mankins. He put into practice an experiment to showing that this technology already exists: has used radio waves to carry the capture energy of a series of solar panels between two islands from Hawai, situated at a distance of 148 kilometers one of another.

To be efficient, the system should involve satellites of 500 kg and receivers of the lakes size, said the scientist, who thanked in his demonstration with modest equipment. However, his experiment involved a cost of one million dollars, which were borne by the post "Discovery Channel, which has made a documentary about this topic.

The biggest naval company from Japan wants to install solar panels on its vessels. Nippon Yusen KK recently announced that plans to invest 1.37 million dollars into a system of 328 solar panels with a capacity of 40 kilowatts for its marine vessels. The system will be ready in December.

Initially, the vessels that are carrying goods, which are quite high that can carry up to 6,400 cars will be powered by approximately 0.2% solar energy.Japanese company intends to install another system at the same price with a capacity of 1 or 2% until 2010.

Other shipping companies already enjoy of the success that they have with wind energy. The German company Beluga Skysail announced that has reduced fuel costs up to 1500 dollars per day due to wind energy.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. wants to invest billions of dollars in production of photovoltaic cells to profit by the huge demands for solar energy, caused by higher fuel prices.

The company announced that it will invest 458 billion dollars in solar energy, intended to raise the production capacity to 600 megawatts until 2012. At present, Mitsubishi has a total capacity of energy generating of 150 megawatts. In March, the company announced that it wants to increase this capacity to 500 megawatts until 2013.

Mitsubishi plans to build a new factory in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, which will be provided with solar installation on roof.

Company officials say that by combining the silicon crystal technology with the solar one, will reach an energy efficiency rate of 97.5%. Mitsubishi will sell solar systems throughout the world.

Last year in October, Mitsubishi announced a plan to reduce one-third of the emissions associated with the use of its products. This plan includes the use of a production equipment more efficiently in factories and reducing the quantity of materials used in its operations by 30%.

A solar installation of 1.2 megawatts will be installed on the roof of a General Motors plant from White Marsh. The company recently announced that add solar panels on the one of the biggest factories of assembling cars from Spain.

Solar plant from White Marsh will generate approximately 1.4 million kilowatts and will replace 20% of the electricity that the plan it buy. According to the contract made with SunEdison, the insurance services of solar system, the installation and maintenance will be done by it. The system will be ready until the end of 2009, and will consists in more than 8,700 solar panels installed on approximately 100 square kilometers of roof.

General Motors is one of the 10 car automobile manufacturers who have enrolled in the EcoDriving program launched by the Manufacturers Alliance of Automobile. Also, the company is in partnership with various utilities to speed the marketing of electrical cars.

A plane that goes with solar energy, built in Britain, has set a world record of resistance in air for a flight effectuated without pilot.

Known as the Zephyr-6, the unit has resisted in air more than two days, at night it has flight with batteries charged during the day from the sun. The flight was a demonstration for the United States army which is looking for new flight technologies on automatic pilot.

The Zephyr device has flew nonstop for 82 hours and 37 minutes. This time beat the current official world record for a flight without pilot set by the U.S. plane named Global Hawk, 30 hours and 24 minutes.

At first glance, Zephyr looks like an ordinary model of plane. But this device without pilot with long wings 18 meters incorporated the highest technologies from the world. It is very easy because it is made from carbon fiber materials.

It flight based on solar energy generated by huge solar slabs of silicon, these are very thin as a sheet of paper which are attached to the plane wings.

The flight device Zephyr has demonstrated that it can resist at the extreme temperatures, from a heat of 45 degrees Celsius in the Sonoran desert from Arizona, and to very cold temperatures of -70 degrees Celsius at altitudes exceeding 18 km.

Following the cars trend, a different green means of transport is the yacht. Island Pilot DSe Hybrid is the first green vehicle on the water, long of 12 meters which combines fossil fuel, solar energy and electricity.

It is equipped with a photovoltaic solar panel of six kw plus a battery of 20 kilowatts / hour and can travel with a maximum speed of almost four kilometric per hour with zero emissions, using only electricity. Using the diesel engine, the maximum speed at which it can reach is seven kilometers per hour. DSe model needs a total of six kilowatts to navigate six marine knots and 10 kilowatts to eight marine knots.

The yacht design is convenient to change depending on the need for alternative fuels. When diesel engine works, it becomes, at the same time, generator for the yacht battery, providing a total of 10 kilowatts.

The eco yacht will be presented in the Lauderdale International Boat Show.

The world's largest solar project will be built in India and will generate 5 gigawatts energy. The project is in the planning phase, and when it's done will be extended on an area of five times larger than the current world's largest solar project.

The project construction will cost 475 million U.S. dollars, and the production phase will take place in the same location, using workers from the area and local materials, so that generated energy to be as cheaper. The project is being carried out by the Clinton Foundation and will be located in Gujarat state in western India.

The largest solar project from the present generates 900 megawatts energy and is located in the Mojave dessert from California, being developed by the BrightSource company.

The biggest solar farm in the world will be built in Florida, this state is called 'Sunshine State'. This solar farm will be built in a campus from Florida Gulf Coast University an area of 16-acre, and the amount that will be allocated for construction will be at $ 8.5 million. Because the building still needs the Governor acceptance, which will be positive. The money would help FGCU construct that will be the largest university-based solar farm in the world.

After the governor will agree with the construction, FGCU officials plan to start construction in October and ends next summer. This project will save the school, $ 22 million in energy costs over the next three decades. This project will make a much cleaner future for the university and also for nature. Well it would be if more and more colleges will follow this example, only so we can save the planet.

Two teams of scientists have accomplished methods to produce nanowires that could greatly improve the solar photovoltaic cell efficiency. The first technique used by researchers from UC San Diego creates' hairy 'solar cells, which are visible only through the microscope. In conclusion, the hairs are the nanowires, silicon or tiny metallic structures used to complete very small circuits.
Onto a cheap conductive surface, the researchers were able to grow nanowires which are coated with an organic polymer.

And finally, the second team consists with researchers from the three Germany universities have created a technique to bond with nanowires spun glass. This technique is based on a kind of high-tech 'sandwich'. By this way the nanowires are placed between a metal layer and a highly conductive bottom layer and then on a glass forming a 'spacer layer' to prevent the circuit from shorting. The current could lead to a completely new class of efficient integrated circuits and an run smoothly along the nanowires.

However there are some problems to the San Diego team because when it is exposed to air the polymer layer currently degrades. If either of these two techniques will work and will be put to commercial scale, installation of solar panels will be more cheap and easy to mount. In my opinion this is the future for solar panels.

National Laboratories from Idaho have created ways of using sun's infrared radiation to collect energy that can be used at night. In INL laboratories have developed solar panels that besides being flexible, reflected energy from the infrared, reaching an effectiveness of 80%, while the conventional plates arrive at 20%, according to these laboratories.

Nanotechnology allows using a panel coated with nano-antennas that capture the infrared radiation that is emitted constantly, leaving rely on direct sunlight as hitherto. The tiny circuits absorb energy as a satellite TV or mobile, with the difference of their size and can be flexible to adapt materials. These circuits can be made of various metals, without relying on silicon, and nano-antennas.
We can see that the research in the field of solar energy grows every day, leaving revealed new methods that can help us to save the planet.

It approaches the summer and on the market are many new solar gadgets that help us to bump the strong heat outside. As an example we show this small fan personnel, without batteries, which can be set in the wing of a hat or a cap and Torre Hill promises to save heat. As we seen below, has a small solar panel that generates electricity it needs.

Another example is this drive away mosquitoes fed with solar energy that generates an ultrasound not audible to the human ear that keeps them away. The period of load is about three hours. Both gadgets are sold at a price of $ 10.

An carpeter named Ma Yanjun from Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province has invented a solar water heater built from hose pipes and beer bottles. The bottles are placed on a board in the sun and connected with hose pipes to let cold water to flowing inside. The water is heated only when the sun rays warm the bottles.

This invention was made for his mother because he did not want her to bathe in cold water in winters. When talking about mother's day i will love to gift such thing, and i think that she would be very excited. Since the price of a water heater is very exorbitant it was too difficult for him to buy a real water heater.
I am very happy when I see that the accustomed people accomplish so large inventions and extra saves the nature.