I was reading an article at wired.com about the Biggest Solar Deal in history.   In a deal between Southern California Edison and Brightsource,  the latter would be building a series of 7 installations that would eventually produce 1,300 megawatts of energy.
Once completed, this facility is expected to generate 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per annum.  Probably bigger than some of the nuclear power plants out there and it is safer too.
The solar technology used won’t be photovoltaics (solar panels)  but rather thru solar thermal power.  A whole array of mirrors would be used to reflect the suns rays to …read more

Let’s drool over this guy’s Solar Hydrogen House.    I’ve always wanted to have a house fully run by renewable energy.  This one below is the Ultimate, and Extreme Unplugged Living.

I really like the idea of storing energy in the form of hydrogen inside hydrogen tanks.   Battery banks are the usual storage for solar panel systems.   However, depending on the size, battery banks usually can supply a few hours to a few days worth of electricity.   Michael Strizki’s said that these hydrogen tanks, in conjunction with the solar battery bank, and geothermal setup can store an equivalent of  3 months worth …read more

When we were offered solar panels that were able to soak up the sun and then had the ability to convert that into energy that we could use, we were amazed. Don’t try to deny it because I’m sure you were. But what amazes me right now is the fact that many innovations have popped out after the revolutionary solar panels have been accepted by a good portion of the industry.
Now, one of the newest updates in the solar power industry is a new coating which is said to be reflective and can actually soak in more power from the …read more

Now that the 2008 Beijing Olympics is just around the corner,  lets talk about why this olympics is green.   Apart from the solar showers I mentioned in one of my old posts,  this year’s olympics in Beijing features some of the most artistic building there is,  such as the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube building.
Another venue worth mentioning here in unpluggedliving is Beijing’s National Indoor Stadium.  A total of 1,124 solar panels have been installed on its roof.   These solar panels can supply up to 100kw of power which is enough to meet the lighting demands of the …read more

Extremetech’s Senior Tech Analyst Loyd Case wrote a detailed post about his experience when he shifted to solar energy.   It is quite a lengthy post but a lot of details are there which some of you guys who are thinking of installing solar energy systems in your house.
He started out with discussing the bidding process and how he decide which company he choosed to install his solar energy system and why.  He decided to go for the 6.1Kw system which is quite big if you ask me.   (He has a PC lab and network at the basement which is …read more

I stumbled upon this very educational video on how to test your Solar Panels. For those who are starting to setup their own solar powered homes or who are thinking about doing so sometime in the future, this video fully shows how you
a. Test the voltage of your solar panels
b. Test the current produced by your solar panels
Enjoy!