“The Power of The Sun”

On January 24, 2008 in Links

My physics professor let us watch most of a movie called “The Power of The Sun” yesterday in class. I found the website for the movie at the Univerity of California, Santa Barbara’s homepage. It seems the movie is intended for educational use, but nobody said you had to be in school to learn things.

Here are some interesting things I managed to jot down in the dark while watching:

- The amount of solar energy that hits earth in 1 hour could meet our electricity needs for 1 year.

- The first “Solar Battery” from Bell Labs produced around 0.1watt in full sun. The technology almost died out until Bell used them to power remote telephone lines in Georgia experimentally.

- In 1957 Sputnik launched but stopped transmitting within a few weeks due to drained batteries.

- NASA took their info about Sputnik and Bell Labs and decided to power space equipment with the sun.

- Nearly every cell phone call passes through solar powered equipment

- 99% of United States Coast Guard navigational aids (lighthouses, buoys) are solar powered

- Solar LED landing lights are used in remote airports allowing easier setup and significant savings

- Shell Solar has a 1MegaWatt photovoltaic station powering water pumps near Bakersfield, CA

- Japan’s lack of natural resources led to large investment in solar energy technology

- Many ‘traditional’ Japanese homes are now powered by the sun

- Apartment blocks and factories in Japan and Germany are sprouting large solar arrays

- In 1994 the Japanese government started subsidizing PV systems, resulting in them being almost economically viable at this point

- The SunPower president predicts the US will be importing solar cells in the near future like we do oil now

- There are more than 100,000 solar installations in Germany

- Powerlight Corporation makes roofing panels that are insulation on the bottom and PV cells on top

- Shell Solar is producing PV cells at $3/watt

- New Jersey is offering a great deal of incentives to residents installing solar systems

- Marborg Industries is a 70 year old family owned recycling company in California that is moving to solar power

- Two Billion people worldwide have no electricity

- “Light Up The World” is an organization providing solar cells, batteries, and LED lights to 3rd world countries

- Solar panels are used to keep vaccines cool in East Africa. The movie shows a camel with a box strapped to its back. The cover of the box has PV panels mounted on it.

Here is a link to an article about the Solar Powered Camel Refridgerator

If you get a chance, watch this movie, it is very informative (and that is based on the first 45 minutes or so.)

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