This is something I am very excited for, and hopefully the rest of you are as well. Especially the fact that it can be adapted to existing solar cells without having to just switch technologies. What a very appealing and uplifting ‘invention.’

Thanks MIT!

MIT opens new ‘window’ on solar energy
Cost effective devices expected on market soon

Elizabeth A. Thomson, News Office
July 10, 2008

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun’s energy that could allow just that.

The work, to be reported in the July 11 issue of Science, involves the creation of a novel “solar concentrator.” “Light is collected over a large area [like a window] and gathered, or concentrated, at the edges,” explains Marc A. Baldo, leader of the work and the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering.

As a result, rather than covering a roof with expensive solar cells (the semiconductor devices that transform sunlight into electricity), the cells only need to be around the edges of a flat glass panel. In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell “by a factor of over 40,” Baldo says.

Because the system is simple to manufacture, the team believes that it could be implemented within three years–even added onto existing solar-panel systems to increase their efficiency by 50 percent for minimal additional cost. That, in turn, would substantially reduce the cost of solar electricity.

In addition to Baldo, the researchers involved are Michael Currie, Jon Mapel, and Timothy Heidel, all graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Shalom Goffri, a postdoctoral associate in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

“Professor Baldo’s project utilizes innovative design to achieve superior solar conversion without optical tracking,” says Dr. Aravinda Kini, program manager in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, a sponsor of the work. “This accomplishment demonstrates the critical importance of innovative basic research in bringing about revolutionary advances in solar energy utilization in a cost-effective manner.”

Solar concentrators in use today “track the sun to generate high optical intensities, often by using large mobile mirrors that are expensive to deploy and maintain,” Baldo and colleagues write in Science. Further, “solar cells at the focal point of the mirrors must be cooled, and the entire assembly wastes space around the perimeter to avoid shadowing neighboring concentrators.”

The MIT solar concentrator involves a mixture of two or more dyes that is essentially painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes work together to absorb light across a range of wavelengths, which is then re-emitted at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to waiting solar cells at the edges.

In the 1970s, similar solar concentrators were developed by impregnating dyes in plastic. But the idea was abandoned because, among other things, not enough of the collected light could reach the edges of the concentrator. Much of it was lost en route.

The MIT engineers, experts in optical techniques developed for lasers and organic light-emitting diodes, realized that perhaps those same advances could be applied to solar concentrators. The result? A mixture of dyes in specific ratios, applied only to the surface of the glass, that allows some level of control over light absorption and emission. “We made it so the light can travel a much longer distance,” Mapel says. “We were able to substantially reduce light transport losses, resulting in a tenfold increase in the amount of power converted by the solar cells.”

This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation. Baldo is also affiliated with MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

Mapel, Currie and Goffri are starting a company, Covalent Solar, to develop and commercialize the new technology. Earlier this year Covalent Solar won two prizes in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The company placed first in the Energy category ($20,000) and won the Audience Judging Award ($10,000), voted on by all who attended the awards.

Fact Sheet: MIT’s solar concentrators

Elizabeth A. Thomson, News Office
July 10, 2008

News release: “MIT opens new ‘window’ on solar energy”

A Q&A by the MIT research team led by Marc A. Baldo, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, on solar concentrators.

What did we do? We demonstrated a large improvement in the performance of low-cost solar concentrators. Our new devices increase the power obtained from solar cells by a factor of over 40 without needing to track the sun. Our results are at least a factor of four better than previous results.¹

Why is this important? The sun is an inexhaustible source of clean power. The major impediment to widely deployed solar-power systems has been cost. Unsubsidized solar electricity is over three times as expensive as the average grid prices for electricity derived from conventional energy sources, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Dramatic cost reductions are needed. Clean, renewable electricity at affordable prices would be an attractive alternative to conventional electricity and the related fossil-fuel dependence, greenhouse-gas emissions and peak-time grid constraints.

What is a solar cell? Solar cells transform sunlight into electricity by using a semiconductor device, typically made of silicon. Solar cells are packaged into solar panels, which can be installed on rooftops or large fields. The solar cells are typically some of the most expensive parts of an installed solar panel.

What is a solar concentrator? Solar concentrators collect light over large areas and focus it onto smaller areas of solar cells. This increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell. Solar concentrators can reduce the cost of solar power since more electricity is obtained per solar cell, and fewer solar cells are needed.

What is wrong with existing solar concentrators? Conventional solar concentrators track the sun to generate high optical intensities, often by using large mobile mirrors that are expensive to deploy and maintain. Solar cells at the focal point of the mirrors must be cooled, and the entire assembly wastes space around the perimeter to avoid shadowing neighboring concentrators.

What is our technology? Our devices are based on a concept from the 1970’s that was largely abandoned: the luminescent solar concentrator (LSC). Our version of this device consists of a piece of transparent glass or plastic plate with a thin film of dye molecules deposited on the face and inorganic solar cells attached to the edges. Light is absorbed by the dye coating and reemitted into the glass or plastic for collection by the solar cells.

Why did LSCs fail in the 1970’s? Two reasons: the collected light was absorbed before it reached the edges of the glass or plastic plates, and the dyes were unstable.

What precisely did you do to reduce loss of the collected light? We borrowed some ideas from lasers, introducing what is known in lasers as a four-level system. In practice, we added a small concentration of an extra dye that collected all the absorbed light from its surrounding dye molecules. We also introduced a new class of dye molecules, known as molecular phosphors, that are extremely transparent to their own light emission.

What about stability? We tested one of our devices and found that it was stable (to 92 percent of initial performance) for three months. This isn’t good enough yet for products but we are confident that the technology developed for organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) in televisions will be portable to this application.

When will these concentrators make it into production? The technology is being further developed for commercialization by Covalent Solar, a company being spun out of MIT by three of its inventors: Michael Currie, Jon Mapel, and Shalom Goffri. The team believes that it could be implemented within three years.

References

1. Currie, M. J., Mapel, J. K., Heidel, T. D., Goffri, S. & Baldo, M. A. High-efficiency Organic Solar Concentrators for Photovoltaics. Science. In Press.

“Marburg, a German college town of about 80,000, has become the first in the country to make solar heating obligatory for newly built or renovated buildings. The green bill has some residents and politicians up in arms

 The law, passed on Friday, June 20 by a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, has sparked a storm of criticism in the town of Marburg in the state of Hesse in western Germany.
“We are facing a green dictatorship but nobody dares to say anything,” said opposition politician Hermann Uchtmann.

Marburg’s Green Mayor Franz Kahle pointed out that installing the solar panels would cost around 5,000 euros ($7,800), but the price would be offset by energy savings over 15 years. The German news weekly Der Spiegel, however, pointed out that the mayor is a tenant, not a home owner, and would personally enjoy the energy savings but not incur the cost of the panels himself.

But regardless of who picks up the tab, some feel that the first step has to be made, even if it’s uncomfortable. Klaus Vajen, a solar energy expert at the University of Kassel said that “sometimes one has to twist consumers’ arm for their own good.”

Fines await those who don’t comply

Slated to take effect on Oct. 1, the bill stipulates that the solar panels have to measure one square meter (10 square feet) for every 20 square meters of the building’s surface area. Those who don’t comply with the new law will face fines starting at 1,000 euros — dramatically reduced from the initially proposed 15,000 euros.

Exceptions are to be made, however, for buildings that are principally heated from a district heating network, a combined heat and power generator, or a wood pellet oven

Though Marburg’s measures are the country’s most ambitious so far, it is not the first town to take legal steps toward saving energy and slashing carbon dioxide emissions. The right-wing government in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg already requires new houses to meet 20 percent of their heating needs with renewable energy sources

In addition, the federal German cabinet recently approved a comprehensive climate plan aimed at reducing CO2 emissions by nearly 40 percent by the year 2020. The package includes higher standards for energy efficiency in new and renovated buildings as of 2009

From http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2344648,00.html

Solar panels become mandatory
23/06/2008 07:26  - (SA)  

“Berlin - The central German college town of Marburg has become the first in the nation to require newly-built or renovated buildings to have solar panels installed.

The city says the new law was approved by the city council on Friday and will take effect on October 1.

The law requires any newly constructed buildings, as well as existing buildings that are expanded or altered, to include solar panels as part of the heating system.

The city says those violating the law will face fines starting at $1 500. The city is home to Marburg University and has 79 000 inhabitants.

The German government aims to slash the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% from 1990 levels by 2020. “

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/23/solarpower.greenbuilding

German town forces homes to fix solar tiles
The Guardian
Monday June 23, 2008

Solar panels will soon grace the roofs of the quiet medieval town of Marburg under a controversial new law forcing owners of all new or renovated buildings in its limits to include solar panels, setting a national precedent.

A coalition of Social Democrats and Greens passed the ruling late on Friday to counter climate change and soaring energy prices. Anyone failing to comply will face a €1,000 (£790) fine.

The law stipulates that, from October, a 1 sq metre panel must be built for every 20 sq metres of surface area. It applies to new homes or existing buildings undergoing renovations to heating systems or roofs.

Conservatives said the law went too far: “This is an environmental dictatorship,” said the local Christian Democratic Union leader, Hermann Uchtmann. A local energy trade association said it was investigating legal action to reverse the ruling.

A few German towns have beefed up regulations to encourage energy conservation in new buildings. But Marburg, which is home to 80,000 people, has gone a step further by including the owners of older houses in the new legislation.

Installing the panels could cost homeowners up to €5,000, a figure largely offset by energy savings over 15 years, the town’s Green mayor, Franz Kahle, said.

Environmentalists predicted Marburg would become a trendsetter: “This town is a pioneer for renewable energy in Germany,” said Andree Böhling, an energy expert at Greenpeace in Hamburg.

Solar panels have been adopted at a comparatively rapid pace in Germany, despite its cloudy climes. This is largely because of a law that guarantees local power firms pay an above-market rate for 20 years for renewable energy fed into the national grid.

 

 

All I really have to say about this is: “What’s up, Germany?”

I have read of a few smaller places that have done this, one of which I believe was in Africa, but this German town is really stepping up to the plate on this one. Hopefully others will follow the trend.

We found this real nice 45 watt kit on ebay for a good price. Much cheaper than buying three of the 15w panels I have (at $80 each). Plus it comes with two 12v compact fluorescents, a charge controller, and a light duty stand to set the panels up with if you choose.

For this purpose the stand will likely be scrapped and we will set up something more practical for setting up and taking down the kit while camping.

Here is the 45 watt setup with just the charge controller and a 12v compact fluoro:

Just to make sure it worked I hooked up a deep cycle battery that needed to be charged:

I was impressed with the charge controller, as it is much more useful than the standard $10 ebay junk. It has DC outputs for 3v, 5v, 9v, and 12v, as well as a 5v USB connector for charging your camera or mp3 player or whatever technogarbage you feel like hooking up.

The 12v compact fluoros use a 1/4″ headphone/microphone jack to hook up to the charge controller:

and here is the fancy connector for using the various DC outputs

The panels themselves seem to be of good quality, and quite durable. They have an aluminum frame rather than the plastic frame that my 15w panel has.

The wiring is all pretty straightforward as well. Everything has connectors on it already so really all there is to do is hook it up. It is all labeled and everything for you.

Here are some pics I took just for fun:

More later when it has been set up and used for more than a half hour.

I’ve never had to publicly call someone out on this site for using underhanded business practices, except for Becky from SiliconSolar, for what I will call a “borderline spam” comment.

Today is the day I want you to actually pay attention to what I’m writing here.

“Arizona Solar Installers” (http://www.getsolar.com) did something that made me a little mad.

If you check out the comments on my post regarding a “Solar Space Heater” you will see the comments left by Varun from Arizona Solar Installers.

First they left this nice hunk of spam(bold indicates a link to their website):

1. Varun Said,Arizona Solar Installers - Arizona Solar Installers - Find Solar Energy Professionals and Solar Installers in Arizona at Getsolar.com.

Then they must have figured out that my comment form requires some form of spamming knowledge, and put this comment in less than a minute later from the same IP address:

1. Arizona Solar Installers Said,Arizona Solar Installers - Find Solar Energy Professionals and Solar Installers in Arizona at Getsolar.com.

Must be they realized they wanted the business name associated with this hunk of spam so google will give them some love when my site gets crawled. This is pretty dirty, folks.

Ordinarily I would just remove these comments (like I do with all spam) so they don’t get a return link from my site, because that is what they want.

In this case though, since I am being spammed by a company selling solar stuff, I decided I would let my distaste be known.

Also though I want you to know that even by calling these spammers out I am unfortunately helping their cause a little bit, because google will see links from my site, and think that “Arizona Solar Installers” are actually useful, therefore bumping up the page rank.

The IP address the spam was posted from turns out to be from Delhi, India. Now what’s all this business about “Arizona Solar Installers” then?

IP address:                     117.197.145.9
Reverse DNS:                    [No reverse DNS entry per ns1.apnic.net.]
Reverse DNS authenticity:       [Unknown]
ASN:                            0
ASN Name:                       IANA-RSVD-0
IP range connectivity:          0
Registrar (per ASN):            Unknown
Country (per IP registrar):     IN [India]
Country Currency:               INR [India Rupees]
Country IP Range:               117.192.0.0 to 117.255.255.255
Country fraud profile:          Normal
City (per outside source):      Delhi, Delhi
Country (per outside source):   IN [India]
Private (internal) IP?          No
IP address registrar:           whois.arin.net
Known Proxy?                    No

The worst part is that this guy that owns this website supposedly has
business experience. Seems to me he should have thought about what the
public would think of his company after he hired spammers in India to
ruin his reputation.

Here is what I found on freshtilledsoil.com

 Here is their add on linksreferences.com:

"solar installers
Get Solar.com | PowerHouse: A New Kind of American Home. Finding a
trusted professional in a field as new  as renewable energy can be
a time-consuming and daunting challenge. GetSolar.com takes all of
the guesswork out of the  equation and helps you easily access
a list of qualified pros in your neighborhood.”

They might have quality pros in your neighborhood, but they are also
paying spammers in India to bother me.

I can understand that getting a website off the ground and getting
traffic to it can be difficult, especially with no public referring
links. I even toed the line that Mr. Jennison is toeing when putting
up this site.

HOWEVER: There are some fundamental differences between what I did and
what Mr. Jennison did (whether personally or on his behalf.)

In order to get search engine traffic, you need backlinks. I got a few
personal legitimate backlinks through human contact (like Mr. Jennison
should have attempted with me, it would have gone well, I promise.) Then
I put some comments on blogs and posts on message boards, with links to
my site.

The differences though, are clear to me.

I was not putting an advertisement for goods or services on someone
else’s website. I was responding to questions/statements with useful
information, and then providing my website as a free avenue to explore
such technologies and ideas. I do not sell anything. I do not provide
any services. I do not make any profit from this website. Google ads
have brought in a little but THIS IS NOT A BUSINESS.

Matthew Jennison, however, has crossed the line in my opinion. I
would have certainly given a link to his site had he sent an email
or left a comment with some useful information. Instead, there was
a spam comment much to the tune of a billboard left in the comments
section of one of my posts. Not only that, but it is one of my posts
with some keywords that I’m sure Mr. Jennison would love to have
Google associate with his site.

I cannot influence the world, but I am certainly willing to give
the facts and my own opinions on what Matthew Jennison,
Arizona Solar Installers, getsolar.com, and their crazy Indian
spammers are doing.

Today I left a comment on one of Mr. Jennison’s blog posts.
He probably won’t approve it, so his readers will never get
to see how he is trying to step on people providing free
information in order to sell them a service.

That’s right folks, this kind gentleman thought he could leave
some spam here, and rather than have you read some of the nice
good free information I link to, he wants you to go give him
some money to do what you can do on your own.

This is called solarDIY for a reason. Mostly the DIY part but I also post some
stuff about solar once in a while  

I suppose you can say this whole experience has really given me
a newfound distaste for people trying to take advantage of the
alternative energy community as a whole, and I will not stand
idly by and watch it happen anymore.

From now on, any time I see a solar company doing something shady,
I’ll be sure to let the public know.

<update>

 Here is pretty much the resume of my new friend Matt Jennison

Here is a comment someone named George from getsolar.com left on the wired blog
which is lacking in substance, but certainly not directly spam like what
they left here. Oh and they couldn’t forget a link to their site  

Oh and 
Here is another comment Georgie left on the wired blog 

Won’t spam wired but you’ll spam me eh? 

Looks like they 
don’t mind spamming cnet either, but this still is at least
related to what it was posted on.

<another update>

Wow these people just can’t hold themselves back from
 spamming anything on the internet with a comment box

I’m all for healthy debate Submitted by Eric Messinger (not verified)
on Thu, 2008-05-01 18:15.

I’m all for healthy debate about climate change, as with any subject,
so long as the arguments presented are intellectually valid, factually
supported, and fair. If Heartland needs to marshall support of their
causes with misleading evidence, then I’m less inclined to believe their
case is strong.
http://www.getsolar.com/blog/”

And to think, they sound so nice.

George even spammed a news article on canada.com! check this out

George
Thu, May 8, 08 at 09:23 PM
Just fyi for anyone looking for affordable local solar panel installers in their area,
this is a great resource: http://www.getsolar.com”
And the same junk again on another news site:

 5/7/2008 6:18:49 PM
 “Just fyi if you’re lookng for local solar panel installers,
 this is great resource: http://www.getsolar.com”

                                  

Apparently old-school advertising doesn’t work anymore? 

Here is a comment on a cnet news article:

by georgebizpro May 7, 2008 5:20 PM PDT
FYI, for anyone interested in looking into getting solar power for
their homes, this is an excellent resource to find local solar panel
installers in your area: http://www.getsolar.com”

Looking at the google results, I could probably find examples like
this all day long. Some are less nefarious than others, but most
are down right spam. George sure is a Biz Pro, isn’t he?

I haven’t really been working on any neat projects lately, just trying to scrounge parts and cash.

As far as the PV panel powering the lights in the living room, the “Die Hard” deep cycle marine battery crapped itself so we’re back on the grid for lights until I can get different/better storage. This battery should be under warranty still, so I will likely swap out for another until I can get something better.

More later

The Navy has built five solar carports at local bases as part of a project to reduce the military’s dependence on fossil fuels.

San Diego Naval Base at 32nd Street has three; Point Loma Naval Base and Naval Amphibious Base on Coronado each have one.

Each carport covers about 6,000 square feet of parking area. Its solar panels also provide shade for about 64 cars.

Together, the carports will generate enough energy to power 69 homes a year, the Navy said.

It cost $3.5 million to complete the overall project, the Navy said, and the solar panels are expected to save about $3 million in energy costs over 25 years.

The military is trying to boost its use of renewable energy sources to comply with Pentagon mandates and legislation passed by Congress in 2005.”

Good to see that they are keeping up with legislation passed three years ago. Better than nothing, I guess.

The first thing I had to decide was how to mount the panel. I didn’t really want to put in a form and pour concrete to do a pole mount just for a 15w panel. I also didn’t want to mount it on ground level as we have dogs, cats, horses, cows, etc, not to mention the amount of snow we get in the wintertime.

With these things in mind I decided to mount it on the house. However I also didn’t want to mount it on the roof as the house we live in is huge, making installation/service a real pain.

Of course, wanting to be able to save money was a big part. I could have gotten on the internet, pulled out a credit card, and bought some fancy several hundred dollar mount.

But this is a 15w panel powering some light bulbs..

So I tore a satellite dish off it’s mount and used that to put my solar panel on.

The satellite dish mount has elevation angles marked in degrees and is easily adjustable. It is not extremely sturdy, but I felt that it would do perfectly for what I need.

I decided to make the mount large enough for two of these 15w panels. I will get another one to bump this up to 30w. I also had another charge controller that will allow easier expansion than the one I got with this, so I have a spare/something for another project.

The good news is that I still have another one of these satellite dish mounts, so I can make another mount to hold another two 15w panels, for 60w total. 60w isn’t a lot, but it should power all the lights that we use in the farm house, with another battery the size of the one I have.

A large part of that though is reduction in use. For us, there is no need to have every light in the house on. Why have a light on in a room you aren’t using? I know there have been studies regarding the energy required to start a bulb vs. energy required to leave a bulb on, but I don’t feel this really applies to us due to infrequency of running around between rooms.

In total this project only took me a few hours from pile-of-junk to mounted panel. The rack for the panels is made of re-bar, some pieces of steel plate, a couple of pieces of pipe, a piece of angle iron, and some bolts.

This could be simplified greatly but I was literally trying to work with what I could find laying around. The pieces of pipe were used to space a cross bar of plate for mounting the panels off of the re-bar, in order to make it the same height as the strangely shaped piece of angle iron I used for the bottom panel mounting point.

Sometimes you really have to scrounge around to find what you need..

Sometimes your workspace is also messy, and your tools too small for the job..

I didn’t have proper stuff for attaching the output wires, so I used some fencing staples and had to leave them loose so as to not chafe the wire. I’ll fix that up later.

Total cost for this was $2.90 for bolts/nuts/washers, and $6 for beer to drink after I got it done. Everything else was laying around.

Theoretically that means most handy folks should be able to eliminate the cost of a mount for most small PV applications. This could be made to mount on a pole or RV pretty easily, and would also be easy to move around if you had more than one location. All you would need is two satellite mounts, then you could switch the panels between the two locations as needed.

This is, of course, assuming that you are on a limited budget like me.

Apologies for not making this more of a “how-to”, but I was trying to get it up before the sun went down. If you have any questions on how to install / mount a solar panel on a small satellite dish mount, drop me a line by email or a comment on this post. I also have higher res versions of the pictures if you would like to see the mounting points better or anything like that.

As always, I appreciate comments, so let me know what you think. I didn’t paint the mount yet because I didn’t want to spend money on paint this is low cost high effectiveness stuff here, not made to be pretty.

I should add a disclaimer in here as well. I’m not suggesting that you do any of this as it could harm both you and your personal property. If you do manage to hurt yourself or break stuff, don’t blame me. Not everyone has the aptitude or ability to dangle from a ladder with a big metal frame and solar panel above their head and off to the side.

Solar, Wind & Biomass Energy Systems Exemption

Here are the requirements:

“ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

1. Ownership Requirements: None.
2. Property Location Requirements: None.
3. Property Use Requirements: Property must contain a solar or wind energy system, an arrangement of solar or wind energy equipment designed to provide heating, cooling, hot water, or mechanical, chemical, or electrical energy by the collection of solar or wind energy and its conversion, storage, protection, and distribution. Solar or wind energy equipment qualifying the property for exemption includes collectors, controls, energy storage devices, heat pumps and pumps, heat exchangers, windmills, and other materials, hardware, or equipment necessary to the process by which solar radiation or wind is collected, converted into another form of energy, stored, protected from unnecessary dissipation, and distributed. It does not include pipes, controls, insulation, heat pumps, or other equipment that is part of the normal heating, cooling, or insulation system of a building. It does include insulated glazing or insulation to the extent that such materials exceed the energy efficiency standards required by law.Alternatively, the property must contain a farm waste energy system, an arrangement of farm waste electrical generating equipment necessary to the process of producing, collecting, storing, cleaning, and converting agricultural waste biogas into forms of energy such as thermal, electrical, mechanical or chemical and by which the biogas and converted energy are distributed on-site. It does not include pipes, controls, insulation, or other equipment that are part of the normal heating, cooling or insulation system of a building. Farm waste electric generating equipment includes equipment that generates electrical energy from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste, such as livestock manure, farming waste and food processing wastes with a rated capacity of not more than 400 kilowatts that is: 1) manufactured, installed and operated in accordance with applicable government and industry standards, 2) connected to the electric system and operated in conjunction with an electric corporation’s transmission and distribution facilities, 3) operated in compliance with the provisions of Section 66-j of the Public Service Law, 4) fueled at a minimum of 90 percent annually by biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste such as livestock manure materials, crop residues and food processing wastes, and 5) fueled by biogas generated by anaerobic digestion with at least 75 percent by weight of its feedstock being livestock manure materials annually.
4. Certification by State or Local Government: None required.
5. Required Construction Start Date or Other Time Requirement:  Solar, wind, or farm waste energy system must be (a) in existence or constructed prior to July 1, 1988, or (b) constructed after January 1, 1991 and before January 1, 2011.“

Sounds good to me, especially considering the example calculation they give:

Here is a whole list of alternative energy incentives for New York and Federal incentives. They have a map where you can click on your state to see benefits available to you.

“By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Who wins the prize for environmental correctness – the California couple who planted eight redwoods in their Silicon Valley backyard over the past 12 years, or their neighbours, who drive an electric car and boast solar energy-generating panels on their roof?

One thing is certain: the couples will never have a civil conversation with each other again outside of a courtroom. When Mark Vargas installed his 128 solar panels, he realised the shade from the trees was interfering with his ability to heat and light his family home.

So he found an obscure California statute, a 1978 law called the Solar Shade Act, to embolden him to go to his neighbours, Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor, and ask them to cut down their trees.

Ms Bissett and Mr Treanor were furious. They turned down Mr Vargas’s offer to pay for the tree removal. In fact, they referred the issue to their lawyers.

Unfortunately for them, they lost and the judge ordered three trees cut down, because they obscured more than 10 per cent of Mr Vargas’s property.

They now have no money to appeal and have reluctantly called in the tree-choppers. Under the 1978 law, they could also have been fined $1,000 per tree per day of the by-now years-long period of violation.

A local state legislator, Joe Simitian, meanwhile, is promoting a bill intended to take the rancour out of such disputes. The bill, which has been introduced in the state senate, would safeguard trees planted before the installation of solar panels from the shadow of the axeman.”

So as neighbors squabble over whether there should be trees or solar panels, I direct the question towards you;

Does it make sense to cut down trees so that some guy’s solar panels aren’t shaded? I haven’t seen the property layout in question, but it seems as though, unless his lot is very tiny, he could simply put the panels where his neighbor’s trees would not shade them, thus negating the need to cut down any trees at all.

Crazy world.

4′x8′ Enersol solar collector with 15 year warranty  $190 from solarcovers.com

FAFCO 2′x20′ solar collector with 10 year warranty $135 from poolproducts.com

Smarthome.com has a similar 2′x20′ collector with 5 year warranty for $130. They say it has a 40,000 BTU rating, and they also offer a 4′x20′ for $250. They have a good online pdf collector installation manual that has some good diagrams and info.

Interestingly enough while browsing through the manual I noticed that you will void the warranty if using mounting hardware other than what the manufacturer provides, so watch out for that all of you people that like to DIY.

I understand that these are intended for heating pools but since the prices on similar items not geared towards pools is quite a bit higher, this might be just the ticket for the DIY’er that doesn’t want to drop $700 for an evacuated tube collector or even build their own collector.

Sometimes time saved is money saved.