Solar City Tower Waterfall for Rio Olympics 2016

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, was selected for the 2016 Olympic Games and it is planning on building a massive solar powered artificial waterfall called "Solar City Tower", designed by Swiss (Zürich-based) company - RAFAA Architecture & Design.

The 344.5-foot tall (105 meters) Solar City Tower is going to be located on the small Cotonduba Island in Guanabara Bay. The enormous waterfall is almost twice the height of Niagara Falls and will be large enough to accommodate the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies. It is one of the first buildings that are being designed for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

This solar energy generating tower will be using many solar panels to produse electricity for the Olympic village by day. Any excess energy would be used to pump seawater into reservoirs at the top, so that it can be released by night as a spectacular waterfall. The falling water would also help turbines create electricity for the nighttime village.

In addition to producing energy, the Solar City Tower would have an elevator to take visitors to the very top of the tower, where a “glass sky walk” offers panoramic views of the surrounding harbor and Rio. There's even a platform at 297 feet (90.5) that provides bungee jumping. The giant tower would also house an auditorium, cafeteria, shop and amphitheater on the ground level.

The Solar City Tower is RAFAA’s entry in the International Architecture Competition for the 2016 Olympics, where the Brazilian metropolis aims to represent the green city of the future and hope to achieve its goal to host the first-ever zero-carbon Olympics.

Solé Power Tile – Integrated Solar Panel Roofing

Philadelphia-based company SRS Energy is a leading developer of sustainable solar roofing systems. The Solé Power Tile created by SRS Energy is the first curved building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing product, designed in collaboration with US Tile. The eco-friendly blue barrel-style tiles can be seamlessly integrated with US Tile’s traditional clay tiles. 

The product employs thin-film solar technology that incorporates triple-junction amorphous solar cells made by UNI-SOLAR. The tiles are rated at 860 kilowatt hours per square (or per 100 square feet) annually in an area with "5.8 peak sun hours" per day. The Solé tiles are also lightweight, unbreakable and fully-recyclable. Their shape allows air to flow underneath, reducing a building’s cooling needs.

The Solé Power Tile has just passed a key milestone. SRS Energy has obtained an ETL listing report certifying the Solé Power Tile has passed the testing associated with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) UL 1703 standard. Passing this is the prerequisite for any solar photovoltaics to be approved by the State of California as eligible for CSI rebates from utilities. In June, the factory will be inspected, and then the Solé Power Tile will likely be included on the CEC approved module listing on July 1st.

SRS Energy’s Solé Power Tile system won the Gold prize in the Industrial Design category of the 2010 Edison Best New Product Awards.

More information you can find here.

Power Your Home with Solar Roof Tiles

Today the main way for homes to harness solar power is still through bulky rigid panels added to the rooftop or mounted on the ground. But inte recent years there are some innovations within the solar PV industry such as solar roof tiles. Solar roof tiles refer to Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) systems. They blend in better and help deliver clean, green solar power, without the need to sacrifice the aesthetic look and beauty of your home.

Solar roof tiles are made with built-in photovoltaic cells and the color of the solar tiles range from blue to violet to gray and blends well with most colors. Solar roof tiles are connected to each other via MC or other suitable connector type used inphotovoltaics and they work like conventional solar panels. One tile produces about 60 - 180 watts of electricity, and an entire roof could definitely power your entire house. A real hot sunny day could even mean profit for you, excess energy can be sold at a nearby company.

Solar roof tiles are more expensive than solar panels but in terms of the advantages it gives to a local user, it should outweigh the cons. Also, the government offers considerate breaks in taxes for homes that use solar power electricity.

Some of the companies currently producing solar roof tiles are General Electric, PowerLight, Sharp Electronics, and SunPower Corp.

Solé Power Tile, created by SRS Energy, is the industry’s first building-integrated photovoltaic product designed specifically for curved-roof systems and in my next post I'm going to write about it.

Solarpro’s Yankovo PV Power Plant Put into Operation

On 24 August the first stage of the photovoltaic plant of Solarpro in the village of Yankovo, northeastern Bulgaria, has been officially put into operation. The first phase of the project "North-East 1" features installed capacity of 338kWp . The plant had been successfully acceded to the power grid of E. ON and delivers electricity to the electricity distribution company. The project is scheduled to reach full capacity by the end of the year. The whole plant "North-East 1" has nominal power of 2404kWp will be the largest photovoltaic park in the country.

Solarpro, 80% owned by Bulgarian miner Kaolin, has launched production of photovoltaic (thin-film amorphous-silicon PV module) solar panels at its factory in Silistra, on the Danube. At the end of March the first panels of the first production line of the photovoltaic plant in Silistra were produced.

The "North-East 1" PV power plant is constructed with 8064 thin-film photovoltaic panels, manufactured by Solarpro, in its Silistra-based factory. It is the only company in Bulgaria, which concludes the entire PV module manufacturing – power plant integration chain. The components of the power plant are mainly made in Bulgaria, and all subcontractors are local companies.

Solarpro is the first and only manufacturer of solar panels in Bulgaria. Solarpro is the biggest solar panels manufacturer on the Balkans, with planned capacity of 18 MW annually, organized in three production lines, one of which currently operational. The company came into being in end-2007 in line with a strategy of its owner to bolster energy efficiency and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Sources: solarpro.bg & alfafinance.bg

Sun-Heated Solar Outdoor Shower

The sun-heated solar shower is a perfect accompaniment to any outdoor pool and an interesting alternative to the regular outdoor shower. This cool solar device can heat up to 8 liters of water to 140° Fahrenheit in as little as two hours. Just place it in a sunny spot and connect to your garden hose to fill the tank at the bottom to its 8-liter capacity. The shower's base acts as a greenhouse to heat hose water; sunlight penetrates the transparent lid and the trapped solar radiation heats the water as it courses through the internal collection tube.

This particular solar shower mixes the 140° water with cool water from the garden hose to a pleasant 86-90°F, giving you plenty of toasty warm water at just the right temperature. You and your family can take several showers consecutively before the tank needs to reheat.

The sun-heated solar outdoor shower is useful device as it will definitely save you electricity costs.