Design | All Energy Solar

Rotating Solar Home Generates More Power Than It Uses

German architect Rolf Disch has created a solar powered home that not only doesn’t waste energy, but actually produces more than it uses. Dubbed the Heliotrope, the home actually rotates along with the sun in order to gather as much solar energy as possible.

The cylindrical Heliotrope features triple-paned thermal insulated glass on one side to allow the maximum amount of light inside the house, as well as a large solar panel on the roof and vacuum-solar thermal collectors along the balcony railings. The large roof panel, called the Sun Sail, is able to track the movement of the sun and turn and pivot automatically in order to be in the best possible position at all times. This movement is independent from the rotation of the house and allows for 30-40% higher energy gain compared to static solar panels.

There are plenty of other eco-friendly features built in to the house as well, including a water purification system for waste water and a basin on the roof for collecting rain water. Three different Heliotropes have been built to date, including the prototype, which is the current home of creator Disch himself.

Solar Power Takes Over NASCAR track

Racing relies on tens of thousands of gallons of fuel each year to power cars, but when Pocono Raceway flipped the switch on its 25-acre solar farm last week for the Pennsylvania 500, a NASCAR track became the world’s largest solar-powered sports facility.

“Hopefully we can be the catalyst for something big in American sports,” said track president Brandon Igdalsky. “We can show this is the right way to do it, and is a good thing to do.”

Sports teams have been pursuing more environmental initiatives in recent years as “going green” becomes a marketing catchphrase — and a way to save on utility bills.

“Sports have a tremendous opportunity to create both action on the ground with environmental footprint changes … and a real opportunity to help educate people on renewable energy options,” said Darby Hoover, a San Francisco-based senior resource specialist with the National Resources Defense Council. The environmental group advises Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NHL, the NBA and MLS.

While NRDC does not advise NASCAR, Hoover praised Pocono’s solar installation “as a way where fans can see genuine effort by the league.” She commended sports leagues in general for efforts in promoting environmentally friendly messages.

The Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the NHL’s Kings and the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, has more than 1,700 solar panels on its roof in a system expected to provide environmental offsets over the next 25 years.

In baseball, the Rockies, Indians, Red Sox and Giants use solar power in some capacity at their stadiums. The Giants’ AT&T Park in San Francisco this year became the first major league park to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, silver certification from the U.S. Green Council.

In each case, teams have taken the initiative, without league mandates — though most sports leagues now also have green programs promoting or encouraging recycling, alternative energy or other environmentally friendly ideas.

“We understand each club has its own challenges,” said Sarah Leer, a spokeswoman for Major League Baseball. “We sort of realize each club is going to have different abilities in as much of what they can do.”

That includes money — small-market teams struggling to keep payroll, for instance, may be less apt to invest in solar power. Pocono’s installation cost about $16 million.

Other teams may be constrained from installing panels because of stadium geography or construction.

That wasn’t an issue at Pocono Raceway, where track owners installed its solar farm on a converted parking lot across the street from the 2.5-mile tri-oval track. The 40,000 solar panels are arranged in groups in parallel rows, barely visible beyond fencing and a tree line from a road next to the track.

After Pocono’s 3 megawatt system, the next-biggest solar installation at a stadium is the 1.4 megawatt roof at Kaohsiung Stadium in Taiwan, according to Seth Masia, deputy editor of Solar Today, the magazine of the American Solar Energy Society.

By comparison, AT&T Park has a smaller, 120-kilowatt array, and Coors Field has a 10-kilowatt system, enough to run the scoreboard, Masia said.

NASCAR says the Pocono project is so big it’s visible from space.

Saving money was the initial reason behind the installation, Igdalsky said. Price caps will soon be lifted on electric rates in Pennsylvania, and bills are expected to skyrocket. Windmills had been ruled out because of a lack of sustained winds in the area and the presence nearby of eagle and osprey nests.

The installation went partially online in time for Sunday’s race, won by Greg Biffle, and was expected to be completed within the week. When finished, it would provide enough energy to power the track along with 1,000 homes. The track would save between $300,000 and $500,000 in electrical costs each year, Igdalsky said.

NASCAR hopes other tracks — and fans — take notice. Mike Lynch, head of NASCAR’s Green Innovation program, realizes there is a perception among some in the public that the racing series is not environmentally friendly because of its reliance on fuel.

NASCAR says roughly 135,000 gallons of fuel are used per Sprint Cup season. That pales in comparison to a U.S. government estimate that American motorists consume nearly 9 million barrels per day of gasoline.

“It strikes a lot of people as surprising since our sport is [seen as] the stereotypical fuel-burning sport. … It’s really not,” driver Brian Vickers said in a phone interview about the environmental initiatives. He’s known as one of the Sprint Cup series’ strongest environmental advocates.

“Most important is that yes, NASCAR is going to do a lot more … such as what Pocono is doing on the solar farm, but a lot of times people forget what they’ve already done,” Vickers said.

NASCAR touts that it’s had green practices in place for years, some for two decades, including shredding and recycling used tires; capturing and recycling oils, fluids and batteries; and planting 10 trees for every Sprint Cup series race. NASCAR says such plantings mitigate 100 percent of the carbon produced from the race cars.

Instead of promoting goals, Lynch said the focus is showing fans results.

“One thing about a NASCAR fan at its very core is being genuine is absolutely critical to them. It has to be real,” Lynch said. “Symbolism is great. But real results, real projects … that’s what our fans are looking for.”

Solar Power Transforms Parking Your Car

While fossil fuel companies in the U.S. are busily wrecking vast sections of the country’s natural heritage, a new energy resource has been quietly emerging from an unlikely source: parking lots. More parking lots are being converted into solar energy farms that create clean, renewable power while also creating more green jobs in solar cell manufacturing, installation, and sales.

One relatively new player in the U.S. solar parking lot field is EEPro, an offshoot of the German company EEPro GmbH, which started up operations in North Carolina last year. Its main product consists of photovoltaic units mounted on steel frames, which dovetails neatly with support for renewable energy by the United Steelworkers and other labor groups that see a rich trove of new green jobs in the emerging green economy.

The basic idea behind a solar parking lot is simply to incorporate solar panels into a carport, which is basically an open-sided shed with a roof. Solar carports can be small enough to fit a single car at a residence, or scaled up for commercial and institutional purposes. The main benefit, of course, is to generate renewable energy that can be used to lower utility costs on site, for example at a mall or office complex. Depending on the scale, the installation could also yield excess energy in the form of electricity for sale. A solar carport can also help reduce the “heat island” effect of parking lots and contribute to a cooler community, and by providing protection from the elements it can help enhance vehicle lifespan.

The solar parking lot phenomenon also dovetails with a major ramping up of the EPA’s efforts to reclaim brownfields for alternative energy and green jobs. Like parking lots, brownfields are large patches of land (former industrial sites with varying degrees of contamination) that have already been paved over or otherwise altered by human activity, so it makes sense to put them to work at generating clean energy. It’s a safer, less riskier alternative to harvesting fuel from productive land or marine ecosystems that could be used for other purposes such as food supply, recreation, and nature conservation.

Solar Lilies

Aesthetic. Original. Functional. Who knew solar panels could make a statement?

Apparently Peter Richardson knew when he submitted a winning solar design to the International Design Awards. His idea is to turn disused water ways into functional space by populating them with solar panels shaped like water lilies. Aiming to increase quality of life, while generating energy, the lilies so impressed the Glasgow City Council that they expressed interest in developing a pilot project.

In cities all over the world there are disused water ways, canals and rivers.Often they become the focus for regeneration and for most people offer an improved quality of life and environment. Our project proposes to stimulate river activity and change by proposing that the surface is used to harness the power of Solar energy on a large scale. The energy created can be easily transformed and exported to the grid and will reduce the carbon footprint of the city. The idea references large lilypads that are optimised for efficient photosynthesis, so the design is inspired by nature. They can be moved and dismantled and are simply tethered to the river bed, integrated motors can rotate the discs so their orientation to the sun is maximised throughout the day.

In other words, no new technology required, just some clever design. My concern would be recreational or commercial river traffic (how “disused”must the waterway be?). Would waves from wake disrupt the solar lilies? What about an impact on wildlife or wildlife’s impact on the panels? What if the river ices over in the winter? One hopes a pilot project would figure out the kinks.

What do readers think – would a product like this in your local water way make an impact on your community?

Amazing Solar Powered Buildings

The combination of solar power technologies and architecture are creating a whole new aspect of solar design. Every person has their own individual idea on what looks good and what doesn’t and now this is being applied to solar power structures. We are at a point where we are moving away from bulky solar panels and integrating renewable energies into building designs. Take a look at some of these buildings and you’ll see what I am talking about.