Keen On Green
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Posts tagged solar
Solar Heated Community in Canada!?
Jul 31st
Think Alberta in Canada and you’ll probably think “COLD”! Well you’d be right… in fact, we’re talking -33°C in the Winter style cold! The likes of which most of us here in the UK will never experience. However, a new community in Alberta is managing to produce 90% of it’s annual heating demand from Solar Energy alone.
The development of 52 houses at an average size of 147m² have been insulated to a level 30% above the average home in Canada in order to keep the energy needs low. Around 800 solar panels have been fitted to the roof of each house and completely covering all of the garages in the development enabling them to collect 1.5MW of solar energy in a heat storage fluid. This glycol based fluid is then transferred to a central energy centre where it is stored.
Solar Energy Efficiency Boosted by Special Dye
Jul 11th
A team of American Scientists claim that the efficiency of solar panels could increase tenfold with a new method of capturing the energy from the Sun.
The technique involves ‘painting’ glass with a mix of transparent, organic dyes which collect the income light and transport it towards the frame of the glass where photovoltaic cells convert it electricity. Any light that makes it through the glass can be picked up by another set of solar cells behind the glass.