June 2008 Archives

The awkwardly named HYmini is a unique little wind and solar powered battery charger that is designed to mount directly to a runners arm, bicycle post, or other tubular moving object... A Rascal perhaps?? Who says the elderly can't be green too...

Unlike the the uber popular Solio, which is based on a similar "portable battery" concept and is limited to solar charging functionality, the HYmini incorporates wind power. This is a great feature for those cloudy Seattle days or for those of you up in Alaska during the darker months. Aside from it's variety of charging options, the HYmini also includes a cornucopia of charging dongles including one for LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and of course the uber popular iPod and iPhone interface. With the base battery+wind unit priced at just $55 and each solar panel being $25 with the option of placing up to three in series, this is a sweet deal! Our order also included a special bike adapter which added another $9 bringing the grand total to $95 which is still lower than a single Solio.



At such a low price one might wonder if any corners were cut in the design or packaging. We're happy to say that our unit is performing like a champ and what's more impressive, each component was packaged in low impact recycled paper (card board) with lead free ink so there aren't as many gray costs with this product as some other. The solar panel itself is actually designed to permanently remain in the card board package it is displayed in. In some ways this makes it less durable but it's definitely  saving materials up front.

We purchased our unit from CurrentEnergy.com out of Dallas Texas and received the iPod adapter free of charge. Customer service explained that due to the popularity of that particular interface it was being provided to all customers for free. Check out their store and tune into their Current Energy Report podcast on iTunes.

The following resource is a joint review presented by Solar Power Authority and our friend in Colorado, Solar Dave. You can see his full article on inverters here and his article on panels here.

Best solar panels to use, best brand of solar panels for value vs. efficiency, based on a short interview with Dan Yechout of Namasta Solar

• SunPower and Sanyo solar panels are two high efficiency and high end brands which means you get the most power per square foot but also the highest cost per watt. SunPower is preferred by many buyers because they are completely black in color all-black and blend in nicely, they don't have silver strips or noticeable lines.
  
• Sharp and Kyocera solar panels are lower efficiency and lower cost solar panels which may be good if you are not limited by space. Sharp has a new racking system called SRS (solar racking system) which is easier to mount and more aesthetically pleasing but less flexible.
  

Best solar Inverters to use with different brands of solar panels, based on a short interview with Dan Yechout of Namasta Solar

• Sun Power - has their own line of inverters because their panels have reverse polarity (are positive grounded) they get inverters from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) inverters from Xantrex or SMA.
• For Sharp and Kyocera solar panels SMA and Fronius are preferred based on reliability in the field and high efficiency
  

The price of installing solar panels and building a complete solar system varies state by state due to government regulations, tax incentives, and the price of labor. Since Colorado and California are two states that get a lot of sun and have a lot of environmentally conscious residents we've put some resources into helping you understand how installing solar panels in those states can work.

This article and video interview is a collaboration between Solar Power Authority which is based in Northern California and Solar Dave who resides in Colorado. The interview itself took place with a resident of Golden Colorado who worked with a small local installer called Sunspot Solar trying to save money by taking a "Do It Yourself" (DIY) approach




enhanced transcript for visually impaired or those with slow internet connections:

The total cost of the solar power system and materials was twenty two thousand dollars. I ended up spending about another eighteen hundred in permit fees and a structural engineer and four hundred for an electrician, along with several hundred dollars for a guy to come help me out for a couple of afternoons.

Xcel Energy gave me a $16,538 rebate which is a fixed rebate based on the number of kilowatts I was installing, it has nothing to do with how much I paid the permit office or the electrician. My final cost after rebate to install the solar panels was $7,237.

I started my research in solar power systems about one year before I actually installed my own. I went out and got a couple of bids from some of the local solar people both from contractors that my friends had used as well as just searching the internet. While talking to one of the local solar guys, Steve Cross from Sun Spot Solar, I asked how hard it would be to do some of the installation myself and learn along the way. Steve said he definitely supported do it yourself solar installations and I asked him for a second bid which ended up being a lot lower.

I gave Steve my electric bills and said this is how much I think I need to generate and he said I agree and lets do these types of panels 180 Watts each, he said I would need around 19 to 22 solar panels to generate 180 Watts and ultimately we figured out that 21 panels fit on my roof pretty well.

So I went and got all the permit information from Golden Colorado and Excel Energy and began filling it out. Steve came by for a half hour visit one day to help me complete the Xcel application on the internet and after that day he let me email him any more questions I had.

The way it ended up working out is that we ordered the equipment together and Steve dropped it off in my driveway, after that one of his installers came out and helped me for a couple of afternoons to actually carry the panels (since they weigh about fifty pounds) but beyond that I basically put the entire solar rack system on the roof myself.

I think we sketched out on the side of one of the solar panel boxes how they were all going to wire together so that we get three rows of series with seven panels in each series strung together, that way the amperage works out.

I let his installer run the conduit because that is pretty much a one person job and then I paid an electrician to plug it all in for me.

We just received this friendly press release for a local company, Coherent, Inc. just down the road in Santa Clara, CA, Enjoy! Be sure to regularly check our solar power industry events calendar for more info on this and other solar events...

June 16, 2008 - Coherent, Inc., the leading manufacturer of lasers and laser-based solutions for the solar industry, today announced that Finlay Colville, Director of Solar Marketing, will speak at IntertechPira's Photovoltaics Summit 2008 at the Hilton San Diego Resort in San Diego, CA on Thursday, June 19, on current and emerging laser applications within the solar industry.

"The summit is a great opportunity both to share some of the novel laser processes currently being implemented within new production line equipment used by solar cell manufacturers, and to connect with some of the world's leading companies active throughout the solar value chain," Coherent's Director of Solar Marketing Colville stated. "Lasers are currently used in c-Si cell manufacturing for applications such as edge isolation and laser grooved buried contacts, and in thin film panel production at the cell interconnection or patterning stages. Non-contact laser based equipment is set to become the preferred choice of tooling within next-generation production lines where high-efficiency concepts are increasingly adopted on thin sub-200-micron thick wafers."

The 3rd annual international summit runs from June 18-20 and focuses on business and technical innovations in the solar industry. Over the course of three days the conference program will feature two keynote presentations, 22 plenary session talks, two panels and two half-day pre-conference workshops. In all, 35 industry leaders from around the globe, including India, Australia, Japan, Germany and the US, will provide a comprehensive assessment of the global market, finance and investments, developments in crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV), the outlook for silicon feedstock and manufacturing, advances in thin films and future generation PV, balance of system (BOS) and applications.

ABOUT IntertechPira's Photovoltaics Summit 2008 - The summit will address the most salient business and technical issues facing the global PV industry. This conference will bring together industry experts, manufacturers, researchers and end users for a balanced, comprehensive discussion of the opportunities and challenges surrounding photovoltaic markets, investment, production, applications and technological requirements, challenges and breakthroughs. For more info go to: www.pvsummit.com or www.photovoltaicssummit.com.