The housing collapse be damned, Kitson & Partners announces it will build a planned city near Fort Meyers with 19,500 homes, offices, retail shops, and light industry.
Florida Power & Light Co. would build a 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic array to supply electricity to the development's 6 million square feet of residential, industrial and retail buildings.
The planned city, Babcock Ranch, will include a smart grid to let residents monitor and adjust their energy consumptions. More than half of its 17,000 acres will be permanently protected as greenways and open space, according to the Miami Herald.
And who is behind this plan? Florida developer and former NFL lineman Syd Kitson.
Kitson, who is planning to raise outside capital as the project progresses, said he is attempting to persuade several companies to set up shop in Babcock Ranch. He is targeting solar panel manufacturers, lithium-ion battery makers and other clean-energy companies.
"We'd like Babcock Ranch to be the seed, where we could really start the R&D ... and have other companies come in and expand on that," Kitson said.
Construction crews plan to break ground on Babcock Ranch's infrastructure next year and begin building homes and offices in 2011, Kitson said. The entire city would be certified by the nonprofit Florida Green Building Coalition.
A study conducted by the economic research firm Fishkind & Associates Inc. for Kitson projects that Babcock Ranch would generate 20,000 permanent jobs in technology, retail, education, construction and other sectors over 20 years.
The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists at the University of Southampton to produce a new generation of solar cells.
The Southampton team led by Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis of the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, has developed a new range of photovoltaic devices that use a process found in vegetative methods of light harvesting, to deliver unprecedented amounts of electrical current from light.
In photosynthesis each molecule has evolved to deliver a function that complements the perpetual cycle of light to energy conversion. With the advent of nanoscience, scientists are now able to build devices of multiple nanoscale components, each one designed to deliver a specific functionality.
Professor Lagoudakis comments: "We looked at the ways that energy is funnelled in nature and through reverse engineering, using multiple nanoscale components, we designed and fabricated a hybrid photovoltaic device that can absorb light and efficiently convert it to electric current.
"These are early days but the possibilities for the application of this technology for environmentally-friendly energy production are very exciting."
University of Southampton (2009, March 3). Ultimate In 'Green' Energy: Plants Inspire New Generation Of Solar Cells. ScienceDaily.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a package to extend $18 billion in tax credits for using renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal and also provide incentives to cut energy consumption.
Solar power companies' shares rallied in early trading today, the day after the U.S. Senate voted to extend tax credits worth $18 billion for renewable energy sources.
The measure, which the House of Representatives and President George W. Bush are expected to approve, would give businesses a 30 percent tax credit to offset the development costs of solar and other clean energy projects.
The residential and business tax breaks for solar energy would be extended for eight years.
All the talk on green and conservation has led to more and more people delving into inventing new forms of solar energy. This one seems to be the most versatile of what I have seen lately because the panels are inflatable which means you could theoretically take them anywhere with you, right?
From ecofriend.org "An English company, IDC, has announced plans to mass-produce an inflatable solar panel and make it commercially available for less than $200. The SolarStore panels, which inflate from a backpack into a 2 meter square, are designed to replace hot water heaters, one of the primary consumers of power in most households. This means that you could just heat water anytime you want using these instantly inflatable solar panels."
It is capable of heating up to three full thanks. Impressive.
"How former miners transformed a pit into an energy village" the headline and reason for this village having received a Silver Jubilee Cup, the Royal Town Planning Institute's highest award.
"An industrial provident society in Nottinghamshire, which has carried out traditional northern doorstep-cleaning on a massive scale, has won the Silver Jubilee Cup, the Royal Town Planning Institute's highest award."
It's really quite fascinating if you ask me and I sincerely hope we see more of these communities cropping up in the future worldwide. "Sherwood Energy Village (SEV) is an Industrial & Provident Society. We are a fully trading company, but our profits are applied back to our Aims and Objectives rather than shareholder benefit."
A former coal mining town community of Ollerton has been made over into wha is now being called Sherwood Energy Village. Offices and homes are built in such a way that they trap and store sunlight. The entire "pit" is running on wind turbines. The energy village also includes rainwater harvesting, and is currently the construction site for some 196 sustainable homes.
I don't want to live in a pit/cult, but you get the idea of how fantastic something like this could be on a larger scale, right?
Yay! I am so excited to hear that solar panels are soon going to be far more affordable. Seems like an odd thing to be giddy over, but I know this will help a lot of people run their homes more energy efficient which means they will save money while also helping the environment.
Folks at Colorado State University are playing a huge role in figuring out how to make it easier for everyone to participate in helping their world at a lesser cost.
Professor W.S. Sampath and his research group at the Materials Engineering Laboratory at Colorado State have developed a manufacturing technology to efficiently produce photovoltaic solar cells, which can be one of the most affordable and efficient energy sources of the future.
The college has also recently made a commitment to using wind power for energy. They will be running 20 buildings on campus with wind power. This will save them $4,700 a year in utility costs!
I hope more schools begin to follow suit with Colorado State.
Working for the University of Delaware as their web developer has been such an amazing experience. Being fortunate enough to be the developer for their College of Agriculture & Natural Resources in addition to their Cooperative Extension Programs for each county in Delaware has been an even greater experience. I'm learning so much about what is going on with the farms and environment around my own home. Things I never would have known about otherwise. This has piqued my interested in finding more Energy resource information to do my part in helping out.
For the last two years, UD has been leading the solar cell initiative. There are fifteen other participating colleges in the nation. Partial funding is being received from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At UD, the goal is to create solar cells that operate at about 54 percent efficiency in the laboratory and 50 percent in production.
This spring, the U.S. Department of Energy highlighted 13 industry-led solar technology development projects for negotiation of up to $168 million (FY’07-’09), subject to appropriation from Congress; Newark, Delaware (home to the University of Delaware's main campus) was one of the 13 highlighted. There has been an abundant amount of people furiously working to find alternative energy plans. There are websites which give more information and explanations of why this is so important. Energy resources information.
I believe more and more colleges and companies will begin to put forth stronger efforts to harness solar energy as a form of electricity. Solar energy is a clean, renewable energy source and with the price of electricity and gas these days it is imperative to find other means of not only creating, but storing solar power. It is very exciting for me to be able to spread the word about what my employer is doing to aide this cause. And it's even more thrilling to know I will be developing sites to further promote alternative energy methods.
All the talk on green and conservation has led to more and more people delving into inventing new forms of solar energy. This one seems to be the most versatile of what I have seen lately because the panels are inflatable which means you could theoretically take them anywhere with you, right?
