American Yossi Abramowitz, Kibbutz Ketura member Ed Hoflind, and their US-based partner David Rosenblatt have built Ketura Sun, Israel’s first commercial solar energy field. On these twenty acres of land in the Negev desert, 18500 photo-voltaic plates convert the sun’s energy into electricity. Only 1% of Israel’s electricity currently comes from renewable energy sources, but entrepreneurs like Abramowitz hope to change that. With funding from Siemens, Ketura Sun began operating last June, and it now generates nearly five megawatts for the national grid at peak performance. Although it’s a fraction of Israeli’s daily peak usage of 11000 megawatts, the Arava Power Company plans to build 50 more solar fields in the next five years. This is expected to greatly alleviate Eilat’s dependence on diesel. Israel has a national goal to generate 10% of its electricity using renewable sources by 2020, which will be 2.76 gigawatts. There is also an interim goal of 1.6 gigawatts by 2014, and the government expects 460 megawatts from solar power. Arava has plans for 500 megawatts capacity, and competitors are expected to add a further 1000 megawatts. This puts the country largely on schedule for the 2014 and 2020 targets, although some say the government is not doing enough. However, solar energy is still more expensive than natural gas, and analysts say removing restrictions on solar energy fields could result in price increases for consumers. SOT Arava Power Company President Yossi …

Power through the roof! New technology in wind energy has arrived. www.vortexwindfunnel.com

Hank explains the power of solar energy and describes how it may fit into our diversified energy future. Follow SciShow on Twitter: www.twitter.com Like SciShow on Facebook: www.facebook.com TAGS: solar energy, solar power, desert, power, watt, watts, coal, fossil fuel, natural gas, oil, nuclear, tidal, hydroelectric, wind, biomass, photovoltaic, photoelectric effect, edmund becquerel, efficient, efficiency, international space station, polysilicon, silicon, n-type, p-type, distributed power, concentrating solar power, power plant, plant, turbine, concentrated photovoltaic, CPV, gigawatt, hydrogen fuel cell, feasible, feasibility, law of conservation of energy, climate change, global warming, carbon, emissions, electric, electricity, scishow, science, infusion, hank green

13-year-old Aidan Dwyer developed a new way to collect solar energy, and along the way sparked a fierce debate among scholars and scientists. He joins the News Hub to tell his story.

Some homeowners are installing wind turbines in their backyards. These windmills are connected to the grid, and deliver renewable, green energy to the owner’s home. MarketWatch’s Stacey Delo talks with San Francisco homeowner Robin Wilson about putting in a wind turbine in an urban area. Video originally aired October 8, 2008. Check out more videos at www.wsj.com

An urgent message from the UK solar industry. Tens of thousands of jobs are at risk within the next few weeks. Act Now: www.oursolarfuture.org.uk In 2007 David Cameron pledged his support for feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. On the 31st October 2011 his government slashed feed-in tariffs by 50%. This move threatens 4000 businesses and tens of thousands of solar jobs in the UK. Greenest government ever? We ask David Cameron to ‘Cut, don’t kill solar’, support our solar future at www.oursolarfuture.org.uk

greenpowerscience.com This is a good option for anyone wanting to experiment with DIY solar panels but do not want to use hot solder. This works good if you have a good clean connection and you are willing to sacrifice about 5% of the solar cells over all watt output. You can actually make smaller panels this way increasing the wattage per square meter and saving on glass dimensions. This option works perfectly for joining together broken cells and making artistic designs with solar scraps that really produce power. This option is also perfect for solar model builders as this makes the panel one semi-rigid piece.

This is part one of a video series for DIY enthusiasts on how to make a vertical axis wind turbine that will turn an axial flux PMA(permanent magnet alternator), which will be featured in another separate series. Message me for a free copy of the plans or send me an email @ xXladXx@live.ca Cheers!

intermission from the tanker project close up look at a wind turbine generator

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