Solar Panels Costing 25% Less

A startup company from Canada, Day4 Energy, has introduced new solar panel technology which will increase energy efficiency while decreasing costs by 25 percent. President of Day4 Energy, George Rubin, has estimated that the cost per watt of solar power from his products would be about $3 compared to $4 for conventional panels. After months of research and experimentation, Day4 has developed a new solar panel that has evolved in design and performance. The company has redesigned the solar-cell structure and developed a new electrode that allows the panels to absorb more light and operate at a higher voltage, which increases the efficiency from an industry standard of 14 percent to 17 percent. In the end, these solar panels will generate more power than conventional panels do.

In conventional solar panels, the silicon that converts light into electricity is covered with a network of silver lines that feed into thicker wires called bus bars. Day4 replaced the bus bars with rows of fine copper wires coated with an alloy material, and in turn, created a new electrode. While covering up less silicon than the bus bars, it leaves more area for absorbing light. Less silicon was used to create this new electrode, which allows more light to pass through the surface to be converted into electricity. Although these new panels won’t be available for another 18 months, they are already in production.

www.day4energy.com

Superior Dairy Brings Back the Flattop

(Image courtesy of the New York Times)

The common milk jug has been in the marketplace for quite a while, so it’s not surprising that its redesign would cause some reservations among consumers, but Canton, Ohio-based Superior Dairy and its offshoot Design Edge, felt the need to take the task on nonetheless.  Working in the company founded by his ancestors five generations ago, Greg Soehnlen redesigned the jug by extending the flat sides upward, flattening the top, and moving the pour spout to the corner opposite the handle.  These refinements have eliminated the need for plastic crates for storage and transportation, as the new jugs may be stacked on top of one another with shrinkwrapped cardboard bands (all to be recycled afterwards) in between, which has had the added benefits that water is no longer needed for cleaning crates, labor is reduced, and more milk may be delivered by each truck (4.5 gallons/cubic foot instead of 3) in a much shorter time frame.  In fact, Superior claims that they have cut overall water use by up to 70%, and due to the jug’s efficiency, can make less delivery trips to retail locations, and thus reduce fuel consumption.

In spite of some complaints that one has to learn a new way to pour from these jugs due to the different spout, Superior’s jug may be taking hold, having been sold at Sam’s Club in limited quantities for some time already, and poised for wider distribution at Wal-Mart and beyond - who knows, it might even show up at your local supermarket sooner than you think, considering the direct correlation it has with lower fuel consumption.  Examples like this make clear that as resources become more scarce and skyrocket in value, manufacturers and retailers will be forced to develop smarter solutions to packaging, and pass along the sustainable and cost benefits to their well-informed consumers.  As Sustainable Packaging Coalition director, Anne Johnson suggests, “What are the materials we are using? How are we using them? And where do they go ultimately?” will be some common questions that we will get used to asking in the years to come.

Sustainable Packaging Coalition

OLPC’s Second Act Coming in 2009

Picture this: an elegant portable electronic device with dual touchscreens that can be transformed into virtual keyboards, a hinge to allow it to be used horizontally or vertically (like an electronic book), that is extremely energy efficient (running on just one Watt!).  Sounds cool, right?  Well, you’re looking at it.  It’s the XO-2, representing the next generation of Cambridge, MA-based One Laptop Per Child’s (OLPC) XO laptop for children in the developing world, with a proposed launch date of 2010.  Why did the organization decide to announce it so early?  According to founder Nicholas Negroponte, formerly of MIT’s Media Lab, it was to essentially stimulate the market, in the hope that it might actually be copied by other companies, so as to bring costs down, as well as widen the effort in general, to introduce the latest technologies to educational programs in developing countries throughout the world .

Following the introduction begun last year, of the XO into countries including Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, and even the US and Canada, OLPC determined that it had to redesign the device and lower its price (to $75, if possible), in order to make it even more accessible for young children.  If the proposed enhancements indeed come to fruition, the XO-2 will certainly have a lot going for it, with the added benefit that it may aid the design and development of super efficient electronics for the developed world as well, especially in light of our ever strained electrical grid.  While you wait for this impressive device to hit the market, OLPC will reintroduce their laptop donation program later this Fall, in case you are interested in supporting their efforts.

For further information, please visit OLPC Wiki for updates and information on how the project is proceeding.

A Great Idea from Moixa Energy Limited

London-based Moixa Energy has developed a NiMH battery that can be recharged using the innate electricity generating power of a computer’s (or monitor’s, game console’s, etc) USB ports, with an embedded LED indicator to reflect status of charge. Currently, the AA cell is the only model available, but the company will soon expand their product line to include AAA, C, D, 9V, and even specialized batteries for cell phones and PDAs. In their “Environment and Recycling FAQs” page, Moixa even speak to the environmental impact of the packaging in which the batteries are shipped, how the cardboard itself is recyclable, and that they are in the process of finding a biodegradable replacement (PLA perhaps?) for the plastic blister pack.

The USBCELL certainly represents a great step forward in making sensible electronics-based products with lower environmental impact, and for that, Moixa Energy won both a Gold award at the 2008 iF Product Design Awards, and a 2008 New Energy Award. However, it is important to keep in mind that for American consumers, the batteries still have a certain carbon footprint due to their shipment from the UK, which is an issue all too common to the majority of consumer electronics today, which are manufactured beyond our borders (that is, until the onset of a substantial U.S.-based green technology sector). Although less environmentally toxic than NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) batteries, it is still important to ensure that USBCELLs be properly disposed of when no longer useful. Moixa Energy will even accept USBCELLs purchased from USBCELL.com back via a freepost address, and one may visit Earth911.com’s Battery Recycling resource page for some great tips on how to recycle those bought elsewhere, as well as links describing the range of battery technologies.