Cell Phone Companies going Green

I read the following article with great interest. I worked in the wireless telecommunications industry for over 12 years... for companies both big and small. Businesses are big energy users. While the article talks about cell towers... using 4 to 8 times the amount of electric as a single family home, and there are over 200,000 towers, this is really only the 'tip' of the iceberg as it relates to the wireless phone companies. Cell phone companies operate thousands of retail stores, switching centers, customer service centers and business offices. They have technical teams visiting the cell towers on a regular basis. All these activities consume a great deal of energy. On top of that .... they all have millions of customers who have to charge their cell phone on a regular basis.... for many everyday.

I am glad to see that they are working towards alternative sources of energy. They need to continue to do so.... and the company that makes the transition the fastest will certainly benefit significantly. I am confident that consumers would be happy to do business with a truly green telecommunications provider.

..... I know many people who would love to buy a solar cell phone charger.... priced at less than $50 ..... come on cell phone companies..... lets put one out there in the marketplace.

FOXNews.com

Greener Cell Power Presents Challenges

Saturday, March 08, 2008

By DAVID TWIDDY, AP Business Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When wireless industry technicians speak of "green" cell towers these days, they're not just talking about making them look more like trees.

They're talking about towers powered by wind turbines or solar panels, antennas that get backup energy from hydrogen fuel cells and geothermal cooling for computer equipment.

Cell phone companies are experimenting with these and other strategies to reduce their increasingly ubiquitous industry's environmental impact.

To be sure, the "greening" of wireless communication is still in its infancy. The vast majority of the nation's more than 200,000 cell towers and antennas run off the same electric grid everybody else does. And even companies experimenting with alternative energy plan to limit its use to backup power.

The average cell tower requires four to eight times as much power as a typical household, and cell companies say power from conventional supplies is still cheap compared to alternative sources. They say they would use green power mainly in remote areas where towers don't face the same aesthetic and zoning limits as in neighborhoods and cities.

Wireless companies aren't seeing big demand from subscribers for sustainable technology, said Jackie McCarthy, director of governmental affairs for PCIA _ The Wireless Infrastructure Association.

"I think we're hearing a lot more about dependability in terms of the wireless network," McCarthy said. "I don't think the whole 'green' wireless site development (issue) has really gotten to our infrastructure providers yet."

But carriers say it's important they consider environmentally friendly technology, especially if it can save them money.

Sprint Nextel Corp. began seriously investigating alternative energy in 2004 and has since deployed hydrogen fuel cells at several of its roughly 65,000 sites.

"It solves a lot of issues for us regarding the traditional use of diesel generators," said Bob Azzi, Sprint Nextel Corp.'s senior vice president of field engineering and operations.

The company has also installed a wind turbine at its headquarters, is experimenting with geothermal cooling as a replacement for conventionally-powered air conditioning in warmer climates and is testing mini turbines in California that are fueled with natural gas and used for backup power.

"It has the advantage of being quieter," he said of the mini turbines. "They're more reliable and we think they're more efficient than traditional diesel power generators."

Miles Schreiner, director of national operations planning for T-Mobile USA, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, said his company last year began using a small number of hydrogen fuel cells in the Northeast "mainly to kick the tires and see how it does."

He said the fuel cells cost twice as much as standard batteries or generators and are valued primarily because they are reliable and have lower emissions. He said the company also is making limited tests with solar and wind-powered systems.

"One advantage to alternative power is you get some kickbacks from states in terms of tax incentives," he said. "We're looking at the viability of the long term. We're a business like any other carrier so the question is, 'Is the trade-up and capital outlay worth the costs?'"

AT&T Inc., the nation's largest wireless carrier, said it is working on alternative energy but declined to give specifics.

A spokeswoman for No. 2 Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain's Vodafone PLC, said Verizon is considering alternative energy.

(This version CORRECTS the name of Miles Schreiner, who was wrongly named 'Mike Schreiner' previously.)

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Solar Chargers

We all have numerous consumer products that operate off battery power. They include laptop computers, cell phones, electric razors, bluetooth ear pieces, GPS devices, power tools and so much more. There are also remote control toys, golf carts, scooters and so much more.

I have a friend who has looked into the possibility of finding a solar battery charging system to charge his electric scooter so that he could be 100% alternative... off grid. However, there doesn't seem to be a ready to use, off the shelf, system available to directly charge his scooter battery. He will have to use solar to charge a battery then use that battery to charge the scooter battery.

This seems like too many steps and an unnecessary added expense.

To help spread the use and acceptance of solar and alternative sources of energy... we need to have small systems which will help consumers to take small steps. While it will only save a small amount of energy... every bit will help to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and help improve the environment.

Solar Energy from Suns Heat

The following is very exciting news. The establishment of a solar energy facility, in Arizona, that will power 70,000 homes. The technology is interesting because it uses the suns heat... rather than the suns light to generate electricity.

While this technology will work in limited places, it does highlight once again the diversity of technologies and sources of power available.

The US, and world, needs to continue to support and develop numerous technologies to find the ones that have the least impact on the environment and the lowest costs.

CNN.com 2/22/08

Arizona to become 'Persian Gulf' of solar energy

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- A Spanish company is planning to take 3 square miles of desert southwest of Phoenix and turn them into one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

Abengoa Solar will build a plant like this one they built in Spain in Arizona to supply 70,000 homes with power.

Abengoa Solar, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend -- a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix.

The company said Thursday it could be producing solar energy by 2011.

Abengoa would build, own and operate the $1 billion plant, named the Solana Generating Station.

Solana will be enough to supply up to 70,000 homes at full capacity.

APS filed for approval of the plant with Arizona's public utilities regulator Thursday. The plant also hinges on an extension of the federal solar investment tax credit, which APS and Abengoa said they're confident will happen.

If approved, the plant will triple the amount of renewable energy APS produces. Now, about 1½ percent of the utility's energy comes from renewable sources.

Arizona regulators are requiring utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, with annual increases of roughly 1 percent.

The Solana plant will bring APS to around 5 percent in 2011, said Don Robinson, the utility's senior vice president of planning and administration.

Unlike most solar energy, Solana will use the sun's heat, not its light, to produce power. Gila Bend can get as hot as 120 degrees in the summer.

Abengoa CEO Santiago Seage said the plant will use thousands of giant mirrors to harness the sun's heat. That will heat up liquids, which will spin turbines -- just like coal or other power plants but without the pollution.

He said using heat will allow the plant to produce power even after the sun has gone down.

"We receive the heat from the sun, and we use a fluid that becomes very hot. And we can keep it hot for a long time and release that heat for a long time," he said. "It's like coffee. You can make it hot, keep it hot for a few hours and drink it anytime you want."

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said she envisioned the state as a solar powerhouse.

"There is no reason that Arizona should not be the Persian Gulf of solar energy," she said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Advances in Solar Cells

There continues to be many advances in solar cells... article below talks about how solar cells are being designed to look and act like roof shingles. Hopefully one day... roofing material will include a solar energy component.

Latest Solar Cells Look Like Regular Roof Shingles

Friday, June 22, 2007

By Lamont Wood

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Photovoltaic cells designed to resemble wood roofing shingles, at least from a distance.

For instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has been testing various forms of photovoltaic roofing products for the past year on roofs in Maryland to calibrate their output.

Brian Dougherty, project manager, said the test includes tile (popular in the Southwest), slate (popular in Europe) and shingle (popular everywhere). All of them have inactive areas where the roofer can drive nails and not short out any circuits.The result of the NIST test, expected later this year, will be a technical report on the underlying technologies rather than a buyer's guide to brand names, Dougherty said.

Tired of your roof just soaking up rays and not pulling its load? You're not alone.

Increasing numbers of people are putting their roofs to work generating electricity. And that does not necessarily mean installing unsightly steel-and-glass solar energy modules.

Today you can get photovoltaic shingles (or tile, or slate) that will do the job and still look like a roof.

But he said that efficiency ranges from 6 percent of the incoming solar power being converted to electricity, to about 16 percent.

"Shingles are just getting started — most of the market is still roof-mounted modules," cautioned Paul Maycock, president of Photovoltaic Energy Systems Inc. in Williamsburg, VA.

And he was not sure that the situation would ever change dramatically, since most existing roofs were not designed with solar energy in mind.

Working roofs

"You look for a south-facing roof that is not shadowed by trees or by another building, and you cover it as best you can," Maycock said. Solar energy modules can be mount on racks on the roof to catch the sun to best advantage, although the results may be quite unsightly.

"With shingles, you are stuck with the roof you have, and with the less-desirable results that it gives you. So in many cases you just don't do it," Maycock said.

So it's no surprise that most of the photovoltaic (PV) roofs are in new upscale residential construction in the sunny Southwest, where the cost of a PV roof (about $14,000 for 2 kilowatts of capacity, according to Maycock's figures) would fit in the mortgage's round-off error.

Taxes and power

Additionally, California and New Jersey offer tax credits that actually make solar power economically sensible, Maycock added. (Other states offer less juicy tax credits, and the Federal taxman offers one that caps out at $2,000.)

Maycock figures that the cost of electricity from a PV roof is about 40 cents per kilowatt hour, but that tax credits can reduce that figure to 20 cents.

The national average for utility power is 12 cents, but the price ranges between 16 and 21 cents in California, and as high as 24 cents in parts of New York State, he said.

To make PV roofing pay, the local utility must also offer "net metering" meaning that your power meter can run backward while your roof is sending excess power to the grid, reducing your bill.

(Even with a south-facing PV roof, 70 to 80 percent of an average home's power will still have to come from the utility company.)

Net metering is available in about 20 states, Maycock noted.

Copyright © 2007 Imaginova Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

How Solar and Wind Electric Systems Work

I added two new page to the AltEnergyStation.com website today. How Solar Electric Systems Work and How Wind Electric Systems Work. I primarily discuss how small home systems work and their components. Included are some great diagrams.

I'd encourage everyone to check it out, let me know if you have any feedback.