Beyond Gravity plans US push after fivefold boost in European solar mechanism output
Beyond Gravity is weighing expanding solar array drive mechanism production in Florida to support Golden Dome and other U.S. space projects, after doubling manufacturing space in Europe for hardware that keeps satellites pointed toward the sun.
Boeing turns to 3D printing to speed production of satellite solar arrays
So, the Crane Estate is the place I based my #SolarPunkSunday microfiction piece on. While it doesn't have the #SolarArray of Star Island or a #WindTurbine (yet), it is making good use of a cistern that was installed there by the original owner -- which catches rainwater off the roof for future use! Also, there was a wind turbine on nearby Eagle Hill, but it was damaged in 2018 by an electrical fire, and is being torn down rather then repaired. However, both Eagle Hill and Castle Hill would be good places to catch sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean!
The Trustees of Reservation Have A Mission…
November 22, 2011
"When Chicago industrialist Richard T. Crane, Jr. built his palatial summer home in 1928, he planned carefully for the estate’s water needs, using state-of-the-art technology-after all, the Cranes made their fortunes manufacturing plumbing supplies. As part of a plan that included wells throughout the estate, he arranged to harvest rainwater from the roof of the Great House and store it in an underground cistern next door.
"Over the years, that cistern was forgotten, says Robert Murray, superintendent of the Crane Estate, as water lines easily brought potable water up Castle Hill. The echoing chamber stood empty, just below the surface, for perhaps 60 years, until plans got underway for a major replanting on the Allee-the storied tree-lined lawn that rolls from the Great House down to the sea.
" 'As we were planning for the Allee restoration, we knew that we had to make provisions for irrigation in the event of a mandatory town-wide water ban,' Murray says. A drought would be the undoing of the substantial investment in new trees along the half-mile landscape. The organization estimates they could collect 180,000 gallons of rainwater a year from the roof-enough to take care of those young trees until they can stand on their own.
"The cistern revival is symbolic of a rethinking of the mission and goals of the Trustees of Reservations, a 120-year-old organization dedicated to preserving and protecting more than 100 special places in Massachusetts-some 20 of which are found on the North Shore. It was one of the first land trust organizations in the country, so shifting its time-honed methods wasn’t a natural move. But in response to changing times that demand more agile environmental action, the Trustees launched its 2017 Strategic Plan to make the organization more relevant in an age of eco-upheaval. The emphasis on the environment is not just a feel-good plan-the Trustees have 75 miles of coastline property that they are the first to admit could very well be radically altered by global warming."
[...]
"These properties feature, in a relatively small geographic area, a range of natural, cultural, and historic resources that are representative of the Trustees’ broader network of properties: historic structures like the Great House on Castle Hill, the Paine House on Greenwood Farms, and the Old House at Appleton Farms; important historical collections; significant natural and planned landscapes; coastal habitats, grasslands, marshlands, and agricultural lands."
Read more:
https://www.nshoremag.com/faces-places/the-trustees-of-reservation-have-a-mission/
#SolarPunkSunday #LandPreservation #Massachusetts #LandTrusts #HistoricBuildings #WalkingTrails #NewEngland
Une nouvelle branche de l'évolution, menée par les machines et pas par les organismes biologiques, venait de naître. (2/2)
Silicon solar power specialist gets $21 million for mass production
How do we #protest?
We #WearAnN95 indoors in public places. We don't dine indoors, go to concerts, or sports games. We take a "vacation" every 5 years, otherwise we #StayHome. I depressed my wages/left the #workforce because I didn't want to work for the rich, wealthy, or #oligarchs. We went from 2 incomes to 1. We #homestead as much as we can. We have a #SolarArray & drive a #hybrid. We eat #EthicalMeat. We have a #garden 3 seasons out of the year.
We consume less than in the #BeforeTimes.
Firefighters in #ScioTownship are the latest to go #solarpower. A new 40-kilowatt #solararray is taking shape, less than a year after township leaders declared a #ClimateEmergency.
Beginning on Wed, March 8, installers with Homeland Solar were at work setting up a new array of #solarpanels at the township fire station at 1055 North Zeeb Road, just west of #AnnArbor. It’s the latest upgrade for the facility that underwent a renovation in recent years.
Green Roofs Could Help Improve Solar Panel Efficiency
There's been a movement in architecture over the past couple of decades to help tie together large urban developments with plant life and greenery. We've seen a few buildings, and hundreds more renders, of tall skyscrapers and large buildings covered in vegetation.
The aesthetic is often a beautiful one, but the idea is done as much for its tangible benefits as for the sheer visual glory. Naturally, there's the obvious boost from plants converting carbon dioxide into delicious, life-giving oxygen. However, greenery on the roofs of buildings could also help improve the output of solar installations, according to a recent study from Sydney, Australia.
The solar installation on top of Daramu House, Sydney, complete with greenery on the roof. Source: UTS Report
The study was led by Dr Peter Irga of the University of Technology Sydney, with a report published for the City of Sydney. The opportunity for the study came about precipitously, thanks to two similar office buildings located side by side in downtown Sydney. Each building had a photovoltaic solar system installed on the roof to generate electricity. On one building, plenty of plants were placed on the roof and around the solar panels, while the other building was left bare.
Over an eight month period, the roof loaded with greenery was 3.6% more efficient than the bare roof over the course of the experiment. The difference between the two was as much as 20% at peak generating times. This led to the green roof netting 69 MWh of electricity versus 59.5MWh for the bare roof. The extra 9.5 MWh generated over the period of the experiment is worth a full $2595 at local market rates.
The key to the difference in performance came down to temperature. Solar panels don't work as well at higher temperatures, with Irga noting that "Temperatures above 25 degrees make photovoltaic panels less efficient." This can be problematic in a place like Australia, where sunlight is abundant in the summer months but daily temperatures routinely span from 30 to 45 degrees Celsius.
A graph showing the difference in performance between the solar installations on the two buildings. Arrows A, B and C point to areas where urban shading caused a discrepancy.
However, note the large boost the green roof array receives at peak times. The cooling effect is most important during full sun conditions when temperatures are highest.
Source: UTS Report
Green roofs cool buildings through a process called evaportranspiration, or more accurately, the twin processes of evaporation and transpiration. Water from the soil and other rooftop surfaces is evaporated, reducing heat in the air. Additionally, small holes in the plants of the green roof, called stomata, are essentially the pores with which the plant exchanges gases with its surroundings. The plants lose water through these stomata to the atmosphere, further adding to the cooling process. Ideally, the vast majority of this water comes from rainfall, avoiding irrigation costs that can spoil the efficiency and environmental benefits of the roof as a whole.
Reportedly, temperatures were on the order of 20°C lower on the green roof compared to the otherwise identical bare-roofed office building. This is a remarkable figure, and one that speaks to the quality of the green roof design in the experiment. This comes down to careful selection of the right plant species, which are able to survive and thrive on the roof while also providing good cooling performance.
Thus, this significant temperature drop allowed the solar panels to remain in a much more efficient operating range, leading to that 3.6% efficiency gain. This figure was determined under simulated lighting conditions, in order to eliminate differences in the urban environment around the two buildings from spoiling the result. It may not sound like much, but huge amounts of money are spent every year researching for single-point percentage gains in solar panel efficiency. In comparison, providing a cheap natural cooling solution can have a remarkably outsized effect.
Rooftop solar installations and green roofs alike must be designed carefully to deal with shading from surrounding buildings. This can impact the amount of power that can be generated, as well as require the use of appropriate plant species for the amount of sun available.
The green roof provides other benefits, too. The study reported that the roof absorbed almost 9 tonnes of greenhouse gases throughout the experiment, and reduced storm water outflows significantly as well. The plants were also much appreciated by the local wildlife. The team noted that insects and birds quickly flocked to the greenery. Even predator species were spotted up on top of the building, something that was surprising to see on a tower in the central business district of Sydney.
Overall, it's a project that demonstrates a lot of net benefits. Additionally, it needn't only be limited to green roofs. Other solar installations could benefit from co-located greenery which naturally cools its surroundings and leads to better solar array performance. Expect more research in this area, particularly in a localized fashion. Green roofs and similar technologies are highly dependent on local climatic conditions, and often need to be designed to work with the local flora and fauna as well. For those that dive in, it appears there are significant gains to be had!
#currentevents #featured #science #green #greenroof #greenery #photovoltaic #photovoltaics #plant #plants #solar #solararray #solarpanel #solarpower
ISS Gets Roll Out Solar Panels in Post-Shuttle Fix
Astronauts are currently installing the first of six new solar arrays on the International Space Station (ISS), in a bid to bolster the reduced power generation capability of the original panels which have now been in space for over twenty years. But without the Space Shuttle to haul them into orbit, developing direct replacements for the Stations iconic 34 meter (112 foot) solar "wings" simply wasn't an option. So NASA has turned to next-generation solar arrays that roll out like a tape measure and are light and compact enough for the SpaceX Dragon to carry them into orbit.
Space Shuttle Atlantis carrying part of the ISS truss.
Considering how integral the Space Shuttle was to its assembly, it's hardly a surprise that no major modules have been added to the ISS since the fleet of winged spacecraft was retired in 2011. The few small elements that have been installed, such as the new International Docking Adapters and the Nanoracks "Bishop" airlock, have had to fit into the rear unpressurized compartment of the Dragon capsule. While a considerable limitation, NASA had planned for this eventuality, with principle construction of the ISS always intended to conclude upon the retirement of the Shuttle.
But the International Space Station was never supposed to last as long as it has, and some components are starting to show their age. The original solar panels are now more than five years beyond their fifteen year service life, and while they're still producing sufficient power to keep the Station running in its current configuration, their operational efficiency has dropped considerably with age. So in January NASA announced an ambitious timeline for performing upgrades the space agency believes are necessary to keep up with the ever-increasing energy demands of the orbiting laboratory.
Made in the Shade
Replacing the Station's original "Solar Array Wings", or SAWs, with new ones isn't really an option. For one thing, they're far too large. Even in their retracted position, each SAW is more than 4.5 m (15 ft) long, considerably larger than what can be fit into the Dragon's trunk. SpaceX likely could have come up with some Dragon variant capable of carrying expanded payloads, as they've already been contracted to do as part of the Artemis lunar program, but the time and cost involved would have been prohibitive.
But more importantly, removing the SAWs would be a massive undertaking that would undoubtedly be plagued with unexpected problems. The first step would be retracting them, but as pulling just one of the arrays in turned out to be a six hour nightmare when ground controllers last attempted it in 2006, the chances of getting all eight of them collapsed into a more manageable configuration would seem pretty poor. Plus the procedure would need to be done without disrupting normal operations aboard the Station, and afterwards, the old panels would need to be safely disposed of in some way.
Approximate size of new panels compared to original SAW.
Instead, NASA decided to take the easy way out: rather than actually replacing the old panels, they would simply install smaller panels directly on top of them. By not altering the original SAWs, the installation procedure would be far safer for the Station, and it would also allow the new panels to take advantage of the existing sun-tracking mounts. Naturally this means a sizable portion of the original SAWs would be in permanent shade, but given the higher efficiency of the new panels, it still ends up being a net positive in terms of energy production.
But that only solves half of the problem. These new solar arrays would still need to be compressed into a form small and light enough to fit into the back of the Dragon.
Rolling Out ROSA
The solution, developed through a collaboration between the Air Force Research Laboratory and Deployable Space Systems, is the Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA). Without the rigid strictures and hinges used in traditional deployable solar arrays, the ROSA can be stowed as a tight cylinder and unrolled once moved into its final position. The integrated booms on either side of the solar panels are made of a composite material, and are able to unfurl the array using nothing more than the potential energy stored when they were coiled up on the ground. This capability makes them highly reliable, and holds particular promise for future applications where human intervention may not be possible.
A prototype ROSA being tested on the ISS in 2017.
The first two ROSAs arrived at the Station earlier this month as part of the SpaceX CRS-22 mission, with the other four expected to be delivered before the end of the year. Installation of each ROSA requires two spacewalks, one to install a modification kit to the existing SAW structure, and the other to mount and unfurl the panel. NASA says that when deployed, each of the 18 m (60 ft) ROSAs will produce approximately 20 kilowatts; roughly equivalent to what each degraded SAW is currently delivering.
Astronauts prepare the first ROSA for installation.
Technically there's no reason ROSAs couldn't be installed over all eight of the original SAWs, but at least for the time being, NASA believes the additional 120 kilowatts the ISS will receive with six upgraded arrays will be enough to meet current and future power demands. It's also likely that, in classic NASA fashion, they want to keep one pair of SAWs in their original configuration on the off chance that there is a problem with the modified arrays.
But the International Space Station is just the beginning. Assuming they work as expected in low Earth orbit, NASA plans on installing similar roll out arrays on the Gateway lunar outpost. This small space station will serve as a rallying point for astronauts travelling to and from the Moon's surface, as well as a proving ground for the next-generation technology that could eventually take humans to Mars and beyond.
#currentevents #hackadaycolumns #news #space #internationalspacestation #iss #nasa #solararray #solarpower #spaceshuttle
SpaceNews
DoomsdaysCW
Tainome
Sand Hill Thicket
Guppy@ロケみる集会
David Ano
hackaday unofficial
