Dutch engineer students get ready to compete in the 2013 World Solar Challenge

Young engineer students from all over the world are busy getting ready for lift off for the 2013 World Solar Challenge that is to be held in Australia from Oct 6-13. The conditions for the competition influence teams to invent and build the most efficient and unique looking vehicles that stand out. As many of you know, the vehicles will require many solar panels for them to be operational on the road. Therefore, being able to compete with other teams will require some creativity involved while in the process of having it mechanically possible.

“The project started with the first ideas in March last year, we wondered why there was no car yet that is practical, comfortable and drives purely on solar energy,” Lex Hoefsloot, team manager Solar Team Eindhoven, told the News.

Australia's Ring of Fire!

On Friday, May 10, while Americans were looking forward to getting gifts for Mother's day, Australia was able to witness an extraordinary sight. Australians were lucky enough to experience a second solar eclipse in a period of 6 months. The phenomenon is known as a "ring of fire eclipse", leaving only a small circle of light visible. The previous eclipse was a total complete blackout of the sun which is known as a "total solar eclipse". Australia had shared pictures through google+ and other social networks that day, having #solareclipse go into the top 5 most talked about topics on Google +.

The World's First Solar-Powered Helicopter Takes Flight

      As projects like the Solar Impulse and NASA's Helios wing has been recently developed, the idea of propelling aircraft using solar power isn't as fanciful or impossible to accomplish as it seemed before, even if they are still in experimental stages. Before long, we'll surely be able to see solar power used to aid traditional airplanes, even if it is not accompanied by main fuel.
     To show what is possible, a team of master students from the United Kingdom have built what they believe to be called the world's first "solar-copter," a quadrotor that flies solely on solar power. At the moment, it is capable only of short flights but the team had claimed that it should fly longer soon, once they enabled it to have a storage system as well.

     "The Solar-copter is a quadrotor design that incorporates a solar panel providing the power for the propulsion system," the six students had commented. "It is controlled in the same way as a standard battery-powered quadrotor. Optimum thrust-to-weight ratio was mainly achieved through an efficient propulsion system, unique frame design and an optimized solar panel."

     Future versions may be useful in activities such as surveillance, search and rescue, and tracking animal migrations, perhaps in Africa, Australia, Middle East, and Southern Europe, where there is more sun than in England. Its technology could also help increase the range of conventional choppers, and perhaps give other solar aircraft, such as the Solar Impulse, better maneuverability and control.

Solar "Power" Couple Wins Award

        Dr. Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang were joint recipients for an Advance Global Australian Award for contributions to the field of clean technology. The award ceremony, organized in partnership with the Australian Government and the Australian Financial Review, was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on March 21, 2013.
        The pair, who are the first Chinese-Australians ever to receive this award, also won a special Australia in the Asian Century Award for their contribution in the Asia region. Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, also made a video speech to them to endorsing the award. "Jianhua and Aihua were excellent students and staff members here at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and prolific researchers," says Scientia Professor Martin Green, Director of the AFC Photovoltaics Center of Excellence, and who nominated Dr. Zhao and Dr. Wang for the award. "They took us to the position where we can now make the most efficient cells in the world and nobody yet has been able to catch up. They are both well-respected internationally and have played an influential role in establishing China as a major producer of solar power and PV technology."
        In 1999, the pair developed the high efficiency crystallized Silicon PERL cell and set a new record, demonstrating 25% energy conversion efficiency, which remains the highest level achieved in the world so far.
       In 2004, Zhao co-founded the Chinese solar cell and manufacturing company China Sunergy, where he is now Chief Technology Officer and Director. Wang, who also completed her Ph.D. degree and worked at UNSW for more than a decade, is the company's Vice-President of research and development.
       The duo are now leading China Sunergy's participation in an 863 program, a National High Technology Research and Development Program in China that supports and encourages the development and commercialization of solar cells with a high efficiency rate (over 20%) and a low production cost.

Source : UNSW

New Solar Energy Generator installed inside Fiji!

Bernadette Careon - Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor

Suva, Fiji (4E) - Fiji got a new commercial solar power generator.

Sunnergise, the new Pacific-wide renewable energy company, marked the completion of its inaugural installation at Port Denarau Marina on Thursday.

According to Fiji news, the system is the largest solar installation for a marina anywhere in the world, and was also Fiji's largest on-grid commercial solar power generator. 

"The 122 Kilowatt (KW) systems weathered Tropical Cyclone Evan intact are meeting its daily power  requirements thanks to Nadi's abundance of sunshine hours," it added.

The 333-island archipelago is located east of New Zealand and Australia and southwest of Hawaii, with only about 100 islands inhabited. The entire population is less than 900,000. 

Renewable energy has been developing in Fiji for some time now. In fact, the Fiji government has adopted a Strategic Development Plan as part of its ambitious goal to become a 100% renewable energy power-reliant by 2011.

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