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Hello, I have a technical question for 12V solar folks.In the process of building an off-grid solar set up for my camper trailer. Just need enough juice to keep the fan running in the propane fridge and to power the blower on the propane heater plus the lights and water pump.Going to do a 200 amp hour gel battery and two 100 watt panels. A couple of months ago I bought a new-in-box 100 watt panel at an estate sale that I was told was for a 12V system. Reading the back of the panel I don't see 12V anywhere...

Solar panels are an increasingly important source of renewable power that will play an essential role in fighting climate change. They are also complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives—and right now, most of the world doesn’t have a plan for dealing with that. But we’ll need to develop one soon, because the solar e-waste glut is coming. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will...

BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. Hillary Frey, the site’sexecutive editor, and Louise Roug, the executive editor for international, will be departing in the restructuring effort. HuffPost Canada will also shutter operations later this month. A deal between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first made public in November. Verizon Media stated at the time that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would operate as “separate, distinct news organizations” with their own websites and editorial staff while BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti led...

The last few years have seen growing concern over what happens to solar panels at the end of their life. Consider the following statements: The problem of solar panel disposal “will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment” because it “is a huge amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle.” “The reality is that there is a problem now, and it’s only going to get larger, expanding as rapidly as the PV industry expanded 10 years ago.” “Contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost...

A leading activist has raised concerns over the ecological impact of solar panels — a renewable energy technology widely considered to be harmless to the environment. Michael Shellenberger — the president of Environmental Progress, a nonprofit organization working to promote clean energy — detailed the real-life impacts of discarded solar installation. Solar technology typically contains cadmium, lead and other toxic chemicals that can’t be extracted without taking apart the whole panel, resulting in entire solar panels being considered hazardous, Shellenberger noted in a Forbes article Wednesday.

Posted : 2015-11-02 16:29 Updated : 2015-11-02 20:33 NK tries out solar-powered bus North Korea's solar-powered bus / Yonhap By Kim Hyo-jin North Korea is operating a solar-powered bus in the western city of Nampo, the North's state media said Monday. "Nampo created a bus powered by solar energy and it is now being used for public transport," the state-run Korean Central Television (KCTV) said, quoting a member of the city's science and technology committee, Jeong In-sung. According to Jeong, the bus uses 32 100-watt solar panels, 50 batteries and a direct-current motor. "It has run 800 kilometers so far,...

The US government has been pushing the idea of home solar panels for quite a while now, giving the industry a significant, additional nudge when the current federal subsidy program was generously expanded in 2008. The idea behind this was that if homeowners wanted to save some money on their energy bill by using solar power, they could receive a 30% subsidy to help cover the costs. Sounds pretty sweet, eh? Well, when the government is giving away taxpayer cash, plenty of people will line up to get it… and it’s not always those who were intended to benefit. This...

LOS ANGELES -- A tiny San Jose solar company named SoloPower will flip the switch on production at a U.S. factory Thursday, a major step toward allowing it to tap a $197 million government loan guarantee awarded under the same controversial program that supported failed panel maker Solyndra. SoloPower has initiated a strategy to differentiate it from struggling commodity players in the solar panel industry. Still, there are several similarities between SoloPower and Fremont-based Solyndra -- which became a lightning rod in the U.S. Presidential campaign this year after taking in more than $500 million in government loans and then...

The fight for lower costs in solar is a never-ending battle. Those who can lower costs will survive; those who can't are headed to the scrap heap. So every quarter we watch to see where costs are trending and who is moving into a better position in the industry. Where do we stand right now? This quarter we saw costs actually rise for the first time since solar has grown into relevance. We knew costs couldn't fall forever but now we're starting to see who is squeezing a few extra pennies out of each panel. Not every company reports cost...

A billion dollars from housing, schools, hospitals and health programs was drawn into solar subsidies to provide electricity that could have been produced in far cheaper ways. There is no sunnier first world country than Australia. If solar was going to be a raging success anywhere, surely it would be in the land of the Sunburnt Country. Instead the Australian government has poured in more than a billion dollars to install solar panels on the roof tops of private homes.  It’s a text book case of misdirected spending. In the end the government drew money from the population-at-large to help...

A new type of solar panel using human hair could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, believes its teenage inventor.Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a  village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs.The young inventor says hair is easy to use as a conductor in solar panels and could revolutionise renewable energy.

Teenager Invents £23 Solar Panel That Could Be Solution To Developing World's Energy Needs ... Made From Human Hair By Daily Mail Reporter 08th September 2009 A new type of solar panel using human hair could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, believes its teenage inventor. Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs. The young inventor says hair is easy to use as a conductor in solar panels and could revolutionise renewable energy. [Pic in URL] Hair-raising: Science student Milan Karki with his...

Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, March 9, 2008; A01 GAOLONG, China -- The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word. This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Li and other villagers said....

HOUSTON - Spacewalking astronauts bolted a solar power tower to the international space station on Tuesday, completing an ambitious three-day moving process that ended with elation when the beam's giant solar panels began to unfurl. Their joy turned to concern, however, when a rip was spotted in the second solar panel. NASA needs to get the tower up and running to prevent malfunctioning station equipment from delaying the addition of a much-anticipated European research lab. A massive rotary joint is supposed to make sure the solar panel wings on the right side of the space station are facing the sun....