Solar Impulse, the group whose goal is to fly an airplane around the world propelled solely by solar energy, has proven that night flight using solar energy stored in batteries in possible.

On July 7, 2010, just before 7 in the morning, the prototype Solar Impulse HB-SIA took off from Payerne military airfield for a memorable flight.

André Borschberg piloted the solar-powered aircraft with a wingspan of 64 meters on a non-stop flight lasting more than 26 hours. In the night of July 7-8, the Solar Impulse flew using solar energy stored in the batteries in the course of the day.

It was intended to be the longest and highest flight in the history of solar-powered aviation: the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) immediately awarded the Solar Impulse three new world records in the Solar Powered Airplane class. Based on the technical organization and adjudication by the Swiss Aero Club, the FAI ratified the following flight records, owned by André Borschberg:

- Absolute height: 9235 m

- Height gain: 8744 m

- Duration: 26 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds

Visit a 3-D animation that explores the Solar Impulse plane inside and out at http://www.solarimpulse.com/index.php.

WASHINGTON

Purchases of green power help to prevent greenhouse gas emissions and also help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity across the United States.

To participate in the challenge, a local government must join EPA’s Green Power Partnership and use green power in amounts that meet the program’s purchase requirements. The local government must also conduct a campaign to encourage local businesses and residents to collectively buy or produce green power on-site in amounts that meet EPA requirements.

More than 30 cities and towns in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin have become green power communities, and are collectively buying more than 900 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from the electricity use of nearly 80,000 average American homes.

The campaign is designed to expand upon the successes of the program, aiming to double the total aggregate amount of green power used by EPA Green Power Communities. As part of the national campaign, communities will compete to see which one can use the most green power and which one can achieve the highest green power percentage of total electricity use. There will be a separate award for each category with national recognition and special attention from EPA. The winners will be announced in September 2011.

During the challenge, from Sept. 20, 2010, to Sept. 1, 2011, communities will be ranked for the two award categories on EPA’s website on a quarterly schedule; EPA will also provide technical assistance to help participants increase their green power usage.

Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. Green power resources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conven tional power technologies, and produce no net increase of greenhouse gas emissions.

More information on EPA’s Green Power Community Challenge:http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/gpcchallenge

More information about EPA’s Green Power Communities:
http://epa.gov/greenpower/communities/index.htm

Hoboken

If you’re jumping into this exciting new field, Photovoltaic Design & Installation For Dummies is a fun and easy way to get a grip on key concepts, mathematical and electrical fundamentals, and overall process. While helping you become a member of the quickly rising green movement, this green collar handbook teaches the earth-friendly ways to stretch homeowners’ dollars, lessen the carbon imprint, and increase your skill set.
Other lessons include:

• Piecing Together Your Photovoltaic System Design
• Before Survey to First Installation—Overlooked Tips
• Safety First, Solar Energy Second
• Perfecting the Nuances: Don’t Miss a Ray
• Big Brother’s Watching: Avoiding Code Mistakes

Whether you’re a building professional looking to expand your business and skills to meet the growing demand for solar power installation, you’re seeking a career in this rapidly expanding field, or you just want to save some serious dough at home, Photovoltaic Design & Installation For Dummies has you covered!

About the Author:

Ryan Mayfield is president of Renewable Energy Associates, a consulting firm providing design, support, and educational services for commercial photovoltaic systems. He is also photovoltaic systems technical editor forSolarPro magazine, where he also regularly contributes feature articles.

About the Book:

Photovoltaic Design & Installation For Dummies^® (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-59893-1, $24.99) is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling (877) 762-2974.

Should you install a small wind system for a building or development? In some cases, this alternative energy system is starting to make sense.

The U.S. market for small wind energy systems is prospering. According to an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) report, it expanded 15% in 2009 and accounted for about half of the units sold in the entire world. Small wind systems are defined as those with rated capacities of 100 kilowatts (kW) or less, and are used primarily to power individual homes, farms, and small businesses.

See video of Ron Stimmel.

“Federal and state incentives now make it much more affordable to invest in a small wind turbine, and the market expanded in 2009 thanks largely to those incentives, optimistic investors, and popular demand,” said AWEA Manager of Small Wind Systems and Legislative Affairs Ron Stimmel, author of the report. “We’ve also seen domestic manufacturing investment grow, with nine small wind turbine production facilities opened or expanded in the U.S in 2009. The U.S. small wind turbine market is by far the world’s largest, both in terms of installations and of manufacturing.”

According to the AWEA, there were approximately 250 companies worldwide that manufacture, or plan to manufacture, small wind turbines in 2009. Ninety-five of them are based in the U.S., up from 66 in 2008, and at least 12 of the U.S. companies have begun to sell their turbines commercially. The vast majority of the world’s wind turbine companies are in start-up phases, and roughly half the world market share is held by fewer than 10 U.S. manufacturers.

It’s generally accepted that a small wind system makes sense in rural and off-grid applications where the wind is free from interference from a city’s structures. Even on top of very high buildings, the wind flow is turbulent, and today’s turbines need a strong laminar flow to work well.

The World Trade Center in Bahrain was the first skyscraper to integrate wind turbines in its design. Three 1,200-megawatt units are suspended between its 787-foot office towers.

Architects have taken on this challenge and have begun to design buildings that enhance wind turbine performance and adding wind scoops to their designs. And turbine manufacturers are taking advantage of buildings’ designs, manufacturing turbines that work with the increased wind velocities at a building’s parapets where the wind rises up to the façade and curls over the edge.

According to AWEA’s Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study, 187 units were reported sold for used in urban/rooftop settings in the U.S. in 2009, representing 400 kW of installed capacity and less than 2% of the U.S. market. Most of the building-mounted models manufactured today are a vertical-axis configuration.

Generally, the report concludes, “building-mounted installations face challenging performance obstacles due mainly to the turbulent and unpredictable nature of winds around buildings and other structures. Any turbine installed in a location or manner that limits its access to the wind resource will render its performance (i.e., output, measured in kilowatt-hours) below that of a turbine installed in an area where there is a robust, consistent wind resource. A small number of companies are working to address the difficulty of siting building-mounted turbines by using software and other computer models to predict wind resources more accurately in these environments. To date, however, siting and performance challenges have severely limited the size and potential of the market for building-mounted turbines.”

In spite of the challenges for building-integrated small wind energy systems, interest is high. A wind turbine can be a beautiful feature on a building, although unlike many other decorative elements, a wind turbine can be productive. For some, it’s a way of advertising a building’s greenness, although if the blades aren’t spinning, the message can be lost.

Hybrid wind and solar or wind and diesel systems are proving popular in remote locations.

Many small wind energy systems are hybrid installations with photovoltaics or diesel. “Hybrid systems using both wind and diesel generators, usually for remote applications, continue to be an important part of the commercial / light industrial market,” the AWEA report says. “In 2009 approximately 20% of turbines 50-100 kW were sold for wind-diesel hybrid systems, nearly all of which were in Alaska.”

Currently available tax credits and rebates are strong motivators to install a small wind energy system. The AWEA report estimates price ranges for a well-sited small wind turbine to gravitate between $3 and $6 per watt, and $0.15 to $0.20 per kilowatt-hour.

Costs and cost-recoupment periods can vary due to the following factors, ranked in approximate order of importance in the report:

• Availability and quality of state incentives and state/utility net metering policies
• Average annual wind speed
• Prevailing costs of traditional electricity. Installations tend to be most cost-effective in regions where the cost of utility-provided electricity exceeds $0.10 per kWh.
• Cost of equipment, installation, and maintenance.
• Estimated operations and maintenance (O&M) costs average $0.01 – $0.05 per kWh. Other calculation methods place O&M costs at roughly 1% of the retail cost of an installation, accrued annually
• Sales and property tax rates (and incentives)
• Raw manufacturing materials
• Insurance
• Method of financing
• Permitting costs, which can range from $0 to $1,000+ depending on the zoning jurisdiction
• Application type. Installations for businesses may benefit from special tax incentives.

Certifying turbines

Performance data on this new technology is sparse. Enter the Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC), a brand-new, independent certification body, that certifies that small wind turbines meet or exceed the requirements of the AWEA Small Wind Turbine Performance and Safety Standard.
In December 2009, AWEA finalized a technical standard that can now be used voluntarily to test small wind systems to performance and safety criteria which meant that third-party organizations like the SWCC can now certify systems tested to this standard.

This certification provides a common North American standard for reporting turbine energy and sound performance, and helps small wind technology gain mainstream acceptance. Thirteen companies have applied for certification with SWCC, which SWCC says will take at least six months. It expects the first companies to be certified sometime in late 2010. The DOE and EPA indicate they will rely heavily on SWCC certification when granting selective Energy Star labels to qualified equipment. See related story, “Small Wind, Big Breakthrough.”

Certifying installers

The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) plans to begin the process of certifying small wind turbine installation professionals in the fall of 2010. This voluntary program aims to offer experienced installers an opportunity to identify and market themselves as experts in their field. Installation is an important factor in a turbine’s performance, cost, and public acceptance.

Consumer demand continues to be fueled by a combination of the following factors listed by the AWEA, although economics and environment remain primary concerns:

• Economics
• Length of payback period, or IRR*
• Financial hedge against rising prices of conventional electricity
• Financial stability compared to volatile prices of conventional electricity
• Practicality
• Reliability of electricity supply
• Natural synergism with solar PV technology
• Diversity of applications, including those remote and off-grid
• Values
• Environment
• Independence
• Image enhancement
• Consumer choice
• Self-reliance
• Do-It-Yourself
• High visibility, particularly for commercial consumers
• Drivers Specifically For Real Estate Developers
• Marketability of a “Zero-Energy Home”
• Practicality of integrating small wind and solar hybrid systems
• Possible availability of rebates for both developers and consumers
• Whether installation cost can be built into the price of a property
• Role in defining the progressive character of neighborhood
• Appeal of “renting vs. owning” electricity

Case studies:

Cincinnati Zoo

Pearl River

Boston Science Museum

St. Olaf Wind Turbine Case Study

McKee Park

Southwest Windpower case studies

Kansas Small Wind Projects

Wisconsin village installs two wind turbines at wastewater plant

Related stories:

Small Wind, Big Breakthrough

Links:

AWEA Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study 2010

How to install a small wind system

DOE’s Small Wind Guide

How wind turbines work

Videos:

An introductory webinar on how a small-scale wind energy system works, what is the most suitable solution in your case and, if it makes sense, how to start planning and building your installation, with a case study using the RETScreen analysis software.

SWCC has started the certification process for small wind turbines.

The small wind industry took a big step when the Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC) announced the first 13 turbine models that have begun the process of SWCC certification to the American Wind Energy Association Small Wind Turbine Performance and Safety Standard. SWCC began accepting applications in February to verify the durability, function, power performance, and acoustic characteristics of small wind turbines in accordance with the AWEA Standard. SWCC anticipates it will certify the first turbine by fall 2010. Most of the turbines with pending certification applications will receive certification decisions in 2011.

The SWCC has Pending Certification Applications from American Zephyr, Bergey Windpower, Cascade Engineering, Endurance Wind Power, Eveready Diversified Products, Renewegy, Seaforth Energy, Southwest Windpower, UrWind, Ventera Energy, and Xzeres Wind. For a complete list, including turbine models, see the SWCC website.

“It’s exciting to see so many turbine manufacturers submitting applications to the Small Wind Certification Council in its inaugural months,” said Larry Sherwood, Executive Director of the SWCC. “The standardized certification will be a big breakthrough that will help drive the growth of small wind.”

Certification will enable consumers to make more informed decisions about small wind turbines. But, more importantly, states and utilities can use SWCC certification as a means to qualify turbines that are eligible for incentives. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) accepts SWCC certification for qualification for rebates, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) requires either SWCC certification or NYSERDA qualification. As of January 1, 2012, small wind turbines without certification will no longer be eligible for incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon. Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy has established a new provisional incentive for small wind turbines pending certification.

Several other states and utilities have identified SWCC certification as a pathway to eligibility for incentives or expect to require certification as a requirement for eligibility for funding or interconnection, including programs in: California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, and Vermont.

SWCC certification is an independent confirmation that a small wind turbine has been tested and designed according to the requirements of the AWEA Standard. Visit www.smallwindcertification.org for more information on the certification process. SWCC will update the list of pending applications on its website as new pending applications are accepted.

Boston Museum of Science wind turbine.

BOSTON—In partnership with the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the Museum of Science, Boston installed the nation’s first museum-based rooftop Wind Turbine Lab in the summer of 2009. As the centerpiece of its new Catching the Wind exhibit, the Museum installed nine wind turbines of five different types during Earth Month 2009. A symbol of the Museum’s Green Initiative that will change the Cambridge-Boston skyline, the lab will demonstrate turbines that small businesses and homeowners can mount on their own roofs, while generating valuable experience to help government officials and renewable energy professionals make informed decisions about projects and policy.

Two turbines are in place on the Cambridge side of the Museum’s roof. Three other kinds of turbines are mounted on the Museum’s Boston side. One type, a bank of five smaller turbines, is visible only from the Charles River. The largest of the five types is 40 feet tall; the smallest, about seven feet — with 5- to 18-foot diameters.

Intended to be a powerful teaching tool, the Museum project is both a public exhibit on wind energy and a laboratory, yielding original research data on the effectiveness of five small building-integrated turbines.

A Learning Experience

“This is a giant science experiment,” says David Rabkin, Farinon Director for Current Science and Technology at the Museum. “No one has tested five different small turbines in a rooftop laboratory. Although there’s lots of interest in small-scale wind turbines, we found little data on their performance and impact. Despite a year of collecting data on the wind at the Museum, we still don’t really know enough about the turbines to predict their performance.” The Museum will investigate their strengths and weaknesses by monitoring local wind conditions and wind power generation data. Presenting the differences in design and function of five kinds of wind technologies and what one needs to consider in using them, the project will engage the public in critical thinking about an important source of renewable energy.

AeroVironment designs wind turbines for building parapets.

The Museum initially explored wind turbines as a way of generating clean electricity and creating a compelling complement to a wind power exhibit. But a year-long study by Boreal Renewable Energy Development of Arlington, MA, showed the Museum site to have limited wind resources and to pose engineering and permitting challenges. As a result, the Museum and the Renewable Energy Trust refocused the project on generating as much practically useful information and experience as possible.

The Museum shares all of its findings through interactive displays, programs, a website, and other outreach to the public including the companies whose innovative technologies are being tested. Thus the project serves both as education for the general public and as a resource for renewable energy professionals, building managers, and government officials.

Inside the Museum at the Catching the Wind exhibit, visitors can find out how and why the turbines produce electricity, while also monitoring live wind and power data via a system designed by Apterra Technologies of Stow, MA. In addition, visitors can literally feel how strong the wind needs to blow to turn a turbine and generate electricity using interlocking gears. After learning about what to consider when selecting and siting a turbine, visitors can try their hand at the Wind Power Challenge game, choosing a location and a turbine type to see if it could power their home, business, or community. Visitors will discover the stories of several different sites across Massachusetts where turbines were—and were not—installed, including the Museum’s own case study. A map of Massachusetts identifies the windier areas of the state.

A Commitment to Sustainability

Building the country’s first museum-based wind turbine lab involved immense challenges from the start. In addition to obtaining variances and permitting for both Cambridge and Boston, the three-year project involved selecting and siting the turbines to maximize wind exposure, visibility, and safety in five different ”microclimates.” Each turbine was its own engineering project. The Museum also worked with its neighbors, community groups, the Charles River Conservancy, the Charles River Watershed Association, the cities of Boston and Cambridge, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and many other groups to assess the turbines’ impact on the neighborhood, local zoning, and area wildlife. Unlike the “not in my backyard” response to some industrial turbines, the Museum’s project has elicited public support from neighbors and the cities.

Estimated Power and Costs

“At our site and with today’s economy, we need to think of the project as an exhibit and science experiment with some economic payback, not a business proposition,” says David Rabkin, Farinon Director for Current Science and Technology at the Museum.

The Swift wind turbine at the Boston Science Museum.

Small turbines, like those on the Museum roof, costing from $5,000 to $40,000, can generate up to 6 kilowatts—enough to power a home or a small business. (Large turbines, like those in the Nantucket Sound’s Cape Wind project, have rotors reaching 300 feet in diameter generating up to 5 megawatts of power.) The Museum hopes to generate enough electricity to power two or three suburban homes, only a fraction of the Museum’s total power use. Because of its complexity, the lab cost about $300,000.

While there’s uncertainty about how the turbines will perform, the Museum’s best estimate is that each of its turbines might produce the following percentage of electricity used in a typical American home:

• Mariah Power Windspire: about 15% (with a 1.2kW at-peak vertical-axis turbine about 10 meters high)

• Southwest Windpower SkyStream 3.7: about 22% (with a downwind, horizontal-axis, 2.4kW design and a 3.7-meter rotor diameter)

• Cascade Engineering Swift: about 18% (with a 1.5kW upwind, horizontal-axis and a 2.1-meter diameter, featuring unique rotor and tail designs)

• A bank of five AeroVironment AVX1000 turbines: about 60% (a directional design for building parapets to take advantage of higher speed winds rushing up and over buildings, each unit rated at 1kW peak with a 1.5-meter diameter)

• The Proven 6: almost 75% (with a 6kW downwind, horizontal axis and a 5.5-meter rotor diameter)

The Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, New Jersey, the Da Vinci Science Center, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland, Ohio, all feature individual wind turbines, some as high as 150 feet, but the Museum of Science is the only museum testing five different types and experimenting with roof installation.

Support

The Wind Turbine Lab is made possible with support from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and the Charles Sumner Bird Foundation with additional support from Keren Schlomy, Esq., Rubin and Rudman LLP, and New England Wind Systems. Special thanks to Boreal Renewable Energy Development, Titan Electric Corporation, the Cities of Boston and Cambridge, MA Audubon, the Charles River Conservancy, the Charles River Watershed Association, and the communities of East Cambridge and Boston’s West End.

Catching the Wind is made possible by support from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust with funding from Bank of America and the Charles Sumner Bird Foundation. Additional support has been provided by: ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), Holy Name Central Catholic Junior Senior High School, Massachusetts Port Authority, Newton South High School, Andrew Stern, the Town of Hull, and TRC Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRR).

Both the exhibit and Wind Turbine Lab are also supported by a gift from the Francis Wright Davis Fund.

The exhibit is ongoing and included with regular Exhibit Halls admission, mos.org.

The 309-meter Pearl River tower's sculpted body directs wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors, where traveling winds push turbines which generate energy for the building.

Architects of the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM)- claim the 71-story building is one of the most energy-efficient skyscrapers in the world.

“Our team was able to design to the forward-looking, ambitious goals that were set out, and this milestone in the building development process is a great achievement for CNTC Guangdong Tobacco Corporation, most importantly, this project can only be successful with the support of the land owner, property developers, interior designers, contractors and the local architect and engineer,” said Richard Tomlinson, managing partner, SOM.

The 2.3-million square-foot tower redefines what’s possible in sustainable design by incorporating the latest sustainable technology and engineering advancements. Due to the unique shape of the building, as well as the wind and seismic loads imposed on the tower, the design integrates structural systems, in both steel and reinforced concrete are utilized. Among the structural innovations are integrated wind turbines. These turbines, which are fed from funnel-like openings in the façade, are supported on floor slabs occurring within the opening zones and are laterally braced against the floor above. The 309-meter tower’s sculpted body directs wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors, where traveling winds push the turbines which generate energy for the building.

The 2.3-million square-foot Pearl River tower.

Bill Baker, SOM structural engineering partner, commented, “Structural engineering solutions must be integrated with the architectural and sustainable engineering designs so that they are inseparable. It is the collaboration between our structural engineering, architecture and sustainable engineering practices that allow a building such as Pearl River Tower to become reality.”

A series of other sustainable design and engineering elements, including solar panels, double skin curtain wall, chilled ceiling system, under floor ventilation air, and daylight harvesting all contribute to the building’s energy efficiency. While many of these sustainable attributes have been incorporated individually into skyscrapers around the world, according to SOM, the Pearl River Tower design represents the first time that they are used collectively.

The vertical axis wind turbine was installed in 2008 at McKee Farms Park.

Madison Gas and Electric installed a vertical axis wind machine in late fall 2008 in Fitchburg’s McKee Park to study whether this technology holds promise for electricity generation in its urban area.  Although this was a new technology for Wisconsin, urban wind turbine technology has seen more than 25 years of operation in Europe and other continents.

The 3-foot-wide by 12-foot-tall, 10-kW urbine turbine is installed atop a 30-foot pole ext to the parking lot by the main park shelter. The unit starts producing energy at a wind speed of 4 mph and makes full power at 35 mph.

The wind turbine at McKee Park.

Turbine features:

• Quiet operation
• Vanes do not gather snow or ice while rotating
• Wildlife see it; are less likely to fly into it
• Manufactured in Finland by Oy Windside Production Ltd.
• Costs about $40,000

Over the next several years, MGE will monitor the urban turbine’s wind production. Check out the turnbine’s live data reporting.

The Cincinnati Zoo has installed a 30-foot wind turbine.

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden installed a 30-foot-tall Windspire® wind turbine in the Zoo’s Go Green Garden to help power the ticketing and membership building. Along with the solar panels in the Go Green Garden, the turbine will meet approximately one-fourth of all of the power demands for the building.

“The Zoo is a natural champion of environmental sustainability” said Walt Borland, Windspire Energy CEO & President. “We are excited that the Windspire® will now be a part of their efforts to demonstrate how easy it is for any us to help protect our most important habitat – Planet Earth.”

Considered a relatively small wind turbine, it provides a low-cost, safe and energy efficient method for harnessing power from the wind. It produces approximately 2,000 kilowatt hours per year in 12 mph average winds. This is approximately one-third to one –fifth of the energy usage of an average U.S. Home, or roughly enough energy to run a dishwasher and refrigerator for an entire year.

Taking green steps is not new for the Cincinnati Zoo. The Zoo holds the reputation as the greenest zoo in the country and takes that role very seriously, always looking for new ways to introduce visitors to Going Green. The Go Green Garden highlights the Zoo’s green efforts in terms of energy efficiency, green building design, water conservation, solid waste management, storm water management and land stewardship.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Cincinnati Zoo has received many “green” awards. The Zoo was named the 2008 Conservation Partner of the Year by the Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District and received the Cincinnati Sustainability Award from the American Institute of Architects in 2009. And, in 2010, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland declared the Cincinnati Zoo ‘the greenest zoo in the country’. To learn more about how you can “Go Green” log on to www.cincinnatizoo.org and click on “Saving the Earth.”

By Tiffany Barnes

Solar cookers like this can be used in areas where there is no electricity.

The second year of SolarDay - Saturday, June 19 – is another step forward to the ambitious goal of having SolarDay celebrated in 40 countries by 2014.

SolarDay 2010 will be recognized by events in many U.S. cities this year (www.solarday.com/events) along with solar industry events likewise held on Saturday, June 19.

It’s all part of a worldwide recognition that solar alternatives exist to provide needed electricity and light to the stunning number of people, estimated to be more than 1.6 billion with no access to electricity.

SolarDay’s Light the Night and Solar Villages programs are planned to grow into the use of very low-cost solar as a tool for beneficial changes in the developing nations who need electricity for the most basic of functions, including:

1 – Providing electricity to pump clean water.

2 – Providing electricity to process crops, enable telephone and internet communication, enable solar-generated, battery-powered lighting for adults and children in villages all over the world – from India to Indonesia, Africa to South America – to learn at night, conduct commerce and improve their lives.

3 – Providing basic electricity and lighting to small villages currently without electricity and far from power lines for the most basic of needs which those of us in the developed countries take for granted.

4 – Working with solar manufacturers and the solar trade organizations in the developed countries in partnership with the United Nations, non-profit organizations and NGO’s to identify the areas of greatest need to implement these beneficial programs.

SolarDay 2010 in North America

Since its creation last year, SolarDay has grown from one event in San Francisco, California, in 2009 to nearly 50 events across North America in 2010.  In addition to highlighting aspects of ‘green’ living and climate change, cities and organizations are planning events for SolarDay that focus on educating residents about renewable energy programs, rebates and incentives available at the city, state and federal level.

The SolarDay Mission Statement

To create a national and international day of awareness and celebration of SolarDay, including:

• The many benefits of solar energy and energy independence,
• The creation of more sustainable lifestyles and businesses,
• The adoption of green and clean-technology that does not adversely affect the planet and the atmosphere,
• Through SolarDay activities in the U.S. and worldwide experienced by hundreds of millions of people and governments with the objectives of 40 nations participating by 2014.
• Gain official recognition of SolarDay by the U.S. government and other governments as an annual day of recognition of solar energy and the goal of energy independence as a fundamental part of citizen and business sustainability objectives for the country.
• Improve the lives of people who have no access to electricity.

About SolarDay

SolarDay (www.solarday.com) is a global day of recognition and celebration of solar energy, sustainability, energy independence and protection of our planet.

SolarDay was founded in 2009 in San Francisco, California.