CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

PROINSO - Solar Energy Supplies

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

promotes

PROINSO - Solar Energy Supplies

PROINSO is a company from Navarra who focuses their activities in the field of Renewable Energies and more specifically in the area of Grid connected Photovoltaics.

When conducting a photovoltaic solar installation, the choice of materials to use or the company in which we place our trust throughout the course of our project is the most important decision. The cost is an important factor, but the system to be implemented must ensure full compliance with the requirements of the project and ensure its long-term duration.
Our team focuses on the individual support for each project, analyzing and implementing solutions to ensure our facilities and engineering company achieve their project goal, i.e. the appropriate use of a renewable energy source and optimizing costs while complying fully with the features and standards required.

Our constant efforts to exceed the expectations of installers and engineering companies to whom we supply not only material, but support through our services, have resulted in high levels of customer satisfaction and a reputation for reliability earned by PROINSO within the global photovoltaic industry.

The activity focuses primarily on the Supply and Distribution of Equipment required for the development of the project, from photovoltaic modules to fixed structures and 2-axis solar tracking systems, to inverters or converters and other supply necessary for project implementation. Always using top quality, prestigious and power efficient equipment.

The projects on which PROINSO centre their Distribution are mainly focused on the following divisions following a classification depending on the location of the facility:

Grid connected photovoltaic installations on BUILDINGS using fixed structures. Installation on Roofs and distributed both to individual installers, and installers integrated into the NETWORK OF QUALIFIED INSTALLERS, who carry out the "turnkey" projects for customers with PROINSO supplying the materials in these projects.
Photovoltaic installations connected to the grid on private or public LAND. The facilities in Solar Photovoltaic Plants, which are typically carried out by large PV installers or construction companies. PROINSO can recommend several companies with which they normally work in this field to carry out an EPC contract.
From the standpoint of the classification of projects by size, PROINSO focuses on the distribution of photovoltaic material for:
SMALL private facilities from 5 kWp for individual clients on their own land or rooftops, either fixed or with solar tracking.
BIG private facilities for companies or individuals who wish to diversify their investments and want to manage their own production facilities for renewable energy.
PV SOLAR POWER PLANTS - SOLAR FARMS - for developers and private investment groups but grouped in the same facility so as to minimize the common costs of investment and maintenance, insurance and land rentals.
From the standpoint of the type of structure PROINSO provides two possibilities:
On a fixed structure, regardless of the power installed, which can be used both on roofs and on land.
On trackers, PROINSO uses a 2-axis tracking system from MECASOLAR, which is recommended to obtain the best performance of the facility. In the case of to 2-axis Trackers from MECASOLAR production increase often exceeds 35%. In the case of 1- Axis Azimuth seasonal trackers the increase is around 28%, occupying less land than 2-axis systems.

The objective of the programme of QUALIFIED INSTALLERS is to guarantee and strengthen the development of their commercial and technical activity in all aspects regarding the "turnkey" installation, with sufficient guarantees of quality, delivery times and costs to meet the needs of customers and banks who will finance the projects.

Increase your strength and capacity as an installer by joining our network of installers. Join forces with PROINSO who have more than € 400 turnover and are present in 4 countries, with over 80 MW of modules, 140 invertors and 180 MW of trackers and structures supplied in 2008.

PROINSO is committed to exclusively transferring all the demands received from clients for turnkey facilities, according to the type of project, size or area of work, that each qualified installer specifies to us.

Mecasolar is a company dedicated to the design, manufacture and distribution of state-of-the-art dual-axis solar tracking systems, seasonal single-axis azimuth trackers and fixed structures, making it possible to increase photovoltaic solar energy production by more than 35% with respect to fixed installations, offering a 10 year GUARANTEE on parts and workmanship. World-leading Mecasolar trackers and fixed structures are the securest, studiest, most efficient and profitable on the market.

MECASOLAR offers the PV energy market a wide range of structures and trackers aiming to cover the entire range customer needs in terms of photovoltaic systems. All designed and manufactured to obtain High Technology products.


1-AXIS AZIMUTH SEASONAL TRACKER
Occupy a small area of land.
Increase production by 28% compared to a fixed installation.
Polar Axis is adaptable to the various seasons of the year leading to an increase in its production by 7% compared to single-axis trackers.
SEASONAL SINGLE-AXIS AZIMUTH TRACKERS
Models: MS-1E TRACKER 15, MS-1E TRACKER 15+ and MS-1E TRACKER 15+HE

Metal structure and grill for 15,36 kWp panels.
Automatic tracking with PLC in a fully wired independent panel, including motor guards, PLC power supply, varistors, etc.
Three-phase gear motor for azimuth axis.
Hook-up/connection cabinet for storing protectors (magnetothermic, differential, power surge protection), installed and fully wired.
MS-1E TRACKER 15+ y MS-1E TRACKER 15+HE models width SMA inverters for outdoor use.

FIXED STRUCTURES
Adaptable to different land orography.
Robust and Flexible.
Maximum capacity of modules on the same structure.
SEASONAL SINGLE-AXIS AZIMUTH TRACKERS
Models: Shallow-Based Footing and Direct Bolting:
Suministro 2 MW por semana
1 Single-row Modules MS-1C FIX MS-1T FIX
2 Single-row Modules MS-2C FIX MS-2T FIX
3 Single-row Modules MS-3C FIX MS-3T FIX
Direct Bolting:
System for fastening directly into the ground.
This system avoids the need for concreting and earth moving.
Lowers the costs of foundation.
Reduces execution times, no setting time.
Eliminates environmental impact
Easy to dismantle
Orographic study of the Land included
Directly anchored into the ground by MECASOLAR

2-AXIS SOLAR TRACKERS
Allow our customers to increase solar panel photovoltaic production by more than 35%.
Robustness.
Passive Safety.
Easy to Install and Maintain.
DUAL-AXIS SOLAR TRACKERS
Models: MS-2 TRACKER 10 AND MS-2 TRACKER 10+

MS-2 TRACKER 10
V-shaped metal structure and grill for up to 12 kWp panels
PLC tracking, in a fully equipped independent electric panel
Three phase motors on both axes
Hook-up/connection cabinet for storing protectors

MS-2 TRACKER 10+
V-shaped metal structure and grill for up to 12 kWp panels
PLC tracking, in a fully equipped independent electric panel
Three phase motors on both axes
Hook-up/connection cabinet for storing protectors (magnetothermic (PIA), differential, power surge protection), fully wired
3 SMA Sunny Boy inverters installed with 3.3 kW power rating for outdoors, IP 65

In 2010 Germany represented 15.67% of total PROINSO sales, with a turnover in that country in excess of 52 million euros from a total of 332 million.

The Spanish multinational specialized in the distribution of modules, inverters, trackers and fixed structures for solar photovoltaic installations, has 141 qualified installers in Germany.

From its new office in Munich, it will boost both its presence in the German market and its network of Qualified Installers.

Qualified Installers

PROINSO DEUTSCHLAND
Radlkoferstr. 2
81373 München
Deutschland

Tel. : +49 (0)89 74 11 85 320
Fax: +49 (0)89 74 11 85 319
e-mail deutschland@proinso.net

SPAIN
Pol. Ind. Santos Justo y Pastor,
s/n
31510 Fustiñana, Navarra

Phone : (+34) 948 403 637
(+34) 902 107 048
Fax : (+34) 948 412 378
E-mail. info@proinso.net ITALY
Milano Business Park
Via dei Missaglia 97 (Edificio A1)
20142 Milano
Phone : (+39) 02 49 53 46 00
Fax : (+39) 02 49 53 46 34
E-mail. italia@proinso.net GREECE
BI.ΠΕ. Θεσσαλονίκης
Οικ.Τετράγωνο 40, ΔΑ 12α,
PO Box: 1392
57022 Σίνδος, Θεσσαλονίκη ,

Phone : (+30) 2310 799 209
Fax: (+30) 2310 570 597
E-mail. hellas@proinso.net
USA
1430 Enterprise Blvd,
West Sacramento CA 95691
United States

Phone : (+1) 916 374 8722
Fax: (+1) 916 374 8063
E-mail. usa@proinso.net CHINA
YuDa building, 4 th floor
8 TiYuChang road
310004 Hangzhou, Zhejiang province

Phone : (+86) 571 5679 2358
Fax: (+86) 571 5679 2359
E-mail. china@proinso.net CZECH REPUBLIC
17.listopadu 5259/8
586 01 Jihlava

Phone : (+420) 561 116 464
E-mail. czech@proinso.net

UK
Haywood House North
Dumfries Place Cardiff
CF10 3GA Wales,
United Kingdom

Phone : (+44) 02920 647 390
E-mail. uk@proinso.net CANADA
152 Duncan Street
Wallaceburg, ON N8A 4E2
Canada

Phone : 519 627 5230
Fax: 519 627 9064
E-mail. canada@proinso.net GERMANY
Radlkoferstr. 2
81373 München
Deutschland

Phone : +49 (0)89 74 11 85 320
Fax: +49 (0)89 74 11 85 319
E-mail. deutschland@proinso.net

EIT-ELEKTROINSTALACIJSKA TEHNICA
Ilica 431
Zagreb Kroatien
Telephone: + 38513498100 Fax: + 38513498112
Internet: http://www.eit.hr
Contact: Damir Vinkivic


Fotoelektrik d.o.o.
Babacici
22202 Primošten
Telephone: 3,85912E+11 Fax: 38512324222
Contact: Sasa Zelenbrz

SOLAR PROJEKT d.o.o.
Cesta Mira 16
Split Croatia
Telephone: +385/21/655-117 Fax: +385/21/655-117
Internet: http://www.solarprojekt.hr
Contact: Boris Tudor

More info at http://solarserdar.blogspot.com

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

FLIR - Manufacture and Marketing of Thermal Imaging Infrared Cameras

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

promotes to you

FLIR Systems

FLIR - the Global Leader in the Design, Manufacture and Marketing of Thermal Imaging Infrared Cameras

FLIR Systems Inc, (NASDAQ: FLIR) is a leading manufacturer of innovative imaging systems that include infrared cameras, aerial broadcast cameras and machine vision systems. Our products play pivotal roles in a wide range of industrial, commercial and government activities in more than 60 countries.

Pioneers in the commercial infrared camera industry, the company has been supplying thermography and night vision equipment to science, industry, law enforcement and the military for over 50 years. From predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, non-destructive testing, R&D, medical science, temperature measurement and thermal testing to law enforcement, surveillance, security and manufacturing process control, FLIR offers the widest selection of infrared cameras for beginners to pros.

With over 60 offices and the largest installed infrared camera base in the world, FLIR offers its customers unparalleled service, the best post-sale technical applications support available and world-class infrared camera and thermography applications training.

Quick facts

Employees: 3.000 worldwide
Investor Resources: www.flir.com/investor/
Rankings: #37 on Forbes: 200 Best Small Companies
Revenue: $1.1B US-Dollar (2008)
Locations: FLIR conducts business in more than 60 countries around the globe

Infrared light or thermography is the use of an infrared imaging and measurement camera to "see" and "measure" thermal energy emitted from an object. Thermal, or infrared energy, is light that is not visible because its wavelength is too long to be detected by the human eye; it's the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we perceive as heat. Unlike visible light, in the infrared world, everything with a temperature above absolute zero emits heat. Even very cold objects, like ice cubes, emit infrared.

What is Infrared?
Thermography and Infrared Light

Infrared Imaging
The higher the object's temperature, the greater the IR radiation emitted. Infrared allows us to see what our eyes cannot. Infrared thermography cameras produce images of invisible infrared or "heat" radiation and provide precise non-contact temperature measurement capabilities. Nearly everything gets hot before it fails, making infrared cameras extremely cost-effective, valuable diagnostic tools in many diverse applications. And as industry strives to improve manufacturing efficiencies, manage energy, improve product quality, and enhance worker safety, new applications for infrared cameras continually emerge.

FLIR Thermal imaging cameras

FLIR Systems offers a full range of thermal imaging cameras. Different users have different needs, that is exactly why FLIR Systems offers you a choice.

Whether you are a predictive maintenance or building professional, a R&D specialist or involved in factory automation and safety, FLIR Systems has the correct thermal imaging camera for you. Different models are available for those that are just discovering the benefits that thermal imaging has to offer and for real thermal imaging professionals.

FLIR have cameras for:

Electrical/mechanical
Building
Research & Development
Cooled thermal cameras
Automation
Gas imaging

To contact Extech directly, please call +1 781 890 7440 or visit www.extech.com for more contact options.

You can buy FLIR product in Croatia on:

http://www.flir.com/HR/

or here:

Tectra D.O.O.
Licka 33
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Phone: +385 1615 2606
Fax: +385 1615 2605
Email: novakovic@tectra.hr
Web: www.tectra.hr

Elsi Hitech Group d.o.o.
J.Gotovca 1
Hr-41000 Zagreb
Croatia
Tel: +385 145 561 55
Fax: +38 146 641 18
Email: Elsi-Hitech-group@ck.htnet.hr
Web: www.elsihitech.hr


More info at :

FLIR Commercial Vision Systems BV
Breda, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)765 79 41 94
Fax: +31 (0)765 79 41 9

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

CCRES - I’m fine with green energy

Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Solar panels along Fifth Street in Fair Lawn, N.J. Residents elsewhere were upset they had not been notified before installation.
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/04/27/science/earth/100000000793280/energy-or-eyesore.html

ORADELL, N.J. — Nancy and Eric Olsen could not pinpoint exactly when it happened or how. All they knew was one moment they had a pastoral view of a soccer field and the woods from their 1920s colonial-style house; the next all they could see were three solar panels.
“I hate them,” Mr. Olsen, 40, said of the row of panels attached to electrical poles across the street. “It’s just an eyesore.”

Around the corner lives Tom Trobiano, 61, a liquor salesman, now adapting to the lone solar panel hanging over his driveway. “When it’s up close,” he said, “the panel takes on a life of its own.”

Like a massive Christo project but without the advance publicity, installations have been popping up across New Jersey for about a year now, courtesy of New Jersey’s largest utility, the Public Service Electric and Gas Company. Unlike other solar projects tucked away on roofs or in industrial areas, the utility is mounting 200,000 individual panels in neighborhoods throughout its service area, covering nearly three-quarters of the state.

The solar installations, the first and most extensive of their kind in the country, are part of a $515 million investment in solar projects by PSE&G under a state mandate that by 2021 power providers get 23 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. If they were laid out like quilt pieces, the 5-by-2.5-foot panels would blanket 170 acres.

New Jersey is second only to California in solar power capacity thanks to financial incentives and a public policy commitment to renewable energy industries seeded during Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s administration. But what might have been a point of pride in a state better known as the nation’s leader in toxic Superfund sites has instead caused suburban aesthetic unrest.

Some residents consider the overhanging panels “ugly” and “hideous” and worry aloud about the effect on property values.

Though nearly halfway finished, the company’s crews have encountered some fresh resistance in Bergen County, where cities, villages and boroughs are in varying stages of mortification. Local officials have forced a temporary halt in many towns as they seek assurances that they will not be liable in case of injury, but also to buy time for suggesting alternative sites — like dumps — to spare their tree-lined streets.

And here in Oradell, at least one panel has gone missing.

When and where the panels will show up next can be a mystery, prompting complaints over the lack of prior notice.

“I came back from running errands and there they were,” Mrs. Olsen, 37, said. “It’s not right. They should have warned us.”

In neighboring Ridgewood, Deputy Mayor Thomas M. Riche said constituents had called, sent e-mails and stopped him on the street demanding that he halt the encroaching blight. Ridgewood, an affluent village of about 24,000, got PSE&G to cease installations after only a few had been put up, over concerns that they would interfere with the emergency communications boxes on the poles.

The talks are continuing, Mr. Riche said, adding that he is trying to steer the Ridgewood panels to a town park-and-ride lot and its public schools.

“A cluster of panels in one area is better than individual panels all over the town,” he said. “We’re not against solar energy, but there are more efficient ways than having panels on the utility poles.”

PSE&G officials said their search for maximum sun exposure could not dodge and weave residential areas in a place as crowded as New Jersey. It turns out that only a quarter of the company’s 800,000 poles are suitable for the panels, which are mounted 15 feet high and need good southern exposure.

Solar industry experts approve of the decentralized pole-by-pole approach and said it could be just as efficient and cost effective as larger installations.

“Solar is extremely flexible,” said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group based in Washington. “The utility owns the property already, and the panels can feed right into the transmission line.”

Ralph A. LaRossa, PSE&G’s president and chief executive, said that the company was also placing panels, which direct the energy they generate back into the power grid, at its industrial yards and on facility rooftops, and that it was leasing flat roofs of large buildings, including several schools in Newark. “We’re looking for ways to deploy the technology in the cheapest and most accessible way,” he said.

Yes, Mr. LaRossa said, his company could have communicated better, but he added that Bergen County had become “a pocket” of opposition in what had generally been a welcoming reception.
And not every burg in Bergen County is rebelling. Over in Fair Lawn, Mayor Lisa Swain said that her city had not interfered with the program and that she was trying to make the community sustainable in other ways, like using motion sensor lighting in city buildings.

“I’m going to do what I can,” she said.

Sean Smith, a 43-year-old airline sales supervisor in Fair Lawn, said he was fine with the seven panels on his street, especially “if it’s helping the greenhouse effect.”

“We have the kids to think about,” he said.

But his neighbor Tony Christofi, a 47-year-old contractor, wondered aloud whether Fair Lawn, by not fighting, was getting more than its fair share.

“I’m fine with green energy,” he said, “but are the savings going to be passed on to consumers?”

PSE&G officials said solar energy was still more expensive to produce than more traditional power sources and acknowledged that bills were going up 29 cents a month. Each panel produces 220 watts of power, enough to brighten about four 60-watt light bulbs for about six weeks. When complete, this project is expected to provide half of the 80 megawatts of electricity needed to power 6,500 homes.

Although he supports renewable energy, Gov. Chris Christie, through a spokesman, characterized the mandates that spawned the panel project as “extremely aggressive.” He has already asked that they be re-evaluated.

Over in Oradell, population 8,000, some residents say the new units aren’t worth the effort, producing too little power for the aggravation.

The case of the missing panel has been referred to local law enforcement.

“PSE&G takes a very dim view of people tampering with the equipment,” said Francis Sullivan, a company spokesman, “but that’s secondary to the fact that it’s just a dangerous idea.” All the units are connected to high-voltage wires.

Richard Joel Sr., a lawyer in town, said a panel close to his house had been removed, but demurred when asked if he knew details.

“I’m not saying what happened,” he said.

CCRES via MIREYA NAVARRO

Mireya Navarro is an environmental writer for The Times focusing on New York City and its region. Prior to this assignment she was a correspondent with the Sunday Styles section, based in Los Angeles, where she wrote "Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-friendly Celebration." She has also worked as Miami Bureau chief for the National section and as a Metro reporter in New York. She was part of the writing team that won the Pulitzer in 2001 for national reporting for the series "How Race is Lived in America." She was born in San Juan, P.R. She lives with her husband in Manhattan.

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

CCRES Solar Thermal Water

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES


CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

ARTAS d.o.o. Zagreb

HRVATSKI CENTAR OBNOVLJIVIH IZVORA ENERGIJE

promovira

ARTAS d.o.o. Zagreb


Električni bicikli
Dijelovi za električne bicikle

Obnovljiva energija
Vjetrenjače, solarni moduli, inverteri

Štedna rasvjeta
LED snage 1-100W, ručne svjetiljke

Permanentni magneti
Neodimijski, feritni, folije

Permanentni magneti

Neodimijski magneti - NdFeB
Najjači permanentni magneti

Magnetni priljepci
Neodimijski magneti sa rupom za vijak

Magnetne folije
Samoljepljive i klasične magnetne folije

Feritni magneti
Nova generacija feritnih magneta

Magnetni trokut
Držač feromagnetskih materijala

Magneti za prihvat
Ručno upravljani permanentni magneti

Magnetni filter - protočni
Odvajanje feromagnetskih materijala

Magnetni filter - pomične trake
Odvajanje feromagnetskih materijala

Magnetni držač
Držanje noževa, alata, ključeva

Magnetni sakupljač
Skupljanje feromagnetskih materijala

Magneti za Bijele Ploče
Držanje papira na metalnoj podlozi

Hotmag
Slagalice s magnetnim štapićima

Magnetni film
Film za gledanje magnetskog polja

Gausmetar
Mjerač jačine magnetskog polja

Stalci za magnete
Za prezentaciju magnetnih suvenira

Magnetizam
Više o magnetima i magnetizmu

Vanjske poveznice
Stranice vezane uz magnetizam

Obnovljiva energija

Solarni moduli
Električna energija iz sunca

Vjetrenjače
Električna energija iz vjetra

Solarni regulatori
Kontrolirano punjenje baterija

Baterije
Pohrana električne energije

Inverteri
Baterijski i mrežni inverteri

Otkup električne energije
Iz obnovljivih izvora

Projektiranje i ugradnja


Ušteda obnovljivom energijom
LED rasvjeta

Ručne LED svjetiljke
Snažne LED svjetiljke od 120-900lm

LED snage 1-100W
LED velike snage za ugradnju

LED napajanja 350-2800mA
Izvori konstantne struje

LED info
Preporuka za hlađenje


Kontakt

ARTAS d.o.o. Zagreb

Adresa:
Hlebinska 35, 10040 Zagreb, Hrvatska

Tel:
+385.1.2981.540
Fax:
+385.1.2981.542
e-mail:

Radno vrijeme:
ponedjeljak - petak
08 - 18 sati
Kolektivni godišnji:
01.08. - 01.09.
15.12. - 15.01.
Newsletter:
prijava - odjava
MB:
1726781
OIB:
39442250217
Žiro račun:
2484008-1101701367
Banka:
Raiffeisenbank d.d. Croatia
SWIFT:
RZBHHR2X
IBAN:
HR7324840081101701367

Način plaćanja:
Gotovinom u našoj poslovnici
Uplata općom uplatnicom prema ponudi, u pošti ili banci
Internet bankarstvom prema ponudi
Narudžba:
Zatražite ponudu e-mailom ili faksom
Pošaljite nam punu adresu ukoliko želite isporuku putem pošte.
HRVATSKI CENTAR OBNOVLJIVIH IZVORA ENERGIJE ( HCOIE )

CCRES Free Rain Barrels for New Yorkers

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
shares to you


Free Rain Barrels for New Yorkers
By MIREYA NAVARRO
New York City is giving away 55-gallon rain barrels to homeowners to help conserve water and reduce pressure on the city’s sewer system, which is often overwhelmed during heavy storms. The city started promoting the barrels by distributing a few hundred of them in Queens in 2008 and 750 more in 2009 to homeowners who applied for them. This year, 1,000 free barrels are being distributed to owners of single- and two-family homes on a first-come-first-served basis at events in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

On average, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said, as much as 40 percent of the water homeowners use goes to irrigate gardens and lawns during the summer.

The barrels, which connect to the downspout that takes water from the roof of a house and sell for about $150 at stores, are a simple way for people to save money on water bills while helping reduce the stress on the sewer system, which discharges a mix of storm water and untreated sewage into New York Harbor when it is overloaded during rainstorms, officials said.

“These rain barrels will capture thousands of gallons of water that would have otherwise flowed into the streets, leading to flooding and increasing the likelihood and intensity of combined sewer overflow,” said Cas Holloway, the city’s environmental protection commissioner.

The next barrel distributions are scheduled for:

• Queens: Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Cunningham Park, 196th Place and Union Turnpike.
• The Bronx: May 7, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Pelham Bay Park, in the Middletown Road parking lot on Stadium Avenue.
• Staten Island: May 7, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the College of Staten Island, 2800 Victory Boulevard.
More info at http://solarserdar.blogspot.com

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

ACCIONA ENERGY by CCRES

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

promotes

ACCIONA ENERGY


A global renewables operator
ACCIONA Energy, the energy division of the ACCIONA Group, is a world leader in the field of renewable energy sources. It takes on the mission of demonstrating the technical and economic viability of a new energy model based on criteria of sustainability.

ACCIONA Energy has 20 years' experience in the sector. It is present in seven technologies, has operations in 14 countries, and deploys its activity throughout the value chain.

ACCIONA Energy presents itself to the market as a global operator in clean energy, and its key characteristics are:

Operational excellence in the management of assets, achieving the highest levels of efficiency and optimizing its operations.
Capability as a project developer, with around 9,000 MW installed, either for itself or for other customers.
Leadership in innovation, as an ongoing philosophy that seeks the best and most efficient situations at any given time.


Our geographical, technological and commercial diversification, our solid asset base - with no variable production costs -, the skills of a team of more than 2,000 professionals with unprecedented know-how in the sector, and the competitive advantage of having our own technology in key areas such as wind turbine production or the design of CSP plants are just some of the differentiating features that strengthen our position in the market.

Wind power
4% of the wind power capacity installed in the world
ACCIONA Energy is a global leader in the development, construction, operation and maintenance of wind power facilities, with over 15 years' experience.

At end 2010, ACCIONA Energy had installed a total 6,270 MW of owned capacity: 5,404 MW are attributable to the Company and 1,472 MW were installed for clients. This makes us one of the leading international wind power developers and operators, with a market share of around 4% of the wind power capacity installed in the world.

Across the value chain
The standout feature of our business model is our presence across the wind power value chain: from designing and manufacturing turbines, developing facilities, financial analysis and managing turnkey projects, to wind park O&M and energy marketing or managing carbon emissions trading.

Our position as front-runners and our in-depth knowledge of the sector confirm ACCIONA Energy's capacity as a global provider of products and services across the entire wind power value chain.

Wind turbines
Home-grown technology turbines, designed to last
ACCIONA Windpower is part of the ACCIONA group and specializes in the design, manufacture, field assembly and marketing of wind turbines using proprietary technology.

Boosted by ACCIONA's experience as an operator of wind parks worldwide, ACCIONA Windpower has taken a few years to position itself among the world's top wind turbine manufacturers.

The AW wind turbine has played a major role in this progress. This robust and reliable machine is designed to meet the requirements of wind park operators who demand the best possible performance throughout the turbine's working life.

ACCIONA Windpower produces turbines of 1500 kW and 3000 kW rated power, of which it has assembled over 3000 MW. Today, AW wind turbines are to be found in more than 75 wind parks in 12 countries on 4 continents.

ACCIONA Windpower is present in the world's main markets, with production plants in Spain and the US. We combine our position as a global supplier with a strong local presence and customer-focused service, delivering direct attention and an agile and tailored service across our entire client base.

Concentrating Solar Power
Leading the way in CSP technology
Concentrating Solar Power - also referred to as Solar Thermal Power - is one of ACCIONA Energy's priority business lines and one of the renewable technologies with the best growth potential.

ACCIONA was the first Spanish company with an operational CSP plant with solar trough technology: the Nevada Solar One (NSO) facility in the Nevada desert (USA).

Grid-connected in June 2007, the 64 MW facility exceeded production forecasts by 9% in its first year in service. The satisfactory experience acquired with NSO is a guarantee for new projects in the Spanish and US markets, and also for the capital markets.

In Spain, ACCIONA Energy plans to invest around 1,200 million euros in five 50 MW plants in the short term. The first was grid-connected in September 2009, two were completed in the last quarter of 2010, the forth will be finished in summer 2011 and construction work on the fifth -already approved by Spanish authorities- will begin soon.

These five plants alone in Spain will use a clean and inexhaustible energy source - the Sun - to produce enough electricity to power more than 133,000 homes. This will avoid the emission of 421,000 metric tons of CO2 a year, with a cleansing effect on the atmosphere similar to that produced by a forest of 21 million trees through the process of photosynthesis.

In the US, ACCIONA has a large project portfolio in states in the country's south-east.

Home-grown technology
CSP plants saw considerable development in the US between 1985 and 1991; during that period nine facilities were installed in California's Mojave Desert, with a total capacity of 354 MW.

The problems that have emerged since then (for a number of reasons) are now being overcome through a new strategy aimed at encouraging the installation of renewable energy sources, both at federal and state level.

ACCIONA has proprietary technology in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of CSP plants, the most consolidated renewable energy in the market. The technical team at Nevada Solar One - part of ACCIONA Solar Power - took an active part in the facilities previously installed in California and has a track record of experience in the field.

In CSP plants, the solar field is equipped with parabolic cylinder troughs that concentrate the sun's rays onto collectors (mirrors) located on the focal line, through which a fluid circulates and heats up to high temperatures. This fluid is then used to produce steam, which drives a conventional turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity.

CSP plants have the advantage that their maximum production takes place in the middle of the day, when electricity demand is usually higher.

Hydraulic
Our second technology in terms of installed capacity

Hydropower has been part of ACCIONA Energy's activity since the Company's early days.

The Company has worked on upgrading and taking full advantage of the value of obsolete small hydro power stations, as well as constructing new plants. Our extensive experience in upgrading and construction covers not only the evaluation of the resource, but also the design, construction, operation and maintenance.

The incorporation of hydro assets acquired from Endesa as part of ACCIONA's sale of its stake in the Spanish utility has boosted our hydropower capacity. This technology now ranks second in our installed capacity after wind power, with 912 MW operational.

ACCIONA's hydroelectric power stations are controlled from our Renewables Control Center, located in Navarre, in close coordination with our different area centers, which makes for more efficient management of the facilities.

Biomass
Long-standing experience in the construction and operation of biomass plants

ACCIONA Energy is present in the field of biomass with three main proprietary operational plants with a total capacity of 57 MW. These are the Sangüesa Plant (Navarre), which entered into service in 2002, and the plants at Briviesca (Burgos) and Miajadas (Caceres) which were grid-connected in the last quarter of 2010. Additionally, ACCIONA has two 4-MW biomass plants related to cogeneration plants.

The Company has currently five projects - all in Spain- in the administrative permit stage and totaling a further 82 MW.More info at http://solarserdar.blogspot.com.

ACCIONA has considerable experience in the biomass sector, both in terms of the supply logistics of the fuel (through long-term contracts with farmers, agricultural cooperatives and straw-market professionals) and through the operation of electricity generating plants. This enables the Company to guarantee supply and product prices.

The Company also puts its experience at the disposal of clients interested in the construction of this type of facility.

Solar photovoltaic
The biggest photovoltaic plant in the world with solar tracking
ACCIONA Energy is a leader in the field of photovoltaic solar power thanks to its pioneering work in the expansion of this technology in Spain and its experience in the construction of large photovoltaic plants.

The company has worked since 1996 on the design, construction, operation and maintenance and application procedures for photovoltaic plants. It has installed 69 MWp in Spain - mostly for customers - among which we would highlight the so-called 'huertas solares'(solar gardens).

Outside Spain the company has built (and owns and operates) a 45.8 MWp plant at Amareleja (Moura, Portugal), the biggest one in the world with solar tracking. It was grid connected in December 2008, and the Japanese group Mitsubishi Corporation has acquired a 34% stake in the company that owns the plant.

'Huertas solares'
As well has owning solar PV plants, the company also develops facilities for other companies. It has created and popularized the concept of huerta solar (solar garden), an innovative (and patented) way of exploiting energy, allowing private individuals to invest directly in small PV plants that become their property but are grouped together on a single site.

The 18 solar gardens developed by ACCIONA Solar in Spain (which come to a total 61.50 MWp) have drawn interest from more than 3,500 buyers, who invested a total of approximately 456 million euros. This is probably the highest investment in renewables made by individuals in Spain through a single company.

The owners have solar trackers and panels of different capacity, depending on the model chosen. Locating the equipment on a common site to share infrastructures and services allows cost reductions, better performance, improved safety and lower operation and maintenance costs.

All the solar gardens feature Buskill solar trackers - home-grown technology - that increase production by around 35%. Other ground-breaking technological features include an inverter that brings togther in a single unit he control system for solar monitoring and all electrical devices.

ACCIONA Solar service includes end-to-end management of solar gardens: e.g. billing, administrative arrangements and the control of the production of each owner. Owners can keep a watch on daily, monthly and annual production online.

Marketing of energy and CO2
Through its subsidiary ACCIONA Green Energy Developments, ACCIONA Energy manages the sale of the electricity produced by the group's plants and also that produced by other Special Regime producers that have put their trust in our experience and technical capability.

ACCIONA Green Energy also markets electricity with guaranteed origin from renewable sources, manages the group's carbon credits portfolio and provides access for its customers to international carbon markets.More info at http://solar serdar.blogspot.com.

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )



HRVATSKI CENTAR OBNOVLJIVIH IZVORA ENERGIJE

predstavlja vam

E.H.N. d.o.o.

Tvrtka E.H.N. d.o.o., sa sjedištem u Splitu, pripada tvrtki Acciona Energia koja je dio grupacije Acciona, a bavi se obnovljivim izvorima energije kao što su: vjetroparkovi, male hidrocentrale, solarna polja, biomasa itd.



Trenutačno se u Hrvatskoj za gradnju jednog vjetroparka mora ishoditi 60 različitih dozvola i suglasnosti. Ako se rješava jedan dokument mjesečno, potrebno je 60 mjeseci samo za studiju utjecaja na okoliš. U procesu dobivanja lokacijske i građevinske dozvole sudjeluje više od 40 različitih tijela i uprava, upozorava Mirko Tunjić iz splitske tvrtke EHN


EHN je splitska tvrtka osnovana prije devet godina, a bavi se razvojem projekata iz područja obnovljivih izvora energije s ciljem investiranja u gradnju vjetroparkova kao trenutačno najefikasnijeg izvora energije u obnovljivom sektoru. Tvrtka je članica španjolske grupacije Acciona Energía koja je do sada u Hrvatskoj posredstvom tvrtke EHN uložila 10 milijuna eura samo u razvoj. S Mirkom Tunjićem, direktorom tvrtke EHN, razgovarali smo o problemima u izgradnji vjetroparkova te o prednostima obnovljivih izvora energije.

Kako posluje grupacija Acciona Energía?
- EHN iz Splita članica je te španjolske grupacije, jedne od najvećih španjolskih tvrtki uopće, koja se svojedobno bavila graditeljstvom i infrastrukturom, a u novije vrijeme energijom. Grupacija posluje u 25 zemalja i bavi se svim tehnologijama obnovljivih izvora energije te proizvodnjom opreme za energetska postrojenja. Zapošljava više od 38.000 ljudi i uvrštena je među 35 vodećih korporacija u Španjolskoj.

Na kojim ste projektima angažirani u Hrvatskoj?
- U Hrvatskoj sudjelujemo u nekoliko projekata u energetskom sektoru. Međutim, zbog doista spore i komplicirane administracije, mnogi takvi projekti stoje i nije ih za sada moguće realizirati. Prije nekoliko mjeseci dobili smo prvu građevinsku dozvolu za jedan projekt snage 30 megavata (MW) na lokaciji Seget Marina. Projekt bi trebao krenuti početkom ove godine.

Zašto nema realiziranih projekata na splitskom području, dok je na šibenskom već poodavno izgrađeno nekoliko vjetroparkova?
- Na šibenskom su području vjetroelektrane priključene na distributivni sustav i to su vjetroelektrane manje snage i kapaciteta. Na splitsko-dalmatinskom području imamo projekte za vjetroelektrane većih kapaciteta, većih od 30 MW, koje se priključuju na prijenosni sustav. Dakle, radi se o potrebi za ozbiljnijom infrastrukturom, kako u projektu tako i realizaciji. Tu se nailazi na najveći problem u ovom poslu, a to je rješavanje administrativnih problema oko priključka tih, za naše prilike, vjetroelektrana velikih kapaciteta. Prednost Županije šibensko-kninske jest u tome što je znatno ranije donijela prostorne planove te se jasno odredila i učinila više u promidžbi, ali će, s druge strane, prvi projekt koji ćemo mi ostvariti na području Splitsko-dalmatinske županije biti veći od svih ostvarenih dosadašnjih projekata na šibenskom području zajedno. To, jasno, nisu veliki kapaciteti za europske prilike. Španjolska kao lider u vjetrenergiji ima više od 20.000 MW instalirane energije u vjetroparkovima. Kad je riječ o obnovljivim izvorima energije, Španjolska je prije 15 godina bila u začecima. Tada su sile bile Njemačka i Danska, ali nakon što je španjolska vlada odlučila da energetika bude strategija razvoja te se opredijelila za razvoj obnovljivih izvora energije, postali su svjetski lider u tom sektoru.

Što može Hrvatska?
- Kod nas je razvoj energetskog sektora samo deklarativan. Mi nismo odredili da je razvoj tog sektora strateški interes naše države. Ako želimo očuvati standarde ekologije i postići energetsku neovisnost, moramo se okrenuti razvoju projekta obnovljivih izvora energije. Uz sve to možemo razviti i proizvodnju energetske opreme koju nakon dovršetka investicija u Hrvatskoj možemo izvoziti na jugoistok.

Hoće li Hrvatska kao potpisnica Kyotskog protokola uspjeti ostvariti obveze iz tog ugovora?
- Ovakvom dinamikom sigurno neće. Međutim, ako se promijene okolnosti i olakšaju ulaganja investitorima te se krene dinamičnije, sigurno hoće jer za ulaganja u obnovljive izvore energije vlada veliki interes. Treba se odlučiti jasno - onako kako smo se odlučili da idemo u gradnju autocesta.

Zašto kod nas na otocima nije moguća gradnja vjetroparkova?
- Zato što je 2004. godine donesena Uredba o zaštiti obalnog područja kojom se, između ostalog, zabranjuje gradnja vjetroelektrana na otocima. U energetskom i inženjerskom aspektu takva odluka nema opravdanja jer je to možda najefikasniji način opskrbe otoka električnom energijom. Činjenica je i to da je potencijal iskoristivosti vjetra i sunca najveći na otocima, pa je tako Grčka izgradila veliki broj vjetroelektrana. Smatram da će se ta uredba izmijeniti kada se dovrši gradnja vjetroparkova u zaobalju i kad se svi uvjere u prednosti takvog načina proizvodnje električne energije.

Pogled u susjedstvo

Kakva je situacija u nama susjednim državama,
BiH i Crnoj Gori?
- Iako zaostaju u zakonodavnom okviru kad je
riječ o sektoru obnovljivih izvora energije, one su
u neku ruku ispred nas, a najkonkretnija je Crna
Gora. Mogu reći da su nekoliko godina ispred nas
jer su najprije odredili lokacije, donijeli odluku da
na tim lokacijama žele graditi vjetroelektrane,
raspisali međunarodni natječaj za koncesije...
Tako će Crna Gora za nekoliko godina imati iz-
građenih pet vjetroparkova. To je sustavan način
rada u kojem država diktira uvjete ulaganja.
Tako je moguće pokrenuti lokalnu proizvodnju.
Unatoč svemu, bilo bi nekorektno prešutjeti i
goleme prednosti poslovanja u Hrvatskoj u
odnosu na susjedne zemlje, pa i kada je riječ
o velikoj perspektivi i većoj mogućnosti povrata
investicije u Hrvatskoj.

Koji su još problemi investitora na kontinentu?
- Nelogično je da se energetsko odobrenje može dobiti ako se razvoj projekta na nekoj lokaciji dovrši u roku od 36 mjeseci jer je realnost takva da se prema našim zakonima projekt može razviti za nekih pet-šest godina. Potrebno je ishođenje studije utjecaja na okoliš, potom njena analiza i procjena što zahtijeva dodatno vrijeme. Otežavajuće je to što sve mora ići na javni uvid i javnu raspravu. Ta procedura, u najboljm slučaju, traje između dvije i tri godine. Trenutačno u Hrvatskoj za gradnju vjetroparka morate ishoditi 60 različitih dozvola i suglasnosti. Dakle, ako rješavate jedan dokument mjesečno, potrebno vam je 60 mjeseci samo za procjenu studije utjecaja na okoliš. U procesu dobivanja lokacijske i građevinske dozvole sudjeluje više do 40 različitih tijela i uprava.

Koliko je vaša grupacija spremna investirati?
- Naša grupacija je spremna investirati u sve projekte koje smo započeli i koje namjeravamo dobiti u Hrvatskoj. Tako vrijednost investicije ovisi o tome koliko projekata možemo dobiti i ostvariti. Razumije se da je Hrvatska ograničena teritorijalnim i energetskim kapacitetima, što znači da naš sustav može primiti oko 600 MW instalirane snage. To bi bilo oko 15 posto cjelokupne instalirane snage iz obnovljivih izvora u odnosu na sve naše energetske izvore. To bi predstavljalo investiciju u ovaj sektor veću od 900 milijuna eura. Acciona Energía je grupacija koja proizvodi više energije iz obnovljivih izvora nego Hrvatska iz svih svojih energetskih izvora.

Koliko se poduzetnici poput vas koji ulažu u obnovljive izvore energije pronalaze u hrvatskoj energetskoj strategiji?
- Mi smo po strategiji vrlo bitan čimbenik u Hrvatskoj jer imamo prostor razvoja do 1200 MW instalirane snage električne energije. No, bez zahvata i investiranja u razvoj elektroenergetske mreže mi taj cilj nećemo ostvariti. Realno je da u idućih par godina možemo ostvariti 600 MW. Mada ne bi bilo loše investirati u modernizaciju mreže i gradnju novih trafostanica jer bi se tako probudio cjelokupni energetski sektor i došlo bi do novih projekata. To bi osiguralo i poslove domaćim brodogradilištima na gradnji stupova za vjetroelektrane, a malim poduzetnicima za opremu.

Kakva je konkurencija u Hrvatskoj u tom sektoru?
- Mogu reći da imamo zdravu konkurenciju. Kao predsjednik Grupacije za energiju vjetra pri Hrvatskoj gospodarskoj komori mogu biti doista zadovoljan kad je riječ o odnosima među poduzetnicima. Godine 2007. donesen je Pravilnik prema kojem svaki investitor dobiva lokaciju na kojoj razvija svoj projekt. To je, uz još neke akte, uvelo reda u ovaj sektor. No snaga priključaka na mrežu mora se dodijeliti i podijeliti samo onima koji su uspjeli ostvariti projekte, a ne onima koji su dobili lokaciju.

Imate li dovoljno stručnjaka i koje su mogućnosti sektora obnovljivih izvora energije?
- Stručnjaka imamo dovoljno, kao i potencijalnih investitora. No bojim se da ćemo izgubiti veliku prigodu u proizvodnji dijelova i opreme za vjetrenjače, kolektore... Nemamo sustavne strategije pa iz tog razloga nema ni zainteresiranih poduzetnika koji bi proizvodili opremu za vjetroelektrane. Oni će se pojaviti kada budu nazirali mogućnost plasmana svojih proizvoda.Više informacija na solarserdar.blogspot.com.

HRVATSKI CENTAR OBNOVLJIVIH IZVORA ENERGIJE ( HCOIE )

HAPPY EASTER

Solar Millennium AG

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

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Solar Millennium AG

Solar Millennium AG is an international company in the renewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar-thermal power plants. In the technology of parabolic trough power plants the company has managed to take a globally leading position. The film shows emplayees explaining the technology and the tasks required in planning and construction of solar-thermal power plants by taking select projects as examples.



Here you see the english version of the Blythe Simulation. It contains a comparison with the Central Park in New York.

Von den fortgeschrittenen Projekten, die die amerikanische Projektentwicklungseinheit Solar Millennium LLC in den USA an verschiedenen Standorten (Blythe und Palen in Kalifornien sowie Amargosa Valley in Nevada) bearbeitet, liegt der Fokus derzeit auf dem Standort Blythe in Riverside County. Dort sollen bis zu vier solarthermische Kraftwerke mit einer Leistung von jeweils 242 MW entstehen. Die vier Anlagen zusammen bilden auf einer Grundfläche von 27,5 km² den derzeit größten projektierten Standort für solarthermische Kraftwerke der Welt und sind eines der wichtigsten Infrastrukturvorhaben in den USA.

Of all the advanced projects the U.S. project development unit Solar Millennium LLC is currently pursuing at different locations within the U.S. (Blythe and Palen in California as well as Amargosa Valley in Nevada), the Blythe location in Riverside County has top priority. Up to four solar-thermal power plants with a capacity of 242 MW each are to be built there. Together the four plants will cover an area of 27,5 km² and thus form the largest planned solar-thermal power plant location in the world as well as being one of the most important infrastructure projects in the U.S.




Solar Millennium hat die ersten Parabolrinnen-Kraftwerke Europas entwickelt. Die Andasol-Projekte befinden sich in Südspanien im Betrieb, der Inbetriebnahmephase bzw. in Bau. Es sind zugleich die derzeit größten Solarkraftwerke der Welt.

Solar Millennium has developed the Andasol power plants, the first parabolic trough power plants in Europe. They are also currently the largest solar power plants in the world.


Technology for the New Millennium.

In the new millennium, mankind is going to have to reconcile technology and the environment. Technological progress and the environment are no longer a contradiction in terms. Intelligent technologies for efficient, environmentally-friendly, and cost-effective electricity generation are in demand in the new millennium: the Solar Millennium!

Solar thermal power plants are able to replace conventional, fossil-fuel power plants. They can generate cost-effective electricity on demand using heat energy captured from solar radiation.

Solar Millennium is focusing on one technology for solar thermal electricity generation: parabolic trough power plants, a proven technology in which Solar Millennium is currently a market leader. Further renewable energy technologies are also being developed or monitored.

Solar Millennium Group has received order for licensing and engineering of parabolic trough collectors for two Spanish solar power plants


Erlangen, Cologne (Germany), 29 December 2010 CSP Solutions Consult GmbH, Cologne, a company of the Solar Millennium Group (ISIN DE0007218406), has issued two licenses for the use of its parabolic trough collector design Skal-ET at solar-thermal power plants in southern Spain. The first power plant, called Astexol-2, is being built by the Spanish general contractor Elecnor in the province Extremadura. The second project (also 50-megawatt) is being realized near Moron de la Frontera in Andalusia by the Spanish general contractor (Union Temporal de Empresas - UTE) Termosolar Moron, with participation of the Acciona Group and the EPC company Seridom and is owned by Ibereólica Solar Morón, S.L. In addition to the license, the orders also include an extensive engineering package for customizing the collector design to meet the respective site conditions and for the specification of components and for the installation of the collectors.

At approximately 366,000 sqm respectively 380,000 sqm, the collector space of these plants is smaller than the Andasol power plants developed by the Solar Millennium Group. This lies in the fact that thermal storage will not be used for both projects. The license only applies to these two parabolic trough plants. The Skal-ET collector design by the Solar Millennium Group has already been used in the first parabolic trough power plants in Europe, the Andasol plants in southern Spain, and the Kuraymat power plant project in Egypt.

Oliver Blamberger, member of the Executive Board of Solar Millennium: “These orders for our collector design demonstrate not only the competitiveness of our technology. They are also proof of the successful expansion of our business model along the value chain of solar thermal power plants”. Nonetheless the clear priority of Solar Millennium in the future will still be the realization of projects, which have been developed by the groups’ companies.

Dr. Wolfgang Knothe, CEO of the technology company Flagsol: "The order is a result of our considerable quality efforts as well as of our research and development activities within the Solar Millennium Group. As a leading technology company for parabolic trough power plants, we also want to further expand our license business in the future with products and services for all matters pertaining to solar-thermal power plants, thereby creating sustainable value added for our customers."

The parties have agreed to keep the details of the contracts confidential.

About Solar Millennium AG:

Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is an international company in the renewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar-thermal power plants. Together with its subsidiaries and associates, the Company specializes in parabolic trough power plants and has managed to take a globally leading position in this field. Solar Millennium strives to further extend its expertise in the area of solar-thermal power plants with the aim of achieving and securing sustainable technology leadership. As such, the Company covers all important business sectors along the value chain for solar-thermal power plants: from project development and financing to the technology and the turnkey construction and operation of power plants. In Spain, Solar Millennium developed Europe's first parabolic trough power plants and realized these together with partners. Additional projects are planned around the world with an overall capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts: here the current regional focus is on Spain, the US, India, China, the Middle East and North Africa. More information at www.SolarMillennium.de

About Flagsol GmbH:

Flagsol GmbH, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, is a technology provider and general contractor of parabolic trough power plants. The joint venture between Solar Millennium AG (74.9 percent) and Ferrostaal AG (25.1 percent) combines the skills of both parent companies in project development and construction of these solar power plants. Flagsol is continually developing parabolic troughs with research and development projects aimed at further consolidating their competitive advantage. More information at www.flagsol.de

About CSP Solutions Consult GmbH:

CSP Solutions Consult GmbH, headquartered in Cologne, supplies consulting and other services for the planning, construction and operation of solar-thermal power plants. Given the marketability of the technology, the focus thus lies on the sale of collector licenses for parabolic trough power plants. The majority of CSP Solutions Consult (60 percent) is owned by the technology and power plant construction company within the Solar Millennium Group, Flagsol GmbH, in Cologne. The remaining shares are held by the Stuttgart-based engineering firm sbp sonne gmbh, which collaborated in the development of the collector design.

About solar-thermal power plant technology:

Solar-thermal power plants generate electricity by converting solar radiation into heat energy. In a parabolic trough power plant, trough-shaped mirrors concentrate the incidental radiation onto a pipe in the focal line of the collector. Its absorption heats a fluid heat medium in the pipe, generating steam in the power block through a heat exchanger. As in conventional power plants, the steam powers a turbine to generate electricity. By integrating thermal storage, electricity can be supplied on demand, even after sunset.

Mehr Informationen auf
http://www.solarmillennium.de

Find more Informations at
http://www.solarmillennium.com

Copyright: Solar Millennium AG

More info at http://solarserdar.blogspot.com

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

Skylights From Used Water Bottles Replace 50-Watt Bulbs

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
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Skylights From Used Water Bottles Replace 50-Watt Bulbs



An ingenious invention by an engineer in Brazil has made an enormous difference in his town. Simply placing a bottle of water in a hole in the ceiling can light up a room with the same brightness as a 50-watt light bulb! Residents have better lighting and are using less electricity. Check out how it works in the video.

I think the part that made it most convincing was the bucket comparison -- when they took the buckets off the bottles to show what a difference they make in lighting the room, my jaw dropped open.

While it's obvious that these only work for certain types of structures, and only provide extra light when the sun is out, it shows that you don't have to construct a complex skylight in your roof to get some daylight into your home. It's clear from the women in the video that they're pretty darn happy with how the concept has improved their homes.

And to hear that the bottles are lasting years without needing any maintenance at all is exciting. Apparently there's just enough bleach to keep any algae from growing inside, but not enough to deteriorate the plastic, or at least not very quickly.

What a great bottle-reuse-zero-electricity idea!

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

Some Bold Steps to Make Your Carbon Footprint Smaller

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

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Some Bold Steps to Make Your Carbon Footprint Smaller

A CLEAR SENSE OF EMISSION:
Carbon-dioxide equivalents may be the most complicated currency on world markets today. A basic exchange works like this: When a company like the Gap commits to reducing emissions but cannot, or chooses not to, cut the energy used to move clothes across the globe, it finances someone else’s green project. Rather than put $100, say, toward reinventing its shipping system, the Gap may spend $20 to plant trees or invest in a clean utility. If a new power plant is needed in India, carbon investments from the Gap and others make it possible to build a more expensive wind farm instead of a coal plant. Win-win, the logic goes: because carbon emissions are a global problem, it doesn’t matter where they are reduced. The system of carbon trading exploded after the Kyoto Protocol and in 2006 sustained a $30 billion market representing nearly 1.7 billion tons of traded carbon dioxide. The market extends beyond signatories to include companies that participate voluntarily. These days, even individual consumers are joining in to pay offset retailers somewhere between $3 and $40 per ton in order to counter the carbon they emit driving to work or just running their refrigerators. But individuals are confronting many of the same uncertainties that companies and countries have been navigating under the Kyoto Protocol. First, how to determine your emissions? There are several calculators on the Web, but they yield different answers. “When you fly, the fuel efficiency of your plane varies,” Jeff Swenerton, a spokesman at Green-e, an offset-certification program, points out. He says that calculators, for example, don’t factor in that “all things being equal, different airplanes of the same model can have wildly different burn rates.” Once you have a carbon figure, which offsets should you buy? Certification isn’t standardized either. Part of the problem is in the measuring: how old should a replanted forest be before it earns credit? What if it gets logged or burns? Another issue: how do certification schemes verify that the projects they invest in add real, new carbon reduction to the market? Should credits subsidize solar power in a city that already gives solar tax breaks? There are social questions too: should certification only make sure that carbon hasn’t entered the atmosphere, or should it include other goals, like sustainable development? Some argue that if a project generates less carbon but disrupts a local community, it forces the poor to take responsibility for the pollution of the rich and reinforces a model of development that created the problem of global warming in the first place. Although it has been muddled by competing standards, the market is maturing. The Voluntary Carbon Standard, created by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and two other nongovernmental organizations, is widely seen as a benchmark of quality assurance, and carbon credits certified by it sell for between $5 and $15 per ton. Credits certified by a competitor, the Gold Standard, sell for between $8 and $40 per ton, while offering additional standards for sustainable community development. “We can’t necessarily rely on a country’s environmental standards as adequate,” says Michael Schlup, director of the Gold Standard. He also adds, “We need to give something to people and places who are giving us emissions reductions safely.” (The V.C.S. recognizes that the Gold Standard offers an added virtue.) Russell Simon, a spokesman for the nonprofit carbon retailer Carbonfund.org who admits the carbon-certification business “really is a baffling market,” says he thinks that a battle over standards can be healthy, but that one or two companies need “to emerge and build trust in their brand of certification.” He adds, “It is a bit like the wars we used to have at the beginning of using the word ‘organic.’ Now we agree what that means.” TESS TAYLOR

FOOTPRINT TRACKING:
To develop a label that lets a consumer know exactly how much CO2 was released in creating a product is an enormous challenge. A modern corporation can have thousands of suppliers scattered across several continents, all producing their own pollution. Despite the obstacles, many companies are trying to conduct carbon audits. Wal-Mart, for example, decided to examine the supply-chain emissions of seven product categories. Timberland is attempting to assess the environmental impact of its shoes and has investigated not only its own emissions but also the emissions of some of its suppliers. The company was surprised to find that transportation may account for less than 5 percent of its greenhouse-gas emissions — while almost 80 percent may come from making the leather, a process buried deep in its supply chain. Cows produce huge amounts of methane, which turns into CO2 in the atmosphere. Because the hide makes up roughly 7 percent of the cash value of the cow, Timberland took responsibility for 7 percent of the cows’ emissions. “The hide is a waste product of the meat industry,” Betsy Blaisdell, manager of environmental stewardship for Timberland, says. “There is some argument about whether we should account for those emissions, but we do.” Calculating a product’s carbon footprint means confronting similar questions about what and how to measure. A program called the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative is developing standards that will allow companies to calculate their indirect emissions with some precision. But reliable carbon labels are probably years away, says Arpad Horvath, an associate professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who is currently examining the life cycle of some two dozen consumer products. “When people talk about a universal carbon-labeling program policy,” he says, “I tell them they need to hold their horses a little.” CHARLES WILSON

SHINE ON:
Sunshine is free, but producing and installing the photovoltaic panels that convert sunshine into electricity is expensive — up to $40,000 for the average home. The panels will pay for themselves eventually, but that’s cold comfort to anyone looking to raise the initial investment. As the actor Ed Begley Jr. put it in a recent infomercial for solar energy, “If the mobile-phone industry required you to invest $10,000 to get your wireless service, and it was your responsibility to maintain and repair the network, would you have a cellphone?” Begley’s infomercial appears on the Web site of Citizenre, a company that will rent you panels it installs itself. But Citizenre has yet to deliver a single system, open the photovoltaic-panel factory that was supposed to make its plan possible or even announce any financing for the factory, leading some in the industry to worry that it will end up generating more ill will than kilowatts. Whether or not Citizenre can deliver on its promises, Begley’s critique remains apt. We don’t expect users of conventional electricity to build their own backyard power plants, so why do we expect solar customers to buy and install their own photovoltaic panels? Travis Bradford, founder and president of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, says he thinks that expectation is about to go the way of the rotary phone. The change has already happened in the commercial sector, where solar is now more likely to be sold as a service than a product. On the residential side, a company called Sun Run offers Californians a similar arrangement to the one proposed by Citizenre, although Sun Run’s customers still have to pay about a third of the upfront costs. Yet as solar-panel costs go down and electricity rates go up, that equation is likely to improve. “Over the next few years,” Bradford predicts, “anyone who wants a customer to make an upfront payment for solar will lose the deal to someone who doesn’t.’ DASHKA SLATER

WALK THE WALK:
In many parts of the country, walking has become as quaint a pastime as spinning yarn or playing the bagpipes. Between 1977 and 1995, the number of daily walking trips taken by adults declined by 40 percent — while more than a quarter of all car trips are now shorter than a mile. Those under-a-mile journeys fall into the zone that new urbanists call “walkshed”: the area a person can reasonably cover on foot. People whose walksheds teem with shops and restaurants have more reason to walk than those whose don’t, so it was only a matter of time before someone tried to quantify a neighborhood’s pedestrian-friendliness. Last summer, a trio of Seattle software developers started walkscore.com, which calculates the number of potential destinations within walking distance of any given address and then produces a rating. If your neighborhood scores 90 or above, you can easily live there without a car; if it scores under 25, you’ll be driving to the backyard. More than a million addresses were searched in the site’s first month. Matt Lerner, one of the site’s developers, knew the concept had arrived when a condo in Seattle hung out a gigantic banner that said “Walk Score 100.” “People react really negatively to phrases like ‘density,’ ” he says, “but they react really positively to phrases like ‘walkability.’ ”Walk Score’s popularity may be a sign that walking is making a comeback, fueled by both rising gas prices and widening waistlines. An economics researcher at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that raising gasoline prices by $1 a gallon would reduce American obesity by 9 percent. Another study posits that if every American spent 30 minutes a day walking or cycling instead of driving, we would collectively cut carbon emissions by 64 million tons and shed more than three billion pounds of excess flab. All of this sounds great in theory, but most people find that their good intentions falter when faced with the extra time it takes to walk. Yet Alan Durning, an environmental researcher whose blog about living without a car inspired Walk Score, argues that walking may be the ultimate timesaver. He cites a British study that suggests that for every minute you walk, you live about three minutes longer. “You’re not using time,” Durning argues; “you’re generating time.” DASHKA SLATER

GOOD TURNOFFS:
At 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 28, residents in West Texas came home from work and turned on their appliances — at precisely the moment when the wind died down in local wind farms. Power plummeted by more than half. The grid neared collapse. So the utilities put in a frantic call to ConsumerPowerline. The company practices “demand response”: it pays electricity consumers to turn out the lights when demand is too high. Within seven minutes, ConsumerPowerline instructed several major corporations to turn down their heat and lighting — removing 70 megawatts of demand — and a blackout was narrowly averted. Successes like this are why demand response has become one of the most powerful green techniques for protecting the nation’s overtaxed power grids. When a blackout looms, utilities call a small coterie of demand-response firms. These firms prearrange for major users of electricity — factories, shopping malls, skyscrapers — to shut down all nonessential electricity in exchange for payments, often totaling tens of thousands of dollars each year. It’s expensive, but far less so than a blackout that cascades across the country. The infamous Northeastern blackout in August 2003 cost an estimated $7 billion. Demand response is, in essence, an inversion of the traditional logic of power generation: instead of paying to create power, you pay money to reduce the need for it. The procedure has been particularly popular in major cities, where grids are strained to the limit. ConsumerPowerline controls 300 huge buildings in New York alone, where hastily brokered turnoffs by Macy’s and major hotels prevented the spread of a 2006 blackout in Queens — a blackout that lasted for more than a week — into Manhattan. “If you’re someone who’s controlling 100 buildings at once, and with a flick of a finger you can change their energy behavior,” says Gary Fromer, ConsumerPowerline’s C.E.O., “that’s very powerful.” CLIVE THOMPSON

Please write as which are your Steps to Make Carbon Footprint Smaller on solarserdar@gmail.com

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CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

CCRES project HELP YOUR COMMUNITY

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

project

HELP YOUR COMMUNITY

From waking up early to put in a first load of laundry to working all day and driving the mom taxi all afternoon, most women have little time to think about volunteering for community projects. But busy schedules do not mean we have to write off community involvement completely. In thirty minutes or less, anyone can make a difference in the community.

Check out the following ideas for ways to help your community in the midst of your everyday activities.



Take a garbage bag while walking through the neighborhood. Pick up any litter along the way. As a by-product, you can get some exercise built into your day.
Shop with locally owned businesses, saving time and money. Many locally owned businesses offer services like free gift-wrapping and delivery. And a percentage of your sales taxes go directly to the local community.
Find positive aspects of your community share with other people. A positive image encourages residents to shop locally, increases the chance new businesses will open in the area and promotes growth.
Attend a local festival or other event. Many have free admission and activities. Most festivals are actually fundraisers for non-profit organizations who make their money through sponsorships. Since sponsors look at attendance numbers to decide how much to give, your family can add to the number and help increase what businesses give next year.
Write a letter to local elected officials encouraging them for making good decisions for the community. People work harder when they know they are appreciated. And elected officials seldom hear enough encouraging words.
Put a potted plant on your front porch. When your home looks spruced up, it makes the whole neighborhood and the community to look better as well.
Take left over dinner to an elderly neighbor. If you have a family of four, cook enough dinner for five one night and deliver a plate to the widow next door. Your delivery helps you to get to know your neighbors better. And police promote knowing your neighbors as the best way to fight neighborhood crime.
Look for opportunities to give in your community. Many schools collect items, such as like canned foods, old coats, toys and eyeglasses, for less fortunate families.
Vote. While the Presidential election comes around only once every four years, elections happen every year. Check out the candidates for local and state elections.
Encourage your employer to sponsor local events, join a civic organization or allow employees to volunteer during work hours. Many businesses have volunteer programs to reward employees for volunteering. Local news media often cover large volunteer events and having employee representation gives businesses extra publicity.
By doing our part to contribute to the community, we add people to our circle of influence and gain opportunities to build relationships with our neighbours. We also demonstrate what it means to be a good citizen to our children.More info at http://solarserdar.blogspot.com.
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )

NEWS and EVENTS by CCRES

News and Events by CCRES

DOE Launches Advanced Car Competition for Universities

Teams will rebuild Chevrolet Malibus like this to lessen the environmental impact of the vehicles.
Credit: General Motors

DOE officially launched the EcoCar2 competition on April 13 and named the sixteen university teams that were selected to participate. EcoCar2: Plugging into the Future is an educational partnership between General Motors and DOE to help prepare future engineers for opportunities in clean energy and advanced vehicle industries.

EcoCAR 2 is a unique three-year collegiate engineering competition that challenges teams to reduce the environmental impact of an existing vehicle without compromising performance, safety, or consumer acceptability. The program's combination of cutting-edge engineering practices, hands-on experience, and knowledge sharing in a competitive and team-oriented environment gives participating students a head start toward future job success. Participants will go on to make contributions that will help keep the North American automotive industry competitive in the global market place, which is increasingly adopting fuel-efficient designs.

EcoCAR2 includes both new teams and veterans to the advanced vehicle technology competitions. These teams will explore a variety of power train architectures and follow a real-world engineering regimen modeled after GM's Global Vehicle Development Process (GVDP). Each EcoCar2 team will use a Chevrolet Malibu, donated by General Motors, as the integration platform for their advanced vehicle design. See the DOE press release and the EcoCAR Challenge website.

DOE Rolls Out Program to Promote Electric Vehicles
DOE is taking new steps to speed up the deployment of electric vehicles (EV), it announced on April 19. These efforts include making available $5 million in new funding for community-based efforts to deploy EV infrastructure and charging stations. DOE is also forming a partnership with Google Inc. and more than 80 EV stakeholders to help consumers find charging stations nationwide. The goal is to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, saving consumers money and helping meet the administration's goal of 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015.

Local governments and private companies will partner to apply for the $5 million in funding to help accelerate installation of EV charging stations. Communities will work to develop plans and strategies for EV deployment, update their EV permitting processes, develop incentive programs, or launch other initiatives. See the Funding Opportunity Announcement on FedConnect. Applications are due June 13.

In a related effort, DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is joining with Google Inc. and various industry leaders to provide consumers with consistent, up-to-date information about the EV charging stations in communities nationwide. Using Google Maps, this new collaboration between NREL and partners will coordinate an online network of all U.S. charging stations and will serve as the primary data source for GPS and mapping services tracking electric vehicle charging locations. These efforts are supported by the Clean Cities program, a public-private partnership that brings together federal, state, and local governments, the auto industry, private sector fleet operators, and community leaders to help communities make their vehicle fleets more energy efficient. See the DOE press release and Clean Cities website.

DOE Labs Join to Develop Next-Generation Cool Roofs

The Environmental Protection Agency's Research Triangle Park facility is an example of cool roof technology.
Credit: Environmental Protection Agency

DOE announced on April 14 that its Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have joined with The Dow Chemical Company as part of a cooperative research and development agreement to research next-generation cool roof technologies. The agreement will support research to increase the energy savings from existing cool roof technologies by more than 50%.

ORNL will partner with LBNL to capitalize on the broad range of cool roof technology experience they bring from their applied research in this field. The research will focus on the development of new solar reflective roof coatings that would increase the energy savings from existing cool roof technologies for new and existing commercial buildings. In partnership with Dow, DOE's national laboratories will work to improve the ability of roof coatings to continue reflecting sunlight after years of exposure to the elements. This includes developing technologies that improve the long-term resistance of these materials to dirt build-up and microbial growth. The goal of the cooperative research partnership is to design and commercialize the next generation of cool roof components that could significantly reduce the energy consumption of new and existing buildings.

The replacement or resurfacing of conventional roofing materials with improved reflective roof coatings could offer building owners energy savings of up to 25% on air conditioning. Improvements could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 5 metric tons for every 10,000 square feet of commercial building roof area. Commercial buildings in the United States today offer an opportunity to retrofit more than 20 billion square feet of roofing space. A recent study by researchers at LBNL found that using cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world could help reduce the demand for air conditioning, cool entire cities, and potentially cancel the heating effect of a year of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. See the DOE press release and the Building Technologies Program Cool Roof Web page.

California CSP Plant Gets $2.1 Billion DOE Loan Guarantee
DOE announced on April 18 its offer of a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support Units 1 and 2 of the Blythe Solar Power Project, sponsored by Solar Trust of America, LLC. The concentrating solar thermal power plant includes two units with 484 megawatt (MW) of generating capacity. The project will be built adjacent to the City of Blythe in Riverside County, California and is expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs and approximately 80 operations jobs. The plant is estimated to avoid more than 710,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, an amount equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 123,000 vehicles.

Units 1 and 2 of the Blythe project represent the first phase of a larger project that, when completed, will generate 1,000 MW of solar power using parabolic trough technology. Units 1 and 2 will include HelioTrough collectors, which feature a larger, yet simplified design, making them less expensive to build and install, and more efficient than earlier trough technology. The project will be the first concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough plant to use an air-cooled condenser unit, which will decrease water use by nearly 90% compared with a water-cooled CSP facility. The project will sell all its electricity output to Southern California Edison. DOE's Loan Programs Office has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling more than $21 billion to support 22 clean energy projects across 14 states. See the DOE press release and Loan Programs Office website.

PNNL Study: Algae Could Replace 17% of U.S. Oil Imports
Every day, the United States spends about $1 billion to import foreign oil, money that we could be investing in American energy and the American economy. President Obama recently announced an ambitious but achievable goal of reducing our oil imports by a third by 2025. To meet this goal, we will need to increase our use of homegrown advanced biofuels. On April 13, DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) came out with a new study that shows that 17% of the United States' imported oil for transportation could be replaced with American-grown biofuels from algae.

Developing the next generation of biofuels is an important step towards reducing our dependence on foreign oil and advancing new economic opportunities throughout the country. See the Energy Blog post.

King County, Washington, Is Charging Up Savings
Residents of King County, Washington, are seeing several improvements in their community thanks to a $6.1 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). The grant, which is funded by the Recovery Act, has allowed King County to conduct a variety of public and commercial energy efficiency upgrades, including the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, upgrades to its vehicle fleet, and energy improvements to senior housing.

With the help of EECBG funds, the county is helping lead a regional effort to install electric vehicle charging stations at strategic locations across the Puget Sound area. This will allow members of the public to charge their vehicles away from home and extend their trips. The installation project is expected to be finished this summer. According to King County executives, it will allow people who are buying electric vehicles to quickly charge them at the new 240-volt charging stations throughout King County. Additionally, the county is also improving the energy efficiency of its extensive fleet of vehicles by replacing conventionally powered vehicles with gas-electric hybrids. This new fleet will lower vehicle emissions and save 4,800 gallons of gas annually compared to the 20 current fleet vehicles. See the Energy Blog post.

DOE Partners to Test Advanced Energy Technologies for Utilities
DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has signed a partnership deal that focuses on the electric power utility industries in the United States and abroad to identify opportunities for testing and deploying ARPA-E funded grid projects. Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) DOE announced on April 14, ARPA-E, Duke Energy, and the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will seek to expand cutting-edge smart grid developments, including grid-scale energy storage, power electronics, and energy efficient cooling technologies.

Under the terms of the agreement, ARPA-E will facilitate the exchange of information between ARPA-E-supported projects, EPRI, and Duke Energy, which delivers energy to approximately four million customers in five states. Duke Energy could deploy and test ARPA-E technologies at various power plants or wind farms. The technologies may also be studied either at the company's McAlpine substation, a test bed for renewable, grid storage, and smart grid technologies, or at the company's Envision Center, a smart grid demonstration and testing facility in Erlanger, Kentucky.

EPRI, whose members represent more than 90% of the electricity generated in the United States, will offer test-bed facilities at two of its research facilities in Charlotte, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee. The sites are used for tests on consumer electronics, lightings, smart grid components, heating and cooling systems, and electric vehicle infrastructure requirements. See the DOE press release and the ARPA-E website.

United States and Qatar Sign Clean Energy MOU
DOE and the Qatar Science & Technology Park signed on April 6 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote collaboration on the development and deployment of cost-effective and sustainable clean energy technologies. The partners will exchange scientific and technical information and will undertake joint research, development, and deployment initiatives. These actions will help spur energy innovation, create new markets for clean energy, and support economic growth. The MOU builds on the historically strong ties between the two nations.

DOE, principally through the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) and the Qatar Science & Technology Park, will pursue cooperation in key areas including advanced cooling technologies such as next-generation cooling technologies, systems integration, and building controls; renewable power generation, including coating systems to reduce the effects of weather conditions on photovoltaic systems; and energy storage with an eye toward thermal storage for combined heat and power.

Over the next decade, the partners will work with the private sector to foster scientific exchanges and research on cutting-edge technologies, including using Qatari facilities as test beds for large-scale demonstration of U.S. and Qatari technologies. The data collected from these demonstrations will help further refine the development of these innovative technologies and could provide the partners with new capabilities to meet their respective energy goals for the future. This agreement will also serve to reinforce and complement joint U.S.-Qatar participation in multilateral partnerships to achieve clean energy development and shared climate change goals. See the DOE press release.

Ohio State University Readies for its Encore at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011
The Ohio State University Team enCore is getting ramped up for its second run at the Solar Decathlon as part of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 this fall. After placing 10th during the 2009 competition, the team is looking to bring a bigger, tougher and more efficient house to this year's event.

Mark Walter, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, provided an insider's perspective. "Our goals are not too different [compared to 2009]," said Walter, who is also a faculty advisor to the team. "With the additional experience we're looking to reach out to the community and really bringing the best possible product to the Mall." In addition, Walter said enCore is looking to solve sustainable design problems with its original home through better efficiency, tighter construction, and smarter engineering. See the Energy Blog entry.

Interior Approves Cape Wind Offshore Construction and Operations Plan
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on April 19 that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has approved a construction and operations plan for the Cape Wind project, an energy project located 4.7 miles offshore in Nantucket Sound. The plan from Cape Wind Associates, LLC suggests that construction of the first U.S. offshore wind farm could begin as early as the fall.

The proposed action, including its size and location, remain substantially the same it was when it was analyzed in the Cape Wind Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), which was published in January 2009. The Cape Wind energy project calls for 130 3.6-megawatt wind turbine generators, each with a maximum blade height of 440 feet, to be arranged in a grid pattern in Nantucket Sound. As part of its evaluation, BOEMRE conducted an environmental assessment to determine whether any significant impacts were not discussed in the 2009 FEIS and concluded that all impacts had been properly examined. See the DOI press release and the BOEMRE Cape Wind Web page.
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CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES ( CCRES )