DIY Solar Projects

DIY - Cheap Solar Energy Projects

by Deb Powers

Solar energy DIY projects (Credit: reznor70@stock.xchang)Every morning, I make the rounds of about a dozen news sites and at least as many blogs about renewable energy so that I can put together a green blog post about what's going on in the world of renewable energy. The ReNewsable Energy Digest is fun to research and write, but it has one major failing.

I freely admit that I'm easily taken in by the WOW factor. I look for the big numbers - billion dollar energy projects that will supply electricity for thousands of homes - or the NEW factor - the first manned airplane to take off solely under hydrogen power. They're the "that's so COOL!" forward-thinking this-is-the-future-of-energy news stories, but I sometimes forget to make room for the littler stuff - the things that you can be doing today, right now, each and every day to use solar, wind and other renewable energy forms in your home and your office.

A lot of these ideas are good old-fashioned ideas that your grandmother did as a matter of course. Of course, in her day, it wasn't solar energy or renewable energy source. It was simply the way that you did things back then. Most of them are low-tech, all of them save energy and reduce your energy bill as well as reducing your carbon footprint, and every one of them is powered by a bona fide source of renewable energy.

Solar Powered Clothes Dryer (RAWKUS @ stock.xchang)Solar Powered Clothes Dryer

Grandma called it a clothesline. There are dozens of ways to use solar and wind energy to dry your clothes, from a simple rope clothesline strung between a pair of trees to a revolving clothes reel that hangs from the wall of your house. Even the most extravagant clothes reel will set you back all of $50, and most won't cost you more than $20. If you've got a porch railing or backyard fence, you've got all the space you need to dry a load of laundry, and on a sunny day with a nice breeze, the clothes will dry just about as fast as they do in your energy-hogging electric dryer.

If you've never dried clothes on the line before, here's a few tips to help you avoid some of the mishaps I've run into drying clothes outside.

• If possible, avoid setting up your clothesline under trees, especially pine trees. It's no fun trying to get pine pitch out of your tighty-whiteys.
• String your clothesline tightly and brace it every 10 feet or so. Wet clothes are heavy and they WILL drag the line down toward the ground.
• Skip the chlorine bleach for line-dried whites. Instead, add a half cup of lemon juice to the final rinse water. You won't believe how bright your whites are.
• Hang t-shirts and shirts from the bottom edge with the neck facing down. They dry more quickly and you don't have clothespin marks in the shoulders.
• You can dry clothes on the line any day that the temperature is above freezing. For colder days, invest in a $20 clothes drying rack and put it in front of a sunny window.

 Solar Heated Outdoor Shower

Outdoor solar shower - Credit: katjung @ flickrOne fun way to use solar energy is with a solar-heated outdoor shower. Most of the simple solar outdoor showers rely on passive solar heating and gravity feed. Basically, you fill a dark container with water, hang it overhead in a sunny spot, and when you're ready to shower and the water is hot, you stand underneath and open the spigot.

Most pre-packaged outdoor showers hold five gallons of water - enough for a five minute shower. Some of the cooler DIY solar showers I've seen include these:

• Mother Earth News: Portable Solar Shower from Inner Tube
• Build It Solar: Discussion of Hose Solar Shower setups
• Build It Solar: Description of How to Make Black Pipe Solar Shower
• Home Power: Excellent article on Solar hot water installation basics

Heating and Cooling Your Home Naturally

Grandma also had some tricks for heating and cooling the house naturally, summer or winter. For instance, you can reduce the amount of energy you use for air conditioning by simply installing retractable awnings above your south-facing windows. That will cut down on the direct sunlight coming through those windows and keep the rooms cooler. Cut down on heat loss during winter by making a set of velcro-trimmed window quilts. Some other ideas for capturing solar energy and using it in your home:

• CNN: Solar power curtains
• Warm Windows: Warm window shades
• Planet Green: 7 DIY Weekend Solar Projects

$467 Million Funding for Renewable Energy

"The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy."  Barrack Obama


Against a backdrop of 72000 solar panels, Barrack Obama gave a speech at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas on Wednesday, announcing over $467 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Geothermal and Solar Energy Projects.   The Nellis Air Force Base lays claim to the largest solar energy installation of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.  The solar panels are intended to provide 25% of the electricity requirements for 12,000 people living and working at the base.

Solar Energy Projects (117.6 Million)

Photovoltaic Technology Development

$51.5 million will be invested with the aim of making solar energy cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity by advancing photovoltaic concepts and high impact technologies,

Solar Energy Deployment

$40.5 million will be spent on removing the barriers to wider adoption of solar energy in residential, commercial and municipal environments.  Projects will focus on such things as grid connection, market barriers and the shortage of trained solar energy installers.

Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development

$25.6 million for improvments to the reliability of concentrating solar power technologies and improved test and evaluation support to the solar industry.

Geothermal Energy ($350 Million)

Geothermal Demonstration Projects

$140 Million will be allocated for demonstration of advanced geothermal energy technology in new geographic areas, as well as geothermal energy production from geopressured fields and oil and natural gas fields.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) R&D

Geothermal energy systems must be located near easily-accessible geothermal water resources, thus limiting widespread use.  EGS uses engineered reservoirs to make use of available heat resources which can used to produce electricity.  R&D is needed to demonstrate that the ESG technology will be ready in the near-term.  $80 Million will be used to fund this activity. 

Innovative Exploration Techniques

$100 Million fund will be used to reduce the up front risk for the private sector by investing in and validating innovative exploration technologies and methods.    Projects will include siting, drilling, and characterization of a series of exploration wells utilizing innovative exploration techniques. 

National Geothermal Data System, Resource Assessment, and Classification System

$100 Million will be used to fund a detailed characterization of geothermal energy resources nationwide.  In addition a nationwide data system will be developed to make resource data available to academia, researchers, and the private sector.  DOE will support the development of a geothermal resource classification system for use in determining site potential.

Solar Power Coming of Age

Solar Power Coming of Age

Hi!  I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Steve.  I started the BlogOnSmog website about a year ago, initially blogging on a host of different green topics.  A couple of months ago I decided to recruit more bloggers and introduce different day-of-week topics.  The recruitment has been relatively successful and there are now 5 bloggers here excluding myself. 

While I am searching for two more bloggers to complete the 7-day week, I have decided to fill in the missing two blog days and write the posts for Solar Sunday and Techno Tuesday myself.  Solar Sunday is dedicated to all forms of renewable energy, including but not restricted to:  solar, wind and hydro-electric power.  Techno Tuesday is a blog about green technology.  I expect there will be overlap between the two blogs (as I discuss solar technology for example) but hopefully this will be kept to a minimum.  I'll try to focus on applications on Sundays and details behind the technology on Tuesdays.

I am very excited about the Solar Sunday blog.  The majority of people do not realize that most of the world's energy resources originate from the sun's rays striking the earth.  Some energy is preserved as fossil fuel, while some is usable indirectly as wind, hydro or wave power.  Most of the renewable energy we take advantage of is hydro-electric as seen in the pie chart below.

Source:  Wikipedia Commons

In spite of the distribution of renewable energy projects, I will spend a fair amount of my time blogging about solar power, simply because the technologies and applications are fast coming of age.  Researchers are not only pushing the envelope of light conversion efficiency, they are reducing production costs and matching technologies to specific applications.  Please tune in next week!

Steve Auger
Founder of www.BlogOnSmog.com