Energy News – Page 19 – The Energy Chronicle

2013 EnergyWhiz Olympics Winners

Sherri Shields Awards, Energy News May 6, 2013 0 Comment

Congratulations to the 2013 EnergyWhiz Olympics Winners:

B.A.T. (Battery Assisted Transport) Mobile Challenge

1^st Place Race: Race Girls, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

2^nd Place Race: Millennium Panther, Lewis E. Wadsworth Elementary, Palm Coast

3^rd Place Race: Salt & Pepper, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

1^st Place Design : Race Girls, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

2^nd Place Design: Millennium Panther, Lewis E. Wadsworth Elementary, Palm Coast

3^rd Place Design: The Anaxagoras, Montessori World Academy, Orlando

Energy Innovations

Middle Division

1^st Place Design: Sunny Circus Snacks, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

2^nd Place Design: Urban Garden, Howard Middle, Orlando

3^rd Place Design: Cooking Device, Hidden Oaks Middle, Palm City

High School Division

1^st Place Design: The Sunfisher, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

2^nd Place Design: Suk-A-Poop, Island Coast High, Cape Coral

3^rd Place Design: Solar Bike, Dunbar High, Fort Myers

All Divisions

WOW! Award: The Sunfisher, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

Hydrogen Challenge

Middle Division

1^st Place: The Flying Fish, Stewart Middle, Tampa

2^nd Place: The Kit Kats, Lake Nona Middle, Orlando

3^rd Place: Child’s Play, Gifford Middle, Vero Beach

Most Accurate: N.E.R.D.S. – New Energy Regeneration Device, Gulf Coast Academy, Spring Hill

High School Division

1^st Place: Tiger Engineering, Dunbar High, Fort Myers

2^nd Place: The Domino Theory, Edgewood Jr/ Sr High, Merritt Island

3^rd Place: Race Girls, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

Most Accurate : Race Girls, Edgewood Jr/Sr High, Merritt Island

All Divisions

WOW! Award: The Flying Fish, Stewart Middle, Tampa

Important notification regarding photovoltaic (solar) panels sold under the trade name Advanced Solar Photonics (ASP) on behalf of Bluechip Energy LLC

Sherri Shields Energy News April 24, 2013ASP, modules, Public Notice, registration, revoked, UL, Underwriters Laboratories 0 Comment

On February 13, 2013, the Florida Solar Energy Center revoked its module registration of ASP modules, having discovered that documentation asserting Underwriters Laboratories (UL) testing was not substantiated by UL.

UL has issued a public notice regarding the counterfeit products, and information enabling identification of the affected panels is available in the Public Notices portion of the UL website, or may be accessed via the following link to the notice: UL warns of counterfeit UL Mark on photovoltaic panels (Release 13PN-20).

Please note that ASP issued a recall for these mislabeled photovoltaic products, with details regarding inspection and replacement accessible via the following link: Advanced Solar Photonics Announces Product Recall of PV Modules for Code Compliance.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office is equipped to receive complaints regarding the ASP/Bluechip Energy products directly from consumers, with protocols in place to investigate consumer fraud. Complaints may be filed via a “Quick Link” on the Attorney General website homepage, or accessed and submitted electronically via the Citizen Services Contact Form via the following link: Citizen Services Contact Form.

Please direct all complaints and investigative inquiries to the Florida Attorney General’s Office

International Renewable Energy Speaker at FSEC on Monday, May 21, 2012 @ 3 p.m.

Sherri Shields Energy News May 16, 2012 0 Comment

What:
An opportunity to learn about a unique international sustainability project.

Title of Presentation:
Urban Energy Services through Stand-Alone Renewable Energy Systems

Speaker:
Dr. Priyadarshini Karve

Abstract:
Generally in the developing countries, stand alone renewable energy systems are associated with electricity generation for rural areas. However, many such systems have failed due to a variety of reasons. An assessment of the failures indicates several reasons, such as lack of technical expertise for operating the systems, difficulties in servicing and maintenance, mismatch between energy services available and energy services required, social, economic, political constraints, etc. Most of these problems would be avoided if the stand alone systems were based in urban areas. Furthermore, no government subsidy or grant will be necessary, as even normal banks can provide finance due to the relatively better creditworthiness of the urban proponents. To some extent the successful introduction of systems, such as solar water heaters in urban areas, is already pointing in this direction.

Subrato Chandra Remembered

Sherri Shields Energy News January 13, 2012Building America, buildings, energy efficiency, research, researcher 1 Comment

Subrato Chandra, Ph.D., retired project manager for the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP) and one of the pioneers of the building research division of the Florida Solar Energy Center, died Jan. 12 following complications from surgery.

A pioneer of buildings research at FSEC, Subrato Chandra, died Jan. 12, 2012 due to complications from surgery. — Subrato Chandra, a pioneer of buildings research at FSEC.

Subrato, who worked for FSEC for 34 years before retiring in 2010, was passionate about integrating energy efficiency into home design and, long before most people had ever heard the term photovoltaics, helped develop the concept of a PV powered house in Cape Canaveral in 1979.

One of his proudest achievements was highlighted in an email he recently sent a colleague in which several FSEC initiatives were touched upon in a listing of the most transformative homebuilding trends in the last 75 years.

Subrato’s compassion can be seen in the types of projects he championed: As director of FSEC’s research and development division in 1995 he helped the Environmental Protection Agency launch the Energy Star Homes project that has become the most widely accepted energy-efficient green homes projects in the country. The Building America project he led still works directly with Habitat for Humanity home builders throughout the country to help make housing more affordable for needy families and helps make manufactured or HUD-code homes more efficient.

Subrato led FSEC’s first major funded project in the buildings area with a $400,000 contract on passive cooling by natural ventilation received in 1981 from the Department of Energy. During his career at UCF he was involved in $14 million of funded projects. In addition to his work at FSEC, Subrato served as a faculty member in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Subrato was able to succeed because he always championed the personal relationship over the pure technical work. He communicated equally well with a housing subcontractor and a renowned scientist. And in so doing he was able to have a number of happy employees and help funding agencies achieve their goals. His loss will be felt nationwide in the building research community.

“He was a great teacher, a respected scientist, and a classy gentleman, ” said Craig V. Muccio, a colleague from Florida Power and Light who first met Subrato in a solar engineering class Subrato was teaching in 1980.

Most recently Subrato was working with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a senior buildings engineer.

Subrato’s wife Mitra works in the Office of Research & Commercialization and he has two grown children.

Florida Manufactured Solar Electric Panels

Sherri Shields Director's Message, Energy News December 21, 2011 10 Comments

Dr. James Fenton Speaks to Florida House of Representatives, Energy & Utilities Subcommittee on December 6, 2011

Below is the transcription of the 12-minute video recording, located here: http://vimeo.com/33415686.

My name is James Fenton, I’m director of the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center here today and I would like to talk to you about manufacturing, manufacturing renewable energy in Florida. Specifically I’ll use examples of photovoltaics; solar to electric panels.

Let’s look at Florida manufacturing jobs as a tale of two salad bowls. The $10.00 bowl made in Florida using Florida materials keeps all the money and all the jobs in Florida. The $9.50 bowl imported from China, manufactured by Chinese, using Chinese materials sends most of the money and the jobs to China. Which purchase is best for Florida?

Florida imports almost all of its energy resources. The citizens of Florida pay $27 billion for electricity and $30 billion for gasoline for a total of $57 billion per year. This compares to our state budget of $70 billion a year. But unlike our state budget, which I hope by the way we spend all that money in the state, most of the $57 billion leaves the state of Florida. We are faced with two energy challenges – How can Florida reduce its imported energy costs and how can Florida’s electricity and transportation fuel be manufactured in Florida? Can we design an energy future which allows Florida to keep our capital in the state, increasing economic activity and produce high-wage jobs. We can and there is a path to do it. I would like to share such a path.
Read more