Photo
Popularity Rate down 0wattwatters who think this pulse is not really interesting Rate up 4wattwatters who think this pulse is interesting

This isn't a billboard. Its a power plant!

Sergio Ferreira on December 14, 2007 | 18046 Views | 1 Comment

image

San Franciscan Pacific Gas and Electric, California, has just installed the first solar powered billboard in the world. 

The billboard actually draws power from the grid, but the power output of its 20 PV panels is higher than what the billboard demands from the grid, keeping the balance positive. This is also possible due to the high efficiency LEDs the billboard uses for lighting.

Ranging from 2.5 to 3.4 kWh electricity produced during the day are actually close to what is necessary to power one family house.

Is this another great idea or is it just not worth the investment? 

| |

1 Comment

#1 by James Jackson on April 12, 2008 at 12:56 a.m.

I wonder if they will use the new ultracapacitors for energy storage of these PV panels?  I like to see this new clean energy wave. 

href="http://www.ultracapacitors.org " title="Ultracapacitors Energy Storage">www.ultracapacitors.org  

 

 JJ

Related pulses

Saving money on lighting with power quality analyzer

Jerry Rodgers on March 1, 2010 | 183 Views
Lighting is a major element of operating costs for most facilities. Lighting costs involve both energy and maintenance. A company was considering replacing its existing lighting system and wanted to ...

Kick a ball... and generate electricity!

Yvonne Flavin on February 13, 2010 | 288 Views
  I came across this concept quite by chance, thanks to  PRI's The World: Technology Podcast Facebook page. Four female engineering students from America's Havard University worked on a ...

New MicroPhotoVoltaic Cells for Solar Concentrators

Jose Vaz Pinto on January 13, 2010 | 551 Views
"Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that are expected to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors pieced together with 6-inch-square solar ...

2010 - year of the electric car and a little food for thought

Philippa Martin-King on January 12, 2010 | 520 Views
The 2010 Detroit and LA motor shows have a concentration of electric cars. These are either hybrid, where they are differentiated into two categories of "mild" and "full" - with the ...

Cleantech - Top ten green universities in US and top 10 countries

Philippa Martin-King on January 6, 2010 | 626 Views
A long while back, I mentioned the LED lighting in the city of Ann Arbour in one of my pulses. It's no surprise then to find that Ann Arbour ...

How green are Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)?

Francois Becheret on December 7, 2009 | 644 Views
Some countries and states like Australia, California, and the European Union plan in the near future to ban incandescent light bulbs, to the benefit of  Compact Fluorescent Lights, Lamps (CFLs ...

World heritage city installs new street lighting

Philippa Martin-King on December 2, 2009 | 539 Views
When visiting Chilean world heritage city, Valparaíso, last month I was interested to see that they had not only installed new street lighting but were telling citizens and visitors ...

First pedal-powered electricity generator on Swiss football pitch

Philippa Martin-King on October 22, 2009 | 1042 Views
A group of teenagers from a local youth club in the City of Lausanne have just installed a pedal-driven lighting system on their football pitch that allows them to play ...

Chinese city of Rizhao is first to pledge to become carbon neutral

Philippa Martin-King on October 19, 2009 | 781 Views
The name of the Chinese city, Rizhao, literally means “first to get sunshine”, of which they have plenty. Rizhao is close to the city of Qingdao, famous for its Tsingtao ...

World's largest offshore windfarm is Danish

Philippa Martin-King on September 29, 2009 | 990 Views
Last week Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark officially switched on the Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm, which will be the world’s largest until Greater Gabbard comes online off ...

Red or white? Green please!

Yvonne Flavin on September 21, 2009 | 992 Views
I've been working through my summer podcast backlog and this item from the BBC World Service's Digital Planet (programme of 25 August 2009) caught my ear, so to ...

Tidal energy project for Scottish island

Yvonne Flavin on August 26, 2009 | 1213 Views
While browsing this morning's headlines, this article in the Guardian caught my eye. Islay, one of the islands off the west coast of Scotland, famous for its whisky, is ...

Fuel cell research budget to be scrapped by DOE in the US?

Philippa Martin-King on August 18, 2009 | 1064 Views
It seems unbelievable that the US Department of Energy should be proposing in its 2010 budget  to cut $100 million from the hydrogen-fuel cell federal research programme. Apparently, politics and ...

Using solar power to recharge your gadgets

Yvonne Flavin on August 5, 2009 | 1357 Views
Last year on a flight, I bought a solar phone charger, solarmonkey . It consisted of a robust folding solar panel, about the size of a pack of cards, bundled with ...

LEDs lights proven to offer excellent life-cycle energy efficiency

Jonathan Buck on August 4, 2009 | 1099 Views
A new report from the lighting industry shows that the total energy efficiency of the new LED lights are just as efficient over their life cycle when compared with traditional ...