.
|
|
|
. |
|
|
|
|
|
NSPRI Update - Winter 2006
NSPRI News: Solar Battery Charger Project Most households have at least one battery recharger. These are typically plugged into to household power supply and run 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, just to keep batteries freshly charged. If the batteries aren't used, the charger doesn't use up any power, right? That's a myth. Battery charges continually use power and dispose it as heat when it's not needed. If 100 million battery chargers in the U.S. each consume 5 Watts, cumulatively, they consume about 4,500 gigaWatt hours per year! There could very well be a great deal more battery chargers in the U.S. than that. Activists outside of NSPRI have begun to point out this mamoth waste of energy. However, solar rechargers waste much less energy, because the Sun is "on" every day without draining the conventional power grid. Battery chargers typically don't need to be recharging batteries every moment, so solar rechargers could be competitive despite the lack of sunlight at night. The impact of converting to slar batter chargers could be tremendous. NSPRI is conducting a project to study extent that conversion to solar battery chargers is feasible.
New about other organizations and projects: Maine Today reports on a reinvestment program in Maine that provides solar power mini-grants to non-profit organizations. Renewable Energy Access reports the installation of a 400 kW solar power system in Ontario, California.
Past Updates |
|
|
|
|
