ASES 2010 National Solar Home Tour A Success

The verdict is in and this past Saturday's ASES 2010 National Solar Home Tour was a success, with triple the number of tours than in past years.

 This year there were 695 tours that showcased thousands of solar homes and businesses; triple the number of tours conducted last year.

“From Dillingham, Alaska to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, there is one thing on which Americans can agree: today’s solar technology offers something for everyone, be it tax credits, cash rebates, lower energy bills, jobs for local installers, improved property values, cleaner air or more sustainable communities,” said American Solar Energy Society National Solar Tour Manager Richard Burns.

Some highlights of this year’s tour included Solar Decathlon winner “LumenHAUS” fromVirginia Tech (see video below), a home in Alaska (see image above), a community solar garden in Colorado, a solar charging station for electric vehicles in California, a solar chicken farm in Mississippi, and more.

I'll be posting my experience as a volunteer and a participant in the ASES 2010 National Solar Home Tour on my blog Buy Solar Powered Lights in the next day or so.

Thanks for reading,

Jill Olsen

UNL Installs LED Lighting in Environmentally Friendly Parking Garage

From the articles I'm reading and covering it seems like college campuses are stepping up and taking the lead when it comes to environmentally friendly green building and solar lights. Take this article on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that has built a green parking garage with over 1,000 parking spots for students.

There are many green features to this parking structure, I'm only highlighting the LED lighting in this post.

UNL expects to see a nearly 35 percent savings, or $17,500 a year, in energy as a result of the LED lighting alone, Carpenter said.

Sensors that detect activity and light levels further enhance the lighting system. During the day, the sensors turn interior lights on and off depending on the amount of sunshine inside. In the evening, lights dim to 50 percent when motion isn't detected

.The university plans to replace incandescent fixtures in other parking structures with LED lights.

As always it's great to pass along such great news and especially the potential savings for using solar powered lights and LED lighting. I cover other aspects of solar powered lighting on my blog, check it out.

Thanks for reading, feel free to pass this along,

Talk soon,

Jill Olsen

Southampton airport gets solar-powered runway lights

Yes, I do love reading and sharing with you all the different ways that solar powered lights are being used today in our world.

I thought this article about Southampton airport in the UK using solar powered runway lights is really cool.

Nick-named "Wig Wags" the flashing lights cost £25,000 in total and are used at junctions between the runway and taxiways.

Southampton is the first UK airport to install the lights which are also used by the US Air Force in Afghanistan.

An airport spokesperson said: "We've been able to minimise the environmental footprint and maintenance costs."

The lights have also been installed in areas of the airport where there is no access to power supplies, saving the £170,000 cost of laying cables.

The possibilities for using solar powered lights are increasing all the time. This technology is here and will only improve with time.

What are you waiting for? Read more about how you can use solar powered lights in your own life which will save you money and help save the planet at the same time.

Talk soon,

Jill