Thursday, October 9, 2008

New Rooftop Solar Panels

Treehugger has this post about an exciting new type of rooftop solar panel: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/new-modular-thin-film-solar-photovoltaic-rooftop-panels-solyndra.php While talking a few days ago to a professor at one of India's most prominent colleges, I learned that they had been suffering from severe power shortages that have caused untold problems especially as the colleges is located in one of the hottest parts of the country. Imagine poor young kids sweating buckets and trying to study at the same time . . . Now, the various colleges and universities in India are huge places with massive buildings housing thousands of students at a time. It would be easy for these universities to line their roofs with solar cells and save power while running classroom fans to make life more comfortable for their students. If the universities and community colleges have extra money, they could also install Vertical Axis Wind Turbines at vintage points along their campuses. It would be a superb way of promoting green power and also of teaching students the advantages of green energy. Just think of the quality of future students who would grow up and gain their education with exposure to green energy. I can certainly see a great future ahead.

Sadly, even the Indian Institutes of Technology which are among the most advanced engineering colleges in the world, do not have anything of the sort.

Now, do you understand my frustration over what goes on in India?

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