Who’s there?

Phillip.

Phillip who?

Phillip my bag with candy, it’s Halloween!

With only 19 days left until Halloween many people are scrambling to find costumes that will win them first prize in the costume parade, or at least land them on a few of their friends’ Facebook walls.  Sungevity to the rescue!  We’ve put together some energy-themed creative costume ideas so that you can be the FrankenSTAR of any Pumpkin Ball you happen to attend.  Naughty nurses, provocative plumbers, captivating Cleopatras, and sexy Steve Zissous beware!

First up: a Save Energy dress with a solar module skirt.  This one is great if you don’t have time to create something from scratch and you just want to make a quick statement with your costume.

Next we have a homemade Renewable Energy costume. I found this one on Carla Brown’s website.  In her own words, “The wind turbine was made from a recycled oatmeal container attached to my bike helmet, with a plastic container on the front and cardboard turbine blades. The solar energy panel was my armadillo costume recycled onto a piece of cardboard wrapped in shiny wrapping paper. And the geo-thermal system running down my leg was my tent poles again.” Pure genius.  Snow White sidekick not included.

Erin Claybaugh (below) took Halloween LEEDership to a whole new level when she created her DIY costume.  If you have a cardboard box, some wrapping paper, faux moss, and a few micro plant pots then you, too, can be a LEED building on October 31st.  Just consider yourself warned: transportation might be a challenge.

Baby bump alert! Never fear, pregnant ladies, we have your needs covered too.  Just turn your belly into the sun and plaster the rest of the solar system on the remaining bits and pieces of your body.  Click on the photo to see 24 other remarkable costumes for women with buns in their ovens.

Are you into things that are high efficiency?  Obsessed with phylum Cnidaria? Yeah.  You look the type.  Why not combine both passions with an LED jellyfish costume?  Click the photo for instructions.  All you need is some rope light and a wash basin.

I saved the best for last.  Everyone knows the two people who show up to the party in the cutest couple costume always steal the show.  The pre-packaged plug and wall outlet costume is a classic, but if the power coming out of the plug is from fossil fuels then it’s also the scariest costume (and oh-so-passé).  ACK!

How about a sun and a solar module to light up the dance floor?  A yellow pashmina never looked so green.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Ben.

Ben who?
Ben waiting for Halloween all year!

To be honest, I don’t spend much time staring at the sun, and I would suggest that you don’t either. However, astronomers and other scientists have some great methods that allow them to observe and record the activity happening on the sun.

One of the most well known phenomenons that occur up on our star are solar flares. A flare is a sudden, rapid and intense variation in light. On the sun, these flares occur when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released out into space. This release of energy is emitted across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, everything from radio waves, visible light and gamma rays. The amount of energy released in a solar flare is monumental; think millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously! Solar flares can occur anywhere from less than one a week and up to several a day. The frequency correlates to the Sun’s 11-year cycle.

So you might be saying, “so what?” The “so what” is that solar flares affect us here on earth. Solar flares generate dangerous particles and radiation. However, for the most part, or atmosphere and magnetic field keep us safe. But what about the area surrounding earth?

Satellites in particular are affected by solar flares. When a flare occurs it heats our atmosphere and expands it. This expansion increases the drag on satellites and decreases their lifespan. Additionally the electromagnetic pulse associated with flares can affect the electronics on the satellite.

The most serious threat to our lifestyle occurs during geomagnetic storms, which are caused by coronal mass ejections-a phenomenon related to solar flares. During these geomagnetic storms, the shockwaves can cause high currents in power lines, which in turn can blow out transformers. The most famous blackout caused by a solar storm was in 1989 when the Hydro-Quebec Power Authority and the entire Quebec power grid collapsed, affecting 6 million people!

These events are just one more reminder of the power of our sun. If you are interested in learning more about solar flares, National Geographic TV has an episode on the subject.

-Nat Smith

Solar energy is dependent on… the sun! Who would have guessed!? As solar studs, I think it’s pretty important for all of us to have (at least) a basic understanding of the star that unequivocally is the reason there is life on earth.

First, a little history; About 4.5 billion years ago, gas and dust coalesced and formed what turned into our solar system (you know, the sun, eight planets, one newly minted dwarf planet named Pluto and other comets and asteroids). Our Sun makes up 99% of the mass in our solar system.

Despite the importance we hold for our sun, it turns out that our personal star is one of over a 100 billion in the Milky Way Galaxy and happens to be pretty average in size. This is a good thing, because stars with a higher mass burn out after a few million years (a blink of an eye when discussing the cosmos). Our sun, on the other hand, is calculated to burn for another 4,500 million years.

The way the sun functions is pretty awesome. It’s essentially a giant nuclear reactor. At its super dense core, hydrogen atoms fuse to create helium at the incredible rate of 700 tons per second. This reaction creates energy. The energy is carried from the core to the surface of the sun with photons-particles of light. It takes the photons more than a million years to migrate from the core to the surface of the sun. The photons then travel down to us at earth.

The sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface and 28 million degrees Fahrenheit at its core. Think about that the next time you complain about your summer heat!

-Nat Smith

Did you know that the optimal solar weather isn’t a bright cloudless day? In fact, sunny days that are partially cloudy are the best days. This is because as the radiation from the sun travels through the atmosphere, it is reduced by absorption, reflection and scattering. But, reflected radiation from sunlight bouncing off clouds (called diffuse radiation) can increase the irradiance-the amount of electromagnetic energy on a surface per unit time per unit area-that eventually hits the surface of the earth.