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Pioneering Environmental Technologies
Alternative Energy Solutions
Photo: Boeing Photo
From designing solar panels to developing innovative ways to improve the efficiency of national electrical grids, Boeing is developing alternative energy solutions that offer the potential to conserve resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Boeing is pioneering advancements in solar cells, fuel cells and environmentally progressive energy sources offering the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve resources.
Our recently formed Energy Solutions group, part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, is developing innovative solutions to increase the efficiency and security of local, regional and national energy systems.
In November 2009, Energy Solutions was awarded three U.S. government contracts, to demonstrate smart grid technologies. Starting mid-2010, Boeing will team with major utilities on the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest to demonstrate technologies that increase grid reliability, reduce system demands and costs, and increase energy efficiency.
Boeing is pioneering advancements in solar cells, fuel cells and environmentally progressive energy sources offering the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve resources.
Boeing Energy Solutions has teamed with Amplex, a Danish technology company, to offer a system with the promise to decrease energy consumption by streetlights in major cities by 25 to 35 percent, significantly reducing their carbon footprint.
Boeing researchers and engineers in Madrid, Spain, are working on ways to incorporate clean fuel-cell technology in aerospace applications. In Japan, we announced a memorandum of understanding with IHI to research regenerative fuel cell technology for aviation.
Fuel cells directly convert hydrogen into heat and electricity without combustion. This eliminates emissions, except for heat and water, and reduces noise. Boeing is exploring the use of fuel-cell technology as a means of providing cleaner, quieter secondary airplane power systems.
Spectrolab, our wholly owned subsidiary, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of solar cells and panels, powering everything from satellites to renewable solar energy projects in Arizona and California. Spectrolab’s terrestrial concentrator cells currently hold the world’s record with 41.6 percent efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity.
Boeing is currently in the initial stages of developing and installing a 100-kilowatt power facility at California State University, Northridge, that will use the Spectrolab’s solar power technology. The facility is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2010.