Are you a punctilious prognosticator of precipitation? Do you have a sense for when the next storm will strike? Did you know you could win a big prize from the R-stores of Northcentral Wisconsin by predicting the first inch of snowfall in Wausau this Fall? Maybe you did know because you entered the First Snowfall Contest last year. Well, it is time to have some fun once again! The entry period for the 2012 First Snowfall Contest begins today and continues through the end of the day (midnight, central U.S. time) on Friday October 5th. I could go through all the rules right here in the blog, but it would be better if you just head over to this page, or here, to read for yourself. It is pretty simple really. You can enter online at our website, you can text your entry in (just text “snowfall” to 28214) , or you can snail mail it to WAOW-TV.
I want to make sure that everyone knows that even though the contest rules state you must predict the first 1 inch of snowfall in Wausau, it is for anyone in the viewing area to enter. There are R-stores all over Northcentral Wisconsin where you can spend/use the prizes. So all you folks from Wisconsin Dells all the way up to Mercer, put on your thinking cap and get your entry in before October 5th.
And…no retroactively guessing September 22nd. For those unaware, last weekend there was some snow in the western and southern part of the area. From the viewer pictures that were sent in, it looked like there could have been an inch in some spots – but of course it was not in Wausau, so it would not have counted anyway. It was a fairly spectacular event none-the-less, in the nearly 120 year recorded weather history in Wausau, there has only been one record of measurable snow in the month of September. There have been a handful of “trace” amounts of snow, but only September 26th of 1942 had more than a trace – it was 0.30 inches.
2010 Awareness Ride
Besides the snowfall contest, I would also like to mention another event where you could win some prizes, all the while raising awareness and research money for the fight against breast cancer. The Sports Den of Marshfield and the Marshfield Clinic sponsor this event. You can register online for the event here. See some past pictures of me and others here. The walk/run/ride event isn’t until Saturday October 6th, but I wanted to mention it now since there is something special that could be available if 100 people register (online) for the event by Tuesday September 25th (so through tomorrow, kind-of short notice). If 100 people pre-register, then the Trek corporation will donate a brand new bike to be given away at the event! If you are planning on going, why not register today?!
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In a follow up to last week’s solar power promotion (yes, I admit, I take sides, at least a little), the city tree specialist has tried to contact me about the trees that block my solar power designs, but we have not talked yet. Phone tag, you know how that goes. Until I have more news, how about some other news from the world of solar power:
*Imec research has set a new world record for organic solar photovoltaic cells with an efficiency of 5.5%. I know, it doesn’t sound like much but progress is usually incremental and organic solar cells could end up being much cheaper and more flexible than pure silicon cells.
*Heliatek has a product ready to go. It is also a form of organic solar cell, and they already claim an efficiency of 10% hopefully rising to 12% in a little over a year. It probably isn’t priced competitively at this point but Heliatek is being cautious in the market in order to weather the current slump in the solar market.
*Silevo, a Fremont California-based solar company (with manufacturing plants in China) claims its hybrid solar cell has achieved 21% efficiency and they are ramping up production.
*Semprius is holding on in their effort to build cheaper and more powerful concentrated photovoltaic solar cells.
*Crystal Solar is moving forward with their method of making crystalline solar cells with very thin wafers. Cutting down the amount of silicon they use should cut the cost of the solar panels even more.
*Even outside of improvements in direct sunlight conversion efficiency, there are new innovations leading to more cost effective solar panels. STMicroelectronics has created a new silicon carbide diode that reduces the energy lost when boosting DC power or converting DC to AC. Their diodes could possibly cut the losses in energy by 70%! Every little bit matters.
*Due to the lower cost of solar panels (which has brought me into the market), U.S. solar panel adoption is experiencing a minor boom. Yay U.S.! The market is certainly tough for the producers with such an over-supply on the market, but the side benefit is that more clean energy production is being installed. Thanks to all the forward-thinking people who are jumping on the bandwagon right now. Hopefully it will lead to a cleaner environment in the future.
*Solar powered desalination could end up helping the water situation in the desert southwest of the U.S.
*Lastly, storing the intermittent output from solar panels (and wind turbines) could be getting a lot cheaper as Aquion ramps up production of their simple and cheaper large storage battery.
Have a pleasant Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.