Mar 19th, 2010 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy | No Comments
Vermaland, a land holding company in Phoenix, will hold an auction on June 6 to sell off 1,938 acres that it says could accommodate 388 megawatts of electricity, according to the company. That would be enough to power 100,000 homes, says Vermaland.
Arizona has been trying to promote solar in its borders with credits and incentives for manufacturers and consumers. Arizona Public Service has a mandate to provide 4.5 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2014. The state offers a $3 per watt credit, nearly twice as high as California’s. Baseline power in the state, however, is comparatively cheap so some of the advantage is eroded. Nonetheless, some power providers want to produce power in Arizona to sell to California.
One of the state’s chief assets, of course, is the sun and empty land. Sempra Generation, an independent power provider, has said it will build more than 300 megawatts of PV parks on 4,000 acres it owns near Phoenix. Land was part of the motivation behind First Solar’s purchase of Optisolar. First Solar is discarding Optisolar’s technology but keeping the deals and land rights.
Read the rest A Solar Land Auction in Arizona : Greentech Media.
Feb 13th, 2010 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy | No Comments
Today, 92 percent of all Americans want our country to develop solar energy resources, and 77 percent believe the federal government should make solar power development a national priority.That is why I was joined by 10 of my colleagues Senators Whitehouse, Cardin, Gillibrand, Merkley, Lautenberg, Leahy, Boxer, Menendez, Specter, and Harkin in introducing the Ten Million Solar Roofs Act.
The bill is all of 9 pages and is pretty straightforward. It calls for 10 million new solar rooftop systems and 200,000 new solar water heating systems over the next 10 years. When fully implemented, this legislation would lead to 30,000 megawatts of new photovoltaic energy, triple our total current U.S. solar energy capacity. It will increase by almost 20 times our current energy output from photovoltaic panels.
The legislation will rapidly increase production of solar panels, driving down the price of photovoltaic systems. It also would mean the creation of over a million new jobs. The passage of this bill would dramatically reorient our energy priorities and would be a major step forward toward a clean energy future for the United States.
Read the rest: Sen. Bernie Sanders: It’s Time For a Solar Revolution.
Jan 9th, 2010 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy | No Comments
Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study found that solar-powered pumps installed in remote villages in the West African nation of Benin provide a cost- effective way of delivering much-needed irrigation water, particularly during the long dry season. The results are scheduled to be published the week of Jan. 4 in the online edition of PNAS.
via Solar powered irrigation systems improve diet and income in rural sub Saharan.
Jan 9th, 2010 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy | No Comments
By Todd Woody
(LA Times) ESolar Inc. of Pasadena signed an agreement Friday to build a series of solar thermal power plants in China with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts, in one of the largest renewable energy deals of its kind.
Coming four months after an Arizona company, First Solar, secured a contract to build an equally large photovoltaic power plant in China, the ESolar deal signals China's emergence as a major market for renewable energy.
“They’re moving very fast, much faster than the state and U.S. governments are moving,” said Bill Gross, ESolar’s chairman and the founder of Idealab.
Read the rest: Pasadena’s ESolar lands 2,000-megawatt deal in China – latimes.com.
Dec 3rd, 2009 | Alternative Energy, Economy, Helping the Environment, Solar Energy, Sustainibility, Today's News | No Comments
The Great Green Hope for lifting America’s economy is not looking so robust.
President Obama, both during his campaign and in his first year in office, has promoted the promise of new jobs in cutting-edge, nonpolluting industries, and such green jobs will be a major issue at his jobs “summit” meeting Thursday.
But, increasingly, skeptics who point to the need for more jobs are wondering why he is not doing more to create green jobs faster.
Growth in clean energy industries and in green jobs has been considerably slower and bumpier than anticipated, industry experts say.
But rather than giving up on its green jobs mantra, the White House will rededicate itself to promoting green industries at the jobs meeting, which will bring together business and labor leaders, politicians and economists.
The initial promise of green jobs was based on governments around the world declaring the fight against global warming to be a priority. The theory was that jobs in environmentally minded companies would grow rapidly as a result. But instead, some green-industry companies have been shedding jobs in the United States, and in some cases moving them to China.
Last week, the Gamesa wind turbine plant in western Pennsylvania announced it was laying off nearly half its 280 workers. Last month, General Electric said it would close a solar panel factory in Delaware, while Evergreen Solar, which received $58 million in state aid to build a 900-employee plant northwest of Boston, said it would move some assembly to China, costing 250 jobs.
To read complete article by Steven Greenhouse go to NYTimes.com
Nov 30th, 2009 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy | No Comments
Mike Bartz, back to camera, and his brother Bradley install solar panels to power a pump for a hot tub in Palos Verdes Estates. (Jay L. Clendenin Los Angeles Times / November 20, 2009)
Ready to chuck his electric bills, Camarillo resident Marc Weinberg last year asked his homeowners association for permission to put solar panels on his roof.
When the Spanish Hills Homeowners Assn. said no, Weinberg sued the group. Under the state’s Solar Rights Act, he argued, a homeowners association can’t unreasonably block solar installations.
Weinberg won, and the Spanish Hills Homeowners Assn. was ordered to not only permit the solar panels but to cover the tens of thousands of dollars that Weinberg had spent on legal fees. Since last fall, when he installed a double row of matte black panels, three other homes in the hilltop neighborhood of luxury estates have added panels.
Whether motivated by pocketbook or environmentalism, similar battles between homeowners groups and property owners are cropping up across the state as the installation of solar systems becomes more affordable and utility costs rise.
via Solar panels causing some storms — latimes.com.
Jun 14th, 2009 | Alternative Energy, Helping the Environment, Innovation, Science & Technology, Solar Energy, Today's News | No Comments
Metropolis’s 2009 Next Generation competition received scores of entries, from which this year’s jury chose one winner and eight runners-up to be recognized in the May issue of the magazine. But there were far more than just nine good ideas in the bunch. The judges also selected 12 “notables”—entries that, for various reasons, fell short of the final selection, but that the jurors felt still deserved recognition. To that end, we will be posting one notable Next Generation proposal every Thursday for the next three months. In doing so, we hope to foster discussion that will help the teams refine their ideas, connect with like-minded readers, and perhaps even implement their projects in the real world.
This week: Emilio Ramirez’s proposal, Feeding the Addiction: The Emergence of the Single Family Power Plant, which envisions a low-cost, renewable energy production and delivery system that could turn homes and businesses into self-sustaining energy producers. How would it work?
According to Ramirez, a private energy company would design, fabricate, and install the mini power plants, which would concentrate solar heat on a collector plate to boil a fluid and create steam. That steam then turns a turbine engine that rotates an alternator for an estimated daily output of 84 kilowatt hours.
To read article by Mason Curry go to metropolismag.com
Dec 5th, 2008 | Alternative Energy, Helping the Environment, Innovation, Science & Technology, Solar Energy, Today's News | No Comments
POZNAN, Poland (AP) — The first solar-powered car to travel around the world ended its journey at the U.N. climate talks Thursday, arriving with the message that clean technologies are available now to stop global warming.
The small two-seater — made from aluminum and fiberglass — hauled a trailer of solar cells and U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer up to a building in Poznan where delegates from some 190 nations are working toward a new treaty to control climate change.
“This is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has traveled all the way around the world without using a single drop of petrol,” said Louis Palmer, the 36-year-old Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who made the trip.
“These new technologies are ready,” he said. “It’s ecological, it’s economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warning.”
To read complete article by Vanessa Gera of Associated Press go to AP.com
Nov 15th, 2008 | Alternative Energy, Helping the Environment, Innovation, Science & Technology, Solar Energy, Today's News | No Comments
A Future So Bright The History of Solar Energy
Essay: As the world faces economic turmoil, cleaner energy can create jobs and reignite global growth.
In rented offices on a quiet side street in Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, analysts for the International Energy Agency spend long days and nights crunching numbers about oil production and greenhouse-gas emissions. They’re the staid, sober global accountants who watch over the power supply for the 30 rich countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and their many reports are dry and technical. But lately, the group’s pronouncements have taken on more ominous overtones. With a sense of urgency bordering on desperation, the IEA has begun calling for radical changes in the way the world drives its cars, its factories and, indeed, the global economy. This month the agency will issue a collection of comprehensive reports declaring that “a global revolution is needed in ways that energy is supplied and used.”
To read article by By Christopher Dickey and Tracy McNicoll go to Newsweek.com
Jul 16th, 2008 | Alternative Energy, Solar Energy, Today's News | No Comments
Grocer Mohammed Abbas was in a good mood as the city’s municipal crews installed the new lights in front of his Karada store.
“Light provides half our security,” he said on a searing afternoon, reaching into a fridge to pull out an ice cream for a little girl in pigtails. “I stay open until 10 p.m. Now that the lights are in, I can stay open even later.”
At the dry cleaner next door, Basil Dawood wasn’t so sure about the benefits of the system.
“Even if the streets are lit, if there is no electricity and our store is dark, no one can see us,” Dawood said. “What we really need is good national power.”
Baghdad is averaging about 13 hours of power a day, but most of that power is consumed by government offices and essential services.
To read complete article by Alexandra Zavis go to LATimes.com
