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Keeping Up with the Solar (and Wind) Joneses

Earlier this year, my husband and I put up solar panels at our home – the first solar project in our historic West Virginia town. Well, just last week, inspired by our project, our neighbor installed a solar system three times bigger than ours. He expects it will generate the vast majority of the electricity […]

Featured Friend: Grace Chen

Each month, we showcase one of our beloved Friends with Benefits — folks who have donated to support our work. Want to take your relationship with Grist to the next level? Just donate any amount to join the fun.  Grace Chen “Stylin’ in my Grist Friends with Benefits T-shirt is a gentle reminder to be green. Grist […]

New York City's Solar Windfall Illuminates America's Clean Energy Future

This post adapted from Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. A recently released solar map of New York City found enough room on building rooftops for solar panels to power half the city during hours of peak electricity use. Taking advantage of this solar windfall could allow […]

One small step to help keep Solyndra from becoming the next Climategate

David Roberts is right that the anti-renewable right is likely to turn Solyndra into the next “Climategate”, an exaggeration of a minor or non-existent scandal into a major attack. One contribution to blunting this would be if “Climate Hawks” would agree on a single talking out of the many true things that could be said. […]

Please try IronCache — a memcached extension for ExpressionEngine

IronCache is an extension for the ExpressionEngine CMS that boosts performance for high traffic sites by using memcached

Mommy greenest: 10 impressive eco-moms [SLIDESHOW]

Parenting website Babble is highlighting “100 moms who are changing the world” and inviting readers to “mominate” others. Meet the 10 moms featured in the “green” category.

Friday music blogging: Boy & Bear

Boy & Bear is an Australian indie band composed of five singer-songwriters who drifted over from various other bands. They formed in 2009, but their Nashville-recorded debut LP, Moonfire, just came out last month.

Ads that Fight Back Against Coal

The coal industry is learning to not take the Sierra Club lightly – and we’re hoping our local, state and national officials are learning the same lesson. In one example – just today we released a Spanish-language television ad rejecting President Obama’s decision to delay long overdue, life-saving protections from smog, an acidic air pollutant […]

Just park it [SLIDESHOW]

Friday was Park(ing) Day, when folks reclaim parking spots around the world for dinner parties, cornhole tournaments, performance art — even urban chickens. Here are some of our favorite shots from the past few years. Score one for the humans!

Why we should democratize the electricity system – part 4

A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 4 of 5. Click for Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3. Roadblocks to Distributed, Local Renewable Energy Despite technology’s march toward more efficient and distributed energy production, there’s a substantial tension between the decentralized opportunity and the institutional and policy inertia […]