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Articles by Adam Browning

Adam Browning is the executive director of Vote Solar.

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  • We want some

    Hmmm. This is interesting. Seems that American Express is running a contest, and the winning project gets $5 million.

    I mention this for two reasons: out of civic duty, and because our project is in the running for five million freakin' dollars.

    We are currently about 1,200 measly votes from making it to the next round.

    The project, "Harvest the Sun," is a collaboration of Vote Solar and the Center for Resource Solutions, and would go toward our work bringing solar into the mainstream.

    For the love of God -- I currently expend a ridiculous amount of time, energy, and dignity raising money for the work we do, and we do it on a shoestring. With $5 mil we could damn near guarantee a defeat of global warming.

    So, if you are an AmEx cardholder, I would be eternally grateful if you'd take the time to go to the Members Project website and vote for "Harvest the Sun".

    Thank you.

  • DIY solar

    DIY Solar. Love it. Just don't let your homeowner's association see it.

    In other news, at the American Solar Energy Society conference in Cleveland last week, First Solar -- the same First Solar that recently announced the sale of $1.28 billion worth of modules -- gave a presentation in which they announced that based on current cost curves, they will be selling around $1.25/W in the 2010-2012 time frame.

    That, friends, is cheap solar. If the industry can continue to bring down installation costs commensurately -- and that is done by developing local solar programs, creating local solar markets, and investing in local solar installers -- then solar will be at grid parity in a lot of locales.

  • Better than the redhead

    So you want to get in on the solar boom, but don't have the cash to buy a manufacturing plant. What to do, what to do ... I know! Why not try the same place that got you a date with the redhead on the bus, your last apartment, and your '79 Mercedes that you'd run on biodiesel if you could ever get the damn thing to turn over?

    Yes, Craigslist. They are having a sale on triple junction thin-film amorphous PV manufacturing plants.

    Give it a shot. Maybe it will work out better than the redhead.

  • Compressed air, not hot air

    In contrast to the hot air coming out of Washington and Detroit, India is opting for compressed air. Deets here.