solar panels
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Here comes the sun – the chart Paul Krugman left out
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Nobel economist Paul Krugman made waves last month when his column “Here Comes the Sun” noted that the rapidly falling cost of solar electricity – “prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7 percent a year” – […]
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Totally plausible water solution: Collect ice in the desert
Look, it's very simple. All you need to solve the water shortage is a giant metal leaf that you put in the desert and it uses solar power to grow ice. Then you drink the ice. How is this difficult? Okay, this is not completely for real. The leaf's creators don't think it will singlehandedly […]
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Amazing green building looks like it’s made of string
The new design for the Taiwan Tower (which will be built in, where else, Taiwan) is based on the banyan tree, but it looks more like a super-complex cat's cradle. The openwork building, designed by Japanese firm Sou Fujimoto Architects, will house a "semi-outdoor" space, pierced by sunlight and shaded by a green roof. The […]
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Critical List: Solar will go on military housing; U.S. net petroleum imports
Who needs government loan guarantees? SolarCity is going to put solar panels on 120,000 military houses with financing from Bank of America-owned Merrill Lynch. (Er, down with the banks?) Environmental regulations have "benefits and costs." They do kill jobs, but they also create new ones. The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is close […]
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Solar power’s 'nasty little secret' isn’t nasty or secret
A solar insider reveals that "solar panels don't work well." But this ill-timed and inaccurate charge could be just a ploy to boost his own business.
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New GE factory will spit out a solar panel every 10 seconds
China makes a lot of solar panels, but so does America. Or at least, it will, once GE's new thin-film panel factory opens in Colorado.
The factory marks GE's new, large bet on solar, and states across the country competed to have the factory sited within their borders. Colorado had an empty factory that fit the bill and will snatch up a few hundred jobs as a result.
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Ask Umbra: Is banning clotheslines legal?
A reader wonders if neighborhoods can legally hang clothesline users out to dry. Umbra pins down the answer.
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Teen's invention boosts solar panel output 40 percent
Nineteen-year-old Eden Full is going to be taking a few years off from her studies at Princeton. That's because she's been getting a ton of grants to finish developing her SunSaluter, a technology that allows solar panels to track the sun, boosting output by 40 percent.
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American solar exports increased 83 percent in 2010
Who says America doesn't make things? Last year, we exported $5.63 billion worth of solar products: photovoltaic cells, modules, investors, capital equipment, polysilicon, and more, according to a new report from GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association. That's an 83 percent increase over the previous year