solar power
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China set to surpass U.S. in solar installation
Cross-posted from Climate Progress. With European solar markets in decline, the industry is looking for the next hot solar region. Even with political troubles in the U.S., companies still see America as a good long-term bet. (And let’s remember, Europe’s slowdown doesn’t mean the region is going to stop being a major player.) But analysts […]
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Critical List: Turkeys to be pardoned; Bill O’Reilly can totally get solar if he wants it
President Obama will pardon two 19-week, 45-pound turkeys from Minnesota today. Their names are Liberty and Peace. It is possible to have Thanksgiving without turkey or turkey-shaped soy loaf. Here are a few ideas for what to serve instead. We're sacrificing holiday time to commercialism for no reason. Longer Black Friday sales don't increase stores’ […]
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Critical List: U.S. winning solar trade fight; the rise of agroforestry
The U.S. is winning the trade spat with China over solar manufacturing. Agroforestry — growing crops under a tree canopy instead of on clear-cut land — is growing in popularity. Hydrofracking gone wrong looks "like 1,000 Alka-Seltzers going off" as gas bubbles through puddles, according to a whistleblower. China's Durban strategy includes a drive for […]
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‘Solar forests’ charge your car while looking awesome
If electric cars are really going to compete with the gas-guzzling kind, we're going to need new infrastructure — mainly charging stations so people can juice up when they're on a road trip. And if you have to dot the country with new charging structures, doesn't it make sense to make them awesome-looking? The "solar […]
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Most efficient solar panel ever
Physics tells us that the most efficient solar cell should be able to convert 33.5 percent of solar energy into electricity, but to date the closest that the layabouts we call "scientists" were able to manage was 24 percent efficiency. Now a new solar cell has smashed that record, reaching 28.4 percent efficiency. They pull […]
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Solar companies fight to the death
Are we done mourning the death of Solyndra yet? Because, according to solar executives, it's just going to be the first victim in a Highlander-style fight among solar companies to prove who is best. One Chinese exec predicts that two-thirds of solar companies could disappear by 2015. Part of the story here is that certain […]
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How to make your e-book reader solar-powered
If you're willing to pry apart your e-book reader — maybe you got it for cheap, or maybe you're just a super-hacker — you can tweak it so it runs on solar power. If you can't even pronounce "solder," or if you don't know what the following things are: Schottky diode MAX1551 or MAX1555 IC […]
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Krugman: Only politics can delay energy transformation
Cross-posted from Climate Progress. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman had another good column in The New York Times yesterday, “Here Comes the Sun.” He makes three key points. First, solar is rapidly coming down the cost curve — I’ve sprinkled a couple of the Climate Progress charts on this throughout this post. Second, fracking is […]
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California pushes back against energy imports
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Western grid operators have been making plans for large-scale renewable energy imports into the California electricity market, prompting the governor’s senior advisor for renewable energy facilities to write a “self-reliance” response. Here are a few highlights […]
