solar power
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As Nuclear Falters: A Practical and Affordable Clean Electricity Plan
The President of the United States has chosen to make the goal of 80% clean electricity generation by 2035 the first priority in his move to make America more competitive. In his recent State of the Union Address, Barack Obama compared this project to the 1960’s moon shot program, noting we are at another “Sputnik moment” […]
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How we can save environmentalism — and ourselves
Can somebody throw a line?Photo: AKZOphotoThis is part two of a two-part series, cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. You can read part one here. In my first post, I started to discuss a speech by the founders of the Breakthrough Institute, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger (N and S). In this post, I will discuss their presentation […]
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Solar: It’s not just a California thing anymore
Texas installed 22.6 megawatts of photovoltaics last year.Photo: Duke EnergyThe United States solar businesses boomed, as usual, in 2010, growing 67 percent to $6 billion, according to an annual report [PDF] released Thursday by an industry trade group. That’s been the story for the past several years, but what’s notable is that solar is no […]
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Meet the zero-energy transparent TV
A zero-energy TV you can see through? I know what you’re thinking: “That’s called a pane of glass.” But this transparent screen, which Samsung unveiled at an expo in Germany, isn’t just glass, it’s FUTURE GLASS. For starters, the screen uses so little energy that it can be run by solar panels that feed off […]
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Is the Bloom Box cheaper than solar?
This is part of a series on distributed renewable energy posted to Grist. It originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. The Bloom Box has received a lot of media attention for its plug-and-play approach to electricity from fuel cells. The 100 kilowatt boxes generate electricity […]
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California utilities (just) miss renewable energy deadline
Time’s up.Photo: elfonThe California Legislature is moving to put into law a regulation requiring the state’s utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020. But how did California’s three big investor-owned utilities do in meeting a previous mandate to secure 20 percent of their electricity supplies from carbon-free sources by […]
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Portlandia to help wean Los Angeles from coal
Solar tech from Oregon is headed south to make California greener.Photo: SolarWorldPortlandia may not be the sunniest of places, but it’s exporting solar energy in the form of photovoltaic panels used to build carbon-free power plants. On Wednesday, SolarWorld — the German photovoltaic module maker that operates a big factory in Hillsboro, Ore. — announced […]
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Can states keep clean energy jobs at home?
Photo: GreenforallCan a state with a renewable energy mandate require green jobs to stay at home? Litigation has made states into tepid defenders of their job rights, but states have the legal ground to go great lengths to keep more of the economic development from their renewable energy industry inside their borders. No renewable energy […]
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Now on Facebook: your grandma, mailman, and … the solar industry
You just got poked by the sun.Photo: diogo dubiellaYou have a new friend request … from the sun! OK, it’s actually from a company selling solar panels. “Solar service providers … are increasingly turning to social media tactics in an attempt to create engaged communities around the sunny clean power,” says Earth2Tech. Solar startups are […]
