Here’s how they did it, and how we can too This is what can happen when citizens and government agree that it’s worth spending a bit more for clean, carbon-free power: German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the …
Continue reading “Last weekend, half of Germany was running on solar power”
Unlike much of the rest of the economy, the solar industry is growing rapidly. New solar installations in California jumped by 21 percent last year. An increasing amount of that growth is from “solar leasing.” What’s commonly called “solar leasing” is now the most popular way for homeowners to install solar electricity. A solar company …
Continue reading “Solar Industry booming with 21% growth – Solar Leasing now has waitlists”
Liquid Metal Battery Corporation, an MIT spin out that’s developing new technologies for electricity storage, has raised $15 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Total and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The technology behind the company was developed by Dr. Donald Sadoway (his famous TED Talk), a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was …
Continue reading “Bill Gates invests in the future of electricity storage – Liquid Metal Batteries”
// Photos from the National Parks – Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, & glasses
There will be a stunning partial solar eclipse on Sunday, May 20th. The moon will begin shrouding the sun at 5:27 p.m. (PST) and will cover 83 percent of the sun’s surface at 6:40 p.m. The eclipse will take place while the sun is sinking toward the horizon, out over the ocean. It’ll be easy …
Continue reading “‘Ring of Fire’ – solar eclipse coming this Sunday”
I’ve been seeing a lot more solar panels installed on homes. Which has me wondering, what is the impact on cost, inconvenience, and utilities. Scott over on the Zero Waste Blog has the perfect, written-by-an-engineer, write-up. It is worth reading the whole thing, but here is a meaty excerpt: So what has the impact been? …
Continue reading “What’s it like going solar (installing panels on your roof)?”
– …illustrate the variability of wind and solar generation relative to the comparatively smooth output from other generation sources – Power produced by geothermal, biomass, biogas, and small hydro generators can be easily dispatched, meaning it can be either increased, decreased, or controlled to remain fairly constant. – Wind resources are often more available at …
Continue reading “Renewable energy production variability by hour of day, and by season (graph)”
100% of Minnesota’s electricity generation needs can be met by wind and solar sources combined with improvements to the state’s electric grid system and energy efficiency policies, according to a report released today. Renewable Minnesota: Aanalysis of a 100% renewable-energy based electricity system for Minnesota Researched and written by Dr. Arjun Makhijani and Christina Mills …
Continue reading “Myth = 100% of our energy cannot come form renewable sources”
We want to transform an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of Manhattan into the world’s first underground park, called Lowline. This space is quite large, by New York standards: 60,000 square feet, or 1.5 acres. It was built in 1903 as a trolley terminal, for streetcars traveling over the Williamsburg Bridge, and …
Los Angeles ranks second in the state in terms of the number of solar installations on residential, commercial and government buildings, with just over 4,000 projects installed. Los Angles is also second in the state in terms of the total amount of solar electricity generated, measured in capacity, with 36 megawatts. “The good news is …