Tag archives for solar
Posted by Zack Lapetina of Purdue University explains how the Purdue Solar Racing team uses high-efficiency photovoltaic panels, and then adds intensifiers to increase the amount of sunlight the cars capture for energy in Shell Eco-marathon Americas student design competition. You can also read their blog about their journey here: Lighter and Sleeker for This Year’s Race.…
A Promising Outlook for Solar Energy Forecasting
Posted by Amy Sinatra Ayres on March 14, 2013 
Solar energy continues to grow in the United States, but its relative unpredictability remains a hurdle in deploying it on the grid. Now a research team is working to create detailed 36-hour forecasts of incoming energy from the sun. The three-year effort, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is funded by a…
Focusing on Facts: Can We Get All of Our Energy From Renewables?
Posted by David Bergman on February 21, 2013 
In my recent post, “The Limited Vision of the Pro-Nuclear Energy Argument,” one of the commenters wrote: “it is a fact that only carbon-based energy and nuclear have a high enough energy density to meet our world’s demands. None of the renewables come close.” I responded, “It is far from ‘fact’ that only carbon-based…
Posted by Italy’s attempt to drive growth in its renewables sector has given rise to a new line of business for the Mafia, and the government is trying to crack down, according to a fascinating report in The Washington Post. Italy, along with many other countries in Europe, has been ramping up the development of renewable energy…
Posted by As China selects its new leadership this week, jobs, energy, and international relations will be very much on the minds of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Over the past decade China has transformed its economy into the leading manufacturing power in the clean energy sector. This is a tremendous achievement, and one that…
Oregon Eco-Winery Goes Beyond LEED
Posted by EarthTechling on September 17, 2012 In 2002, more than a dozen structures and countless trees were scorched in the course of the Biscuit Fire, which took down roughly 500,000 acres in southern Oregon. Now a Dayton-area winery with a history of green innovation — Stoller Family Estate — has put a number of those trees to use in its new tasting room, along with…
Some of the people who could shape the energy future have a maddening aversion to playing favorites. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the U.S. presidential race, where President Barack Obama endorses “all of the above” energy strategy, the same approach, word-for-word, touted by the opposition Republican party. The GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney,…
NFL Season Opener Under the Solar-Powered Lights
Posted by Amy Sinatra Ayres on September 5, 2012 When the reigning Super Bowl champions kick off the first game of the season Wednesday against the Dallas Cowboys, they’ll do it under a new solar ring around the top of MetLife Stadium, lit up in New York Giants blue. The NFL’s biggest stadium, which is also home to the New York Jets, is debuting…
Photos: A $200,000 Green Home Designed By Frank Gehry
Posted by EarthTechling on July 30, 2012 Buildings designed by Frank Gehry tend to function both as city landmarks and tourist attractions, and they certainly don’t come cheap. His works, which have been cited as among the most important works of contemporary architecture by World Architecture Survey, include include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, constructed at a cost of $100 million, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, which came in…
IKEA’s Solar Blitz Adds Up to Massive Power
Posted by EarthTechling on July 27, 2012 Looking for signs that renewable energy is gaining real traction? We present IKEA. Back in the day, every single solar installation from the purveyor of cheap and cheerful home furnishings was news. Now, IKEA solarizing a store is as common as, well, a birch veneer bookshelf. That’s got to be a sign of progress. Already this month, the…
SolarWorld Set to Take China Trade Fight to Europe
Posted by EarthTechling on July 26, 2012 Reports that SolarWorld had formally brought its solar trade fight against China to Europe elicited a fresh round of scorn from critics within the industry this week, but the company said it had not in fact filed a complaint. Yet. “We have always said that we will ask the European Union to take urgent action against unfair competition from…
U.S. Navy veteran Elmer Rankin, 71, has a failing heart, prostate cancer and arthritis that keeps him in a wheelchair. Last year, Rankin, who survives on his Social Security checks, could no longer afford the mounting costs to heat his home and power the oxygen tank he uses every night. He turned down the heat…
A pair of French student teams from schools side-by-side on the Loire River shared technology, team spirit, and sleek aerodynamic styling to capture top fuel efficiency prizes Saturday at Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2012 in Rotterdam. Team Microjoule from the technical school La Joliviere in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire won the gasoline prototype division for the third year in…
Arctic Oil Drilling Opens as Pitfalls Pondered Miles Away
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on April 26, 2012 Nearing record highs in March, gasoline prices have dropped for most of April across the U.S. and on average are cheaper than they were a year ago. As pump prices ease, federal prosecutors are turning up the heat in the BP oil spill case, arresting an ex-engineer accused of obstructing justice by deleting potentially damaging e-mails. And as the…
As Half the U.S. Contemplates Hydraulic Fracturing, First Liquefied Natural Gas Export Plant Approved
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on April 19, 2012 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday approved the first large-scale liquefied natural gas export terminal in the lower 48 states despite record falling gas prices. Shipping from the $10 billion Louisiana plant is projected to begin as early as 2015. The Cheniere plant is the third liquefied natural gas plant in the works in Louisiana. Others are planned elsewhere in the country. The plants…
Posted by Every night, something unusual happens in Samuel Kimani’s home on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Samuel, 48, lives with his wife Mary and their three children. Their family supports itself day-to-day through their main source of income, their cow Baraka, whose milk is collected daily and sold directly to customers for about $1.80 a day.…
Posted by For the past 20 years, Purdue Solar Racing (PSR) has been designing and building a variety of solar powered vehicles. While these cars have all varied greatly in their designs and manufacturing processes, Shell Eco-marathon’s urban concept category motivated PSR to enter into a completely unexplored realm with its eighth car, Celeritas. Urban concept vehicles…
Posted by Which is more important: making solar panels cheap or making them here? In the end, this may not be an either-or question, but it’s the one that’s raised by the Commerce Department’s decision last week to impose a small import duty on Chinese-made solar panels. Some U.S. solar companies argue that China illegally subsidizes its…
More than 100 Coal Plants Shutting, but How Much Difference Will It Make?
Posted by Mason Inman on March 8, 2012 After public pressure, Chicago will shut two aging coal-fired power plants, and the owner of one of the power plants, Midwest Generation, may shut its other four coal plants in Illinois. Since the start of 2010, more than 100 coal plants have been slated for early retirement. A major reason for coal plants shutting has been public opposition to…
It could easily have been one of the most fossil fuel-intensive Super Bowls ever. Not only did the New York Giants and the New England Patriots face off in Lucas Oil Stadium, named for a petroleum motor lubricant company, but the facility’s bright stadium lights, signature retractable roof and giant screens all draw energy from…
Oil, Gasoline Prices Hit All-Time Highs in 2011—and May Continue Rising
Posted by Mason Inman on January 12, 2012 Average prices of oil and gasoline at the pump reached an all-time high in 2011, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, averaged $111 a barrel—the first time it broke $100 for a whole year. In some ways, these records snuck up on Americans, since there was no extreme…
The Solyndra uproar and the recent International Trade Commission decision to investigate Chinese solar panel manufacturers threaten to distract us from what we need most: a proactive, long-term clean and sustainable energy strategy. If you look beyond the partisan politics that have recently engulfed the solar industry, two irrefutable facts stand out. First, the solar…
Now All GOP Presidential Candidates Express Climate Skepticism
Posted by Mason Inman on December 9, 2011 GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman expressed skepticism about the science on climate change, so now all GOP candidates are on the record as doubting either that the planet is clearly warming, or that people are responsible for most of the warming. Of all the GOP candidates, Huntsman had been the most supportive of action on…
A sign on Paquet Hall boasts that it is “the first and still the finest berthing” at Pearl Harbor. The three-story Bachelor Enlisted Quarters, built in a U-shape to enclose a palm-lined courtyard, survived the December 7 surprise attack 70 years ago to become a cherished part of the base’s history. This year, the 1927…
Home Solar: Is It Only for the Wealthy?
Posted by EarthTechling on November 22, 2011 
PV Solar Report is out with an analysis [PDF] — done with solar installer SunRun — that says home solar installations are more a middle-income pursuit than something for the wealthy. The industry-watcher says “nearly two thirds of California home solar installations in 2009, 2010 and 2011 year-to-date have been in zip codes with median…
