The Church of England and the National Trust are among organisations telling the government that it is putting community solar power schemes at risk.
See original here:
Church and charity warn on solar
The American Wind Energy Association warned that “tens of thousands” of jobs would be at risk if a federal grant program expired at the end of the year.
Excerpt from:
Green: Clean Energy Scrambles to Save Incentives
Without two crucial government programs that reduce investor risk, solar power projects may begin to dry up.
The rest is here:
As Solar Power Projects Take Off, Hurdles Loom
California officials Monday approved the construction of a solar power plant that would be the largest solar installation in the world and double the amount of solar electricity the U.S. can produce. The Blythe Solar Power Plant, backed by the German…
More here:
Ca. Cleared for Massive Solar Plant
Solar panels will be installed on the White House roof a quarter of a century after they were removed by Ronald Reagan, the Obama administration said today.
A mix of solar thermal and photovoltaic panels will be fitted in spring 2011 to generate hot water and renewable electricity, said Nancy Sutley, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and energy secretary Steven Chu at a conference on how federal government can green up.
It will be the first time since 1986 that panels have sat on the White House, since Reagan removed a solar thermal system installed by Jimmy Carter. In 1979 Carter held a conference on the rooftop, showing off the 32 solar panels and his desire to reduce America’s dependence on oil.
The move will come as a surprise to many green campaigners, after the White House apparently snubbed a request to install the technology from leading environmentalists last month.
“This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to US leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Chu said. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.” The cost and size of the solar panels have not yet been announced.
The move by Obama’s administration follows lobbying by green campaigners, who called on the president to reinstate solar on the White House and have been driving around the US in a biodiesel-powered van with one of the original panels installed by Carter.
Last month they visited the White House, which declined the symbolic request to fit the old panel. Neither did it commit to installing new panels.
Bill McKibben, who led the campaign, said he welcomed Obama’s decision to fit new panels: “It’s great news … he listened to the American people, who clearly want far more progress on energy than a paralysed congress has provided. We’d rather have a climate bill, but under the circumstances it’s a great win.”
He also said in a statement: “Solar panels on one house, even this house, won’t save the climate, of course. But they’re a powerful symbol to the whole nation about where the future lies. And the president will wake up every morning and make his toast by the power of the sun (do presidents make toast?), which will be a constant reminder to be pushing the Congress for the kind of comprehensive reform we need.”
This Sunday, as part of a 10/10/10 day of mass participation climate events around the world, the president of the Maldives will also be fitting solar. Mohamed Nasheed, whose low-lying island state is at risk from rising sea levels caused by a warming world, will install the panels donated by solar company Sungevity on his home.
The return of solar at the White House follows other symbolic green efforts since Obama took power, including Michelle Obama’s creation of an organic vegetable garden in its grounds last year.
In the senate Republicans and Democrats are currently trying to push through a renewable energy standard that would require utilities to source 3% of their energy from green sources such as wind and solar power by 2012.
But it also comes after the dropping of a climate bill to cap carbon emissions in the summer and a survey that shows all the 48 Republican midterm candidates do not believe in man-made climate change.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Liquid cells potentially reinvigorate solar power industry Like several other alternative energy sources, the challenge with solar energy isn’t quantity (the sun blasts the Earth daily with more than enough energy to cover all of our power needs) but with the ability of current tech to fully harness what’s out there. A new concept with the potential to reshape the solar power industry is solar paint—a plan energy start-up NextGen are putting into action. Using nanotechnology (a series of nanotubes 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair), solar paint absorbs a larger number of light wavelengths onto the photovoltaic cell. The paint can be applied to almost any surface and once dry hooks into the light-sensitive grid to start pumping out electricity. This kind of technology is perfect for government buildings where solar paint could offset energy consumption while giving taxpayers a break, and Next Gen are committed to making this a reality in the near future. via CalFinder
Originally posted here:
Nano Solar Paint
South Africa plans to invest in a solar power energy park in order to help meet increasing electricity demands, officials announce.
More here:
South Africa plans a solar park
A quest to get Barack Obama to shout his commitment to solar power from the roof tops – by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House – ended in disappointment for environmental campaigners today.
Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, had led a group of environmental activists to Washington in a bio-diesel van hoping to persuade Obama to re-install a set of solar panels originally put up by Jimmy Carter.
The actual Carter-era solar panels – which weigh in at 55 kilograms and are nearly 2 metres long – are out-dated now. But campaigners had hoped that the White House would embrace at least the symbolism of going solar – much like Michelle Obama kicked off her healthy food movement by planting a vegetable garden.
“Clearly, a solar panel on the White House roof won’t solve climate change – and we’d rather have strong presidential leadership on energy transformation. But given the political scene, this may be as good as we’ll get for the moment,” McKibben said in a Washington Post comment this morning.
A California company Sungevity had offered to equip the White House with the latest technology.
But the White House declined – twitchy perhaps about inviting any comparison to one-term Democratic president Carter in the run-up to the very difficult mid-term elections in November. The White House did send three staffers to meet the campaigners.
McKibben told reporters after the meeting:
“They refused to take the Carter-era panel that we brought with us and said they would continue their deliberative process to figure out what is appropriate for the White House someday. I told them it would be nice to deliberate as fast as possible, since that is the rate at which the planet’s climate is deteriorating.”
The White House offered up its own version of the meeting in a statement:
“Representatives from the White House met with the group to discuss President Obama’s unprecedented commitment to renewable energy including more than billion in the generation of renewable energy sources, expanding manufacturing capacity for clean energy technology, advancing vehicle and fuel technologies, and building a bigger, better, smarter electric grid, all while creating new, sustainable jobs…They concluded by reiterating our continued commitment to promoting renewable energy development.”
Carter held a rooftop press conference in 1979 to show off the 32 solar panels and drive home a message to Congress that it was time to get America off imported oil. The panels were used to heat water for the White House staff mess.
The message did not take though, and the panels themselves did not even survive Ronald Reagan. The panels were removed in 1986 during roof repairs. They eventually ended up at Unity College in Maine where they were used to heat water in the student cafeteria until 2005 when they were retired.
The van carrying the solar panels is now parked a few blocks away from the White House and will be rolling again on 10th October as part of the 10:10:10 international day of action on climate change.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
This article titled “White House goes green with solar panels” was written by Adam Vaughan, for The Guardian on Tuesday 5th October 2010 16.10 UTC