Researchers told those attending the COP 23 climate summit in Bonn this week that all the world’s electrical needs could be met by renewables by 2050. Activist Bill McKibben says the world must do more — much more.
If you need a primer on how solar energy and solar panels work, read on.
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org A community outreach program in Connecticut called Solarize with Faith is helping faith group members display their creation care by putting solar on their roofs. Their beautiful motto? “Stewardship in our hearts. Solar on our roofs.” What is Solarize With Faith? “Sparked” by the Connecticut Green Bank, Solarize with Faith is
The island of Ta’u in American Samoa has shut down its diesel generators forever and replaces them with a solar power microgrid from Tesla and SolarCity,
South Africa is facing a crossroads for electric power generation. Should it go with renewables or nuclear power? The decision could affect other contries on the continent.
An official of the Chinese government has called out Donald Trump, saying a wise leader would support the Paris climate change protocols. The implication is that Trump will be rather the opposite of a wise leader.
The IAE reports that half of all new electrical power capacity worldwide came from renewables last year. As the cost of wind and solar drops, renewables are replacing traditional sources of energy, particularly coal.
Swell Energy’s EnergyShield combines rooftop solar and lithium-ion batteries from its partners, plus an energy management system.
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org Founded in 1979, the Christian Cultural Center (CCC) is the largest church in Brooklyn. With over 37,000 members in its congregation, the CCC is the largest evangelical church in the New York region and one of the largest independent churches in the US. Sitting on an 11-acre sun-drenched campus, the CCC
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org With the first phase deadline set for 2019, Morocco has launched an ambitious “Energy Efficiency in Mosques” program aiming to provide solar power for all the mosques in the kingdom. By switching to energy-saving LED lighting, solar water heating, and rooftop solar PV electricity generation, significant savings are anticipated for the
The face of the solar workforce is really starting to glow. As of 2015, women are now representing 24 percent of workers in the solar industry, up two percent from 2014. Helping more women enter the field, GRID Alternatives has been instrumental in this rise. And, with solar jobs growing by 20 percent a year,
One of the largest state in India is planning to shift all its electricity consumers in the agricultural sector to shift from thermal power to solar power. According to media reports, the government of Maharashtra is working on a long-term proposal to shift all agricultural power consumers to solar power. This motive behind this plan
Hip hop artist Akon is using his Akon Lighting Africa program to bring distributed, renewable solar power to more than 600,000 people across Africa.
Phoenix, Arizona and Blacksburg, Virginia top this year’s list of the top green cities according to the US Conference of Mayors (USCM). The Mayors’ Climate Protection Awards honor cities for innovative programs that increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An independent panel of judges selected the winners from a pool of applicants. The awards
Update: Solar Impulse 2 Has Been Diverted to Nagoya Japan (Video) “It’s going to be the moment of truth,” said Andre Borschberg, the solar airplane pilot ready for the flight of his life. “We’ve done a lot of tests, but we’ve never done this… I’ll tell you, the engineers are quite nervous.” Testing the nerves of
Originally published on SolarLove.org Unhappy with any of the available methods of solar storage, a German inventor and engineer has put his favorite pastime of tinkering to good use. While others are attempting to build a better battery, Wolfram Walter is instead building a better way to use the batteries he already has. It’s not
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org From deep down in the Earth, 300,000 barrels of oil a day are filled in the Autonomous Republic of Bashkortostan. Nevertheless, this oil-wealthy majority Muslim nation is expanding its economic energy in the direction of up. High up into the sky to be specific. Turning its energy and attention to the
Significantly boosting electricity generation from renewable sources in the upcoming years, Saudi Arabia is expected to experience robust growth in its solar power market, with a special focus on Concentrated Solar Power technology. According to a recently published report from TechSci Research, a “phenomenal” rate of growth is anticipated, especially between 2015–2020. With a plan for
Originally published on Cost of Solar. It wasn’t that long ago that the dream of affordable home solar electricity was really just more for the upper class, and for the ultra-technical and early adopters. But over the last couple of decades, and in the last few years in particular, not only has the cost of
Originally published on Cost of Solar. A rooftop solar mapping and assessment tool developed at MIT could eventually make it dead simple to discover the solar potential of every single rooftop in a city. The tool, called Solar System, uses high resolution mapping data to create a 3D model of the entire community, including roofs
Houses in select KB Home communities located in in Irvine, El Dorado Hills, and San Diego, CA, will be able to not only generate their own clean energy with home solar power systems, but will also be able to store that energy, thanks to the pilot program in a collaboration between SunPower and KB Home.
. The Tchimpounga chimpanzee sanctuary in the Republic of Congo needs some help with solar power. Jane Goodall Institute, founded by renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, runs the sanctuary and wants to install new solar panels to power it reliably. Home to 160 chimpanzees, Tchimpounga currently gets electricity to run lighting, veterinary medical equipment, administrative machinery,
Originally published on 1Sun4All. Imagine the potential! It’s not just for roads — the possibilities with Solar Roadways include your home, it could be all or nearly off grid thanks to your solar patio, walkway, or driveway (which you no longer have to shovel or plow if you live in the north). When you leave home, you could drive on Solar
By now, many of us have heard that the President spent a little time this morning at a Wal-Mart store in in Mountain View, California, near San Jose. Solar deployment and energy efficiency were the two main thrusts of his speech. He spoke about more than 300 recent private and public sector commitments to create
The worst environmental effect of solar energy? Go for it. Thanks to Give a Shit about Nature for this viral photoon, via the Daily Kos!
You want solar power? These guys seem unlikely to provide it. (Found on Facebook—thanks to Greenpeace UK.)
Peru last week initiated a new program that will provide electricity to more than two million of its poorest residents using solar panels. Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino said that the program will allow 95% of Peru to have access to electricity by the end of 2016. Currently, approximately 66% of the population has
Reposting this big news from Solar Love: Herman Trabish of Greentech Media has happened across a pretty interesting find — 97% of new electricity generation capacity in line to be added to the California grid in the second half (2H) of 2012 is from solar power projects. This is according to the California Independent System Operator (the ISO), as
Samsung has built solar-powered Internet schools for use in a rural region of South Africa (notably, with careful consideration of potential problems, such as a special design material to protect the panels from theft). The schools are literally modified shipping containers equipped with seats, desks, laptop computers, Galaxy tablet PCs, and an Internet connection.
If you hadn’t noticed from the obvious green theme in Avatar, and if you don’t keep up with director James Cameron news, you probably don’t know that prolific director James Cameron (of Avatar, Titanic, and plenty of other films) is a full-blooded environmentalist now. But I’m telling you, so now you know. 😀 […]
According to a new survey on clean energy, nearly 9 out of 10 (89%) adults in the U.S. think that renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, should become a larger portion of the U.S. energy supply. The new poll was conducted by the company Ipsos on behalf of Sungevity, a globally recognized
Over the past few days, a strange and unexpected role reversal has come into focus in the realm of international energy policies. On September 21, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of the “Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act,” an aggressively anti-environment call which, despite the lofty title, represents a shrill
The global solar power industry has experienced remarkable growth since the 2009 recession. The growth rate each year between 2007 to 2011 was around 70%. At the end of 2011, the total GW of solar panels installed worldwide was 62, divided between residential roofs, commercial buildings, and utility plants. With increasing pressure for the
The largest operational PV project in the world can now supply 250 MW to the grid. This is the peak generating capacity, but that will increase to 290 MW when it is completed. The power plant is in Yuma County, Arizona. Solar power generation is a bit difficult to understand because it varies. One
Smart City San Diego and San Diego Zoo announced that they will construct a project that directly charges electric vehicles in the zoo parking lot. This is not just an ordinary electric car charger. What sets it apart from many others is the fact that it uses solar panels to directly charge electric car
The first solar powered tunnel for a high speed rail line was switched on in Europe a little less than a year ago. While not exactly hot news, it seemed like a still important story worth quickly covering here on Planetsave. The two-mile tunnel is a part of the Paris to Amsterdam line and
Today, more and more home owners are becoming increasingly energy conscious. Stories about climate change have been over the news for the past decades, and there are many changes from large to small that you, as a home owner, would be able to make that can not only ensure you home is more green,
New solar panel designs that are intended to reduce the installation time and cost of solar power systems hae been created by a German and a Chinese partnership. Installation Cost The cost of installing solar panels can exceed the cost of the solar panels themselves, including the cost of the other equipment, such as
As energy demand worldwide increases, alternative energy sources such as solar power continue to gain popularity. There are many benefits to the science of harnessing the sun’s power in order to convert it into usable energy. Here are just a few benefits that you may, or may not, know: Solar panels aren’t just for powering
It is hardly a surprise that recent developments in methods of power have set standards in ways to generate power. Home owners continue to invest monies to utilize several different forms of power generation, one of which is solar energy. The sun has been with us for millions of years, but coming up with
A new solar cell that is cheap, environmentally friendly, and durable has been developed by researchers from Northwestern University. The solar cell is the first to solve the problem of the Grätzel cell, a low-cost, environmentally friendly solar cell that has one significant disadvantage — it leaks and causes corrosion of the solar cell itself.
Biking has become a lifestyle, a way of life. Cyclists who hit their favorite bike paths or bike routes every day are like another cut of the zen surfer who never missed a dawn and a wave. Now, we have the bike-path-gilding travelers that make Kerouac’s On the Road look sedentary. Devotees of biking vary
Ford recently rolled out the Ford Focus Electric to little fanfare or media buzz. But Ford has actually given us something pretty big to talk about. It has partnered with SunPower, one of the largest solar companies in the United States, to offer purchasers of the electric car a great deal. Buy a Ford
This is a special guest post from our friend Kriss Bergethon of Solar Sphere. Enjoy! We love finding cool new solar products, and this new solar panel kit from SpinRay Energy is definitely a cool one. It’s a new system that simply plugs into the wall and provides power for your home. We interviewed Jim Greene, founder
The last few years haven’t been great for clean technology. Implementing cleaner ways of doing things has been going fast but than needed, and even several United Nations global warming summit have failed to come up with ways for industries to limit carbon emissions. While governments haven’t tackled global warming to an ideal or even
Renewable energy (and especially solar) policies of the last decade or so have turned cloudy, northerly Germany into a country rich in solar power… literally. Millions of individuals benefit from rooftop solar and community-owned solar. Solar is bringing down the price of electricity in some situations. And all of this is creating a hefty
Check out this fun and interesting history of solar power below from sister site CleanTechnica — I’ve been covering solar power in depth for years and still learned a ton from this: [repostus hash=4a2f47edd60d2cc1465a7c909f5e8d15 title=A%20Brief%20History%20of%20Everything%20Solar host=Clean%20Technica short=17U0R]
OK, if you follow cleantech a lot (e.g. if you are a CleanTechnica subscriber), you might very well know that the company below is a cleantech and green energy leader. If you aren’t a cleantech nerd, however, but know enough about energy options to know that solar and wind energy are highly needed today
