Free Republic

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

Reporting from El Centro, Calif. - Across the desert flatlands of southeastern California, dozens of companies have flooded federal offices with applications to place solar mirrors on more than a million acres of public land. But just as some of those projects appear headed toward fruition, environmental hurdles threaten to jeopardize efforts to further tap the region's renewable energy potential. The development of solar-power facilities in the desert has been a top priority of the Obama administration as it seeks to ease the nation's dependence on fossil fuels and curb global warming. In addition, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has urged that...

DURANGO, Colo. – The sun had just crested the distant ridge of the Rocky Mountains, but already it was producing enough power for the electric meter on the side of the Smiley Building to spin backward. For the Shaw brothers, who converted the downtown arts building and community center into a miniature solar power plant two years ago, each reverse rotation subtracts from their monthly electric bill. It also means the building at that moment is producing more electricity from the sun than it needs. The higher fossil-fuel prices that could come with climate legislation would make it more competitive....

For Utilities, the Future Is Now Generating power from the sun and burying carbon underground are two old concepts on the cusp of reality. By Jim Ostroff, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter September 29, 2009 National Security Space Office, study on space based power Note two exciting energy technology developments whose times have come: Space based power plants and a coal burning facility that emits no carbon dioxide. Both are likely to be key elements in helping electric utilities meet expected stringent U.S. emissions requirements without having to mothball a large number of existing coal fired power plants. Power plants...

Here's a seemingly simple solar power fact*: the sun bathes Earth with enough energy in one hour (4.3 x 1020 joules) to more than fill all of humanity's present energy use in a year (4.1 x 1020 joules). So how to convert it? In the world of solar energy harvesting, there's a constant battle between cost and efficiency. On the one hand, complex and expensive triple-junction photovoltaic cells can turn more than 40 percent of the (specially concentrated) sunlight that falls on them into electricity. On the other, cheap, plastic solar cells under development convert less than 5 percent. In...

New Jersey has become a surprisingly legitimate contender for the nickname "sunshine state," with the highest number of solar energy installations of any state save California. Energy officials this week celebrated the latest New Jersey solar milestone — the state now has more than 4,000 solar installations. The installations, which range from a few panels on private homes to more than 7,700 panels on a field at Rutgers University, combine to produce 90 megawatts, which can generate power to 12,000 households. Seven years ago the state had only six solar installations. "We have had really good policies and have made...

Tessera Solar plans to plant 34,000 solar dishes — each one 40 feet high and 38 feet wide — on 8,230 acres of the Mojave Desert in Southern California. Although the lengthy licensing process for the Calico solar farm remains in the early stages, several environmental groups are already raising red flags about the massive project’s impact on such protected wildlife as the desert tortoise, the Mojave fringe-toed lizard and Nelson’s bighorn sheep. Calico is one of dozens of industrial-scale solar farms planned for the Southwest that have divided environmentalists over the need to promote renewable energy while protecting fragile...

As Scientific American’s George Musser knows, installing solar panels on your roof is a lot easier – and cheaper – said than done. Now, if a Colorado power company has its way, solar aficionados are going to have to start shelling out even more dough to be hooked into the power grid. Xcel Energy has proposed charging a new fee to customers who install solar systems after April 2010, the Denver Post reports. The fee would be linked to the home’s electricity consumption and help the company maintain its aging power grid. Solar customers already foot the bill for installing...

The White House would be wise to learn the lessons of T. Boone Pickens' wind-power failure. On Tuesday, Texas oilman and energy security proselyte T. Boone Pickens announced that he will delay, and likely permanently scuttle, plans for a 687 turbine wind project in the Texas panhandle. The demise of the project, which was supposed to be the largest in the world at a rated generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts, came when Pickens discovered he couldn't raise money to build transmission lines to carry wind energy from his remote 200,000 acres to big cities that would consume the power. Pickens...

Col. Joseph Martin, commander, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, speaks with Mark Powell, team leader of the 2nd BCT's embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, on the roof of the Dahkel Clinic in the Hurriyah neighborhood of northwest Baghdad. The clinic is now solar-powered, allowing services around the clock. Photo by Sgt. Dustin Roberts, 1st Infantry Division. BAGHDAD — Another health clinic in northwest Baghdad was converted to a solar-powered facility, when the new and improved Dahkel Clinic was unveiled during a ceremony in the Hurriyah neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, June 17. As the main health center in the neighborhood, the clinic provides...

President Barack Obama wants to boost the nation's production of energy from the sun as part of an effort to double renewable power generation in three years. Among the obstacles to Mr. Obama's agenda: the imperiled Devil's Hole pupfish. Patrick Putnam is a field manager for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in southern Nevada. His job is to help the government decide whether the dozens of solar-energy projects that companies have proposed building on federal land in his jurisdiction pose undue environmental risks. After reviewing some applications for as long as 18 months, Mr. Putnam's office hasn't approved any....

In what is touted to be the largest solar deal in the world, Pacific Gas & Electric today announced that it has expanded a series of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours. Peak hours in the state are usually from noon to 7 p.m. The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants, add to a previous contract the two companies struck last April for up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power. The deal with PG&E means BrightSource now...

LANCASTER [California] - A 230-megawatt solar power facility has been proposed on 2,100 acres of fallow farmland 1½ miles north of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Environmental studies overseen by Los Angeles County planning officials have started on the project, which is proposed at 170th Street West and Avenue D by San Francisco-based NextLight Renewable Power and which is planned to tie into Southern California Edison power lines that cross the Antelope Valley. A meeting to describe the proposal and to solicit suggestions from the public and local organizations on what environmental issues should be examined is scheduled for...

Solar Power Plant Construction Halted Due to Endangered Squirrel Discovery of the endangered red-cheeked squirrel has stopped construction of the world's largest solar power plant in southern California. (Dry Desert, California) The unexpected discovery of a nest of red-cheeked squirrels amidst the huge, partially constructed MegaPyre Solar Power plant has halted construction, casting doubt on the viability of what has been considered to be the environmentalist's crown jewel of renewable power facilities. The 20 gigawatt plant was expected to provide electricity to much of southern California, and was only 6 months away from completion when the nest of squirrels, which...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A westward dash to power electricity-hungry cities by cashing in on the desert's most abundant resource — sunshine — is clashing with efforts to protect the tiny pupfish and desert tortoise and stinginess over the region's rarest resource: water. Water is the cooling agent for what traditionally has been the most cost-efficient type of large-scale solar plants. To some solar companies answering Washington's push for renewable energy on vast government lands, it's also an environmental thorn. The unusual collision pits natural resources protections against President Barack Obama's plans to produce more environmentally friendly energy.

The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love -- or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting -- or guarding against. If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds...

I am really astounded by the public's apparent ignorance about "wind energy".  We all experience sunshine and wind but few of us bother to examine the "quality" of that sunshine and wind.  Obviously wind turbines only spin and generate electricity when the wind is blowing.  Accordingly, solar panels only generate electricity when the sun is shining on them.  In order for these technologies to be economically viable you have to have a lot of wind and/or a lot of sunshine. Wind energy works best in areas with a lot of sustained wind usually blowing from one prevailing direction.  Here in...

FEINSTEIN SEEKS TO BLOCK DESERT SOLAR FARM DUE TO SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-San Diego) has coauthored H.R. 964, a measure that would exempt any solar energy project on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands from Environmental Impact Report requirements. Sempra Energy, Bilbray’s third largest campaign contributor, seeks to import power from desert solar farms on BLM lands. On Friday, California’s Senator Diane Feinstein sent a blistering letter to the Secretary of the Interior opposing solar farms on BLM lands, citing massive environmental damage from scraping bare a half-million acres of desert lands proposed for solar mirrors. “It...

[A]s Congress begins debating new rules to restrict carbon dioxide emissions and promote electricity produced from renewable sources, an underlying question is how much more Americans will be willing to pay to harness the wind and the sun. ... [T]he Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit consortium financed by investor- and publicly-owned utilities, predicted in November that even for plants coming on line in 2015, wind energy would cost nearly one-third more than coal and about 14 percent more than natural gas. The cost of solar thermal electricity, made by using the sun’s heat to boil water and spin a...

Thursday, March 26, 2009 Obama's Solar Panels Will Take 110 Years to Pay For Themselves Here's something you won't hear about from the Obamedia- The solar panels that Barack Obama and Joe Biden inspected before signing the Generational Theft Act in Denver, Colorado will take until 2118 to pay for themselves. US President Barack Obama (C) and Vice President Joe Biden (L) look at solar panels as they tour the solar array at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado, February 17, 2009 Namaste Solar CEO Blake Jones. (AFP PHOTO) Those solar panels that Barack Obama bragged...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said development of solar and wind facilities in California's Mojave Desert would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public

Earlier this month, we asked you to call your U.S. Representatives to show support for the national Omnibus Public Lands Bill, containing wilderness desig- nations for over 700,000 acres in California. (If you haven’t called your representative yet, please do so now.) Now we have an opportunity to get even more of California’s wild desert places formally designated as wilderness — the highest protection our public lands can receive from the federal government.All you need to do is write a quick, heart-felt note to Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioning why you love wild desert places in general, and mentioning a few...

WASHINGTON -- California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy. Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation. Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world's largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generat­ion of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less harmful to the environment. The company said it would concentrate on developing other cleaner ways of...

File this in the "Good News about Israel department" Solar Power History was made this week as Israeli company BrightSource Energy signed the largest Solar Power deal in history. If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, three BrightSource Energy plants will supply electricity to over one MILLION houses in California. Watch the video and read more about the deal below:

Southern California Edison said it has wrapped up the world's largest-ever agreement to buy electricity generated by solar power, a series of generators in California's eastern deserts that could eventually supply more than 800,000 homes. The utility, which serves Riverside County and the sprawling southern California territory outside of the city of Los Angeles and San Diego County, hopes the first of seven plants will begin operating in 2013, the company said in a press release Wednesday morning. The Rosemead-based utility counts nearly 5 million customers in Riverside and a half-dozen other California counties. BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland would...

The article “N.M. Solar Energy Plan Expanded,” about the state Public Regulation Commission's promotion of grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) power generation states that ... invest[ment] in PV installations will have “free” electricity. I evaluated such an installation for our house using Public Service Company of New Mexico PV information on its Web site. I checked the results against more sophisticated resources and found the PNM results to be in good agreement.For my house, a PV system's cost is about $10,000 per kw, or for our case about $40,000. ... Based on a 20-year life and 6 percent cost of money, this...

Frozen capital markets are putting the chill on a fast-growing California solar company, a sign that the economic downturn is being felt even in the state's thriving renewable-energy sector. Hayward-based OptiSolar Inc. confirmed Monday that it dismissed nearly half its 600-member workforce last week, cutting 185 jobs at its Hayward facility and 105 at a plant in Sacramento. The privately owned start-up, which develops utility-scale solar farms, hasn't been able to secure financing to complete a planned expansion of its photovoltaic panel assembly facilities, according to company spokesman Alan Bernheimer. "The equity markets just froze up last fall," he said....

Many of the solar parks that stretch across vast tracts of the Spanish countryside are guilty of fraud, Spain's National Energy Commission (CNE) has found. In the past two years, Spain's solar industry has grown by a spectacular 900%. The country now has the third largest solar capacity in the world, behind the United States and Germany. But an ongoing investigation by Spanish authorities has so far unearthed nearly 4,200 photovoltaic installations that were falsely registered as being online by a 30 September deadline in order to receive higher levels of subsidy from power companies. According to the CNE report,...

Recently installed solar panels sit atop the roof of the Ameriyah clinic Nov. 25 in northwest Baghdad. Soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad, Joint Project Management Office, provided oversight for the project which was planned and executed by local Iraqis. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tierce. BAGHDAD — The citizens of the Ameriyah district of northwest Baghdad have found a way to not only provide power for themselves but to also provide power where it matters most. The Ameriyah Clinic was fitted with solar power panels Nov. 25 with the hopes of becoming...

The utility's ratepayer-financed plan to outfit 150 buildings with the panels is cheered by business owners but criticized by consumer activists. Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled its newest power plant: 33,700 solar panels atop a warehouse in Fontana that will feed green energy directly into the grid. It's the first piece of what the utility says could become the largest rooftop solar installation in the world, a swath of photovoltaic panels spanning two square miles. The 600,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop, owned by logistics firm ProLogis Inc., is the first of 150 commercial buildings that Edison is looking to outfit with...

A Canadian man set a world distance record in his solar car this week. Marcelo da Luz and his Xof1 (Power Of One) Solar Car arrived in Victoria, British Columbia on Thursday (October 30, 2008) after having driven more than 15,150-kilometre in his hand-made solar car. He beat the previous record of the distance covered by a solar car by a mere 30kms. Luz spent more than half a million dollars of his own money and more than 9 years building his Xof1 and organizing his cross-country journey.

BEAVERTON, Ore. – A new invention could revolutionize solar energy – and it was made by a 12-year-old in Beaverton. Despite his age, William Yuan has already studied nuclear fusion and nanotechnology, and he is on his way to solving the energy crisis. It all started with Legos - after he learned nanotechnology to make robots take off. The seventh grader then got an idea inspired by the sun. "Solar it seems underused, and there are only a few problems with it," Yuan said. Encouraged by his Meadow Park Middle School science teacher, the 12-year-old developed a 3D solar cell....

Related Links Relevant Reading: Optoelectronics of Solar Cells Solar & Alternative Energy in the SPIE Digital Library Career Solutions: spieworks.org Solar & Alternative Energy Toward textile-based solar cells Max Shtein A fiber-based organic photovoltaic may form the building block of cost- effective, energy-harvesting textiles. A 100km2 area covered with 10% efficient solar cells can produce enough electricity to satisfy the national requirement.1 Unfortunately, the total area of cells produced and installed to date is 1,000 times smaller than needed. Despite the high annual growth rate of the photovoltaic (PV) industry, current manufacturing methods face a scalability barrier that makes fulfilling...

Thin-film solar maker Nanosolar was already one of the more well-funded startups in cleantech with at least $150 million behind it. But this morning Nanosolar’s CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on the company blog that Nanosolar has raised $300 million in an oversubscribed equity financing round, which closed in March, that brings its total to just under half a billion dollars. That could make it one of the most well-funded startups. Period. Roscheisen says the funding comes from power company AES, the Carlyle Group, French utility EDF and Energy Capital Partners, which made investments through Riverstone Holdings, and EDF Renewables; the...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency...

stylemessiah writes "The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer. This was developed to address the high cost of cells and in particular for the worlds poorest regions. She wanted to give the @2 billion people around the world who dont have electricity the gift of light and cheap energy. This could have profound (and a good profound) implications for education and health in those in the poorest regions in the world. And it all started...

Clinton Foundation mulls world's largest solar project in Gujarat Maulik Pathak & Ashish Amin / Ahmedabad August 8, 2008, US-based foundation to set up Rs 20,000-crore Integrated SolarCity. This could well be the world’s largest solar power project at a single location if all goes as planned. The US-based Clinton Foundation is in talks with the Gujarat government to set up an ‘Integrated Solar City’ project with a capacity to generate a 5,000 Mw over a period of time. The project, tagged as one of the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) into the state, will also be a landmark project...

Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale. The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store. Though the California installations will generate...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- SunPower Corp. shares rallied 18% Friday after the solar-panel maker announced its participation in a giant 800-megawatt, photovoltaic project from Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., hailed by industry insiders as the first major utility-scale endeavor of its kind in the United States. Analysts cheered the project's news as a positive move for the solar stocks, hit by concerns tied to a slowing economy and oversupply, as well as uncertainty over federal tax subsidies for alternative energy. A common sight on rooftops or emergency phones on the highway, photovoltaic panels are finally taking a stab at producing...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2008) — Anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot summer day knows that blacktop is exceptionally good at soaking up the sun’s warmth. Now, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found a way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy source. Through asphalt, the researchers are developing a solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into ubiquitous—and inexpensive–sources of electricity and hot water. The research project, which was undertaken at the request of Michael Hulen, president of Novotech Inc. in Acton, Mass, which holds a...

Those of you who have read earlier threads, may rtemember me mentioning a show about a man that went from a $37,000 a year electric bill, to a $13 a year bill for admin/clerical charge. That man, is Larry Hagman. Tonight, Wednesday, 8/06/2008 on DirecTV, Planet Green Ch#286, will air the 'Living with Ed'(Begley episode that tours Larry Hagmans house, with all the "green" features he has installed.

Washington, Aug 1 : Researchers at the MIT have found a new way to store solar power, a major breakthrough in the search to use the sun and serve the Earth's energy needs in a clean and sustainable way. Every hour, the sun pours down enough radiation to serve the Earth's energy needs for a year. The trouble is to store that energy cheaply and use it whenever needed. Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan of the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a process that will use the sun's energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later,...

Scientists Mimic Essence Of Plants' Energy Storage SystemScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2008) — In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine. Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials,...

Currently, the United States meets the majority of its energy needs by burning fossil fuels. Alternative energy sources are not a new technology, but with the rising cost of fuel, more research is being funded to develop cleaner, cheaper versions of existing alternative energy. Solar power has long been a rather inefficient source of power yielding only 5-15% electrical generation from the rays that hit the solar panel. Recent developments by Alvin M. Marks may turn that efficiency into 70-80%. Marks believes he has developed the technology needed to boost the amount of power we can receive from a particular...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have combined a liquid catalyst with photovoltaic cells to achieve what they claim is a solar energy system that could generate electricity around the clock. A liquid catalyst was added to water before electrolysis to achieve what the researchers claim is almost 100-percent efficiency. When combined with photovoltaic cells to store energy chemically, the resulting solar energy systems could generate electricity around the clock, the MIT team said. "The hard part of getting water to split is not the hydrogen -- platinum as a catalyst works fine for the hydrogen....

It sounds almost too good to be true — but chemists believe they have made a key breakthrough that would allow them to mimic photosynthesis and solve the world’s energy crisis. Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have discovered a simple, inexpensive system that can help to split water to produce oxygen and hydrogen gas. The process could, they suggest, be powered by solar photovoltaic cells. electrolysisA snapshot showing the new, efficient oxygen catalyst in action in Dan Nocera's laboratory at MIT.MIT/NSF This would give a crucial boost to solar power’s potential to...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have combined a liquid catalyst with photovoltaic cells to achieve what they claim is a solar energy system that could generate electricity around the clock. A liquid catalyst was added to water before electrolysis to achieve what the researchers claim is almost 100-percent efficiency. When combined with photovoltaic cells to store energy chemically, the resulting solar energy systems could generate electricity around the clock, the MIT team said. "The hard part of getting water to split is not the hydrogen -- platinum as a catalyst works fine for the hydrogen....

European Union officials say they’re considering an ambitious plan to draw energy from the sun that beats down relentlessly on the Sahara. By building a solar power plant the size of Wales (a small area, compared to the vastness of the Sahara) and laying down high-voltage transmission cables, the EU could potentially capture enough clean energy to power the entire continent

European politicians are discussing ambitious plans to harvest the energy of the Saharan sun, connecting a vast network of solar panels to electricity grids across the continent. According to The Guardian, the project, estimated to cost up to £35.7 billion, is backed by Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy of France. The project is still at an early stage and faces daunting financial and technological obstacles. Solar power’s supporters say it will take ten years for it to become economically competitive, and while undersea cables to Sicily and Spain are planned for construction in 2010-2012, it is not known how they...