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Keyword: solar

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  • Solar Provides 0.2% of Electric Supply--Up From 0.02% Before Obama

    01/29/2014 5:16:08 PM PST · by Nachum · 38 replies
    cns news ^ | 1/29/14 | Terence P. Jeffrey
    (CNSNews.com) - Solar power, which President Barack Obama promoted in his State of the Union Address, accounted for 0.2 percent of the U.S. electricity supply in the first nine months of 2013, according to data published by the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration. That is up from the 0.02 percent of the total electricity supply that solar power sources provided in 2008, the last calendar year before Obama took office. “Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy,” Obama said in the State of the Union. “The all-of-the-above energy strategy I...
  • In the Midwest, farmers leading the way on solar power

    01/27/2014 3:23:15 PM PST · by TurboZamboni · 13 replies
    midwestenergynews ^ | 1-27-14 | Karen Uhlenhuth
    Solar installations have been taking off in many areas of the Midwest, but perhaps nowhere more so than in farm country. “It’s a huge buzz now throughout the agriculture industry,” said Todd Miller, sales director for CB Solar in Ankeny, Iowa. In Washington County, Iowa, for example, farmers with access to an unusual and lucrative combination of federal, state and utility incentives were anticipating payback periods of as little as two years, according to Ed Raber, director of the county’s economic development corporation. In Washington County, Iowa, for example, farmers with access to an unusual and lucrative combination of federal,...
  • Electric Cars & Solar: Will They Make Gasoline & Utilities Obsolete?

    01/23/2014 8:24:46 PM PST · by ckilmer · 95 replies
    yahoo ^ | 1/23/2014 | John Voelcker
    These are interesting times in the automotive and electric-utility businesses.
  • G3 Geomagnetic Storm Incoming

    01/09/2014 5:16:36 AM PST · by Paul R. · 16 replies
    NWS/NOAA ^ | 1/9/2014 | NWS
    2014-01-09 12:36 UTC Awaiting CME Arrival The ongoing Solar Radiation Storm peaked briefly just above the S3 (Strong) threshold but is now in decay and currently at S2 (Moderate) levels. Enhancement back across the S3 level is possible with the anticipated coronal mass ejection (CME) arrival. The CME, originally expected to arrive around 0800 UTC (3:00 a.m. EST) today, January 9, is now slightly overdue. However, pre-arrival signatures from EPAM data on the ACE spacecraft still show this transient en route. G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm activity is still expected on January 9 and 10. Updates here as this event unfolds.
  • Ford C-Max Solar Energi concept

    01/02/2014 8:42:55 AM PST · by taildragger · 17 replies
    Ford Motor Company ^ | 1/2/2014 | Ford Website reposted
    Video At: http://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2014/01/CMAX-solar.mov/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.video.firefoxhq.ogg
  • The Solar Swindle

    12/30/2013 9:00:06 AM PST · by jazusamo · 14 replies
    American Thinker ^ | December 30, 2013 | Norman Rogers
    Solar electricity is growing, promoted, and most importantly, heavily subsidized. The promoters of solar electricity claim that it is close to being competitive with conventional sources of electricity. That is a fantasy. Solar electricity is expensive and impractical. If it weren't for government subsidies, some explicit and some disguised, the solar industry would collapse. The many claims of competitiveness are always based on ignoring subsidies provided to politically correct renewable power, ignoring the costs associated with unreliability, and ignoring the cost of backup fossil fuel plants. An example of a hidden subsidy is the California Renewable Portfolio Standard that mandates...
  • Solar Cells Could Help Windows Generate Power

    12/19/2013 9:43:18 PM PST · by Utilizer · 5 replies
    C&EN : CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS ^ | Web Date: December 19, 2013 | Neil Savage
    For use in windows, solar cells need to absorb enough light to produce sufficient energy, but let enough pass through to be transparent. Organic photovoltaic materials can absorb infrared light and pass visible light, but they have very low efficiencies. Inorganic semiconductors, such as amorphous silicon, absorb strongly in the visible part of the spectrum, so the films have to be very thin to be transparent, thus decreasing the amount of photons they capture. They also tend to give windows a brownish or reddish tint, which architects dislike. The Oxford team, led by physicist Henry J. Snaith, made their solar...
  • Solar Power No Help During California's Late Peak Winter Hours

    12/13/2013 1:20:47 PM PST · by WayneLusvardi · 32 replies
    Calwatchdog.com ^ | December 13, 2013 | Wayne Lusvardi
    Solar power is popular nowadays as a “renewable,” non-polluting energy source. It helps California comply with AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in the state by 2020. “Even on short winter days, California is breaking solar energy records,” declared environmental writer Chris Clarke on the website of KCET, America’s largest independent public TV station, which broadcasts across Southern California. Clarke was jubilant that solar power had generated more than 2,800 megawatts of electricity just before noon on that day. There also was 1,898 megawatts of rooftop solar power generated...
  • U.S. Energy Policy: A National Money Hole?

    12/11/2013 5:54:48 AM PST · by thackney · 8 replies
    Real Clear Energy ^ | December 11, 2013 | Jared Meyer
    U.S. policy regarding green energy investment is troubling. As Congress struggles to pass a budget, green energy programs should be the first to go. A newly-released Reason Foundation report by Victor Nava and Julian Morris, Stimulating Green Electric Dreams, highlights problems with the government’s green “investments.” The report focuses on the Department of Energy’s $16 billion Section 1705 Loan Guarantee Program— part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The loans suffered from rampant cronyism: those with the right political connections and highest lobbying contributions received the most money. Further, the report found taxpayer dollars were essentially thrown away....
  • Dominion Puts Finishing Touches On State's Largest Solar Project (CT)

    12/04/2013 4:48:43 PM PST · by matt04 · 20 replies
    Electricians in bright yellow coats have been tending to rows of solar panels in recent days, patching together a complex network of equipment that will be the largest of its kind in the state when it's completed in about a month. But the project — dedicated Friday at a gathering of company and public officials — won't hold the top spot forever. A project four times the size of the Somers solar center that is planned in Sprague will knock it to second when it comes online in three years. These massive projects, as well as the thousands of smaller-scale...
  • Stocks Make Thin Gains Early; First Solar, CF Industries Surge

    12/04/2013 12:04:32 PM PST · by gooblah · 3 replies
    investors.com ^ | december 4 | Alan R Elliot
    Stocks opened lower, but quickly reversed to make narrow gains Wednesday as investors took in a broad array of economic news. The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average all erased early losses and rose 0.1%. Volume was narrowly mixed, a fraction lower on the Nasdaq and up 5% on the NYSE.
  • 3D Printing Could Turn Space-Based Solar Power into a Reality

    12/03/2013 2:54:13 PM PST · by 2ndDivisionVet · 18 replies
    Oil Price ^ | December 2, 2013 | Joao Peixe
    Space-based solar power (SBSP) offers many advantages over Earth-based solar, yet the main obstacle in its development is the cost of sending up the solar panels into orbit. 3D printing may well be able to slash these installation costs and therefore make SBSP a much more viable energy source. 3D printing has been developed at a fast pace in recent years as scientists find more ways to use the technology. It is thought that by sending up special 3D printers into space to manufacturer the solar panels in orbit, the installation costs can be drastically reduced, compared to sending up...
  • Japan’s plan to supply all the world’s energy from a giant solar power plant on the moon

    12/02/2013 7:05:05 AM PST · by thackney · 30 replies
    QUARTZ ^ | November 29, 2013 | Todd Woody
    Shimizu, a Japanese architectural and engineering firm, has a solution for the climate crisis: Simply build a band of solar panels 400 kilometers (249 miles) wide (pdf) running all the way around the Moon’s 11,000-kilometer (6,835 mile) equator and beam the carbon-free energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves, which are converted into electricity at ground stations. + That means mining construction materials on the Moon and setting up factories to make the solar panels. “Robots will perform various tasks on the lunar surface, including ground leveling and excavation of hard bottom strata,” according to Shimizu, which is...
  • Minnesota solar subsidy revised

    11/25/2013 10:59:18 AM PST · by TurboZamboni · 18 replies
    MPLS Star & Sickle ^ | 11-22-13 | DAVID SHAFFER
    Minnesota’s expanded $15 million-a-year program to support homegrown solar panel manu­fac­turing will of­fer output-based in­cen­tives for the first time, ac­cord­ing to de­tails re­leased Fri­day. The program, fund­ed by ratepayers of the state’s four investor-owned utilities, will pay homeowners, businesses, nonprofits and governments from 13 cents per kilowatt-hour to 27 cents per kilowatt-hour over 10 years of output from solar arrays built by either of the state’s two panel makers. The retail electricity rate in Minnesota is about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The payments are on top of what system owners get for selling power back to utilities, a signal that...
  • Federal Judge: Michigan Renewable Energy Mandate Unconstitutional

    11/25/2013 9:18:17 AM PST · by MichCapCon · 8 replies
    Capitol Confidential ^ | 11/21/2013 | Jack Spencer
    Court battles over the Colorado and Minnesota renewable energy mandates could potentially mark the beginning of the end for similar laws in other states, including Michigan. In June, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Court wrote that Michigan's in-state renewable energy mandate violates the Commerce Clause and is therefore unconstitutional. Judge Posner's statement did not have the weight of law because the issue wasn't directly before him. Nonetheless, many received it as a wake-up call and possible harbinger of things to come. In 2008, the Michigan Legislature passed a law mandating that 10...
  • Prairies, Wind Turbines, Solar Panels, and Fried Birds

    11/21/2013 8:14:40 AM PST · by rktman · 9 replies
    Canada Free Press ^ | 11/21/2013 | Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh
    The green energy policy in the United States which requires blending gasoline with ethanol produced from corn has expanded the corn fields to the detriment of prairies. According to AP, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland were lost to the federal requirement of blending gas with 10 percent ethanol, soon to be 15 percent ethanol. These former prairies are now planted with corn and soybeans. The unintended consequence of this green energy policy is the release of more carbon dioxide naturally locked in the soil when the virgin grasslands are plowed, the sky rocketing of corn prices, the scarcity...
  • Report: DOE Withheld Data on Bankrupt Green Energy Company

    11/05/2013 4:42:40 PM PST · by Nachum · 11 replies
    Free Beacon ^ | 11/5/13 | Lachlan Markay
    The Department of Energy withheld troubling cost and performance data on a major stimulus award from a federal watchdog before the company servicing the award went bankrupt, according to a report released on Tuesday. The report focuses on the department’s handling of a pair of federal awards worth about $126 million for ECOtality, a San Francisco-based green energy company that declared bankruptcy in September. DOE’s inspector general, which authored Tuesday’s report, released an audit in July that expressed concerns about the department’s management of ECOtality’s $100 million stimulus award for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. The report revealed...
  • Solar Industry Takes on Crony Capitalism in Arizona

    11/04/2013 6:52:02 AM PST · by Kaslin · 17 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | November 4, 2013 | Rachel Alexander
    A heated battle is taking place in Arizona between the fledgling solar industry and APS, the state’s largest energy company, which enjoys a state-granted near-monopoly over energy. In sunny Arizona, it is peculiar that solar energy is being portrayed as the bad guy. Since Arizona is a Republican-dominated state, APS is sneakily buying up influential Republicans, both directly and indirectly, to perpetuate its crony capitalism. The Washington Post refers to these Republicans as “some of the best pollsters and consultants money can buy.” The spin goes like this, “stop subsidizing the solar industry.” The word “subsidy” is used to scare...
  • 28 solar flares in the last seven days, and more may be coming(about time)

    11/01/2013 9:30:13 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 16 replies
    Los Angeles Times ^ | October 31, 2013, 4:04 p.m. | Deborah Netburn
    The sun has erupted more than two dozen times over the last week, sending radiation and solar material hurtling through space - and scientists say more eruptions may be coming. This shouldn't be unusual. After all, we are technically at solar maximum, the peak of the 11-year cycle of the sun's activity. But this has been a noticeably mellow solar maximum, with the sun staying fairly quiet throughout the summer. So when our life-giving star suddenly let loose with 24 medium strength M-class solar flares and four significantly stronger X-class flares between Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, it felt like...
  • Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Firm Takes Millions, Goes Bankrupt and Leaves Toxic Mess Behind

    11/01/2013 7:34:10 AM PDT · by rktman · 12 replies
    The Blaze ^ | 10/31/2013 | Becket Adams
    A taxpayer-funded “green” energy company that went bankrupt in July 2012 didn’t just leave behind a legal mess for its creditors – it left behind a mess of contaminated water and toxic carcinogens. Taxpayer Backed Green Energy Firm Takes Millions, Goes Bankrupt and Leaves Behind Toxic Mess Image Source: Associated Press. And its up to the owners of Abound Solar’s deserted 37,000 square foot facility to clean up the broken glass and hazardous wastes.