Conservation | Across The Board
It is a false premise or presumption that the basic principle of conservation is exclusive to any one of the different types of environments in which we function on a daily basis.
The effectiveness or lack thereof of how this universal principle is applied in one environment impacts all others.
Financial Conservation/Solar Energy is just one example.
Imagine, Financial Conservation/U.S. Government or Financial Conservation/Wall Street?
Monday, December 24, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Coal Mining Museum Saves Money With Solar Energy
The Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum in Wales |
‘Coal is such an important
part of Wales’ heritage, and yet green energy will play a major part in its
future. A solar powered coal-mining museum is a fantastic way to celebrate this
national journey.’”
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Friday, December 21, 2012
Off-Grid Solutions | Clean Energy for Un-Electrified People
Solar Panel Installation in Ecuador |
The
Bangladesh story is particularly exciting because Grameen has single handedly
shattered the energy ‘axioms’ on which the international policy community has
relied for decades: ‘Renewable energy is too expensive.’ Wrong!
‘Even if solar makes sense, the poor can’t afford it or they won’t pay.’ Wrong.
‘The grid will come regardless so off-grid, decentralized energy is a waste
of time, money and effort.’ Wrong, wrong, wrong. What Bangladesh does
prove is that Carl Pope is
right: deploying solar makes the most sense for off-grid areas where the
economics are compelling and the need is great.”
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Thursday, December 20, 2012
GM Goes Solar Outside USA
"The solar power installation is expected to produce
renewable energy equivalent to the energy required to power 1,200 homes in
South Korea for a year. It is the
equivalent of providing electricity to 221 homes in the U.S. for a year. Rob
Threlkeld, GM's manager of renewable energy, said: 'This array will be the
fourth-largest in our solar energy portfolio, joining our plants in Germany and
Spain that house large solar capacities on their rooftops.'"
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Third Generation Sunkist Grower Goes Solar
“As a third
generation Sunkist grower, Nick Bozick has always understood the value of
sustainability and as President of Richard Bagdasarian Inc., he is expanding
that commitment with the launch of a leading-edge solar technology system at
the company’s packinghouse in Mecca, California. The 300kW photovoltaic solar
energy system will generate electricity for the Bagdasarian plant with no air
emissions, no waste production and no water use.”
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Solar Energy | Higher Education Turns to The Perfect Marriage
Environmental Plus Financial Conservation |
Specifically in California, schools are looking to solar energy as a way to deal with smaller budgets while still being able to afford teacher salaries and attract top talent. A recent Forbes article reported that many schools throughout the state are turning to low-interest loans for renewable energy systems, as well as state rebates available for PV installations, to make the projects a smarter choice. Money saved from lower energy bills as a result of the solar installations are easily used to pay back those loans, one expert said in the article.
“In California especially, schools are having budgets cut for the third, fourth, fifth year in a row and are looking for ways to make up shortfalls in their general fund budgets by using capital dollars," the article stated.
For example, at Laney College in Oakland, California, school officials expect a recently installed solar project to save the college about $20,000 every month on electricity costs, according to Forbes."
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SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink to the Imperial Valley | Supplying Clean Energy & Jobs
“The deals are with Tallbear Seville LLC to purchase 20 megawatts from a facility under construction northwest of Brawley, and with 8minutenergy Renewables to buy the same amount of power from the Calipatria Solar Farm.
’The Calipatria Solar Farm will deliver clean energy to over 9,000 households in SDG&E's service area and create more than 50 direct and 100 indirect jobs in the Imperial Valley,’" said Martin Hermann, CEO of 8minutenergy Renewables.
‘We would like to thank SDG&E for their continued commitment to the Imperial Valley, where the unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation,’ he said.
SDG&E reported that 20.8 percent of its sales last year were for renewable energy. In the last two years, the utility has signed contracts to add 1,879 megawatts of power from renewable sources.”
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Monday, December 17, 2012
Solar Power | Entrenched Energy Monopolies Bring On Standard Divide & Conquer PR/Media Blitz
“California Utilities Say Solar Raises
Costs for Non-Users
Raising Caps
The growth is
also driving efforts to raise net-metering caps. California revised the way it
calculates its limit in May, effectively doubling to about 5 gigawatts the
amount of solar energy that state utilities will eventually be required
purchase.
California
utilities oppose efforts to expand net-metering programs. Solar customers, who
typically sell power to the grid when the sun is shining and use the income to
offset charges for using electricity at night or on cloudy days, “are just
using our system as a storage device,” said Jazayeri. 'They should pay
something for that service.'
So far,
regulators haven’t been sympathetic to utilities’ complaints about rooftop
solar power. The California Public Utilities Commission rejected in January San
Diego Gas’s request to impose a “network use charge” that would have added a
fee to customers with rooftop solar panels.
Easing Stress
And solar
developers say rooftop systems actually benefit the power grid by providing
power during the hottest parts of the day. That eases stress on wires and
transformers and helps utilities defer maintenance and upgrades, said Todd
Pedersen, chief executive officer of Blackstone Group LP’s Vivint Inc., which
installs residential solar.
‘We need an
honest cost-benefit analysis of adding distributed solar to the grid,' Pedersen
said in an interview in New York. 'It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve this
now because I see no signs of slowing as solar becomes cheaper than the
utilities in most states.'”
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Saturday, December 15, 2012
Solar Manufacturing | Generating Jobs in San Antonio
San Antonio Alamo at Sunrise |
"Nexolon
America LLC says it plans to build a manufacturing facility at Brooks City-Base
that will produce solar panels and create more than 400 manufacturing jobs at
an average annual salary of more than $44,000.
The company
plans to invest more than $115 million in a 10-year ground lease of some 86
acres of land on the Brooks City-Base campus. In addition, it will contribute
$500,000 over five years to Alamo Colleges for solar energy workforce training
programs.
San Antonio Business Journal
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Solar Energy | Who's thinking about the oceans of undeveloped rooftop space?
"Softbank
Corporation is Japan’s Tokyo-based and third-largest cellphone carrier, but it
has been getting into the energy game since the Fukushima disaster really shook up its CEO. In September,
it was announced that Softbank and Mitsui would team up to build the largest
solar power plant in Japan. Now, Softbank has announced that it intends
to install solar panels on the rooftops of 1,000 homes in order to take
advantage of the country’s incentive program for clean energy.
Softbank
is using Sharp and Suntech solar panels for this project, and it will sell the
electricity generated by them to utility companies."
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Solar Energy Farms Generate Electricity & Cash
Water
utility expected to rake in close to $100,000 to benefit ratepayers
"Two solar energy farms owned by Marlboro’s Water Utility Division are expected to once again generate cash, in addition to electricity, for the municipally controlled entity.
While the two solar panel fields have reduced the cost of the water utility’s operations by about $150,000, the farms also yield SRECs, which can be sold to energy companies to satisfy state quotas related to the production of solar energy, township Business Administrator Jonathan Capp wrote in a memo.
'The impact of solar generation relative to water rates charged to customers has been substantial,' Capp said of the combination of monetary savings and SREC sales."
Spend Less. Create More.
News Transcript
"Two solar energy farms owned by Marlboro’s Water Utility Division are expected to once again generate cash, in addition to electricity, for the municipally controlled entity.
While the two solar panel fields have reduced the cost of the water utility’s operations by about $150,000, the farms also yield SRECs, which can be sold to energy companies to satisfy state quotas related to the production of solar energy, township Business Administrator Jonathan Capp wrote in a memo.
'The impact of solar generation relative to water rates charged to customers has been substantial,' Capp said of the combination of monetary savings and SREC sales."
Spend Less. Create More.
News Transcript
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012
High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy
The largest power plant in the world: Three Gorges Dam, China |
"Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for
delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the
light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant
efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt
to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity flows
from power plants to homes and businesses everywhere.(Related Quiz: "What
You Don't Know About Electricity")
But now, more than a century after Edison's misguided stunt, DC may be
getting a measure of vindication.
An updated,
high-voltage version of DC, called HVDC, is being touted as the transmission
method of the future because of its ability to transmit current over very long
distances with fewer losses than AC. And that trend may be accelerated by a new
device called a hybrid HVDC breaker, which may make it possible to use DC on
large power grids without the fear of catastrophic breakdown that stymied the
technology in the past. (See related photos: "World's Worst Power Outages.")
Swiss-based
power technology and automation giant ABB,
which developed the breaker, says it may also prove critical to the 21st century's
transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, by tapping the full
potential of massive wind farms and solar generating stations to provide
electricity to distant cities."
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U.S. Solar Surges 44% in Q3 Driven by Rooftops
“Developers
installed 684 megawatts of solar panels in the U.S. in the third quarter, 44
percent more than a year earlier, as residential projects rose to a record,
according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
About 3.2
gigawatts of solar energy will be installed in the U.S. this year, the
Washington-based trade group forecast today in a statement.
Installations
in the current quarter may almost double from the third quarter to 1,200
megawatts, which would be the most ever in a three-month period. Fourth-quarter
installations have accounted for more than 40 percent of the annual totals in
the past two years, driven in part by developers racing to qualify for expiring
incentives, according to SEIA.
‘While Q3
2012 was remarkable for the U.S. PV market, it is just the opening act for what
we expect to see in Q4,’”
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Dual Harvest Plantation | Largest Rooftop Solar Installation in France
"Korea’s Hanwha Solar has
delivered 7.7MW of PV modules for a Ginseng plantation which has become the
largest rooftop solar installation in France.
French
construction contractor Solvéo Energie has built the plant in the municipality
of Rion-des-Landes, which is designed to create ideal cultivation conditions
for Ginseng – a medicinal plant whose roots need four years before they can be
harvested and which only thrives in shady areas.
Equipping the plantation rooftop
with solar modules also helped secure financing for the project.
'The Rion-des-Landes plant
demonstrates how synergies with solar energy can successfully bring innovative
projects forward,” says Charles Kim, president of Hanwha Solar.'"
Recharge
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Monday, December 10, 2012
Iconic Brands Go Solar
Solar Means Business: Top Commercial Solar Customers in
the U.S.
"What do
Walmart, Costco, IKEA, McGraw Hill, Johnson & Johnson and FedEx have in
common? They know a smart investment when they see one, and are all adopting
solar energy in a big way. From the largest corporations to small businesses,
U.S. companies are installing solar energy to take control of their energy
costs and improve their bottom line."
Solar Energy Indrustries Association
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