Rainy Weather Improves Solar Panel Output in Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)  — Solar panels produce more electricity during the summer months rather than winter, but California’s rainy winters can be a good thing for producing solar energy.

“There’s actually a weather phenomenon that works to the advantage of solar power here in northern California during the winter and it’s called rain. The rain actually cleans the system which improves production and we find that systems don’t need any cleaning during the winter months where as during the summer time we find that they need two or three cleanings,” said Rob Erlichman, President of Sunlight Electric, a San Francisco solar company. Read more

Solar Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy

Old Man Winter, it turns out, is no friend of renewable energy.

This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine.

So in regions where homeowners have long rolled their eyes at shoveling driveways, add another cold-weather chore: cleaning off the solar panels. “At least I can get to them with a long pole and a squeegee,” said Alan Stankevitz, a homeowner in southeast Minnesota.

As concern has grown about global warming, many utilities and homeowners have been trying to shrink their emissions of carbon dioxide - their carbon footprints - by installing solar panels, wind turbines and even generators powered by tides or rivers. But for the moment, at least, the planet is still cold enough to deal nasty winter blows to some of this green machinery.

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Obama’s Department of Green Labor

In announcing that he intends Hilda Solis to be his Secretary of Labor, President-elect Barack Obama made good on his campaign pledge of change: Not only will this choice likely bring relief from the anti-union and anti-worker policies of his predecessor, but it will also reinforce that environmental issues will be key to ensuring good employment.

Congresswoman Solis, representing California’s 32nd District since 2000, has distinguished herself by her support for labor rights and environmental justice causes. Specifically, she has been a strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act and for green collar jobs - jobs that protect the environment and offer decent pay and working conditions.

Introducing her in Chicago on December 19, Obama said, “For the past eight years, the Department of Labor has not lived up to its role either as an advocate for hardworking families or as an arbiter of fairness in relations between labor and management. That will change when Hilda Solis is Secretary of Labor. Under her leadership, I am confident that the Department of Labor will once again stand up for working families.”

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Sempra Generation Completes North America’s Largest ‘Thin-Film’ Solar Power Installation

Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, today announced the completion of the company’s first solar energy project, a 10-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic power-generation facility adjacent to the company’s existing 480-megawatt El Dorado Energy power plant near Boulder City, Nev., about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

The El Dorado Energy Solar project is the largest operational thin-film, solar-power project in North America. Construction began in July 2008, and involved the installation of more than 167,000 solar modules on 80 acres of desert property designated as a renewable energy zone and leased from Boulder City.

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Mapping Renewable Energy, Rooftop by Rooftop

The sun shines on everyone - but not in equal measure. That reality has long slowed the spread of solar power. Depending on where you live in the country - or even where you live in your city - the same array of photovoltaic solar panels can produce enough electricity to power your house with watts to spare, or barely cut a nickel from your utility bill. It all comes down to the precise amount of sunlight that hits your roof. But while we all know that San Antonio gets more sunny days than Seattle, what about one part of San Antonio compared to another? One block of downtown Seattle compared to the next block? “Without that knowledge, renewables can be a bit of a crap shoot,’ says Kenneth Westrick, the CEO of the renewable mapping company 3Tier.

All of that could be changing. The engineering company CH2M Hill is now joining hands with the U.S. Department of Energy to provide Internet solar maps of 25 American cities, using Google Earth technology to chart the precise solar potential of neighborhoods, literally rooftop by rooftop. The company has just finished mapping all of San Francisco, allowing residents to enter their address and take the solar measure of their own home. “People in San Francisco think we don’t have any solar potential,’ says Gavin Newsom, the city’s deep-green mayor. “But the map shows we have a lot more sun than you’d believe.” Read more

California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge

California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis

President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation’s troubles.

This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he’s pushing some of the world’s toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.

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Up on the Roof, New Jobs in Solar Power

MOVE over, Joe the Plumber. Spencer the Solar Panel Installer is here.

In this case, it’s Spencer Bockus, who created solar-powered fans and other contraptions for science fairs as a fifth grader in California. Today, at 22, he is on customers’ roofs, measuring where the shade will hit and hooking up photovoltaic arrays, better known as solar panels, to convert the sun’s energy into electricity.

“Sometimes I’m 50 feet up on a steep roof and it’s so hot the tar is melting onto the bottoms of my sneakers,” he said, “but I’m excited because I’m helping the environment.”

Even in the recession, Mr. Bockus has been putting in plenty of overtime for his company, Akeena Solar, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., and has offices elsewhere in California and in Colorado and the Northeast.

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California & Arizona Find New Options For Tapping Into Solar Energy

Although sunshine is free, a rooftop a solar system can cost $30,000 to $50,000 — enough to discourage even ardent environmentalists when financing is hard to find and households are holding tight to their cash to weather a recession.

But more affordable options are being touted by the solar industry. In recent months new financing programs have been introduced for homeowners who prefer to lease a solar system or to buy the power produced by a solar system on their home that is owned and maintained by someone else.

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A Green Agenda for Obama’s First 100 Days

Environmentalists offer the president-elect their advice on the priorities he should set for his administration.

Yale Environment 360  asked a wide-ranging group of environmental activists, scientists, and thinkers to answer the following question: If you were advising Barack Obama, what would you tell him are the most important environmental and energy initiatives that he should launch during his first 100 days?

Although the respondents - including entrepreneur Paul Hawken, Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, activist Van Jones, and green investing leader Mindy Lubber - represent a broad range of interests, they were largely in agreement on how best to solve the current economic and environmental challenges. Basically, they agree that weaning the country off fossil fuels and onto renewable sources of energy is the single best way to rebuild the U.S. economy; that Obama must use all the tools at his disposal - from invoking the Clean Air Act for regulating greenhouse gas emissions to persuading the new Congress to put a price on carbon - to tackle climate change and spur the move to alternative energy; that under an Obama administration the United States must lead in forging a new global climate change treaty; and that, given the rapidity of global warming, Obama must be made fully aware of the “scary” scientific facts - as environmentalist Bill McKibben puts it - and move with a sense of urgency.

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Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution

Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution

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