Obama Signs Stimulus Packed With Clean Energy Provisions
February 18, 2009 by editor
Filed under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Featured, Research, Videos
President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package today, and the clean energy industry - among the biggest winners - is celebrating.
The signing ceremony was heavily loaded with solar symbolism: Mr. Obama signed the bill after touring the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which has solar panels on its roof. He was also introduced by Blake Jones, head of Namaste Solar Electric, a Colorado company that installed solar panels on the governor’s mansion there.
President Barack Obama (right) and Vice President Joe Biden (center) tour the roof of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Blake Jones (left), president of Namaste Solar Electric, a Colorado solar company, ahead of signing an economic stimulus package loaded with clean-energy incentives.
“It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years,” said Mr. Obama, who also promised that the bill would help “transform the way we use energy.”
The text of the bill is posted by the House Appropriations Committee here. This detailed summary is particularly helpful.
The provisions include:
* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.
* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.
* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).
* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.
* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”
* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).
* The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost.
Kate Galbraith
The New York Times
Nevada Solar One – The Future in Reflection (Video)
California is the US Leader in Solar Installation and Solar Power Usage
California and Solar Power
California, a global leader in solar power, has found many ways to harness the energy of the sun.
Every hour the sun beams onto Earth more than enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year. Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun’s energy and make it useable. Today, the technology produces less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand.
The Green Collar Economy - Van Jones at the Center for American Progress
In “The Green Collar Economy,” Center for American Progress Senior Fellow, acclaimed activist and political advisor Van Jones delivers a real solution that both rescues our economy and saves the environment. The economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive. With costs and unemployment soaring, the economy stalls. Not only that, when we burn these fuels, the greenhouse gases they create overheat the atmosphere. As the headlines make clear, total climate chaos looms over us. The bottom line: we cannot continue with business as usual. We cannot drill and burn our way out of these dual dilemmas.
Instead, Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.
Solar Powered Cooking Brings Positive Differences to Third World Countries
Possibilities in Solar Energy (Video)
September 20, 2008 by admin
Filed under Technology, Videos
The champion of all energy sources is the sun. More energy from the sun hits the earth in one hour than all the energy consumed on our planet in an entire year. In a year more energy from the sun hits earth than all the oil, coal, gas and nuclear power ever consumed in the history of mankind. However, the boom in solar panels will not be nearly enough to limit climate impacts from burning fossil fuels.
Scientists say that fundamental advances that are more likely to come from government research are what is needed to fix the carbon emission problem. Yet the electric utility industry spends less as a percentage of revenue on research and development than does the dog food industry. If the attitude is that we have to change the biggest business in the world in the next 30 years this needs to change.
Major Discovery From MIT Primed To Unleash Solar Power Evolution
Scientists mimic essence of plants’ energy storage system
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.
Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution
Harnessing The Sun’s Energy Is Becoming More Popular
July 7, 2008 by admin
Filed under Solar News, Videos
(CBS) It’s freezing in the Contessa Foods plant in Los Angeles, where workers process, package and ship tons of frozen vegetables, fish and meat each day.
“It’s almost like putting 200,000 refrigerators … in one place,” said John Blazevich, CEO of Contessa Premium Foods.
And it’s powered primarily by the sun. An array of paper-thin solar panels rolled across a roof the size of two football fields has helped cut Contessa’s energy use, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.
Solar Technology Unveiled at Long Beach Airport
March 16, 2008 by admin
Filed under Large Solar Installations, Videos
Project Visionary EcoMedia Brings Green Technology to One of the Nation’s Most Historical Airports
Solar panels have been installed at Long Beach Airport to reduce the site’s energy consumption and remind passengers about alternative power options. The Solar Panel Installation Project is located by the south baggage claim area and has been in operation since March 6.
Supported by EcoMedia and the City of Long Beach, the panels are part of an ongoing environmentally friendly project at the airport and were officially revealed earlier this week. A brief ceremony at the airport saw delegates from JetBlue, the local mayor and several community organizations welcome the panels.
