Habitat for Humanity and PG&E Build Solar Homes

Posted on July 26, 2011 by quest

Habitat for Humanity International and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) have renewed their partnership for a fifth year to help provide solar power to Habitat homes built in Northern and Central California. Since its inception in 2007, the PG&E Solar Habitat program has assisted in the construction of 250 solar-powered Habitat homes and is on track to build another 83 homes in 2011. The announcement was made July 22 at a Habitat for Humanity for San Luis Obispo County build site in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has built, rehabilitated, repaired or improved more than 400,000 houses worldwide, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 2 million people

With this year’s contribution of nearly $1.2 million, PG&E has donated more than $5.7 million to Habitat for Humanity International to help respond to the housing needs of California families. The contribution is further supported by thousands of hours of educational instruction, skill development and hundreds of volunteer hours that PG&E employees have provided at local Habitat builds across the state.

“The PG&E Solar Habitat project extends the accessibility of affordable solar energy to more Californians,” said Chris Johns, president of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and board member of the PG&E Corporation Foundation. “The money from solar energy, along with the positive environmental impacts, helps contribute to a healthier environment for us all.” “PG&E shares in our passion to help low-income families,” said Larry Gluth, senior vice president of U.S. and Canada for Habitat for Humanity International. “This partnership translates into real savings for Habitat homeowners by lowering energy costs and providing more stable and affordable housing options.” The PG&E Solar Habitat program lowers the electricity bill of an average household by $500 per year. Each solar panel generates nearly 300 kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable energy from sunlight per month, avoiding the release of more than 132,000 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over the 30-year life of the system. This year’s donation is the equivalent of taking 950 cars off the road for an entire year.

Van Jones Kicks off American Dream Movement

CLEAN LA Solar Investing $2 Billion In Rooftop Solar

Posted on July 25, 2011 by quest

LABC President Mary Leslie, a former LADWP commissioner, joined hundreds of solar industry leaders and public officials at a major conference today at UCLA, where she thanked Governor Brown for his leadership in seeking to make California the clean-energy leader. Leslie also said the nation’s largest municipal utility has the wherewithal to implement the CLEAN LA program now, after more than two years of evaluation of CLEAN LA and other sustainable energy plans.With solar industry leaders and public officials working to meet Governor Edmund G. Brown’s ambitious state-wide goals for local, renewable power, the Los Angeles Business Council and a broad coalition of supporters today called on the LADWP to implement the CLEAN LA Solar Plan, which would produce 600 MW of locally generated rooftop solar power, create thousands of local jobs and spur as much as $2 billion of private investment. The plan enjoys huge support among the public, with an opinion survey showing that more than eight in 10 local voters are in favor.

“Governor Brown’s vision enables communities across the state to create renewable energy programs that meet local needs. Here in Los Angeles, we’ve designed the CLEAN LA solar plan to create jobs, foster private investment and take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits,” Leslie said. “We call on the LADWP to deliver on the promise of a meaningful local rooftop solar program that is great public policy and a terrific economic development initiative.”The CLEAN LA plan meets important city needs at a reasonable cost, especially when considering federal tax credits available to offset the costs for business owners, the lack of meaningful solar production in the city to date, and the looming state requirements for clean energy. Further, newly released figures show that the solar proposal actually produces cost-savings for the utility’s ratepayers over the course of its 30-year life. LABC, in conjunction with top researchers at UCLA and USC, has conducted several in-depth studies showing that the plan would create as many as 18,000 job-years, while spurring private investment of as much as $2 billion. One job-year is economic investment sufficient to employ one person for one year. Important to the success of the program is taking advantage of federal tax credits, set to expire at the end of 2016, which could finance as much as $300 million of the program.

The CLEAN LA program has a simple design: residents and building-owners would be paid a set rate of return for power generated by rooftop solar panels. UCLA’s studies have found that building owners can be incentivized to participate by having LADWP pay them a slight premium for the power that is generated. This, in turn, grows the amount of local, clean power in Los Angeles. As a result of the economics of energy costs – falling prices for solar panel installation and natural gas prices that are expected to rise over time – the plan actually saves ratepayers money over its 30-year life. The significant environmental benefits come without the high price tag of some other energy programs. The CLEAN LA solar plan would produce 600 MW of locally generated solar energy – enough to power 137,000 typical Los Angeles homes – while providing a significant step toward meeting the state-mandated requirement that local utilities generate 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

Top Artists To Perform For Solar and Renewable Energy

Solar Report Unveils Additional $5 Billion In California

Posted on July 25, 2011 by quest

SunRun, a San Francisco based home solar company, today unveiled a new study from the economic consultancy AECOM showing that simpler solar permitting processes could generate over $5 billion in additional growth for California, an increase in nearly 20 percent relative to the status quo.”These findings are tremendous for local governments because they offer a low-cost way to add billions to the economy,” said SunRun Director of Government Affairs Ethan Sprague. “Solar permitting guidelines already exist and it’s just a matter of putting them to use. Governments that streamline their permitting processes sooner will generate a bigger economic impact in the long run, more permanent local jobs, and allow more families to save money by switching to solar.”

In January SunRun issued a report, “The Impact of Local Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power.” That report showed local solar permitting and inspection processes add an average of over $2,500 per home installation. It also helped inform the Department of Energy’s (DOE) recently-announced SunShot Rooftop Solar Challenge to make solar affordable for more Americans. This new report from AECOM is a follow-on analysis that calculates the economic and fiscal benefits of streamlined permitting for the state of California to help further the goals of the SunShot initiative’s pilot program, as well as the related Senate Bill 1108. The AECOM forecast also indicates that failure to adopt more efficient home solar permitting processes could jeopardize the already expected $30 billion economic gain from natural solar market growth in California.

“A critical aspect of these findings is they apply beyond California,” added Sprague. “Any local government can boost the economic impact of solar through streamlined permitting, and there’s a funding opportunity from the DOE to help make it happen.” “Local solar energy creates jobs and helps America move away from dirty and increasingly expensive coal-fired power,” said Bill Corcoran, western regional director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “An essential step to giving more Americans access to the benefits of local solar energy is streamlined permitting. We hope the report’s findings will encourage governments across the country to reform permitting processes and accelerate our nation’s necessary transition to reliable renewable energy.”

Kenyan Eco Entrepreneur Turns Trash Into Treasure

Elektra One A New Solar Powered Plane

Posted on July 25, 2011 by quest

SolarWorld, a large U.S. manufacturer of solar panels, will showcase the maiden U.S. appearance of a zero-emissions electric aircraft at EAA AirVentureOshkosh 2011 in Oshkosh, Wis., starting Monday. The single-seat Elektra One is designed for more than three hours of flight, a range of more than 250 miles, a cruising speed of more than 100 mph and zero emissions. With 1,400 propeller rotations a minute at cruising altitudes, Elektra One is nearly silent. The plane weighs 440 pounds, including battery, and can carry a payload of 220 pounds, including pilot.

Elektra One is emblematic of a future in mobility that relies on efficient and environmentally sound electric vehicles,” said Frank Asbeck, CEO of SolarWorld. “We need to stop depending on fossil fuels – and their dirty, noisy use of scarce resources – to get from one place to another. Solar power, abundant and pervasive, is the obvious choice for travel in the skies.” The Elektra One made its maiden flight in March in Augsburg, Germany, where Gologan’s vision of marrying the aircraft with a solar-charging hangar was conceptually demonstrated. PC Aero will begin taking orders for the aircraft in Europe and the U.S. in 2012. Gologan intends for a complete system – solar-equipped airplane combined with a hangar – to be priced around $145,000, or 100,000 euro.

SolarWorld and Germany’s PC Aero are working together to pioneer the world’s first comparatively affordable electric aircraft system complete with solar-equipped aircraft and solar-charging hangar. PC Aero’s Calin Gologan will make several speaking appearances at AirVenture, which is expected to attract more than 500,000 people. Gologan will outline his vision of electric flight, including a talk as part of the SolarWorld-sponsored World Electric Aircraft Symposium on Friday, July 29. Elektra One will be on display in AirVenture’s Innovation Hangar, except at midday Wednesday, July 27, when it is expected to fly. SolarWorld and PC Aero are developing a new aviation filling station and hangar fitted with the company’s high-performance solar panels to service small aircraft, including the Elektra One, which also will bear SolarWorld photovoltaic cells to extend its range up to 30 percent.

GO ORGANIC

Green Boot Camp Instructs Teachers In New Jersey

Posted on July 24, 2011 by quest

Union County and Honeywell last week hosted the third annual Green Boot Camp, an interactive workshop focused on best practice instruction methods for teaching energy, sustainability and environmental concepts. As part of the five-day event, 40 middle school teachers from across North America gathered to explore the roots of green technology, sustainable living and environmental awareness by using the Union County Vocational-Technical Schools (UCVTS) campus in Scotch Plains, N.J., as a living laboratory.

“Our objective is to equip teachers with the tools to get students excited about science and engineering, and enable them to understand sustainable practices that will positively affect their families, schools and communities,” said Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions. “By teaming with a renowned institution like UCVTS, we are educating the next generation of green workers and building a foundation for environmental stewardship.”

Green Boot Camp participants covered a comprehensive set of topics ranging from green energy and greenhouse gas emissions to electric vehicles and the smart electrical grid. For example, attendees worked on course materials to clearly articulate the principles of renewable energy by designing a solar house, and constructing a wind turbine and bicycle generator. In addition to the on-site instructors, Honeywell and UCVTS also invited a host of special guest speakers who specialize in environmental and energy-related disciplines, such as rainwater conservation and building energy management.

Picking Up Money Recycling in Port Au Prince

Executives Without Borders (ExecWB), in partnership with CSS International Holdings, Inc. and Haiti Recycling, will officially launch Ramase Lajan, a “cash for recyclables” program

Solar To Power Leading Wind Power Maker

Posted on July 23, 2011 by quest

Portland Mayor Sam Adams has announced solar panels from SolarWorld, the largest U.S. manufacturer of solar technology for more than 35 years, have been selected to power the North American headquarters of Vestas, a leader in providing high-tech wind power systems. “As Portland seeks to become the capital of the global green economy, collaborations among our leading clean energy firms are key,” Mayor Sam Adams said on July 20. “I’m excited to announce this unique partnership. It’s an excellent example of how two companies can come together and make something great happen in Portland.” The move links two of the top U.S. producers of renewable energy systems and underscores the companies’ confidence in the vitality of American manufacturing and the value of sustainability.

The announcement came outside the 102-year-old Meier & Frank Depot building in downtown Portland, future home of Vestas’ continental head office. The building’s redevelopment will feature a 112-kilowatt photovoltaic system, the largest roof-mounted solar array in Portland’s central business district. The system will cap an impressive list of cutting-edge energy and environmental features that are expected to position the historical building on Northwest Everett Street to pursue LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. The SolarWorld panels will supply about 12 percent of the building’s electricity needs.

Both SolarWorld and Vestas have their headquarters for the Americas in the Portland area. SolarWorld employs more than 1,000 workers at its main U.S. site in Hillsboro, Ore., and more than 250 in Camarillo, Calif., where it has operated a solar-panel manufacturing site since the late 1970s. Vestas employs about 400 people in Portland and 3,000 nationwide. The company, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Portland next year, has sold more than 11,000 wind turbines in North America. When complete in spring 2012, the building will measure 172,000 square feet, including an addition on the fifth floor featuring an eco-roof terrace and garden and tenant and retail space on the first floor.