From spaced based solar power plants
to making your own solar panels for under $100, the effects of the “green economy” are making it’s way into all aspects of our world. PG & E has just inked a deal with Solaren, a Southern California start-up to launch components for a solar power plant into orbit and sell the electricity it generates to Pacific Gas and Electric. The deal was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The project is supposed to be turned on in 2016.
Solaren, founded by veterans of Hughes Aircraft, Boeing and Lockheed, plans to deploy a free-floating inflatable Mylar mirror over half a mile in diameter. This will collect and concentrate sunlight on a smaller mirror, that in turn will focus the rays on photovoltaic modules.
California regulators approved a utility contract for the first space-based solar power plant in the U.S. The 200-megawatt orbiting solar farm would convert solar energy collected in space into radio frequency waves, which would be beamed to a ground station near Fresno, in California’s central valley. These radio waves would then be transformed into electricity to be fed into the power grid.
Cows go green
Never underestimate the human spirit, just as big energy power players are beginning to show just how much juice they have; right back here on earth; Home Made Energy and others are offering “how to kits” that show you how to go green and build your own solar panels for under $100. The race is on. Seems everything is going green. Including… well see for yourself! Do the green thing!
Green Thing is a not-for-profit public service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world.
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A Quick Recipe for a Successful Copenhagen
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Listen in on Kevin Hopkins’s interview with QuestPoint N the Mix. Kevin is an author of ECO INSTITUTION‘s Certified Green Consultant online training course.
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