Solar reaction

Posted on October 8, 2010 by quest

Never under estimate the power of an idea whose time has come. Such is the way with solar and renewable energy as Los Angeles prepares for Solar Power International next week (10/12-14) the largest solar show in the US. Recently on the other side of the globe as part of the 350.org Global Work Party to held on 10.10.10, President Nasheed of the Maldives personally got on the roof of his official residents’ to help do the installation. This is a remarkable gesture and one that governors and mayors around America could heed now that President Obama has said he will put solar panels back on the White House roof. Reactions are coming in around the country including one from Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“Putting solar on the roof of the nations’ most important home is a powerful symbol calling on all Americans to rethink how we create energy. It’s an example of how each one of us can improve energy security, employ Americans and cut energy costs. I can speak from personal experience that taxpayers will benefit. In the four years since I’ve had solar on my house, I’ve gotten a better return on my solar system than on my 401(k). SEIA has been working with the Obama Administration to install money-saving solar energy on government buildings across the country.

“Earlier this year, in a meeting with President Obama in the Rose Garden, I had the opportunity to point out to the President the large amount of available roof space on top of the White House, baking in the sun,” Resch notes about his direct appeal to President Obama to put solar back on the White House at an Earth Day ceremony in April. This appeal has been echoed by thousands of Americans across the country.
The Obama family joins the Resch family and hundreds of thousands of Americans who have already gone solar, including dozens of members of Congress, former presidential advisors like Reagan Secretary of State George Shulz and former CIA director James Woolsey. “Right now, solar energy is being manufactured in the United States. It is being installed on tens of thousands of homes each year across the nation in all 50 states. And it is creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Obama’s decision to install solar on the White House is a prominent example of how solar is working for America today.”

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Wells Fargo offers new solar incentive

Posted on October 6, 2010 by quest

Financial services company Wells Fargo today announced a new incentive solar program to make it easier for home owners to go solar. As you begin to stack on the federal, state and local incentives adding this additional plan makes installing a system even more attractive. As for Wells Fargo this latest initiative is aimed at helping its customers and the nation take advantage of clean renewable solar energy.

Mary Wetzel Wells Fargo Director of Environmental Affairs said, “As a community-based financial institution, one of the ways we can help is by offering financial solutions that help our customers save not only time and money, but also protect our environment.”“Through everyday actions and being aware of the ways our decisions affect the environment, we can all contribute to environmental protection and regeneration,”

The promotion is for qualified Southern California customers who advance $15,000 or more from a home equity line or line of credit to finance a solar energy system for their home will receive up to $1,000 in incentives. Three solar companies are participating in the incentive – Acro Energy, REC Solar and Verengo Solar. Complete details of the California promotion are available at all Southern California Wells Fargo stores. Working with Colorado solar installers, the company is also presenting its Colorado customers with the $1,000 incentive through the end of the year.

Wells Fargo also provided more than $2 billion in tax equity financing projects around the country. It has installed solar panels in 10 Well Fargo Stores in Denver and supports the Environmental Finance Group, National Cleantech Commercial Banking Group, Clean Technology Investment Banking Group and the Sustainable Public Infrastructure Group; who are dedicated to developing opportunities and supporting businesses and municipalities in the growing clean technology sector.

The White House will go Solar

Posted on October 5, 2010 by quest

Maybe the White House was listening after all. It was just a few weeks ago that member students from 350.org went on a solar mission along with environmentalist Bill Mckibben to ask the White House to reinstall solar panels that Jimmy Carter had installed in the 70′s and that were later removed by Ronald Reagan. Just announced today Steven Chu US Secretary of Energy said, “As you know, President Obama (Weekly Address) has a strong commitment to American leadership in solar technologies and the jobs they will create. Through the Recovery Act, we’re supporting the deployment of today’s solar technologies. And we will double our renewable energy generation capacity by 2012. We’re also investing in the next generation of solar power through the R&D programs at the Department of Energy.

Today, we’re taking an important next step. As we move toward a clean energy economy, the White House will lead by example. I’m pleased to announce that, by the end of this spring, there will be solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House.These two solar installations will be part of a Department of Energy demonstration project. The project will show that American solar technology is available, reliable, and ready to install in homes throughout the country. Around the world, the White House is a symbol of freedom and democracy. It should also be a symbol of America’s commitment to a clean energy future.”

On 10/10/10, 350.org will be holding a Global Work Party to celebrate climate solutions and send our politicians a clear message: “We’re getting to work—what about you?

Green Pioneers Use Solar To Empower Community

Posted on October 5, 2010 by quest

We’re starting to see all kinds of very, very interesting ideas, inventions and solutions come into play as people, businesses and social enterprises from across the country begin to turn their green dreams into reality.

Global powerhouse IBM just launched CityOne an interactive game designed to spark innovation, conversation and communication with city planners, business leaders and urban inhabitants to create the cities of the future now. I haven’t played it yet but it looks like fun. But the new developments aren’t coming from just the likes ofIBM and bay area solar leader SunPower. Tony Coiro a Purdue student has just created a solar powered motorcycle. And proving there’s a way for solar challenged houses, condos and apartment dwellers to get a stake in green energy, David Brosch and some of his neighbors formed a company called University Park Community Solar, The Maryland based operation has jumped through alot of red tape to get to where they are now. David Brosch had a

A lifetime of solar green discoveries

Posted on October 3, 2010 by quest

Karl Wolfgang Boer stumbled upon a few little yellow crystals in a drawer of a German physics lab. The accidental discovery would turn out to change his life and the future of green energy.
The crystals were cadmium sulfide (CdS) platelets. The scientist investigated both the electrical properties of the crystals, and his long-term research would lay the groundwork for CdS-based solar cells.
Boer recently published a memoir, “The Life of the Solar Pioneer Karl Wolfgang Boer” (iUniverse, 2010). Written in conjunction with a foreign-languages professor, the book documents Boer’s life journey –including growing up in Berlin, his personal family trials, immigrating to the United States, and chiefly his scientific discoveries that helped to shape solar power.

From a young boy fascinated by physics, setting up little chemistry labs in his parents’ basement, Boer became a trailblazer for alternative energies technology.
In 1973, Boer created the Solar One house, the first house to convert sunlight into electricity and heat. He also helped to develop the American Solar Energy Society, has written numerous books on solar energyand has explained why CdS improves solar energy conversion. He recently spoke

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Watch out Cali NJ is in the Solar House

Posted on October 1, 2010 by quest

From Trenton New Jersey; the Garden State comes news that it has just reach a new solar milestone of 200 MW (MegaWatts) installed in more than 6,800 projects. What makes this quite the accomplishment is that just eight years ago there were only six solar installations in the entire state.

NJBPU (New Jersey Board of Public Utilities) President Lee A. Solomon said, “This milestone establishes New Jersey’s position as one of the fastest growing solar energy markets in the country.Our success is due in large part to the subsidies provided by the state which are advancing the state’s efforts to come into balance with its RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) goals, possibly as early as 2012.”

New Jersey is the first government globally to adopt the use of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC) financing model that provides energy credits and additional long term financing for those who invest in solar. The SREC are then sold or traded, separately from the power, providing solar system owners a source of revenue to help offset the cost of installation. SRECs are increasingly replacing rebates, which fueled solar growth in the early years of the state’s solar program. Now neighbor states Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Ohio and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia are getting with the program.

Now it’s not just California that’s got cleantech green swag, Jersey is all up in the solar house.