This isn’t an intro on solar power technology. I’m sure you can find that over on Wikipedia. This is a quick intro on some of the top topics of concern to those who want to see us cruise into a bright future, not stumble and crash into some truly dark days.
Pioneers heading west on the Oregon Trail by stagecoach stopped to relax and enjoy the hot waters at Neal Hot Springs 90 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho. In the near future, the area will be the site of Oregon’s first commercial-scale geothermal power plant. A public-private collaboration, Nevada’s US Geothermal Inc., equity investor Enbridge Inc. and the US Dept. of Energy joined together to complete financing of the $130-million Neal Hot Springs project, which is expected to come online in late 2012 with a capacity of 25 megawatts (MW).
Every state that has a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) – or Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) as these mandates were originally called – has slightly different rules regarding hydro power.
In pretty much the epitome of best practices for a sustainable cleantech manufacturing process, trees literally manufacture wood out of sunlight, H2O and CO2. Like photosynthesis, this is not a process that we humans have yet mastered.
They began this factory-type processing millions of years ago, taking the available raw materials and turning them into a sustainably produced and recyclable new material that we have borrowed to build our ephemeral things with, over the last twenty thousand thousand years or so.
But why?
German citizens must get colder every winter — according to co2online GmbH, the amount of energy used to heat residential buildings has decreased by 22% since 2002, sinking from 161 kWh/m2/year to 126 kWh/ m2/year. The company claims it has collected data from over a million homes.
Tokyo Tower has been crushed by Godzilla more times than I can count. Its presence silently locates any scene in Tokyo. While not always visible in the midst of a skyline filled with high-rises and skyscrapers, its orange and white figure is instantly recognizable. Built as a broadcast station in 1958, it is illuminated every night and broadcasts television and radio (analog and digital) 24/7.
With the price of solar panels dropping significantly over the last five years, Germany’s Solar Millennium AG reports it will convert the first 500 megawatts of its 1,000 MW Blythe solar power plant in the Mojave desert from concentrated solar power/solar thermal system to PV.
A new fully assembled, plug-and-play modular rooftop solar power system was introduced at the Intersolar North America trade show last month, and it could be a low cost solar power solution for home owners and businesses that want to dip a toe into the clean energy pool. The new photovolaic system, called AC Unison, does not require a separate inverter, which would typically add a significant expense to the cost of a rooftop solar array.
Now add a pedal-assisted electric bicycle built for two to your eco-friendly gift list, even if it happens to be on the pricey side of the ledger.
There are about 4000 active oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, a fact I bumped into while researching an article on BP’s Macondo field Deepwater Horizon disaster last year.
In addition, there are more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells that dot the Gulf, actually it’s much more like a blanket.
This morning I ran across a map and a video by tsinn at The Sword Press in which he plots these wells by time and position as well as location as in the NOAA map above.
