Below is the full text of Obama’s jobs speech last night, as provided by the White House, with key parts for CleanTechnica readers bolded, but first some overall comments:
The automotive industry needs to make a massive effort in order to maintain connectivity to the electric mobility phenomenon; electric cars are not only more expensive than their gasoline-burning counterparts, but they have a significantly shorter range and fuel is (for now) more readily available. Battery-powered vehicles can take hours to charge completely.
Controversy surrounding solar panel manufacturer Solyndra’s recent bankruptcy filing just won’t go away, and could imperil the White House. The company’s federal stimulus loans are at the center of a widening investigation into clean-energy technology funding by House Republicans, and may lead to subpoenas of White House records.
Aiming to drive down costs and make the US solar power industry more competitive, Secretary Chu finalized a conditional $150 million loan guarantee that will enable 1366 Technologies to continue developing its Direct Wafer solar PV manufacturing project.
Not your typical cigar, but a decidedly feminine form, complete with a double helium bag, flat bottom and skirts, this hybrid dirigible is buoyed by both military and civilian contracts. The Hybrid Air Vehicle also combines properties of an aircraft and a hovercraft.
The DOE announced a clean energy package aimed at jumpstarting offshore wind power development Thursday morning in advance of Pres. Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday evening in which he is expected to announce a $300 billion-$400 billion jobs stimulus program.
While technology has helped change the economics of electricity production (in favor of renewables and distributed generation), this new dynamic can as easily be controlled by the incumbent utilities as the old paradigm of centralized fossil fuel power generation.
SolarCity’s SolarStrong project, which could double the number of US residential solar power installations, moved a step closer to becoming reality yesterday when Energy Secretary Stephen Chu approved a conditional commitment to partially guarantee a $344 million loan. Part of the SolarStrong project entails SolarCity working with leading US military housing privatization developers to install, own and operate as many as 160,000 rooftop solar power installations on as many as 124 military housing developments across 33 states,
There are two ways to lower the cost of producing energy through photovoltaics – more efficient solar cells (more power per square foot) and lower production costs (lower cost per square foot). The ETAlab of the Fraunhofer ISE has devised a way to do both simultaneously. The research team in the laboratory for new solar cell structures and processing steps has not only made the solar cell contacts out of 100% cost-effective materials (replacing expensive silver with cheaper copper and nickel), but the process also increases the efficiency of the solar cell to a very respectable 21.4%.
A team of researchers at Michigan State University has solved the mystery of how Geobacter bacteria found in soils manage to clean up nuclear waste and generate electricity at the same time. Going a step further, the team genetically engineered a Geobacter strain that does an even better job of it.
