About Zach, & His Post Archive

Zach is the editor of Cleantechnica.com and Planetsave.com, and is co-editor of Ecolocalizer.com. You can also find his written work on Reuters, Scientific American, EatDrinkBetter.com, and numerous other sites.

Zach currently lives in Wroclaw (Poland), but has also lived in Groningen (the Netherlands), Sarasota & Bradenton (Florida), Chapel Hill & Carrboro (North Carolina), Sunnyvale (California), Ithaca (New York), and Charlottesville (Virginia). He's originally from Sarasota, FL.

Zach has a B.A. in environmental studies and sociology (from New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida) and a master’s in city and regional planning (from UNC-Chapel Hill, the top university in the nation for his specialization the year he graduated). He has worked as a professional blogger since 2008.

Before moving to Poland, Zach worked as the Executive Director of a non-profit organization promoting sustainable development and clean transportation in Charlottesville, VA; as an urban research consultant; in various government positions (in city planning and environmental education); and in natural foods stores (ranging from small co-op markets to corporate giant Whole Foods Market).

UK’s 1st Employee-Owned Solar Power Plant Installed

February 23, 2012 By Zachary Shahan Leave a Comment

first employee owned solar power plant in uk

The Eden Project has now completed the first known employee-owned solar power plant in the UK, a 50-kilowatt PV array that includes 200 solar panels. Familiar with the Eden Project? I wasn’t either…. The Eden Project is apparently an educational charity in Cornwall in the UK, and a pretty cool-looking one at that. Here’s [...]

Tidal, Energy Storage, & Smart Grid News (Tidal + Offshore Wind the Coming Soon?; Siemens Betting Big on Tidal Power; Community Residential Energy Storage to Boom…)

February 22, 2012 By Zachary Shahan Leave a Comment

Wartung ohne groÃe UmstÃ¤nde / Maintenance without any great ef

Here’s some top tidal energy, energy storage, and smart grid news from around (& a bit of wind energy news), other than what we’ve already covered in more depth. Enjoy! (And drop us a link if you’ve got more cleantech news you think we’ve missed.) Siemens Going “All-In” on Tidal Power Siemens, a German [...]

Wind Energy News (Humungous Crossroads Wind Farm Complete; 70-MW Wind Farm Planned for Northern Chile; Steel Winds II Expansion Complete; Vestas Lands Big Orders from Italy & US…)

February 22, 2012 By Zachary Shahan Leave a Comment

Some top wind energy news from the past week — several announcements from the past couple days, several big wind power projects (or wind farms), and a mysterious wind turbine order for the US. 227.5-Megawatt Crossroads Wind Farm Complete Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES Americas) announced the completion of the 227.5-megawatt Crossroads Wind [...]

33,000 More Offshore Wind Power Jobs in Germany by 2021, Study Finds

February 21, 2012 By Zachary Shahan 1 Comment

How about the U.S.? (OK, let’s not go there today.) The news: A new study Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), Volle Kraft aus Hochseewind (“Full power from offshore wind”), has found that Germany will have a not-so-tiny 33,000 jobs in the offshore wind power sector by 2021! That’s 18,000 more than in 2010. Even more good news: small [...]

Companies Could Save Tons with Electric Vehicles, MIT Study Finds

February 21, 2012 By Zachary Shahan 2 Comments

"New MIT research suggests that electric delivery trucks, like this one, can help both the environment and the business bottom line."

If companies switched out gasoline-burning vehicles with new electric vehicles for their urban delivery fleets, a new MIT study has found that they could save some serious dineros. “The study, conducted by researchers at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), finds that electric vehicles can cost 9 to 12 percent less to operate [...]

New Utility-Scale Solar PV Inverter Technology Could Help Stabilize the Grid (Germany Case Study)

February 21, 2012 By Zachary Shahan Leave a Comment

New inverter technology for ‘utility-scale’ solar projects can reportedly help (big-time) in stabilizing the electric grid 24/7. “A new inverter technology allows inverters to act as phase-shift oscillators, thereby providing the grid with reactive power from solar plants even overnight – and lowering the cost of grid expansion considerably in the process,” Heiko Schwarzburger [...]

300 New MW of Clean, Renewable Energy for SDG&E

February 21, 2012 By Zachary Shahan Leave a Comment

San Diego Gas & Electric (SD&E), a subsidiary of the Fortune-500 company Sempra Energy, has recently confirmed two long-term contracts to purchase a total of 300 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy from 8minutenergy and from Manzana Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables, Inc. Mount Signal Solar Project in Imperial County, CA 8minutenergy will [...]

Trina Solar Gets $100-Million Loan for High-Efficiency “Honey” Solar Cell Launch

February 21, 2012 By Zachary Shahan 1 Comment

Back in September, Andrew wrote on Trina Solar setting a “new world record for electricity produced by a multicrystalline solar PV module” using Trina’s unique “Honey” solar cell technology. Now, the company has apparently impressed Standard Chartered Bank China enough to get a $100-million, 3-year loan to launch the product. If needed, the loan [...]