1Dec

Not Dead Yet: BoA-Merrill Lynch Steps Up, Revives Billion-Dollar SolarCity SolarStrong Project

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Some heartening news broke yesterday, at least if you’re a fan or supporter of clean energy and solar power. SolarCity and BoA-Merrill Lynch announced that they have agreed to terms on financing SolarStrong, a billion-plus dollar SolarCity project – the largest in US history – that could double the number of residential solar installations in the US by installing solar power systems on privatized US military housing communities across the country.

SolarCity is partnering with the leading privatized military housing developers in the US to install, own and operate rooftop solar power installations and provide electricity at a lower cost than utilities. The five-year project plan call for as many as 120,000 installations on military housing units expected to produce up to 300 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity. That would easily make SolarCity the largest provider of solar photovoltaic (PV) power in US history, (more…)

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30Nov

Cleantech 100 identifies top innovators in sustainability

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Recently the Cleantech Group, with the assistance of an advisory panel of corporate executives, sat down to decide upon the third annual Global Cleantech 100: the hundred “most promising and innovative” clean technology companies of 2011. The listed companies span a range of industries, and though solar energy firms, chemical recyclers, LED manufacturers and energy-monitoring software programmers certainly aren’t under-represented, many companies in the hundred are defined by a single product or idea. Gizmag scoured the Cleantech 100 to find what we thought were the ten most innovative companies.

(more…)

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29Nov

Denmark: 100% Renewable Energy by 2050 – 100% Clean Electricity by 2035

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Denmark 100 Renewable Energy by 2050 - 100 Clean Electricity by 2035

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Not quite Scotland’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025, but still a highly ambitious one (relative to other countries), Denmark’s newest renewable energy target proposals aim to have wind supplying it with half of its electricity by 2020, and renewable energy supplying it with ALL of its energy by 2050. And all of its power and heat would come from renewables by 2035.

  (more…)

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28Nov

Africa at the Energy Crossroads: Ethiopia Launches 6 Wind, 1 Geothermal Power Project

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Africa at the Energy Crossroads Ethiopia Launches 6 Wind, 1 Geothermal Power Project

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Ethiopia isn’t a country that comes up often when discussing renewable energy, but the Ethiopian Electric Power Coroporation (EEPCO) this past week announced it’s starting construction of six wind power projects and one geothermal power plant. In total, electricity generation capacity for the renewable energy projects totals more than one gigawatt (1 GW), Ethtiopian news service NewsDire reported.

The renewable energy projects are part of EEPCO’s plans to increase national electricity generation capacity five times by 2015, from a current 2000 megawatts (MW) to about 10,000 MW. Increasing electricity generation, in turn, is key to the government’s broader economic development plans.

(more…)

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28Nov

Google’s Search for More Efficient and Low-cost Solar Thermal Power Plant Designs

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Google has abandoned its effort to come up with better flat mirrors and power plant designs for producing electricity from the sun’s heat, but it is releasing its research results so that others could perhaps use it to create commercially viable solutions.

It’s interesting to see what Google thought it could contribute to the field of solar thermal power plant engineering. The company’s research has focused on using smaller engines and light-weight mirrors with better controlling software — along with a tower outfitted with equipment to receive the concentrated sunlight and run a turbine and generator — to produce electricity. It ran into some technical challenges with engineering a suitable power tower before it decided to shelve the research project.

(more…)

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26Nov

Eco Island: Isle of Wight Developing England’s Largest Sustainable Community

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Eco Island Isle of Wight Developing England’s Largest Sustainable Community

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Off of England’s southern coast, the Isle of Wight is developing the largest sustainability project in the country. By 2020, “Eco Island” will become a net exporter of energy, and residents will see their electricity bills drop by 50%. The island will become a precedent for renewable energy and sustainability practices, and an example of Prime Minister David Cameron’s “Big Society” concept for the UK.

(more…)

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26Nov

Google Drops ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ (RE

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Google Makes a Mistake

As you can see from the linked stories on the left of this article, Google is quite a big proponent of renewable energy. They have made all kinds of investments in wind, solar, geothermal, etc. Some are to generate clean energy for their own needs, others are more akin to financing deals to help big wind and solar farms get built. In any case, it is very commendable work and if more big corporations had the long-term vision of Google, the world would definitely be in better shape.

(more…)

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26Nov

European consortia to build renewable energy farms in Arab deserts

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Europe’s ambitious project to capture solar and wind energy across Arab deserts to power homes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa inched forward Thursday despite technical and political hurdles.

Two international consortiums led by German and French industrial giants joined forces in highly complex drives to deploy solar panels and wind turbines in arid regions, and sink cables across the Mediterranean.

The two groups, Desertec Industry Initiative and Medgrid, signed a cooperation deal in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU energy ministers’ meeting, linking projects aimed at meeting 15 percent of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.

(more…)

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25Nov

Harvesting energy from insects in quest to create tiny cyborg first responders

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Harvesting energy from insects in quest to create tiny cyborg first responders

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Insects have served as the inspiration for a number of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) that could be deployed to monitor hazardous situations without putting humans in harm’s way. Now researchers at the University of Michigan College of Engineering are proposing using actual live insects enhanced with electronic sensors to achieve the same result. The insect cyborgs would use biological energy harvested from their body heat or movements to potentially power small sensors implanted on their bodies in order to gather vital information from hazardous environments.

(more…)

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24Nov

Google Pulls Plug on Renewable Energy Project

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Google Pulls Plug on Renewable Energy Project

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Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.

The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called “spring cleaning” announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.

(more…)

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