Solar was the second-biggest source of new electricity generation capacity in 2013. A trade war between the U.S. and China, …
Solar Power
EcocentricEnergy
Bright Days: How India Is Reinventing Solar
In 2009, when policymakers in New Delhi set a goal to produce 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020, few gave India more than a slim chance. The world’s solar-savvy countries put together were generating that much solar …
EcocentricEnergy
Cloudy Days for Solar—But the Sun Hasn’t Quite Set
In some ways, the days are bright right now for solar power. The average price of solar modules has fallen 30% this year, continuing a steep reduction from the year before. New installations more than doubled last year, enough to make solar a $60 billion market. If you’re in the market for rooftop solar panels for your home—or just …
EcocentricSolar Power
Hit “Print” for Solar Panels
Ah, solar panels: so clean, so elegant—and so bloody expensive. Covering your roof with photovoltaics may save you money in the long run, but it requires the installation of a lot of heavy and expensive equipment up front. Thin-film solar panels, printed on sheets at industrial scales, are slowly making inroads, but suppose you …
EcocentricWind Power
With Nuclear Expansion Off the Table, What Do Japan’s Energy Options Look Like?
After two months of near silence, Japan’s government has seemingly awoken from its slumber and kicked into high damage-control gear. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose administration has come under fire for its slow and opaque response to the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima, made two surprise announcements. First, that he …
EcocentricEnergy
See-thru Solar Panels?
A neat press release popped into my inbox this week announcing the development of a solar power technology capable of generating electricity on see-thru glass.
EcocentricEcocentric
Politics: Should We Stop Freaking Out About China and Clean Tech?
As I wrote earlier this week, energy and climate were going to on the agenda when Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama met in Washington. The countries are the number one and two carbon emitters in the world, major energy consumers and global leaders in clean tech manufacturing. If the world is going to come to grips with …
EcocentricPolitics
Politics: Gabrielle Giffords Is a Green Patriot
A lot of attention has focused on how Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s support for health care reform might have helped made her a target. (On Monday Giffords was still in a medically induced coma after being shot in the head Saturday morning in Tucson.) Her office in Tucson was vandalized last March after she voted in …
EcocentricOil
Oil Spill: Providing Clean Energy for the Victims of Deepwater Horizon
Last week I wrote a column asking the question: whatever happened to the Gulf oil spill? Thanks to presidential commissions and great investigative reporting, we know a great deal about why the spill happened and what impact it might have on the land and the water of the Gulf. In the news, though, the spill seems largely gone.
But …
EcocentricUncategorized
Sports: The NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles Go Green
The NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles are developing a new source of energy—and it’s not just hooking up wires to red-hot quarterback Michael Vick. The team announced today that it will be installing 2,500 solar panels, 80 20-ft high wind turbines and a generator that runs on natural gas and biodiesel, making its home park Lincoln …