Sunny California is prime real estate for solar energy, and a number of California rebates make home solar systems highly affordable for Golden State residents. The only downside to these programs is that some have limited funding. Homeowners interested in solar panels will want to act soon to take full advantage of all the savings. (more…)

2011 was a year of much political chest thumping but not much progress on the significant issues. Subsidies for wind energy are among the many unanswered questions and are likely victims of the challenging budget decisions. The industry has grown used to generous subsidies for wind generated electricity. The current subsides are going to expire at the end (more…)

Trucking has become the most common mode for transporting goods across the land. However, all those trucks on the road burning diesel fuel can create a great deal of air pollution. Plus, higher gas prices cause increases in the prices of goods. Now is the time to consider the next era of trucking, the electric truck. At the moment, they cost about three times (more…)

Gehrlicher Solar America has announced the completion of two additional commercial solar energy installations in the United States. The company completed a 151 kW ground-mounted system in North Dartmouth, intends to add another 5 MW of projects in the state over the course of 2012. (more…)

New transmission is a major issue and permitting is complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Overhead HV often takes 5-7 years to permit. HVDC lines take far less time, because they are laid underground and require only a small right-of-way, which speeds up the process to a two- to three-year average. Such lines also don’t have cooling or freezing issues and (more…)

Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., more commonly known as Al Gore, was the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under former President William “Bill” Clinton. While many know Al Gore for the 24 years he spent as an elected official, today he is more known for his work as an environmental activist. Al Gore has founded a number of non-governmental (more…)

AHRI vs. City of Albuquerque, a case that I first posted on in 2008, finally reached its conclusion last week.  In line with the preliminary injunction she ordered on October 3, 2008, Judge Maria Vazquez of the District of New Mexico decided that Albuquerque’s energy code was preempted by Federal law mandating the energy efficiency of HVAC (more…)

Amid all the negative publicity that Solyndra’s failure has brought to the Administration’s cleantech efforts, one cleantech program has received broad bipartisan support: DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-e). In 2012, ARPA-e will receive $275 million, a 53% increase from the prior year with both the House and the Senate supporting significant (more…)

It should come as no surprise that the large majority of environmental impact takes place outside a company’s physical boundaries. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) reporting probably gives us the best estimate of this; the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) estimates that over 50% of an entity’s greenhouse gas emissions are indirect ‘Scope 3’ (more…)

Greentech Media recently reported that Southern California electric vehicle startup Coda Automotive (Coda) launched a battery business called Coda Energy, which will enter the grid-scale energy storage market.

Coda’s patent portfolio offers a window into the (more…)