Roughly 70 percent of Americans say global warming should be a priority for President Obama and Congress and 61 percent support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax that would be used to help reduce the national debt, according to a new survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. (more…)

Here’s an article from SmartGridNews that raises an interesting and important question about the siting of renewable energy projects. Siemens is asserting that the large European governments are in the process of wasting 45 billion Euros by not properly thinking through the consequences of its siting decisions. (more…)

Rusinga Island, located in the eastern part of Lake Victoria in Kenya, is having solar panels installed on homes to not only provide electricity but to aid in the fight against malaria. Malaria kills an estimated 1.2 million people per year and is a big problem for the 30,000 inhabitants of Rusinga Island. If fitting homes with solar panels that power insecticide-free (more…)

Alphabet Energy (Alphabet) is a Hayward, California, company that develops thermoelectric materials and products that convert waste heat to electric power.

Alphabet’s web site provides this overview of the concept of thermoelectrics:

Thermoelectrics are solid-state semiconductors that (more…)

General Motors is not in the solar game just so we can tout it on our environmental blog.

There are very real benefits to using solar to power parts of our facilities, not the least of which is the fact that it’s better for the environment.

It can save money, too. (more…)

IKEA has expanded its solar power portfolio with the installation of a new system at its has South Florida store in the city of Sunrise. The installation also marks the 35th completed solar project for the company in the U.S., with four installations at four more locations now in progress. (more…)

A new crowdfunding project on Indiegogo wants to bring solar power to the site of a former trash dump on the Galápagos Islands, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located 550 miles west of the Ecuadorean mainland. The islands were visited by Charles Darwin during his South American expedition and the species he observed there helped him formulate his theory of (more…)

California homeowners and businesses, taking advantage of a state rebate program that encourages the installation of solar panels, are now generating 1 gigawatt — or 1,000 megawatts — of electricity, roughly the equivalent of a nuclear power plant, state regulators say.

Launched in 2007, the $2.4 billion California Solar (more…)

A recent deal has created the largest permitted solar photovoltaic power development in the world, and will create a cool 650 construction jobs in the process. MidAmerican Solar, a subsidiary of MidAmerican Renewables, bought from SunPower the 579 MW Antelope Valley Solar Projects (AVSP), two co-located projects in Kern and Los Angeles Counties in (more…)

A new means of transport needs a new name. ELF is a “ velomobile” , a combination of bicycle and automobile powered with solar energy and good old pedaling force is raising funds via KickStarter. At the time of writing the project had raised US$26,397 out of the targeted US$100,000. The deadline is January 13. (more…)