Monthly Archives: October 2010
Be Green on Halloween
With more people than ever planning to participate in Halloween, it is increasingly important to celebrate the occasion in a more environmentally aware fashion. Costumes Second hand costumes can be found at thrift stores. You can also trade in last year’s ensemble for another second hand costume. This year the national non-profit initiative "Green Halloween" [...]
NREL: Solar Homes Sold Faster and Better
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published an extensive report (in excess of 400 pages – the link is here)studying several California subdivisions before the housing crash. Entitled “ANew Market Paradigm for Zero-energy Homes: The Comparative San DiegoCase Study”, the study focused on the builder experience, the marketresponse, home values and cost of electricity in [...]
Size doesn’t Matter: The World’s Smallest Solar Cinema
The Sol Cinema is a one-of-its-kind micro cinema that is poweredentirely by the clean energy beamed on earth by the sun. The micro movie house can accommodate 8 adults or 12 children for a unique cinematicexperience. The movie house screens a collection of comedy, quirky,music videos and short films with inspiring environment themes. Built on [...]
Solar Power: Evolving Toward Revolution
Readers have twice recently encountered the estimable Hermann Scheer, who, albeit posthumously, simultaneously represents the social andpolitical capacitation of renewable energy in Germany, at the same timethat he has provided guidance to the entire planet for achieving such Gaia-saving development. Today, we will meet a recent collaborator of Herr Scheer’s, Carl A. Fechner, who directed [...]
2GreenEnergy to Discuss Electric Vehicles on BlogTalkRadio
In preparation for my being a guest next week on BlogTalkRadio, inwhich I’ll be answering questions on electric transportation, I hadlunch yesterday with the show’s host Diane Tegarden. Diane is an author on a wide range of subjects including; renewableenergy, environmental concerns, holistic health, women’s issues, andNative Spirituality, and is one of the most energetic, [...]
Record-Setting Solar Roof Installed at GlaxoSmithKline $GSK
The pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has beguninstalling what it says is North America’s largest photovoltaic (PV)rooftop solar energy system at its 500,000 square-foot NortheastRegional Distribution Center in York, Pennsylvania. According to the USA Today, the mammoth system, when complete, will be the size of seven American football fields. The 11,000-panel, 3-megawatt (MW) system will be capable of generating 3.4 million [...]
Jigar Shah and the Carbon War Room
Jigar Shah is the CEO of the Carbon War Room in Washington DC, the non-profit brainchild of Sir Richard Branson that brings to bear the tools of free-market capitalism to forward the aimsof sustainability in some terrifically clever ways. Perhaps the feature of the Carbon War Room that jumps out immediately is its grasp on [...]
Sustainability Inside The Beltway
I just returned from speaking at the Atlantic Monthly’s Green Intelligence Forum 2010 which I told you about earlier this week. In several respects, the Forum presented an interesting contrast tothe West Coast events I have attended recently. The crowd of 200+ wascomprised mostly of Congressional staffers, Federal agency personnel and a mix of individuals [...]
Solar Media as Renewable Energy Guidelines
Readers have had extensive opportunities to read about solar energy inthese columns, in addition to having chances to grapple with surrounding issues and political economic ramifications. Only one of the expertsthat this column has encountered expressed doubt that, including windand water and biomass, energy originating with the sun might beinadequate to proffer adequate motive force [...]