Tag Archives: world news
China Whines Over EU Tariffs
On June 4, the European Union decided to impose provisional anti-dumping tariffs of nearly 50 percent of Chinese photovoltaic (PV) solar modules. But there’s a silver lining for Chinese PV manufacturers: they have until August to curb their anti-competitive practices, before the full impact of the tariffs take effect. In response, China is now investigating [...]
Taiwan Stadium Goes Solar
One industry that’s been making great strides on sustainability in recent years is the sports industry. We’ve been treated to an increasing number of stadiums that are net-zero energy, producing more energy from solar and wind than the stadium needs. Here’s the incredible Kaohsiung World Stadium in Taiwan, which opened in 2009. The largest stadium in the country [...]
Joe Biden Calls Out Paul Ryan On Past Green Stimulus Support
Vice President Joe Biden didn’t hold back his disbelief in last night’s debate against his Republican challenger, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. Calling Ryan’s comments “malarkey,” Biden smiled incredulously, shook his head, and interrupted with rebuttals throughout the night. Energy didn’t get much play in the debate. But when the topic did come up, it gave [...]
U.S Lays Heavy Tariffs on Chinese Solar Cells
The Department of Commerce is standing behind its preliminary decision to impose massive import tariffs on Chinese-made solar technology, despite the threat of potential retaliation from China. The penalties for Chinese-made solar cells range from 18%-250%, with the duties levied on Trina Solar Ltd. (18.32%) reduced and the ones on Suntech Power Holdings Co. raised [...]
In Focus: The Battle Between Solar Energy and Trees
Solar energy and planting trees are both important for the betterment of the environment and another fact regarding the two is that they are often in conflict with one another as one has to be stopped for the other to flourish. If you plant more and more trees then the light of sun gets [...]
WOW! Japan Solar Growth Could Reach 13GW by 2016
Following Japan’s tragic tsunami’s and the Fukushima nuclear disasterslast year, the country quickly decided to double down on the amount of renewables in the country, particularly solar. One of the biggest moves the country had made since then was creating a generous feed-in tariff (FiT), which will help grow the commercial and utility-scale projects in [...]
Will California Reach It’s Renewable Energy Goals?
California has the most ambitious renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in the nation, requiring that 33 percent of the state’s energy mix come from renewables by 2020. There are 29 states (and the District of Columbia) with RPS goals in effect, but the average amount of renewable energy required in those states is much less than [...]
Bill Gates Funds Solar Toilet
The practice of open defecation and dirth of sanitation in developing nations kills 1.5 million children under the age of 5 every year, according to philanthropist Bill Gates. So Gates and his wife, Melinda, are devoting $6.5 million to research and development project meant to reinvent the toilet for countries that lack the infrastructure to [...]
New High for Carbon Dioxide Levels
Over the past 150 years, human activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years. But according to scientists, the world’s air has a reached a new milestone in terms of pollution with carbon dioxide levels. Scientists have monitored stations across [...]
Climate Denailists: You Have Won Nothing
Yesterday (August 1st2012), in separate but strikingly similar events, those who deny that climate change is real and say climate science is a conspiracy were told that they could declare victory. First, the U.S. Senate, during its first hearing on global warming in almost three years, was informed by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) that global [...]
Facebook Reveals Its Carbon Footprint
Data from Facebook, published on Wednesday, shows that despite the social networking’s rising star, its carbon emissions are still a fraction of internet rival Google. Facebook’s annual emissions were 285,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2011, compared with Google’s 1.5m tons in 2010. [Guardian] The data, published on Wednesday, shows that despite the social [...]
Solar WILL be the Cheapest Form of Energy in America
SolarChat friend and participant Rhone Resch, the president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industry Association, was recently a guest speaker on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show speaking about America’s Energy Future Beyond Oil and Gas, and something he said really caught my attention. I may be paraphrasing a bit, but Rhone described that within the [...]