CleanTechnica

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall Unveils Community Solar Gardens Bill

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:47:13 +0000

U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo) picks up a few tricks from his home state, offers to extend solar tax credit to the roof-impaired

An idea being considered in Colorado that would allow for the establishment of ‘community solar gardens‘ — solar arrays owned by a group of investors who cannot benefit from a rooftop solar installation — has now caught the eye of U.S. Senator from Colorado, Mark Udall. Udall yesterday announced a bill that would extend the tax credit available to homeowners who put solar panels on their roofs, to those homeowners who collectively own small solar arrays located somewhere other than their own property.

The Solar Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Act of 2010 updates the tax code regarding solar energy, giving investors of community solar projects a 30 percent tax credit just like individuals who install PV cells on their houses. (more…)

US Company Wins No. 1 Sustainable Biofuel Award in Europe

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:00:06 +0000

South San Francisco’s Solarzyme has just taken home the gold in the Sustainable Biofuels Technology category at the 2nd Annual Sustainable Biofuels Awards held in Amsterdam. The international awards offer companies from around the world the ability to showcase significant accomplishments in the biofuels industry.

Solarzyme’s accomplishment? The lowest greenhouse gas production of all biofuel companies worldwide.
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“AT&T the Vampire Slayer” vs. Energy Sucking Cell Phone Chargers

Tina Casey — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:11:48 +0000

Buffy step aside, there’s a new vampire slayer in town. AT&T is gunning for those notorious energy-sucking cell phone chargers known as “energy vampires.” The company is introducing a new energy saving cell phone charger that automatically shuts down when the battery is charged. Old-school chargers keep bleeding energy out of your wall socket even after you unplug the phone end. An automatic shutdown might seem like a small deal but all that wasted electricity adds up over time.

There other other ways defeat a vampire charger (unplug it from the wall when your phone is charged, duh), but who remembers to do that? Besides, AT&T’s new charger has some bonus sustainability tricks up its sleeve.

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Underwater Transmission Could be the Solution to Get a Renewable Wind-Powered USA

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:25:06 +0000

Generating 20 percent of America’s electricity with wind, which is crucial to our future safety, growth and prosperity, would require building up to 22,000 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines.

But how to get renewable energy from the empty windy plains far from population centers, when nobody ever wants to see any more transmission line built anywhere near anybody? Ever?

Here’s one novel solution. Transmission cables placed out of sight under water provide an apparently uncontroversial way to send renewable electricity from the isolated and desolate areas of the nation that are abundant in wind – to where we live, inside heavy cables down the coasts under the ocean, or along riverbeds or along the floors of lakes.

To put it another way: “The fish don’t vote,” says Edward M. Stern of PowerBridge, one company that is now laying underwater cable to send power down the Atlantic coast. (more…)

550MW First Solar Project to Supply Two California Utilities

Susan Kraemer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:03:52 +0000

First Solar seems to have an ability to get solar projects past the environmental reviews and actually built. Over Christmas, it got its first 21MW Blythe pilot project solar thin film project up and running in California and this month it will break ground on another 30MW plant courtesy of Hollywood Liberal environmentalist and wealthy solar-friendly landowner Ted Turner’s new company Southern Turner Renewable Energy.

This week two California utilities; Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison just signed up for the output from a very much larger combined 550 MW solar thin film project to be built by the company.

All three are power purchase agreements, whereby First Solar guarantees output for a period of years, and sells the power itself, not the project. (more…)

Billions of Tiny Bugs Have Green Jobs Cleaning Up Polluted Sites

Tina Casey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:22:28 +0000

Talk about green jobs! The California company Microvi Biotech has developed a low cost, low impact, energy efficient system that puts billions of microorganisms to work, cleaning up notorious soil and groundwater pollutants like perchlorate, a rocket fuel additive that is also used to make explosives, matches and flares among many (many, many) other products.

Perchlorate contamination is widespread and it is an especially thorny problem for the defense industry and U.S. military installations, which use about 90% of all domestically produced perchlorate. To make matters worse, perchlorate is highly mobile once it gets into groundwater, which means that cleanup can be extremely difficult and expensive. That’s where those bugs come in…

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Solar Panels Plus to Install Evacuated Solar Thermal for Green Builder Los Ebanistas

Susan Kraemer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:57:10 +0000

Solar thermal collectors from Solar Panels Plus, a designer/manufacturer for solar water heating collectors, solar electricity, air conditioning and heating systems are being installed on homes being built in Northern New Mexico by Los Ebanistas Construction.

“We have already installed two solar water heating systems from SPP and have orders for five more,” said Mark Johnson, owner, Los Ebanistas. “The system works extremely well considering the cold climate of Northern New Mexico, and it can easily produce 120ºF water in a snowstorm or on a cloudy day.”

Los Ebanistas Construction is a residential home builder that has long specialized in craftsman adobe homes – a traditional form of green building that utilizes local resources (earth) with a very low carbon footprint.

“We’ve been building homes for thirty years and we are now officially ‘green builders.’” Johnson noted with irony.

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Most Businesses That Have Invested in Renewable Energy Plan to Add More

Susan Kraemer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:18:10 +0000

While corporate green washing stories are a dime a dozen, an in-depth study by Retailer Daily in conjunction with Environmental Leader is the first to quantify, among many other interesting things; the ROI of adding renewable energy, for businesses, and how that has affected their future plans.

Apparently the first forays into on-site clean energy production has created fans. Of all of the surveyed companies who had added on-site generation of renewable energy, a surprisingly large percentage said that they are now looking into increasing that amount. For financial reasons.
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Los Angeles Launches Carbon Reduction Surcharge Dedicated for Renewable Investment

Susan Kraemer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:16:22 +0000

Yesterday the Mayor of Los Angeles unveiled a proposal for a Carbon Reduction Surcharge to raise an estimated $170 million a year to be placed into a Renewable Energy and Efficiency Trust Fund set aside to provide dedicated revenue for renewable energy and efficiency investment. The trust fund will specifically invest in two types of programs: energy efficiency and a solar feed-in tariff.

The dedicated carbon tax will cost Los Angeles residents $2.50-$3.50 extra on their monthly Los Angeles Water & Power bill. The arrangement has the approval of a large coalition of business, labor, and environmental leaders who worked out an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability to disburse the funds by the Board of Commissioners. (more…)

29 Governors Bring Great Expectations for Wind Blueprint to Congress

Susan Kraemer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:14:19 +0000

Tomorrow, a bipartisan coalition of governors from 29 states will descend upon Washington to urge congress to pass the legislation America needs to boost wind power, providing clean safe permanent energy and the jobs that go with it. They are bringing their recommendations in a report titled “Great Expectations.”

To bring the lessons they have already learned in pioneering this legislative path forward for the nation with state Renewable Energy Standards, the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition governors are coming to offer advice as the Senate sponsors of a climate bill prepare to unveil their own comparable Federal legislation, perhaps as soon as this week.

The coalition chairman, Iowa (15% powered by wind) Democratic Gov. Chet Culver says they come in peace. “We offer our assistance in working with Congress and the administration to achieve one of the nation’s principal energy goals, energy independence, and increasing the role that wind energy plays in meeting that challenge.” (more…)