January 24, 2011
This year’s ASES National Solar Conference in Raleigh, NC in May is shaping up to be the busiest ever, with exhibitors overflowing the exhibit hall, technical sessions that anyone invested in renewable energy will want to attend, and plenary speakers well worth hearing.
It’s also an ideal time, if you aren’t already a member of the American Solar Energy Society, to join up and get more of what the country’s premier solar organization has to offer.
If you register for the full conference, for example, you’ll get a FREE professional ASES membership, worth $89.
Now in its 40th year, the Conference will include sessions on technology, buildings, policy, professional education, workforce development and consumer education. Many sessions will offer continuing education credits for architects, installers, engineers and more.
Find out more here about the National Solar Conference, May 17-21, at the Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh NC.
January 24, 2011
Most of us are aware of the phenomenon of the Homeowners’ Association (HOA) in the American real estate market. It’s that animal that springs fully formed into life the moment a developer sells the first house in a new development. And paradoxically, it is generally run by the developer, not the homeowner, until most or all the houses in the subdivision have been sold.
Dickens might well have used his classic opening ‘it was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ to describe life in an HOA. Originally and ostensibly, the HOA was established to maintain the quality of the environment, and thus the value of the homes, in a development. The HOA contract, binding upon all residents, provides for funds to be collected to maintain and beautify the development; it will usually also prevent residents from taking actions or making changes to their homes that could be considered detrimental to that beauty. The various downsides of this, as can be imagined, can include having to accept prohibitions on the slightest change in appearance in your own property, having to abide by the subjective judgments of the HOA board, and having to risk the board putting a lien on your property for alleged violations of the contract. (more…)
January 24, 2011
In last month’s newsletter, we reported on what Washington Council Ernst & Young predicted the country could expect from the 112th Congress.
The Congressional experts used a rather somber palette to paint a picture of the Republican-dominated House agenda as it appears from a renewable energy viewpoint. But this month, with the release of a document from the House Energy and Commerce Committee detailing that agenda, it appears that those darker tones are unpleasantly true to life.
The document, Backgrounders: Key Issues before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, characterizes the change in the committee’s complexion occasioned by last November’s Congressional elections. As of this month, the chairmanship switches from Henry Waxman (D-CA) to Fred Upton (R-MI), and the committee’s published agenda switches away from working for the promotion of renewable energy and environmental protection. Highlights (lowlights?) include:
EPA Regulatory Chokehold: Under this tendentious heading, the reshaped committee accuses the EPA of regulating “too much too fast” without fully analyzing the feasibility and economic and job impacts of the new (carbon emissions) rules. The backgrounder document gives notice that Congress will reassert its oversight function of the EPA to ensure that sufficient analysis supports the new rules, and that jobs and economic impacts are fully considered in the decision-making process. It does not take much analysis of this language to understand that the actual implementation of EPA rules to protect the environment (as ordered by the Supreme Court) under this committee’s jurisdiction could be delayed until the next Administration. (more…)
January 24, 2011
Last July we wrote about the North Carolina study that showed solar power to be cheaper than power promised by planned nuclear construction in that state.
It now seems that, on the national scale, renewable energy production has practically caught up with nuclear. The December 2010 Monthly Energy Review, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shows that each of these power sources was responsible for some 11% of primary energy production during the first nine months of 2010. The Review also shows that, while nuclear output dropped during this period, non-hydro renewables increased their output by over 11%.
U.S. Primary Energy Production, Jan-Sep 2010
renewables*…..10.9%
nuclear……………11.4%
fossil fuels………77.7%
*biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, hydro and wind
Renewable Energy Production by Type, Jan-Sep 2010
biomass/biofuels….51.95%
hydro…………………….31.5 %
wind……………………..10.52%
geothermal…………….4.65%
solar……………………….1.38%
Change in Energy Production, Jan-Sep 2010 vs. Jan-Sep 2009
nuclear………………-0.5%
renewables………+5.7%
(non-hydro renewables +11.5%)
————–
wind………………………+26.7%
biomass/biofuels……..+10%
solar………………………..+2.4%
geothermal………………+1.8%
hydro………………………..-5.2%
In light of figures like these, it should be increasingly difficult for politicians tethered to the illusion of ‘nuclear renaissance’ to justify their position. Renewables are marching ahead, attracting levels of private investment commensurate with the support provided by (mainly) local and state governments. And the nuclear industry knows full well that it can only attract such investment by persuading the federal government to have taxpayers underwrite the massive loans it will need for any kind of growth.
January 24, 2011
Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times
reprinted with permission
A UC Irvine team thinks iron pyrite could be a cheaper alternative to the materials now used in making solar panels.
Iron pyrite — also known as fool’s gold — may be worthless to treasure hunters, but it could become a bonanza to the solar industry. Lead researcher Matt Law – seen here holding a solution of pyrite nanocrystals – and his colleagues believe that fool’s gold, which is composed of iron and sulphur, could be used to make solar cells in a major production process.
The mineral, among the most abundant in the Earth’s crust, is usually discarded by coal miners or sold as nuggets in novelty stores.
Click here to read the rest of this story.
