Solar

Easy Steps to Get Started With Solar

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SolarIf there’s one constant in life, it’s that the sun will shine. In fact, we’re all in trouble if it ever stops shining. However, as long as the sun shines it remains the most reliable source of Free Energy available today.

The sun’s energy is harnessed for use in our homes and offices via solar panels. Those who’ve become aware of solar energy and its advantages realize it’s a very good investment to make. In fact, solar energy provides clean energy and gives you a viable back-up plan if and when your grid-based energy supply fails.

If you’re considering investing in solar it’s a very good investment, both from an independent energy sustainability standpoint as well as long term savings.

Here’s what you need to know to get started.

Understand How Solar Energy Works

You’ve probably seen solar panels on the tops of houses and office buildings. Basically, these panels capture sunlight and create energy that can be used to power all sorts of items needed in your home or office. Continue reading →

Ways The World Is Doing Better Than You Might Think

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Alanna Ketler –  With so much chaos and uncertainty around the world — war, terror attacks, racial division, health concerns, and more — it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the negativity of it all, to wonder if things will ever change and if we should even bother trying to help what seems like a lost cause.

But sometimes a shift in perspective can really go a long way. Instead of focusing on what is going wrong in the world or your life — which is not the same as ignoring it or pretending it isn’t real — focus instead on what is going right, such as the gift of being alive, the ability to access information, or the support of your friends and family. Practice gratitude for the beauty in this world. Regardless of how small the thing you allow yourself to feel grateful for, practicing gratitude can create a huge shift in yourself and those around you. It’s truly infectious.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the amazing and positive events that are currently taking place on our planet. After all, “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

1. Life Expectancy Is Growing to an All-Time High

Most babies born in 1900 did not live to see the age of 50. Yet now, the average life expectancy in the country with the most impressive longevity, Japan, has reached 83 — an astonishing increase in just over a century. Life expectancy in other wealthy counties clocks in at 81, and overall, people are now expected to reach old age, which was a rare feat not so long ago.

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Hillary Gives Climate Speech, Boards Private Jet That Burns 347 Gallons Per Hour

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hillaryClaire Bernish – Des Moines, Iowa — It’s that time again, folks—the season when America’s megalomaniacs glut the airwaves with nationalist pomp vying for your worthless vote in the race to buy the title of 2016’s Corporate Oligarch-in-Chief©. This year’s election competition is replete with hypocritical antics befitting our politicians—but Hillary Clinton truly stepped it up a notch on Monday evening.

After unveiling her sweeping vision to install a half billion solar panels and cut carbon emissions in order to fight climate change, Clinton could have crossed the Democratic platform’s obligatory “say something about the environment” off her list.

Could have.

Until she was spotted and filmed at a terminal in Des Moines boarding a $5,580 an hour, 19 seat, 347-gallons-of-fuel-per-hour guzzling Dassault model Falcon 900B private jet.

[youtube=https://youtu.be/7GlHYCGTsC8]

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The Solar Singularity Is Nigh

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Tam Hunt ~ “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” quipped Yogi Berra. I keep his wise admonition in mind as I make predictions about our energy future, but we have many reasons for optimism when it comes to the future growth of solar power.

solarHere’s the summary: solar is taking over. We can now see many years into the future when it comes to energy, and that future is primarily solar-powered. Why my optimism? Well, let me explain.

The “solar singularity” will, by my definition, occur when solar prices become so cheap that solar becomes the default power source based on cost alone and without subsidies. We aren’t there yet but we’re probably just a few years away from that point, particularly since we’re seeing energy storage costs declining significantly already. (I’m not going to address storage in this article further but, of course, a grid can’t run on variable solar power alone so we’ll need storage and other backup technologies to ensure reliable grids as solar power penetration grows).

Swanson’s Law, named after the founder of SunPower, a large American manufacturer of solar panels, states that the price of solar panels generally drops by 20 percent with every doubling of shipped panels. This has been the general trend since solar became a viable technology — hence its designation as a “law,” even though there are times when some deviations from the trend take place. For example, from the mid-1990s until 2008 solar costs declined by relatively small amounts, primarily due to stubbornly high silicon prices in a backdrop of increasing commodity prices across many markets, until the crash of 2008. Since 2008, however, panel cost declines have accelerated and the general trend is now back and then some.

When we compare recent cost declines for solar to other energy prices we get a pretty picture indeed and this is why solar is now getting very serious attention by investors and pundits alike. Continue reading →

Why Elon Musk’s Batteries Scare The Electric Company

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“. . ., executives at some of the nation’s largest utilities from New York to California say they are preparing their grids for more plug-in cars, reaching out to automakers and working with regulators to make sure customers as well as the utilities benefit from the trend.” – M Chediak

Elon Musk
Elon Musk

Here’s why something as basic as a battery both thrills and terrifies the U.S. utility industry.

At a sagebrush-strewn industrial park outside of Reno, Nevada, bulldozers are clearing dirt for Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s battery factory, projected to be the world’s largest.

Tesla’s founder, Elon Musk, sees the $5 billion facility as a key step toward making electric cars more affordable, while ending reliance on oil and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At first blush, the push toward more electric cars looks to be positive for utilities struggling with stagnant sales from energy conservation and slow economic growth.

Yet Musk’s so-called gigafactory may soon become an existential threat to the 100-year-old utility business model. The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power. Already, a second company led by Musk, SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), is packaging solar panels and batteries to power California homes and companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)

“The mortal threat that ever cheaper on-site renewables pose” comes from systems that include storage, said Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Snowmass, Colorado-based energy consultant. “That is an unregulated product you can buy at Home Depot that leaves the old business model with no place to hide.”

J.B. Straubel, chief technology officer for Palo Alto, California-based Tesla, said the company views utilities as partners not adversaries in its effort to build out battery storage. Musk was not available for comment.

The Tesla systems are arriving just as utilities begin to feel increasing pressure worldwide from the disruption posed by renewable energy.

Lima Meeting

In Germany, the rapid rise of tax-subsidized clean energy has undermined wholesale prices and decimated the profitability of coal and natural gas plants. Germany’s largest utility EON SE (EOAN) said this week it will spin off its fossil-fuel plant business to focus on renewables in part because of new clean energy competitors coming onto its turf.

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