Solar panel installations may surge in the next two years as the cost of generating electricity from the sun rivals coal-fueled plants, industry executives and analysts said.

Large photovoltaic projects will cost $1.45 a watt to build by 2020, half the current price, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated today. The London-based research company says solar is viable against fossil fuels on the electric grid in the most sunny regions such as the Middle East.

“We are already in this phase change and are very close to grid parity,” Shawn Qu, chief executive officer of Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ), said in an interview. “In many markets, solar is already competitive with peak electricity prices, such as in California and Japan.”

A report from the Chinese government asserts that solar power will be as cheap as coal by 2015. Industry watchers have already predicted that the cost of solar will drop by half by 2020, putting it at parity with coal-fired power. And solar is already competitive on sunny days when utilities pay a premium for “peak” power.

While humankind has made enormous progress in improving material welfare over the past two centuries, this progress has come at the lasting cost of degradation of our natu- ral environment. About half of the forests that covered the earth are gone, groundwater resources are being depleted and contaminated, enormous reductions in biodiversity have already taken place and, through increased burning of fossil fuels, the stability of the planet’s climate is being threatened by global warming. In order for populations in devel- oping countries to achieve a decent living standard, especially the billions who currently still live in conditions of abject poverty, and the additional 2 billion people who will have been added to the world’s population by mid-century—much greater economic progress will be needed.

Continuation along previously trodden economic growth pathways will fur- ther exacerbate the pressures exerted on the world’s resources and natural environment, which would approach limits where livelihoods were no longer sustainable. Business as usual is thus not an option. Yet, even if we stop global engines of growth now, the deple- tion and pollution of our natural environment would still continue because of existing consumption patterns and production methods. Hence, there is an urgent need to find new development pathways which would ensure environmental sustainability and reverse ecological destruction, while managing to provide, now and in the future, a decent liveli- hood for all of humankind.

A report released today by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) – “Rating & Disclosure” – represents the inaugural national review of building energy rating and disclosure policies in the United States. The publication provides specific information for evaluating a building’s relative energy efficiency and making this information available to companies that will either lease or purchase commercial properties.

(Source: cleantechnica.com)

Solar Roadways is proposing a long-view paradigm-shift solution to major infrastructure, energy and climate challenges. The Solar Roadways system would might, at present, cost about three times what it costs to install an asphalt road, but would be more durable more easily replaced in modular fashion, and able to pay for itself by generating more electricity than our economy can consume. At just 15% efficiency, far below what is expected, a 100% Solar Roadways enabled driving infrastructure would produce three times total electricity demand.

(Source: thehotspring.net)

High-risk, low-yield hydrocarbon fuels not fit to compete over long term

Tar sands, shale gas and ultra deepwater drilling, are high-risk, low-yield energy sources, for a number of reasons. First of all, because they are less energy rich for energy expended and cash invested than previously prevailing hydrocarbon extraction, and they pose elevated risks of accident and/or environmental disaster. But also because the longer the project and the more invested, the lower the energy return on investment.

Clean renewable technologies are the inverse: the longer the facilities are in place and the more invested over time, the greater the yield for energy and cash invested. The energy return on investment actually improves over time, and the resource becomes more reliable and more efficient. Falling behind on that new energy paradigm is a cost we are not presently calculating, and we cannot afford to be left out of the top flight of producers in that new paradigm.

(Source: thehotspring.net)

There are competing theories about what makes for good economic stimulus, and there are practices that work well and which don’t work very well. We know that tax cuts are not very stimulative, because they take a long time to show up in people’s bank accounts, and they are comprised of money that was already there to begin with. New money, extra money, is more stimulative. So food stamps, for instance, can return 70% to 100% gain in stimulus, above and beyond cost.

But we aren’t looking to fix the long recovery by using food stamps for stimulus. And we can’t really do any tax cuts that would help to expand GDP. If we want to spur a more vibrant recovery, we have to find a way to put new money, extra money, in people’s pockets, and it has to be more than they need to meet the ever-rising costs of living. It makes sense, then, that intelligent investment in high-growth activities would be the best way to make that happen.

(Source: independentsofprinciple.com)

Contrary to claims frequently made by conservative talk radio, bloggers, and some news media outlets, incandescent light bulbs are not actually being “banned.” Incandescent bulbs with newer, more efficient technology will still be for sale, because the 2007 law does not single out any particular lighting technology. It only requires light bulbs to meet higher levels of efficiency if they are to be sold.

Under that law, general-purpose light bulbs must become about 30 percent more energy efficient. Different bulb classes face different deadlines, all between 2012 and 2014. The old Edison bulb gets killed on January 1, 2012. But more-efficient incandescent bulbs, which use only 72 watts to give the same output as an old 100-watt Edison bulb, will still be sold.

(Source: csnmonitor.com)

Researchers have long toyed with the idea of printing solar cells onto paper. But MIT researchers have taken the idea one giant step further with a process that cheaply and easily prints out solar cells on regular plastic, cloth, or paper—without the need for high temperatures or potentially damaging liquids. It’s still in the research stages at the moment—the cells barely produce enough to power a cell phone—but light, cheap, flexible solar panels could one day be revolutionary.

The process is, according to MIT, much like the one used make the “silver lining in your bag of potato chips.” Layers of “inks” are printed onto a sheet of paper. The materials form patterns of solar cells on the paper’s surface, which is also used as the solar cell’s substrate(traditional solar cells use more expensive materials like glass as a substrate). Wires can be attached directly to the cells. Voila! Solar power.

13 July 2011 – The renewable energy sector has continued to perform well despite the global economic slowdown, cuts in incentives, and low natural-gas prices, according to a United Nations-backed report unveiled today, which shows that the sector supplied an estimated 16 per cent of global energy last year. The sector also delivered close to 20 per cent of the world’s electricity production, according to the report commissioned by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), whose secretariat is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). 

Germany installed more solar photovoltaic (PV) in 2010 than the entire world added in 2009. PV markets in Japan and the United States almost doubled relative to 2009. Globally, wind power added the most new capacity, followed by hydropower and solar PV, but for the first time ever, Europe added more PV than wind capacity. Last year, investment reached a record $211 billion in renewables – about one-third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009 – and more than five times the amount invested in 2004.

Clean energy, green building, efficient transport and other components of the burgeoning clean energy economy employ 2.7 million workers — more than the biosciences and fossil fuel sectors. Median salaries for cleantech-related jobs are $46,343, or about $7,727 more than the median wages across the broader economy.

According to the Brookings report: 

In 2010, 2.7 million jobs in the United States directly contributed to the production of goods and services that had an environmental benefit. The jobs were spread over 57,501 different establishments in 41,185 companies and existed in almost every industry.

There is also one more attractive feature of the clean economy opportunity structure: The clean economy not only pays well, but pays well even for those without post-secondary degrees. Almost half of all jobs in the clean economy are held by workers with a high school diploma or less, compared to only 37.2 percent of U.S. jobs.

(Source: climateprogress.org)