Boulder, CO Residents Get Solar Discounts

New York’s ABC affiliate ran a story on their newscast last night, originally reported in Boulder two weeks ago, about a pilot program run by regional utlity Xcel Energy wherein Boulder residents get rebates from the energy company and top-line Federal tax credits for installing solar electricity systems.  Home solar systems have a street price of $40,000, but Boulder residents who take part in the Xcel program would save $25,000 off of that outlay.  The remaining $15,000 in out-of pocket costs would then presumably be made up in any additional value homeowners would get once they sold their houses, and, over the long term in excess energy that gets credited back into the regional electric grid.

The Boulder Program offers a guidepost for utilities that may be able to use solar programs to improve their grid, and startweaning the American consumer off of fossil-fred electricity.  While $15,000 per house  is still a large outlay, it is about average for most home renovation projects, and has the same net benefit of improved home value, with the added value of rolling back the meter on long, sunny days.

The State of New York offers an incentive program for solar wattage generated back into the grid, rather than for the initial installation, and the incentive is paid not to the homeowner, but to the installer, with the “understanding” that the installer use the incentive payment as a portion of the total cost.  In addition, the State offers a low-interest loan program for homeowners to install green energy systems.   Looking side by side, both programs look indirect, and until demand is high enough to reduce the costs, or an inexpensive option for solar or wind energy is discovered, it’s doubtful that these programs will totally encourage widespread installation of home solar options.

Pete Seeger has a caulk gun, not a hammer

89 year-old folksinger/voice of three generations Pete Seeger has partnered up with author/activist Van Jones to spread the message of caulk to the public.  Jones, both in his book The Green Collar Economy and through his not for profit Green For All, advocates for a new economy of green jobs in underprivileged areas.  One of the ways Jones suggests revitalizing both our economy and environment is through retrofitting houses with new insulation and sealing-  hence the caulk gun.  Jones postulates that 20-30 percent of a homes energy is lost through heat escaping leaky doors and windows.  In taking on these and other home renovation projects, local contrsuction companies can create thousands of green-collar jobs, putting local residents to work and imrpoving the quality of life in their communities.

H/T: Treehugger

Nevada solar plant takes one large step toward widespread solar

First Solar‘s new solar power plant in Nevada has been calculated to be the first U.S. solar site to cost less than fossil fuel-firing plants without government subsidies.  This is a major breakthrough in the race for renewable energy in the U.S. , as the largest barrier to solar power, aside from the dearth of energy storage systems, is the high cost of installation.  The difference is in a new type of thin-film solar panel (most panels on the market use crystallized silicon, which requires expensive framing to install).

H/T to Treehugger

“Whatever Can Be Done Will Be Done”

Thomas Friedman’s column today talks about the concept of “mobility miles,” a pilot model for electric cars being piloted by Shai Agassi’s Better Place.  Essentially, the concept works like this:  You lease a car, and pay a subscription to Better Place to take advantage of their charging stations (for trips less than 100 miles) and battery exchange stations (for trips greater than 100 miles).  The cost for subscription averages 6 cents per mile, or about half the cost of gasoline.  The system is currently in pilot stages in Israel, Denmark, Australia and Hawaii.

Friedman’s main conceit in the column is that the Big 3 are currently reacting like record executives investing in CDs on the eve of the iPod’s invention (GM declined to be a part of Better Place’s pilots)– that they are bypassing innovation, and will thus be passed by when Better Place and companies of its ilk demonstrate that they have a sustainable — in all definitions of the word — business model.

The most shocking revelation that Friedman makes in the column further underscores how entrenched Detroit’s business model has really been:

Remember, in 1908, the Ford Model-T got better mileage — 25 miles per gallon — than many Ford, G.M. and Chrysler models made in 2008.

Contrast the narrow focus of Detroit with the recent moves of T. Boone Pickens, the oilman who has recently started financing wind farms, calling wind “the next gusher.”

Local NFP Provides Tool for Buying Local Food

Local not-for-profit Chew on This, founded by private chef Carlin Greenstein and graphic designer Annie Stranger, have released a “seasonal foods” wheel that allows shoppers to see which fruits and vegetables are “in season” and available locally to New York.  The concept is similar to the “shopping list” board at the Union Square Greenmarket.

While cutting “food miles” is an important concept to help maintain our local agricultural infrastructure, eating a local, seasonal diet is also more beneficial for your health, as local vegetables picked at their peak ripeness have a higher vitamin content than fruits and vegetables picked underripe and ripened “off the tree.”

The wheels can be purchased at Stinky, a cheese market in Cobble Hill, Urban Rustic in Williamsburg, Sustainable NYC in the East Village, and at Blue Hill Farm in Westchester.

hattip: Green Brooklyn

Michelin with a breakthrough in the plug-in Electric Car field

Hattip to Treehugger:

Well-known tire company Michelin is launching a new breakthrough in electric car technology- the “Active Wheel“

By placing the motor in the wheel, Michelin is making electric cars 70% more efficient in cities than their combustion-engine counterparts.  The wheel is being released in Europe as the drivetrain for the Heuliez Will, a modified version of the ubiquitous-in-Europe Opel Agila wagon.  The Will goes public for the 2011 model year, and is available for fleet buyers in 2010.

Despite the fact that the wheels, with motors, weight 90 pounds apiece, the Will weighs just under a ton, and 165 pounds less than its Opel cousin.

The Digestible Friedman

Tom Friedman’s interview with the Huffington Post does an excellent job distilling the arguments for massive investment in green tech.  This interview, taken together Van Jones’s excellent The Green Collar Economy lay out the immediate need for what Friedman terms “overwhelming force” in moving our energy economy away from fossil fuels.  Particularly trenchant is Friedman’s first response:

With oil or coal, no one ever said there had to be a payoff you had to pay it back in five years, but with something green, “What’s the payback? What’s the payback on that Prius?”

Well. What’s the payback on your Hummer?

The argument against massive investment in green-tech is often an elaborate version of “it’s way too far off, and our infrastructure isn’t ready for it.”   However, when JFK said we were going to the moon, our space program was in a similar state.  But the scientific community rallied and got it done.  Technologies like fuel cells and electric vehicles have been paid lip service in States of the Union addresses for decades now, but if we’re serious about energy independence, we need to make it reality now.

Neil Young turns a gas-guzzler into a Green Dream

In the Cars section in today’s Times is the story of singer/songwriter/friend of Crosby, Stills & Nash Neil Young’s project to turn a 1959 Lincoln Continental into a zero-emissions vehicle as part of Progressive Insurance’s Automotive X Prize, a national competition to create high-milage, low-pollution, production model cars.  The idea is to one-up normal engineering-class competitions that create one-off vehicles and create a competition that demonstrates the long-term use of alternative fuel sources

Young currently drives a converted Mercedes that runs on vegetable oil, and the LincVolt, as the re-purposed Lincoln is called,  will run on a combination of natural gas and electric batteries, capable of running 1,000 miles to the tank, and uses a smaller tank than most  natural gas vehicles.

The project is intriguing because it takes a notorious gas-guzzler, and re-uses it to demonstrate the capabilities of existing technologies– the car’s engine is a rotary motor, rather than classic piston-powered internal comustion engine;  as one member of Young’s team claims, “if we can go this with such a heavy car [the Lincoln is 5,000 pounds], imagine what we can do with a smaller car.”

UPDATE: InformationWeek recaps an appearance Young made with the LincVolt at a conference hosted by tech-Glengarry company SalesForce.  The article better describes the hybrid-drive system.

Google gets into the Carbon Calculator Game

Hattip to Cody of the M Booth FWD team for this one.

Google has launched a Halloween-themed five-step energy saver calculator that compares spots of energy waste to ghosts, vampires, demons, monsters and zombies.  Obviously, with only five areas of savings, it’s nowhere near comprehensive.  It does, however, illustrate how small steps can lead to big change, and will hopefully lead people to look into other ways to cut both their energy costs and carbon emissions.

WSJ Offers advice for cutting power use

Falling under that first R, the Journal ran an article in yesterday’s “Personal Journal” section with a bunch of good advice for cutting power use in the home.  It’s pretty standard; seal the house, switch the bulbs, unplug idle devices, and update the appliances; but always worth the reminder.