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.”

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.

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.

Thinking about Footprint, in extremis

The New York Times has run a series of articles over the past few days about smaller things;  the real eyecatcher is yesterday’s article about tiny houses.  Specifically, the article focuses on a small movement of people who are building or purchasing prefab houses that run between 50 and 1,000 square feet.  While most families would find this impractical, it does raise the question of “do you really need all of this space?”  When counterbalanced with the McMansion Movement, it’s an interesting exercise in evaluating just how much of a footprint you need to cast.

If nothing else, the $8 energy bill of one of the folks quoted is pretty compelling.

Phillipe Starck to mass-market personal-use wind turbine

Hattip to Inhabitat and Treehugger for this story:

Famous housewares/furniture designer Phillipe Starck (he of the “cheap chic” Target line) has unveiled a miniature wind turbine that can be used to generate home power.  The turbine, which will supposedly be available in September, purports to provide somewhere between 20-60 % of the energy needed to power the average home.

While the official specs have yet to be released, it appears, from the scale in the images, to be about the size of the average television set, which means it might be useful here in NYC.  The proposed price point, and this is just for the turbine, not for any additional power storage/wiring necessities, is around $600 US.

Grain-of-salt time:  with no official specs available, there’s nothing to say that this is a useful, sustainable product.  Also, the all-plastic blade design is a worry, as there may be more negative impact from the production of the windmill than just simply doing a better job conserving power on your existing fossil fuel supply, or even requesting wind power through ConEd.  Finally, the other parts required (power inverter, grid relay to pump overflow back into the grid, battery systems for home storage, etc.) to install a home wind system seem to be not included in the $600 price point, and would put the seemingly cheap solution out of reach for most home budgets.  However, the fact that a well-renowned, widely known designer like Starck is even remotely interested in solving the problem of cheap, fossil-free home electricity is promising, if for no other reason than the attention his product will bring to the idea.

The Samsø Wind Project- How a farming island in Denmark pioneered an energy source

In the current issue of the New Yorker is the story of Samsø, a rural island in Denmark that began instituting Wind power 10 years ago. The island is now fully wind-powered, and generates enough energy from its turbines to feed power back into the Danish Grid.

Want to help spread wind power in New York? Con-Ed’s Solutions program lets you pick a source for your energy- Wind or a combination of Wind/River-powered hydroelectric. The cost is negligible (about a cent more per kilowatt-hour than traditional electric), and the more New Yorkers that get Wind power into the national electric grid, the less energy needed from coal-fired or natural gas plants, and the closer New York can get to being the next Samsø.

New York State Tax Credit for GreenRoofs

Courtesy of Green Brooklyn comes the news that the New York State Assembly has passed a $4.50 per square foot property tax credit for installing a greenroof.

What’s a greenroof?  It’s exactly what it sounds like- an installation of vegetation on a building roof.  Greenroofs help significantly cool buildings, in addition to soaking up CO2.  In a city that’s made up largely of pavement and roads like NYC, that can be a huge environmental boost.  A study conducted by Environment Canada found a 26% reduction in summer cooling needs and a 26% reduction in winter heat losses when a green roof is used.