By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, The Hartford Courant | Original Article The largest commercial solar projects ever approved in Connecticut have won the backing of state regulators and could provide more sources of renewable energy to electricity distributors Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating. Solar power plants in East Lyme and Somers were approved by the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection and were chosen from a field [...]
Coping With 7 Billion: Water Treatment Original Article: GE Reports | November 9, 2011 When it comes to water use, the numbers tell a bleak story. While the world’s population has tripled to 7 billion over the last century, water consumption has increased six fold. According to estimates, by 2025 some 5.3 billion people, or more than two thirds of the total population, will suffer from water shortages. The lack [...]
GE Breakthrough Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half by GE Reports | Original Article Despite great leaps in solar panel technology, the biggest obstacle hindering their widespread use is quite pedestrian: stubbornly high installation costs. While the cost of panels has dropped by half since 2007, total installation costs, which include panels, labor and additional equipment, declined just 20% over the same period. Charlie Korman, manager of Solar Energy [...]
Beyond the Solyndra Circus: A Golden Age for Solar Clint Wilder – Senior Editor, Clean Edge | Original Article Here’s a headline that I bet you didn’t see (at least in the United States) in the past month, but based on the facts, could have been written: Welcome to the Golden Age of Solar Power A case can definitely be made. In the past two years, solar PV cell prices [...]
By Stephen L. Carter Sep 28, 2011 8:02 PM ET via Bloomberg.com It isn’t hard to predict how the controversy over defunct solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC will end. Congressional Republicans will in due course issue a final report decrying crony capitalism and demanding an end to the federal program of loan guarantees to alternative energy companies. Democrats will respond with a dissent, concluding that no rules were broken or even [...]
General Electric has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s technology assessment and application agency (BPPT) for joint development of renewable energy utilization, cleaner coal and energy efficiency projects. The two sides will work together to study key issues that can support commercial implementation of renewable energy projects such as biogas, biomass, geothermal, solar and wind in Indonesia. “It (the agreement) supports the government’s goal to increase renewable energy’s share [...]
In a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks last year, there was mention of a cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The document revealed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security considered this mine so vital that its “incapacitation or destruction … would have a debilitating impact” on U.S. security or the national economy. That’s because the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of cobalt, but mines none of [...]
