It Came From Outer Space (electricity, that is)

Michelle Z. Donahue at Smithsonian.com has a very interesting article about the latest efforts to put solar collectors into space. Frankly this idea rings my sci-fi loving bell, and rings it hard. I really hope these people are on to something.

Mankins and others estimate the total cost for developing, building, launching and assembling all the components of a space-based solar power plant is on the order of $4 to $5 billion—a fraction of the $28 billion price tag on China’s Three Gorges Dam. Mankins estimates a working scale model with full-sized components could be had for $100 million. By comparison, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s recently completed Watts Bar nuclear plant took 43 years to build, from start to stuttering finish, and cost $4.7 billion all told.

Link: What's Next For Solar Energy? How About Space

Electricity From Your Floor

Apparently a journey of a thousand miles really might start with a single step.

Floorboards might not be the first form of renewable energy that springs to mind, but they could soon be taking their place alongside solar and wind power – because scientists have figured out a way to produce electricity from wood pulp.

Link: Researchers just found a new source of renewable energy in wood pulp waste

Utility Pole Solar

Mireya Navarro at the New York Times has a story about solar NIMBYism in New Jersey. Some people in the state are upset about a new program by the Public Service Electric and Gas Company that mounts solar panels to existing utility poles. This is a very creative effort (in my opinion) to retrofit solar panels into a community. But the solar panels are a visual blight, according to the critics. The story in the Times has a picture of them and I don't see it, but the critics may be more sensitive, aesthetically speaking, than I am.

When complete, the panels on the poles are expected to provide half of the 80 megawatts of electricity generated by the utility's overall $515 million solar investment — enough to power 6,500 homes.

Link: Solar Panels Rise Pole by Pole, Followed by Gasps of ‘Eyesore’

How the Energy Revolution Came to Germany

Robert Kunzig at National Geographic has an interesting article tracing the evolution of Germany's "energiewende" or energy revolution. Kunzig looks at cultural and historical factors that may have made Germans more receptive to an undertaking like the energiewende.

The German revolution has come from the grass roots: Individual citizens and energy genossenschaften—local citizens associations—have made half the investment in renewables. ... German politicians sometimes compare the energiewende to the Apollo moon landing. But that feat took less than a decade, and most Americans just watched it on TV. The energiewende will take much longer and will involve every single German—more than 1.5 million of them, nearly 2 percent of the population, are selling electricity to the grid right now.

Link: Germany Could Be a Model for How We’ll Get Power in the Future

The Revolution is in the Northeast

Really interesting story from Marlene Cimons at NexusMedia and Think Progress about the progress towards renewable energy being made in the Northeast.

The article highlights the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has established a carbon emissions market among nine states in the Northeast. When we talk about innovations in renewable energy we can never forget the innovations we have to adopt in financing renewable energy and in putting a price on putting carbon in the atmosphere. If putting carbon in the atmosphere is free, despite the damage it causes, then it's just that much harder for renewable energy to compete.

But the RGGI states have put a price on carbon, and people are responding by embracing renewable energy. It's a good article. You should read it.

Between 2005 and 2015, coal-fired generation declined more than 80 percent in New England and New York, and more coal plants are scheduled to close. Meanwhile, solar power in New York State has grown 750 percent in the past five years.

Link:  Forget California: The Northeast is emerging as a clean energy leader

Animated History of Electric Cars

A guide to how far electric cars have come, for those of you who are more visually oriented. Courtesy of Gearheads.org and EV World.

By the early 1900's, a third of all the automobiles on the planet were electric

Link: The EV-olution of Electric Vehicles

Doies the World Need Solar Powered E-Bike Rentals?

Derek Markham at Treehugger reports on a new venture that rents e-bikes to tourists from cruise ships. The whole business is entirely solar-powered and operates out of a slightly modified shipping container so that it's mobile. Very clever idea, good execution, and they've identified a perfect market for their service. I hope they make a lot of money.

Moore told Silicon Prairie News that the system worked so well in Omaha over the summer that its biggest problem was just "keeping the tires inflated,

Link:  Quikbyke is a solar-powered e-bike rental shop & charging station in a shipping container