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Solar Power Is Generating Social Change

U.S. Navy veteran Elmer Rankin, 71, has a failing heart, prostate cancer and arthritis that keeps him in a wheelchair. Last year, Rankin, who survives on his Social Security checks, could no longer...

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SolarWorld Set to Take China Trade Fight to Europe

Reports that SolarWorld had formally brought its solar trade fight against China to Europe elicited a fresh round of scorn from critics within the industry this week, but the company said it had not in...

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IKEA’s Solar Blitz Adds Up to Massive Power

Looking for signs that renewable energy is gaining real traction? We present IKEA. Back in the day, every single solar installation from the purveyor of cheap and cheerful home furnishings was news....

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Photos: A $200,000 Green Home Designed By Frank Gehry

Buildings designed by Frank Gehry tend to function both as city landmarks and tourist attractions, and they certainly don’t come cheap. His works, which have been cited as among the most important...

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NFL Season Opener Under the Solar-Powered Lights

When the reigning Super Bowl champions kick off the first game of the season Wednesday against the Dallas Cowboys, they’ll do it under a new solar ring around the top of MetLife Stadium, lit up in New...

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The Big Energy Question: What to Develop Next?

Some of the people who could shape the energy future have a maddening aversion to playing favorites. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the U.S. presidential race, where President Barack Obama...

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Oregon Eco-Winery Goes Beyond LEED

In 2002, more than a dozen structures and countless trees were scorched in the course of the Biscuit Fire, which took down roughly 500,000 acres in southern Oregon. Now a Dayton-area winery with a...

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Why the U.S. Should Save MiaSolé: Investing In Our Clean Tech Future

As China selects its new leadership this week, jobs, energy, and international relations will be very much on the minds of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.  Over the past decade China has...

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Alleged Mafia Ties Cast New Shadow on Italy’s Renewables

Italy’s attempt to drive growth in its renewables sector has given rise to a new line of business for the Mafia, and the government is trying to crack down, according to a fascinating report in The...

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Focusing on Facts: Can We Get All of Our Energy From Renewables?

  In my recent post, “The Limited Vision of the Pro-Nuclear Energy Argument,” one of the commenters wrote: “it is a fact that only carbon-based energy and nuclear have a high enough energy density to...

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A Promising Outlook for Solar Energy Forecasting

Solar energy continues to grow in the United States, but its relative unpredictability remains a hurdle in deploying it on the grid. Now a research team is working to create detailed 36-hour forecasts...

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Purdue Solar Racing Seeks to Boost Sun Intensity

Purdue University students prepare their solar car for Shell Eco-marathon. Photo courtesy of Shell Eco-marathon. Zack Lapetina of Purdue University explains how the Purdue Solar Racing team uses...

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With a New Look, French Teams Take Top Prizes in Shell Eco-marathon Europe

For several years running, French engineering students from two neighboring Loire Valley schools, Polytech Nantes and La Joliverie, have shared engineering and effort to build rocket-shaped vehicles...

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Kosovo is a Chance for World Bank, Obama to Show Global Leadership on Climate...

  Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s now famous comment, “Never let a serious crisis to go to waste,” could not have been more true of Hurricane Sandy, which was a harbinger of the costly...

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Shedding Light in the Night: How Solar Energy and Mobile Charging Improves...

In this installment of Digital Diversity, Gwen Kidera – Project Associate at S3IDF (Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund) – explains how their non-profit organisation provides...

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Seven of the Greatest Solar Stories Over the Millennia

By John Perlin Many people believe that solar energy is a twentieth century phenomenon, untried and untested. But I discovered through writing my new book Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar...

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Solar ‘Gardens’ Let Communities Share Renewable Power

­­In northern New Mexico the sun shines nearly every day of the year. If solar energy is going to be viable anywhere, it will be here—and a small electric cooperative in historic Taos is taking...

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Solar Researchers Dig Deeper Into Snow Issue

Our recent story on a net-zero town hall in Upstate New York prompted a question about what impact snow might have on the solar panels that are installed, at a slight angle, on the building’s flat...

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Are Those Solar Panels Facing the Wrong Direction?

Conventional wisdom says that if you put solar panels on your roof in the Northern Hemisphere, you should point them within 30 degrees of true south to generate the most energy in the course of a year....

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Time to Break Free of Net-Metering; We Need a “FIT” Policy for Renewable...

Maybe the electric utilities are right, for a change. Maybe net-metering—the ability to run your kilowatt-hour meter backwards, with solar panels on your roof or a windmill in your backyard–is not the...

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