Economists are really bad at predictions, but their views carry sway over large amounts of capital. Their most recent inaccuracies have been in the energy sector. Clean, renewable, energy is making faster progress than previously predicted. Renewables have seen faster implementation, more investment, and quite massive technical gains in the
Continue readingTag: solar
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Solar Install
I’ve been installing solar panels (or more accurately watching them being installed) this week. Photos and details to come soon. .@SaskWind I just added 2.1KW of #solar to garage roof. On grid this month. #powertogrow pic.twitter.com/gBqAdX0xFM — Saskboy K. (@saskboy) April 9, 2015
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskParty Avoids Clean Energy Boom
Saskatchewan leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Many people here are excited about how “strong” Saskatchewan is, thanks to SaskParty propaganda. We’ve also the strongest carbon air pollution per capita in the world, but few tend to talk about that here. Times are good, they’re good for me, and
Continue readingThings Are Good: In France New Buildings Need Green Roofs
Green roofs or solar panels are now required on all new commercial buildings in the country of France. This is great because now buildings can have either a zero energy impact or contribute to their local environment. Rooftops on new buildings built in commercial zones in France must either be
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatchewan Needs a Real Change of Destination
Greg is making a good point in his latest column, but I had to throw in a Green campaign slogan into the title in good fun. The bottom line really is that the Sask Party is propping up the dying fossil fuels industry, while calls to divest from it are
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Solar PV Nearing Grid Parity
Cambridge and #PWC [PDF] say #solar PV will be at grid parity on most of Earth, in only 2 years! “It is clear that renewables will be an established and significant part of the future energy mix, in the [Gulf] region and globally.” Regina’s potential ranks about 6th in the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Parliament Should Go Solar
Following up on my 2010 blog post on solar for the White House, it takes almost 3 years to get solar added to a historic national building. That’s why we should all get started with pressing Parliament Hill’s renovation to include commercially available PV solar panels to the south facing
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower, How’s That 14 Year Test Going?
Dear SaskPower, I’m interested in seeing the statistics regarding the electricity generated by the test panels installed on the Saskatchewan Science Centre, in the attached picture, and as mentioned in the below quote from your website a couple years ago. Solar research: In 2000, we installed a photovoltaic array at
Continue readingThings Are Good: Austrialian Team Gets Solar Efficiency Over 40%
It’s been said that once solar power efficiency gets to 40% it’ll be a tipping point for the mass use of solar panels. Now we can see if that is true as a team of researchers partnered with industry has developed technology to make it so solar energy conversion can
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Build The Change #skpoli #YXE
This is awesome. The 3 competing projects are all so great, it’s honestly hard to choose. I was just talking about being able to invest in solar power though, so I may go with the SES option. $1000 gets a future co-op membership too! BCBC GFJ
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Politics, Hockey, Fall Sitting at the BC Legislature and Local Elections-Game on!
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger We are moving into autumn, our glorious climate change driven summer is wrapping up even though our confused tomato plants refuse to stop providing even more ripe tomatoes. Last night our beloved Vancouver Canucks warmed our hockey deprived souls with a win in the season opener against
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Growth of Solar Power is Shaking Power Companies
Solar panels have come down in price rather dramatically in the last decade and if this trend continues it can be the death of old-school electric utilities. That is, unless the energy companies embrace solar and embed it into their system. Smart companies see the writing on the wall and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Has Won
In Australia the amount of energy being produced by sustainable systems caused the price to fall so low it went in to the negative. This will not be the last time we see this. As more places adopt renewable energy into their power grids the old models of industry will
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Roads Could Provide Electricity
There are six days left for the Indiegog campaign for Solar Roadways and they have already met their goal! The $1,000,000 goal has been reached and passed – which is quite impressive! The idea behind the successful campaign is to turn roads from heat-producing to energy-producing. A network of roads
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Climate Change is Here Now
Richard Hughes-Political as hell! Climate change is happening and has been happening for some considerable time. The Climate Deniers have gone to great lengths attempting to convince us that it is not true. In spite of their efforts it is now a part of our consciousness and although we know
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Power Rising in the Gulf
2013 saw great things happen on the Arabian Peninsula in relation to energy production. The region has invested heavily in installing solar power plants and reducing their own reliance on oil (so they can export more). In fact, the UAE is looking to start export in renewable energy! For the
Continue readingThings Are Good: In One year, Rooftop Solar Power Doubled in California
In one year California was able to increase power output from solar panels installed on roofs from 1,000 MW to over 2,000 MW. This is impressive and hopefully this trend continues in the very sunny and warm state! To put this in perspective, it took California over 30 years to
Continue readingThings Are Good: In Plant Photosynthesis, Scientists See Clues for Improving Solar Energy Cells
Solar cells optimized to suit local light conditions, or made more efficient by using a broader part of the solar spectrum, are among the imaginative applications foreseen from ground-breaking new insights into plant photosynthesis pioneered in Canada. Indeed new, more fully detailed knowledge of how plants and other living organisms
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Glass Can Make Entire Buildings Power Plants
Oxford Photovoltaics is a UK-based company that wants every building to have the potential to generate electricity using the solar power. They have created a solar cell that is transparent enough to function as a window while providing a very small amount of energy. On their own, they don’t generate
Continue readingThings Are Good: German Coal and Gas Power Plants Closing Due to Cheap Renewable Energy
Germany has been so effective in tranisitioning from unsustianble (econmically and environemntally) energy sources to renewable ones that it is uncompetitive to burn fossil fuels for power! “Due to the continuing boom in solar energy, many power stations throughout the sector and across Europe are no longer profitable to operate,”
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