
“As I watched my Subaru Legacy slide backward toward my new ranch’s studio outbuilding, the thought crossed my mind that if it kept going…at least I would be using less gasoline.” Thus begins what journalist Doug Fine calls his “epic adventure in local living,” an experience chronicled in his new book,
“Farewell, My Subaru.” Grease-fuel, solar power, homegrown bananas, chickens, and Natalie (a goat purchased off Craigslist) are just a few of Doug’s companions down on the Funky Butte Ranch. Join us, if you will, as we step into his world. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just click
here to listen, right-click to download.
Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack.
Full text after the jump....

An innovative electric solar wind propulsion technology may very well revolutionize transportation -- in space, that is. Yes, though we may still have a ways to go before we achieve a successful (terrestrial) zero emissions vehicular policy, our chances of doing so in space may be closer than you think.
Pekka Janhumen, a researcher at the
Finnish Meteorological Institute, and a consortium of European scientists have developed an
electric solar wind sail that could fundamentally change space travel as we know it. The sail relies on the solar wind, a continuous plasma stream that emanates from the sun, to act as its principal thrust source by applying continuous pressure to its metallic tethers. A large, solar-powered electron gun keeps the tethers positively charged....
Photo Credit: Loop.ph
It looks like
Loop.ph, a UK-based design research studio, has (re)created the perfect tree: by day, it offers shelter from the sun: by night, it sheds light for the local community, using the energy collected in solar cells embedded in its canopy. Its name:
Sonumbra. It is a ‘sonic shade of light’ as the designers Rachel Wingfield & Mathias Gmachl like to describe it. ...
Image courtesy of Solartwin
Only last month we were wondering why more houses don’t have solar hot water heaters – in fact, we were advocating that
every house should have one. It seems others are agreeing with us, with Lucy Siegle over at The Guardian wondering why
more UK households haven’t taken up this most accessible of micro-generation technologies. While she acknowledges that government grants can help encourage uptake, she points out that the system is notoriously difficult to navigate:
Grants are available from the Government's Low Carbon Building Programme, but I don't think it's unfair to say that the scheme has hardly been a resounding success. If you can work out how to apply for one, the grants allow you to choose from a handful of accredited suppliers (cynics say they are the most expensive solar fitters) to offset some of the cost of installation. A recent overhaul of the grant programme gives a munificent windfall of a whole 40p extra per household to fit domestic renewables. Spend it wisely.
For those wanting to rough it, you can always try
building your own. But whether you go the DIY route or take the commercially installed option, we're pleased to see increased recognition of this 'forgotten' renewable technology in the media.
::
The Guardian::via site visit::
...

We’ve reported on the UK-based
Solar4Schools initiative before. In fact we were so excited about it that
we covered it twice. Watching it develop, it certainly seems like our excitement was well-founded - the program has just completed its 50th installation, putting in a
4Kwp system at Cherry Orchard Primary school in South London which will create enough electricity to power a typical 3 bedroom home. This particular installation was fully funded, with money coming from the government and from the Co-op supermarket chain. But while corporate funding for schools remains available only for a limited number of installations, Solarcentury is also working on innovative financing options to allow all schools to take advantage of government grants:
Solarcentury is collaborating with Quartz to provide an affordable financing option. Without any capital outlay, a 4kWp system with a 50% grant can be purchased over three years for just £977.66 a quarter, or £650.12 a quarter over five years. Financing from Quartz on Solarcentury installations is also availble to schools not eligible for Department of Trade and Industry grants.
::
Solarcentury::via site visit:: ...
Image courtesy of Jimmy_Joe via flickr
Give credit where credit is due: the Bush administration DOE is moving forward with a plan to make available
up to $2.4m to 12 so-called "
Solar America Cities" (up to $200,000 for each) - cities that will receive funding and technical assistance to build a robust solar infrastructure. The 12 lucky winners include the California cities of San Jose, Santa Rosa and Sacramento; the Texas cities of Houston and San Antonio; the Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul; Knoxville, Tennessee; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington....
Image courtesy of Pink Dispatcher via flickr
Two square miles of Californian rooftops will be blanketed with the country's largest solar installation - a collector cell array that could power the equivalent of about 162,000 homes by 2010 - if Southern California Edison's $875 million bid is approved by state regulators. Governor Schwarzenegger has already endorsed the project, praising it for its potential to "set off a huge wave of renewable energy growth," reports
Reuters.
The first sites, on buildings in the Riverside and San Bernardino counties, could be operational as early as August - not a moment too soon for the region's always beleaguered peak load capacity. Company officials estimate that the rooftop photovoltaic arrays will be able to generate close to 250 MW of electricity. ...
Photo credit: Getty Images
For as long as our planet has spun 'round the sun, there's been
solar energy cascading down on the earth, and, for a long time -- since the 7th century B.C., when glass was used to magnify it -- humans have been working to harness it. These days, technology is a bit better, providing electricity, heating, lighting, and even flight, but the point is the same: use the sun's warm glowing warming glow for our benefit.
Often used synonymously with solar energy,
solar power is what you've got once the sun's energy has been converted to electricity. This can be done one of two ways: heating a liquid to produce steam and spin a generator, or through photovolatics (but that's another post). For now, we'll concentrate on how to use the
massive and largely untapped potential that exists with solar energy. But first, some basics....
Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
Also in the New York Times
Business of Green Section: Eric Doub's Solar Harvest, his own solar powered dream house. It has solar panels, 6,000 gallons of underground hot water storage, careful siting for passive solar gain, super-insulated windows and photovoltaic panels. He framed the $8.45 cheque that he got from the local electrical utility for selling power back to the grid.
::New York Times see also the
::slideshow. ...

A year ago Bonnie modelled a
solar powered bikini for us, but it was just a prototype. Now, the Guardian tells us that flexible solar cells will be woven right into our clothing, to charge our iPods and phones.
Dave Pritchard at Fujitsu, told David Smith of the Guardian: 'Within a year it will be possible to design clothing with solar cells on the back or arms, so you can recharge wearable devices.' He said the clothing would be useful on the ski slopes, outdoor holidays and for the emergency services. It would also appeal to the environmentally conscious as a means of reducing power consumption.
Hitachi is also working on flexible solar cells at its UK laboratory in Cambridge. Koichi Tsuzuki, head of research and development in Europe, said a full jacket of solar cells exposed to four hours of daylight could provide battery life for a typical day's use
. ::The Guardian
...

"What does life in the ocean need to thrive?" Is a question biologists and oceanographers have asked for decades. It is also one climate scientists and even
carbon sequestration companies are asking with increasing urgency. We do know that phytoplankton form the base of the marine food chain, and new research out of OSU provides an unexpected twist. We knew that nitrogen, phosphorus, and
iron, were critical to phytoplankton production, now it appears 'reduced' sulfur is a key nutrient for one of the most abundant and smallest free-living single cell organisms in the ocean, SAR11.
The new insights into SAR11 have very large implications, possibly impacting how we understand the earths carbon cycle, marine ecosystems, and even cloud formation and climate change....

Having been involved in reuse and food co-ops for over nine years it is always pleasing to hear of yet other models. The Sydney Energy Co-operative formed in mid 2007. Students from the
Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering program at the University of New South Wales got together to offer their technical knowledge to the resources of the general community to carry out effective energy activities.
These include helping with more efficient lighting installations; supply of low cost, high quality solar modules available to members and the public; and energy-focused education, in concert with
GreenGeeks. We were particularly taken with their quite forthright Environmental Values, which we note after the fold....

A meadow might be preferable to a maintenance-requiring lawn, and a front-yard food garden would be even better. But if the lawn is there to stay, Swedish Husqvarna's new robot mower combines a battery-powered (NiMH) no-hands mowing system with solar booster panels that help the mower extends its charge time. If you buy green electricity, you've got pretty low-emissions' mowing. The Automower Solar Hybrid's charge lasts about an hour in sunny weather, less under clouds - the machine senses when its charge is low and automatically rolls back to the charging station.
TreeHugger supports technologies which might convince the mow-happy to trade in their two-stroke and gas-powered tractor mowers. Automower Solar Hybrid uses bumper wire cables to help define a lawn section of up to 20,000 square feet (it mows around 900 square feet per hour or charge). Husqvarna says Automower handles slopes of up to 35%. The solar hybrid model is supposed to use the same amount of energy as a 40 watt light bulb (incandescent, unfortunately) and be 90 percent recyclable. Pretty pricey at around US$4,000. Via
::Automower.com
See also
Product Review: Enviromower (Solar Lawn Mowing)...

With a mission to create Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology, Brooklyn-based SMIT thoughtfully mixes a little alternative energy creation (solar and
piezo) with museum-worthy design. Their first project, GROW.1 (above), sprouted from an Industrial Design Thesis project in 2005 and employs emerging technology to deliver energy.
Based around a modular brick system, .1 is composed of a small number of different parts. Each brick has 5 solar leaves which have a very flexible piezo generator at their stem; when the "leaves" flap in the breeze or soak up some sunlight, the GROW system harvests the generated juice. Though just a prototype for now, the concept showed enough promise to be selected as part of the Museum of Modern Art's
Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition, on display through May 12 in New York. Meanwhile, GROW.2 -- the solar-only version -- already exists....

Solar energy is nothing if not abundant: In fact, the amount of solar energy that reaches the United States each year is 3,900 times our power needs, according to the
Pew Center on the Global Climate Change. But although it powers every kind of life on earth, harnessing the sun to feed modern human energy needs has proven tricky. Luckily, the photovoltaic industry is changing rapidly. At a recent conference called the Solar Market Outlook: A Day of Data, speakers laid out the issues with the business of solar.
Hosted by the Prometheus Institute and
Greentech Media, the event took place in lower Manhattan at the
Jewish Heritage Museum, which touts a 36-kilowatt building-integrated solar electric system made from silicon wafers recycled from the semiconductor industry. From historical data on supply and demand to forecasts for the global market for PV solutions, the conference drilled down on
silicon supply issues, the outlook for the thin-film solar market, Wall Street’s take on the business, and emerging concepts in solar-project financing.
Friend of TreeHugger Mar Kelly, a solar energy expert who currently works with
MAK Technologies in market development and sales, sent us the following report of highlights from the event. ...
click here for full size
We have shown quite a few
wild and
crazy geoengineering
ideas before, but it appears that they go way back. Fifty years Arthur Radebaugh proposed it for heating, not cooling:
In time, huge solar mirrors five or more miles in diameter may be used to reflect radiation of the sun to specific areas on earth to increase evaporation and to prevent crop-killing frosts.
::Paleofuture...

We’ve heard rumors of
40% cuts in the cost of solar and claims of the imminent arrival of
$1-a-watt solar technology, but the fact remains that going solar remains a significant investment (in fact, the
Photovoltaics Economics Calculator can help you find out exactly how much it'll cost you). As solar becomes more popular and more desirable, it is inevitable that financial service providers will start offering solutions to make it more accessible too. The Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland has just launched the UK’s first
solar mortgage, offering a 50% reduction in the bank’s standard variable rate for three years to help finance the cost of solar panels:
...

One critical consideration that has largely gone unnoticed amidst the recent wave of innovation in solar cell technology has been a focus on durability - and finding ways to increase cells' lifespan. Most
polymer, or thin film, solar cells currently have a lifespan of about 25-30 years; over time, their ability to convert sunlight into electricity is degraded by UV light.
A team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, led by materials scientist Yang Yang, has developed a "photon conversion material," a special coating, that turns UV photons into visible light ones - which have longer wavelengths. As Justin Mullins
reports in
New Scientist, the coating, when applied to the cells, not only boosts the cells' energy conversion efficiency; it also increases their longevity by sharply reducing the damage caused to the cells. The researchers believe the coating could well add a few more years to the cells' lifespan....

Following closely on the heels of
Jumilla's announcement comes the news that Abengoa Solar, a Spanish firm (what is it with the Spaniards and solar energy?), will build a 280-MW solar power plant 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. Upon completion, the Solana Generating Solution will become the world's largest solar plant.
As reported by
Green Wombat's Todd Woody, Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility, plans on paying around $4b over the next 30 years to power 70,000 homes.
Wired Science's Alexis Madrigal calculates that the plant's kilowatt hour rate should therefore correspond to about 20 cents per kWh - taking into account the consumer markup - or roughly twice the kilowatt hour rate of coal-based alternatives....
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