Solar

Oregon To Replace Coal With Clean Energy

March 11, 2016 Mary Anne Hitt, www.sierraclub.org Create! Climate Change, Coal, Solar, Wind

By Mary Anne Hitt for the Sierra Club. The “Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan", will move Oregon completely off coal by 2030 - including phasing out coal power being imported into the state on the grid - and ensure that most of that power is replaced by clean energy by doubling the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50 percent by 2040. It was passed with bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, and it’s an historic victory for climate and clean energy leadership. Oregon coal plants make of 25 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Analysis of the legislation’s expected impact has shown that the plan will reduce carbon pollution across the western states by 30 million metric tons - the equivalent of taking 6.4 million cars off the road. It also includes measures to keep electricity prices affordable and ensure reliable electric service.

New Electrical Energy Generated In January Came From Wind & Solar

March 9, 2016 Staff, www.ecowatch.com Create! Energy, Solar, Wind

By Staff of Eco Watch - In the first 2016 issue of its monthly Energy Infrastructure Update report, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) notes that five new “units” of wind (468 megawatts) and six new units of solar (145 megawatts) accounted for 100 percent of new electrical generation brought into service in January. No new capacity for nuclear, coal, gas or oil was reported. Renewables now account for 17.93 percent of total installed operating generating capacity in the U.S.: hydropower (8.56 percent), wind (6.37 percent), biomass (1.43 percent), solar (1.24 percent) and geothermal (0.33 percent). In fact, installed capacity for non-hydro renewables...

EPA Protested At 10 Regional Offices Over Clean Power Plan

January 20, 2016 Staff of Our Power, www.storify.com Resist! Energy, Fracking, Gas, Incinerators, Nuclear Power, Solar, Wind

By Staff of Our Power Campaign. Below is a storify of the national day of action against the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan which people see as rhetorical cover for expanding the use of methane gas, which is usually fracked gas, incinerators to burn waste and nuclear power. On Tuesday January 19th, activists with the Climate Justice Alliance's (CJA) Our Power Campaign met with EPA administrators and held rallies outside of EPA offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. Our Power Campaign, Climate Justice Alliance The actions called for stronger safeguards for frontline communities and a "just transition" to a clean energy future. The called for community-based solutions and transition to a clean energy future. Clean energy does not include methane gas, incinerators or nuclear energy

With Nevada Squashing Rooftop Solar, Clean Energy Fight Heats Up

January 14, 2016 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Resist! Energy, Nevada, Solar

By Deirdre Fulton for Common Dreams - Renewable energy advocates in Nevada are outraged by the state's solar-killing moves, and they're not going down without a fight. The state's Public Utilities Commission considered requests Wednesday from solar company groups, homeowners, activists, and the state consumer advocate to put a stay on a rate hike that took effect January 1. The Republican-appointed Commission (PUC) in late December voted to increase a fixed monthly fee for solar customers by about 40 percent while simultaneously reducing the amount customers get paid for excess power they sell to the grid.

There Are Now More Solar Jobs In America Than Oil Jobs

January 13, 2016 Shane Ferro, www.ourpowercampaign.org Create! Energy, Oil, Solar

By Shane Ferro for The Huffington Post - Solar is the energy employer of the future -- or at least that's how the numbers look today. A new report on the state of the solar industry out Tuesday from the nonprofit Solar Foundation shows that the number of jobs in the United States in the solar industry outpaced those in the oil and gas industries for the first time ever. As of November 2015 there were almost 209,000 people who worked in the solar industry, 90 percent of whom only work on solar-related projects, according to the report. There were only about 185,000 people working in oil and gas in the United States in December 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

National Geographic: Blueprint For A Carbon-Free World

December 13, 2015 Staff, www.nationalgeographic.com Create! Energy, Hydroelectric Energy, Solar, Sustainable energy, Wind

By Staff for Popular Resistance. National Georgraphic has published an interractive tool that allows you to search their data base of nations and determine the mix of renewabale energy they could have if the were to move to a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy. National Geographic describes the project: "Mark Jacobson, a Stanford engineering professor, believes the world can eliminate fossil fuels and rely on 100 percent renewable energy. Following up on his state-by-state road map for the United States, he has now released data on plans for how 139 countries could wean themselves from coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power. For more coverage of Mark Jacobson's 100 percent renewable plans, For example, the mix for the United States would be: - 30 percent onshore wind - 17 percent off shore wind - 24% solar plant - 8% residential rooftop - 7% commercial and government rooftop - 7% concentrated solar - 3% hydroplant

Rebuilding The World: An Interview with Lester Brown

December 6, 2015 Amitabh Pal, www.progressive.org Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Solar, Wind

By Amitabh Pal for the Progressive. The two big issues we are facing are climate change and water shortages. Water shortages are more imminent. They’re here now. We suddenly look around and realize that water tables are falling everywhere: throughout the high plains of the United States, for instance, in the Ogallala Aquifer. This is a huge source of water, but it has already been pumped out in Texas-Oklahoma. Much of the water used in the world comes from aquifers. There are thirty-seven major aquifers. More than twenty of them have no major recharge at all. When they’re gone, they’re gone. Over the last thirty years, numerous lakes and rivers have disappeared in the world, and that’s going to continue. Some of the larger rivers no longer make it to the sea, such as the Colorado River or the Yellow River. We’ve got to reshape the economy to make it much more water-efficient than it now is. We know that there are already a number of countries that are running out of water. They’ve pumped their aquifers dry or they’re getting very close to it. This includes Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. And in India, water tables are falling everywhere. The question is: What happens when wells start to run dry?

Newsletter: The Obvious Blinds Us, Unless The Truth Is Told

August 22, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Climate Justice, Cornel West, Ferguson, Pipelines, Racism, Solar, TAFTA, TPP, TTIP, Wind

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance - It has been a busy two weeks since our last newsletter for #BlackLivesMatter, seeking climate justice, fair wages and stopping the TPP. We have been doing weekly newsletters since Occupy, last week we missed our first week as we were at the Localize This Action Camp of the Backbone Campaign. The reality of our times and of our history is that truth needs a messenger. Truths, especially difficult ones to face, do not become known on their own. Telling the hard to face truths is where movements begin; spreading that truth creates a national consensus for change and is the source for mobilizations that force essential transformations.

Obama Administration Moves To Make Solar More Expensive

July 12, 2015 Amy He, www.usa.chinadaily.com Educate! China, Energy, Solar, Sustainable energy

By Amy He for the China Daily - The US Commerce Department is imposing higher tariffs on Chinese solar products imported to the US marketplace. Commerce had indicated that Chinese companies may be entitled to lower rates, but the decision announced on Wednesday to impose tariffs of 238.95 percent reverses that. The department had conducted a review of whether solar manufacturing companies in China had received subsidies from the government between March 2012 and November 2013. Manufacturers now face anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rates of about 31 percent on products made in China. “The Department of Commerce chose against lowering the tax on solar imports. Keeping these stiff tariffs in place makes solar power less affordable, slows job growth and prevents more American homes, businesses and utilities from switching to clean solar energy,” Shah said in a statement released in response to the review's results. “Despite booming solar employment, economically counterproductive tariffs have artificially made solar panels prices in the United States the most expensive in the world. This decision does nothing to correct this imbalance,” Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energ added.

Research: Rooftop Solar Is Simple, Local Solution

March 22, 2015 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Create! Energy, Solar

A Stanford University study published earlier this week found that utility-scale solar development built alongside existing infrastructure, on rooftops or in backyards, may be more than enough to power whole communities. The research, published in Nature Climate Change, modeled land-use efficiency in California, a global solar energy hotspot. The study examined how urban areas could be made more efficient by developing more localized sources for renewable energy. "The quantity of accessible energy potentially produced from photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) within the built environment exceeds current statewide demand," the study found. "Our results show that we do not need to trade these places of environmental value for the production of renewable energy as ample land and space exists elsewhere," said Rebecca Hernandez, study lead author and an environmental earth system scientist at Stanford. "Additionally, developing renewable power generation in places close to where it is consumed reduces costs and loss of electricity associated with transmission."

Newsletter: Our Task-The Future As A Frontier

January 24, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter BXE, Citizens United, Corporatocracy, Davos, Democracy, Elections, fast track, FERC, Fracking, Martin Luther King Jr, MLK, Pipelines, Seneca Lake, Solar, Supreme Court, TPP, World Economic Forum

Sam Smith gave this talk, “On Becoming and Being an Activist,” at a teen conference. The essence of his message is that we are facing serious crises and we have to make a choice of whether we will act or not. We are on a dangerous path and it takes courage to see that and not be paralyzed into inaction. It is easier to ignore the truth and succumb to the many distractions in our lives. Smith writes: “It is this willingness to walk away from the seductive power of the present that first divides the mere reformer from the rebel — the courage to emigrate from one’s own ways in order to meet the future not as just a right but as a frontier.” Smith goes on to describe that traditional tools for social change, working within the system, are not effective in this time. We must raise our voices, do the unexpected and try the improbable. We need to use our passion, our energy, our magic and music to burst the illusion being hand fed to us in the media and taught in our schools.

Solar Is Cheaper Than Grid Electricity In 42 Of 50 Largest US Cities

January 18, 2015 Anastasia Pantsios, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Electricity, Solar

Now a new report called Going Solar in America, prepared by the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, shows how the plummeting costs of going solar could already make it the more economical choice for energy consumers in 42 of the U.S.’s 50 largest cities. It found that in those cities, a fully financed solar system would cost average residential consumers less than they would pay for electricity from their current local utility. “Most Americans are unaware of the true financial value of solar today,” said study authors Jim Kennerly and Autumn Proudlove. “Seen by many as a technological luxury, solar energy is not seriously considered as an option by most homeowners in the U.S. However, our analysis shows that, in 46 of America’s 50 largest cities, a fully-financed, typically-sized solar PV system is a better investment than the stock market, and in 42 of these cities, the same system already costs less than energy from a residential customer’s local utility.” The study found that 9.1 million single-family homeowners in the 50 cities live in a place where buying a solar system outright would cost less than their current utility bill over the life of the system, and 21 million would pay less if low-cost financing were available.

How Solar Power Could Slay The Fossil Fuel Empire By 2030

December 26, 2014 Nafeez Ahmed, www.motherboard.vice.com Educate! Coal, Extreme Energy, Oil and Gas, Renewable Energy, Solar

In just 15 years, the world as we know it will have transformed forever. The age of oil, gas, coal and nuclear will be over. A new age of clean power and smarter cars will fundamentally, totally, and permanently disrupt the existing fossil fuel-dependent industrial infrastructure in a way that even the most starry-eyed proponents of ‘green energy’ could never have imagined. We are in the midst of transformation: Solar panels 154 times cheaper than 1970, extraction of fossil fuels getting more expensive, solar has improved its cost basis by 5,355 times relative to oil since 1970, there are 300,000 solar installations in the US right now, by 2022 there will be 20 million, globally installed solar capacity will reach 56.7 terrawatts (TW) in the next 15 years projected world energy demand at that time would be 16.9 TW -- remember the phrase "clean disruption."

Workers Must Lead Transition To Green Economy, Unions Say

December 21, 2014 Renee Lewis, www.america.aljazeera.com Organize! Climate Change, Jobs, Labor, Solar, Worker Rights and Jobs

International union representatives say labor needs a stronger voice in planning the transition from fossil fuels. If that changeover is left to corporations and market forces alone, workers will be exposed and already-vulnerable communities will suffer most, union leaders told Al Jazeera. “Labor should not just be at the table,” Bruce Hamilton, vice president of the U.S.-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), said from Lima. “Labor should be planning the transition.” Trade unions send delegations to every COP, but they do not participate in negotiations. That makes it difficult to ensure workers are not left out of the energy industry’s “huge transformation,” Anabella Rosemberg, a sustainable development adviser for the International Trade Union, said from Lima.

Nuclear Industry Seeks To Stop Clean Energy

November 18, 2014 Staff, www.nirs.org Educate! Climate Change, Climate Justice, Nuclear Energy, Solar, Wind

Left to the market and public opinion the future is solar, wind and other clean, sustainable energy sources. A solar and nuclear future is a major shift and the old dirty energy corporations are doing all they can to prevent it. The nuclear industry, in particular is taking actions at all level government to protect their dying industry from extinction. They want to stop efforts to reduce waste and increase efficiency so they can keep electricity prices artificially high. Along with this they seek to subsidize nuclear and dirty energy sources while increasing the cost of clean energy. They also want to be considered a clean energy so that dirty energy corporations can purchase carbon credits by investing in nuclear. Below is a pamphlet from the Nuclear Information and Resource Sources that is a summary of a report they have published on how the nuclear industry is working to undermine solar, wind and other sustainable clean energy sources. The full report is: “Killing the Competition: The Nuclear Power Agenda to Block Climate Action, Stop Renewable Energy, and Subsidize Old Reactors.”

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