The growth in wind energy since 2003 in the United States provides clear evidence for what Canada might have achieved during the same period, or could over the coming decade if we were smart. For a measly $120 billion, or say about $10 billion a year for the next ten years, we could, in Canada be powered 100% by renewable energy, earning strong and sustained profits for more than twenty years.
Free energy is hard to come by these days. Taking advantage of it makes a whole lot of sense as a way to save money, create more comfort, and preserve the planet for our children.
"None of the world's top industrial sectors would be profitable if they were paying their full freight. None!" according to a UN sponsored report, says David Roberts on Grist.
Solar charge your phone or tablet for free at your local coffee shop. Today PowerBarr annouced a feedback, support and funding event. You are invited to Evergreen Brick Works to try out PowerBarr Beta with a free solar charge for your phone or tablet on April 15th at 7pm. This is a fund raising event with a goal of $5,000 to help build the next generation of PowerBarr and extend the network of charging locations.
As the number of stories in the news that portend doom and gloom increases, it makes more and more sense to dig into some of the ways more and more people are fighting back. Permaculture has much to teach us about how to live a better life.
Germany has the strongest economy in Europe with large scale industrial production that leads the world. At the same time this, the most advanced industrial power in the world, is operating increasingly on renewable energy.
Research shows that as of 2011 renewable energy is cheaper than gas or coal in Australia. Undoubtedly the gas and coal companies will be trying to prevent this type of research from becoming known for other regions like Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa. More than likely it is already true or soon will be.
Solar makes economic sense despite the lack of a carbon/pollution tax and despite the trillions of dollars in subsidies that have been given to oil, coal, gas, nuclear and transportation over the last fifty plus years. Yet, despite oil, coal, gas, nuclear and transportation industries passing on the true costs to tax payers like you and me for the past fifty years, solar power still makes economic sense in competition with and against the perpetrators of the greatest crimes against humanity, that results from the use of fossil and nuclear energy.
Check out the Open iPub version of Sun Rise. This book explains in simple terms, how we all can start using solar energy, wind power, breathing walls, straw bale home construction techniques, passive solar design, smart windows, green roofs, and composting - today!
Think all solar thermal systems are the same. Think again. Imagine using a solar thermal hot water heating system for both your domestic hot water AND your heating. What is especially cool about this option is that radiant hot water heating systems can operate at lower temperatures than domestic hot water, allowing the system to have an impact in a wider variety of weather conditions.
By design Germany will be producing 80% of the countries energy from renewable sources by 2050. Already 25% of its power comes from renewable energy sources including solar, wind and biomas.
This modern off-the-grid solar home in the Colorado Rockies demonstrates the beauty and elegance of intelligent design that combines efficiency with renewable energy systems to create a comfortable and inexpensive lifestyle.
Cruising down the coast of California would be a good experience in an electric car. How might that work you might ask if the maximum distance your electric car can go on a charge is 300 miles for the Tesla Model S pure electric car? Also, what good would it do if the pollution was simply shifted from the tailpipe to coal or gas plants?
Does the source of fuel matter when we consider our energy choices? Fuel from the Sun is free and essentially unlimited. What does an unlimited fuel source mean for our future? Are the resources used to make solar panels the next determining factor for energy choices?
Dean Kamen is the prolific inventor of the electric vehicle called Segway. More recently he has been working hard to create a machine that can turn even the most contaminated liquid into clean drinking water.
German renewable generation now exceeds generation from hard coal and generation from nuclear. Total renewable generation was less than brown coal in 2011. However, at last year's pace of growth, renewable generation may exceed that from brown coal by 2015.
Did you know that more than $114 billion dollars will subsidize the oil industry in North America over the next ten years? Why do we allow our taxes to increase the already massive profits these companies make while also causing catastrophic consequences for our environment and human health?
According to a new report by Deutsche Bank "the cost of electricity from small PV systems in Germany is in some cases already below retail rates". That means the smaller solar systems are reaching that point where the electricity they generate costs less than that from the grid, a point called "grid parity", a point at which people would be crazy not to switch.
The title of this article is based on a sentence from an article written by Bill McKibben in the most recent issue of Rolling Stones magazine (the link is at the end of this posting). We really are running out of excuses for inaction.
Ontario has re-opened the microFIT program for solar panels. Now a company is offering to put the panels on your house for free and pay you for having them, based on a 20 year contract with the Ontario Government. This is real, it works, and you will be making a big difference in the fight against climate change.
Having saved hundreds of dollars and largely eliminated any pollution, our new Chevy Volt electric (with a backup gasoline generator) car, is proving to be insanely great.
PLANET Magazine is pleased to announce a unique new photo contest that celebrates and explores the natural beauty and wonder of our planet. For the last four years, PLANET has held the annual This is Earth Photo Contest with top judges, prizes, and international exposure for our entrants. This spring, we're introducing This Is Earth, a new contest with a theme we feel is sure to inspire photographers everywhere.
A car that takes you wherever you want to go without producing any pollution while costing you significantly less to operate. Solar energy for your home that will never run out, that produces no pollution, and that will never go up in cost. Combined, full energy and transportation autonomy that will save you money and your children's environment.
Imagine a large 12 meter long bus, quietly humming down your street, roof covered with solar panels, electric motor driven and running entirely on clean renewable energy. Well these buses are available and operating today in China. Now they are coming to North America reports the CBC.
Farming without fossil fuels can produce as much or more when using One Straw Revolution or Permaculture. If we took the time to observe nature we could be producing more of what we need without creating massive disruption. This being true, you also have to ask, why is the dominant system fossil fuel based?
Traveling more than 60,000 kilometres entirely using electricity generated by photovoltaic solar panels on the deck of this large boat. Compare that to $1000 for a medium/small size power boat using gasoline to cross lake Ontario, ignoring the terrible cost related to the pollution.
Switching to an electric car could save you up to $2000 per year and growing. Learn more about why switching to renewable energy and away from fossil/nuclear non-renewables makes so much sense.
Donna Morton is the CEO and co-founder of First Power. She is an entrepreneur building a business on the idea that power really is the people. All the technology exists and is sitting on the table for us to make use of so that we can completely replace oil, gas and nuclear for all our energy requirements.
Want five things you can do today to make boating greener? Interested in learning more about switching to electric on your boat. See what Greg Martin has to say. Here is a sailor who is walking the talk, or in his case sailing the sail and motoring the auxiliary on electric.
Just imagine if a battery could store all of the solar energy your solar panels collected each day. Then, when the sun goes down, or the clouds roll in, you'd still have all the electricity you need. That day has arrived. Electrovaya is testing a 1.5 MW lithium ion battery on the Arizona power grid.
Green School is an off-the-grid school in Bali that teaches kids how to build, garden, create (and get into college). The centerpiece of campus is the spiraling Heart of School, perhaps the world's largest freestanding bamboo building. See the video of the amazing design.
Getting an electric car like the Chevy Volt is a big step in the right direction. Making the switch from gasoline to electricity is a big change. What does it all mean for you?
Check out The People's Book Project by Andrew Gavin Marshall. This new book currently being written is a heavily researched initiative to present a new understanding of the world, focusing specifically on historical, political, social, and economic power structures. The aim is to understand the ideas, institutions, and individuals which have come to be dominant over humanity, and thus, how humanity can free itself from the chains that bind it to its present state. Learn more and support this inspiring new idea.
Spring is in the air. Time to get ready to grow some of the most delicious and health food you can imagine. Your own. It isn't hard. Check out this new video from the Solar Village that expains how.
Making the switch from gasoline to electric motor for your sailboat turns out to work exceptionally well. The future of boating, if not most transportation, is heading rapidly towards electric. Find out how it works.
Nuclear accident in Japan has universities there dreaming up new ways to make solar and wind energy sufficient to replace all of their nuclear power plants.
The grid makes it easy to share renewable energy for up to twenty percent of the supply. Beyond that requires investment in battery storage systems to make the transition to 100% renewable energy.
Be the ideas and action that will change everything. Yes, the occupy movement has shown us, we can simply take action now. Now is the time to be part of changing the way the world works.
Nissan sees the future of solar energy. Having developed the most powerful and safe battery system (arguably) in the world, they've now seen that the opportunity now exists to scale production by offering the system as a backup power system for your house. Currently they are testing the concept in their own head office, a masterpiece in sustainable building design.
Now is the time to start investing in solar power. We are on the cusp of the major turning point where the panels you buy today will be producing electricity for less than any other source of energy at some point in the next two to ten years. If we accounted for the cost of pollution (carbon and nuclear waste) that point has already been passed. If we removed the subsidies to fossil and nuclear industries we'd also have passed the point where solar is more cost effective. It is in fact more cost effective and always has been. Only our economic systems has been used by vested interests to secure their large sunk investments in these polluting sources of energy.
How can Ontario make a good thing even better? You have until December 15th to add your ideas. Here are some responses to the survey that may provide food for thought.
After his arrest in front of Goldman Sachs, as a part of the Occupy Wall Street sit in, Chris Hedges, upon his release wrote a thought provoking article for TruthDig.com, regarding the meaning of freedom.
"A radical situation is a collective awakening...In such situations people become much more open to new perspectives, readier to question previous assumptions, quicker to see through the usual cons." - Ken Knabb, The Joy of Revolution
Help us develop the Solar Village Design Book as the open source resource for creating sustainable autonomous communities. We've created the first draft. Now we need your input, updates, and edits.
Global climate change is now affecting millions of people. What is going to happen to the people displaced by climate change? What are you doing about it?
Solar rooftops on homes, when integrated with smart battery systems, are the iPad of the energy world. Solar homes that can store a portion of their renewable energy, contribute to the grid on demand, and even operate autonomously when the grid fails, make for a beautiful energy experience that can power a democratized power future for us all. Here is another open source solar idea that we've proven works. Next generation batteries will then, within ten years, allow you to go fully off-the-grid.
"Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil." - Chris Hedges
Is possible to get off the electricity grid in a city setting through various means of power generation? For example can an individual home owner set up enough solar panels to create enough power to run a fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, lights, computers etc.? How realistic could getting off the grid be?
Ontario is a pioneer in green energy in North America. We want the planet to take notice. On September 24, join us for Ontario's first Green Energy Field Day, a grassroots surge that begins in your community and builds.
Our time for the solar revolution has come. Distributed generation and renewable energy owned by local communities offers us a chance to regain our democratic rights.
Join John Wilson as he leads tours of his sustainable design award winning solar home near Orangeville, Ontario. Learn how to build with local renewable materials like straw bales. See how profitable it can be to add solar panels to your rooftop with the MicroFIT program.
AL GORE ANNOUNCES NEW CAMPAIGN AND WORLDWIDE, 24-HOUR EVENT TO MOBILIZE CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION
24 Hours of Reality event to be produced by The Climate Reality Project, formerly the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Nothing is going to change unless you do something to change it. Get involved in changing our world by making the switch to renewable resources. Learn more about Moving Planet taking place this September 24th, 2011, everywhere.
Germany with one third the land, less wind, less solar and fewer hydro resources, today produces more electricity from renewable energy sources than Ontario requires.
Coal kills. When will we do something about it. The fight for the last great mountain in America's Appalachian heartland pits the mining giant that wants to explode it to extract the coal within, against the community fighting to preserve the mountain and build a wind farm on its ridges instead. THE LAST MOUNTAIN highlights a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.
We can't afford to fight global warming. Right, if we leave our economic systems as they are, then the economic incentive is not there, only the moral one. Why not make our economic system meet the needs of our moral imperative to prevent the scientific certainty of runaway global warming that begins to lock in over the next nine years unless we change now. Change the system, and then it pays to eliminate carbon emissions and make the switch to renewable energy, while more equitably sharing the wealth, and stabilizing the world economic system.
Economic disaster. Global warming. Social upheaval. We now have less than ten years to make the switch to renewable resources. Failure is not an option. Economic stability, averting catastrophic global warming, and social well being are within our grasp if we all work together. Join us.
Discover what a sustainable future might actually look like. Community Renewable Energy Waterloo presents another GREEN MOVIE NIGHT featuring the documentary POWERFUL ENERGY FOR EVERYONE, PLUS information on LIFE, a local wind co-operative. - Thursday, August 25, 7:00 / Displays and info starting 6:30 p.m., Princess Twin Cinemas - Waterloo.
Economic uncertainty, recession and ultimately global depression have their root cause in rising costs of limited resources, increasing levels of automation, increasing levels of climate change disaster and pyschological anxiety regarding a future given these circumstances. As we exceed the carrying capacity of the earth each day it becomes more and more urgent that we switch to a solar economy that will create a sustainable world. Your company, your family must switch to 100% renewables.
Now that the final countdown towards irreversible climate change threatens global upheaval on a scale never before known, we must get serious about what Lester R. Brown calls Plan B. Rather than the current plan A that leads inevitably towards climate and economic catastrophe, Plan B explains how and why we will make the switch to an actual plan for survival, and more than that, a better way of life for all.
Energy report highlights how fast we could switch to renewables. Climate change may be irreversible in just nine years. However, data shows, that with the right policies, we could switch to renewables in just 5 years. We make the future today by our actions.
Carbon tax will help Australia get serious about fighting the Global Emergency that is global warming. Knowing that runaway climate change is inevitable if we don't cut carbon emissions by 80%, the Australian people and their brave Prime Minister are leading the world.
The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) is turning up the green energy wattage with the announcement of a video contest, real time online map showcasing green energy supporters, conservation and renewable energy projects and a province wide Green Energy Field Day, all part of the WattsNEXT? contest. WattsNEXT? offers the chance to win exciting prizes (including a complete 10 kilowatt solar system by AS Solar and cash bursaries), while showcasing the power of sustainable energy across Ontario.
Solar Today has a great article about a father and son who trek into remote villages in Nepal to install solar systems for Solar Sisters. Also featured in our article is an amazing personal video log from a group who installed solar panels for a youth hostel through the same Himalayan Light Foundation that operates Solar Sisters. Time to start exploring with solar on our backs.
Utilities first reaction to electric cars going mainstream on their grids was fear that they'd overload the system. Quite the opposite as it turns out with the ability of these roaming power stations to feed the grid on demand using wireless communications and two-way electrical flow built right into modern electric vehicles.
Ontario's feed-in tariff is NOT a subsidy. It is a rate payer surcharge, so our tax dollars are not being used to fund this development. In fact, since 2009 the Ontario Green Energy Act through the feed-in tariff program has created $20 billion in private sector investment. That is correct, the private sector takes the risk on these 20 year projects, provides the capital and builds/operates the projects. Rate payers only pay for what is actually generated. As in Germany this system works for everyone and is the lowest cost climate change mitigation strategy. Far better than cap and trade.
Start investing in solar with as little as $1,000. Make as much as 5%. Help create 50,000 new jobs in Ontario. Be a part of a 600 kW (and growing) new solar on rooftops.
We share the earth as one family, all of us descended, genetically speaking, from just one man and one woman. We are all brothers and sisters in reality. Now it is time to fully comprehend what it means to be one earth, one family, working together to make life work in our solar system, using exclusively solar energy and renewable resources. With the ability of our species to empathize and solve problems using local renewable energy and resources, there is hope that we will create a new global solar civilization, an interconnected world of solar villages, working together in partnership.
Check out FT.com for an article about solar in the US reaching grid parity. Looks we are well past the point when solar makes the most sense economically.
You could get the utility company to pay you, via the OPA (Ontario Power Authority), FIT (feed-in tariff) program offered in Ontario, Canada. At 80 cents per kilowatt it generates a profit from solar on your roof. Pretty much anyone can do it.
Google Partners with SolarCity to create $280 million fund for residential solar projects, largest in US history.
This collaboration will enable thousands of new solar installations and create a new clean energy investment model for American companies according to the two companies.
In 2004 Tom co-founded Bullfrog Power with a vision to provide Canadians with easy, practical and 100% renewable energy solutions for their homes, businesses and transportation. Tom's Bullfrog customers draw electricity from the grid like other consumers and then Bullfrog's generators inject renewable electricity onto local or regional grids to match the amount of power used. In 2008, Tom accepted the "Leader of the Year" award from the Ontario Energy Association.
Wind energy sure make sense at the top of a ski mountain just outside of Vancouver Canada. Looks like a pretty amazing view too. Check out the photo tour.
We need your help. Please tell your friends to check us out and join us in our effort to create solar villages all over the world. Don't forget, when you sign up you'll get access to ebooks, videos and tools. Our signup form is here - http://www.thesolarvillage.com/?SignUp=Join
Close to 80 percent of the world's energy supply could be met by
renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies a new report shows.
The guy who invented the internet now has a plan to solve the climate crisis. Learn about all the many forms of renewable energy that we have at our disposal for solving the climate change crisis while at the same time creating a renewable economic model at the same time.
The Solar Village today released the inspiring and informative full version of Hope for a Change: Renewable Energy publicly on YouTube. This documentary features Dr. David Suzuki (award winning environmentalist), Dr. Hermann Scheer (father of the Green Energy Act and Feed-in laws for renewable energy in Germany) and Chris Turner (author of The Geography of Hope).
Google knows that IT depends in a fundamental way on energy. Without a consistent supply of low cost energy the web would begin to shut down under the weight of rising costs. As the price of crude oil heads for $200 per barrel, up from $30 not long ago, perhaps the oracles of Google have got it figured out.
Genius of FIT and MicroFIT is that it is NOT a tax payer subsidy while in fact requires investors to put up the large amounts of up-front capital, NOT the tax payer.
"The oldest and most common dig against organic agriculture is that it cannot feed the world's citizens; this, however, is a supposition, not a fact. And industrial agriculture isn't working perfectly, either: the global food price index is at a record high, and our agricultural system is wreaking havoc with the health not only of humans but of the earth. There are around a billion undernourished people; we can also thank the current system for the billion who are overweight or obese." says Mark Bittman in his recent NY times opinion piece.
Blind Spot is a documentary that shows the impact of our current addiction to fossil fuels. World peak oil will create the world's most devastating economic disaster ever if we let it. Climate change threatens all life on the planet and increasing economic upheaval. Together we must see that now is the time to make the changes necessary to ensure our collective survival.
Switching to solar power simply makes good business sense. Nice to know that it also stablizes the economy, makes fighting over middle-east oil unnecessary, and is equitably available everywhere on earth. Revolution is in the air. Surely the peoples revolution will be powered by solar.
How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.
"WASHINGTON—According to a report released this week by the Center for Global Development, climate change, the popular mid-2000s issue that raised awareness of the fact that the earth's continuous rise in temperature will have catastrophic ecological effects, has apparently not been resolved, and may still be a problem."
"By 2050, we could get all the energy we need from renewable sources. This will solve most of the problems of climate change and dwindling fossil fuel and nuclear resources. We can show that such a transition is not only possible but also cost-effective, providing energy that is affordable for all and producing it in ways that can be sustained by the global economy and the planet."
Transportation revolution is in the air. Literally, you can smell the clean cool switch from putrid gasoline/diesel fumes to, well, nothing. Electric vehicles combined with renewable energy shipping in the millions with some conversion of older systems presents a bit of light in the darkness.
Solar plane to fly around the world using only renewable energy from the sun. As a symbol of what is possible with solar energy, nothing beats this airplane that can fly, day and night, without landing, using only clean renewable energy.
Rapid Energy Vehicles is creating a modular system for converting the massive stock of existing vehicles from gasoline/diesel engine to electric with lithium batteries for energy storage. Renewable energy systems will benefit from this innovative approach which includes the ability to be charged inexpensively from the grid but also the ability to inject back into the grid on demand.
The challenge of the century is the imperative to move to 100% renewable energy. This must happen in the next three or four decades as we approach three critical limits. First, the finite reserves of non-renewable's (fossil fuels and uranium). Second, increasing demand for energy. Third, increasingly destructive impacts from global warming. Combined these threats pose the greatest challenge ever faced by society. Our children's future depends on our rapid move to 100% renewable energy everywhere.
Chris Turner explains why plus energy housing is the most inspring example of what is possible today. See how Rolf Disch designed and built solar houses that produce more energy than they consume while costing about the same as conventional middle class German homes.
The primary energy utility in the Province of Manitoba Canada, has built a high energy efficiency 65,000m2, 22-storey office tower that occupies a full block in the centre of Winnipeg, a city of extreme climate, and a downtown in recovery from economic downturn.
John Wilson walks you through the ten year journey that his family undertook to build a natural home. Sun Rise documents what real people are doing to stop the destruction of the natural world. There are so many things that can be done today.
The Solar Village launches "What do you want to know?" feature to share community knowledge. Submit your question today and we'll share the answers. Our new discussion features will allow all of us to share what we know about the answers. Try it out today - click here.
Range extended electric vehicles have arrived. Chevy Volt is an electric car with a gasoline powered range extender that charges the batteries on the go.
Complete this survey designed to help determine the right type of investment product for a community based renewable energy co-operative in Ontario. Once you've completed the survey you'll be able to see the results collected so far.
PlanetSolar is a pioneering effort to prove we can build sustainable energy technology on water. This solar catamaran employs leading-edge technology available on the market for anyone to integrate into their home, boat, car or building. The intention is to demonstrate that by innovative use of existing materials and technology, high-performance solar mobility and a comfortable lifestyle can be realised today.
The FIT Coalition believes the right policies will result in a timely transition to renewable energy while yielding tremendous economic benefits, including new job creation, increased tax revenue, and the establishment of an economic foundation that will drive growth for decades.
Energy technology is changing rapidly, and the Energy Expo will allow you to explore the latest innovations, learn about the benefits of energy conservation through energy efficient products and talk to people who understand how they work and can help your home or business.
BurlingtonGreen will announce the development of one of Ontario's first community renewable energy cooperatives at its November 23 Annual General Meeting this week. The new company, to be called BrightSky Power Community Solar Co-op, will enable people in Burlington to participate in and benefit from renewable energy solar power installations.
Harnessing the power of the sun directly to power you home or work office is now possible. With Solar Desk II John Wilson has created the next generation solar appliance.
In October 2010 Nissan began producing for a mass consumer market in Japan, and soon to be the the rest of the world, an electric car that marks a critical turning point in history.
Have you taken a closer look at some of those bikes parked around your downtown office building? More and more of them have no tailpipe. A close look reveals that a growing number of them are electric.
The highly respected International Energy Association is telling you and I as well as G20 leaders meeting now in Korea that we must end oil subsidies. You subsidize oil companies through the taxes you pay every day to increase their massive profits while at the same time their product destroys our shared earth through global warming and kills people daily from the pollution resulting from the use of derived products. On top of all that we are in the middle of peak oil that finds our economic systems being rocked by a global depression.
ONTARIO, CANADA (November 10, 2010) - John Wilson and his family have added solar photovoltaic panels to their roof creating what may be the first grid connected "PlusEnergy" residential house in Ontario. PlusEnergy is a European concept defined as a building that produces more energy than it consumes. This is especially inspiring because the house uses no gas or oil for heating, instead relying primarily on passive solar heating and biomass (wood) as a fuel for the wood stove. "Your house as a power plant is an extraordinarily powerful idea," says Wilson.
This year Ontario marks 100 years of Community Power: electricity owned and operated by the people of the province. A century ago, in a ceremony in what was then the city of Berlin and is now Kitchener, Sir Adam Beck, the founder of Ontario Hydro, flipped the switch enabling electricity generated at Niagara Falls to be sent along public-owned transmission lines to municipal utilities in over a dozen communities, including Toronto.
Isn't a better world possible? Don't we all long for a more ethical existence where our lives have meaning? Does not the idea of an economy based on renewable resources make that possible?
Learn how to invest in solar through the microFIT program offered by the Ontario Power Authority. See how John Wilson has put 28 panels on his roof and has earned $600 in the first month of operation. Don't miss this opportunity to tour a working microFIT solar installation and learn how you too could be investing.
Green Heroes features the stories of corporate knights, public figures and everyday heroes who tell their transformative stories. Each episode profiles someone, who in a single moment, shifted his or her world-view and suddenly understood that something must be done to save the planet. Their inspirational stories of green epiphanies provides motivation for all of us to do what we can to preserve the natural world for future generations.
As we see the emergence of 3,000 new large cities over the next thirty years we have the opportunity to invest over $350 trillion creating sustainable communities and economies. What choices do we need to make?
Hermann Scheer has given to the world the hopeful idea that we can switch to 100% solar power in the next twenty years. Over the past twenty years this German parliamentarian, author, economist, and visionary has created the legislative and economic tools we need to make survival for the human race possible. Scheer has offered to the world a way out of the madness of climate change destruction. His Renewable Energy Act creates a sustainable economy and makes democracy possible again. In this and much more Scheer has literally represented the greatest source of light and energy known in solar power for the people.
Kerri Molinaro, President of IKEA Canada. "We are proud to be a partner in generating clean, renewable power that will feed into the communities IKEA operates in the Greater Toronto Area."
Obama administration announces that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family's living quarters, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.
GE (General Electric) Ecomagination offers up a $200 million innovation experiment where businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students share their best ideas on how to build the next-generation power grid and just might get funded. Founder of the Natural Life Network and The Solar Village, John Wilson, with his MicroFIT Solar idea submission has reached the GE favorite 100 ideas (see John Wilson with his solar desk pictured in the top 100 list on the GE Ecomagination web site).
We could reduce emissions by as much as 42% for as little as 2% of our income. Simply switching to 100% renewable energy for our electricity would only cost about $1 per day.
What drives the energy business? Economics of course. Check out where the world's largest solar photovoltaic is getting built...not, California, no, it is Ontario, Canada, up in the great white north. Are these corporate giants crazy?
Your house could be an electricity generating power plant. Advances in solar PV (photovoltaic) panels and solar feed-in tariff programs turn your house into a money making machine. Learn how easy it really is.
Electricity may represent the biggest portion of most peoples pollution footprint. Bullfrog Power provides Canadians with clean green renewable energy choice for their home or business.
Transitioning from oil dependency to local resilience promises a broad range of advantages for the majority of us. With "Peak-Everything" around the corner, if not here now, we would do well to read this book, learn from the pioneers and get to work.
Find out why straw bale construction make so much sense from an embodied energy perspective. While you are at it check out the best way to clean up yogurt spills from your counter.
Now we can sail comfortably, safely, quietly and less epensively with an electric motor supplied with electricity from renewable energy sources on our sail or power boat.
Suddenly it hits me. We should build an economic system based on principles that make sense in nature. This is the only reasonable economic system since all life depends upon nature. So, google Natural Economics, and there you'll find a speach by Tachi Kiuchi called "New Economics for the 21st Century: Natural Economics". I thought I'd have to define it but no, here it is, a fairly good start at what a natural economic system would be like.
Parking meters accross North America and Europe are making the switch to solar in order to add credit card and bank card payment options. In so doing we are seeing the large scale development of autonomous solar powered systems that demonstrate the power of this type of technology.
Solar power proves to be a beautiful solution to a pressing problem. Find out how easy it is to start earning a profit by installing a 10 kW ground mounted solar PV array.
Over the next several years Texas will develop more than 50,000 MW of Wind power. That is many times more than Ontario needs to replace coal and nuclear. Wind power alone could, in just a few years, power the entire province while making the developers of this energy source a handsome profit while at the same time eliminating carbon emissions and creating sustainable jobs for the long term.
Hallelujah Organics completes a brand new state-of-the-art facility incorporating sustainable design features that fit with the organic nature of the products being produced.
Solar is set to replace coal, gas and nuclear in Ontario. Development progress so far significantly surpasses expectations of the government. In just six years Ontario could get all required energy from renewables. This is a challenge worthy of our best efforts.
Charge up this little Nissan (Datsun) electric in twenty minutes and this dragster will beat any of the gasoline powered competition, quietly, and clearly. Check out the documentary video.
The heart and soul of the coming electric car are the battery systems. President Obama is investing more than $5 billion to see the United States lead the world in next generation battery technology that will power electric cars and the smart grid of the future using 100% renewable energy.
Using $108 billion in private capital funding Ontario is on track to be 100% powered by renewable energy. Projects and jobs are being created all over the province generating renewable electricity, jobs and profits.
Corporate Finance and Climate Protection: a Beneficial Alliance, May 2010:
At last an inspiring proposal that represents an attempt to redefine climate protection measures and to reset climate protection targets to accord with what is scientifically necessary and economically preferable.
On 10/10/10, the Global Work Party, we'll start transforming our communities from the ground up. Through local climate action projects, we'll make our leaders wake up and lead on the climate crisis. It's a plan that may well break the logjam and get us moving. Will you join in?
Solar farming in Germany is leading the way towards 30% renewable energy in the country by 2020, well ahead of the mandated 20%. The critical policy driving this massive transition is a feed-in tariff created out of the renewable energy act.
Replacing fossil fuels changes the world as we know it. Transportation looks poised to make the transition to 100% solar energy quite possible given the effectiveness of hybrid electric technology that is in wide spread production. Key building blocks for this transition include a potentially large electric grid infrastructure upgrade of the scale comparable to the interstate highway system in the US 50 years ago. Storage technology is ready in the form of pumped storage hydro power. Concentrating solar may help bring down the cost per watt. Rooftop solar may be the political glue that holds it all together by empowering political autonomy. Get ready for some clean air and a sustainable world.
Allowing oil to drive our global economic system makes no sense. Recessions driven by dramatic swings in oil prices are insane. Horrific disasters like the BP oil well spewing death into the Gulf of Mexico and beyond are insane. Oil reserves are being depleted faster than new reserves are being found. Oil will run out in the next forty years. The only answer is a switch to solar energy as a sustainable way to drive our economic system. We know this will work.
Sun, wind, hydro and geothermal energy are natural sources of renewable energy accessible to everyone all over the world. They are renewable, free and available forever. Knowledge about the possibilities of renewable energy will ignite an international movement and take the absolutely necessary energy transition. We need a quickly enlightening medium that conveys this knowledge in a comprehensible and compact format. This can be provided by a great documentary video. Check it out...
Add 10 cents/kW to your electricity bill, roughly $100/month, to account for your carbon and other polluting emissions. Given that you can pay green electricity retailers like Bullfrog Power just $30/month extra for carbon free electricity, green energy looks like quite a bargain, especially for our children.
Developing a successful and profitable renewable energy project on the Ontario FIT and MicroFIT requires planning. Learn what steps you should be taking to plan your solar, wind, hydro / water, biogas / biomass / landfill gas project.
"The clean energy economy will provide the largest wealth-building opportunities in history. The world will spend $382 trillion in energy over the next 40 years and every aspect of this industry is up for grabs: from generation and transportation to storage and use." - Tony Seba, Author, Solar Trillions
Your house can be a power plant. The sun that falls each day is enough to supply not only the energy requirements of your home but also can produce excess. With a feed-in tariff (FIT) like the one in Ontario Canada you could be generating profits with your solar house. Find out how.
The US economy can use whole system thinking and integrative design to free itself from fossil fuels. The idea is to have business and profit lead the way.
Did someone say renewable energy wasn't capable of producing energy even when the sun doesn't shine or the wind isn't blowing? Biogas turns "waste" into a renewable fuel that produces energy consistently day and night.
Put this web site in your pocket with our new iPhone app. Includes videos worth $10. Put the power of renewable energy in the palm of your hand. Get instant access to the news, events, tools and videos you need to understand how renewable energy is transforming our world. Learn how it all works to change everything right now.
Tom Rand makes the point that the FIT/MicroFIT basically creates a new asset class. Essentially it is a government backed bond at a rate of around 10-12%. Learn how this can be so and what the opportunities are for you and your community in Ontario.
Photo Credit: Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project team, Wikimedia.org.
Your home and your community could be powered by 100% renewable energy in the next five to ten years. Find out exactly how in this extraordinary documentary video.
Long before the Chevy Volt sees the light of day Electric Yachts has been powering sailboats with electric motor technology. No more fumes. No more fuel bills. Fits where the old diesel/gas engine used to sit. Batteries store inexpensive electricity for hours of motoring in and out of harbour to get the sails up. Batteries are charged while sailing as the water pressure drives the propeller to rotate turning the electric motor into a generator. Solar and wind turbines can be used to charge the batteries. A small generator can then be used to extend the range of the electric, again, much like the future Chevy Volt.
Renewable energy actually costs less than oil, gas, coal and nuclear. Take a look at subsidies and the cost to future generations of our insane use of oil, gas, coal and nuclear.
Toronto, Ontario may lead the world towards a future where 100% renewable energy is proven viable. Newly announced biogas facilities will provide the equivalent of 100 megawatts of renewable energy.
Need an inspiring look at how we could switch the entire world to 100% renewable energy and make a profit? Want to understand the future of energy? Check out this book and video trailer by Tom Rand, called Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit, 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World.
Electric cars will be integrated with renewable energy to provide the required storage to resolve the intermittent nature challenge of renewables. Study shows just 20% of vehicles need be electric to support 100% renewables.
Building on rocky, barren, un-farmable land could produce 90 Gigawatts of electricity, pretty much enough to shut down every nuclear plant in the US. Certainly, there is more than enough solar to power the province of Ontario when combined with wind, hydro, and biomass.
The Ravina Project is a privately funded green energy research project in Toronto Canada. Using their own resources this group has turned their home into a science experiment. They want to provide power generation data for the public and do green power research. The group fervently hopes that access to their data will be a factor in giving people the confidence to press forward with their own green power projects.
Jeff Rubin presents a world about to get a lot smaller. As the economy comes out of recession it can be expected that the price of oil will again hit the triple digits. This will again trigger another economic recession which will again limit demand for oil. Ultimately demand and carbon pricing will drive oil past the triple digits. This will make local economies the only sensible solution driven by green technologies. The transition may be a painful one if we don't plan for it or it may be the greatest opportunity in history. We must decide what we want to do about it in the next 12 to 15 months.
Ontario has embarked upon an historic path towards economic and energy sustainability. Citizens of this large province have now invested $15 billion in renewable energy projects that will be built and put into production over the next couple years. In the process we will create over 20,000 jobs, clean up our air a bit, and set the stage for higher electricity prices. Terrify you a bit? Worried about paying $5/month more for your electricity? How did this happen and what does it all mean for you?
Concentrated solar power (CSP) is poised to be a critical component, when combined with solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, hydro and other forms of solar to provide all the energy we need for a sustainable future. CSP provides the critical storage capability for 7 by 24 operation, complementing hydro as a base load solution in a renewable energy powered world.
Have you ever wondered why renewable energy costs more? Are fossil fuel sources subsidized more? Does nuclear get some kind of special treatment? Are the environmental costs to future generations included? What form of energy do we really pay more for?
Need a step-by-step guide that explains how to put solar panels on your house? Want an unbiased owners perspective? Are you wondering how much it will cost, where to get the financing and how much you'll profit? Check what may be the best and most comprehensive web site focussed on the owners perspective of putting solar panels on your roof.
Kiva uses microfinance to support green innovation in Mongolia. Fuel for heating is a major cause of pollution throughout the world. The cost of fuel, as it rises, impacts the poorest the most.
Visiting villages throughout Germany, especially Freiburg, has been inspirational to say the least. I lived in Europe for a month each year (September) in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and had a good chance to study what the Germans and Danes are doing regarding solar, geothermal, hydro power, and wind energy. Driving all through Bavaria in particular blew my mind on our first trip. I have been a renewable energy advocate since the mid-1970s. Moving to northern Michigan in 1976 and living off the land taught me a lot about sustainability, but I still had a lot to learn. These trips provided that education for me.
Check out the power adapter on the iPad. I know most people are oooing and ahhhing over the LED display, the light weight, iBook reader and the ability to run pretty much all of 140,000 iPhone Apps. Big deal. So I can read my books, do most of my work, listen to my music, watch TV, movies, facebook, email, chat, msn, write documents, do spreadsheets, surf the web and from anywhere with wi-fi/G3. Nothing new with all those features. Back to the power adapter.
You must read this book! I've just finished reading the most inspiring true story about a boy from Malawi, Africa, who defies all the odds, survives horrific famine and terrible poverty that denies almost all opportunities, and builds a wind turbine that provides a glimmer of the light that will provide a beacon of hope through the ages. This boy, the author of this remarkable book, is William Kamkwamba.
Five years ago, having come back from Freiburg Germany, the solar capital of Europe, I was inspired by their zero emissions solar PV manufacturing facility there, feed-in tariff driven investment opportunities available to the general public, community owned wind farms, and solar PV on almost every other building I looked at, both residential and commercial.
Our economic systems are a choice and idea that must change now. In order to create a sustainable world for our children we must now make the choice to change our organizing principles in support of people and a sustainable world for all. Economics must be put in the service of making the world a sustainable, peaceful, equitable community for all.
Economically, socially and scientifically the only way to avoid disaster is a global switch to 100% renewable energy. Only this can realistically address the challenge. Only with renewable energy is the reserve and growing demand problem resolved, and yes sufficient free supply is available, with more than 1000 times more renewable energy reaching earth from the sun (and available equitably and locally everywhere in the form of solar, geothermal, biomass and wind).
How can we possibly convert to 100% renewables in the next 20 years? Jacobson and Delucchi say we'll need 3.8 million large wind turbines, 89,000 300-megawatt solar plants, 490,000 tidal turbines, 1.7 billion rooftop photovoltaic systems, and 900 hydroelectric plants.
Investing in solar in Ontario today could be a very lucrative investment at 80.2 cents/kW. At that rate, with a good sized solar PV (photovoltaic) installation on your roof, you could be looking at a return on your investment within ten years or less given the improving efficiencies and cost of the technology. As of October 1, 2009 you can submit your start to the feed-in tariff contracting process. Start now and the system will save your pending information until you are ready to submit.
Cities are for all people. Public places are where all can share in the good of the city. A cities public space should make all the people that live in the city happy. Making people happy requires that they have dignity, are treated equally, and have hope. That is what Enrique Penalosa did as mayor in Bogota Columbia.
With a mix of front-line reporting, analysis and passionate argument, Chris Turner pieces together the glimmers of optimism amid the gloom and the solutions already at work around the world, from Canada
Environmental scientists from the U.S. and China estimate that wind power alone could meet China's projected electricity needs for 2030 using wind turbines installed over a combined area nearly the size of Manitoba.
Eight Green homes were featured on a Prince Edward County Green Homes Tour organized by the County Sustainability Group as part of the 2009 Sustainable Living Symposium at Loyalist College in Belleville.
Showcased will be the "Best of" selections from three documentary videos that John Wilson has produced over the last few years showing a progression from what we as individuals can do, to what we can do in our communities and finally showing how we can change our country and through that the world at large. Each short documentary will be introduced by John Wilson who will also take a few questions after each showing.
Solar energy is the most abundant on earth. There is many times more energy from the sun than we need. With a little tweaking of our economic systems, as we've done in the past for oil, solar will be the clean renewable energy of the future.
John WIlson will present his popular sustainable living workshop that explains the process he used to create a "Natural dream" home. Presented on location, about an hour north of Toronto, at their Natural Home, in the beautiful Hockley Valley.
Learn about how you can start using solar and wind power today, off or on-the-grid. Find out about the advantages of straw bale construction. See all of the ideas you can use for being more efficient. See how it all works. Ask questions about any concerns you have.
Owning an electric car starts to make sense when you get a $10,000 rebate, eliminate any pollution (assuming your electricity is clean and green), and save a bundle on gas (the cost to operate an electric car is much less than a comparable gas car).
The time to invest in solar photovoltaic panels is now in Ontario. Get ready to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the Green Energy Act to add solar panels to your house or commercial building.
Leading companies recognize that social, environmental, economic and ethical factors directly affect their business strategy and success. As sustainability becomes an integral part of the executive agenda, organizations need to find the right balance between generating profits and reducing the impact of operations on people and the environment.
1.3 million hybrid vehicles have been sold in the U.S. since 1999. 2,000+ hybrid buses are in use in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor and Washington, providing 25-35% improvement in fuel efficiency and up to a 90% reduction in soot pollutants.
Plugging Ontario Into A Green Future lays out an action plan for achieving Minister Smitherman's goal of enhancing the contributions of renewable energy,conservation and distributed generation and shows how doing so will assist Ontario in meeting its climate targets and create new green jobs. According to the OPA, the Ontario government must decide early in 2009 whether to rebuild or replace the Pickering B nuclear station scheduled to come offline in 2013. A similar decision about the Bruce B nuclear station must be made within the mandate of this government as well. 2 However, by framing these two decisions as either rebuild or replace nuclear stations, the OPA has failed to consider the option of expanding renewable energy beyond the minimum in the supply mix directive. Instead, the OPA has given the government an unpalatable choice: rebuild old reactors at high cost and high risk or build new nuclear plants by 2020. Both options increase fossil generation until reactors are refurbished r built, resulting in the risk of higher greenhouse gas emissions.
We are a community with a commitment to sustainability and land stewardship seeking to live together in harmony with each other and with the natural habitat. Learn how we built our community.
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