Friday, November 25, 2005

In the News: Alternative Energy

In the past few days I’ve managed to take a few articles off my “to be read” pile.

Most interesting and exciting was “The New Power Generation” by Daniel Pink @ Wired.

This article features some couples and a Chicago restaurant that have begun powering their homes and businesses with solar and wind power. Pink helpfully includes some of the dollar amounts involved in switching to alternative power; both the upfront costs and what might come back in savings, grants and rebates.

Most surprising to me was the number of homes in the country that have switched to alternative energy sources: “Across the US some 185,000 households have switched from the local power company to their own homegrown, renewable energy.”

Tyler @ the Clean Break blog (I LOVE THIS BLOG) posted highlights of Hillary Clinton’s address to the Cleantech Venture Forum VIII.

She said: “The energy revolution can be as big and as important as the industrial revolution and the explosion of the information age. If we don't get about the business of leading that revolution we will be left behind.”

Speaking of being left behind: “Toyota closes in as GM's star fades” – The Seattle Times

Finally Will Wade AT…yup, Wired.com writes about Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric and two solar powered projects they’re planning with Stirling Energy Systems. These projects will be in the California desert.

"Without question, this will be the largest solar project in the world," said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for SoCal Edison. "It will be bigger than all U.S. solar-energy projects combined."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

my dad thinks he knows you. He thinks you have done the MS ride with team Batman?

Anyways. You may have seen me around also, I'm the elder child of the Bike Masterer with more hair.

Glad to hear you are keeping up with the commute. My office mate bikes to work and it makes me feel guilty! He does it more for the health though, since the bus system where I live is heavily used, mainly by students since we cannot drive to campus. I rode to work all summer, but as my officemate would say, I'm a "poser!" :) However, in central Iowa winters seem to be about a month shorter and 10 degrees warmer than they are here. SPOILED. So I really should be riding...