Renew News

First it was Bio Town USA in Reynolds IN, and now it’s East Amwell NJ. If I would’ve had to guess, I would’ve thought that the cutting edge of renewable energy technology would be somewhere like Seattle WA, Madison WI, or some other progressive cool place with hippie/environmentalist leanings. Of course I’m not familiar with either Reynolds or East Amwell, but I suspect that neither place is a hotbed of forward thinking environmentalists.

Check out the first solar/hydrogen house in the US… if they ever let the guy actually turn it on.

Thanks to hydroguy for the tip on this story.

There is a lot of exciting stuff going on with solar power these days.  Solar Concentrators are becoming a big deal lately as a way to reduce the amount of silicon used, since there is a worldwide silicon shortage at the moment.  Here are two articles that offer hope on the affordability and long-term practicality of solar collectors.

Cheaper Solar Comes Closer

Solar May Get Cheaper

Businesses are starting to unveil new products, and the business world in general is starting to realize that people want solar power, and that there could be a lot of money in it for them.  Now we just have to prove them right and buy the stuff.

The San Diego Unified School District has just worked out a great deal with Solar Integrated Technologies to get new roofs on many of their schools that are integral solar panels!  So each school not only gets a new roof for free, but they also get to buy the power from that roof for less than what they would pay the power company.  Everybody wins!  I just can’t believe what a great partnership this is.  We all benefit.  Yow!  If this technology could spread to all new roofing projects in the country, just imagine how quickly we could be producing massive amounts of power that don’t rely on fossil fuels and don’t put more carbon into the atmosphere.

Read the full article here:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/louv/20050322-9999-lz1e22louv.html 

I’m sure that it will take a while to get production up to the level I imagine, and of course most builders will have to buy the roofing material, but you have to buy a roof anyway, why not make it one that will produce energy for you?  There is certainly no shortage of available roof space for panels.