Green Options

Other states could learn from this innovative idea. Distributed solar could be a way that cities with regions of urban blight to re-purpose all those empty big box stores so their roofs could supply neighbors with power, and in the process, bringing about urban renewal and lots of clean energy American jobs.

Moving on from the problems encountered in the Northern California wave energy tests off Mendocino and Humboldt Counties; PG&E has just filed a new preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for another three-year study of a potential wave power site.

This time the proposed site is off the coast of Santa Barbara County at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Like every Federal Agency, the Air Force is now under Executive Order to cut transport carbon emissions 30% and [...]

Governor Schwarzenegger just gave solar power a boost in California, especially for relatively small-scale solar generators.

Taking notes from Europe, perhaps, Schwarzenegger signed legislation for a “feed-in tariff” earlier this week that requires Calfornia utilities buy solar power from relatively small generators and at higher than market-value prices.

Since the Renewable Portfolio Standard began in 2002, the California Public Utilities Commission has now approved contracts for more than 8,600 megawatts of new renewable energy, nearly all of it solar, signed with the state’s largest utilities. Most of the state’s renewable energy already on the grid till now has been wind power.