The prospect of green jobs has proven very attractive to Californian job seekers. According to a survey released this week by the Vote Solar Initiative, a solar advocacy group, more than 5,400 people are participating in solar job training programs this year in the state.
“It is clear that Californians of different economic and educational backgrounds are all looking to solar to provide much-needed career opportunities, and the state’s training institutions have stepped up to meet that rising demand,” said Claudia Eyzaguirre, the author of the report, in a press release.
But it’s not clear whether the state will have enough jobs to support these trainees. Part of that will depend on the kinds of jobs they are training for.
Now PG&E in California, is planning to take their ability to tap renewable energy to a whole new level: solar power in space.“Solaren says it plans to generate the power using solar panels in earth orbit, then convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station in Fresno County. From there, the energy will be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E’s power grid.” ~ Next100.com
Solaren hopes to begin launching before 2016. The satellites will deploy the solar panels so they dock automatically together in orbit, resulting in an orbital power plant weighing roughly 25 tons if back here on Earth.
The advantages of space solar power include:
energy that can be harnessed at all times, even at night or when it’s cloudy.
baseload power delivery that makes efficient electricity possible for meeting customer demand.
an underlying technology that is mature since it is based on communications satellite technology.
Before all this happens however, PG&E needs approval from the California State Legislature, through the California Public Utilities Commission for this Solaren Space Based Energy Contract. Currently, Solaren is preparing to launch space rockets containing the solar panels and they have been working with United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company) on such launches.
California utility PG&E has been a reluctant investor in renewable energy — until now. The utility announced yesterday a five-year plan to produce 500 MW of solar energy from a collection of midsize projects located in Northern and Central California. That’s enough power for 150,000 homes and 1.3 percent of PG&E’s electrical demands.. The solar panels will be mounted on rooftops and utility poles.
San Francisco’s Prop H is taking on their biggest opponent today - PG&E! The utility company has spent more than $9.9 Million to prevent San Francisco from having cheaper and renewable energy.
Come join the rally at: PG&E’s downtown headquarters at 77 Beale St at noon.
They’ll be erecting three twelve-foot “Yes on H” wind turbines and showing support for green jobs and an affordable green energy future. They’ll have signs ready for you to carry if you want to protest!
Maya Lin, best-known for her modern, memory gripping design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., has shifted her subject matter to our planet, focusing in recent years “on a reconsideration of landscape in a time of ecological tension and change“. Currently, Maya Lin’s work is presented by PG&E at the de Young ~ via Heart of Green’s Cool Green Events:
“Systematic Landscapes is a major exhibition of new sculptures, drawings, and installations by renowned artist Maya Lin…this new body of work engages the issue of our fragile connection to the environment in timely and poetic ways.”
Simultaneously, Systematic Landscapes previews Maya Lin’s public art installation Where the Land Meets the Sea, a tubular wire sculpture commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for Golden Gate Park’s California Academy of Sciences.
Walking around the gallery earlier today I was pleased to discover that in addition to the exhibition,
San Francisco’s Prop H is the answer to Al Gores energy challenge! It makes San Francisco the first major city in the world with 100% clean and renewable sources of energy.
The power plant in Boardman, Oregon, is the state’s only coal-fired facility — and also the the state’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. To deal with this problem, Portland General Electric and Columbia Energy Partners have started a pilot project to turn the otherwise nasty emissions into biodiesel, ethanol, and even livestock feed.
This past weekend most of the swarms listened to rock and roll, rap, hip hop, and pop at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco’s great Golden Gate Park, but we took time from the audio overload to explore the some of the green aspects of the festival.
It actually didn’t take long as a set of solar panels sat just outside the main entrance. After that, we hit the Eco Lands. The PG&E sponsored area offered up booths (organic farmer’s market), tents, exhibits (like solar education classes) that one doesn’t normally see in a rock ‘n’ roll venue. We grabbed an Eco Lands Passport, an inspiration from Jack Johnson’s All At Once Community, where green minded rockers could obtain “stamps” for doing certain activities such as recycling a cell phones, use the bike valet (we did), calculate your carbon footprint, or donate to a non-profit.
We found ourselves super impressed with the Panhandle Stage not only because we saw the politically and socially charged K’Naan here but the stage actually ran on solar. That’s right, all the amps, mikes, lights, everything off the grid. The stage utilized a 4-kilowatt solar system, and by using solar power rather than a diesel generator or grid power, they avoided emitting approximately 3,000 lbs per day (1.5 metric tons) of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Pacific Gas and Electric Now Under Contract to Deliver 24 Percent of Energy from Renewables by 2013
In a landmark announcement today, Optisolar and the Sunpower Corporation said they plan to build 2 solar plants that will produce a total of 800 MW of power. During peak hours, the plants will produce as much energy as a small nuclear reactor or a large coal plant.
According to Sunpower chairman Thomas H. Werner, the Sunpower plant alone will have as much photovoltaic capacity as was installed worldwide during the past year.
The planets may be aligned to finally make solar competitive with coal, according to an article in Bloomberg.com by Greg Chang. Rising natural gas prices, the extension of tax credits for solar investment, and the near-certainty that carbon emissions caps will be imposed by the next U.S. administration, will make it happen. A concentrated solar thermal plant in California’s Mojave Desert, run by FPL, Inc., uses 550,000 mirrors [...]
