Tag Archives: Renewable energy

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Helping homeowners harness the sun


Official Google blog

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:16 AM PDT

(Cross-posted from the Green Blog)

Imagine sitting on your patio watching the sun’s rays pass overhead, knowing that they power your home with clean energy—at a cost that’s less that what you would have paid using just the grid. That’s what my colleague, engineer Michael Flaster, has been doing at his home in Menlo Park, Calif. since March of this year. He did it with the help of a company called SolarCity, which enables homeowners and businesses to begin using solar energy to power their homes and buildings.

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve investing $280 million to create a fund that will help SolarCity finance more solar installations across the country. This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million. We’ve also launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount.

In SolarCity’s innovative financing model, the company covers installation and maintenance of the system over the life of the lease. You can prepay, or pay nothing upfront after which you make monthly solar lease payments. All told, Michael will save $100 per month on his energy bills this year, and more than $16,000 over his 15 year lease, after factoring in his lease payment and lower energy bills.

 
We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs. We’ve already invested in several large-scale renewable energy projects, so we’re excited that this new partnership with SolarCity helps people power their homes directly with solar energy, too. We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.

Our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, its new customers and the environment. We continue to look for other renewable energy investments that make business sense and help develop and deploy cleaner sources of energy. Whether harnessing the sun on rooftops like Michael’s or in the desert sands of the Mojave, it’s all part of building a clean energy future.

Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Call today: Stop the Senate from giving nuclear power a blank check


The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is poised to create a so-called clean energy bank that would funnel billions of dollars in loan guarantees to the nuclear and coal industries instead of supporting truly clean and less risky renewable energy technologies that will reduce global warming emissions at the lowest cost.

This Thursday, May 26, senators will vote on legislation that would create a huge new government loan program called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA). As drafted, CEDA would put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to established industries that are too risky for the private sector to finance while doing little to finance clean energy technologies.

Although CEDA is intended to support the commercialization of innovative clean energy technologies like renewable energy and energy efficiency, the nuclear industry sees it as a permanent financing mechanism for conventional nuclear reactors. CEDA would disproportionately favor large, costly projects over many other cost-effective, low-carbon options, thus giving large-scale conventional energy technologies an advantage at the expense of truly clean innovative alternatives.

The Senate vote on this risky loan program will happen this Thursday. Please call IMMEDIATELY and urge your senator not to support a CEDA that can give out unlimited loan guarantees and does not have strong congressional oversight.

Please Call –  http://action.ucsusa.org/site/R?i=5SoGsDDgou0iXy0q3NOhEQ..  

Sincerely,

Megan Rising

National Field Organizer

UCS Climate and Energy Program

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Make your check payable to the nuclear power industry … GreenPeaceUSA.org


On Monday, I was one of the thousands of people at over 200 vigils across the country who were standing shoulder to shoulder with friends and neighbors to show support for Japan and to imagine a world free of nuclear disasters.

The Obama administration isn’t backing down from nuclear energy giveaways, and neither will we. Tell the President and Congress that the key to a stable energy future is clean, renewable energy and NOT nuclear power.

Unfortunately, while you were planning your vigils, the president and some members of Congress have been planning to take more of YOUR tax dollars and give them to the nuclear industry to build more plants here in the United States.

Just days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan crippled not one but THREE nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi to the point of meltdown, the Obama Administration announced that it would move forward with even more giveaways to the nuclear industry in the budget. And they could take the issue up in Congress any day now.

www.greenpeaceusa.org

It’s time for some common sense. Tell the President and Congress that there is no place for taxpayer giveaways to the nuclear industry in the budget and that now is the time to invest in technology that uses clean and unlimited energy sources like the sun and wind.

Every day a new, startling report from Japan makes the headlines: Babies in Tokyo can’t drink the water, radiation levels near the disaster site are dangerously high, plutonium has been reported in the water around Fukushima…. Meanwhile, the president is asking for $36 billion dollars for loan guarantees to subsidize the nuclear industry on top of the already $18.5 billion set aside. It’s crazy.

Lobbyists for the nuclear industry want you to believe that nuclear power is safe. That what is happening in Japan somehow couldn’t happen here even though we have 23 of the exact same reactors on line in this country. Don’t be fooled.

There is no place for nuclear power in our clean energy future. And there is no place for taxpayer giveaways to the nuclear industry in the budget. Send a message today and make sure that your members of Congress and the President know that you’re paying attention to how they’re spending your money.

www.greenpeaceusa.org

A recent poll found that 75% of Americans oppose taxpayer-backed loans for nuclear power and favor increasing emphasis on renewable energy. But the industry won’t go away quietly. Lobbyists are undoubtedly knocking on the doors of every member of Congress trying to convince them nuclear energy is still the way to go. We can’t let them win. Send your letter today!

Thanks for all you do,

Jim Riccio,

Greenpeace Nuclear Policy Analyst

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Call Now: Congress set to make critical renewable energy decision


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Union of Concerned Scientists
Call Today!
Please call your senators and representative IMMEDIATELY and ask them to support a final tax bill that includes the extension of the renewable energy tax credit program.

Call Your Legislators Today to Extend the Renewable Energy Tax Credits

You’ve probably heard that Congress is currently working on a bipartisan effort to extend tax breaks for U.S. families and businesses. Included in that process is the renewable energy tax credit program, which is set to expire this December. This grant program has been critical to the growth of the renewable energy sector and has supported the development of thousands of clean energy jobs over the past two years.

If this program is renewed, the wind industry alone is poised to create 20,000 new jobs in 2011. If Congress allows it to expire, Americans will be laid off, while we lose the clean energy manufacturing race with China.

Decisions on these critical clean energy tax credits could happen in the next day or so. Please call your senators and representative IMMEDIATELY and ask them to support a final tax bill that includes the extension of the renewable energy tax credit program.
Click here to find your legislators’ phone numbers, talking points for your call, and an easy form you can use to report back to us. Any information you provide will help us in our efforts.

Take Action Today!

Sincerely,
Megan Rising
Megan Rising
National Field Organizer
UCS Climate and Energy Program