AltEnToday

A couple exciting pieces of news have hit me in the last few days that I thought I’d share. For one, it looks like the new internal combustion engine has been chosen for the upcoming Chevy Volt. The Volt, for those that aren’t familiar with it, will be a unique plug-in electric hybrid car that will feature an electric drivetrain mated with an on-board ICE (internal combustion engine) to provide range-extension beyond the proposed battery-driven 40 mile range. [Read more →]

Last week I got the great opportunity to work with the American Solar Energy Society at the Intersolar conference and expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. This event was truly my first experience with the solar industry, and I learned a great deal about the industry and the people involved - as well as of course getting the chance to help support ASES.

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Well, technically I got back yesterday evening, but after 3 days in SF I had more than my fair share of chores and errands to catch up on today. So - no update about the show yet. I’m going to be slammed all weekend, but hopefully I will be able to share some of my thoughts (as well as lots of new news from the industry) on Monday.

If we got a chance to meet during the show (probably while you were visiting the ASES booth), please leave a comment or send me an email to say hello again. I’d love to keep in touch with everyone that I met - there were lots of friendly and interesting people!

Just a heads up - I’m at Intersolar US this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. If you’re at the show, please swing by and introduce yourself - I’m at the ASES (American Solar Energy Society) booth. We’re giving away free copies of Solar Today as well!

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be back with a writeup of the event on Friday.

Looking for another source for regular alternative energy news? Go hop over to solartoday.wordpress.com and check out the ASES (American Solar Energy Society) blog (which has been up since April but only came to my attention about 20 minutes ago). There’s some interesting news to be found there in between issues of Solar Today arriving at your door.

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East Coast, Ivy-League schools have never been known for sitting on the sidelines during transitional periods in America’s economy - and today’s energy marketplace is no exception. Reported by the Boston Globe was some interesting developments coming out of MIT’s various research laboratories that may lead to dramatic improvements in solar technology and efficiency.

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So a little while back I created a post inspired by Fast Company’s article titled Big Oil Man goes to Big Wind. Turns out, T Boone Pickens has some pretty lofty goals for promoting his new “energy policy”, and is even taking out commercials on CNN and other prime-time TV spots to make sure you know about it.

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The major economies of the world took a step in the right direction on greenhouse gas emissions by proposing a 50-percent reduction in worldwide emissions by 2050. Sadly, this proposal again lays the burdens of environmental stewardship, clean air rights, and global climate change on the shoulders of my generation and the generations to come.

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Well, perhaps this is a good time to consider working in the alternative energy industry. . . According to a UN report highlighted by the article “UN reports big jump in ‘green energy’“. According to the report, the overall global energy market absolutely surged in 2007, including $148 billion in global investments - a 60 percent gain from the $92.6 billion reported in 2006.

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Sunrgi, based in Hollywood, California, has introduced a concentrated integrated solar cell system that may make distributed solar cost-effective across a huge swath of land in the US. The panels, named XCPV (standing for Xtreme Concentrated PhotoVoltaics). According to cofounder Robert Block of Sunrgi, “We expect the SUNRGI system to become available for both on and off-grid power applications, worldwide, in twelve to fifteen months” which puts commercial viability sometime in 2009.

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