Solar power has taken root — not in the U.S. where it supplies but 1 percent of the power generated only from renewable sources — but in energy-deprived villages of the developing world. Because costs for electricity in the U.S. are already low, unlike in rural India and Africa, the incentive to turn over to solar is lower for American households. But in poor areas around the world, some communities have skipped an entire generation of coal-powered electricity. Despite the attractiveness of solar cells and solar concentrators lighting up and heating poor villages, solar brings its ... Read More
Natural Gas a Player in Alternative Landscape
January 20, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Last summer's spike in gasoline prices set the stage for an interesting debate. Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens emerged as a spokesman for the renewable power of wind and set forth a rather revolutionary plan to produce 20 percent of the nation's electrical demand with wind power, moving natural gas from its traditional role as an electrical generator to use as a vehicle fuel. The nation's largest natural gas provider, Chesapeake Energy, jumped on the bandwagon with its own plan to mobilize citizens to call for vehicles powered by compressed natural gas. Although many supporters of renewable ... Read More
