US Army Begins Huge Solar Plant at Ft. Irwin, CA

The U.S. Army is preparing to build a 500 megawatt solar thermal plant in the California desert – one of the largest renewable energy plants in the world. This gargantuan solar plant at Ft. Irwin, California will be completed by private developers Clark Enterprises and Spanish building company Acciona. Right now, like many military bases, most of Ft. Irwin’s energy comes from diesel generators—with long, vulnerable lines back to the fuel source. It’s right next to high capacity transmission lines, which means that later, the army can sell most of the excess energy to southern California. At peak, Ft. Irwin only needs 35 megawatts, leaving around 465 to shed. Read the full article in Wired Magazine

LEED versus Passive House Standard

Check out this article that compares LEED versus the Passive House standard. Titled "Follow or Get out of the Way: The household name in green construction needs to innovate in order to keep up with the competition".
Writes the author, "Imagine if teachers gave out grades on the first day of school based on students’ promises of how hard they each plan to study. Oddly, we use this backward system to grade green buildings in the United States." Commentary is by Jacob Gordon on The Good 100 blog.

Why the Spotlight on Solar?

PASSIVE SOLAR DESIGN is the first step towards reducing our power consumption in buildings. After that, SOLAR and WIND energy can be used for cleaner, renewable electric power. However, a quick look at the solar power industry shows that cumulative solar energy production accounts for less than 0.01% of total Global Primary Energy demand. Its use is growing, but not so much in the US. Consider:
- Worldwide photovoltaic installations doubled to 5,948 MW in 2008, up from 2,826 MW installed during the previous year. (In 1985, annual solar installation demand was only 21 MW.)
- In megawatt terms, cell production in China and Taiwan reached 3,304 MW in 2008, with Europe at 1,729 MW, ahead of Japanese production at 1,172 MW in 2008. US manufacturers contributed only 375 MW in 2008.