Clear-Cutting the Truth About Trees

Contrary to what you might hear from energy companies and environmentally conscious celebrities, offsets don’t magically make carbon emissions disappear. Worse, relying on them to stem global warming may devastate our vital forest ecosystems. Read the article from the New York Times by BERND HEINRICH,December 19, 2009. Also, for a good laugh about carbon offsets, see Cheat Neutral

Lighthouse Zero Energy Home (UK)

The Lighthouse Zero Energy home in the UK has a simple, “barn-like” form with a 40 degree pitched roof that includes solar panels and rainwater harvesting. It boasts high levels of thermal insulation, passive cooling and ventilation and biomass boilers. Biomass boilers run on organic fuels such as wood pellets and count as zero-emission because the amount of carbon dioxide they give off when they are burned is offset by the amount that was absorbed when the crop was grown. The house also has a waste separation system that allows combustible waste to be burned to help provide power.

Open PV Database Tracks US Solar Installations

The Open PV Project is a community-driven database, fostered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, of photovoltaic (PV) installations around the US. It collects, organizes and distributes info on location, size, cost and date of every PV installation in the USA. A very cool animation is superimposed on a US map showing all logged PV systems installed since 1998.

Parkview Green in Beijing Uses Passive Strategies

Energy efficiency savings in the Parkview Green building in Beijing are primarily from well-orchestrated passive systems - with no mechanical air conditioned, the whole interior acts as a solar chimney, with the 89m highest point of the pyramidal form drawing warm air up and out of the building.

Recycling Solar PV Panels

In its whitepaper "Toward a Just and Sustainable Solar Energy Coalition" the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) argues that for solar to be truly green, industry must reduce and eventually eliminate the use of toxic materials and develop environmentally sustainable practices.

Wineries and Thieves Go Solar in California

Solar energy is hot, according to Mike Treleven reporting in the Napa Valley Register (27 November 2009). Not just with wineries attempting to lessen their carbon footprints — but also with thieves. Numerous Napa Valley wineries have been victimized by thieves lurking in the night and stealing their solar arrays. A single panel is worth about $1,000, measures two feet by three feet and weighs around 35 pounds. Between June 2008 and late September 2009, Napa County saw 14 solar thefts and two attempted thefts. Of the 14 thefts, two were in the city of Napa and the rest were at wineries around the valley, Napa County Sheriff’s Capt. Tracey Stuart. More than 400 panels, worth about $400,000, have been stolen.