Finally, some good news for those who are thinking of buying an EV! This month, ECOtality North America received a $2.87 million grant from the city of San Francisco to establish charging stations throughout the U.S. The company is set to develop over 15,000 of their Blink charging stations in 16 cities throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Tennessee and Texas – as well as the District…

The California Energy Commission has granted approval for the development of a 500MW solar thermal factory in Riverside County. The facility will hold two solar thermal power plants, each with a generating capacity of 250MW. Each plant is anticipated to generate enough electricity to power up to 150,000 homes and prevent roughly one-half megaton of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The company says that the…

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced last Tuesday that construction will begin on the world’s largest solar power plant, which is to be built in Blythe, California. The facility will use Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology to deliver 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity — enough electricity to power 300,000 homes annually — and will span 7,025 acres of federal property in the Mojave Desert. Since the plant will be “dry-cooled”, it will use 90 percent less water than a standard “wet-cooled” solar thermal system of this kind. Solar Trust, the project’s developer, plans to use water from the Palo Verde Mesa…

As solar technology continues to advance, many nations are shifting from dirty coal and nuclear energy to harnessing power from the sun. For countries like Germany, however, this clean form of energy may actually cause more harm than good to their insufficient electricity grid. Even with the irregular nature of solar energy, surges in power can be accommodated during off-peak hours by switching off conventional power station generators. However, when demand is high and if solar input is…

MASH, or Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing, is a program using $108 million from the California Solar Initiative to help provide solar panels to lower income families. MASH has recently finished its first solar installation on Hacienda Townhomes, an inexpensive housing complex owned by the San Diego Community Housing Corporation. Several tenants living there only bring in…