by Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon – Tue Nov 30, 5:13 am ET Yahoo News WASHINGTON (AFP) – A senior US official called China’s growing innovation a “Sputnik moment” that should spur the United States to ramp up investment in clean energy, despite a shift in Washington on climate change. Energy Secretary Steven Chu likened a series of Chinese milestones — including the development of the world’s fastest supercomputer — to the Soviet Union’s landmark 1957 satellite that led the United States into the Space Race. “America, I am optimistic, will wake up and see the opportunity. And when it does, it still has the greatest innovation machine in...
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By Stephen Graff, Contributor   |   November 29, 2010    New York, NY, USA — Solar energy is more accessible to Americans than ever before. There are federal tax credits, cheaper photovoltaic systems on the market and hefty rebates that make a return on investment more attractive. But sifting through this stack of information can be daunting, so city sustainability officials are simplifying the process by rolling out solar maps—online, interactive one-stop shops. Think Google Maps for solar. “This is a way to make it much more tangible for the public,” said Tria Case, university director of sustainability for the City University of New York (CUNY),...
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By Jennifer Runyon, Managing Editor   |   November 24, 2010   New Hampshire, USA – Just imagine taking your sick son or daughter to the hospital after dark and having the doctor examine the child by candlelight. Or walking 10 miles to the hospital for treatment after being bitten by a rabid dog and discovering that the vaccination you need is located an additional 100 miles away in a facility that can stock it because it has refrigerators. That was the situation at the Village Health Works clinic in Burundi, where the sick often lay suffering in the dark and frustrated doctors had to consider the...
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By Jennifer Runyon, Managing Editor   |   November 12, 2010    New Hampshire, United States – The reports are so grim, it is hard to believe at times. America is staring down a 10% unemployment figure and the number doesn’t seem to budge as the months tick by. Analysts report that if you take into account the number of Americans that have stopped looking for employment as well as the number who have found only part-time work but seek full-time employment, the figure is more like 18%.  In California, it’s 22%, an unemployment percentage that hasn’t been seen since the depression. In total, as many as...
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–Christof Demont-Heinrich Founder & Editor, SolarChargedDriving.Com Aurora, Colorado Not that we’re counting obsessively or anything – OK, so we are – but we hit 10,000 miles worth of banked Sun Miles® this week. Sun Miles® are miles driven by an electric vehicle (EV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) whose batteries have been charged using solar energy and/or using electricity credits amassed via solar offset generation. As I’ve noted elsewhere, not everyone could be doing what we are – using a home solar system to overproduce electricity at a high rate in order to save that electricity as fuel for a future electric car....
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