August 29, 2008

More Silicon, More Sun, All Over the World (NewEnergyNews)
The news in the solar energy industry is not about war, not about political infighting, not about heartbreaking economic ruin. It’s just about business growing steadily larger, about an industry edging toward grid-parity and the capacity to solve the single most daunting challenge to the world community, global climate change. Note the increase in silicon-manufacturing infrastructure. This means more silicon availability. The long-sought economies of scale expected to drive costs down are drawing ever closer to becoming a reality.

Biofuels Cost 200 Times More Than Forest Conservation, Study Says (Mongabay.com)
The British government should end subsidies for biofuels and instead use the funds to slow destruction of rainforests and tropical peatlands argues a new report issued by a U.K.-based think tank. The study says that "avoided deforestation" would be a more cost-effective way to address climate change, since land use change generates more emissions than the entire global transport sector and offers ancillary benefits including important ecosystem services.

Extreme Outlook (Nature)
Blistering heat waves will become increasingly common sooner than feared, suggests new research. Some of the most serious consequences of climate change, including fatalities, result from extreme events, yet they have received relatively little attention.

Green Building Standards Under Construction (Worldwatch Institute)
The world's leading certification system for sustainable architecture is set to undergo its most sweeping changes in 2009. The proposed revisions encourage designs that would reduce a building's impact on global climate change.

New Underground CO2 Monitoring Begins (UPI)
U.S. Department of Energy scientists say they've started tracking carbon dioxide movement nearly 2 miles underground at the Cranfield, Miss., oilfield.

Europeans Back Tough Car Emission Targets, Says Poll (Reuters)
A majority of Europeans back planned legislation to enforce big cuts in carbon dioxide emissions from new cars, a public opinion poll in the European Union's five biggest countries showed on Thursday.

Optony: Where Thin Film and Concentrating Solar Meet (Earth2Tech)
The idea behind Optony, a year-old startup that is working on combining thin film solar cells with a solar concentrating system, is to merge two of the solar industry’s low-cost options to produce solar power prices that rival grid parity.