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Solar Power Authority has a post on the solar powered Google headquarters - Googleplex Solar. The Googleplex headquarters located in Mountain View California has installed one of the largest corporate solar power structures of any other company to date. The array consists of 9,212 solar panels produced by Sharp Electronics and has a capacity of 1.6 Megawatts (MW) which cover's ~30% of the Google campus electricity needs, the equivalent of roughly 1,000 California homes. This installation is said to save Google $393,000 in electricity per year and can be monitored real time at this interactive page that contains data on the electricity being produced. One of the most unique features of the Googleplex array of solar panels is that it contains several clusters of solar trees. These parking lot covers are designed to keep cars cool while also producing electricity and serving it to both the Googleplex or plugin hybrid electric cars (PHEV's).

SOLAR cells are expensive, so it makes sense to use them efficiently. One way to do so is to concentrate sunlight onto them. That means a smaller area of cell can be used to convert a given amount of light into electricity. This, though, imposes another cost-that of the mirrors needed to do the concentrating. Traditionally these are large pieces of polished metal, steered by electric motors to keep the sun's rays focused on the cell. But now Cool Earth Solar of Livermore, California, has come up with what it hopes will be a better, cheaper alternative: balloons. Anyone who has children will be familiar with aluminised party balloons. Such balloons are made from metal-coated plastic. Cool Earth's insight was that if you coat only one half of a balloon, leaving the other transparent, the inner surface of the coated half will act as a concave mirror. Put a solar cell at the focus of that mirror and you have an inexpensive solar-energy collector.

Greentech Media has a post on one of the major issues facing electric car manufacturers - getting people used to the idea - Learning to Live With Electric Cars. While consumers overwhelmingly say they want plug-in cars, consumers will have to be educated on the differences between them and gas-burning cars, says Debra Reed, CEO of San Diego Gas & Electric, which will take delivery of 10 to 15 all-electrics Nissan when they come out next year. Nissan and SDG&E showed off a "mule" of Nissan's electric commuter today. The functioning vehicle sports the same basic motor and other electronics that will come with the production all-electric cars, said a Nissan spokeswoman. However, it is housed in the shell of an existing car.

Technology Review has an article on a startup that says its "solid polymer electrolytes will mean cheaper, more-reliable batteries" - Better Lithium-ion Batteries. A new incarnation of lithium-ion batteries based on solid polymers is in the works. Berkeley, CA-based startup Seeo, Inc. says its lithium-ion cells will be safer, longer-lasting, lighter, and cheaper than current batteries. Seeo's batteries use thin films of polymer as the electrolyte and high-energy-density, light-weight electrodes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is now making and testing cells designed by the University of California, Berkeley spinoff. Lithium-ion batteries are used in cell phones and laptops because they are smaller and lighter than other types of batteries. They are also promising for electric and hybrid vehicles. However, conventional materials and chemistries have stopped them from being used extensively in cars.

As attention to Earth Day picked up again in 1990, so did the frequency of events land celebrations on college campuses, in city parks and other gathering places around the world. But rather than spilling any more green ink writing about Earth Day 2009, I dug up the best Earth Day posters I could find spanning the last 39 years. As might be expected, the earlier posters were much more difficult to track down (mostly because there were fewer events to advertise). I also found the paucity of posters from the 1980's indicative of Reagan-era anti-environmentalist sentiment.

Three miles off the craggy, wave-crashing coastline near Humboldt Bay, Calif., deep ocean swells roll through a swath of ocean that is soon to be the site of the nation's first major wave-power project. Like other renewable energy technology, ocean power generated by waves, tidal currents, or steady offshore winds has been considered full of promise yet perennially years from reaching full-blown commercial development.

Jerome a Paris has an excellent (and long) article at TOD about the economics of wind power - The cost of wind, the price of wind, the value of wind. I'd like to try to clear some of the confusion that surrounds the economics of wind power, as it is often fed and used by the opponents of wind to dismiss it. As I noted recently, even the basic economics of energy markets are often wilfully misunderstood by commentators, so it's worth going in more detail through concepts like levelised cost and marginal cost, and identify how different electricity producers have different impacts on electricity (market) prices (which may or may not be reflected in retail prices) and have different externalities. Value for society of a generation source may also include other items that are harder to acount in purely monetary terms (and/or whose very value may be disputed), such as the long term risk of depletion of the fuel, or energy security issues, such as dependency on unstable and/or unfriendly foreign countries or vulnerable infrastructure.

Wandering through the Maker Fair expo, I came across this solar charger I hadn't heard of before. It's called GoBe, and looks like a great portable way to charge up some hefty devices, possibly even your laptop. It comes in two parts - a brief case-sized fold-out solar panel that can be propped up at different angles, and a lantern-sized battery pack. The solar panel has a max of 13 watts, which means you'll get back-up power to a laptop after a day's worth of charging, but can't really run a laptop off of it. However, it's great for charging up the GoBe hub so you have spare power for a wide range of other devices.

Hot on the heels of the release of the NRDC's renewable energy map, we have another piece of first-rate energy geek eye candy: NPR: Power Hungry: Visualizing The U.S. Electric Grid. This map will let you check different sources (with separate maps for wind and solar, in addition to traditional sources), and toggle transmission lines and other features on and off. My only gripe is that you can't zoom the maps, which in some cases makes it a challenge to click on the circle for a particular power plant.

Potential candidates for the job could choose in a wide array of careers in wind power field sales starting with representatives, sales managers, VPs or executive positions as well as engineers, installers and business developers among others.

Nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries have the technology to deliver not only the recycling ability of other nickel-based battery types, but they also deliver a full 1.5 volts of power.

Green interior design is a post-construction step that is most likely similar to other ecological construction tasks. The materials used are eco-friendly.

This product from Haier has good features like a convenient refrigerator compartment, thermostats etc. The comparatively big refrigerator compartments are very useful in storing beverages and other perishable food items.

For some people, eco-tourism means going to the areas where the environment is still fairly untouched and pristine. To others it has a much broader scope than that, and means that you do everything you can, to make the trip you are taking eco-conscious, including how you get there and what you do once you arrive.

Car sharing has become an increasingly common concept today. What is it? Car sharing is the concept of sharing a vehicle rather than owning it outright. It is similar to carpooling, only you do not ride with other people in every case.

There are many kinds of flooring that can be put down in your office, house or other building project. Choosing to have green flooring is a big decision and not one that should be taken lightly.

Working with a lawyer for any reason can be a positive or negative experience, depending on the situation of course, but if you are trying to protect yourself or others in the name of environmental safety and health, having a green lawyer is even more important.

Growing your own food for your family's personal use is rewarding, but growing organic food products to sell to other families can be as rewarding as well. "Organic food accounts for 1-2% of food sales worldwide."

A green florist is one who specializes in plants and floral arrangements that have not been treated with harmful pesticides or other substances. They also use green delivery methods, including hybrid cars, walking or biking to locations and recycled materials whenever possible.

Using the polymer electric storage system will allow more energy to be stored without the added bulk and weight of a traditional battery. Polymers are lighter and far more flexible than any other energy storage system seen so far.