Photovoltaic

- Solar Panels in China: An Emerging U.S.-China Trade Dispute?
- 'Bicycle pump' to turn wave power into clean energy
- El panorama energético actual (Argentina)

- Biofuels become a victim of own success - but not for long
- Brazil, short of biofuel, can't open spigot to US
- Keystone XL pipeline: Oil chief issues threat to Obama over decision
- Oil sands pipeline battle turns ugly
- Arab News: Renewables making inroads in emerging global energy mix

- The end of the U.S. ethanol tariff
- Building a better suntrap
- Storehouses for Solar Energy Can Step In When the Sun Goes Down

- Former oil expert from the IEA: decline of 'all liquids' soon after 2015 (in French)
- Nigeria on alert as Shell announces worst oil spill in a decade
- Shelling out the Oil in Waters off Nigeria: Radar Satellite Image December 21, 2011
- Oil Workers Rise Up in Kazakhstan, Face Brutal Crackdown
- MIT: The Chinese Solar Machine

- Al Jazeera on World Petroleum Conference in Doha (video)
- Reining In the ‘Soft Costs’ of Solar
- Overview of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) - NASA presentation
- Canadian MP, Laurin Liu, proposes sustainable energy strategy
- ASPO-Switzerland: Benzin und Diesel immer teurer

- Paul Krugman on solar innovation: Here Comes the Sun
- Solar Power and its Discontents
- Five challenges facing the energy sector in 2012
- 'Tipping Point': A primer on the Alberta tar sands

In a year when chaos is beginning to feel like the norm, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s out of the blue announcement calling a referendum on the latest Euro bailout plan caught even the most jaded observers by surprise. Although it looks as if the idea has now been abandoned, the likelihood of a still more serious financial crisis has surely moved a step closer...

For a change, here is a non-Cassandric post. The growth of photovoltaic and wind energy has been impressively fast during the past 2-3 decades. We have generated an energy revolution: renewable power has a market and it grows. It is a revolution that can't be stopped any more.

A common question I get when discussing solar photovoltaic (PV) power is: “What is the typical efficiency for panels now?” When I answer that mass-market polycrystalline panels are typically about 15–16%, I often see the questioner’s nose wrinkle, followed by dismissive mumbling that 15% is still too low, and maybe they’ll wait for higher numbers before personally pursuing solar. By the end of this post, you will understand why this response is annoying to me. At 15%, we’re in great shape: it’s plenty good for our needs.

How fast do we need to transition off of fossil fuels? What industrial capacity is available today for different alternative energy technologies and what is likely to be available in the future? What might we do if we can't replace fossil fuels with alternatives fast enough, and what might the consequences be? I finally got around to re-doing these calculations, and wanted to go through the numbers.

-The shareable future of cities (video)
-Riding Bogota’s Bountiful Protected Bikeways (video)
-Solar power for trains dawns in rainy Belgium
-What's an Ecocity and Why Should We Care?

Daunted by high up-front costs, U.S. homeowners continue to shy away from residential solar power systems, even as utility-scale solar projects are taking off. But with do-it-yourself kits and other innovative installation approaches now on the market, residential solar is having modest growth.

Physicists and other hopefuls seek energy solutions on far off horizons. But what's really needed are solutions that are available which will put folks back to work, move the economy and address energy resilience at the same time.

Recent suggestions that the current boom in natural gas will be a bridge to a future of sustainable energy are highly reminiscent of similar claims from the past -- claims that turned out to be entirely wrongheaded. A bridge is only useful if there's somewhere to get to on the other side, and in the future ahead of us, the other side will inevitably be defined by much less energy use. With the help of a photovoltaic panel, the Archdruid explains.

- Floating LNG: The Final Frontier Of The Gas Age
- GE Sees Solar Cheaper Than Fossil Power in Five Years
- Jolt of energy is bringing landfill mining to life