September 18th, 2012
What’s your first impression when you walk into a Walmart store? I’d bet you would hone in on the Halloween bags of M&Ms on sale and not the solar panels on the roof. And yet, 144 Walmart stores across the country have gone solar, lighting the aisles for more 12 million Americans each month with clean energy. Read More
July 9th, 2012
Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission released a report tracking the progress of the California Solar Initiative. This program, more commonly known as the “CSI,” offers customers of the three largest investor-owned utilities in California—Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric—incentives to install solar panels on rooftops. The CSI is the largest solar program in the country and aims to install 1,940 megawatts (MW) of solar generation capacity by the end of 2016. Read More
June 11th, 2012
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)’s Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011, and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21)’s Renewables 2012 Global Status Report were both released today. The reports highlight that 2011 was a very strong year for renewable energy despite the ongoing global economic crisis.
May 31st, 2012
Last week’s decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to expand the number of electricity ratepayers who can receive financial credit for producing surplus energy from their rooftop solar panels was a victory for consumers, for the solar industry and for the future of renewable energy. Read More
April 6th, 2012
This week, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors gave the green light to a series of large-scale solar PV projects, totaling 600 MW of generation capacity, to be constructed in the Imperial Valley of California. Read More
April 5th, 2012
Last fall, I participated in a clean energy/green jobs tour of Germany as part of a delegation sponsored by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Blue-Green Alliance. In the second leg of our trip (read my blog about part 1 of the tour), we left Berlin behind and headed north to the state of Schlesswig-Holstein—the renewable energy capital of the world. Read More
April 3rd, 2012
In the effort to transition the United States to a clean energy economy, comparisons are frequently made with Germany – a nation that is successfully shifting away from fossil fuels and nuclear power while creating a thriving renewable energy industry and maintaining a strong economy. So when invited this past fall to participate in a clean energy/green jobs tour of Germany, I jumped at the opportunity to learn first-hand about the Deutschland experience. Read More
August 25th, 2011
In late July, I joined about 250 clean energy stakeholders on the UCLA campus to discuss Governor Jerry Brown’s goal to install 12,000 megawatts (MW) of clean and locally-sited renewable energy projects in California by 2020. This concept – installing more green energy in areas that will create new green jobs close to where people live (and use electricity) – is part of Governor Brown’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan. Read More
© 2013
