Solar power for less than $2 a day

Imagine a solar panel as affordable as a fancy new bicycle. A panel designed so simply that you can install one (or more) yourself, just outside your windows, in the course of an afternoon.

That’s the concept behind Oakland, Calif.-based Veranda Solar, a start-up founded last year by Capra J’neva and Emilie Fetscher, recent graduates of the product design program at Stanford University. J’neva and Fetscher dreamed up attractive, flower-shaped solar panels as part of their master’s project at the design school. “We created a starter solar system that expands as your budget does,” J’neva says.

ESolar to build solar power plants in India

ACME will make a $30 million equity investment in eSolar in return for the exclusive right to develop plants employing the companys modular solar thermal power technology.
The partnership is eSolars first foray outside the United States. The Pasadena, California, company has been racking up deals with U.S. utilities, including an agreement last month with NRG Energy Inc to create up to 500 MW of solar thermal power plants in the U.S. Southwest.

Newark, DE Becomes First US City to Use Cars for Grid Power

V2G technology works based on the theory that the growing use of unreliable renewable energy sources requires energy storage to smooth power output fluctuations. An electric vehicle can use wind power, for example, to charge at night. The grid operator can then use energy stored in the batteries while the vehicle is plugged in to stabilize the grid.

SCE Completes First of Major Commercial Rooftop Solar Installations

“Edison’s rooftop plan is the nation’s largest solar installation program by a utility and it is just one example of how private companies are helping us reduce our emissions and meet our renewable energy goals. Projects like this one show the world you can protect the environment
and also pump up the economy, and I am proud to say it is happening right here in California.”