| |

Wind n Sun are now cheaper/better than Coal, NatGas, etc

BySustainMe

By now you probably knew it was happening, but you probably didn’t realize how much and how fast. If you figure subsidies, Solar and Wind are a slam-dunk powerful option. Wind prices have been dropping fast and solar has been dripping like lead… Solar prices have dropped about 86% over the last 8 years. Check out the latest 2018 report by Lazard. Note that they also analyze renewables with storage (batteries). The Solar incentives make the…

| |

Babcock Ranch aims to be first solar-powered town in US | USA News | Al Jazeera

BySustainMe

Babcock Ranch aims to be first solar-powered town in US | USA News | Al Jazeera: This is in partnership with FPL (Nextera) for the power. The powerplant is already up and running that will support an almost 200,000 home community.  FPL has extended the solar to include 10 megawatts of battery, thus allowing the solar power plant to offer more flexibility to the power grid and on-demand peaking power. The 440 acres for the…

| |

California Becomes First State to Mandate Solar on New Homes – Bloomberg

BySustainMe

California Becomes First State to Mandate Solar on New Homes – Bloomberg: California is 1/3 of the US economy and probably 1/3 of the US housing market. So, when California voted today to have mandatory solar on most new construction houses, this blows the top off of the non-solar rooftop. Headlines read that the CA house will now cost about an additional $10,000 to build with the energy efficiency and solar roof mandates. This Bloomberg…

Tesla Solar Roofs. Better, Cheaper, Stronger, Longer

BySustainMe

Tesla Solar | Tesla: Here is the information to order your roof from Tesla (that has now merged with SolarCity). The tempered glass tiles are much stronger, much cheaper and last long (lifetime of the house or infinity warranty, whichever comes first). Oh, and then there’s the PV electricity generation, above that. It is 30-years warranty on the PV, it seems. This is something that is called an “irrefusable” value proposition. Especially if the house…

|

To Eat or Knot to eat Knot Weed – WSJ

BySustainMe

Pittsburgh Tries to Eat Its Way Through a Savage Weed – WSJ: What do you do, with Kudzu? Invasives like kudzu and Japanese Knotweed, can take over square miles. They really go wild in strip mines and disturbed areas, and completely take over. Once started, the weed pushes out anything and everything in the surrounding areas — an ugly mono-culture that disrupts entire ecosystems much like Melaleuca has done in Southern Florida. Melaleuca trees transplanted…

| |

ECO:nomics | The Wall Street Journal

BySustainMe

ECO:nomics | The Wall Street Journal: The WSJ’s big forum on ECOnomics seems to have been a great learning and sharing session for divergent ideas on how to blend economic growth/development with environmental needs. A special report in the WSJ on Wed, April 13, 2016 offers several takes and interviews covering the spectrum of associated topics. A couple base statistics are that coal generated electricity has dropped from half of all US generation to less…