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On the VERGE of Sustainability

 VERGE 20 is on this week (starting October 26 2020). GreenBiz sponsor and coordinate this massive event. Anybody and any company that’s got anything to do with sustainability is here. Well, not exactly here since it is virtual this year… But you get the idea. Opening session was a wonderful start of the week. Even the singing was impressive. Really!  I said, “Oh, NO!”, when Shana Rappaport started in with a variation of Girl on Fire (Alycia Keyes). Hard…

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Strategic Planning for Small Businesses and Non-Profits

Every business needs to do planning and reporting. The trick for each organization is to do the right amount of planning. You can’t spend all your time planning, and you can’t completely avoid planning. Ideally you should work the planning process around the reporting and accounting that you have to do anyway: mainly tax reporting that culminates at the end of the tax year. The approach visualized in Figure 1 organizes your year so you…

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Who will beat Amazon in the New-Abnormal

The COVID pandemic creates winners and losers. Will it simply accelerated some winners and some losers. As with any recession, it creates destructive innovation. In the sad carnage of the pandemic should lie silver linings. Telework is one. Winners are ZOOM, losers are office buildings. We’re spending some time on this concept trying to estimate how permanent this shift to remote work will be and the massive savings (time, fuel, traffic, etc.) But the focus…

Solar Prices Dropped off a Cliff and Into the Ocean

Here’s a great article in Clean Technica by  Zachary Shahan on the falling prices of solar (PV). The cost per watt is the key measure to follow. Basically a rule of thumb is that $3 per Watt installed should be profitable, before any tax credit considerations. In 2006 the cost was $3.50 per watt for the panels. Now prices have dropped below $0.50 and would be lower if there wasn’t a trade tiff going on with China.  Even…

Mysteries of Methane Leak in Florida and Not-So-Clean Fossil Fuels

There’s a BIG NatGas leak (Methane) in Florida. The source of which is not being owned up to. There’s no oil/gas drilling in the area. And, until about a year ago, most such leaks might go totally unnoticed. Read the Bloomberg article No One is Owning Up to Releasing Cloud of Methane in Florida. Oil Flaring at Night in North America (Bakken) First Methane. The largest component of natural gas (NatGas) is methane (EIA). Various…

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Solar Investment is Crazy Profitable for Businesses and Good for Homeowners

[Update. The Inflation Reduction Act 2022 has raised and extended the 30% investment tax credit to qualified investments. There are many limitations and additions. See our Blog post here. This makes all the financial discussions below much more profitable. Also, higher inflation and higher power inflation. The below Article was originally published in Summer of 2020.]   SBP has done several detailed financial calculators for analyzing both residential and commercials solar projects. SustainZine has a main web…