Renewable Energy Roundup

Scientists at a conference in Los Angeles last week said that the United States needs to launch an all out effort to confront a "looming energy crisis." 

Looming energy crisis requires new 'Manhattan Project': US scientists

by Zachary Slobig Fri Jun 16, 12:27 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The United States urgently needs an effort similar to the Manhattan Project or
NASA's moon mission to confront a looming energy crisis, according to scientists at a high-level energy conference.

Soaring global demand for energy and rapid depletion of resources need to be addressed by a long-term government-led project similar to the World War II-era effort to develop an atomic bomb, University of Southern California scientist Anupam Madhukar said at the annual National Energy Symposium on Thursday.

"A sense of urgency is needed like the Manhattan Project or sending a man to the moon," Madhukar said.

Source: "Looming energy crisis requires new 'Manhattan Project': US scientists" 

This concerned citizen agrees with these sentiments.  It is time that this nation move toward clean renewable energy and the nation should use all the resources at its disposal to accomplish energy independence.

Outside of national policy, the San Diego Union Tribune had an article about how your "personal energy policy" can help save money, reduce pollution and the nation's reliance on imported oil.  Most of the tips are serious while some are flippant, every little effort helps!   While we make our small efforts at home up in the Silicon Valley a startup called Nanosolar may have the capability to make a big splash in renewable energy.  BusinessWeek writes that the company has just lined up $100 million in venture capital for their plans to go into the solar business.

Nanosolar an interesting startup in Palo Alto

NanoSolar sounds like an interesting company.   Here is their vision from the company's website:

 

At Nanosolar, we believe that energy should be clean, affordable, and abundant; and that the path to this is through innovation and technology.

In an age where carbon fuel scarcity is making peak-time electricity very valuable and where carbon fuels are driving global warming to unsafe levels, it is increasingly mandatory for electricity to be produced locally, clean, and in ways that reduce the peak-load burden on already overtaxed electricity grids.

At Nanosolar, we are working to make it possible to put A Solar Panel on Every Building™.

By setting the standard for solar technology with industry-leading cost efficiency and availability, we are planning to become the world's largest solar energy technology company and thus contribute to creating a future based on inexhaustible, clean, affordable, and reliable energy.

Our revenue aspiration is to be the fastest company ever to go from $1 to $1 billion; and to sell $100 billion (in '05 dollars) in PV panels by 2020.

  Having a solar panel on every building is a laudible goal, this writer hopes that their technology can keep up with or exceed their vision.