When Jon Bohmer sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together, he didn't realize they'd hit upon a solution to one of the world's biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven.

The ingeniously simple design uses two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, and an acrylic cover that lets in the sun's rays and traps them.

Black paint on the inner box, and silver foil on the outer one, help concentrate the heat. The trapped rays make the inside hot enough to cook casseroles, bake bread and boil water.

What the box also does is eliminate the need in developing countries for rural residents to cut down trees for firewood. About 3 billion people around the world do so, adding to deforestation and, in turn, global warming.

By allowing users to boil water, the simple device could also potentially save the millions of children who die from drinking unclean water.

Bohmer's invention on Thursday won the FT Climate Change Challenge, which sought to find and publicize the most innovative and practical solution to climate change.

"A lot of scientists are working on ways to send people to Mars. I was looking for something a little more grassroots, a little simpler," Bohmer said Thursday.

Bohmer's contest win notwithstanding, solar cooking with a cardboard oven isn't new. Two American women, Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole, were the solar box cooker's first serious promoters in the 1970s. They and others joined forces to create the non-profit Solar Cookers International -- originally called Solar Box Cookers International -- in 1987.

Further, the organization's executive director, Patrick Widner, said that the plans for a solar box cooker were found in a book published by the Peace Corps in the 1960s.

"We are pleased that Mr. Bohmer has taken up the cause and interest of the 95 member organizations and 160 individuals of the Solar Cookers Worldwide Network," Widner said. "It would be a pleasure to work with Mr. Bohmer in Kenya where we have been promoting the use of solar cookers for ten years."

Bohmer, a Norwegian-born entrepreneur based in Kenya, said he also had been looking at solutions "way too complex, for way too long."

"This took me about a weekend, and it worked on the first try," Bohmer said. "It's mind-boggling how simple it is."

The contest was organized by the Forum for the Future -- a sustainable development charity -- and the Financial Times newspaper. Among the judges were British business magnate Richard Branson and environmentalist Rajendra Pachauri. The public also voted on the finalists.

Bohmer's invention beat about 300 other entries, including a machine that turns wood and other organic material into charcoal, wheel covers that make trucks more fuel efficient by reducing drag, and a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 percent.

Bohmer named his invention the Kyoto Box, after the international environmental treaty to reduce global warming.

The box can be produced in existing cardboard factories. It has gone into production in a factory in Nairobi, Kenya, that can churn out about 2.5 million boxes a month.

Bohmer has also designed a more durable version, made from recycled plastic, which can be produced just as cheaply.

He envisions such cardboard ovens being distributed throughout rural Africa.

"In the West, we cook with electricity, so it's easy to ignore this problem," he said. "But half the world's population is still living in a stone age. The only way for them to cook is to make a fire.

"I don't want to see another 80-year-old woman carrying 20 kilos of firewood on her back. Maybe we don't have to."
Yyoto Energy
Source

It's a lot easier and less expensive to take your home solar than most people think. Thanks to generous financial incentives from the government and innovative alternatives to purchasing a system, homeowners are discovering there aren't really any risks remaining to going solar.

Like many things, home solar was first adopted by people who were concerned about their environmental and energy footprints. Now, others are following suit, primarily because it makes financial sense. Our electricity rates are going up: the price we pay for residential electricity rose on average 26.8 percent from 2002-2007 in the U.S. With home solar, you essentially lock in a low rate for all the electricity you'll consume in the future--for instance, think about how much you'd save if you could lock in your gasoline price at $1 per gallon for the next twenty years. Over time, going solar today will save you serious cash.

Here are five easy steps to get you started.

1. Figure out your home's solar potential

- If your electricity bill is higher than $100 on average per month, solar can save you money--depending on which purchasing option you choose and your prevailing utility rates, you could see savings of up to 60% within the first month of going solar.
- You'll need enough sunlight on your roof. Geography, roof orientation, and shading are all factors an expert can assess for you.

2. Research your options

There are a lot of resources on the web. States that offer incentives frequently have websites with good information, and many solar companies have good general information about going solar on their sites as well.

- Most people choose to work with a professional solar company to design and install a home solar system. You can get a good feel for a solar company from its website.

3. Decide what's best for your home and finances

Questions to ask include:

Q: Should I purchase a system outright or pay as I go? There are alternatives to buying a system all at once that dramatically reduce the upfront costs of home solar and still provide the long-term benefits, including power purchase agreement (PPA) or leasing options.

Q: What's the best return on my investment? Make sure to consider how your home solar solution will reduce your energy costs over time. Also, investigate how having home solar will factor in if you sell your house.

Q: Are maintenance and repairs included? Some companies take care of your system for you, others don't.

Q: Does my solar company have happy customers? Talk to everyone you can before choosing a solar solution and installer. Ask to speak with recent customers to make sure they're happy with their solar experience.

Q: How will the panels look on my house? Not all home solar installations are created equal when it comes to aesthetics. Choose the product you're most comfortable with.

4. Install your system

- A typical home solar installation will take only four to six days. There will be some additional delays before your system can be turned on after it's installed: your local utility company will need to come out to approve the system and properly connect it to the utility grid.

5. Enjoy your savings

- There's nothing quite like seeing your utility meter spin backwards because of solar. In order to make sure your system delivers all the electricity (and resulting savings) you expect, however, you need to monitor it. Some companies will do this for you, and with others you'll have to buy a separate monitoring solution.

I think the following statement from one of my company's customers sums it up:

"I can't complain. My utility bill dropped from $275 to $5.25 the first month I went solar."
--Harry, Fresno, California.

Source: Huffington Post
Written by Lynn Jurich, president and co-founder of SunRun.

Homeowners battling against soaring energy prices and a struggling economy have gained a powerful new tool to help harness free, renewable energy from the sun, the wind and other sustainable resources.

The U.S. House and Senate passed historic legislation that will massively increase the use of solar energy all across the America. Renewable energy provisions in H.R.1424 include an eight year extension of the 30% solar tax credit and removal of the monetary cap for residential solar electric installations. The legislation became active on January 1, 2009.

Click here to find frequently asked questions, the full text of H.R.1424. or see bill summary.

The solar provisions in this bipartisan legislation will help position the U.S. as a global leader in the booming solar marketplace, generating thousands of green-collar jobs, promoting energy independence, and helping to tackle climate change.

"Renewable energy and energy efficiency are our economic drivers,” said Brad Collins, Executive Director of the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society. “I applaud members of Congress for coming together to extend the renewable energy tax credits that will strengthen the new energy economy and generate green jobs at a time when they’re needed most.”

Key provisions of this legislation will:

* Extend the investment tax credit for residential and commercial solar installations for eight years (it was previously set to expire at the end of 2008)
* End the $2000 cap on the investment tax credit for residential solar electric installations placed into service after December 31, 2008
* Allows filers of the alternative minimum tax to claim solar investment tax credits
* Allows public utilities to claim the solar investment tax credits
* Authorize $800 million in new clean renewable energy bonds and creates a new category of tax credit bonds called Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds to finance state and local initiatives to reduce carbon emissions
* Extends deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings
* Establishing a new tax credit for purchasers of plug-in electric-drive vehicles
* Extends research and development tax credits

Check out the new eco-friendly community in North Fresno. Four years in development, a half-dozen founding families worked with architects to create a project that combines private townhomes with extensive common facilities. In order to live in a multi-generational environment that encourages co-operative living, they planned smaller living spaces (1,100 to 1900 sq ft) based on LEED standards. Common areas include a pool, children’s play areas, spa, gym, workshop, bike garage, guest quarters, common laundry and a kitchen / community dining hall where they share meals several times a week. They plan to grow a vegetable garden, too.

Homes are still available, but it’s worth a walk through, even if you aren’t in the market for a new home right now. We are planning to host Fresno Cohousing on the upcoming solar tour on April 18, 2009.
For more information, go to fresnocohousing.org

The U.S. housing sector remains in deep recession. Consumer spending is down. Business investment remains lackluster, with industrial production indicators hitting new lows monthly. And lay-offs have hit alarming levels.

Against this backdrop it's understandable if one holds a not-so-optimistic view regarding the U.S. economy and the markets for early 2009: the economy's fundamentals are weak, and it's going to take a lot of stimulus, fiscal and otherwise, to turn them around.

Nevertheless, there are bright spots -- in this case literally, as well as macroeconomically -- regarding the U.S. economy of tomorrow.

This way to the future

One small, but significant data point: despite the plunge in oil prices to around $50 per barrel, demand for solar energy and solar panels remains strong. Demand for solar energy systems increased 45% in 2007 and is expected to register another impressive gain in 2008, The New York Times reported.

About 25,000-35,000 workers -- installers, manufacturers, distributors, project developers, and material suppliers -- are currently directly employed in the solar energy sector, which is expected to grow to more than 110,000 in 2016, according to Solar Energy Institute Association data, The Times reported.

And here's an equally important stat: the jobs pay between $15-30 per hour, with many solar companies offering health benefits, The Times reported.


'Scale it up, and good things result'

Economist David H. Wang said those who view the 110,000-solar-job projection as small are missing the point: those totals don't assume any money from the Obama Administration's upcoming fiscal stimulus package or its energy bill/program, which will likely follow it.

"Assume continued technology progress in solar cells. Now multiply that by efforts to increase renewable energy sources in public schools and buildings. Now add an enhanced, but not an unreasonable, federal tax credit. Bingo. I think you can see that goods things will begin to happen from a domestic jobs and a GDP standpoint," Wang said. "If we add wind, auto sector transformation, and electric grid improvements to the equation, I think you can see that renewable energy has the ability to be a major source of good-paying, domestic jobs, for decades. Scale it up, and good things result."

Wang said a key factor will be the role energy efficiency plays in the Obama Administration's infrastructure and energy bills. For example, if the new administration gives school/public building energy efficiency a low priority, the seed-money effect on the solar industry will be less. If it is given a high priority, "it will create a surge of players in the field increasing research efforts," which will speed solar tech advances, further lowing solar costs, "which will really drive increased solar use and installation."

Energy Policy/Economic Analysis: In the very near future, your son or daughter may be a solar product designer, engineer, or solar product installer. Or perhaps you will become one yourself, with additional training in a career shift. Add wind energy, a revamped auto sector, mass transit expansion, and export sales of the above technologies -- some may become the envy of the world -- and one can begin to see the beginnings of the U.S. economic recovery and sustainable growth.

When it goes online in 2010, the hybrid plant will also be the second largest solar energy facility in the world, become the largest outside California and provide an estimated 75 megawatts of solar thermal capacity while directly displacing fossil fuel usage, the utility said.

The facility, called the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center, is being built at the utility's existing natural-gas/oil-fired 3,657-megawatt Martin power plant. The plant is near Indiantown in Martin County, roughly 100 miles north of Miami.

Once complete, the new facility will pair a solar-thermal field with a combined-cycle natural gas power plant. Together, they're expected to use less fossil fuel when the sun is out while helping to produce steam to generate electricity.

The solar portion of the combined facility is to feature some 180,000 collectors with mirrored surfaces spread over 500 acres. The technology works this way: The mirrors reflect the sun onto receivers to heat liquid creating steam that in turn produces electricity whenever the sun is shining.

The utility projects that the new facility will produce about 155,000 MWh of electricity a year — about enough to power almost 11,000 households in its service area. FPL also estimates that the facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.75 million tons across a 30-year period.

The Martin project is the largest of three of the solar facilities the utility is building in the state. All told the facilities are expected to produce 110 megawatts of emissions-free energy when operational. The other Florida projects are at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and in Desoto County.

In addition to becoming the operator of the second largest solar plant in the world, the utility already lays claim to operating the world's largest solar-thermal plant: the 310-megawatt Solar Electric Generating System in the world in California's Mojave Desert.

The utility says its capacity to produce solar power coupled with its production of renewable energy from the wind make FPL the U.S. front-runner in the renewable energy field. The utility has 58 wind power projects in 16 states with a capacity of more than 5,800 megawatts of electricity.

In California on Monday, Southern California Edison celebrated the completion of the largest rooftop solar installation in its state. The solar power array of two square miles of panels are expected to produce 250 megawatts of peak capacity — enough power for 1,300 homes.

Just a week earlier, the Northern California Solar Energy Association released a report charting the growth of solar installations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

More than 60 percent of the country's solar installations are in the Golden State, and the number of the installations has grown 30 to 40 percent annually for the past several years, Molly Tirpak Sterkel of the California Public Utilities Commission said in her forward to the report, which is available here.

As families tighten their belts to ride the latest economic roller coaster, an unprecedented number of homeowners are learning how to go solar and save on monthly utility bills by attending the National Solar Tour, the largest grassroots solar energy event in history.

The nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is bringing together as many as 150,000 citizens to tour some 5,000 homes and businesses in 48 states to learn about money-saving technologies.

The National Solar Tour features property-owners who open their doors to neighbors to share how they are using the latest solar technologies to drastically reduce monthly energy bills, reduce harmful carbon emissions, and enjoy tax credits and cash incentives as they improve their property values.

Amid a struggling U.S. economy, these powerful open-house tours and neighbor-to-neighbor discussions show everyday people how they can combat soaring energy prices with solar energy and energy efficiency - while generating green-collar jobs across the U.S.

"The National Solar Tour highlights how families are using solar energy to fight back against skyrocketing energy costs," said Neal Lurie, Director of Marketing for ASES. "Participants come in curious, but they leave convinced ready to go solar."

According to survey results from last year’s National Solar Tour, 76% of participants said they are definitely or very likely to invest in solar or energy efficient technology after the Tour, compared to 50% before the Tour. A stunning 74% of participants indicated that they had never visited a solar or green-built home prior to this event. Last year’s National Solar Tour attracted more than 115,000 people in 2,900 communities in 46 U.S. states.