Boston-area Cleantech company Recycline, which I highlighted in a previous Cleantech post, beat out almost 1,000 contestants to be one of the finalists in the Forbes.com “Boost Your Business” contest.  Help them win the $100,000 prize by voting for them today.  Today’s the last day to vote, and they’re neck-and-neck with two other companies!

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned, except as explicitly indicated.

Last week I talked about new advances that allow us to make silicon solar cells more cheaply (see also this primer post on solar to catch up). But the future of light capture may not be constrained to silicon. New technologies are here that may render moot the worldwide shortage of solar-grade polycrystalline silicon.

One of the big new materials that could replace silicon in solar cells is copper indium gallium selenide, or CIGS. The upshot of solar panels made from CIGS cells is that they’d be cheaper and lighter to make than their silicon-based counterparts. As with amorphous silicon (a-Si), CIGS cells are currently less efficient than commercial monocrystalline (c-Si) silicon, but the cost per watt is cheaper — CIGS cells are projected to cost $2.50 per watt in 2010 when manufacturing capacity scales up, compared to c-Si’s current $8-$9 per watt.

Another advantage of CIGS technology is that it’s sprayed onto substrates. This means that it can be made in thin sheets to be incorporated into roof tiles, or even theoretically sprayed onto concrete. CIGS technology hasn’t come close to replacing silicon, but as a disruptive technology, its day may come. (You can read more on the debate at C|Net).

So, can we call these new solar advances “clean technologies”? They certainly produce clean energy; and as their own production gets cleaner, they are adhering to the Cleantech principles. But look around — Nature uses silicon to play on the beach (sand is silicon dioxide), not to capture sunlight; and mostly avoids exotic metals altogether. So what can biomimicry teach us about truly Cleantech solar technology? I’ll discuss these “natural” solar applications of the future next week.

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned, except as explicitly indicated.

What is it worth to you to buy a product that you know is green? How much would you pay for something that was made in a socially responsible way? For example, would you buy a $1000 sweater rather than a $100 sweater? Christina Binkley poses that exactly that question in an article in today’s Wall Street .

She makes that the case that the more expensive sweater has a better pedigree - if you care about fairly treated workers and green production processes. Many consumers do express a willingness to pay more if they knew the product was really clean and green, but that is easier said than done.

Price is no indicator. For example, many luxury brands do not fare well when evaluated on their environmental and social performance. WWF-UK analyzed and ranked the 10 largest publicly-traded luxury brand-owners on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. The highest grade - a C+ - goes to L’Oreal. (Forget about LVMH, Coach, Tiffany + Company.) Certifications could work, although disagreement about which certification is more valid dilutes the efforts. Some consumers opt to let a trusted buyer make the call, a la Whole Foods. A Consumer Reports rankings for environmentally and socially responsible products would help - if it existed. No wonder we find ourselves asking, what is it worth to us and find no easy answer in sight.

Today there are many “Good Blogs” out there, but the one that I have been most impressed by is WorldChanging. According to WorldChanging’s site,

“WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected.”

At WorldChanging you will find a wealth of information on a wealth of topics. But it is not the blog that I am most impressed by. Rather, I am most impressed by the book they released which shares a name with the site.

The content of this book, which was written by a group of bloggers, spans over 600 pages. Within the book, you find details about what is going on right now and how you people are making a difference. I have found myself reading this book for hours on end, learning about programs and technologies that I had no idea existed.

This book would make an amazing gift for anyone you know who believes that the time for a better world is now, and at $25, the price is right.

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About the Author
Ben Salinas is a member of the fourth graduating class of Olin College of Engineering where he is focusing on Design. He is specifically passionate about how engineering, design, and entrepreneurship can be used to leverage a positive impact on the world. Ben is very interested in Appropriate Technology, International Development, and efforts to make them more culturally sensitive.

If we have heard of Alexis de Tocqueville, we remember him as the Frenchman who came to the United States around 1830 and published DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA in 1835. We know of his praise for American democracy, but is that the whole picture?

Recently, I went through a self-enlightening exercise entitled “From History to Hysteria,” through which the conclusion was reached that what we learned in school was a secular faith, not history. http://www.mymontebello.com/life_tc_fhth1.html

As for Tocqueville, check out these quotations, taken from an excellent source of quotations, http://www.quoteopia.com/:

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. How could he have made that statement in the 1830s?

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. We have been fond of saying that of Communists.

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I wrote about the United Nation’s Human Development Report last week. This post is a reminder that the current report will be released tomorrow in Brazil.

If you happen to be in San Francisco on November 27, you can attend an event at the Commonwealth Club to hear Ad Melkert, Undersecretary of the United Nations, talk about the report. This event will be moderated by Larry Brilliant who is the Executive Director of Google.org. The event is free, but you need to act fast to RSVP for the event.

Anyone serious about fighting climate change needs to read this report when it is available tomorrow.

Disclosure: I am a dues-paying member of the Commonwealth Club, which is a non-profit organization.