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It seems that an experiment with solar panels on residential homes in a community in Japan is working out well.  Not only do all of the homes’ appliances run off of the solar electricity, but they are also able to sell unused electricity back to the utility.

It seems that Japan will be bringing back subsidies for consumers to install solar panels on their homes next year.  I can see that having this technology on a home will siginificantly increase the value of the home.  I can’t wait to see the cost of setting up these systems drop.  Or, perhaps, we should be embracing a new model where consumers don’t own the solar equipment, but rather lease out their rooftops to the utility.  I can also see another model where consumers lease their rooftops to a company that specializes in installing and maintaining these solar generation systems.  The future is oh so bright!

Geothermal energy is an abundant resource that has not been fully tapped.  Magma is usually located 25-40 miles beneath the Earth’s surface.  However, in some areas, it is only 4 miles beneath the surface.  Once the magma is reached (through drilling) a liquid, like water, is heated and turned into steam. The steam is then transported to a turbine above ground and released.  The steam rises and rotates turbines which generate electricity.  It is a pretty simple process, but it takes a lot of work to set up the plant to process the steam.  One key advantage of geothermal energy is that it runs 24 hours a day regardless of the weather conditions.

In fact, there is so much geothermal energy available that Google has committed itself to exploring the use geothermal energy in some capacity.  It only makes sense for Google to do so since it is such a large consumer of electricity.  (One of Google’s data centers alone consumes more than 100 megawatts of electricity. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Tacoma, Washington or 82,000 homes.)  In fact, the CEO of Google recently spoke about his interest to exploit geothermal energy at a recent Commonwealth Club event.  The video of his talk about renewable energy is available after the jump.  (Warning: The video is about 45 minutes long. So, make sure that you have some time available to watch it.)

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There has been a lot of talk about the generating clean electricity from coal lately from current Presidential candidates. It turns out that sequestering CO2 emissions from coal plants is not a pre-existing technology. The technology exists to sequester CO2 emissions, but no plant currently exists to do this on an industrial scale. Before the Americans decide what to do with any new electricity generation method we need to know the facts surrounding clean coal. The video above helps us understand a little bit about what clean coal means and I really appreciate the interview with a Greenpeace representative. So, what are the facts surrounding clean coal?

According to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, coal is responsible for roughly half of all electricity produced in the United States. In addition, coal is the most inexpensive source of energy in the United States. Furthermore, “America has more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves.” Lastly, “Using coal to generate electricity is less than a 1/3 of the cost of other fuels.”

Although I am not a fan of the methods used to mine coal, I am impressed by the industry’s attempt to change to meet environmental standards for the rest of the world. Furthermore, I am very excited at the prospect of clean AND inexpensive electricity. The only is that coal reserves have a finite amount of coal and America is bound to run out of it in the long term.

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The good folks at “We Can Solve It” are still putting their marketing might behind changing consumer’s attitudes to demand clean energy within 10 years. However, this time, they are focusing on getting government officials involved in the fight. The video above is their new message to U.S. politicians. You might remember this goal of having 100% clean energy in the U.S. in 10 years from Al Gore’s Energy Challenge speech.

It is important that all countries reduce their reliance on a single source of energy, so I’ve listed all of the different sources of energy below. (The video only mentions wind and solar energy.)

1. Wind Energy
2. Solar Energy
3. Geothermal Energy
4. Hydro Energy (Dams, Wave Energy, Tide Energy)
5. Nuclear Energy
6. Fossil Fuels (Oil, Coal, Natural Gas)
7. Space Solar Power System

The technology that is most interesting to me is the Space Solar Power System as it allows electricity to be generated from outside of the Earth’s environment.

Through all of this, it is important to keep everything into perspective. As the U.S. moves to a new energy infrastructure, it needs to consider doing it in a responsible way so that it isn’t a reckless gold rush like it is in upstate New York. What are your thoughts?

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The good folks at “We Can Solve It” are putting their marketing might into changing consumer’s attitudes to demand clean energy within 10 years. The video above is their first video advertisement aimed at this goal. You might remember this goal from Al Gore’s Energy Challenge speech.

This video highlights an important truth that everyone in the world must acknowledge. (The quote below is from Cathy Zoi who is the CEO of We Can Solve It.)

“Switching now to clean energy sources will revitalize our economy — we can be global leaders in developing and manufacturing clean energy technologies. It will enhance our national security — reducing the pressure on our troops to protect oil supplies and avoiding the worst climate impacts in politically unstable regions of the world. It will make high gasoline prices less of a burden in our daily lives — enabling us to transition to clean plug-in hybrid electric cars. It will help solve the climate crisis — if we fail to act soon, the consequences for our children will be dire.”

Share this message and this video with your friends as it is important that all countries reduce their reliance on a single source of energy.