photo: eSolar Last week Green Wombat wrote about how solar power plant developer eSolar may avoid conflicts over endangered species by building its solar farms on privately owned agricultural land rather than in desert areas home to a variety of protected wildlife. At the opening ceremony of eSolar’s Sierra demonstration power plant outside Los Angeles [...]
Archive for the ‘endangered species’ Category
Wildlands Conservancy’s solar connection
Posted in alternative energy, endangered species, energy, enviro startups, environment, eSolar, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged David Gelbaum, David Myers, eSolar, Quercus Trust, Wildlands Conservancy on August 14, 2009 | 2 Comments »
eSolar’s green edge — critter friendly solar farms
Posted in alternative energy, climate change, endangered species, energy, environment, eSolar, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Tessera Solar, tagged Bill Gross, David Myers, endangered species, eSolar, Mojave Desert, solar power plants, Wildlands Conservancy on August 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
photo: eSolar eSolar on Wednesday fired up its five-megawatt Sierra “power tower” solar farm outside Los Angeles during an opening ceremony that featured such green tech luminaries as Google.org climate change director Dan Reicher and Dan Kammen of the University of California at Berkeley. But the speaker that caught my eye was environmentalist David Myers, [...]
Google to map green energy zones
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, endangered species, energy, enviro startups, environment, First Solar, Google, green startups, green tech, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, SunPower, wind power, tagged Google, Google Earth, green energy zones, Map Green Energy, renewable energy projects on April 1, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Can Google help defuse a simmering green civil war between renewable energy advocates and wildlife conservationists in the American West? That’s the idea behind a new Google Earth mapping project launched Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society. Path to Green Energy will identify areas in 13 western states potentially [...]
Desert showdown: Big solar vs. little wildlife
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, climate change, endangered species, energy, enviro startups, First Solar, global warming, green policy, green startups, green tech, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Stirling Energy Systems, tagged BrightSource Energy, desert tortoise, Goldman Sachs, Mojave Desert, PG&E, Senator Dianne Feinstein, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on March 26, 2009 | 25 Comments »
photo: Wild Rose Images California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s move to put a large swath of the Mojave Desert off-limits to renewable energy development is splitting the environmental movement and could derail some two dozen solar and wind power projects the state needs to comply with its ambitious climate change laws. On the firing line are [...]
Corporate green: Mining giant saves rare wombat
Posted in Australia, corporate green, endangered species, enviro capitalism, green marketing, tagged corporate green, endangered species, northern hairy-nosed wombat, Xstrata on March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Alan Horsup, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service In the ultimate in green corporate branding, Swiss mining conglomerate Xstrata is spending millions of dollars to save one of the world’s most imperiled large mammals, Australia’s northern hairy-nosed wombat. It’s the first time a corporation has agreed to finance the recovery of an endangered species, and [...]
Green stimulus: Who wins
Posted in Abengoa Solar, alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, endangered species, First Solar, green financing, green policy, green tech, MMA Renewable Ventures, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Stirling Energy Systems, SunPower, the green economy, tagged BrightSource Energy, First Solar, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar power plants, stimulus package, thin-film solar on February 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the green stimulus sweepstakes, big potential winners are companies like Silicon Valley startup OptiSolar. The solar-cell maker came out of nowhere last year to score a deal with utility PG&E to build the world’s largest photovolaic power plant, a 550-megawatt monster that would cover some 9 1/2 square miles on California’s central coast. OptiSolar [...]
Gridlock on the power grid
Posted in alternative energy, climate change, endangered species, global warming, green grid, green policy, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, smart grid, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged green grid, smart grid, solar power plants, Sunrise Powerlink, transmission upgrades, wind farms on February 9, 2009 | 18 Comments »
Over the weekend The New York Times’ Matthew L. Wald had a sobering story on the not-inconsiderable challenges facing efforts to expand and upgrade the United States’ power grid to tap renewable energy from wind farms and solar power plants. Among them: Opposition to new high-voltage power lines from landowners and environmentalists, a Byzantine permitting [...]
Forget the recession, California goes for the green
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, climate change, endangered species, enviro startups, environment, global warming, green policy, green startups, green tech, Natural Resources Defense Council, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, the green economy, tagged Arnold Schwarzenegger, renewable energy, renewable portfolio standard, solar energy, solar power plants on November 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
photo: California Governor’s Office California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday terminated talk that the recession will crimp California’s fight against global warming when he ordered every utility in the state to obtain a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. And in a move that will shake up the land rush to build [...]
The hottest tech job in America: Wildlife biologist
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, climate change, endangered species, energy, enviro startups, global warming, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Stirling Energy Systems, tagged Ausra, CH2MHill, endangered species, OptiSolar, PG&E, solar power plants, SunPower, URS, wildlife biologists on September 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
photo: Todd Woody Green Wombat’s story in the new issue of Fortune magazine on the solar power plant-fueled boom in demand for wildlife biologists is now online here. The photo above of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard was taken at a state reserve in San Luis Obispo County. Or you can read the story below. The [...]
California’s game-changing solar deal
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, endangered species, enviro startups, environment, First Solar, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, SunPower, tagged Ausra, California Valley Solar Ranch, OptiSolar, PG&E, SunPower, Topaz Solar Farm on August 14, 2008 | 24 Comments »
photo: David Lena In a move that could alter the economics of the global solar industry, California utility PG&E on Thursday announced that it will buy 800 megawatts of electricity produced from two massive photovoltaic power plants to be built in San Luis Obsipo County on the state’s central coast. The 550-megawatt thin-film plant from [...]
