The provincial government plans to have 15 percent of all electricity used in the Western Cape generated from renewable energy sources – like wind, wave and solar – by 2014.

It also aims to reduce electricity use in selected schools and hospitals by between 5 and 10 percent, and to reduce the provincial product-to-carbon emission ratio by 10 percent, also by this date, as part of its climate-change mitigation efforts.

Source: IOL

The Great American Algae Rush is in full swing.

Dozens of companies and hundreds of scientists are working hard to engineer algae to produce green — literally and figuratively — fuel.

The endeavor is at the crossroads of energy and science, and the trend is spreading worldwide.Why? Because some algae strains can produce 10 or more times more fuel per acre than the corn that is used to make ethanol, or the soybeans used to make biodiesel.

Better still, you can grow algae on arid land and in brackish water, which avoids competing with food production, unlike the corn and soybeans that coat much of the Midwest’s farmland.

Best of all: algae consume carbon dioxide, combating greenhouse gas emissions.

But a new profile of the industry in the New York Times demonstrates that this technology has its share of pitfalls.

For one, efforts to engineer and manipulate the organisms has environmentalists concerned because algae are the base of the marine food chain.

For example: Screw up and over-engineer a strain, and suddenly you have an organism that’s out of whack with the biosphere, stripping water of its oxygen and harming fish — and maybe humans — in the process.

Source: Simply Green

The International Energy Agency (IEA) presented two new solar energy analyses in Valencia, Spain this week, a Solar Photovoltaic Energy Technology Roadmap and a Concentrating Solar Power Technology Roadmap.

The key finding from these is that 20-25% of global electricity production could be from solar energy by 2050.

In a blog post on our sister site, One Block Off the Grid, I just discussed how the United States and how rooftop solar fit into this. Below, mostly from the reports themselves, is a short discussion of what government’s role in all of this needs to be.

Source: Simply Green

When one looks at the initial cost of solar powering a home, many of us cringe at having to fork out to install the solar items that get us off grid either partially or completely.

A solar power system is an expensive home addition but it’s an extremely beneficial one, particularly given ESKOM’s price hike. If you don’t have thousands of rands to pay for these solar power systems up front, there are other ways in which you can pay for your home to be eco friendly…

One of the most obvious ways would be to apply for a loan for your residential solar power system. The problem with a loan is that the payments can be exorbitant and you could pay off a solar power system for years to come. A more economical alternative is to increase the bond on your home to include your solar system.

Getting finance for your solar power system might not be as difficult as you think. The most cost effective and economical way of financing solar power products like solar panels and geysers is to include it as part of your home bond. Bonds are long term loans and these loans can easily include your solar power products without increasing the monthly payment too much.

If you have a long term loan, one that will be paid off for the next 20 years or so, including your solar power system within your bond makes a lot of sense. In many cases, the monthly savings you will make from your solar power products will likely exceed the monthly bond payments for the system itself.

There are many benefits to using a solar power system in your home, and the payback is rewarding. solar panels and solar water heaters are only some of the solar power products available to install in your home. As electricity prices increase, so will your solar savings increase pro-rata.

Another great benefit that many of us overlook when installing a solar power system is that the solar system will increase the value of our home, especially in South Africa at a time when everyone is trying to find ways to avoid escalating electricity tariffs.

So, if you’re currently in the market for a new home, solar products such as a solar heater are that much more available to you through your bond. Certainly finances shouldn’t limit you from using a solar power system within your home.

Source: Urban Sprout

Stanford scientists have developed featherweight, pliable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper.

By coating a sheet of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, the scientists were able to construct a highly conductive storage device that’s both low-cost and high-performance.

(The difference between a battery and a capacitor, you ask? both hold energy to be converted to electricity, but capacitors hold it for a shorter period of time. On the other hand, they can store and discharge energy much more rapidly.)

The batteries are so strong that you can crumple them and the performance does not degrade.Led by assistant professor of materials science and engineering Yi Cui, who previously created nano-size batteries using plastics, the researchers developed a solution that is more durable than conventional batteries.

Source: Smart Planet