More Green From the Golden State

On December 5th, as is customary for his post, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger powered up the lights for State Capitol Christmas Tree. What makes this years tree-lighting  especially noteworthy is the use of a hydrogen fuel cell. Energy-efficeint LED bulbs are being powered by clean energy.

Said Schwarzenegger, “California leads the nation in energy efficiency standards. Once again, California is a pioneer in protecting our environment with this tree, which is powered entirely by a clean, zero-emission power source.”

In Anaheim, Disney is working to prove the Governor’s statements true, having recently revamped it’s classic submarine ride, substituting magnetic cols for steam power, and colorful, recycled glass for paint.

The quality of the show is still the number one priority for the employees of Disney, as stated Frank Dela Vara of Disneyland Environmental Affairs. “Our culture is that we want to be very careful about those pieces that we put on stage, and we don’t want to take that feel of the show away from the guests.”

Solar Energy in the South West? Duh!

I don’t know about you, but anyone who has ever lived in, or visited, south west America will know that they get more than their fair share of sunshine down there.

It has always amazed me that solar energy which, lets face it, has been around a while now, is not more prominent in that area beyond a few street signs. Are the vested interests from the oil conglomerates so pernicious in this country that even somewhere like Arizona has virtually no solar energy industry? Apparently so.

I even heard, on NPR a few days ago, that a German company was in Arizona looking to set up a solar energy project – Germany! They barely know what the sun looks like!
Can you imagine what a difference it would make to energy consumption if everyone’s house in Arizona was fitted with a couple of solar panels!?

Well, finally, I see that California is implementing not one, but two solar energy projects starting this month. Here is just a snippet from the story put out on the web by businesswire.com -

“Southern California Edison (SCE) has selected First Solar to engineer and supply the PV power plant system for a 2 megawatt project to be installed on the roof of a commercial building in Fontana, CA. This is the first installation in SCE’s plan to install 250 megawatts of solar generating capacity on large commercial rooftops throughout Southern California over the next five years. SCE began installation of this initial project on July 14, 2008, and expects to connect the PV power plant to the grid in September 2008. In March, SCE, with California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced the five-year solar PV installation project, which is the largest rooftop solar program ever proposed by a U.S. utility.”

You can read the full story at – http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/
?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080716005457&newsLang=en

but suffice it to say that we are very likely to see more and more of these kinds of alternative energy projects over the next ten years or so. If you want to invest your money in energy these days this is precisely the kind of initiative I would want my money invested in.