Sustainable North

From www.change.gov, retrieved on Thursday, November 20, 2008:
The energy challenges our country faces are severe and have gone unaddressed for far too long. Our addiction to foreign oil doesn’t just undermine our national security and wreak havoc on our environment — it cripples our economy and strains the budgets of working families all across America. [...]

[Read more →]

From reuters.com, on Tuesday, November 4, 2008:
“In our view, too much solar capacity has been added relative to demand, and will lead to oversupply,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote, adding that the consequences would drive module prices down by about 15 percent next year.
Oversupply and an easing of demand as economies slow will help the cost [...]

[Read more →]

From the New York Times, on Friday, October 31, 2008:
Building a green home, with features like solar panels and top-of-the-line insulation, involves significant up-front costs.
Added onto that is the cost of certifying your home — a stamp of approval that the home meets green standards.
Some architects and builders voice concerns that LEED for Homes — a relatively [...]

[Read more →]

From the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, October 26, 2008:

With all eyes on the money crisis, homeowners and builders may find it hard to believe the words of Little Orphan Annie—the sun will come out tomorrow.
But one segment of the housing industry that continues to grow by banking on that idea is the residential solar-energy business.
Even [...]

[Read more →]

From nytimes.com, posted on Monday, September 29, 2008:
One of the limitations of solar photovoltaic systems is that, at the current state of the technology, no more than a quarter of the energy from the sun is converted to electric current. Most of the rest of the energy is lost as waste heat.
But Vinod Khosla, the founder [...]

[Read more →]

Established in 1995, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
To find out what incentives your state utilities and/or government offers businesses and individuals who use renewable power or increase [...]

[Read more →]

The first of a two-part series, “A Greener Future”, from the LA Times, September 14, 2008:
Innovations in designing green chemicals are emerging in nearly every U.S. industry, from plastics and pesticides to toys and nail polish. Some manufacturers of cosmetics, household cleaners and other consumer products are leading the charge, while others are lagging behind.
For [...]

[Read more →]

From Lamar Alexander’s blog “Simple Solar Homesteading,” retrieved on September 15, 2008:

The cabin is 14  x 14 and aproximately 400 square feet with a full loft. It includes a kitchen, dining area, bathroom and living area downstairs and a large bedroom and office upstairs.
I built this cabin by myself from new materials for under $2000 (not [...]

[Read more →]

From the Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2008:
Builders have known for decades that white roofs reflect the sun’s rays and lower the cost of air conditioning. But now scientists say they have quantified a new benefit: slowing global warming.
If the 100 biggest cities in the world installed white roofs and changed their pavement to more reflective [...]

[Read more →]

From The New Yorker Magazine, July 7, 2008:
For the past decade or so, Samsø [Denmark] has been the site of an unlikely social movement. When it began, in the late nineteen-nineties, the island’s forty-three hundred inhabitants had what might be described as a conventional attitude toward energy: as long as it continued to arrive, they [...]

[Read more →]