It used to be that if you opted for a solar roof for your home, it was an eco-conscious but not a particularly aesthetic choice. But all that changed in October, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduced a new solar roof that is as beautiful as it is green.

“If you install our solar roof on your house, you’re going to want to call your neighbors over and say ‘check out the sweet roof!’” Musk said at the October presentation.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the look of the new roof tiles is how well they blend into a traditional roof. The four distinct styles of product are made from quartz glass, which is transparent to solar but appears opaque when viewed from an angle, and even resembling traditional materials, from slate to terra cotta. This even means that you could add solar tiles to just part of the roof.

“We need to make solar panels as appealing as electric cars have become,” Musk said. “It needs to be beautiful, affordable, and seamlessly integrated. If all of those things are true, why would you go any other direction?”

In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the solar tiles are also quite durable, built to last about two or three times longer than asphalt tiles.

“They should last longer than the house,” said Musk.

And there’s another very good reason to opt for these panels over traditional roofing materials: these solar panels generate enough energy to fully power a household, even on a shady day; the Tesla solar roof will be sold in tandem with Tesla Powerwall battery units, developed with an essential new element of solar power – electricity storage.

Electricity storage is already common in solar-heavy regions, where the solar energy produced in the middle of the day can be stored and used at night.

“The future is going to overwhelmingly be solar plus battery,” Musk said. “They go together like peanut butter and jelly.”

By designing the solar roofs to work hand-in-hand with Powerwall, Tesla has created an all-in-one system with units that can store 15kWh of energy, enough to power a four-bedroom house for a day.

“In order to make his vision move forward, Musk is using design with a big D,” Andy Ogden, Chair of the Industrial Design Department at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, told Wired. “He’s thinking about an overall strategy, in how these things interact and support each other, so there’s some synergy.”

Tesla is partnering with SolarCity on the new products; Tesla will likely merge with the company, run by his cousins, depending on the November 17 decision of the shareholders.

While pricing information and availability remain to be addressed — Brian Cinnamon of Green Tech Media guesses that the Tesla solar roof will cost about $15,000 for a set that is capable of producing 9,000 kilowatt-hours per year — keep an eye out for these new panels in time for summer 2017, if the merger goes according to plan.

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A new campaign by Minnesota-based non-profit Fresh Energy is addressing two major issues facing environmentalists today: alternative energy and pollinator habitats – and it’s actually kind of genius.

The campaign is the very definition of a win-win situation. By encouraging utility-scale solar developers to plant wildflowers and native grasses on their land, the campaign encourages the return of our pollinator friends, honeybees and monarch butterflies, and draws even more attention to solar power.

This project comes not a moment too soon, as 2,500 of acres of ground-mounted solar are on the brink of being installed in Minnesota over the next two years. This is the prime opportunity to change the way developers think about solar power moving forward.

“Most developers are used to building solar farms in California and Arizona (desert ground cover),” the campaign explains. “In most cases, shipping in gravel is more expensive than dense beds deep-rooted pollinator plants. Native grasses planted under solar arrays won’t only benefit the pollinators we rely on for our food supply, they also help keep water clean by serving as a natural filter for the water in our ecosystem.”

Minnesota’s neighboring North Dakota has seen its honey quotient drop considerably over the past few years, even as it remains the top honey producer in the U.S. North Dakota is responsible for about 23.2 percent of the nation’s total honey production, however, 17,000 colonies were lost in the state between January and March 2016, as compared to 620 for the same period in 2015.

“It’s gotten really hard to keep bees alive,” fourth-generation North Dakota beekeeper John Miller told National Geographic. “On a bad year, we might lose up to 40 percent.”

This widespread loss in North Dakota is attributed in large part to the loss of land that had been set aside for beekeeping since 2006. This land, which belonged to private owners, was left unplowed in exchange for payments for pollinator conservation; now farmers have opted instead to plant lucrative corn and soybean crops for biofuels, leaving bees with nowhere to go.

A 2015 IndieGogo campaign enlisted the help of Dr. Marla Spivak of the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota and Dr. Karen Oberhauser, Professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, to raise $5,646 – 101 percent of its goal – to increase visibility for the project through marketing and advertising.

So far, developers seem to be fairly receptive to this idea, and other states – like North Carolina and Massachusetts – have been targeted to expand the project.

“We see this is a huge opportunity to get people to like solar a little more,” Rob Davis, director of strategic communications for Fresh Energy, told GreenBiz.

We’re still looking for a downside to this. (Yeah, there isn’t one.)

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Honeybee image via Shutterstock

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This is why home solar power is creeping in and stealing market share from the utilities.

More and more families are switching to home solar power as the cost of installing solar panels continue to drop to levels people can easily afford. The cost of solar panels has dropped by 100 times since 1977 and today solar panels are half the price that they were in 2008. That’s a huge change.

Home solar power is increasingly appealing when you consider that in some households it can account for 80 percent of energy used. That’s a savings of $20,080 off a family’s net electricity costs over 20 years. This huge cost savings along with the environmental benefits of avoiding dirty coal power generation is helping residents to turn toward solar at a rate like never before. But as the use of solar power steadily increases, utility companies are starting to notice.

Utility companies are getting hit harder in states like California and Colorado where residential solar power is a real threat to their bottom line. And it presents a double whammy: it cuts into the amount of traditional power taken from the grid and additionally, the utilities have to repay residents that put additional power into the grid through the generation of solar power.

In Northern California, a part of the country that accounts for one quarter of the solar panel installation in the country, the utility company Pacific Gas and Electric wants to add a fixed monthly charge of $10 per month to offset this cost. But the solar industry contends that it’s a direct attack by an industry that for too long has depended on a monopoly to do business.

Home solar power is finally becoming a disruptive technology in the same way that cell phones were to the phone companies and it’s a problem that will continue to get worse for the big utility companies because as they lose money to solar power they’ll have to raise prices which will make solar power even more appealing.

But of course the popularity of solar varies from state to state based on the laws in place to support it. I wrote a while back that some states were doing a lot to make residential solar power appealing.

The top ten states: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, New Jersey, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Vermont, and New Mexico include a slew of rebates and tax incentives for those that install solar panels on their homes which motivates residents to participate. New York governor Andrew Cuomo has made a commitment to solar energy, allowing his state to perform the best. It’s strange that some of the states with the least usable power have the best incentives.

What do you think? Is solar on your radar? Are you considering installing solar panels on your home and if so, what’s the biggest draw for you as a power consumer?

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Image: Peter Blanchard

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Solar Power Rocks just released its residential solar power ratings by state (including the District of Columbia), based on criteria that lead to strong financial incentives to install solar panels. Find out your state’s solar power facts.

The report includes detailed discussions of each state broken down by criteria, including areas where each state excels and those where it falls short. It also shows how state legislatures can impact change on the solar market in each state. What are the prospects for your state? Read on to find out your solar power facts by state.

Top Ten States for Residential Solar Power

The top ten states include a slew of rebates and tax incentives for those that install solar panels on their homes which motivates residents to participate. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made a commitment to solar energy, allowing his state to perform the best. It’s strange that some of the states with the least usable power have the best incentives.

1. New York

2. Massachusetts

3. Connecticut

4. Oregon

5. New Jersey

6. Colorado

7. Maryland

8. Minnesota

9. Vermont

10. New Mexico

My home state of South Carolina came in 37 on the list because despite having one of the best solar tax credits in the country, its “RPS standards are laughable”. (RPS stands for renewable portfolio standards.) It’s a regulation that requires increased production of energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. It obligates electricity companies to produce a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources.

Bottom Ten States for Residential Solar Power

These states all scored an F in terms of tax incentives, credits, RPS standards, and accessibility. Unfortunately, many of these states would have loads of solar power to use.

40. Georgia

41. Virginia

42. North Dakota

43. Mississippi

44. Nebraska

45. Wyoming

46. Kentucky

47. West Virginia

48. Alabama

49. Oklahoma

50. Arkansas

If you want to see where your state falls on the list, checkout the entire report.

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The first aerial flight to circumnavigate the globe was conducted in 1924 by a team of aviators from the U.S. Air Service (now known as the Air Force). It took 175 days and covered 27,553 miles. Ninety years later, the first solar powered flight around the world will take place aboard Solar Impulse 2. 

In March of 2015, pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are planning to make it around the world on the Solar Impulse 2, a 100 percent solar powered airplane. It will take off from Abu Dhabi, the capitol of the United Arab Emirates.

“We have chosen [Abu Dhabi] as being the best and most suitable departure point for the round-the-world tour, due to its climate, infrastructure and commitment to clean technologies,” Borschberg, Solar Impulse co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.

But the flight will most definitely have its challenges. The team will accumulate a total of 500 flight hours in a tiny cockpit with weather conditions from 40 below to 104 degrees F. There’s no pressurization system and just six oxygen bottles aboard.

“What is really special, is that it is the first and only airplane in the world which has unlimited endurance. We have an airplane which is fully sustainable in terms of energy, and our challenge now is to make the pilot sustainable as well,” says Borschberg.

The route will start at the Arabian Gulf, flying over India, Myanmar, and China, followed by two ocean crossings, and the U.S., before making their way back around. The pilots will stopover in India, Myanmar, China, the U.S., and Southern Europe or Northern Africa. Although the exact cities will be chosen based on operational considerations.

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As a South Carolinian I’m not afraid to admit that my state is behind the curve when it comes to solar power. In fact, The Interstate Renewable Energy Council rated South Carolina along with only four other states with D and F grades for progress on the use of renewable energy. But my state is about to open its eyes to solar power thanks to a new piece of legislation that just passed the South Carolina House of Representatives with a vote of 105-0. The final version will soon hit Gov. Nikki Haley’s desk for a signature.

“This is truly a big deal, a giant step in moving South Carolina forward in renewable energy,’’ state Rep. Robert Brown, D-Charleston, said.

The solar power bill has the support of both the utilities and conservation groups after two years of heated negotiations. South Carolina currently depends almost entirely on coal, nuclear power, and natural gas. This new legislation pushes utility companies to increase the use of solar power. By 2021, utilities must get 2 percent of power from the sun, which puts the state in line with other southern states.

Currently, there are only about 7 megawatts of solar power installed in the state, but this new law could increase that number to 300 megawatts. The bill also allows third party leasing, which lowers the cost of solar panel installation for both people and businesses.

Lawmakers are still deciding how utility companies will credit both people and businesses for installing solar panels without cutting into utility power profit.

According to The State, “The legislation also sharply raises one of the nation’s most restrictive caps on the use of solar power by businesses and universities. The cap would be 1 megawatt, instead of the current 100 kilowatt limit for nonresidential solar energy.”

While my state is still miles behind when it comes to renewables, this is a slow but steady step in the right direction.

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As if Los Angeles needed another reason for bragging. It’s now home to the nation’s largest urban rooftop solar energy program, and it could make you money while helping to support clean energy initiatives in the state.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the program, called Clean L.A. Solar, makes it possible for Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power to now pay its customers if they generate solar energy via rooftop solar panels.

The Los Angeles Business Council is the driving force behind the program, and hopes that it will generate 150 megawatts of solar energy, “enough to power about 30,000 homes,” reports the Times. “The council hopes to attract investments totaling $500 million from a growing list of companies that want to invest in L.A.’s push to go green by setting up large clusters of rooftop solar panels.” And the solar energy program hopes to expand, rapidly. “Clean L.A. Solar proponents have their sights set high, aiming to expand the initial 150-megawatt goal over the next several years to 600 megawatts.”

The move comes as a result of the state’s mandate to generate 33 percent of its electricity through renewable resources by 2020. If everything goes smoothly, the Clean L.A. Solar program should help the city reach 25 percent of that goal by 2016. As well, the program will create more than 4,000 jobs for Angelinos.

Another benefit of the program is that it could also be extremely helpful to the city’s lower income neighborhoods. Some of the city’s poorest areas also have the highest amount of light available, making homes in those neighborhoods prime candidates for solar rooftops.

The program will pay 17 cents per kilowatt-hour initially, decreasing to 14 cents, according to the Times.

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Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: hsld

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A discussion on alternative energy can often lead to eye rolls from conservatives who seem to think that wind turbines and solar panels are powered by naked people eating granola. But regardless of whether or not you might think of alternative energy models as hippie-powered, new reports find there are now more solar jobs in the U.S. than those being provided by the nation’s coal miners. 

According to the Solar Foundation’s new interactive map, you can view state by state just exactly where the solar jobs are (more than 43,000 in California!). The map states that nearly 120,000 jobs can now be credited to solar energy—a growth of more than 13 percent last year. CNN reports “there are more solar energy workers in Texas than there are ranchers. In California, they outnumber actors, and nationwide, America has more solar workers than coal miners.”

Even less sunny states, including New Jersey and Michigan are now reporting an increase in the number of solar jobs. The Solar Foundation reports that even though the states may be lacking in the sunshine department on par with states like California and Arizona, the fact that they have favorable tax and regulatory policies make them appealing locations for solar developers.

Solar workers are being paid better than the average national wage, too, reports the Solar Foundation. A solar worker can earn nearly $38,000 a year, which is slightly more than what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports as the national average wage of $34,750.

The benefits to solar power are numerous, most notably that the sun is a sustainable resource unlike our dependence on limited resources of fossil fuels. Solar creates less pollution (as does wind-power) than conventional energy procurement methods.

Another notable benefit to solar is that virtually any structure can be outfitted to generate its own solar power. This can help to take pressure off the nation’s power grids, decrease utility bills and provide clean energy at the same time.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Wayne National Forest

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Walmart? It’s complicated.

As we noted yesterday, privately-owned solar panels are hot right now – and since they’re as cost-saving as they are trendy, you’d expect big business to be falling over itself to use them. You’d be right, too. A report from the Solar Energy Industries Association lists the top 20 companies by solar power capacity – and right at the top? Walmart.

Hmm.

Here’s an example of why lists never tell the full story. We’ve been keeping an eye on the mixed grocery bag that is Walmart for a number of years now – for example, wrinkling our brows over its patchy record on supporting and promoting women in business (Externally? Yup. Internally? Not so much). Grist, Treehugger and Mother Jones have all uncovered causes for deep, deep concern amidst the sustainability rhetoric. Walmart: it’s complicated.

The company’s success since 1960 is astonishing to behold, and it’s smart enough to know that being vocal about improving is the way to keep the critics under control. Topping a list of solar-powered companies won’t hurt their credibility by any means.  But does this list indicate they’re the greenest of them all? Alas, it’s not that simple. As Ariel Schwartz notes at Fast Co.EXIST, Walmart is at the top because it’s the largest retailer in the world, and consequently has more roof-space & more money to spend on cost-saving photovoltaic technology. A better way to spot the real top dog is to look at proportions. In terms of solar power units per store, IKEA wipes the shop floor with the competition with a whopping 79%.

Walmart currently generates just 2% of its power needs through renewable sources. Thanks to its size, that’s still a huge amount of power not coming from conventional supplies, and that’s a very good thing indeed. It’s also a showcase for the commercial viability of solar technology – even if Walmart were doing it just to save money. Whatever their motivations, they’re championing private solar power on a whopping scale, and we’ll certainly raise a glass to that.

Image: Roof of Las Vegas Walmart (Walmart Stores).

The post Walmart Collects More Solar Power Than Anyone Else – Why? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sustainable energy, check; low emissions, check; hundreds of rows of parked cars, huh?

If you haven’t already heard of Abengoa, which is based in Seville, southern Spain, you soon will: it’s coming to the U.S. in a big way. The multinational tech company is currently building two major solar thermal power stations, both due for completion in 2013. One of these, Solana in Arizona, will be the largest of its kind in the world with a stratospheric budget of $2 billion. With an output of 280MW, it will be able to power 70,000 homes. It will also give a massive jolt to the local economy, and spur some new office space.

As you know, we love poking our heads into OPC (Other People’s Cubicles). What we’ve discovered is that high-tech companies these days tend to lead the way in offering quirky, stimulating workplaces for their employees. While the headquarters of this technology company gets the thumbs up in terms of sustainability, it’s not as creative as you’d expect for a modern, cutting-edge company. It also has some unexpectedly backwards policies in terms of fume-spewing and clock-watching.

Abengoa’s Campus Palmas Altas (meaning: Tall Palms) makes their own electricity using a variety of methods, including photo-voltaic panels, parabolic troughs, and a tri-generation plant (which produces electricity, heat and cold). In all, they produce 70% of the energy they consume. Impressive – this is 164,000 square feet of offices we’re talking about.

Their premises – seven low-rise blocks – are cooled using vigas frias (chilled beams), metal pipes that run through the ceiling, filled with cold water. The temperature of the liquid adjusts to the air, keeping the 2,500 boffins at a comfortable, constant temperature. That is no mean feat in Seville, where summer temperatures often top 115 degrees.

Other ways of dealing with the fierce Andalucian sun include self-shading. The buildings are arranged in a linear layout so that each block protects the next from those rays. But they make the most of natural lighting, thanks to glass walls; there are also horizontal shades, and some buildings have huge fixed-position glass screens, which cut the glare by up to 40%.

Such is the sustainable nature of this complex that’s been certified as LEED Platinum, the first to earn this distinction in Europe. It also won the Excellence in Design Award from the American Institute of Architects’ UK Chapter.

However, some aspects of the campus strike us as strange, from the uninspiring buildings to the wholly un-ecological transport situation. Unnerving, too: the monitoring of employees’ movements. I’m talking, spooky, Big Brother-type monitoring.

In terms of the building’s design, as award-winning and sustainable as it may be, it leans towards the prosaic rather than the stunningly visual. Architect Richard Rogers, Pritzker Prize winner, maverick designer of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and, closer to home, World Trade Center Tower 3, says the scheme “creates a new model for the business park, one that is… more compact and urban than conventional business parks”.

Moreover, since Abengoa required such a large site, the offices are located in a dead area next to a freeway. As such, public transport is virtually non-existent thus creating a major sticking point. How is that such an ostensibly green company could end up with a gargantuan car parking area sprawled out next to it? It’s as big as the campus itself and a visible reminder of polluting emissions and personal accountability thereof.

The spaces closest to the offices (under them, in fact) are for pregnant women, those with young children at the on-site nursery (highly innovative in backwards southern Spain), and those with mobility issues. Social awareness 10 points; pollution control, 0 points.

To be fair, the company is trying to implement various alternative transport ideas – cycle lanes, carpooling, free shuttle buses – but for a visitor, the first impression of this company, whose motto is “innovative technology for sustainability,” smacks of, “we heart fossil fuels.”

With an on-site gym and restaurants, Abengoa is doing its best to keep its 2,500 employees around all day – it’s very unusual in Andalucia not to nip home for lunch at ones mom’s place (most under 35s live at home) followed by a siesta. You might be thinking, and…so what? But for a Spaniard, that comes as a major culture shock. All activities, including restaurant visits and photocopying, are monitored by their electronic ID tag. Any and all transgressions are penalized.

These curtailments in movement have led to the nicknames “Centro Penitenciario Abengoa” and “Palmatraz” among staff.

Abengoa is a force to be reckoned with in the solar power world. They’ve just secured $400 million of funding from a U.S. private equity firm and are behind a $2 billion solar power project in the Mojave Desert. Indeed, they are showing us the way forward in the green economy. But let’s hope they sort out some buses soon – and advance their work/life initiatives into the 21^st Century.

Images: Panal Lira; Mark Bentley Photography; El Mundo; David Aureo

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