The Solar Hub

Vatican City Goes Solar

admin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:41:15 +0000

On the eve of the American holiday Thanksgiving, Vatican City in Italy has gone green by installing renewable solar panels on the rooftop of one of the city’s buildings. The rooftop in question is the Saint Paul Auditorium, where approximately 2500 panels were installed over a 5000 square meter roof. This will enable the building to produce roughly 300 megawatts of electricity a year, which is a considerable amount.

Cost on the solar panels equaled zero dollars and were donated by Solarworld a German company and was given the blessing by current Pope John Benedict XVI. Vatican city “plans to have enough renewable energy sources to provide 20 percent of its needs by 2020″. This would fall in line with a European Union target that was recently established.

Sources: Yahoo News

Solar Panels to be Installed on Los Angeles Rooftops

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:58:10 +0000

ABC News in Southern California is reporting that the The Los Angeles City Council has agreed to install renewable solar energy (solar panels) on rooftops throughout the city of Los Angeles. This mass installation will equate to roughtly 400 Megawatts, which can service approximately 100,000 customers throughout the southland. The project is going to cost an estimated 3 billion dollars and plays off the Solar Job Initiative, which was passed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa back in February, 2008.

This decision comes 4 days after Proposition 7 was denied, which was an initiative that would have required utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy (solar) by the year 2010. Proposition 7 would have generated approximately 400,000 jobs, but was voted against by by 60% of Californians. Because the city passed the Solar Job Initiative in February, the Los Angeles City Council did not have to obtain votes via the city and the plan will move ahead as voted.

Source: Trading Markets.com, ABC News

California Proposition 7 Does Not Pass

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:55:55 +0000

As of late Wednesday night on November 5th, California Proposition 7 is looking more and more like a long shot than a reality. It is estimated that over 60% of the votes on Prop 7 have been cast as “no” votes, with over 97% of the votes tallied. What does this mean? Proposition 7 ,as stated by the California government site, states that “utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010, a standard currently applicable only to private electrical corporations, raises requirement for utilities to 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025, imposes penalties, subject to waiver, for noncompliance, transfers some jurisdiction of regulatory matters from Public Utilities Commission to Energy Commission, fast-tracks approval for new renewable energy plants requires utilities to sign longer contracts (20 year minimum) to procure renewable energy and creates account to purchase rights-of-way and facilities for the transmission of renewable energy”.

If Proposition would have passed, the state of California would have been required to obtain half of its energy from a renewable source by the year 2025. The “no” vote on Proposition 7 does not mean there will be a lack of pushing for future legislation in favor of renewable energy and one can look for legislation to continue to be proposed in favor of renewable energy.

Source