With the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol just under way, European Commission (EC) ministers met recently to nail down post-2012 climate policies. The so-called 20-20-20 benchmark—reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1990 levels, and producing 20% of all electricity from renewable sources, both by 2020—remains a cornerstone of EC efforts. As for [...]

Telegraph UK reports that the British government will soon reverse its existing policy and will move to solar feed-in tariffs. The upshot is that Britain consumers will now be in a far better position to pursue economically feasible solar installations for their homes.

This is fantastic news by any standard. This also appears to be the [...]

Our main areas of focus here at Getsolar are photovoltaics and solar hot water heating systems–those technologies that we, as individuals, can incorporate into our daily lives to lower our energy bills and lessen our dependence on carbon-intensive energy sources like coal. But on occassion, advancements in other technologies merit our attention. The February 22 [...]

It’s finally happened: Castro has hung up his hat. Okay, handed it to his brother, and he will absolutely still put it on from time to time…but a regime change is in the air. Even if Raul Castro is blessed with unusually good health and long life, he’s still 76 years old, and Cuba can’t [...]

Following on Eric’s blurb on Qatar’s growing investment in photovoltaics, I thought I’d share this picture I took during my recent travels to the Middle East. These solar water heaters are found on nearly every rooftop around Jerusalem. I saw a good number of PV panel installations as well, especially atop commercial centers and government [...]

Oft-hailed over the past few years as a panacea for our nation’s energy and agriculture woes, biofuel has had a tough week. According to two independent studies published in the journal Science yesterday, almost all of the biofuels used today actually emit more greenhouse gases than do fossil fuels if we count the “full emissions [...]

I’ll admit it: I thought McCain was a shoe-in. And sure, he came out ahead in yesterday’s grand slam of primaries, but he got a run for his money from Romney and even, in some states, from the dark horse Huckabee.
Let’s be honest. We were all more on tenterhooks about the outcome of the Democratic [...]

The British Government produced this climate challenge video for its citizens, I find it very interesting not so much for the content, but for the fact that the government put it out. As I watched the video (many of the same themes you may have seen from the film “An Inconvenient Truth”) I [...]

What is just another typical week for us average world citizens is, for some 2,000 policymakers, academics, celebrities and religious leaders, an exclusive working vacation in the Swiss Alps. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum began on Wednesday and runs through the weekend. To be invited, you have to be (1) very rich, [...]

Remember the good old days of sci-fi, when our hero would come home to a house that knew exactly how warm to be, and would have dinner ready in the oven? Well, the powers that be are working on a vision for a responsive, smarter national electric grid that would deliver greater efficiency and reliability [...]