UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer set a serious and ambitious tone at a pre-conference press briefing for the Copenhagen climate negotiations. The talks have the potential to directly impact renewable energy industries by producing a carbon-conscious world. To follow what’s going on and engage in conversation, check out the YouTube Channel and the iPhone app.

President Obama is slated to speak in Copenhagen on December 9th, where he will propose emission caps for the U.S. in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. This is the type of leadership we need to legislate for a sustainable future and spur a clean energy economy and bring the solar industry to new levels of production and integration.

Yesterday, U.S. President Obama and the People’s Republic of China President Hu released a joint-statement on issues relating to climate change and renewable energy. The two countries are making concrete efforts to work together in order to scale renewable energy such as wind, solar, advanced biofuels, etc. and to achieve a cleaner way to burn coal. In the statement, it is clear both countries want to see a substantive document come out of Copenhagen without sacrificing the right to economic development.

Tendril Networks has partnered with a yet-to-be announced company to launch a video game in which conserving energy is the key to winning. This video game is just one innovate way in which to engage the consumer and, hopefully, alter consumption patterns through a unique education and awareness campaign.

The state of Oregon has had a long-standing reputation for green-mindedness, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before news surfaced of its farmers employing renewable energy to power their crops. This Associated Press story from yesterday highlights the increasing frequency with which agriculturalists in the Beaver State have been tapping into [...]

Supporters of renewable energy and conservationists both tend to environmentalists. Yet the group factions when clean energy threatens wildlife. Solar energy construction is facing this problem in California, and we anticipate the dispute to become more pervasive as renewable energy grows nationwide.

The Solar Decathlon has been well underway since Friday, and it’s good news so far for Team California, who is currently in the lead. (You can read Margaret’s short and sweet intro to Solar’s biggest competition here.) The biannual contest, which was designed to induce undergraduates to take a greater interest in a science or [...]

The European Commission released on Wednesday its plan to reduce carbon dioxide levels by directing €50 billion to clean energy research and development over the next ten years, with €16 billion ($23.5 billion) of that money reserved for solar photovoltaic power. The Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan may be the latest step in the European [...]

Will the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics be Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro or Madrid? That’s the question the International Olympic Committee will answer this evening in Copenhagen, where it will assemble to hear each candidate give a final presentation and then elect the winning city in a secret ballot. While political, economic and [...]

It’s been a turbulent week for solar in California. First, Governor Schwarzenegger rejects legislation that lawmakers have toiled over for the past nine months in favor of his own executive order. Now Oakland, CA-based BrightSource Energy Inc. has shelved its proposal for a controversial 500-megawatt solar thermal plant in a swath of Mojave Desert land [...]