Written by Rafael Reyes Tuesday, 27 November 2007 19:01

Google jumps in on renewables

Google.org aims at changing the game. It has set the goal of commercializing plug-in hybrids and now renewable energy.

The search giant will be looking to hire between 20 and 30 engineers and experts to develop renewable power technology from sources like solar thermal, wind power and enhanced geothermal systems. On a conference call, Google co-founder Larry Page said the initiative would spend “tens of millions of dollars on R&D,” and ultimately hope to produce a “gigawatt of renewable energy capacity,” in years, not decades.

Hat tip Earth2Tech

Written by Rafael Reyes Sunday, 25 November 2007 18:26

Solar jobs boom

The jobs boom in solar is here and may even exceed San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's target of 25,000 clean tech jobs...

The hiring binge is likely to continue. Solar Tech, a group of local solar companies trying to create a Solar Center of Excellence in Silicon Valley to serve training and product-testing needs, says the number of people employed locally in solar will grow 10 times over the next 10 years. That's from 1,000 to 2,000 now, to 10,000 to 20,000.

McCalmont, who chairs Solar Tech, said that number might be conservative and could approach 30,000 jobs.

Interestingly, unlike much of the high tech boom, the job base here is much broader from a national perspective. The numbers in the diagram above are national and biomass skews the job counts but green collar jobs as a category spans blue collar and white collar categories and is huge overall as detailed in the American Solar Energy Association's recent report. This is especially true in energy efficiency. As Van Jones likes to note, you can't ship a building offshore to have it weatherized...

Hat tip Earth2Tech

Written by Rafael Reyes Tuesday, 20 November 2007 20:12

Winds are changing...

This blog is focused on the local beat of climate change but it's useful to see where the trade winds are blowing. And when you see something like this, you know the winds are shifting...

Written by Rafael Reyes Monday, 19 November 2007 19:41

Climate of the Presidential Race

Saturday was the Presidential forum on Climate Change. Clinton, Edwards and Kucinich made showings. Unfortunately Obama did not show. Neither did any Republicans - one might have hoped McCain would have made a showing. This in the face of even more dire statements from the IPCC. The CNN piece above spoke to the broader problem of getting this problem - the most significant global problem we've ever faced - into the presidential discussion.

From the LA Times.

Next came Clinton, the New York senator, who offered a stern argument for pragmatism, barked down a heckler and warned the audience that global warming legislation pending in the Senate would be too incremental for their taste -- even as she refused to say whether she would back it.

Last came Edwards, the former senator and former vice presidential nominee, who railed against corruption in government and challenged candidates to "put political calculation aside and actually stand up with a little backbone for what's right." He didn't mention Clinton by name, nor did he need to.

And Grist has a list of the coverage.