Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Renewables and Happiness!

Recently, I ran across a few very exciting solar (and wind) initiatives. It seems like the price point and financing options, such as solar service agreements whereby there is no up-front costs to the home owner), are making residential solar a no-brainer. Solar technology, including solar thermal, and lower production costs are creating a powerful leverage point to make solar affordable and thereby expanding its adoption. It's encouraging when the likes of Google are beginning to play in the "solar sandbox" in a big way and providing the necessary funding to dramatically increase its adoption. Check out: Google's new alliance with Solar City blog post (6/14/11 at 6:00 am): http://www.googlegreenblog.blogspot.com/

Google is also setting a new bar by providing electric vehicle charging stations in their headquarters parking lot (a new technology that charges cars wirelessly. Check out: Googles EV charging stations blog post (6/9/11 at 10:00 am): http://googlegreenblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/leading-charge-toward-electric-vehicle.html

On the wind front, the concept of community wind, whereby the land owners own the wind turbines, is being taken to new heights by Juhl Wind. Details at: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22552?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Enewsletter&utm_campaign=SustainableBusiness.com%20Update%3A%206%2F20%2F11

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On Happiness:
A new film is coming out called: HAPPY, from director Roko Beli.
It explores what makes us happy and looks at scientific studies that show certain traits of happy people.
For more info. and to see the movie trailer see: http://thehappymovie.com/wordpress/