Is the Solar Sunflower Blossoming?
Here’s a video touting the benefits of the “SmartFlower,” a unique design in solar PV. Note that it didn’t happen to mention the MSRP of the product, from which one could deduce the cost per kWh of electricity it generates. Even with considerable Googling and placing phone calls, I can’t find the price. Based on what I can see from the videos and infer about the installation as well as the mechanics and electronics in the design, I’d be surprise if a kWh were less than 50 times that of convention rooftop or ground-mounted solar. (more…)
Yes, we’re continuing to make great progress in all aspects of energy storage via batteries, most importantly, in terms of cost-effectiveness. Yet it’s hard to conceive of a time at which batteries can compete with the storage of heat energy. 
I know I’ll take some heat for this, but here’s an article in Cincinnati.com, part of the USA Today network, in which Mark P. Painter, a retired judge (pictured), a Republican who served on the bench for 30 years, discusses the 
Caption to the cartoon (if it’s too small to read): “My God, we’ve run out of gin!”
In a few weeks, I have an appointment to meet with a representative of VW USA to turn in my car, a Jetta TDI (diesel), one of 11 million vehicles in the emissions scandal, and receive a check for its fair market value plus $5,100. That’s the assessment of damages the courts have levied as compensation for VW’s having ripped me and 11 million other customers off (not to mention everyone else on the planet with lungs). 
Saving our planet has become the main goal of modern age. Countless companies and large businesses are getting into the green mentality and governments are aiming towards turning everything eco-friendly. Although it is an important part of paving a road towards a better future, it is crucial to understand that the green way of thinking should firstly be introduced in our own homes. Of course, this does not imply making a single great change to your lifestyle. You will need to introduce a number of (seemingly small) changes into every aspect of your life, in order to achieve a green mindset.
When modern-age electric vehicles first became “a thing” about 10 years ago, supercapacitors were a frequent topic of discussion, due to their value in delivering large amounts of power—far more energy per unit than batteries could provide. As it turns out, however, lithium-ion batteries have come to offer acceptable power density, and thus this initial conversation has gone dormant. 
Civil engineering is an integral part of life today. Buildings, bridges, and cities are all designed by civil engineers. So too is waste management, water supply lines, and many aspects of green infrastructure. Today, in the age where communities are working to improve urban and suburban city designs, 
For those too young to remember, The Smothers Brothers had a popular television comedy show in the 1960s, noteworthy among other things as the first bit of mainstream media that openly poked fun at the U.S. president. Here’s a letter that Lyndon Johnson wrote when they went off the air in 1969: 
