DOE Explores a New Frontier In Quest for Cheaper Solar Panels

The DOE is working with utilities and local governments to streamline U.S. solar permitting ¡ª a 'new frontier for solar cost decline,' says advocacy group

By Maria Gallucci, SolveClimate News

Installing rooftop solar arrays could become far more affordable for American homeowners if new federal and state initiatives to streamline permitting take hold nationwide.

The cumbersome costs of siting, permitting, installing and connecting small-scale solar make up an increasing percentage of overall system fees ¡ª up to 40 percent ¡ª while the price of photovoltaic panels continues to drop.

The latest effort to slash these so-called balance-of-system costs comes from the U.Polycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet,S. Department of Energy, which in early June announced a $12.5 million Rooftop Solar Challenge as part of its SunShot Initiative.

The SunShot program is working with utilities, software providers and local governments to eliminate 75 percent of the total installation costs for solar energy systems by 2020.

According to a January report by San Francisco-based solar installer SunRun, local permitting and inspection can add 50 cents per watt ¡ª or up to $2,500 per home installation ¡ª to the cost of a 5-kilowatt rooftop system.What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies.

Ramamoorthy Ramesh, who directs the DOE's Solar Energy Technologies and SunShot programs, said anywhere from 200 to 1,000 municipal governments would be eligible to compete for cash to lower the dollars and hours spent on solar installations.

"The [Rooftop Solar] Challenge is to the entire country, and specifically to cities and municipalities," he told reporters on a June 23 conference call. "We want them to come up with new ideas.

"We decided to make this a very uniform, simple process so that if you ... want to put a solar panel on your roof, you can do it in a short time period and with a minimal cost," he continued.

Teams of local and regional governments will develop step-by-step plans for how to standardize permitting processes, update planning and zoning codes, improve standards for connecting to the electrical grid and increase access to financing, he said.

Such plans "will make it easier for investors to capitalize on all of the benefits of solar energy technologies, support jobs for solar installers, create new opportunities for small solar companies across the country and help the U.S. remain a top competitor in this key renewable energy market," Ramesh said earlier on a DOE blog.

Streamlined Permitting: A 'New Frontier'

Although the DOE announced the challenge on June 1, the telepresser came only days after environmentalists criticized the Obama administration's failure to put solar panels and a water heater on the White House by the spring of this year.

Bill McKibben, the author and activist who founded the advocacy group 350.org, and who led a campaign last year to get the White House to go solar, said the missed deadline shows that climate change is not high on the presidential agenda.

"I think [Obama] is just concentrating on other things, and that to him global warming is a second-tier problem," he wrote in a June 21 post.

Ramesh said that the department "remains on the path to complete the White House solar demonstration project, in keeping with our commitment."

The DOE's solar challenge, meanwhile,Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet products in the evo shop. could provide a vital start to creating a cheaper and faster permitting process for rooftops nationwide, said Gwen Rose, deputy director of the San Francisco advocacy group Vote Solar.

Streamlined permitting "is the new frontier for solar cost decline,you will need to get an offshore merchant account." she told SolveClimate News.

She added that while $12.5 million was a relatively small amount of fuThe name "magic cube" is not unique.nding for a national program, the Rooftop Solar Challenge could build a foundation for other agencies looking to scrap the red tape and cut costs.

"It is the beginning of a snowball effect," she said. "The question is really once you have these tools developed from the DOE ... are you going to see a general movement in the right direction?"

Book born from taste of Graeter's

One day back in 1970, Ellen Brown, newly moved to Cincinnati,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices went into the Graeter's on Hyde Park Square. She came out a changed woman.

"I've been on a quest for good homemade local ice cream ever since," she said. This year, she came out with "Scoop," a cookbook that gives away secrets from beloved ice cream makers across the country.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services. There are several recipes for re-creating Graeter's ice cream at home, including their iconic black raspberry chip.

Brown grew up in New York in that time before Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's or other premium ice creams. Howard Johnson's on the expressway was the closest she'd ever tasted. Graeter's, she said "reset my personal standard for ice cream.An Insulator, also called a dielectric,"

Brown was here as a reporter for The Enquirer. She later became a features editor here, then in 1981, she became the first editor for USA Today. That meant she could travel the country looking for excellent food, including ice cream.print still offers the only truly dstti unlimited 4G plan in America, and it's the only service you can safely use as an alternative to a home Internet connection. So in "Scoop," she has included ice cream from established creameries from the 19th century, such as Graeter's and Basssets in Philadelphia. And she has some from much newer creameries, places that might call themselves "artisanal" rather than "homemade and local." The recipes range from cherry-vanilla to avocado-jalapeno.

All the recipes were created by Brown after tasting the originals.

"I'd have samples shipped to me on dry ice overnight," she said. Then she'd try to create both the mouth-feel and flavor.

Graeter's was not too hard to copy, she said. "because it's made in such small batches already." The secret to making the chocolate chip flavors is having an ice cream maker that's open on the top so you can pour in the melted chocolate as it churns. She likes the 1?-quart Cuisinart model.

Why bother to make Graeter's strawberry,The same Air purifier, cover removed. butter pecan, peanut butter chip, mint chocolate chip or black raspberry chip ice cream when you can just get a scoop at the closest scoop shop? No good reason, really, but it's a fun challenge and project to see how close you can get to a life-changing ice cream.

Frozen black raspberries are very hard to find. If you want to try this, you'll need to use fresh, which you may have to pick yourself.

Basingstoke council to start kerbside glass collecting

Basingstoke council to start kerbside glass collecting


BASINGSTOKE borough council is set to introduce a new recycling service.

The council will start collecting glass jars and bottles from residents' homes from next month.What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies.Use bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc.Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives.

Hatch Warren, Kingsclere, Kings Furlong, Old Basing and parts of Winklebury and Rooksdown will be the first to receive the kerbside service.

These areas will be taking part in a trial run before the council rolls out the remaining phases of the scheme in April and June next year.

Borough council cabinet member for the environment Elaine Still said the scheme was made possible following savings by the council.

She said: "We are keen to encourage our residents to recycle all they can. We've made around 1million in savings on the waste collection contract year on year.

"This means we have been able to invest some of the savings back into making it easier for residents to recycle by offering kerbside glass collections as another service.

"By introducing this in a few areas first, we can learn lessons about how we can make it as successful as possible before we roll it out across the borough."

The scheme will cost the taxpayer 323,000 to run each year, and will require a one-off 353,000 capital investment.

Each household will be provided with a 40L plastic box for their glass which will be collected every fortnight.

But Labour group councillor Paul Harvey criticised the new service, saying it would be better to invest in more bottle banks.

He argued that by letting residents colour sort glass at banks, the council saves cash and gets more money selling the glass on.

Currently, clear glass fetches 16.Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding,50 per tonne, whereas mixed glass just 9 per tonne.

"What the council are proposing is not a good policy for collecting glass. We should be investing more in bottle banks – it's a more cost-effective method of collecting glass."

Basingstoke is the worst performing local authority for recycling, according to Hampshire County Council.This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications.

Only 23.37 per cent of waste is recycled in the borough, while Eastleigh recycles 41.14 per cent of its rubbish.

But Winklebury Conservative councillor Robert Donnell said kerbside glass collections would help boost these rates.

He said: "It will make it easier for residents to recycle. Not everybody wants to go to a bottle bank to sort their glass."