Cities Lead the Way

From the San Francisco Chronicle comes news that the Board of Supervisros (our version of a City Council) OK rebates for solar power systems -

San Francisco supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to a program that will create a $3 million fund to provide rebates for residents and businesses that install solar power systems.

... residents could receive between $3,000 and $6,000 for photovoltaic systems that produce at least 1 kilowatt of electricity. Businesses could receive $1,500 per kilowatt installed, with a cap of $10,000.

Well, its a start. How much of a start? Between 500 and 1,000 houses would eat the entire subsidy up. Only 345,527 houses left!

By the way, the $3,000 subsidy is .4% of the value of the house.

Good start, but the wrong end of the funnel.

Greentech Media | Xerox's PARC to Spin Out Solar Startup

PARC has some new solar technology they're pretty excited about -

Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center plans in the next six months to spin out a company that hopes to reduce the thickness of grid lines on solar cells, increasing efficiency by 6 to 8 percent.

- snip-

The technology, which essentially prints the thin silver lines that transfer electricity from the photovoltaic material on solar cells, sprung out of Xerox’s printing expertise.

Reducing the concentration of CO2 requires the creation and application of new technologies of all kinds: social, cultural, economic and, as in this case, technological.

We're going to focus our attention on research conducted in the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley. Send any suggestions and tips to ben@320ppm.blogspot.com