El Phoenix Sun

First Solar power plant

It’s always gratifying when independent online news sites scoop the Big Boys of the MSM.

It’s especially pleasing when it’s your site that did the scooping. So, while we are proud of our story early yesterday on First Solar’s plan to build the world’s largest solar power plant in China, today we want to do what independent news services should be able to do best — provide our readers with more in-depth reporting than is available elsewhere.

We’ve put together a complete package of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between First Solar and China, including the detailed information First Solar filed with the SEC (click on the report cover below to open the pdf file). .. continue reading ..

Parabolic trough system in the desert

As the popularity of solar and other clean renewable energy sources grows, environmental groups are playing a major role in shaping how the nation makes the transition to the new energy economy. One of the most visible examples of this renewed role for environmentalists is found in the the roll-out of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) on public lands primarily in the Southwest.

That’s not to say that all environmental groups agree on all points. Todd Woody, who blogs for the NYT’s Green Inc., recently covered one contentious issue in the Mojave Desert. Over at High Country News, Judith Lewis wrote a fascinating article in May about a schism between environmentalists over “Big Solar” in the Mojave.

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Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson

I was disappointed when I discovered that the list of experts at last week’s Clean Energy Summit would not include Stanford University’s Mark Jacobson. Of course, no individual is indispensable at such a summit. But as the day went by I felt his absence more and more keenly.

That’s because Jacobson is one of the few scientists looking at energy’s Big Picture. How big?

In an article published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science earlier this year, Jacobson reported the first quantitative, scientific study evaluating the top energy sources based on:

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