Union labor has been suffering over the last few decades, strained in the face of free trade agreements and outsourcing. Now a new green-collar economy is on the rise, rife with potential for jobs that cannot be outsourced and a voracious demand for skilled tradesmen. Unions are pressing for a large stake in that economy. Photo credit: CURE

Nationally, that push has led to a so-called blue-green alliance, in which unions and environmental groups have teamed up to press the clean energy issue — environmentalists get clean energy and an army of “enforcers” while unions get high-quality green collar jobs and increased membership. It is a win-win situation. But in California, America’s solar frontier, that alliance is being tested. Tensions are beginning to rise, and accusations tossed about, as union leaders press hard for inclusion in the many large-scale energy projects on the state’s docket.

The tension in California rises from implications that labor organizations, under the guise of environmental stewardship, are attacking and delaying only those large solar projects that refuse to sign a project labor agreement. In fact the unions — as part of California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) — have been quite effective in halting solar projects, much to the ire of well known solar firms such as Ausra, which was met with a slew of environmental “data requests” before a proposed solar plant could go forward.

Contrarily, when BrightSource Energy, which pledged to hire union-friendly contractors, wanted to move forward on an even bigger solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert, CURE made no complaint. This apparent double standard has set off a fight between Big Solar and Big Labor in California, a fight that could set the stage for renewable energy construction nationwide. …continue reading Big Solar vs. Big Labor: Tension in the Blue-Green Alliance

What will they think of next? Well the next answer to that question — in a seemingly endless line of answers — is solar powered furniture. Yes the design, texture, and color of your next bench seat could all be calculated by none other than that great fiery ball in the sky.

Austrian design team mischer’traxler has come up with a solar powered contraption that creates a wide assortment of very unique furniture pieces. The makeup of each piece — one per day — is dictated solely by how much sunlight the machine receives throughout that day.

One Tree of an Idea

They call it “The Idea of a Tree,” and variations in weather, sunlight, time of year, and any pertinent environmental factor will create furniture of different shape, color, size. You might call it photosynthetic furniture. Stools, benches, containers, lamp shades; these are a few of the “Tree’s” solar powered creations to date.

…continue reading Solar-Powered Furniture

One advantage for solar over wind power is its ability to integrate with relative seamlessness into the municipal landscape. Wind turbines have either been too large, such as the 300-ft. tall behemoths comprising remote wind farms, or quite small, just big enough to power a single home. A dilemma for wind energy proponents has been how to create an effective, quiet, community-friendly midsize turbine for use with schools, government buildings, and other community-based facilities.

Middle Ground

Now a handful of wind turbine manufacturers are releasing products they hope will quell the issue of midsize wind power. Instead of the huge 3,000 kilowatt rated turbines shipped out to utility-scale farms on fleets of trucks, there are now much smaller 150 to 300 kilowatt turbines on the market — or coming soon. Manufacturers also hope these turbines will be found useful and financially sound in areas not known for a high wind resource. That includes Connecticut-based Optiwind, formed two years ago specifically to make midsize turbines that work in places like its home state and are geared toward schools, water treatment plants, and businesses — facilities with high energy needs which also lie within the community electrical grid.

There wind enthusiasts run into the hurdle of a population often leery of potential noise pollution, visual appeal, and flickering lights. In response Optiwind has varied considerably from the now-conventional three-blade turbine design. Instead they’ve opted for a cylindrical design (still about 200 feet tall) which has fans mounted on either side. The idea is that the wind will hit the circular structure swirl around it and through the fans, thus concentrating the wind so that it will enter the fans at a higher density and produce more power using less space. …continue reading Is Community Power Blowin’ in the Wind?