Energy Research Project for Alternative Energy, Renewable Energy, and Green Energy Technologies

AP - Two alternative energy companies planning to buy a closed Ford Motor Co. factory near Detroit want to convert it into the country's largest renewable energy park, with at least 2,800 workers building storage batteries, solar panels and possibly wind turbines.

The majority of householders in Scotland will be able to install solar panels and other energy generating equipment without planning permission from now on, although government ministers have yet to decide whether to exempt wind turbines and air-source heat pumps. Ground-source and water-source heat pumps will get the green light, as will flues for biomass systems which use organic materials. The move was announced by finance secretary John Swinney, who said the concession would cut red tape, help householders cut heating bills and reduce emissions.

At last Friday's Energy Night at the MIT Museum, Dr. Keith Collins described his approach to fighting global warming with all the gusto of a really good insurance salesman. But Collins, who graduated from MIT in 1970 with a degree in political science, wasn't actually selling anything. He was just proclaiming to anyone who would listen just how easy it is to go green. As one of the dozens of presenters at the annual event, which showcases the best in energy research, education and entrepreneurship from around MIT, Collins described a 700-square-foot house he built last year in Rockport, Maine, without any kind of a furnace, or even a fireplace. That might seem like madness or masochism in a place like New England, but Collins has data that show otherwise: Last year, the house not only used no additional energy beyond the sunlight that fell on its roof, but Collins actually was able to sell 5,094 kilowatt-hours — about what a typical house that size would consume over six months — back to the Central Maine Power company."I want to let people know that solar energy is practical and affordable today, with normal construction," he told one of the many Energy Night guests who stopped to chat with him.The key to the house's energy efficiency is super-insulation. With walls built to R-40 insulation standards, the heat given off by the people inside the house is enough to keep it warm on all but the coldest days, and then it's supplemented by a fan blowing over coils of water heated by the solar panels on the roof, which provide all the house's hot water year round. Photovoltaic panels provide all of its electricity. The extra costs of these measures, Collins explained, will be paid back through energy savings over the next 30 years. And none of it is rocket science, he explained: the idea was to use "state of the shelf" technology — that is, almost everything used in its construction is readily available on the shelves of any large building-supply store.In one way or another, nearly every one of the several dozen posters, models and machines on display at Energy Night was, like Collins, also calling attention to some concept, small or large, of what's possible to aid the world's efforts to meet or curb its voracious appetite for energy, or to reduce or eliminate its environmental impact. Some were as modest as a replacement for a hearing-aid battery, others as large as an offshore drilling platform devoted to energy storage.To help disseminate his message, every detail of the house's construction, and even a real-time display of its actual energy use and production, is available online. "This is my hobby and my passion," explained Collins, who, though he graduated nearly four decades ago, is an active member of the MIT Energy Club. Why is he so eager to share the details of his house? "My goal," he said, "is that my grandchildren grow up in the same climate that I did."

AFP - Far-sighted plans to energise Europe by tapping solar power from the sweltering Sahara desert offer bright prospects but must not overshadow renewable sources closer to home, experts say.

Being from temperate, often "partly cloudy" Massachusetts, I've often pondered the practical viability of solar power generation in New England. No vast deserts to provide mile upon mile of non-arable, sun-drenched land upon which to build massive solar power installations and a climate that, though beautiful, doesn’t immediately conjure up a landscape speckled with solar panels.

AFP - The United States could source 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, a report said Tuesday, winning support from a US lawmaker who wants to boost the number of US solar panels.

AP - Greg Bove steps into his pickup truck and drives down a sandy path to where the future of Florida's renewable energy plans begin: Acres of open land filled with solar panels that will soon power thousands of homes and business.

LiveScience.com - Solar power beamed down from space will generate electricity for California homes as soon as 2016, under a new plan by a utility company to ramp up renewable energy technology far beyond solar panels on roofs.