Green Tomorrow

Amsterdam-Bound: TechCrunch At The Next Web

If you are going to be anywhere near Amsterdam this Thursday or Friday, you should go to the Next Web conference. It is one of the best gatherings of European Web 2.0 startups and entrepreneurs. Nine days ago, I had no plans to travel to Amsterdam. But tomorrow I will be flying [...]

Xoopit Makes Your Inbox More Social. Raises $5 Million and Launches Private Beta (Invites)

We are moving closer and closer to the social inbox—email that talks to your social networks. Today, Xoopit launches in private beta. It is a plug-in for FireFox that lets you easily view all the photos, videos, and MP3s buried in your e-mail as attachments and sent to you as links from across [...]

Project H Delivering Water in Africa with Hippo Rollers

About 15 million people in Africa are without adequate access to drinking water, and Emily Pilloton is doing something about it. As the founder of Project H Design (and Managing Editor of Inhabitat), she’s been busy proving that design can make a difference with the Hippo Roller project. We first spied the project back in 2006; since then, we noted Emily’s campaign to sponsor Rollers for use in South Africa and just received word that the first 75 were successfully delivere…

Quote of the Day: Chris Hume on Earth Hour

even delerious Dubai turned out the lights. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Chris Hume is the Toronto Star’s architecture critic, and writes about the impact of Earth Hour, speaking of Canada but the message is universal:

“Across Canada, power use was down 5 per cent. That’s good, but far from spectacular. And if the message is that we must treat every hour as Earth Hour, it seems we still haven’t worked up the sense of urgency necessary for the big changes ahead….

But it’s crucial not to confuse the gesture with the thing itself, the symbol for the reality. Even if Earth Hour had seen every light in Toronto dimmed, the fact remains it’s not a solution to the environmental problems we …

Videos of Beluga Skysails Kite-Powered Cargo Ship

Not so long ago, we reported that the Beluga Skysails’ maiden voyage was a success. But that was just a first step for Skysails. We’ve learned that the next cargo ship to have a kite auxiliary propulsion system will have a sail twice as big (320 square meters), and “two additional larger ships are currently under construction that are to be equipped with 600 square-meters of sail”. Wow!

H…

State of the Planet Conference Puts Nuclear on the Table

Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, chairman of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority at the State of the Planet Conference in New York City.

The State of the Planet Conference convened at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City this past Thursday and Friday. Man, have special interests grabbed the environmental movement like a bulldog by the throat, or what? Perhaps I’m getting increasingly hypersensitive as we continue to slog on, but panelists seemed more divided by the issues this year than in 2006. In short, we all agree that…

Report on Business Reports on Water

We don’t usually find much of interest for TreeHugger readers in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine, and their content is usually behind a stupid subscription fence. However this month they have three important articles on water, declaring it “The Decade’s most important business Issue.”

John Lorinc (known to TreeHuggers for The New City) writes The Battle of the Bottle – “Critics decry water bottlers’ use of a public good for private profit. The industry would just like to offer a new flavour to you. And to your child. And to your dog” He describes…

Al Gore Announces Big Climate Change Ad Campaign

In a rare interview appearance on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Al Gore took the wraps off a colossal new $300m ad campaign intended to (forcefully) inject the topic of climate change into the pre…

What Is The Cost Of Solar Power?

There is simply no easy resolution to the cost of using solar energy.

At the very least there is not a precise one.

Many variables must be taken in consideration for working out just what you can expect to pay.

The main cost is the price of the initial purchase and installation of the solar energy system. To know which scheme you want, you have to know many things. These things will be different depending on whether it is a new or existing household.

If the house is already on the utility grid control, some information can be obtained from looking at utility bills from the past twelvemonth period. Check out how many kilowatt / hour that you use during the winter, spring, summer, autumn and months. Multiply that the price you pay per kW / h, and you should come by the amount of those accounts. This is just an example to show you where your income.

You can use an online estimator program to get an idea of what the price of the system you will be needed. These programs should not be used for all states, but they give you a general idea. In the end, but it is best to contact a professional person for an adjustment before you actually make a purchase.

The estimator will ask for the state and the province of your house. This will serve to determine how much sunlight the household is bound to get a day on average. It will also show that the climate of the area, so that the power must be judged.

Then you will be asked questions about the use of power in the past. This is certainly needed when you live a professional estimator as the construction of a new solar home. The program, or the expert will know of any information how big a system you need.

Say you need a system that costs $ 20000 for your home. After tax bonuses and discounts, you can pay less than $ 15,000 for the system. If you want to know whether the system will pay for itself, complex calculations are required.

These include factors such as net metering and use of batteries to store energy for nights and dark days. They also involve how much you need to pay up per kW / h with your solar system. At that point, you can equal the savings.

The first savings can be humble, as the unit will pay for itself. If inflation begins to determine the price of the utility of power, your solar system will be even cheaper in comparison. Finally, after the system has paid for itself, you can harvest the rewards. Usually a system pays for itself in about ten years and lasts for twenty-five.

As for a permanent answer to what solar energy cost, there is no immediately available. For that kind of information, you will have to engage the help of experts to find out what concerns your house. Chances are that you will find that solar energy pays for itself many times over the years.