James's Comments

The electric light bulb didn't seem viable to most except Edison a hundred yrs ago. We must go into this believing we can solve the challenges......

The US has all the renewable resources and the engineers/scientists to become the 2nd major economy to do this - do we have the political will too?

- I truly hope so :-)

Ray,

Agreed, the combination of renewables + conservation could have huge results. My fear is that it's not the American way.......this is the land of plenty right?

Great project! This is the way to make change, by influencing the next generation...... we need more of this.

It's a shame we don't have a formula to calculate the cost of environmental  degradation, reliance on foreign sources of energy, etc. which might go part of the way to validating green power projects.

Hopefully this acceptance of solar + super high efficiency building will be the norm in in communities around the US and not the exception in the next few years.....

I'm an Oregon resident and this is phenomenal news!!!

I wonder if Bush will listen to this, as he doesn't seem inclined to listen to anybody else. i.e. ISG, + the vast majority of the planet's population........sigh!

Ian,

I agree with your comments on using Hydrogen as a storage medium. We are constantly told Hydrogen isn't a fuel it's just a storage medium. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but by milking off a small % of the wind or solar energy to charge up a "hydrogen battery - effectively" this could then be used to fill in supply gaps, seems to make sense.

On a smaller scale I don't see why this couldn't work for homes too i.e. solar + electrolysis -> stored hydrogen + PEM = home generation. Regards.

This is awesome. True leadership and entrepreneurial spirit is alive in the U.S. Way to go GOOGLE!

This is great and is the scale of commitment we need to see from all the states and industry too. If the Federal government aren't going to do anything maybe we'll see some action at other levels.

It's truely wonderful to read the comments of all the people in this group, because I think they are all relevent, i.e. conservation, alternatives, buying local produce, Reduce, Recylce, Reuse, etc.

You all seem so well informed so I think it's worth mentioning that so many people in the country are oblivious to the issues and potential solutions. I really think that EDUCATION is a vital element in this equation. We need to educate the population (current and future) and make them understand that their buying power, habits, voting patterns, etc. can affect change.

One final comment - with big oil buddies having a stranglehold on the Whitehouse little is going to change.

Although I "think" I see your point in the article i.e. is the total cost of renewable energy really being reflected with the PTC in place?

The "real" cost of oil, coal, N.Gas and nuclear is not reflected in the $s stated at the pump, etc. For example, some studies put the "real cost" of a gallon of gas at $11.

So when we are realistic about fossil fuel/nuclear costs then maybe we can eliminate the tax credits renewables get.

Maybe I "misunderestimated" :-) the article?

Troy,

You own Krystal Planet I bellieve? Are you aware of any domestic products or research into domestic products which combine solar and hydrogen production. I thought a year or so ago I read about a "Hydrolyzer" that was being worked on in Canada but haven't been able to find any more about it.

I think this approach of combining wind and hydrogen production and/or solar and hydrogen is absolutely the right direction to head.

Hydrogen can be used to buffer the inevitable lulls in wind or solar generating capacity and the resultant H2O can be recaptured and cycled back into the system for further electrolysis

Do people think this is feasible for domestic (home) energy production i.e. a mini solar+hydrogen generator?