Techdiplomacy

Solar Power in urban areas is becoming more viable, and therefore more common. The following excerpts from various papers and magazines tell the story of the growth of urban solar power. Expanding America’s power grid to connect wind and solar power plants to the urban areas they fuel will require thousands of miles of transmission lines. Most of it will be built in rural areas where locals are not likely to be very welcoming, since this power will be used in urban areas. 30 June 2009 - 1:00pm The Daily Yonder Getting Solar Power Rolling This profile from Miller-McCune looks at a Berkeley, California official who made use of a 100-year old funding mechanism to take the city solar. 25 June 2009 - 6:00am Miller-McCune Closing the Loop on Energy Use Architect Michael Palwyn is designing sustainable architecture that combines solar power and seawater into an ultra-efficient loop of resource conservation. 22 June 2009 - 6:00am. GOOD Magazine Renewable Energy System is on the Way President Obama plans to spend billions on building an interstate highway-style system for energy. 17 June 2009 - 11:00am. Discover Magazine. Smart Grid for a Smart City Amsterdam has taken its smart grid live, installing solar panels and 300 electric car recharging stations throughout the city. 11 June 2009 - 5:00am. Business Week A Solar Car By 2010? Italian car designer Pininfarina has announced that it will release a fully-electric, partially solar-powered car in Europe in 2010. 9 June 2009 - 2:00pm. Inhabitat Making Brownfield Sunny A manufacturer of solar systems has planned to develop the country’s largest urban solar power plant at a brownfield in Chicago. 5 June 2009 - 9:00am The Architect’s Newspaper Train to Run on Sunshine? An Arizona company is proposing a solar-powered elevated train running between Tucson and Phoenix. 10 May 2009 - 1:00pm Arizona Star Making Clean Energy Reliable Clean energy is a major component of the Obama Administration’s plans for an upgraded electricity grid. But with variable outputs, clean energy generation from solar and wind will need to be augmented, according to this piece from NPR. 1 May 2009 - 10:00am. NPR Building the Smart Grid Smartly In the sixth of a ten-part series, National Public Radio investigates the sustainability of smart grid technology in the places where its likely to be applied. 1 May 2009 - 7:00am National Public Radio Vatican Reveals Solar Plant Plans Vatican City has plans to build the largest solar plant in Europe, which will supply enough power for 40,000 households in a state of 900 inhabitants. 23 April 2009 - 2:00pm. Bloomberg The Planetizen News Brief - 4/23/09 [1pixelout.swf] 4:25 minutes (4.05 MB)Condos converting to affordable housing in New York, bankrupt developments converting to parks in Florida, and solar power heads to the Vatican, all on this week’s Planetizen News Brief, airing weekly on the nationally-syndicated radio show “Smart City”. 23 April 2009 - 5:00am Vatican Embraces the Power of the Sun The Vatican has announced plans to build Europe’s largest solar plant to power the state. 21 April 2009 - 9:00am Bloomberg Solar City in the Works Developers in Florida have announced plans to build a new 17,000 acre city that will run entirely on solar power. 12 April 2009 - 5:00am The Miami Herald California Desert A Hotbed for Alternative Energy On the state’s path towards drawing 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2010, California is focusing on its southern desert as the site of this alternative energy generation.

The final analogy is that we will see solar power being generated in our urban areas more and more. Whar are your thoughts on the subject, submit a comment, let’s talk. See you around the galaxy…