With the Economic Bailout taking front stage in the news, environmental concerns have taken a nonexistent step back in the presidential campaigns. Just don’t tell that to Sunrgi, who’s working on a solar technology, that not only helps the environment but is economically feasible on a large scale.

Sunrgi’s big tagline is: “Solar power at 5 cents per kWh would be a world-changing breakthrough. It would make solar generation of electricity as affordable as generation from coal, natural gas or other non-renewable sources, without requiring any subsidy”

What’s remarkable is that the technology behind Sunrgi’s plan isn’t very complicated. If you’ve ever played with a magnifying glass in the sun, then you know the basic concept of what they’re trying to do.

With their panels, they’re able to concentrate rays from the sun, “SUNRGI efficiently concentrates sunlight so that it is more than 1,600 times brighter than the sun. This concentrated sunlight is focused onto photovoltaic (PV) solar cells that convert more than 37% of the sunlight directly into electricity.”

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I found this interesting video on YouTube today. Insulating homes has been a pretty copy-and-paste task, using wood and insulation. There’s a contracting company out west that uses different means to insulate homes. It’s more energy efficient, and it saves time.

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Well, the Senate has proven atleast once that it can get over itself to pass useful litigation. It’s staggering to see how many bills or proposals are axed because of disagreement on the Senate floor. With so many interest groups, pushing and pulling different senators, it’s amazing that anything is able to get passed.

The solar tax credit was expiring at the end of they year, and for awhile it was looking like it wasn’t going to be renewed. The old tax credit gave residential solar users a cap of $2,000 for tax breaks; while commercial endeavours saw no cap but were compensated back for a percentage of their expenses. With the new tax credit, residential projects no longer have a cap.

The biggest miracle about the renewal, is the compromise that the Senate came to. Republicans and Democrats were at a stalemate, because Democrats wanted to take some of the tax credits given to oil companies to finance the Solar tax credits. Of course the Republicans weren’t willing to budge, so the renewal was sitting there waiting for something to happen. A compromise (HALLELUEJAH) was found; the Democrats will support the proposal for off-shore drilling, if the Republicans allow the renewal of the Solar Tax credit. Hmm, so we’ll help elliviate some of our dependance on crude oil from other countries, while at the same time help finance other alternative means of power? It sounds so much like common sense that I’m surprised it actually happened.

(via: Cnet)

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