“The idea behind agrivoltaics is simple: use the ‘empty’ space beneath solar panels to grow stuff.” ~ Gabe Allen and Tyler Hickman On the hills above my town, there are some solar panels placed in the grassland. I’ve noticed that in spite of the panels, the shaded areas are full of vegetation that periodically require mowing. […]
Category Archives: solar power
“Land use issues are often critical to further solar development. Renewable energy requires on average 10 times more land than fossil fuels do per unit of energy. Moreover, solar panels are site-constrained, needing to be sited where the sun shines, whereas fossil fuels can be transported and burned in areas less exposed to human interaction, or close […]
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides nowFrom up and down, and still somehowIt’s cloud illusions I recallI really don’t know clouds at all ~ Joni Mitchell Climate change is bringing worrying uncertainty to our weather patterns. We try to minimize or eliminate carbon emissions to reduce the greenhouse effect, but we’re taking too […]
My small town on the outer edge of the Denver metro area is beginning to experience a push for more housing — particularly for affordable housing. This is driving developers to construct dense multi-family apartments and condos on vacant lots and on clusters of what would have been single-family home lots. There is much concern […]
I remember running out the back door across the hot cement patio to the safety of the cool grass of the lawn. Going barefoot in Texas most summers made me extremely conscious of the surface I walked on. We learned where the patches of goathead stickers were, where the gravel was scattered on the sidewalk […]
I don’t get many phone calls, but for the third time in two days, I just received another sales call from some solar company. I support solar power and had actually looked into getting it for our house at one time. I went through the calculations and talked to a salesperson. But we live in […]
“We are being told to eat local and seasonal food, either because other crops have been transported over long distances, or because they are grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. But it wasn’t always like that.” ~ Kris De Decker Back in the old days, everyone that could had a garden. Our lot, created in the 1850’s, […]
“’Energy is the ideal thing to empower people,’ Emma Redfoot (nuclear engineer, devout environmentalist and unflinching advocate for nuclear power) told me … ‘Millions of people who lack access to the grid are forced to burn wood, coal, dung or even tires and other garbage for cooking and heating, to the detriment of their health […]
“And so, I became miserably conflicted about climate change. I accepted its supremacy as the environmental issue of our time, but I felt bullied by its dominance. Not only did it make every grocery-store run a guilt trip; it made me feel selfish for caring more about birds in the present than about people in […]
“Not only can we stop damaging nature, but we can also restore, it, too. And when you put the two together, you get powerful and natural solutions to climate change.” ~ Bronson Griscom “We need bees for the future of our cities and urban living.” ~ Noah Wilson-Rich Envision downtown Denver before it was developed: […]
Writes of Nature 