National Day of Action To Support Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extensions
Throughout today’s “National Day of Action,” more than 100 advocacy groups and businesses are 
The bill that these groups are currently looking at that could extend the tax credits, H.R. 6049, a US $54 billion tax extenders bill that contains a one-year extension of the federal production tax credit (PTC) and a new small-wind investment tax credit (ITC).
New World Record for Solar Cell Efficiency
Solar cell efficiency has reached a new milestone. PhD Bram Hoex, in cooperation with the Germain 
Instititute Fraunhofer ISE, have been able to produce a solar cell that is 23.2% efficient, up from 21.9%.
This increase in efficiency comes from a 30 nanometer film of aluminum oxide to the front of the solar cell. The ultra thin film has a very high number of built-in negative charges, which helps to significantly reduce the loss of energy on the surface.
Formulas for Estimating Renewable Energy Installations
Everyone always wants to know the same initial questions: How much will it cost me? And the simple answer is, its not that simple. There is no one size fits all solar installation size. Every home has different requirements because of the electrical usage of the home. Here are a few formulas that will tell you how much of a PV installation you need to take care of your power requirements.
FISKER Automotive Testing their Karma
IIRVINE, Calif., May 13 /PRNewswire/ — Fisker Automotive, Inc. and Quantum Technologies 
(Nasdaq: QTWW) announced today they are performing initial vehicle testing and fine tuning the battery software management system for the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid production car. These initial
test track developments are taking place in Southern California.
Three Fisker Karma prototypes have been built, and are currently undergoing testing for the electric powertrain developed by Quantum Technologies. Concurrently, the Fisker Automotive engineering team is working on crash test simulation. Further validation and certification on
the vehicles will be performed over the coming months.
John Grandinetti’s Solar Oven
If you have been watching the news the last day or so, you have probably seen the story about John
Grandinetti from Honolulu HI., and his solar oven. His oven is a bit of a twist on the standard solar oven. Instead of just being basically a box that focuses light on whatever you’re cooking, his oven focuses light on a tube of cooking oil, heats it up and that does your cooking for you. Its a pretty clever design that appears to be based around the same concept as a parabolic trough for large scale electricity.
Mr. Grandinetti’s oven can be made for about $21 dollars and here’s the kicker: he is giving it away. He doesnt want to sell the plans, he wants a company to take it and mass produce it for third world countries so that forests won’t need to be cut down for things like cooking fires. A noble idea indeed. It will be interesting to see if any company, anywhere steps up and takes him up on his offer.
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