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About the Solar Energy Technologies Office
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) supports early-stage research and development in three technology areas: photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and systems integration with the goal of improving the affordability, performance, and value of solar technologies on the grid…
Farmer’s Guide to Going Solar
A growing number of farms and agricultural businesses are looking to solar to power their daily operations. Thanks in part to the Solar Energy Technologies Office’s investments, the cost of going solar has declined, enabling more installations across the country. Consider these questions to help [farmers] determine what’s best …
Wind energy & wildlife: Site it right
Site Wind Right is The Nature Conservancy’s approach to promoting smart, renewable wind energy in the right places—areas that are low impact for conservation, including already developed lands. The strategy has several components:
- Promoting policies and incentives for low-impact renewable energy deployment
- Advancing the science of low-impact siting
- Providing the wind industry and public with information to support low-impact siting
- Pursuing opportunities to work with the renewable energy sector to advance good siting practices
Mature forests, carbon & climate: Learning with the land
Come visit with old-growth forest expert Bob Leverett at his own forest in Florence to learn about the role our local forests play in the carbon cycle and in mitigating climate change. Bob shares his scientific method for calculating the volume of a tree and its carbon content, as well as a fascinating look at several species of mature trees on his property, including the beautiful Tuliptree…
What makes for compatible solar?
American Farmland Trust’s New England Climate and Agriculture Program Manager and soil scientist Emily Cole, and Blue Wave’s Development/Senior Director Drew Pierson, team up to talk about what is needed to make solar projects compatible with—and benefit from—farmland viability.
If you are interested in how to slow down climate change and help agriculture, this webinar could be helpful. This is the second in a three-part series. While the webinar is focused on New England, the concepts of design, strategy, and partnerships are applicable to other parts of the country.
How solar farms can be regenerative for soil and sequester more carbon
What if renewable energy was not just sustainable but was also regenerative? This is the goal of a partnership between White Oak Pastures and Silicon Ranch Corporation, an independent solar power producer under the umbrella of Shell.
In 2020 alone, this partnership will bring holistic planned livestock grazing and regenerative land management practices to nearly 2,400 solar farm acres in Southwest Georgia to create carbon sinks, restore biodiversity and soil health, and add to the environmental, social, and economic benefits of these clean energy projects…
Pollinator-friendly solar energy becomes the norm in Minnesota
The environmental benefits of Connexus Energy’s solar-plus-storage project are obvious enough, but this time of year, you’ll notice something more: prairie grasses and flowers planted under and around the sea of solar panels.
Pollinator-friendly plantings at large solar energy sites have become common in Minnesota in recent years. Not only do they provide habitat for the bee and butterfly populations people have been concerned about, but they also promote soil health and probably even boost the solar panels’ electricity output on warm days…
A Practitioner’s Guide to Pollinator-Friendly Solar Development
This toolkit provides background on pollinator-friendly solar and its advantages, and tips, resources, and important considerations to kick-start the integration of pollinator habitat into a solar development portfolio.
In addition to the diverse environmental benefits that pollinator-friendly solar projects can produce, there are an array of private benefits for solar developers to reap from planting perennial vegetation under their solar panels.
The guide offers a set of best practices for understanding local context, building support for a project, designing a site, financing, and development…
As big endowments spurn fossil fuel stocks, there’s one thing making this decision easy
As big endowment funds face mounting pressure to reduce their exposure to the fossil fuel industry, there’s one thing making their decision easier: the energy sector’s underperformance…
Your land trust has a chance to be strategic and proactive
Calls for decarbonization are now coming from the boardrooms and executive suites of the world’s largest corporations and investment funds, in a fast-moving change that could reshape the global energy system and economy. Listen to why investment firms and companies are divesting.
I’ll be posting more about alternatives, but in the meantime, check out PIMCO’s climate investment funds.