Google Earth images shed light on where solar rooftops make sense

NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - During his free time on the job as a Google employee, Carl Elkin began tinkering with the company's 3D mapping program, wondering if it could identify rooftops that receive enough sunlight to make installing solar panels worthwhile.

Soon after, a team followed Elkin's lead and designed Project Sunroof. The project website uses Google Earth's high-resolution aerial images to calculate any roof's solar energy potential.

Thousands of lines of computer code analyze factors such as the shade trees cast on a roof, its orientation and local weather patterns, he said.   Project Sunroof then connects users whose roof is suitable for solar panels with companies that install them.

http://news.trust.org/item/20161026225646-fawfb/?source=gep&google_editors_picks=true

Are We Nearing the End of Cheap Fossil Fuel Energy?

A 1987 book revealed the following quote attributed to Thomas Edison, circa 1931:
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind, and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left!”

85 years after Edison’s famous quote, we are now at a tipping point where “nature’s inexhaustible resources” are finally a competitive source of electric power. Fortunately, we didn’t wait until we ran out of fossil fuels, or had to chop down our fences, before we finally put our money where it belongs.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/10/are-we-nearing-the-end-of-cheap-fossil-fuel-energy.html

Utility-scale solar power is now cheaper than new coal and nuclear power plants.

The lowest wholesale solar price bid from a solar project developer (unsubsidized) is 2.42¢/kWh. That’s cheaper than what new natural gas, coal, or nuclear power can provide practically anywhere in the world.

Even excluding that record-low bid, and not taking into account the large social costs of coal and natural gas electricity, utility-scale solar power is cheaper than new coal, nuclear, natural gas peaking, and IGCC power plants. It is comparable to combined cycle natural gas power plants, but again, that is without taking into account the social costs of pollution from extracting and burning natural gas.

http://cleantechnica.com/2016/08/17/10-solar-energy-facts-charts-everyone-know/