1. Solar Brokering Firm Assesses First Year

It’s been more than a year now since the debut of the oddly named San Francisco startup One Block Off the Grid — a company that brings together groups of homeowners with solar aspirations and delivers them as a collective to solar installers in the area, earning volume discounts for the...

2. Can White Roofs Battle Global Warming?

A forthcoming study in Geophysical Research Letters reinforces the idea that painting urban rooftops white — a tactic that would reflect sunlight — could have a cooling effect on the planet. White roofs have been thought to be particularly effective in cities, which tend to be warmer than rural...

3. Wind Power in Europe Grows, but Credit Remains Tight

For the second year in a row, more wind power capacity was installed in the European Union than any other power technology, according to data compiled by the European Wind Energy Association. The association reported that 39 percent of all new capacity installed last year was wind power. Runners-up...

4. A Boom in ‘Distributed’ Solar Projects

As big solar power plants planned for the desert Southwest remain bogged down in environmental disputes, utilities increasingly are turning to so-called distributed solar rooftop arrays and small photo voltaic farms that can be built close to transmission lines. Over the past few weeks, some 1,300...

5. How to Invest When You Don’t Trust Wall Street

Hoboken, NJ (October 2008)â??If Wall Streetâ??s recent implosion has you looking for a tin can and the perfect burying spot in your backyard for your money, who can blame you? Recent weeks have held enough economic bad news for several decades. A historic investment bank declared bankruptcy. The...