It's been really hard to find good news during this terrible time, but this article gives hope for the future. And what is one of the things people always say about the Germans? They practice efficiency. Let's take a lesson from that. It's time we all did.

Grist l  Christopher Mims  24 march, 2011

Germany is the world leader in installed solar photovoltaic panels -- and they also just shut down seven of their oldest nuclear reactors. Coincidence? Maaaaybe ... Anyway, it's worth noting that just today, total power output of Germany's installed solar PV panels hit 12.1 GW -- greater than the total power output (10 GW) of Japan's entire 6-reactor nuclear power plant.

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The future is coming. And it is sustainable.

NYTimes l Beyond Fossil Fuels   ELISABETH ROSENTHAL  24 December, 2010

KIPTUSURI, Kenya — For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market.

Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from Kenya’s electric grid...

...That wearying routine ended in February when the family sold some animals to buy a small Chinese-made solar power system for about $80. Now balanced precariously atop their tin roof, a lone solar panel provides enough electricity to charge the phone and run four bright overhead lights with switches.

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IPS News / By Peter Boaz and Matthew O. Berger

Meeting the growing demand for energy in the U.S., even through sustainable means, could entail greater threats to the environment, new research shows.

The study was carried out by Circle of Blue, a network of journalists and scientists dedicated to water sustainability, and could have implications not just for the relationship between energy demand and water scarcity in the U.S. but elsewhere in the world, as well. "It is not just that energy production could not occur without using vast amounts of water. It's also that it's occurring in the era of climate change, population growth and steadily increasing demand for energy," explained Circle of Blue's Keith Schneider, who presented the findings in Washington Wednesday.

"The result is that the competition for water at every stage of the mining, processing, production, shipping and use of energy is growing more fierce, more complex and much more difficult to resolve," he said. About half the 410 billion gallons of water the U.S. withdraws daily goes to cooling thermoelectric power plants, and most of that to cooling coal-burning plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Meanwhile, climate change is leading to decreased snowmelt, rains and freshwater supplies, says Circle of Blue. One of the things missing from the discussion, then, is the recognition that saving energy also saves water.

"We are about to see water wars in the future," said U.S. General Anthony Zinni. "We have seen fuel wars; we're about to see water wars."

It's time to stop thinking about efficiency as being synonymous with giving up something. If we waste things, by definition we no longer have them. Efficiency will allow us to live better lives, longer. How hard is that to understand? 

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The Untapped Energy Mine                      

The Daily Star/by Sajed Kamal                                                           May 10, 2010                         

In a thoughtful and well documented paper, Sajed Kamal looks at renewable energy in action. Focusing on Bangladesh, he makes an eloquent case for abandoning the road to failure of dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power which he calls "an obsolete, destructive, and unsustainable non-renewable energy path" in favor of "a sustainable path of innovation, renewable energy and peace."

While he focuses on solar energy, he makes the point that it will be in combining different renewable energy sources that we will find our clean, sustainable energy future. While progress is being made around the world, he stresses the need to go further, more comprehensively in this direction.

"The transition to a renewable energy path will not be easy, especially because of the extent to which we have become entrenched in the non-renewable path and the powerful vested interests that guard and reinforce this entrenchment. Investment in renewable energy technologies at various public and private levels is growing around the world, but it doesn't come close to allowing us to avoid a catastrophe."

Ontario is not the first place that comes to mind when the words solar energy come up. But, in two recent studies conducted in response to a "perceived lack of hard numbers justifying Ontario's solar enthusiasm," researchers at Queen's University have found that 'taken together, an aggressive rooftop and solar farm campaign could produce 95 gigawatts, or roughly 95% of the United States' nuclear energy capability."