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Homeboy Industries to help build 73 MW Redwood Solar Farms project in California

January 29, 2015

Graduates of a Los Angeles-based solar panel installation training and certification program serving formerly high-risk, gang-involved men and women will provide labor for PV developer 8minutenergy Renewables and renewable energy provider sPower's new 72.9 MW solar project in Kern County, California.
 
The two companies are teaming up to build three solar PV plants as part of 8minutenergy’s Redwood Solar Farm cluster.
 
The Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries' solar training program works in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 428 to provide hands-on training and employment opportunities.

U.S. solar jobs grew nearly 22% in 2014

January 15, 2015

U.S. solar industry jobs grew 21.8% in 2014 as the price of panels continued to fall and demand increased, according to a new report issued Thursday.
 
The solar industry added 31,000 jobs from November 2013 through October 2014, bringing the total number of jobs to 173,807, according to a report from the Solar Foundation, a nonprofit research group.
 
Jobs in the the solar sector have jumped 86% since 2010 and employment is expected to continue to rise in 2015 and 2016, although an expiring tax credit may stunt growth, according to the report.

Solar Is Adding Jobs 10 Times Faster Than the Overall Economy

January 15, 2015

Back in 2006, SolarCity was a small Bay Area solar energy startup with a handful of employees. Before long, according to CEO Lyndon Rive, the company was doubling in size every year to keep up with voracious demand for rooftop solar systems. Today, the company has over 9,000 employees spread across 65 offices nationwide; they're are busy every day designing, selling, and installing solar systems.

The Logic of Divestment: Why We Have to Kiss Off Big Carbon Now

January 14, 2015

When the fossil-fuel divestment movement first stirred on college campuses three years ago, you could almost hear Big Oil and Wall Street laughing. Crude prices were flirting with $100 a barrel, and domestic oil production, from Texas to North Dakota, was in the midst of a historic boom. But the quixotic campus campaign suddenly has the smell of smart money.
 
One of the biggest names in the history of Big Oil – the Rockefellers – announced last September that they would be purging the portfolio of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund of "risky" oil investments. And that risk has been underscored by the sudden collapse of the oil market. After cresting at more than $107 in mid-June, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate dipped below $50 a barrel in early January. The crash carries big costs: Goldman Sachs warned that nearly $1 trillion in planned oil-field investments would be unprofitable – even if oil were to stabilize at $70 per barrel. The industry is already scaling back the hunt for high-cost sources of new oil. Chevron has shelved drilling in the Canadian Arctic, and Hercules Offshore, a significant driller in the Gulf of Mexico, has idled four rigs and laid off more than 300 workers.

Editorial: California's bold attack on climate change

January 8, 2015

California is moving toward its goal of generating a third of its electrical power from solar, wind and other renewable sources by 2020, as promised five years ago by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 
But Gov. Jerry Brown isn't about to settle for that — nor should he. In his inaugural speech Monday, the governor outlined a bigger and more comprehensive attack on climate change, with goals for 2030 that include raising the proportion of renewable energy to half of the electricity in the state, halving the use of petroleum fuel in cars and trucks, and doubling the energy efficiency of buildings in the state.

Opinion: Why California’s Low-Carbon Policies Are Good for Consumers

January 3, 2015

Consumers got a nice gift this holiday season in the form of low per-gallon gas prices, at least in relation to where we were a year ago. This last year featured a wild ride in which gas prices nationally went up 50 cents per gallon between November 2013 and June 2014, and then tumbled more than a dollar in time for the new year. A question for 2015 is whether we can continue to count on lower prices. The answer is highly uncertain, since the primary drivers of price fluctuations, such as global demand and production decisions by oil interests, are out of our control.
 
The only reliable way to protect ourselves against gas price volatility is to use less. Fortunately, California is moving forward with policies that are helping us get more bang for our gasoline buck and providing consumers with greater fuel and transportation choices, while our state economy continues to grow faster than the national average.

California has Largest Advanced Energy Industry in U.S.

December 4, 2014

California is home to the largest advanced energy industry in the country, according to the first-ever industry-wide survey released today by the Advanced Energy Economy Institute. At 431,800 jobs today, advanced energy is bigger by employment in California than the motion picture, television, and radio industries; mining and quarrying; semiconductors; and aerospace. Advanced energy jobs grew 5 percent in the past year – more than double the overall state job growth rate – and is on track to grow 17 percent in the coming year, to more than 500,000 workers, based on employer hiring plans.
 
While California is widely recognized as a national leader in energy policy, jobs directly related to the industry have not been quantified until now. The survey of more than 2,000 businesses, conducted by BW Research Partnership, a leading workforce and economic development research firm, found that, among the 10 states that have studied these industries, California has the largest advanced energy workforce in the country. It is also second in the country, tied with Massachusetts, for percentage of the state's overall workforce employed in advanced energy, at 2.4 percent; only Vermont, at 4.3 percent, has a higher concentration of workers in this broad economic sector.

Fighting Climate Change & Poverty at the Same Time

December 4, 2014

Worldwide, close to 1 billion people live in poverty on less than $1.25 per day and more than 800 million are undernourished. Many of them are on the front lines of climate change. Extreme weather and droughts can put their food and water supplies at risk, raise prices, and destroy homes and businesses that are often built at the edges of livable land. They have little resilience to the volatility or economic havoc climate change can bring.

Solar and Wind Energy Start to Win on Price vs. Conventional Fuels

November 24, 2014

According to a study by the investment banking firm Lazard, the cost of utility-scale solar energy is as low as 5.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind is as low as 1.4 cents. In comparison, natural gas comes at 6.1 cents a kilowatt-hour on the low end and coal at 6.6 cents. Without subsidies, the firm’s analysis shows, solar costs about 7.2 cents a kilowatt-hour at the low end, with wind at 3.7 cents.

California Leads By Example On Climate Change

November 13, 2014

As the U.S. and China — the world's top two polluting nations — turn to implementing new rules aimed at curbing climate change, the countries can look to the most populous U.S. state as an example of the costs and challenges of fighting global warming.

California already has imposed some of the world's toughest air quality standards as it moves aggressively to lower emissions.

The state's cap-and-trade program, launched nearly three years ago, offers one of the few real-world laboratories on how to reduce carbon emissions. The state has opted to impose extra costs on businesses that emit pollutants.