Solar Powered San Diego Encourages Ecological Advancement

San Diego is well on its way to becoming a city destined for environmental salvation. According to the non-profit Environment California Research & Policy Center San Diego Ranks second in the nation in terms of solar power usage. We are doing well in protecting our environment and ensuring a sustainable future. That doesn't mean we can't do more.

Creating streamlined processes for solar power installation approval as well as encouraging higher levels of solar power reliance is beneficial for setting the framework for sustainable cities. If there are any unnecessary restrictions on installing solar panels it will raise the overall customer costs and slow the pace of solar integration.

There are advantages to developing solar panels that include less reliance on outside sources of energy, lowering long-term costs, and reducing environmental costs. As more renewable sources are developed the city will lower its overall carbon footprint and slow its contribution to environmental problems.

Finding the right policies, awareness processes, and incentives helps to ensure people make a equitable choice to use renewable sources. With solar panels there is often a higher initial investment but much lower costs spread out over the duration of the panels. Making sure people understand where they can get panels and their true costs can tip the scales in consumer choice.

Solar panels and ecologically designed cities are the way of the future. Those cities in the process of transformation and building new infrastructure should consider the benefits of developing ecologically sound practices. San Diego is in a strong position to foster ecological hubs that spur new industries in environmental and blue economic development. 


http://www.environmentcaliforniacenter.org/

Endless Fusion Energy Just a Touch Closer to Realization

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced that they made it one step closer to developing hydrogen fusion (1).  For the very first time in history hydrogen gave off more energy than it took in. This creates a net increase in energy by using something simple in the world. It is a potential start to something much bigger in clean energy. 

The system is still complex and many more years of study are necessary. At it simplest explanation a number of lasers point at a small target and condense the hydrogen. This hydrogen is made up of deuterium and tritium that fuse together. When done well it produces helium, a spare neutron and lots of energy. In this case the scientists were able to create 1.7 times the amount of energy.

Still, the researchers have not been able to create ignition. This is a term which means that when comparing the total input of energy into the process there is a net gain of total energy. However, they did find extra energy left behind during the process that may make it easier to ignite other hydrogen atoms later to create a chain effect. 

These systems are expensive to build and cost tens of billions of dollars. There are also some restrictions on nuclear type research which slows down the process. Fusion has been a dream of a number of scientists. It takes the processes of space and brings them to earth to create perpetual energy. If the fate of the future shines brightly it may someday be possible to power all of your consumption needs for a year off of a few buckets of water. Such development helps to provide alternative sources of energy and less foreign dependency.

Journal Article

In-Depth Scientific American