New Book Cites Inevitability of Solar Energy
As the energy crisis escalates - and the price of gas and electricity with it - a new book just released from MIT Press predicts that in the next two decades, solar will become the cheapest energy source for most applications, and will be widely adopted by consumers in both the developed and developing worlds. Photovoltaics, distributed on a small scale instead of on today's industrial-size electricity grids, will begin to unravel the economies of scale that Edison's electricity transmission created over the last century. Travis Bradford, president and founder of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, will be in San Francisco on September 12 at 6 p.m. in the Thoreau Center for Sustainability to discuss his new book, Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry (available at Amazon.com).

Tax credits give companies an incentive for solar power
Forget the tried and true business maxim "There ain't no free lunch" because this year and next in Oregon there's a whopping benefit for any business with a tax liability. A convergence of federal and state tax credits and incentive programs is making the purchase and installation of solar energy systems free. Companies who jump in can cross electricity costs out of their budgets, and some will even earn a few bucks on the systems because they generate so much juice it flows back onto the grid.