Morgan Solar Invents New Way to Capture Sun

A couple months ago I met Nicolas Morgan at the Toronto Green Drinks and he was telling me about this little company he has with his brother that will revolutionize the solar energy industry. When he described the technology and where it came from it sounded like the news was a little too good. It’s great to see that Morgan Solar is getting good press coverage about how their simple way of capturing sunbeams will help the developing world.

Following through on a lifelong goal, Jean Paul then went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he handled logistics and construction projects for Doctors Without Borders. To him, the work was loaded with meaning, and while he returned a year later, he spoke of going back to continue with the cause.

That’s when his father, Eric Morgan, stepped in. He talked his son out of going back, arguing that if he really wanted to help people he had an obligation to use his smarts to solve bigger problems.

Jean Paul stepped up to the challenge. While working as a research associate at the Catholic University of Chile (where his family has roots), he decided that the best place to focus on was energy.

“I came to realize electricity was a fundamental human right and if you don’t have electricity you’re living in the dark ages,” he recounts. “I decided there to devote my life to the problem of developing inexpensive, ubiquitous electricity. Solar was the obvious choice.”

At first, Jean Paul looked for solar companies he might like to work for, but after researching the market he quickly found there was a technology gap that needed to be filled. Most of the solar-system designs that appealed to him were clumsy and complicated. He decided his goal should be to come up with a novel design that eliminates that complexity.

Thanks to Shea for the tip to the article!

Bike Sharing Gone Wild

Pedal power is gaining popularity in Europ in the form of more and more cities creating their own bike sharing programs.

For mayors looking to ease congestion and prove their environmental bona fides, bike-sharing has provided a simple solution: For the price of a bus, they get a fleet of bicycles, and they can avoid years of construction and the approvals required for a subway. For riders, joining means cut-rate transportation – as well as a chance to contribute to the planet’s well-being.

The new systems are successful in part because they blanket cities with huge numbers of available bikes, but the real linchpin is technology. Aided by electronic smart cards and computerized bike stands, riders can pick up and drop off bicycles in seconds at hundreds of locations, their payments deducted from bank accounts.

“As some cities have done it, others are realizing they can do it, too,” said Paul DeMaio, founder of MetroBike, a U.S.-based bike-sharing consultant that tracks programs worldwide. “There is an incredible trajectory.”

The huge new European bicycle-sharing networks function less as recreation and more as low-cost, alternative public transportation. Most programs (though not Paris’s and Lyon’s) exclude tourists and day-trippers.

Energy Company Pays Customers for Solar Panels

Duke Energy, located in the USA, will start paying their customers to install solar panels, this is a reaction by the company to increased regulation. I wish Duke Energy would pay for a solar panel on my house.

“We’d love to have the panels — if we could afford it — and be completely green,” Durkin says. But given that his utility bill is only about $200 a month, he says “it made no sense.”

Then he heard that his local electric company, Duke Energy, wants to install solar panels on hundreds of customers’ roofs and vacant lots.

“If Duke could put them up and they’re going to get a better deal with it, then at least I’m helping the cause, and that’s what I wanted to do,” Durkin says.

For decades, Duke Energy has envisioned massive coal-fired and nuclear power plants as the best way to generate electricity for 4 million customers. But a new state law and the possibility of federal restrictions on greenhouse gases is pushing the 104-year-old utility to try new things.

Hope in America

There’s a renewed hope in the USA thanks to Obama’s win. The symbolism of his victory is huge for America and for the world as it marks a shift in how that country will run.

Across Europe, Asia and the Americas millions spent all night celebrating the Obama win, and even in much of the Islamic world Muslims celebrated a new start for relations with the U.S.

“What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had,” Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai in Bangkok told The Associated Press. “He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president.”

Nizar al-Kortas, a columnist for Kuwait’s Al-Anbaa newspaper, wrote that an Obama victory was “a historic step to change the image of the arrogant American administration to one that is more acceptable in the world.”

America: Your Turn to Make Good News

To American Things Are Good readers, today YOU can make good news for the rest of the world by going out and voting for Obama.

Here’s ten reasons to vote for Obama:

Look to the future
Senator Obama offers the most comprehensive energy plan of any Presidential nominee in history, it will end our dependence on foreign oil and create as many as 5,000,000 jobs. Senator McCain’s plan continues the Bush Administration’s policy of appeasement to Big Oil, does nothing to reduce our dependence on oil, and isn’t as good as Paris Hilton’s.

You pollute, you pay
Obama and Biden support plan to make polluters pay for pollution credits and to clean up toxic waste. McCain wants us to foot the bill for clean-up and to give polluters billions in tax breaks and subsidies.

Keeping us healthy
Obama and Biden have fought to keep our air and water clean. McCain has voted against clean water ten times and voted six times to make it harder for states and the EPA to keep our air clean.

Listening to the scientists
The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that America must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Obama’s plan will reach that goal. McCain’s plan falls far short.

The record speaks for itself
Senator Barack Obama earned a lifetime environmental voting score of 86%. Senator Biden earned an 83%. Senator John McCain earned a 24% score.

Decisions are made by those who show up
In the last two years, John McCain missed EVERY SINGLE major vote on energy. One vital 2007 bill, to move billions of dollars in tax credits from the oil industry to wind, solar and other clean energy sources, failed by one vote: John McCain’s. Obama and Biden, also running for President, voted for it.

Saving money at the pump
Obama proposes to double the fuel efficiency of our cars in 18 years, reducing our oil consumption by at least 35% or 10 millions barrels per day. McCain voted against increasing fuel efficiency in 2003 and 2005. He missed the 2007 vote. Presumably, he ran out of gas.

We’re not alone
For more than 20 years, Joe Biden has been at the forefront of the fight against global warming. In 1986, he offered the first Senate bill to fight global warming pollution. Since then, he has been the Senate’s strongest voice for making America the international leader in reducing global warming pollution and exporting clean technology.

Higher standards
To create millions of new jobs, we must boost production of renewable electricity. Obama plans create 25% of our electricity from clean energy by 2025. McCain opposes any national renewable energy standard.

Judge him by his friends
Senator McCain accepted more than $2 million from the oil and gas industry, more than half of that since he changed his position on offshore drilling last month. His forthcoming plan to open America’s playgrounds and sandboxes to drilling is expected to net another $1.2 million.