Salt City Sinner

Hat tip to the Daily Dish Climate Progress has the following headline: ' Green Jobs Are Real : German and American Solar Industry Both Employ More People Than U.S. Steel Production' People want to know: Are green jobs real? The answer is resoundingly “yes.” With roughly 93,500 direct and indirect jobs, the American solar industry now employs about 9,200 more workers than the U.S. steel production sector, according to 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics. The American steel industry has historically been a symbol of the country’s industrial might and economic prosperity. But today, the solar industry has the potential to overtake that image as we build a new, clean-energy economy. Well, hot damn! Here's that green and sunny boom in chart form (again, hat tip to Andrew Sullivan ): All in all, solar is looking better and better, not just from a green point of view, but in terms of providing a potential booming sector for skilled labor (solar installation is a step up from roofing -...

From Army.mil : Maj. Tim Franklin from the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, who also serves as science and technology adviser to U.S. Army Africa, is the lead in coordinating an experiment using flexible solar cells that could eventually save millions in Army fuel costs. In fact, the project was recently nominated for recognition in the Annual Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Awards because of the more than $230,000 savings by using the solar shade. The concept is simple -- flexible solar cells affixed to a sun shelter then connected to a system of storage batteries. “Solar shade produces two kilowatts of power -- that may not seem like a lot, but in a remote area it’s perfect because you don’t have to worry about transporting fuel or replacing parts,” Franklin said. “You could place this on a remote mountain site to provide power for a radio retransmission site [since] it requires very little maintenance,” Franklin said. Meanwhile : After almost...