Word: solarity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
First and foremost, we must lead at home, where Americans' unrivaled ability to drive economic growth through innovation can protect the environment and create jobs. Why not set a national goal of having 20% of our electricity come from domestic alternative and renewable sources, including wind and solar power, by the year 2020? Isn't that a vision worthy of America? Developing new energy technologies can create thousands of good new jobs. Renewable energy can be generated, transported and consumed in America. And we can export our technology. I don't think we should take a backseat to the Germans...
...stir outside Europe. But Hermann Scheer electrified a Washington audience last month with his gale-force enthusiasm. Nuclear fission and fossil-fuel burning amount to "global pyromania," he told a conference of environmental activists. "Renewable energy is the fire extinguisher." By mid-century, he asserted confidently, wind, solar and other renewables can snuff out all conventional energy sources...
...earnest economist has, more than any single political leader, transformed Europe's energy landscape. Founder in 1988 of EUROSOLAR, the Continent's premier renewable-energy organization, he pushed through laws that have turned Germany into the world's biggest wind-power user, surpassing the U.S., and the second biggest solar-energy generator after Japan. This is remarkable for a country that is not particularly windy, nor sunny. In Germany and beyond, says Reinhard Loske, energy spokesman for the nation's Green Party, Scheer "is the prime mover for the cause of renewable energy...
...dangerous nuclear energy. In 1991 he sponsored legislation opening Germany's grid to renewable-energy producers and setting a generous fixed price for their power. Today a third of the earth's wind energy is produced on German soil. In 2000 another Scheer-sponsored law increased the price for solar energy and launched the installation of 100,000 solar panels on homes and businesses. In June he orchestrated a law eliminating taxes on bio-fuels, such as gasoline substitutes made from plants. That's a significant benefit in a nation where gasoline costs $4 a gallon. Meanwhile, it was Germany...
Scheer, who has preached his gospel in 100 countries, does not believe the world can afford to wait for the market alone to make wind and solar power competitive with fossil fuels. Renewable energy, he says, "is necessary for the assurance of life on earth. There is no time to waste." --By Margot Roosevelt. With reporting by Ursula Sautter/Bonn and Charles P. Wallace/Berlin