Viridian Linkfest  

Bruce Sterling notes of his latest Viridan Note - "A hemorrhage of time-consuming links that have piled up in the Viridian hopper. Could take all day. Maybe you're snowed in. Enjoy!"

I'm feeling much the same way - so many links, so little time (of course, those of you who find my long quoted sections a bit annoying may be gratified not to have all the extraneous text).

I'll start with Renewable Energy Access, who report on:

* solar-powered mine water desalination (which would come in handy for some NSW power stations I suspect)

* construction beginning on Nevada Solar One, a 64 MW solar trough-style concentrated solar power project (noting that "the project is not the largest of its kind in the world. Nor is it the first. There are, in fact, nine similar projects in the Mojave Desert in California -- two of them 80 MW in size")

* the world's first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant is opening this year in northern Spain

* Japan loaning Egypt the money needed to build a 150 MW solar combined cycle power plant

Over at The Oil Drum, Heading Out recommends a DVD called "The Power of the Sun" on recent developments in solar energy (he describes it as "the one with the camel carrying a solar panel that powers the refrigeration for vaccines being carried across the African desert"). The post also includes a link to a BBC story about a family in outback Australia who get nearly all their power from solar and wind, which includes the quote "You could supply all of the world's energy needs by covering 4% of the world's desert area with photo-voltaic panels" from one solar energy researcher.

A South African company has managed to commericalise a thin film solar technology which has been adopted by German company IFE solar systems, who plan to manufacture 500,000 panels using the technology this year (older reports on this topic can be found here).

On a less green note, there is a report in the SF Chronicle that plans have been made to build 14 new nuclear power plants in the US over next 20 years, thanks to a whole lot of handouts from the federal government.

The BBC reports that a new version of Climateprediction.net has been released - if you want to participate go and download it. WorldChanging also has a post on the subject.