WestinhouseSolar (previously Akeena Solar) announce Plug n Play solar panels

Westinghouse Solar Announces Instant Connect

Westinghouse Solar, formerly known as Akeena Solar, released a plug-and-play line of solar panels that can reduce installation costs by half.

The panels eliminate panel-to-panel wiring and racking, making them quick and easy to install.

UL-approved electrical connectors are integrated directly into the sides of each solar panel – allowing the solar panels to automatically plug together when they are mounted on the roof. The frames of the solar panels – and splices used to connect them – provide precision alignment of the electrical connectors, completely eliminating the need to manually wire panels or struggle with custom cabling on the roof.

In typical solar installations today, installers have to source hundreds of individual parts and then manually assemble them on the roof, says Westinghouse.

Parts include long sections of aluminum or steel racking, clips to attach the panels to the racks, electrical conduit to isolate the high voltage DC wires, inverters, disconnects, heavy-duty copper grounding wire and lugs, wiring clips, zip ties and nuts and bolts to hold everything together.

With Instant Connect, electricians, HVAC contractors and skilled Do-It-Yourselfers can install a system. They can start small – with just one or two panels – and easily add onto the system.

“There’s tremendous pressure to reduce the fully-installed costs of rooftop solar,” says Barry Cinnamon, Westinghouse CEO. “Manufacturers of solar panels are bending over backwards to squeeze an extra 0.1% efficiency out of their panels, or to reduce their costs by $0.01/watt. But now that high quality solar panels are selling for less than $1/watt, the biggest remaining cost savings opportunity is on the installation itself. With Instant Connect, installation costs are cut by more than $0.25/watt, which has a much greater economic impact on customers than incremental efficiency or cell cost improvements.”

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot Initiative aims to reduce the cost of solar by 75% through innovations in installation, permitting and manufacturing.

Westinghouse Solar is a designer and manufacturer of innovative solar power systems that deliver the dependability and reliability that homeowners and small business owners require. Westinghouse has been at the forefront of delivering safe electrical energy and products that bring comfort and convenience for the home for over 100 years. Today, Westinghouse Solar manufactures powerful, highly reliable solar power systems that generate electricity for homes and businesses. Instant Connect™ is a line of products from Westinghouse Solar that automates panel-to-panel grounding and wiring, making installing solar, faster and easier than ordinary solar power systems.

Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world

The recent generations have been bathed in connecting technology from birth, says futurist Don Tapscott, and as a result the world is transforming into one that is far more open and transparent. In this inspiring talk, he lists the four core principles that show how this open world can be a far better place.

Don Tapscott can see the future coming … and works to identify the new concepts we need to understand in a world transformed by the Internet.

The shareable future of cities – Alex Steffen

How can cities help save the future? Alex Steffen shows some cool neighborhood-based green projects that expand our access to things we want and need — while reducing the time we spend in cars.

Alex Steffen explores our planet’s future, telling powerful, inspiring stories about the hard choices facing humanity … and our opportunity to create a much better tomorrow.

Do you ever wonder whether we should be optimistic or pessimistic about the future? If you want more reasons to think things may still turn out for the better, Alex Steffen’s your man. He doesn’t downplay the scope and scale of the problems we face. Instead, he shows that we have the tools within our grasp for meeting those massive challenges, if we have the will to use them.

This isn’t just hopeful thinking, either. Steffen uses real-world examples and big-picture research to show us that a brighter, greener future is ours to choose, and his work has earned him the ear of leading cities, corporations and philanthropic foundations. As the New York Times said a recent profile, “Alex Steffen lays out the blueprint for a successful century.”

After working as a journalist on four continents, Steffen co-founded and ran the online magazine Worldchanging.com from 2003-2010. In those seven years, he made Worldchanging one of the world’s leading sustainability-related publications with an archive of almost 12,000 articles and a large global audience. He also edited an internationally best-selling book surveying innovative solutions to the planet’s most pressing problems: Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century.

His most recent work is Carbon Zero, a book describing cities that create prosperity not climate change, accelerating their economies while reducing their climate emissions to zero. He is now at work on a new book and a television project. “The big open secret about sustainability work,” he recently told Design Observer magazine, ‘is not how bad things are. It is how good things can get.”

“His vision of the future isn’t granola and porridge. It’s what he calls ‘bright green:’ creating and buying products and systems that are smart, sexy, sleek, and sustainable.” – Living on Earth

Paul Romer’s radical idea: Charter cities

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it’s trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: “charter cities,” city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

Paul Romer is developing a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones.

Stanford economist Paul Romer believes in the power of ideas. He first studied how to speed up the discovery and implementation of new technologies. But to address the big problems we’ll face this century — insecurity, harm to the environment, global poverty — new technologies will not be enough. We must also speed up the discovery and implementation of new rules, of new ideas about how people interact.

Throughout human history, big improvements in systems of rules took place when new governments entered the scene. In today’s world, this process has been largely shut down. To bring it back to life, Romer proposes that we create new cities where people can go to escape from bad rules and opt in to new and better ones. With better rules, people can be safe, self-interest can protect the environment, and investment can bring families all the resources that the modern world has to offer.

“Paul Romer has had a massive and profound impact on modern economic thinking and policymaking. … [His work] transforms economics from a ‘dismal science’ that describes a world of scarcity and diminishing returns into a discipline that reveals a path toward constant improvement and unlimited potential. Ideas, in Romer’s formulation, really do have consequences. Big ones.” -ReasonOnline

Declaration of Interdependency

Independence without separation = Interdependency

Our bodies are made of the earth… our bodies shall return to the earth…

The earth is made of star dust… and so are we…

We are connected to each other and to the cosmos…

Our heart is our closest star… our Sun is our closest galactic star portal…

We are stewards of our body, hearts and earth…

Watch this wonderful video laying out a description and dedication to just that…

“Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”
~ Albert Schweitzer

We, Spiritual and Compassionate Beings having a human experience, living on Planet Earth at this time, collectively assent in the recognition of the Laws of Balance, the interdependency with all forms of life, the basic understanding that we are all One inside of Mother’s / Father’s heart.

“The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
~ Albert Schweitzer

We voluntarily agree to protect Life in its diverse manifestations; to guard and safeguard the purity of our environment; to respect and preserve cultures, sacred grounds and natural reserves as true patrimonies of Earth’s Humanity.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
~ Albert Schweitzer

To be a World Server, diligently assisting the anchoring of a culture of Light based on harmony, unity and love; we commit to follow with Integrity, Honesty and Dignity in the conduct of our Actions, being ever mindful of our attitudes, thoughts and actions, and to pursue the Practice Spiritual Transparency.

We promise to adopt compassion to be the motivating force behind your actions; ever cultivating a position of pure and altruistic Love.

“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics”
~ Albert Einstein

We commit ourselves to collaborate for the well being of every sentient being, always fomenting a culture of Peace, nonviolence, and sustainable policies to all; and we collective pledge to seek out solutions that maintain or restore the dignity of individual humans and their communities.

We assume the role of one of the keeper of the earth for the sake of the future generations.

“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”
~ Albert Schweitzer

We voluntarily promote Peace, we believe in Peace and we wish for Peace to all Beings.

“I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.”
~ Albert Schweitzer

Jeff Skoll talks about the planet and folks that can make a difference

Participant Media, the production powerhouse behind films including “Waiting for Superman,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” and “Charlie Wilson’s War,” bills itself as a company that “exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that also create awareness of the real issues that shape our lives.”

Tanking about his mentors, philantrophy, and how he created financial independence was given one pivotal point of advice”
“Bet on good people doing good things.” – Jeff Skoll

Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur talking about Solar Power

One of my all time favorite classics scenes from the movie, “You Can’t Take it With You”.

In which Jimmy and Jean talk about the paradigm of fear and passion, Banking and finance, commitment and duty, The Sun, plants and Solar Power, the secret to happiness, and falling in love. All in the space of five minutes with no cuts or edits.

They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore!

Entering Global Consciousness – Marti Spiegelman

Marti does a wonderful presentation about entering the conversation of Pacha (world) through thriving, connecting and being within and without… our job is to become portals for the stream of consciousness or intelligence…

Marti Spiegelman, MFA is a training professional, mentor, speaker, and founder and host of Awakening Value™: Shamanic Technologies of Consciousness and Success on the VoiceAmerica™ Web Radio Network.

TEDxBerkeley 2011 – Engaging the World – took place on Saturday, February 19th, 2011 at UC Berkeley. Nearly 1400 attendees and 200,000 live-stream viewers enjoyed the day.

The Happy Planet Index – Nic Marks

Statistician Nic Marks asks why we measure a nation’s success by its productivity — instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people. He introduces the Happy Planet Index, which tracks national well-being against resource use (because a happy life doesn’t have to cost the earth). Which countries rank highest in the HPI? You might be surprised.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

World’s largest solar plant wins key approval

The world’s largest solar power plant cleared an important hurdle on Wednesday, laying the groundwork for a dramatic expansion in solar energy generation in the United States and around the world.

The proposed $6 billion-plus Blythe, California plant, originally proposed by Chevron Corp. and Solar Millennium AG, won clearance to build from the California Energy Commission.

The plant has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. By comparison, for all of last year, the U.S. installed about 481 megawatts of solar energy, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. The largest solar plants to date are in the 200-350 megawatt range.

Full Story from Scientific American
and again from Press-Enterprise