Solar Roadways: Science Fiction Becoming Reality

Solar roads are entering a new test phase that will see them installed along a portion of the iconic route 66. Solar Roadways is the brainchild of Scott and Julie Brusaw of Idaho.  It all started ten years ago when Scott, an electrical engineer and his wife Julie began to imagine how solar panels could be embedded into the road. The concept eventually incorporated LEDs that could illuminate highways, and replace road lines. These solar panels can also be heated enabling them to melt snow and ice. The panels used in olar roadways are made out of recycled glass and in addition to collecting renewable energy, the panels can even redistribute storm water.

Green Banks Leverage Private Investments for Climate Finance

In addition to creating new jobs and improving the environment Green Banks are essential to ramping-up clean energy finance. Such banks are capable of helping to unleash the vast potential of climate focused investing. Green Banks reduce the cost of clean energy and efficiency. They are helping to change market thinking by taking a holistic, long-term view of industry support.

A Green Bank is a government-created institution that facilitates private sector financing for clean technology projects. Different Green Banks have different programs, however, they all leverage public funds to attract private investment.

Green Finance Goes Mainstream in 2016

The world is embracing green finance as never before and all expectations are that this will increase as we move towards a low carbon economy. Financial systems should play an important role in the green economic transition said, Zhou Xiaochuan, the Governor of the People's Bank of China. Zhou was speaking at the Green Finance Symposium which took place on Saturday, April 15th in Washington.
_______________________________

After years of volatility, green finance is emerging as a central part of our efforts to address climate change and transform our energy infrastructure. Green finance is preoccupied with adapting to the impacts of climate change and/or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is the means by which we can stream tremendous amounts of needed capital into emissions free sources of power.

Green Bonds Emerging as a Major Force in Green Finance

The momentum driving green bonds is growing and they have emerged as a major instrument of green finance. Green bonds generate funding for sustainable development and clean energy technology. They attract debt investment capital and drive innovation in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, forests and other environmental causes. At COP21 green bonds were touted as being one of the vehicles that could help deliver $100 billion annually by 2020 to support of climate action.

IDB to Double Climate Related Projects

In October last year Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced that it is going to double its climate related projects by increasing financing by between 25 and 30 percent by 2020. The IDB was established in 1959, it offers long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Green Climate Fund Comes of Age

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a United Nations climate finance mechanism designed to assist the developing world.by mobilizing funding for mitigation and adaptation. The GCF mission is to expand collective human action to respond to climate change. It will do this in large part  through the transfer cutting-edge climate technologies. This includes things like smart-grid technologies, electric vehicles and components used in solar electricity generation.

World Bank to Finance More Renewables in the Developing World

After being called out for hypocrisy, the World Bank is working to redeem itself through massive investments in renewable energy. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group are holding their annual "Spring Meetings events" in Washington, DC, on April 12-17, 2016. It will be attended by thousands of government officials, journalists, civil society organizations, and participants from the academia and private sectors. The meetings will feature seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world's financial markets.

Innovative Solar Energy Financing Instruments

Investments in solar energy are booming alongside some innovative financing instruments. As explained by President Obama a bit more than a year ago every four minutes, an American home or business goes solar. There are a host of new financial instruments that serve the green economy and starting in 2013 we began to see some innovative approaches to finance in the solar sector.

New Sustainability Focused Financial Instruments

Investors have a wide assortment of new financially responsible instruments. Sustainability investment options run the gamut from simple things like energy conservation projects to complex multi-stakeholder initiatives that target social and environmental improvements. Responsible investing, impact investing, socially responsible investing covers the full range of asset classes in many sectors. This includes instruments that combat climate change, encourage conservation and support social causes. Some examples include green bonds, climate bonds, yield cos, conservation investment and natural resources

Event - Green Bonds 2015 Conference

The 5th annual Green Bonds conference will take place on June 22 June 2015, at the Hilton Tower Bridge Hotel, 5 More London Place, Tooley Street, London, UK.

This event is presented by Environmental Finance proud supporters of the green bond market since its inception. The conference has long been the home of movers, shakers and vital discussions in this growing market. Indeed, the seed of the Green Bond Principles was sown at our 2013 conference, when two influential bankers began a conversation about how to add some standardisation to the market.

Video - Solar Schools Crowdsourcing Community Initiative

The Solar Schools project is putting clean energy in classrooms all over the country. This project gets students and the wider community involved in an effort to support renewable energy and reduce school utility bills. Solar Schools is run by 10:10, a charity that brings people together to help tackle climate change.

For more information on the Solar Schools initiative click here.

Make sure to see the article titled, "Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources." It contains links to over 200 articles covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, student's eco-initiatives, green school buildings, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.

Related
Video - Amplifyd Crowdsourced Lobbying Platform
Amplifyd: A Unique Crowdsourced Lobbying Platform
New Social Activism Crowdsourcing Platform
Schools Crowdsourcing Community Initiative
Earth Hour Blue - New Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing
New Social Activism Crowdsourcing Platform
The UK's Solar Schools Crowdfunding Initiative
Run on Sun Solar Crowdfunding Campaign for UK Primary
Earth Hour Blue - New Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing
List of 20 Green Crowdfunding Platforms and Resources

Amplifyd: A Unique Crowdsourced Lobbying Platform

The Amplifyd crowdsourced lobbying platform was launched on June 10th. It supports several campaigns including those focused on environmental themes. Amplifyd is a social activism startup based in Berkeley, California that allows people to influence public policy. Their platform is the world's first technology-driven lobbying solution.

Amplfyd works by giving supporters the opportunity to purchase lobbying calls to elected officials while financially supporting the nonprofit at the same time. People can also generate income by becoming a caller.

A Response to Critics of the Solar Roadways Concept

While there is an abundance of positive response to the Solar Roadways concept, there has also been an avalanche of negativity that completely misses the point. As reviewed in a recent Global Warming is Real article, the concept of embedding solar panels into American roadways represents a powerful new approach to green innovation and finance.

Without paying heed to the benefits, many critics are focused on what they perceive as the project’s technological imperfections. Among their comments, they suggest the surface of a roadway with embedded solar panels would not be able to handle the stresses placed upon it, or that vehicular traffic and debris would seriously inhibit the ability of such roads to harvest the sun’s energy. Other criticisms state that the concept is hardly new and therefore somehow less worthy of interest. Some lament that we should be using roofs rather than roads to collect solar power.

Still others rue the cost. The creators of the Solar Roadway project have estimated the cost of embedding solar panels on American highways to be under $5 billion, while others claim it will cost trillions of dollars.

Solar Roadways’ Innovative Sun Powered Technology and Finance

Solar Roadways is a grassroots company that is a stellar example of a powerful new approach to business. Their business model is a perfect marriage between innovative technology and innovative finance. Solar Roadways are spearheading a new reality that levels the playing field and gives us reason to believe that we will find a way to meet our energy needs without fossil fuels.

Solar power was discovered over 170 years ago, but it was only in the 1950s that it became a viable, albeit expensive, technology. However, the high cost of producing solar cells meant that the concept remained in limited use up until recently. The explosion of interest in solar power has brought investment and research that has vastly improved the technology.

Video - Solar Roadways: Crowdfunding

This is the story of the creators of the solar roadway. They provide a long list of issues that can be resolved with solar roadways. They present their prototype and review their grassroots operation. They also make their pitch for a novel crowd-funding program that has already surpassed their goal of $1 million by raising more than $1.5 million.

Video - Solar Roadways: The Concept Explained

Solar Roadways is a revolutionary concept that embeds smart solar panels (made largely out of recycled materials) into roads. This concept will not only generate power, it will light roads and melt any snow and ice. Through embedded LEDs it can provide safer travel by providing warnings to drivers as necessary. It will also bury conduits for all forms of data cables and clean storm water. Most importantly, for a modest investment of under $5 billion, it will provide jobs and substantially reduce our footprint from burning fossil fuels.

New Social Activism Crowdsourcing Platform

Social activism can change the world and a new concept is being launched shortly that will help give people more power and influence over their governments. This new social activism is called Amplifyd, it is a crowdsourced lobbying platform where people can support causes in their community and in return get a personal representative that will call and lobby their elected officials on their behalf.

Discussion - The Other Debt Ceiling: Using Finance to Balance Our Environmental Budget

This discussion will take place on November 20, 2013, and is presented by Solar One and NYC ACRE 7 p.m. -9 p.m. (Doors at 6:30), The WNYC Jerome L. Greene Performance Space 44 Charlton Street, New York City.

As weather events become more extreme, water shortages threaten, and human sprawl leads to biodiversity loss, there is a new focus on the global economic impact of environmental degradation. Studies from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Harvard School of Public Health, and others assert that our active growth and inactive conservation efforts have left us with a trillion-dollar bill.

A World Bank Action Plan to Combat Climate Change

The World Bank has been an advocate of environmental action for many years now. Recently the Bank's president Jim Yong Kim called for a plan to address climate change. Rachel Kyte, vice-president for sustainable development, explained that fighting climate change has become a guiding principle for the bank.

The World Bank has introduced a wide array of projects to mitigate and adapt to climate change: from promoting partnerships for climate action in urban areas across the globe to funding clean technology in developing countries.

The World Bank: Declining Climate Change Funding

The World Bank is a strong supporter of efforts to counter climate change. However, funding for climate-related projects has been declining sharply since peaking in 2010. The World Bank acknowledges that climate change represents a fundamental threat to economic development and the fight against poverty. The Turn Down the Heat reports explained the consequences of 4°C warming by 2100. The costs of a 4°C temperature increase will have adverse global impacts including reduced crop yields and flooding.