500MW Solar Thermal Power; Costco & Gazelle to do e-recycling; Solar powered weather station; Hiding Solar Panels in Santa Monica; Iceland debating geothermal

500MW Solar Thermal Power array in Riverside County, CA. Tessera Solar has won a bid to develop up to 500 megawatts of solar thermal power plants on land owned by Riverside County in California. Building 500 megawatts with Stirling Energy Systems’ SunCatcher mirrors would require about 3,500 acres of land space.

Costco & Gazelle to do e-recycling and trade-ins. Costco has teamed up with Gazelle, an electronics trade-in company, to offer its customers a trade-in and recycling program. Powered by Gazelle.com, customers can trade-in old gadgets such as laptops, cell phones, LCD monitors, digital cameras, MP3 players, and gaming systems. In return, consumers get a Costco cash card within ten days that can be used at any Costco warehouse or at Costco.com. Definitely useful if it was time to replace that gadget with one that Costco sells!

Solar powered weather station. Equipped with a detachable solar panel, the +ECO Clima Control will operate for up to three months from an eight hour charge. Wow! The weather station allows users to monitor the temperature and humidity in up to four locations within the home and outdoors and includes weather predictions on the best time for the unit to soak up the sun’s rays.

Push to Hide Solar Panels in Santa Monica. I used to live in Santa Monica, and sadly this doesn’t surprise me in the least. Want to put solar panels on a condo in Santa Monica, Calif.? Keep them out of sight, please. That’s the sentiment behind a pending city ordinance that would require solar panels to be installed in a way that is “least visible.” Ridiculous, if you ask me. But who’s asking?

Iceland Debates the Limits of Geothermal. Virtually all of Iceland’s electricity comes from dams or geothermal power plants, and they are often cited as a model for the world in its use of renewable energy. However, there is talk that their geothermal energy could be used up. According to Mr. Finnsson, the head of Iceland’s Nature Conservation Association, if Iceland’s resources are tapped too quickly, the underground hot water necessary to produce the power (and heat buildings in Iceland) could run out in 70 years or so. Yikes!