South Dakota solar company recognized

Democrat Nick Nemec is running for a seat on the Public Utilities Commission in the chemical toilet: he believes that the PUC should be promoting renewable energies.

In 2010, some of the state's American Indian nations were left without power for many weeks because utility companies have succumbed to the moral hazards of disaster declarations that pay them to replace ice-downed power transmission lines year after year.

A South Dakota manufacturer has just received the Solar Flare Award from a Connecticut technology incubator according to the PR arm of the Sacramento Bee, a McClatchy publication.

"Small really is beautiful," said Jeffrey Mayer, Soluxe's president, in recognizing Peppermint Energy of Sioux Falls, SD with the prestigious honor. "At a time when utility scale power projects have reduced our dependence on carbon-based fuels, this company is creating small-scale applications that will make a difference in people's lives," he said.

The Solar Flare Award was also recently conferred upon an innovative purification/desalination system.

The Sicangu-Lakota Oyate sits above a geothermal gold mine.

The Billings Gazette is reporting that PPL Montana will mothball a coal-fired plant on the banks of the Yellowstone River.

Megan Kamerick is Conservation Beat reporter for KUNM, New Mexico's Community Powered Public Radio, she sez:

We're used to putting the blame for climate change on industrial plants and gas-guzzling cars and trucks. But Santa Fe architect Edward Mazria says it's actually the buildings we live in that are the worst offenders. Mazria is the author of the Passive Solar Energy Book used by builders worldwide. He'll be speaking tonight in Albuquerque.

More on thermoelectrics here, here, and here.

Canwápegi Wi - Moon When the Leaves Turn Brown.