Solar Powerhouse

Why SolarCity is succeeding in a difficult solar industry: The secret is using existing technology (from Technology Review)

After a steady stream of bankruptcies, poor earnings reports, and canceled IPOs for clean-energy companies, this week SolarCity bucked that trend by announcing that it had filed the necessary paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO.

The key difference between SolarCity and many other clean-energy startups is that it isn't trying to take on incumbents with new technology. It makes money by deploying existing solar technology with a novel approach to financing...

Conventional Wisdom: The Lorax's lesson

Lorax fever is starting to spread. Before signing the petition to include environmentalist education on the movie website, I thought about this article from 2009. Even though the Lorax is one of my all time favorite Dr. S books, I appreciate Glaeser's point--very Gladwellian:

Contrary to the story’s implied message, living in cities is green, while living surrounded by forests is brown. By building taller and taller buildings, the Once-ler was proving himself to be the real environmentalist.