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First Solar has inaugurated its new $1.1 billion, vertically integrated thin-film solar manufacturing facility in Lawrence County, Ala. 

The facility, which the company says adds 3.5 GW of nameplate solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S., is expected to create 800 manufacturing jobs in the state. The company is also constructing a similar facility in Louisiana, which is expected to be commissioned in the second half of next year.

“This is the first of two fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing facilities that solidify the role of the Gulf Coast states in enabling America’s all-of-the-above energy strategy,” says Mark Widmar, chief executive officer, First Solar.

“This energy technology manufacturing facility produces American solar panels, with American-made components sourced from a supply chain that spans the country. The hundreds of people that operate this facility represent the next generation of American energy workers and are joined by thousands more steelworkers, glassworkers, miners, truck drivers, railroad workers and others that enable our mission to support our country’s energy security.”

The company adds that its Series 7 modules produced in Lawrence County use Alabama-sourced steel, smelted, rolled and fabricated within a 25-mile radius of the facility.

The post First Solar Inaugurates $1.1B Alabama Facility appeared first on Solar Industry.

First Solar Opens Major Alabama Facility

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Renewable Energy

Carl Sagan and the Suppression of Uncomfortable Ideas

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Seminal astrophysicist Carl Sagan explains why uncomfortable ideas may be banned in religion, they must not be shunned in science.

This is an important concept in American life today, as conspiracy theorists are convinced that climate change denial cannot be considered in scientific circles.

I happened to bring this up in my interview with Dr. V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution, who has been amassing data on global warming since the 1970s.  He laughed, and explained, “If I could prove that human activity was not causing temperatures to rise, I’d be be one of the wealthiest and most famous scientists in world history.”

Carl Sagan and the Suppression of Uncomfortable Ideas

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Renewable Energy

We Came Incredible Close to Averting the Disaster that Is Donald Trump

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As suggested at left, a great deal of the hardship that has befallen the U.S. was simply bad luck.  Al Gore came within a whisker of victory in 2000, a win that would have forever changed the course of our nation in terms of energy policy, education, healthcare, and international affairs.

If Bernie had become the 2016 nominee, we wouldn’t have had Hillary Clinton telling our country’s most mean-spirited and least-educated people that they were “deplorables,” ushering a criminal sociopath into the White House.

We Came Incredible Close to Averting the Disaster that Is Donald Trump

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Renewable Energy

Socialism and “Free Stuff”

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Social democracies are nations in which the tax base provides everyone with healthcare and education, and where the richest and most powerful people are not free to ruin the environment.

I run into someone from one of these counties a couple of times a month, and I like to ask why their people are consistently at the top of the World Happiness Rankings. The normal response is always some variant of the following:

It’s hard to be happy living in a society that is indifferent to the suffering of others.  It’s part of the very nature of human beings to care about one another.

Something else I notice about these places is that very few people are religious.  Sweden, e.g., is about 80% atheist.

That means no childish tribalism, no ridiculous dogmas, no worries about eternal damnation, etc.

Socialism and “Free Stuff”

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