Alternative Energy: With the billions hoarded at the top,

wall street capitalism better know as reaganomics or trickle down, Alternatives should be streaming full force, as other countries are doing. After all we once led as the only ones producing the product, especially solar, and installing same some thirty years plus back, then the brakes were locked by the same detractors wanting same now!! Stopping what we once were well known for and envied, innovations and advancement!

State powering up with solar in a big way

With lower prices for the technology and an array of clean-energy incentives to help investors, Minnesota saw a big jump in solar energy projects last year. But there's still a long way to go.

Richard Sennott, Star Tribune: Solar panels on the roof of the Minneapolis Convention Center

April 1, 2011 - The solar power business in Minnesota is booming, thanks to clean-energy subsidies and lower prices for photovoltaic cells.

The Minnesota Commerce Department said Friday that solar electric installations hit a record high of 248 last year, a threefold increase over 2009. Total installed capacity for solar power more than doubled.

"What's really driving it is the 40 percent decrease in installed cost in the last 18 months," said Nathan Franzen, director of solar development for Westwood Professional Services of Eden Prairie, which designs and manages solar construction projects. {continued}

N.C. solar bill gains momentum

April 1, 2011 - The solar bill that will force North Carolina's two largest utilities — Duke Energy and Progress Energy — to purchase solar power from retail customers, is gaining steam on Jones Street in Raleigh. {continued}