Photo: Flickr, CC Clean Energy Still Growing Strongly Despite a very difficult year for most industries in 2009, the three major branches of the clean energy sector have shown some significant growth. "In 2009, combined global revenue for the three major clean-energy sectors - solar photovoltaics (PV), wind power, and biofuels - grew by 11.4 percent over 2008, reaching $139.1 billion. These three sectors are expected to reach $325.9 billion by 2019, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2010 report i...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Liquid crystal switching windows have been around for a while, and just last week Mike wrote about how Energy-Saving Dynamically Tinted Glass Could Make Most Buildings More Efficient. Now Dutch entrepreneurs Casper van Oosten and Teun Wagenaar have taken switchable glass one step further: their Smart Energy Glass collects solar energy and generates its own power. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo: Google Maps Loblaw Couldn't Resist Ontario's Generous Feed-in Tariff? Loblaw is announcing today that it will put solar panels on the roof of 4 supermarkets in a pilot program, with the ultimate goal of installing solar arrays on more than 100 stores in Ontario. This is not surprising considering how insanely generous the feed-in tariffs for solar power are in the province (between 53.9 and 80.2 ¢/kWh, with 20-year contracts). I just hope that measures have been taken to avoid repeating what happened in S...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via International Rivers The International Herald Tribune has an interesting (if embarrassingly headlined--in the print edition, they went all-out for an Icarus reference) look at the boom and bust of the Spanish solar industry today. Basically, in a rush to jumpstart a pioneering solar industry, the Spanish gov offered far too sweet a feed-in tariff for solar investors--a whopping 58 U...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: Good With the technology available today, powering an airplane with solar power doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But this isn't keeping people from trying. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, specifically, are working to build a solar airplane that could circle the planet....Read the full story on TreeHugger