The prime obstacle to widespread deployment of solar PV is cost. One way to lower costs is to design community-based programs that achieve economy of scale and reach markets that have yet to tap solar energy in a big way.

Marin County , as well as other communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, are currently investigating “Community Choice Aggregation” (CCA), a a new way for cities and counties to purchase electricity. Local governments can now represent constituents-at-large in the fight against climate change. The CCA process provides an easy way to change the content of the power supply – by a vote of each local government -- without taking on the burden of managing the power lines, collecting bills, and the divisive politics involved with the typically highly contested (and expensive) municipalization process.

Even though I've been living in California since 1980, I remain a steadfast Packer fan, and Favre is clearly one of the reasons.

But as I contemplated how all of the surprising success of 2008 must have felt to Favre, and how now it seemed the rest of the world wanted him to come back, I -- for the first time -- began feeling like maybe it was the perfect moment to hang it all up.

How California goes, so goes the nation, particularly when it comes to the business of energy. State regulators are writing the rules for the nation’s first comprehensive program to limit carbon emissions. So far, the non-utility industries impacted include cars and trucks, refrigerators, landfills, docked ships, semiconductors, cement plants, fertilizers and auto tune-up and oil change shops.

And that’s just the beginning. The state Air Resources Board –in charge of drafting carbon reduction rules for the nation’s largest energy market – claims these early measures only get the state 1/10 of the way to the goal of cutting over 170 metric tons of carbon. To put that in perspective, that is the equivalent carbon spewing from 43 standard coal-fired power plants.

One goal of a project funded by the Marin Community Foundation to be completed in June 2008 and is to provide networking services among the various West Marin communities adding solar PV systems to key high-profile community assets: community centers; schools; fire stations and water district operations. In each of the five communities targeted – Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Point Reyes Station and the San Geronimo Valley – major solar PV projects moved from the planning into the development phase. In one case – Muir Beach – the solar PV system was already in place, though this was hardly common knowledge. In another case – San Geronimo Valley – this investigation salvaged a $150,000 at $2.80/watt subsidy for a 58 kW ground mounted system to serve the Lagunitas School District and the San Geronimo Valley Community Center buildings. A long delay in development of a solar PV project in Stinson Beach – (Pathfinder Communications had raised an initial $3,250 from solar vendors in February 2005) – was also spurred on by this MCF/NorCal Solar project.

When used in the context of this forthcoming report, however, “community solar” actually refers to a specific and currently unavailable solar application: the ability of multiple users – often lacking the proper on-site solar resource or fiscal capacity or building ownership rights – to purchase a portion of their electricity from a solar facility located off-site.

Along with 1 kilowatt Southwest Windpower wind turbine the Stubbs’ rely upon less than 1 kW of solar photovoltaics and a bio-diesel back up generator for all of their electricity needs. Because the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) grid is a mile away from either side of their property, the Stubbs live “off-the-grid” and are likely the greenest vineyard in all of California.

After more than two years of work, my band Space Debris has released not one, but two CD's. Given the fact that we all have day jobs, and I have to travel two hours from Stinson Beach to Sacramento every time we practice, this feat is nothing short of a minor miracle.

Why play in a garage band when your hair is turning grey, your feet hurt when you play the wah-wah pedal, and most folks pushing their own music are half of your age?

But I didn't realize how much the Green Bay Packers meant to me until they started losing -- again -- in 2005 and then in 2006. I had became so used to Brett Favre pulling out incredible wins, that when the magic began fading with age, I began to confront my own mortality and age. After all, I just turned 50!

A few years later, I became a DJ at KWMR, West Marin Community Radio, and bumped into Jon Rowe, a former editor of The Washington Monthly magazine, a publication that I had tried to get published in decades ago. He told me that he was working for Barnes on a project dedicated to preserving "the commons."

Well, as fate would have it, Barnes will be appearing on my radio show this coming Monday, at 8:45 am PST (www.kwmr.org) and we will be discussing his new book, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming The Commons.

Last year, the solar sector as a group outperformed the NASDAQ by more than hundredfold, increasing in average value by 134%. As we near the end of 2006, however, the solar stock performance data is anything but bright. In fact, the average loss through the first three quarters is – 11.98%, while the average gain from the leading US Indexes was up + 6.13%, according to independent Wall Street analyst Peter Lynch.