Google Invests $80 Million to Open 6 Solar Energy Plants

        Google is investing $80 million in 6 new solar plants in California and Arizona that the company says will provide enough electricity for 17,000 homes in the United States. The investment is Google's 14th in renewable energy. The company has so far put more than $1 billion behind solar and wind projects since April 2010. Google is partnering with investment firm KKR for the venture; the lead developer is Recurrent Energy.
       According to a Google blog post, the projects have a combined capacity of 106 megawatts. A typical coal power station produces 600-700 megawatts while a nuclear power plant puts out 900-1,300 megawatts. Google currently gets 33% of its energy from renewable sources, but hopes to be 100% reneawble at some point.

Saving Energy also means Save Money on Taxes

      In early January, it has been claimed that Congress had extended a policy of federal tax credits for energy efficiency users. In other words, it means that homeowners can earn as much as $500 per year for investments in energy-saving windows, water heaters, air conditioners, and a variety of other home improvements. "Rest assured, if you're doing something that's uniquely beneficial for the environment, there's likely a tax credit there," says Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, a tax-return preparation firm headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.
     According to Steber, insulation, windows, and furnaces are known as being the most commonly used home improvement that qualifies for tax credits. Air-conditioning, water heaters and roofing also are accountable for the tax credits. These home improvements must have been made by 2012 but Steber notes that it's possible to amend tax filings as early as 2009 for earlier purchases.
    For simpler items, homeowners are able to receive a tax credit for 10% of the cost up to $500 or a specific amount from $50 to $300. Solar power systems, geothermal pumps, and other more advanced items are eligible for a tax credit of 30% of the cost with no upper limit until December 31, 2016.
    To be applicable for tax credits, homeowners are required to submit a 5695 Form with their 2012 taxes to receive such tax credits. No receipts? "No problem," says Steber. "Credit card statements, bills, and other evidence of the purchase can serve as adequate documentation."

Robots taking over the world!

Introducing "Qbotix," the world's first monorail robot, equipped with 20 solar panel arrays, trailing behind a small tuna-shaped robot called the "Solbot." Over time, the sun moves 10 degrees in approximately every 40 minutes, decreasing the efficiency of our solar panels that are being engineered today all across the world. So, in order to get the job done more efficiently in harvesting the energy of the sun from sunrise to daybreak, "Qbotix" had designed a robot that moves through steel pipes like a small roller coaster, tracking the position of the sun while moving with it in order to retrieve the most efficiency of the sun without consuming much energy during the process.

A California based startup, Qbotix, has now come up with a robot that does the job efficiently without consuming a lot of energy in the process.

However, here's Germany with their huge robotic arms engineered to install solar panels onto steel racks. This robot is called "Momo" and it could do the work of 250 workers required to build a 100 megawatt photo voltaic power plant. The main idea of this project was to save large amounts of money, mainly towards labor. Towards a construction of a 14 watt solar plant, reports say that the company could cut the cost nearly half of what they had originally paid in which it came up to approximately $2 million in total. 

Renewable robot: A robotic arm places a large photovoltaic panel onto a frame during the construction of a solar plant near Leipzig, Germany. The panel is nearly six square meters in size and weighs 120 kilograms.