Green jobs have already arrived in Klickitat County in Eastern Washington and they are very welcome in this county on the Columbia River south of Walla Walla.  An article in the Yakima Herald-Republican and reproduced in the Seattle Times details some of the impact on the local economy of 14 wind-farm projects in what has become the Northwest wind capital.  There are increases in local jobs in construction, road-building, electrical wiring, clerical, and more.  Goldendale, county seat and the largest city in the county, is seeing stores, restaurants and motels doing good business.  

President Obama is making some incredibly good appointments to the DOE.  On March 20, he announced the nomination of  David Sandalow as Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs and Steven Koonin as Undersecretary for Science in the DOE.  A. Siegel, writing at DailyKos, provided some background on the two, along with another person who turned out not to be a nominee.  

Spanish-language auto blogs are reporting that Spain will include a plan to install an electric car infrastructure in several cities and subsidize purchase of a small fleet of electric cars as part of a larger stimulus package.  The southern town of Seville, along with Madrid and Barcelona were chosen as the locations of the first recharging stations.  Sevelle alone will have 75.  An article in Huffington Post adds that the larger plan for Project Movele, s the ambitious new plan will be called, includes introducing EV's, hybrid and plug-in cars.

The governors of Washington, Oregon and California are working together to see if they can install alternative fuels stations at rest stops along I-5.  If implemented, the plan would allow green travelers will be able to recharge or exchange electric vehicle batteries, or obtain compressed natural gas, ethanol, hydrogen or biodiesel.  Jeff Doyle, the director of public-private partnerships at WADOT, says in an article at the Seattle Times, says, "We originally coined it the B.C.-to-Baja green highway.  The three states are trying to find out if we can all march forward together."

Spain generates 11.5% of the country's energy requirements through wind turbines.  Over the past 12 years, Spain has put a lot of energy into developing renewables and is now the third highest generator of wind energy in the world, after the US and Germany.  Percentage-wise, they are way ahead.  The US generates only 1% of its total energy requirements with wind turbines.

Spain aims to meet 30% of it's annual electricity requirements using renewable sources by next year, according to an article in Alternative Energy, a website that compiles information on alternative energy.  They are also working hard on solar energy projects.

A British company, Solar Botanic, has developed an artificial tree with leaves that each generate tiny amounts of energy as they flap back and forth in the wind and capture heat from the sun. The "nanoleaf", which looks much like what you see on well-designed fake trees, converts the mechanical stresses from wind blowing across it to the petiole, twig and branch and, from there, to one's house or business or into the grid.  In addition, the nanoleaf absorbs the heat from the sun and converts the thermal radiation into electricity, even after the sun has set.