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Fossil fuels are running out. Carbon dioxide is building up. What to do? Engineers in Germany are combining old and new solar technology into what may be the biggest solar energy project ever.

The Central Okanagan’s Solar Steering Committee partnership wants everyone to learn more about a hot new financing option for solar hot water installations. SolarBC has announced a special $1,000 point-of-sale grant for solar hot water systems, on top of its existing $1,000 grant. The special grant is only available until March 31.

Vancouver’s civic leaders believe that the athlete’s village built for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and the planned neighborhood that will surround it, will be one of the very greenest neighborhoods in North America. I am inclined to agree.

The village is the central parcel in a larger planned redevelopment of a section of the city’s old industrial waterfront called, somewhat awkwardly, Southeast False Creek. When the Olympics and Paralympics are finished, the village will become a mixed-use community called Millennium Water, which sounds a lot more marketable to me.

In 2009, five Naramata homeowners took advantage of several financial incentives to subsidize the cost of panels and systems to heat hot water via the sun’s radiant power. Anecdotally and unofficially, Naramata could be on a per capita basis the most solar energized community in BC! Today, the Solar BC program announced that its incentive has been increased to $2000.