By Sam Hopkins, Green Chip

On the edge of a new Europe full of green energy advances, Spain is blowing through one landmark after another. This week, wind energy output in Spain surged to nearly half of the total national grid demand. Spanish wind farms churned out 9,862 megawatts of electricity last Saturday, which combined with lower Easter holiday energy use to give wind a 40.8% share of all national consumption.

No wonder Spain is considered one of the top four markets in the world for wind energy, according to Ernst & Young’s Renewable Energy Attractiveness Index. Wind energy is now on par with the country’s long-standing hydropower base, with towering turbines equaling dam generation for the first time in 2007.

Spain is zooming towards energy independence, aiming for 29 GW of wind capacity by 2016 and 40 GW by 2020, up from 13 GW today. As for the Easter week’s wind energy record of 40%, consider that the European Union mandate for clean energy grid contribution is 20% . . . by 2020! Spain just proved that it can double that target from one source, twelve years ahead of time. Continue Reading »

Jesse Ziff Cool, celebrity chef and one of the nation’s foremost experts in sustainable and organic foods, has published her seventh book, Simply Organic, compiling over 30 years of knowledge about organic, local, and sustainable food into one cookbook.

Cool has been a culinary and community icon in the San Francisco Bay area for nearly three decades. She runs a $3.5 million foodservice operation, which includes the catering company CoolEatz, and three restaurants: Flea Street Café, jZcool Eatery and Wine Bar, and Cool Café at Stanford University. Continue Reading »