Courtesy: Melissa Blonde

There were 30 plus people around the table. Each of them spearheading businesses over $20 million at the least. Each of them imbued by a single commitment to seeing what individually, as leaders, and collectively, as a council of members, they could do into the future to bring change across business, industry, government and consumers in a way we impact energy, water and waste management in the country.

Cities have become veritable omnivores, consuming every thing that the countryside offers. Can we afford this any more?

eSolar this week unveiled its 5-megawatt Sierra SunTower solar power plant. The full-scale power plant produces electricity for Southern California Edison (SCE). eSolar says its technology resolves many of the problems that have held back large scale solar in the past including cost, speed of deployment and proximity to existing transmission lines.

At noon on the equator our sun gives us one kilowatt of free energy per square meter! This gift from space is ultimately the basis of all of our power sources except nuclear and geothermal. Wind, hydro, biomass and all fossil fuels ultimately derive from solar energy. All of these economical sources of energy benefit from concentration and storage of the sun's energy.