The Italian Institute for Foreign Trade is the Italian government agency entrusted with the promotion of trade, business opportunities and industrial co-operation between Italian and foreign companies.

Qubic New York has designed Italian Trade Commission Expo Booth for Solar Power International - North America's largest business to business solar industry event which includes 900+ exhibitors from all solar technologies: PV, CSP, solar hot water, solar heating and cooling and solar pool heating. As well as the visual program for the conference held in Rome for Leading Low-Carbon Technology In Italy and the United States.

The day will come when solar power will be for all - when it becomes as cost efficient or cheaper than the electricity that is currently available. This tu rning point is known in the energy business as "grid parity." As parts of the United States start to hit grid parity, the people in those areas will actually save money by switching to solar, and the market for the technology will skyrocket. That, in turn, will spur more investment and technological advances. Recent projections from The U.S. Department of Energy and the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development have us hitting grid parity around 2015. That's just a few short years away.

Americans want solar panels - 80 percent do, in fact, according to a recent study. Why, then, do so few have them? Well, the market is treacherous territory. The technology is unfamiliar; the process of purchasing, with all the associated permits, rebates, and tax credits, is complex; and a buyer's main source of information is often a sales rep.
Many homeowners just give up.

The Challenge of Solar Power. The widespread shift to solar comes with a few challenges: Complicated physics, materials shortages, and cost. Unexpectedly, it is the price that seems hardest for consumers to overcome. No matter how affordable silicon or thin-film photovoltaic cells become, there will always be the cost of installation - an expense that currently doubles or even triples the price of a single solar panel. Taking decades to pay off, far longer than most homeowners or businesses stay in the building they've thus improved.

What to do then if you are in the business of Solar? Speak to your clients directly with visual communications. We as business must be more transparent, open, approachable, "more humane" to entice the customer's need for the product. Solar energy is on the brink of becoming the "next" consumer energy in every home across America. Many Solar companies are developing strong branding campaigns to be ready for the "grid parity" wave that is coming. There are many new programs and companies that are looking to the future like Solar Electric Light Fund and One Block Off the Grid. 1BOG brings together groups of people who want to buy solar and walks them through the process together and helps consumers make informed decisions.

An alternative consumer solution is Solar Bonds. Just as the U.S. Treasury Department raises funds by selling bonds that, in essence, promise a slice of future tax revenue to bondholders, solar bonds would raise money for the bond issuer to install solar panels on a house or a business. Cities like Berkeley, CA and Boulder, CO have set up a program to sell municipal bonds to pay for home solar installations that are then repaid via property taxes over a 20-year period.

America is ready for Solar. Are You?

*Source: The Good 100, Matt Owens and David Biello

Wind farms are racing for first place in the effort to put turbines in the oceans. State licenses and contracts have been awarded, but with federal ocean permits still hanging in limbo, it's yet to be seen whether these projects will sink or swim in 2010.

NYC's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a plan to convert all the cabs in New York from yellow to "Green." Pushing for energy efficiency in NYC by putting wind turbines on the city's bridges and skyscrapers and in its waters as part of a wide-ranging push to develop renewable energy" according to the New York Times. Bloomberg has plans for New York City to be the greenest metropolis ever, he described a future in which the Statue of Liberty's torch is “powered by an ocean wind farm."

It was decided back in 2003 that the top section of the WTC site Freedom Tower will be devoted to windmills to generate a fifth of the building's power, and New York already sports tidal turbines powering Roosevelt Island, so a few wind turbines tucked about the cityscape should fit right in. Sadly experts are saying that windmills aff ixed to buildings and bridges might remain distant reality due to permits for now.

The Good, Brentin Mock and Alexandra Marvar

Italy drinks more bottled water than any other country in the world! But they are always promoting the benefits of the tap. One of the first jobs that our creative director did was for Amps Acqua Di Rubinetto or Water from the Pipe. The campaign gave citizens of Parma a branded Amps "Water from the Pipe" refillable glass bottle to make drinking tap more fashionable back in 1995. Now Venice is finally encouraging its residents to drink tap water.

"What comes out of the tap is just as good if not better for you than what comes in the plastic bottles, and better for the environment, too! No recycling, no plastic, no contaminants! Let's see, tap water that meets state, federal and local guidelines or trendy bottled water with fancy names that costs more than gasoline. Hmm... " says Bill Belew and we agree. Tappening has launched the Start a Lie campaign by taking on truth in advertising by allowing people to create their own viral lie about bottled water. Because, as they say, "If bottled water companies can lie, we can too."

We believe in water, not just tap water, but the power of water. Today, about 20 percent of the world's power is hydroelectric. Nearly all of that water-generated energy is made by forcing rivers to flow through dams. But rivers make up just a small percentage of the water in the world. The ocean, however, occupies two-thirds of the Earth's surface and is constantly moving. That motion can spin turbines to create power, the ocean is full of potential energy just waiting to be tapped. We would like to be part of the campaign to promote ocean power.