Sustainable Industries Daily Update

In San Francisco, city planners are considering changes to local zoning laws to make the city more hospitable to small urban farms. The new rules would allow sub-acre farms in all areas of the city, and would allow farmers to sell their produce without having to procure a costly permit. 

In the past week, the California Energy Commission's siting committee has given the green light to three concentrating solar projects totaling 1.6 gigawatts from developers BrightSource Energy, Abengoa Solar and Solar Millennium.

No one said jumpstarting a stalled economy would be easy, but it looks like getting federal stimulus funds to their intended targets might be one of the tough parts. An audit of a $3.2 billion federal stimulus program targeting energy efficiency found that only about 8 percent of the funds have been spent since February 2009, when they were approved by Congress. 

Thin-film startup AQT Solar says it's firing up its new manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., this month.