
We know you can’t catch every article during your busy week, so we’ve consolidated the recent top energy news stories for you in one easy list. Share your favorite energy, environment and efficiency articles with us on Twitter using the hashtag #SmartReads.
CLEAN ENERGY
Forbes: Solar Power More Competitive Than Decision-Makers Or Consumers Realize – Are the decision-makers entrusted with determining the future of energy infrastructure operating under an outdated understanding of the cost-competitiveness of solar power? In many cases, the answer is yes, according to a paper released last week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). [May 24, 2012]

Boston.com: Connecticut subsidies seen spurring home solar power – Installing solar panels could cost, on average, $35,000, according to a state energy agency spokesman. [May 20, 2012]
TreeHugger: Solar Backpacks to Charge Marines in the Field – In an effort to reduce the energy supply needs and lessen the risks of U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) forward deployed forces, researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have prototyped and are field-testing one solution: A mobile solar power pack, with high efficiency, flexible solar cells coupled to a high capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack. [May 24, 2012]

Boston Herald: Obama calls for keeping production tax credit to save clean-energy jobs – From a wind-power factory in this battleground state, President Barack Obama urged Congress to extend tax credits he said would save jobs in the field of clean-energy production. [May 24, 2012]
Huffington Post: Saudi Arabia Eyes Solar Power For Future – Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, may finally be getting serious about overcoming the technical and financial hurdles for tapping its other main resource: sunshine. [May 23, 2012]
Earth Techling: Robot To Wash Solar Panels Among Winning Student Inventions – Students took home $200,000 in prizes for green ideas at an awards ceremony recently held at California Institute of Technology for a Department of Energy competition. [May 19, 2012]
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
SmartPlanet: All-in-one ‘V-Pole’ charges electric cars, lights the street – Who says a street lamp should just light our city streets?… At the top of the pole there’s an LED street light, and built into the pole there’s Wi-Fi, technology to wirelessly charge your electric car, and cell phone infrastructure [May 25, 2012]
Los Angeles Times: Nissan Leaf’s U.S. sales may jump after production starts here – Nissan sold just 370 Leaf electric vehicles in the U.S. last month and only 2,103 so far this year. To put this in perspective, the U.S. auto industry has sold almost 4.7-million vehicles this year. But as Andy Palmer, executive vice president of Nissan’s Yokohama, Japan-based global operations, notes, the U.S. sales numbers don’t provide much of a marker for the success of the first mass-market electric car in several generations. [May 24, 2012]
New York Times: Cramming for Degrees in Hybrids – LIKE many college students, Katherine Bovee, a master’s degree candidate at Ohio State University in Columbus, struggled to find a focus for her undergraduate studies. Wanting to sample a broad range of possibilities, she enrolled in a mechanical engineering program. [May 18, 2012]

Los Angeles Times: Consumer Reports: Car buyers care most about fuel economy – Fuel economy is the top feature buyers consider when shopping for a new car, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports. [May 22, 2012]
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
East Hampton-Portland Patch: Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge Rewards Resident for Early Action – Last week, the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge performed a free LED lighting upgrade — worth more than $1,000 — for raffle winner and East Hampton resident Jamie Owen. [May 21, 2012]