Yet, while we all enjoy reading articles about new gizmos, electric cars, space-age wind turbines, and of course, the latest advances in photovoltaics, these advancements represent only the surface of a much larger, systemic change in the way we will soon conduct business.

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"When they come close to the Sun, this ice melts - solar wind blows this material out into space, so you get a tail of matter coming off the comet, " explains O'Brien.

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In 2008 and 2009, the sun set Space Age records for low sunspot counts, weak solar wind, and low solar irradiance.

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"Solar, wind, clean technology plays--we love the space, " says Troy Rillo, a Cornell managing director.

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"This is going to be a good space for any investor to be in, " he says of the wind industry in particular.

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The company would like to see a fraction of the credit go to utilities to compensate them for having to reserve space on their transmission systems and for having to run the back-up systems when the wind dies down.

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The VoIP provider wants to extend Wind's network network across the country while moving subscribers over to Fongo within the space of a year, theoretically creating a perfect match between cheap cellular access and free internet calling.

ENGADGET

And when the solar wind is stronger, it is better at shielding the earth from high-energy charged particles from outer space known as cosmic rays.

ECONOMIST: Global warming: In flux | The