President Obama is making good on his promise to fund and explore renewable energy and took the time out of his busy scheudle today to tour a solar-power facility at the Denver Museum of Nature and Sciences. Today, Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package at the museum and the tour was to highlight his push for alternative energy. The Museum closed down today to host the historic event and will reopen to the public on Wednesday, February 18.

The museum’s rooftop solar photovoltaic system consists of 465 solar panels, generating a portion of the museum’s electrical power.

“What makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save three and a half million jobs over the next two years,” Obama told an audience of 300 elected officials and members of the ‘green energy’ community in attendance at the museum. “It’s that we are putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long –- work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.”

President Obama also addressed upgrading the country’s power grid and encouraging “green energy” businesses such as solar power companies.

If children out the future, then the folks over Sharp Electronics Corporation have the right idea. Employees from the company, a solar panel manufacturer, visited a New Jersey elementary school to to teach a lesson on climate change and renewable energy to a class of fifth graders.

Sharp began its Solar Academy program in the United States in October, teaching children about renewable energy.

Stewart Mitchell, the chief strategy officer for Sharp who began the program, believes that marketing to children just makes sense.

“The big picture is, you really want to try to tie your focus on social responsibility as a company into your business model,” Mitchell said. “The more that students learn about climate change, and the more they learn about the importance of renewable energy — it ties back to feeding into our business model of being in the solar business.”

The founding conference for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) took place today in Germany. It marked the beginning of the first international organization that specifically promotes renewable energy.

Among IRENA’s responsibilities is the provision of advice and help for countries seeking to exploit clean and renewable energies like wind power and solar energy. They will assist in establishing regulatory frameworks while providing access to any necessary or relevant data, best practices, technological expertise and proven financial mechanisms.

Fifty-five governments have agreed to make a full membership commitment to Irena today, while 116 have agreed to participate in a lesser role.

While the United States has not joined it is expected that now under Barack Obama’s administration it will. Britain is also among the countries which have not committed to participation and are content to observe the agency’s activities for now.

IRENA describes itself as an “institutional counterbalance to the International Energy Agency” which in the past has been the subject of criticism for not promoting renewable and clean energies like solar power as much as they should.

The president of the World Council and German member of parliament, Hermann Scheer, is one of the founders of IRENA. He said in a statement to the Guardian that, “Irena is the single-most important step for a speedy global introduction of renewable energies. It will give an enormous push to the use of renewables around the globe.”

As most decisions for the new U.S. president will be, President-elect Barack Obama’s renewable energy plan, which outlines the goal to double alternative energy production in three years, is receiving both praise and criticism in the media.

Wind and solar companies, who have struggled recently due to the sharp downturn in financing for renewable energy projects, hailed the move as a major step forward for the country. However, the rule that you can’t please everyone definitely fits in this situation, as some are saying that Obama’s renewable energy plans are too ambitious.

“Doubling over that period is a little more ambitious than one would have thought six months ago,” said Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich. “It’s not a huge stretch goal but given what growth rates probably are now it’s realistic and may even be a little bit of a push.”

In his speech on Thursday, Obama asked Congress “to act without delay” to pass legislation that included doubling alternative energy production in the next three years and building a new electricity smart grid. And on Friday, it was announced by the administration that they plan to add 20 GW or more of wind power and 4 GW of geothermal and solar power in the next three years. These additions double the nation’s current renewable power base of 24 GW.

Following the announcement, shares of renewable energy companies sky-rocketed.