The League of Green Embassies was created by the United States Department of State. It was established as an initiative to promote international cooperation for clean technologies and energy efficiency. There are three major objectives of the League of Green Embassies are, “To advance the Presidential
Let’s be honest. Many of us probably had trouble paying attention one or two times in middle school science class. While the occasional frog dissection and "potato-volt" experiments were cool, not all of us got up in the morning, scarfed down Cocoa Puffs and got geeked about test tubes and
There is a corner of the Federal government that, unless you are as data obsessed as I am, you never knew existed. For the part 25 years, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has collected baseline data on commercial building energy usage, known as CBECS. CBECS is the only government source of
As soon as gas prices rise, our nation becomes focused on energy. When they drop again, it falls off most consumers’ radar. Yet the importance of energy goes way beyond the cost of filling up your gas tank or paying your electric bill. In often-extraordinary ways, energy is interwoven into absolutely everything
Belgium, aside from being one-third of the BENELUX region, is known for their increased commitment to clean technologies. Numerous businesses and initiatives are starting to take shape along the ideologies associated with cleantech in the country and Belgium is exporting those initiatives and
It is estimated that by 2025 more than 75% of world population will reside in large urban centers. Cities will use increasingly more soil, become energy consumption hubs and pollution centers, and will, unfortunately, also create social and economic inequalities amongst their inhabitants.
Who would have thought backyards would cause so much trouble for the North American energy industry? First came the NIMBYs, the not-in-my-backyard protesters who block power projects from being built near them. And now we have the GIMBBYs – the give-me-a-bigger-backyard homeowners who are unwittingly getting in the way of energy efficiency.
Climate protection is good business. Entrepreneurs and companies who engage in it are prospering. That’s the message of L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen in their recently published book Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change. They energetically urge entrepreneurs and businesses to take advantage of the opportunities opened by the need to combat
Maine is the largest producer of renewable energy throughout New England and has been increasingly committed to the development of bioenergy, offshore wind energy, as well as ocean wind energy resources for the national market. As such, Maine has become a national leader for the development of offshore renewable energy, bringing hundreds of
Dynamic pricing schemes are viewed as one of the key utility tools for reducing peak load during the summer, which is growing over time. Such pricing schemes, which adjust the price of electricity based on the time of day and the cost of generating electricity during different time periods, are on the rise throughout the United States.
Despite soaring rhetoric and some promising proposals, President Obama is repeating the same mistakes that have doomed U.S. energy policy to failure for 40 years. Until Obama and Congress finally put a true price on the fossil fuels America consumes, the U.S. will continue its addiction to foreign oil and domestic coal.
Greenpeace has released a report titled How Dirty is your Data? which looks at the energy choices powering cloud computing. Based on 2007 data the report claims that if the cloud is compared to nations across the globe it would be the fifth largest consumer of electricity. The cloud would rank ahead
Most individuals know of Google as one of the top global internet search engines. But what many are not aware of is the keen interest Google has taken into renewable energy and creating a sustainable environment for the future. They have been involved in a number of projects and initiatives to assist in creating a cleaner, greener world. Here is just a sampling of
As a Boulder resident, I am loosely participating in the SmartGridCity project run by our local electric utility, Xcel Energy. I say “loosely” because the extent of my participation has been the few times I logged into my online account to see a more granular view of my energy consumption. On this website, I could see into my daily energy usage in as small as 15 minute