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Renewable Energy

Factbox: Business Reaction to the Climate Bill

(Reuters) – The climate bill unveiled by U.S. Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman on Wednesday would reward many businesses for cutting output of greenhouse gases but could add costs for those who do not.

Kerry and Lieberman hope that companies who see opportunities in energy conservation and low-carbon power will convince lawmakers to support the bill which needs 60 votes to pass.

Utilities such as FPL Group, Duke Energy and Exelon have lobbied alongside environmental groups for the climate bill as has General Electric, a manufacturer of clean coal and natural gas systems for power plants and wind turbines.

Here are some initial reactions to the bill from companies and business groups:

05/12/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Who Needs a Climate Treaty? Focus on Green Energy for the Poor

written by Yale Environment 360

The world community should abandon efforts to sign a climate change treaty and instead focus on combating global warming by imposing carbon taxes to fund renewable energy breakthroughs and to deliver clean electricity to the world’s poor, according to a report by 14 academics and scientists.

The group recommends pursuing a “politically attractive and relentlessly pragmatic” climate and energy strategy that combines a huge research effort into renewable energy with pragmatic, near-term solutions, such as reducing heat-absorbing “black carbon” produced by wood fires and industries.

05/11/2010 0 comment

Energy Efficiency Green Building Renewable Energy

How Net Metering Leads to Low Energy Bills

written by

In my inaugural post, I went over why solar makes sense from a financial perspective. It is a sound investment that will provide you at least a 10 percent return on your initial investment for the next 30 years. Now the question is, “Hey Chris, how do you make money on solar?”

The answer is that solar saves you money through a program called net metering.

To start off this explanation, it is good to review your utility bill. Your utility bill has in it many line items for supply and delivery broken out into many different costs per kilowatthour (kwh). Kilowatt-hours are measurements of power used by you over a period of time, usually the billing cycle.

05/08/2010 0 comment

Energy Efficiency Green Building Renewable Energy

Does Solar Power Make Sense?

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This is the question I have been getting recently. It is usually asked of me by a potential customer after I’ve laid out the potential for the solar energy system to cut a good chunk of their electrical bill. My short answer is the same every time: “It always make sense.”

In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania where I work, the incentives are very attractive. Not only is there the 30 percent federal tax credit, but New York also has a rebate and state tax credit and New Jersey and Pennsylvania have state rebates as well as the often coveted renewable energy credits. More on these specific incentives in future posts. What I want to focus on today is the long answer to the question: Does solar make sense?

05/07/2010 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Advancing Energy Innovation through Cross-Sector Partnerships

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Ed Note: Starting at 9 AM EDT the Energy Innovations Summit will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

Throughout our history, American innovation has driven economic growth and helped solve the great challenges that confront us. One of the greatest challenges of the modern era is transforming the ways we produce and consume energy. Not surprisingly, technology is the key enabler of that transformation. As President Obama has said, “No area is more ripe for such innovation than energy.”

Today, leaders from the private sector, nonprofits and government are gathering at an Energy Innovation Conference at the White House to discuss how they can work together to accelerate energy innovation, and support entrepreneurs and small businesses in the energy sector.

05/07/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Google Directly Invests In Wind Power Project in North Dakota

written by Yale Environment 360

Google has invested $39 million in a 160-megawatt wind farm in North Dakota, marking the first time that the search engine giant has made a direct investment in a wind energy project.

Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, has previously invested in renewable energy startups, such as the solar thermal companies eSolar and Brightsource.

But the North Dakota wind power investment comes directly out of Google’s treasury and represents the company’s growing involvement in the renewable energy industry.

A Google spokesman said, “You can think of it as a way to diversify our cash holdings while investing in an area that we think is important to support.”

05/04/2010 0 comment

Energy Efficiency

Are We Thinking About Energy All Wrong?

written by Elisa Wood

The energy world operates under the premise that more is better. If we build more power plants, we’ll have ample supply, and electricity prices will drop. Even better, if those plants are clean and green, we’ll displace older, dirtier plants and reduce emissions. That will help our economy by producing jobs.

But is that the right way to think about power?

Truth be told, new energy sources are likely to play a smaller role in economic recovery than advances in energy efficiency, according to speakers at a recent symposium held by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, as part of its 30^th anniversary celebration.

“Cost-effective investment that can reduce the amount of energy necessary to support a dollar of economic activity is the single most important driver of economic productivity within the United States and around the world,” said John A. “Skip” Laitner, director of economic and social analysis, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

05/03/2010 3 comments

Renewable Energy Water & Conservation

Where Offshore Wind Power Remains Far from Reach

written by Environmental News Network

To date not a single offshore wind turbine been built in the United States. Meanwhile Europe, China and Japan are far along in developing a water-based wind power industry. All one needs is a strong and steady wind as well as a relatively easy way to connect o the power grid so as to transmit the power gained from the wind. Most people think of wind power from various land based operations. However, it can be done by basing the wind turbine in the sea.

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used for production of electric power. Individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage power collection system and communications network. At a substation, this medium voltage electrical current is increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to the high voltage transmission system.

Near shore turbine installations are on land within 5 miles of a shoreline or on water within ten miles. These areas are good sites for turbine installation, because of wind produced by convection due to differential heating of land and sea each day. Wind speeds in these zones share the characteristics of both onshore and offshore wind, depending on the prevailing wind direction.

04/27/2010 1 comment

Clean Transportation Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy

Energy Storage Breakthrough Only a ‘Couple Years Away’

written by

CleanTechies caught up with Maurice Gunderson, senior partner of energy and materials at CMEA Capital, for some energy storage perspectives.

CleanTechies: You were an investor in A123 Systems. When will bulk storage arrive?

Maurice Gunderson: Bulk storage needs a little bit of definition. The kind of thing that A123 is doing is here now, and that’s a very high power storage for grid stabilization. And that makes sense in a lot of parts of the country. I make a distinction between that and very large bulk energy storage, which is intended to store power for very long periods of time, such as from wind turbines, and then release it over relatively long periods of time.

So the answer is there’s no real good battery solutions yet, but there’s a lot of smart people and a lot of money working on the problem and we’re going to see things emerging here within the next few years. The really practical ways to do very large storage right now come down to pumped storage. If nature gives you a canyon and environmental considerations don’t stop you from damming it up, you can make a very nice pumped storage facility. But that only exists when it occurs naturally. So there’s not a lot of places where you can count on building out new capacity of that type.

04/27/2010 2 comments

Clean Transportation Renewable Energy

Michigan, the Saudi Arabia of Wind Energy?

written by Environmental News Network

The first regional Wind Energy Conference, sponsored by the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, took place in Detroit April 20 and 21. Bringing together for the first time under one roof, the major players from government, utilities, universities, and private enterprise everyone had a chance to focus on what the experts had to say about the state of the art in wind energy production and the role it will play in the transformation of Michigan’s economy.

A highlight of the intensive two-day Michigan Wind Energy summit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm stated in a keynote speech that the goal of her efforts was to make Michigan the “Saudi Arabia of wind energy.”

In her enthusiastic ‘let’s get serious’ attitude about making change, Gov. Granholm reiterated that no one is hungrier for change and the jobs that ‘going green’ will create than Michigan.

04/24/2010 2 comments

Recycling & Waste Mgmt.Renewable Energy

Brownfields to Biomass: Tapping EPA’s Grant Programs

written by Mackinnon Lawrence

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected $78.9 million in brownfields grants to communities in 40 states, four tribes, and one U.S. Territory. This funding will be used for the assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters, and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. As of March 2010, EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $14 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding.

In total, the EPA is selecting 304 grants through the Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants programs:

04/23/2010 0 comment

Energy Efficiency

Energy the Greatest Economic Opportunity Since WWII, Bill Clinton Says

written by Environmental News Network

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton got a warm welcome from the mixed American and Canadian audience that paid up to $175 to hear his keynote speech at the first Essex County Enviro-Expo.

The former president spoke to a nearly full house of 3,000. Citing a myriad of world challenges; hunger, water, terrorism, climate change, and global economics, Clinton said all solutions point to the development of sustainable energy on a global scale.

Few people attain a global perspective on world events as “citizen” Clinton. As a disaster relief expert, Clinton mentions a litany of environmental catastrophes, natural and man made, that have involved his personal intervention. He has seen first hand the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunami’s and in each case he advocates opportunities to rebuild in an earth friendly and sustainable way. The plan to rebuild Haiti is such an example.

04/20/2010 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Home-Grown Wind Power Takes Root

written by Walter Wang

Check out these interesting video clips discussing the presence of wind turbines and wind power in American towns.

First up is a clip showing local residents in Cohocton, New York, talking about wind power, and the real benefits they’ve seen from the Cohocton Wind Farm.

04/19/2010 1 comment

Renewable Energy

GRID Alternatives Helps Low-Income Communities Use Solar Power

written by Walter Wang

In California, low-income households often spend more money on electricity than more affluent residents and produce greenhouse gasses in the process.

But through the California Solar Initiative’s Single Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program, and an Oakland-based nonprofit firm called GRID Alternatives, the state’s low-income homeowners finally have the change to reduce their monthly electricity bills and decrease electricity usage.

Longtime friends and engineers, Erica Mackie and Tim Sears, founded GRID during the 2001 energy crisis. While developing renewable energy systems for the private sector, Sears and Mackie decided to try and make the technology available to low-income communities. Their model became GRID Alternatives’ first Solar Affordable Housing Program.

04/19/2010 1 comment

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