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Renewable Energy

Freeing the Grid — Building Local Solar Markets, One State At A Time

It’s that time of year again … no, not when turduckens appear on dinner tables nationwide and it becomes somehow acceptable to call the marshmallow a vegetable. It’s time for the 2009 edition of “Freeing the Grid,” an annual report card to states on their net metering and interconnection standards. Together, these two key policies empower energy customers (that’s you) to go solar and reduce your utility bills.

Although there is still plenty of room for improvement, this year’s report shows solid progress across most states—an indicator that these once-obscure policies are becoming accepted best practices. Oregon was this year’s star pupil. Meanwhile, there were still a number of states that didn’t even show up to class. Want to see if your state made the grade? Download 2009’s Freeing the Grid here from the report’s lead author, Network for New Energy Choices.

11/25/2009 1 comment

Green Building Renewable Energy

Middle East Turning To Alternative Energy

written by Green Prophet

It all sounds very grandiose and really too good to be true, but a number of Persian Gulf states, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar are hoping to be able to satisfy a good portion of their massive energy needs through alternative and renewable energy sources, instead of relying mostly on oil.

In a part of the world that experiences some of the hottest summer temperatures, averaging above 44 degrees Celsius during at least 4 months of the year; and whose energy growth use is growing by more than 10% per annum, these countries have their work cut out for them to be able to realize 70% of their total energy needs from alternative and renewable energy by the year 2030.

11/23/2009 4 comments

Energy Efficiency

Smart Grid Riding On The Information Superhighway

written by Nick Nigro

If Internet companies and some utilities have their way, the smart grid will rely on the existing infrastructure of the information superhighway in order to function. They argue that by relying on existing standards like Internet Protocol (IP), the smart grid will grow faster and more organically than if utilities adopt an assortment of proprietary methods. Issues like security become easier to address too because the Internet manages exceptionally sensitive data quite well with existing technologies. To that end, the players dominating in the Internet arena including Google, Microsoft, and Cisco are all banking on the Internet’s role in the future of electricity management.

11/19/2009 2 comments

Renewable Energy

Clean Energy: U.S. and China Establish Extensive Cooperation

written by Yale Environment 360

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have announced the creation of a joint program to develop clean energy, including the creation of a $150 million clean energy research center.

Meeting in Beijing, the two presidents agreed to a seven-point plan designed to speed the development of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.

The agreement includes initiatives to establish a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center; launch a joint program to develop electric vehicles that will include pilot projects in more than a dozen cities; collaborate on improving the energy efficiency of buildings, factories, and consumer appliances; establish a renewable energy partnership to promote alternative energy technologies,

11/17/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Ormat and NV Energy Sign 30MW Geothermal Power Contract

written by Jonathan Shapira

Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced this week that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy, Inc. for the purchase 30 megawatts (MW) from the McGinness Hills Geothermal project, which is currently under construction.

The PPA is subject to various approvals including the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and is projected to come on line in 2012.

When completed, the McGinness Hills project will increase the total output supplied from Ormat to NV Energy, Inc. to approximately 135 MWs, helping NV Energy to meet its renewable energy requirement. Nevada’s renewable portfolio standard legislation requires 15 percent of all electricity generated in the state to be derived from new renewable energy sources by the end of 2012.

11/16/2009 0 comment

Energy Efficiency Green Building Renewable Energy

How Will Clean Energy Legislation Affect Electricity Prices?

written by Keith Tanner

As debate heats up around the proposals for clean energy legislation in Congress, one of the main points of contention is the amount of money it will cost. More specifically, everyone wants to know how the average American household will be impacted by the respective energy bills in the House (Waxman-Markey’s American Clean Energy and Security Act) and the Senate (Kerry-Boxer’s Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act). This article will investigate the change in energy prices one can expect from legislation that could be passed within the coming months, and try to sift through the wide discrepancy in figures that are being tossed around. Then some recommendations will be presented as to how energy usage can be reduced, to preempt any anticipated rises in cost.

11/13/2009 9 comments

Renewable Energy

Australia Invests in World’s First Utility-Scale Wave Power Project

written by Yale Environment 360

A UK-based renewable energy company has received a $61 million grant from the Australian government to build the world’s first utility-scale wave power project.

Ocean Power Technologies will begin construction of the 19-megawatt project in the waters off Victoria in 2010. The project will provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.

Wave technology uses buoys riding up and down on waves to drive an electrical generator, and then sends the power ashore via underwater cable.

11/09/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Geothermal Energy Incentives To Attract $2.5 Billion In The Philippines

written by Yale Environment 360

The Philippine government plans to approve 19 new contracts to develop the nation’s massive geothermal energy resources in the next five months.

A top energy official said financial incentives for the development of renewable energy projects could attract more than $2.5 billion in private dollars from domestic and international companies.

Continue Reading

11/06/2009 1 comment

Clean Transportation Green Building

Book Review: Sustainable Energy -– Without the Hot Air, by David JC MacKay

written by Edouard Stenger

I recently finished reading a book I strongly recommend to anyone interested in sustainable development and energy. It is packed with figures and findings that I believe will easily start discussions among CleanTechies.

The author, David JC MacKay, is Professor in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University and was recently appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change responsible for the Low Carbon Transition Plan.

One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would enable us to cut significantly both our greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption. Both solutions are much more efficient than the current traditional ones and could benefit from massive electrification to answer all our energy needs.

11/02/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Nuclear Power Debate: 350 Movers, Pragmatic Greens & Fearful Opponents

written by Joe Walsh

First, take a deep breath. It is difficult to do when it is your life and career day-in and day-out, but every once in a while, all of us moving in the clean tech space should stop and reflect on the breakneck pace at which everything around us is moving: technology, regulation, public awareness. Sure, maybe climate change legislation will not be through the Senate in time for Copenhagen (or at all this year, or even this Session), but that was an ambitious (and partly arbitrary) timeline. On the brighter side, today’s public discourse and political will on renewable energy and climate change would have been inconceivable among anyone but the green elite even five years ago.

Still, I cannot help but notice that one not-so-novel technology is getting a lot of renewed attention these days: nuclear power. Sure, in the industry we’ve all bought into the CW that “nukes are back,” but it always been accompanied by a “sort of” at the end. Microreactor technology has been a consistent “yeah, but” in that developing conversation. Then in their NYT Op-ed, Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham blew the lid off of things with a commitment to good old-fashioned conventional nukes (alongside a commitment to drilling and clean coal that threatens to turn the Senate bill into little more than a symbolic accopmplishment).

10/27/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Turkey’s Alternative Energy Potential Needs to Get Unblocked

written by Levent Bas

Turkey’s alternative energy potential is huge, but it remains locked – at least so far. Earlier this month, Ankara hosted the International Energy Congress on Renewable Energy where the Turkish energy sector was the main discussion point. The congress attracted a record number of participants from public and private sectors, including the Turkish Minister of Energy and members of the country’s Parliament. It was once more observed that the potential of investments in Turkey is by far exceeding the enthusiasm of the bureaucrats and the readiness of the Turkish infrastructure.

10/26/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Water Filtration: Safe Drinking Water from Thin Air?

written by Jared Friedman

Safe drinking water from thin air? That’s the claim of San Luis Obispo, California, based Atmospheric Water Systems (AWS), which offers a product line of air-filtering water systems under the brand Dewpointe. Founded more than a year and a half ago by Co-owner Stephen Krauss, Dewpointe systems takes a different approach to creating safe drinking water. Rather than filtering the water that comes through a pipe, Dewpointe filters the moisture out of the air to create drinking water. There are no water pipes attached to the machine. The rectangular device simply plugs into a wall.

I caught up with Mr. Krauss on the second day of this year’s West Coast Green event held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California, and found out more about the Dewpointe system.

How does it work? Magic?

No, similar to a dehumidifier, Dewpointe pulls moisture out of the air; but unlike a dehumidifier, the goal of this device is to make that moisture drinkable. A series of filters take out 99.99% of the impurities and create clean drinking water. Impressive as this may sound, it also means that there must be moisture in the air for Dewpointe to operate effectively. Hence, all tropical or even moderate humidity environments in the United States such as coastal states, the south and mid-west work well. In desert environments or low moisture areas such as the south-western US, the Dewpointe will struggle.

10/20/2009 6 comments

Clean Transportation

Could America Tax Gasoline More (And Fund Clean Tech)?

written by Edouard Stenger

Last month Thomas L. Friedman wrote in the New York Times an interesting op ed on why America should tax more gasoline. This occurs as the United States is the least forceful OECD country regarding gas tax. US drivers pay on average less than ten euro cents of tax per litre when their German, British, Italian, Turkish or French counterparts pay as much as 60 to 70 cents per litre. Even Australia does better with more than 20 cents per litre.

The situation varies from State to State with Alaska only taxing 26.4 cents per gallon of gasoline while California taxing up to 63.9 cents per gallon. Federal authorities already tax 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel.

Since the United States’ addiction to oil is widely documented and recognized as a threat by both sides of the political spectrum, why shouldn’t it tax oil more to curb the consumption?

10/19/2009 8 comments

Renewable Energy

GE Pumps $23 Million Into SolarEdge

written by Karin Kloosterman

There had been rumors about it earlier this weeks on Globes, Israel’s financial newspaper. But the story was took down, I guess because of a leak.

Now General Electric has unveiled its good news finally, according to ABC News, that it is investing in the Israeli solar technology company SolarEdge. The company allows photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight into power, to operate up to 25% more efficiently.

10/16/2009 0 comment

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