One of the world’s largest banks, London-based HSBC (NYSE: HBC) issued last September a very interesting research report entitled “Sizing the Climate Economy”. At less than 60 pages, it’s an excellent read for those interested in the future growth of the advanced energy economy. There are really too many highlights to capture all of them in this [...]
On January 13, 1994 the ratio(*) of the price of oil to the price of natural gas was 1.14. Today it hit a record high over this period of 5.26. Gas traded at $3.28 today, just 21% of the $15.38 / mmBtu it traded for on December 13, 2005. Shale gas is providing gas in [...]
Last week, at the stunning student union of The Ohio State University, Battelle convened a meeting entitled 21st Century Energy & Economic Summit on behalf of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who both opened and closed the conference with some observations. The agenda covered a wide spectrum of energy issues facing Ohio, and didn’t lack for interesting moments. [...]
Without much fanfare, Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) has developed a number of very good white papers relating to building energy performance: energy efficiency and renewable energy implementation for buildings. The list of white papers includes coverage of topics such as: Lighting retrofits for industrial facilities – including an illustrative example of the economics associated with [...]
Ford and SunPower offer a rooftop solar system that will allow Focus Electric owners and other electric car drivers to “Drive Green for Life” by providing renewable energy to offset the electricity used to charge the vehicle. The SunPower rooftop solar system also will be compatible with the C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid electric vehicle Ford [...]
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake then tsunami triggered escaping radiation from nuclear reactors near millions of people in Japan. On Sunday, August 7, a group of the world’s greatest musicians performed an inspiring benefit concert to support disaster relief in Japan. Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Jason Mraz, The Doobie Brothers, [...]
by David Niebauer With many states adopting renewables portfolio standards (RPS) and the prospect of a federal RPS somewhere on the horizon, more attention is being given to hydroelectric power generation. Renewable resources such as sun, wind and water, are those that can be harvested in a sustainable manner to provide the electric power that [...]
WWL is one of the cleanest shipping companies and each year, offers a grant to the best new clean-tech innovation. We are hoping to raise as much awareness of this scheme as possible to attract some really high quality entries – the grant has been upped this year to $100,000 and last year’s winner has [...]
Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its prescription for U.S. energy policy. “Facing Our Energy Realities: A Plan to Fuel Our Recovery” is a more balanced document than what I might have expected. Given the Chamber’s ardent undercutting of all efforts to deal with climate change in a thoughtful manner during the last Congress — [...]
Our Cleantech Linkedin Group, over 20,000 members strong, has had a seven month running discussion started by Robert Drummond entitled “Renewable Energy that will Really work”, asking for readers views on what’s practical in renewable energy. Kind of crowd sourcing opinion and facts on the subject of renewable energy. Robert’s discussion reached a staggering 1,500 comments this [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi Something grand is emerging on the vast dusty plains of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Tres Amigas is an ambitious scheme to interconnect the three primary power grids in the U.S. — the Western grid known as WECC, the Eastern grid known as the Eastern Interconnection, and the Texas grid known [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi At last week’s Clean Economy Summit in Washington, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus gave a stirring speech on how the Navy and Marines were committed to pushing ahead on new clean sources of energy to fuel their operations. The energy goals of the Navy include the creation of a “Green Fleet” and the impressive target of [...]
Toronto-based EDF Energies Nouvelles Canada (EDF) announced on January 4 that its 12 MW St. Isidore A solar installation successfully joined Ontario’s alternative energy industry when it began operations in late December. St. Isidore is a community of fewer than 1,000 people located in Prescott and Russell County, east of Ottawa, the nation’s capital. The [...]
Obviously, “cost causer pays” is not going to get the job done. We need a national energy policy with a strong transmission and distribution grid upgrade component. The task is complicated by overlapping and sometimes competing federal and state objectives, but failing to act is simply not an option. Both financial and policy incentives must be made clear for stakeholders so that the greenpower superhighway that many envision can become a reality.
Nuclear electric power accounted for 11% of primary energy production and renewable energy accounted for 11% of primary energy production” during the first nine months of 2010. renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water, and wind) accounted for 10.9% of domestic energy production and increased by 5.7% compared to the same period in 2009. Meanwhile, nuclear power accounted for 11.4% of domestic energy production but provided 0.5% less energy than a year earlier.
I have seen, with growing frustration, an increasing number of comments on blogs and news sites deriding Ontario’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program and similar government incentives that encourage the use of renewable energy and create green jobs in the province. Comments like this anonymous post continue to stand out in my mind, “…‘greens’ only want [...]
We agree with the Solar Alliance and others who urge the PUC and the CEC to coordinate their agency actions so as to accommodate TRECs for DG and to do it soon. Other states are way ahead of California in allowing RECs to stimulate the renewable energy markets.
by David Niebauer California has led the nation in solar development on many fronts for a number of years, but there is one area where California has lagged significantly – the implementation of tradable renewable energy certificates (or TRECs). As of this writing, there are five regional renewable energy tracking systems operating in North America, [...]
Matches 2008 Investment Record The Cleantech Group and Deloitte released preliminary 2Q 2010 results for clean technology venture investments in North America, Europe, China and India, totaling $2.02 billion across 140 companies. Cleantech venture investment was up 43 percent from the same period a year ago. The number of deals recorded in 2Q10 was down [...]
by Richard T. Stuebi I get a kick out of trite little lists that I can quickly report on and provoke some thinking and conversation. And so it is that I recently came across the “Top Ten Energy Myths”, as suggested by Thomas Tanton, a fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. As listed in the [...]
