Renewable Energy Investment Could Hit $200 Billion in 2010

wind turbines

A new report by Bloomberg finds that renewable energy investment may increase by 23% worldwide this year and could hit $200 billion. Renewable energy investment was $162 billion last year, but Bloomberg predicts that it will be somewhere between $175 and $200 billion this year. But the real questions are, what will happen in the [...]

Recovery Act + Greenhouse-Gas Executive Order to Solar Power Alcatraz, Other National Parks

Obama_Solar

Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay is ending its $700,000-per-year diesel habit. It will replace the fossil fuel with a clean, fifty-year supply of free solar fuel this Spring. Two belching diesel generators that have till now provided the electricity to keep the lights on will be put out to pasture. Alcatraz, like all [...]

We Are Thisclose to Affordable Concentrating Solar Power – And More Green Jobs, Too

ALCOA and NREL are testing a low cost concentrating solar array

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory have partnered up to take us another step closer to low cost solar power.  The lab is hosting a test run of Alcoa’s new concentrating solar power technology, which was designed to be competitive in the U.S. energy market partly due to a low cost, energy [...]

India Launches Energy Conservation Fund, Aims At Saving 25,000 MW

Power Lines

The Indian government has launched a new fund aimed at providing state governments with financial help to promote energy efficiency. The Energy Conservation Fund will be formed by contributions from the state governments which can later request for grants to promote energy conservation programs. State governments will have to make a initial contribution of INR [...]

PACE Comes to Florida

PACE comes to Florida

PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing is one of the most exciting clean energy topics of the past few years. It is also one of the hottest topics to keep an eye on, I think. I’m not the only one who thinks so, though — Harvard Business Review has named PACE financing one of the [...]

Wind Turbines Off the North Carolina Coast Could Supply State with 100% of Its Power

offshore wind turbines

A new study out of the University of North Carolina (UNC) shows that North Carolina could have 100% of its power coming from off-shore wind turbines, “without significant human or environmental impacts.” Plans are now for Duke Energy to build three pilot off-shore wind turbines in state waters, which would make North Carolina “the first [...]

It's About Fracking Time! U.S. EPA Lights a Fire Under Hydraulic Fracturing

US EPA will study the impact of hydraulic fracturing on water supplies

It’s been a long time coming, but the U.S. EPA will finally assess the pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking.  It’s a mining method that involves injecting massive amounts of chemical brine deep underground in order to release natural gas (among other things).  According to an article in the New York Times, [...]

How Renters Could Buy Electricity to Charge Their Electric Cars

SemaConnect

Apartment building owners typically meter the electricity of each of the apartment units they rent out individually, unlike the “common area” places such as the parking lots typically provided for their renters in general. But that might change. We are approaching a future in which parking lots could be providing electricity, not just to keep [...]