CleanTechnica

The trickle of green jobs into the Rust Belt has been rapidly swelling into torrent, and with headquarters in Michigan it was only a matter of time before Dow Corning joined the “green rush” to a more sustainable economy. The manufacturing giant has just announced that it will begin construction on a new facility to manufacture monosilane gas, which among other things is used to make thin film solar cells.  The plant will be constructed in Michigan’s Thomas Township.

At a cost of $100 million, the new monosilane gas facility represents a full-throttle comment to solar power by Dow Corning.  The company’s headquarters in Midland, Michigan is also set to open a solar panel installation and solar education center.

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In the quest to create new green jobs, we have the opportunity to take existing jobs and make them green.

Every city has architects, engineers and construction divisions. In conventional circumstances the activities these employees undertake can burn considerable natural resources. But in San Francisco, we’re working to turn these traditional municipal positions into environmental champions. Read the rest of this entry »

The economy is down, but here is another sign that green technology may be the way out of our economic dilemma. US clean energy patents hit a record high last quarter.
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Aug. 29 is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and Kanye West’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” comment on live TV.

The rebuilding of New Orleans continues. And it’s being rebuilt in shades of green.

According to a “New Orleans Green Building Assessment” released by the Sierra Club, the devastation of 2005 has provided the city with a unique opportunity to develop a national model for rebuilding with sustainability in mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Utah’s move to a four-day workweek of 10 hour days for government workers has cut energy usage by 13 percent, and once they figure out how to turn off giant office air conditioning and heating units while they’re out of the office, it could rise to the hoped for 20%. Out of a state budget of $11 billion, they have saved $3 million on electricity and gas for 125 state-owned buildings.
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Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is proposing a bill that would lend $30 billion dollars to American small and medium sized manufacturing companies who specialize in clean technology.  The bill would make American manufacturers a player in the clean technology market which faces stiff overseas competition.  It is estimated that 70% of the components for clean technology (much of which was invented in America) are made abroad.  So far, 150 businesses have come out and endorsed the Senator’s legislation.

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Building materials giant Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company once best known for its asbestos shingles, has just announced that it is entering  the solar roof market in a big way.  The company will buy thin film solar laminates made by Michigan-based United Solar Ovonic, a subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices.  United Solar has already started bringing green jobs into Michigan, and the Johns Manville connection could mean that more expansion is in store.

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Y-Carbon, a company founded by scientists at Drexel University and Georgia Tech, is looking to bring new green jobs to old factory regions with a low-cost process for manufacturing nanoporous carbon.  The process can be adjusted, or tuned, to produce a material with precisely sized pores.  Nanoporous carbon has an enlarged surface area which makes it ideal for water filtration, desalination, and certain medical treatments.  The real excitement, though, is in the use of nanoporous carbon to improve the storage capacity of supercapacitors.  It could lead to a breakthrough in storage technology for a wide variety of sustainable energy applications including solar and wind generators.

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East Coast states gearing-up for a push to develop “energy” on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Just days after California lawmakers rejected a proposal that would have approved the first new offshore oil leases in state waters in forty years, industry organizations are lining-up on the East Coast to tout the economic benefits of offshore oil and gas development. According to a new report (pdf) released by the Southeast Energy Alliance—a consortium of utilities, oil and gas companies, manufacturing associations, and major power purchasers—North Carolina alone could receive up to $577 million annually in revenue sharing payments from offshore energy development.

But even though the Department of Interior recently reported that the shallow coastal waters of the Mid-Atlantic—including those in and around North Carolina’s Outer Banks—are ripe for large-scale wind energy development, the report defines energy solely in terms of fossil fuel. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year almost half the new electricity capacity added to the grid (42%) was wind power, according to Secretary Chu of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Texas led all states with 7,118 MW of total wind capacity installed, followed by Iowa (2791 MW) and California (2517 MW). Seven states now have more than 1,000 MW installed, and 13 have more than 500 MW.

$16 Billion invested in wind projects in 2008 made the United States the world leader in added capacity last year, says  This the fourth consecutive year that the United States has been the world’s fastest-growing wind power market.

Wind power added 8,558 megawatts of new electricity to the grid - - and 8,400 new jobs to the economy.

The American Wind Energy Association estimates that now about half of the components needed for wind turbines are made in the United States.

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