In a simple step, using basic social-psychology, utilities could create a nearly immediate cut in electricity usage. And I think it could be a big one.
British conservative, David Cameron, explains the idea quickly speaking at a TED conference recently (10:53 into the speech). With a backround in sociology, I am immediately inclined to to dig into the idea a little further.
Recovery Act stimulus funding for a technology that will make geothermal power available in every state is being invested in Senator Inhofe’s Oklahoma by the Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Program, in a $3 million R&D program to increase the volume of hot rock from which heat can be extracted.
Solutions will be found to:
1. Reduce costs for drilling and well completion and
2. Increase the volume of hot rock from which heat can be extracted.
The Recovery Act stimulus funds is providing $2,399,999 to the Oklahoma project, and a company from out of state; Impact Technologies will put up the other $600,000 of the funding, and a patent-pending system for drilling and completing micro-holes into deep 300°C geothermal reservoir rocks. Read the rest of this entry »
FERC is close to approving the Tres Amigas high-voltage interconnection hub project in Clovis, New Mexico, designed to be the first step in a renewable energy transmission superhighway.
But five groups are filing against the project. The largest, Occidental Petroleum; is asking FERC to dump the project.
Occidental Petroleum’s main argument is that it would put local power companies selling higher-priced power to consumers at a disadvantage. They couldn’t compete with marketers buying at lower prices and routing their power through Tres Amigas.
Read the rest of this entry »
As California moves to implement cap and trade to reduce harmful greenhouse gases, the UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy and the Environment has published a new study designed to help lawmakers in California fine-tune the legislation.
As with the studies by the German Marshall Fund with its Ten Insights from Europe on the EU Emissions Trading System – the UC Environmental Law Center studies those who have gone before us.
They want to fine-tune legislative ideas that can help us reduce greenhouse gases by holding polluters accountable, and by using the proceeds to implement clean and safe renewable energy that builds a prosperous economy in California.
One interesting finding is that the EU cap and trade system grew China’s clean energy. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s official. The EU trading system got carbon emissions down. It’s one thing when renewable energy writers on blogs like this say cap and trade has transformed Europe.
We regularly cover the huge wind and solar industries created there – the results of Europe’s early adoption of the Kyoto Accord and subsequent EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and Europe’s resulting 13% greenhouse gas reduction. We have covered the indirect results before (like how the US now gets hand-me-down clean energy technology from Europe).
But now it’s official. Cap and trade in Europe is a success. Reuters said it.
A study has found that although there were many problems in the first phase, they were overcome and did not hamper the scheme’s ultimate objective of reducing emissions. Cap and trade was not a failure, despite the problems. Read the rest of this entry »
In a time when most states are hurting, Massachusetts has come out a winner, actually earning money to provide clean energy jobs and energy retrofit services. Through its participation in RGGI, the regional carbon cap-and-trade program; in which ten states compete to lower greenhouse gas pollution most, Massachusetts came out a winner.
The state earned about $50 million last year; money that provided the funding for energy efficiency makeovers for its residents – home heating retrofits for low-income families and job training for emerging zero waste energy businesses.
Cap and trade programs help us earn the money to fund the change to safer, cleaner more secure forms of energy to ensure long term prosperity in the future, by providing an incentive for polluting companies to invest in clean energy.
In the regional cap and trade auctions, states auction nearly all emission allowances and invest the proceeds in consumer benefits: energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies. Read the rest of this entry »
Step over Siemens, Airvoice Group and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam are now planning what they say would be the “largest green energy project in the world” in India.
Airvoice Group is an Indian mobile phone and commodity export firm, and it seems to see where the money is going to be in the future — in clean energy. It recently formed a joint venture with public body Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam in order to invest $50 billion in a major clean energy project (perhaps the world’s largest) over the next 10 years. It wants to build 13 GW worth of wind and solar power capacity in a rural area of Karnataka in southwest India.
The majority of the planned capacity would be from solar photovoltaics — 10 GW. And the remaining 3 GW would be from wind farms.
German engineering giant Siemens is looking to throw some money at solar and wind power in India now. It is going to invest $346 million in India’s renewable energy sector over the next three years.
Peter Löscher, Siemens’ chief executive, said the firm will increase its Indian workforce by about 50 per cent to 25,000 people and about a third of the investment will be for development of wind turbine technology. It is putting some into solar technology development there as well.
India is a major growth market, in general, and renewable energy is no exception.
Clean energy is one of the top topics in the world these days, in presidential speeches, economic growth plans and projections, international competition and cooperation, and even in Hollywood. We have seen rapid growth in wind power, rooftop solar, innovative financing, and much more recently.
Here is my list of the Top 10 “Clean Energy” Topics (some aren’t what I would consider the cleanest) to keep an eye on.
A new study shows that requiring utility companies to get 25% of their power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind (by 2025) would result in more jobs.
“A strong renewable electricity standard is crucial to create a stable investment environment and grow this highly promising sector,” says Don Furman, senior vice president for development, transmission, and policy at wind energy company Iberdrola Renewables. “Without a strong RES, the US wind industry will see no net job growth, and will likely lose jobs to overseas competitors.”
Furman’s points here are nothing new. Obama said the same thing very strongly in his State of the Union address and, everyday, I read articles on this matter and on the “clean energy race“.
Nonetheless, this new study puts some numbers into the issue and helps to back up Furman and Obama’s claims. This study found that “the industry would create 274,000 more jobs under a 25 percent renewable power standard than it would create without a mandate.” (emphasis mine)
This is much more than what would be created from the proposed mandate put forth by the House of Representatives as part of a comprehensive climate and energy bill that is now being worked on in the Senate.
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