Yes, oil and natural gas are still king in the Middle East-Africa region, but solar energy is on the rise across the region, as governments, private sector businesses and international organizations are laying the foundation for industry development and sustainable growth, developments that could yield tremendous benefits socially and environmentally.
Sixteen organizations spanning the US solar industry, including the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, have launched a group effort that should result in opening up large, new pools and lower the cost of capital for the US solar energy industry.
The Dept. of Energy’s “Transportation Energy Futures” study provides a template for Pres. Obama’s vision of reducing US transportation sector petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Realizing gains in vehicle energy efficiency and fostering shifts in demand for different modes of transport, growing use of biomass biofuels, and transitioning to hydrogen and electric vehicles are the three main facets of the TEF strategy.
Solar industry manufacturing consortium PVMC and NREL aim to help reduce the installed cost of thin-film CIGS solar PV by 75%, an effort that falls right in line with targets set out in PVMC’s thin-film PV industry roadmap and President Obama’s SunShot Initiative.
The US solar market and industry is growing fast, diversifying, and broadening out geographically, a clear sign solar energy is coming into the US energy mainstream, according to SEIA-GTM Research’s 2012 year in review.
The US solar energy market and industry fired on all cylinders in 2012 despite headwinds in Congress, a fragile economic recovery, internal industry turmoil, and ongoing opposition from fossil fuel and utility industry players, according to SEIA-GTM’s Solar Market Insight 2012 year in review.
The Efficiency Resource Fund’s partners aim to bridge the financing gap for small- and medium-sized businesses looking to make energy efficiency improvements. Doing so could yield significant reductions in US carbon emissions and generate lots of green jobs, as well as returns for investors.
The carbon tax debate continues in the US Congress as sponsors and stakeholders assert carbon-pricing legislation would address the most challenging, and interrelated, problems facing the US today. Amounting to a tax on carbon emissions, the discussion draft’s sponsors are soliciting public feedback on how best to allocate proceeds.
Building capacity – capacity in terms of human resources, particularly – is key to driving the transition to a clean green energy system and society forward. Under the Obama Administration, federal government agencies – the EPA, Departments of Energy, Interior, Defense, and others – have been playing a leading role … [continued]
Taking a holistic, integrated approach to sustainable data center design and construction, NREL’s HPC data center will be the first to achieve a Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.06 or better. It will also be the first petascale HPC to use warm-water liquid cooling, making extensive use of waste heat to warm the interior and exterior of NREL’s new Energy Systems Integration Facility.
