The official climate talks of the UN’s Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP) restarted in Bonn, Germany, today. The second-to-last of a series of 2015 weeks-long negotiating sessions on UN climate action before the critical Paris conference in December, they are designed to bring the world closer … [continued]
Late on Friday, July 24, Algerian diplomat Ahmed Djoghlaf and US envoy Daniel Reifsnyder, who co-chair the group that will finalize a universal UN climate change agreement in Paris at the end of the year, issued a long-awaited new version of the draft agreement. It comes closer to setting all … [continued]
Originally published on NREL. By Lang Reynolds YieldCos represent a surging trend in renewable energy finance and a valuable innovation to access relatively low-cost capital for the right players. Along with securitization and other financial innovations, YieldCos represent a critical pathway to support renewable energy project deployment and market growth … [continued]
Cautious optimism from recent world progress (the US-China agreements, Green Climate Fund pledges, other international commitments) marked the first week of the UN’s COP20 climate change meetings in Peru. Lots of information changed hands as new data and solutions came forth from both governments and nongovernmental institutions. Of course, moments … [continued]
Originally published on ilsr.org. Last week I asked why rural electric cooperatives haven’t been leaders on renewable energy. This week, I explain a $6 billion opportunity they can seize to take leadership. One of the biggest barriers to making investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy is the upfront cost. … [continued]
Almost everyone in the media has taken a stab at summarizing, if not snap-judging, the results of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s one-day UN climate summit last week. The meeting had a real name, but Robert N. Stavins in his New York Times runup to the conference was the only writer I … [continued]
With “no money down” and “zero maintenance” to attract homeowners, solar leasing has become the overwhelming favorite for residential solar installations. And with the complexity of tax incentives, rebates, and financing, it’s hard to find fault with homeowners that choose this low-effort option. But giving up ownership means giving up … [continued]
If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, then how can Americans get solar on their roof with “zero money down” and lower their electric bill? Solar leasing, as it’s often called, is a clever market solution to poor federal and state policy design that otherwise requires Americans to … [continued]
This article originally appeared on Greentech Media by Stephen Lacey The renewable energy credit, or REC, is a staple in the retail energy sector. But fourteen years ago, when the tool was first being crafted, very few people understood its potential. “I heard consistently that it couldn’t be done. But then … [continued]
The world of environmental problems is bad enough without adding digital problems to the mix, but that’s just what Bitcoin has done by virtue of being the most popular digital currency currently available. Bitcoin, for the uninitiated, is “a digital currency which was first described in a 2008 paper by … [continued]
