Energy News |
Energy and Environmental News 
1 2 3
Tuesday 22 06 10
Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), released the following statement today after announcing an industry-wide goal of installing 10 gigawatts of solar capacity annually by 2015. Resch made the announcement during a presentation at the 35th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialist Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii: “Over the last few months, we have seen disaster after disaster caused by the fossil fuel industries and Americans are calling for a new direction for our energy future. And in communities across America, people are asking for an energy source that is clean, reliable, safe and creates economic opportunity. That energy source is solar.” Read the Full Release here...... |
Thursday 17 06 10
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), announced today that it expects the European wind energy sector to create over 250,000 new jobs in Europe in the next decade. The European Wind Energy Association expects strong growth in wind energy employment in Europe over the coming years to 280,000 by 2015 and 450,000 by 2020. Thats on average, 450 new European wind energy jobs per week over the next decade said Christian Kjaer, Chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association. Three key areas - offshore wind, electricity grids, and the training and education of more engineers and technical staff - were identified as critical to creating those new jobs. Only if we continue to install large amounts of renewable energy in the EU and support pilot projects of new technologies, will European renewable energy companies be able to compete, said Rasmussen, Offshore wind has the largest growth potential and needs to receive stronger public support from and within the European Union...... |
Monday 14 06 10
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the United Steelworkers (USW) today released a joint Framework Agreement to create a Partnership for Progress in accelerating the development and deployment of wind energy production in the U.S. In the coming days, AWEA and the USW will release a cooperative action agenda they intend to jointly pursue and advocate for adoption by Congress and the Obama Administration. That agenda will include policies such as a federal Renewable Electricity Standard and the extension of necessary tax incentives. The USWs Leo W. Gerard expanded on the Framework Agreement by explaining it has four components. First the agreement calls for an initial assessment of exactly where we are. On any journey, its vital that you know where youre starting from. Second, it calls for results-oriented targets that identify the destination. Third, to get us from here to there, it creates a partnership on a public policy agenda with the goal of enhancing the expansion of domestic supply chains and ensuring that we have the qualified and skilled workers we need. During the journey, it lastly calls for periodic assessments to ensure that the effort stays on track...... |
Wednesday 09 06 10
LA Times Coulomb Technologies plans to install 4,600 electric vehicle charging stations for free around the country. The installations are part of a $37-million project called ChargePoint America, funded partly by a $15-million stimulus grant administered by the Department of Energy through the Transportation Electrification Initiative. Once the stations are in place, Purdue University and Idaho National Labs will analyze data about vehicle use and charging patterns. The company, based in Campbell, Calif., will immediately start setting up public and private stations in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose and San Francisco Bay Area. The stations will also go up in Austin, Texas; Detroit; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Redmond, Wash.; and Washington, D.C. Once installation launches in the coming weeks, more than 1,000 stations are scheduled to be put in by December, with the rest to be in place by September 2011...... |
Friday 28 05 10
Want an electric vehicle with more than a piddly couple-hundred mile range? Apparently you have to build it yourself and follow in the footsteps of the Japan Electric Vehicle Club, which broke the Guinness World Record last weekend by driving 623.76 miles (just over 1,000km) on a single charge in its customized Daihatsu Mira. The trip took 27.5 hours traveling around what appears to be the famous Tsukuba circuit in Shimotsuma, Japan. The car was powered by 8,320 Sanyo li-ion cells, each weighing about 44 grams, for a grand total of 807lbs -- more than half the weight of a stock Mira. While we're sure Daihatsu helped with this build, it's worth noting that this is not an official project of the company, meaning the 100 mile Nissan Leaf is about as close as you're going to get to this feat for the near future.
Source: Engadget ..... |
Thursday 27 05 10
The heads of Tesla Motors Inc. and Toyota Motors Corp. surprised the auto world Thursday by announcing a partnership to develop and build electric cars at a recently shuttered auto plant in the San Francisco Bay area. Akio Toyoda, CEO of the world's largest automaker, said Toyota will invest $50 million in Tesla when the company begins selling stock to the public, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company will purchase the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. factory, known as Nummi, in Fremont where the Model S electric sedan will be built. Analysts said the partnership enhances the credibility of Tesla, a Silicon Valley start-up just a few years ago, and boosts Toyota's image after being fined a record $16.4 million for its slow response to an accelerator pedal recall...... |
Wednesday 19 05 10
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) today released an independent study projecting the positive economic impact of the Department of Treasury Grant Program (TGP) and the Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit (MITC). The study found that extending the TGP and MITC by two years would add 200,000 new domestic jobs to the solar workforce and supporting industries in the United States. Additionally, it would result in 10 gigawatts (MW) of new solar installations by 2016 – enough to power 2 million homes. “The clean energy grant program created in last year’s stimulus bill allowed enough renewable energy to come on line to power four cities the size of Seattle and create over 140,000 new jobs,” Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said. “Extension of the Treasury Grant program is essential to continuing our nascent economic recovery and moving to a cleaner, more distributed 21st energy system. ..... |
Tuesday 04 05 10
It is the first of its kind for Google and the company may use the extra energy to power, at least partially, its many data centers. “On Friday we made our first direct investment in a utility-scale renewable energy project — two wind farms that generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to power more than 55,000 homes,” Rick Needham, Green Business operations manager at Google, wrote. “These wind farms, developed by NextEra Energy Resources, harness power from one of the world’s richest wind resources in the North Dakota plains and use existing transmission capacity to deliver clean energy to the region, reducing the use of fossil fuels. Through this $38.8 million investment, we’re aiming to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy — in a way that makes good business sense, too,” he added...... |
Monday 26 04 10
GE Energy Storage Technologies, a unit of GE Transportation unveiled today its Durathon battery technology for utility companies. As power consumption continues to grow, infrastructure ages, and new elements evolve such as renewables and electric vehicles, the grid is being asked to perform as never before. GE's Durathon battery technology offers an intelligent way to approach these issues. As part of a simple energy storage system, GE's Durathon battery provides an alternative to costly new power structures, which enables energy to be utilized when it's needed. Because of its proprietary chemistry, the Durathon battery has the ability to last up to two decades while providing optimal charge and discharge times. Durathon batteries are well suited for applications in extreme temperature environments because the need for an expensive controlled environment is not required to deliver peak performance. This minimizes installation costs along with the batteries high energy density...... |
Thursday 22 04 10
While start-ups have played a crucial role in getting the green industry off the ground, the future will likely be dominated by large, sprawling conglomerates. Why? Green technology essentially involves revamping the physical infrastructure of the modern world: replacing coal-fired power plants with wind turbines, building homes from materials concocted in chemistry laboratories, and swapping out engines for electric motors. Established companies simply are in a far better position to muster the capital, technological depth, managerial expertise and factory capacity needed. Familiarity plays a big role too. Millions have flocked to play Farmville. You won't see the same sort of giddy enthusiasm for those installing high voltage power lines or sewage-to-drinking water plants. If the Internet boom was an under-30 billionaire, clean tech is a science teacher with a comb-over. With that in mind, here is my list of the top ten Green Giants, the companies most likely to produce, develop and promote the ideas an products that will have the widest ranging effects. ..... |
|
|
|
