Weekly Investor Round Up
LG Electronics stepping into solar, Siemens sells 500 wind turbines, Ormat buys rights to an Alaskan volcano and more.
A Better Way to Power Your Car: Use the Breeze
By Lester Brown Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is half right. We do need to harness this country’s wind resources for a homegrown source of electricity, as he has been urging this summer in expensive television ads. And we do need to reduce the $700 billion we may soon be paying annually for imported oil. But part two of Pickens’s plan – to move natural gas out of electricity production and use it to fuel cars instead — just doesn’t make sense. Why not use wind-generated electricity to power cars directly? Natural gas is still a fossil fuel that emits climate-changing gases when burned. Let’s cut the natural-gas middleman. Plug-in cars are here, nearly ready to market. We just need to put wind in the driver’s seat. Several major auto manufacturers, including GM, Toyota, Ford and Nissan are producing plug-in hybrids. Toyota and GM are committed to marketing plug-in hybrids in 2010. Toyota may even deliver a plug-in version of the Prius next year. Some Prius owners aren’t even waiting for Toyota. They’ve jumped the gun, converting their cars to plug-ins simply by adding a second storage battery, which increases the distance you can drive between recharges, and an […]
World's First Double Platinum Green Building
Aside from the tragic loss of open space and biodiversity, buildings are responsible for 21% of the world’s CO2 emissions. In the U.S., buildings account for 38% of CO2 emissions, surpassing the transportation and industrial sectors. About 15 million new buildings will be added by 2015; emissions from commercial buildings, the largest polluter, are expected to grow 1.8% a year through 2030. A recent United Nations study concluded that green buildings can do more to fight global warming than all curbs on greenhouse gases agreed under the Kyoto Protocol, while saving billions of dollars. About 6% of commercial developments are LEED-certified and 5000 buildings have applied for certification, 90% of them new construction. Green buildings are projected to jump to 10% of the market by 2010. And many more buildings are green-renovated. Increasingly, green building is viewed as high performance, technologically advanced building, rather than "green." The Christman Building The Lansing, Michigan-based Christman building is the first to earn dual LEED Platinum certification – for both construction of the building (LEED Core and Shell) and for its interior (LEED Commercial Interiors). The 60,000 square foot historical landmark, built in 1928, is on a brownfield site in downtown Lansing. Previous owners […]
Another Try At Tax Incentives for Renewables
New Senate bill will make another attempt to extend tax credits for renewable energy at the cost of Big Oil.
Missouri To Vote On Clean Energy Ballot Measure
Coalition successfully gathers petitions to place Clean Energy Initiative on November Ballot.
American Universities Falling Behind in Clean Energy Research
Leaders of top universities testified in Congress, saying that the level of R&D funding for clean energy is woefully lacking.
X Prize Launches YouTube Video Contest
$25,000 prize will be given to contestant who submits the winning idea for a new X Prize in the field of energy and the environment.
Old-Growth Forests Are Effective Carbon Sinks – Report
New comprehensive study shows that old growth forests absorb significantly more CO2 than they emit.
Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: September 25, 2008
DOE to Invest $35 Million in Concentrating Solar Power Projects Chrysler to Produce an Electric Car or Plug-in Hybrid by 2010 Fuel Economy for New Vehicles Rises for Fourth Straight Year California Adopts a Long-Term Energy Efficiency Plan DOE to Invest $35 Million in Concentrating Solar Power Projects DOE announced last week that it will invest up to $35 million over the next 4 years in 15 concentrating solar power (CSP) projects which, combined with the project cost-sharing from the project participants, will result in up to $67.6 million being invested in these projects. CSP technologies concentrate the sun’s heat for conversion into electricity, and the ability to store that thermal energy and draw on it after sunset will greatly increase the economic feasibility of CSP power plants. Of the 15 projects, 11 will involve the research and development (R&D) of thermal energy storage technologies, 1 involves R&D for advanced heat transfer fluids, and 3 will be geared toward near-term demonstrations of thermal storage technologies. The projects are expected to further DOE’s goal of reducing the cost of CSP electricity from today’s 13-16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) with no thermal storage to 8-11 cents per kWh with 6 hours of […]
Owners Sue Over NYC's 'Green' Cab Plan
Association of yellow cab owners is suing the city, claiming it has no authority to impose fuel efficiency standards and has not sufficiently tested safety of hybrid cabs.
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