1. Home
  2. Articles posted by: Rona Fried (Page 1238)

Green Groundswell on College Campuses

Colleges across the United States and Canada are stepping up green practices and policies, with more than two out of three schools improving performance over the last year, according to the new College Sustainability Report Card 2008. The results clearly show a “green groundswell” on campuses, with nearly 45% of colleges committing to fight climate change through cutting carbon emissions. Green building standards guide new construction at 59% of schools, while 42% use hybrid or electric vehicles. Further, 37% purchase renewable energy and 30% produce their own wind or solar energy. A substantial 70% buy from local farms and 64% serve fair trade coffee. While schools are earning higher marks for green initiatives in campus operations, a majority of the wealthiest institutions continue to lag in applying sustainability practices to their endowment investments. The categories with the lowest overall grades were Shareholder Engagement with 66% “Fs” and Endowment Transparency with 58% “Fs.” In contrast, failing grades averaged only 10% across the five campus categories of Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, and Transportation. “Colleges are rising to the sustainability challenge, but room for innovation remains,” said Mark Orlowski, Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute. “Many […]

Read More

SolarWorld to Build Korean Cell Manufacturing Plant

German solar manufacturer, SolarWorld AG announced it will build an integrated solar cell and module production plant in South Korea to serve growing demand in Asia. The project will be a joint venture with with S.Korean engineering firm, SolarPark Engineering Co. Ltd. The plant will open with 60 megawatts (MW) of capacity with the potential to scale to 120MW. Production will begin by the end of next year. SolarWorld will supply the silicon, and the modules will be marketed under the joint brand, SolarWorld Korea Ltd. They will be sold exclusively in Korea, Japan and China. S. Korea has a feed-in tariff, making it the largest market for grid-connected solar power in Asia, after Japan.

Read More

Raser Begins Geothermal Drilling in Utah

Raser Technologies, Inc. (NYSEArca: RZ) has begun drilling on a geothermal production well in Central Utah for use in a 10 megawatt binary-cycle geothermal power plant. The project will be the first geothermal power facility built in Utah in 17 years. The site, located in Utah’s Escalante Desert, abuts an existing exploration well that was drilled several years ago. This well exhibited temperatures in excess of 300 degrees Fahrenheit. There are a series of hot springs in the immediate vicinity of the site, which is located within a few miles of the transmission grid, allowing for economical interconnection. Raser is currently in negotiations with a California utility to purchase the power that would be generated at the site. Raser also announced that the project has received certification as a Qualifying Facility from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Brent Cook, Raser’s CEO, said, “We are very excited about the potential power generation at this site. If all goes as we expect, the site will generate up to 10 megawatts of green power. This combined with the 30 megawatt potential that we are developing on our Nevada sites and the recently announced New Mexico site, which we believe holds up to […]

Read More

GreenHunter Energy Initiates $60M Private Placement

GreenHunter Energy, Inc. announced it has closed on the first tranche of a $60 million 10% Series A Senior Secured Redeemable Debenture offering. The notes will have a term of five years and will be exchangeable into freely tradable shares of GreenHunter Energy, Inc. common stock. The company has received $3.5 million from 13 accredited investors to date. 10 broker/dealers representing over 2,700 sales representatives have completed their due diligence and have recently executed selling agreements for the private placement of these Notes to their qualified customers. GreenHunter Energy is focused on the renewable energy sectors of wind, solar, biofuels, and biomass power plants. Assets consist of leases of real property for future development of wind energy projects located in Montana, New Mexico and California, a former waste oil and chemical refinery currently being converted to the nation’s largest biodiesel refinery located in Houston, Texas, and a biomass power plant located in El Centro, California. Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, GreenHunter Energy was formed to be the first publicly traded renewable energy company that provides to investors a portfolio of diversified assets in the alternative energy sector.

Read More

Appliance Recycling Centers of America Reports Strong Q3 Results

Appliance Recycling Centers of America (Nasdaq: ARCI) reported that for the third quarter, sales increased 32% to $27.3 million from the same quarter in 2006. ARCA reported net income of $1.4 million or $0.31 per diluted share for the period, a significant improvement from net income of $21,000 (no per share earnings) in the third quarter of 2006. Same-store sales of the 13 ApplianceSmart factory outlets that were open during the complete third quarters of 2007 and 2006 declined 2%, while total retail sales rose 4% to $17,561,000 on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the impact of two additional factory outlets in the Atlanta market that were opened during the past year. Third quarter recycling revenues increased to $9,035,000 from $3,407,000 in the comparable period of 2006. Edward R. (Jack) Cameron, president and chief executive officer, commented: “As evidenced by the modest decline in same-store sales of our ApplianceSmart operation, the primary focus of our retail business on the replacement appliance market has helped moderate the impact of the ongoing slowdown in the nation’s residential construction sector. ApplianceSmart is also benefiting from the improved operating efficiencies that have been achieved by strengthening inventory management and implementing other new business systems. We […]

Read More

PepsiCo Lauded as EPA Green Power Purchaser of 2007

PepsiCo purchases more than 1 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which makes it the largest purchaser of green power in the nation among EPA Green Power Partners. PepsiCo has received a 2007 Green Power Leadership award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which recognizes leading national green power purchasers for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation’s green power market. PepsiCo also ranks No. 1 on EPA’s Fortune 500 List of green power purchasers. The goal of EPA’s Fortune 500 Challenge is to exceed 5 billion kilowatt-hours of collective annual green power purchasing among the America’s largest companies. Currently, there are nearly 50 Fortune 500 companies in EPA’s Green Power Partnership. Based on national average emissions rates, the U.S. EPA estimates PepsiCo’s purchase is the same amount of electricity needed to power nearly 90,000 average American homes annually. “Green power” is defined as electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Three of Pepsi-Cola largest bottlers in North America also purchased renewable energy certificates (REC) to match 100% of the electricity used by their U.S. operations. Combined, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc., […]

Read More