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Five Climate Leaders Companies Reach Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

The U.S. EPA announced that Baxter International Inc., General Motors Corporation, IBM Corporation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and SC Johnson are the first corporations to achieve voluntary greenhouse gas reduction goals set through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Leaders program. Through Climate Leaders, EPA now partners with 79 corporations whose U.S. emissions represent an estimated 8% of total U.S. GHG emissions. 46 companies have set GHG reduction goals; the rest are in the process of setting goals. The following partners met their Climate Leaders greenhouse gas reduction goals in 2005: Baxter International Inc. reduced greenhouse gas emissions by its goal of 16% per unit of production value. General Motors Corporation reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 10% percent for all North American facilities. IBM Corporation reduced average annual CO2 emissions associated with global energy use by 4%. It also met its goal to reduce perfluorocompound (PFC) emissions from semiconductor manufacturing processes by 10%. National Renewable Energy Laboratory reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per square foot. SC Johnson reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 23% per pound of product. The following 11 corporations announced new greenhouse gas reduction goals: Baltimore Aircoil Company – pledges to reduce U.S. GHG emissions […]

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Study Shows Solar PV Price Trends in California

Solar PV costs in California have declined significantly in recent years, according to a new report released today by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report presents the most comprehensive analysis performed to date of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) cost trends in California, which is by far the largest PV market in the U.S., and is the third-largest in the world (behind Japan and Germany). The report’s findings are based on a statistical analysis of the installed cost of nearly 19,000 installed or waiting-to-be-installed PV systems in California, totaling 254 MW. These solar systems have been supported by one of the state’s two largest solar rebate programs, overseen by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The report’s findings are particularly important given the recent announcement that California will establish an ambitious new 11-year, $3.2 billion incentive program for customer-sited solar installations. “PV costs have declined substantially, especially among smaller (< 30 kW) systems funded by the CEC's program," says report co-author Mark Bolinger. The report finds that costs under the CEC program have dropped by an average of 7.3% a year, while the larger (30 kW and above) CPUC-funded systems have had average cost declines […]

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National Electronics Recycling Clearinghouse Announced

The National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced the formation of an initiative to aid in the development of a national infrastructure for electronics recycling. The initiative, known as the National Electronics Recycling Infrastructure Clearinghouse (NERIC), represents a key step in the ultimate formation of a harmonized system for managing used electronics across the nation. Said Jason Linnell, executive director of NCER, “This initiative encompasses many of the important principles embraced by the NCER since its formation last year, which are active participation of the electronics industry, research and education on the benefits of multi-state harmonization of recycling systems, and cooperative action among public and private sector stakeholder groups.” As more individual states develop mandatory electronics recycling programs, stakeholders will be looking for strategies to ensure development of logical and efficient electronics recycling systems that work together. NERIC will pull together information useful for these strategies, including utilization of a private sector organization. The hub of activity for this initiative will be the NERIC website at www.ecyclingresource.org. On the site, electronics recycling stakeholders can find information on the initial NERIC projects, such as: Information and analysis on product scope issues and other critical data […]

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