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DOE to Award $30 Million for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Demonstrations Chrysler to Begin Delivering Hybrid SUVs in August Honda Begins Production of the FCX Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle BLM and Forest Service Consider Large-Scale Geothermal Leasing San Francisco Launches Nation’s Largest Municipal Solar Incentive More Studies Say Biofuels Have a Minor Impact on Food Costs Global Oil Production Fell by 0.2% in 2007 DOE to Award $30 Million for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Demonstrations DOE has selected three cost-shared projects to develop and demonstrate cost-competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that are capable of traveling up to 40 miles without recharging. DOE announced last week that General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and the General Electric Company (in a team with Chrysler LLC) will receive up to $30 million in funding over the next 3 years, subject to congressional appropriations. PHEVs are hybrid vehicles that can be driven in electric-only or hybrid modes and recharged from a standard electric outlet, and a 40-mile all-electric range would encompass most daily roundtrip commutes, satisfying 70% of the average daily travel in the United States without the use of gasoline. The three projects will aim to develop PHEVs that can be mass […]
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DOE Offers $90 Million for Enhanced Geothermal Systems Forty Teams Compete in Solar Boat Race in the Netherlands New Biodiesel Standard Allows Automaker Approval of 20% Blends DOE to Invest $1.3 Billion in Carbon Capture and Storage DOE Offers $90 Million for Enhanced Geothermal Systems DOE issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) last week for the research, development, and demonstration of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), an advanced geothermal technology that drills deep wells into hot rocks, fractures them, and circulates a fluid through the fractures to extract heat. EGS technologies can be used to create new geothermal reservoirs or to stimulate existing geothermal reservoirs that are underperforming. The FOA offers up to $90 million over four years, of which $40 million will go toward research and development (R&D) projects for the technologies needed to commercialize EGS and $50 million will go toward demonstration projects that stimulate existing unproductive geothermal reservoirs. The R&D projects will target the technologies needed to create reservoirs at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) and depths as great as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). They will address specific needs identified in a recent DOE report, "An Evaluation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology." According to […]
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by Amory Lovins In mid-2005, Rocky Mountain Institute launched a three-year effort to implement the ideas in our book, Winning the Oil Endgame – our detailed 2004 roadmap for getting the U.S completely off oil by the 2040s, without needing new taxes, subsidies, mandates, or federal laws. We felt this $3.6-million effort could be led by business for profit, because saving or displacing oil would cost only $15 per barrel (in 2000 dollars)-far below oil’s price. It might seem foolish to expect to shift such gigantic sectors as oil and cars. But by taking markets seriously, we saw leverage in "institutional acupuncture": find meridians and points where the business logic is congested and not flowing properly, then stick needles into carefully chosen sites to get it flowing. Some farsighted donors and foundations backed this ambitious experiment. Two and a half years later, it has exceeded expectations. Of the six sectors that must change to set the United States firmly on the journey beyond oil, I believe at least three, perhaps four, have already passed the "tipping point" beyond which the major efforts still required will become ever easier. The hardest and slowest sector is cars. But building on 17 years […]
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In 1989, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched one of the first major retail campaigns to sell environmentally safe products in recyclable or biodegradable packaging. The corporation promoted these products by labeling them with green-colored shelf tags. Although there were over 300 green products at its peak, Wal-Mart didn’t directly set or monitor supplier environmental standards. This resulted in negative publicity for Wal-Mart when the public learned that a green-labeled brand of paper towels had only a recycled tube – the towels were virgin paper treated with chlorine bleach! The green tag program waned, and by the mid-1990s environmental issues seemed to have slipped off the company’s list of priorities. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s reputation among consumers was also slipping. Issues surrounding its competitive practices and labor policies loomed large in the public eye. The company’s environmental record was nothing to boast about, either. Indeed, a 2005 McKinsey & Company study found that 2-8% of customers had stopped shopping at Wal-Mart because of the company’s practices. Against this backdrop, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. unveiled a new plan to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. In an October 2005 speech broadcast to all 1.6 million employees in all 6,000-plus stores and shared with some […]
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World’s Top Energy Ministers Launch Energy Efficiency Effort DOE and Partners to Offer Prize for Efficient Lighting GM Shifts Away from Trucks and SUVs, Toward Cars and Crossovers Toyota Doubles the Range of its Fuel Cell Vehicle Duke Energy Plans to Add Solar Power to 850 North Carolina Sites Connecticut to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80% by 2050 World’s Top Energy Ministers Launch Energy Efficiency Effort The energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries and from China, India, and South Korea agreed this weekend to establish the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC).The IPEEC will serve as a high-level forum for facilitating a broad range of actions that yield significant gains in energy efficiency. The partnership will support the on-going energy efficiency work of the participating countries and relevant international organizations by exchanging information on best practices, policies, and efforts to collect data. The IPEEC members will also develop public-private partnerships for improving energy efficiency, participate in joint research and development efforts, and facilitate the dissemination of energy-related products and services. The energy ministers plan to hold the first IPEEC meeting before the end of the year. See the IPEEC declaration (PDF 26 KB). The G8, […]
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New Report Finds the United States Leading in Wind Power Growth DOE to Work with Turbine Manufacturers to Expand U.S. Wind Power DOE to Identify Western Transmission Needs for Renewable Energy Largest U.S. Biodiesel Plant Starts Production in Texas Company Produces "Green" Crude Oil and Gasoline from Algae Juneau, Alaska, Cuts Electricity Use Drastically During Crisis New Report Finds the U.S. Leading in Wind Power Growth For the third year in a row, the U.S was the fastest growing wind power market in the world in 2007, according to a new DOE report. The 2007 edition of DOE’s "Annual Report on U.S. Wind Power Installation, Cost, and Performance Trends," released last week, found that $9 billion was invested in 5,329 megawatts of new U.S. wind power capacity in 2007, causing the total U.S. wind power capacity to increase by 46%. The growing U.S. wind market spurred new investment in turbine and component manufacturing plants, with enough new and planned facilities to create more than 4,700 new U.S. jobs. The report notes that wind power accounted for 35% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2007 and can now supply about 1.2% of the country’s electricity needs. In addition, new […]
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by Thomas E. Cain The progress of major civilizations has depended largely on finding new and better sources of cheap energy. Energy has even functioned as the catalyst for many of the world’s wars and continues to do so today. The need to find resolutions has become so overwhelming and so critical that we believe this situation presents an unusually durable and global opportunity for extraordinary investor returns. Our role as venture capitalists, therefore, is to find, fund and grow breakthroughs that have innovative ways to generate and utilize energy. Prior to the creation of SAIL Venture Partners, there had never been a VC solely dedicated to developing breakthroughs in energy. Based on individual investment history, SAIL’s partners had a 3.7 money-on-money return for a wide variety of alternative energy / clean technology investments, providing the credibility that such a fund was promising. When seeking investments, we always try to find the most innovative forms of technology in the market. We start with identifying large problems that require urgent solutions. We consider the team, technology, maturity, and scalability. SAIL’s portfolio companies focus on providing profitable, global solutions to the world’s resource crisis. Portfolio Companies For example, SAIL’s investment in Xtreme […]
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The good news is that organic farming continues to grow globally – 0.65% of the world’s agricultural lands are now managed organically. That amounts to about 30 million hectares on 700,000 farms in 138 countries, as of 2006, according to The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics & Emerging Trends 2008 report (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), The Foundation Ecology & Agriculture (SÖL), and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)). As in previous years, Australia has the most organic land (12.3 million hectares), followed by China (2.3 million hectares) and Argentina (2.2 million hectares). The U.S. holds fourth place, with 1.6 million hectares in 2005. Organic Monitor estimates international sales reached $38.6 billion in 2006, double that of 2000. Universities, schools and hotels are among the many institutions beginning to offer organic food. Hilton’s new Eat Naturally catering program at Hilton and Doubletree Hotels in Southern California focuses on offering local, organic food choices. Shangri-La Hotel and Resort in Bonita Springs, Florida is another example, having achieved organic certification for its 8.1 acres of property, where it grows food for its hotel restaurant. Mega-supermarket chain Safeway, Inc., has formed partnerships to sell its 300 item "O Organics" line […]
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Former Texas Oilman Pursues the World’s Largest Wind Power Plant Interior Department Allows Offshore Wind and Ocean Energy Testing Report Calls Energy Efficiency an "Invisible" Energy Boom Alliance to Save Energy Launches a New Fuel Economy Campaign Global Sales of the Toyota Prius Hybrid Top 1 Million U.S. Experts Say Biofuels Have a Minimal Impact on Food Prices DOE Stops Filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Former Texas Oilman Pursues the World’s Largest Wind Power Plant General Electric Company (GE) announced last week that it has received an order for 667 of its 1.5-megawatt (MW) wind turbines from Mesa Power LLP, a company founded by billionaire T. Boone Pickens. Pickens, a former Texas oilman and founder of BP Capital, an energy investment firm, launched Mesa Power to build the world’s largest wind power plant, called the Pampa Wind Project. The 4,000 MW facility will be located near Pampa, Texas, which is northeast of Amarillo on the Texas Panhandle, and will stretch to the east, spanning five counties. Mesa Power’s current order for wind turbines-the world’s largest wind turbine order for a single location-will provide 1,000 MW of wind power capacity for the $2 billion first phase of the project, which will […]
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DOE Offers $130 Million to Advance Fuel Cell Technology Honda to Launch Three New Hybrids and Lease Fuel Cell Vehicles DOE and Portugal to Cooperate on Wave Energy New Farm Bill Speeds Commercialization of Advanced Biofuels Americans Driving Less, Says Federal Highway Administration EIA: U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Increased 1.6% in 2007 DOE Offers $130 Million to Advance Fuel Cell Technology DOE issued two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) yesterday that offer up to $130 million over three years for research and development (R&D) of fuel cells for automotive, stationary, and portable power applications. DOE is also seeking proposals to demonstrate fuel cells in distributed energy systems and to launch market transformation efforts that provide real-world operation data. The agency plans to select up to 50 projects through this competitive funding opportunity, which is open to industry, universities, and national laboratories. With a minimum 20% private-sector cost share for the R&D projects and a minimum 50% cost share for the demonstration projects, the total DOE and private sector investment in fuel cell technologies under the FOAs may exceed $170 million, although the future DOE funding is subject to congressional appropriations. Applications are due by August 27, and separate FOAs were issued […]
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