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DOE to Invest $34 Million in Enzymes for Cellulosic Ethanol Production Western Governors to Speed Development of Alternative Fuels Arizona Utility to Buy Power from a 280-Megawatt Solar Power Plant Alaska Utility Wins Wind Cooperative of the Year Award New York Launches Clean Energy Workforce Training Initiative Natural Gas and Hybrid Vehicles Lead Annual Green Rankings Superconducting Cable Project Points to More Efficient Grid DOE to Invest $34 Million in Enzymes for Cellulosic Ethanol Production DOE announced yesterday its selection of four projects to develop improved enzymes for breaking down cellulosic biomass material into sugars, which can then be fermented into ethanol. The DSM Innovation Center, Genencor, Novozymes, Inc., and Verenium Corporation were all chosen by DOE for their proven ability to reduce the cost of ethanol by improving the performance of the enzymes. Among the many partners on the projects are four DOE national laboratories: Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. For all four projects, DOE intends to invest up to $33.8 million over the next four years, subject to congressional appropriations, and when combined with the cost sharing from industry, up to $70 million will be invested […]
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Production Tax Credits (PTC) and Investment Tax Credits (ITC) for the renewable energy industry have received a lot of press in recent weeks, as pressure builds in Washington to extend these valuable incentives, which are set to expire at the end of the year. A lesser-known incentive program, Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), will also expire on December 31, if Congress fails to act. CREBs, which were created by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, are the kid brother in the Tax Credit Family – they are designed to provide incentives for electric cooperatives and other not-for-profit utilities to invest in renewable generation resources. Comparable to the PTCs available to investor-owned utilities, CREBs were created to make renewable energy projects more affordable to rural communities served by electric cooperatives and public power systems. Essentially they function as interest-free loans for institutions developing the projects, because bondholders receive a tax credit in lieu of interest payments. The U.S. Treasury Department authorized $1.2 billion in CREBs through December 31, 2008, with $450 million reserved for cooperatives like the Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative in Willcox, Arizona, which is using $11.5 million of the bonds to finance the construction of solar […]
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The College Opportunity and Affordability Act (H.R. 4137) passed last week by the House contains two measures that could significantly spur sustainability practices at colleges and universities across the country. The primary function of H.R. 4137 is reauthorizing and revising federal financial aid programs in an attempt to address the increasing costs of higher education. However, the new legislation also creates a grant program to help colleges and universities design and implement sustainable practices, and calls for the first-ever higher education summit on sustainability. Under the new legislation, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings would be required to convene a summit of higher education experts, federal government agencies, and business and industry leaders, no later than September 30 of this year. The purpose of the summit will be to encourage faculty, staff, and students to establish administrative and academic sustainability programs on campus; enhance research in sustainability practices and innovations; encourage cooperative programs in the community and workplace; and charge participants to submit a set of recommendations for addressing sustainability through institutions of higher education. The Sustainability Planning Grants, as defined by the bill, would make matching funds available for programs to design and implement sustainability practices in the areas of […]
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New Builders Challenge Calls for 220,000 Efficient New Homes by 2012 Home Builders Launch New National Green Building Program Energy Star Commercial Buildings and Plants on the Rise DOE to Invest Up to $20.6 Million in Solid-State Lighting California Approves Feed-In Tariffs for Renewable Energy Systems DOE and Partners Test Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technologies Key Industries Cut Emissions Intensity by 9.4% in Four Years New Builders Challenge Calls for 220,000 Efficient New Homes by 2012 DOE launched the Builders Challenge last week, calling on the U.S. homebuilding industry to build 220,000 high-performance, energy efficient homes by 2012. 38 homebuilders have already pledged to build 6,000 high-performance homes under the new voluntary national program. DOE aims for 1.3 million of these high-performance homes to be built by 2030, allowing the owners of those homes to collectively save as much as $1.7 billion in energy costs while avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions equal to the emissions of 606,000 cars. DOE ranks all homes participating in the Builders Challenge on the EnergySmart Home scale, or E-scale, which rates a home based on its overall energy performance. Today’s typical new homes score 100 on this scale, while zero-energy homes, which produce as much energy […]
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Every component of the Earth Community has three rights: **The Right To Be **The Right to Habitat **The Right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing processes of the earth community – Thomas Berry — Wild Law, the acknowledgement in law and governance that nature and all its elements have rights, is a concept whose time has come, and you’ll likely be hearing more about it from now on. Remember how suddenly the Iron Curtain came down, despite how solidly it had been in place for almost 50 years? And remember how the entrenched apartheid system in South Africa ended so abruptly? Many people struggled for decades, but when the world was finally ready for a paradigm shift, it happened quickly. With global warming waking up even those previously in deep denial about the dire state of the environment, the embrace of wild law may be the next paradigm shift. The Law of the Wild Wild law recognizes the rights of rivers to flow unimpeded, the rights of mountains to remain intact instead of having their tops blown off for coal mining, the rights of old growth forests to remain unlogged, and the rights of all humans, animals, birds, insects […]
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As you know, automakers’ resistance to manufacturing more efficient cars is just that – a "can’t do" attitude. AFS Trinity Power Corp. unveiled a plug-in SUV at the Detroit Auto Show that exceeds 150 miles per gallon combined city/ highway driving. The firm took two 2007 Saturn Vue Greenline SUVs off a dealer’s showroom floor and equipped them with its patent pending Extreme HybridTM (XHTM) drive train. Its secret is a dual energy storage system that combines Lithium-Ion batteries and ultra capacitors with proprietary control electronics. The car can go 40 miles using only electric and has a range of 400 miles with hybrid operation. In all-electric mode, the vehicle accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 11.6 seconds; 6.9 seconds in full hybrid mode. It achieves highway speeds of 87 miles per hour in either mode. Incorporating the technology into commercial production would raise the price of an SUV by about $8,700, but at $2.85 per gallon, the cost savings from using so little gasoline would mean a payback period of only 3.5 years. Prices would come down, of course, with mass production and with government tax incentives. "Addressing the central limitations of chemical batteries was critical to creating […]
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IRS Allocates $406 Million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds GM Unveils the Sierra Hybrid Pickup at the Chicago Auto Show New Energy Star Requirements Cut Energy Use in Operating TVs EPA Boosts Renewable Fuel Requirement by 66% for 2008 Wave Energy Project Proposed for Maui Europe Falling Short of Renewable Energy Goals for 2010 IRS Allocates $406 Million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced last week that it has allocated $406 million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) for a total of 312 renewable energy projects to be located throughout the United States. Unlike normal bonds that pay interest, CREBs are known as "tax-credit" bonds, and they pay the bondholders by providing a credit against their federal income tax. In effect, the CREBs will provide interest-free financing for certain renewable energy projects. And because the federal government essentially pays the interest via tax credits, the IRS needs to allocate such credits in advance to the lending authorities, which can be state or local governments or electrical cooperatives. The IRS allocates the CREBs under a program established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. See Internal Revenue Bulletin 2006-10. The new bond allocations range from […]
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New International Clean Energy Fund to Battle Climate Change DOE to Invest $114 Million in Small-Scale Cellulosic Biorefineries Hawaii and DOE Sign Agreement to Advance Hawaiian Clean Energy Intel Corporation Leaps to Top of the EPA Green Power List DOE Selects 20 Teams for the 2009 Solar Decathlon ASHRAE Publishes Energy Design Guide for K-12 School Buildings New International Clean Energy Fund to Battle Climate Change President Bush committed on Monday to provide $2 billion over the next three years for a new international clean energy technology fund. The President mentioned the fund during his final State of the Union Address, while an accompanying White House fact sheet includes the funding commitment and touts the fund as a tool to help confront climate change throughout the world. The new fund will increase and accelerate the deployment of all forms of cleaner, more efficient technologies in developing nations like India and China. It will also help leverage substantial private-sector capital by making clean energy projects more financially attractive. President Bush first proposed the fund in September 2007 at the First Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change. See the White House fact sheets on the energy aspects of the […]
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DOE Offers $30 Million for Developing Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles Detroit Auto Show Features New Hybrid and Diesel Models Porsche to Offer a Hybrid Version of its Four-Door Panamera Sales of Compact Fluorescent Lights Jump to 20% of the Market U.S. Wind Power Capacity Surged Up 45% in 2007 Drilling Complete on Australian Hot Dry Rock Project 2007 Ranks Among the Warmest Years on Record DOE Offers $30 Million for Developing Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles DOE announced on January 17th that it is offering $30 million over the next three years for companies to design and build plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and then test them in fleets located in geographically diverse areas. The PHEVs must be able to travel at least 10 miles using only their electric drives, although DOE would prefer vehicles that come closer to achieving the goal of a 40-mile electric range. The vehicles must be comparable to current production vehicles in terms of emissions, safety, comfort, and performance, and the projects must either involve a high-volume vehicle manufacturer or a company with the capability of producing vehicles in high volumes. The selected projects are intended to address many of the critical barriers to achieving DOE’s goal of making […]
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The developers of this new Japanese highrise took a chance by adding green building elements to their design. With nearly full tenancy on opening last month, these pioneers have blazed a trail for others to follow. by Rick Seireeni A recent visitor to Tokyo would find it hard to believe that 19th Century Westerners marveled at the city’s wooded landscapes crisscrossed by tree-lined rivers and canals. Unlike the filth and pollution that plagued contemporary cities like New York and Liverpool, Tokyo residents shared an intimacy with nature in the very heart of the city. Images of this lush urban landscape on the Sumida River were captured by the famous woodblock artists of the era and brought home as envious proof of what Western cities had lost. Well, that was then. Today, Tokyo is a vast sea of concrete and glass. It has more than caught up with the Western style of urbanization. Except for the few parks that were carved out of nobleman estates, there is very little nature left. Tokyo Bay, on which the city is perched, is entirely surrounded by port activity and offers virtually no public enjoyment. Even the vast system of canals that could have made […]
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