Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Thursday, September 29, 2011

HEADLINES

$400 million deal bringing wind turbine plants to Niagara
Hamilton Spectator

THOROLD Niagara Region Wind Corporation has partnered with a private German company to manufacture 77 wind turbines, each capable of producing 3 megawatts of energy, at a facility in Niagara. The deal is reported to be worth about $400 million and ...
 
New wind energy farm in northwest Arizona keeps the juice flowing
The Republic

If the sun isn't shining, but the wind is blowing, a new wind-energy farm in northwestern Arizona can still produce the juice. Vancouver, British Columbia-based Western Wind Energy recently turned on the Kingman I site and connected it to the grid of ...
 
Don't increase taxes on wind energy
REVE

Wind power utilizes the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit to incent over $7 billion of other private investment to keep growing a new US wind turbines manufacturing sector. Wind power, as a proven commercial technology, utilizes the Renewable ...
 
DOE Loan Program: Time Running Out and Questions Remain
RenewableEnergyWorld.com

By Steve Leone, Associate Editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com New Hampshire, USA -- Friday's deadline is looming and the Department of Energy finds itself racing against both the clock and intense political pressure. At stake is more than $8 billion ... 
 
Google: Rent your solar panels from us
CNET

Google has created a $75 million fund with Clean Power Finance, a company that offers financing for residential solar panel installations. The investment will enable 10000 homeowners to install solar panels on their homes. ...
 
Green Energy Ohio Tour to have stops in area
News-Herald.com

It gives visitors a chance to visit an assortment of residences, businesses and public facilities that use solar thermal, geothermal, biomass and solar electric features. The group says it will be its largest tour yet. Last year's edition was the ...

Monday, September 12, 2011

Americans are Using Less Energy But Imports of Solar Energy are Increasing

There is no doubt that Americans are united in the fight against imported and environment-damaging sources of energy. Energy efficiency has become a great weapon against foreign oil. The cars being manufactured today use less and less gasoline. American homes are being tested in increasing numbers for wasted energy and this is equating to a decrease in electricity use (and thus, coal use), and this is expected to level off and maybe even decline.


Light bulbs of today are much more efficient, as are all appliances. The home of the future will use less energy and manage resources better. From 1980-2000, residential power demand grew about 2.5 percent a year. From 2000-2010, the growth rate slowed to 2 percent. Over the next 10 years, demand is expected to decline by about 0.5 percent a year, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit group funded by the utility industry.

But homeowners are not the only ones in the game. IT companies such as Google are doing a lot to reduce their carbon foot prints and reduce energy cost. Last week Google released a white paper called Google’s Green Data Center that details the company’s efforts. Commercial lighting also is going through a radical change that will save manufacturers, warehouses and large commercial businesses lots of power and money.

This new energy revolution would be a great way to create jobs in a way that has never been done before -- something new. All of this could be financed with electrons in the form of the sun’s rays, the same way that solar companies are financing solar panel installations with a lease plan. This would create jobs that will eventually pay for themselves and then would even return a profit. Imagine that.

But progress always seems to come with question marks. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, that is the promise of the new green economy. Lately the whispering has been about solar panel manufacturers filing bankruptcy. This is not an affliction exclusive to the solar or wind industry. Bank of America is about to lay off a large portion of its staff. We need to look at all the reasons that these solar giants are losing their battle and it may be more insidious than you think.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has written a letter to President Obama in which he recommends actions to combat unfair Chinese practices crushing the U.S. solar industry. From his Press Release: The global market for renewable energy technologies is increasingly being dominated by Chinese manufacturers reaping the benefits of unscrupulous trade practices that give them an unfair competitive advantage against U.S. industries. This is a critical problem for the U.S. solar industry facing an expected 240 [percent] increase in the import of Chinese solar panels this year. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade, called on President Obama to take action to curb the flood of Chinese subsidized solar products, identifying existing trade tools that he can use to level the playing field for American manufacturers. Wyden indicated he would initiate legislative action if the president was unwilling to respond.

While I applaud all the efforts being taken to save money on energy and to reduce our carbon footprint, I also caution all Americans to be aware that billions of dollars NOT sent to the Middle East for oil should stay at home and not go to other countries. World trade hawks refuse to make other countries trade fairly and we seem to be in denial as there is little discussion, let alone outrage, about this. The world marketplace is not fair when even one country subsidizes its goods and services. There is nothing wrong with international trade but can we afford to help others at the expense of jobs right here at home?

By George Lopez
Executive Director


Decision on Walmart wind turbines postponed

Asbury Park Press

What's NextLacey's Board of Adjustment will further discuss an application to install wind turbines on lamp posts at the Walmart during its 7 pm Oct. 3 meeting. The meeting will take place at the municipal building at 818 Lacey Rd. The session also ...
 
Solar panels: latest hot spot in US-China trade tensions

Financial Times (blog)

But the latest broadside from Capitol Hill hits out at a new, and somewhat surprising, target: cheap Chinese solar panels being installed on American homes. The attack comes from Senator Ron Wyden (D., Oregon), who alleges that Chinese-made solar ...
 
Exxon's Russian Roulette

The New York Review of Books (blog)

The investments have been encouraged by bullish numbers from, among others, the US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, which earlier this year estimated that the Marcellus contains an astounding 410 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ...
 
Ohio moves ahead with shale exploration while other states take a break

Plain Dealer

Ohio officials may be gearing up for a frackfest, but other states are backpedaling as they move to block the practice while they await a pair of federal studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. New Jersey Gov. ...