2012-02-22T14:00:00Z
Future of Geothermal Bright for Indonesia, Philippines — Finance and Regulatory Stability Critical
Ahead of the GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines conference in Jakarta, I caught up with Edward McCartin, Senior Development Advisor at Alterra Power, a speaker at the June meeting that will host the key stakeholders in the Asian geothermal industry.
Alterra Power Corp is a leading renewable energy developer, whose portfolio includes two geotherm2012-02-22T14:00:00Z
Community Choice Aggregation Lets Cities Buy (Cleaner and Local) Electricity in Bulk
In 30 states, citizens have just one choice for their electricity service. It's like the old communist truism: "You can have any color car you want, as long as it's red." What if citizens could collectively shop around for electricity in bulk to get lower prices and cleaner, local power?
In six states they can with community choice agg2012-02-22T14:00:00Z
Renewable Energy Financing Mechanisms and Incentives: What Can We Expect?
While much attention has rightly been given to the expiration of the Section 1603 cash grant program at the end of 2011, there are other tax incentives for renewable energy that are also set to expire in the upcoming years. The decisions as to whether to renew these incentives will have a major impact on the future of renewable energy in the U.S. as these existing and new programs have been instrumental in sustaining investor and lender interest in the renewable energy sector, particularly in the wind and solar markets.2012-02-22T14:00:00Z
Influential Women in Cleantech: Top 10 Women of Sustainability
In this second installment in our series on leading women in cleantech and sustainability sectors, we offer up our top picks for the sustainability sector. Quite often this category is dominated by women working in Corporate Social Responsibility, as it’s a sector where women have made great strides to gain leadership roles in the last few de2012-02-22T10:26:00Z
Spanish Firms Gain Edge in Nascent African Renewables Market
A number of Spanish firms have been awarded 510 MW worth of renewable-energy projects in South Africa and are set to compete in future auctions as the continent hastens plans to develop its green energy sector.2012-02-21T18:42:59Z
Apple Tips Plans For Solar, Biogas Systems at NC Data Farm
Last year Apple commissioned its new 500,000-square-foot [not acre!] data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The facility, costing an estimated $1 billion facility to build, is the company's biggest data center several times over, aimed to support everything from iTunes to its iCloud services to the Siri voice functionality in the iPhone 4S.2012-02-21T16:02:35Z
Investing in Dragons and Tigers: The Allure of China and India
China and India are the ideal markets in which to realize clean technology, both from their government's stated goals and their economic, political and social needs.2012-02-21T14:00:00Z
Trina Launches New Solar Advocacy and PR Campaign with Patrick Dempsey
The "Power Behind the Panel" is getting more in front. Last week, Trina Solar invited me and about 100 other guests to a private Beverly Hills home where Mark Kingsley, Trina’s Chief Commercial Officer (pictured below), and Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey unveiled “15 Minutes,” a new solar PR and advocacy campaign.2012-02-21T14:00:00Z
Chinese Tier-2 Modules Offered Below $1/W
Prices for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) modules fell below the $1/W mark in January 2012, and in some cases well below even that, marking the first time that global average prices have fallen below this milestone, according to IMS Research.2012-02-21T14:00:00Z
Finding Talent the Creative Way: Are Your Race Horses Pulling Plows?
When it comes to hiring, the biggest issue renewable energy employers face today is finding the right engineers with the right skills for their businesses. This can be identified as "talent mismatch," or an imbalance in the labor market between the people applying for positions and the skills required. The very nature of the renewable industry, with its constantly evolving technologies, presents great challenges for employers when it comes to finding the right matches for their mission-critical positions. But there are progressive actions that renewable energy employers can take to secure the right talent for future productivity. In fact, there are three simple considerations: identifying transferrable skills from other industries, using creativity to put people in the right positions, and offering dual-ladder career paths.2012-02-21T14:00:00Z
Will Italy's FiTs Survive the Fall of Berlusconi?
Never one to do anything by half-measures, a somewhat surprising legacy of ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has been to send installed capacity in Italy's photovoltaic (PV) market soaring through the roof. Reacting to a resounding public vote against nuclear power in 2011, a fourth edition of feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) was announced for the sector and though somewhat reduced, they were still high enough to keep Italy's "PV counter" ticking faster than ever.2012-02-21T13:00:00Z
The Quiet Clean Mining Revolution
Few industries have got the black eye, literally and metaphorically, of mining.
After centuries of environmental effects ranging from toxic emissions to unsightly tailings ponds, acid mine drainage, massive energy consumption and other impacts, mining is slowly cleaning up its act.
Why? Mostly because new clean technologies are increasing industr2012-02-20T19:25:00Z
Tribal Renewable Energy Projects: Balance Opportunity with Caution
In my 20-plus years of dealing with economic development on tribal lands, I have found that few people are familiar with federal Indian law or tribal law, governments and dispute resolution systems, which reflect each tribe's sovereign status and unique culture, language, laws, mores and traditions. And it is from this lack of familiarity that problems arise.2012-02-20T14:00:00Z
Washington State Legislature Considers Changes to Geothermal Law
The Washington State legislature is considering potential changes to the state's geothermal law (Chapter 78.60 Revised Code of Washington), following up on last year's effort. The bill seeks to bring Washington's law in line with federal laws and other states' laws, as part of an effort to promote geothermal development in the state.2012-02-20T14:00:00Z
Obama's Budget Good for Energy Efficiency
President Obama’s 2013 budget caused a lot of smiles this week among energy efficiency advocates — even if it is more of a wish list than anything else. Obama calls for about $1.2 billion in spending for energy efficiency.
What does this mean for the energy efficiency industry?
Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save E2012-02-20T11:11:00Z
Innovation and Diversification Are Key for Kenya's Renewable Energy Industry
Decentralizing and diversifying renewable energy power generation technologies could be the panacea to save Kenyans from unreliable and expensive power supplied by hydro and thermal power generation, a recent study has found.2012-02-17T17:13:00Z
California Utility Scales Back Rooftop Solar Program To Save Money
Southern California Edison has won approval to modify a photovoltaic program that won praise for its intent to promote distributed, rooftop generation when it received the initial thumbs-up from state regulators in 2009. With the changes, though, the utility will look for larger and more ground-mounted projects and scale back the plan to build some of the projects on its own.2012-02-17T16:59:59Z
Wind Farms and Health: It's Not Black or White
Anyone following the controversies surrounding wind farm siting policy over the past five years has surely been startled at the rapid escalation of concerns being voiced by residents near wind farms. After years of building wind farms in ranching communities with few if any complaints, we began to hear clusters of noise complaints about a few wind farms, especially in Wisconsin, New York, Ontario, and Maine. These complaints focused on the surprising intrusiveness of wind farm noise, and sometimes sleep disruption; nearly all of those having problems lived within a half-mile or so of turbines, with occasional issues being reported out to a mile or so.2012-02-17T16:01:50Z
A Harsh Winter for China's Wind Industry and Its Leading Company: Sinovel
The Year of the Dragon has gotten off to an inauspicious start for the Chinese wind industry and in particular, Sinovel Wind Group Co. (Sinovel), China's leading wind turbine manufacturer.