Results: Calendar of Events
March 31, 2010
Copenhagen may have been kind of a bust, but that isn’t stopping countries from moving forward with renewable energy. This Renewable Energy World story gives a round up of movements afoot with renewable energy in places all over the globe like Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Indonesia, Jordan, Macedonia… the list goes on and on. Here’s a snippet from it below:
“Developing countries are ramping up renewables after Copenhagen. About 151 developing countries took part in the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. Of those, 25 submitted Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in February, many of which call for new renewable energy policies, laws and projects.”
March 30, 2010
By David Baker at the San Francisco Chronicle: Sticking solar panels on office rooftops has become de rigueur for many companies in eco-conscious California. But not on this scale. Health care giant Kaiser Permanente plans to install solar systems at 15 of its facilities throughout the state, together generating a maximum of 15 megawatts of electricity. A megawatt is a snapshot figure, equal to the amount of electricity used by 750 typical homes at any given instant. (To put that in terms of an Alaska comparison, the daily average power usage at anyone time in the Railbelt — the Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kenai area – is about 600 megawatts). Read more
March 30, 2010
At REAP, we’re always interested in hearing more about global investment in clean energy. We know estimating the clean energy economy isn’t a perfect science, but that the trend is only going up and it’s big business. Yesterday, we wrote about how China in 2009 invested $34.6B on clean energy investments. (Yes, that is a B as in billion!).
Today, a story in the Daily Climate notes what others have – how strong the clean energy field remained despite what was a rough year with the global recession, lack of agreement out of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, and uncertainty in what will happen with carbon taxing. The story quotes Nick Parker, co-founder of the Cleantech Group, a San Francisco-based outfit that tracks and advises green investments, as estimating the clean energy sector could be a $3 trillion economy within 10 years.
On a related note, the Clean Energy Group, a non-profit that promotes clean energy technologies, has looked into how the federal Recovery Act – for all its shortcomings – has served as a prolific hatchery for longer-term policy innovation and how the popularity of some of the programs shows how people are clamoring for new approaches. They note programs like the Department of Energy’s mold-breaking Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program and the Department of Labor’s Pathways out of Poverty program for green workforce training each received 10 times more proposals than they could accept. More of their analysis is available here
March 29, 2010
Worldwide investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. (Source: Pew Charitable Trusts: "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race")
New York Times’ Green Inc. blog is reporting today on a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts showing that China in 2009, for the first time, topped the U.S. in investments in renewable energy. Lots of interesting numbers in here, including a breakdown on spending by type of renewable energy. For example, China invested $34.6 billion on renewable in 2009. Most of that was on wind (shown in blue on the adjoining graph) with a much smaller amount on solar (in yellow). U.S. spending, in contrast, was about half that at $18.6 billion.
The report also notes states that, “Globally, renewable energy investments remained healthy, despite a severe recession. The study found that investments declined only 6.6 percent in 2009 and have since rebounded. Investments in the oil and gas industry, by contrast, declined 19 percent last year.”
April 3
WASILLA – ALASKA CENTER for APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY member meeting will be held at 5:30pm at the Agate Inn Meeting room. This will be a potluck dinner followed by a presentation on geothermal technology: Ground Loop heat pumps and their use for space heating in Alaska by Chuck Renfro. Members free, non-members $10. For direction to Agate Inn, go to www.AgateInn.com. For more information, go to www.acat.org.
March 26, 2010
(Anchorage) – The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) announced the opening of the application period for its Alaska Small Cities Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. One hundred forty-two local governments are eligible to apply for more than $5.1 million in grant funding for energy efficiency and conservation improvements. The program is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The 142 entities included in this program are those boroughs and small incorporated cities that were not eligible for previous DOE block grant funding, which included larger cities and boroughs. For this program, AEA developed a funding formula that established a base of $10,000 per eligible community plus additional funding based on population. Continue reading ‘AEA Announces $5.1 million Alaska Small Cities grants for Energy Efficiency and Conservation’
March 26, 2010
Note from REAP: Scotty Anderson is an all around creative guy and we’re proud to say a member of REAP. He already won a $125,000 prize for this device, an award we wrote about here
By Eric Lidji at Greening of Oil: Scott Anderson first wondered about generating power from moving water while watching a 14-knot current rip down the river he happened to be fishing in Alaska. “I was trying to think how I could get the energy out of the water,” Anderson, 76, said from Florida, where he lives half the year when he’s not on the Kenai Peninsula. Now, using a design invented by the Greek mathematician Archimedes more than 2,000 years ago, Anderson’s team at Smart Product Innovations believes they can convert abandoned oil platforms in Cook Inlet into a clean, renewable power source. Read more
March 26, 2010
By Christopher Eshleman at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Lawmakers pushing a green energy bill (SB 220) said they’ll consider extending proposed energy efficiency loans for privately owned buildings rented on long-term bases to school districts, cities and other government entities. The proposed loan program, part of a broader omnibus energy bill, would set up low-interest loans for improving energy efficiency at publicly owned schools and facilities…Organizers roughly estimate the energy-efficiency components of the bill, dubbed the Alaska Sustainable Energy Act, would pay for its $1.3 million price tag if Alaska retrofits one-quarter of the state’s public buildings in the near future. The bill follows almost a year of work by Senate and House energy leaders. Read more
March 26, 2010
Some interesting comments on financing of clean technology in this article from the Vancouver Sun in Canada. The excerpt that caught our eye was the statement that clean tech funding now accounts for the largest single category of venture financing in the U.S.
- Panel moderator Nicholas Parker, executive chairman of Cleantech Group LLC in San Francisco, said clean tech funding — which includes funding for renewable energy, clean energy and much more — was no longer “a cottage industry.” “It’s now the largest single category of venture financing, at least in the U.S.,” Parker said. “It’s gone from virtually nothing a decade ago to over 25 per cent of all venture financings.” Despite the misery of last year’s capital markets, funding is still at 2007 levels and the first quarter of 2010 is expected to be a record quarter in terms of the number of companies financed, Parker said.
March 26, 2010
From Christopher Dunagan at the Kitsap Sun: While superhot water from deep underground makes for a pretty exciting story, it’s not the only way to go. Klamath Falls, Ore., is involved in a $1.6 million project to generate electricity from what is considered “low temperature” geothermal water. Check out the story in yesterday’s edition of the online magazine Government Technology.
“The city, with its high-desert landscape, sits above natural geothermal springs, which residents have used for 100 years to heat their homes,” states the article by Russell Nichols. “Hot rocks and geysers keep the sidewalks warm when the winter comes and pump heat into buildings downtown.” The article goes on to describe a low-temperature geothermal power plant proposed for Klamath Falls that was pioneered at Chena Hot Springs in Alaska. For a description of the Chena project, involving United Technologies Corporation, see the For Your Own Power Web site. Read more
