Renewable Energy
Resources & Information related to Renewable Energy, Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Natural Resources and more.
5% of California’s Energy Comes From Wind Power
California is probably one of the most environmentally progressive states in the U.S. It is also the country’s most populous state and according to LA Times, the state now derives 5 percent of its total electricity needs from wind energy. This powers about 400,000 households and now generates a total of 4,000 MW through renewable wind [...]
Greenpeace Ranks Best Companies in ICT
Following on the heels of the Green Electronics Ranking, today Greenpeace released the fifth version of its Cool IT Leaderboard. This ranks and evaluates global IT companies on their leadership in the fight to reduce global carbon emissions
The Hottest Places for Solar Panels
Levels of solar radiation vary dramatically between countries, as do the various subsidies available. Where in the world is the best place to live to benefit from solar panels when these two factors are combined, and should there be more funding for solar power in sunnier countries?
Video Tour: Abu Dhabi’s Zero Carbon, Zero Waste Masdar City
Among the highlights of last month’s trip to the World Future Energy Summit was a tour of Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s living laboratory in sustainable development and what is held out to be among the most sustainable cities ever built (at least in the modern sense). Masdar City has progressed significantly since my last [...]
India Leads With $10.3bn in Clean Energy Investments
Bloomberg recently reported that India’s clean tech investments, “reached $10.3bn in 2011, some 52 percent higher than the $6.8bn invested in 2010. This was the highest growth figure of any significant economy in the world. There is plenty of room for further expansion – in 2011, India accounted for 4 percent of global investment in clean energy.” [...]
This Year’s Super Bowl Will Be “Super Green”
For the past 18 years, the NFL has been trying to decrease the environmental footprint of the largest annual sporting event in the U.S. – the Super Bowl. This year, the NFL is trying to outdo itself yet again by making Super Bowl XLVI the greenest on record.
Samsung Announces £100m Investment in Scotland’s Wind Energy Sector
Moving along with Scotland’s ambitious plans to be the European leader in wind energy, Samsung has announced that it will base its first European offshore wind project in Fife. The venture is said to be worth up to £100m and is expected to create 500 new jobs in the clean energy sector in Scotland. Korean-based Samsung [...]
Mayor Works to Bring Clean Tech to Los Angeles
At the VerdeXchange Marketmakers Conference that took place in downtown Los Angeles this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave a keynote speech to an audience of about 500 industry leaders working to build and shape the green economy of Los Angeles and the nation. In his presentation, Mayor Villaraigosa explained how his focus on developing Los Angeles’s clean technology market is helping him address some of the biggest challenges facing the city.
Bottlenecks of Utility Scale Renewable Energy
Renewable energy still has a long way to go to be our de facto utility energy source, especially in a state like California. What bottlenecks are keeping us from a renewable energy future?
Chinese Solar Panel Exports Spike as Obama Announces New Trade Enforcement Unit
Chinese exports of silicon solar panels surged in 2011, and they’re spiking higher yet following the filing of illegal dumping and subsidy petitions in the US, according to a study of US Customs and Border Protection Service data by CASM, which filed petitions with the US International Trade Commission and Commerce Dept. The brewing trade dispute is significant enough to have prompted Pres. Obama to announced the formation of a new Trade Enforcement Unit in his SOTU address Tuesday night.
The Green Side of the State of the Union: Obama Wants to Have His Cake and Eat it Too
President Obama made his energy vision very clear, explaining that “this country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. A strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.“ Under the definition of American energy he included natural gas, offshore oil and clean energy sources like solar and wind, letting us to believe that for him these are all important parts of the energy future of the U.S. In a way, he wants to have the cake and eat it too. Is it possible? I doubt.
The Cleantech ‘Arms’ Race that Could Save the World
This post was originally featured on the Zayed Future Energy Prize blog. By Roger Ballentine, President of Green Strategies There has been much-hyped talk about the massive growth of the Chinese economy in recent years and how it’s poised to overtake the world’s current largest economy, the United States. Nowhere is that talk at a [...]
California Utility Adds Over 200 Megawatts of Wind and Solar
The large California utility company, Pacific, Gas & Electric (better known as PG&E) added over 220 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar power last year. One of the largest combined natural gas and electricity utilities in the US, PG&E also signed contracts for 463 MW of new renewable energy, including 263 MW of wind. About [...]
India Emerges as Solar Energy Hotspot
A growing host of India’s business conglomerates is leveraging the Indian government’s national solar energy program and investing in the sector, that latest being the Bhanshali group’s Talma Chemical Industries. Talma’s Visual Percept Solar Projects intends to invest in building 100-MW of solar energy generation capacity.
Abu Dhabi to Power Scotland’s Renewable Energy Revolution
Last week we reported on Scotland’s ambitious target to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2020. It turns out a major component of the plan may derive from another ambitious development – a tight partnership with Abu Dhabi on technology development and investment. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond outlined the agreement today at the World Future Energy Summit [...]
California Renewable Energy Off to a Good Start in 2012 with Five Big Projects
Renewable energy is getting off to a good 2012 start in California with the approval of 5 renewable energy projects that will bring more than 1-GW of clean electrical power and more than 2,900-GWh per year of clean energy on-line. California’s Public Utilities Commission approved investor-owned utility contracts for three SunPower solar, one NextEra Energy wind and one Pattern Energy wind energy project with Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.
Scotland’s Ambitious 100% Clean Energy Target by 2020
One country that is really galvanizing wind energy to increase its renewable energy profile is Scotland. 2011 was an epic year for Scottish energy companies. The Department for Energy and Climate Change released figures recently demonstrating that the renewable energy sector saw more than £750 million of investment last year. Currently seven gigawatts (GW) of renewable [...]
Germany Takes “Power to the People” Literally
Back in the 1960s there was a social uprising in this country. It grew out of the civil rights movement and the protests of the Vietnam War. It was powered largely by young people and other groups who felt alienated by a consolidating centralized power structure of business and government whose interests seemed largely out [...]
UPS Earns LEED Gold Status for Corporate Offices in Atlanta
Despite UPS headquarters being 20 years old, the company just announced that it has become the first in the package delivery and logistics industry to gain LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council. UPS submitted the building for review in May 2011 (shortly after the appointment of Chief Sustainability Officer Scott Wicker) and [...]
Our Perspective on the 8 Strategic Factors Shaping Oil Price in 2012
The price of oil is still one of the most important factors shaping the economy. It can determine not just how much you’ll pay for a gallon of gasoline but also how fast the American and the eurozone economies will recover. It even has a say in who will be the next American president. This [...]
Google Continues Its Investments in Renewable Energy
Although Google is a tech-company with huge, energy-intensive data-centers, they are also pretty clued in about sustainability. Through the years, they have been investing heavily in renewable energy technology, not only as part of their CSR but also because it makes business sense for them. Last year, they released details about their carbon footprint and their report discussed [...]
Public-Private Partnership Boosts Clean Energy in Nicaragua
Nicaragua has added 36-megawatts (MW) of clean, renewable electricity to its national electricity grid. Reno, Nevada’s Ram Power announced on Dec. 22 that it successfully synchronized electricity generation for its Phase I expansion at the San Jacinto-Tizate geothermal energy field. The new capacity augments 10-MW of clean electricity from previously installed back-pressure units. Owned by [...]
What a Billion-Dollar LEED Gold Project Looks Like
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was aiming for high marks in sustainability when it designed some elaborate green features into the Pentagon’s new $1 billion Department of Defense Office Complex in Virginia, and the good folks at the U.S. Green Building Council just rewarded it with LEED Gold certification earlier this month. Regular readers [...]
5 Lessons from Warren Buffett’s $2 Billion Solar Farm Purchase
Last week the solar industry finally generated good news. Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings agreed to buy First Solar’s Topaz solar farm, a 550-megawatt photovoltaic solar farm currently being built in Southern California (construction began last month and is set to finish by early 2015). The financial details of the purchase of the plant were [...]
The Power of a Population
As we seek to discover new methods of generating and harnessing energy, there is one source that is worth discussing: the human body.
Don’t Know Where to Start? Check Out the Sustainable Energy Guide
Last week we released Sustainable Industries’ new microsite, the 2012 Sustainable Energy Guide. The guide contains an overview of everything an Operations or Facilities Manager needs to get started on the road to sustainability. We get a lot of questions about transitioning to renewable energy and purchasing carbon offsets and you’ll find updated information about [...]
Wendell Pierce Rebuilds Green in New Orleans
By: Sarah Backhouse Future360 travels to New Orleans, Louisiana to meet actor and star of Treme, Wendell Pierce. Pierce is on a mission to rebuild Pontchartrain Park using renewable energy and clean technology.
Report Sees Need for Major Private Clean Energy Investments in 2012
With stimulus initiatives in the form of soft loans, cash incentives, tax credits and grants expiring, the U.S. energy sector must find new investors and new tax-based equity financing structures over the next 18 months or risk a sharp decline in new project builds, according to a report by the specialist research firm Bloomberg New [...]
Nature Knows No Borders: Pioneers in Sustainable Innovation & Peacebuilding
“For an intense week we listened and discussed perspectives on the difficult global context for sustainability,” said Gonen Sagy. Gonen is an alumnus of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the premier environmental education and research program in the Middle East.
The Institute is preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges as bridges of understanding between people. Located at Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Negev region of Israel, it has a student body comprised of Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis, and others from around the world, and a curriculum based on “nature knows no borders.”
The environment is a tool to stimulate, teach, and maintain effective cross-cultural communication and reconciliation. Arava generates capacity-building for conciliation and cooperation in the Middle East, in order to transcend political boundaries and achieve environmental change.
Powering the Future: A Nobel-Prize Winner Takes a Look Deep into the Future
By: Paul SanGiorgio Have we hit peak oil? How long can we rely on cheap coal for power generation? Is hydro-fracking worth the environmental impact? To each of these pressing and controversial questions, Nobel-prize winner and Stanford physics professor Robert Laughlin would respond that, in the long run, what’s the difference? Powering the Future: How [...]
Current Sponsors
Current Engagements
Where We’re Going
Have your event listed here.
Webinar: Feb 17Greening Stonyfield Farm: As a consultant with Stonyfield Farm for the past 12 years, Switzer Fellow Tim Greiner will discuss efforts to broaden and deepen sustainability within the company. He will discuss the company's efforts to track its environmental impacts, barriers the company had to overcome.
Webinar: Feb 29Product Scorecards for Sustainability: Product scorecards that detail and evaluate environmental and sustainability aspects of products are increasingly adopted by leading companies. This webinar covers the best practices in this area and a case study by Seventh Generation.
NY: Mar 19-20Wall Street Green: The longest running and most comprehensive environmental market event in the industry. The Wall Street Green Summit covers cutting edge content, industry developments and features the practitioners and the leaders of tomorrow.
Bay Area: Mar 22-23GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!
SF: Mar 26-28Cleantech Forum San Francisco: The 2012 Cleantech Forum San Francisco will mark the 10th anniversary of Cleantech Forums, the annual gathering of the global clean technology innovation community. Our theme this year is “The Power of Global Partnerships,” an exploration of how strategic relationships are playing an ever more important role in the future of clean technology. For a $300 Discount use code "VIPofTriplePundit " More Info.
SF: April 10-12 Navigating the American Carbon World: The must-attend event for professionals in the carbon landscape. Over the past decade, NACW has consistently provided informative content, thoughtful discussions and outstanding opportunities for collaboration.
Have your event listed here.
Webinar: Feb 17Greening Stonyfield Farm: As a consultant with Stonyfield Farm for the past 12 years, Switzer Fellow Tim Greiner will discuss efforts to broaden and deepen sustainability within the company. He will discuss the company's efforts to track its environmental impacts, barriers the company had to overcome.Webinar: Feb 29Product Scorecards for Sustainability: Product scorecards that detail and evaluate environmental and sustainability aspects of products are increasingly adopted by leading companies. This webinar covers the best practices in this area and a case study by Seventh Generation.NY: Mar 19-20Wall Street Green: The longest running and most comprehensive environmental market event in the industry. The Wall Street Green Summit covers cutting edge content, industry developments and features the practitioners and the leaders of tomorrow. Bay Area: Mar 22-23GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!SF: Mar 26-28Cleantech Forum San Francisco: The 2012 Cleantech Forum San Francisco will mark the 10th anniversary of Cleantech Forums, the annual gathering of the global clean technology innovation community. Our theme this year is “The Power of Global Partnerships,” an exploration of how strategic relationships are playing an ever more important role in the future of clean technology. For a $300 Discount use code "VIPofTriplePundit " More Info.SF: April 10-12 Navigating the American Carbon World: The must-attend event for professionals in the carbon landscape. Over the past decade, NACW has consistently provided informative content, thoughtful discussions and outstanding opportunities for collaboration.Have your event listed here.
Recent Comments