This post answers the recently much hyped focus on wind’s variability problem, quantifying it in clear cost terms that put it in perspective. The post helps clarify the differences between energy, capacity and the ancillary services surrounding ensuring capacity and goes on to answer some of the other related problems that have been alleged for wind energy as its penetration level increases.
In this post, Deap uses her own personal journey as a job seeker and recent graduate with an MSc in International Business and Corporate Social Responsibility to answer some of the questions recent graduates in CSR may have about how to transition from the academic world to the working world. She gives advice on practical steps students and recent graduates can take to increase the chances of finding employment and embarking on a career in CSR.
In this post, Dallas writes about bio natural gas a potentially disruptive renewable energy technology that may be poised to expand out of the niche markets it has so far been constrained in. After describing what bio natural gas is and is not, the post delves into some of the specifics for why this sector may be ready to take off, and why it has a big upside potential. The study, which this post summarizes suggests that bio natural gas may emerge as the lowest cost renewable power in the future, once available at scale.
Concentrated solar photovoltaic energy or CPV is a relative newcomer to the solar power arena and is showing signs of entering into a phase of very rapid growth. It works by concentrating the sun onto a small area of active PV, which operates at around twice the efficiency of normal PV, and promises savings because it requires only a fraction of the photovoltaic material that normal systems require. The DOE has announced a $90 million loan guarantee to support a planned 30-megawatt facility near Alamosa, Colorado.
Meeting the challenges of climate change and a global transition towards a sustainable economy is such a monumental task that it requires the suitable governance structures that are able to channel corporate and other resources toward sustainability. This post covers some of the issues in this important subject including carbon lock-in, shorthand for the “interlocking technological, institutional and social forces…that perpetuate fossil fuel-based infrastructures in spite of their known environmental externalities”. It suggests a four pronged approach combining regulatory requirements, economic incentives for sustainability, public pressures, and finally to restructure the foundations of corporate governance to serve multiple stakeholders.
California’s Senate has just passed some important new renewable energy legislation that will, if approved in the Assembly and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, require utilities operating in the state to obtain one third of their electricity from renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar or geothermal. This is a big increase from the current 20% targets set by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a 2009 executive order.
Company management should evaluate and prioritize green options while remaining aligned with their organization’s overall business mission. In this post, Susan Buchanan advises organizations that are just beginning the approach to sustainability to start with the low hanging fruit, i.e. the relatively achievable and lower cost green initiatives that can deliver short-term paybacks by reducing energy and natural resource consumption. Starting with an objective evaluation of their current state of sustainability and the options for change both in terms of financial metrics of course, but also looking at other metrics such as footprint and life cycle costing. Once these baseline metrics are established then the many green opportunities become more clear.
The Blue Green Alliance is sponsoring the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference, which will be held May 4-6 in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Hilton. The event focuses on transforming ideas into action and revitalizing the nation by building a green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and preserves America’s economic and environmental security.
