This post, by Jerry J. Toman, ScM, ChE examines five policies that are setting our future up for failure. They are: Reliance on the old-time political religion of economic growth (usually defined as by economists as GDP growth); Continue to practice incrementalism above all else, as the dominant means of solving the problems; Embarking willy-nilly into mega-projects that utilize technologies that often are half-baked in terms of knowing what the overall costs, impacts and benefits would be; Ignoring the “carbon balance” aspects of current practices and future remedies; and relying on technologies that involve extensive “mining” of the earth’s solid surface for minerals, as a means to achieve sustainability.
The second Renewable Energy Finance Forum – West (REFF-West), will take place in San Francisco on September 29-30, 2009. It builds on the success of both REFF-Wall St and the inaugural REFF-West, which took place in Seattle in October 2008.
The conference focuses on finance and investment for clean energy technologies, with a particular emphasis on the Western US, and covers both large scale projects and the development and commercialization of new technologies. REFF-West is targeted at a senior level audience including investors, financiers, project developers and clean technology companies. Conference sessions will examine opportunities in a range of cleantech markets.
In these challenging economic times, with seemingly thousands of unemployed or underemployed professionals available as candidates, you might think that renewable energy and clean tech leaders would be having a field day attracting and choosing leadership and professional candidates at will. But while many talented professionals from all walks of life are interested in landing a role in the clean tech industry, firms need to be sure that they select the right people for the job. Attracting the right talent to an organization is considered half art, half science and it is accomplished with a lot of hard work and occasionally a bit of luck and good fortune. And one way to help firms get out there is through positive press announcements and employment branding activities.
A survey of 140 mayors from 40 states also highlights concern over potential financial obstacles for infrastructure projects, according to a study sponsored by Siemens for The U.S. Conference of Mayors. A majority of cities (77%) report their infrastructure budget for 2009 has been adversely affected by the global economic crisis. However, nearly two-thirds of all U.S. mayors surveyed believe that fighting climate change with technological innovation represents a “enormous” economic opportunity. Optimizing the infrastructure of cities is considered a major way to address global warming and environmental protection. Mayors of larger cities, in particular, viewed the expansion of public mass transit as a key way to fight climate change.
The newly published, inaugural Carbon Salary Survey, is one the first studies to provide detailed information about professionals working in the climate change and emissions trading markets globally. The Carbon Salary Survey, which culled responses from 1,157 participants, is a collaborative project between Acre Resources, a green recruiting consulting firm; Acona, a CSR consulting firm; and Thomson Reuters Carbon Market Community. Throughout April 2009, they surveyed people working in the following areas: renewable energy; clean technology and energy efficiency; carbon finance/brokering; carbon/climate change law, policy or regulation; the project-based emissions market under the Kyoto Protocol(CDM & JI); and the voluntary offset market and climate change science. Based on the results, it appears that green professionals overall are well-paid, feel that they have job security and are happy.
The Obama administration announced $350 million in stimulus funds to help expand geothermal resources and break down technological barriers. This is a huge jump in funding, dwarfing all previous government commitments and is more than all the funding for geothermal energy put together over the last 20 years. It also represents a dramatic reversal of previous trends of diminishing funding for this often overlooked renewable energy sector.
Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), also known as ground-source heat pumps, are similar to ordinary heat pumps, but use the thermally stable mass of the earth below the ground instead of outside air to provide heating, air conditioning and, in most cases hot water as well. Because these systems use the earth’s natural reservoir of stable temperatures, they are among the most efficient and comfortable heating and cooling technologies around. GHPs can save substantial amounts of energy and significantly reduce peak demand in buildings that incorporate them.
Amid the debates on Capitol Hill regarding climate change and the growing interest in renewable energy, PJM Interconnection is launching a one-stop resource to better understand renewable energy resources on the PJM power grid. The Renewable Energy Dashboard at green.pjm.com illustrates a user-friendly snapshot of the amount and type of generation that currently provides power to the 51 million people in the PJM region. The dashboard also features a map indicating where proposed renewable energy projects are planned and a summary of how much electricity has been produced by renewable sources since 2005.
The ABO is seeking individuals from companies, public and private institutions, academic research laboratories working in this area who would contribute novel and up-to-date information on all topics of algal biofuels and biomass production, including liquid transportation fuels, biofuels for electrical generation, higher value products, harvesting and processing, algal biotechnology and genetic research; engineering cost studies and life-cycle analyses, venture finance and outlook for structuring both pilot and industrial-scale algal production and processing projects.
