The report, entitled “Cleantech Comes of Age,” discusses the trends in clean technology from the impact of oil prices to the M&A market and includes data from the MoneyTree Report, a quarterly survey that tracks cash-for-equity investments by the professional venture capital community in private emerging companies in the United States.The increased venture capital investment into the Cleantech sector can be directly associated with the growing concerns about the environment, energy costs and security. Despite signs of a weakening economy, the high investment level and intensified adoption rate of technologies in this sector validates the expected growth predicted by industry experts.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced plans to buid a 1GW solar power plant in Australia, which would make it the largest solar-electricity plant in the world surpassing the current record holder in California. Details about the project will be released soon and successful bidders will be named in the first half of 2010. The project is expected to cost A$1.4 billion (US$1.05 billion) and will represent a major investment in solar power, which the Prime Minister hopes will help propel the country into a leadership role in solar energy. This is a big step, but only one of many towards Australia’s stated goal of obtaining 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Recently there has been a lot of news about offshore wind power. The US government has released its long awaited federal regulations governing offshore wind farms, boosting the pace of activity in this sector and propelling it into the nations awareness and media spotlight (at least for a fortnight). As part of covering developments in this wind energy sector we are profiling some of the promising startups in the offshore wind energy sector.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors approves construction of one of the largest urban solar photovoltaic arrays in the country. The solar energy installation will have a 5 megawatt capacity when completed in early 2010. It will consist of nearly 25,000 solar panels covering an area the size of nearly twelve football fields and becoming California’s largest photovoltaic system and the nation’s largest municipal solar project. This project will more than triple the municipal solar generation in San Francisco and reduce carbon emissions by over 100,000 metric tons, furthering the City’s leadership in clean energy implementation.
The Coastal Wind Initiative at the North Carolina Solar Center provides education and outreach on wind energy technology to communities in coastal North Carolina. The Wind Energy Intern will help with the development and delivery of the program’s outreach campaign, including assisting with public workshops, updating factsheets, and managing website content.
This, the fourth article in our series on green (sustainable) buildings focuses on the twin subjects of energy efficiency and water efficiency two fundamental areas of importance for green buildings. These are important not only because they reduce usage of and promote reuse of these precious resources, but because in so doing to minimize the building environmental impact. A well designed green building, can not only reduce its own environmental impact, but can improve a surrounding environment.
The White House announced that the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science will invest $777 million in Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) over the next five years. In a national effort to accelerate scientific advances in critical areas of the new energy economy the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will establish 46 new multi-million dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers (or EFRCs) across the nation.
By now, everybody has heard about the Studyt out of Spain that supposedly proves that Obama’s green jobs program is a loss cause that will hurt our economy. I think there are numerous flaws with that study. In this update, we have Spain’s response to his claims, proof that his data was falsified, an explanation of how the renewable energy investment did not have the major negative impact on business, in Spain, that his analysis was too simplistic to be applied in any real world model, and what most economists believe is the major cause of Spain’s high unemployment rate. I will also bring to light extremely relevant facts, that the study fails to mention or factor in to the study, and review the US’s history and results from past renewable energy investments. That’s right we have been investing in renewable energy for years.
For the second year in a row, ComputerWorld has showcased the achievements at 12 IT departments that are reducing power demands and using technology to create energy efficiencies. Thirty criteria were used to determine which organizations had the greenest IT departments. The IT departments selected include: Mohawk Fine Papers, State Street, Allstate, Citigroup, PricewaterhouseCoopers, State of Indiana, KPMG, Seventh Generation, Office Depot, Burt’s Bees, Marriot and Austin Energy. Find out why these organizations were selected.
