The keystone of the green economy is a drastic increase in energy efficiency. Increasing our societies energy efficiency is the single most vital and important thing we need to do in order to have a green economy or in fact any kind of economy at all. It is also vitally important to throttle back the amounts of fossil fuel we burn in order to mitigate and diminish the rapid and potentially catastrophic climate change that is being driven by our fossil fuel habit.
Without much more energy efficient buildings and transportation systems nothing we do will be able to prevent an economic collapse brought about by the inevitable and rapidly approaching decline in the recoverable supplies of all forms of fossil energy. We cannot build out wind, geothermal, biofuel, or solar energy fast enough to sustain our civilization in the face of rapidly shrinking recoverable fossil energy reserves; unless we embark on an urgent and sustained drive to use energy (and other resources) with much higher efficiency.
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.
Last week, MSNBC published a list of ten green job industries that show indications of tremendous growth. The article provides an overview about each industry trend, details about where most of the jobs are in these industries, the types of jobs available and resources to use for more information.
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 American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has reported that in the 1rst quarter of this year 2,800 MW of new wind energy capacity was added to the nations existing stock. This is much needed good news for an industry reeling from frozen credit markets and the recession. In the first three months of this year (2009) the AWEA reported that approximately three dozen developers started wind farms in 15 states adding about twice the capacity that came on line last year during the same period. This is enough to power for more than 800,000 average American homes.
Offshore Wind Gets Major Boost with announcement by President Obama that the Department of the Interior has finalized a long-awaited framework for renewable energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Wind energy continues rapid growth according to new report from the American Wind Energy Association. The US has surpassed 25 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind energy capacity in 2008. Construction of a new wind farm has begun in Texas. Seatle firm proposes floating offshore wind farms.
The wind energy industry will brings badly needed jobs to Detroit. Local green jobs are rising as San Francisco solar and energy efficiency incentive programs expand. Terra Community College in Ohio will be offering a new wind power certificate. A new study shows that investment in solar generating facilities could bring thousand of jobs to Nevada. Green initiatives bring new jobs to Brooklyn Navy Yard. Planned ‘Solar City’ in Florida will bring 20,000 jobs to the region.
