10 Midwestern Governors Unite to Attract Green Energy Jobs

At the Midwestern Governors Association Jobs and Energy Forum held in Detroit last week, the group released its Platform for Creating and Retaining Midwestern Jobs in the New Energy Economy (Jobs Platform) and the Midwestern Energy Infrastructure Accord (Infrastructure Accord). These two documents are part of an effort by these Governors to position the Midwest as a leader in the new energy economy.

Princeton Review Rolls Out List of The Greenest Colleges

The Princeton Review, today released its second annual Green Ratings of colleges. In this measure of how environmentally friendly the institutions are on a scale of 60 to 99, the company tallied its Green Ratings for 697 institutions based on data it collected from the colleges in 2008-09 concerning their environmentally related policies, practices, and academic offerings. The Princeton Review also named 15 colleges to its “2010 Green Rating Honor Roll” – a list that salutes the institutions that received the highest possible score – 99 – in this year’s rating tallies.

INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT: North Carolina Wind Energy Summer Internship

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.

Cost to Produce Solar Cells Brought Below $1 per Watt

Earlier this month, First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced that it has reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in the fourth quarter 2009 to 98 cents per watt, becoming the first solar cell manufacturing company to break the $1 per watt price barrier. This is a major price milestone for the solar photovoltaic manufacturing sector and represents a significant step towards achieving what is known in the industry as as grid parity, the price level where the per watt cost for solar electricity reaches the current averaged cost of electricity on the grid a goal First Solar plans to reach by 2012.